Epistula Clementis ad Jacobum [Sp.]

Clement to James, the lord and bishop of bishops, who governs the holy church of the Hebrews in Jerusalem and all the churches well established everywhere by the providence of God, together with the presbyters and deacons and all the rest of the brothers, may peace be always. Let it be known to you, my lord, that Simon, who was appointed the foundation of the church on account of his true faith and the most secure basis of his teaching, and for this very reason was renamed Peter by the truthful mouth of Jesus himself—the firstfruits of our Lord, the first of the apostles, to whom first the Father revealed the Son, whom Christ rightly blessed, the called and chosen and table-companion and fellow traveler, the good and approved disciple, who was commanded to illuminate the darkest part of the world, the West, as being more capable than all and was able to accomplish it—and indeed, how far do I prolong the speech, not wishing to indicate the painful matter, which of necessity, even if slowly, I must certainly tell?—this same man, on account of his boundless love for humanity, clearly, publicly, in the present evil time, having announced the future good king to the whole world, having come as far as here to Rome, saving men by God-willed teaching, has himself violently exchanged the present life for death.

Now in those days when he was about to die, the brothers being assembled, suddenly taking me by the hand and rising up in the church, he said: "Hear me, brothers and fellow servants. Since, as I was taught by the Lord and teacher Jesus Christ who sent me, the days of my death have drawn near, I ordain this Clement as your bishop, to whom I entrust my chair of discourses, who has accompanied me from the beginning to the end and has thus heard all my homilies. To sum up, he who in all trials shared with me was found persevering in the faith; whom I have experienced as more god-fearing than all, loving of humanity, chaste, learned, temperate, good, just, patient, and knowing how to bear nobly the ingratitude of some of the catechumens. Therefore I confer upon him the authority to bind and to loose, so that concerning everyone whom he may ordain on earth, it shall be decreed in heaven. For he will bind what must be bound, and loose what must be loosed, as one who knows the rule of the church. Therefore listen to him, knowing that one who grieves the one who presides over the truth sins against Christ and provokes the father of all; on account of which he will not live. And so the one who presides must occupy the place of a physician, not have the anger of a brute beast.

As he was saying these things, I fell at his feet and begged him, declining the honor and authority of the chair. But he answered: "Do not ask me about this; for I have decided that this must happen, and all the more so if you decline it, because such a chair does not need a bold lover of the chair, but a man of reverent character and learned speech. Give the better one, who traveled with me more than you, listened to my discourses, and learned the administration of the church. I will not force you to do well against your will; but you cannot now provide your better, for you are the firstfruits of the saved nations through me. Yet consider also the other point: if, fearing the danger of sin, you do not undertake the administration of the church, know that you sin more, since you are able to help the pious like those sailing and in danger, but you are unwilling, looking only to your own interest and not to the common good of all. And that you must by all means undertake the danger, since I do not cease asking this for the help of all, you rightly understand. The sooner you consent, the more you will relieve my despondency.

I know also myself, O Clement, the griefs, discouragements, dangers, and reproaches that will be given to you from uneducated crowds, which you will be able to bear nobly, looking to the great reward from God that is given to you for your endurance. But also consider with me justly: when does Christ have need of your alliance—now, when the evil one, having prevailed against his bride, has raised a war that will reign, or in the coming time, when he will have no further need of any assistance? Is it not clear even to one of little understanding that it is now? Therefore, with all your resolve, hasten in this time of present necessity to ally yourself with the good king, who is accustomed to give great rewards after victory. So, rejoicing, take up the oversight, especially at this opportune time, as one who has learned from me the administration of the church, for the salvation of the brothers who flee to us.

But I also wish to remind you briefly, before all and for all, of the matters of administration. You must live blamelessly with the greatest zeal, shaking off all the distractions of life, neither becoming a guarantor nor an advocate, nor being entangled in any other worldly business. For Christ wishes to set you as a judge and arbiter of the money or affairs of the present worldly matters, so that, being occupied with the present cares of men, you may not have leisure to separate, by a word of truth, the better men from the worse. But let those who are learning provide these things to one another, and let them not be distracted from the words that are able to save. For just as it is impious for you to undertake worldly cares, abandoning what you were commanded to do, so it is a sin for each layman if they do not stand by one another even in worldly needs. And if all do not understand concerning what things you must be free from care, let them learn from the deacons, so that you may have care only of the church, both to govern it well and to provide the words of truth.

