Veterum testimonia de Clemente Alexandrino

TESTIMONIES OF THE ANCIENTS.

Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, book IV, chapter 26.

This treatise is mentioned by Clement of Alexandria in his own discourse On the Pasch, which he says he composed on the occasion of Melito's writing.

The same, in the same work, book V, chapter 11.

In his time (Pantaenus's) Clement, trained alongside him in the divine Scriptures, became known at Alexandria, namesake of the disciple of the apostles who long ago led the Church of the Romans; he indeed mentions Pantaenus by name as his teacher in the Hypotyposes which he composed. And he seems to me to allude to this same man in the first book of the Stromata as well, when, pointing out the more eminent of the apostolic succession which he had received, he says this: "Now this treatise is not a writing artfully contrived for display; but notes are being stored up for me against old age, a remedy for forgetfulness, simply an image and shadow-sketch of those clear and living words which I was counted worthy to hear, and of blessed and truly notable men. Of these, one, in Greece, was the Ionian; another in Great Greece; the other of them was from Coele-Syria; another from Egypt; and others in the East, and of this region one was of the Assyrians, the other, in Palestine, a Hebrew by descent. The last I met, but in power he was in fact the first, and I found rest when I had tracked him down hidden in Egypt. But these men, preserving the true tradition of the blessed teaching straight from Peter and James, John and Paul, the holy apostles, son receiving it from father (but few are those who are like their fathers), came by God's favour to us also, to deposit those ancestral and apostolic seeds."

The same, in the same work, book V, chapter 28.

What they say might perhaps be credible, if first of all the divine Scriptures did not contradict them; and there are also writings of certain brethren older than the times of Victor, which they wrote to the Gentiles on behalf of the truth and against the heresies of that time. I mean those of Justin and Miltiades and Tatian and Clement, and of many others, in all of which Christ is spoken of as God.

The same, in the same work, book VI, chapters 13 and 14.

Of Clement, all eight books of the Stromata are preserved among us; and he deemed them worthy of this title:

Titus Flavius Clement's Stromateis of Gnostic Commentaries according to the True Philosophy. Equal in number to these are his books entitled Hypotyposes; in which he makes mention of Pantaenus by name as his teacher, both writing down his expositions, and setting forth traditions. He also has the discourse to the Greeks, the Protrepticus, and the three books of the work entitled Paedagogus; and Who is the rich man that shall be saved? another discourse of his so entitled; and the treatise On the Passover, and Discussions on Fasting, and On Backbiting, and the Exhortation to Patience, and To the Newly Baptized, and the work entitled Ecclesiastical Canon, or Against the Judaizers; which he dedicated to Alexander, the bishop indicated above. In the Stromateis, then, he has made a strewing not only of the divine Scripture, but also calls to mind things among the Greeks, if anything useful seemed to have been said by them, and unfolding the dogmas held among the many, both those of the Greeks and those of the barbarians together, and furthermore correcting the false opinions of the heresiarchs, he unrolls much history, affording us material of learned education. With all these he mingles also the dogmas of the philosophers. Whence reasonably he has made the title of the Stromateis suited to the subject. And in them he uses testimonies also from the disputed Scriptures, both that which is called the Wisdom of Solomon, and that of Jesus the son of Sirach, and the Epistle to the Hebrews, and those of Barnabas and Clement and Jude. And he makes mention of Tatian's discourse to the Greeks, and of Cassianus, as having himself also composed a Chronography. Moreover of Philo and Aristobulus, Josephus and Demetrius and Eupolemus, Jewish writers, inasmuch as all these showed in writing that Moses and the nation of the Jews were older than the antiquity of origin among the Greeks. Full also of much other useful learning are the aforesaid discourses of the man. In the first of which he shows concerning himself that he came very near to the succession of the apostles. And he promises in them that he will write a commentary also on Genesis. And in his discourse On the Passover he confesses that he was compelled by his companions to hand down in writing for those hereafter the traditions which he happened to have heard from the ancient presbyters. And he makes mention in it of Melito and Irenaeus, and of certain others, whose narratives also he has set down. And in the Hypotyposes, to speak briefly, he has made abridged expositions of all the canonical Scripture, not passing over even the disputed books; I mean that of Jude and the (remaining) catholic epistles, and that of Barnabas, and the so-called Apocalypse of Peter. And the Epistle to the Hebrews, he says, is Paul's, and was written to the Hebrews in the Hebrew tongue, and that Luke, having zealously translated it, published it to the Greeks; whence the same complexion is found as regards the expression, both of this Epistle and of the Acts; and that the words, Paul an apostle, were reasonably not prefixed. « For in writing to Hebrews, says he, who had conceived a prejudice against him

