Nero  at  last  returning  from  Achaia,  entered
Rome  in  triumph ;  and,  soon  after  his  arrival,
resolved  that  the  Apostles  should  fall  as  victims
and  sacrifices  to  his  cruelty  and  revenge.  While
the  fatal  stroke  was  expected,  the  Christians  in
Rome  were  continually  offering  up  their  prayers
to  Heaven  to  protect  those  two  holy  persons.
But  the  Almighty  was  now  willing  to  put  an  end
to  their  sorrows,  and,  after  sealing  the  truth  they
had  preached  with  their  own  blood,  to  receive
them  into  the  regions  of  eternal  bliss  and  hap-
piness, and  exchange  the  crowns  of  martyrdom
for  crowns  of  glory.  Accordingly,  they  were
both  condemned  by  the  cruel  emperor  of  Rome:
and  St.  Peter  having  taken  his  farewell  of  the
brethren,  especially  of  St.  Paul,  was  taken  from
the  prison,  and  led  to  the  top  of  the  Vatican
mount,  near  the  Tiber,  where  he  was  sentenced
to  surrender  up  his  life  on  the  cross.
At  his  coming  to  the  place  of  execution,  he
begged  the  favour  of  the  officers,  that  he  might


326

not  be  crucified  in  the  common  manner,  but  with
his  head  downward;  afllrming,  tliat  he  was  un-
worthy to  suffer  in  the  same  posture  in  which
his  Lord  had  sufil'ered  before  him.  This  request
was  accordingly  complied  with ;  and  the  great
Apostle  St.  Peter  surrendered  up  his  soul  into
tlie  hands  of  his  great  and  beneficent  Master,
who  came  down  from  heaven  to  ransom  man-
kind from  destruction,  and  open  for  them  the
gates  of  the  heavenly  Jerusalem.
His  body  being  taken  down  from  the  cross,  is
said  to  have  been  embalmed  by  Marcellinus,  the
presbyter,  after  the  manner  of  the  Jews,  and
then  buried  in  the  Vatican,  near  the  Appian
Way,  two  miles  from  Rome.
