[ tomb, but were not permitted to remove it. Enrj
CLEMENT OF ROME
S11
CLEMENT 0# ROME
r, <m the umirereary of the martTrdom, the sea Kpeats this miracle of receding for seven days. An- orther &ble confounds Clement the presbyter with T. JF'iamtu Clemfi^s^ the consul, and cousin to the emperor HHymitian, by whom he was put to death on a charge of '* atheism," one of the charges then current against Christians. Such &bles, in the absence of authentic memorials, are not to be wondered at. The wonder is tliat the authentic memoriab are so meagre; that of tbe real Clement — a man so conspicuous, able, and m- flnential — there is so littie known.
Of the writings falsely ascribed to Clement of Rome notice is taken in another article. See Clbheivtines. The only genuine document is his EpUtk to the Corin- thitmtj <»)mmonly called the Firsts but improperly, since the so-called Second Epistle is not his, and is not an epistle, but only the fragment of a homily, later, per- b^M, by nearly a hundred years. The only known xnanuscript of this epistle is the one appended to the Alexandrian Codex of the Scriptures sent by Cyril Lacar to Charles I in 1628, and now the property of tbe British Mnseun. Throughout the manuscript are many lactauB, generally, however, of only single words or syllables. The only considerable gap, occasioned apparentiy by the loss of a leaf, is near the end of the epistle, between chapters 57 and 68. Here may have belonged certain ancient citations from Clement which cannot now be verified. Some expressions, like \di- Koc in the 40th chapter, hav6 a suspicious look ; but of the substantial integrity of the epistle there is no good reason for serious doubt. That it came from the pen of Clement, though his name is not in the epistie, is now generally conceded. It appears to have been in the lumds of Polycarp of Smyrna when writing to tbe Philippians as early, perhaps, as 115, certainly not much later than 150 A.D. It is referred to as the -work of Clement by Dionysius of Corinth in a letter to Soter of Rome, which must have been written be- tween 170-176 A.D. Irensus, in the section already cited (adv. Hcer, iii, 8, 8), speaks of it as a very able epistle, sent to the Church in Corinth by the Church in Rome under the episcopate of Clement. Origen, -who died 254 A.D., speaks of it as vrritten by Clement. So also Clement of Alexandria [f 220], who frequentiy and freely quotes from it, and even calls the author of it '* the apostU Clement." Eusebius, whose History -was written about 825 A.D., ascribes it to Clement, and speaks of it as having been '* publicly read in very many churches both in former times and in our own^" iHist. iii, 16). Jerome (f 420), in his De Virit IttuBtri- bus, § 15, reports it as still " publicly read in some places." But no one of these writers anywhere speaks iijt it as an inspired book. Though highly prized, neither this, nor the Epistie of Barnabas, nor the Shepherd of Hesmas, was ever Included in any ancient list of authoritative books. (See Westcott, Canon of the New Testameni, Appendix B.)
This epistie, as we now have it, consists of fifty-nine shmrt chapters — some of them very short — ^whose total bulk is about one third greater tiian that of the six- teen chapters of St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corin- thians. Presbyters of the Church in Corinth had been unjustiy deposed frt>m office ; a bitter dissension had broken out, and this epistie was written by Clement in the name of the Church in Rome, in order, if possi- ble, to end the strifis. It was sent by the hands of three messengers, Claudius Ephebus, Valerius Biton, and Fortunatus, who, it was hoped (chap, lix), might bring back the good news of peace and harmony re- stored. In form it resembles the Canonical Epistles, beginning with a salutation and concluding with a benediction. In the first three chapters, the Corin- thians are first praised for their former virtues, and then sharply rebuked for the scandals which had oc- curred. The hext nineteen chapters are devoted to historical illustrations, drawn from the Old and New Testaments, of the evils flowing from jealousy and
envy ; followed by exhortations to repentance, humil- ity, and meekness. In the next fourteen chapters, the exhortations are continued in view of the prom- ised coming of Christ and their own resurrection; salvation by grace through faith is taught ; and good works, in their proper relation to faith, are strongly insisted upon. Twenty-one chapters are then devoted to the special purpose of the epbtie, discussing the general subject of ecclesiastical organization and or- der, and urging the Corinthians to put an end to their grievous sedition. The last two chapters contain a prayer for helping grace, with a benediction.
As to the date of this epistie, Hefele, who agrees with Cave, Dodwell, Fleuiy, and others in assigning the episcopate of Clement to the years 68-77 A.D., re- fers it to the time of Nero But the mention made in the first chapter of *' sudden and successive trials'* which had befallen the Roman Church seems to re- quire a later date. The Tabingen school put it into the second centuiy^. But recent critical authority preponderates decidedly in favor of 95-98 A.D. Fall- ing thus within the apostolic age, and yet of consider- ably later date than the great bulk of the New Testa^ ment, special interest attaches to this epistie. It may be considered :