The Popes [antikvár]

THE POPESSt Peter. From the Gospel we learn that Our Lord placed him over the whole Church. The Acts give the events of his ministry in Palestine. He passed some time in Antioch in Syria. It is also probable that he preached the Gospel in the greater part of what we now call Asia Minor. It is historically certain that he came to Rome. The House of Hermes, excavated on the Via Appia in 1915, contains many inscriptions showing that he used the house for his ministry. He was put to death in Rome under Nero (? 64 or 67).St Linus (67 - 76 ; Tuscan). He is mentioned in the Canon of the Mass next to the Apostles, and may be the disciple of whom St Paulwriting to St Timothy from Romemakes mention (II Timothy iv. 21).St Cletus (or Anacletus) (76 - 88 ; Roman). St Jerome calls him sometimes by one name, sometimes by the other. A few old documents, by mistake, took them for two separate Popes.St Qement (88 - 97 ; Roman). A celebrated Epistle of his is still extant. Its date may be put at about 96, and it is one of the oldest evidences for the Primacy of the Roman See. According to St Irenaeus, he " had seen and conversed with the Blessed Apostles ".St Evaristus (c. 97 - c. 105 ; Greek).St Alexander I (105 - 115 ; Roman).St Sixtus 1(115 - 125 ; Roman).St Telesphorus (125 - 136 ; Greek). Like all his predecessors he was, according to both St Irenaeus and Eusebius, a martyr.St Hyginus (136 - 140 ; Greek).St Pius I (140 - 155 ; Italian of Aqui-leia). According to the' Fragment of Muratoriand the Liber PotUificalis, this Pope was the brother of Hermas the writer, author of The Shepherd. During this reign, Gnosticism (a complicated heresy which considered matter as evil) gave trouble to the Church ; St Justin, martyr, an important writer, flourished.St Anicetus (155 - 166 ; Syrian). St Polycarp (disciple of St John the Evangelist) came to Rome (160- 162) to discuss the date of Easter. The question could not then be settled : " Polycarp could not persuade the Pope, nor the Pope, Polycarp."St Soter (166 - 175 ; Greek). Eusebius, quoting Denys of Corinth, makes this Pope author of an Epistle to the Corinthians.St Eleutherius (175 - 189 ; Greek), was visited, about 177, by St Irenaeus, later Bishop of Lyons.St Victor I (189- 199 ; African) emphatically affirmed the Primacy of the Roman See, notably in the question of the date of Easter. He opposed the Gnostic (see St Pius I) and Monarchi-an heresies (the last a heresy about the Blessed Trinity).St Zephyrinus (199-217 ; Roman) also opposed the Monarchian heresy, and condemned the Montanistsa revivalist movement that developed into a sect apart.St Calixtus I (217 - 222 ; Roman). As a deacon he was administrator of the catacomb on the Appian Way which bears his name. As Pope he greatly modified the severe penitential discipline in use in the first age of the