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CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA (Clemens Alexan...

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 490 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CLEMENT OF See also:ALEXANDRIA (Clemens Alexandrinus) , See also:Greek See also:Father of the See also:Church. The little we know of him is mainly derived from his own See also:works. He was probably See also:born about A.U. 15o of See also:heathen parents in See also:Athens. The earliest writer after himself who gives us any See also:information with regard to him is See also:Eusebius. The only points on which his works now extant inform us, See also:axe bis date and his instructors.. In the Stromateis, while attempting to show that the Jewish Scriptures were older than any writings of the Greeks, he invariably brings down his See also:dates to the See also:death of See also:Commodus, a circumstance which at once suggests that he wrote in the reign of the See also:emperor See also:Severus, from 193 to 211 A.D. (see Strom. See also:lib. i. cap. xxi. 140, p. 403, See also:Potter's edition). The passage in regard to his teachers is corrupt, and the sense is therefore doubtful (Strom. lib. i. cap. i. 1x, p.

322, P.). " This See also:

treatise," he says, speaking of the Stromateis, " has not been contrived for See also:mere display, but memoranda are treasured up in it for my old See also:age to be a remedy for forgetfulness,—an See also:image, truly, and an outline of those clear and living discourses, and those men truly blessed and noteworthy I was privileged to hear. One of these was in See also:Greece, the Ionian, the other was in Magna Graecia; the one of them was from Coele See also:Syria, the other from See also:Egypt; but there were others in the See also:East, one of whom belonged to the Assyrians, but the other was in See also:Palestine, originally a See also:Jew. The last of those whom I met was first in See also:power. On falling in with him I found See also:rest, having tracked him while he See also:lay concealed in Egypt. He was in truth the Sicilian See also:bee, and, plucking the See also:flowers of the prophetic and apostolic meadow, he produced a wonderfully pure knowledge in the souls of the listeners." Some have supposed that in this passage seven teachers are named, others that there are only five, and various conjectures have been hazarded as to what persons were meant. The only one about whom conjecture has any basis for speculating is the last, for Eusebius states (H.E. v.11) that Clement made mention of See also:Pantaenus as his teacher in the Hypotyposes. The reference in this passage is plainly to one whom he might well designate as his teacher. To the information which Clement here supplies subsequent writers add little. By Eusebius and See also:Photius he is called See also:Titus Flavius Clemens, and " the Alexandrian " is added to his name. See also:Epiphanius tells us that some said Clement was an Alexandrian, others that he was an Athenian (See also:Hoe.. xxxii. 6), and a See also:modern writer imagined that he reconciled this discordance by the supposition that he was born at Athens, but lived at Alexandria.

We know nothing of his See also:

conversion except that he passed from heathenism to See also:Christianity. This is expressly stated by Eusebius (Praep. Evangel. lib. ii. cap. 2), though it is likely that Eusebius had no other authority than the works of Clement. These works, however, See also:warrant the inference. They show a singularly See also:minute acquaintance with the ceremonies of See also:pagan See also:religion, and there are indications that Clement himself had been initiated in some of the mysteries (Protrept. cap. ii. sec. 14, p. 13, P.). There is no means of determining the date of his conversion. He attained the position of See also:presbyter in the church of Alexandria (Eus. H.E. vi. 11, and See also:Jerome, De Vir.

See also:

Ill. 38), and became perhaps the assistant, and certainly the successor of Pantaenus in the catechetical school of that See also:place. Among his pupils were See also:Origen (Eus. H.E. vi. 7) and See also:Alexander, See also:bishop of See also:Jerusalem (Eus. H.E. vi. 14.). How See also:long he continued in Alexandria, and when and where he died, are all matters of pure conjecture. The only further See also:notice of Clement that we have in See also:history is in a See also:letter written in 211 by Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, to the Antiochians, and preserved by Eusebius (H.E. vi. II). The words are as follows:—" This letter I sent through Clement the blessed presbyter, a See also:man virtuous and tried, whom ye know and will come to know completely, who being here by the See also:providence and guidance of the Ruler of all strengthened and increased the church of the See also:Lord." A statement of Eusebius in regard to the persecution of Severus in 202 (H.E. vi. 3) would render it likely that Clement See also:left Alexandria on that occasion.

