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Leader (1850-1860), 2nd September 1854, Edition Country of 2, Page 19

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      : Hippolytus And His Age. Hippolytus And...

      and Mosheim , must be aware that the six bishops of the towns and districts in the immediate neighbourhood of Rome formed , even in the second century , part of what was then called the Chtirch of Eome . They were integral portions of her presbytery , and took part in the election of her bishop , and in the important functions of ecclesiastical discipline and administration . One of those suburban bishops was tlie Bishop of Portus , the new harbour of the ; Tiber , opposite to Ostia , formed by Trajan . Hippolytus , in almost all the ancient -accounts respecting him , bears the title of Episcopus P & rtuensis : and we shall Bee later that there never was any other tradition about him . I will only say here , that his celebrated statue in the Vatican Library , found in 1 he year 1551 , in the very ancient cemetery near Home , descr ibed ( about the year 400 ) b y - Prudentius as the place of the burial of Hippolytus , the Bishop of Portus near Ostia , is sufficient to prove him to have been that bishop : far he is represented sitting on the episcopal chair or cathedra , and the Paschal cycle inscribed on the chair is a Western Roman one . " But the book before us does not speak less clearly upon this subject . Without entering here into the detail of the curious contents of the ninth Dook , I will only refer to the

      numerous passages in it where the author speaks of himself , in the singular , as of an influential and active member of the Roman clergy ; and he uses the word ' we' in acts of ecclesiastical authority exercised by the clergy as a body . Now though Origen paid a short visit to Home about that time , when he was very young , he could never have acted that part or used that language , being simply a visitor from an Eastern church , if lie had been at Rome under Ciillistus , which he was not . " Our first argument evidently excludes Cains , as much as the second does anyone who was not a Roman clergyman at the time . That learned presbyter of the Church of Rome was indeed , like Hippolytus , a disciple of Irenasus ; and another work of our author , and one -which decides the authorship of a third , was ascribed in early times to Caius . But never was any work on the general history of heresies said to have been written by this Roman presbyter . . " Now an ordinary reader , finding so considerable a- \ vork assigned confidently to Origen , might suppose that some book under that title was really ascribed to the learned

      Alexandrian by some at least of the many ancient writers who treat of his literary achievements ; yet there is not the slightest record that Origen ever wrote a work under any like title . , ' . ' But perhaps it may be the . same with ilippoly tus , whose station and history seem alone to £ gree with cxxtbook ? On the contrary , a-book of exactly . the same title is ascribed almost universally to him , the Roman presbyter , and Bishop of Portus near Ostia . : " Eusebhis ( Hi . E . 22 ) , speaking of Hippolytus , the celebrated author of the ' Chronological Annals , \ yhich go down . to the first year of . Alexander Severus' ( 222 ) , and of the ' Paschal / 'Cycle , - ? , ^ hich be gins from the first y ear of that reign , mentions , amongst his works , that 'Against all / tJie Heresies ' , ( rrpbs TrdfraS . ras mp « ms ) . Jerome does the saifte , which most be considered in this case as an independent testimony ' ; for he gives the titles of some works not mentioned by Eusebius . Epiphahius ( itser / xi . ' c . 33 ^ cites the nameof Hippolytus , with those of Clemens of Alexandria and of Ireriaeus , as thb prhicipal ' authors who had refuted the Valentiriian heresies , the treaties on which occupies so prominent a part-in the hook before us .

