Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

14 THE FORMATION OF CHRISTENDOMSt. Peter in his office, who. writing to the CChurch in the same generation as the martyrdomthe two Apostles Peter and Paul, observes that1i great multitude of the elect were drawn togetherd associated by them in a holy polity." He addsthat " by the endurance of many sufferings and ttures they became among us," that is, at IImost honourable example." This term, polity.in itself all which has been above indicated, for justas the Principate of the empire -^^ was a polity whsubjects were governed by it civilly, so what theApostles set up was a holy polity for the governmentf souls. Nor must we omit to remark a pidentity in St. Clement's expression with that ofTacitus. Those whom the third Pope after St. Petermentions as associated in a divine polity with the twoApostles, and by their admirable endurance of sufferingsbecoming in Rome a great example, and thosewhom the heathen historian mentions as victims ofNero's persecution, are " a great multitude."2 It isy another image of the word polity, when Diony 3Bishop of Corinth, writing to the Romans about thyear 170, calls them "the plantation of Peter andPaul."It appears then that Peter came to Rome to doexactly that which the Roman law most expresslyforbade, since it looked with the utmost jealousy uponany college or fellowship of men bound together byrules of its own, and not recognised by the senate.1 St. Clemens, Epist. ad Corint. cap. 6.>2 TTO\V TrXrjOos £K\¬KT£V> 6'irti>e$ TroXXds di/ctas KCU /Saadyous Sid'i)\ov TraOovres, farodftyfM /odXXtoroz/ eywovro iv TJ/JUV. " Qpoems affecit-prime correpti qui fatebantur, deinde judicio eorummultitudo ingens-convict! suut."8 Quoted by Eusebius, ii, 25. rr\v dro llerpov Kal IlduXou (fivreiavv PajMcucov re KO.I KopwOiwv