Preface to Clement’s Recognitions

To Bishop Gaudentius. [a]

The editors’ introduction to Rufinus discusses the occasion and the date of this work. [b]

You have such strength of character, my dear Gaudentius, you who are so outstanding an ornament among our teachers, or, as I would rather say, you have the grace of the Spirit in such large measure, that even what you say in daily conversation, or in the sermons you preach in church, ought to be written down and handed on for the instruction of those who come after us. But I am much less quick. My natural talent is slender, and old age is already making me sluggish and slow. This work is nothing but the payment of a debt owed to the command laid on me by the virgin Sylvia, whose memory I revere. It was she who demanded of me, as you have now done by right of inheritance, that I translate Clement into our language. The debt is paid at last, though after many delays. [c]

It is part of the plunder, and in my opinion no small part, which I have carried off from the libraries of the Greeks and am gathering for the use and benefit of our countrymen. I have no food of my own to bring them, and I must import their nourishment from abroad. However, foreign goods tend to seem sweeter, and sometimes they really are more useful. Besides, almost everything that brings healing to our bodies, or guards against disease, or serves as an antidote to poison, comes from abroad. Judea sends us the distilled sap of the balsam tree, Crete the leaf of dittany, Arabia her fragrant flowers, and India its crop of spikenard. These goods reach us, no doubt, in a less perfect condition than what our own fields produce, but they keep their pleasant scent and their healing power intact. So, my friend, you who are as my own soul, I present to you Clement returning to Rome. I present him dressed in Latin clothing. Do not be surprised if the face his eloquence shows is less bright than it might be. It makes no difference, so long as the meaning is felt to be the same.

These, then, are foreign wares which I am importing at great cost of labor. And I have still to see whether our countrymen will be grateful to one who brings them the spoils of his campaign and who, with the key of our language, unlocks a treasure house hidden until now, even though he does it with the utmost good will. I only trust that God may look favorably on your good wishes, so that my gift may not be met anywhere by evil eyes and envious looks, and that we may not see that most monstrous thing: ill will shown by those on whom the gift is bestowed, while those from whom it is taken part with it without grudging. It is only right that you, who have read this work in Greek, should point out to others the plan of my translation, unless indeed you feel that in some respects I have not kept to the right method of rendering the original. [f]

You are well aware, I believe, that there are two Greek editions of this work of Clement, the Recognitions: two sets of books which differ from each other in a few places, though the bulk of the story is the same. For instance, the last part of the work, which tells of the transformation of Simon Magus, is found in one of them, while in the other it is entirely absent. On the other hand, there are some things, such as the discussion of the unbegotten and the begotten God, and a few others, which, though found in both editions, are, to say the least, beyond my understanding. These I have preferred to leave for others to deal with, rather than present them inadequately. As for the rest, I have taken pains not to swerve in the slightest from either the sense or the wording. This makes the style less ornate, but more faithful.

There is a letter in which this same Clement, writing to James the Lord’s brother, gives an account of Peter’s death and says that Peter left him as his successor, as ruler and teacher of the church; it also includes a whole scheme of church government. I have not placed this at the head of the work, both because it is later in time and because I have already translated and published it. Even so, there is a point which might perhaps seem inconsistent with the facts if I were to place the translation of it in this work, though I do not think it involves an impossibility. It is this. Linus and Cletus were bishops of the city of Rome before Clement. How then, some people ask, can Clement in his letter to James say that Peter handed on to him his chair as teacher of the church? The explanation of this, as I understand it, is as follows. Linus and Cletus were indeed bishops in the city of Rome before Clement, but this was during Peter’s lifetime; that is, they took charge of the work of a bishop while he carried out the duties of an apostle. He is known to have done the same thing at Caesarea; for there, though he was on the spot himself, he had at his side Zacchaeus, whom he had ordained as bishop. So we can see how both things may be true: how they stand before Clement in the list of bishops, and yet how Clement, after Peter’s death, became his successor in the teacher’s chair. But it is time we turned to the beginning of Clement’s own story, which he addresses to James the Lord’s brother. [g]