Clement of Rome

The letter that bears Clement’s name does not mention him. It is written in the name of the church of Rome (1 Clement 1). Dionysius of Corinth, about AD 170, calls it the letter written “through Clement” (Eusebius, Church History 4.23.11). Irenaeus, about 180, says that Clement held the episcopate at Rome in the third place after the apostles, following Linus and Anacletus, that he had seen the apostles and conversed with them, and that the letter to Corinth was sent in his time (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.3.3).

Other early statements differ in detail. Tertullian, about 200, reports the Roman church’s claim that Clement was ordained by Peter (Tertullian, Prescription against Heretics 32), and Jerome notes that most Latin writers of his day counted Clement second after Peter and not fourth (Jerome, On Illustrious Men 15). Eusebius identifies him with the Clement whom Paul names as a fellow worker (Philippians 4:3), dates his episcopate from the twelfth year of Domitian (Eusebius, Church History 3.15), and puts his death in the third year of Trajan, about AD 100 (Eusebius, Church History 3.34). None of these writers says how he died.

Several other writings were later put out under his name. Jerome already distinguishes the genuine letter from a second one that earlier writers rejected (Jerome, On Illustrious Men 15). See the Roman Church Writes to Corinth (1 Clement).