Chapter LXXI.--Success.
So great grace of His power did the Holy Spirit show on that day, that all, from the least to the greatest, with one voice confessed the Lord; and not to delay you with many words, within seven days, more than ten thousand men, believing in God, were baptized and consecrated by sanctification: so that Theophilus, [885] who was more exalted than all the men of power in that city, with all eagerness of desire consecrated the great palace of his house under the name of a church, and a chair was placed in it for the Apostle Peter by all the people; and the whole multitude assembling daily to hear the word, believed in the healthful doctrine which was avouched by the efficacy of cures.
[885] [It is possible that this character was suggested to the writer by the well-known Theophilus of Antioch. But, in view of the evident anachronism, it seems more probably that he had in mind the "Theophilus" named in the prologue to the Gospel of Luke (i. 1-4) and in Acts i. 1.--R.]
Chapter LXXII.--Happy Ending.
Then I Clement, with my brothers and our mother, spoke to our father, asking him whether any remnants of unbelief remained in him. And he said: "Come, and you shall see, in the presence of Peter, what an increase of faith has grown in me." Then Faustinianus approached, and fell down at Peter's feet, saying: "The seeds of your word, which the field of my mind has received, are now sprung up, and have so advanced to fruitful maturity, that nothing is wanting but that you separate me from the chaff by that spiritual reaping-hook of yours, and place me in the garner of the Lord, making me partaker of the divine table." Then Peter, with all alacrity grasping his hand, presented him to me Clement, and my brothers, saying: "As God has restored your sons to you, their father, so also your sons restore their father to God." And he proclaimed a fast to all the people, and on the next Lord's day he baptized him; and in the midst of the people, taking occasion from his conversion, he related all his fortunes, so that the whole city received him as an angel, and paid him no less honour than they did to the apostle. [886] And these things being known, Peter ordered the people to meet on the following day; and having ordained one of his followers as bishop, and others as presbyters, he baptized also a great number of people, and restored to health all who had been distressed with sicknesses. [887]
[886] [The work probably closes with these words; the added sentence is not in harmony with the general plan of the Recognitions, which skilfully treats the material so as to give prominence to the family of Clement. Some scribe, zealous for the authority of the Apostle Peter, has doubtless contributed the unnecessary sentence which follows. See next note. The ordination of a bishop at Antioch by Peter is simply an absurdity. It is unlikely that even the writer of the Recognitions would venture to ignore the previous existence of a Christian church in that city.--R.]
[887] This sentence occurs only in one ms.
Introductory Notice
to
The Clementine Homilies.
[By the Rev. Thomas Smith, D.D.]
------------------------
We have already given an account of the Clementines in the Introductory Notice to the Recognitions. [888] All that remains for us to do here, is to notice the principal editions of the Homilies. The first edition was published by Cotelerius in his collection of the Apostolic Fathers, from a manuscript in the Royal Library at Paris, the only manuscript of the work then known to exist. He derived assistance from an epitome of the work which he found in the same library. The text of Cotelerius was revised by Clericus in his edition of Cotelerius, but more carefully by Schwegler, Stuttgart, 1847. The Paris ms. breaks off in the middle of the fourteenth chapter of the nineteenth book.
In 1853 (Göttingen) Dressel published a new recension of the Homilies, having found a complete manuscript of the twenty Homilies in the Ottobonian Library in Rome. In 1859 (Leipzig) he published an edition of two Epitomes of the Homilies,--the one previously edited by Turnebus and Cotelerius being given more fully, and the other appearing for the first time. To these Epitomes were appended notes by Frederic Wieseler on the Homilies. The last edition of the Clementines is by Paul de Lagarde (Leipzig, 1865), which has no new sources, is pretentious, but far from accurate.
[888] [The reader is referred to the Introductory Notice prefixed to this edition of the Clementine literature for a brief summary of the views respecting the relations of the two principal works. The footnotes throughout will aid in making a comparison. The preparation of these notes has strengthened the conviction of the writer that the Recognitions are not dependent on the Homilies, but that the reverse may be true.--R.]