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Clement of Alexandria
<page 346>(Bodily Purity, p. 317, note 1.)
From a familiar quotation, I have often argued that the fine instinct of a woman, even among heathen, enforces a true idea: “If from her husband’s bed, as soon as she has bathed: if from adulterous commerce, not at all.” This is afterwards noted by our author;[2150] but it is extraordinary to find the mind of the great missionary to our Saxon forefathers, troubled about such questions, even in the seventh century. I have less admiration for the elaborate answers of the great Patriarch of Rome (Gregory), to the scrupulous inquiries of Augustine, than for the instinctive and aphoristic wisdom of poor Theano, in all the darkness of her heathenism. (See Ven. Bede, Eccles. Hist., book i. cap. 27, p. 131. Works, ed. London, 1843.)
(Clement’s View of Philosophy, p. 318, note 4.)
I note the concluding words of this chapter (xvi.), as epitomizing the whole of what Clement means to say on this great subject; and, for more, see the Elucidation infra, on Justification.
(The Ecstacy of Sibyl, etc., p. 319, note 3.)
No need to quote Virgil’s description (Æneid, vi. 46, with Heyne’s references in Excursus V.); but I would compare with his picture of Sibylline inspiration, that of Balaam (Numbers 24:3-4, 15, 16), and leave with the student an inquiry, how far we may credit to a divine motion, the oracles of the heathen, i.e., some of them. I wish to refer the student, also, as to a valuable bit of introductory learning, to the essay of Isaac Casaubon (Exercitationes ad Baronii Prolegom., pp. 65–85, ed. Genevæ, 1663).
(Justification, p. 323, note 2.)
Casaubon, in the work just quoted above (Exercitat., i.) examines this passage of our author, and others, comparing them with passages from St. Chrysostom and St. Augustine, and with Justin Martyr (see vol. i. p. 178, this series, cap. 46). Bishop Kaye (p. 428) justly remarks: “The apparent incorrectness of Clement’s language arises from not making that clear distinction which the controversies at the time of the Reformation introduced.” The word “incorrectness,” though for myself I do not object to it, might be said “to beg the question;” and hence I should prefer to leave it open to the divers views of readers, by speaking, rather, of his lack of precision in the use of a term not then defined with theological delicacy of statement.
(Chronology, p. 334, note 5.)
Here an invaluable work for comparison and reference must be consulted by the student; viz., the Chronicon of Julius Africanus, in Routh’s Reliquiæ (tom ii. p. 220, et seqq.), with learned annotations, in which (e.g., p. 491) Clement’s work is cited. Africanus took up chronological science in the imperfect state where it was left by Clement, with whom he was partially contemporary; for he was Bishop of Emmaus in Palestine (called also Nicopolis), and composed his fine books of chronological history, under Marcus Aurelius.[2151] On the Alexandrian era consult a paragraph in Encyc. Britannica (vol. v. p. 714). It was adopted for Christian computation, after Africanus. See Eusebius (book vi. cap. 31), and compare (this volume, p. 85) what is said of Theophilus of Antioch, by Abp. Usher.[2152]
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