Clement the Presbyter

Clement, presbyter of the church of Alexandria and a pupil of the Pantaenus mentioned above, led the theological school at Alexandria after his master’s death and was the teacher of the catechumens. He is the author of notable volumes, full of eloquence and of learning both in Sacred Scripture and in secular literature. Among them are the Stromata, eight books; the Outlines, eight books; Against the Nations, one book; On Pedagogy, three books; On the Passover; a Disquisition on Fasting; another book titled What Rich Man Is Saved?; one book On Slander; and On the Canons of the Church, and Against Those Who Follow the Error of the Jews, one book, which he addressed to Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem. In his volumes of Stromata he also mentions Tatian’s work Against the Nations, which we mentioned above, and a Chronography by one Cassianus, a work I have not been able to find. He also mentions certain Jewish writers against the nations, namely Aristobulus, Demetrius and Eupolemus, who, like Josephus, maintained that Moses and the Jewish people came first. There is a letter of Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, who later ruled the church together with Narcissus, on the ordination of Asclepiades the confessor. It is addressed to the people of Antioch, congratulating them, and at its end he says: “I have sent you these writings, honored brothers, by the blessed presbyter Clement, a distinguished and proven man, whom you also know and will now come to know better. When he came here by the special providence of God, he strengthened and enlarged the church of God.” Origen is known to have been his disciple. He flourished, moreover, in the reigns of Severus and of his son Antoninus. [a]