"Nearly 2,000 years later a magnificent basilica stands over a humble grave." "The bones within are believed to be those of Peter, a fisherman from Galilee." "Peter was the disciple who denied Jesus to save his own skin." "He was jealous, angry, often weak, yet he became the father of the Christian faith, a man who was remembered as a saint." "Many of the secrets of Peter only came to light in the last century." "Now through archaeology and science we can discover who Peter was, how he became the leader of the early Church" "and whether it really is his body that was buried beneath these stones." "I always think of the film 'Rocky', you know the, the American movie made by Sylvester Stallone." "Peter is to the story of Jesus like Rocky is to the people of Philadelphia." "In a way a kind of loser, somebody who was he last person you'd think of as a hero and yet this guy emerges by the end of the story as somebody who represents what Christianity is all about." "The great dome of St Peter's dominates the Rome skyline." "Each year millions come to the Basilica on the Vatican Hill" " said to be built over the grave of the disciple, Peter, the one Jesus named the rock on which he would build his church." "Some come to share their devotion, some out of curiosity to the place from which Christianity spread throughout the world." "Peter is believed to be the one chosen by Jesus as his representative on earth." "The one entrusted with the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven." "Peter was the first Pope, was the first among all of the Bishops and Peter is thus important as what we would call the Vicar of Christ." "According to tradition Peter left Jerusalem to join the Apostle Paul in the centre of the Roman lmperial State." "But nowhere in the Bible is there any mention that Peter went to Rome and if he did come here where's the evidence?" "The search begins in 312AD when two provincial generals," "Constantine and Maxsentius were fighting to become Emperor." "Their armies met at the Milvian Bridge just outside Rome itself." "The night before the battle Constantine saw a vision -a burning cross in the sky with the first 2 letters of Christ's name written in Greek." "The next day Maxsentius' army was defeated" "As a tribute to his victory Constantine decided to build a huge basilica directly over the place Christians believed that Peter was buried" "but it wasn't a simple task, the grave was on the side of a hill." "St. Peter was buried in the cemetery that ran along the, the southern slope of the Vatican hill and so to build the basilica there" "Constantine had to literally cut the top off the Vatican hill and he had to move a million cubic feet of earth to do it" "And so he went to enormous expense, at enormous effort which he would not have done had he not been absolutely convinced that someone of the import of Peter was buried there." "The strength of Christian tradition is convincing, but not conclusive." "There is however physical evidence we have to go underground." "The whole of Rome is built on a base of soft volcanic rock, easy to excavate." "Beneath the city streets miles and miles of catacombs were carved out to make underground graveyards." "The narrow tunnels and passageways are filled with elaborate mausoleums and vaults for the rich and simple niches for the poor." "What we have in the catacombs is a rather inexpensive and convenient way of burying a lot of people in a very small area 'cos if you think of it cemeteries occupy space, it takes money to buy that space and if you can then descend" "through several levels and in some catacombs there are even four levels from the top, you're able to bury a much larger number of people than would be the case if you're relying upon surface burial." "Beneath the floor of the Church of Santa" "Domatilla archaeologists made an intriguing discovery:" "1st-century frescos painted onto wet plaster." "Professor Philip Esler believes their value is more than decorative." "In Rome in the 1st-century there was a very strong tradition of accurate post-mortem portraiture." "Many Romans wanted to have very correct and meticulously accurate portraits of themselves preserved to be located in their tombs after death." "If you look at this image of Peter here which is basically a square face, fair hair, a big, square jaw with a full beard it's exactly the same picture that you'll find on every icon of Peter" "from this date right back to that." "Now my own view is that this is actually the representation of what Peter looked like." "2,000 years of tradition and a 1st-century image strengthens the case for Peter having been in Rome -but the most compelling evidence was found at literally under the Vatican's feet." "In 1939 archaeologists excavating below the floor made an amazing discovery." "They uncovered an underground street lined with magnificent 1st-century tombs." "Hundreds of years before Constantine packed them with soil to make a level foundation for his basilica." "Then at one end archaeologists uncovered a wall and a grave, it was directly beneath the altar and had all the hallmarks of the grave of Peter." "They discovered that this grave had been covered by the Christians with, with a series of coins by pilgrims over the centuries." "Over 1300 coins were discovered on top of this grave." "Beside the grave archaeologists found human bones, but they belonged to more than one individual." "Then, in 1956, a second investigation raised new hopes