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In his epistles, Paul mentions Peter as a pillar of the Jerusalem Church in the forties or fifties, when he was presumably in his late middle age. Acts of the Apostles gives a somewhat different story in which Peter took more of a leading role in the Jerusalem Church. Neither source tells us of the final years of Peter.

Christian tradition says that Peter went to Rome to lead the Christian Church there, and that he was crucified upside down, but this is a legen that seems to have originated in the second century. Clement of Rome wrote around 95 CE (1 Clement) in general terms about the life of Peter and the 'labours' he faced, but seems neither to have known that Peter ever went to Rome nor how he died.

The second-century pope, Anicetus (156-166) claimed that Peter had travelled to Rome to lead the Christians there, and had been beheaded in Rome, meaning that he spoke with the authority of the apostle Peter. Origen, writing in the third century, changed this to say that Peter was sentenced to crucifixion but, feeling unworthy of being crucified like Jesus, asked to be crucified upside down.

There is no reason to accept the word of Origen over that of Anicetus, and no reason to accept the word of Anicetus over that of Clement. We do not know what happened to Peter, but in the absence of evidence to the contrary we can assume that he died of old age, probably in or near Palestine.

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