The Eternal City: Rome & the Origins of Catholic Christianity by Marshall Taylor

Author:Marshall, Taylor [Marshall, Taylor]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Saint John Press
Published: 2012-12-19T00:00:00+00:00

Saint Ignatius of Antioch wrote a letter to the Roman Christians about the year A.D. 108, a letter preserved to this day. Ignatius was the bishop of the Church of Antioch and he acknowledges that he has no authority over the Christians of Rome. Ignatius tells the Romans, “I do not, like Peter and Paul, issue commands to you.” Ignatius of Antioch, writing only forty years after the death of Peter, believed that both Peter and Paul “issued commands” to the universal Church.

Writing to Pope Soter in about A.D. 178, Dionysius of Corinth wrote: “You have thus by such an admonition bound together the plantings of Peter and Paul at Rome and Corinth.”[43] Here Dionysius confirms that Peter and Paul “planted” the Church at Rome, and that Pope Soter had bound Corinth by his commands. The mention of “binding” no doubt refers to Saint Peter’s binding on heaven and earth, as mentioned by Christ in Matthew 16:19.

Next, in the year 190, Saint Irenaeus of Lyons recorded that Saint Matthew composed his Gospel, “While Peter and Paul were evangelizing Rome and laying the foundation of the Church.” One line later, Irenaeus explains the reason for Rome’s important status: “…Indicating that tradition derived from the Apostles, of the very great, very ancient, and universally known Church, founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul.”[44] This is perhaps the most important second-century Patristic witness to Petrine primacy centered in Rome.

Also around the year A.D. 190, Clement of Alexandria, writing in Egypt, confirms the tradition of Peter’s founding of the Church in Rome: “As Peter had preached the Word publicly at Rome, and declared the Gospel by the Spirit, many who were present requested that Mark, who had followed him for a long time and remembered his sayings, should write them out.”[45] Most scholars believe that the Gospel of Mark is actually the memoirs of Peter, collected and edited by Mark after the death of Peter in Rome. This would make sense of Peter’s own words, when referring to the Church as feminine he writes, “She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does my son Mark” (1 Pet 5:13). Here again, “Babylon” is code for “Rome.” Tradition holds that Saint Peter sent Saint Mark to found the Church in Egypt at Alexandria.

Tertullian, writing around the year 218, speaks of “those whom Peter baptized in the Tiber River.”[46] The Tiber River is of course the waterway running along the western side of Rome. Tertullian also writes, “How happy is its church, on which Apostles poured forth all their doctrine along with their blood! Where Peter endured a passion like that of the Lord, where Paul was crowned in a death like that John [the Baptist].”[47] Tertullian here speaks of the crucifixion of Peter and the beheading of Paul in Rome. Tertullian also records for us that Saint Clement, the fourth bishop of Rome was “ordained by Peter” at Rome.[48]

Origen of Alexandria, writing around A.

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