CLEMENT OF ROME, supposed author of a letter sent from the church of Rome to the church of Corinth in the last years of the first century CE. The date most commonly given for the letter is 96–97. In the course of the second century the author of this letter came to be identified as Clement and was thought to have been the third bishop of Rome, after Peter and Paul. Although there is no particular reason to doubt that the person who actually penned the letter was so named, there is some doubt as to whether at this time Rome had a bishop in the later sense of the word, that is, a single head of the church.

The letter, known as 1 Clement, tells us nothing about the person who wrote it. Indeed, the letter is intended to be understood as the expression of...