Section 97
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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 65 of the gospel of God, but they persevered in every variety of en treaties, to solicit Mark as the companion of Peter, and whose gospel we have, that he should leave them a monument of the doctrine thus orally communicated, in writing. Nor did they cease their solicitations until they had prevailed with the man, and thus become the means of that history which is called the Gospel aocordirig to Mark. They say also, that the apostle (Peter,) having ascertained what was done by the revelation of the spirit, was delighted with the zealous ardour expressed by these men, and that the history obtained his authority for the purpose of being read in the churches. This account is given by Clement, in the sixth book of his Institutions, whose testimony is corroborated also by that of Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, But Peter makes men tion of Mark in the first epistle, which he is also said to have com posed at the same city of Rome, and that he shows this fact, by calling the city by an unusual trope, Babylon ; thus, " The church at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you, as also my son Marcus," 1 Pet. v. 13. CHAPTER XVI. Mark first proclaimed Christianity to the inhabitants of Egypt. THE same Mark, they also say, being the first that was sent to Egypt, proclaimed the gospel there which he had written, and first established churches at the city of Alexandria. And so great a multitude of believers, both of men and women, were collected there at the very outset, that in consequence of their extreme philosophical discipline and austerity, Philo has considered their pursuits, their assemblies, and entertainments, and in short their whole manner of life, as deserving a place in his descriptions.