Commentary Upon Acts, Part 2 – Title page 12
PART II. The Jewish Story.
Sect. Herod Agrippa his comming to Ierusalem.
CLaudius the Emperour having attained the Empire as wee have seene, the more easily and readily by the mediation and agitating of Agrippa, hee would requite him like an Emperour for that his service: and therefore hee confirmed to him by Charter, that Kingdome in which hee had been inthroned by Caius, adding also Iudea and Samaria, which had belonged to his Grandfather Herod (from hence it may seeme that he tooke that name) and Abilene, and the region neare it, and appertaining to it in Lebanon, which had belonged to Lysanias. He caused also the Articles of a League betwixt himselfe and the King, to bee cut in brasse, and to bee set up in the midst of the Forum.
There was now some sedition and civill hostility in Alexandria; for the Jewes having beene supprest and opprest by the Greekes, all the time of Caius, began after his death to stand in their owne defence, and to rise up against those that had opposed them. Claudius by Letter commands the Governour of Egypt to quell the tumult▪ and at the request of Agrippa, and of Herod King of Chalcis, hee sendeth forth an Edict into Syria and Alexandria in behalfe and favour of the Jewes. And another Decree hee sent also through the rest of the Roman Empire, to the same tenor, and for the benefit of the same people, beginning with these his Titles, Tiberius Claudius Caesar, Augustus, Germanicus, Pont. Maximus. Trib. Pleb. or Tribunitia Potestatis Consul designatus II. or second time Consul, and so it goes on.
By these decrees (saith Iosephus) being thus sent to Alexandria, and through the whole Empire; Claudius declared what opinion hee had of the Jewes: And presently hee sent away Agrippa to manage his Kingdome, with inlarged Honours, and wrote to the Governours of the Provinces, and to the Magistrates to favour him. And hee, as it befitted a man that had had happy successe, returned with speed. And comming to Ierusalem, hee performed or offered Thankes-Offerings, omitting nothing that was injoyned by the Law: Wherefore hee caused many Nazarites to bee shaven; and the golden Chaine which was given him by Caius, weighing equally with the iron chaine that had bound his royall hands, hee hung up *foreign within the inclosures.in the consecrate Court over the Treasury, for a memoriall of his adversity, and for a witnesse of his better fortune. Thus Agrippa having performed rightly this his service to God, hee removed Theophilus the son of Ananus from the High-priesthood, and conferred the honour upon Simon the son of Boethus, whose name was also Cantheras, thus Iosephus Antiq. l. 19. c. 4.
Sect. Peter not imprisoned in the second yeare of Claudius.
To which let us joyne some of St. Lukes text in the twelfth of the Acts, and then let us make use of both together. Now about that time (saith hee) Herod the King stretched forth his hands to vexe certaine of the Church; and hee killed Iames the brother of Iohn with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Iews, he proceeded further to take Peter; then were the dayes of unleavened bread.
Now let the Reader observe in either story one speciall circumstance of time, as in Iosephus, That Claudius was now second time Consul: and in St. Luke, that Iames was slaine before Easter; and then let him cast whether it were possible, at the least probable, that so many things should bee done and intercede betweene the beginning of January, when Claudius entered his Consulship, and Easter, as in these Stories must intercede, if Peter were imprisoned at the Easter of this yeare; yea though it fell the latest or furthest in the yeare that ever Easter yet fell. For, for Claudius to make his decree, and disperse it: for Agrippa to provide for his journey, and part from his friends in Rome: for him to travaile from Rome to Ierusalem, to performe his Sacrifices and Ceremonies there, to seeke to lay hold upon certaine of the Church, to light upon Iames, and to kill him, and then to apprehend and Imprison Peter, and all this betwixt Claudius his entry of his Consulship in January, and Easter, is a thing so incredible (especially to him that considereth how slowly great bodies move, as Kings and Emperours in their actions) as that it seemeth next impossible. For it cannot bee imagined that this decree for the Jews was the first thing that Claudius did after hee was made Consull, or that hee fell upon that worke in the very beginning of Ianuary; for matters of the City and of Italy one would think should take up the first thoughts of the Consuls, when they entred into that Office, and not of Ierusalem and Alexandria, so many hundred of miles distant: and matters of the Romans themselves, and not of the Jewes a despised Nation: But grant that on the very first day hee set pen to paper for that decree, on the second disperst it, and on the third dismissed Agrippa, yet must so great a Prince have some preparation for so great a journey, hee must have some time to part with so great acquaintance; it was strange if hee waited not some time for a convenient wind, and hee must take up some reasonable time after hee is shipped, before hee land in Iudea. After his landing some time was required for such a King in his owne Kingdome to prepare for his journey by Land to Ierusalem, some for his setling there; some for his Sacrifices, and performance of the Rites of the Law mentioned; and all these before the apprehension of Iames, and that no man knowes how long before Easter. Let indifferency judge, whether all these things were possible to bee done in that space of time; and then let it censure of the matter in hand.
