Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/210

Rh 196 APOSTOLIC FATHEKS satisfactory manner be ascribed to Clemens Romanus is an epistle from the Roman Church to the Corinthian. Quarrels had arisen in the Corinthian Church, most pro bably in the reign of Domitian, as to some of the office bearers of the church. And the Roman Church sent a letter to the Corinthian Church urging it to pursue a peaceful course, to shun envy and jealousy, and to do all things in order. The writing -if this letter is ascribed to Clemens by Dionysius, bishop of the Corinthian Church, in a letter to Soter, bishop of the Roman Church (166-174 A.D.), and all subsequent testimony is in favour of this authorship. The letter was found at the end of the Codex Alexandrinus. Its position there is in harmony with the cir cumstance noted by several of the ancients, that it was read in the churches on the Sunday. Clemens Alexandrinus also frequently quotes it as the work of the &quot;Apostle Clemens,&quot; and the mode of quotation is such as to lead one to believe th?t he regarded it as Scripture, though some have maintained that he did not regard it as canonical. The genuineness of the epistle has been generally acknow ledged. There is strong external testimony for it, and the internal evidence is at least not against it. But as Dionysius of Corinth (166 A.D.) is the first to mention Clemens as the author, there is a considerable interval between the date usually assigned to the epistle and the time of Dionysius, during which no one testifies to the epistle. Accordingly some critics have refused to recognise Clemens as the author, and they put the letter well on into the 2d century. The date usually assigned to the letter is 96 or 97 A.D. Some critics have assigned it to the year 68 A.D., but the arguments are not satisfactory. Some writers have taken exception to a few chapters in the letter which they regard as interpolations, but their opinions have not been generally adopted. The letter is defective. A whole leaf of the MS. is supposed to be wanting. The best edition of the epistle is by Professor Lightfoot (London and Cambridge, 1869). A whole literature arose around the name of Clemens in subsequent times. Of this literature the following portions have come down to us. 1. A second Epistle to the Corinthians, found along with the first in the Codex Alexandrinus. As far as one can judge from the writing itself, this work is rather a homily than a letter. In all probability its author belonged to Egypt. Various suppositions have been made as to its authorship, but none that commands the assent of a considerable number of critics. It seems to have been written towards the middle or end of the 2d century. 2. Two letters on Virginity, found in Syriac. There is no external testi mony that Clemens was the author of these letters, and they breathe a spirit of asceticism and dislike of marriage different from that prevalent in the early times of Christi anity. They also refer to customs of a later date. Notwith standing this, some critics, especially some Roman Catho lics, have keenly defended their genuineness. 3. The Clementines. These appear in two forms: the Recognitions in Latin, and the Homilies in Greek. They are a fiction. The writer attempts to represent the state of the church as it was during the period between the ascension of Christ and the entrance of Sb Paul on his work as an apostle. St Peter is accordingly the hero of the work, and his great enemy is Simon the magician. The doctrines of the book are peculiar, and are most nearly allied to those that are reckoned to be the doctrines of the Ebionites. The ques tion arises, Did the writer wish to represent the doctrines as the merely temporary doctrines of that period of transi tion ] Or did he regard the doctrines which he has put forth in the work as the only true doctrines, and the sub sequent doctrines of the Catholic Church perversions of the true and aberrations from them 1 Baur and the Tubingen school have regarded the book as giving a genuine picture of the state of the early church and of Ebionitic doctrine, and a great part of their theory of the origin and rise of Christianity is based upon it. They suppose that in Simon the magician the writer has attacked the apostle Paul. Many critics suppose that the work was written at a very early period, but that it received numer ous additions. As the work now exists, it seems to belong to the end of the 2d or beginning of the 3d century. 4. The Apostolical Constitutions. This work is a series of regula tions in regard to the management of the church, such as the functions and character of bishops, presbyters, and deacons (see last article). In all probability the work was the result of one addition after another made to an origin ally small nucleus. Some assign portions of it to the apostolic age. &quot;Winston thought that it was inspired. Most probably the main portion of it belongs to the 3d century. There is no reason for connecting with it the name of Clemens, though this was done by ancient writers. We should add to this list that some ascribed the canonical Epistle of the Hebrews to Clemens Romanus. Ignatius. The information we get in regard to Ignatius up till the time of Eusebius is exceedingly scanty. He is mentioned in the epistle of Polycarp. Origen speaks of him in two passages, which, however, may possibly be interpo lations. Eusebius in his Chronicon, at the year 70 or 71 A.D., states that he was appointed bishop of Antioch, and at the year 109 A.D., that he suffered martyrdom. He repeats the same statements in his Ecclesiastical History, introducing his account of the martyrdom with the words, &quot; The story goes.&quot; After the time of Eusebius our information becomes much more precise and minute. The birthday of the martyr (i.e., the day of his martyrdom) was celebrated in the church of Antioch. Speeches were delivered in his praise. Wonderful stories were told of him. He was one of the children whom Christ took up in his arms and blessed. He introduced antiphonal chants into the service of the church, because he had seen a vision of angels praising God in antiphonal hymns. The details of his martyrdom are given in a document devoted to the purpose. Of this document there are eight forms ; but one is generally believed to be better than the rest. This one states that Trajan, in the ninth year of his reign, was in Antioch, that Ignatius was brought before him, and that the emperor condemned the bishop to be sent to Rome, and to be exposed to the wild beasts. The writers then describe the journey of Ignatius to Rome, mention various letters which he wrote on the way, and then narrate his exposure to the wild beasts, and how they saw him afterwards in a vision. The letters of Ignatius cause great difficulty to the critic. Eight of the letters ascribed to him are now universally rejected. There remain seven others. These seven appear in two Greek forms, a longer and a shorter. Latin translations of these forms are found, and they differ somewhat from the Greek. And of the seven letters three are found in Syriac, and the Syriac form is much shorter than the shortest of the Greek. Which are the original letters! Or have we the original letters at all 1 Unfortunately before the time of Eusebius there is no external testimony to these letters that can give us any clue to -the true nature of the text. And the testimony of Eusebius is of little value. He states distinctly that there were seven letters. But the critics who maintain that the seven shorter Greek letters are largely interpolated, have no hesitation in agreeing to the opinion that these interpolations were made before the time of Eusebius. The shorter form unquestionably belongs to the 2d or 3d century, most pro bably to the 2d. A few critics have maintained that the longer form is the genuine. A very large number of critics regard the shorter Greek form as the original form, though almost all allow that there are some traces of interpolation