Origen. Moreover,' says he, Alexander, in a letter to Origen, makes mention both of Clement and Pantænus 'as his friends, in this manner: "For this, as you know, 'was the will of God, that the friendship which was begun 'between us, from our ancestors, should not only remain 'inviolable, but also become more firm and fervent: for we 'know those blessed fathers, which have gone before us, 'with whom we shall shortly be; I mean the truly blessed 'Pantænus my lord, and the holy Clement, who was my lord, [or master,] and profitable to me: and if there be any others like them, by whom I came to the knowledge of you, my most excellent lord and brother."

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St. Jerom says, there were extant other letters of Alex'ander written to divers persons.' But Eusebius has taken no particular notice of any, beside those which I have now given an account of.

In another place of his Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius, speaking of the persecution under Decius, and the martyrdom of Fabian, bishop of Rome, and of others at that time, says: And in Palestine Alexander, bishop of the church at Jerusalem, is again brought before the go'vernor's tribunal at Cæsarea for Christ's sake; and having made a second glorious confession, is put into prison, being now venerable for his old age and grey hairs. Having died in prison, after a noble and illustrious con'fession before the governor's tribunal, he was succeeded in the bishopric of Jerusalem by Mazabenes.'

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Epiphanius likewise says, that Alexander suffered martyrdom at Cæsarea.

Dionysius of Alexandria, in a letter to Cornelius bishop of Rome, as we are informed by Eusebius, writes thus of the bishop of Jerusalem: As for blessed Alexander, he was cast into prison, and there made a blessed end.'

Thus we are fully assured of Alexander's martyrdom, and the manner of it: that he did not die by torments, or by the hand of the executioner; but that he expired in prison, where he had been confined for the name of Christ. The letter of Dionysius affords help likewise for settling the time of his death. That letter was written, as Tillemont says, in the reign of Gallus, in the year 252. It is reasonable therefore, as he farther argues, to place the death of Alexander in the year 251, at the end of the reign a Ibid. 1. vi. cap. 39.

P Eus. ibid. 1. vi. cap. 14. p. 216. C. p. 234. B. C.

De Mens. et Pond. num. 18.

• Ο μεν γαρ μακαριος Αλεξανδρος εν φρερα γενόμενος μακαρίως ανεπαύσατο. Eus. ibid. cap. 46. p. 248. A.

Tillemont, as before, p. 321.

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of Decius, and not at the beginning of it, in 249 or 250; for it is not likely that Dionysius should send Cornelius a piece of news that was two or three years old. Basnage likewise, and Ruinart, think that Alexander died in 251, and at the latter end of that year: so that this bishop governed the church of Jerusalem for the space of 39 years.

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We are farther informed, both by Eusebius and St. Jerom, that Clement of Alexandria dedicated to this Alexander a book entitled The Ecclesiastical Canon,' or, Against those that judaized.'

There is yet one thing more to be taken notice of, which is omitted by Jerom: that Alexander erected a library at Jerusalem. Eusebius speaks of it in this manner in his Ecclesiastical History: At that time flourished many ⚫ learned and ecclesiastical men, whose epistles, which they ' wrote to each other, are easy to be found; for they are preserved to our time in the library at Ælia, [Jerusalem,] erected by Alexander bishop of the church in that city, from which also we have collected materials for our pre'sent work:' which shows also, that this library had not been destroyed in any of the persecutions between Alexander's and Eusebius's time.

The meek and gentle spirit of Alexander is commended by Origen, at the beginning of a homily delivered at Jerusalem. You are not, therefore, to expect in us,' says he, what you have in your bishop Alexander: for we acknowledge that he excels us all in the gift of gentleness. Nor do I only commend him for this quality; you have 'all full experience of it, and admire him on that account.

-I have mentioned these things at the beginning, because I know you are ever wont to hear the mild discourses of your most gentle father; whereas the fruit of our plantation has somewhat of roughness in its taste. Nevertheless, by the help of your prayers, it may become • medicinal and salutary.'

" Basn. 251. n. xiii.

sect. 12. Apud Acta Mart. Sincera et Selecta, p. 137.

▾ De Sancto Alexandro,

Eus. ibid. cap. 13. p. 214. C. * De Vir. Ill. cap. 38. Ibid. cap. 20. Nolite ergo in nobis illud requirere, quod in papa Alexandro habetis; fatemur enim quod omnes nos superat in gratia lenitatis. Cujus gratiæ non solus ego prædicator existo, sed vos omnes experti cognoscitis et probatis-Hæc idcirco diximus in prefatione, quia scio vos consuevisse lenissimi patris dulces semper audire sermones. Nostræ vero plantationis arbuscula habet aliquid austeritatis in gustu; quod tamen, orantibus vobis, fiet medicamentum salutare, &c. In libr. Reg. Hom i. in. T. ii. 482. A. Bened.

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From this passage we may conclude, that Alexander was a frequent and an agreeable preacher; though, as Eusebius says in another place, he and Theoctistus attended on Origen as their master. The mild discourses' which his people were always wont to hear,' cannot be understood of private admonitions, but must mean public discourses or homilies, such as that which Origen was now engaged in.

Origen commends Alexander for the mildness of his temper. He himself possessed the same excellent property to a great degree. It is very conspicuous in his homilies, and other works, though he seems not to have known it.

