apostolicfathers0201clem - Carmel Apologetics

I.
IGNATIUS THE MARTYR.
THE transition from the first to the second Apostolic father — from
— Clement to Ignatius is rapid ; but, when it is made, we are conscious
that a wide chasm has been' passed. The interval of time indeed
is not great. Twenty years at the outside separate the Epistle of Clement
to the Corinthians from the letters of Ignatius. But these two
decades were a period of exceptionally rapid progress in the career of the
Church— in the outward extension of the Christian society, in its internal
organization and government, in the progress and ramifications of theological
opinion. There are epochs in the early history of a great institution,
as there are times in the youth of an individual man, when the
increase of stature outstrips and confounds by its rapidity the expectations
founded on the average rate of growth.
But lapse of time is not the only element which differentiates the
writings of these two Apostolic fathers. As we pass from Rome and
Corinth to Antioch and Asia Minor, we are conscious of entering into a
new religious and moral atmosphere. The steadying influence of the
two great classical peoples—more especially of the Romans— is diminished;
and the fervour, the precipitancy, of oriental sentiment and
feeling predominate. The religious temperament has changed with the
change of locality. This difference impresses itself on the writings of
the two fathers through the surrounding circumstances but it ; appears
to a very marked degree in the personal character of the men themselves.
Nothing is more notable in the Epistle of Clement than the
calm equable temper of the writer, the eVietKeta, the ' sweet reasonableness,'
which pervades his letter throughout. He is essentially a 7noderator.
On the other hand, impetuosity, fire, headstrongness (if
not an injustice to apply
it be
this term to so noble a manifestation of
IGN. I.
I