the epistle from Clement to the Corinthians was read in the Corinthian Church as Scripture for over 100 years.
why was a letter from the Bishop of Rome late in the first century considered binding on the Corinthians?
hmmmm.......
Perhaps you missed the point. Clement had NO authority to proclaim his own writings were equal to Holy Scripture. He wrote letters to the churches, just as some of the Apostles and disciples of Jesus often did, but they were NOT considered as part of the Bible just as not all of the Apostles' letters were recognized as such. I'm not disputing that his writings were read and concerned specific issues with the Corinthian church, just that his writings are not and never were part of the Divinely-inspired Holy Scriptures.
Perhaps you missed the point. Clement had NO authority to proclaim his own writings were equal to Holy Scripture. He wrote letters to the churches, just as some of the Apostles and disciples of Jesus often did, but they were NOT considered as part of the Bible just as not all of the Apostles' letters were recognized as such. I'm not disputing that his writings were read and concerned specific issues with the Corinthian church, just that his writings are not and never were part of the Divinely-inspired Holy Scriptures.
If they were, they would STILL be the Bible.
Clement's only genuine extant writing is his letter, 1 Clement (c. 96), to the church at Corinth, in response to a dispute in which certain presbyters of the Corinthian church had been deposed. He asserted the authority of the presbyters as rulers of the church, on the grounds that the Apostles had appointed such. It was read in church, along with other epistles, some of which later became Christian canon; and is one of the oldest Christian documents still in existence outside the New Testament. This important work was the first to affirm the apostolic authority of the clergy.
A second epistle, 2 Clement, was attributed to Clement although recent scholarship suggests it to be a homily by another author. In the legendary Clementine Literature, Clement is the intermediary through whom the Apostles teach the church. According to a tradition not earlier than the 4th century, Clement was imprisoned under the Emperor Trajan but nonetheless led a ministry among fellow prisoners. He was then executed by being tied to an anchor and thrown into the sea. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Clement_I
As for Clement's authority over other "jurisdictions" in the Christian world, the above source also says, there is "lack of evidence for monarchical episcopacy in Rome at so early a date."