Modern Discoveries.

Yet for all its ancient renown — it was one of the best-known books of early Christian literature — until 1875 I Clement was known to the modern world only through a single defective Greek manuscript — the fifth-century Codex Alexandrinus, from which a leaf was lost just before the end of the letter. As no other versions were known to exist, no one knew how much or how little was really gone until, in 1873, Bryennius discovered in Constantinople a complete Greek text of it in a manuscript dated A.D. 1056. This text he published in 1875. One Syriac, one Latin, and two Coptic manuscripts of it have since been found, one of these last a papyrus leaf-book of the fourth century.

Clement himself was spoken of in the Shepherd of Hermas, about A.D. 100 (Vision ii. 4. 3) ; and his letter is mentioned or quoted by Dionysius of Corinth, about 170 (Church History iv. 23) ; by Hegesippus in his Memoirs, now lost, about 180 (Church History IV. 22. 1); by Irenaeus, 181-89 (Against Heresies iii. 3. 3); by Clement of Alexandria several times; by Origen (On First Principles ii. 3. 6, etc.); and by Eusebius (Church History iv. 22. 1, etc.). Although its almost complete disappearance in medieval Greek manuscripts shows its decline in prestige, its translation into Latin, Syriac, and Coptic shows its wide currency in the early period, and the fact that II Clement does not accompany it in the Latin and Coptic versions shows at how early a date these translations must have been made.