and suspected him, very wisely did not turn them away at the outset by setting down his name." Then, further on, he adds: "But now, as the blessed presbyter used to say, since the Lord, being the Apostle of the Almighty, was sent to the Hebrews, Paul out of modesty, as one sent to the Gentiles, does not inscribe himself apostle of the Hebrews, both on account of the honour due to the Lord, and because it was over and above his charge that he wrote to the Hebrews also, being herald and apostle of the Gentiles." Again, in the same books Clement has set down a tradition of the presbyters of old concerning the order of the Gospels, which runs in this way: "It was said that those of the Gospels which contain the genealogies were written first; and that the Gospel according to Mark had this occasion. When Peter had preached the word publicly in Rome and declared the Gospel by the Spirit, those present, who were many, urged Mark, as one who had followed him from far back and remembered what had been said, to write down what had been spoken; and that he, having made the Gospel, gave it to those who asked him for it. When Peter learned of this, he neither hindered it nor urged it forward by exhortation. But John, last, perceiving that the bodily things had been made plain in the Gospels, urged on by his acquaintances and borne along by the Spirit, made a spiritual Gospel." So much Clement.

Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, in the same place, on the same man.

For we know as fathers those blessed men who went on before, to whom we shall go after a little while: Pantaenus, truly blessed and my master, and the holy Clement, who was my master and did me good.

Again Eusebius, in the same work, book II, chapter 9.

Concerning this James, Clement also sets down in the seventh book of the Hypotyposes a story worthy of remembrance, as from the tradition of those before him, saying that the man who had brought him into court, on seeing him bear witness, was moved and confessed that he himself also was a Christian. So both were led away together, he says; and on the way he asked to be forgiven by James. And he, after considering a little, said, "Peace be to you," and kissed him; and so both were beheaded together.

The same, Chronicle, Canons, page 216.

Clement the author of the Stromata, presbyter of Alexandria, an excellent teacher in the philosophy that is according to Christ, shone out as a writer; and Pantaenus, a philosopher from among the Stoics, was eminent in the divine word.

The same, Preparation for the Gospel, book II, chapter 2.

These things the admirable Clement uncovers expressly in his Exhortation to the Greeks, a man who had gone through them all by experience, yet had quickly lifted his head out of the error, as one redeemed from these evils by the saving Word and through the teaching of the Gospel. . . .

The same, in the same work, book II, chapter 3.

Hence even the houses of their gods are recorded as being tombs of the dead, as Clement relates in his Exhortation to the Greeks, bringing in the Greeks themselves as witnesses to the account. . . .

The same, in the same work, book IV, chapter 16.

Fittingly, then, the admirable Clement, in his Exhortation to the Greeks, finding fault with these very things, himself also laments the error of men in words such as these. . . .

The same, book IX, chapter 6.

Our Clement too mentions him in the first Stromateus...

The same, book X, chapter 1.

Our Clement, then, in the sixth Stromateus, set out at length the proof on this point...

The same, in the same work, chapter 5.

Clement too has touched on the same subject as we; hear what he says...

The same, in the same work, chapter 11.

So much, then, from Tatian. Let us pass on also to Clement...

