4. Polemical Works
Dositheus to Noetus, was used as a
source by the pseudo-Tertulliah, Epi-
phanius, and Philaster, which at least
determines the sequence of heresies treated in it.
It is a
question whether the extant
homily against
Noetus originally formed the close of this book or
not. As
he defended the Apocalypse against Caius,
so he attacked the opponents of the Johannean writings in general in a treatise " On the Gospel and
Revelation of John." Of the contents of this some
idea may be gained from Epiphanius,
Her., li.,
where Hippolytus is undoubtedly quoted, as in
Hair., xiviii. there are traces of his polemic against
the Montanists. In the
Philosophumena, or "Refutation of All Heresies," also he undertakes to show
the origin of heresies from the older philosophies,
his knowledge of which, however, according to
Diels, was gained from inadequate extracts. The
second, third, and beginning of the fourth books
are lost; the remainder of the fourth deals with
the astrologers. His treatment of the heresies is
mainly confined to exposition without thorough
polemic. His account of the Gnostic system is
based partly on Irenmus and Tertullian; where he
is independent of them he has been supposed by
some critics to have trusted too much to forged
documents--but forgery is unlikely in the case of
so speculative a system as that, e.g., of Basilides.
Against the pagans he wrote a treatise which seems
from its variously given title to have dealt with
the Platonic doctrine of the All and the First
Cause; the extant fragment is eschatological. The
work "On the Faith" attributed to Hippolytus
is later than the Nicene Council; that " On the
Method of the Vow " is more likely Aphraates'. The
polemical treatise against the Jews, though no such
work is mentioned in the inscription, and though
its present form is possibly not all due to Hippolytus, yet has reminders of his work; and his having written against the Jews is rendered likely by
the use of material from him in later anti-Jewish
writings. Of several other works mentioned in
various places scarcely anything more than the
titles is known. That called "On Charismata" or
'c
Apostolic Tradition on Charismata " (according
to whether the inscription is here naming one or
two works) may well have been incorporated in the
'1
Teachings of the Holy Apostles on Charismata,"
and H. Achelis has made the attempt
to
determine
exactly what part comes from Hippolytus. The
" Canons of the Holy Apostles on the Election [of
Bishops] by Hippolytus," which are parallel to the
Apostolic Constitutions, viii. 4 sqq., are an extract
from a primitive form of the Apostolic
Constitutions, and according to Achelis and Harnack are
based upon genuine canons of Hippolytus, of which
a working-over exists in the Arabic " Canons of
Hippolytus." Achelis thinks that Hippolytus
wrote the "On Charismata" while still in the
catholic communion, and that the assertion that an
ignorant or immoral bishop was no true bishop had
reference to Zephyrinus, while the canons were in-
tended for the governance of his schismatic com
munity. If this be true, they are of considerable
historical importance. Works on church discipline
are mentioned also by Jerome, dealing with the
propriety of fasting on Saturday and of daily com
munion. The chronological works of Hippolytus
enjoyed no little esteem, as is shown by the carv
ing on the statue of his Easter table for the years
222-233. The work called "Chronicle" in the in
scription exists only in Latin adaptations, such as
the
Liber generationis and the so-called
Barbarus
Scalageri. The original form has been exhibited
by A. Bauer. The theology of Hippolytus in general is sum
marized at the close of the
PhiZosophumena.
The Christian's boasted possession is the knowledge of
the One God, creator and lord of all things. He
alone, of his own free will, created eternally out of
nothing first the four elements and
5. Theolog- then the rest out of them; all that is
ical composed of them is separable and
Position. therefore mortal. By a process of
thought God generated the Logos,
who, conscious of the will and mind of his begetter,
became the mediate operator of all that was done
in the work of creation. As lord over all he made
man, a compound of the four elements, neither God
like the Logos nor yet an angel. God, being good,
made nothing but good; man by his own will went
further and created evil. Man received a law on
the basis of his free will-first through just men,
then through Moses and the prophets, but all un
der the administration and in the power of the
Logos, who according to the command of God led
men back from disobedience, not forcing them, but
calling them to a free choice. At last the Father
sent the Logos himself, who, taking a body from a
virgin, put on the old man by a new creation; of
the same nature as our own, because only so could
he exhort us to follow him, he experienced all the
sufferings that belong to human nature, so that men
might hope to follow him also in his exaltation.
Hippolytus urges his readers to cling to " the
inspired prophets, interpreters of God and the Lo
gos," who have laid down the divine truth in the
Scripture. The New Testament writings are desig
nated equally with the Old as "divine scriptures,"
with "the fourfold gospel" at their head. The
Epistle to the Hebrews is not included among the
Pauline epistles, though Hippolytus uses it not in
frequently; he also makes use of II Peter and
probably
of James. Only grace bestows under
standing of the Scriptures, much in which is sealed,
as to the devil, so to unbelievers. The personal
distinction between the Father and the Logos is
defended against Sabellius and Calixtus, as still
earlier against Noetus; but Hippolytus repudiates
the reproach of ditheism-the one God reveals him
self in two persons, to whom the Spirit is added as
a third, although no clear distinction is made
between the Logos and the Spirit. Insight into the
manner of the generation of the Logos is not per
mitted to us. But, though always the perfect
Logos, he is not the perfect Son until, clothed with
flesh as at once the Son of God and the Son of Man,
he appears in the world. While the death of Christ
is of special significance for redemption, j:Iippolytus
lays particular emphasis on the completion of the
knowledge of God already given through nature and
history, but especially in the Law and the
Prophets. Men are now enabled, by the same free will
with which they sinned, to return to the following
of God, and by their good works to win heaven.