To the eviction of this opinion, that Peter went to Rome, and there began his Episcopacy the second yeare of Claudius, Romanists themselves may bee produced that doe gainsay it; as Salmeron on the twelfth of the Acts, who holds that hee went thither in Claudius his fourth, and hee produceth Comestor, Nuaclerus, and Petrus de natalibus of the same opinion with him.
So likewise Simeon the Metaphrast, though hee bring Peter from Ierusalem this yeare for feare of Herod, and lead him through many places ordaining Churches and making Bishops, yet in conclusion hee mentioneth not one word of Rome, but bringeth him to Ierusalem again at Passeover next. Hereupon Surius, or at least his Marginist, & Baronius are ready to give him the lie; and though they both alledge him, and applaud him while he serveth their own humour, yet here they fly in his face, and tell him he is beside the cushion, because hee is beside their opinion, and saith not what they would have him say.
Upon consideration of what hath been said before, we have put over the death of Iames to the yeare next following, as not seeing it possible to have fallen out this yeare before Easter, all circumstances being well considered: and accordingly have we referred thither, as the order requireth, the imprisonment of Peter, and his fleeing for his life, or retiring for some other cause, which the Romanists will have to have bin to Rome; and there will we take it into some examination again.
Part III. The Roman History.
THE Moores rebelling, are beaten by Suetonius Paulinus, and after him by C…. Sidius Geta, who following them farre into the Sands, fell into an extreame want of water for his Army: But by the wicked advice and furtherance of a renegado Moore, he obtaineth an extraordinary great raine by Magick, to the sufficient refreshing of his Army, and to the terror and subduing of the enemy. And now did Claudius divide Mauritania into Tingitana and Caesariensis.
Claudius is exceedingly delighted with and given to the cruelty of the Sword-playes, in which hee swept away a world of Servants and Freemen that had been accusers of their Masters in the time of Caius. And which was most ridiculous, he caused the statue of Augustus to bee removed out of the place, because it should not behold such bloody work; being inhumanely himself delighted in that butchery, which hee thought too barbarous for a br…zen statue to look upon.
These bloody spectacles brought him to an habit of cruelty; which was augmented and hardened in him by the damnable counsels of his Empresse Messalina, a woman wicked above parallel or expression, and by the spurrings on of other sycophants C. Appius Silanus is put to death because he refused to incestuate Messalina when she desired him, for he had married her mother; but because Claudius must not heare of this beastly cause of her displeasure, Narcissus a freeman of the Emperour accused him for this, that in a dreame hee had seen Appius slay the Emperour.
Upon his death the people began to expect no more goodnesse from Claudius at all, but gave him up for a Tyrant like the two that had gone before him: whereupon, Annius Vin…ianus, and Futius Camillus Scribonianus and …thers conspired against him; but being deserted of their souldiers in the enterprize, they are glad to end their lives by their owne hands, that they might escape the executioners.
Messalinae and Narcissus and others of their faction using the stupid folly of the Emperour to the compassing of their owne wills involve in false accusations and in miserable, deaths, an infinite multitude of men and women, honourable and inferiour, of all qualities and conditions, according as the spleene of any of them moved or was provoked. Among them that thus perished Arria the wife of Caecinna is upon record for her Roman valour: for when her husband trembled and was afraid to slay himself, she tooke the sword out of his hand, and fell upon it, and gave it him againe, reeking with her blood, with these words, Behold boy how I feel no pain: And now, saith my Author, were matters come to such a passe, that nothing was reputed a greater vertue then to die valiantly and like a Roman. To such a cruelty had custome and evill counsell brought him, that of himselfe was of a reasonable gentle nature, but wanted constancy and discretion to manage it.
THE CHRISTIAN HISTORY, THE JEWISH, and the ROMAN, OF The Yeare of Christ 44. And of the Emperour Claudius 3. Being the Yeare of the World 3971. And of the City of Rome, 796. Consuls
Claudius Caesar III.
L. Vitellius.
London, Printed by R. C. for Andrew Crooke, 1645.