A review of the controversy between Rudolph Sohms and Adolf Harnack, about the first Epistle of Clement - the only authentic one, written in the name of the the church elders of Rome to calm a controversy in the church of Corinth. This document, one of the oldest surviving Christian works, shows a different world than the one that was to emerge two or three centuries later; Friedrich Gerke analyses Clement thoroughly, revealing a network of local Christian communities (Gemeinden) choosing their leaders through an informal democracy, and bound together by affection rather than obedience. With extensive appendices collecting and analysing Clement's use of certain key phrases.