D. N. Le Nourry, O.S.B., Dissertationes de omnibus Clementis Alexandrini operibus: Admonitio

Dissertations on All the Works of Clement of Alexandria, by Dom Nicolas Le Nourry, Presbyter and Monk of the Order of St Benedict of the Congregation of St Maur (Apparatus to the Bibliotheca Maxima Patrum, Vol. I, Book III).

Admonition.

Although among the works of the ancient Fathers published in the third century of the Church the first place in the Lyons Library was given to all the books of Clement of Alexandria, nevertheless we, induced by certain reasons of no small weight, have judged that we should treat of them after the other treatises of the same Fathers published in the second century. For we are altogether persuaded that all the principal works of Clement that have come down to us—the Exhortation to the Greeks, the three books of the Instructor, and the seven books of the Stromata—were written by him, as will afterwards be shown, towards the end of this second century of the Church, and sent forth into the public light. Wherefore, since the directors of the Lyons Library of the Fathers wrongly moved them out of their proper place and order, we have not thought it right for us to follow in their footsteps, whereby some might be led into error.

Furthermore, there is no one who does not know how filled these books, and above all the books of the Stromata, are with varied and manifold erudition and learning, both sacred and profane; how great are the barriers of difficulties that meet one everywhere in them, how frequent the rough places, how many the passages most difficult to explain, attempted by several most learned men, hitherto passable to none, and smoothed out by nobody; how often even Hervetus, though sufficiently equipped with varied learning, confesses in his very long commentaries on these Works that many things were utterly unknown to him, and that in investigating them with whatever care and diligence he had altogether wasted his oil and labour. In order, therefore, that we might endeavour to explain them to the best of our ability, to remove the obscurity for the most part purposely spread over the Greek text, to lay open its hidden meanings which the author himself wished to conceal from the pagans, and to set forth more clearly his sacred and profane teachings or confirm them by the authority and testimonies of others, there was truly need of very many words. And so, even against our will and reluctance, the bulk of this volume and of the third book of our dissertations has grown, nor have we been able to add to it any further dissertations, which, God willing, we shall shortly publish upon the writings of the Fathers of the third century of the Church.

Moreover, it is not necessary to excuse to the learned and kindly reader these dissertations of ours, somewhat fuller than the rest. For indeed two reasons above all compelled us to be longer in them than is our wont: first, the very great and extreme difficulties which, as we have said, occur everywhere in these books of our Clement and had to be explained by us; and besides this, since later writers drew very many things from these same books, no one doubtless will deny that by the unravelling of these difficulties a torch is held out in advance before their obscure and dark passages. Wherefore this discourse of ours, which will perhaps not seem too long to everyone, will render us at once clearer in these dissertations and briefer in those that follow.

Yet let no one suppose that we have reached such a pitch of rashness as to believe that we have smoothed out every rough passage of our Clement, or have everywhere and in all things truly hit the mark. For we are too conscious of our own weakness for it ever to have entered our mind that we had achieved that which certain most learned men confess can scarcely ever be accomplished by anyone, save after the long span of an extended life diligently spent in studying the works of all manner of ancient writers.

Accordingly, in writing these dissertations we had no other design and purpose than that the obscure writings of Clement, and above all the Exhortation to the Greeks and the books of the Stromata, might be read with less weariness and with greater fruit, and that we might pave the way for those who may wish to bestow labour either upon their complete explanation or upon preparing a new edition of them, long desired by all.