It is conjectured that he went to his old See also:

pupil Alexander, who was at that See also:time bishop of Flaviada in See also:Cappadocia, and that when his pupil was raised to the see of Jerusalem Clement followed him there. The letter implies that he was known to the Antiochians, and that it was likely he would be still better known. Some have conjectured that he returned to Alexandria, but there is not the See also:shadow of See also:evidence for such conjecture. Alexander, See also:writing to Origen (c. 216), mentions Clement as dead (Eus. H.E. vi. 14, 9). Eusebius and Jerome give us lists of the works which Clement left behind him. Photius has also described some of them. They are as follows:—(1) IIpds "EAA,tvas Abyos 6 aporpewrrnKbs, A Hortatory Address to the Greeks. (2) '0 IIaf6aywy6s, The See also:Tutor, in three books. (3) $rpwµareis, or Patch-See also:work, in eight books.

(4) Tts b ui 6p.evoraXobosos; Who is the See also:

Rich Man that is Saved ? (5) Eight books of 'T7rorv7rc gets, Adumbrations or Outlines. (6) On the See also:Passover. (7) Discourses on See also:Fasting. (8) On See also:Slander. (9) Exhortation to See also:Patience, or to the Newly Baptized. (1o) The Baviav txKArtataortcbs, the See also:Rule of the Church, or to those who Judaize, a work dedicated to Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem. Of these, the first four have come down to us See also:complete, or nearly complete. The first three See also:form together a progressive introduction to Christianity corresponding to the stages through which the µuorstr passed at Eleusis—purification, See also:initiation, See also:revelation. The Hortatory Address to the Greeks is an See also:appeal to them to give up the See also:worship of their gods, and to devote themselves to the worship of the one living and true See also:God. Clement exhibits the absurdity and immorality of the stories told with regard to the pagan deities, the cruelties perpetrated in their worship, and the utter uselessness of bowing down before images made by hands. He at the same time shows the Greeks that their own greatest philosophers and poets recognized the unity of the divine Being, and had caught glimpses of the true nature of God, but that See also:fuller See also:light had been thrown on this subject by the See also:Hebrew prophets.

He replies to the objection that it was not right to abandon the customs of their forefathers, and points them to See also:

Christ as their only safe See also:guide to God. The Paedagogue is divided into three books. In the first Clement discusses the See also:necessity for and the true nature of the Paedagogus, and shows how Christ as the See also:Logos acted as Paedagogus, and still acts. In the second and third books Clement enters into particulars, and explains how the See also:Christian following the Logos or See also:Reason ought to behave in the various circumstances of life—in eating, drinking, furnishing a See also:house, in See also:dress, in the relations of social See also:life, in the care of the See also:body, and similar concerns, and concludes with a See also:general description of the life of a Christian. Appended to the Paedagogue are two See also:hymns, which are, in all See also:probability, the See also:production of Clement, though some have conjectured that they were portions of the church service of that time. orpeas refs were bags in which bedclothes (o-rpwµara) were kept. The phrase was used as a See also:book-See also:title by Origen and others, and is See also:equivalent to our " miscellanies." It is difficult to give a brief See also:account of the varied contents of the book. Sometimes Clement discusses See also:chronology, sometimes See also:philosophy, sometimes See also:poetry, entering into the most minute See also:critical and See also:chronological details; but one See also:object runs through all, and this is to show what the true Christian Gnostic is, and what is his relation to philosophy. The work was in eight books. The first seven are complete. The eighth now extant is really an incomplete treatise on See also:logic. Some critics have rejected this book as See also:spurious, since its See also:matter is so different from that of the rest. Others, however, have held to its genuineness, because in a Patch-work or Book of Miscellanies the difference of subject is no See also:sound objection, and because Photius seems to have regarded our See also:present eighth book as genuine (Phot. See also:cod. iii. p.

