VIKING SOCIETY FOR NORTHERN RESEARCHTEXT SERIESGENERAL EDITORS

Anthony Faulkes and Alison Finlay

VOLUME XVIICLEMENS SAGA
THE LIFE OF ST CLEMENT OF ROME

CLEMENS SAGA
THE LIFE OF ST CLEMENT OF ROMEEDITED AND TRANSLATED
BY

HELEN CARRON

VIKING SOCIETY FOR NORTHERN RESEARCH
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON2005

© Helen Carron 2005
ISBN: 0 903521 67 9

Printed by Short Run Press Limited, Exeter

CONTENTS

Introduction ..................................................................... vii
I
Saints’ lives in Iceland ................................................... vii
II.1 Material from the Recognitiones ..................................... xi
II.2 Material from the Latin Passio .................................. xviii
III Structure and style ......................................................... xxi
IV Manuscripts .................................................................. xxiii
V Date of the manuscript ................................................ xxiv
VI Normalisation of the text .............................................. xxv
Bibliography ................................................................ xxvi
Text and translation .......................................................... 1
Index .................................................................................54ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This edition originated from the work done for my University of London
PhD thesis (1994) under the supervision of Peter Foote. I wish to thankAnthony Faulkes and Peter Foote for their generous advice and help withthis edition, and also Alison Finlay for reading through the final version.
H. C. C.

INTRODUCTION
I Saints’ lives in Iceland
St Clement (fl. c. 96), known as Clement of Rome, was bishop of Rome,
generally considered to be third in the line of succession from St Peter
after Linus and Cletus. His feast-day is the twenty-third of November.
His life, Clemens saga, is among the earliest saints’ lives translated into
Icelandic.
Iceland was converted to Christianity at the beginning of the eleventh
century. In this period the first saints’ lives, initially in Latin, and some
Norwegian translations of Latin texts, would have reached Iceland. To
make the lives available to a wider audience than the educated clergy they
were translated into the vernacular. This is thought to have taken place inthe course of the twelfth century. The earliest surviving Icelandic manuscripts of vernacular saints’ lives date from the beginning of the thirteenth
century, whereas the earliest extant Norwegian manuscripts date from theend of the twelfth century. For example fragments of three translated saints’
lives, Blasíus saga, Mattheus saga and Plácidus saga, are found in AM
655 IX 4to, which is considered to have been written c. 1150–1200 (Ólafur
Halldórsson 1994, lxv; Ordbog 1989, 459), and thought by some scholars
to be the oldest surviving Norwegian manuscript. Some early Norwegianmanuscripts of saints’ lives may have soon found their way to Iceland.
It is to this genre of literature known as saints’ lives (in Icelandic Heilagra
manna sögur) that Clemens saga belongs. Saints’ lives are biographies ofholy men and women. They were initially written in the language of the
Church, Latin, and when the need arose they were subsequently translated
into the vernaculars. Translated saints’ lives are thought to have beenamong the earliest sagas written in Iceland. In a well-known passage in
Origins of Icelandic literature Gabriel Turville-Petre (1953, 142) put
forward the view that saints’ lives influenced native written literature: ‘Ina word, the learned literature did not teach the Icelanders what to think orwhat to say, but it taught them how to say it.’ This has been the subject ofmuch debate. In a paper entitled ‘Saints’ lives and sagas’ Peter Foote(1994, 73–88) took Gabriel Turville-Petre’s statement as his main theme,
considered it and suggested the following revised version: ‘The learned
literature by no means dictated the Icelanders’ choice and treatment ofsubject matter, of what they said; but it taught them something about how to
say it—also, about how not to say it’. It is difficult to substantiate what
influence this genre of literature may have had on native saga writing, but it
is unlikely that it would have been entirely without influence.

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Clemens saga

One area in which learned or religious texts like Clemens saga may
have had some influence on other saga writing is in their depiction of thecharacter of the ‘noble heathen’. For instance parallels can be drawn
between the concept of the ‘noble heathen’ as described by Lars Lönnroth(1969, 1–29) and the characters of Faustinianus and his son Clement andother members of his family as portrayed in Clemens saga. The ‘noble
heathen’ is a pagan hero whose nobility is innate and causes him or her toact in a manner one would expect of a Christian hero. Lönnroth draws
examples of this concept from Vatnsdœla saga, e.g. the heathen ﬁorsteinn
invokes the ‘creator of the sun’ and makes a promise to take care of achild who was left out to die in return for the healing of his brother ﬁórir(ÍF VIII, 97–98). The ‘noble heathen’ is both wise and virtuous. This istrue of Clement’s father, Faustinianus. Faustinianus is wise, and is said tohave followed Roman custom by worshipping carven images, but notwholeheartedly because he believed in the existence of one God (Clemenssaga Ch. 2). He prays to the one God for guidance (Ch. 4). His wife
Mathidia is highly virtuous, and in a similar way to ﬁorsteinn she invokes
a sun-god, the pagan god Apollo (Ch. 2). Before he is converted toChristianity Clement reveals his inherent nobility by his generous receptionof the Apostle Barnabas in Rome (Ch. 5).
According to Lönnroth the ‘noble heathen’ was an attempt to solve thedilemma of reconciling pagan tradition with the teachings of the church.
He believes that it is possible that this concept was known very early to
Icelanders through foreign literature, i.e. learned literature, as well as
through theological doctrine. In support of this he refers to Plácidus saga
(Life of St Eustace), the story of which shares similarities with that of St
Clement (see Section II.1 below). Examples of Lönnroth’s concept canbe found in Ch. VII of Clemens saga, which tells of Clement’s teaching,
his attempts to convert the heathen, and his subsequent exile andmartyrdom. Here an attempt is made to reconcile the differences between
other faiths and Clement’s teaching. This is done by placing emphasis on
the affection which both heathen men and Jews had for Clement. The
point is made that Clement did not ridicule pagan religion, but tried toconvert men to Christianity through rational arguments based on theirown books. Through his methods many heathens were converted toChristianity, but this aroused the jealousy of a heathen named Publius
Torquatianus, who incited discord and caused Clement to be accused of
blaspheming the pagan gods, which resulted in his exile and martyrdom.
Martyrium S. Clementis (PG 2, cols 625–26) names nine pagan gods
whom Clement is said to have blasphemed: Jove, Hercules, Venus, Vesta,

Introductionix

Minerva, Diana, Mercury, Saturn and Mars. The author of Clemens sagatranslates the names of these gods into their Icelandic equivalents for hisreaders, for example Jove/Jupiter becomes ﬁórr, Hercules becomes Ó›inn.
He lists fourteen gods in all: ﬁórr, Ó›inn, Freyja, Freyr, Heimdallr, Loki,Hœnir, Baldr, T‡r, Njƒr›r, Ullr, Frigg, Gefjun and Sif (see Section III
below).
It is significant that there is no criticism of the heathens Clement converts,
or of their former religion. The Prefect of Rome, Mamertus Julianus, whosends Clement into exile, is also portrayed as a ‘noble heathen’. He is
moved by Clement’s declaration of his Christian faith, and blesses hisjourney into exile (Clemens saga Ch. 8). (On the subject of pagan sympathy
see Faulkes 1983, 283–314.)
Within the genre of saints’ lives in Icelandic there are different categories:
lives of the Apostles, lives of holy men and holy women who were martyred
for their faith, lives of confessors (ODCC 330: men or women who suffered
for confessing their faith, but who were not martyred, e.g. St Martin of
Tours, see Heilagra manna søgur 1877, I 554–74), lives of Fathers of the
Church (ODCC 504: ecclesiastical authors of the past whose authority
on doctrinal matters carried weight, e.g. St Ambrose, Bishop of Milan(c. 339–97; ODCC 42–43), and also Desert Fathers, e.g. St Anthony of
Egypt (251?–356; ODCC 67–68); and lives of native saints, e.g. the lifeof the first Bishop of Hólar, Jón ¯gmundarson (1106–21), Jóns saga ins
helga (ÍF XV:2, 173–316; trans. Cormack 2000, 595–626).
Clemens saga fits into the second category, a life of a devout man who
was martyred for his faith. St Clement met his death by drowning; he waspushed overboard from a boat with an anchor tied around his neck.
Saints’ lives generally follow a defined structure which is composed ofcertain elements. The life of a saint who was martyred because of his or
her faith is as a rule divided into three parts: the life itself, the martyrdom,and the saint’s influence after death. The last includes miracles associatedwith the saint. In Clemens saga the saint’s martyrdom is followed by thestory of the miracle of the child who was left behind near the saint’s coffin
in the church under the sea and was discovered alive a year later. Amongthe elements commonly found in saints’ lives are accounts of the saint’s
virtues, his or her conversion to Christianity, the testing of his or her faithby trials and tribulations and the miraculous state of his or her corpse
after death. But Clemens saga is not typical. Although there is some accountof Clement’s early life before his conversion, it is sketchy, and instead thenarrative is focused on the lives of members of his family and their trials
and tribulations before they were converted to Christianity by St Peter.

xClemens saga

Special emphasis is placed on the virtues of Clement’s mother. Clement
does not undergo any trials or tribulations relating to his faith until heapproaches his martyrdom.
The number of manuscripts containing saints’ lives which have survived
attests to the popularity of this genre. Biographies of saints played an
important role in the liturgy of the medieval Church. Extracts from themwere included in Church service books, and lives might be read out on theappropriate saint’s Feast Day in daily services or read as part of personal
devotions. The lives extolled the virtues of a holy life. Veneration of thesaints was a part of daily life, and both men and women had favourite
saints to whom they would pray and whom they would ask to intercede
on their behalf. Sturla ﬁór›arson’s favourite saint was said to be the Apostle
St Peter (Sturlunga saga 1946, II 236). The miracle of wounds which did
not bleed was a powerful motif in saints’ lives and was adopted fromthem into secular literature. It is used in Svínfellinga saga, one of the texts
included in the compilation known as Sturlunga saga. After his descriptionof the execution of Sæmundr Ormsson, the saga author notes thatSæmundr’s corpse did not bleed (Sturlunga saga 1946, II 100). Similarly,
in saints’ lives, although a saint might be martyred by torture, his or her
body would often remain unblemished. In Njáls saga Njáll is almost regarded
as a saint when his face and body, after the burning of his homestead, aredescribed by one of those who discovered him as svá bjartr, at ek hefiengan dau›s manns líkama sét jafnbjartan, ‘so bright that I have seen nodead person’s body as bright’ (ÍF XII 343).
Two saga heroes, ﬁorgils skar›i and Hrafn Sveinbjarnarson, each choose
to hear a saint’s life read out aloud to them on the evenings before theymeet their deaths. ﬁorgils skar›i stays at a homestead at Hrafnagil
overnight. From the various forms of entertainment offered to him during
the evening he chooses to hear the life of St Thomas Becket. It is read out
aloud to the assembled company, up to the point where Thomas was
murdered in Canterbury Cathedral. In the night ﬁorgils is betrayed, andhis enemies are admitted to the building in which he is sleeping. ﬁorgils
is murdered, and one of the wounds he is said to have received is on thehead, and thus similar to that suffered by St Thomas (Sturlunga saga
1946, II 218, 220–21). In Hrafns saga Sveinbjarnarsonar (1987, 41) Hrafn
is unable to sleep the night before his death, and asks a man named
Steingrímr to recite Andreasdrápa, a poem the surviving fragment of
which is largely about the martyrdom of St Andrew.
Clemens saga tells the story of the life of Clement of Rome, how he andhis family are converted to Christianity and become disciples of St Peter,

Introductionxithen how he succeeds St Peter as bishop of Rome, his subsequent
martyrdom, and miracles associated with him before and after hismartyrdom. The story is mainly told in the third person. It divides neatly
into two sections, the first dealing with St Clement and his family, thesecond dealing with his martyrdom. The first section is ultimately derived
from the text known as the Recognitiones (see Section II.1 below), thesecond from a Latin Passio (see Section II.2 below).
II.1 Material from the Recognitiones
The first section of Clemens saga is derived from the text known as the
Recognitiones (Rehm 1965; translated in The Ante-Nicene Fathers 8(1995), 75–211), one of the writings attributed to Clement of Rome which
are now acknowledged not to be by him but to have had their origin in the
fourth century. These writings, the so-called Pseudo-Clementines, survive
in three forms: the Recognitiones, homilies, and epitomes. The homilies
were written in Greek, the epitomes are extant in Greek and Arabic. The
Recognitiones were translated from Greek into Latin by Tyrannius Rufinus(c. 345–410), presbyter of Aquileia, who was responsible for translating
many Greek theological works into Latin (ODCC 1207–08). The nameRecognitiones is derived from the scenes of recognition between Clement
and the long-lost members of his family. The story is similar to that of thelife of St Eustace. Both Eustace and Clement are separated from theirfamilies and believe them to be dead, and then a series of recognitions
take place in which the family members recognise each other and are
joyfully reunited. Eustace’s wife, like Clement’s mother Mathidia, isvirtuous and upright and undergoes various tribulations before she isreunited with her husband and sons. Versions of the life of St Eustace areextant in Icelandic in both prose and verse, namely Plácidus saga andPlácidus drápa. The earliest manuscript of Plácidus saga, one fragmentaryleaf in AM 655 IX 4to, is considered to have been written between 1150
and 1200, possibly in Trondheim (Plácidus saga 1998, lx). The verse lifeof St Eustace, Plácidus drápa, is in AM 673b 4to, dated c. 1200. In his
edition of Plácidus saga (1988, xxi), John Tucker mentioned the possibility
that the Clementine romance, i.e. the story of Clement and his family,
may have served as the model for the writing of the Eustace legend.
The popularity of the story of St Clement and his family is attested by
the number of lives of St Clement which were derived and adapted fromthe Recognitiones from the sixth century onwards. Among them, forexample, is a sixth-century Latin work known as Historia Certaminis

xii

Clemens saga

Apostolici (Pseudo-Abdias 1560), derived from a work attributed to thefictional author, Abdias of Babylon, said to have been the first bishop ofBabylon, appointed by St Simon and St Jude and among the seventy-two
disciples of Christ. Historia Certaminis Apostolici was attributed to Abdias
by W. Lazius in 1552. The work is now considered to have been compiled
from earlier sources by two anonymous authors in sixth-century Gaul (NewCatholic Encyclopedia 2003, I 13–14). It contains Clementine material
derived from the Recognitiones and a Passio. This text was used in thefifteenth century by Boninus Mombritius in his Sanctuarium seu vitae
sanctorum, c. 1480 (Mombritius 1978), and it was also used by Johann
Albert Fabricius in his Codex Apocryphus Novi Testamenti, 1703–19.
In his work Die Legende von Sankt Clemens in den skandinavischen
Ländern im Mittelalter (1997) Dietrich Hofmann identified a number of
Latin lives of St Clement. The oldest of them, entitled Vita sancti Clementis,
is that by Johannes Diaconus Hymmonides and Bishop Gaudericus of
Velletri (1968, 1–164; see Hofmann 1997, 18). It was written in the ninth
century between 876 and 882 and dedicated by Gaudericus to Pope John
VIII (872–82). This life has partially survived in an eleventh-century
manuscript from Monte Cassino. The manuscript is defective and thesecond part, containing the end of Vita sancti Clementis, is lost. About the
beginning of the twelfth century Leo Marsicanus (c. 1045–c. 1116), monkof Monte Cassino, and Gaudericus’s successor as cardinal bishop of Ostia
and Velletri, appears to have edited part of the Vita sancti Clementis(Hofmann 1997, 19). Leo’s work is known by the title De origine beati
Clementis (Johannes Diaconus Hymmonides and Bishop Gaudericus of
Velletri 1968, 1–165, parallel with Vita sancti Clementis). Both these Latinlives stem from Rufinus’s version of the Recognitiones.
In the twelfth century Honorius of Autun included the story of St Clementin Speculum Ecclesiae (PL 172, cols 1029–32), and in the next century
Vincent of Beauvais (c. 1190–1264) in his encyclopaedic work, Speculum
Historiale (Book 9, Chs 23–37; Book 10, Chs 52–54; in Speculum Maius 4,1591), included excerpts from the life of St Clement extracted from both
the Recognitiones and the Passio. There is also a life of St Clement to befound in verse in the South English Legendary, the earliest version ofwhich is thought to date from the late thirteenth century (Cambridge
History of Medieval English Literature 1999, 619). In the Legenda Aurea
compiled by Jacob of Voragine c. 1255–66 there is a life of St Clement
which is closer to the Recognitiones than to the Icelandic version (Jacobus
de Voragine 1890, 777–88 and 1993, II 323–32). Mathias Tveitane (1985,1069) thought that although the Legenda Aurea itself could not be a direct

Introductionxiii

source of the Icelandic version (it is too late), some connection between
the source of the Legenda Aurea and the source of the Icelandic wasconceivable.
Episodes from the story of St Clement which derive from the Recognitiones
are also found in two redactions of the life of St Peter the Apostle, Pétrs
saga postola I (Postola sögur 1874, 1–126) and Pétrs saga postola II(Postola sögur 1874, 159–201).
Pétrs saga II is thought to have been compiled in the twelfth century.
This version was part of the thirteenth century codex AM 652 4to.
Unfortunately AM 652 4to has only survived fragmentarily and none of
the extant fragments are from Pétrs saga. For the full text of Pétrs saga II
one has to rely on copies of AM 652 4to which were made in theseventeenth century when the codex was still complete, namely AM 630
4to and AM 659 a 4to. It was the former, AM 630 4to, which Unger usedin his edition (designated Pétrs saga IIA). The text relating to St Clement
is printed on pp. 172–79. A recension of Pétrs saga II is included
fragmentarily in AM 645 4to (Postola sögur 1874, 201–11; Larsson 1885;
for the text relating to Clemens saga see Postola sögur 1874, 203), which
also contains Clemens saga. The fragment in AM 655 XII–XIII 4to (Pétrs
saga IIB, Postola sögur 1874, 211–16) contains no Clementine material.
Pétrs saga I is a younger redaction, probably compiled in the fourteenth
century from various Latin sources, and is extant in three fourteenthcentury manuscripts, Codex Scardensis (SÁM I), Stockholm perg. 19 4toand AM 239 4to (defective).
Pétrs saga IIA (AM 630 4to) shares only two episodes from the life of St
Clement with Clemens saga and Pétrs saga I, the dispute between St Peterand Simon Magus in Caesarea and St Peter’s meeting with Clement’s mother.
Only the latter has survived in AM 645 4to.
Of the two redactions of Pétrs saga, the account in Pétrs saga I of St
Clement is the more comparable with that of Clemens saga. It tells thestory of Clement and his family but does not include his martyrdom.
Various differences are to be found between the texts of Clemens saga
and the two redactions of Pétrs saga. In Pétrs saga I Clement’s story isarranged in a different order to that of Clemens saga. In Clemens saga theaccount begins with an introduction which sets the scene with Clement’s
family background, the story of his father, mother and uncle. This is thenfollowed directly by the tale of Niceta, Aquila and Mathidia’s shipwreck,
and then Faustinianus’s reception of the news. In contrast Pétrs saga I
places Faustinianus’s story at the time of his dispute with Clement in thepresence of St Peter. The scene of recognition after this is followed in turnxiv

Clemens sagaby Mathidia’s story and likewise that of her two sons, Clement’s brothers,
Niceta and Aquila (Faustus and Faustinus). In Clemens saga the accountis mainly in the third person, but Pétrs saga I makes use of the first person,
each character in turn, Faustinianus, Mathidia, Niceta and Aquila (Faustus
and Faustinus), relating the misfortunes which befell him or her.
Among the other differences between the texts the following details in
Clemens saga can be noted which are not found in the equivalent text of
Pétrs saga I: in Clemens saga it is stated that Simon Magus was reared
for ten years by Rakel, that he gave life to images made from wood or metal,
and that he was able to change his form to that of a bird, snake, fish, deeretc., whereas in Pétrs saga I only two forms, sheep and goat, are identified.
There are also differences between the two texts in the introductory
description of Simon Magus. In Clemens saga he claims that he is thesun, his mistress/wife the moon and the planets her handmaidens, andcomments are added on the Latin words for the moon and the planets.
There are no such comments in Pétrs saga I, and Simon’s consort isdescribed as a harlot from Tyre.
In the episode in which Clement’s mother, Mathidia, arrives at the houseof a female leper there is variation between the two saga texts. In Pétrs
saga I the leper asks Mathidia why she has come to her house, and Mathidia
answers. This is lacking in Clemens saga, but this could possibly be due
to omission by a copyist.
The dispute between St Peter and Simon Magus is contained in Books
II and III of the Recognitiones. The versions in Clemens saga and Pétrs
saga are shortened. Moreover in comparison with both Pétrs saga I and II
Clemens saga provides a severely abbreviated version of the dialogue
between St Peter and Simon Magus. Peter’s opening address beginning‘Let there be peace to all who are ready to believe the truth’ takes up
approximately twenty-seven lines in Unger’s edition of Pétrs saga I(twenty-two lines in Pétrs saga II), but in Clemens saga this is reduced toa single line. Also Simon’s reply to St Peter, twelve lines in Pétrs saga I(sixteen lines in Pétrs saga II), consists only of one sentence in Clemenssaga, ‘We don’t need to accept peace from you’.
Moreover there are differences between the text in Pétrs saga II of the
dispute between St Peter and Simon Magus and that to be found in Pétrs
saga I and Clemens saga. In Pétrs saga II Zacheus is described as a leaderof the city, not a bishop. In the Pétrs saga II text the reference to Simon
having been given a sickle by his mother and sent to reap the corn isplaced at the end of his list of skills, whereas in Pétrs saga I and Clemenssaga it is at the beginning. Pétrs saga II also does not mention that he wasIntroduction

xv

seen flying up into the air at the end of the dispute episode, whereas this isnoted in both Pétrs saga I and Clemens saga (Postola sögur 1874, 53/7,
Clemens saga 18/3–4).
There are also differences in detail between the accounts of the same
episode in Clemens saga and Pétrs saga I. At the end of the dispute Clemenssaga alone notes that ‘night fell and it began to get dark when Simon
vanished’. In the same episode Clemens saga states that when St Peterand Simon Magus held their dispute Clement attended the meeting with alarge following. At the corresponding point in the text of Pétrs saga I
there is no reference to Clement’s presence. In Pétrs saga I it is stated that
before the dispute, St Peter sent away men who had not been baptised, but
those who had received baptism accompanied him to the meeting. Bothsagas agree in relating that Clement was not baptised until after the dispute.
The other episode found in Clemens saga and shared by Pétrs saga I
and II is that of St Peter’s meeting with Clement’s mother (the AM 645
4to text (Postola sögur 203) is more or less identical to that of Pétrs saga
IIA (Postola sögur 179)). According to Pétrs saga IIA Peter lands on theisland of Antaradus. Here there is confusion in the text between the island
named Aradus and Antaradus on the mainland. St Peter is said to havecome to a house in which he sees pillars made of glass and where hediscovers a woman, Clement’s mother, begging for alms outside. The
woman’s mistress is said to be paralytic. The version of the story related
in Clemens saga and Pétrs saga I is different; in that version the island isCorfu, not Aradus or Antaradus, there is no house with glass pillars,Clement’s mother is said to have gone to meet St Peter herself, and her
mistress is said to be suffering from leprosy.
There is one episode, the story of Simon Magus’s ex-disciple Marcellus
and St Peter, which is present in the two redactions of Pétrs saga but
omitted in Clemens saga. The story derives from the Recognitiones, but
in the Latin text Simon’s disciple is unnamed, whereas in Pétrs saga he isnamed Marcellus. This is probably traditionally linked with the PseudoMarcellus Passio (Lipsius 1959, 118–77) which is one of the sources usedin both redactions of Pétrs saga. It might be supposed that the omissionof this episode in Clemens saga was because it was not directly relevantto the story of St Clement.
As well as differences between the Icelandic texts containing material
relating to St Clement there are also significant differences between the
Icelandic texts and their ultimate Latin source, the Recognitiones. The
most obvious difference between the Icelandic and Latin texts is in length.
Mattias Tveitane drew attention to the length of the Recognitiones

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Clemens saga

compared to the shorter text in Clemens saga (Tveitane 1985, 1069).
Comparison between the Icelandic Clementine material and Rufinus’s
Latin translation of the Recognitiones shows that the Icelandic version ismuch shorter and related only to the bare bones of the Recognitiones. The
lengthy theological and philosophical discussions of the Recognitiones
are not included in the Icelandic texts.
Another main difference is that the Latin text is autobiographical—
Clement tells his story in the first person—whereas the Icelandic accounts
are mainly related in the third person.
Among other significant differences between the Icelandic and Latin
texts the following can be noted. The version of the tale of Clement’s
mother, Mathidia, being shipwrecked off the island of Corfu in Clemenssaga and Pétrs saga I, does not correspond to the text of the Recognitiones,
where Mathidia is wrecked off an island named Aradus (Andaradus in
Pétrs saga postola II; Postola sögur 1874, 179 and 203), and is given
shelter by a poor woman who has lost her husband at sea. The woman
becomes paralytic and Mathidia is forced to beg. The remainder ofMathidia’s story in the Recognitiones corresponds to that in Pétrs saga II
in which St Peter encounters Mathidia begging at the doors of a house.
Both texts describe a building with columns. In the Recognitiones thebuilding is a temple with columnas viteas, ‘columns carved with vines’,and in Pétrs saga II it is a house with columns made of glass, whichcorrespond to the columnas vitreas of the Latin texts of Mombritius andFabricius. In Clemens saga and Pétrs saga I Mathidia’s story is very
different from the Latin and the account in Pétrs saga II, and emphasises
Mathidia’s virtue. In these two accounts Mathidia is first taken in by ahousewife after the shipwreck, given lodging and in return works as aseamstress, making and mending clothes. She becomes the unwilling objectof attention from the young men who see her and admire her handiwork
and beauty. As a result Mathidia mars her face by beating it with sharpstones and then covers her face with a fish skin to make her appearance
repugnant. She also injures her hands so that she can no longer work.
Eventually she has to leave her lodgings, is offered a home by a poor
woman, and resorts to begging to support them both. This account appears
to be peculiar to the Icelandic version.
The account of the dispute between Clement and his father Faustinianus
differs in the Icelandic from the Latin. In the Icelandic St Peter first encounters Clement’s father, Faustinianus, near a cliff on Cyprus. In the Latin St
Peter, Clement and his brothers Niceta and Aquila bathe in the sea at
Laodocia, then go to a secret place to pray and there they meet Faustinianus.

