“Our apostles also knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and there would be strife on…”
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, inasmuch as they had obtained a perfect fore-knowledge of this, they appointed those [ministers] already mentioned, and afterwards gave instructions, that when these should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed them in their ministry.
Clement of Rome · The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians · ANF I, The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, Chapter XLIV
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 instructions that when those died other approved men should take their place. It is the earliest statement of the idea this whole dataset is built on.
How this is known
These words were matched, word for word, against this project’s own copy of the volume cited.
The letter is quoted as Clement's by Irenaeus and by Eusebius, and no ancient writer doubts that Rome sent it; what it does not say is that Clement wrote it, and the letter itself speaks throughout as a church rather than a man.
Read in Roberts & Donaldson, ANF vol. 1 (1885) · Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, revised by A. Cleveland Coxe
Also by
- Clement of Rome every saying recorded of this person, and their page