The Acts of the Apostles

190 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
never tradition absolutely primitive and unaffected by
legend, it is rather historical tradition handed down by
enthusiasts. This is also shown in the description of
St. Philip as the great wonder-worker (viii. 6, 7), and
in the supernatural colouring given to the accounts
of his and St. Peter''s actions throughout the mission.
But, on the other hand, we ought not to forget the
historical excellences of these sections. It has been
the greatest mistake of modern criticism that it has
suspected all sorts of things in the story of the rela-
tions between St. Peter, St. Philip, and Simon Magus,
and has read its boldest surmises into this story,
while it has overlooked the relative simplicity of the
tale as here told, and the complete absence in the
narrative of any hint of the importance which Simon
Magus and the Simonians are supposed to have gained
later in the history of the Church. Again, certain
as it is that the story of Cornelius is thickly overlaid
with the colouring of supernatural legend, this story
nevertheless contains in its principal features, and in
several secondary traits, history that could not have
been invented ; and in that it represents St. Peter as,
at first, drawing no further practical conclusion from
the baptism of Cornelius, it keeps within the sphere
of the probable and—we must therefore conclude—of
the historical.^ Lastly, in the concluding section, the
manner of the release of St. Peter presents a difficulty
—and yet the " angel " could have been invented on
1 St. Luke plainly enough gives us to understand that St. Peter
did not understand the general intention of the Divine vision vouch-
Bafed to him, as related in the story of Cornelius ; and that it was
necessary for the mission to be set on foot by others before he could
be brought to the right way of thinking.