Introduction

xvii

The Icelandic text turns the dispute with Faustinianus into one based on
the seven liberal arts with Clement as Faustinianus’s sole antagonist,
whereas in the Recognitiones it is described as a philosophical disputewith Faustinianus which is carried on over several days and in which all
three of Faustinianus’s sons take part.
The version in Clemens saga and Pétrs saga I of the episode in which
Clement’s father Faustinianus encounters Simon Magus in Antioch also
differs from the Latin. In the Recognitiones Faustinianus’s friends in
Antioch are named Appion and Anubion, but the Icelandic names one
friend only, who is called Theophilus, and later reference is made to theconsecration as a church by St Peter of a hall owned by Theophilus. In the
Icelandic version the story appears to have been simplified by transferring
Theophilus to the role of Faustinianus’s friend. The Icelandic version also
includes additional details which are not in the Latin, namely that St Peteradvised Faustinianus to have two men ready to hold a shield in front of
him for protection when he addressed the crowd in Antioch, and that when
this came to pass Simon Magus had arrows shot at Faustinianus, who wasprotected by his shield.
There are other minor differences between the Icelandic and Latin texts.
Faustinianus’s brother is not named in the Latin text, but in the Icelandic
he is called Bassus. In the reign of Nero there was a consul called Bassus,
and this may possibly be the source of the name (see Cullmann 1962,124). Clement’s brothers, Niceta and Aquila, are twins according to the
Recognitiones, but they are not described as such in the Icelandic text.
From the above comparison of Clemens saga and the two redactions of
Pétrs saga the following can be established. The variants identified in the
Pétrs saga II text are peculiar to the type of Latin text which are found ineditions of the text called the Historia Certaminis Apostolici, attributed to
Abdias of Babylon (see pp. xi–xii above). Moreover it may be noted thatafter the Clementine material both Pétrs saga II and the Abdias text relate
the story of how St Peter cured a girl who was mad. This is not present ineither Clemens saga or Pétrs saga I. It may also be observed that the
Pétrs saga II version and that of Abdias share the peculiarity that neither
text names Clement’s mother.
The points shared by the Pétrs saga II text and Abdias’s text indicatethat the Pétrs saga II text is derived from a similar Latin text, of a typeidentified by Mattias Tveitane (1985, 1073) as an epitome with thetraditional title Virtutes Petri, and an Incipit ‘Surrexit quidam Simon
Magus’. The details of St Peter’s encounter with Clement’s mother arecloser to the Recognitiones than to the accounts in Clemens saga andxviii

Clemens saga

Pétrs saga I (see p. xvi above), and this shows that the text of Pétrs saga
II had a different derivation, and provides evidence for the existence of
two vernacular versions of part of the Clementine material in early
thirteenth-century Iceland.
Clemens saga and Pétrs saga I tell the same version of the story of
Clement and his family, the ultimate source of which is the Recognitiones.
Clemens saga is not abridged save in the shortening of the dispute episodeand the omission of the Marcellus episode, the latter superfluous to a lifeof St Clement. The comparison of the Clementine material in Clemenssaga and Pétrs saga I indicates that both texts were ultimately derived
from the same Latin source, which was based on a free adaptation of the
Recognitiones, but were independently translated, and the materialorganised according to each compiler’s needs. This Latin source is likely
to have been compiled in the twelfth century.1
II.2 Material from the Latin Passio
The second section of the saga deals with events leading up to and including
the martyrdom of St Clement, plus a miracle which takes place after his
death. The first part tells the story of a Christian woman named Theodora
and her pagan husband Sisinnius. Sisinnius is converted to Christianity
through the intervention of Pope Clement. Then follows the tale ofClement’s exile, the miracle of the spring, his martyrdom when he is thrown
overboard with an anchor tied round his neck, the miracle of his temple
under the sea, and that of the child who falls asleep near the saint’s coffin
and is found alive there a year later.
The second section of Clemens saga is based on a Latin Passio. The
tale of the miracle of St Clement’s coffin under the sea was probably
1 The above discussion is largely based on my unpublished thesis (Carron [1994]),

and partly on the work of Dietrich Hofmann (1997, 72–108), who thought that atext similar to that found in Trinity College Oxford MS 60 was a source ofClemens saga, and that such a text was also the source of Johannes andGaudericus’s Vita sancti Clementis, which the author turned to for at least theend of the Recognitiones section of his saga (Hofmann 1997, 102). According to
Widding 1963, 330, Chs 50–58 and 60–73 of Pétrs saga I are derived from atext of Clemens saga. In the same section of his work (1997, 72–108), Hofmannalso discusses the differences to be found in the Icelandic text and possible reasonsfor them, and among other things raises the possibility that the compiler of
Clemens saga had read the Recognitiones but did not recall all the details of thestory well when he came to write Clemens saga. He also suggests the possibilityof an oral tradition in which the story was passed down by word of mouth.

Introduction

xix

ultimately derived from the Greek text attributed to an imaginary Bishop
Ephraim of Cherson which has the Latin title De miraculo quod in puero
factum est a S. Clemente sacro martyre (printed in parallel Greek and
Latin in PG 2, cols 633–46). Linking the sections derived from the
Recognitiones and the Passio in Clemens saga there is a brief account of
how St Peter installed Clement as his successor as bishop of Rome. Thisis ultimately derived from Epistula Clementis ad Iacobum (Rehm 1965,
375–87; translated in The Ante-Nicene Fathers 8 (1995), 218–22; BHL
6646; cf. p. 35, footnote, below), probably via an intermediate source.
Hofmann (1997, 109) thought that the ‘book’ referred to in Clemens saga
34/10 could not have been the Epistula itself, for if it had been the compiler
would have called it ‘letter’ rather than ‘book’.
Clemens saga is defective at the end, so the miracle of the sleeping
child is incomplete. The text ends abruptly at the point where the parentsof the child who fell asleep near the saint’s coffin ask their son how he
was able to survive so long without food. The end of the miracle story,
from the point where Clemens saga breaks off, is shorter in the Epitomede gestis S. Petri Chs 178–79 (PG 2, cols 602-03) than in the Ephraim
text Chs 12–18 (PG 2, cols 642–46). Since Clemens saga is not a closetranslation of either text it is not possible to establish what form the ending
would have taken in Clemens saga. In the Epitome the parents ask theirson how he was saved, protected, watched over and his life preserved. He
answers them telling them that there was a protector, bestower of life andnourisher in the church. His parents rejoice and quote Psalm 67:36
Mirabilis Deus in sanctis suis, 68:35 ‘O God <thou art> terrible out of thy
holy places’.
It also looks as though the beginning of the miracle story has been omitted
in Clemens saga, possibly through an error in copying. The first mentionof the child and his parents is at the point when the parents realise that
their son is missing. In the Epitome a devout man, his wife and son
accompany others to St Clement’s burial place. They reach the temple,
leading the boy by the hand. The parents pray fervently inside while theboy is out of sight, and he is then forgotten and left behind at the burial place.
The Passio was ultimately derived from the work of the Byzantine
hagiographer Simeon Metaphrastes (fl. c. 960), who compiled a collectionof saints’ lives known as the ‘Menologion’. A parallel Greek and Latin
text is printed in Cotelerius 1672, I 828–44, with Metaphrastes identified
as the source. This text contains the story of Theodora and her husband
Sisinnius and the exile and martyrdom of St Clement. Although reference
is made in the text to the miracle of the sea receding and revealing thexx

Clemens saga

marble temple with the saint’s coffin, the miracle of the sleeping childleft in St Clement’s temple is not related. Cotelerius’s text was reprinted
in PG 2 (1857), cols 617–32, and an edition of the Passio was publishedby F. X. Funk (1901, 28–45; revised edition by F. Diekamp 1913).
The Icelandic text combines the Passio and the miracle of the child
who fell asleep in St Clement’s temple. The source of this is likely to bean epitome similar to the two Greek epitomes of the Recognitiones, which
add to their accounts of Clement’s martyrdom the miracles of his temple
under the sea and the sleeping child (PG 2, cols 469–604).
A version of the life of St Clement in an Old Swedish Legendary, which
is based on the Recognitiones, similarly combines its text of the Passio
with the miracle of the sleeping child (Hofmann 1997, 305–21). The Lifeof St Clement in Jacob of Voragine’s Legenda Aurea (c. 1255–66) also
includes the story of the temple under the sea and the miracle of the sleeping
child, and the story is similar to that in Gregory of Tours, De Gloria
martyrium (Glory of the Martyrs), i.e. a woman leaves her son behind by
St Clement’s church/temple, the sea covers the temple/church, and a year
later when the sea recedes the woman returns and finds her son asleep
where she left him.
Gregory became Bishop of Tours in 573. He is considered to have written
his work on the martyrs towards the end of his life (Gregory of Tours
1988, 4). There are differences between the text attributed to Ephraim andthat of Gregory (see Hofmann 1997, 137–38). Whereas both parents ofthe sleeping child are mentioned in the Ephraim text, the Greek epitome
and Clemens saga, only the mother of the child is referred to in Gregoryof Tours and the Old Swedish Legendary. Clemens saga and the Old
Swedish Legendary mention that the child fell asleep at St Clement’s
temple, whereas Ephraim does not give this as the reason the child wasleft behind. In Gregory’s version the child is discovered still asleep in thesaint’s temple a year later. A similar account based on Gregory of Tours’s
version is found in Ælfric’s tenth-century Natale Sancti Clementis in his
Catholic Homilies (Clemoes 1997, 501–02). In Ephraim and the version
related in Clemens saga both parents return to the saint’s temple, findtheir son alive, he runs to greet them and they rejoice.
There is no doubt that the version of this miracle in Clemens saga iscloser to the Greek texts than to Gregory of Tours, but the Icelandic is nota direct translation of the Ephraim text. It is likely that the compiler of
Clemens saga used a Latin translation of the Greek version, which wasprobably added to an epitome of the Recognitiones. Hofmann concluded
that the author of Clemens saga used a Latin text which had made use of

Introductionxxi

the Greek version of the miracle, and suggested that it might have been
the lost part of the life of Clement by Johannes and Gaudericus (Hofmann1997, 144).
III Structure and Style
The saga is divided into two sections, the story of Clement and his family
and an account of Clement’s martyrdom, reflecting the two main sources
used by the compiler, the Recognitiones and the Passio (see section II
above).
There are indications that the compiler/translator adapted his sources
with his audience in mind. It is likely that he supplied the genealogicaldetails of St Clement’s family and background details of Roman history
contained in the introductory chapters to the saga as a parallel to thegenealogical introductions common in Sagas of Icelanders. The genealogicaland historical details do not derive from either of the two main sources.
Dietrich Hofmann (1997, 60–71) investigated the introductory chapters,
and compared them with both Rómverja saga and Veraldar saga andconcluded that the author of Clemens saga knew Rómverja saga and had
used it in his introduction, but that it was uncertain whether he also knew
Veraldar saga.
There are other indications that the saga was adapted for an Icelandic
audience. Icelandic equivalents are used for the names of the Roman gods,
e.g. the Temple of Jupiter (Templum Jovis) is translated ﬁórshof (2/4),
Venus becomes Freyja (44/10), but the planet Venus is translated Friggjar
stjarna (10/6) and Mars becomes T‡r (44/11). Fourteen gods are listed in
Ch. VII though only nine appear in the Latin sources. Not all of the Latincounterparts to the Icelandic names can be identified. Tveitane (1985)
compared the names of gods in various translated Icelandic texts andestablished that the following equivalents were often used: Ó›inn for
Hercules, Gefjun for Diana/Artemis (see Páls saga postola I, 223/16, andHauksbók 241; also for Athene/Minerva, see Trójumanna saga 10, andVenus, see Stjórn 1862, 90), T‡r for Mars (e.g. Páls saga postola II 249/9)
but Freyr and Ó›inn were also identified with Mars (Ó›inn also with
Mercury in the name for Wednesday), and Saturn with Njƒr›r and Freyr(cf. Trójumanna saga 1/3–5: var sá ma›r upp fœddr í ey ﬂeiri í Jórsalahafi
er Krít heitir er Saturnus var kalla›r en vér kƒllum Frey). Sif corresponds
to Juno in Hauksbók and Trójumanna saga (also once to Thetis). The
name of the god Apollo has not been changed in the text of Clemens saga
(4/9), probably because there was no accepted Icelandic equivalent. Latin
equivalents for the gods Heimdallr, Loki, Hœnir, Baldr and Ullr have notxxii

Clemens saga

been identified. The insults in Ch. 7 are reminiscent of those in the Eddic
poem Lokasenna, and that to Freyja of Hjalti’s ‘blasphemy’ in Íslendingabók Ch. 7 (ÍF I 15).
Often the compiler/translator takes the trouble to give the Latin wordcorresponding to the Icelandic he uses in his text, for example he notesthat the Latin noun planeta corresponds to his Icelandic phrase stjƒrnur
ﬂær fimm es lausar fara í lopti (14/16). In the disputation between Clement
and his father Faustinianus in Ch. V the subjects discussed are referred toby their Latin names followed by a definition of their meaning in Icelandic.
In 2/11–12 explanation is included of the derivation of the names of thetwo months July and August, although this could have been taken fromanother source; a similar treatment is found in Veraldar saga 1944, 49
and 50. When reference is made to the island of Cyprus a note is added to
explain that it is known to Northmen by the name Kípr (10/24).
The story of Clement and his family has been adapted from the first
person of its ultimate Latin source text, and told mainly in the third person,with only a few episodes being related by the characters in first-person
narration. In relating the misfortunes of the various members of Clement’s
family the writer departs from the normal Icelandic method of strictly
chronological narrative.
Among the points of style that can be noted are the following. There are
abrupt transitions from indirect to direct speech, e.g. 36/29–31, 38/20–21,
a phenomenon found frequently in native saga writing or the ‘popular’saga style. Word pairs are used on occasion to translate a single Latin
word, for example spakr ma›r ok vitr 44/30, illa ok herfiliga (for theLatin misere) 36/7. There is alliteration in the list of pagan gods, whereverbs alliterate with the name of the gods (44/9–13). The alliterating wordpair happs ok heilsu occurs in 32/6.
In his paper ‘Learned style or saga style?’ (1981) Jónas Kristjánsson
examined the features of learned style identified by Nygaard (1896) that
occur in the oldest surviving texts of saints’ lives, including Clemens saga.
Of the examples of learned style he listed, about the only one from Clemenssaga, and then not a distinctive one, was the use of the present participle
unnandi in 34/27, and he concluded that this saga showed almost no
characteristics of learned style. It was written before it became the fashion
to rewrite and expand existing translations in the florid style, and its styleis more in keeping with the ‘popular’ style of native sagas than with thelearned style of later translated texts.

Introductionxxiii

IV Manuscripts
Clemens saga is extant almost complete in Icelandic in only one manuscript.
It is one of a number of saints’ lives contained in AM 645 4to (edited in
diplomatic transcript by Ludwig Larsson (1885) and in facsimile by Anne
Holtsmark (1938); a normalised text of Clemens saga was edited by Carl
Unger in Postola sögur 1874, 126–51 as an appendix to Pétrs saga postola I).
AM 645 4to was written in the first half of the thirteenth century and now
contains sixty-six folios, comprising two parts, an older (ff.1–42), datedc. 1220, and a later (ff. 43–66), dated c. 1225–50 (Ordbog 1989, 458),
which were originally parts of separate manuscripts later bound together
in one volume.The older section of the manuscript contains Jarteinabók
ﬁorláks biskups (Book of the miracles of St ﬁorlákr, bishop of Skálholt
1178–93), Clemens saga, Pétrs saga postola, Jakobs saga postola (Lifeof St James the Greater), Bartholomeus saga postola (Life of St
Bartholomew), Mattheus saga postola (Life of St Matthew), Andreas saga
postola (Life of St Andrew). Clemens saga is on ff. 11v–24v. The later
section includes a fragment of a different version of Andreas saga fromthat included in the older section, Páls saga postola (Life of St Paul),Ni›rstigningar saga (Gospel of Nicodemus) and Marteins saga biskups(Life of St Martin of Tours).
The first three quires (ff. 1–24) are followed by a lacuna where it isbelieved that nine leaves have been lost (Larsson 1885, viii–x; Ólafur
Halldórsson 1994, xiii). The end of Clemens saga and the beginning of
Pétrs saga postola are missing.
There also survives a manuscript fragment in AM 655 XXVIII a 4to,f. 1, dated to the second half of the thirteenth century by Hreinn
Benediktsson (1965, xlvi; transcription in Carron [1994]), containing theparts of the Passio section of Clemens saga corresponding to 38/27–42/34
and 44/4–50/4 in this edition. Comparison of the text of the fragment withthe corresponding text of AM 645 4to reveals that the text in the fragment
is shorter. For example:
En er allir svƒruﬂu ﬂeir er hiá vru ok kvﬂu amen ﬂá lukusk ﬂegar upp augu
Sisinnius ok eyru. (Clemens saga 40/2–3)
En er allir svƒruﬂu kvﬂu amen ﬂá lukusk upp augu Sisinnii ok eyru. (AM655 XXVIII a 4to f. 1r)
Cumque omnes responderunt: Amen, aperti sunt oculi Sisinnii, itemque aures.
(Martyrium S. Clementis Ch. 9, PG 2, col. 622)

xxiv

Clemens saga

En ﬂá ﬂóttusk ﬂrælar hans draga Clemens páfa aptr ok fram at strætum sicut
Sisinnius bauﬂ ﬂeim, herri ﬂeira. En ﬂar hlífﬂi Guﬂ heilagr Clemens páfa ástvinsínum, ok drógu ﬂeir eptir sér of stræti stokka ok steina. Ok svá s‡ndisk Sisinnio
sem ﬂrælum hans at ﬂeir drœgi ﬂar Clemens páfa. En ﬂeir inir sƒmu hlœgismenn
es eigi vissu hvat ﬂeir gerﬂu ok hlógu svá at honum sem at bandingia. En
Sisinnius kvazk bana skyldu honum sem galdramƒnnum. (Clemens saga
40/10–17)
En ﬂrælarnir geyrﬂu svá sem ﬂeim v[a]r bo›it [at] ﬂví er ﬂeim s‡ndisk okﬂóttusk draga Clementem páfa út ok inn. En ﬂar drógu ﬂeir steinsulu eina. Svás‡ndisk ok Sisinnio ok hló hann at honum sem at bandingia ok kvaﬂsk banamundu honum sem galdra mƒnnum. (AM 655 4to XXVIIIA 1r)
Illi vero, quos jusserat Clementem constringere ac trahere, ipsi columnas
adjacentes ligabant et trahebant; aliquando quidem ex interioribus ad exteriora,
aliquando vero ab exterioribus ad interiora: hoc autem ipsi etiam Sisinnio
videbatur, quod sanctum Clementem ligatum tenerent ac traherent. (Martyrium
S. Clementis Ch. 10, PG 2, col. 623)

AM 655 XXVIII a 4to is closer to the Latin text than AM 645 4to,translating Latin columnas with steinsulu ‘stone column’ and lacking thealliterating word pair stokka oc steina found in AM 645 4to.
It is not possible to know whether the manuscript of which this fragment
was once a part also included the story of St Clement and his family orjust the Passio section, but it provides evidence that an abridged versionof this section at least existed in the later thirteenth century.
V Date of the manuscript
In his edition of Mattheus saga Ólafur Halldórsson (1994, xxvii) showedthat the first part of AM 645 4to could not have been written before 1200.
This dating is based on the fact that the text of Jarteinabók ﬁorláks biskups,
which precedes Clemens saga in AM 645 4to, refers in Ch. 41 to theAlﬂingi (General Assembly) in the summer of 1199 at which Bishop Páll
read aloud the miracles of ﬁorlákr and in Ch. 44 tells of a miracle which
took place the second winter following Bishop ﬁorlákr’s translation on
20 July 1198, which places this event in the winter of 1199. Ólafur qualified
this dating by pointing out that Ch. 43 of the Jarteinabók referred to a
winter mass day for Bishop ﬁorlákr, which implies that there alreadyexisted a summer mass day on 20 July, which according to the annals was
only adopted into the law at the Alﬂingi of 1237. Ólafur thought it possiblethat both summer and winter masses could have been celebrated bychurches before the summer mass became established in law, so that thedate 1237 cannot be used with any certainty as the terminus post quem.

Introduction

xxv

Ludwig Larsson (1885, lxxxvi) dated AM 645 4to between 1225 and 1250,
and the orthographical features imply a date of composition in the firsthalf of the thirteenth century. Ólafur Halldórsson supported this with thefollowing observations. The scribe uses both the forms es and er, thepreposition úr is sometimes spelt ‡r, ﬂ is always written for both › and ﬂ,
both fyrir and yfir are spelt with i rather than y and there is no overall
consistency in distinguishing final › and t in unstressed endings. Ordbog
1989, 458 dates the first part to c. 1220. If this is correct, the contents ofthe first part of the manuscript may have been translated in Iceland c. 1200,
or even some time in the second half of the twelfth century. They would
then be among the oldest sagas written in Iceland.
VI Normalisation of the text
A number of the orthographic features of the manuscript have been retained
because they illustrate the scribal conventions of the time it was written
and indicate the date of the manuscript, for example  has been used for
u-mutation of á (later the two merged as á), and ﬂ has been retained for ›throughout.
Abbreviations have been silently expanded. Abbreviations of Latinwords such as non, sed, dominus used as abbreviations for common
Icelandic words have been translated; other Latin words have been retained.
Roman numerals have been translated into Icelandic.
Punctuation and paragraphing have been introduced to make the text
easier to read. Capitals are used for proper names. The chapter divisions
used by Unger in his edition have been followed.
Pointed brackets < > indicate that words or letters accidentally omitted
by a copyist have been supplied by the editor. Square brackets [ ] are used
for words that can no longer be read because of the state of the manuscript,
but which can be reasonably assumed to have been written by the scribe.
Where text was legible when Ludwig Larsson made his diplomatictranscript of AM 645 4to square brackets have not been used.

xxvi

Clemens saga
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CLEMENS SAGA
THE LIFE OF ST CLEMENT

<CLEMENS SAGA>
I

3

6

9

12

15

18

21

Iulius hét inn fyrsti keiseri yfir ƒllum heimi ok af honum hafa allir
Rúmaborgarkonungar ﬂat nafn tekit síﬂan. Iulius hét ƒﬂru namni Gaius.
Hann var fimm vetr einvaldi Rúmaborgarveldis. Hann vgu ﬂeir Brutus
ok Cassius í ﬁórshofi í Rúmaborg ok margir aﬂrir ríkismenn meﬂ ﬂeim
veittu áverk honum svát hann hafﬂi alls hálfan ﬂriﬂia tøg sára á sér.
Systir Iulii hét Activa en hennar dóttir hét Octovia. Sonr Octov<i>e hét
Octov<i>anus es ƒﬂru namni var kallaﬂr Augustus. Hann hafﬂi veldi ifirƒllum heimi næstr eptir Iulium ok af honum er síﬂan Augustus kallaﬂr
hverr ifirkonungr Rúmaveldis. Augustus réﬂ firir Rúmaborgarríki sex
vetr ins sétta tegar. Hann setti friﬂ of allan heim ok á hans dƒgum var
Christus natus í ﬂenna heim. Af ﬂessum keiserum tveim hafa namn tekit
bókmánaﬂir tveir Julius ok Augustus.
Systrungar Augusti vru fratres ﬂrír: Flavius es Clemens var kallaﬂr
ok gƒfgastr var allra Rúmveria undir Augusto keisera, en annarr
Faustinianus es frá mun verﬂa sagt, ﬂriﬂi var Bassus es verstr var ﬂeira
brœﬂra. Systir ﬂeira brœﬂra var Plautilla es léﬂi Páli postola hƒfu<ﬂ>dúks
síns ﬂá er hann var leiddr til hƒggs. Hennar geldingar vru ﬂeir Nereus
ok Achilleus es trú rétta tóku af kenningu Pétrs postola. ﬁá setti Plautilla
til at ﬂióna dóttur sinni er hét [Fla]via Domitilla ok af ﬂeira orﬂum varﬂ
Flavia kristin. En ﬂeir vru báﬂir píndir firir Guﬂs sakar ok es messudagr
ﬂeira viku eptir Crucis messu á várit.
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Faustinianus hafﬂi veldi mikit undir Augustus keisera ok hann var settrhƒfﬂingi ƒldunga í Rúmaborg ok hann hafﬂi forráﬂ heraﬂa es liggia ínónd viﬂ Antiochia, S‡rlands hƒfuﬂborg. Kona hans hét Mathidia,
rúmversk at kyni. Hon var forkundliga væn at ifirliti ok ráﬂvƒnd harﬂla
ok vel viti borin, ok var iﬂin at blóta heiﬂin goﬂ. Maﬂr hennar var algerr
at sér at allri veraldarspekﬂ. Hann blótaﬂi skurgoﬂ at siﬂ Rúmveria, en
eigi af alhuga firir ﬂví at hann trúﬂi raunar einn vera almáttkan Guﬂ.
ﬁau Faustinianus ok Mathidia ttu ﬂriá sonu. Einn hét Faustus, annarr
Faustinus, inn ﬂriﬂi var heitinn eptir fƒﬂurbróﬂur sínum ok hét Clemens.
20 Flavio

