All the ancient records of the Roman bishops which have been handed
down to us by St. Irenaeus, Julius Africanus, St. Hippolytus, Eusebius,
also the Liberian catalogue of 354, place the name of Linus directly after
that of the Prince of the Apostles, St. Peter. These records are traced
back to a list of the Roman bishops which existed in the time of Pope Eleutherus
(about 174-189), when Irenaeus wrote his book "Adversus haereses".
As opposed to this testimony, we cannot accept as more reliable Tertullian's
assertion, which unquestionably places St. Clement (De praescriptione, xxii) after the Apostle Peter, as was also done later by other Latin scholars
(Jerome, " De vir. ill.", xv) . The Roman list in Irenaeus has
undoubtedly greater claims to historical authority. This author claims
that Pope Linus is the Linus mentioned by St. Paul in his II Tim., iv,
21. The passage by Irenaeus (Adv. haereses, III, iii, 3) reads: "After
the Holy Apostles (Peter and Paul) had founded and set the Church in order
(in Rome) they gave over the exercise of the Episcopal office to Linus.
The same Linus ii mentioned by St. Paul in his Epistle to Timothy. His
successor was Anacletus". We cannot be positive whether this identification
of the pope as being the Linus mentioned in II Tim., iv, 21, goes back
to an ancient and reliable source, or originated later on account of the
similarity of the name.
Linus's term of office, according to the papal lists handed down to
us, lasted only twelve years. The Liberian Catalogue shows that it lasted
twelve years, four months, and twelve days. The dates given in this catalogue,
A. D 56 until A. D. 67, are incorrect. Perhaps it was on account of
these dates that the writers of the fourth century gave their opinion that
Linus had held the position of head of the Roman community during the life
of the Apostle; e. g., Rufinus in the preface to his translation of the pseudo-Clementine "Recognitiones". But this hypothesis has no
historical foundation. It cannot be doubted that according to the accounts
of Irenaeus concerning the Roman Church in the second century, Linus was
chosen to be head of the community of Christians in Rome, after the death
of the Apostle. For this reason his pontificate dates from the year of
the death of the Apostles Peter and Paul, which, however, is not known
for certain. The " Liber Pontificalis " asserts that Linus's
home was in Tuscany, and that his father's name was Herculanus; but we
cannot discover the origin of this assertion. According to the same work
on the popes, Linus is supposed to have issued a decree " in conformity
with the ordinance of St. Peter", that women should have their heads
covered in church. Without doubt this decree is apocryphal, and copied
by the author of the " Liber Pontificalis " from the first Epistle
of St. Paul to the Corinthians (xi, 5) and arbitrarily attributed to the
first successor of the Apostle in Rome. The statement made in the same
source, that Linus suffered martyrdom, cannot be proved and is improbable.
For between Nero and Domitian there is no mention of any persecution of
the Roman Church; and Irenaeus (1. c., III, iv, 3) from among the early
Roman bishops designates only Telesphorus as a glorious martyr.
Finally this book asserts that Linus after his death, was buried in
the Vatican beside St. Peter. We do not know whether the author had any
decisive reason for this assertion. As St. Peter was certainly buried at
the foot of the Vatican Hill, it is quite possible that the earliest bishops
of the Roman Church also were interred there. There was nothing in the
liturgical tradition of the fourth-century Roman Church to prove this,
because it was only at the end of the second century that any special feast
of martyrs-was instituted and consequently Linus does not appear in the
fourth-century lists of the feasts of the Roman saints. According to Torrigio
("Le sacre grotte Vaticane", Viterbo, 1618, 53) when the present
confession was constructed in St. Peter's (1615), sarcophagi were found,
and among them was one which bore the word Linus. The explanation given
by Severano of this discovery ("Memorie delle sette chiese di Roma",
Rome, 1630, 120) is that probably these sarcophagi contained the remains
of the first Roman bishops, and that the one bearing that inscription was
Linus's burial place. This assertion was repeated later on by different
writers. But from a MS. of Torrigio's we see that on the sarcophagus in
question there were other letters beside the word Linus, so that they rather
belonged to some other name (such as Aquilinus, Anullinus). The place of
the discovery of the tomb is a proof that it could not be the tomb of Linus.
(De Rossi, "Inscriptiones christianae urbis Romae", II, 23-7).
The feast of St. Linus is now celebrated on 23 September. This is also
the date given in the " Liber Pontificalis ". An epistle on the
martyrdom of the Apostles St. Peter and Paul was at a later period attributed
to St. Linus, and supposedly was sent by him to the Eastern Churches. It
is apocryphal and of later date than the history of the martyrdom of the
two Apostles, by some attributed to Marcellus, which is also apocryphal
("Acta Apostolorum apocrypha", ed. Lipsius and Bonnet, I, ed;
Leipzig, 1891, XIV sqq., 1 sqq.)
LIGHTFOOT, The Apostolic Fathers; St. Clement of Rome,
I (London, 1890), 201 sqq.; HARNACK, Geschichte der Altchristlichen
Literatur, II: Die Chronologie I (Leipzig, 1897), 70; Acta
SS. September, VI, 539 sqq., Liber Pontificalis, ed. DUCHESNE,
I, 121: cf. Introduction, lxix; DE SMEDT, Dissertationes selectae
in primam aetatem hist. eccl., I, 300 sqq.