89b, See also:

Bekker). The'treatise Who is the Rich Man that is Saved ? is an admirable exposition of the narrative contained in St See also:Mark's See also:Gospel x. 17-31. Here Clement argues that See also:wealth, if rightly used, is not unchristian. The Hypotyposesl in eight books, have not come down to us. See also:Cassiodorus translated them into Latin, freely altering to suit his own ideas of orthodoxy. Both Eusebius and Photius describe the work. It was a See also:short commentary on all the books of Scripture, including some of the apocryphal works, such as the See also:Epistle of See also:Barnabas and the Revelation of See also:Peter. Photius speaks in strong See also:language of the impiety of some opinions in the book (Bibl. cod. 109, p. 89 a Bekker), but his statements are such as to prove conclusively that he must have had a corrupt copy, or read very carelessly, or grossly misunderstood Clement. Notes in Latin on the first epistle of Peter, the epistle of See also:Jude, and the first two of See also:John have come down to us; but whether they are the See also:translation of Cassiodorus, or indeed a translation of Clement's work at all, is a matter of dispute.

The treatise on the Passover was occasioned by a work of See also:

Melito on the same subject. Two fragments of this treatise were given by Petavius, and are contained in the modern See also:editions. We know nothing of the work called The Ecclesiastical See also:Canon from any See also:external testimony. Clement himself often mentions the kKA77otaOTLK6r Kavu,v, and defines it as the agreement and See also:harmony of the See also:law and the prophets with the See also:covenant delivered at the See also:appearance of Christ (Strom. vi. cap. xv. 123, p. 803, P.). No doubt this was the subject of the treatise. Jerome and Photius See also:call the work Ecclesiastical Canons, but this seems to be a See also:mistake. Of the other See also:treatises mentioned by Eusebius and Jerome nothing is known. A fragment of Clement, quoted by See also:Antonius Melissa, is most probably taken from the treatise on slander. Besides the treatises mentioned by Eusebius, fragments of treatises on Providence and the Soul have been preserved. Mention is also made of a work by Clement on the See also:Prophet See also:Amos, and another on See also:Definitions.

In addition to these Clement often speaks of his intention to write on certain subjects, but it may well be doubted whether in most cases, if not all, he intended to devote See also:

separate treatises to Zahn thinks we have See also:part of them in the Adumbrationes Clem. Alex. in epistolas canonical (Codex Lindum, 96, sec. ix.). They were perhaps intended as a completion of the preceding course. them. Some have found an allusion to the treatise on the Soul already mentioned. The other subjects are See also:Marriage (ya/zusls adyos), Continence, the Duties of Bishops. Presbyters, Deacons and Widows, Prophecy, the Soul, the Transmigration of the Soul and the See also:Devil, Angels, the Origin of the See also:World, First Principles and the Divinity of the Logos, Allegorical Interpretations of Statements made with regard to God's anger and similar affections, the Unity of the Church, and the Resurrection. Two works are incorporated in the editions of Clement which are not mentioned by himself or any See also:ancient writer. They are 'EK T6'm OsoSO ov Kal T1]s &paroXceis Kav: ains MactKaXlas Kara See also:rain OLaAsvrivou xpdvov ism-See also:opal, and 'EK TWV 7rpo4vgTCK63V EKXoyai. The first, if it is the work of Clement, must be a book merely of excerpts, for it contains many opinions which Clement opposed. Mention is made of Pantaenus in the second, and some have thought it more worthy of him than the first. Others have regarded it as a work similar to the first, and derived from See also:Theodorus.

