in the East and the Roman saint were one and the same person. The notice
in the _Chronicon Paschale_ preserves one slight reminiscence of the
historical facts, namely, that Hippolytus's episcopal see was situated
at Portus near Rome. In 1551 a marble statue of a seated man was found
in the cemetery of the Via Tiburtina: on the sides of the seat were
carved a paschal cycle, and on the back the titles of numerous writings.
It was the statue of Hippolytus, a work at any rate of the 3rd century;
at the time of Pius IX. it was placed in the Lateran Museum, a record in
stone of a lost tradition.
Hippolytus's voluminous writings, which for variety of subject can be
compared with those of Origen, embrace the spheres of exegesis,
homiletics, apologetics and polemic, chronography and ecclesiastical
law. His works have unfortunately come down to us in such a fragmentary
condition that it is difficult to obtain from them any very exact notion
of his intellectual and literary importance. Of his exegetical works the
best preserved are the _Commentary on the Prophet Daniel_ and the
_Commentary on the Song of Songs_. In spite of many instances of a want
of taste in his typology, they are distinguished by a certain sobriety
and sense of proportion in his exegesis. We are unable to form an
opinion of Hippolytus as a preacher, for the _Homilies on the Feast of
Epiphany_ which go under his name are wrongly attributed to him. He
wrote polemical words directed against the pagans, the Jews and
heretics. The most important of these polemical treatises is the
_Refutation of all Heresies_, which has come to be known by the
inappropriate title of the _Philosophumena_. Of its ten books, the
second and third are lost; Book i. was for a long time printed (with the
title _Philosophumena_) among the works of Origen; Books iv.-x. were
found in 1842 by the Greek Minoides Mynas, without the name of the
author, in a MS. at Mount Athos. It is nowadays universally admitted
that Hippolytus was the author, and that Books i. and iv.-x. belong to
the same work. The importance of the work has, however, been much
overrated; a close examination of the sources for the exposition of the
Gnostic system which is contained in it has proved that the information
it gives is not always trustworthy. Of the dogmatic works, that on
_Christ and Antichrist_ survives in a complete state. Among other things
it includes a vivid account of the events preceding the end of the
world, and it was probably written at the time of the persecution under
Septimius Severus, i.e. about 202. The influence of Hippolytus was felt
chiefly through his works on chronographic and ecclesiastical law. His
chronicle of the world, a compilation embracing the whole period from
the creation of the world up to the year 234, formed a basis for many
chronographical works both in the East and West. In the great
compilations of ecclesiastical law which arose in the East since the 4th
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account