Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Two Epistles Concerning Virginity/Second Pseudo-Clement/Chapter 1

by Clement of Rome

The Second Epistle of the Same Clement.

Chapter I.—He Describes the Circumspectness of His Intercourse with the Other Sex, and Tells How in His Journeys He Acts at Places Where There are Brethren Only.

I would, moreover, have you know, my brethren, of what sort is our conduct in Christ, as well as that of all our brethren, in the various places in which we are.  And if so be that you approve it, do ye also conduct yourselves in like manner in the Lord.  Now we, if God help us, conduct ourselves thus:  with maidens we do not dwell, nor have we anything in common with them; with maidens we do not eat, nor drink; and, where a maiden sleeps, we do not sleep; neither do women wash our feet, nor anoint us; and on no account do we sleep where a maiden sleeps who is unmarried or has taken the vow:^[1]  even though she be in some other place if she be alone, we do not pass the night there.^[2]  Moreover, if it chance that the time for rest overtake us in a place, whether in the country, or in a village, or in a town, or in a hamlet,^[3] or wheresoever we happen to be, and there are found brethren in that place, we turn in to one who is a brother, and call together there all the brethren, and speak to them words of encouragement and exhortation.^[4]  And those among us who are gifted in speaking will speak such words as are earnest, and serious, and chaste, in the fear of God, and exhort them to please God in everything, and abound and go forward in good works, and “be free from^[5] anxious care in everything,”^[6] as is fit and right for the people of God.

Footnotes

1. Lit. “or is a daughter of the covenant.”
2. Beelen’s rendering, “we do not even pass the night,” seems not to be favoured either by the arrangement or the context.
3. Lit “dwelling-place.”
4. Or “consolation.”  So παράκλησις in the N.T. has both senses.
5. Lit. “without.”
6. Phil. iv. 6.