that this was Peter's grave after all." "A Roman epigraphist a specialist in ancient inscriptions, by the name of Margarita Guarduchi, was brought in to try and decipher and analyse the graffiti that the Christian," "Christian pilgrims had left on the buttressing wall built above Peter's grave and as she began to analyse this graffiti she noticed that there was a, a small niche, called a localist or a burial spot, that," "that had been carved into this wall and she asked the workmen of the Vatican what originally had sat in this, in this particular localist, in this burial niche" "The workmen at the time said on that, that had been a set of bones that during excavations had simply been cleared away and, and boxed along with all the other extra bones that had been discovered in the excavations and was sitting in, in a storeroom beneath the basilica." "An anthropological examination revealed that these bones were from the 1st-century and they came from a single individual." "Traces of earth showed they'd been buried in the ground, not a tomb." "These were the remains of a man in his 60s or 70s and it was the right age for Peter." "Then a further discovery left little doubtjust whose bones these were." "These bones had been wrapped in a cloth made out of purple and gold and placed in this little niche, this little localist which was lined with marble so obviously it was a sign of great respect and inside of this niche above the bones" "there was another set of Christian graffiti that had been written:" "two words in Greek" "Petrus Ani" " Peter is within." "The Catholic Church returned the bones to their original resting place beneath the altar at the heart of the basilica in Rome." "The evidence so far suggests that Peter was in Rome, but we don't know why he came here, or how he came to be named head of the Christian Church." "To discover that we have to find out more about Peter and the environment in which he lived." "Peter was the fisherman that Jesus found in a poor community in Galilee." "The traditional image of 1st century life here is of humble fishermen eking out a meagre living in a hand to mouth existence in a rural backwater," "but when archaeologists began to dig in Galilee a very different picture of Peter and his community began to emerge." "Galilee was an active hub, trade centre, commerce." "Goods and large quantities were shipped and rapidly over well-made roads." "Fleets of boats on the Sea of Galilee, which is also known as (name) Lake, so this was a world of commerce, world of cities, as well as a world of agriculture and small towns and villages and hamlets." "So Galilee may not have been a rural backwater at all." "In fact, many scholars believe it was much more than that." "They were not in a rustic environment and marginalized from the rest of the world, but in fact were part of a cosmopolitan that was very much part of the Roman Empire, the Roman Empire in the East and Galilee and Judea to the south were regarded by" "the Romans as the corner-stone of the eastern part of their empire." "Galilee offers further clues about Peter's life." "On the northern shores lie the ruins of a fishing village called Capernium." "In the centre is a house which for centuries has been a Christian place of worship." "Historians are convinced that it was Peter's house." "Why would they venerate a particular house in Capernaum." "The evidence would suggest that very early on they believed it was Peter's house and eventually built a shrine, eventually built a church and continued to build and expand on the site for centuries." "In fact Peter's house tells us a huge amount about his economic status." "The house consisted of a courtyard surrounded by rooms, the largest of which was 8 metres by 9 metres." "This was a superior house with a floor made from basalt stone." "The Gospels say that Peter was married and had children." "This house was large enough for a whole family." "This was a house that I would have to regard as middle-class." "It would accommodate an extended family." "It was a prime piece of property in relationship to the Sea of Galilee so I don't think Peter was a poor fisherman." "More information about Peter's economic status came to light in 1985 after a severe drought." "As the sea-level dropped it revealed artefacts that had been hidden for thousands of years." "Archaeologists digging at (name) on Galilee's north-western shore found the remains of a 1st-century boat which had been preserved by the silt and mud." "The dimensions match those given for his boat in the Bible." "This boat would have required at least 12 people to handle it, so you couldn't be a poor fisherman from a single family and operate a fishing vessel like this." "It strongly suggests that Peter was part of a fishing industry and in fact two of the disciples acquainted with Peter that Jesus called the sons of Zeberdee, it says in the Gospels that their father had hired servants who were working in the boat" "and that is consistent with the boat that was uncovered 15 years ago." "So why would Peter, a successful man with a family, abandon his way of life to follow a young preacher named Jesus?" "The Romans had changed the economic infrastructure." "They've imposed heavy taxes on the Galileans and replaced bartering with a system of credit." "Farmers and fishermen could borrow the money to buy seed and nets, but if the crops or the catch failed the debt and the taxes had to be settled first." "This would have been an