24 Antiocho

THE LIFE OF ST CLEMENTI
The first emperor over all the world was called Julius and all kings ofRome have since taken that name from him. Julius had Gaius as his othername. For five years he was sole ruler of the Roman Empire. Brutus andCassius slew him in the Temple of ﬁórr in Rome and there were manyother men of rank with them who inflicted wounds on him so that in all he
had twenty-five wounds on his body. Julius’s sister was called Activa andher daughter was called Octovia. Octovia’s son was called Octovianus,
who was called Augustus by his other name. He had authority over thewhole world next after Julius and each supreme king of the Roman Empire
has since been called Augustus after him. Augustus ruled over the Roman
Empire for fifty-six years. He established peace throughout all the world
and in his days Christ was born into this world. From these two emperors
the two Latin months July and August have taken their names.
Three brothers were Augustus’s cousins on his mother's side: Flavius,
who was called Clement and was the noblest of all Romans under theEmperor Augustus, and the second was Faustinianus who will be told
about later; the third was Bassus who was the worst of the brothers. The
brothers’ sister was Plautilla who lent the Apostle Paul her headscarf when
he was taken to be beheaded. Nereus and Achilleus who received the true
faith from the teaching of the Apostle Peter were her eunuchs. Plautilla
appointed them to attend her daughter who was called Flavia Domitilla,
and because of what they said Flavia became Christian. And they wereboth martyred for God’s sake and their feastday is a week after Cross
Mass in the spring.
II
Faustinianus held great authority under the Emperor Augustus and he
was appointed leader of the senators in Rome and he had stewardship ofdistricts which lie in the neighbourhood of Antioch, the capital city of
Syria. His wife was called Mathidia, Roman by birth. She was extremely
beautiful in appearance, and very upright and very intelligent, and was
assiduous in worshipping heathen gods. Her husband was fully endowedwith all worldly wisdom. He worshipped carven images in accordancewith the Roman custom, but not wholeheartedly because he really believedin the existence of one almighty God.
Faustinianus and Mathidia had three sons. One was called Faustus, thesecond Faustinus, the third was named after his father’s brother and called

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En er ﬂeir vru komnir ór barnœsku ﬂá tók Bassus fƒﬂurbróﬂir ﬂeira at
leggia girndarhug á Mathidiam móﬂur ﬂeira ok bróﬂurkonu sína, okleitaﬂi hann til ﬂess meﬂ fiƒlkyngi sinni ef hann mætti blekkia hana. En
er hon fann vilia hans óhœfan viﬂ sik, alls hon var ráﬂvƒnd kona, ﬂáleitaﬂi hon sér ráﬂs hvé hon mætti st‡ra bazt undan illsku hans. Hon bió
sik at ﬂeim hætti sem hon var vƒn at búask ﬂá er hon hafﬂisk at blótum
ok gekk síﬂan á málstefnu viﬂ búanda sinn ok mælti viﬂ hann:‘Mér hefir lengi verit áhyggia at hvat leggiask muni firir sonu okkra.
Ek gekk of dag svá búin sem nú em ek í musteri sólargoﬂs es Apolloheitir ok aldregi mun liúga. Ek fœrﬂa ﬂar fórnir sólargoﬂi ok fréttak at
síﬂan hvat leggiask mundu firir sonu mína. En ek fekk ﬂar ﬂvílík svƒr:“Takﬂu sonu ﬂína tvá, Faustum ok Faustinum, ok bú ﬂá til farar ok far
meﬂ ﬂá til S‡rlands ok sel ﬂá til fóstr
 inum fróﬂustum spekingum.
ﬁeir munu verﬂa gƒfgir kennimenn. En Clemens sonr ﬂinn skal vera
heima meﬂ feﬂr sínum til huggunar honum ok mun at honum vegr verafrændum hans ok ƒllum Rúmaborgar l‡ﬂ at eilífu.”’Viﬂ ﬂessi orﬂ varﬂ Faustinianus dapr harﬂla ok svaraﬂi af móﬂi miklum
ok mælti:‘Ef ﬂat er Guﬂs firirhyggia at svá skyli verﬂa sem ﬂú segir, ﬂá má engi
ﬂví hnekkia.’
Síﬂan bió hann skip gott ok gekk ﬂar á kona hans ok synir hans tveir
inir ellri meﬂ fiárhlutum miklu<m> ok fƒruneyti vegligu.
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ﬁeim fórsk vel unz ﬂeir liﬂu umb Sikiley. ﬁau fóru í nónd viﬂ borg ﬂá es
Patera heitir ok Nicholaus byskup var síﬂan natus í. ﬁar tók ﬂauútsynningr steinóﬂr ok keyrﬂi of nótt at eyiu ﬂeiri es Corpho heitir. ﬁarleysti skip allt í sundr undir ﬂeim ok fiárhlutir allir ok menn nema
Mathidia ok synir hennar. ﬁau ein hƒfﬂu líf. Hon fylgﬂi skipsborﬂi
nøkkveriu til lands ok gekk síﬂan á land upp. Hon kom of miﬂnætti til
húss einnar auﬂigs manns konu ok var ﬂar tekit vel viﬂ henni. ﬁeir Faustus
ok Faustinus stu á skipsflaki, ok es l‡sa tók ﬂá s ﬂeir fara í nónd sér
víkingaskip. ﬁeir le<i>tƒﬂu sér ráﬂs sín á milli hvat tiltœkiligast væri. ﬁámælti Faustus viﬂ Faustinum bróﬂur sinn:‘ﬁessir menn munu taka okkr ok selia mansali. Gefum vit okkr nƒmnƒnnur en vit eigum áﬂr. Ek mu<n> nemnask Niceta, en ﬂú skalt heita
Aquila.’

The Life of St Clement

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Clement. And when they were grown out of childhood, then Bassus, theirfather’s brother, began to lust after Mathidia their mother and his brother’swife, and he attempted to see whether he could seduce her with his sorcery.
And when she noticed his unseemly feelings towards her, since she wasan upright woman, she tried to think of ways by which she might best
escape his wickedness. She made herself ready in the way in which she
usually prepared herself when she engaged in worship and then went totalk with her husband and said to him:
‘For a long time I have been concerned about what our sons’ future willbe. I went during the day, dressed as I am now, into the temple of the Sun
God who is called Apollo and will never lie. I brought offerings there to
the Sun God and afterwards I asked what the future would be for my sons.
And I received there these answers: “Take your two sons, Faustus andFaustinus, and prepare them for a journey and go with them to Syria andhand them over to be brought up by the wisest philosophers. They will
become distinguished teachers. But your son Clement must remain at homewith his father as a consolation to him and he will bring honour to his
kinsmen and all the people of Rome for ever.” ’At these words Faustinianus became very unhappy and answered ingreat sadness and said:‘If it is God’s intention that it should be as you say, then no one canprevent it.’
Then he made ready a good ship, and his wife and his two elder sonsboarded it with much treasure and a magnificent retinue.
III
Their voyage went well until they passed round Sicily. They sailed close
to the city which is called Patera and in which Bishop Nicholas was laterborn. There a violent southwesterly gale caught them and swept themduring the night to the island called Corfu. There the whole ship broke up
beneath them and all goods and people except Mathidia and her sons. They
alone survived. She came to land with the help of a ship’s plank and thenwalked up ashore. She came at midnight to the house of a wealthy man’s
wife and she was received well there. Faustus and Faustinus sat on a pieceof the wreckage, and when it began to grow light then they saw a pirate ship
sailing near them. They discussed between themselves what would be
most practical for them to do. Then Faustus said to his brother Faustinus:‘These men will seize us and sell us as slaves. Let us give ourselves
other names than we already have. I shall call myself Niceta, and you
shall be called Aquila.’

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Síﬂan gripu víkingar sveina ﬂessa báﬂa ok hƒfﬂu ﬂá út of haf til
Iórsalalands. ﬁeir seldu ﬂá í siáborg ﬂeiri es Cesarea heitir húsfreyiu
auﬂigri, ok hét sú Iusta ok var Gyﬂinga kyns. En húsfreyia sú lagﬂi stmikla á sveinana ok gerﬂi ﬂá sér at óskbƒrnum. Hon seldi ﬂá til læringar
Símoni inum fiƒ<l>kunga af Samaria es kraptr Guﬂs almáttigs lézk vera.
En er ﬂeir hƒfﬂu numit allar íﬂróttir hans ﬂá fundu ﬂeir at hann loddi
flærﬂ einni saman ok illsku. ﬁeir hliópusk á braut frá Símoni inum illa
ok sóttu fund Pétrs postola. Hann tók viﬂ ﬂeim vel ok kenndi ﬂeim
kristinn dóm ok gerﬂusk ﬂeir ﬂá hans lærisveinar.
Mathidia hafﬂi virﬂingar góﬂar af húsfreyiu ﬂeiri es viﬂ henni hafﬂi
tekit. Hon var búin ítarliga fyrst ﬂá er hon kom ór skipsbroti til hússhennar, ok ﬂóttisk húsfreyia ﬂaﬂan af vita at hon myndi gƒfugmennivera. Hon mælti of dag viﬂ hana:‘ﬁat ﬂykiumk ek siá á ﬂér at ﬂú munt kynstór kona vera. ﬁú ert alvæn
ifirliz, látuﬂ vel ok vitrmál harﬂla, enda er hannørﬂ á hvívetna ﬂví es ﬂú
tekr ﬂínum hƒndum til at gera. Nú vil ek at ﬂú gerir mér húsbúnuﬂ okbúir klæﬂi es menn munu bera at hƒndum ﬂér ok mun ﬂér ﬂat allt saman
verﬂa gott til fiár.’
Mathidia gerﬂi sem hon var beﬂin. ﬁaﬂan frá bru menn at henni klæﬂimƒrg til gerﬂar. En hon gerﬂi svá at hverium var vel at skapi ﬂeim es
átti. ﬁat varﬂ of unga menn es s hana ok ásiónu hennar ok hannørﬂir áhverian veg vel gervar ok heyrﬂu orﬂalag hennar vitrligt at ﬂeir lƒgﬂu áhana ástarhug mikinn. En hon veik undan at hafa ﬂ‡ﬂleik ne einn viﬂﬂá, en ﬂeir kostgæfﬂu eigi at miﬂr at geta st af henni. En ﬂat varﬂ henni
firir of dag at hon fór í fiƒru ok tók steina hvassa ok barﬂi ﬂeim í andlit
sér svát hon varﬂ ƒll blá ok blóﬂug of andlit. Síﬂan tók hon hinnu ﬂunna
eﬂa roﬂ af fiski ok ﬂanﬂi of andlit sér ok gerﬂi sik sem endimligsta á at
siá. Hon meiddi ok hendr sínar meﬂ grióti at hon var til engrar s‡slu fœrﬂeirar es vanda skyldi. Síﬂan fór hon til herbergis síns ok lézk vera
orﬂin firir vanheilsu. En ﬂat harmaﬂi húsfreyia hennar fyrst ákafliga ok
gerﬂi viﬂ hana vel ok miskunnsamliga of stundar sakar. En ﬂaﬂan frá
leiﬂ eigi langt unz hon lagﬂi á viﬂ hana órœkﬂ mikla ok gaf at henni
engi gaum.
Mathidia fann ﬂat brátt at ﬂá mátti ekki ﬂar lengr vera viﬂ vanheilsu
ﬂá es hon hafﬂi. ﬁá fór hon braut ór ﬂorpi ﬂví ok gekk til sævar. ﬁá sá
hon hús lítit ﬂat riúka. ﬁat lauk hon upp ok hitti ﬂar konu eina fátœkia es
sat viﬂ glœﬂr ok kvaddi hon ﬂá fyrri. Hon svaraﬂi ok mælti:The Life of St Clement

7

Afterwards the pirates seized both these boys and carried them off overthe sea to Palestine. They then sold them in the sea town which is called
Cesarea to a rich lady, and she was called Justa and was of Jewish family.
And this lady came to love the boys greatly and made them her adoptive
children. For their education she handed them over to Simon the Mage ofSamaria who claimed to be the power of Almighty God. And when they
had learnt all his skills then they realised that he held fast to nothing but
deceit and wickedness. They ran away from Simon the Evil and went to
see the Apostle Peter. He welcomed them and taught them Christianity
and they then became his disciples.
Mathidia was treated decently by the housewife who had taken her in.
She was finely dressed at first when she came to her house from the
shipwreck, and the housewife thought that she could tell from this that
she must be a person of rank. She spoke to her one day:‘I think that I can see from looking at you that you must be a high-bornwoman. You have a very fair appearance, are well-mannered and are
extremely wise in speech, moreover there is skill in whatever you set
your hands to do. Now I should like you to make me hangings for thehouse and make up cloth that people will bring to you and altogether thiswill make a good source of income for you.’
Mathidia did as she was asked. From then on people brought many
clothes to her for sewing. And she sewed them so that everyone was very
pleased who owned them. It happened with young men who saw her andher appearance and her fine work in every way well made, and heard her
sensible way of speaking, that they fell deeply in love with her. And she
avoided having any familiarity with them, but they strove none the less to
win love from her. And she ended up going to the beach one day and picking
up sharp stones and beating them on her face so that she was all blue andbloody in her face. Then she took a thin membrane or skin of a fish andstretched it across her face and made herself as outlandish as possible tolook at. She also injured her hands with stones so that she was incapable ofdoing anything that required intricate work. Then she went to her room andsaid that she had fallen ill. And her housewife was extremely upset about
her at first and treated her well and kindly for a while. But from then on it
was not long before she began to neglect her badly and paid no heed to her.
Mathidia soon realised that she could no longer remain there in her
poor state of health. Then she left that village and walked to the sea. Thenshe saw smoke rising a little from a house. She opened it and found a poor
woman there who was sitting by the embers, and she greeted her first. She
answered and said:

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‘Vel ﬂú komin, dróttning mín. Allt mitt skal ﬂitt vera. Ertu húsfreyia
en rúmverska, sú er komt ein á land ﬂá er allt fƒruneyti ﬂitt fórsk? Mikill
harmr es ﬂat er ﬂú ert svá aum orﬂin. Vestu meﬂ mér svá lengi sem ﬂúvill ok skaldu ein ƒllu ráﬂa ﬂví es ek á.’
ﬁeim orﬂum varﬂ Mathidia svá fegin at hon felldi tr. Síﬂan mælti
hon viﬂ ﬂá es firir bió:
‘Fir hví es ﬂú komin í kot ﬂetta?’
Hon svaraﬂi: ‘Firir nøkkverium vetrum missta ek búanda míns svát vit
ttum engi erfingia, en ek vilda ein vera firir mér eptir dag hans. Fór ek af
ﬂví á braut ór borg ok bƒrluﬂumk hér firir. Nú á ek akr nekkvern ok fá ﬂá
sauﬂi til atvinnu mér. Ek hefi nú fengit líkﬂr ok má ek nú ekki at hafask.’ﬁá mælti Mathidia: ‘Ek mun vera hér ok hugga ﬂik ok ﬂióna ﬂér unz
enn koma betri dagar ifir okkr.’
En frá ﬂeim degi fór Mathidia of ﬂorp ok borgir ok baﬂ firir ﬂær matarok burgusk ﬂær ﬂá viﬂ ﬂat. Í ﬂeim staﬂ hƒfﬂusk ﬂær viﬂ lítils vant tuttugu
vetr unz ﬂær fingu miskunn af fundi ins helga Pétrs postola sem síﬂarr
mun frá verﬂa sagt nakkvat.
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Nú skal ﬂar til máls at taka es Faustinianus, faﬂir ﬂeira brœﬂra Faustus
ok Faustinus, ﬂá er hann spurﬂi tíﬂindi ﬂessi at skip ﬂat hafﬂi farizk viﬂCorpho es kona hans var á ok sønir, hann hugﬂi at ﬂau mundu ƒll ﬂar
tapazk hafa. Hann kunni ﬂví svá illa at hann lagﬂisk í rekkiu af ok ﬂóttinær sem hann væri af viti ginginn í harmi sínum. ﬁá fór Bassus bróﬂir
hans til fundar viﬂ hann ok lét megingóﬂvættliga, en illt bió undir. Hann
kvaddi bróﬂur sinn blíﬂliga ok mælti:‘Sé ek bróﬂir at ﬂú ert dapr harﬂla af mannamissi ﬂeim es ﬂú hyggsk
fenginn hafa. En hitt er ráﬂ at huggask ok gerask staﬂramr viﬂ ﬂótt ﬂérﬂyki eigi allt at vilia ﬂínum siálfs ganga. Kona ﬂín hefir komit á landmeﬂ miklu<m> fiárhlutum ok es nú í austrhlfu heims langt á braut ‡r
Rúmveriaveldi. Hon es nú gefin einum ﬂræli sínum ﬂeim es lengi hefir
virkﬂamaﬂr hennar verit.’Viﬂ ﬂessi tíﬂendi varﬂ Faustinianus styggr miƒk ok mátti lengi eigi
orﬂi upp koma. Hann settisk upp ok mælti:‘Hvat ætlar ﬂú, bróﬂir, hver stiarna ﬂví mun valda meﬂ skƒpum er svá
illa hefir snúizk skap konu minnar?’
15 vartThe Life of St Clement9‘Welcome, my mistress. Everything of mine shall be yours. Are you
the Roman lady who came ashore alone when all your companions
perished? It is a great sorrow that you have become so wretched. Staywith me as long as you wish, and you alone shall manage all that I have.’At these words Mathidia was so happy that she shed tears. Then she
said to the woman who dwelt there:‘Why have you come to this cottage?’
She answered: ‘Some winters ago I lost my husband without our having
any heirs, and I wanted to be on my own after his time. So I left the cityand struggled to get along here. Now I own a field and these few sheep formy livelihood. I have now caught leprosy and I am now unable to do
anything.’
Then Mathidia said: ‘I will stay here and comfort you and look after
you until better days come for us again.’And from that day Mathidia went throughout villages and towns andbegged for food for them and they managed to survive on that. They lived
in that place a little short of twenty years until they had the good fortune
to meet the Blessed Apostle Peter about which something will be told later.
IV
Now we shall take up the story again at the point where Faustinianus, thefather of the brothers Faustus and Faustinus, when he heard this news thatthe ship had been lost off Corfu which his wife and sons were aboard, hethought that they must all have perished there. He felt so distressed bythis that he took to his bed and it seemed almost as if he had lost his
reason in his sorrow. Then his brother Bassus went to see him and spokevery kindly, but there was evil behind it. He greeted his brother cheerfully
and said:‘I see, brother, that you are extremely sad on account of the bereavements
which you believe you have suffered. But it is more sensible to be
comforted and make yourself steadfast though it seems to you everything
does not go according to your own wishes. Your wife has come ashorewith much treasure and is now in the eastern part of the world far awayfrom the Roman Empire. She is now wedded to one of her slaves who has
been her favourite for a long time.’
At this news Faustinianus became very upset and for a long time was
not able to utter a word. He sat up and said:‘What do you think, brother, which star by destiny can be the cause thatmy wife’s disposition has changed so much for the worse?’

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Bassus mælti: ‘Gƒngum vit í virkﬂahús ﬂat es vit eigum ok allrstiƒrnugangr es markaﬂr í.’
En er ﬂeir vru ﬂangat komnir ﬂá mælti Bassus: ‘Sér ﬂú nú hér bróﬂir
hversu stiƒrnurnar ganga?’
Hann svaraﬂi: ‘Víst sé ek.’
Bassus mælti: ‘ﬁikistu skilia mega hvar Friggiar stiarna mun staﬂit
hafa á getnaﬂartíﬂ eﬂa burﬂartíﬂ konu ﬂinnar?’
Faustinianus mælti: ‘Ekki má ek ætlun á slíkt koma firir harmi ﬂeim
es ek hefik beﬂit.’ﬁá mælti Bassus: ‘ﬁat ﬂykiumk ek vita at á burﬂartíﬂ konu ﬂinnar
mun Friggiar stiarna staﬂit hafa í ﬂeim staﬂ sem sól kømr upp ﬂá er dagr
es skemstr. En sú kona es svá verﬂr borin má at øngum kosti ráﬂvƒndvera ef hon verﬂr fulltíﬂa.’
Viﬂ ﬂessi orﬂ varﬂ Faustinianus ókvæﬂi meﬂ ƒllu ok viﬂ ﬂat es hanndixit slíkt ok vildi hann ekki lengr rœﬂa viﬂ bróﬂur sinn. Hann tók atheita á inn eina Guﬂ at hann skyldi ﬂví skióta í hug honum es honum
gegndi helzt hvat hann legﬂi firir sik ﬂaﬂan frá. ﬁá minntisk hann á ﬂatat hann hafﬂi veldi ifir heruﬂum ﬂeim es liggia viﬂ Anﬂekiu. Honumﬂótti ok ﬂaﬂra glíkligast til at hann møndi nakkvat mega spyria til konu
sinnar eﬂa sona. Síﬂan bió hann skip mikit ok skrautligt harﬂla ok gekk
ﬂar á skip ipse meﬂ fƒruneyti miklu. Hann helt skipi ﬂví í Grikklandshaf
ok horfﬂisk fyrst miƒk vænliga á á farlengﬂ hans, en hinn veg lauk ﬂó atof nótt keyrﬂi skip ﬂat í óﬂaveﬂri at biƒrgum nøkkverium í ey ﬂeiri es
Ciprus heitir ok Norﬂmenn kalla Kípr. ﬁá brotnaﬂi skip ﬂat allt í sundr
ok t‡ndusk fiárhlutir allir ﬂeir es á skipinu vru ok engi maﬂr komsk áland nema Faustinianus einn ok varﬂ honum viﬂ bana siálfan. En erhann tók hvíld á landi ok l‡sa tók ﬂá kenndi hann hvar hann var kominn.
Hann gekk í borg nøkkvera litla ok fekk hann ﬂar góﬂar viﬂtƒkur, enengi maﬂr kenndi hann ﬂar. Hann gekk ﬂar í s‡slu mikla ok gerﬂisk
hann ﬂar varﬂmaﬂr í borg ﬂeiri. ﬁá s‡slu hafﬂi hann átián vetr eﬂa litlu
miﬂr unz ﬂingat kom Petrus postoli ok kenndi honum trú rétta.
V33

Á ári inu ﬂriﬂia eptir píning Dróttins ok á inu tíunda ári veldis Tiberii
keisera ﬂá kom Barnabas postoli af Iórsalalandi á skipi til Rúmaborgarok fór of nótt í stiga upp í borgina. Ok tók hann ﬂegar inn sama dag at
bióﬂa trú rétta ok sanna es hann kom í borgina. En menn lƒgﬂu eigi

The Life of St Clement

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Bassus said: ‘Let us go into the special room which we have and inwhich the whole course of the stars is marked.’
And when they had come there, then Bassus said: ‘Do you see here
now, brother, how the stars go?’He answered: ‘Indeed I see.’
Bassus said: ‘Do you think you can work out where the star of Frigg
will have been at the time of your wife’s conception or birth?’
Faustinianus said: ‘I cannot calculate such a thing because of the sorrow
I have suffered.’
Then Bassus said: ‘I feel certain that at the time of your wife’s birth thestar of Frigg must have been in the position where the sun rises when day
is shortest. And the woman who is born thus can by no means be uprightif she becomes adult.’
At these words Faustinianus became utterly speechless and because hesaid these things, then he would not talk further with his brother. He began
to pray to the one God that he might put into his mind the best course forhim to follow from then on. Then he remembered that he had authority
over those regions which lie near Antioch. He also thought it most likelythat he would be able to hear some news of his wife or his sons there.
Then he prepared a large and very splendid ship and boarded the ship
himself with a large company. He sailed the ship into the Ægean Sea andat first his voyage promised very well, but it ended otherwise, however,that the ship was driven during the night in a violent gale onto certain
cliffs on the island which is called Ciprus and which the Northmen call
Kípr. Then the ship broke up completely and all the goods that were on
the ship were lost and no one got ashore except only Faustinianus, and he
was close to death itself. And when he had had a rest on the shore anddawn broke he recognised where he had come. He walked to a certain
small town and was made welcome there, but no one there knew him. He
took on important work there and he became watchman in the town. He
held that position for eighteen years or a little less until the Apostle Peter
came there and taught him the true faith.

