Hyperius, Andreas

HYPATIA: Neoplatonic philosopher; b. in Alexandria c. 350; d. there Mar., 415. She was the daughter of tie philosopher and mathematician Theon, from whom she received her first philosophic training. On her return from Athens, whither she had gone to continue her studies, she became a distinguished lecturer on philosophy, and ultimately the recognized bead of the Neoplatonic school at Alexandria. She exerted a wide influence and attracted to her classroom students of philosophy from all quarters. Among her devoted disciples was Synesius of Cyrene, afterward bishop of Ptolemais, several of whose letters to her are still extant. She was universally venerated for her beauty and purity, no less than for her wisdom and eloquence. By her friendship for the prefect Orestes, she in curred the enmity of Cyril, then bishop of Alexandria, who, in the name of Christianity, incited a superstitious mob against her. The story of her tragic fate is related by Socrates (Hist. eccl., vii. 15). As she was driving through the streets in her chariot she was seized by a band of Christian fanatics led by Peter the Reader, and dragged to the church called Ceesareum, where she was stripped and cast into the street to be pelted to death with shells. Her body was then torn to pieces, and later committed to the flames at a place called Cinaron.

Her writings have not been preserved. She is the heroine of Charles Kingsley's historical romance, Hypatia (London, 1853).

HYPERIUS (GERHARD), ANDREAS: A Lutheran theologian and preacher; b. at Ypres (30 m. s.s.w. of Bruges) May 16, 1511; d. at Marburg Feb. 1, 1584. The name Hyperdus, from his birthplace, is that by which he is commonly known. He was early grounded in the classics by prominent humanist teachers, and pursued his education especially at Tournay and Paris. In 1537 he visited prominent scholars at the universities of Central Germany in the interest of the Evangelical cause, and then spent four years in England. In order to get a letter of introduction to Butzer he went, in 1541, to Marburg to his friend Gerhard Noviomagus, whose substitute and (1542) successor as professor of theology he became. A fruitful writer, endowed with great gifts, he soon attracted great crowds of students, paying special attention to the education of preachers. He was not a strict Lutheran, but rather influenced by Butzer, who enjoyed the highest regard of the Landgrave Philip and left an indelible stamp on Hessian Protestantism. Hyperius distinguished himself in various lines--exegetioal, historical, encyclopedic, and homiletic. His exegetical works (In D. Pauli ad Romanos epistolam exegema, 1549; Maria opuacula, 1589-70, his commentary on the Hebrews, 4 vols., 1582 sqq.) are distinguished by acuteness and attention to the history of exegesis. His acquaintance with church history induced the Magdeburg centuriators to ask his advice as to method, whidh he expounded in 1550 in the treatise De mdhodo in eonacrtbenda historic emleaiastica crontilium (first published by Mangold, Marburg, 1888). His efforts in the encyclopedic and homiletic departments are almost epoch-making, and became the basis of Evangelical homiletics. In the former, his principal work is De rations studii theologid (Basel, 1558). The first book treats of the religious and scientific presuppositions for the study of theology; the second of exegesis and the profit derived from study of the Scriptures; the third of systematic theology, including catechetios; the fourth of the theory of practical theology. By his insistence in this, the most important of the four, on the importance of a study of church history, canon law, the method of the cure of souls, and liturgics, he became the father of practical theology. No less important*are his efforts in the homiletical department, which he defines as popular exegesis. Theoretically the sermon is hereby tied to the Holy Scripture and its theological character assured. Following II Tim. iii. 18 and Rom. xv. 14, he distinguished five modes of preaching, from which originated in Lutheran orthodoxy. the fivefold application of each sermon. His principal homiletic work is entitled De formandis conciontbus sacria seu de interpretation, Scripturarum poptilan (Marburg, 1553). The homilists of the succeeding centuries followed Melanchthon's rhetorics; Hyperius remained an almost solitary prophet till the time of Schleiermacher. From 1542 to 1584 Hyperius was the spiritual head of the Hessian Church. His

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principal work in the practical fiela is the first Hessian national church-order, which he drew up in 1568 in conjunction with the Marburg preacher, Nikolaus Rhodingus, and which is still the basis of the constitution of the church in Hesse. Characteristic of him is the union of Evangelical catholicity, which can prove from the Holy Scripture and the Fathers that "in substance and nature, fundamentally one and the same doctrine has always existed," with a strong Calvinistic tendency in such things as the necessity, supposed to follow from the New Testament, of the three "major orders" of bishops (superintendents), elders, and deacons.

Church and university life in Hesse was disturbed by controversy soon after Hyperius' death. The man of peace was forgotten, until the second half of the nineteenth century, when his memory was revived by the works of Steinmeyer and Mangold.

E. C. Achelis.

Bibliography: The biographical source used in all sketches

of the life is Oratio de vita et obitu Andrew Hyperii a Vuipando Orthio . . . habits, appended to H. Victor's ad. of Hyperius' MeOodi theofogici libri iii., 1587. Various phases of his activity are discussed in F. W. Haeeencamp, Heeaische Kirchenteechia'W wit dem Zeitalter der Reformation, ii. 453-464, Frankfort, 1884; F. L. Steinmeyer, Die Topik im Dienate der Pradipt, Berlin, 1$74; H. Heppe, Rirehengeschichts beider Heaven, i. 286-288, Marburg, 1878; K. F. Holler, Andrew Hyperius, Kiel, 1895; M. Bahian, in Zsitschrift für praktische Theologie, gviii (1896), 289-324, aia (1897), 27-88, 120-149.