      " Finally , the editor of the Ghronicoii Paschale , of tile seventh century , quotes in the introduction to his compilation ( completed by Mai ' s discoveries ) , after the letter of Peter Bishop of Alexandria ( who suffered martyrdom in 311 ) , on the Paschal time , and another of Athanasius on the same subject , a passage from the work ' of Hippolytus , the witness of the truth , the Bishop of Portus near Eome , Against all the Heresies ( jrpbs iracras Tag alpcaeis ovtrrayfia ) , ' about the heresy of the Quartodecimani ; arid I shall ¦ prove in my nextletter , that this passage must have existed in our -work , but that our present text gives as only ari extract in this as in several other places . ' " We may sum up the arguments brought forward , hitherto in a few words . The book cannothave beenwritten by Origen , nor even by Caius the presbyter , for it is written by a bishop : besides nobody ever attributed either to the Alexandrian or to the Roman Presbyter a "book : with a like title . On the other hand , such a book is ascribed by the hi ghest authorities to Hippolytus , Bishop of Portus , presbyter of the Church of Rome ^ Who lived and wrote about 220 , as the ' Paschal Cycle ' and his statue expressly state . " As a contribution to the ? ' divorce'' controversy / , we may add the follows

      ing extracts from one of M . Bunsen ' s chapters on the social life of the ¦ early Christians : " The La \ v of Diyorceis part of the Law of IMarriage , and onglit , in Christian states , to bo in unison with Christian principles . W « have seen what these principles wore in early Christianity : the Gospel and the Epistles show what they ought to be . The Latin Church , seduced by St . Augustine ' s sentimentality and utter want of common sense in points of law , has cut the knot by prohibiting divorce altogether , although such a prohibition , is in glaring contradiction with the clear precept of Christ , with the doctrine of the Apostles , and with tho discipline arid practice of the ancient Church . The consequence of this unbelieving discipline has been , that in exclusively Roman Catholic states marriage has become to be considered as divorce . If you will make tho marriage tie independent of its moral basis , tho . sanctity of the marriage life , you destroy what you intend to strengthen * Now the principles and germs of Protestant legislation in the sixteenth century were right , and identical over the whole of Europe . They may be ^ reduced to tho following formula . Marriage is in dissoluble except by death : death ia natural or civil ; civil death is incurred by adultery , and by pertinacious , wilful desertion , when well established . This principle is proclaimed

      by the Reformation in England , and by all ecclesiastical ordinances of reformed governments on the Continent . But this germ was nowhere fully and consistently developed . In England tho hierarchical roaction under James tho First ( which commenced under Elizabeth , and was not broken up by the monarchical reform of 1688 and tho following years ) produced ono of the most glaring contradictions in principle and praotice whioh the history of legislation exhibits . Tlio Protestant principlo , as to nUultory ( on the part of tho wife ) , -was maintained in acts of the highest legislative authority , but denied in tlio courts of justice These courts judged according to the mediravnl canon law , which admits of no divorce Thus , by strict law , separation alone could bo pronounced : tho dissolution of the matrimonial tic required nn Act of Parliament ( a privileyuun in the classical sense of tho town ); nnd divorce thus become , ub it has well boon said , the privilogo of the aristocracy . Tho principlo of civil death , as the consequence of portinuoion » , Wilful desertion j wns entiroly lost sight of in courts of law , and not even theoretically developed in works on jurisprudence . Thus , the middle and lower classes had no redicsH in ' cither case , and tlio lowest retained tho old Briton ( not Saxon ) custom of legalising tho dissolution of marriage , in case of tho infidelity of tlio woman , by a fictitious sale , which has given vise to so many nbaurd fables . Tho only counterpoise to tho pornicioua consequonccs which ensued was tho sound moral state of tho middle clnssos , raised by tho Puritan movement of the miildlo of tho seventeenth contury , and confirmed by tlio moral sottlemcut of tho constitutional monarchy in 1 G 88 .

