[1860] From a second Oration on Daniel. In the tractate of Eustratius, a presbyter of the Church of Constantinople, "Against those who allege that souls, as soon as they are released from the body, cease to act," ch. xix., as edited by Allatius in his work on the Continuous Harmony of the Western and the Eastern Church on the Dogma of Purgatory, p. 492. [Conf. Macaire, Theol. Orthod., ii. p. 725.]
[1861] [Nothing of this in the hymn: hence my brackets.]
X. [1862]
Now a person might say that these men, and those who hold a different opinion, are yet near neighbours, being involved in like error. For those men, indeed, either profess that Christ came into our life a mere man, and deny the talent of His divinity, or else, acknowledging Him to be God, they deny, on the other hand, His humanity, and teach that His appearances to those who saw Him as man were illusory, inasmuch as He did not bear with Him true manhood, but was rather a kind of phantom manifestation. Of this class are, for example, Marcion and Valentinus, and the Gnostics, who sunder the Word from the flesh, and thus set aside the one talent, viz., the incarnation.
[1862] From an Oration on the Distribution of Talents. In Theodoret, Dial. II. p. 88.
XI. [1863]
1. The body of the Lord presented both these to the world, the sacred blood and the holy water.
2. And His body, though dead after the manner of man, possesses in it great power of life. For streams which flow not from dead bodies flowed forth from Him, viz., blood and water; in order that we might know what power for life is held by the virtue that dwelt in His body, so as that it appears not to be dead like others, and is able to shed forth for us the springs of life.
3. And not a bone of the Holy Lamb is broken, this figure showing us that suffering toucheth not His strength. For the bones are the strength of the body.
[1863] From a Discourse on "The two Robbers." In Theodoret's Third Dialogue, bearing the title "Impassible" (apathes), p. 156.
Fragments from Other Writings of Hippolytus. [1864]
I.
Now Hippolytus, a martyr for piety, who was bishop of the place called Portus, near Rome, in his book Against all Heresies, wrote in these terms:--
I perceive, then, that the matter is one of contention. For he [1865] speaks thus: Christ kept the supper, then, on that day, and then suffered; whence it is needful that I, too, should keep it in the same manner as the Lord did. But he has fallen into error by not perceiving that at the time when Christ suffered He did not eat the passover of the law. [1866] For He was the passover that had been of old proclaimed, and that was fulfilled on that determinate day.
[1864] Preserved by the author of the Chronicon Paschale, ex ed. Cangii, p. 6.
[1865] i.e., the opponent of Hippolytus, one of the forerunners of the Quartodecimans.
[1866] [For pro & con see Speaker's Com., note to Matt. xxvi.]
II.
From the same.
And again the same (authority), in the first book of his treatise on the Holy Supper, speaks thus:--
Now that neither in the first nor in the last there was anything false is evident; for he who said of old, "I will not any more eat the passover," [1867] probably partook of supper before the passover. But the passover He did not eat, but He suffered; for it was not the time for Him to eat.
[1867] Luke xxii. 16.
III. [1868]
Hippolytus, Bishop and Martyr, in a letter to a certain queen. [1869]
1. He calls Him, then, "the first-fruits of them that sleep," [1870] as the "first-begotten of the dead." [1871] For He, having risen, and being desirous to show that that same (body) had been raised which had also died, when His disciples were in doubt, called Thomas to Him, and said, "Reach hither; handle me, and see: for a spirit hath not bone and flesh, as ye see me have." [1872]
2. In calling Him the first-fruits, he testified to that which we have said, viz., that the Saviour, taking to Himself the flesh out of the same lump, raised this same flesh, and made it the first-fruits of the flesh of the righteous, in order that all we who have believed in the hope of the Risen One may have the resurrection in expectation.
[1868] From a Letter of Hippolytus to a certain queen. In Theodoret's Dial. II., bearing the title "Unmixed" (asunchutos), and Dial. III., entitled "Impassible" (apathes) [pp. 238-239 supra].
