If, as we have some reason to believe, and as the reader may see satisfactorily established in Movers and Bertheau {ut supra), a race of the Shernitic family, coming down from the upper (Aram) country into the lower (Canaan), in course of time subjugated Egypt and established their dominion, maintaining it for some five hundred years, such a historical event must have had a marked influence on the religion of the land. These invaders are described (Herod, ii, 128) as enemies to the religion of Egypt, who destroyed or closed the temples, broke in pieces the altars and images of the gods, and killed the sacred animals. Their influence on the Egyp- tian religion was probably not unlike that of the Per- sians on the Grecian, having for its aim and effect to discountenance and destroy a low and degrading system of idolatry; for the worship of the heavenly bodies, to which the Phcenician equally with the Persian invaders • were given, was higher in its character and effects than the service of the ordinary gods of Greece, and still more so than the degrading homage paid by the Egyp- tians to the lowest animals. By this means the She- rnitic religion exerted on the native Egyptian religion a decided and improving influence, which may be seen and traced in that element of the religion of Egypt
v.hich contains and presents the worship of the heaven- ly bodies. The two systems, that of the Egy]itians be- fore it received inoculation from the East, and that of the Eastern invaders, agreed in this, that they were both the worship of the powers of nature; but they differed in tins, and an important difference it was, that the Egyptians adored the brute creation, the Phoenicians the host of heaven. — Kitto. (See iStucl. vnd Krit. 1839, ii, 393, 408; Saalschutz, Forschmgen, abth. iii, 1849; Schulze, De fontibus historice Hyksorum, Berlin, 1848 ; Uhlemann, Israeliten und Hyksos in ^gypten, Lpz. 185G.) See Egypt ; Shepherd-kings.
Hylaret, Maurice, a French theologian, was bom at Angouleme Sept. 5, 1539. In 1551 he entered the or- der of the "Cordeliers." About 1552 he went to Paris to continue his studies, and returned to Angouleme in 1557 to be ordained for the priesthood. He now de- voted his time exclusively to the study of theology, and in 1562 was made a professor of philosophy, and a short time later a professor of theology. In 1566 he made himself quite conspicuous by a public controversy with the Calvinist Godet. In 1568 he was called to the Sor- bonnc, and was honored with the doctorate two j'cars later. Henceforward he preached much, and the ce- lebrity he gained as a pulpit orator procured him a position as preacher at Orleans in 1572. He died in December, 1591. His works are, Sacrce Decades qidn- quepartitce, condones quadragesimales, atque Paschales numei-o quinquaginta (Lyons, 1591, 2 vols. 8vo) : — Con- cionimi per adventum Enneades sacrce quatuor, homilias ti-iginta sex complectentes, e quibus viginti septem priores Joelem prophet, explicant, novem vero posteriores Evan- gelia adventus et J'estorum per id tempits occuri-entium expdicant (Paris, 1591, 8vo) : — Homiliie in Evangelia do- minifidia per totum annum (Paris, 1604, 2 vols. 8vo). Dupiu also ascribes to Hylaret De non conveniendo cum hcereticis et de non inemido cum hceretica a viro cathol- ico conjugio (Orl. 1587). — Hoefer, A"o«»\ Hiog. Generale, XXV, 707 sq.
Hyle (vXrj, matter) was, according to the doctrmes of the Maniehoians (q. v.), the Lord of darkness. They held that the world is governed by two primary princi- ples, viz. " a subtle and a gross sort of matter, or light and darkness, separated from each other by a narrow space," over each of which presides an eternal Lord. God they termed the Lord of the world of Light ; Hyle the Lord of the world of darhiess ; and both of these worlds, "although different in their natures, have some things in common. Each is distributed into five op- posing elements, and the same number of provinces; both are equally eternal, and, with thcu- respective lords, self-existent , both are unchangeable, and exist forever ; both are of vast extent, yet the world of light seems to fill more space than the empire of darhiess. The con- dition of the two lords presiding over the two kinds of matter is equal, but they are totally unlilce in their na- tures and dispositions. The Lord of Light, being him- self happy, is beneficent, a lover of peace and quietness, just and -(vise ; the L.o)-d of darkness, being himself very miserable, wishes to see others unhappy, is quarrelsome, unwise, unjust, irascible, and envious. Yet they are equal in the eternity of their existence, in their power to beget beings Uke themselves, in their unchangeable- ness, and in their power and knowledge ; and yet the King of light, or God, excels the Prince of darkness, or the Daemon, in power and knowledge." — Mosheim, Ch. Hist, of the first three Centuries, ii, § 41, p. 275; Ncan- der, liist. of Dogmas, i, 118, 127, 181, etc.
Hylozoism (i'Xj/, wood, used by ancient philoso- phers to signify the abstract idea oi matter ; and ^w?/, life) is a term for the atheistical doctrine which teaches that life and matter are inseparable. But the forms which have grown out of this doctrine have been rather variable. Tluis " Strato of Lampsacus held that the ultimate particles of matter were each and all of them possessed of life," approaching, of course, in this sense,