If you are occupied with worldly cares, you will lay a snare both for yourself and for your hearers; for, being unable to provide what is beneficial because of your lack of leisure, you will be punished as one who has not taught what is beneficial, and those who have not learned will perish by reason of ignorance. Therefore, you yourself must sit in leisure, so as to offer at the right time the words that are able to save them. And thus let them listen to you, knowing that whatever the elder of truth binds on earth is bound also in heaven, and whatever he looses is loosed. And you shall bind what must be bound and loose what must be loosed. These, then, and things like them, are your duties as the one set over them.

Concerning the presbyters, let these arrangements be made. Above all, let them join the young in marriage quickly, forestalling the snares of youthful desire. But let them not neglect the marriage of those already old, for in some even in old age a vigorous desire remains. So that unchastity may not take hold and bring the same plague upon you, take precautions and investigate, lest the fire of adultery be secretly kindled among you. For adultery is a very grave matter, holding second place in punishment, since first place is assigned to those who are in error, even if they are chaste. Therefore you, as presbyters of the church, train the bride of Christ in chastity; by bride I mean the assembly of the church. For if she is found chaste by the royal bridegroom, she will obtain the greatest honor, and you will enjoy great joy, as invited guests of the wedding. But if she is discovered to have sinned, she will be cast out, and you will pay the penalty, lest the sin have occurred through your negligence.

Therefore, above all, take care concerning self-control; for fornication is deemed very grievous before God. And there are many forms of fornication, as Clement himself will relate to you. Yet first, adultery is when a man does not use only his own wife, and a woman does not use only her own husband. If one is self-controlled, he can also become benevolent, for which reason he will obtain eternal mercy. And just as adultery is a great evil, so benevolence is the greatest good. Therefore, love all your brothers with chaste and merciful eyes, doing for orphans the things of parents, for widows the things of husbands, providing with all cheerfulness the marriages for those in their prime, and for their childless ones, devising through suitable means the provisions of necessary sustenance: work for the craftsman, mercy for the helpless.

I know that you will do these things if you establish love in your mind. For its entrance there is one sufficient pretext, the common partaking of salt. Therefore, be eager to become more frequently table-companions of one another, as you are able, so that you may not sell it off; for it is the cause of beneficence, and beneficence of salvation. Therefore, all of you, offer your own lives in common to all brothers according to God, knowing that by giving temporal things you will receive eternal ones. All the more, feed the hungry, and provide drink to the thirsty, clothing to the naked, visit the sick, help those in prisons as you are able by appearing to them, receive strangers with all readiness into your own homes. But, not to speak in detail, philanthropy will teach you to do every good thing, just as misanthropy suggests evil-doing to those who do not wish to be saved.

Brothers who have matters before the authorities are not to be judged by them, but are to be reconciled by the presbyters of the church in every way, readily obeying them. Moreover, flee covetousness in such wise as it can, under pretext of temporary gain, deprive you of eternal goods. Carefully preserve the justice of balances, measures, weights, and scales; be conscientious regarding deposits. Moreover, you will persevere in doing these and similar things until the end, if you keep an inseparable memory of the judgment that comes from God in your hearts. For who would sin, being fully persuaded that a judgment was ordained to take place from a just God, who is now only long-suffering and good, at the end of life, so that the good may thereafter eternally enjoy unspeakable goods, while the sinners found as evil may meet with unspeakable punishment for eternity? And if the prophet of truth had not sworn that these things would be so, it might perhaps be reasonable to doubt.

Therefore, being truly disciples of the prophet, put aside the discord from which evil conduct arises, and eagerly undertake to do good. And if any of you should be in doubt about what has been said, let him confess without shame, if he cares for his own soul, and he will be fully instructed by the one who presides. But if he has believed rightly, let him conduct his life with confidence, as one fleeing a great fire of condemnation and entering into the eternal good kingdom of God.

