St. Paul’s Companions in Rome, XI. Clement

ST. PAUL'S COMPANIONS IN ROME. BY COL. R. M. BRYCE-THOMAS.

XI. —CLEMENT. St. Paul in writing from Rome to the Philippians speaks in chapt. 4: 3 of Clement as having been one of his fellow-laborers when he was at Philippi.He has been classed as one of the early Apostolic Fathers, and known both as St. Clement and as Cle- is

mens Romanus who was traditionally third Bishop of Rome about A. D. 91 or 92. This tradition is supported by such early writers as Origen, Jerome, and Eusebius. Dr. Macduff describes him as an illustrious convert of royal blood, and a member of the noble family of the Ancii. His full names were Titus Flavius Clemens, but he must not be confounded with Flavius Clemens of Alexandria, otherwise known as Clemens Alexandrinus, who lived a century afterwards, and one of whose pupils was the great Origen. Dr. Lightfoot, Bishop of Durham, does not hold with Dr. Macduff in re- spect to the royal lineage of Clement, but believes that he had been once liberated from a state of bondage and set free, as was not uncommonly the case in those days, and that he was an esteemed subordinate in the house of Flavius Clemens, the cousin of the Emperor Titus Flavius Domitianus Augustus, commonly known as Domitian, and equally well known as the great persecutor of Christians. Clemens Romanus was one of the most prominent men of his day. A number of writings which bear his name are extant, but some of them are now supposed to have been spurious productions. Two epistles to the Corinthians are, however, still attributed to him. He was a man of great ability and force of genius, and Dr. Macduff tells us that in person and character he was described by

974 1MPR0VEMEN1 ERA

one of the Fathers of the 2nd century as "a man replete with all knowledge, and most skilful in the liberal arts." Clemens, or Clement, is said to have been of a speculative and thoughtful turn of mind, and early in his life serious misgivings seem to have assailed him in regard to the immortality of the soul, and the life to come. Dr. Macduff, in writing of him in this connection, tells us how eagerly Clement sought for human aid in every direction in order to obtain some satisfactory solution to the questions that were at that time causing him to undergo so serious a mental conflict, and how eventually, when all the learning of men had proved useless, he found that solution to his difficulties in the gospel of Christ which he had sought elsewhere to no pur- purpose. The Doctor says "In vain he betook himself to the various schools of philosophy, he only felt bewildered amid their sophistries and disputations, he even resorted to the magicians of Alexandria in hopes that by their arts and incantations they might be able to conjure some human spirit back from the invisible world to solve the questions upon which he found the most reputed ora- cles on earth were dumb. Meanwhile he heard the tidings that the Son of God had appeared in Judsea, he listened to the glorious revelations of the Prophet of Galilee from the lips of his servants in the Roman capital, his doubts were dissolved, and he embraced the truth." Clement is said to have been the first bearer of the glad tid- ings to the city of Metz, which then in importance and population was one of the chief towns of France. He lived through the per- secution of Domitian, and died a martyr's death under Trajan who, it is said, became jealous of his growing influence, and banished

him to the Chersonesus, where, degraded to the condition of a slave and with the felon's brand on his forehead, he had to work in the mines and quarries. At lengthen A. D. 100, with an anchor attached to his neck he was thrown into the sea. The body, it is said, was afterwards recovered and taken to Rome, where it was buried.

XII. — PUDENS. Among Paul's friends at Rome must not be omitted the wealthy patrician, Pudens, otherwise known as Rufus. As, however, a suf-

ST. PAUL'S COMPANIONS IN ROME. 975

ficiently detailed sketch of this noble-minded man, who by the marriage of his father, Pudentinus, to St. Paul's Roman mother, Priscilla, became connected to the great Apostle himself, has al-

ready appeared in the author's article "The closing years of St. Paul's life in Rome" (see Vol. X, No. 9, of the Era), nothing further than a mention of him as one of the Apostle's Roman friends is h^re necessary.

CONCLUSION.

In bringing to a conclusion these sketches of St. Paul's com- panions in Rome, the following few reflections would seem to sug- gest themselves. The general character of the Apostle himself has, it is believed, been sufficiently portrayed in the writer's former article above alluded to, but it is a trite saying that one learns to know much of an individual by knowing something of his closest

friends and associates, and these sketches therefore of St. Paul's companions would seem to be an appropriate adjunct to the life of the Apostle himself. A study of his friends and companions exhibits St. Paul to us in all his deep fellow-feeling, and kindly benevolence. Like the good Samaritan, we find him full of the milk of human kindness, while his broad sympathies seem ever to have attracted to himself men of all sorts and conditions of life, and often of very diverse idiosyncracies. The friendship which these sketches have shown to have ex- isted between the great Apostle and his companions was no mere sentiment, no hollow form, no mere platonic benevolence or tolera- tion, but a deep and earnest love, and a sincere desire to do good to one another without any sense of favor or advantage. It made self-sacrifice a pleasure and all duty delightful. Such friendships were doubtless God-given gifts to each, and they consequently

brought joy not only to the loving hearts themselves but also to the loved ones. Friendships such as these must ever tend to the development of all that is best in the human heart, and, as has been remarked by more than one writer, lift one up from the love of one's fellow-man to the love of a kind and gracious Father in Heaven. The mundane distinctions of education and social posi-

tion can in no way affect the true character of Christian love, and so we find real friendship displayed in its most attractive form