Clement occupies a profoundly interesting position in the history of Christianity. He is the first to bring all the culture of the Greeks and all the speculations of the Christian heretics to See also:

bear on the exposition of Christian truth. He does not attain to a systematic See also:exhibition of Christian See also:doctrine, but he paves the way for it, and See also:lays the first stones of the See also:foundation. In some respects See also:Justin anticipated him. He also was well acquainted with Greek philosophy, and took a genial view of it; but he was not nearly so widely read as Clement. The See also:list of Greek authors whom Clement has quoted occupies upwards of fourteen of the See also:quarto pages in See also:Fabricius's Bibliotheca Graeca. He is at See also:home alike in the epic and the lyric, the tragic and the comic poets, and his knowledge of the See also:prose writers is very extensive. Some, however, of the classic poets he appears to have known only from anthologies; hence he was misled into quoting as from See also:Euripides and others verses which were written by Jewish forgers. He made a See also:special study of the philosophers. Equally minute is his knowledge of the systems of the Christian heretics. And in all cases it is See also:plain that he not merely read but thought deeply on the questions which the See also:civilization of the Greeks and the various writings of poets, philosophers and heretics raised. But it was in the Scriptures that he found his greatest delight.

He believed them to contain the revelation of God's See also:

wisdom to men. He quotes all the books of the Old Testament except See also:Ruth and the See also:Song of See also:Solomon, and amongst the sacred writings of the Old Testament he evidently included the book of See also:Tobit, the Wisdom of Solomon and See also:Ecclesiasticus. He is equally full in his quotations from the New Testament, for he quotes from all the books except the epistle to See also:Philemon, the second epistle of St Peter, and the epistle of St See also:James, and he quotes from The Shepherd of See also:Hermas, and the epistles of Clemens See also:Romanus and of Barnabas, as inspired. He appeals also to many of the lost gospels, such as those of the See also:Hebrews, of the Egyptians and of See also:Matthias. Notwithstanding this adequate knowledge of Scripture, the modern theologian is disappointed to find very little of what he See also:deems characteristically Christian. In fact Clement regarded Christianity as a philosophy. The ancient philosophers sought through their philosophy to attain to a nobler and holier life, and this also was the aim of Christianity. The difference between the two, in Clement's See also:judgment, was that the Greek philosophers had only glimpses of the truth, that they attained only to fragments of the truth, while Christianity revealed in Christ the See also:absolute and perfect truth. All the stages of the world's history were therefore preparations leading up to this full revelation, and God's care was not confined to the Hebrews alone. The worship of the heavenly bodies, for instance, was given to man at an See also:early See also:stage that he might rise from a contemplation of these See also:sublime See also:objects to the worship of the Creator. Greek philosophy in particular was the preparation of the Greeks for Christ. It was the schoolmaster or paedagogue to See also:lead them to Christ.

See also:

Plato was See also:Moses atticizing. Clement varies in his statement how Plato got his wisdom or his fragments of the Reason. Sometimes he thinks that they came See also:direct from God, like all See also:good things, but he is also fond of maintaining that many of Plato's best thoughts were borrowed from the Hebrew prophets; and he makes the same statement in regard to the wisdom of the other philosophers. But however this may be, Christ was the end to which all that was true in philosophies pointed. Christ himself was the Logos, the Reason. God the Father was ineffable. The Son alone can See also:manifest Him fully. He is the Reason that prevades the universe, that brings out all goodness, that guides all good men. It was through possessing somewhat of this Reason that the philosophers attained to any truth and goodness; but in Christians he dwells more fully and guides them through all the perplexities of life. Photius, probably on a careless See also:reading of Clement, argued that he could not have believed in a real incarnation. But the words of Clement are quite precise and their meaning indisputable. The real difficulty attaches not to the Second See also:Person, but to the First.

