[637] Morcelli, ii. 97, gives more particulars. The name Manna implies that the substance was white—probably the salt which gathers upon walls.
[638] Op. cit., i. 167 et seq.
[639] Baumstark, Röm. Quartalschrift., 1899, 314.
[640] There is no explanation of the entry on the 24th June, “VIII. Kal. Jul. Natalis dormitionis S. Joannis Apost. et Evang. in Epheso.” The view of those who ascribed the death of a martyr to St John on the grounds of St Mark x. 39 has never found much support. See Schanz, Kommentar zu Joh., 332.
[641] De Præser., c. 36.
[642] Abdias, De Historia Certaminis Apostolorum Libri X., Gutschmid (Kleine Schriften, ii. 364-372), considers the author of the Acta Simonis et Judæ contained in this history is familiar with Persian customs and lived in the ante-Nicene period. Gutschmid adds that both apostles preached in Armenia, A.D. 39-47, which was then subject to Persia, and fancies he can discover allusions to the civil war waged by the two Persian kings, Vardanes and Gotarzes. In the history Vardanes was favourable to Greek customs and had been visited by Apollonius of Tyana.
[643] Suana is mentioned by Claud. Ptolem., 5, 13, § 119, as situated in Greater Armenia. The Suani were a Caucasian tribe. See Muralt, Chron. Byz., i. 85, 150, 211, 218, 250.
[644] Chron. Pasch., ed. Bonn, 471; see also 432, and Cal. Calcasendi in Seldenius.
[645] Card. Rampolla, De Authentico Rom. Pontificis Magisterio, in La Papauté et les Peuples, ii., Paris, 1900, 8-48. Andries, Cathedra Romana, etc., Mainz, 1872. Kellner, Verfassung Lehramt u. Unfehlbarkeit d. Kirche, Kempten, 1873.
[646] Benedict XIV. (Opera ined. Heiner, 65-67) deals with the question whether the feast commemorates St Peter’s ordination, or the day of his arrival in Rome, or the foundation of the Roman Church, etc. His history of the feast is based upon antiquated material, and the greater part of the treatise is occupied with the proof that St Peter had visited Rome.