important issue for Peter." "As a businessman he would have had commitments to the people he employed as well as a family to feed." "So when Jesus delivered his revolutionary message 'follow me' to Peter perhaps Peter saw in Him a new way of life." "First of all it was not a big movement." "It started out very, very small." "Jesus had an immediate circle of followers, namely the 12 disciples, all of whom were married, so you have 12, 24 plus the kids, so maybe you have an entourage about 40 or 50 people meandering around," "going around from place to place and then attracting others and probably it didn't grow too large." "Galilee was also a historical hotbed of political turmoil." "There'd been uprisings against the Roman occupation in the past, which made the timing of Jesus arrival just right." "Some theologians like John Drane believe that Jesus was a rebel." "Jesus was a maverick." "There's no doubt about that." "Maybe to call him a hippy would be going too far, but clearly a person with lots of time on his hands, but a great vision and the invitation seems to be to Peter well if this really grabs you then how about hanging out with me," "see what we can do about it, see what we can make of it and we'll take it from there." "From the evidence so far there appears to be nothing remarkable about Peter." "The mystery is why such an ordinary man was chosen by Jesus to be his rock and become leader of the early church." "The first step is I want..." "Psychologists can help people identify their own personal strengths and weaknesses." "Candace Young has been counseling for the past 15 years." "One of her skills is to assess leadership ability." "I think that Jesus being who He is could see notjust the ego of Peter, his rashness, his emotionality, that's all ego stuff, but He was able to see the soul, in psychology what we call the self," "the real person, the strength of character." "Jesus may well have had the gift to see into Peter's true self but Peter's leadership qualities would still have had to be apparent to others, not least the Disciples." "The first sign of Peter's leadership potential is revealed in the Gospels in a famous episode when Jesus is said to have walked on water." "Peter apparently tried to copy Him." "Although the Gospel writers may have written the story to show that Jesus had divine powers, the story also gives us an insight into Peter's character." "I think the walking on the water episode really gets Peter's personality." "He's a person who's up for absolutely everything which is probably why he said yes to Jesus in the first place even though it probably was not a sensible thing to do." "Whether the story was a miracle or a metaphor we cannot tell, but what the Gospel writers did do was single out Peter as the disciple who was enthusiastic enough to take a risk." "Even though he failed he was the only one who tried." "Peter's a very complex personality" "Somebody who was impetuous, he's eager to please, he is a guy always raising his hand in class saying I," "I know the answer, I know the answer and then the teacher says no, you've got it wrong again." "Peter's enthusiasm appears to be his only attribute." "Hardly the qualification for the leader of a brand new faith." "When Jesus named him the rock on which he would build his church it must have come as a surprise for the Disciples." "One interpretation is that Jesus meant it ironically." "Jesus sets him up and says you're the kind of person" "I could build a church on because he's not perfect and he's a bit wobbly." "Jesus had a great sense of humour as well so as He says, makes all those kinds of statements" "I imagine He's got a twinkle in His eye which you don't get off pages of a book of course, you just get the words and he's saying oh yeah Peter, you're really a rock you know, a really reliable guy." "Uh-huh, yes, we all know that." "Look at what he did etc, etc, but actually you're the kind of guy who I'd need to be part of this new way of being." "If Jesus was being ironic perhaps He saw in Peter an ordinary man, outspoken yet passionate." "Unreliable perhaps, but worthy of respect, a man to look up to." "Even so we should expect to find some evidence in the Gospels that Peter was dependable and at the very least understood Jesus' message." "However, in the Gospel of John there is an incident in the Garden of Gethsemane at the time of Jesus' arrest which shows that" "Peter didn't understand his message." "Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers and there's Peter with a sword and he lops off an ear of the servant of the High Priest." "You'd expect by this time he would understand that the man that he's following is a man of peace and yet here is Peter with a Roman glladius, it's notjust any old sword or a spear," "but a, but a Roman sword in the garden when Jesus is apprehended so Peter got it wrong again." "Not only did Peter misunderstand Jesus' message, there was another essential quality that he appeared to be lacking, loyalty." "Before he was arrested Jesus had predicted that" "Peter would disown him three times before the cock crowed." "After Jesus was taken away to be tried" "Peter followed him to the house of the High Priest Caiphas." "He was asked three times by servants if he knew Jesus." "Three times he denied him." "Peter saw Jesus do amazing things which only confirmed his faith." "But in the end he was afraid, as most people are, he was conservative, he was afraid he might lose the things he