The deacons of the church, therefore, being the bishop’s eyes, shall move about with understanding, closely observing the actions of each member of the church, to see who is about to sin, so that, if caught in falseness by the one who presides, the sin may not be completed; they shall turn back the deserters, so that those who assemble may not lack the hearing of the discourses, that they may be able to cleanse away the despondencies that from time to time fall upon the heart from life’s misfortunes and evil conversations through the words of truth; for if they lie fallow for a long time, they become fuel for fire. They shall also learn of those who are sick in body and shall report them to the ignorant multitude, so that they may be made known, and they shall provide what is necessary according to the judgment of the one who presides. And even if they do this without his knowledge, they do not sin. These things and things like them the deacons shall attend to.

The catechists, having first been catechized themselves, shall then catechize; for the work concerns the soul of human beings. For the teacher of the discourses must adapt himself to the many dispositions of the learners. Therefore the catechist must be learned, irreproachable, mature, and clear—as you yourselves will be, Clement, who is to catechize after me. He must be as you yourselves will be, Clement, who is to catechize after me. For it is too much for me now to speak in detail. Yet if you are of one mind, you will be able to be brought into the harbor of rest, where there is the peaceful city of the great king.

For the whole business of the church resembles a great ship, carrying men through a violent storm from many places and desiring to dwell in some one city of a good kingdom. Let God be your master of this ship, and let the helmsman be compared to Christ, the lookout to the bishop, the sailors to the presbyters, the captains of the sides to the deacons, the ship's pursers to the catechists, the mass of the brethren to the passengers, the deep to the world, the headwinds to the temptations, and the persecutions and dangers and manifold afflictions to the great waves, and the mooring cables of the winter streams and the blasts to the discourses of the deceivers and false prophets, and the headlands and rough places to the judges in high places who threaten terrible things, and the double-tided and wild places to those who are irrational and doubtful concerning the promises of truth; let the hypocrites be understood as compared to pirates. Yet consider that only sins are a strong dizziness and a Tartarean Charybdis and deadly breakers and fatal dissolutions. So that, sailing with wool into the harbor of the hoped-for city, you may be brought more safely, pray attentively; and prayers become attentive through good deeds.

Let the passengers therefore remain seated firmly in their own places, so that they may not cause a jolt or a list through disorder. The ship’s officers shall remind them of their fares. The deacons shall neglect nothing of what was entrusted to them. The presbyters, like sailors, shall carefully attend to what is needed by each. The bishop, as a lookout, shall exchange words only with the helmsman. Christ the Savior shall be loved as helmsman, and he alone shall be believed concerning what he says. And all shall pray to God for a fair voyage. Those who sail shall expect every distress, as they sail past a great and turbulent deep, the world: at one time disheartened, persecuted, scattered, hungry, thirsty, naked, constrained; and again at another time united, gathered together, at rest; but also suffering seasickness, dizziness, vomiting—that is, confessing transgressions like disease-causing bile, I mean the sins from bitterness and the evils heaped up from disorderly desires, which, when you have confessed, as if having vomited them up, you are relieved of the sickness, receiving the saving health that comes from care.

Know, all of you, that the bishop labors more than all of you, because each of you suffers his own distress, but he suffers both his own and that of each one. Therefore, O Clement, sit as a helper to each according to your ability, having taken upon yourself the cares of all. Hence, that you have undertaken to manage, I know you have received grace, not given it; but be of good courage and bear it nobly, knowing that God will give you, when you reach the harbor of rest, the greatest of goods, an inalienable reward, because you have undertaken the greater labor for the salvation of all. So, if many of the brothers hate you because of your strict justice, their hatred will not harm you at all, but the friendship of the just God will greatly benefit you. Therefore, try to shake off praise that arises from injustice, but through just administration, seek the beneficial praise that comes from Christ.

