INTRODUCTORY NOTICE TO HIPPOLYTUS.

It is now sufficiently established as the work of Hippolytus, and has been providentially brought to light just when it was most needed. In fact, the statue rose from its grave as if to rebuke the reigning pontiff (Pius IV), who just then imposed upon the Latin churches the novel “Creed” which bears his name. And now the Philosophumena Philosophumena: a work by Hippolytus titled "Refutation of all Heresies," which examines Greek philosophy as the source of heresy. comes forth as if to breathe a last warning to that namesake of the former Pius Pius IX, who defined the dogma of papal infallibility in 1870. who, in the very teeth of its testimony, so recently forged and uttered the dogma of “papal infallibility,” conferring this attribute upon himself and, retrospectively, upon the very bishops of Rome whom St. Hippolytus resisted as heretics, and has transmitted to posterity, in his writings, branded with the shame of both false doctrine and heinous crimes. Dr. Döllinger, who for a time lent his learning and genius to an apologetic effort on behalf of the Papacy, was no doubt prepared—by this very struggle of his heart against his head—for that rejection of the new dogma which overwhelmed both his intellect and his conscience. It made it impossible for him any longer to bear the lashes of Rehoboam 1 Kings 12:14: a reference to harsh, tyrannical rule. in communion with modern Rome.

In the biographical data that will be found below, enough is supplied for the needs of the reader of the present series. If he wishes to investigate the subject further, he will find the fullest information in the works to which reference has been made, or which will be indicated hereafter. But this is the place to recur to the much-abused passage of Irenæus which I discussed in a former volume. Strange to say, I was forced to correct, from a Roman Catholic writer, the very unsatisfactory translation of our Edinburgh editors, and to elucidate at some length the palpable absurdity of attributing to Irenæus any other than a geographical and imperial reference to the importance of Rome, and its usefulness to the West, more especially as its only see of apostolic origin. Quoting the Ninth Antiochian Canon, I gave good reasons for my conjecture that the Latin convenire original: "convenire" (to come together/to agree). represents syntrechein original: "συντρέχειν" (to run together/to concur). in the original. Now it remains to be noted how strongly the real meaning of Irenæus is illustrated in the life and services of his pupil, Hippolytus.

1. That neither Hippolytus nor his master had any conception that the See of Rome possesses any pre-eminent authority to which others are obliged to defer is conspicuously evident from the history of both. Alike, they convicted Roman bishops of error, and alike, they rebuked them for their misconduct.

2. Hippolytus is the author of a work called the Little Labyrinth, which, like the recently discovered Philosophumena, attributes to the Roman See anything but the “infallibility” which the quotation from Irenæus is so ingeniously twisted to sustain. How he did not understand the passage in that way is, therefore, sufficiently apparent. Let us next inquire what appears, from his conduct, to be the true understanding of Irenæus.

3. I have shown, in the elucidation already referred to, how Irenæus affirms that Rome is the city that everyone visits from all parts, and that Christians, resorting there because it is the Imperial City, carry into it the testimony of all other churches. Thus, it becomes a competent witness to the quod ab omnibus original: "quod ab omnibus" (what is held by all)., because it cannot be ignorant of what all the churches teach with one accord. This argument, therefore, reverses the modern Roman dogma; primitive Rome received orthodoxy instead of prescribing it. She gathered the Catholic testimony brought into it from all the churches and gave it forth as reflected light—not primarily her own, but what she faithfully preserved in coincidence with older and more learned churches than herself. Doubtless, she had been planted and watered by St. Paul and St. Peter; but doubtless, also, she had been expressly warned by the former of her liability to error and to final severance.