had, he might lose his life and so when things took a turn for the worse" "Jesus is arrested" " Peter thought it's all over, maybe he'd made a mistake, maybe in believing in Jesus he had placed his faith on the wrong person." "Peter doesn't appear to be leadership material." "We might well have reached a dead end in our investigation if it weren't for one more source." "The New Testament represents only a small proportion of the writings about Jesus." "There were many other texts written by Christians which were omitted from the New Testament because they were considered unsuitable or too controversial by the church." "These are the apocryphal texts." "The word apocraph means hidden away." "By coming up with a group of early Christian writings that became the New Testament they were trying to make a determination of which works were the most central for determining questions of doctrine." "Dozens of these invaluable texts were discovered in Egypt in 1945 in the desert area of Nag Hammadi." "Some cast a different light on Peter's character." "One, called the Sophia, or the wisdom of Jesus, gives a completely different account of the role of women like Mary Magdalene." "In the Sophia of Jesus Christ for example this text talks notjust about 12 male disciples, but it talks about seven women and 12 male disciples and all of them are given the command to go out and preach the gospel and Mary Magdalene is very prominent among these." "If Mary Magdalene was also a candidate for leadership that could have fostered rivalry between her and Peter," "a rivalry which could be highly damaging to the movement." "There's even evidence to show that Peter let his pride and personal feelings influence his behaviour, hardly the behaviour of a leader." "Mary's leadership role doesn't go uncontested, as we might well imagine." "She is accused of making things up, she is accused of, of doing this for her own sake, but Peter comes in with 'are we supposed to believe that Jesus preferred her to us?" "He said to her 'we know that the Saviour loved you more than other women, but now what's become apparent that the Saviour loved her more than them and that's precisely the rub." "The evidence from these apocryphal Gospels makes Peter look more like a source of dissent, than a great leader." "After Jesus' crucifixion the Disciples were left in a state of total despair." "Instead of being the rock and a source of inspiration" "Peter returned home to Galilee." "I think from an emotional point of view he's absolutely crushed and he's essentially gone back to his, his old job." "He's become a fisherman again." "I mean Jesus is dead, it's over, the, the hopes are crushed." "Leaderless, the Jesus movement began to fall apart." "But then, on the shores of Galilee, something happened." "According to the Gospels Jesus appeared." "Whether or not it was a vision it spurred Peter on to take up his role again." "I think psychologically it's fair to say that shame also fuelled his transformation after the resurrection because when we feel shame we feel a need to, to make some repair on that, so that would kind of fuel, fuel that action to," "to really do good as a leader of the Church, to kind of make it up for betraying Him." "His mission apparently clear to him," "Peter took up the role of leader of the Jesus movement." "With new confidence he led the disciples into the streets and preached openly." "The Bible says Peter discovered that he, like Jesus, had the power to heal." "As word spread people brought the sick and the wounded to lie in his shadow." "Within the acts of the apostles we also have Peter heal people with a shadow, or with a handkerchief so this tradition of miracle working is something that, that was very much accepted, especially for the generation of the apostles all through Christian literature." "That was one of the ways the message spread." "Peter was a changed man." "But he had a long way to go before he could prove he was capable of fulfilling the role that Jesus had assigned him" "and his continued authority wasn't guaranteed." "There were other figures contending for the leadership." "The path ahead was fraught with difficulties." "Paul, a radical newcomer to the movement, was a zealous and passionate convert." "He wanted Christianity to spread beyond Israel to the whole of the Mediterranean." "Paul wanted to preach to non-Jews, Gentiles." "Then there was James, the brother of Jesus, who wanted only Jews in the movement." "According to Paul's letters Peter was the man in the middle sharing the missionary work with both James and Paul," "but the underlying message in the letters is clear." "The actual leader of the early Church was not Peter, as tradition supposes, but James." "What's so interesting is Paul complains that Peter had acted properly toward Gentile Christians, but when men from James came Peter felt intimidated and began to be aloof from the Gentile Christians." "That tells me that James exercised the authority and Peter deferred to it." "The split between James and Paul presented Peter with a unique opportunity" "The conflict could easily have destroyed the early church." "Instead of taking sides Peterjourneyed throughout the Mediterranean preaching to Gentiles and Jews alike." "It was a crucial decision." "The more he traveled the more his authority in the Christian communities grew." "But the real test of Peter's leadership would come in Rome capital of the Empire." "As the saying from antiquity goes all