It would appear that he was in the active exercise of his labours as Bishop of Portus, near Ostia, about 218. Though not a corporate and fortified town (civitas), Portus, as the adjacent harbour of Rome, was a place of considerable importance; and being frequented by foraign merchants and traders as well as seamen, it is probable, as Bunsen suggests, that Hippolytus was specially appointed to preside there with • view to their conversion and instruction, and hews the title we find applied to him of 'Bishop of the Gentiles.' Being • suburban bishop, be was a member of the presbytery of Rome ; and it is deserving of notice that the title 'Eplsoopus Portuensts,' the title given to Hippo lytus by Prudentlus, and that engraved on his etatue, is still always given to one of tho moat eminent meleidaetles of Rome. About 222 Hippolytus was engaged in strong opposition to Callistus, the Bishop of Rome, against whom in his great work he inveighs with the utmost severity. In 235, probably immedistely after the death of Severus, in the persecution of Maximin the Thracian, he was banished with Pentium' to Sardinia. He appears however to have been permitted, perhaps soon after the election of Poutianue to the bishopric of Rome, to retnrn to his see; but, probably on some new charge, he was eventually ordered to be put to death (about 236-6). Tho mode of his martyrdom has been variously stated, but the tradition referred to Prudentius (who flourished 348.405), is that the tyrant, alluding to his name, directed that he should be, like Hippolytus of old, torn to pieces by horses, and that the heathen spectators hastened his death by stabbing him. His remains were removed to the church of St.
Laurence, where Prudeutius saw his sanctuary; and Bunsen conjectures that his statue, which was discovered on this site, was erected on the occasion of the solemn removal of his remain& The character of Hippolytus, as a writer and an occlesiaetic, is thus summed up by Bunsen (' Hippolytus and his Age,' 2nd el, i. 272) : " As a writer Hippolytus possesses neither the elegance of Origeo nor the brilliant originality of Tertialian. His best style comes nearer to that of Clemens of Alexandria, but, unfortunately, ho generally writes either in a very high-flown rhetorical style or in none at all. Tbie ie particularly tho case with the Refutation. His Greek therefore, is not only tainted with Latinisms, but often (unless some of the worst passages are mere loose extracts) without any style in the con struction of the sentences. These defects of style are very naturally the reflex of the defects of his intellect and character. his reasoning
powers cannot be measured with the three men of genius among his contemporaries whom we have mentioned above. But it would be decidedly unjust to judge him either by his philological and meta physical writings, or by his disputes with Cullistus. To appreciate Hippolytus, to understand the epithets of 'most sweet,' and 'most benevolent,' applied to him by a contemporary of Chrysostom, and of ' most eloquent,' which is Jerome 's' expression ; in short, to under stand the unbounded admiration, and almost apostolio nimbus which surrounds his name in later ages, we must contemplate him as the serene, platonic thinker, with his wide heart for the universality of God's love to mankind in Christ, and with his glowing love of liberty, and of the free agency of man, as being the specific organ of the divine Spirit, and the only one congenial to the very nature of God. These are the really diatinguishing features in his character. We find them particularly developed in the 'Confession of Faith,' which forms the elaborate peroration to the great work of his life." The importance of a work professing to be a 'Refutation of all the Heresies' then prevalent (thirty-two being described and 'refuted '), and also the 'Confession of Faith,' or as Dr. Wordsworth prefers to call it, the 'Apology to the Heathen,' written by such a man, will be readily understood to be very great as bearing on the internal history of the Church of the early part of the 3rd century, and still more as setting forth the received doctrines of the Church at the same period —a century earlier than the Council of Nice, and a time of transition both in discipline and doctrine. As respects ite theological sentiments the work of Hippolytus may be regarded as a strong defence of the Johannean doctrine of the Logos—or in other words of the orthodox view of the person of Christ.
The remaining writings of Hippolytus—those contained in the editions of Fabriclus and Gallandius, and which are looked upon as anthentic, though of some only fragments remain, are—' On Christ and Antichrist ; " On the Gifts of the Holy Spirit;' ' Against the Heresy of Noetus ' The Little Labyrinth ; " Against Vero ;' the ' Canon Paschen., a demonstration of the time of Ester;' &c.
The other Ilippolyti, including Ilippolytua a Roman seuator and martyr, one distinguished as Hippolytus of Thebes, and one or two of leaser note, are now generally believed to be merely mythical personage&