and Cl^numgeB sent a letter of the same cbnaeiff d Avignon. But the oardinab of Avignon nercifti. less hastened to elect Petms de Luna, who aseaasi the name Benedict XIII. After being elected, Be» diet secured recognition by Charles VI and the Pan University, but Cl^manges was instructed to reqnoi him to do all that might be in his power to end tk schism. To the same end he had to write to the ka| of Aragon. In his own name Cl^manges sent to Bes- edict an eloquent epistle on the duties of the beai «f the Church, and recommended to him his friend PioR d'Ailly as chief adviser. Benedict appreciated tk learning of Cl^manges, and prevailed upon him to i& cept the office of secret secretary of the pope. Astk king of France and the Sorbonne, supported, b 13S«, by the resolution of a national coundl, declared ia £i. vor of an abdication of both the popes, O^msngo, who was now a decided champion of the dainsil Benedict, fell out with many of his former fneak In 1407 the French government withdrew its recog- nition of Benedict, whereupon the latter laid the la upon king and country. Cl^manges was charged in& being the author of the bull of excommunicatkiB, bot denied the charge, left his position at the p^al (»«t and withdrew to Langres, where he had been vppaalb^ ed canon a short time before. His opponents peisia> ed in calling him the author of the bull of exc«e- munication ; he was accused of high treason, td threatened with imprisonment. In order to eacapi this danger, he concealed himself in a Carthosiaii am- vent at Valprofonds, and subsequently in a coefol of the same order at Fontaine-dn-Bosc In tbii n- tirement he devoted his attention to the Bible, w^ as l\e states, had until then been neglected bjr his, and which now became his fiivorite study. Besidei • number of letters to hb friends D'Ailly, Gewm, sri others, he wrote at Fontaine-du-Boec several wb fbll of refbrmatoiy ideas a« regarded both the prerA ing corruptions of his Chureh and some of tlie (kn> trines. The most important of theae are DffneM eremi (on the value of retired life) ; Dt frw^ «?« adioerianun (on the spiritual profit to be derived frn adversity) ; Be novitfutiviiatOms non in$tittm£t (ctn- plaining of the excessive number of holidays, wUcb promote dissipation instead of edification, and am the Bible to be forgotten over the stories of aainto). In all these works Cl^manges recommended the Bibk as the purest and richest source of Christian knowl- edge and Christian life. The decay of the Chnrch i» attributed to the neglect of the Bible; the coinic^ in his opinion, could claim regard for theb deda* only if the memben were really believers, and if they were more concerned for the salvation of wak than for secular interests. His views on general ««n- cils were fully set forth in a little work, entitled /)» ptttaHo de oonciHo generaH, which consists rf three letters, addressed, in 1416 or 1416, to a professor at tk Paris University (printed apparently at Vienna ii 1482). He not only places the authority <rf g«»«»l councils over the authority of the popes, but the as- thority of the Bible over the authority of the ceoncik He doubts whether at all the former cscnmenical coob- cils the Holy Spirit reaUy presided, as the Hdy SpW would not assist men pursuing secular aims. He d^ nies that a council composed of such met represents the Church, and asserts that God alone knows wbo are his people and where the Holy Ghost dwells, and tU there may be times when the Church can oulj b« found in one single woman (m eola polett tmUfrtv- la per graUam manere ecdeeiam). Other works, a which he expressed himself even more fredy, la" been lost, and perhaps suppressed. Chiefly agaiait the immoral life of the higher ckrgy he wrote, abort 1411, his treatise De presuUbue Simomacii. H« ^ urgently recommended to the secular authorities • his country the teaching of the Bible as the only safe remedy a^painst the continual civil wan and dietti^
CLEMENS
375
CLEMENS
MM, and he oouweled doke PMUp of Bargandy to mvoke the Grenend Estates for the restoration ofiaw Ml justice. He also wrote, vhile at Fontaine-da- lesCf several poetical pieces, which are distinguished ir the brilliance of tiieir Latinity. Of the latter years of his Ufe bat little is known, he canonry at Langres he exchanged for one at Ba- anx. Other ecclesiastical dignities which were of- !Ted to him he reftised, as his conscience did not allow im to accept more benefices than one. In 1421 he efended at Cbartres the liberties of the Gallican Siurcli. In 1426 he again began to give theological ictores in the coUege at Navarre, and his connection rith this school continued until his death. The year i his death is not luiown. £ven his epitajdi (which ras destroyed in 1798) did not state it.
A work entitled De ntma Eeclenm, or De eorrupta lodttim stalv, which, since Trithemius {CcUaL Script, Bocfes.), is usually classed among the writings of Cl^ nanges, cannot be fttnn him. Its language is more riolent than C16manges ever indulged in. It abounds n attacks npon Benedict XIII at a time when Cl^ nanges was his secretary and eloquent champion. It vas undoabtedly the work of some member of the Paris University. Equally certain is the spurious- sees of the work ApoMi (i. e. tiUera dmutoria) el retpontio per naiionem gaXHcctnam domim$ ccsrdmaU' k», etc, which was written at Constance during the session of the council. Most of his works were pub- lished by Lydins (Leyden, 1618, 2 vols. 4to), but some of them still lie as unedited MSS. in libraries. See Herzog, Beal-Encyklop. ii, 717 sq. ; Wetzer u. Welte, Kircim-Lexibmy ii, 674 sq. ; Neander, Ch. Hid. v, 68 sq. ; Hosheim, Ch. Bui. i, 422, and a monograph of Hunts, Nicolas CUmcmgw^ sa vie el ses Merits (Strasb. 1846, 8vo); Gieseler, Ch. Hitl, per. iii, div. iv, § 118; Base, Ch, Hutory, p. 826, 844; Pretbylerkm Quart, He- •few, March, 1867. , Clemens, Titus FLAvnrs, sumamed Aijbxandri- inis, was a native of either Attiens or Alexandria, ahd floorisbed in the reigns of Severus and Caracalla (the date of his birth being placed about A.D. 160, and that of his death from A.D. 216 to 220). He was hi osrly Hfe an ardent student of literature and philos- opby, especially of the Stoic and Platonic schools, and vas led by his stodiss to Christianity. To master ite lustoTy and doctrines he visited different countries, and i^ved instruction fh)m various masters, of whom he Itself speaks thus: "Those vigorous and animated dvcooTses which I was privil^ed to hear, and of Messed and truly remarkable men. Of these, the one ^ Greece, an Ionic ; the other in Magna Grccia; the ftwt of them firom Coele-Syria, the second fiom Egypt, ^d others in the East. The one was bom in the l^d of Assyria, and the other a Hebrew in Palestine. When I came upon the last (he was the first in pow- ^\ having tracked him out concealed in Egypt, I foond rest. He, the true, the Sicilian bee, gathei^ng ^ spoil of the flowers of the prophetic and apostolic inesdow, engendered in the souls of his hearers a ^^athless element of knowled^" (Strom, lib. i, ch. i, P-855,vol.i, of translatkm in "Anti-Nicene Christian Library ").