V
In the third year after the Passion of Christ and in the tenth year of thereign of the Emperor Tiberius, the Apostle Barnabas came by ship from
Palestine to Rome and in the night climbed up a ladder into the city. And
on the same day he got into the city he at once began to preach the rightand true faith. But the men who listened did not have a high opinion of his

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miklar virﬂingar á tƒlur hans ﬂeir es til hl‡ddu. ﬁar kom fram maﬂr ungr
ok búinn ítarliga meﬂ ríﬂerasveit mikla ok kvaddi sér hlióﬂs. En hannhóf svá mál sitt:‘Hví verﬂr yﬂr ﬂat firir Rúmverium at gera í gegn borgarsiﬂ ok lƒgum
órum ok taka eigi betr viﬂ ørendreka Guﬂs, ﬂeim es boﬂar hilp okheilsu ƒllum heimi at ﬂví er ek hygg?’ﬁá gafsk hlióﬂ gott af alﬂ‡ﬂu. Síﬂan laut sá inn ungi maﬂr Barnabe
postola ok kvaddi hann á ﬂessa lund:‘Heilldu ok vel kominn sanctus postoli Guﬂs Domini nostri Jesu
Christi! Segﬂu oss frá hingatkomu Christi í ﬂenna heim ok frá burﬂhans ok tknum ﬂeim es hann gerﬂi ok frá kenningum, frá píningu hans
ok upprisu af dauﬂa, frá uppsti<g>ning til himna ok frá tilkomu Sancti
Spiritus es hann gaf postolum sínum. Ok svá vilium vér at ﬂú segir oss
frá annarri hingatkomu hans, ﬂá er hann skal koma í enda veraldar atdœma of allt mannkyn ok láta hvern hafa ﬂat es til gørir meﬂ Guﬂs
miskunn.’ﬁá tók Barnabas postoli at greiﬂa ﬂat mál allt sem hann var beiddr, okhl‡ddi ﬂá ƒll alﬂ‡ﬂa vel unz hann lauk kenningu sinni sem hann vildi.
Síﬂan tók sá inn ungi maﬂr viﬂ honum í herbergi sínu ok fekk honumalla reiﬂu gnógliga ok boﬂaﬂi ﬂingat ﬂeim mƒnnum ƒllum es heyra vildu
orﬂ Guﬂs.
Fm dƒgum síﬂarr mælti sá inn ungi húsbúandi viﬂ Barnaban postola:‘Ek vil segia ﬂér deili á mér ok á kyni mínu. Ek heiti Clemens en faﬂir
minn Faustinianus, systrungr Augustus keisera. Ek varﬂveiti at forráﬂi
fƒﬂur míns alla fƒﬂurleifﬂ mína ok emk nú hálfﬂrítøgr maﬂr at aldri. Núvilia menn, sem ﬂú sér ipse, eigi miƒk skipask viﬂ kenningar ﬂínar ok
má vera at sé af ﬂví at ﬂér sé heldr annarstaﬂar ávƒxtr at taka af
kenningum ﬂínum. Nú farﬂu í nafni Domini til S‡rlands ok er ﬂú fiﬂr
inn helga Pétr hƒfﬂingia postola ﬂá berﬂu honum kveﬂiu mína rœkiliga
ok seg svá at á ƒﬂru ári mun ek koma til hans ef ek lifi, ok mun ek biﬂia
at hann komi hingat í borg ﬂessa. ﬁat ﬂyki mér áræﬂiligt at Guﬂ mun
hafa ætlat at senda sinn inn hæsta postola ok ørendreka í ina œztuhƒfuﬂborg heimsins at snúa ﬂeim l‡ﬂ til Guﬂs es ﬂessa borg byggvir.’
Eptir ﬂat lét Clemens búa farskost góﬂan til handa Barnabe postolaok fekk alla reiﬂu á skip ﬂat ﬂá er hann ﬂurfti at hafa. Síﬂan leiddi
Clemens Barnaban til skips ok baﬂ honum vel farask ok fal sik meﬂtrum undir bœnir hans es ﬂeir skilﬂusk. En skip ﬂat er Barnabas postoli

The Life of St Clement13

speeches. A man came forward there, young and finely dressed, with alarge company of mounted men, and called for a hearing. And he began
his speech so:‘Why does it come about for you Romans that you go against civility
and our laws and do not receive God’s messenger better, who proclaims
salvation and healing to all the world according to my view?’
Then there was complete silence from all the people. Afterwards the young
man bowed down to the Apostle Barnabas and greeted him in this way:
‘Greetings and welcome, holy Apostle of our Lord God Jesus Christ!
Tell us about the coming of Christ into this world and about his birth andthe miracles which he did and about his teachings, about his Passion and
Resurrection from death, about his Ascension into heaven and about the
coming of the Holy Ghost which he gave to his Apostles. And we also
wish you to tell us about his second coming, when he shall come at theend of the world to judge all mankind and let each man have what hedeserves by God’s grace.’
Then the Apostle Barnabas began to expound everything that he was
asked, and then all the people listened attentively until he finished his
preaching as he wished. Then the young man received him into his lodging
and provided him plentifully with everything he needed and invited
everyone there who wished to hear the word of God.
A few days later the young master of the house spoke to the Apostle
Barnabas:‘I will tell you about myself and my family. I am called Clement, andmy father Faustinianus, a cousin of the Emperor Augustus. I am looking
after all my patrimony by my father’s authority and I am now twenty-fiveyears old. Now people are unwilling, as you yourself see, to change theirways much at your teaching and it may be that it is because the fruit ofyour teaching is to be gathered elsewhere. Now go to Syria in the Lord’sname and when you find the Blessed Peter, leader of the Apostles, thengive him my sincere greetings and say that next year I will come to him if
I live, and I shall ask him to come here to this city. It seems likely to me
that God will have intended to send his chief Apostle and messenger into
the most important capital city of the world to turn the people to God wholive in this city.'
After that Clement had a good vessel made ready for the Apostle
Barnabas and provided all the equipment on the ship which he needed tohave. Then Clement took Barnabas to the ship and bade him fare well andwith tears commended himself to his prayers when they parted. And theship that the Apostle Barnabas was on went with good speed until it halted

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var á fór greitt unz ﬂat nam staﬂar firir útan haf í borg ﬂeiri es Cesarea
heitir. ﬁar var Petrus postoli firir ok í húsum ﬂess manns es Zacheus
heitir ok ﬂá hafﬂi byskupdóm tekit ifir ﬂeiri borg af Petro postola. Sá
inn sami Zacheus es nefndr in evangelio til ﬂess at hann gerﬂi fƒgnuﬂ
Domino nostro í húsum sínum í borg ﬂeiri es Iericho heitir.
En á ƒﬂru ári kom til ﬂeirar borgar innar sƒmu af Rúmaborg Clemens,frændi Augusti k<e>isera ok sonr Faustinianus ok Mathidie. Viﬂ honum
tóku allir borgarmenn vel ok allra bazt ﬂeir es kristnir vru. ﬁá minntisk
Barnabas postoli á ﬂat hversu vel Clemens hafﬂi hans mlum tekit í
Rúmaborg. Hann fylgﬂi honum á fund Pétrs postola, en hann tók viﬂhonum feginsamliga vel. En fm dƒgum síﬂarr var ﬂing fiƒlmennt ástræti nær húsum ﬂeim es Zacheus byskup átti. Í borginni var stƒpull
hr miƒk. ﬁar hafﬂi herbergi í stƒpli ﬂeim Símon inn illi ok inn fiƒlkungi
ok vera lézk kraptr Guﬂs. Hann talﬂisk vera sólin ipsa, en konu sínakallaﬂi hann tungl vera es kvenkenndu namni heitir luna á latínu tungu.
Stiƒrnur ﬂær fimm es lausar fara í lopti ok planete heita at bókmáli,talﬂi hann ﬂær ambáttir vera konu sinnar. Símon inn illi hafﬂi fyrst skírn
tekit af Philippo es einn var af diáknum siau inum fyrstum. Síﬂan var
hann bannsettr af postolum Domini Petro ok Iohanne firir ﬂat at hann
hugﬂisk at fékaupum myndu gera Helgan Anda. Vildi hann hans giptir
fé kaupa ok viﬂ fé selia í gegn ﬂví es Dominus mælti viﬂ postola sína ofHelgan Anda:‘At vingiƒf ok st heilagri ﬂguﬂ ér Helgan Anda enda skuluﬂ érfélaust veita.’
En á nemndum degi kom Petrus postoli Guﬂs til ﬂings ok gekk at
ﬂingstƒﬂinni neﬂan frá sió. ﬁingat kom ok Clemens meﬂ mikla sveit, ﬂá
er undir Rúmveria vru hallir. ﬁar kom ok Símon inn illi meﬂ sveit sínaok sat hann á ofanverﬂu stræti í nónd viﬂ stƒpul sinn. Á ﬂingi ﬂví reis
upp Pétr postoli fyrstr allra manna ok kvaddi allan l‡ﬂ á ﬂessa lund:‘Friﬂr sé yﬂr ƒllum es af ƒllu hiarta ok af ƒllum krapti elskiﬂ Dominum
Guﬂ yﬂvarn.’ﬁá svaraﬂi Símon magus: ‘Eigi ﬂurfum vér friﬂ af ﬂér at ﬂiggia.’ﬁá mælti Petrus: ‘Fir hví máttu eigi heyra friﬂ boﬂaﬂan? Af synﬂum
ok af lƒstum hl‡zk iamnan sundrﬂyki ok bardagi en friﬂi fylgia allir
kostir ok ƒll fríﬂendi.’
7 Augusto

23 vinbgjƒf

The Life of St Clement15

the other side of the sea in the city which is called Caesarea. The Apostle
Peter was there and in the dwelling of a man called Zacheus who had thentaken over the bishopric of the city from the Apostle Peter. This same
Zacheus is mentioned in the Gospel because he made our Lord welcome
in his dwelling in the city which is called Jericho.
And the next year Clement, kinsman of the Emperor Augustus and sonof Faustinianus and Mathidia, came to the same city from Rome. All thecitizens received him well and best of all those who were Christians.
Then the Apostle Barnabas called to mind how well Clement had received
his sermons in Rome. He took him to see the Apostle Peter, and hewelcomed him joyfully. And a few days later there was a crowded assembly in the street close to the house which Bishop Zacheus had. There wasa very high tower in the city. Simon the Evil and the Mage had a room
there in the tower and claimed that he was the power of God. He reckonedthat he was the sun itself, and he maintained that his wife was the moonwhich is called luna, a feminine word in the Latin language. The fivestars which move freely in the sky and which are called planets in Latin,
he claimed that they were his wife’s handmaidens. Simon the Evil had
first received baptism from Philip, who was one of the first seven deacons.
Afterwards he was excommunicated by the Lord’s Apostles Peter andJohn because he thought that he was going to make a profit out of theHoly Ghost. He wanted to buy its gifts with money and to sell them formoney, contrary to what the Lord said to his Apostles concerning theHoly Ghost:‘You received the Holy Ghost as a gift of friendship and holy love andmoreover you shall bestow it without payment (cf. Acts 8:14–24).’
And on the appointed day God’s Apostle Peter came to the assembly
and walked to the assembly-place from down by the sea. Clement alsocame there with a large company of men, those who favoured the Romans.
Simon the Evil also came there with his group and he sat in the upper partof the street near his tower. At this assembly the Apostle Peter got up
before anyone else and greeted all the people in this way:
‘Peace be with you all who with all your heart and with all your mightlove your Lord God.’
Then Simon Magus answered: ‘We do not need to receive peace fromyou.’
Then Peter said: ‘Why can you not hear peace proclaimed? Discord andbattle are always the result of sins and vices but all virtues and benefits
come with peace.’

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Clemens sagaﬁá mælti Símon: ‘Hitt es nú ráﬂ at ﬂú ger ón‡tt mál mitt ef ﬂú máttnøkkveria flærﬂ finna í orﬂum mínum. Ek mun ok kosta at ón‡ta
kenningar ﬂínar es lokleysu einni loﬂa saman, ok mun ek s‡na hvat it
sanna er <at> til ﬂurftar ok til hiálpar sé allri alﬂ‡ﬂu.’ﬁá mælti Petrus: ‘Fœrum vit fram ok ﬂá ml okkur meﬂ hófsemi ok
skapgœﬂi.’
Símon svaraﬂi: ‘Enskis eru verﬂ ml ﬂín ƒll.’ﬁá kallaﬂi sá inn illi karl Símon hótt meﬂ ƒllu ok mælti:‘Hl‡ﬂiﬂ mér allir menn ﬂeir es hér eruﬂ komnir. Ek emk kraptr
almáttigs skapera. Ek komk af himnum ofan ok vask getinn í kviﬂi konu
ﬂeiri es Rakel hét. Hon fœddi mik tíu vetr vandliga. En einn hvern dag
seldi hon í hƒnd mér sigﬂ ok sendi hon mik til kornskurﬂar. Ek kom til
akrsins ok mælta ek viﬂ sigﬂinn: “Skerﬂu nú kornit.” Hann skar akrinn
eigi seinna en tíu menn. Mér es hl‡ﬂin ƒll skepna til ﬂess es ek vil. Ek
má fliúga í lopti í eldslíki. Ek geri svá at aldintré eﬂa akr rennr ﬂar upp
sem ek vil. Ek má fara í gegnum fiƒll hvars ek vil. At boﬂorﬂi mínuhlæia líkneski ﬂau es ger eru ór tré eﬂa ór málmi ok hrœrask ﬂau okmæla ef ek b‡ﬂ ﬂat. Ek skipti ifirlitum mínum ef ek vil svát ek s‡numk
stundum gamall maﬂr ok skeggiaﬂr miƒk ok hárr, en stundum fulltíﬂi
maﬂr ok nakkvat skeggiaﬂr, en stundum s‡numk ek gransprettingr eﬂa
yngri ok svá ungr ok stundum ungmenni. Stundum bregﬂ ek á mik
kykvenda líki ‡missa, fogla eﬂa orma, fiska eﬂa d‡ra, nauta eﬂa hrossa,
hrúta eﬂa hafra.’ﬁá er Símon talﬂi slíkt firir l‡ﬂnum ﬂá andsvaraﬂi Petrus postoli:‘S‡nisk yﬂr eigi sem siá siálfr diƒfulsmaﬂr l‡si ifir fiƒlkyngi sinni okflærﬂ í sínum orﬂum, en eigi of go<ﬂ>dómi ﬂeim es hann lézk hafa okhann hefir ﬂó at øngum kosti?'L‡ﬂrinn svaraﬂi: ‘At vísu s‡nisk oss svá.’ﬁá mælti Petrus viﬂ Símon: ‘Hvílíkir munu ﬂeir menn verﬂa es hverfa
eptir ﬂér?’
Símon svaraﬂi: ‘Svá sem ek em siálfr eilífr ok ódauﬂligr, svá munu
ok allir mínir menn aldregi deyia.’
Petrus mælti: ‘Hvárt trúir ﬂú upprisu dauﬂra manna?’
Símon svaraﬂi: ‘Eigi, eigi.’
Petrus mælti: ‘Hví vildu liúga? ﬁat veit ek at ﬂú hefir í vitum ﬂínumlík barns ﬂess es ﬂú ipse banaﬂir ok gengr ﬂú viﬂ ﬂat til fréttar. En ór
ﬂeim inum litla búk veitir diƒfull ﬂér andsvƒr of ﬂá hluti es ﬂú spyrr at.

The Life of St Clement

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Then Simon said: ‘What you must do now is demonstrate the wrongnessof my position if you can find any falsehood in my words. I shall also try
to refute your teachings which consist of pure nonsense, and I shall showwhat the truth is which is to the profit and salvation of all people.’
Then Peter said: ‘Let us then also present our cases with moderationand good nature.’
Simon answered ‘All your words are worthless.’
Then this evil fellow Simon absolutely shouted out loud and said:‘All those men who have come here listen to me! I am the power of the
Almighty Creator. I came down from heaven and I was conceived in thewomb of a woman who was called Rakel. She reared me carefully for ten
years. And one day she put a sickle in my hand and she sent me to reap
corn. I came to the field and said to the sickle: “Now cut the corn!” It cut
the field no slower than ten men. Every creature is obedient to me forwhatever I wish. I can fly in the air in the form of fire. I make it so thatfruit-trees or crops grow up where I wish. I can go through mountains
wherever I wish. At my bidding those images laugh which are made ofwood or metal and if I command it they move and speak. I change myappearance if I so wish so that sometimes I appear as an old man and very
bearded and hoary, and sometimes as a full grown man and slightly
bearded, and sometimes I appear as an adolescent or younger, and as young
also sometimes as a child. Sometimes I put on the forms of various living
creatures, birds or snakes, fish or wild animals, cattle or horses, rams orgoats.’
When Simon had spoken these things before the people then the Apostle
Peter answered:‘Does it not appear to you that this servant of the Devil is himself
proclaiming his sorcery and deceit by his words, and not that divinity
which he claimed to have and which he in no way has?’
The people answered: ‘Certainly it seems so to us.’
Then Peter said to Simon: ‘What will those men become who follow
you?’
Simon answered: ‘Just as I myself am eternal and immortal, so also all
my men will never die.’Peter said: ‘Do you believe in the resurrection of the dead?’
Simon answered: ‘No, no.’Peter said: ‘Why will you lie? I know this, that in your inner chamber
you have the corpse of a child which you yourself killed and you go to it to
ask about the future. And from that small body the devil gives you answers
concerning the matters which you ask about. Let us now go who believe

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Clemens sagaFƒrum vér nú es á Christum trúum ok rannsƒkum vit Símonar ok vitum
hvat vér finnum ﬂar.’ﬁá er Petrus mælti ﬂessi orﬂ ﬂá s‡ndisk mƒnnum sicut Símon flygi
í lopt upp, enda hvarf hann allr hiá stƒpli sínum. ﬁá var ok komit atnótt ok tók ﬂá at myrkva miƒk es Símon hvarf. ﬁá mælti Petrus viﬂ allan l‡ﬂ:
‘Nú megu ﬂér siá at Símon vill eigi láta rannsaka vit sín. Fariﬂ ér nú íGuﬂs friﬂi hverr í hús sitt ok komiﬂ til mín at morni árdegis. ﬁá skuluﬂér heyra formæli mitt ok ﬂá mun l‡sask firir yﬂr saﬂr Guﬂs kraptr til
hiálpar ƒndum yﬂrum ok líkƒmum ok heﬂan af mun eyﬂask átrúnuﬂr
viﬂ Símon af ﬂví at menn megu allir vita meﬂ hvé mikil svik hann ferr.’
Annan dag eptir kom fiƒlﬂi manna á fund Pétrs postola árdegis. En
ﬂá var Símon horfinn ór borginni meﬂ allt sitt ok lengi síﬂan vissu mennekki til hans í ﬂeim heruﬂum. ﬁann dag talﬂi Petrus lengi firir l‡ﬂnum
ok gerﬂi kunna allri alﬂ‡ﬂu flærﬂ Símonar. ﬁá gaf hann ok heilsu mƒrgum
siúkum mƒnnum, ﬂeir es ﬂar kómu til hans. ﬁaﬂan kristnaﬂisk fiƒlﬂi
manna ok tók skírn í namni Domini. Ok ﬂá var Clemens ﬂar skírﬂr ok
allt fƒruneyti hans, ok rézk hann til fylgiu viﬂ Pétr postola <ok baﬂ hannPétr postola> at hann skyldi fara til Rúmaborgar at boﬂa ﬂar Guﬂs ørendi
ﬂeim mƒnnum es ﬂar vildi heyra. En hann lézk fyrst mundu reka Guﬂsørendi á Gyﬂingalandi sicut honum var boﬂit af Guﬂi, en loks lét hannvn at hann mundi vitia Rúmaborgar á firirætlaﬂ<r>i tíﬂ af Guﬂi okkallaﬂisk hann ﬂar møndu enda líf sitt at Guﬂs vilia.
Síﬂan boﬂaﬂi Pétr postoli Guﬂs namn of Gyﬂingaland allt ok of S‡rland
ok of Grikklandseyiar ok ﬂau heruﬂ es ﬂar eru í nónd. En Clemens fylgﬂi
honum hvar sem hann fór. ﬁeir Niceta ok Aquila, brœﬂr Clementis,vru ﬂá iamnan í fylgiu meﬂ Petro, ok kƒnnuﬂusk ﬂeir ﬂó ekki viﬂClementem í ﬂann tíﬂ at ﬂeir væri brœﬂr hans.
Svá bar at at skip ﬂat es Petrus postoli var á kom viﬂ ey ﬂá es Corpho
heitir. ﬁá er ﬂeir dvƒlﬂusk ﬂar í einni hverri hƒfn, ﬂá gengu ﬂeir Niceta
ok Aquila of dag á land upp. ﬁeir kómu ﬂar es leikstefna nøkkver varfiƒlmenn ok tóku ﬂeir at boﬂa ﬂeim mƒnnum á fund Pétrs postola esheyra vildu Guﬂs orﬂ eﬂa kenning helga eﬂa fá bót meina sinna, ﬂeir es
ﬂar væri vanheilir. ﬁar kom Mathidia at gangandi ok nemndisk ƒﬂru
na<m>ni en hon átti. Hon mælti viﬂ ﬂá Nicetam ok Aquilam:

14 kunna] + flær› 17–18 words supplied by Unger

26 kƒnnu›isk

The Life of St Clement

19in Christ and search Simon’s inner chamber and see what we find there.’
When Peter had spoken these words then it seemed to people as if Simon
flew up in the air, indeed he completely disappeared near his tower. Thenalso night had fallen and it began to grow very dark when Simon disappeared. Then Peter said to all the people:‘Now you can see that Simon does not want to have his inner chamber
searched. Go now in God’s peace each to his house and come to me earlyin the morning. Then you shall hear my preaching and then the true powerof God will be revealed to you for the salvation of your souls and bodies
and from now on belief in Simon will be destroyed because everyone will
be able to see with what great deceit he behaves.’
The next day a multitude of people came early in the morning to see
the Apostle Peter. But then Simon had disappeared from the town with all
his belongings and for a long time afterwards men knew nothing of
him in those regions. That day Peter preached for a long time before thepeople and he made Simon’s deceit known to all the population. Then healso gave health to many sick people who came to him there. From thenon many people became Christians and received baptism in the name of
the Lord. And then Clement was baptised and all his companions andhe became a follower of the Apostle Peter and he asked the Apostle Peterto go to Rome to preach God’s message to those people who were willingto hear him there. But he said that he would first carry out God’s mission
in the land of the Jews as he was commanded by God, but he said he
expected that he would in the end visit Rome at a time preordained by
God and declared that there he would end his life in accordance with
God’s will.
Afterwards the Apostle Peter preached God’s name throughout all theland of the Jews and throughout Syria and the Greek Islands and those
districts which were round about. And Clement went with him wherever
he went. Clement’s brothers, Niceta and Aquila, were then always inPeter’s company, and yet at that time they did not realise who Clement
was, that they were his brothers.
It happened that the ship which the Apostle Peter was on called at theisland which is called Corfu. While they were staying there in a certain
harbour, then one day Niceta and Aquila went up ashore. They came towhere there was a certain crowded games meeting and they began to callon those people to come to see the Apostle Peter who wanted to hear
God’s word or holy teaching or to receive a cure for their ailments, those
there who were ill. Mathidia came walking up and called herself by anothername than her own. She spoke to Niceta and Aquila:

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‘Hvers vætti ﬂit, hvárt mér mon at nøkkverri hiálp verﬂa ef ek kømk
á fund Pétrs postola?’ﬁeir svƒruﬂu: ‘Ef ﬂú ert saﬂr ﬂurfamaﬂr, enda vildu trúa á Iesum
Christum, son Guﬂs, ﬂá mundu víst miskunn fá af fundi hans sem allir
ﬂeir es at flærﬂlausu vilia hans kenningar heyra ok hafa.’
Annars dags kom Mathidia af tilvísun ﬂeira á fund Pétrs postola ok
fell til fóta honum ok baﬂ hann ƒlmusugiafar. Petrus mælti:‘Af hví ﬂarftu at ﬂiggia ƒlmusugiafar eigi óheillig kona nú at ﬂví es
mér s‡nisk?’
Hon svaraﬂi: ‘Freyva mín es vanheil ok líkﬂr, ok vinn ek til reiﬂu
okkr báﬂum. Af ﬂví biﬂ ek ﬂik ƒlmusugiafa.’
Petrus mælti: ‘Hvat skyldir ﬂik til at vinna firir konu ﬂeiri?’ﬁá er Mathidia skyldi ﬂat segia, ﬂá komsk hon viﬂ ákafliga miƒk ok
mátti øngu orﬂi upp koma. ﬁá mælti Petrus postoli:‘ﬁat er ætlun mín at ﬂú munt verit hafa kona gƒfug at metorﬂum ok
auﬂig, en nú kømr ﬂér í hug ævi ﬂín in fyrri ok skammask ﬂú nú válaﬂs
ﬂíns ok vesalﬂar er nú es ifir ﬂik komin.’Mathidia mælti: ‘Rétt ætlar ﬂú nú, herri minn,’ kvaﬂ hon Mathidia
viﬂ postolann.
Petrus mælti: ‘Komi hingat húsfreyia ﬂín, ok sim vér hvat síﬂangerisk af.’ﬁá var s‡st til ﬂess at húsfreyiu hennar var fylgt ﬂingat til fundar viﬂPétr postola, ok var hon lƒgﬂ firir fœtr postolans. ﬁá mælti hann viﬂﬂær báﬂar:‘Viliﬂ it trúa á Guﬂ fƒﬂur almáttkan ok á son hans Iesum Christum
Dominum nostrum ok á Helgan Anda?’ﬁær svƒruﬂu: ‘Víst monum vit trúa sem ﬂú kennir.’
Síﬂan signdi Petrus ina siúku konu ok varﬂ hon ﬂegar heil af líkﬂr
sinni. En ﬂví næst vru ﬂær skírﬂar báﬂar í namni ﬁrenningar. ﬁá fór sú
kona es heilsuna hafﬂi fengit til frændliﬂs síns meﬂ leyfi Pétrs postola.
Mathidia tók at biﬂia at hon skyldi ná at fylgia Petro postola ok girndisk
hon at heyra kenningar hans of daga, enda var henni ﬂat veitt. Hon rézkﬂá í sveit meﬂ konum ﬂeim helgum es vru í fƒrunauti Pétrs postola, en
ﬂeygi vissu menn of stundar sakar hver hon var.
En stundu síﬂarr kómu ﬂeir Petrus ok Clemens skipi sínu viﬂ Kípr.
ﬁar vru ﬂeir í hƒfn nøkkverri eigi allskamma stund. En ﬂar gekk Petrus
30 Petres

