Clemens Romanus
b. fl. c. AD 96
Clement of Rome is traditionally identified as the third or fourth bishop of Rome, presiding over the Roman church in the last decade of the first century AD. Virtually nothing certain is known about his life. Later tradition made him a freedman or relative of the consul Titus Flavius Clemens (executed by Domitian in AD 95), but this is unverifiable. Origen and others identified him with the Clement mentioned by Paul in Philippians 4:3, which is possible but unprovable.
His letter to the church at Corinth — known as 1 Clement, written around AD 96 — is the earliest surviving Christian document outside the New Testament. The Corinthian church had deposed its presbyters, and Clement writes to restore order, arguing from Old Testament precedent, apostolic tradition, and natural philosophy that God has established a hierarchy that must be respected. The letter is long, discursive, and revealing: it shows us what a Roman Christian leader thought and how he argued before the New Testament canon was fixed.
A second letter (2 Clement) is attributed to him but is actually an anonymous homily from the mid-second century.
Written from Rome to the church at Corinth around AD 96, during the reign of Domitian, 1 Clement is one of the earliest surviving Christian texts outs...
Despite its traditional attribution, 2 Clement is not a letter and was almost certainly not written by Clement of Rome. It is the earliest surviving C...