Smolyatich Clement

(beginning of XII century - after 1164).
Dedication Clement in the metropolitans of the extremely rare in Russia, the fact of the canonical time of emancipation from the power of the Ecumenical Patriarch. Elected by the clergy, with the assistance of the Grand Duke Izyaslav II, Clement was devoted to a council of bishops (1147). Those standing on the side of traditional church practices of three Russian bishop refused to recognize the canonicity of initiation Clement, joined by some princes, causing confusion in the church administration. Exile Izyaslav the table led to the removal of the department and his protege, Metropolitan Kliment (1154). The chronicle notes that such a great "scholar and philosopher" is not used on Russian soil. Erudition Clement confirmed his address to the Smolensk Presbyter Thomas, have come down with the interpretations Mnich Athanasius (the latter has not yet been allocated from the message). The message is particularly characterized by allegorical interpretation of certain disputed places of Scripture, primarily the Old Testament: it allowed the author to show knowledge of diverse literature, mostly translated Byzantine. Links Clement Homer, . Plato and Aristotle did not prove his direct acquaintance with the Greek classics, citations are usually taken from the third hand, . with the names of pagan authorities acquired the later Christian writers almost nominal sense,
. More relevant is the testimony of Clement of thorough knowledge of Greek ( "Byzantine") language of its clergy. The most important preface in which Clemens denied that went up on the vanity of his rumor: that in his letter to Prince Rostislav (lost), Clement "glorifies itself and creates himself a philosopher". The literary side of the message is high and indicates the transition to Russ traditional forms of Byzantine book-already in the XII century. Attributed to Clement anonymous' teachings on love "(marked resemblance to the Epistles of Clement to Thomas) and" Word in a week syropustnuyu "in praise of all the saints, and a few answers to the" questing Kirik ". We can assume that Clement has written more works than the Open so far. - See. I. Sreznevsky, "Ancient monuments of Russian writing and language" (St. Petersburg, 1882); X. Loparev, "Epistle to the Holy Metropolitan Clement Thomas (St. Petersburg, 1892); H. Nikol'skii, "On the literary works of the Metropolitan Clement" (ib., 1892); his own, "Materials for the history of ancient spiritual literature" (ib., 1907).