Clement of Rome

Offices

• Bishop of Rome (Pope) № 4 · 88 – 99

Related people

• Titus Flavius Sabinus child of · traditional
• Arrecina child of · traditional
• Anacletus succeeded · traditional
• Flavia Plautilla sibling of · traditional
• Titus Flavius Sabinus sibling of · traditional
• Titus Flavius Clemens sibling of · traditional
• Evaristus preceded · traditional

Works

• Epistola Clementis ad Iacobum c. 4th century

Events

• Clement writes to Corinth 96
• The martyrdom of Clement at Chersonesus 99

Commemorated

• Clement of Rome

Places

• Basilica of San Clemente burial
• Chersonesus death
• Rome ministry

How we know

Recorded as a historical figure.

• Ecclesiastical History 2 claims — HE 3.15; Clement writes to Corinth
• The Golden Legend 1 claim — The martyrdom of Clement at Chersonesus
• Liber Pontificalis 1 claim — Liber Pontificalis, the life of Clement of Rome
• The Apostolic Fathers 1 claim — Whether Ignatius argues or describes
• Le Liber pontificalis: texte, introduction et commentaire 1 claim — Liber pontificalis I, commentary on the early lives

Documents

• First Epistle of Clement author

Sayings

• Our apostles also knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and there would be strife on account of the office of the episcopate. For this reason, therefore… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Writing to Corinth about presbyters who had been deposed, Clement argues that the apostles foresaw the quarrel and provided against it: they appointed ministers, and left…
• Let us contemplate, beloved, the resurrection which is at all times taking place. Day and night declare to us a resurrection. The night sinks to sleep, and… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — Clement argues the resurrection from things that happen every day — night and morning, the seed dying in the ground — rather than from prophecy, in the chapter that leads into…
• The height to which love exalts is unspeakable. Love unites us to God. Love covers a multitude of sins. Love beareth all things, is long-suffering in all… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — The praise of love in the forty-ninth chapter, written to a church that had split: every clause of it is aimed at the schism the letter exists to end, which is why it turns from…
• Owing to envy, Paul also obtained the reward of patient endurance, after being seven times thrown into captivity, compelled to flee, and stoned. After… Checked word-for-word against the book it cites — The oldest surviving account of the deaths of Peter and Paul, written within living memory of them and offered not as history but as an example of what envy does. The phrase…

Glosses

• Whether Ignatius argues or describes Ignatius writes to six churches about 110 and tells each of them to do nothing without the bishop. Whether that is evidence of a new thing or of an old one is the oldest live argument about the shape of the early…
• Presbyter and bishop In the New Testament and in Clement's letter to Corinth the two words name one office: presbyteros and episkopos are used of the same men in the same paragraph. A single bishop standing over a college of presbyters is…
• The years before the list Every early bishop of Rome on this site carries a span - Linus 67 to 79, Anacletus 79 to 92 - and those numbers are younger than the men. The Liber Pontificalis gives each of them a reign to the day, so many years, so…
• Who followed Peter at Rome The earliest list is Irenaeus, writing about 180 and quoted by Eusebius: Linus first after the apostles, then Anencletus, then Clement. Later Western tradition splits Anencletus into two men, Cletus and Anacletus, and…