Having said this and more besides, he looked again at the crowd and said: "And you, my beloved brothers and fellow servants, yield in all things to the one who sits before you in truth, knowing that whoever has grieved him has received Christ, whose seat he has been entrusted with, and as one who has not received Christ, he will be accounted as one who has rejected the Father, and therefore will be cast out of the good kingdom. For this reason, strive to assemble together in all gatherings, so that you may not, as deserters, incur the charge of sin from the discouragement of the commander. Therefore, above all, let all of you think on his behalf, knowing that the evil one, bearing greater enmity toward him alone, wages war against him for each one of you. So then, strive to continue in affection toward him and in goodwill toward one another, and to obey him, so that he may be relieved and you may be able to be saved.

XVIII. You must also perceive some things by yourselves, because he is unable to speak openly due to plots. For example, if he is hostile to someone, do not wait for him to speak, but do not contend with that person; rather, follow his will wisely, becoming enemies with those he is hostile to, and not conversing with those he does not converse with. So that each person, seeking to have everyone as friends, may be saved by reconciling him, heeding his conversation. But if someone is a friend to those he is hostile to, and speaks with those he does not converse with, that person is also one of those who wish to destroy the church. For while being with you in body, not being with you in mind, he is against you, much worse than enemies who appear from outside, scattering those within under the guise of friendship.

XIX. And having said this, in the midst of all he placed his hands upon me and urged me to sit down in his own chair. When I had sat down, he immediately said this to me: I require of you, in the presence of all my brothers who are here, that when I depart this life, as is owed to me, you send to James, the brother of the Lord, a summary written account, including even the thoughts of your youth, and how from the beginning until now you have accompanied me, listening to the words and deeds proclaimed by me in each city; then, at the end, do not hesitate to disclose also the cause of my death, as I have previously said. For this will not grieve him excessively, since he knows that I have piously rendered what I was bound to suffer; and he will receive the greatest consolation, learning that after me an ignorant man, unacquainted with life-giving words and ignorant of the rule of the church, has been entrusted with the teacher’s chair. For the conversation of a deceiver destroys the souls of the listening crowds.

XX. Therefore, my lord James, when he said these things, I did not hesitate, as I was commanded, to make an epitome of the many discourses in the cities already written by you and sent by him in books under headings, as if for a token, and to send it to you, inscribing it, “Clement’s Epitome of the Preachings of Peter’s Travels.” But I shall begin to set forth as I was commanded. Clement to James, my lord and bishop of bishops, who governs the holy church of the Hebrews in Jerusalem and all the churches well established everywhere by God’s providence, together with the presbyters and deacons and all the rest of the brethren, may peace be always. Let it be known to you, my lord, that Simon, who was appointed to be the foundation of the church because of the true faith and the most secure substance of his teaching, and for this reason was renamed Peter by the truthful mouth of Jesus himself—the firstfruit of our Lord, the first of the apostles, to whom first the Father revealed the Son, whom Christ blessedly called blessed, the called and chosen and table-companion and fellow traveler, the good and approved disciple, who was commanded to illuminate the darker part of the world, the West, as more capable than all and was able to accomplish it—and indeed, why do I prolong the speech, not wishing to indicate the grief, which of necessity, even if slowly, I must certainly speak?

This same man, because of his boundless love for humanity, clearly and publicly, in the present evil time, having announced to the whole world the good king who was to come, having come as far as Rome, saving men by divinely willed teaching, himself violently exchanged the life of this present existence for death. And on the very days when he was about to die, with the brethren assembled, suddenly taking me by the hand, he rose up in the church and said: "Hear me, brothers and fellow servants. Since, as I was taught by the Lord and teacher who sent me, Jesus Christ, the days of my death have drawn near, I ordain this Clement as your bishop, to whom I entrust my chair of discourses, who from the beginning to the end has journeyed with me and thus heard all my homilies. To speak concisely, he who in all trials has shared with me, persevering in the faith, has been found; whom I have experienced as more than all others god-fearing, philanthropic, chaste, learned, temperate, good, just, patient, and nobly knowing how to bear the ingratitude of some of the catechumens. Therefore I impart to him the authority of binding and loosing, so that concerning everyone whom he may ordain on earth, it will be decreed in heaven. For he will bind what must be bound, and loose what must be loosed, as one who knows the rule of the church. Therefore listen to him, knowing that he who grieves the one who presides over the truth sins against Christ and provokes the father of all; on account of which he will not live. And so the one who presides must hold the place of a physician, not have the rage of a brute beast.

