The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus: Translated into English with Introduction and NotesHippolytus, Antipope
Religion
The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus: Translated into English with Introduction and Notes
Hippolytus, Antipope
Canon law -- Early church, ca. 30-600; Church orders, Ancient
In 1551 excavations in Rome brought to light a third-century statue of
Hippolytus, now in the Lateran Museum; the upper part of the body has
been “restored”. On the sides are inscribed an “Easter Canon” that he
computed and a partial list of his works.[36] The posture of the body,
which is that of a seated teacher, made episcopal dignity more than
probable, so for the official description of the statue Pius IV, the
next pope, adopted the Portus tradition. Hence as “Bishop of Portus”
the saint was generally known until the middle of the nineteenth
century.
In 1701 Jakob Gronov published, in the tenth volume of his _Thesaurus
Graecarum Antiquitatum_, Book I—no more was then known—of a work
called “Philosophumena” or “Philosophizings”, that was commonly,
although not universally, referred to Origen. Books IV-X of this work
were discovered in 1842 and nine years later were published as
Origen’s by the editor, B. E. Miller.[37] But the contents of the work
were soon proved by competent scholars—notably Döllinger[38]—to make
Origen’s authorship impossible; the necessary conditions were
fulfilled by Hippolytus alone. This proof established also the
Hippolytean authorship of certain other disputed works; and the
evidence thus assembled showed that Hippolytus was both a bishop and a
Roman. Incidentally, it has been established also that the correct
title for the above work is “Refutation of All Heresies”, and that
“Philosophumena” was the sub-title of Books I-IV (not as is sometimes
stated of Book I alone). But “Philosophumena” is generally accepted by
modern writers.
The Portus tradition, however, still lingered on for a time and is
accepted in the _Ante-Nicene Fathers_, both by the original editor J.
H. Macmahon (1868) and by the American reviser Bishop A. C. Coxe
(1886). Bishop Lightfoot supported a compromise theory that made of
Hippolytus a sort of suffragan bishop of Rome with special
jurisdiction over Portus.[39] But neither position is now tenable.
For the facts of Hippolytus’s life we have practically only what he
himself tells us in scattered allusions; only once (Philosophumena IX,
7) does he relate contemporary events at any length. Since in his
later works he speaks of himself as aged, his birth must be placed
_ca._ 160. Tradition makes him a disciple of Irenaeus, a highly
probable supposition even though his works are silent on the subject.
He became a presbyter of the Roman church under Zephyrinus (198?-217,
or perhaps earlier) and won great respect for his learning and
eloquence: on one occasion he was deputed to preach in the presence of
Origen.[40] But his learning brought him into a mortal conflict with a
fellow presbyter, one Callistus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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