      " Every ono jb now convinced that a reform is necessary , nnd will soon take place , because tlio public mind recoils from tho luxfty of tho principles of the hist century , and bocnuso the sjatom of the novontconth oontury in losinc ground daily , Ignonmoo of tho ancient Church low , and roucUonavy nvoraion to tho pvinoiplo of murriHgo by civil contract ( as it oxiated in tlio onrly Church ) , morcly because that rirlnoiplo whb ro-CHtublwhod by tho Code Napoleon —" those , and not popular licentiousness , » tnnd in tho way of cflicient reform . JIany governments seem to havo still to luurn tlmti l ' rotoatiuit princes cannot iiid Cliriatinnitj . as thoir itneoators wera cnllcd to do threo hundred years ago by diotatoriul acts , much luss by tho aid of tho police . Tho nuptinl bancdiction ( lil < o confirmation ) \ a fitill considered by jurists of European reputation and courb thoologiuTiB to bo more Biuiotitlcd and more sure of respeot yvhon imposed b y a police law , than when freely required by tho purtion . Every 0110 , not ns ignorant or ancient Ohurcli law nu arc some prejudiced and numnv-mhulcd men , is aware that matrimony originates in tho wolUconmidorod mutual connont of tho two pnrtios when qunhlUad to form an opinion , thut Is to H « y , boing of » go ; umUlint its consummation , tho natural consoivuonco of that consent , constHuIch tho wivwtory , tlio « suonunontuni' in marr nco , oven according to tlio more approved theory of tho Romim Catholic canoniats . The civil contnwb , as woll » s tho roligiout * coroinony . ratiiiea tho plodgo : tho ono ensures its legal consequences , the 1 othor hullowa it in tho lace of tho congregation , by pniyor mid moral admonition . Ino State has nothing to do with the aucond , whon once the prhioiplo of intolotftaoo an 4 ktnto-religion js ubandomxl . It cannot therefore admit of a religious ceremony ,

      substituted for the civil law of the land , having a civil effect . Christianity itself can exnecfc little or no blessing from an act enforced by the law in order to ensure civil consequences- in France experience shows that the respect attaching to the religious ceremony is in an inverse ratio to the police compulsion . The same results have , as before observed , ensued hi Fn < r land since Peel ' s legislation . . ' 5 " * * * * # * " Here again , according to all appearances , England will take the lead , next year perhaps and on principles which every friend of Protestant Christianity and of humanity must hail with thankfulness . These indeed can be no other than those of the Gospel . Toe sequel -will be , that the Apostolical practice will be re-established as Christian law , as more or less correctly formiilised by our reformers . There is only one point on which any doubt cant exist . According to St . Paul ' s advice ( for he lays down no rule , except where he gives it as a word of the Lord' ) , as interpreted and applied by the ancient Church , the wife ought under no circumstances to sue for the dissolution of the matrimonial tie , consequently not even on account of the infidelity of the husband . The universal feeling in the Christian world is unimstakeably in favour of man and woman enjoying a perfectly equal position , ia a moral point of view , and every apparent deviation from this principle will be very unpopular with the most respectable portion of socictv . But the mifiat-. inn inr th * . I ' po-lstaf ™ + ~

      consider is , whether this fceling would be well applied to the law of divorce , or whether St . Paul ' s advice , and the undoubted use of the ancient Church ( attested even by the Greek canons ) , be not founded upon an eternally true appreciation of human nature ? So long as woman alone can bring forth children , so long can the highest trust of society , namely the securing the paternity , be imposed onl y -upon woman . Alan cannot commit adultery in the strict sense ( corrupted by St . Augustine in the western Church ) , because he cannot falsify bis paternity . He may cause another ' s wife to commit adultery j in which case the complaint lies with the injured husband . The question is , whether his own wife Is to have a right of claiming more than what she certainly ought to have , the right of separation-a form which continental legislation has foolishly rejected as papistic . No lawyer who knows the history of canon law will maintain that the form of temporary separation is of papistic origin , and every practical observer of the effects of such separation will acknowledge its expediency . " ;

      September 2, 1854.] The Leader. 835

      September 2 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 835

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      We Should Do Oiirutmpst To Encourage The...

      we should do oiirutmpst to encourage the Beailtiful , foi the Useful ericouragea " . itself . r-QOETHE .

