OF S. Peter we reade at large, both in the Gospels, and in the Actes of the Apostles: and
namely, that Christ designed him, and also made him his Vicar (as S. Mathew for that cause in
the catalogue of the Apostles, calleth him Primus, the first, and al antiquitie.
Princeps Apostolorum, the Prince of the Apostles) and that he accordingly executed that office
after Christes departure, plating the Church first among the Iewes in Hierusalem and in al that
countrey and coastes about, as Christ also himself before had preached to the Iewes alone.
But preaching at length to the Gentiles also, according to Christes commission (Mat. 28. v. 19.)
and being now come to Rome, the head citie of the Gentiles, from thence he writeth this Epistle
to his Christian Iewes, hauing care of them in his absence, no lesse then when he was present:
and not to the Iewes, that were at home, (belike because they had S. Iames, or his successor S.
Simon Cleoph•, resident with them) but * to them that were dispersed in Pontus, Galatia,
Cappadocia, and Bithynia..
And that he writeth it from Rome, himself signifieth, saying: The Church that is in Babylon
saluteth you. * Where by Babylon he meaneth Rome, as al antiquitie doth interpret him: not, that
he so calleth the Church of Rome, but the heathen state of the Romane empire, which then, and 300
yeres after, vnto the conuersion of Constantinus the Emperour, did persecute the elect Church of
Rome, in so much that the first 33 Bishops thereof vnto S. Siluester, were al Martyrs.
For the matter whereof he writeth, himself doth signifie it in these wordes: This loe the second
Epistle I write to you, my deerest, in which (Epistles) I stirre vp by admonition, your
sincere minde, that you may be mindeful of those wordes &c. So he saith there of both together. And
againe of the first to the same purpose, in another place: I haue breefely written,
beseeching and testifying that this is the true grace of God, wherein you stand. For, there were
at that time certaine Seducers (as* S. August. also hath told vs) who went about to teach
Onely faith, as though good workes were not necessarie, nor meritorious. there were also great
persecutions, to compel them with terrour to denie Christ & al his religion. He therfore exhorteth
thē accordingly, neither for persecution▪ neither by seduction to forsake it: though in the first,
his exhortation is more principally against persecution: and in the second, more principally
against seduction. The first epistle is noted to be very like to S. Paules epistle to the Ephesians,
in wordes also, and so thicke of Scriptures, as though he spake nothing els.
The time when the first was written, is vncertaine: the second was written a litle before his
death, as is gathered by his wordes in the same. c. 1. v. 14.