HIPPOLYTUS, hip-pel'i-tus.

Facts of his Life in Literature and Tradition (§ 1).

Modern Additions to Knowledge of it (§ 2).

Exegetical Works (§ 3).

Polemical Works (§ 4).

Theological Position (§ 5).

Until the middle of the nineteenth century, Hippolytus was practically an unknown personality. Eusebius, indeed, names eight of his works and mentions the existence of a number of others (Hist. eccl., vi. 22), but is unable to give the i. Facts name of his see. Jerome makes the of his Life same confession of ignorance, though in Litera- he gives the titles of more works (De ture and vir. ill., Ixi.). A chronographer of the Tradition. year 354 (MGH, Auct. ant., ix., Chron. min., i., 1891, pp. 74-75) asserts that in 235 Pontianus the bishop and Hippolytus the presbyter were exiled to Sardinia, that there he laid down his office, and that Antheros was ordained in his stead; a slightly different form appears in the Liber pontifioali8 (i. 24, ed. Mommsen). Pope Damasus (366-384) placed on his grave in the Tiburtine cemetery an inscription in verse which records his living in times of persecution, upholding the schism of Novatus, returning to the Catholic faith, and dying a martyr. Following this, Prudentius commemorates him among the martyrs (Peristephanon, xi.). Later Western tradition is almost purely legendary; in its Roman form it connects his martyrdom with that of Laurence. The legend of Portus, on the other hand, connects it with that of a number of local martyrs there, and even identifies him with one also called Nonnus. His writings were used by Ambrose, Jerome, and probably Tyconius; but all knowledge of the historical Hippolytus was lost. Eastern references to him grow altogether out of his works. Apollinaris of Laodicea quotes him on Daniel, calling him "the most holy bishop of Rome." Theodoret names him in connection with Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenæus, and Justin, and he is similarly mentioned by Leontius of Byzantium and the pseudo-Chrysostom. Thus the list of Eastern authors who name him goes on through Cyril of Scythopolis, Eustratius (c. 582), Jaoob of Edessa, George, bishop of the Arabians, and OJcumenius (c. 1000), the last four of whom call him a martyr and bishop of Rome. Photius describes him as a pupil of Irenæus. In the fourteenth century Ebed Jesu knows of works of his which Eusebius and Jerome do not mention. Thus, although a Western writer, Hippolytus was widely and long read in the East because he wrote in Greek. Writings of his were wholly or in part translated into Syriac, Armenian, Coptic, Georgian, Arabic, and Old Church Slavic.

In 1551, in or near his burial-place on the Via Tiburtina, in Rome a marble statue was discovered (now in the Lateran Museum, the upper part of the body restored) which represents him sitting in a seat on both sides of which his Easter canon is carved, and a list of his writings on the curve connecting the left side with the back. The statue is dated in the third century by experts. The first lines of the inscription are illegible; the others name nine or ten works, to which two more were added later. [There is a plaster cast of this statue in the Union Theological Seminary, New York City.]

Hippolytus really, however, came into full historical light only after the discovery of the PhiZosophumena. Of this work the first book was known earlier than the rest, but the section from the fourth to the tenth was discovered in a. Modern 1842 in Greece in a fourteenth-century Additions to manuscript, and all together was Knowledge published at Oxford in 1851 by E. Miller of it. as a work of Origen's. Duncker and Schneidewin then edited it carefully as by Hippolytus. The author speaks of having written a short treatise against heresies, as it is known from Eusebius that Hippolytus did; he is a Roman and a bishop; his words have had an effect upon Zephyrinus, and Callistus (Calixtus) has excommunicated Sabellius on his representations. Now there is no one but Hippolytus who answers to this description, and the result is confirmed by essential parallelism between this book and the admitted writings of Hippolytus. This conclusion accepted, the Philmophumena gives a more thorough insight into the author's life. It does not mention his relation to Irenaeus, but presents him first in Rome, where he must have become a presbyter under Zephyrinus. According to Eusebius, Origen was in Rome during this pontificate, and Jerome speaks of his having been present at a sermon of Hippolytus. To Calixtus, the successor of Zephyrnus, Hippolytus was in determined opposition as to Christology and as to discipline (see CAmxmus I.), and it came to an open breach of communion, which evidently continued under the succeeding popes. This agrees with the description of Hippolytus as a Roman bishop and the reference of Darn us to the Novatian schism. The fact of his having been a schismatic bishop of Rome accounts for the inability of Eusebius and Jerome to name his see, since he was not included in the lists of the Roman succession to which they had access. His identification with Nonnus and consequent description as bishop of Portus may spring either from his martyrdom by the sea or from his special popularity in Portus. He maintained his position until 235, when Maximin's persecution

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banished him to Sardinia, together with Pontianus, the legitimate bishop; and on that "unwholesome island" he died.