[5] In Against Heresies, Irenaeus described Clement as the successor to Anacletus, who was the third bishop of Rome, and as a personal acquaintance of the Apostles.

According to apocryphal stories dating back to the 4th century by authors such as Rufinus, Clement was imprisoned by Roman Emperor Trajan, and was executed by being tied to an anchor and thrown into the sea.

[19] The Liber Pontificalis[20] presents a list that makes Linus the second in the line of bishops of Rome, with Peter as first; but at the same time it states that Peter ordained two bishops, Linus and Anacletus, for the priestly service of the community, devoting himself instead to prayer and preaching, and that it was to Clement that he entrusted the Church as a whole, appointing him as his successor.

[4] There is also, however, no evidence of a change occurring in ecclesiastical organization in the latter half of the 2nd century, which would indicate that a new or newly-monarchical episcopacy was establishing itself.

[26] A tradition that began in the 3rd and 4th century,[4] has identified him as the Clement that Paul mentioned in Philippians 4:3, a fellow laborer in Christ.

[e] While in the mid-19th century it was customary to identify him as a freedman of Titus Flavius Clemens, who was consul with his cousin, the Emperor Domitian, this identification, which no ancient sources suggest, afterwards lost support.

According to apocryphal acta dating to the 4th century at earliest, Clement was banished from Rome to the Chersonesus during the reign of the Emperor Trajan[4][2] and was set to work in a stone quarry.

The legend recounts that every year a miraculous ebbing of the sea revealed a divinely built shrine containing his bones.

A year or two before his own death in 869, Cyril brought to Rome what he believed to be the relics of Clement, bones he found in Crimea buried with an anchor on dry land.

Clement writes to the troubled congregation in Corinth, where certain "presbyters" or "bishops" have been deposed (the class of clergy above that of deacons is argued by certain historians to be designated indifferently by the two terms).

[4] Clement calls for repentance and reinstatement of those who have been deposed, in line with maintenance of order and obedience to church authority, since the apostles established the ministry of "bishops and deacons.

[4] We should be obedient unto God, rather than follow those who in arrogance and unruliness have set themselves up as leaders in abominable jealousy.... For Christ is with them that are lowly of mind, not with them that exalt themselves over the flock.Do we then think it to be a great and marvelous thing, if the Creator of the universe shall bring about the resurrection of them that have served Him with holiness in the assurance of a good faith, seeing that He showeth to us even by a bird the magnificence of His promise?In the epistle, it is argued by some that Clement uses the terms "bishop" and "presbyter" interchangeably for the higher order of ministers above deacons.

Debate exists, because Clement directly stated that "we are not justified by ourselves but by faith", however in other places of the letter, he stresses judgement on sin.

Rudolf Knopf in his commentary on the letter of Clement to the Corinthians stated that: "Pre-Christian sins are wiped out by baptism.

For those sins that follow, a person must have faith in divine mercy and, at the same time, that person must exhibit his or her own good deeds, apart from which the person cannot be saved"[34] David Downs argued against the view that Clement of Rome holds synergist views, he argued that Clement did not write a letter about deep soteriology, but instead to provide moral guidance to the Corinthians, David Downs stated "According to the soteriological economy of Clement everything rests on the goodness, mercy, and election of the Creator, which have befitted the 'chosen portion' through Jesus".

[34] Thomas Schreiner argued that Clement taught that faith was enough to be saved because of 1 Clement 32:4 where he stated:[37]And so we, having been called through His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified through ourselves or through our own wisdom or understanding or piety or works which we wrought in holiness of heart, but through faith, whereby the Almighty God justified all men that have been from the beginning; to whom be the glory for ever and ever.

Because of him speaking of the Corinthians to "being obedient" to the things he has "written through the Holy Spirit" in order to correct and "root out the wicked passion of jealousy".

[42] According to Catholic Encyclopedia, the letter of Clement has Trinitarian theology and Christ is frequently called as the high priest by him.

The False Decretals were part of a series of falsifications of past legislation by a party in the Carolingian Empire whose principal aim was to free the church and the bishops from interference by the state and the metropolitan archbishops respectively.

Clement is also the hero of an early Christian romance or novel that has survived in at least two different versions, known as the Clementine literature, where he is identified with Emperor Domitian's cousin Titus Flavius Clemens.

[49][50] The St Clement's Church in Moscow is renowned for its glittering Baroque interior and iconostasis, as well as a set of gilded 18th-century railings.

Clement of Rome is commemorated in the Synaxarium of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria on the 29th of the month of Hatour [25 November (Julian) – equivalent to 8 December (Gregorian) due to the current 13-day Julian–Gregorian Calendar offset].

Besides relics venerated in Rome and Kyiv (see above), in the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in Spain, the shinbone of Clement is kept.