As he was saying this, I fell at his feet and begged him, declining the honor and authority of the chair. But he answered: Do not ask me about this; for it is my decision that this should happen, and all the more so if you decline it; for such a chair has no need of a rash person who loves the chair, but of one who is reverent in character and learned in speech. Give me the better man, who has accompanied me more than you and listened to my discourses and learned the administration of the church, and I will compel you to do well even against your will; but you cannot now provide a man better than yourself; for you, through me, are the firstfruits of the nations being saved. Moreover, consider this other point: if, fearing the danger of sin, you do not undertake the administration of the church, know that you sin more, since you are able to help those who are pious, like those sailing and in danger, but you are unwilling, looking only to your own interest and not to the common good of all. And that you must certainly undergo the danger, since I do not cease to ask this of you for the help of all, you rightly understand. The sooner you consent, the more you will relieve me of my despondency. And I myself know, O Clement, that sorrows, despondencies, dangers, and reproaches from uneducated crowds are given to you, which you will be able to bear nobly, looking to the great reward from God that is given to you for your patience.

But also consider with me justly: when does Christ have need of your alliance—now, when the evil one, having conquered against His bride, has waged war and will reign, or in the coming time, when He will have no further need of any assistance? Is it not clear even to one of little understanding that it is now? Therefore, with all your resolve, hasten in this time of present necessity to ally yourself with the good king, who is accustomed to bestow great rewards after victory. Rejoicing, then, take up the oversight, more opportunely in this matter, as one who has learned from me the administration of the church, for the salvation of the brothers who flee to us. Nevertheless, I wish to briefly remind you, before all and for all, of the matters of administration. You must live blamelessly, with the greatest zeal shake off all the distractions of life, neither becoming a guarantor nor an advocate, nor being entangled in any other worldly affair. For Christ wishes to set you as judge and arbiter of the present worldly matters of money and business, so that, being occupied with the cares of men today, you may not have leisure to separate, by the word of truth, the better men from the worse. But let those who are learning provide these things to one another, and let them not be distracted from the words that are able to save. For just as it is impious for you to undertake worldly cares, abandoning what you were commanded to do, so it is a sin for each layman if they do not stand by one another in worldly needs.

need for your alliance? And if all do not understand that you must be free from care concerning those things, let them learn from the deacons that you should have concern only for the church, both to govern it well and to provide the words of truth. For if you are occupied with worldly cares, you will ensnare both yourself and your hearers; for being unable to provide what is beneficial due to lack of leisure, you will be punished as one who did not teach what is beneficial, and those who did not learn will perish because of ignorance. Therefore, you yourself sit in leisure as president, so as to provide in a timely manner the words that can save them. And thus let them listen to you, knowing that whatever the elder of truth binds on earth is bound also in heaven, and whatever he looses is loosed. And you will bind what must be bound and loose what must be loosed. These matters concerning you, the president, are these and those like them. And the matters concerning the presbyters shall be as follows. Above all, let them join the young in marriage quickly, forestalling the snares of youthful desire. But let them not neglect marriage for those already old; for in some even in old age a strong desire persists. So that lust may not take hold and cast the same plague among you, take precautions and investigate, lest the fire of adultery be secretly kindled among you. For adultery is very terrible, so much so that it holds second place in punishment, since first place is given to those who are in error, even if they are chaste. Therefore, you as presbyters of the church, train the bride of Christ in chastity; and by the bride of the church I mean the congregation.

For if a chaste woman is taken by the king’s bridegroom, she will obtain the greatest honor, and you will enjoy great delight, as those invited to a wedding. But if she is found to have sinned, she herself will be cast out, and you will pay the penalty, lest the sin have occurred through your negligence. Therefore, before all else, take thought for chastity; for fornication is deemed very grievous before God. And there are many forms of fornication, as Clement himself will relate to you. Yet the primary adultery is for a man not to use only his own wife, and for a woman not to use only her own husband. If one is chaste, he can also become philanthropic, for which he will obtain eternal mercy. And just as adultery is a great evil, so philanthropy is the greatest good. Therefore, love all your brothers with reverent and merciful eyes, doing for orphans the things of parents, for widows the things of husbands, providing with all cheerfulness the sustenance for the able-bodied, the marriages, and for their childless, devising through occupations the pretexts of necessary sustenance: for a craftsman, work; for the weak, mercy. And I know that you will do these things if you establish love in your mind. For its entry, one sufficient pretext is the common partaking of salt. Therefore, be eager to become more frequently table-companions of one another, as you are able, so that you may not sell it off; for it is the cause of beneficence, and beneficence of salvation. Therefore, all of you, in common, offer your lives to all brothers according to God, knowing that by giving temporary things you will receive eternal ones.

