HIPPOLYTUS, SAINT, BROTHERS or HOSPITALERS OF: A Roman Catholic congregation established in the City of Mexico by Bernardino Alvarez in 1585. They were entrusted with the care of a hospital erected in Mexico by Alvarez and dedicated to St. Hippolytus, whence their name-in its full form " Brothers of Christian Love of St. Hippolytus " (officially, Congregatio f ratrum S. Hippolyti). The members of the congregation formed a monastic body with a constitution drawn up by their founder and approved by Sixtus V. The only vows were those of poverty and Christian love, and each brother might leave the order at will. The superior was termed "Major" and was elected by the twenty oldest brothers. The order increased steadily, but the privilege of resignation led to such disorganization that Clement viii., by a brief of Nov. 1, 1594, bound the brothers to perpetual obedience and hospitality. Even this failed in its object, however, and in 1700 the procuratorgeneral, Juan Cabrera, sought to introduce the rule of St. Augustine. Innocent XII. refused to permit this, but obliged the brothers to take the vow of chastity in addition to those of poverty, obedience, and hospitality. In the early part of the nineteenth century Clement XI. conferred on them the privileges of the mendicant orders. They were absorbed later in the Brothers of Charity, although they retained their distinctive brown

habit.

(O. Zöckler†.)

Bibliography: Helyot, Ordres monastiques, iv. 147 sqq.; Heimbucher, Orden und Kongregationen, ii. 253; KL, vii. 1999.

HIRAM (Hebr. Viram, Hirom; cf. Asayr. ,Hirummu, Huram; in Phenician inscriptions, ,Hrm): A king of Tyre who was on friendly terms with David and Solomon and of a Tyrian metal-worker (I Kings vii.). The name is probably an abbreviation of A,hi-ram (" My brother [i.e., God] is sublime "). King Hiram of Tyre, the dates of whose reign can not be exactly determined, was one of the most famous kings of Phenicia. Josephus (Ant. VIII., v. 3 and Apion, i. 17-18) gives extracts from Men-der and Dina, who used older Phenician sources. Syncellus and Eusebius derived their information from Josephus. Later mythical tales in the writings of the Church Fathers, from Chwtus, Theophilus, and Eupolemus, are of little value. According to Menander and Dina, Hiram the son of Abibal, during his reign of thirty-four years (he died at the age of fifty-four) enlarged and embellished his capital, erecting on the eastern side of the island a new part of the city. He caused the Tyrian sanctuaries to be covered with a roofing of cedar from the woods of Lebanon and erected a much admired golden column in the sanctuary of the "Olympian Jupiter" (cf. Herodotus, ii. 44), i.e., Baal the god of heaven (cf. Eusebius, Prteparatio evangelica, ix. 34). His foreign policy was eminently resourceful and energetic. By a war he forced the inhabitants of Cyprus to resume the payment of the taxes which they had refused and maintained the hegemony of Tyre over Phenicia and the colonies.

Hiram put himself on a friendly footing with the new kingdom of Israel under David and Solomon (cf. II Sam. v. 11, I Kings v. 12 with II Chron. ii. 3). This, however, occasions a chronological difficulty. According to I Kings ix. 10, Hiram lived twenty-four years after the accession of Solomon; therefore, according to Mena,nder, who says that he reigned thirty-four years, he can have ruled only during the last years of David's reign. This period would be still further restricted by the statement of Josephus that the building of the temple began only in the twelfth year of Hiram's reign (Ant. VIII., iii. 1; Apion, i. 18, 5), according to which Hiram reigned only seven or eight years contemporaneously with David. That David began the building of his palace only at a late period is contrary to II Sam. vii. 2, according to which the palace was completed before Solomon's birth. Either the account of Menander must be rejected, and 'to King Hiram a longer life and reign be ascribed, or the identity of the friend of David with the friend of Solomon must be denied, in which cams the Biblical account has confused the famous Hiram with a less known king in the time of David, unless, as is possible, all the Tyrian kings bore the same name [or used it as a title].

II Sam. v. 11-12 discloses that the Tyrian king sought David's friendship for political and commercial reasons. For the building of the palace in Jerusalem he placed at David's disposal timber and workmen, which David accepted on account of the superiority of Phenician workmanship. For the same reason Solomon was eager to maintain the friendship with Hiram and, above all, to secure his aid in the building of the temple. Hiram, on his part, responded willingly to Solomon's overtures and promised to furnish the necessary persons and materials for the enterprise, in return for which Solomon provided the Tyrian court with grain oil, and wine. Hiram. also sent to Jerusalem a clever metal-worker whose name also was Hiram (according to II Chron. ii. 13, Huram-abi), who was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali and of a Tyrian father. To this artist are ascribed the brazen masterpieces of the temple. In addition King Hiram furnished a considerable amount of gold, in exchange for which Solomon later assigned (I Kings ix. 10

sqq.) twenty cities in the neighborhood of Naphtali, where dwelt a population principally composed of

heathens. The aid he gave in the voyages to Ophir (q.v.), for which he sent carpenters and seamen (I Kings ix. 26 sqq., x. 11, 22), was the result of careful prevision, since from his use of the harbor of Elath on the Red Sea, which was in the possession of Israel, he gained no little profit,

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Later tradition asserts that Solomon married a daughter of Hiram, which is not improbable considering the close relations between the two courts and the presence of Sidonians in the harem of Solomom (I Kings xi. 1, 5). Other legends about Hiram are given by F. Movers (Die Ph6nizier, 11, Bonn, 1841, pp. 338-339). His son Balemar succeeded the great king on the throne. Hiram's grave is shown a little to the southeast of the city of Tyre, containing an immense sarcophagus which bears no inscription and offers no assurance of its authenticity.

A second Tyrian king bearing the name of Hiram lived in the time of Cyrus and reigned twenty years (551-532? B.c.) according to Menander (in Jose phus, Apion, i. 21; cf. Herodotus, vii. 98; Movers, ut sup., ii.,pp. 466-467).

The name Huram was borne also by a Levite, I Chron. viii. 5.

C. von Orelli.

Bibliography: Besides the works and sources indicated in the text and the commentaries on the Scriptural paessgee and the appropriate sections in the works on the history of Israel, consult: Gieeebrecht, in ZATW, 1881, pp. 239 240 (on Xluram-abi); R.. Pieteahmann, Oemhichte der Phanisier, pp. 294-297, Berlin, 1889; L. B. Paton, Early Hist. of Syria and Paleatine, New York, 1901; DB, ii. 388-390; $B, ii. 2073-74; JR, vi. 4b6-408,