the
example of most of the Jewish Christians at Antioch in inducing St.
Peter and St. Barnabas to withdraw from {50} fellowship with the
Gentile converts. Whether he did so or not, it is certain that St.
Paul refused to take St. Mark with him on his second missionary
journey, A.D. 49. St. Barnabas then went home to Cyprus with St. Mark.
We hear no more of the future evangelist until A.D. 60, when we find
that he is with St. Paul in Rome, and completely reconciled to him. He
is the apostle's "fellow-worker" and his "comfort" (Col. iv. 11;
Philem. 24). About four years later, St. Paul, in writing shortly
before his martyrdom to Timothy, requests him to come to Rome by the
shortest route, and to take up Mark on the way, "for he is useful to me
for ministering" (2 Tim. iv. 11). The last notice that we have of St.
Mark in the New Testament illustrates how complete a harmony had been
effected between the expansive theology of St. Paul and the once
cramped policy of St. Peter and St. Mark. In his First Epistle St.
Peter refers to "Mark, my son," and his words make it certain that the
two friends were then together at Babylon, _i.e._ Rome.

In the 4th century it was widely believed that St. Mark was the founder
of Christianity in Alexandria, and the first bishop of the see which
was afterwards ruled by St. Athanasius and St. Cyril. It is important
to notice that this tradition appears first in Eusebius, and is not
mentioned in the extant works of Clement and Origen, the great
luminaries of the early Alexandrian Church. But it seems to be too
well supported by the great writers of the 4th century for us to regard
it as a fabrication. If the tale is true, St. Mark must have brought
Christianity to Alexandria either after the death of St. Peter about
A.D. 65, or about A.D. 55, in the interval between his separation from
St. Paul and his stay with him at Rome.

The early Fathers, so far as their testimony remains, are unanimous in
ascribing this Gospel to St. Mark, and they are equally unanimous in
tracing the work of St. Mark to the influence of St. Peter. Justin
Martyr speaks of the "Memoirs of Peter" when referring to a statement
which we find in {51} Mark iii. 17. Papias closely associates the two
saints in his account of the Gospel, and gives us his information on
the authority of John the Presbyter, who was a disciple of the Lord.
Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Origen say practically
the same t