PETER, THE APOSTLE, originally called Simon, was a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee; one of the first called by Christ to become a disciple; the first to recognise, as the foundation-stone of the Church, the divinity in the humanity of His Master, and the first thereafter to recognise and proclaim that divinity as glorified in the cross, to whom in recognising which, especially the former, was committed the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and who accordingly was the first to open the door of it to the Gentile world.  He was the principal figure in the history of the early Christian Church, but was soon eclipsed by the overpowering presence and zeal of Paul.  Tradition, indeed, has something to tell of him, but from it little of trustworthy can be gathered except that he finished his career by martyrdom in the city of Rome.  This Apostle is represented in Christian art as an old man, bald-headed, with a flowing beard, dressed in a white mantle, and holding a scroll in his hand, his attributes being the keys, and a sword in symbol of his martyrdom.

PETER, THE FIRST EPISTLE OF, addressed especially to Jewish Christians in certain churches of Asia Minor, the members of which were suffering persecution at the hands of their adversaries as evil-doers; was written to exhort them to rebut the charge by a life of simple well-doing, and to comfort them under it with the promise of the return of the Lord.

PETER, THE SECOND EPISTLE OF, addressed to all who anywhere bore the Christian name; appears to have been written not long before his death to counteract certain fatal forms of error, at once doctrinal and practical, that had already begun to creep into the Church, and against which we meet with the same warnings in the Epistle of Jude, the doctrinal error being the denial of Christ as Lord, and the practical the denial of Him as the way, the truth, and the life, to the peril of the forfeiture of eternal life.

PETER, THE WILD BOY, a savage creature of 13 years of age, found in 1725 in a forest of Hanover, who was accustomed to walk on all fours, and climb trees like a squirrel, living on wild plants, grass, and moss, and who could not be weaned from these habits, or taught to speak more than a syllable or two; he wore a brass collar with his name on it; at length refused all food, and died in 1786.

PETER MARTYR, 1, a Dominican notorious for his severity as a member of the Inquisition, murdered by a mob at Como in 1252, became the patron saint of the Inquisition. 2, A Protestant reformer, born at Florence, became a monk and abbot at Lucca, from which, on embracing the doctrines of the Reformation, he was forced to flee, first to Switzerland and then to England in the reign of Edward VI., but had to retreat from thence also on the accession of Mary to Strasburg, and at length to Zurich, where he died (1500-1562). 3, A historian, born at Arona, rose to become bishop of Jamaica, wrote on the discovery of America, d. 1525.