This Epistle was held in very great esteem by the early Church. The account given of it by
Eusebius {Nist. EccL, iii. 16) is as follows : "There is one acknowledged Epistle of this Clement
(whom he has just identified with the friend of St. Paul), great and admirable, which he wrote
in the name of the Church of Rome to the Church at Corinth, sedition having then arisen in
the latter Church. We are aware that this Epistle has been publicly read in very many churches
both in old times, and also in our own day." The Epistle before us thus appears to have been
read in numerous churches, as being almost on a level with the canonical writings. And its place
in the Alexandrian MS., immediately after the inspired books, is in harmony with the position thus
assigned it in the primitive Church. There does indeed appear a great difference between it and