The Church is " the sacred assembly of those who
live in righteousness . . . the spiritual house of
God . . . rooted in Christ," who sanctifies all that
believe in him. The water of life is given to the
thirsty soul first in baptism, with its remission of
sins and clothing with the Spirit; in the Eucharist
Christ's body and blood are a pledge of immortality.
But only those belong to the Church who keep the
commandments; all others are " deprived of the
Holy Spirit," " driven from the Church," or, if
they belong to it externally, their damnation is all
the greater. The Church suffers not less from unworthy Christians than from heretics. Thus Hippolytus was as much opposed to Calixtus for his
lax discipline as for his monarchianizing theology.
But, in spite of his approbation of asceticism and
his enthusiasm for martyrdom, he opposes the new
precepts of the Montanists, especially in regard to
fasting. Against extravagant eschatological views
also he takes a stand in the interest of Christian
sobriety. In opposition to Caius, for whom " the
binding of the strong man" had already taken place,
Hippolytus sees the millennium still far in the future,
though he makes the point that for the individual
the hour of death is that of Christ's advent. But
if his attitude toward this whole question is not
that of a later age, neither is it quite the same as
that of Irenaeus, from whose primitive realism he
makes a distinct departure-thus, as in other
points (e.g., his attitude toward the Roman Empire), standing at a turning-point in theological and
ecclesiastical development.
(N. Bonwetsch.)
Bibliography:
A quite complete list of literature is given
in ANF, Bibliography, pp. 55-58. The Opera were edited by J. A. Fabricius in Greek and Latin, 2 vols., Hamburg, 1716-18; by A. Gallandius, in
Bibliotheca veterum patrum, ti. 409-630, 14 vols. Venice, 1765-81. in MPG,
x.; in Greek by P. de Lagarde, Leipsic, 1858. Editions
of the Philosophumena are by E. Miller, Oxford, 185l;
L. Dunoker and F. G. Schneidewin, Göttingen, 1856-59;
and P. Cruice, Paris, 1881. Eng. transl. is to be found
in ANF, v. 9-258. Consult: C. K. J. Bunsen, Hippolytus
and his Age, 4 vols., London, 1852; J. J. I. von Döllinger,
Hippolyt and Kalliatus, Regensburg, 1853, Eng. transl.,
Edinburgh, 1876 (from the Roman Catholic standpoint);
W. E. Taylor, Hippolytus and the Christian Church of the
8d Century, London. 1853 (opposes Döllinger); G. Volkmar, Hippolytus and du römischen Zeitgenossen, Zurich,
1856; O. Bardenhewer. Des heiligen Hippolyts . . Commentor cum . . . Daniel, Freiburg, 1877; C. Wordsworth,
St. Hippolytus and the Church of Rome, London, 1880;
G. Salmon, in Hermathena, v (1885), 389 sqq., viii (1892),
161 sqq.; J. H. Kennedy, Part of
the Commentary of St. Hippolytus on Daniel, Dublin, 1888; E. Erbee, in Jahrbücher für protestantische Theologie, xiv (1888) 611-646;
F. W. Farrar, Lives of the Fathers, i. 88-92, New York,
1889; J. B. Lightfoot, St. Clement of Rome, ii. 317-477,
London, 1890; G. Fieker, Studien zur Hippolytus/rage,
Leipsic, 1893; G. N. Bonwetech, in GGA, 1894 pp. 753
sqq.; W. Bousset, Der Antichrist in der Ueberlieferung des
Judentume, des Neuen Testaments und der alten Ksrche,
Göttingen, 1895; W. Riedel, Die Kirchenrechiaquellen des
Patriarchate Alexandrien, Leipsic, 1900; K J. Neumann,
Hippolytus von Rom in
seiner Stellung zu Stoat and
Kirche,
ib. 1901; A. d'Alps, La Thlologie de S. Hippolyte, Paris,
1906. In TU the following important coi,tributions are
available: H. Stahelin, Gnostische
Qudkn Hippolyta, and
A. Harnsok.
DM Gwynn'achen Fragments, vi. 3, 1891;
H. Achelis,
Canonea Hippolyts, vi. 4, 1891; G. N. Bonwetech, Studien zu
den
Kommentaren HippolvtW. xvi. 2, 1897, xxiii., 1903 idem, Die unter Hippolyts
Nanten
fiiberlieferte Schrift ' Ueber den Glauben,' Leipsic, 1907,
and the numbers named in the text, § 3; H. Achelis,
Hippolytstudien, xvi. 4, 1897; A. Bauer,
Die Chronik
des Hippolylos, xxix. 1, 1905. Consult also: Ceillier,
Auteurs sacrés, i. 607-842; Harnack, Litteratur, i. 605-646 et pass, ii. 2, pp. 200-256 et passim; A. R&
ville, in Revue des deux mondes, Ivii. 892-924; N sander,
Christian Church, i. 681-883; Schaff,
Christian Church,
ii. 757-774 et passim; Moeller,
Christian Church, i. 201-202;
Krüger,
History, pp.
321-344;
KL, vi. 12-21;
DCB,
iii. 85-105, cf. i. 508-509.