Much more should you feed the hungry, and give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the sick, show yourselves to those in prison and help them as you are able, and receive strangers with all willingness into your own homes. But not to speak in detail, philanthropy will teach you to do every good thing, just as misanthropy points out evil-doing to those who do not wish to be saved. Let brothers who have business before the authorities not be judged there, but let them be reconciled by the presbyters of the church in every way, readily obeying them. Moreover, flee from covetousness in this way, as being able, under the pretext of temporary gain, to cause loss of eternal goods. Carefully preserve the justness of scales, measures, weights, and balances; be conscientious regarding deposits. Moreover, you will persevere in doing these and similar things until the end, if you keep in your hearts an inseparable memory of the judgment that comes from God. For who would sin, being fully assured that a judgment was ordained to take place from a just God, who is now only long-suffering and good, at the end of life, so that the good may thereafter enjoy in eternity the ineffable good things, and the sinners, found to be evil, may meet with ineffable punishment for eternity? And that these things are so, if the prophet of truth had not sworn that they would be, it would perhaps be reasonable to doubt. Therefore, being truly disciples of the prophet, having put aside the discord from which evil-doing arises, readily undertake to do good.

If any of you is in doubt about what has been said, let him not be ashamed to confess it, if he cares for his own soul, and he will be fully instructed by the one who presides. But if he has believed rightly, let him conduct himself with confidence, as one fleeing a great fire of condemnation and entering into the eternal good kingdom of God. Now the deacons of the church shall be the eyes of the bishop, moving about wisely, closely observing the actions of each member of the church, who is about to sin, so that, if caught in a corruption, he may not complete the sin by the one who presides. Let them turn back the deserters, so that those who assemble may not lack those who listen to the discourses, in order that they may be able to cleanse the despondencies that from time to time fall upon the heart from both the vicissitudes of life and evil conversations, by the words of truth. For if they lie fallow for a long time, they become fuel for fire. Let them also learn of those who are sick in body, and let them report to the ignorant multitude, so that they may be made known, and let them provide the necessary things according to the judgment of the one who presides. And even if they do this without his knowledge, they do not sin. These things and things like them the deacons shall attend to. Let the catechists first be catechized themselves before they catechize, because the work concerns the soul of human beings; for the teacher of the discourses must adapt himself to the many dispositions of the learners. Therefore the one who catechizes must be learned, blameless, mature, and clear, as you yourselves will be, Clement, who after me will catechize. For it is a great thing for me now to speak in detail.

But if you are of one mind, you will be able to be brought into the harbor of rest, where there is a peaceful city of a great king. For the whole affair of the church resembles a great ship, carrying men from many places through a violent storm, who wish to dwell in a single city of a good kingdom. Let God be your master of this ship, and let the helmsman be compared to Christ, the lookout to the bishop, the sailors to the presbyters, the shipwrights to the deacons, the ship's pursers to the catechists, the multitude of the brothers to the passengers, the deep to the world, the contrary winds to the temptations, and the persecutions and dangers and all kinds of afflictions to the high waves, and the cables of the storm anchors and the blasts to the discourses of the deceivers and false prophets, and the headlands and rough places to the terrible judges threatening from positions of authority, and the double-tided and wild places to the irrational and those doubting about the promises of truth, and the hypocrites are to be understood as compared to pirates. But consider that only sins are a strong whirlpool and a Tartarean Charybdis and deadly breakers and fatal dissolutions. So that sailing with wool into the harbor of the hoped-for city you may be brought more safely, pray attentively; and prayers become effective through good deeds. Let the passengers therefore be steadfast, sitting firmly in their own places, so that they do not cause a tremor or a list by disorder. Let the pursers remind them of the fares.