The same, book XI, chapter 24.

Thus Philo; and Clement also agrees with him, speaking thus in the sixth Stromateus..

The same, book XIII, chapter 12.

What Clement too has said on the same subject you may learn from these words...

Cyril of Alexandria, Against Julian, book VI, page 205, Paris edition, 1638.

For Clement, who follows the holy apostles everywhere, and who had come to hear a very great deal of Greek history, says in the Stromata...

The same, in the same work, book VII, page 231.

This story is mentioned expressly in the Stromata by Clement, a man of repute and a lover of learning,

and who had searched into the depth of Greek reading as perhaps few before him had.

The same, in the same work, book X, page 342.

Clement too, a man of repute and indeed of wide learning, spoke thus about gods and temples...

Epiphanius, Against Heresies, book I, volume II, on the heresy of the Secundians.

Then those who wrote well, and who in their own writings brought out the truth about these men, both Clement, whom some call an Alexandrian and others an Athenian,

Dionysius the Areopagite, book On the Divine Names, chapter 5.

But if the philosopher Clement holds that the more principal things among beings are also called exemplars in a relative sense, his argument does not proceed through proper, complete and simple names.

Jerome, in the Ecclesiastical Writers.

Clement, presbyter of the Church of Alexandria, hearer of Pantaenus, of whom we spoke above, after his death held the church's school at Alexandria and was master of the catechetical instruction. Notable volumes of his are in circulation, full of learning and eloquence, drawn both from the divine Scriptures and from the equipment of secular literature. Among them are these: the Stromata, eight books; the Hypotyposes, eight books; Against the Gentiles, one book; the Paedagogus, three books; On the Pasch, one book; a Discussion on Fasting; and another entitled Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved; On Slander, one book; On the Ecclesiastical Canons, and Against Those Who Follow the Error of the Jews, one book, which he addressed in particular to Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem. In his Stromata he mentions Tatian's volume Against the Gentiles, of which we spoke above, and the Chronography of a certain Cassian, a little work I have not been able to find. He also cites, from among the Jews, a certain Aristobulus, and Demetrius and Eupolemus, writers against the Gentiles, who after the manner of Josephus asserted the antiquity of Moses and of the Jewish nation. There is extant a letter of Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, who afterwards ruled the Church together with Narcissus, to the Antiochenes, on the ordination of the confessor Asclepiades, congratulating them; at its end he says: "These things, my lords and brethren, I have sent you in writing by Clement the blessed presbyter, a distinguished and approved man, whom you also know and will now come to know more fully; who, when he had come here according to the providence and visitation of God, strengthened and increased the Church of the Lord." It is agreed that Origen was his disciple. He flourished in the times of Severus and of Antoninus his son.

The same, to Magnus, Roman orator.

Clement, presbyter of the Church of Alexandria, in my judgement the most learned of all, wrote eight books of Stromata and as many of Hypotyposes, and another Against the Gentiles, and also three volumes of the Paedagogus. What in those books is unlearned, nay, what is not from the very heart of philosophy?

Rufinus, On the Falsification of the Books of Origen, among the works of Jerome, volume IV of Erasmus.

Clement too, another, presbyter of Alexandria and master of that Church, in almost all his books sets forth the glory and eternity of the Trinity as one and the same; yet we sometimes find in his books certain chapters in which he calls the Son of God a creature. Is it credible of so great a man, so catholic in everything, so learned, that he either held views contrary to himself, or left in writing things about God which it is impious, I will not say to believe, but even to hear?

Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, book II, chapter 35.

So unlearned was Aetius, and so uninitiated in the sacred writings; he had mastered only the art of wrangling, which even a rustic might do, so that he had not trained himself in the ancients who interpreted the Christian oracles, bidding a long farewell to Clement and Africanus and Origen and their like, men versed in all wisdom.

The same, in the same work, book III, chapter 7.

