CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA (Lat. Clemens Alcsandrinvs, Gk. KX-6/Ins- 'AXE,Savapcios, Ii leales Alexandreios) (c.150-c.21,5). Titus Flavius Clemens, a celebrated Greek father of the Church. He was probably of heathen parentage, and his birthplace is unknown. He received a liberal education, and sought out many teachers in his search for truth. He finally resorted to the Christian Pantfenus. who presided over the catecheti•al school at Alexandria, and here he entered the Church. He was ordained a pres byter, and succeeded Pantfenns as head of the famous school, which was destined to achieve much greater renown because of the influence of his own and Origen's teaching. During the persecution in the reign of Septimius Severus (c.203 A.D.), Clement left Alexandria. We hear of him afterwards in Palestine and Asia Minor; but his later life is veiled in obscurity, and we know neither the place nor the date of his death.
Clement was a man of wide learning, and was proficient in Greek philosophy, literature, and history. Jerome called him 'the most learned of men ;' hut this is mere friendly exaggeration. As a theologian he ranks high, although inferior to his famous pupil, Origen (q.v.). According to his system, the divine Logos exhorts, educates, and perfects the true Christian gnostic, through a gradual process which is marked out, in three stages, in Clement's chief wo•ks—the Exhorta tion. to the Greeks, the Instructor, and the Stromata (`miscellaneous'), which together form a kind of trilogy. The first is a defense of the
faith, designed to win converts. The second con tains instructions in manners and morals for cvery-day life. In this Clement has not hesitated to dra NV freely from Stoic sources. The third an unsystematic discussion of various points of doctrinal theology, designed to guide the Christian to a perfect knowledge (gnosis). Appended to the Stromata is one of the earliest Christian hymns, familiar to the modern world in the version beginning, "Shep herd of tender youth." Of (1(qm•tit's other writ ings the best known is the tra•tate, Who is the Rich Man that Shall be Saved? In his inter pretation of Scripture Clement followed the allegorical method, so much in vogue in Alexan dria. The best edition of Clement's works is by Potter 0 /xford. 1715). reprinted in Migne's Patrol. Gray., viii. and ix. (Paris. 1857).
An English translation may be found in the A ntc-Nicenc Fathers, vol. ii., ed. by A. C. Coxe (New York, 1885). Consult in general, the article "Clement," in Smith and Wace, Diction ary of Christian Biography (London, 1S77-S7); Charles Bigg, The Christian Platonists of andria (Oxford, 188(i) ; F. R. 31, Hitchcock, Clement of Alexandria (London, 1599) ; and Eugene de Faye, Clilnent d'Alexandrie (Paris, 1898).