We cannot but now reflect with pleasure and satisfaction upon the merit of this bishop of Jerusalem. His piety, particularly that amiable virtue of humility, is conspicuous in the fragments I have transcribed; and his meekness is celebrated by Origen. If he was not learned, he was however a patron of learning. Nor have we any reason to think him destitute of a competent measure of useful knowledge: he seems to have been a disciple of Pantænus and Clement, under whose instructions he could not fail of making some considerable improvements. He had an intimate friendship with Clement and Origen, two of the most learned men that ever lived: and we cannot but reckon ourselves still indebted to him for his generous protection of Origen, and for his library, and the materials thereby afforded to Eusebius, and in all likelihood to others also. Above all are we obliged to him for his glorious testimony to the truth of the christian religion, and his remarkable example of steadiness in the faith of Christ, of which he made two confessions before heathen magistrates, at above forty years' distance from each other; for the last of which he suffered an imprisonment, where he made a happy end. And certainly the succession of bishops and churches in the land of Judea, where the preaching, miracles, and sufferings of Christ and his first apostles are placed by the evangelists, under so many difficulties and troubles, affords a strong argument for the truth of those great and extraordinary facts, upon which the christian religion is founded.

H. E. 1. vi. cap. 27

CHAP. XXXV.

ST. HIPPOLYTUS.

HIPPOLYTUS flourished, as Cave computes, about the year 220. He is generally called Hippolytus Portuensis, it being now a common opinion that he was a bishop of Portus in Italy, or else of Portus Romanus, otherwise called Adan, or Aden, in Arabia. As I am far from having room for all that might be said upon this article, I shall only produce some authentic testimonies to Hippolytus in ancient authors, and the judgments of some learned moderns; referring such as are desirous of farther information to those who have treated largely of this writer and his works.

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Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastical History, in his account of writers who lived not far from the beginning of the third century, says: At that time flourished many eminent ecclesiastical men, whose epistles, which they wrote to ' each other, are still easy to be found. Among these were Beryllus, bishop of Bostra in Arabia;—and b Hippolytus, also bishop of some other church. Soon after, in another chapter of the same work: At that time Hippo'lytus, beside many other pieces, composed his book about Easter, containing a chronological history of affairs to the 'first year of Alexander, [year of Christ 222,] to which he ' added a canon of sixteen years for regulating the feast of Easter. The rest of his works which have come to our 'knowledge, are such as these: Upon the Six Days Work: Upon those Things which followed the Six Days Work: 'Against Marcion: Upon the Canticles: Upon some Parts of Ezekiel: Concerning Easter: Against all Heresies: ' and many other, which are still extant and in the hands ' of many people.' So far Eusebius.

St. Jerom, in his Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers:

* Steph. Le Moyne, Varia Sacra. Cave, Hist. Lit. P. i. et ii. Du Pin, Bibl. Tillemont, Mem. Ecc. T. iii. P. ii. Fabric. Bibl. Gr. T. v. p. 203, &c. et Hippolyt. Opp. Hamburg. 1716. Oudin, De Script. Ec. T. i. Basnage, Ann. Polit. Ecc. 222. n. vii.-x.

b Ωσαύτως δε και Ιππολυτος έτερας πω και αυτός προετως εκκλησίας, Η. Ε. 1. vi. cap. 20. p. 222. D. c Ibid. cap. 22.

d Hippolytus, cujusdam ecclesiæ episcopus, (nomen quippe urbis scire non potui,) temporumque canones scripsit, usque ad primum annum Alexandri

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Hippolytus, bishop of some church, (for I have not been ' able to learn the name of the city,) wrote a computation of Easter, and Chronicle of the Times, to the first year of 'the emperor Alexander: and invented a cycle of 16 years, which the Greeks call exкaideкaeтηpis, and gave occasion to 'Eusebius's canon of 19 years of the same kind. He wrote some commentaries upon the scriptures, of which I have seen these: Upon the Six Days Work, and upon Exodus, upon the Canticles, upon Genesis, and upon Zechariah; of the Psalms, and upon Isaiah; Of Daniel; Of the Revelation; Of the Proverbs; Of Ecclesiastes; Of Saul and the 'Pythoness; Of Antichrist; Of the Resurrection; Of Easter; f Against all Heresies; and a Discourse [or Conference] in the praise of our Lord and Saviour, in which he intimates his delivering it in the church, when Origen was 'present. In imitation of him, Ambrose, who, as we before said, was converted from the heresy of Marcion to the 'true faith, persuaded Origen to write commentaries upon the scriptures.'

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Fabricius in his notes upon this chapter observes, that St. Jerom is the only person who says that Ambrose was moved by the example of Hippolytus to excite Origen to write so many commentaries upon the scriptures; and thinks thats Eusebius's words, from whom St. Jerom seems to have taken this, ought to be understood of the time, rather than the example of Hippolytus. I would not be positive, because Eusebius's expression is ambiguous; but think that St. Jerom's is one good sense, and not an improbable meaning: That from him' (not from that time) was the rise of Origen's commentaries upon the divine scriptures.' And from divers places of Origen's works appears, that some had written commentaries upon the scriptures before himself. But suppose we translate Eusebius's expression, eg ekeɩve, from that time;' yet the connection seems to afford ground to conclude, that the writings of Hippolytus (of which he had spoken just before) were partly an occasion of Origen's commentaries upon the scriptures.

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imperatoris; et sedecim annorum circulum, quem Græci Ékkaidekαetnρiða vocant, reperit. Hieron. de Vir. Ill. cap. 61.

e Vid. Euseb. de Vit. Const. 1. iv. cap. 34, 35.

Et рoooμliar de laude Domini Salvatoris: in quâ, presente Origene, se loqui in ecclesià significat. In hujus æmulationem Ambrosius, quem de Marcionis hæresi ad veram fidem correctum diximus, cohortatus est Origenem in scripturas commentarios scribere. Hieron. ibid.

8 Εξ εκείνω δε και Ωριγένει των εις τας θειας γραφας υπομνημάτων εγίνετο αρχή, Αμβροσια ες τα μαλιτα παρορμώντος αυτόν, κ. λ. Eus. Η. Ε. l. vi. c. 22.