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Supposed Fields of Apostolic Labour.
Name of Churches. By whom Founded.
Palestine and Syria All the Apostles.
Mesopotamia (Turkey in Asia) St. Peter and St. Jude.
Persia St. Bartholomew and St. Jude
India St. Bartholomew and St. Thomas.
Thrace (Turkey in Europe) St. Andrew. The flourishing Church of Constantinople afterwards sprang up on this field of his labours.
Scythia (Russia) St. Andrew.
North Africa (Egypt and St. Simon Zelotes. St. Mark Algeria) specially connected with Alexandria.
Ethiopia (Central Africa). St. Matthew.
Arabia. St. Paul.
Asia Minor (Turkey in Asia) St. Paul and St. John.
Macedonia (Turkey in Europe) St. Paul
Greece St. Paul.
Italy St. Peter and St. Paul.
Spain St. Paul.
Gaul (France) and Britain St. Paul and St. Joseph of Arimathea.
[1] Acts xiii. 2.
[2] The _first_ offers of salvation continued to be made to the Jews, even after the recognition by the Church of her mission to the Gentiles.
[3] Acts xiii. 48, 49, 52; xiv. 1.
[4] Acts xiv. 23.
[5] "presbyter," afterwards shortened into "Prester" and "Priest," is derived from the Greek word "Presbyteros," "an Elder."
[6] Acts xi. 30.
[7] Acts xx. 28.
[8] The word "Bishop" is derived from the Greek "Episcopos," and signifies an overseer.
[9] 1 Tim. v. 1, 19, 22. 2 Tim. i. 6. t.i.tus i. 5; ii. 15.
[10] Acts xv. 24.
[11] Gal. ii. 3.
[12] Gal. ii. 9.
[13] St. James, as Bishop of the Diocese, taking precedence in this instance even of St. Peter.
[14] Compare Acts xv. 6. 12.
[15] This is the last mention of St. Peter in the Book of Acts.
[16] Gal. ii. 11-14.
[17] Acts xv. 36-41. The last mention of St. Barnabas in the Book of Acts.
[18] Compare Acts xvi. 3; and Gal. ii. 3, 4.
[19] Acts xvii. 7. Comp. Acts vi. 11.
[20] Comp. St. Mark xiv. 58; and St. Luke xxiii. 2.
[21] Both Philippi and Thessalonica eventually became the seats of flourishing Christian Churches, to whom St. Paul wrote Epistles.
[22] Acts xvii. 16-33.
[23] There are some reasons for thinking that men of cultivated minds and high social position were preferred for Bishops in the early as well as in later ages of the Church.
[24] Acts xix. 1-20.
[25] Acts xx. 17-35.
[26] Acts xix. 21.
[27] Acts xx. 23; xxi. 11.
[28] From Blunt"s "Household Theology."
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CHAPTER IV