Was S. Peter in any way connected with the laying of the foundation of the great Christian community in Rome; can he really be considered as one of the founders of that most important Church? An immemorial tradition persists in so connecting him; upon what grounds is this most ancient tradition based? Scholars of all religious schools of thought now generally allow that S. Peter visited Rome and spent some time in the capital city; wrote his great First Epistle from it, in which Epistle he called “Rome” by the not unusual mystic name of “Babylon,” and eventually suffered martyrdom there on a spot hard by the mighty basilica called by his name. The only point at issue is, did he--as the favourite tradition asserts--pay his first visit to Rome quite early in the Christian story, _circa_ A.D. 42, remaining there for some seven or eight years preaching and teaching, laying the foundations of the great Church which rapidly sprang up in the capital? Then when the decree of the Emperor Claudius banished the Jews, A.D. 49-50, the tradition asserts that the apostle returned to the East, was present at the Apostolic Council held at Jerusalem A.D. 50, only returning to Rome _circa_ A.D. 63. Somewhere about A.D. 64 the First Epistle of Peter was probably written from Rome.[3] His martyrdom there is best dated about A.D. 67. A careful examination of the most ancient “Notices” bearing especially on the question of the laying of the early stories of the Roman Church, determines the writer of this little study to adopt the above rough statement of S. Peter’s work at Rome. Some of the principal portions of these “notices” will now be quoted, that it may be seen upon what basis the conclusion in question is adopted. The quotations will be followed by a sketch of the traditional and other evidence specially drawn from the testimony of the very early Roman catacomb of S. Priscilla. This sketch, which is here termed the “traditional evidence,” it will be seen, powerfully supports the deduction derived from the notices quoted from very early Christian literature. THE QUOTATIONS _Clemens Romanus_, A.D. 95-6. In the fifth chapter of the well-known and undoubtedly authentic _Letter of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians_, the writer calls the attention of the Corinthians to the examples of the Christian “athletes” who “lived very near to our own time.” He speaks of the apostles who were persecuted, and who were faithful to death. “There was Peter, who after undergoing many sufferings, and having borne his testimony, went to his appointed place of glory. There was Paul, who after enduring chains, imprisonments, stonings, again and again, and sufferings of all kinds ... likewise endured martyrdom, and so departed from this world.”