The Life of St Clement

21‘What do you expect, will any benefit come to me if I come to see theApostle Peter?’
They answered: ‘If you are truly in need, and moreover are willing tobelieve in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, then you will certainly receive
grace through meeting him like all those who without deceit wish to hear
and accept his teachings.’
The next day Mathidia went by their direction to see the Apostle Peterand fell at his feet and begged alms from him. Peter said:‘Why do you, a woman who is not sick, as far as I can see, now need toreceive gifts of alms?’
She answered: ‘My lady is ill and has leprosy, and I work to provide forus both. For that reason I am asking you for alms.’
Peter said: ‘Why should you have to work for this woman?’
When Mathidia had to explain this, then she was greatly affected andwas lost for words. Then the Apostle Peter said:‘It is my belief that you must have been a woman held in high regard
and wealthy, and now you are recalling your former life and you are now
ashamed of your wretchedness and the misery which has now come uponyou.’
Mathidia said: ‘There you are right, my lord,’ said Mathidia to the
Apostle.
Peter said: ‘Let your lady come here, and we shall see what happens
then.’
Then this was done that her lady was brought there to see the Apostle
Peter, and she was laid at the feet of the Apostle. Then he said to both ofthem:‘Will you believe in God the Father Almighty and in his Son our Lord
Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost?’
They answered: ‘We will indeed believe what you preach.’
Then Peter made the sign of the cross over the sick woman and
immediately she was cured of her leprosy. And next they were both
baptised in the name of the Trinity. Then the woman who had been cured
went to her family with the Apostle Peter’s permission. Mathidia began
to ask that she should be allowed to follow the Apostle Peter and she
desired to hear his teachings daily, and moreover this was granted toher. She then joined the group of holy women who were in the Apostle
Peter’s company, but yet for the time being people did not know at all
who she was.
And some time later Peter and Clement brought their ship to Cyprus.
They were there in a certain harbour for quite a long time. And the Apostle

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postoli upp á land hvern dag ok baﬂsk ﬂar firir lƒngum á biargi nøkkveru
es nær var hƒfninni. ﬁar var ok vatnfall mikit einum megin hiá biargi
ﬂví. ﬁar kom af landi ofan at gangandi karl gamall ok hæruskeggi. En
hann stóﬂ ﬂriá daga alla miƒk svá í sƒmum sporum, ok hl‡ddi tilbœnahalds postolans ok til formælis ﬂess es hann veitti ﬂeim mƒnnum
es til hans kómu. Karl sá mælti ekki orﬂ á ﬂeim ﬂrim dƒgum, en at aptni
ins ﬂriﬂia dags, ﬂá er hann biósk braut at ganga, ﬂá mælti hann ﬂessi orﬂof Pétr postola ok of fƒruneyti hans:‘ﬁessir eru menn góﬂir ok staﬂfastir í skaphƒfnum sínum ok munu
vera eigi vitrir at ﬂví [es mer vir]ﬂisk.’
ﬁau orﬂ heyrﬂi Petrus ok mælti viﬂ sína menn: ‘Takiﬂ ér karl ﬂann okfœriﬂ mér!’ﬁeir tóku karl ﬂann síﬂan ok fœrﬂu honum. ﬁá mælti Petrus:‘Hverr er ﬂú firir ﬂér, fóstri?’
Hann svaraﬂi: ‘Ek emk varﬂkarl einn fátœkr ok rúmverskr at kyni.’
Petrus mælti: ‘Hvaﬂan af kallar <ﬂú> oss menn góﬂa ok geﬂfasta ok
ﬂó óvitra?’Karl ok svaraﬂi: ‘ﬁví kalla ek yﬂr góﬂa ok geﬂfasta at ek heyrﬂa hvé
lítillátliga ok hvé óhrapalliga ér mæltuzk firir viﬂ Guﬂ yﬂvarn. ﬁat máek ok skilia af málsendum yﬂrum at ér elskiﬂ ráﬂvendi ok gœzku en ér
hatiﬂ ódáﬂir ok illsku. En af ﬂví kalla ek yﬂr óvitra menn at mér virﬂisk
svá sem ér kalliﬂ mann einn dauﬂan vera Guﬂ yﬂvarn ok trúiﬂ ér á hannsem á Guﬂ. En ﬂat má hverr maﬂr vitr skilia at einn es Guﬂ omnipotens
ok óbrigﬂligr.’
Petrus mælti: ‘ﬁú kallar oss óvitra menn firir ﬂví at vér trúum á mann
dauﬂan. En ek kann ﬂér ﬂat segia at hvártki ﬂú né annarr maﬂr má alvitr
vera nema hann skili ﬂat at sá inn sami maﬂr es ﬂú kallar dauﬂan, ok vér
trúum á, es bæﬂi maﬂr dauﬂligr ok Guﬂ lifandi omnipotens ok óbrigﬂligr.’
Karl mælti: ‘Hversu meguﬂ ér slíkt satt vinna ófróﬂir menn ok íﬂróttalausir?’Petrus mælti: ‘ﬁat vil ek at ﬂú dvelisk meﬂ oss nøkkveria stund of dagaok mon ek fá mann til af liﬂi mínu ok fƒruneyti at reyna íﬂróttir ﬂínar.’
Karl mælti: ‘Gørﬂu svá, ef ﬂú vill.’
Annan dag eptir lét Petrus Clementem koma til máls viﬂ karl ﬂann
firir ﬂví at hann ﬂótti algerr at sér of allar íﬂróttir ﬂær er Rúmveriumvru tíﬂar at kunna. ﬁá tóku ﬂeir Clemens ok karl sá inn gamli at kannask
8 Pétrs

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The Life of St Clement

23Peter went ashore there each day and prayed there for a long time on acertain cliff which was close to the harbour. There was also a big river on
one side by that cliff. An old man with a hoary beard came walking down
there from inland. And he stood for three entire days almost on the same
spot and listened to the Apostle’s prayers and to the preaching which hegave to the people who came to him. The old man spoke not a word during
those three days, but on the evening of the third day, when he started to go
away, then he spoke these words about the Apostle Peter and his
companions:‘These are good men and steadfast in their minds but cannot be wise, as
it seems to me.’Peter heard these words and spoke to his men: ‘Take hold of that old
man and bring him to me!’
They then took the old man and brought him to him. Then Peter said:‘What sort of person are you, grandfather?’He answered: ‘I am a poor watchman, and Roman by birth.’Peter said: ‘Why do you call us good men and steadfast and yet not
wise?’
And the old man answered: ‘I call you good and steadfast because I
heard how humbly and how unhurriedly you have prayed to your God. I
can also understand from your language that you love uprightness andkindness but you hate misdeeds and evil. But I say you are not wise men
because it seems to me that you claim a dead man to be your God, and you
believe in him as in God. But every wise man must realise that there is
only one almighty and immutable God.’Peter said: ‘You claim that we are not wise men because we believe ina dead man. But I can tell you this, that neither you nor any other man canbe fully wise unless he understands this, that this same man whom you
call dead, and we believe in, is both a mortal man and the living almighty
and immutable God.’
The old man said: ‘How can you ignorant and uneducated men prove
this?’
Peter said: ‘I will have you stay with us for some time each day and I
will get a man from among my followers and companions to test youreducational accomplishments.’
The old man said: ‘Do so, if you wish.’
The next day Peter had Clement come and talk with the old man, because
he was thought perfect in all those educational accomplishments which it
was usual for Romans to know. Then Clement and the old man began to

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Clemens sagaviﬂ of íﬂróttir. En svá reyndisk at hvárrtveggi kunni allar íﬂróttir ﬂær er
spekingar vru vanir at kunna í ﬂann tíﬂ. Síﬂan løgﬂu ﬂeir fram firir sik
inn fyrsta dag íﬂrótt ﬂá er grammatica heitir, ok kennir hon hvé réttligaskal at hveriu orﬂi kveﬂa ok hvé ƒll orﬂ hneigiask á latínu tungu. ﬁáíﬂrótt fóru ﬂeir alla ifir inn fyrsta dag. Annan dag tóku ﬂeir ﬂá íﬂrótt at
rannsaka er rhetorica heitir, hon kennir málsnild alla. Inn ﬂriﬂia dag
gekk fram dialectica es ﬂrætur kann skilia. Inn fiorﬂa dag fóru ﬂeir ifirmusicam es sƒngsíﬂrótt er. Inn fimta dag var kƒnnuﬂ arithmetica estƒlvísi alla greiﬂir. Inn sétta dag gekk fram geometria er kennir hvémæla skal hæﬂ eﬂa d‡pt, lengﬂ eﬂa breidd vel hvers hlutar. Svá kannaﬂisk
til at allar íﬂróttir ﬂær kunni sá inn gamli karl nekkvi framarr en Clemens,
ok kunnu ﬂeir ﬂó báﬂir vel. En [síﬂarst] tóku ﬂeir at rœﬂa of stiƒrnuíﬂrótt
es astronomia heitir. E[n ﬂ]ó vildi inn gamli karl eyvit láta at leiﬂask at
rœﬂa of ﬂá íﬂróttina. ﬁat fann Clemens ok mælti viﬂ hann:‘Hvárt er at ﬂú kant verr ﬂessa íﬂrótt en aﬂrar eﬂa hví lætr ﬂú ﬂér hér
svá fátt um finnask?’
Karl svaraﬂi: ‘ﬁa íﬂrótt ﬂóttumk ek bazt kunna, en ﬂat hefir mér miƒkbrugﬂizk ok ﬂykiumk ek nú mega ƒngu treystask of íﬂróttir mínar.’
Clemens mælti: ‘Í hví hefir ﬂér ﬂat mest brugﬂizk?’
Karl svaraﬂi: ‘ﬁat tregar mik miƒg at segia.’ﬁá tók Clemens miƒk at grafa ﬂat mál viﬂ hann. Enda var ﬂá Petrus
postoli hiá málstefnu ﬂeira, ok krafﬂi hann at sá inn gamli maﬂr skyldi
segia hvat ifir hann hafﬂi gengit. En honum ﬂótti svá mikit firir at rifia
upp harm sinn allan ﬂann es hann ﬂóttisk beﬂit hafa, ok kom hann trautt
orﬂi upp. En ﬂá mælti hann of síﬂir:‘Ek átta mér konu góﬂa ok ráﬂvanda at ﬂví es ek ætlaﬂa, ok ttum vit
okkr ﬂriá sonu. En hon villtisk ƒll frá mér ok lagﬂi hon illt firir sik. En
bróﬂir minn sannaﬂi ﬂat firir mér af stiƒrnuíﬂrótt at stiƒrnugangr hafﬂi
sá verit á burﬂartíﬂ hennar at eigi væri vn at hon mætti ráﬂvƒnd vera til
elli sinnar. Síﬂan hefi ek allr firirorﬂit mik, enda trúi ek nú ekki ástiƒrnuíﬂróttina síﬂan.’
Petrus mælti: ‘ﬁat er villa mikil es ﬂú ætlaﬂir at stiƒrnugangr myndi
ráﬂa ráﬂvendi konu ﬂinnar. ﬁat hygg ek at ﬂú munt ﬂat rétt hafa ætlat es
ﬂú hugﬂir konu ﬂína góﬂa konu vera ok ráﬂvanda. Segﬂu nú mér sannliga
alla athƒfn ﬂína ok má vera at ﬂat verﬂi ﬂér at nekkverri huggun.’6 rethorica 12–13 word and letters supplied by Unger
15 ﬂau 24 boﬂit

13 astronoua . . . af

The Life of St Clement

25

make their acquaintance with each other’s accomplishments. And so itturned out that each of them had all the accomplishments which philosophers usually knew at that time. Then on the first day they demonstrated
the art which is called grammar, and it teaches how one should pronounce
each word correctly and how all words are declined in the Latin language.
The first day they went over the whole of that subject. The second day
they began to examine the art which is called rhetoric, it teaches every
kind of eloquence. The third day it was the turn of logic which can resolve
disputes. The fourth day they went over music which is the art of singing.
The fifth day arithmetic was explored which deals with all matters ofcomputation. The sixth day it was the turn of geometry which teaches
how to measure the height or depth, length or breadth of almost everything.
So it became evident that the old man knew all these arts somewhat better
than Clement, and yet they both knew them well. And finally they began
to discuss the subject of stars, which is called astronomy. But yet the old
man would by no means be brought to discuss that subject. Clement noticed
this and said to him:
‘Is it because you know this subject worse than others, or why have you
so little to say about it?’
The old man answered: ‘I thought I knew this subject best, but it has
failed me badly and I think I cannot now trust anything in my accomplishments.’
Clement said: ‘How has it failed you most?’
The old man answered: ‘It grieves me much to say.’
Then Clement began to probe into the matter with him. And moreover
the Apostle Peter was then present at their discussion, and he begged thatthe old man should say what had happened to him. But he found it so hard
to go over all the trouble he felt he had suffered that he could scarcely
utter a word. And then at last he said:‘I had a good and upright woman for my wife, as I thought, and we had
three sons. And she was led astray from me completely and she took towicked ways. But my brother proved to me by astronomy that the courseof the stars had been such at the time of her birth that there was no likelihoodthat she would stay upright till her old age. After that I entirely lost
confidence, and moreover since then I now have no faith in astronomy.’Peter said: ‘It is a great error that you thought that the course of the stars
would govern your wife’s uprightness. I think this, that you thought rightwhen you believed your wife to be a good and upright woman. Tell me
now truly about all you have done and it may be that that will be some
comfort to you.’

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Clemens sagaﬁá mælti hann sá inn gamli karl: ‘Ek heiti Faustinianus en kona mín
hét Mathidia, sonr minn es Clemens.’ﬁá tók Clemens viﬂ at vakna ok at heilsa fƒﬂur sínum ok varﬂ ﬂar
fagnafundr mikill meﬂ ﬂeim feﬂgum. En ﬂví næst kom ﬂat upp at ﬂar
var Mathidia í fƒruneyti ﬂeira Pétrs postola, ok ﬂar vru synir ﬂeira
Faustus ok Faustinus es ﬂá kƒlluﬂusk Niceta ok Aquila. ﬁá verﬂr hvert
ﬂeira friﬂgina ƒﬂru fegit ok sƒgﬂusk sín á milli allt ﬂat es ifir ﬂau hafﬂi
gengit síﬂan er ﬂau hƒfﬂu skilizk. En eptir ﬂat talﬂi Petrus postoli trú
firir Faustiniano ok beiddi at hann myndi skírn taka. En hann svaraﬂi:‘Ek vil trúa sicut ﬂú kennir, en svá fremi vil ek skírn taka es ek emk
nekkvi fróﬂari at helgum ritningum en ek siá enn.’ﬁá réﬂsk Faustinianus til fƒruneytis meﬂ Petro postola ok gerﬂisk
honum svá hl‡ﬂinn ok svá hendilangr sem hann væri honum í barnœsku
til læringar seldr. Hann hafﬂi ﬂá virﬂing mikla af ƒllum mƒnnum ﬂeim
es Petro fylgﬂu ﬂótt hann bærisk ipse lítit á.
Í ﬂann tíﬂ spurﬂi Petrus postoli at Símon inn illi, es magus var kallaﬂr,
villti ﬂióﬂ alla í Antiochia svát ﬂeir trúﬂu hann at sƒnnu goﬂ vera, en
ﬂeir kƒstuﬂu niﬂr trú ﬂeiri allri es Petrus hafﬂi kennt ﬂeim. ﬁá f‡stisk
Petrus at fara ﬂingat, enda fór hann unz hann kom í borg ﬂá á Iórsalalandi
es Cesarea heitir. ﬁar hafﬂi Cornelius hundraﬂshƒfﬂingi vald mikit, sá
er Petrus hafﬂi skírﬂan. Hann veitti ﬂar viﬂtekiu góﬂa Petro postola okhann fekk honum ríﬂerasveit mikla til fƒrunautis í Anﬂekiu. En er ﬂeir
nálguﬂusk ﬂingat ﬂá spurﬂu ﬂeir at borgarmenninir ætluﬂu at banna Petroinngƒngu í borgina Anﬂekiu af firirtƒlum Símonar ins illa. ﬁá mælti
Faustinianus viﬂ Petar postola:‘Theophilus heitir maﬂr gƒfugr í Anﬂekiu. Hann hefir opt verit gestr
minn í Rúmaborg. Ek hefi ok iamnan verit at herbergi í húsum hans ﬂáer ek hafﬂak veldi of heruﬂum ﬂessum ok var vinátta okkur einka góﬂ.
Nú vil ek fara til fundar viﬂ hann ok mun ek taka herbergi at hans. En
ﬂaﬂan af vætti ek at vit munum svá umb s‡sla at ﬂú munt ná inngƒngu í
borgina ok fƒruneyti ﬂit.’
Petrus mælti: ‘Farﬂu ef ﬂú vill, en ﬂó f‡si ek ﬂik at ﬂú takir áﬂr skírn.
ﬁá vætti ek at Símon myni ekki mega ﬂér til meins gera ﬂótt it finnizk,
en ella es mér vn at hann geri ﬂér nekkvert ógagn eﬂa geig.’
Faustinianus mælti: ‘Ekki mein mon hann of gera. ﬁá vil ek skírn
taka er ek køm aptr til ﬂín.’
7 friﬂgina] Unger emends to feﬂgina ‘parents’21 góﬂar

27 iamnat

The Life of St Clement

27

Then the old man said: ‘I am called Faustinianus and my wife was called
Mathidia, my son is Clement.’
Then Clement began to realise and to greet his father and there was a
joyful meeting between father and son. And next it turned out that Mathidia
was there among the Apostle Peter’s company, and their sons Faustus
and Faustinus were there, who then were calling themselves Niceta and
Aquila. Then each member of the family rejoiced in the other and talked
between themselves of all that had happened to them since they had parted.
And after that the Apostle Peter preached the Faith to Faustinianus andasked him to receive baptism. But he replied:‘I will believe whatever you teach, but I will accept baptism only when
I am somewhat more learned in the Holy Scriptures than I am now.’
Then Faustinianus joined company with the Apostle Peter, and hebecame as obedient and as helpful as if he had been handed over to him to
educate in his childhood. He then had great esteem from all the people
who followed Peter, though he himself bore himself humbly.
At that time the Apostle Peter heard that Simon the Evil, who was called
Magus, deceived all the people in Antioch so that they believed him to betruly a god, and they abandoned all the Faith which Peter had taught them.
Then Peter became eager to go there, and moreover he travelled until hereached the city in Palestine which is called Cesarea. The centurion
Cornelius, whom Peter had baptised, had great authority there. He gave
the Apostle Peter a good reception and provided him with a large company
of mounted soldiers to accompany him to Antioch. And when they drewnear there then they heard that the citizens were going to prevent Peter
entering the city of Antioch at the instigation of Simon the Evil. Then
Faustinianus said to the Apostle Peter:‘There is a nobleman in Antioch called Theophilus. He has often been
my guest in Rome. I have also always lodged in his house when I was incharge of these districts and our friendship was especially close. Now I
will go to see him and I will take lodgings at his house. And after that I
expect that the two of us will manage it so that you and your company
will gain entry to the city.’Peter said: ‘Go if you wish, but yet I urge you to be baptised first. I hopethen that Simon will not be able to do you any harm even if you meet eachother, but otherwise I think it likely that he will do you some hurt or
injury.’Faustinianus said: ‘He will do no harm. I am willing to be baptised
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Petrus mælti: ‘Verﬂi sem Guﬂ vill.’Síﬂan fór Faustinianus til Anﬂekiu ok tók Theophilus vel viﬂ honum.
Hann hafﬂi fá daga ﬂar verit áﬂr hann gat snúit Theophilo frá ƒllum
trúnaﬂi viﬂ Símon ok tók hann upp trú rétta sicut Petrus postoli hafﬂi
kennt honum fyrr meirr.
Svá barsk at einn hvern dag at ﬂeir Faustinianus ok Símon gengusk
at móti á stræti ok sá hvárr ﬂeira annan, en ekki mæltusk ﬂeir viﬂ.
Faustinianus ﬂóttisk kenna blæ nekkvern á andliti sér es ﬂeir gingusk at
móti svá sem orpit væri bleytu nøkkverri í andlit honum. En litlu síﬂarr
kom hann í herbergi sitt ok hugﬂisk ekki hafa skipask at ifirlitum sínum.
En hann var ﬂó orﬂinn svá glíkr Símoni at ásiá at engi mátti maﬂr ƒﬂrum
glíkari vera en Faustinianus var Símoni, ok eigi kenndu menn hvárn ﬂeiras. En ﬂegar es hann kom í herbergi ﬂá kallaﬂi Th<e>ophilus ok mælti:‘Dragstu út heﬂan diƒfuls maﬂr! Engva dvƒl skaltu hér hafa!’
Faustinianus mælti: ‘Hví kveﬂr ﬂú mik svá hermiliga, húsbúandi?’
Theophilus mælti: ‘Ætlar ﬂú at ek vita eigi hverr ﬂú ert firir ﬂér, Símon
inn illi ok inn fiƒlkunngi?’
Faustinianus mælti: ‘Faustinianus em ek en eigi Símon inn illi.’
Theophilus mælti: ‘Annan máttu svá blekkia en eigi mik. Ek kenni
ﬂik fullgerla hverr ﬂú ert.’
Faustinianus mælti: ‘Hyggﬂu at fatabúningi mínum ok klæﬂum, ok kenn
mik ﬂaﬂan af ef ﬂú mátt mik eigi at ifirlitum kenna eﬂa ásiónu minni.’
Sem trauﬂast mátti hann ﬂví til sanns koma firir Theophilo at hann værieigi Símon magus. En er ﬂeir ﬂóttusk siá báﬂir hvaﬂan af hann hafﬂi mein
fingit ﬂá réﬂu ﬂeir ﬂat at hann fór á braut ór borginni sem skiótast ok á fund
Pétrs postola. En er hann kom ﬂar ﬂá fell hann til fóta postolanum ok mælti:‘Veittu mér miskunn, herri minn,’ kvaﬂ Faustinianus, ‘ok lát mik
hafa ifirlit mín, ﬂau sem ek hafﬂa áﬂr Símon spillti ásiónu minni.’
Petrus postoli svaraﬂi: ‘Ekki s‡nisk mér brugﬂit vera ifirlitum ﬂínum.
En ﬂótt ƒﬂrum mƒnnum s‡nisk brugﬂit vera ásiónu ﬂinni ﬂá er ﬂér ﬂat
ekki mein.’
Faustinianus mælti: ‘Hverr maﬂr hyggr mik inn versta mann vera, sá
er mik sér.’
Petrus mælti: ‘ﬁat it sama skal Símoni verﬂa at miklu hlœgi es hannﬂykisk ﬂér hafa til meins gert. Fylgﬂu nú ráﬂum mínum,’ kvaﬂ Petrus.
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The Life of St Clement

29Peter said: ‘Let it be as God wills!’
Then Faustinianus went to Antioch and Theophilus welcomed him. He
had stayed there only a few days before he was able to turn Theophilus
from all faith in Simon, and he adopted the true faith as the Apostle Peter
had taught him formerly.
It happened thus one day that Faustinianus and Simon met each otherin the street and each saw the other, but they did not speak to each other.
Faustinianus thought he felt a puff of wind on his face when they met
each other as though something wet was splashed on his face. And alittle later he came into his lodging and thought that he had not changed inappearance. But he had, however, become so like Simon to look at that noman could be more like another than Faustinianus was to Simon, andpeople did not know which of them they were looking at. And when hewent into his lodging, then Theophilus shouted and said:‘Get out of here, servant of the Devil! You shall not stay here!’
Faustinianus asked: ‘Why do you greet me so angrily, landlord?’
Theophilus said: ‘Do you think that I do not know what sort of person
you are, Simon the Evil and the Mage?’
Faustinianus said: ‘I am Faustinianus and not Simon the Evil.’
Theophilus said: ‘You may impose upon another thus, but not me. I
know full well who you are.’Faustinianus said: ‘Look at my apparel and clothes, and know mefrom those if you cannot recognise me from my appearance or countenance.’
Only with the greatest difficulty could he convince Theophilus that hewas not Simon Magus. But when they both realised the source of theharm done to him, then they arranged it so that he went out of the city as
fast as possible and to see the Apostle Peter. And when he came there hefell at the feet of the Apostle and said:‘Have mercy on me, my lord,’ said Faustinianus, ‘and let me have backmy appearance, which I had before Simon corrupted my countenance.’
The Apostle Peter answered: ‘It does not seem to me that your appearance has changed. And even if your appearance seems changed to otherpeople, still that does you no harm.’
Faustinianus said ‘Every man who sees me believes that I am the mostevil man.’Peter said: ‘The very fact that Simon thinks he has done you harm shallbring great ridicule down on him. Follow my advice now,’ said Peter.

