Sect. I. The Relation of the Apostolic Fathers
to the Teaching of the Apostles.
§ i. Clement of Rome.
The legendary history of Clement.The history of Clement of Rome is invested with a mythic dignity, which is without example in the ante-Nicene Church[1]. The events of his life have become so strangely involved in consequence of the religious romances which bear his name, that they must remain in inextricable confusion; and even apart from this, there can be little doubt that traditions which belong to very different men were soon united to confirm the dignity of the successor of St Peter[2]. There is however no reason to question the belief that he was an immediate disciple of the Apostles, and overseer of the Church of Rome[3]; but beyond this all is doubtful[4]. It is uncertain whether he was of Jewish or heathen descent[5]: he is called at one
- ↑ Cf. Schliemann, 118 ff.
- ↑ For instance, he was identified with Flavius Clemens, a cousin of Domitian, who was martyred at Rome. Schliemann, 109. Compare Lightfoot, Clement of Rome, pp. 264 ff., for the connexion of Clement with the imperial household.
- ↑ Iren. c. Hær. iii. 3 (Euseb. H. E. v. 6), τρίτῳ τόπῳ ἀπὸ τῶν ἀποστόλων τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν (of the Roman Church). κληροῦται Κλήμης, ὁ καὶ ἑωρακὼς τοὺς µακαρίους ἀποστόλους καὶ συµβεβληκὼς αὐτοῖς καὶ ἔτι ἔναυλον τὸ κήρυγµα τῶν ἀποστόλων καὶ τὴν παράδοσιν πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν ἔχων οὐ μόνος, ἔτι γὰρ πολλοὶ ὑπελείποντο τότε ὑπὸ τῶν ἀποστόλων δεδιδαγµένοι. The passage is a singular testimony to the intense vividness of the impression produced by the Apostolic preaching and to the multiplicity of personal evidence by which it was attested.
- ↑ The various traditions are discussed with great candour in Donaldson, i. pp. 90 ff.
- ↑ The former alternative seems to be supported by his Epistle not so much by the manner in which he speaks of the Patriarchs as 'our Fathers' (cc. 4, 31, 55) as by his familiar knowledge of the Old Testament in the LXX. version: the latter is adopted in the Clementines, and maintained by Hefele, Patrr. App. xix. ff. Comp. Lightfoot, l. c. pp. 263 f., who concludes that Clement was of 'Jewish or proselyte parentage.'
