HIPPOLYTUS

HIPPOLYTUS, priest, St. (ca. 170-ca. 236). Hippolytus was a presbyter of the Roman Church whose claim to fame is as the first “Anti-pope.” Of a conservative disposition, he made perhaps his most significant contribution to later generations in his compilation of the Apostolic Tradition (q.v.), a document written to counter what he felt were unwarranted innovations in the practice and discipline of the Roman Church in the early decades of the 3rd c. The work is the earliest Roman Church order-descriptions of the sacraments (q.v.) and accompanying disciplines-extant and therefore a priceless historical witness. In his disputes with Popes Zephyrinus (198–217) and Callistus (217–222), both of whom he rejected as heretics, the charge he levels against them seems to be a type of modalism, and might have been accurate. He was later reconciled to the other side under Popes Pontianus and Fabian, and his body was returned to Rome as that of a martyred presbyter. He also wrote plentifully on Scripture (q.v.), his commentary on Dan is still extant, and on the reproof of heresy-particularly gnosticism (qq.v.) in his Philosophoumena.