THE CHRISTIAN FATHERS. 95 



CLEMENS ROMANUS. 



The account of this father's relationship to the 

 imperial family, although asserted with confidence, 

 at the same time it cannot be denied that this court 

 took cognizance of such as neglected the celebration 

 of the holy mysteries, and was a guardian generally 

 of the laws and religion. We have the authority of 

 Chrysostom, for adding that St. Paul's eloquence, 

 and the strength of his reasoning only, ended on this 

 occasion, in the conversion of Dionysius and his 

 wife Damaris. The falsehood invented by later 

 biographers, that the areopagite convert suffered 

 martyrdom in France, is sufficiently exposed by the 

 testimony of Sulpitius, who affirms that none lost 

 their lives for the faith in that country before the 

 fifth persecution in the reign of Aurelius. We learn 

 from writers of undoubted credit, that he became 

 the first Bishop of Athens, and Aristidus, in his 

 apology, relates that he sealed his last testimony to 

 the faith among the martyrs, as is most probable 

 under Domitian. 



It is almost unnecessary to observe, that the books 

 of mystical divinities, known as Dionysius the Areo- 

 pagites are spurious : their author is uncertain, though 

 some of the Greek scholiasts have conceived them 

 to be the productions of Apollinaris the younger. 



It is unfortunate for those who write on the unin- 

 terrupted succession of the papal chair, that its 

 earliest annals are involved in much obscurity. We 

 learn from Tertullian that St. Peter instituted Cle- 

 mens into the episcopal office at Rome ; yet it is far 

 from certain that he was the first who presided over 

 the Gentile Church there. The compiler of the 

 apostolic constitutions, assigning that office to Lin- 

 ces, states that he was placed in it by St. Paul. A 

 glance at the circumstances under which Christianity 

 became planted at Rome, as well as in many other 

 places, will, we imagine, tend towards removing this 

 difficulty. The Mosaic law had made an impression 

 on the minds of its sectaries, that was not easily 