[1869] On the question as to who this queen was, see Stephen le Moyne, in notes to the Varia Sacra, pp. 1103, 1112. In the marble monument mention is made of a letter of Hippolytus to Severina. [Bunsen decides that she was only a princess, a daughter of Alexander Severus. See his Hippolytus, i. p. 276.]
[1870] 1 Cor. xv. 20.
[1871] Col. i. 18.
[1872] John xx. 27; Luke xxiv. 39.
The story of a maiden of Corinth, and a certain Magistrianus.
The account given by Hippolytus, the friend of the apostles. [1873]
In another little book bearing the name of Hippolytus, the friend of the apostles, I found a story of the following nature:--
There lived a certain most noble and beautiful maiden [1874] in the city of Corinth, in the careful exercise of a virtuous life. At that time some persons falsely charged her before the judge there, who was a Greek, with cursing the times, and the princes, and the images. Now those who trafficked in such things, brought her beauty under the notice of the impious judge, who lusted after women. And he gladly received the accusation with his equine ears and lascivious thoughts. And when she was brought before the bloodstained (judge), he was driven still more frantic with profligate passion. But when, after bringing every device to bear upon her, the profane than could not gain over this woman of God, he subjected the noble maiden to various outrages. And when he failed in these too, and was unable to seduce her from her confession of Christ, the cruel judge became furious against her, and gave her over to a punishment of the following nature: Placing the chaste maiden in a brothel, he charged the manager, saying, Take this woman, and bring me three nummi by her every day. And the man, exacting the money from her by her dishonour, gave her up to any who sought her in the brothel. And when the women-hunters knew that, they came to the brothel, and, paying the price put upon their iniquity, sought to seduce her. But this most honourable maiden, taking counsel with herself to deceive them, called them to her, and earnestly besought them, saying: I have a certain ulceration of the pudenda, which has an extremely hateful stench; and I am afraid that ye might come to hate me on account of the abominable sore. Grant me therefore a few days, and then ye may have me even for nothing. With these words the blessed maiden gained over the profligates, and dismissed them for a time. [1875] And with most fitting prayers she importuned God, and with contrite supplications she sought to turn Him to compassion. God, therefore, who knew her thoughts, and understood how the chaste maiden was distressed in heart for her purity, gave ear to her; and the Guardian of the safety of all men in those days interposed with His arrangements in the following manner:--
Of a certain person Magistrianus. [1876]
There was a certain young man, Magistrianus, [1877] comely in his personal appearance, and of a pious mind, whom God had inspired with such a burning spiritual zeal, that he despised even death itself. He, coming under the guise of profligacy, goes in, when the evening was far gone, to the fellow who kept the women, and pays him five nummi, and says to him, Permit me to spend this night with this damsel. Entering then with her into the private apartment, he says to her, Rise, save thyself. And taking off her garments, and dressing her in his own attire, his night-gown, his cloak, and all the habiliments of a man, he says to her, Wrap yourself up with the top of your cloak, and go out; and doing so, and signing herself entirely with the mystery of the cross, she went forth uncorrupted from that place, and was preserved perfectly stainless by the grace of Christ, and by the instrumentality of the young man, who by his own blood delivered her from dishonour. And on the following day the matter became known, and Magistrianus was brought before the infuriated judge. And when the cruel tyrant had examined the noble champion of Christ, and had learned all, he ordered him to be thrown to the wild beasts,--that in this, too, the honour-hating demon might be put to shame. For, whereas he thought to involve the noble youth in an unhallowed punishment, he exhibited him as a double martyr for Christ, inasmuch as he had both striven nobly for his own immortal soul, and persevered manfully in labours also in behalf of that noble and blessed maiden. Wherefore also he was deemed worthy of double honour with Christ, and of the illustrious and blessed crowns by His goodness.
