HICKS, ELIAS: Friend; b. at Hempstead, L. I., Mar, 19, 1748; d. at Jericho, L. I., Feb. 27, 1830.
He was a mechanic in the early part of his life, but later devoted himself to agriculture. When he was twenty-seven he began to have "openings leading to the ministry," and subsequently became a noted preacher, traveling extensively among the Yearly Meetings of American Friends. When the more liberal element of the Society broke off from the more conservative wing in 1827 they were called Hicksites, and this separation extended to New York, Baltimore, Ohio, and Indiana. (See Friends, Society of, I., § 6.) Many were Unitari ans, and some of Hicks's statements undoubtedly tend in this direction. His philanthropic activities were varied and effective. He published Observations on Slavery (New York, 1811); Extemporane ous Discourses (Philadelphia, 1825); Journal of Religious Life and Labors (5th ed., New York, 1832).Bibliography: F. 8. Turner, The Quakers PP 290-295 et passim, London, 1889; American Church History Series, xii. 248-284, New York. 1894.
HICKSITES. See Hicks, Elias; Friends, Society of, I., § 6.
HIERACAS, HIERACITES: An early heretic and his followers, important for the early history of monasticism, and known principally from Epiphanius (Hær., lxvii.). Arius, however, as quoted by Epiphanius (l.c.), condemns the Christology of Hieracas, Valentinus, Manes, and Sabellius, and there is no reason to suppose another Hieracas. If he lived to be over ninety (as Epiphanius asserts), his birth would have fallen not long after 275. According to Epiphanius, he lived at Leontopolis, and was a man of the greatest learning. He knew the Bible almost by heart, composed a series of commentaries in Greek and Egyptian (Coptic), and wrote a great work on the Creation, and some psalms. He made his living by his skill as a copyist. His manner of life was extremely ascetic, including celibacy, complete abstinence from wine, and the reduction of food to the barest necessaries. His influence on the like-minded soon assembled round him an ascetic community, who went even beyond their teacher in severity. Hieracas saw in the teaching of physical purity and self-denial the essential difference between the Old and New Testaments. He denied the resurrection of the body, making the risen life a wholly spiritual one. He doubted the salvation of those who died in infancy, even baptized, because without knowledge there could be no conflict, and without conflict no reward. Epiphanius admits his orthodoxy on the Trinity. His Scriptural tendencies and his theoretical and speculative attitude toward renunciation of the world may be traced to the influence of Origen. If his monks were also his scholars, this would be one of the earliest instances of an ascetic community devoted at the same time to learning. According to Macarius Egyptius, there were followers of his teaching, known as Hieracites, as late as the end of the fourth century.
Bibliography: C. W. F. Welch, Histmie der Ketzereisn, i. 815-823, 11 vols., Leipsic, 1762-85; Moeller, Christian Church, i. 287, 355; Harnack Dogma iii. 29 98 sqq
112, 128, iv. 8; idem, Geschichte, i. 467-468, ii. 1, pp. 83-|
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