Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1872-07-31
The CHRONICLE.
WAS ST. PETER EVER AT ROMFY

A public meeting was held in Rome
in February last, to discuss the vali-
dity of the Papal assumption that st.
Peter was in that city in the year
of our Lord AZ; that he held the
pontifcate of Rome twenty-five years,
and in the year 66, under the reign
of Nero, died there, a martyr to the
faith.
Nothing that has happened, not
even the establishment of q Bible
Society in Rome, better illustrates
the marvellous change which the
political events Of the past year have
wrought in the metropolis of Christen-
dom. The Pope showed his sense OF
its significance by prohibiting his
clergy from continuing the discus
sion, in which he originally autho-
rized them to participate, and by
ordering a solemn Iridium to be
celebrated in st. Peters, with the
view of making amends to the injured
apostle for the public expression I" OF
such outrageous doubts " in the city
where he had planted his church.
The question of st. Peters residence
at Rome had often been raised before,
and however ably it may have been
treated by the respective disputents
in the recent discussions, it is hardly
possible that they could have added
much to the strength of either posi-
ton. Theimportance of their debate,
however, at this time, and in the city
of Rome, is not to be measured by the
novelty or familiarity of the argu-
ments employed. 1t is probably the
first time that the Catholic public
ever dared to lend its ears to the con-
sideration ofsuch doubts. The secular
arm, which in the earlier days of the
papacy prevented such controversies
from reaching its lay subjects, is now
stayed; the thundeTs of the Vatican,
if they do not sleep, are comparatively
~innOcuous; and there are very few or
no secular princes left who ale able
and willing to serve as Papal inquisi-
tors. Hundreds and thousands of
Catholics are led by this discussion to
look into a question so vital to the
Church in which they have been
reared, and to read and weigh a
class of arguments to which their
minds would have been quite inacces-
sible even one short year ago. But
the whole fabric of the Papacy rests
upon an unqualified faith in the
dogma here again put in controversy I;
for, if st. Peter was never in Rome,
or was not there under such condi-
tons of notoriety as must necessarily
have attached to his ecclesiastical
sovereignty, with all its pOntifical
prerogatives, then the apostolic chain
by which the Papacy claims to des-
cend from Christ, and through which
its present spiritual authority is de-
rived, lacks the first link, and every
succeeding link, like the first, must be
spurious.
Next to the inspiration Of the Bible,
there is probably no question in con-
troversy among men involving a
wider range of consequences than this
which has suddenly come to disturb
the repose of the venerable incumbent
of the Vatican. Have all the nations
of the earth for the last eighteen GEN.
turtles been the victims of a gigantic
fraud2 Has the Roman Catholic
world for that period been ruled, and
is it. still ruled, by a succession of
conscious or unconscious impOstOrs q?
Is the whole theory of papal supre-
macy a forgery and a fraud? Has all
the blood split in its defence, or in the
wars and prosecutions of its pro-
vocation, been wasted? These are
questions the agitation of which is no
longer to be confined to the seclusion
of the eloister or to be yelled in the
obscurity of 8 learned language"
They present living, practical, vital
issues, and involve consequences
under the mere conception Of which
the imagination staggers. By the
decision which is now to be given
them, it is not improbable that the
world will ABIDE" Was 81. Peter
eUer at Rome ?" in the AugGSt GALAXY.