Clemens
（
Κλήμης).
1.
Called Romānus, to distinguish him from Clemens of
Alexandria. One of the early Christians, said by Origen to have been the
friend and fellow-traveller of St. Paul, and afterwards bishop of Rome, to which station he
was chosen A.D. 67, or, according to some, A.D. 91. He was the author of an epistle to the
church of Corinth. Of this work, the only manuscript extant was in the British Museum until
1875, when Bryennios published a complete MS. of 1056 found at Constantinople; and in 1876,
Cambridge University got possession of a Syriac MS. of the year 1170. Archbishop Wake printed
a translation in 1705. The best edition of the original is that of Lightfoot
(1869;
appendix 1877). See Cotterill,
Modern Criticism (Edinb.
1884). Clemens is supposed to have died at Rome about the close of the first century,
though a legend of the ninth century makes him to have been martyred in the Crimea in A.D.
102. Besides the epistle mentioned above, there have been ascribed to Clemens two Syriac
epistles on Virginity, the socalled
Clementinae
(“Recognitions” and “Homilies”), and several letters;
but these may all be regarded as spurious.
2.
T. Flavius, a Father of the Church, who flourished between A.D.
190 and 217, and is commonly called Alexandrīnus, to
distinguish him from Clemens of Rome. He is supposed by some to have been a native of Athens,
and by others of Alexandria, but of his real origin very little is known. He early devoted
himself to study in the schools of the latter city, and had many preceptors. His Hebrew
preceptor, whom he calls “the Sicilian bee,” was unquestionably
Pantaenus, a Jew by birth, but of Sicilian extraction, who united Grecian with sacred
learning, and was attached to the Stoic philosophy. Clemens so far adopted the ideas of this
preceptor as to espouse the moral doctrine of the Stoics. In other respects he followed the
Eclectic method of philosophizing. While the pagan philosophers pillaged the Christian stores
to enrich the Eclectic system, this Christian father, on the contrary, transferred the
Platonic, Stoic, and Oriental dogmas to the Christian creed, as relics of ancient tradition
originating in Divine revelation. His most distinguished follower was Origen.
In the hope of recommending Christianity to his catechumens, Clemens made a large
collection of ancient wisdom, under the name of
Stromata (
Στρωματεῖς, “patchwork”), and intended to
denote the miscellaneous nature of the philosophical and religious topics of which the work
treats. He assigned as a reason for the undertaking, that much truth is mixed with the dogmas
of philosophers, or, rather, covered and concealed in their writings, like the kernel within
its shell. This work is of great value, as it contains many quotations and relates many facts
not elsewhere preserved. Besides the
Stromata, we have the following works of
Clemens remaining:
(a) Protrepticon (
Λόγος
Προτρεπτικός), or an exhortation to the Pagans;
(b) Paedagogus
(
Παιδαγωγός), or the instructor; (
c) the fragments of a treatise on the use of riches, entitled, “What rich man
shall be saved?” The works of Clemens were first printed in Greek only, at
Florence, in 1550. Of the various editions with Latin versions, the best is that of
Archbishop Potter, 2 vols.
(Oxford, 1715). A later edition is that of Klotz
(Leipzig, 1834). A translation will be found in Clark's
Ante-Nicene Library (1877-79). See Merk,
Clemens
von Alexandria (Leipzig, 1879); and Bigg,
Christian
Platonists (Bampton Lect. 1886).
