CLEMENT
45
CLEMENT
desire was to become a priest, but liis family being
unable to give him the necessary education he became
a baker's assistant, devoting all his spare time to
study. He was a servant in the Premonstratensian
monastery of Bruck from 1771 to 1775, and then
lived for some time as a hermit. When the Emperor
Joseph II abolished hermitages he went to Vienna,
where he worked once more as a baker. After two
pilgrimages to Rome he again tried a hermit's life
(1782-3), this time under the protection of Barnaba
Chiaramonti, Bishop of Tivoli, afterwards Pope Pius
VII, taking the name of Clement, by which he was
ever afterwards known. He once more returned to
Vienna, where at length by the generosity of benefac-
tors he was enabled to go to the university and com-
plete his studies. In 1784 he made a third pilgrimage
on foot to Rome with a friend, Thaddiius Hubl, and
the two were received into the Redemptorist novitiate
at San Giuliano on the Esquiline. After a shortened
probation they were professed on 19 March, 1785, and
ordained priests a few days later. They were sent,
towards the end of the same year, to found a house
north of the Alps, St. Alphonsus. who was still alive,
prophesying their success. It being impossible under
Joseph II to found a house in Vienna. Clement and
Thaddaus turned to Warsaw, where King Stanislaus
Poniatowski, at the nuncio's request, placed St.
Benno's, the German national church, at their dis-
posal. Here, in 1795, they saw the end of Polish inde-
pendence. The labours of" Clement and his com-
panions in Warsaw from 1786 to 1808 are wellnigh
incredible. In addition to St. Benno's, another large
church was reserved for them, where sermons were
preached in French, antl there were daily classes of
instruction for Protestants and Jews. Besides this
Clement founded an orphanage and a school for boys.
His chief helper, Thaddaus Hiibl, died in 1807. In
the next year, on orders from Paris, the house at
Warsaw and three other houses which Clement had
founded were suppressed, and the Redemptorists
were e.xpelled from the Grand Duchy. Clement with
one companion went to Vienna, where for the last
twelve years of his life he acted as chaplain and
directpr at an Ursuline convent. During these years
he exercised a veritable apostolate among all classes
in the capital from the Emperor Francis downward.
Unable to founil a regular house of his congregation,
which was however established, as he had predicted,
almost immediately after his death, he devoted him-
self in a special way to the conversion and training of
young men. " I know but three men of superhuman
energy", his friend Werner had said, "Napoleon,
Goethe, and Clement Hofbauer. " "Religion in Aus-
tria", said Pius VIL "has lost its chief support."
Indeed it was to Clement Hofbauer perhaps more
than to any single individual that the extinction of
Josephinism was due. He was beatified by Leo XIII,
29 January, 1888; canonized 20 May, 1909. (See
AUSTRO-HuNO.\RI.\N MoN.VRCHY, II, 129.)
His life in German bv Haringer, translated into English by Lady Herbert (New York. 18.S3I. .\nother life bv O. R. Vassall Phillips (New York, 1S93); Berthe. Sainl Alphonse de Liffuori (Pans, 1900), tr. Life of Si. Alphonsus de Liguori (Dublin. 1905), J MagnIER.
Clement of Alexandria (properly Titu.s Fl.wius Clemens, but known in church history by the former designation to distinguish him from Clement of Rome), date of birth unknown; d. about the year 215; an early Greek theologian and head of the cate- chetical school of .Alexandria. Athens is given as the starting-point of his journeyings, and was proba- bly his birthplace. He became a convert to the Faith and travelled from place to place in search of higher instruction, attaching himself successively to differ- ent masters: to a Greek of Ionia, to another of Magna Griecia, to a third of Ccele-Syria, after all of whom he addressed himself in turn to an Egyptian, an Assy-
rian, and a converted Palestinian Jew. At last he
met Pantsenus in Ale.xandria, and in his teaching
"found rest".
The place itself was well chosen. It was natural that Christian speculation should have a home at Alexandria. This great city was at the time a centre of culture as well as of trade. A great university had grown up under the long-continued patronage of the State. The intellectual temper was broad and tol- erant, as became a city where so many races mingled. The philosophers were critics or eclectics, and Plato was the most favoured of the old masters. Neo- Platonism, the philosophy of the new pagan renais- sance, had a prophet at Alexandria in the person of Ammonius Saccas. The Jews, too, who were there in very large numbers, breathed its liberal atmosphere, and had assimilated secular culture. They there formed the most enlightened colony of the Disper- sion. Having lost the use of Hebrew, they found it necessaiy to translate the Scriptures into the more familiar Greek. I'liilo, their foremost thinker, be- came a sort of Jewish Plato. Ale.xandria was, in addition, one of the chief seats of that peculiar mixed pagan and Christian speculation known as Gnosti- cism. Basilides and Valentinus taught there. It is no matter of surprise, therefore, to find some of the Christians affected in turn by the scientific spirit. At an uncertain date, in the latter half of the second century, "a school of oral instruction" was founded. Lectures were given to which pagan hearers were ad- mitted, and advanced teaching to Christians separ- ately. It was an official institution of the Church. Pantsenus is the earliest teacher whose name has been preserved. Clement first assisted and then succeeded Pantajnus in the direction of the school, about a.d. 190. He was already known as a Christian writer before the days of Pope Victor (188-199).
About this time he may have composed the "Hortatory Discourse to the Greeks" {npoTpcTmKbs npbs "EXX7)ras). It is a persuasive appeal for the Faith, written in a lofty strain. The discourse opens with passages which fall on the ear with the effect of sweet music. Amphion and Arion by their min- strelsy drew after them savage monsters and moved the very stones; Christ is the noblest minstrel. His harp and lyre are men. He draws music from their hearts by the Holy Spirit: nay, Christ is Hunself the New Canticle, whose melody subdues the fiercest and hardest natures. Clement then proceeds to show the transcendence of the Christian rehgion. He con- trasts Christianity with the vileness of pagan rites, and with the faint hopes of pagan poets and phOoso- phers. Man is born for God. The Word calls men to Himself. The full truth is found in Christ alone. The work ends with a description of the God-fearing Christian. He answers those who urge that it is wrong to desert one's ancestral religion.
The work entitled "Outlines" ( TToTWTriio-ets) is likewise believed to be a production of the early activity of Clement. It was translated into Latin by Rufinus under the title " Dispositioues". It was in eight books, but is no longer e.xtant, though numerous fragments have been preserved in Greek by Eusebius, CEcumenius, Maximus Confessor, John Moschos, and Photius. According to Zahn, a Latin fragment, " Adumbrationes dementis Alexandrini in epistolas canonicas", translated by Cassiodorus and purged of objectionable passages, represents in part the text of Clement. Eusebius represents the "Outlines" as an abridged commentary, with doc- trinal and historical remarks on the entire Bible and on the non-canonical "Epistle of Barnabas" and " Apocalypse of Peter ". Photius, who had also read it, describes it as a series of explanations of Biblical texts, especially of Genesis, Exodus, the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and the Pauline and Catholic Epistles. He declares the work sound on some points, but adds that it con-
