Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

20 THE FORMATION OF CHRISTENDOMbeside the pressure of continued unlawfulness, with allits individual sufferings, history has noted ten distinctattacks of the emperors on the Christian people in thefirst three centuries. It was fitting1 that the first ofthese, the augury and anticipation of the rest, shouldfall as the token and crown of its eminence upon thatChurch which possessed the superior principate. Butwhere in human things would it be possible to imaginea greater contrast than between the Rome which livedfrom Cicero to Claudius, in all pride and sensuality,and breathes to us still in the pages of its greatwriters, and the Home which produced its witnessesclad in the skins' of beasts and the garments of pitchat the games of Nero. While his " golden house "occupied three of the seven hills, Christian Romeburied its founders, when their victory was won, inthe chamber beside the Ostian Road, and in thesepulchral vault of the Vatican, that first hall ofassembly of a more than royal line ?lBut that we may appreciate the work of Peter, itrequires to be more accurately described.The conversion of the centurion Cornelius, the first-and the friend of Pliny, who speaks, and his words cast a light upontheir conduct in the persecution of Bithynia and the judgment of St.Ignatius.1 De Rossi, Roma Sott< r. ii. 370, notes the sedulous care of theChurches, especially the Apostolical, " dei sepolcri del lovo vescovi,come testimoni della successione e della fede derivate dagli apostoli."Thus from St. Peter to Pope Victor in 197, the Popes were buried inCrypta Vaticana : there the successors of St. Peter were ranged inburial round him, as at Alexandria those of St. Mark beside him(toin. i. 31). In the time of Pope Zephyrinus, " Caio publicamentecitava in Roma gli eretici a riconoscere nei trofei del Vaticano e dellavia Ostiense i pegni dell' apostoiica origine della chiesa Romana, edella sua fede " (ii. 370). e-yw 5e rd rpoTraia. r&v 'ATrocrroXwi'^ai. eav yap BeXr/vys d/ceX#eti' f?ri rb ^OLTLKOLVOV, ?} eVl rrjv odbv TT)VTO. r pir 'cuaSee Euseb. ii. 25, who states that their tombs bore the names of theApostles.