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The primary piece in the compilation is an excerpt (Epitome) of the so-called
Apostolic Constitutions, which stages itself as a collaboration between Clement I of
Rome (said to have been ordained by Saint Peter himself) and the Twelve Apostles. 474
However, the Constitutions were likely not produced until the fourth century, 475 so while
it documents the theological milieu of the early Church, it was not, as the title claims, the
work of the Apostles themselves. Content-wise, the Constitutions are a compendium of
the practices, doctrine and liturgy of the Church—giving instructions, for instance, on
how baptisms and ordinations are to be conducted, listing prayers suitable for various
occasions, prescribing the proper roles for the laity and for the ministers, as well as
promulgating correct doctrine on various points (against idol worship, for instance). The
work as a whole offers a vision of a Christian community that is, above all, orderly and
hierarchical, but the passages that Cochlaeus includes in his Epitome are particularly
pointed statements on the subject of hierarchy. 476 These passages first of all affirm a clear
separation between priesthood and laity, where only priests’ actions are pleasing to God
474 The work is attributed to Clement, but also evokes the authorship of the Apostles (‘nous, les Douze’),
where Clement is given the part of their secretary (“c’est lui qui était chargé de recueillir leurs directives,
de les compiler et de les diffuser”). Metzger concludes that this complicated authorial fiction serves as an
authorizing strategy: “Or il ne s’agit pas d’un pseudonyme, mais on a voulu accréditer l’ouvrage en
l’attribuant faussement à ce personnage bien connu, saint Clément, un des premiers successeurs de saint
Pierre, à la tête de l’Église de Rome.” Marcel Metzger, Le constitutions apostoliques, Vol. 1 (Paris:
Editions du Cerf, 1985), 36.
475 There is much debate about which century the Apostolic Constitutions date from, ranging from the 2 nd
century to the 4 th , but relevant here is that they were not, in fact, written by the Apostles, only attributed to
them. The history of the Constitutions is actually rather complicated, as it seems to be a collection of older
texts that were stitched together (with various interpolations, additions and reworking) by a compilator
(posing as Clement and the Apostles) to create the Constitutions, which then circulates independently of
those older texts. Nevertheless, most of the text that is integrated into the Constitutions is believed to have
been written in Syria in the 2 nd and 3 rd centuries. So the Constiutions, like the Corpus Dionysiacum, is a
pseudonymous work stemming from a Syrian Christian writer. A good summary of this complicated
history, and for the critical edition (with a translation into French) is Marcel Metzger, Le constitutions
apostoliques, Vol. 1 (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1985), 18-23. For the Constitutions in English translation see
Rev. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of
the Fathers down to A.D. 325, ed. A. Cleveland Coxe, Vol. 7 (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1985).
476 Included in the compilation is Section 5 from Book 8, as well as Sections 27-34 from Book 2. In
Cochlaeus’ edition, they are found on pages 1-11.
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