I. CLEMENT, Or CLEMENS ROMANUS. It will probably be generally admitted that no produc tion of the early church approaches so near the apostolic writings, in the union of devout feeling with justness and sobriety of thought, as that deno minated the ' First Epistle of Clement to the Corin thians,' but addressed in the name of 'the Church sojourning at Rome (i rapoucao•a 'Pc/top') to the Church of God sojourning at Corinth.' Eusebius terms it, ' great and wonderful' (ii,ryciXn TE Kat Occucao-la), and states that in his own and former times it was read in most churches (Hist. Eccles iii. 16 ; iii. 38 ; iv. 22, 23). Irenteus calls it ypa00, a most powerful writing' (Euseb. Hist. Eccles. v. 6). It is frequently quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus (Strom. 1. 7, sec. 38 ; Opera, ed. Klotz, ii. p. 29), O arb•roXos KX7ii.ci)s ; Strom. iv. 17, sec. 107 ; ii. p. 335 ' • Strom. V. 12, Sec. 81 • iii. p. 57 ; Strom. vi. 3, sec.65 ; iii. p. 137. The only known manuscript of this epistle is that appended to the celebrated Alexandrian Codex, which was presented to Charles I. by Cyrillus Lucaris, the patriarch of Constantinople. The same manuscript contains also a fragment of the so-called second Epistle. They were first published at Oxford, in 1633, by Patrick Young, the royal librarian. Sir Henry Wotton re-examined the manuscript, amended Young's copy in above eighty places, and published a very correct edition at Cambridge, in 1718. Certain portions of the first epistle have been thought to bear internal evidence of spuriousness. Bignonius, in a letter to Grotius, instances ch. xl., which relates to the presentation of offerings at set times, in which the word Xards occurs ; and the epithet ancient (cipxatau) applied to the Corinthian church in ch. xlvii. Mosheim asserts that some passages are evidently taken from Clement of Alexandria (Mosheim's Commentaries, trans]. by Vidal, vol. i. p. 270. The main object of this epistle was to allay the dissensions which had arisen in the Corinthian church, and especially to repress the unruly spirit shewn by many against their teachers. It is worthy of notice that Clement uniformly speaks of the opposition of the Corin thians against their presbyters, never of their in subordination to their bishop : he inculcates sub mission to the presbyters, but never to the bishop. Comp. ch. xlvii., liv., lvii. In two other passages the term v-parpbrepot appears to denote simply the elder members of the church, while the term ina ILEVOL (Heb. xiii. 7, 17, 24) is used for their teachers
or superintendents. Ch. i., ' Being subject to those that have the rule over you' (rots .fryoul.avocs 41.0A, and giving due honour to the aged among you' (rols rap rpeo-(3urepots). Ch. xxi., Let us honour those that are set over us' (robs rponyov ggvovs) ; let us respect the aged that are among us' (roil rpeagur4pous); ' let us instruct the young, etc. In ch. xlii. he speaks of bishops and deacons in a manner which skews that he considered the former as synonymous with presbyters : ' They (the Apostles) appointed their first-fruits to be bishops and deacons (minister; Abp. Wake's transL) of those who should believe. Nor was this any new thing, seeing that long before it was written concerning bishops and deacons. For thus the Scripture, in a certain place, saith, I will appoint their overseers (bishops, robs brcoKbrom), and their ministers (deacons, roils Starcdpous) in faith.' It has indeed been supposed that the bishop of the Corin thian church was deceased, and that the disorders which Clement sought to repress broke out before his successor was appointed. But had this been , the case, for which there is not the slightest evi dence, it is almost incredible that no allusion should be made to it. The only legitimate inference ap pears to be, that the original constitution of the church of Corinth still subsisted in Clement's time ; the government was still vested not in one man, but in many' (Dr. Arnold's Sermons on the Chris tian Lift, Introduction, p. xlvi.) In Clement's Epistle only one book of the N. T. is expressly named, Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians ; but though the Evangelists are not named, several sayings of Christ contained in our Gospels are repeated. There are also evident allusions to the Acts, all the Pauline Epistles (I Thessalonians excepted), the Epistles of Peter and James, and the Epistle to the Hebrews. A tabu lar view of these passages is given by Dr. Lardner (Credibility of the Gospel History, pt. ii. ch. ii. ; Works, vol. ii. pp. 35-53). Eusebius, speaking of Clement's Epistle, says, ' He has inserted in it many sentiments taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews, and sometimes makes use of the identical expressions, from which it is evident that that com position is not a recent one.