The earliest reference to the episcopate of Linus wasIrenaeus, who inc. 180 wrote that "the blessed apostles, then, having founded and built up the Church, committed into the hands of Linus the office of the episcopate".[2]
According to the earliest succession lists of bishops of Rome, passed down by Irenaeus andHegesippus and attested by the historianEusebius, Linus was entrusted with his office by the apostlesPeter andPaul after they had established the Christian church in Rome. By this reckoning he might be considered therefore the first pope, but from the late 2nd or early 3rd century the convention began of regarding Peter as the first pope.[3]
Jerome described Linus as "the first after Peter to be in charge of the Roman Church"[4] andEusebius described him as "the first to receive the episcopate of the church at Rome, after the martyrdom of Paul and Peter".[5]John Chrysostom wrote that "this Linus, some say, was second bishop of the Church of Rome after Peter",[6] while theLiberian Catalogue[7] described Peter as the first bishop of Rome and Linus as his successor in the same office.
TheLiber Pontificalis[8] also enumerated Linus as the secondbishop of Rome after Peter, and stated that Peter consecrated two bishops, Linus andAnacletus, for the priestly service of the community, while devoting himself instead to prayer and preaching, and that it wasClement I to whom he entrusted the universal Church and whom he appointed as his successor.Tertullian also wrote of Clement as the successor of Peter.[9]Jerome named Clement as "the fourth bishop of Rome after Peter, if indeed the second was Linus and the third Anacletus, although most of the Latins think that Clement was second after the apostle".[10]
TheApostolic Constitutions[11] note that Linus, whom Paul the Apostle consecrated, was the first bishop of Rome and that he was succeeded by Clement I, whom Peter the Apostle ordained and consecrated.
The chronology of the early popes is heavily disputed.[12]Eusebius andJerome dated Linus' episcopate between the years 68[13] and 80.[14][15] TheLiberian Catalogue and theLiber Pontificalis date it as 56 to 67, during the reign ofNero.[16] This is most likely a mistake, as all four sources give Peter an episcopate of 25 years in Rome, and theLiber Pontificalis even records that Peter died 38 years after Jesus' death, that is, 67–68.[17] TheCatholic Encyclopedia gives his years asc. 64–76 orc. 67–79.[1]
Linus is named in thevalediction of theSecond Epistle to Timothy.[18] In that epistle, Linus is noted as being with Paul the Apostle in Rome near the end of Paul's life. Irenaeus stated that this is the same Linus who became Bishop of Rome.
According to theLiber Pontificalis, Linus was an Italian born inVolterra inTuscany. His father's name was recorded as Herculanus. TheApostolic Constitutions denominated his mother Claudia; immediately after the name Linus in 2Timothy 4:21 a Claudia is named, but theBible does not explicitly identify Claudia as Linus' mother. According to theLiber Pontificalis, Linus decreed that women should cover their heads in church, created the first 15 bishops, and died amartyr.[19] It dated his burial as 23 September, on which date he is still commemorated.[20] His name is included in theRoman Canon of theMass.
With respect to Linus' purported decree prescribing the covering of women's heads,J.P. Kirsch commented in theCatholic Encyclopedia that "without doubt this decree is apocryphal, and copied by the author of theLiber Pontificalis from Paul'sFirst Epistle to the Corinthians (11:5) and arbitrarily attributed to the first successor of the Apostle in Rome. The statement made in the same source, that Linus sufferedmartyrdom, cannot be proved and is improbable. For betweenNero andDomitian 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 onlyTelesphorus as a glorious martyr."[1] TheRoman Martyrology does not categorize Linus as a martyr as does theLiber Pontificalis; the current entry in the former regarding him states: "At Rome, the commemoration of Saint Linus, Pope, to whom, as Saint Irenaeus narrates, the blessed Apostles entrusted the responsibility of the episcopate of the Church founded in the City, and whom the blessed Paul the Apostle mentions as a companion of his."[20]
A tomb thatTorrigio discovered inSaint Peter's Basilica in 1615 and which was inscribed with the letters LINVS was assumed to be the tomb of Pope Linus. However, a note by Torrigio records that these were merely the final five letters of some unknown longer name, such as "Aquilinus" or "Anullinus". A letter on the martyrdom of Peter and Paul was attributed to Linus, but in fact it was determined to date to the 6th century.[1] TheLiber Pontificalis asserts that Linus was buried on theVatican Hill adjacent to Peter the Apostle in what is now known as theVatican Necropolis beneathSaint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.[19]
^Jerome,Chronicon,AD 80, 2nd year ofTitus (Oct. 79–Oct. 80): "Cletus (also calledAnencletus) is appointed second bishop of the Roman church for 12 years."
^Loomis 2006, p. 4, note 3. "Our author gives two incompatible traditions, the first that Peter did not come to Rome before the reign of Nero, the second that after a pontificate of twenty-five years at Rome he was put to death under Nero. The latter is Jerome version".
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