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‘Tak ﬂú nú blezun af mér ok far síﬂan í Anﬂekiu ok í hús Theophili
vinar ﬂíns, ok lát ﬂar ekki verﬂa vart viﬂ ﬂik fyrr en ﬂú gengr ﬂar fram ástræti einn hvern dag ﬂá er ﬂar er fiƒlmenni mikit. ﬁú skal ﬂá kallask
vera Símon magus. ﬁú skal teliask verﬂa skyldr til ﬂess of sinn á hveriu
ári at l‡sa siﬂu ﬂína ok atgiƒrvi firir alﬂ‡ﬂu. Síﬂan skaltu segia á hƒndﬂér fiƒlkyngi ok allar flærﬂir illar ﬂær er ek kann ﬂér segia at Símon es
saﬂr at. ﬁess vætti ek at Símon mon koma at heyra á orﬂ ﬂín. Hann mon
eigi mega standask tƒlu ﬂína ﬂessa. Hann mon ráﬂa til menn sína at
skióta at ﬂér eﬂa gera ﬂér nekkvern geig [ef ﬂeir megu]. ﬁú skal hafa áﬂr
ráﬂna til tvá menn at halda firir ﬂik skiƒldum ok hlífa ﬂér ef menn veitaﬂér tilráﬂ. En ef ﬂér verﬂa tilráﬂ veitt ﬂá kostaﬂu at hverfa áﬂr á braut órborginni sem skiótast ok kom síﬂan til mín.’
En eptir ﬂessa tilskipun tók Faustinianus blezun af Petro ok fór síﬂan
í Anﬂekiu ok háttaﬂi ƒllu sicut Petrus bauﬂ honum. En er ﬂar kom athann stóﬂ á stræti ok talﬂisk Símon vera ok l‡sti ifir ódáﬂum sínum ok
endemum ﬂá máttisk Símon magus ﬂat eigi of standask. Hann lét skióta
at honum ƒrum tvennum. En ﬂar brugﬂu menn skiƒldum viﬂ es til vru
settir at hlífa Faustiniano. ﬁá kallaﬂi Faustinianus ok mælti:‘Nú mon ek hætta ﬂessi rœﬂu en ﬂvísa næst mon ek s‡nask meﬂal
yﬂvar á stræti.’Viﬂ ﬂessi orﬂ hvarf hann á braut allr svát hann varﬂ hvergi litinn íborginni ﬂaﬂan frá. En l‡ﬂr sá er áﬂr hafﬂi horft á hann litaﬂisk umb oks ﬂeir ﬂá Símon standa á meﬂal sín. ﬁá tóku ﬂeir at rækia hann okmæltu viﬂ hann:‘Nú vitum vér hverr svikari ﬂú ert. Hefir ﬂú nú ipse sagt eptir ﬂér undrok endemi ﬂau es engu megu viﬂ iamnask.’
En er hann vildi ipse svara firir sik ﬂá œstisk ƒll alﬂ‡ﬂa á hendr honumok kƒstuﬂu ﬂeir at honum grióti ok trióm ok hvívetna es ﬂeir mttu til
fá. Í ﬂeiri rimmu rku ﬂeir borgarmenn Símon inn illa á braut ór Anﬂekiu
svát hann efldisk ﬂar ekki síﬂan of aldr.
Faustinianus kom brátt á fund Pétrs postola ok sagﬂi honum ﬂau tíﬂendi
es gerzk hƒfﬂu í Antiochia, ok lét hann ﬂess vn at hann myndi ﬂar fá
góﬂar viﬂtƒkur. En síﬂan sendi Petrus postoli Nicetam ok Aquilam íAnﬂekiu at gera vart viﬂ at hann var ﬂingat á fƒr. En er borgarl‡ﬂrinn
vissi at Pétr postoli nólgaﬂisk ﬂingat ﬂá fóru allir inir gƒfgustu menn
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The Life of St Clement

31‘Receive now my blessing and then go into Antioch and into the house ofyour friend Theophilus, and do not let anyone know you are there until
you go out onto the street one day when there is a large crowd. You shallthen claim to be Simon Magus. You shall declare yourself bound once
each year to proclaim your practices and accomplishments to the people.
Then you must confess to sorcery and all the evil deceits which I can tell
you that Simon is guilty of. I expect that Simon will come and listen to
your words. He will not be able to tolerate this speech of yours. He will
get his men to shoot at you or do you some injury if they can. You must
previously have arranged for two men to hold shields in front of you andto protect you if men attack you. And if you are attacked then try to getaway from the city as fast as possible and then come to me.’And after this instruction Faustinianus received Peter’s blessing andthen went into Antioch and fixed everything just as Peter had told him to.
And when it came about that he stood on the street and said that he wasSimon and proclaimed his misdeeds and monstrous acts, then Simon
Magus could not put up with that. He had two volleys of arrows shot at
him. But men who were charged to protect Faustinianus warded them off
with shields. Then Faustinianus shouted and said:‘Now I will cease this talk and next I will appear among you in thestreet.’With these words he disappeared completely so that he was never seenin the city from then on. And the crowd who had previously had theireyes on him looked around and then they saw Simon standing among
them. They began then to reject him and said to him:
‘Now we know what a deceiver you are. You yourself have now informed on yourself of shameful deeds and monstrous acts which are unparalleled.’
But when he wanted to defend himself then all the people became furious
with him and they threw at him stones and sticks and whatever they could
get hold of. In the tumult the citizens drove Simon the Evil away out of
Antioch so that he made no headway there ever after.
Faustinianus soon came to see the Apostle Peter and told him the newsof what had happened in Antioch, and he said it was likely that he would
have a good reception there. And then the Apostle Peter sent Niceta and
Aquila into Antioch to make it known that he was on his way there. And
when the citizens learnt that the Apostle Peter was approaching there,
then all the most distinguished men went a long way out of the city to

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langt á braut ór borginni á mót Petro ok gingu berfœttir ok í hárklæﬂum,
ok s‡ndu svá iﬂrun sína Petro postola firir ﬂat es ﬂeir hƒfﬂu horfit eptir
villu Símonar ins illa ok trúat á flærﬂir hans ok illsku.
ﬁá er Petrus kom í borgina ﬂá dreif at honum alﬂ‡ﬂa manns ok vru
ﬂar bornir at honum siúkir menn ‡misligum sóttum hvaﬂan æva, ﬂeir er
sér vættu happs ok heilsu af verﬂleikum postolans ok iarteinum hans.
ﬁá leit Petrus ifir fólk ﬂat es til hans var komit ok ﬂakkaﬂi [Guﬂi] t[rú]ﬂ[ei]ra [ﬂá er hann sá algerva], es ﬂá var komin í brióst ﬂeim. Síﬂanmælti Petrus postoli viﬂ l‡ﬂinn:‘ﬁat meguﬂ ér siá at ek em maﬂr glíkr yﬂr at ƒllu øﬂli ok at óstyrkleik
líkama míns. Nú skuluﬂ ér eigi ﬂat hyggia at ek mega gefa yﬂr heilsu af
krapti mínum. En ef ér iátiﬂ ﬂví at Iesus Christus, filius Domini lifanda,
gefr yﬂr heilsu ok trúiﬂ ér á hann af ƒllum hug, ﬂá er vn at ér megiﬂmiskunn fá í hans namni.’ﬁá iátti allr l‡ﬂr Christo Domino ok lézk búinn vera at gera ﬂat allt es
Petrus vildi bióﬂa. En í ﬂví bili kom liós mikit af himni ofan ifir allanl‡ﬂ, enda fingu ﬂá ﬂeir menn allir bót meina sinna es siúkir hƒfﬂu verit.
ﬁá runnu krypplingar at fótum Petro postola ok ƒll alﬂ‡ﬂa lofaﬂi nomen
Christi Domini. En ﬂaﬂan frá fylgﬂi svá mikill Guﬂs kraptr Petro postolaat á siau dƒgum inum næstum tóku tíu ﬂúsundir manna skírn meﬂ fullri
trú til Guﬂs.
Eptir ﬂat beiddi Theophilus inn kristnasti maﬂr í Antiochia Petar
postola at hann vígﬂi hƒll gƒfugliga es hann átti til kirkiu, enda fór ﬂat
fram. Í ﬂeiri kirkiu var settr stóll Pétrs postola á ﬂeim degi sem nú er
síﬂan haldin Pétrsmessa á vár, ok ﬂá sƒng ﬂar Pétr postoli fyrstr messu
allra manna at ﬂví er bœkr segia. Á ﬂeim degi fell Faustinianus til fóta
Pétrs postola firir allri alﬂ‡ﬂu ok mælti ﬂessi orﬂ:
‘Nú ﬂykia mér Guﬂs orﬂ ﬂau er ﬂú hefir sagt í brióst mér vera búin til
at gera góﬂan ávƒxt. Nú f‡sumk ek at taka skírn ok vil ek síﬂan vera
hluttakeri heilagrar ﬂiónustu.’ﬁá skírﬂi Petrus Faustinianum ok ﬂá tók hann ásiónu sína ﬂá sem
hann hafﬂi haft áﬂr Símon brygﬂi ifirlitum hans. Á ﬂeim degi talﬂi Petrus
lengi firir l‡ﬂnum ok hóf ﬂar mál sitt es Faustinianus var, ok gaf á honumdœmi ƒﬂrum mƒnnum hvé hann var snúinn frá heiﬂnum dómi af miskunn Guﬂs til algƒrrar trú ok til d‡rligs lífs. En ﬂaﬂan frá virﬂi alﬂ‡ﬂa
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meet Peter and walked barefoot and in hair shirts, and in this way showed
their repentance to the Apostle Peter for having followed the heresy ofSimon the Evil and believed in his deceits and wickedness.
When Peter entered the city, then all the people flocked to him and men
sick with various diseases, who looked for good fortune and health fromthe merits of the Apostle and his miracles, were carried to him there fromevery direction. Then Peter looked over the people who had come to him
and thanked God for their faith which he saw perfectly had then entered
their breasts. Then the Apostle Peter spoke to the people:‘You can see that I am a man like you in all my nature and in the infirmityof my body. Now you must not think that I can give you health by myown power. But if you acknowledge that Jesus Christ, the son of the living
Lord, will give you health and you believe in him with all your mind, thenit is likely that you may receive grace in his name.’
Then all the people acknowledged the Lord Christ and said that they
were ready to do everything that Peter wished to command. And at thatmoment a great light came down from heaven over all the people, andmoreover all those people who had been sick then received healing of
their ailments. Then cripples ran to the feet of the Apostle Peter and all
the people praised the name of the Lord Christ. And from then on suchgreat power of God was in the Apostle Peter that in the following sevendays ten thousand people were baptised with complete faith in God.
After that Theophilus, the most Christian person in Antioch, asked theApostle Peter to consecrate a magnificent hall which he was using as achurch, and moreover this took place. The throne of the Apostle Peterwas set up in that church on the day which now is held as the feast day of
St Peter in the spring, and then the Apostle Peter sang mass there the firstof all men according to what books say. On that day Faustinianus fell
down at the feet of the Apostle Peter before all the people and spoke thesewords:‘Now the words of God which you have spoken and put into my breast
seem to me to be ready to bear good fruit. Now I am eager to receive
baptism and I wish afterwards to be a partaker of the Holy Sacrament.’
Then Peter baptised Faustinianus and he then recovered his countenancewhich he had had before Simon changed his appearance. On that day
Peter preached for a long time to the people and began his sermon with
Faustinianus, and made of him an example to other people how he wasturned from heathendom by the grace of God to perfect faith and to aglorious life. And from then on the ordinary people regarded Faustinianus

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Faustinianum sem engil Guﬂs ok margir menn ﬂiónuﬂu honum ekki
miﬂr en Petro postola. Ævi hans lauksk meﬂ góﬂu ok konu hans ok suna
í trú heilagri ok atferﬂ d‡rligri at Guﬂs vilia.
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Petrus postoli helt siau vetr byskupstól í Anﬂekiu, en síﬂan kom hann til
Rúmaborgar á ﬂeim dƒgum er Claudius var keiseri ifir ƒllum heimi. ﬁarvar hann fyrstr páfi ok hafﬂi hann ﬂat veldi hálfan ﬂriﬂia tøg vetra.
Clemens fylgﬂi honum miƒk svá alla ævi ﬂaﬂan frá er hann kom til
fundar viﬂ Pétr postola, ok Clemens gerﬂi bók ﬂá of farahag ok iarteinir
Pétrs postola es heitir It<in>erarium Petri, en ﬂat ﬂ‡ﬂisk sem sé farabók
Pétrs. Svá segir bók at á ofanverﬂum dƒgum Pétrs postola ﬂá kom einnhvern dag fiƒlﬂi manna á fund Pétrs postola at heyra formæli hans ok
kenning. ﬁá reis Petrus upp á mannfundi ﬂeim inum fiƒlmenna ok tókhann hƒnd Clemens ok mælti síﬂan:‘ﬁat hefir Dominus vitrat mér at nú nólgask miƒk andlátstíﬂ mín. Nú
set ek ﬂenna mann Clementem í stól minn at st‡ra ok at ráﬂa allri
Rúmaborgar kristni, ok honum b‡ﬂ ek at halda upp kenningum helgum
ok boﬂorﬂum Guﬂs ƒllum eptir dag minn meﬂ veldi ﬂví es ek hefi tekit
af lærifeﬂr mínum ok Domino Iesu Christo at binda ok leysa allt ﬂat es
ek vil á himni ok á iƒrﬂu. Siá maﬂr hefir mér fylgt miƒk langa ævi vel
ok trúliga, ok veit ek hann bazt til fallinn at sitia í stóli mínum firir trú
sakar ok vitrleiks ok gœzku.’ﬁá setti hann Clementem í stól sinn ok lagﬂi hendr sínar í hƒfuﬂ honum
meﬂ blezun heilagri ﬂeiri at hann vígﬂi hann til byskups ok til páfa ifir
allri kristni. ﬁá minnti Petrus páfi Clemens á miƒk mƒrgum orﬂum hversu
hann sky<l>di halda byskupdóm, eﬂa hvé hann skildi st‡ra kristni ﬂeiri
es hann var ﬂá ifir settr.
ﬁaﬂan frá leiﬂ eigi langt skeiﬂ unz Guﬂs unnandi Petrus postoli lét líf
sitt firir ina háleitustu st viﬂ inn almáttka Guﬂ sicut ipse Dominus hafﬂi
vitrat honum. Inn fyrsti páfi af Petro vígﬂr ok til kørinn var Linus ok var
hann litla stund. En annarr páfi var Cletus eptir Linum at forráﬂi Pétrs
postola ok lifﬂi skamma stund. Inn ﬂriﬂi páfi frá Petro var siá inn gƒfgi
Clemens, sonr Faustinianus ins mesta spekings, ok hann var sonr Mathidie
innar kynstœrstu konu ok dásamliga ráﬂvandrar sicut fyrr var frá sagt.
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as an angel of God and many men paid homage to him no less than to the
Apostle Peter. His life and that of his wife and sons ended well in holyfaith and in splendid conduct in accordance with God’s will.
VI
The Apostle Peter held the bishop’s see in Antioch for seven years, andthen he came to Rome in the days when Claudius was emperor over thewhole world. He was the first pope there and he had that authority fortwenty-five years. Clement was with him almost all his life from the time
when he went to see the Apostle Peter, and Clement wrote the book on
the journeys and miracles of the Apostle Peter which is called ‘Itinerarium
Petri’, and that means as it were ‘Peter’s book of travels’.* A book saysthat towards the end of the Apostle Peter’s days a multitude of peoplecame to see the Apostle Peter on a certain day to hear his preaching andteaching. Then Peter stood up at that crowded meeting and he took
Clement’s hand and then said:‘The Lord has revealed to me that the time of my death now draws very
close. Now I set this man Clement in my throne to govern and to rule all
the Church in Rome, and I command him to uphold all the holy teachingsand commandments of God after my day with the authority which I havereceived from my Teacher and Lord Jesus Christ to bind and to loose
whatever I will in Heaven and on Earth. This man has followed me welland faithfully for a very long time, and I know that he is best fitted to sit
in my throne because of his faith and wisdom and goodness.’
Then he seated Clement in his throne and placed his hands on his headwith the sacred benediction of consecrating him bishop and pope over thewhole of Christendom. Then Pope Peter reminded Clement in very many
words how he should carry out his episcopal duties, and how he should
govern the Church which he was then put in charge of.
From then not a long time passed until the Apostle Peter, lover of God,
lost his life on account of his sublime love for Almighty God as the Lordhimself had revealed to him. The first pope consecrated by Peter and elected
was Linus and he was pope for a little while. And the second pope after
Linus under the guardianship of the Apostle Peter was Cletus and he lived
for a short time. The third pope from Peter was the noble Clement, son ofFaustinianus the very great philosopher, and he was the son of Mathidia,
the most nobly born woman and wonderfully upright as was told above.
* Traditionally an alternative name for the Recognitiones. The ‘book’ quoted next
is considered to be a source of the Epistula Clementis ad Iacobum (see p. xix above).

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En siá inn helgi ættarbœtir, Clemens, glíkﬂi atferﬂ sína ok kenningar
helgar eptir Petro postola lærifeﬂr sínum, ok Clemens páfi hafﬂi st ok
elsku mikla af Gyﬂingum ok heiﬂnum mƒnnum sicut af kristnu fólki.
Heiﬂnir menn elskuﬂu Clemens af ﬂví at hann fœldi eigi siﬂ ﬂeira, heldrs‡ndi hann ﬂeim meﬂ mikilli skynsemi af ﬂeira bókum siálfra hversu
illa ok flærﬂsamliga ﬂeir ﬁórr eﬂa Óﬂinn eﬂa aﬂrir æsir vru getnir, ok
hversu illa ok herfiliga ﬂeir lifﬂu ok dó síﬂan vesalliga heﬂan ór heimi,
ok má ﬂá af ﬂví at ƒngum sannƒndum goﬂ kalla. Clemens páfi sagﬂi svá
heiﬂnum mƒnnum at ﬂeir møndi ﬂegar ƒﬂlask líkn ok miskunn af Guﬂi
es ﬂeir hyrfi frá blótum ok allri gƒfgun viﬂ skurﬂgoﬂ sín. En Gyﬂingar
elskuﬂu Clemens páfa af ﬂví at hann lét vel of lƒgum ﬂeira ok talﬂi
langfeﬂr ﬂeira vera helga menn ok Guﬂs vini mikla, ok kvaﬂ eigi myndu
aﬂra fyrr ƒﬂlask ok eignask inngƒngu himinríkis vistar ef ﬂeir tr‡ﬂi ﬂvíes helgir spámenn ﬂeira hƒfﬂu spát ok firirsagt of hingatkomu Christi
Domini í heim ﬂenna. En af heilagri vitru ok Guﬂi gefinni ok hyggiligri
ráﬂleitni teygﬂi Clemens páfi Gyﬂinga ok heiﬂna menn til ásthúﬂar viﬂinn almáttka Guﬂ Fƒﬂur ok Son ok Helgan Anda ﬂann er bæﬂi er einn
ok ﬂrír, ok fekk svá umb rœtt viﬂ allan l‡ﬂ at sem sízt stygﬂisk hugr
ﬂeira viﬂ kenningar hans, ok svát ƒllum rynni sem mest ástarhugr til
heilagrar misericordie eingetins sonar Guﬂs. En eigi hafﬂi hann ﬂessi
blíﬂmæli firir ﬂeim sƒkum viﬂ l‡ﬂinn at hann hræddisk ógnir manna né
styriƒld firir ﬂví at Clemens boﬂaﬂi ﬂar namn Guﬂs ok trú rétta es hannvissi áﬂr mesta heiﬂni vera ok skurﬂgoﬂavillu.
Ok af hans kenningu snerisk til trú réttrar ágæt kona sú er Theodora
hét ok kom opt til kirkiu ok ﬂiónaﬂi ástsamliga ok vel Guﬂi almáttkum.
En Sisinnius búandi hennar Theodoru var grimmr maﬂr ok heiﬂinn. En
einn hvern dag gekk Sisinnius af forvitnis sƒkum eptir Theodoru konu
sinni í ƒnnur kirkiudyrr. En er lærﬂir studdu bœn páfans ok kvﬂu amenﬂá varﬂ Sisinnius ﬂegar bæﬂi blindr ok daufr ok mælti svá viﬂ ﬂióna
sína at ﬂeir skyldi taka í hendr honum ok leiﬂa hann á braut ﬂaﬂan,‘ﬂvíat ek má nú hvártki siá né heyra.’ﬁiónar hans ok ﬂrælar leiddu hann of kirkiuna innan ok mttu eigi
hitta út ok fundu eigi dyrr á kirkiunni. ﬁeir fóru svá opt í hring of kirkiuna
innan unz ﬂeir kómu ﬂar of síﬂir es Theodora var kona hans á bœnum
14 Christum

The Life of St Clement

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VII
So this blessed ornament of his family, Clement, modelled his conduct
and holy teachings on his teacher the Apostle Peter, and Pope Clement
won affection and deep love from Jews and heathens as well as fromChristian people. Heathens loved Clement because he did not mock theirfaith, but rather demonstrated to them very rationally out of their own
books how evilly and deceitfully ﬁórr and Ó›inn and other gods had
been begotten, and how wickedly and wretchedly they lived and thendied miserably out of this world, and therefore they cannot be called
gods on any truthful grounds. Pope Clement told heathen men this, thatthey would gain comfort and grace from God as soon as they abandoned
sacrifices and all worship of their carven images. And the Jews loved
Pope Clement because he expressed approval of their laws and said that
their ancestors were holy men and great friends of God, and said that
others could not sooner obtain and gain entry to life in the Kingdom of
Heaven if they would believe what their holy prophets had foretold andprophesied about the coming of the Lord Christ into this world. And
with his holy and God-given wisdom and with his prudent efforts
Pope Clement drew Jews and heathens to love of the Almighty God,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, who is both one and three, and managed
to speak to all the people so that their hearts were offended by his teachingas little as possible, and so that the greatest possible love for the holygrace of God’s only begotten son flowed into all of them. And he did
not use these blandishments with the people because he feared men’s
threats or violence, for Clement preached the name of God and thetrue faith where he already knew the greatest heathendom and idolatry
existed.
And from his teaching a woman of noble birth who was called Theodora
turned to the true faith and came often to church and served Almighty
God lovingly and well. But Sisinnius, the husband of this Theodora, wasa fierce and heathen man. And one day out of curiosity Sisinnius followed
his wife Theodora in by another church-door. And when the clergy
endorsed the Pope’s prayer and said Amen then Sisinnius at once became
both blind and deaf, and spoke thus to his servants that they should takehim by the hands and lead him away from there, ‘because now I can neither
see nor hear.’His servants and slaves led him around inside the church but were notable to find their way out and found no doors in the church. Thus theywent many times in a circle round the inside of the church until at last
they came to where his wife Theodora was at her prayers. And when she

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sínum. En er hon sá hvar ﬂeir fóru meﬂ Sisinnium búanda hennar ﬂáveik hon fyrst frá fundi ﬂeira, ok ætlaﬂi hon at Sisinnius møndi siá
nakkvat ﬂvíat hann hóf upp augu sín sem heileygr maﬂr. En ﬂó sendi
hon mann eptir ﬂeim at vita ﬂat hvat ﬂeim væri orﬂit til meins es ﬂeir
fóru svá ógreitt. En ﬂeir svƒruﬂu ok sƒgﬂu svá:‘ﬁá er Sisinnius dominus várr vildi siá ﬂá hluti ok heyra es honum var
eigi lofat, heiﬂnum manni ok trúlausum, ﬂá t‡ndi hann af ﬂví bæﬂi heyrn
sinni ok s‡n, ok megu nú allir siá ﬂat at vér hittum eigi leiﬂ óra ór kirkiu út.’Theodora fell á kné til bœnar sinnar ﬂá er hon heyrﬂi tíﬂendi ﬂessi
sƒgﬂ ok baﬂ inn almáttka Guﬂ meﬂ trum [at ﬂeir] mætti ganga út ór
kirkiunni. ﬁá mælti Theodo[ra] viﬂ ﬂrælana:‘Takiﬂ ér nú í hendr Sisinnio ok leiﬂiﬂ hann heim. En ek mon halda
svá bœn minni sem oss gegni ƒllum bazt ok skynda ﬂegar heim es
tíﬂum es lokit.’
Sveinarnir tóku í hendr herra sínum Sisinnio sem Theodora bauﬂ ﬂeim
ok leiddu heim til hallar sinnar. En ﬂeir fóru síﬂan aptr til fundar viﬂ
Theodoru skyndiliga ok sƒgﬂu henni Sisinnium vera bæﬂi blindan ok
daufan. ﬁá hvarf Theodora af n‡iu til bœnar sinnar ok baﬂ honum
ﬂrásamliga Guﬂ misericordie búanda sínum, ok fell honum til fóta
Clemens páfa ﬂegar er tíﬂum var lokit ok sagﬂi búanda sinn vera bæﬂi
blindan ok daufan, ‘ﬂá er hann vildi forvitnask of hagi okkra.’ﬁá felldi Clemens tr ok eggiaﬂi ﬂá menn alla es ﬂar vru at biﬂia firir
Sisinnio at Guﬂ gæfi honum s‡n ok heyrn, ok fór hann heim meﬂ
Theodoru es bœn ﬂeira var lokit ok hafﬂi hann allt traust undir Guﬂi
almáttkum. En hiú hans ƒll Sisinnius stóﬂu grátandi ifir honum, ok máttihann ekki til siá eﬂa heyra es hiú hans heilsuﬂu Clemens páfa ok
Theodoru. ﬁá hóf Clemens páfi upp augu sín til Domini ok baﬂ Sisinnio
misericordie a Domino ok mælti á ﬂessa lund:‘Dominus meus Iesus Christus, ﬂú er gaf<t> postola ﬂínum Petari
himinríkis lukla, lærifeﬂr mínum ok meistera, ok ﬂú heilagr Guﬂ mæltir
svá viﬂ hann at sá skal hverr leysask á iƒrﬂu frá ƒllum meinum ok ƒﬂlask
eilífa miskunn af Guﬂi feﬂr firir ﬂitt heilagt árnaﬂarorﬂ ok himinríkis vister ﬂú vill svá vera láta, en sá hverr bundinn ok fyrdœmﬂr ok Guﬂs flóttamaﬂr verﬂa er ﬂitt atkvæﬂi es ﬂat, bióﬂﬂu nú Dominus at upp lúkisk augu
ﬂessa manns ok eyru, ﬂvíat ﬂú mæltir svá: “Hverskis es ér biﬂiﬂ, trúiﬂ ér
ﬂví, kristnir menn, at ér munuﬂ geta ﬂat es ér biﬂiﬂ, ok mun svá verﬂa.”
10 words supplied by Unger

