INTRODUCTORY NOTICE TO HIPPOLYTUS.

The first great Christian Father whose history is Roman is, nevertheless, not a Roman, but a Greek. He is the disciple of Irenaeus, and the spirit of his life-work reflects that of his master. In his personal character, he so much resembles Irenaeus risen again original: "γλυκύτατος καὶ εὐνούστατος" (sweetest and most loyal)., that the great Bishop of Lyons must be well studied and understood if we would do full justice to the conduct of Hippolytus. Especially did he follow his master's example in withstanding contemporary bishops of Rome, who, like Victor, "deserved to be blamed," but who, much more than any of their predecessors, merited rebuke alike for error in doctrine and viciousness of life.

In the year 1551, while some excavations were in progress near the ancient Church of St. Lawrence at Rome, on the Tiburtine Road, an ancient marble statue was found, depicting a figure seated in a chair, wearing over the Roman tunic the pallium pallium: an outer cloak or mantle, traditionally worn by philosophers and later by bishops. praised by Tertullian. It was in 1851, exactly 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 period of the Roman Emperors from 138–192 AD.. It represents a grave personage with noble features and a high, commanding forehead, slightly bearded, his right hand resting over his heart, while under it his left arm crosses the body to reach a book placed at his side. There is no reason to doubt that this is, indeed, the statue of Hippolytus, as stated in the inscription of Pius IV, who calls him "Saint Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus," and states that he lived in the reign of the Emperor Alexander—that is, Severus.

There is evidence of this on the chair itself, which represents his episcopal cathedra cathedra: an official throne or seat of a bishop. It features a modest symbol of lions at the sides, as if borrowed from the throne of Solomon. It is no doubt a work of later date than the age of Severus; but Wordsworth, who admirably explains how such a statue may have been provided, gives us good reasons for supposing that it may have been the grateful tribute of contemporaries, and all the more trustworthy as a portrait of the man himself. 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. It indicates the days on which Easter must fall, from A.D. 222 to A.D. 333. On the back of the chair is a list of the author's works.

Not less interesting, and vastly more important, was the discovery at Mount Athos in 1842 of the long-lost Philosophumena of this author, concerning which the important facts will appear below. Its learned editor, Emmanuel Miller, published it at Oxford under the name of Origen, which was inscribed on the manuscript. Like the Epistle of Clement, its composition in the Greek language gave it currency among the Eastern Christians long after it was forgotten in the West; and very naturally, they had ascribed to Origen an anonymous treatise containing much in coincidence.