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      ¦ ¦ - . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ ' ' . ' .. ¦ ¦ ¦ ' . '¦ ¦ ' ¦ '¦ ' ' ¦ ' - . " '¦ ¦ ¦ ' - ¦¦ ' ; : ; ' Jiio .. V , - ¦ ' ¦ ; ' ¦ : ' . ¦ ;;; • ' ; ¦ ¦ ; ' ;¦ ¦ . " • : Augusfc 5 , 18—MoKXHS have passed away * and what is the result ? It is not only that I . was too sanguine , not onl y that-t had indulged in spleiiiiicl dreams , which I have utterly failed to realise , but I am like one fighting with the air . If I wring the truth—* ny own truth— -from my heart of hearts , it is not as a clergyman that I can deliver it . I tried , as I said , to argue from ail hypotiesisi . I told my congregation that if they Relieved in Ghristianity they must show their faith by theirwprks / The doctrines which they professed naeant nothing at all unless they -were exemplified and vitalised , so to speak ^ in practice , But it has been , a vain attempt . I find that to preach , social truths i 3 regaraed as a profanation of the pulpit . I was very much struck , the other day , by a visit paid me by a friend

      whom I had not seen Since he had taken orders . He wa ^ s strangely altered . At college he lad areputation for genius , rather than for csleverness * but was , witlial , atrociously idle ; He had no ambition , and the wort necessary to obtain an M . A . ' s degree was child ' s play . He had abundance of monej--, and could , therefore , indulge his whims . He had no vices ; did not seem to care even for the . ordinary amusements of the place ; scarcel y sought companionship , and was what 1 may call an " allowed" man . No one vfaa surprised to hear of his committing what in other people would have been denouaced as extravagant or absurd . Well , I had not seen him for several years , when , the other day , he called upon me . He was dressed like a Roman Catholic priest ,. and wore , over everything else , a Carmelite cloak . He said at once , that he had come to talk to me about my soul . He had heard , with intense pain , that having once taken orders I had departed from liiyvows . Undjsguisedly he told me that if a soul was lost which my words

      nought have been the instrument of saving , the blood of that soul was on my head . He told me , that though externally an infidel , he did not think that t was so at lieart , and X am convinced he believed it to be his duty to spare no effort for my conversion . He did not persuade we , but I could not fail of being intensely struck with his earnestness . Every word was full of lifeeach one seemed to burst like flame from a hidden fire of love and sympathy . Sometimes words fall loosely , as if they had no connexion with the man vrho nttera them . In tins case every sentence was a portion of the living heart . In other respects , too , ' s position was remarkable . He ia one of a new sect in the Established Church . In a woi-d , he ia a High Churchman preaching evangelical doctrine . He pleases neither party . He ia decried , on one side , as a Methodist , on the other , as a Roman Catholic . Probably , therefore , he is in the right—for the Evangelicals appear to have the doctrine without the system , and tho High Churchmen tho system vrithout the doctrine .

      I often tried to find out what people meant when they said that they believed in a future world . I never could put the belief to a test , except on a death-l ) cd , and tliere I have seen men writhing in spiritual agony r JChey had been taught tho doctrine as children , had repeated it , poxrotUko , as men , and it came back to them , hideously exaggerated by fear and delirium , on their death-beds . When I told my friend that I did not think there was much practical faith in Christianity in this day in nny class , ha admitted tho fact , and pointed to Christ ' s saying , that Many aro called , "but few chosen . ' ' If this is tho truth , let us not lunch from it . Xioavon ia reserved for a few . Tho rest arc doomed to eternal torture .

      August 10 , 18- ^ . I am not writing in favour of tho Roman Catholic Church , but I think that , if tho OUurch of England aimed at worldly sueouss , aha would do well to follow the example of Rome . There aro multitudes of men and women for whom tho Church of England finds no occupation . They neither rule nor serve . Look , for one moment , at tho position of women . It religion was not made for women , it is very certain that they were made lor religion . With them life ia synonymous with love , tfid a woman couso to venerate , esteem , and love , and you destroy the root oi' her existence . As well toac tho ivy from tho oak , and bid ifc grow without support . Let » uo take fttt

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 2, 1854, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02091854/page/19/