roads lead to Rome." "That's true." "Another way of saying it though is all roads come out of Rome and that was done deliberately." "The Roman legions could march on those roads and get to any part of the Empire quickly" "Well if the Christian Gospel took root in Rome and became strong and there were many Jewish people and many synagogues in Rome this could then become a power base, a platform for the early Church to launch out from and spread throughout the Roman Empire" "so it makes good sense to see Peter, Paul and others desiring to go to Rome and establish the Church there." "The apocryphal texts say Peter took his family to Rome with him, a sign that he intended to stay there for good." "That's corroborated by 1st Corinthians in chapter 9 where Paul mentions that Peter takes his wife around with him." "In fact Paul says, you know, it's me and Barnabas alone that are really the, you know the exception to the rule." "It's like all the apostles take their, their wives with them in the ministry." "There's even evidence in the catacombs that Peter's family were with him in Rome" "One of the frescos at Santa Domatella shows the figure of a martyr," "Petronella who some believe was Peter's daughter." "We have here, a picture of the deceased, a lady called Veneranda, and next to her we have St Petronella, often associated in legend with the daughter of Peter from whom we have certain records from the 2nd century" "And what is happening in the fresco is that Petronella is actually leading Veneranda into paradise." "Interestingly the frescos also illustrated with a satchel of scrolls of the law." "Now this, this perhaps suggests the traditional linking of Petronella with St. Peter because many of the frescos of Peter and Paul show the same theme of the scrolls of the law." "To establish himself as leader of Rome's Christian community" "Peter had to have credibility." "If the people believed he could cure the sick that would make his job easier." "Claims to have a connection to divinity had to be backed up because such claims were so numerous." "You had to delivery the goods, you had to do the deeds in addition to preaching the message." "But Peter's bid to establish a Christian Church in Rome was challenged by a magician, who through mass hypnosis or sleight of hand persuaded the crowds that he too had supernatural powers." "In the interim a figure known from other sources named Simon Magus arrives in Rome" "And Simon Magus makes some astounding claims but is very convincing." "He claims to be a divinity himself and he proves his claim by flying through midair unassisted." "This turns many of the new Christians away from the faith and they start to follow Simon instead because they're completely convinced by his demonstration of divine power." "It's this situation to which Peter is called." "Simon Magus is the arch enemy of Peter." "It's kind of like the Joker to Batman and Simon Magus kind of steps into the void and becomes the new leader and other than just a small handful of faithful Christians the whole Church goes over to Simon Magus" "The apocryphal "Acts of Peter", say that after a series of confrontations" "Peter and Simon Magus end up in a duel." "The Acts describe the final scene where Simon Magus tricks the crowd into believing he is levitating above the Roman skyline." "Peter has to stop him." "Peter sees that Simon is actually being held aloft by demons and so Peter's response to this is to make a prayer against the demons in the name of Jesus Christ." "The demons become afraid, they drop Simon Magus, he falls on the ground and breaks his leg in four pieces and then he goes off to get medical attention and the doctor botches the job and he dies and that's how Peter disposes of Simon Magus." "It's impossible 2,000 years later to determine exactly what the duel entailed." "But we do know from other 1st-century sources, like the writings of Usaybius and Iranius that Simon Magus really did exist." "As for the magic, it was very much a part of the fabric of 1st-century belief and practice" "Well Jesus is presented as doing things like this" "Jesus walks on the waters seemed kind of levitation," "Jesus exorcises spirits, Jesus raises people from the dead," "Jesus cures cripples and paralytics and so on." "These are all, these are all part of magic in the, in those days." "I mean I don't accept that the Jesus character did these things that's why he's called the magician." "There is no independent confirmation of Peter's victory over Simon Magus, but there are signs that he is likely to have been victorious." "We know from another 2nd-century historian, Tortullian, that Peter began to baptise his converts in the Tiber river in the heart of Rome." "When Tortullian is describing the practice of baptism he says that normally it is conducted in living water, that is in flowing water, as he says John baptised in the Jordan and Peter baptised in the Tiber so clearly as far as Tortullian" "is concerned and, and I think it's historically true," "Peter was remembered for having baptised in the Tiber river." "But success came at a price." "Peter's teachings challenged Roman morality." "The more pagans he converted to Christianity the more he jeopardized his chances of staying alive." "Peter's doctrines of strict Jewish practice dictated that sex for pleasure was a sin." "It was even frowned on in marriage, and then only permissible for procreation" "The Acts of Peter have this position on marriage and sexual