Bunsen reminds us, more than once, has duplicated our information concerning the Western Church of the ante-Nicene period. Note, therefore, that the Nicene Creed must be studied not so much in the controvertists of the fourth century as in the doctors of preceding ages, whom we are reviewing in these pages. Now, the “duplicated” light thrown upon the position of the North-African churches, and others in the West, at this period, by the discovery of long-lost portions of Hippolytus, well be found to settle many groundless assertions of Roman controvertists as to what these ajrcai~a e]qh were.
The earliest of the great Roman Fathers now comes forward, but not as a Latin Father. And lastly we have Novatian as a sequel to the works of Cyprian; and truly, the light upon his sad history is “duplicated” by what Hippolytus show us of the times and circumstances which made his schism possible, and which somewhat relieve his character from its darker shades. It was in 1851, just three hundred years after its discovery, and in the year of the publication of the newly discovered Philosophumena at Oxford, that I saw it in the Vatican.
As a specimen of early Christian art it is a most interesting work, and possesses a higher merit than almost any similar production of a period subsequent to that of the Antonines. The chair has carved upon it, no doubt for use in the Church, a calendar indicating the Paschal full moons for seven cycles of sixteen years each; answering, according to the science of the period, to similar tables in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.
Now, then, from Portus and from Lyons, Hippolytus brought into Rome the Catholic doctrine, and convicted two of its bishops of
The judgment and critical accuracy of Ussher is, on a point of this kind, of the highest value. 222, this would transfer the period of his birth to not very long after the last half of the second century. Next came the portion of the work relating more immediately to the heresies of the Church, which is contained in books 5-9.
The tenth book is the résumé of the entire, together with the exposition of the author's own religious opinions. We have thus a most interesting account of the early heresies, which in some respects supplies many desiderata in the ecclesiastical history of this epoch. We can scarcely over-estimate the value of The Refutation, on account of the propinquity of its author to the apostolic age.
It is therefore obvious that Basilides formed his system out of the prologue of St. Nor is the value of Hippolytus' work seriously impaired, even on the supposition of the authorship not being proved, — a concession, however, in no wise justified by the evidence.
THE REFUTATION OF ALL HERESIES
CONTENTS
AND 3 ARE AWANTING
How it is, then, that the system of the Chaldeans is unstable, let us now declare. For there being an interval from the mouth of the womb to the fundament, where. There are six remaining monads; (so that a person using this method) says, according to the rule of the number seven, that six monads are the root of the name Patroclus.
A monad, therefore, is the root of the number 43, according to the rule of the number seven. In like manner, (the name) Sarpedon, when made the subject of calculation, produces as a root, according to the rule of the number nine, two monads. Again, (the name) Ajax makes four monads; (but the name) Hector, according to the rule of the ninth number, makes one monad.
Amycus, according to the rule of the number nine, makes two monads, and Polydeuces, however, seven: Polydeuces gains the victory. Ajax, according to the rule of the number nine, makes font monads; Ulysses, according to the rule of the number nine, (makes) eight. Achilles, according to the rule of the number nine, makes four monads; Hector one: Achilles gains the victory.
TYPE OF THOSE BORN UNDER TAURUS Those, however, who are born in Taurus will be of the following. And this effect, which it has by reason of the sea-water, is very useful. And each of the elements labors under some deficiency, and one is worsted by the other.
INVENTION OF THE LYRE; ALLEGORIZING THE APPEARANCE AND POSITION OF THE STARS; ORIGIN OF THE. But the first monad became a principle, according to substance, of the numbers, which (principle) is a male monad,.
NOTE
This, he says, is the word of God, which, he says, is a word of revelation of the Great Power. For such a power, he says, is of the color of water; and this power, he says — that is, Cronus. But, again, in the midst of the heaven and the earth have been generated infinite concourses of powers.
When, therefore, according to these (heretics), there ensued some such arrangement, and (one) similar (to it) of the world, the Deity, he says, proceeded to form man, taking clay from the earth. For somewhere near, he says, is the axe (which is laid) at the roots of the tree. And these are the Logoi that have been dispersed from above, from the “Joint Fruit of the Pleroma” and (from) Sophia, into this world.
Flesh, according to these (heretics), is matter which is suspended from the soul of the Demiurge. And thus he who is of the seven (vowels) acquired the power of the eight (semi-vowels); and there were produced three topoi, corresponding with the (three) numbers (nine, seven, and eight), — (these topoi) being ogdoads. And the symbol of manifestation was) the descent of the dove, which is O [mega] and Alpha, and which by the number manifested (by these is) 801.
And (he asserts) that the dispensation of suffering (took place) on the sixth day, which is the preparation; (and so it was) that on this (day) appeared the last man for the regeneration of the first man. The Savior, who was of the dispensation, he says, destroyed death, whereas He made known (as) the Father Christ (Jesus).