For Irenaeus and Clement, Apolinarius of Hierapolis, and Serapion, who presided over the Church in Antioch, in the treatises they laboured over, state as a thing acknowledged among them that He Who became man was ensouled.

Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History, book I, chapter 1.

At first I was set on writing this work from the beginning; but reflecting that others also had attempted it down to their own times, Clement and Hegesippus, most wise men, who followed close upon the succession of the apostles...

Paschal Chronicle, page 7.

But Clement too, the most holy man who was priest of the Church of the Alexandrians, a very ancient man and one who lived not far from the apostolic times, teaches much the same in his treatise On the Pasch, writing thus: "In the years gone by, then, the Lord, keeping the feast, ate the Pasch sacrificed by the Jews; but when He proclaimed that He Himself was the Pasch, the Lamb of God, led as a sheep to the slaughter, He at once taught the disciples the mystery of the type on the fourteenth, on which they ask Him, 'Where do You wish us to prepare for You to eat the Pasch?'"

The same work, page 224.

Concerning the [seventy] disciples listed above, those ranked after the twelve, the writer Clement gives an account in the fifth book of the Hypotyposes.

The same work, page 232.

In this fifth year of Claudius, Paul, having been appointed beforehand, entered Antioch the Great, and, learning about the holy Peter, removed the stumbling-block everywhere, and received all and loved them, exhorting all, as the chroniclers Clement and Tatian have written about this.

The same work, page 251.

Irenaeus relates that John the apostle and evangelist remained in life until the times of Trajan. Clement of Alexandria also says the same, and that he went about Asia and the neighbouring districts, appointing bishops and clerics.

Theodoret, Compendium of Heretical Fables, book I, chapter 4.

Against these men contend Agrippa, surnamed Castor, and Irenaeus, and Clement the author of the Stromata, and Origen, as champions of the truth.

The same, in the same work, chapter 6.

For this reason, not only at their common suppers did they put the lamplight out of the way and couple with whatever woman each happened upon, but they even took such licentiousness to be a mystic rite. As witness to this I shall bring forward Clement the author of the Stromata, a holy man who surpassed all in breadth of learning. He speaks thus in the third book of the Stromata.

The same, in the same work, chapter 19.

And against Valentinus and those who came from him, Irenaeus, Clement and Origen.

The same, in the same work, chapter 21.

Against these wrote Musanus, advocate of the truth, and Clement the author of the Stromata.

The same, in the same work, book III, chapter 1.

The heresy of the Nicolaitans arose not only from folly but also from licentiousness. Clement has taught more clearly about it..

The same work, a little after.

Against these too wrote the Clement mentioned above, and Irenaeus, and Origen.

St Maximus, Disputation with Pyrrhus.

Using as his rule for this Clement, truly the Philosopher of philosophers, who in the sixth book of the Stromata defined will (thelēsis) as appetitive mind, and wish (boulēsis) as reasonable appetite, or will concerning some thing.

John Damascene, On the Two Wills of Christ.

Will, then, according to the blessed Clement, is the power that reaches out for what properly is; and again, an appetite befitting the nature of the rational being; and again, the free movement of a self-governing mind.

The same, On the Images, oration 3.

From the most ancient Clement, to Alexander, from the seventh book of the Stromata. "Therefore he not only praises what is good, but himself strives hard to be good, passing through love from good and faithful servant to friend, by reason of the perfection of the habit which he has acquired in purity from true learning and much practice. So that he may come to the summit of knowledge, striving in character and adorned, composed in bearing, having all those advantages that belong to the one who is a gnostic in truth, looking to the fair images: the many patriarchs who lived uprightly before him, the very many prophets, the angels, countless in number to our reckoning, and the Lord over all, Who taught and showed that it is possible to attain the life of those foremost men."

Photius, Library, codices 109, 110, 111.

Read: three volumes of books of Clement, presbyter of Alexandria, of which one bore the title Hypotyposes, another Stromata, another Paedagogus.