29 ert gaf

The Life of St Clement

39

saw where they were going with her husband Sisinnius, then she turned
away at first from encountering them, and thought that Sisinnius must beable to see a bit because he raised his eyes like a man of normal sight.
But nevertheless she sent a man after them to find out what harm had
befallen them since they moved so awkwardly. And they answered andsaid thus:‘When our Master Sisinnius wished to see and hear those things whichwere not permitted to him, being a heathen and an unbelieving man, thenbecause of that he lost both his hearing and sight, and now all can see that
we cannot find our way out of the church.’
Theodora fell to her knees in prayer when she heard about all this andwith tears prayed to the Almighty God that they might get out of thechurch. Then Theodora said to the slaves:‘Now take Sisinnius by the hands and lead him home. But I will go on
praying as will be best for us all and hurry home as soon as the service isfinished.’
The lads took their master Sisinnius by the hands as Theodora told themand led him home to his hall. They then hurried back to meet Theodora
and told her that Sisinnius was both blind and deaf. Then Theodora turned
again to her prayers and begged God persistently for grace for her husband,and fell at the feet of Pope Clement as soon as the service was finishedand said her husband was both blind and deaf, ‘when he tried to pry into
our affairs.’
Then Clement shed tears and urged all the people who were there topray for Sisinnius that God would give him sight and hearing, and he went
home with Theodora when their prayer had finished, and he had complete
trust in Almighty God. And all Sisinnius’s household stood weeping overhim, and he could neither see nor hear when his household greeted Pope
Clement and Theodora. Then Pope Clement raised up his eyes to the Lord
and prayed for the Lord’s grace for Sisinnius and spoke in this way:
‘My Lord Jesus Christ, you who gave the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven
to your Apostle Peter, my teacher and master, and you, holy God, said to
him that everyone on earth shall be freed from all ills and obtain everlasting
grace from God the Father through your holy intercession and a place inheaven when you wish to have it so, and everyone will be bound andcondemned and become a fugitive from God when that is your verdict:now, Lord, command that the eyes and ears of this man be opened, foryou have said thus: “Whatever you pray for, have faith, Christian men,that you will receive what you ask, and so shall it be (Matthew 21:22).”

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En ﬂetta heit ﬂitt es víst satt ok hefir svá verit of allar veraldir veralda.’
En er allir svƒruﬂu ﬂeir er hiá vru ok kvﬂu amen ﬂá lukusk ﬂegar
upp augu Sisinnius ok eyru.
En er Sisinnius sá Clemens páfa standa hiá konu sinni ﬂá villtisk hugr
hans miƒk af mikilli illsku ok afbr‡ﬂi, ok ætlaﬂi svá firir sér at Clemenspáfi hefﬂi gervan hann mann blindan ok daufan af fiƒlkyngi sinni. En af[œﬂi ﬂeiri] ok heimsku es ﬂá sló á hann Sisinnium, mælti hann viﬂﬂræla sína at ﬂeir skyldi taka Clemens páfa ok binda hann ok dragahann of ƒll stræti firir ﬂá sƒk es hann fífldi konu hans ok tók s‡n okheyrn frá honum meﬂ fiƒlkyngi sinni, sagﬂi Sisinnius. En ﬂá ﬂóttusk
ﬂrælar hans draga Clemens páfa aptr ok fram at strætum sicut Sisinnius
bauﬂ ﬂeim, herri ﬂeira. En ﬂar hlífﬂi Guﬂ heilagr Clemens páfa ástvinsínum, ok drógu ﬂeir eptir sér of stræti stokka ok steina. Ok svá s‡ndisk
Sisinnio sem ﬂrælum hans at ﬂeir drœgi ﬂar Clemens páfa. En ﬂeir inirsƒmu hlœgismenn es eigi vissu hvat ﬂeir gerﬂu ok hlógu svá at honum
sem at bandingia. En Sisinnius kvazk bana skyldu honum sem galdramƒnnum.
‘Makliga dragiﬂ ér nú stokka ok steina,’ sagﬂi Clemens páfi, ‘ﬂvíat ér
hafiﬂ steinhiƒrtu ok trúiﬂ á stokka ok steina.’ﬁá veitti Clemens páfi blezun Theodoru ok fór heim síﬂan ok mælti
svá viﬂ hana at hon læti eigi af bœn sinni áﬂr Guﬂ heilagr miskunnaﬂi
Sisinnio búanda hennar. Ok ﬂá vitraﬂisk henni Theodoru es hon var ábœn sinni grátandi einn hverr gamall maﬂr gƒfugligr miƒk at áliti ok
sagﬂi henni svá:
‘Firir bœnir ﬂínar ok gœzku mun búandi ﬂinn hiálpask, at ﬂat s‡nisk
es Póll bróﬂir minn dixit, “Helgask mun ótrúr maﬂr ok vándr af konu
sinni góﬂri ok trúri, ok vnd kona mun batna af sínum manni góﬂum ok
ráﬂvƒndum.”’
En ﬂá hvarf Pétr postoli braut frá henni. En Sisinnius kallaﬂi ﬂegar á
konu sína Theodoru es hann sá hana, at ﬂat sannaﬂisk es Pétr postoli
hafﬂi sagt henni, sicut vn var at honum:‘Biﬂﬂu nú Dominum Deum tuum at hann biargi mér, ﬂóat ek siá óverﬂr,
af sinni heilagri miskunn ok sé mér eigi reiﬂr, ﬂvíat afbr‡ﬂis sƒkum gekk
ek eptir ﬂér í kirkiu inn, ok tók ek ﬂegar víti á mér ﬂá er ek forvitnuﬂumk
of ﬂat at siá ﬂá hluti ok heyra es gerﬂusk í návistu Clemens páfa. Nú
biﬂﬂu hann, ﬂóat ek siá ﬂess ómakligr, at hann komi til fundar viﬂ mik ok
7 words supplied from Unger’s edition

The Life of St Clement41

And this your promise is certainly true and has been so through all ages of
the world.’
And when all the people who were present answered and said Amen
then Sisinnius’s eyes and ears were immediately opened.
And when Sisinnius saw Pope Clement standing beside his wife, then his
mind was much bewildered by intense malice and jealousy, and he thought
to himself that Pope Clement had made him a blind and deaf man throughhis sorcery. And because of the madness and folly which then came overSisinnius, he told his slaves that they should seize Pope Clement and bind
him and drag him through all the streets because he had seduced his wifeand taken his sight and hearing from him by his sorcery, said Sisinnius.
And then his slaves thought that they were dragging Pope Clement backand forth through the streets as their master Sisinnius ordered them. But
now Holy God protected his dear friend Pope Clement, and they were
dragging stocks and stones behind them through the streets. And so it
seemed to Sisinnius as it did to his slaves that they were dragging Pope
Clement along there. But those same mockers who knew not what they
were doing also laughed at him as if at a captive. And Sisinnius said that
he would be put to death just like magicians.
‘Fittingly do you now pull stocks and stones,’ said Pope Clement,‘because you have hearts of stone and believe in stocks and stones.’
Then Pope Clement gave his blessing to Theodora and afterwards went
home and told her that she should not cease her prayer until Holy God
showed grace to her husband Sisinnius. And when she was at her prayers
in tears a certain old man very noble in countenance appeared to Theodora
and said to her:
‘On account of your prayers and goodness your husband will be saved,
so that it may be demonstrated as my brother Paul said: “A faithless andwicked man shall be sanctified by his good and faithful wife, and a wicked
woman shall be made better through her good and upright husband(1 Corinthians 7:14).” ’And then the Apostle Peter disappeared from her. And Sisinnius called
to his wife Theodora as soon as he saw her, so that what the Apostle Peter
had told her became true, as was to be expected from him:
‘Now ask the Lord your God that He may save me, though I am
unworthy, by His holy grace, and not be angry with me, for it was because of jealousy I went after you into the church, and I was forthwith punished when I became desirous to see and hear the things thatwent on in Pope Clement’s presence. Now beg him, though I do notdeserve it, to come to see me and that I may know the true faith, for it

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Clemens sagamega ek vita sanna trú, ﬂvíat mér s‡ndisk svá ok ﬂrælum mínum sem
vér byndim páfann siálfan ﬂá er vér drógum stokka ok steina eptir oss.’ﬁá fór Th<e>odora skyndiliga eptir Clemens páfa ok dixit honum
feginsamliga vitrun ﬂessa ok tíﬂendi es Pétr postoli hafﬂi s‡nzk henni,
ok hún dixit [feginsƒgu ﬂ]ar meﬂ at Sisinnius møndi snúask frá villu
sinni sicut ﬂegar gekk eptir, ‘ok sendi hann mik nú eptir ﬂér at ﬂú skyldir
koma ﬂangat til fundar hans.’
En Clemens dvalﬂi ﬂá eigi ok fór feginn meﬂ henni. En Sisinnius tók
ﬂá vegsamliga viﬂ honum sem makligt var es hann kom ﬂingat. Clemenspáfi talﬂi ﬂá firir honum trú rétta ok sanna ok hvat til andarheilsu skyldi
vinna. En Sisinnius tók ﬂá at styrkiask í trú réttri, ok fell hann til fóta
Clemen
 páfa ok mælti síﬂan svá:‘ﬁakkir gerek nú sƒnnum Guﬂi,’ dixit Sisinnius, ‘ok almáttkum ﬂeim es
mik lét blindan verﬂa ok daufan firir ótrú mína til ﬂess at ek mega nú siá itsanna ok heyra in réttu boﬂorﬂ ﬂau er ek hafﬂa fyrr at skaupi haft. Ok es nú
hreinsat hugskot mitt frá ƒllum sauri skurﬂgoﬂavillu, ﬂvíat ﬂat es diƒfla
leyni ok fylskni ﬂeira skurﬂgoﬂ ﬂau er vér trúﬂum miƒk ok heimsliga áhingat til, ok gƒfguﬂum af allri alúﬂ es verr var. En ﬂau tæla alla ﬂá mennes ﬂeim trúa. En ek skal nú trúa á Iesum Christum sannan Guﬂ á himnum.’ﬁá fƒgnuﬂu allir kristnir menn es hugr hans skyldi svá vel skipazk
hafa á lítilli stundu. En Sisinnius tók ﬂá skírn ok hiú hans vru skírﬂ at
páskum. En ﬂar var allt saman sextán mƒnnum færa en ﬂrettán ﬂusundir.
Ok siá Sisinnius sneri síﬂan mƒrgum gƒfgum mƒnnum til réttrar trú af
orﬂum sínum ok góﬂum firirtƒlum, ok ﬂeim iarteinum es hann hafﬂi af
Guﬂi ﬂegnar ok af hans miskunn ok af kenningum Clemens páfa.
ﬁá reiddisk blótmaﬂr sá er Publius Torquatianus heitir viﬂ ﬂat at hannsá ótal manna snúask frá skurﬂgoﬂablótum ok til átrúnaﬂar viﬂ eingetinn
son Guﬂs Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum. Publius bar fé mikil áríkismenn víﬂa í heruﬂum ok baﬂ ﬂá gera ófriﬂ mikinn kristnum mƒnnum.
Ok ﬂá gerﬂusk ﬂrætur miklar ok sundrﬂyki meﬂ Rúmaborgar l‡ﬂ of
Clemens páfa, ok gekk liﬂit sveitum miƒk ok mæltu sumir menn svá:
‘Hvat hefir siá inn góﬂi Guﬂs vinr Clemens illa gert eﬂa hvat sé ﬂat
góﬂra verka es eigi geri siá Guﬂs elskari ok ferr hverr maﬂr feginn frá
hans fundi ﬂótt hryggr komi til hans. Ok siúkir menn fara heilir frá
Clemens páfa ﬂeir es hans ástrﬂ sœkia ok hafa síﬂan, ok taka ﬂar bæﬂi
5 word and letter supplied by Unger

22 ﬂars

The Life of St Clement43

seemed to me and to my slaves too that we had bound the Pope himself
when we were dragging stocks and stones behind us.’
Then Theodora hurried for Pope Clement and joyfully told him thisrevelation and tidings when the Apostle Peter had appeared to her, andshe related the glad news also that Sisinnius would turn from his false
belief, as was immediately fulfilled, ‘and he has now sent me for you thatyou should come to see him there.’
And Clement did not delay and accompanied her joyfully. And Sisinnius
then received him honourably as was fitting when he came there. Pope
Clement explained to him about the correct and true faith and what hemust do for his soul’s welfare. And Sisinnius then began to grow strong
in the true faith, and he fell at Pope Clement’s feet, and then said as follows:‘I now give thanks to the true and almighty God,’ said Sisinnius, ‘whomade me become blind and deaf on account of my unbelief so that I
can now see the truth and hear the right commandments which I had
previously mocked. Now my mind is purged of all the filth of idolatry,
because these are the hiding places of devils and their secret dens: the idols
which we hitherto believed in greatly and foolishly and worshipped withall earnestness, which was worse. But they entrap all people who believein them. And I shall now believe in Jesus Christ the true God in heaven.’
Then all the Christians rejoiced that his mind should have changed somuch for the better in a short time. And Sisinnius then received baptism
and his household was baptised at Easter. And there were altogether sixteen
people fewer than thirteen thousand there. And this Sisinnius afterwards
converted many men of rank to the true faith by his words and effective
persuasion, and by the signs which he had received from God and from
His grace and from the teachings of Pope Clement.
Then a heathen worshipper who was called Publius Torquatianus grew
angry when he saw a countless number of people turn from idolatrous
sacrifice and to belief in the only begotten Son of God our Lord Jesus
Christ. Publius bribed with many valuable gifts men in authority far andwide in the localities and told them to make all-out war on Christians.
And then serious quarrels and discord arose among the people of Romeabout Pope Clement and people were all divided into parties and somemen spoke in this way:
‘What has that good friend of God Clement done wrong or what kind ofgood deeds are there that this lover of God does not do?—and everyone
goes from seeing him rejoicing, even though he came to him sad. And
sick men leave Pope Clement healed who seek his friendly advice andafterwards take it, and there gain health in both soul and body. He does no

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heilsu andar ok líkama. Engum gerir hann grand né geig, en hann dugirƒllum ﬂeim es hans ráﬂ elska ok farsælisk hverr maﬂr af honum.’Aﬂrir sveitarmenn svƒruﬂu ok sƒgﬂu svá:
‘Af fiƒlkyngi einni gerir hann slíkt allt ok eyﬂir hann blót ór ok allrid‡rﬂ goﬂa várra, ok ósœmir hann svá in gƒfgu [goﬂ ór at] hann segir at
ﬁórr sé eigi goﬂ, fulltrúi várr ok inn sterksti áss áræﬂisfullr, ok er nær
hvars sem hann es blótinn. En ﬂá ósœmﬂ ok óvirﬂing veitir hann Óﬂniórlausnafullum ok hvarfsemi at siá Clemens kallar hann fiánda okóhreinan anda. En hann kveﬂr Freyiu portkonu verit hafa, fœlir hannFrey, en hrœpir Heimdall, lastar hann Loka meﬂ slœgﬂ sína ok vélar ok
kallar hann ok illan, hatar hann Hœni, bƒlvar hann Baldri, tefr hann T‡,
níﬂir hann Niƒrﬂ, illan segir hann Ull, flimtir hann Frigg, en hann geyr
Gefiun, sekia dœmir hann Sif. Fir illsku sína kveﬂr hann svát orﬂi. Ok
siá lagabriótr fœlir ƒll goﬂ ór ok lastar ﬂau miƒk ok gremr at oss, ok
engi ﬂeira ása má hann heyra vel látinn, hvártki ﬁór né Óﬂin. ¯llumbindr hann ﬂeim iamnan skiƒld upp goﬂum órum ok kallar ƒll óhœfmeﬂ ƒllu, eﬂa hvárt heyrﬂu ﬂér mann slíkt mæla fyrr? Blóti hann nú
ﬂegar í staﬂ eﬂa hafi bana ella. Nú er sá dómr várr allra of hann.’
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ﬁá lét Mamertus Iulianus Rúmarborgar greifi leiﬂa Clemens páfa
leyniliga til máls viﬂ sik ok tók svá til orﬂa at ‘allr Rúmaborgar l‡ﬂr
segir ﬂig lasta miƒk goﬂ ór ok vera mann fiƒlkungan ok véldan miƒk af
villu ﬂeiri es ﬂú gƒfgar Christum nekkvern, ókunnan mér, ok tekr ﬂú
upp n‡breytni ﬂá í gegn goﬂum órum ok í mót lƒgum órum. Nú leggﬂu
niﬂr óskil ﬂín ƒll ok d‡rka in gƒfgu goﬂ ór.’Sanctus Clemens svaraﬂi vel ok hófsamliga orﬂum greifans:‘ﬁess œski ek ﬂér af tign ﬂinni at ﬂú megir <skilia> skynsemi rétta ok
rœﬂﬂu heldr viﬂ mik of skynsemismál en of ﬂrætur ókunna manna okheimskra. ﬁræta ok sundrﬂyki allt hefsk ávalt af ógegnum mƒnnum okheimskum, ok má eigi til sanns ne eitt of fœra viﬂ ﬂá. En í hlióﬂi skal
spakr maﬂr ok vitr spyria ok hyggia ﬂá at heilsu sinni, ok leita meﬂskynsemi hugar ﬂíns ins sanna Guﬂs ﬂess es ﬂú mátt allt traust viﬂ hafa.’

5 words supplied by Unger

26 word supplied by Larsson

The Life of St Clement45

harm or injury to anyone, but he helps all those who value his counsel andeveryone gets prosperity from him.’
Men of another party answered and said thus:‘He does all these things only by sorcery and he does away with our sacrifices and all the worship of our gods, and he dishonours our noble gods
by saying that ﬁórr is not a god, our trusty patron and the strongest divinity,
full of courage, and who is close at hand wherever he is worshipped. And
he does this disgrace and dishonour to Ó›inn who is always able to provide
solutions and safety, that this Clement calls him a fiend and unclean spirit.
And he declares that Freyja has been a harlot, he derides Freyr and slanders
Heimdallr, he speaks ill of Loki and his cunning and tricks and says that
he too is evil, he hates Hœnir, he curses Baldr, he hinders T‡r, he libels
Njƒr›r, he says that Ullr is evil, he ridicules Frigg, and he blasphemes
Gefjun, he condemns Sif. He says these things because of his wickedness.
And this law-breaker mocks all our gods and speaks much ill of them andmakes them angry with us, and he cannot hear any of the gods spoken
well of, neither ﬁórr nor Ó›inn. He hangs up a similar shield* for each ofthese gods of ours and declares that they are all quite useless, but haveyou heard a man say such things before? Let him now sacrifice at once orelse meet death. That is now the judgement of all of us on him.’
VIII
Then Mamertus Julianus, prefect of Rome, had Pope Clement brought insecret to speak with him and began to speak in this way, that ‘all thepeople of Rome say that you speak much ill of our gods and that you area man who is skilled in sorcery, and greatly deluded by false belief in thatyou worship a certain Christ, who is unknown to me, and you take up thatnew religion in defiance of our gods and contrary to our laws. Now abandon
all your wrongful deeds and worship our noble gods.’
Blessed Clement answered the prefect’s words politely and moderately:‘I wish this for you for the sake of your high rank that you may understandtrue wisdom and rather discuss rational matters with me than the disputesof ignorant and foolish people. All quarrelling and discord always
originates from unreasonable and foolish people, and it is impossible toget them to see the truth of anything. But a wise and intelligent man must
make quiet enquiry and then think of his salvation, and with your mind’s
understanding seek the true God on whom you can place complete trust.’* This perhaps means that Clement hangs up a shield as a sign of his own ideals,
as a mark of the gods’ baseness, or as a challenge. There is no equivalent in either
Epitome de Gestis S. Petri or Martyrium S. Clementis (PG 2).

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Clemens sagaﬁá sendi Publius Torquatianus, eptir viﬂrmæli ﬂessi ﬂeira Clemens
ok Iulianus greifa, rit ok innsigli meﬂ sendimƒnnum sínum til Traiano
keisera ok dixit svá at ‘mikit su[n]drﬂyki gerisk meﬂ Rúmaborgarmƒnnum af kenningum Clemens páfa, ok spenr hann allt fólk ok allan
landher frá allri d‡rﬂ goﬂa várra ok dregr í villu sína ok til átrúnaﬂar viﬂChristum nekkvern, ok hann slæsk á it mesta ámæli viﬂ ﬁór eﬂa Óﬂinok alla fœlir hann ﬂá æsi ok ƒll goﬂ ór.’En Traianus keiseri sendi ﬂau orﬂ at móti at Clemens skyldi blóta
goﬂum ﬂeira meﬂ sœmﬂ fullri eﬂa fara á braut ella ‡r Rúmaborg of sæ
nekkvern til útlegﬂar ok í eyﬂimƒrk. En Clemens páfi var heldr fúss tilútlegﬂar ok meinlæta en hann hræddisk viﬂ, ﬂvíat af st ﬂeiri heilagri eshann unni almáttkum Guﬂi skein svá biart himinríkis sól í hiarta hans athann var fúss til allra meinlæta ﬂeira es Guﬂ heilagr vildi láta at hendi
honum koma, ﬂvíat hann vissi víst at Guﬂs miskunn møndi ávalt meﬂhonum vera í hverri mannraun ok ﬂraut. En ﬂá tók Clemens ok talﬂi
meﬂ góﬂum vilia trú rétta ok sanna firir greifanum svát hann komsk viﬂmiƒk of síﬂir greifinn ok felldi tr ákafliga ok mælti svá viﬂ Clemens,
ﬂvíat Guﬂs mildi tœﬂi ávalt mlum páfans:‘Guﬂ ﬂinn,’ kvaﬂ greifinn, ‘sá er ﬂú trúir á af ƒllum hug ok gƒfgar vel
ok trúliga ok d‡rkar miƒk í ƒllu lífi ﬂínu ok athæfi, veri hann ávalt meﬂﬂér ok efli hann ﬂik til allra hluta ok farar ﬂessar ok útlegﬂar.’
Ok gaf greifinn honum skip gott ok ﬂá reiﬂu alla es honum var mestﬂƒrf at hafa meﬂ sér til ífarar ﬂeirar ok baﬂ hann fara í miskunnarfri[ﬂi]Guﬂs síns ﬂess er hann trúﬂi á. En heiﬂnir menn mttu eigi vatni halda
es Clemens páfi skyldi skiliask viﬂ ﬂá. Svá var hann ƒllum mƒnnum
hugﬂekr ok ástfólginn miƒk at hvert barn unni honum.
En síﬂan skipaﬂi Clemens skip ﬂat es greifinn hafﬂi gefit honum. En
honum varﬂ liﬂ auﬂfengt til farar meﬂ sér, sem vn var at, ﬂvíat margir
kristnir menn vildu giarna honum fylgia, sem ﬂeir gerﬂu. Ok fórsk ﬂeim allt
it greizta unz ﬂeir kómu í ﬂann staﬂ es Certona heitir. En ﬂar var liﬂ mikit
firir meirr en tuttugu hundruﬂ kristinna manna ok í ánauﬂ ﬂeiri at ﬂeir
telgﬂu griót, ok vru ﬂví ﬂiáﬂir svá miƒk at ﬂeir trúﬂu á Iesum Christum.
En er Clemens páfi vissi ﬂat at ﬂeir vru af ﬂví landflótta ok útlagir gervir
at ﬂeir vildu eigi hafna st viﬂ Christum Dominum ok trú réttri, ﬂá huggaﬂi
Clemens ﬂá meﬂ kenningum sínum ok mælti svá viﬂ ﬂá alla saman:‘Makliga lét Christus Dominus meus mik hingat fara til yﬂvar at ek
taka huggun meﬂ yﬂr af Guﬂi firir ór meinlæti.’The Life of St Clement

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Then Publius Torquatianus sent, after this conversation between Clement
and the prefect Julianus, letters and a seal by his messengers to the Emperor
Trajan and said thus, that ‘much discord arises among the people of Romeas a result of Pope Clement’s teaching, and he is enticing all the population
and all the people of the country away from all worship of our gods anddraws them into his false doctrine and to belief in a certain Christ. And hehas entered into the greatest abuse of ﬁórr and Ó›inn and he mocks all
the divinities and all our gods.’
And the Emperor Trajan sent these words in reply that Clement should
sacrifice to their gods with full honour or else go away from Rome acrosssome sea into exile and into the wilderness. But Pope Clement was moreeager for exile and hardship than afraid of them, because through thesacred love which he had for almighty God, the sun of the Kingdom of
Heaven shone so brightly in his heart that he was eager for all afflictions
which Holy God wished to befall him, for he knew for certain that God’s
grace would always be with him in every trial and labour. And then Clement
went and declared with good will the right and true faith to the prefect sothat the prefect was in the end deeply moved and shed tears fervently andsaid thus to Clement, for God’s grace always assisted the Pope’s words:‘Your God,’ said the prefect, ‘whom you believe in with all your mind
and worship well and faithfully and glorify greatly in all your life andworks, may he always be with you and strengthen you for all things andfor this journey and exile.’
And the prefect gave him a good ship and all the equipment which hewould most need to have with him on this journey and told him to go in
the peace and grace of his God in whom he believed. But the heathens could
not hold back their tears when Pope Clement had to leave them. So endeared
was he to all people and well beloved that every child was fond of him.
And then Clement got a crew for the ship which the prefect had given him.
And it was easy for him to get people to go with him, as was to be expected,
for many Christians were eager to accompany him, which they did. And
their journey went extremely well until they reached the place which is called
Certona. And a large host was there before them, more than two thousand
Christian people, and employed as slaves to cut stones, and they were soharshly enslaved because they believed in Jesus Christ. And when Pope
Clement knew that they had been exiled and banished because they would
not abandon their love for the Lord Christ and the true faith, then Clement
comforted them with his teaching and said thus to all of them together:‘It is fitting that my Lord Christ allowed me to come hither to you that
I may take comfort with you from God for our hardships.’

