Spain (; ). This name was anciently applied to the whole Peninsula which now comprises Spain and Portugal. In the time of Paul Spain was a Roman province, and many Jews appear to have settled there. It seems clear from; , that Paul formed the design of proceeding to preach the Gospel in Spain: that he ever executed this intention is necessarily denied by those who hold that the apostle sustained but one imprisonment at Rome, namely, that in which the Acts of the Apostles leave him; and even those who hold that he was released from this imprisonment can only conjecture that, in the interval between it and the second, he fulfilled his intention. There is, in fact, during the three first centuries, no evidence on the subject, beyond a vague intimation by Clement, which is open to different explanations [PAUL]; and later traditions are of small value.