HEGESIPPUS, hej"e-sip'pvs: An. ecclesiastical writer of the second century. As to his life little is known except what Eusebius tells. This includes nothing as to his birth or place of residence, though Eusebius concludes from his writings that he was of Jewish origin; and an Oriental residence is indicated by his coming to Rome by sea and stopping at Corinth on the way. He is mentioned under Hadrian as, with Justin, a prominent champion of the faith against the rising Gnosticism. Giving the list of bishops of Rome under Antoninus Pius, Eusebius remarks that Hegesippus according to his own account was in Rome under Anicetus and remained there until the episcopate of Eleutherus (Hist. eccl., IV., xi. 7); but this is ar. error, for in chap. xxii. he quotes the passage of Hegesippus, which proves only that he lived to the time of Eleutherus, not that he stayed in Rome that long. Under Marcus Aurelius he is named once more at the head of the contemporary ortho-

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dox writers; and the Chronicon Pasehale asserts that he died under Commodus.

Eusebius quotes him frequently as a witness of the true faith, and always from one work, known as Upomnematd, and composed of five books, written at different times and fused into unity in the course of their development. A careful examination of what Eusebius tells of it and what he quotes from it leads to the conclusion that it was not a history in any strict sense of the word, but rather a historical apology, purporting to contain a true account of the traditions received from the apostles. It is evident that no regular historical order was observed from the fact that the story of the life and death of James was in the fifth book of the work, which contained plenty of material from the second century, and even past the middle of it. It is a free setting down of the writer's own reminiscences, following no definite order, though penetrated throughout by the same design and the same beliefs. The result, then, according to Eusebius, is a series of narratives and pictures from church history, reaching from the apostle James to the pontificate of Eleutherus in Rome. They include the death of James; the choice of his successor Symeon; accounts of the insurgent leader Thebuthis and of the sons of David and kinsmen of Jesus in Galilee, with their fate under Domitian; the martyrdom of Symeon under Trajan; and information about the Church of the period when Hegesippus wrote, especially in Corinth and Rome -the tradition of doctrine and the episcopate, refutation of heresies, and something about Jewish sects and Jewish-Christian literature. What he tells of his own time has historical authority in the strict sense; his relation of .earlier events has conditional value as a sometimes obscure tradition, but substantive importance as reflecting the ideas entertained about that period in the middle of the second century. The purpose of his writing is clear enough. It is simply to demonstrate the unity of faith in the churches of the leading cities and their bishops, both past and present. The particular cause of his writing the work is the existence of heresy, which he reprobates not only for its contradiction of the true doctrine, but for its external and -despicable origin. Its appearance on the scene seems to him so dangerous that conflict with it is not merely the purpose of his book, but the task of his life.

When it is remembered that the heresies of the time professed to be legitimate deductions from primitive Christianity, the full significance of the inquiries of Hegesippus into the state of the Church and its traditions in the different great cities is discerned. The public, secure, historical tradition of the faith in the line of episcopal succession must serve to put out of court the claims of obscure, cryptic sects; and the imposing unity of the Church's faith as handed down from generation to generation will form a striking contrast to the varied line of heretics who follow each other through the years, alike only in being different. Among the early Jewish heretics are Thebuthis, Simon and his party, Cleobius, Dositheus, Gortbmus, and Masbotheus. These form the first generation; in the

second appear the followers of Menandrianus, Marcion, Carpocrates, Valentinian, Basilides, 'and Saturnilus. In opposition to these stand out the person and the work of Hegesippus, important historically as a type, with the emphasis he lays upon the catholic unity of the churches, held fast by their tradition and their mutual relations, and of the episcopate, as all these things were in the middle of the second century.

(C. Weizsacker†.)

Bibliography: A full list of literature is given by E. C.

Richardson, in ANS, Bibliographical Synopsis, pp. 111-112. The fragments are collected in M. J. Routh, in Reliquia sacra, i. 203-284, Oxford, 1846; Eng. transl. may be found in ANF viii. 762-765; ef. also D. Boor, in T U, v. 2, 1889. Consult: Jerome, De vir. ill., xxii.; FabriciusHarlee, Bibliotheca Grdca vii. 158-160, Hamburg, 1801; J. Donaldson, History of Christian Literature, iii. 182-213, London, 1866; A. Hilgenfeld, in ZHT, xix (1876), 177229; W. Sanday,. The Gospels in the Second Century, pp. 138-145, London, 1876; H. Dannreuther, Du Temoignage d'Hggtsippe Bur l'gglise chrétienne, Nantes, 1878; F. Overbeek Ueber die Anfdnge der Kirchengeschichtechreibung, pp. 6-13-17-22, Basel, 1892; Ceilfier, Auteurs sacrés, i. 330, 473-475 iii. 200; Krüger, History, pp. 145-146; Harnack Litteratur, i. 144, 483 sqq., 845, II. i. 311 sqq.; Schaff, Christian Church, 742=744; DCB, ii. 875-878; KL, v. 1584-85; and in general the church histories on the period.