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En ﬂeir sƒgﬂu honum til sinna vandræﬂa at ﬂeir urﬂu sex mílur allarat bera vatn á baki sér, ‘ﬂvíat eigi getr nærr svá,’ sƒgﬂu ﬂeir.
‘Biﬂium vér nú allir saman,’ dixit Clemens páfi, ‘at Dominus noster
Iesus Christus lúki upp brunn góﬂan firir iáterum sínum, sá er forﬂum
gaf Moisi vatn ór steini ok l‡ﬂ sínum í eyﬂimƒrk, svát vér megim nú
fagna góﬂum giƒfum hans ok iarteinum, ﬂvíat hann mon veita oss
miskunn sem ƒllum es hann biﬂia nauﬂsynligra hluta meﬂ ástsamri trú.’En ﬂá er ﬂeir hƒfﬂu lokit bœn sinni ﬂá litaﬂisk Clemens umb ok sáhann lamb standa til hœgri handar sér á hóli einum, ok rétti lambit fót
sinn ok tafsaﬂi honum, sicut ﬂar væri vaz vn undir. Ok ﬂá skilﬂi Clemens
af krapti Heilags Anda at Guﬂ omnipotens s‡ndi honum einum lamb
ﬂat. En hann varﬂ ﬂessi miskunn Guﬂs ok s‡n feginn miƒk ok fór hannﬂegar ﬂangat sem Guﬂ s‡ndi honum sitt tákn ok mælti svá viﬂ kristna
menn, at ‘í ﬂessum staﬂ grafiﬂ ér nú iƒrﬂina in nomine Patris ok Sonar
ok Anda Heilags.’
En er ﬂeir grófu ﬂar iƒrﬂina miƒk langa stund ok fundu eigi ﬂann staﬂes lambit hafﬂi tafsat, til ﬂess at omnipotens Guﬂ birti ﬂat enn framarr
ok berligarr hversu miklu hæstan verﬂleik siá inn miskunnsamasti
Clemens páfi hafﬂi viﬂ Guﬂ á himnum, ﬂá tók Clemen
 páfi graftól íhƒnd sér ok hió tysvar pálinum niﬂr undir fœtr lambinu. En ﬂar spratt
ﬂegar mikil  upp ok fór rennandi, ﬂvíat Guﬂ dvalﬂi eigi miskunn sínaﬂegar es ﬂær inar helgu hendr ok inar lítillátu æstu Guﬂ giafar miskunnsamligrar viﬂ sik. Ok l‡sti Guﬂ ifir ﬂví at af krapti ok verﬂleik ins helga
Clemens veitti hann mesta ﬂessa ina dásamligstu ástgiƒf viﬂ fólkit. ﬁá
urﬂu ﬂeir allir fegnir iartein ﬂessi es Guﬂ hafﬂi ﬂeim veitta firir trú rétta,ok sungu ﬂeir hótt lof Guﬂi almáttkum ok mæltu svá at ‘rennandi 
gleﬂr borg Guﬂs’. Ok ﬂá drifu margir heraﬂsmenn ﬂingat es ﬂeir frágu
iarteinir ﬂessar ok ﬂeir s ﬂessa  renna ok upp spretta ﬂar er ﬂeir hƒfﬂuávalt vitat fyrr ﬂurran staﬂ. En ﬂeim brá miƒk viﬂ ﬂessi tíﬂendi ok vel es
ﬂeir knáttu ﬂar líta. En meﬂ ﬂví at Guﬂ heilagr unni ﬂeim mƒnnum mikillarfarsælu sicut ƒllum ƒﬂrum ﬂeim es meﬂ góﬂf‡si sóttu á fund Clemenspáfa, ﬂvíat af hans orﬂum f‡stisk siá allr mannablkr [til lifanda Guﬂs]
es slíkar vingiafar gefr ok veitir af sinni heilagri miskunn, [tó]ku ﬂar trú
ok skírn á ﬂeim degi meirr en fimm hundruﬂ manna. Ok svá vel efldisk
ﬂar kristinn dómr at á ﬂeim misserum var hálfr átti tøgr kirkna ﬂar gƒrr32–33 words supplied by Unger

34 in

The Life of St Clement49

And they told him their troubles, that they were forced to carry wateron their backs for six miles in all, ‘because there is none to be had closer,’they said.
‘Let us now all pray together,’ said Pope Clement, ‘that our Lord Jesus
Christ, who once gave water out of rock to Moses and his people in thewilderness, will open up a good spring for his confessors, so that we may
now rejoice in his good gifts and miracles, for he will grant us grace, as toall who pray to him for necessary things with loving faith.’
And when they had finished their prayer, then Clement looked aroundand he saw a lamb standing to his right on a hillock, and the lamb stretchedout its leg and tapped it, as if there were hope of finding water beneath it.
And then Clement understood from the power of the Holy Ghost that
Almighty God was revealing the lamb to him alone. And he was very
joyful at this act of God’s grace and this vision and he went at once to theplace where God revealed his sign to him and said thus to the Christians
that ‘you must now dig the earth in this place in the name of Father and
Son and Holy Ghost.’
And when they had dug the earth there for a very long time and had not
found the place where the lamb had tapped, so that Almighty God might
display still further and more clearly by how much this most compassionate
Pope Clement had the highest merit in the eyes of God in heaven, thenPope Clement took a spade in his hand and dug the spade in twice under
the feet of the lamb. And straightaway a great stream sprang up andwent flowing there, for God did not delay his grace once those holy andhumble hands had desired a gift of grace from him. And God made it
known that it was mostly because of the power and merit of the Blessed
Clement that he was giving this most marvellous gift of love to the people.
Then they all rejoiced at this miracle that God had granted to them fortheir true faith, and they sang high praise to Almighty God and said
thus that ‘a flowing river gladdens the city of God’ (Psalm 46:4 [45:5]).
And then many men of the district thronged there when they heard ofthese miracles and they saw this river flowing and springing up there
where they had previously always found a dry place. And they were amazedwhen they heard what had happened and delighted when they were able
to see it. And because Holy God granted those men good fortune as hedid to everyone else who went to see Pope Clement with good will, sincethrough his words this entire host of men became desirous for the living
God, who gives and bestows such gifts of friendship through his holygrace, more than five hundred men received Faith and baptism on thatday. And the Christian faith prospered so well there that in that year

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ok vígﬂar af kennimƒnnum, ok svá ƒll skurﬂgoﬂ brotin í ﬂeim heruﬂum
ok ƒll hof eydd ok allir blótstallar brenndir. Ok ﬂá hlógu kristnir menn atótru heiﬂinna manna ok blótum ﬂeira.
En ﬂví næst kom sú saga firir Traianum keisera at ótal manna snerisk
til Christi frá blótum af kenningu Clemens páfa. Ok ﬂá var dómandi sásendr ﬂingat af hendi konung
ins es Aufidianus hét til ﬂess at pína okvega marga kristna menn. En er greifinn fann ﬂat ok reyndi at ﬂeir vru
allir fúsir inir kristnu menn til písla ok bana firir Guﬂs sakar ﬂá vægﬂihann mannfiƒlﬂa ﬂeim ok lét taka Clemens einn saman, en hann neyddi
aﬂra til blóta sem hann mátti mest. En er hann sá hug Clemens páfa
staﬂfastan í trú heilagri ok á ﬂiónustu viﬂ Guﬂ á himnum, ﬂá mælti hannviﬂ ﬂióna sína ok ﬂræla at ﬂeir skyldi feria Clemens páfa út á sió langt
frá landi ok binda mikit akkeri viﬂ háls honum ok søkkva honum svá
niﬂr í sióvardiúp at eigi taki kris<t>nir menn at gƒfga hann sem goﬂ. En
síﬂan gripu ﬂeir Gyﬂingar inn gƒfga Clemens páfa ok røru út frá landimiƒk langt. En síﬂan lƒgﬂu ﬂeir hendr á Clemens ok bundu akkeri viﬂháls honum ok skutu ﬂeim inum staﬂrama Guﬂs kappa útan borz, okgalt hann svá ﬂá ina helgu ƒnd Guﬂi es fylgt hafﬂi ﬂeim inum hreina
líkama es ﬂeir hƒfﬂu ﬂá firir borﬂ lagﬂan.
En ﬂá stóﬂu allir kristnir menn á sævarstrƒndu grátandi eptir es ﬂeir
fœrﬂu Clemens páfa til bana, ok vru í inni mestu sorgmœﬂi hugar sínses ﬂeira ástvinr var tekinn ok numinn ór hƒndum ﬂeim til meinlætis okógurligs bana allt til ﬂess unz lærisveinar hans Febus ok Cornelius
hugguﬂu l‡ﬂinn ok mæltu svá:
‘Biﬂium vér allir brœﬂr meﬂ einfƒldum hug,’ kvﬂu ﬂeir, ‘at Dominus
noster Iesus Christus s‡ni oss píningarvátt sinn Clemens páfa.’Ok fellu ﬂeir ﬂar allir til iarﬂar ok bﬂu lítillátliga Guﬂ at ﬂeir knætti
siá líkama ins sæla Clemens páfa. En ﬂá gerﬂusk ﬂær iarteinir inarhvarmiklu at særinn fell út frá landi of ﬂriár mílur, ok ﬂá gengu kristnir
ﬂar eptir meﬂ lofi ins hæsta Guﬂs. Ok veitti Guﬂ heilagr l‡ﬂ sínum ﬂurragƒtu unz ﬂeir kómu at musteri miklu ok ítarligu harﬂla ﬂvíat englar
Guﬂs hƒfﬂu gert ‡r marmaragrióti. ﬁeir gengu inn í musteri ﬂat okd‡rkuﬂu ﬂann Guﬂ es ﬂeim veitti [ﬂat] firir verﬂleik ok d‡rﬂ sanna
Clemens páfa ok firir bœnir hans lærisveina at ﬂ[eir] fundu ﬂar líkama
Clemens páfa, ok lagﬂan í n‡ia steinﬂró ok akkeri ﬂar hiá honum lagit
6 Ausidianus

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The Life of St Clement

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seventy-five churches were built there and consecrated by clerics, andalso all idols were broken up in those localities and all temples destroyed
and all heathen altars burnt. And then Christian men laughed at the unbeliefof heathens and their worship.
And next the story reached the Emperor Trajan that countless people
were turning to Christ from heathen rites as a result of Pope Clement’s
teaching. And then a judge who was called Aufidianus was sent there on
behalf of the king in order to torture and kill many Christians. And when
the prefect discovered and learnt from experience that all the Christians
were ready to suffer torture and death for the sake of God, then he spared
the multitude and had Clement alone seized, and he compelled others tosacrifice as best he could. And when he saw Pope Clement’s mind wassteadfast in the holy Faith and in the service of God in heaven, then heinstructed his servants and slaves that they should carry Pope Clementout to sea far from land and tie a large anchor to his neck and sink him
down into the depths of the sea so that Christians should not begin to
worship him as a god. And then the Jews seized the noble Pope Clement
and rowed out very far away from land. And then they laid hands on
Clement and tied an anchor to his neck and threw the steadfast championof God overboard, and so he yielded up to God the holy soul which had
belonged to the pure body which they had then thrown overboard.
And then all the Christians stood behind on the sea-shore weeping when
they took Pope Clement to his death, and were in the greatest distress ofmind when their beloved friend was seized and taken out of their hands tothe anguish of an awful death right until his disciples Febus and Cornelius
comforted the people and said thus:‘Let all of us brothers pray with a single mind,’ they said, ‘that our Lord
Jesus Christ may show us his martyr Pope Clement.’
And they all fell to the earth there and humbly asked God that theymight see the body of the Blessed Pope Clement. And then the very great
miracles took place that the sea receded three miles from the land, andthen Christians walked out after it with praise of the highest God. And
Holy God gave his people a dry path until they came to a large and very
splendid temple which God’s angels had built of marble. They went inside
the temple and worshipped the God who granted them on account of themerit and true glory of Pope Clement and on account of the prayers of his
disciples that they might find there the body of Pope Clement, and placedin a new stone coffin and an anchor laid down there beside him next to the

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niﬂr hiá altari. Ok ﬂær rúnar fundusk á steinﬂró páfans at ﬂeir tœki hanneigi á braut ﬂaﬂan, ﬂví at svá myklu mest d‡rﬂ <var> ﬂessum inum ítarliga
Guﬂs vin veitt at greftri ok at ﬂiónustu sanctorum engla almáttigs Guﬂs
sem nú má heyra. Ok ﬂær iarteinir gerask ﬂar á hveriu ári of hótíﬂClemens páfa at sær fellr út af landi ok veitir Guﬂ heilagr ﬂar ﬂurra gƒtuat ganga til Clemens viku alla í samt. Firir verﬂleik Clemens gefr Guﬂﬂá miskunn mƒnnum til hiálpar sér at ﬂeir d‡rki ﬂar Guﬂ í ﬂeim staﬂ ok
inn helga Clemens páfa.
En ﬂá er menn hƒfﬂu lokit bœn sinni ﬂar, ﬂá létu menn aptr vannliga
kirkiudyrr eptir sér ok fór hverr heim á leiﬂ til síns herbergis. En sær
fell at landi hvínanda ok haf kolblátt meﬂ ƒllu eptir œﬂi sínu. En faﬂir
sveinsins ﬂess es somnaﬂr var í Clemenskirkiu ﬂá er aﬂrir menn fóru ábraut ﬂaﬂan ok móﬂir hans leituﬂu sonar síns á meﬂal kuﬂra manna
sinna ok kunningia, ﬂvíat ﬂau sƒknuﬂu hans eigi fyrr en ﬂá es ﬂau vru
heim á fƒr komin, ok vættu ﬂess ok vilnuﬂusk at hann møndi fylgt hafanágrƒnnum ﬂeira. En ﬂau fundu hann eigi sem glíkligt var, ﬂvíat
sveinninn svaf fast eptir í musterinu ﬂá er annat liﬂ fór á braut ﬂaﬂan.
En faﬂir sveinsins ok móﬂir urﬂu harﬂla dƒpr viﬂ tión sonar síns okætluﬂu ﬂau ﬂat firir sér at sær møndi sveininum hafa grandat í útanfƒr
ﬂeira, ok sƒkuﬂu sik of glœp sinn ok athugaleysi es ﬂau hƒfﬂu eigi gáﬂsunar síns. En at iamlengﬂ annars vetrar Clemensdag siálfan ﬂá fell særút frá landi at vanﬂa sínum ok gingu menn ﬂurrum fótum til Clemenskirkiu. Ok kómu ﬂau hiú ﬂar fyrst til musteris allra manna es sonar sínsﬂóttusk misst hafa. En ﬂau urﬂu ﬂá fegin es sonr ﬂeira var lífs í Clemenskirkiu ok rann hann ﬂegar á mót ﬂeim meﬂ inum mesta fagnaﬂi ok inu
mesta ástríki viﬂ bæﬂi ﬂau fƒﬂur sinn ok móﬂur. En ﬂau spurﬂu son sinn
at ﬂví hversu hann of mætti svá lengi fœzlulaust of lifa ﬂar . . .

12 es] + er

The Life of St Clement

53

altar. And this writing was found on the Pope’s stone coffin that theyshould not take him away from there, since by so much the greatest glory
was granted to this splendid friend of God in his burial and in the serviceof holy angels of Almighty God as can now be heard. And these miracles
take place there each year at the feast of Pope Clement that the sea flows
out from the land and Holy God provides a dry path there all that week towalk to Clement's church. For the merit of Clement God gives this grace
to men for their salvation that they may worship God and the holy Pope
Clement there in that place.
And when men had finished their prayers there, then they carefully shutthe church-doors after them, and each made his way back home to his
dwelling. And the water and coal-black sea flowed hissing back to theland entirely in accordance with its nature. And the father of the boy who
had fallen asleep in Clement’s church when other people went away fromthere, and his mother, looked for their son among their friends andacquaintances, because they had not missed him until they were on their
way home and expected and hoped that he would have gone with theirneighbours. But naturally they did not find him, because the boy was fastasleep back in the temple when other people went away from there. And
the boy’s father and mother were very sad at the loss of their son and they
imagined that the sea must have harmed the boy during their journey back,and they blamed themselves for their wickedness and carelessness in thatthey had not kept an eye on their son. And on the anniversary the following
winter, on Clement’s day itself, then the sea flowed out from the land as
usual and people walked dry-shod to Clement’s church. And the husband
and wife who thought that they had lost their son arrived first at the temple
before everyone else. And then they were joyful that their son was alivein Clement’s church and he immediately ran towards them with the greatest
joy and the greatest love for both his father and mother. And they asked
their son about how he was able to survive there so long without food . . .** See Introduction, p. xix above.

54

Clemens saga
INDEX

Achilleus, a eunuch who served Plautilla and then her daughter Flavia Domitilla 2
Activa, Julius Caesar’s sister (actually called Julia; there appears to have been
confusion with her daughter Atia, mother of Octavius, later Augustus) 2
Anacletus see Cletus
Antiochia/Anﬂekia (Antioch) 2, 10, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34
Apollo, heathen god 4
Aquila, assumed name of Faustinus, q.v.
Aufidianus (described alternately as dómandi ‘judge’and greifinn ‘prefect’; in
Epitome de Gestis S. Petri (PL 2, col. 595) he is referred to as praeses ‘guardian,president, governor, sheriff’) 50
Augustus/Octovianus (Octavius/Octavianus), emperor (63 BC–AD 14; son of Atia,
daughter of Julius Caesar’s sister Julia) 2, 12, 14
Baldr, heathen god 44
Barnabas, Apostle 10, 12, 14
Bassus, brother of Flavius Clemens and Faustinianus (the three brothers andtheir sister Plautilla are described as cousins of the Emperor Augustus), 2, 4,
8, 10
Brutus (Marcus Junius Brutus, one of the leading conspirators who plotted Julius
Caesar’s assassination) 2
Cassius (Gaius Cassius Longinus, one of the leading conspirators who plotted
Julius Caesar’s assassination) 2
Certona (a place where St Clement was sent to exile, generally considered to bein the Crimea) 46
Cesarea (Caesarea Stracionis, Palestine) 6, 14, 26
Ciprus/Kípr (Cyprus) 10
Claudius (Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus, 10 BC–AD 54), emperor 34
Clemensdagr/Feast day of St Clement, 23 (24 or 25 in the Eastern Church)
November 52
Clemenskirkja (St Clement’s church) 52
Clement/Clemens, Saint, Bishop of Rome 2, 4, 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 34, 36,
38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52
Clement/Flavius Clemens, brother of Faustinianus and Bassus 2
Cletus/Anacletus, early bishop of Rome 34
Cornelius, centurion (stationed at Caesarea, and baptised by St Peter; see Acts
10) 26
Cornelius, disciple of St Clement 50
Corpho (Corfu) 4, 8, 18
Crucis messa á várit/Cross Mass in the spring (the feast of the Finding of theHoly Cross, 3 May) 2
Faustinianus, brother of Clement/Flavius Clemens and Bassus 2, 4, 8, 10, 12,
14, [22, 24,] 26, 28, 30, 32, 34
Faustinus/Aquila, son of Faustinianus 2, 4, 8, 18, 26, 30
Faustus/Niceta, son of Faustinianus 2, 4, 8, 18, 26, 30
Febus, disciple of St Clement 50

Index55

Flavia Domitilla, daughter of Plautilla 2
Flavius Clemens see Clement/Flavius Clemens
Freyja/Venus, heathen goddess 44
Freyr/Mars/Saturn(?), heathen god 44
Frigg, heathen goddess, wife of Ó›inn and mother of Baldr 10, 44
Gaius see Julius Caesar
Gefjun/Diana/Athene/Venus(?), heathen goddess 44
Grikklandseyiar (Greek Islands) 18
Grikklandshaf (Aegean Sea) 10
Gyﬂingaland (Palestine)18
Gyﬂingar/Jews 6, 36, 50
Heimdallr, heathen god 44Hœnir, heathen god 44
Itinerarium Petri 34
Jericho 14
Jesus Christr/Christus 2, 12, 18, 20, 32, 34, 36, 38, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50; also
Dróttinn 10
Johannes, St John the Baptist 14
Jórsalaland (Palestine) 6, 10, 26
Julianus greifi see Mamertus Julianus
Julius Caesar/Gaius Julius Caesar (b. 100 BC, assassinated on the Ides of March
44 after a conspiracy led by Brutus and Cassius) 2
Justa, fostermother of Faustus/Niceta and Faustinus/Aquila 6
Kípr (Cyprus) 10, 20
Linus, Saint (first bishop of Rome after Peter and Paul) 34
Loki, heathen god 44
Mamertus Iulianus, prefect of Rome 44, 46
Mathidia, wife of Faustinianus and mother of Clement 2, 4, 6, 8, 14, 18, 20, 26, 34
Moises/Moses 48
Nereus, a eunuch who served Plautilla, and then her daughter Flavia Domitilla 2
Niceta, assumed name of Faustus, q.v.
Nicholaus/Nicholas, Saint, bishop of Myra in Lycia 4Niƒr›r/Saturn(?), heathen god 44
Norﬂmenn 10
Octovia/Octavia, daughter of Activa and mother of Octovianus Augustus (actually
Octavius Augustus’s mother was Atia, daughter of Julius Caesar's sister Julia,
and Octavia was Octavius Augustus’s sister) 2
Octovianus/Octavianus see Augustus
Ó›inn/Odin/Hercules/Mars/Mercury? 36, 44, 46
Páll/Paul, Saint and Apostle 2, 40
Patera/Patara (Turkey), birthplace of St Nicholas, 4
Pétr/Petarr/Petrus/Peter, Saint and Apostle 2, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24,
26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, 40, 42
Pétrsmessa á vár, St Peter’s day in the spring (22 February) 32
Philippus/Philip the Evangelist (one of the seven men appointed as the Church’s
first deacons, see Acts 6:5) 14

56

Clemens saga

Plautilla, sister of the three brothers Flavius Clemens (known as Clement),
Faustinianus and Bassus 2
Publius Torquatianus, a rich heathen 42, 46
Rakel, mother of Simon magus 16
Rúmaborg/Rome 2, 4, 10, 14, 18, 26, 34, 42, 44, 46
Rúmverjar/rúmverskr/Roman(s) 2, 8, 12, 14, 22
Samaria 6
Sif/Juno, heathen goddess, wife of the god ﬁórr 44
Sikiley (Sicily) 4
Simon Magus 6, 14, 16, 18, 26, 28, 30, 32
Sisinnius 36, 38, 40, 42S‡rland (Syria) 4, 12, 18
Theodora, wife of Sisinnius 36, 38, 40, 42
Theophilus 26, 28, 30, 32
Tiberius Claudius Nero Caesar, emperor AD 14–37 10
Traianus Caesar/Trajan, Marcus Ulpius Traianus, emperor AD 98–117 46, 50
T‡r/Mars, heathen god 44
Ullr, heathen god 44
Zacheus, bishop of Caesarea (cf. Luke 19:5) 14
ﬁórr/Thor/Jupiter, heathen god, son of Ó›inn 36, 44, 46
ﬁórshof/Temple of Jupiter 2