ON SAINT HEGESIPPUS,
ECCLESIASTICAL WRITER.
ABOUT THE YEAR 180.
CommentaryHegesippus, Ecclesiastical Writer (Saint)
BY G. H.
A distinguished eulogy of Saint Hegesippus was published by Saint Jerome in his book On Ecclesiastical Writers, chapter 22, in these words: "Hegesippus, a near contemporary of the Apostolic age, weaving the histories of all ecclesiastical events from the Passion of the Lord down to his own time, Eulogy from Saint Jerome and gathering together from various sources many things pertaining to the profit of readers, composed five books in simple style, that he might also express the character of diction of those whose life he followed. He asserts that he came to Rome under Anicetus, who was the tenth bishop after Peter, and that he continued until Eleutherius, bishop of the same city, who had once been a deacon of Anicetus. Moreover, disputing against idols, he appends the history of the time from which this error first grew, from which he shows in what age he flourished. For he says: 'They made tombs for the dead and temples, as we see to this day; among whom is also Antinous, slave of the Emperor Hadrian, to whom a gymnastic contest is performed at the city of Antinoöpolis, which he founded from his name, and he appointed prophets in the temple.' Now the Emperor Hadrian is recorded to have held Antinous as his favorite." Thus Saint Jerome. Who also has some praise of him from his books in chapter 2 concerning the same Writers, which will have to be brought forward on the Kalends of May, described in Martyrologies on which Saint James the brother of the Lord is venerated, concerning whom it is treated there. From the said Saint Jerome, Usuard, Ado, Notker, Bellinus, Maurolycus and other more recent writers took their eulogies, and commonly call him "a most holy man," "a most wise man," and "a man of God."
In the Roman Martyrology he is assigned to Rome, and he is listed by Ferrarius in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy. What is added at the end by Ado concerning his conversion from pagan philosophy and his training in the Platonic sects pertains to Saint Justin Philosopher and Martyr, and will be reported on April 13 in his Life. The author of the Pseudo-Bede copied the same things from Ado, and Galesinius inserted a few things into his encomium.
[2] Time of his life under the Roman Pontiffs, Saint Anicetus, in whose time Saint Hegesippus came to Rome, presided over the Church as Supreme Pontiff from the year 149 to the year 153, crowned with martyrdom on April 17, to which day those matters are precisely assigned. Saint Pius succeeded Anicetus, having been previously the Vicar of him and of Saint Hyginus, and then the true Pontiff until the year 161; when, in his place, Saint Soter sat nine years and several months, dying in the year 171, on April 22, where an accurate account of the time is assigned. Saint Eleutherius succeeded Soter in the said year, and lived until the year 186. The Roman emperors at that time were Antoninus Pius from the year 138, and under the Emperors, in whose place in the year 161 Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was substituted together with his brother Lucius Aelius Verus, and he left the empire to his son Commodus in the year 180, if indeed Saint Hegesippus lived to that time, being famous also before the times of Antoninus Pius under his predecessor the Emperor Hadrian, who, as Spartianus testifies, lost his Antinous while sailing on the Nile, and wept for him like a woman. The Greeks, by Hadrian's will, consecrated him, asserting that oracles were given through him, which Hadrian himself is said boastfully to have composed. On which passage Claudius Salmasius in his Notes gathers much. Concerning the beloved boy Antinous, Peter Halloix collected many things from ecclesiastical writers in his Annotations on chapter 3 of the extensively related Life of Saint Hegesippus; and into it he inserts whatever fragments survive from the five books of Saint Hegesippus (which, with the greatest loss to ecclesiastical truth, have perished), which are produced by Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical History; among which, after the martyrdom of Saint James the brother of the Lord, of whom we have already treated, is the persecution stirred up under Domitian against the relatives of Christ the Savior, and the martyrdom of Saint Simeon, Bishop of Jerusalem, reported on February 18 from book 3 of Eusebius, chapter 32, to which those things from Hegesippus are then added.