[1873] Extract in Palladius, Historia Lausiaca, chap. cxlviii.; Gallandi, Biblioth., ii. 513.
[1874] Nicephorus also mentions her in his Hist. Eccl., vii. 13.
[1875] [On the morality of this, see vol. ii. pp. 538, 556.]
[1876] From the same, chap. cxlix.
[1877] Nicephorus gives this story also, Hist. Eccl., vii. 13.
Elucidation.
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The conduct of Father Abraham, although not approved of by Inspiration, but simply recorded (Gen. xxvi. 7), gave early Christians an opinion that the wicked may be justly foiled, by equivocation and deception, for the preservation of innocence or the life of the innocent. In such case the person deceived, they might argue, is not injured, but benefited (Gen. xxvi. 10), being saved from committing violence and murder. The Corinthian maiden was accustomed to be veiled (as Tertullian intimates), and was taught alike to cherish her own purity and to have no share in affording occasion of sin to others. See vol. iv. pp. 32, 33. Let us call this narrative "The Story of Corinthia and Magistrianus."
Appendix to the Works of Hippolytus.
Containing Dubious and Spurious Pieces.
------------------------
A discourse [1878] by the most blessed Hippolytus, bishop and martyr, on the end of the world, and on Antichrist, and on the second coming of our lord Jesus Christ.
I.
Since, then, the blessed prophets have been eyes to us, setting forth for our behoof the clear declaration of things secret, both through life, and through declaration, and through inspiration [1879] of the Holy Spirit, and discoursing, too, of things not yet come to pass, [1880] in this way also [1881] to all generations they have pictured forth the grandest subjects for contemplation and for action. Thus, too, they preached of the advent of God [1882] in the flesh to the world, His advent by the spotless and God-bearing [1883] Mary in the way of birth and growth, and the manner of His life and conversation with men, and His manifestation by baptism, and the new birth that was to be to all men, and the regeneration by the laver; and the multitude of His miracles, and His blessed passion on the cross, and the insults which He bore at the hands of the Jews, and His burial, and His descent to Hades, and His ascent again, and redemption of the spirits that were of old, [1884] and the destruction of death, and His life-giving awaking from the dead, and His re-creation of the whole world, and His assumption and return to heaven, and His reception of the Spirit, of which the apostles were deemed worthy, and again the second coming, that is destined to declare all things. For as being designated seers, [1885] they of necessity signified and spake of these things beforetime.
[1878] This discourse seems to have been a homily addressed to the people. Fabricius, Works of Hippolytus, vol. ii.
[1879] epiphoiteseos.
[1880] gegonota. Codex Baroccianus gives heurekota.
[1881] hothen kai, etc.
[1882] Others, tou uiou tou Theou, of the Son of God.
[1883] theotokou. [The epithet applied to the Blessed Virgin by the "Council of Ephesus," against Nestorius, a.d. 431. Elucidation, p. 259.] This is one of those terms which some allege not to have been yet in use in the time of Hippolytus. But, as Migne observes, if there were no other argument than this against the genuineness of this discourse, this would not avail much, as the term is certainly used by Origen, Methodius, and Dionysius Alex., who were nearly coeval with Hippolytus.
[1884] ap' aionon.
[1885] blepontes.
II.
Hence, too, they indicated the day of the consummation to us, and signified beforehand the day of the apostate that is to appear and deceive men at the last times, and the beginning and end of his kingdom, and the advent of the Judge, and the life of the righteous, and the punishment of the sinners, in order that we all, bearing these things in mind day by day and hour by hour, as children of the Church, might know that "not one jot nor one tittle of these things shall fail," [1886] as the Saviour's own word announced. Let all of you, then, of necessity, open the eyes of your hearts and the ears of your soul, and receive the word which we are about to speak. For I shall unfold to you to-day a narration full of horror and fear, to wit, the account of the consummation, and in particular, of the seduction of the whole world by the enemy and devil; and after these things, the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.