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Chapter XXX.—The Apostles that were Married.
1. Clement, indeed, whose words we have just quoted, after
the above-mentioned facts gives a statement, on account of those who
rejected marriage, of the apostles that had wives.847847 A
chapter intervenes between the quotation given by Eusebius just above
and the one which follows. In it Clement had referred to two classes of
heretics,—without giving their names,—one of which
encouraged all sorts of license, while the other taught celibacy.
Having in that place refuted the former class, he devotes the chapter
from which the following quotation is taken to a refutation of the
latter, deducing against them the fact that some of the apostles were
married. Clement here, as in his Quis dives salvetur (quoted in
chap. 23), shows his good common sense which led him to avoid the
extreme of asceticism as well as that of license. He was in this an
exception to most of the Fathers of his own and subsequent ages, who in
their reaction from the licentiousness of the times advised and often
encouraged by their own example the most rigid asceticism, and thus
laid the foundation for monasticism. 162“Or will they,”
says he,848848 Strom.III. 6. “reject even the apostles?
For Peter849849 Peter was married, as we know from Matt. viii. 14 (cf. 1 Cor. ix.
5).
Tradition also tells us of a daughter, St. Petronilla. She is first
called St. Peter’s daughter in the Apocryphal Acts of SS.
Nereus and Achilles, which give a legendary account of her life and
death. In the Christian cemetery of Flavia Domitilla was buried an
Aurelia Petronilla filia dulcissima, and Petronilla being taken
as a diminutive of Petrus, she was assumed to have been a daughter of
Peter. It is probable that this was the origin of the popular
tradition. Petronilla is not, however, a diminutive of Petrus, and it
is probable that this woman was one of the Aurelian gens and a relative
of Flavia Domitilla. Compare the article Petronilla in the
Dict. of Christ. Biog. Petronilla has played a prominent
rôle in art. The immense painting by Guercino in the Palace of the
Conservators in Rome attracts the attention of all visitors. and Philip850850 It is
probable that Clement here confounds Philip the evangelist with Philip
the apostle. See the next chapter, note 6.
Philip the evangelist,
according to Acts xxi. 9, had four daughters who
were virgins. Clement (assuming that he is speaking of the same Philip)
is the only one to tell us that they afterward married, and he tells us
nothing about their husbands. Polycrates in the next chapter states
that two of them at least remained virgins. If so, Clement’s
statement can apply at most only to the other two. Whether his report
is correct as respects them we cannot tell.
begat children; and Philip also gave his daughters in marriage. And
Paul does not hesitate, in one of his epistles, to greet his wife,851851 The
passage to which Clement here refers and which he quotes in this
connection is 1 Cor. ix. 5; but this by no means
proves that Paul was married, and 1 Cor. vii. 8 seems to imply
the opposite, though the words might be used if he were a widower. The
words of Philip. iv. 3
are often quoted as addressed to his wife, but there
is no authority for such a reference. Clement is the only Father who
reports that Paul was married; many of them expressly deny it; e.g.
Tertullian, Hilary, Epiphanius, Jerome, &c. The authority of these
later Fathers is of course of little account. But Clement’s
conclusion is based solely upon exegetical grounds, and therefore is no
argument for the truth of the report. whom he did not take about with him, that
he might not be inconvenienced in his ministry.”
2. And since we have mentioned this subject it is not improper to subjoin another account which is given by the same author and which is worth reading. In the seventh book of his Stromata he writes as follows:852852 Strom.VII. 11. Clement, so far as we know, is the only one to relate this story, but he bases it upon tradition, and although its truth cannot be proved, there is nothing intrinsically improbable in it. “They say, accordingly, that when the blessed Peter saw his own wife led out to die, he rejoiced because of her summons and her return home, and called to her very encouragingly and comfortingly, addressing her by name, and saying, ‘Oh thou, remember the Lord.’ Such was the marriage of the blessed, and their perfect disposition toward those dearest to them.” This account being in keeping with the subject in hand, I have related here in its proper place.
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