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THE EPISTLE was written in the name of the Roman Church to the Christian brotherhood at Corinth. The author was Clement, he Bishop of the Roman Christians, but he does not write in his own name. Hence it is mentioned by early Christian writers, sometimes as he work of the Roman Church, sometimes as written by or sent by the hand of Clement. Its date was nearly simultaneous with the close of Domitian’s persecution, when the emperor’s cousin, Flavius Clemens, he namesake of the writer, perished during or immediately after the ear of his consulate (A.D. 95), and his wife Domitilla, Domitian’s own niece, was driven into banishment on charges apparently connected with Christianity.

A feud had broken out in the Church of Corinth. Presbyters appointed by Apostles, or their immediate successors, had been unlawfully deposed. A spirit of insubordination was rife. The letter of Clement was written to rebuke these irregularities. Allusion is made in it to the persecution at Rome, as an apology for the delay in attending to the matter. Some information is thus given incidentally respecting the character of the persecution in the course of the letter. But more precise and definite facts are contained elsewhere respecting the earlier and more severe assault on the Christians in the latter years of the reign of Nero, where reference is made especially to the martyrdoms of S. Peter and S. Paul.