The Death of St. Paul
SIR,—Janus refers to a "fairly early tradition that St. Peter and St. Paul were both crucified at Rome." This may well have been the eventual fate of St. Peter, but we may, I think, take it as a certainty that it was not the fate of St. Paul. The indignity of crucifixion would never have been inflicted on one who could say, "Civis Romanus sum." We have only to recall the alarm and profuse apologies of the magistrates at Philippi when they found they had beaten a man with such A claim, or the warning given by a centurion to the chief captain in Palestine when he had ordered Paul to be beaten: "Take heed what thou doest, for this man is a Roman."
St. Paul would have been put to death by sword, a more honourable form of execution than the cross. Probably the tradition arose from a desire to make St. Paul share the fate of his Master, but Rome would never have allowed it in fact.—Yours faithfully, C. F. Fokii.
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