The Hypotyposes, then, treat of certain passages of both the Old and the New Scripture, of which he gives an exposition and interpretation in summary form, as it were. And in some of them he seems to speak rightly, but in others he is carried away altogether into impious and fabulous talk. For he holds that matter is timeless, and that ideas are brought in as if from certain decrees, and he reduces the Son to a creature. Further, he tells marvellous tales of transmigrations of souls and of many worlds before Adam. And from the

Adam he declares Eve to have come not as the ecclesiastical account will have it, but shamefully and godlessly; and he dreams that the angels mingled with women and begot children from them. And that the Word did not become flesh, but seemed so. And he is convicted of telling marvels of two Words of the Father, of which the lesser appeared to men, or rather not even that one; for he says: "The Son also is indeed called Word, homonymously with the Paternal Word; but it is not this one that became flesh, nor yet the Paternal Word, but a certain power of God, as it were an efflux of His Word, having become mind, has pervaded the hearts of men." And all these things he attempts to establish from certain passages of Scripture. And ten thousand other things besides he blasphemes and babbles, whether he himself, or someone else who assumed his person. And these blasphemous marvel-tales were composed by him in eight volumes. And he also speaks often about the same things, and brings forward the passages sporadically and confusedly, like one stunned. And the whole aim is as it were interpretations of Genesis, of Exodus, of the Psalms, of the Epistles of the divine Paul, and of the Catholic Epistles, and of Ecclesiasticus. And he became a disciple, as he himself also says, of Pantaenus. So much, then, for the Hypotyposes.

And the Paedagogus has been laboured upon by him in three volumes, corrective of character and life, and it has also another discourse preceding these and classed with them, in which he refutes the godlessness of the Greeks; and these discourses have nothing like the Hypotyposes; for they stand free from vain and blasphemous opinions, and the style is florid, and raised to a measured dignity with sweetness, and the wide learning is becoming. And towards the end he makes mention concerning images.

And the Stromateis are themselves also in eight books, bringing in the contest against Greeks and heresies; and here too he makes the setting forth of the chapters sporadically and as it were not in order, and as if rendering the reason at the end of the seventh book, in his very words he speaks thus: "These things having been accomplished by us beforehand, and the ethical outline having been sketched as it were in summary chapters, and we having sown here and there sporadically, as we promised, and in a scattered way the lessons that are the sparks of true knowledge, so that the finding of the holy things might not be easy for any uninitiated person who chanced upon them," and what follows. Such, then, was the reason, as he says, for his arranging them in a scattered way.

Yet I found in a certain ancient book the same treatise entitled not merely Stromateis, but in full thus: Of Titus Flavius Clement, presbyter of Alexandria, of the Gnostic memoirs according to the true philosophy, Stromateis I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII. Now from the first to the seventh they have the same title, and are uniform in all the copies. The eighth, however, differs both in its title and in its text. For in some it is entitled, Who is the

[Who is the] rich man that is saved, is its title, and it begins thus: "Those who [offer] encomiastic speeches," and so on. In some copies the eighth Stromateus, like the seven before it, bears the title, and begins: "But not even the most ancient of the philosophers," and so on. This book of the Stromata in places does not treat things soundly, yet not as the Hypotyposes do; indeed it contends against much of what is said there. He announces also that not a few other works were made by him, and it is attested by others too that he made them: On the Pasch, On Fasting, On Slander, On the Ecclesiastical Canons, and Against Those Who Follow the Error of the Jews, which he saw fit to address to Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem. He flourished when Severus and Antoninus his son were reigning over Rome.

The same, codex 232.

That Hippolytus and Irenaeus say the Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews is not his. Clement, however, and Eusebius, and a great company besides of the God-bearing Fathers, number it with the other Epistles.

George Syncellus, Chronography, page 355.

Clement the author of the Stromata, presbyter of Alexandria, an excellent teacher, shone out as a writer in the philosophy that is according to Christ.