Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/37

 God as well as idolaters.' This description, drawn by his enemy, probably indicates that Clement maintained a universalism of some sort. He was also accused of denying the canons of the church and rejecting the authority of SS. Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory (see for the whole, Monum. Mogunt. pp. 133, 140, 141, 146). He had in fact brought into collision with the unfriendly rigour of Latin Christianity those freer usages and more speculative habits of thought which prevailed in the churches of Ireland, at this time the fountain-head of literary culture and missionary enterprise for the west of Europe. The German opponents of Boniface, who seem to have been in a majority (cf. Ep. lxvi. p. 187), must have supported Clement; for when the matter was brought before a synod at Rome, 25 Oct. 745 (not 746 or 748, as was formerly supposed; cf. Histoire litteraire de la France, iv. 83, 109), Deneard, Boniface's representative, stated that the archbishop was powerless to close his mouth. The synod confirmed Boniface's action, anathematised Clement, and once more declared him to be deprived of his orders (see the Acts, pp. 136-48; cf. Ep. li. p. 151, liii. p. 155) ; but in spite of this sentence Clement persisted in his opinions, and so soon as 5 Jan. 747 we find the mild pope writing again to Boniface, enjoining him to re-examine the whole question at a council which was shortly to be held in Germany, and to do his best to bring Clement to repentance; should he prove contumacious, he was to be sent on to Rome (Ep. lxiii. pp. 182, 183). The issue of the affair is not known; but it is probable that Clement's case from the beginning was prejudiced by the fact that his opinions were mixed up in all the proceedings with those of a certain Adelbert, who held views of a very fanatical character. Clement, on the other hand, to judge even from the meagre and distorted accounts of his doctrine which we possess, seems to represent in some ways the free characteristics of Irish theology which found a lasting and vital expression in the writings of his great countryman, John Scotus, a century later.

This Clement has been often confounded with the subject of the following article; cf. Dempster, 'Hist. Eccl. Gent. Scot.' iii. 177, 178.

 CLEMENT II (fl. 820), grammarian, arrived, according to the old tradition, from Ireland on the coast of Gaul, in company with another scholar of his nation, about the time when Charles the Great 'began to reign alone in the west,' that is, after the death of Carloman in 771. The two men were warmly received at the Frankish court, and Clement was entrusted with the education of a number of pupils, apparently at the royal court. This appointment has been naturally connected with the foundation of the 'schola palatina,' which formed a characteristic feature in Charles's domestic organisation. The older French scholars, as du Boulay (Historia Universitatis Parisiensis, i. 568), assuming that the school was established at Paris, claimed Clement accordingly as one of the founders of the university of some four centuries later date. The account, however, of Clement's appearance in the Frankish realm rests solely upon the authority of the monk of St. Gall (Gesta Karoli Magni, i. 1, 3, in, Bibliotheca Rerum Germanicarum, iv. 632, 633), who wrote towards the end of the ninth century, and whose narrative is admitted to contain a large element of fable. Yet some scholars who discredit the story still maintain that the unnamed Scot, or rather band of Scots, whose influence at the palace roused the opposition of Alcuin (Ep. xcviii. in 's Bibliotheca, vi. 107 et seq.) and of Bishop Theodulf of Orleans (Carm. xxxv. in 's Poetæ Latini avi Carolini, i. 487 et seq. 1881), must necessarily designate Clement. This identification was merely suggested by Mabillon (Acta SS. Ord. S. Bened. sec. iv. pt. i. praef. p. cxxxi, 1677) as a plausible inference from the monk of St. Gall's narrative, the historical character of which he accepted; but it has in modern times been asserted more positively by M. Hauréau (Singularités Historiques et Littéraires, pp. 25, 26, 39, 1861) and Mr. Bass Mullinger (Schools of Charles the Great, pp. 121–4, 1877). It is, however, not the less an hypothesis.

The first tangible notice of Clement occurs in a 'Catalogue of the Abbots of Fulda' (, Monumenta Germanice Historica, Scriptt. xiii. 272), where we read that Ratgar, who was abbot from 802 to 817, sent a certain Modestus and other monks to Clement the Scot for the purpose of learning grammar. Clement was, then or later, plainly resident at the Frankish court; for we have a poem by him addressed to Lothar as emperor (that is, after he had gained the imperial title in 817), from which it appears that the latter was his pupil (Poet. Lat. cevi Carol. ii. 670, 1884); and another poem, by