The Father in Clement's mind becomes the Absolute of the philosophers, that is to say, not the Father at all, but the See also:

Monad, a mere point devoid of all attributes. He believed in a See also:personal Son of God who was the Reason and Wisdom of God; and he believed that this Son of God really became incarnate though he speaks of him almost invariably as the See also:Ward, and attaches little value to his human nature. The object of his incarnation and death was to See also:free man from his sins, to lead him into the path of wisdom, and thus in the end elevate him to the position of a god. But man's salvation was to be See also:gradual. It began with faith, passed from that to love, and ended in full and complete knowledge. There could be no faith without knowledge. But the knowledge is imperfect, and the Christian was to do many things in See also:simple obedience without knowing the reason. But he has to move upwards continually until he at length does nothing that is evil, and he knows fully the reason and object of what he does. He thus becomes the true Gnostic, but he can become the true Gnostic only by contemplation and by the practice of what is right. He has to free himself from the power of See also:passion. He has to give up all thoughts of See also:pleasure. He must prefer goodness in the midst of See also:torture to evil with unlimited pleasure.

He has to resist the temptations of the body, keeping it under strict See also:

control, and with the See also:eye of the soul undimmed by corporeal wants and impulses, contemplate God the supreme good, and live a life according to reason. In other words, he must strive after likeness to God as he reveals himself in his Reason or in Christ. Clement thus looks entirely at the en-lightened moral See also:elevation to which Christianity raises man. He believed that Christ instructed men before he came into the world, and he therefore viewed heathenism with kindly eye. He was also favourable to the pursuit of all kinds of knowledge. Allenlightenment tended to lead up to the truths of Christianity, and hence knowledge of every See also:kind not evil was its handmaid. Clement had at the same time a strong belief in See also:evolution or development. The world went through various stages in preparation for Christianity. The man goes through various stages before he can reach Christian perfection. And Clement conceived that this development took place not merely in this life, but in the future through successive grades. The Jew and the heathen had the gospel preached to them in the world below by Christ and his apostles, and Christians will have to pass through processes of See also:purification and trial after. death before they reach knowledge and perfect See also:bliss. The beliefs of Clement have caused considerable difference of See also:opinion among modern scholars.

He sought the truth from whatever See also:

quarter he could get it, believing that all that is good comes from God, wherever it be found. He belongs therefore to no school of philosophers. He calls himself an Eclectic. He was in the See also:main a Neoplatonist, See also:drawing from that school his doctrines of the Monad and his strong tendency towards See also:mysticism. For his moral doctrine he borrowed freely from Stoicism. Aristotelian features may be found but are quite subordinate. But Clement always regards the articles of the Christian creed as the axioms of a new philosophy. Daehne had tried to show that he was Neoplatonic, and See also:Reinkens has maintained that he was essentially Aristotelian. His mode of viewing Christianity does not See also:fit into any See also:classification. It is the result of the See also:period in which he lived, of his wide culture and the simplicity and See also:noble purity of his See also:character. It is needless to say that his books well deserve study; but the study is not smoothed by simplicity of See also:style. Clement professed to despise See also:rhetoric, but was himself a rhetorician, and his style is turgid, involved and difficult.

He is singularly simple in his character. In discussing marriage he refuses to use any but the plainest language. A See also:

euphemism is with him a falsehood. But he is temperate in his opinions; and the See also:practical advices in the second and third books of the Paedagogue are remarkably sound and moderate. He is not always very critical, and he is passionately fond of allegorical interpretations, but these were the faults of his age. All early writers speak of Clement in the highest terms of laudation, and he certainly ought to have been a See also:saint in any Church that reveres See also:saints. But Clement is not a saint in the See also:Roman Church. He was a saint up till the time of See also:Benedict XIV., who read Photius on Clement, believed him, and struck the Alexandrian's name out of the See also:calendar. But many Roman See also:Catholic writers, though they yield a practical obedience to the papal decision, have adduced good reason why it should be reversed (Cognat, p. 451).

End of Article: CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA (Clemens Alexandrinus)

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