[3] After these things the same writer, recounting matters done in that age, adds that the Church up to those times, against the persecutions arising after the time of the Apostles, like a certain virgin still hiding in a dark retreat, had remained whole and incorrupt, whoever strove to corrupt the right rule of evangelical preaching. But after the sacred college of the Apostles had been extinguished by various kinds of death, and the age of those men who had been deemed worthy to hear with their own ears that divine wisdom itself had already passed away, then at last arose a conspiracy of impious error, by the fraud and malice of false teachers: who, since none of the Apostles any longer survived, thereafter with bare head, as they say, attempted to thrust forth adulterated doctrine against the preaching of the truth. And Hegesippus writes of these matters in about this manner. But after pointing out the leaders of false doctrine in book 4, chapter 7 and 8, Eusebius adds the following: "And indeed the inventions of the adversaries, refuted by themselves, were immediately extinguished, with sects arising one after another, while the earlier ones continuously dissolved away, and each in various ways vanished into multiple and multiform species of errors. But the Catholic Church, he defends the flourishing Catholic Church, which alone is true, and always like itself and constant, was daily increased with new growth: by its gravity, sincerity and liberty, by its modesty finally and holiness of life and of a certain divine philosophy, striking the eyes of all, not only of Greeks but also of barbarians. At the same time also was extinguished with the lapse of time that calumny which had been fastened upon our whole religion; and our discipline at last remained, by the consent of all the sole superior and victorious, and judged by all to excel the other sects in modesty, gravity, and the precepts of divine wisdom: so much so that from then to our own times, no one has dared to sprinkle any blot of infamy upon our faith, or to bring any such calumny, as those ancient enemies of our religion used to cast. Moreover, in those times truth again brought forth several of its defenders into the open, who fought not only by living voice but also by written disputations against impious heresies. Among whom was the celebrated Hegesippus, whose testimony we have very often used in the preceding books, when we were relating matters done in the times of the Apostles from his faith and account." Thus Eusebius, who subjoins to these the things which we gave at the beginning, excerpted from Saint Jerome.
[4] Finally in chapters 21 and 22 he has the following: "In the same times flourished in the Church Hegesippus, concerning whom I have already said enough, and Dionysius Bishop of the Corinthians, Pinytus also Bishop of the Cretans ... and finally Irenaeus, of all of whom books containing the sincere doctrine of Apostolic tradition and the true faith have come down to us ... Hegesippus indeed in five books of Commentaries, setting out for Rome with various bishops, has left us the clearest testimonies of his faith. For he writes that when he was setting out for Rome, he visited many bishops, and heard one and the same doctrine from all. The same, after he had recorded certain things concerning Clement's letter to the Corinthians, adds the following, which let us hear if it is pleasing. 'And indeed,' he says, 'the Church of the Corinthians remained in the right faith until Primus, bishop of the same place. With whom I spoke familiarly, while I was sailing to Rome: nor did I spend a few days with the Corinthians, and we took mutual consolation from the right faith. and he deals with the Roman Pontiffs: But when I had come to Rome, I stayed there with Anicetus, whose deacon was then Eleutherus. After the death of Anicetus, Soter succeeded, whom Eleutherus followed. But in the individual successions of bishops and throughout individual cities, the same things remain which have been preached through the Law and the Prophets and by the Lord himself.' Having then related the heresies that had arisen, Eusebius adds: himself a Christian from a Hebrew, 'He also brings forth certain things from the Gospel of the Hebrews and the Syriac, and from the Hebrew tongue, signifying clearly enough by himself that he had passed over from the Hebrews to the faith of Christ. He also mentions other things, taken from Jewish traditions not at all committed to writing. Now not only he, but also Irenaeus and all the ancients are accustomed to call the Proverbs of Solomon "Wisdom," containing the precepts of all virtues. He values the Proverbs of Solomon. Finally, treating of the books which are called apocryphal, he writes that some of them were composed in his age by certain heretics.' " Thus Eusebius. We conclude with the words of Johannes Trithemius in his book On Ecclesiastical Writers, in which he has the following: "Hegesippus, a Jew by nation, converted to the faith of Christ, shone forth admirably in the Church of God in doctrine and sanctity: whose feast has obtained a place in the Martyrology together with the other Saints." Concerning another Hegesippus or Josippus, whose books On the Jewish War and On the Destruction of the City of Jerusalem are extant, consult Philippe Labbe's Historical Dissertation on Ecclesiastical Writers and others there cited. Peter de Natalibus in book 4 of his Catalogue, chapter 36, wrongly ascribes all things to one and the same Saint Hegesippus.