him is a Proof, that he was not; for who can imagine, that the People and Clergy of those Days would have thought of chusing any other, or that any other, though chosen, would have accepted of a Dignity, to which _Clement_ had been named by St. _Peter_ himself, and which he was actually possessed of at the Apostle’s Death? Be that as it will, _Linus_ is now universally acknowleged both by the _Greeks_ and _Latins_ for the first Bishop of _Rome_. As for the Life and Actions of _Linus_, all I can find in the Antients concerning him, is, that it was he whom St. _Paul_ mentioned in his Epistle to _Timothy_[83]; that, upon the Authority of the Apostolic Constitutions, he was supposed, by some, to have been the Son of _Claudia_, whom the Apostle mentions in the same Place[84]; and that his Life and Conversation were much approved of by the People[85]. [Sidenote: Linus _no Martyr, tho’ placed among the Martyrs_.] The Church of _Rome_ allows him, in the Canon of the Mass, a Place among the Martyrs; but no mention is made of his having suffered for the Faith, either in the antient Martyrologies, or in _Irenæus_, who, speaking of him, and his immediate Successors, distinguishes none but _Telesphorus_ with the Title of Martyr. _Baronius_, determined to maintain, right or wrong, the Credit of the sacred Canon, in Opposition to all the Antients, nay, and to his own System, cuts off one Year from the Pontificate of _Linus_, that he may place his Death under _Vespasian_, and not, as _Eusebius_ has done[86], under _Titus_, in whose Reign he owns none to have suffered for the Faith[87]. Had he remembered what he must have read in _Tertullian_ and _Eusebius_, he had saved himself that Trouble: for _Tertullian_ assures us, that _Vespasian_ made no Laws against the Christians[88]; and _Eusebius_, that he did not molest them, though he caused a diligent Search to be made after those who were of the Race of _David_, which occasioned a dreadful Persecution against the _Jews_[89]. _Linus_ governed the Church of _Rome_, according to _Eusebius_[90] and _Epiphanius_[91], Twelve Years; so that, if we place, with them, the Death of St. _Peter_ in 66. _Linus_ must have died in the Year 78. of the Christian Æra. [Sidenote: _Books ascribed to him._] We have, under the Name of _Linus_, Two Books of the Martyrdom of St. _Peter_ and St. _Paul_[92]; but they are generally looked upon as supposititious[93]. _Trithemius_ makes him the Author of the Life of St. _Peter_, in which a particular Account was given of the Dispute between that Apostle, and _Simon_ the Magician. This Piece has not reached our Times, and was perhaps of the same Stamp with the other, since it is never mentioned either by _Eusebius_, or St. _Jerom_. The Decrees, that are ascribed to him, are no-where to be found, but in _Anastasius Bibliothecarius_, and such-like Writers, whose Authority is of no Weight in Matters so distant, unless supported by the Testimony of the Antients. ----- Footnote 67: