Clement I

CLEMENT I., Saint, generally known as Clement of Rome, or CLEMENS ROMANUS (fl. C. A.D. 96), was one of the "Apostolic Fathers," and in the lists of bishops of Rome is given the third or fourth place—Peter, Linus (Anencletus), Clement. There is no ground for Origen's identification of him with the Clement of Phil. iv. 3. He may have been a freedman of T. Flavius Clemens, who was consul with his cousin, the emperor Domitian, in A.D. 95. He is commemorated on Nov. 23.

In

The Shepherd of Hermas mention is made of one Clement whose office it is to communicate with other churches, and this function agrees well with what we find in the letter to the church at Corinth by which Clement is best known. The letter was occasioned by a dispute which had led to the ejection of several presbyters, and while it does not contain Clement's name, there is no reason for doubting the universal tradition which ascribes it to Clement, or the generally accepted date, c. A.D. 96. Though the Roman Church claims no superior rank, it is note worthy that in the earliest document outside the canon which we can securely date, it comes forward as a peacemaker in the troubles of a church in Greece. Nothing is known of the cause of the dis content, and the dismissal of the presbyters is regarded by Clement as high-handed and unjustifiable. After praising the Corinthian Church, Clement enters upon a denunciation of vices and a praise of virtues, and illustrates his topics by copious cita tions from the Old Testament scriptures, a fact which points to his being a Christian of long standing. Near the end of the letter (it is twice the length of the Epistle to the Hebrews) he rebukes the present disorders. The letter closes with a long liturgical prayer, which almost certainly represents the intercession used in the Roman eucharists. He knows that the roots of the quarrel lie in a wrong condition of the Church's life, and his general exhor tations are directed towards a reformation of manners. The most permanent interest of the epistle lies in its being a 1st century account of the grounds on which the Christian ministry rests. The orderliness of nature is appealed to as expressing the mind of its Creator. The orderliness of Old Testament worship bears a like witness; everything is duly fixed by God. Similarly in the Christian dispensation all is in order due.

We learn from the letter (i. 7) that the Church at Rome, though persecuted, was firmly held together by faith and love. The epistle was publicly read from time to time at Corinth, and by the 4th century this usage had spread to other churches. It is attached to the famous Alexandrian ms. (Codex A) of the New Testament, but this does not imply that it ever reached canonical rank. For the mass of early Christian literature that was gradually attached to Clement's name see CLEMENTINE LITERATURE.

The epistle was published in 1633 by P. Young from Cod. Alexan drinus, in which a leaf near the end was missing, so that the great prayer (cc. lv.—lxiv.) remained unknown. In 1875 (six years after J. B. Lightfoot's first edition) Bryennius (q.v.) published a complete text from a Constantinople ms. dated 1055 from which in 1883 he gave us the Didache. In 1876 R. L. Bensly found a complete Syriac text in a ms. in the University library, Cambridge. Lightfoot made use of these new materials in an Appendix (1877) (2nd ed. with excellent excursus and Eng. trans. in The Apostolic Fathers vol. i., 189o) . Dom Morin discovered a Latin version (1894) , probably of the 3rd century, which is a valuable addition to the authorities for the text. Its evidence is used in the edition by R. Knopf (Leipzig, 1899). See also W. Wrede, Untersuchungen zum ersten Clemensbrief (1891), and other literature cited in Herzog-Hauck's Realencyklopddie.