The deacons must not neglect what has been entrusted to them; the presbyters, like sailors, must carefully attend to what each person needs. The bishop, as a lookout, must exchange words only with the helmsman. Christ the Savior is to be loved as the helmsman, and only he is to be believed concerning what he says. And all must pray to God for a fair voyage. Those who sail must expect every distress, as they are passing through a great and turbulent deep, the world: at times despondent, persecuted, scattered, hungry, thirsty, naked, oppressed; and again at times united, gathered together, at rest; but also suffering seasickness, dizziness, vomiting—that is, confessing transgressions like disease-causing bile, I mean the sins from bitterness and the evils heaped up from disordered desires, which by confessing, as if vomiting them up, you are relieved of the sickness, receiving the healthful salvation from care. Yet know that all of you, the bishop labors more than all of you, because each of you suffers his own distress, but he suffers his own and that of each one. Therefore, O Clement, sit as a helper to each according to your ability, having taken on the burdens of all their cares. Hence, that you have undertaken to manage, I know you have received a grace, not given, but be confident and bear it nobly, knowing that God will give you, when you arrive at the harbor of rest, the greatest of goods, an inalienable reward, inasmuch as you have undertaken the greater labor for the salvation of all.

So that if many of the brethren hate you because of your exact justice, their hatred will not harm you at all, but the friendship of the righteous God will greatly benefit you. Therefore, strive to shake off praise that arises from injustice, but through righteous administration, hunt for the beneficial praise that comes from Christ. Having said this and more than these things, looking again at the multitude, he said: And you, my beloved brothers and fellow servants, yield in all things to the one who presides in truth, knowing this, that he who has grieved him has received Christ, whose seat he has been entrusted with, and as one who has not received Christ, he will be considered as one who has rejected the Father, and therefore will be cast out of the good kingdom. For this reason, strive to come together in all assemblies, so that you may not, like deserters, receive a charge of sin from the discouragement of the commander. Therefore, before all things, let all of you think on his behalf, knowing this, that the evil one, warring against each one of you, fights more against him alone. You, therefore, strive to continue in affection toward him and in goodwill toward one another, and to obey him, so that he may be relieved and you may be able to be saved. XVIII. Some things you must also understand by yourselves, because he is not able to speak openly on account of plots: for example, if he is hostile to someone, do not wait for him to speak, but do not associate with that person, but wisely follow his will, becoming enemies of those he is hostile to, and not speaking with those he does not speak with; so that each one, seeking to have all as friends, may be saved by reconciling him, obeying his discourse.

If someone is a friend to those whom you yourself hate, and speaks to those with whom you yourself do not associate, he is himself one of those who wish to destroy the church; for while being with you in body, not being with you in mind, he is against you, much worse than enemies who appear from outside, scattering those within with pretended friendship. XIX. And having said these things, in the midst of all, laying his hands on me, he urged me to sit down in his own chair. When I had sat down, he immediately said this to me: "I require you, in the presence of all my brethren who are here, that whenever I depart from this life, as is due to me, you send to James, the brother of the Lord, a summary written down even to the thoughts of your boyhood, and how from the beginning until now you have accompanied me, listening to the words and deeds proclaimed by me in each city; then, at the end, you will not hesitate to disclose also the cause of my death, as I have previously said. For this will not grieve him too much, knowing that what I had necessarily to suffer I have piously undergone, and he will receive the greatest consolation, learning that after me an ignorant man, ignorant of life-giving words and the rule of the church, not knowing the chair of the teacher, has been entrusted with it. For the discourse of a deceiver destroys the souls of the listening crowds." XX. Therefore, my lord James, when he said these things, I did not hesitate to promise, as I was commanded, to make a summary of the many discourses in each city, which have already been written down by you and sent by him in books, by chapters, as if for a sign, and thus to send it to you, inscribing it: "Clement's Epitome of the Preachings of Peter's Journeys.

Nevertheless, I will begin to set forth as I was commanded.