relations, that they simply shouldn't happen, and that's what gets Peter into trouble that he preaches to the wives of powerful men to desist from having relations with their husbands." "They're of course supposed to remain married, but not engaged in conjugal relationships" "Not surprisingly Peter upset two Roman senators." "They had him incarcerated in the Tullian Prison on Rome's Mamertine Hill along with his old friend Paul." "But according to tradition faith had a hand in their release." "When Paul and Peter were locked up together they managed to convert two of their guards and a number of others, whom they baptised in the prison using water from the fountain which, so the tradition says, had miraculously appeared in its floor." "Now whether that tradition is historically accurate or not is one question, but clearly it does fit very nicely into what I," "I take to be historically correct and that is that when Peter was in Rome he baptised converts." "Peter may have been released by his converted guards." "But even though he was free again his troubles were far from over." "Peter and Paul picked a bad time to be in Rome in the 60s." "This is when Nero, the last of the Julian Caesars, was in his worst time of insanity and he was fearing conspiracies against his life, he was absolutely crazy" "And he used Christians as scapegoats, especially when rumours were floating about that he was the cause of the fire that burned down one half of the city of Rome, so he blamed the Christians." "Nero began an unprecedented and horrific campaign of persecution." "The Acts of Peter tell of a terrible dilemma." "He could stay in the city with his fellow Christians and die or leave to fight another day." "A situation not unlike the one he faced on the night of Jesus' arrest in the High Priest's courtyard." "Now with those instincts for self-preservation surfacing again" "Peter made a tactical decision to leave the city." "Perhaps he reasoned he would be of more use to the Church alive than dead." "Along the Appian Way is the Quo Vardis church." "It's dedicated to an account in the Acts of Peter which gives us a valuable insight into how Peter finally assumed leadership of the early Church." "These are the ancient flagstones of the Via Appia." "About four miles down here we get to the gates of Rome" "If you wanted to get out of Rome in a hurry this was a good road to take." "Peter donned a disguise and then walked along this road to make his escape from the city" " and as he was walking along this road somewhere around this spot the tradition says that he met the Lord coming from this direction into Rome and when he came to Jesus he said 'Quo Vardis domina?" " where are you going Lord?" "' and Jesus said to him 'I'm going into Rome to be crucified again' so Peter turned around, made his way back into the city through the, the gates and going back in to face his awful death." "No one can tell whether it was the vision of Jesus or guilt that changed Peter's mind but all the apocryphal sources agree that Peter turned back." "This decision to return to Rome is perhaps one of the clearest signs yet that Peter become a leader who could inspire others through his actions." "But his own execution wasn't the only death he would have to contend with." "From his first decision to follow Jesus in Galilee" "Peter's wife had stood by him." "Now on his return to Rome" "Peter watched as she and more of his friends were taken away to be killed." "Some theologians, like Andrea Molinari, think that she was more than just a wife." "We know that Peter's wife was actually taken away to be martyred and on the way to her martyrdom Peter encourages her to remember the Lord" "Now I find that interesting." "You don't readily martyr a woman who's in the background doing dishes." "I think that Peter's wife actually participates in the ministry." "After all she has a story to tell." "At least one story to tell." "Her mother was miraculously healed by Jesus and in addition of that she's seen the change that's gone about in her husband." "The last chapter in the Acts of Peter tells of his arrest and the final test of his leadership." "Would he choose Caesar and freedom, or Jesus and certain death?" "This time Peter did not fail his master." "He asked to be put to death in a way that did not equate him with Jesus." "Whether it was at his own request, or an elaborate variation of a barbaric execution we cannot tell." "But he was crucified upside down, in Nero's circus, in the capital of the greatest empire the world had ever seen." "There is no historical proof that Peter was crucified upside down but the excavations at the Vatican revealed evidence consistent with the apocryphal claim." "When the bones were examined pathologists found pieces from every part of the body except for the feet." "Christian tradition of course had had that Peter had been crucified and crucified upside down because he didn't feel worthy enough to be crucified the way Christ was." "A number of scholars hypothesise that perhaps if Peter was crucified upside down they may have simply cut him off at the feet." "Peter's death gave the Christian movement the strength to survive" "Nero's reign of terror which ended with his suicide 4 years later." "But another 2 centuries would pass before Constantine became Emperor and Christianity blossomed and spread throughout the world." "Then the mission that Jesus had entrusted to Peter, a simple fisherman from Galilee, was finally fulfilled."