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HIPPOLYTUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 520 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HIPPOLYTUS , a writer of the See also:

early See also:Church. The See also:mystery which enveloped the See also:person and writings of Hippolytus,' one of the most prolific ecclesiastical writers of early times, had some See also:light thrown upon it for the first See also:time about the See also:middle of the 19th See also:century by the See also:discovery of the so-called Philosophumena (see below). Assuming this See also:writing to be the See also:work of Hippolytus, the See also:information given in it as to the author and his times can be combined with other traditional See also:dates to See also:form a tolerably clear picture. Hippolytus must have been See also:born in the second See also:half of the 2nd century, probably in See also:Rome. See also:Photius describes him in his Bibliotheca (See also:cod. 121) as a See also:disciple of See also:Irenaeus, and from the context of this passage it is supposed that we may conclude that Hippolytus himself so styled himself. But this is not certain, and even if it were, it does not necessarily imply that Hippolytus enjoyed the See also:personal teaching of the celebrated Gallic See also:bishop; it may perhaps merely refer to that relation of his theological See also:system to that of Irenaeus which can easily be traced in his writings. As a See also:presbyter of the church at Rome under Bishop See also:Zephyrinus (199-217), Hippolytus was distinguished for his learning and eloquence. It was at this time that See also:Origen, then a See also:young See also:man, heard him preach (Hieron. Vir. till. 61; cp. Euseb.

H.E. vi. 14, 1o). It was probably not See also:

long before questions of See also:theology and church discipline brought him into See also:direct conflict with Zephyrinus, or at any See also:rate with his successor See also:Calixtus I. (q.v.). He accused the bishop of favouring the Christological heresies of the Monarchians, and, further, of subverting the discipline of the Church by his lax See also:action in receiving back into the Church those guilty of See also:gross offences. The result was a See also:schism, and for perhaps over ten years Hippolytus stood as bishop at the See also:head of a See also:separate church. Then came the persecution under Maximinus the Thracian. Hippolytus and Pontius, who was then bishop, were transported in 235 to See also:Sardinia, where it would seem that both of them died. From the so-called See also:chronograph of the See also:year 354 (Catalogus Liberianus) we learn that on the 13th of See also:August, probably in 236, the bodies of the exiles were interred in Rome and that of Hippolytus in the See also:cemetery on the Via See also:Tiburtina: So we must suppose that before his See also:death the schismatic wIs received again into the bosom of the Church, and this is confirmed by the fact that his memory was henceforth celebrated in the Church as that of a See also:holy See also:martyr. See also:Pope See also:Damasus I. dedicated to him one of his famous epigrams, and See also:Prudentius(Peristephano*, 1 r) See also:drew a highly coloured picture of his gruesome death, the details of which are certainly purely legendary: the myth of Hippolytus the son of See also:Theseus was transferred to the See also:Christian martyr. Of the See also:historical Hippolytus little remained in the memory of after ' According to the See also:legend St Hippolytus was a See also:Roman soldier who was converted by St See also:Lawrence. ages.

Neither See also:

Eusebius (H.E. vi. 20, 2) nor See also:Jerome (Vir. See also:ill. 61) knew that the author so much read in the See also:East and the Roman See also:saint were one and the same person. The See also:notice in the Chronicon Paschale preserves one slight See also:reminiscence of the historical facts, namely, that Hippolytus's episcopal see was situated at See also:Portus near Rome. In 1551 a See also:marble statue of a seated man was found in the cemetery of the Via Tiburtina: on the sides of the seat were carved a See also:paschal See also:cycle, and on the back the titles of numerous writings. It was the statue of Hippolytus, a work at any rate of the 3rd century; at the time of See also:Pius IX. it was placed in the Lateran Museum, a See also:record in See also:stone of a lost tradition. Hippolytus's voluminous writings, which for variety of subject can be compared with those of Origen, embrace the See also:spheres of exegesis, See also:homiletics, See also:apologetics and polemic, chronography and ecclesiastical See also:law. His See also:works have unfortunately come down to us in such a fragmentary See also:condition that it is difficult to obtain from them any very exact notion of his intellectual and See also:literary importance. Of his exegetical works the best preserved are the Commentary on the See also:Prophet See also:Daniel and the Commentary on the See also:Song of Songs. In spite of many instances of a want of See also:taste in his typology, they are distinguished by a certain sobriety and sense of proportion in his exegesis. We are unable to form an See also:opinion of Hippolytus as a preacher, for the Homilies on the Feast of See also:Epiphany which go under his name are wrongly attributed to him. He wrote polemical words directed against the pagans, the See also:Jews and heretics.

The most important of these polemical See also:

treatises is the Refutation of all Heresies, which has come to be known by the inappropriate See also:title of the Philosophumena. Of its ten books, the second and third are lost; See also:Book i. was for a long time printed (with the title Philosophumena) among the works of Origen; Books iv.-x. were found in 1842 by the See also:Greek Minoides Mynas, without the name of the author, in a MS. at See also:Mount See also:Athos. It is nowadays universally admitted that Hippolytus was the author, and that Books i. and iv.-x belong to the same work. The importance of the work has, however, been much overrated; a See also:close examination of the See also:sources for the exposition of the Gnostic system which is contained in it has proved that the information it gives is not always trustworthy. Of the dogmatic works, that on See also:Christ and See also:Antichrist survives in a See also:complete See also:state. Among other things it includes a vivid See also:account of the events preceding the end of the See also:world, and it was probably written at the time of the persecution under Septimius See also:Severus, i.e. about 202. The See also:influence of Hippolytus was See also:felt chiefly through his works on chronographic and ecclesiastical law. His See also:chronicle of the world, a compilation embracing the whole See also:period from the creation of the world up to the year 234, formed a basis for many chronographical works both in the East and See also:West. In the See also:great compilations of ecclesiastical law which arose in the East since the 4th century (see below: also APOSTOLIC CoNSTITUT1oNS) much of the material was taken from the writings of Hippolytus; how much of this is genuinely his, how much of it worked over, and how much of it wrongly attributed to him, can no longer be determined beyond dispute even by the most learned investigation. (The Blessing of See also:Jacob, The Blessing of See also:Moses, The Narrative ofDavid and See also:Goliath). A great See also:part of the See also:original of the Chronicle has been published by Adolf See also:Bauer (See also:Leipzig, 1905) from the Codex Matritensis Graecus, 221. For the Refutation we are still dependent on the See also:editions of See also:Miller (See also:Oxford, 1851), See also:Duncker and See also:Schneidewin (See also:Gottingen, 1859), and Cruice (See also:Paris, I86o).

An See also:

English See also:translation is to be found in the Ante-Nicene Christian Library (See also:Edinburgh, 1868-1869). See See also:Bunsen, Hippolytus and his See also:Age (1852, 2nd ed., 1854; Ger. ed., 1853) ; See also:Dollinger, Hippolytus and Kallistus (Regensb. 1853; Eng. transl., Edinb., 1876) ; See also:Gerhard Ficker, Studien zur Hippolytfrage (Leipzig, 1893) ; Hans Achelis, Hippolytstudien (Leipzig, 1897) ; Karl Johannes See also:Neumann, Hippolytus von Rom in seiner Stellung zu Staat and Welt, part i. (Leipzig, 1902) ; See also:Adhemar d'See also:Ales, La Theologie de Saint Hippolyte (Paris, 1906). (G.

End of Article: HIPPOLYTUS

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