ointed their first-fruits, having tested them by
the Spirit, as bishops and deacons of those who should believe. . . .
Our apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be
strife about the name of the bishop's office. For this cause therefore,
having received perfect foreknowledge, they appointed the aforesaid, and
afterwards gave a further injunction ([Greek: heptnomen] has now the
further evidence of the Latin _legem_) that, if these should fall
asleep, other approved men should succeed to their ministry. . . . It
will be no small sin in us if we eject from the bishop's office those
who have offered the gifts blamelessly and holily" (cc. xlii. xliv.).

Clement's familiarity with the Old Testament points to his being a
Christian of long standing rather than a recent convert. We learn from
his letter (i. 7) that the church at Rome, though suffering persecution,
was firmly held together by faith and love, and was exhibiting its unity
in an orderly worship. The epistle was publicly read from time to time
at Corinth, and by the 4th century this usage had spread to other
churches. We even find it attached to the famous Alexandrian MS. (Codex
A) of the New Testament, but this does not imply that it ever reached
canonical rank. For the mass of early Christian literature that was
gradually attached to his name see CLEMENTINE LITERATURE.

The epistle was published in 1633 by Patrick Young from Cod.
Alexandrinus, in which a leaf near the end was missing, so that the
great prayer (cc. lv.-lxiv.) remained unknown. In 1875 (six years
after J.B. Lightfoot's first edition) Bryennius (q.v.) published a
complete text from the MS. in Constantinople (dated 1055), from which
in 1883 he gave us the _Didache_. In 1876 R.L. Bensly found a complete
Syriac text in a MS. recently obtained by the University library at
Cambridge. Lightfoot made use of these new materials in an Appendix
(1877); his second edition, on which he had been at work at the time
of his death, came out in 1890. This must remain the standard edition,
notwithstanding Dom Morin's most interesting discovery of a Latin
version (1894), which was probably made in the 3rd century, and is a
valuable addition to the authorities for the text. Its evidence is
used in a small edition of the epistle by R. Knopf (Leipzig, 1899).
See also W. Wrede, _Untersuchungen zum ersten Clemensbrief_ (1891),
and the other literature cited in Herzog-Hauck