The Antipope Who Became a Saint
Not much is known about the life of Hippolytus, an early Christian theologian and scholar, but his writings provide details about the liturgical customs of the Roman Church and the heresies afflicting the Church in the late second and early third centuries. In his Apostolic Tradition, Hippolytus describes the rite of baptism used by the early Church in Rome. His book also provides details concerning the structure of the liturgy, which involved a prayer of thanksgiving, the invocation of the Holy Spirit on the offering, the recitation of Jesus’ words of consecration for the Eucharist, as well as a memorial acclamation. Hippolytus exhorted the faithful to show reverence to the Eucharist and to receive it worthily, not dropping the host or spilling the Precious Blood.
Many of the heresies in the early Church dealt with Jesus’ relationship to the Father. The Church wrestled with discerning the correct terminology to apply to the truth the apostles had passed down: that Jesus is true God and true man. In many cases, it was difficult to determine whether a teaching or theological opinion was truly heretical. The heresy of Modalism blurred the distinctions between Father and Son in the Trinity, to the point where it posited they were actually one person who appeared in different modes.62
Hippolytus wanted Pope Zephyrinus (r. 198–217) to strongly rebuke and condemn the Modalists, and grew upset when the pontiff failed to do so. After Zephyrinus died, the clergy and people of Rome elected the former slave Callistus I (r. 217–222) to succeed him. Hippolytus soon disagreed with the new pope (and his successors) on the issue of absolution and readmittance of Christians who had committed serious sins. Hippolytus was a “rigorist” and believed that those who had greatly sinned should not be absolved or readmitted to communion, despite their genuine contrition and repentance. Callistus, remembering the actions of Christ, embraced a policy of mercy. Hippolytus was so angry at Callistus’s election and decisions that he gathered a group of followers, who elected him pope, and claimed Callistus was unworthy of the office due to his embattled past.63 Hippolytus opened the door to the concept of the “antipope,” a concept that would rear its ugly head throughout Church history. Ultimately, Hippolytus’s schism would last for nineteen years and through three pontificates.64
Maximinus Thrax, a career soldier, was proclaimed emperor by the legions in Germania in 235. Shortly afterward, he turned his attention to the Church, and began a persecution targeting the clergy. Callistus’s successor, Pontian (r. 230–235), and the antipope Hippolytus, were arrested and sent to the mines on the island of Sardinia. Amid the suffering and hardship of the mines, Hippolytus renounced his schism and papal claim. He was then reconciled to the Church by Pontian. Both men ultimately succumbed to the harsh conditions, and when their remains were transported back to Rome for burial, they were both honored as martyrs and saints of the Church. Saint Hippolytus is the first antipope, and the only antipope ever canonized.
The Apologists
The criticism of Roman pagan authors against the Church and her teaching produced one positive effect: it gave rise to the apologists. Apologists were educated Christians who wrote an apologia, a defense of the Faith from the attacks of pagan authors. These early Christian apologists tried to make the teachings of the Church understandable and accessible to the Greco-Roman mind. They worked to refute the false claims of authors like Celsus and Porphyry and convince the emperors to pursue policies of tolerance. They did not write for catechetical purposes nor to present a systematic exposition of all Christian teachings. Rather, they emphasized the existence of one God, the nature of God, the immortality of the soul, and the Christian ideal of holy living.
One of the first apologists was Justin (100–165), a learned philosopher born in Palestine. Justin converted to the Faith at the age of thirty-eight and moved to Rome. There, he opened a school to teach Christian philosophy, free of charge. Justin did not repudiate the Greek philosophy he had previously taught, but now “claimed with power and clarity that he had found in the Christian faith ‘the only sure and profitable philosophy.’”65 Justin studied Scripture and believed that Christ was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. He posited that the Old Testament and Greek philosophy could be used together like “two paths that lead to Christ, to the Logos.”66 Justin was the first intellectual to see history as twofold — sacred and secular, with Christ at the center of all human history.67 He also produced works defending the apostolic faith against heresies, though he is best known for his apologetic work written to Emperor Antonius Pius. In his First Apology, Justin responds to the false charges leveled against Christians by pagan authors and explains the Christian understanding of the Eucharist:
And this food is called among us the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ, our Savior, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh.68
Justin’s deep faith and love of Christ were tested during the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (r. 161–180), when he was arrested and martyred during a persecution of the Church. He is known as Saint Justin Martyr.
Another early apologist was Tertullian of Carthage (163–230), the son of a Roman army centurion. Tertullian, like Justin, converted to the Faith in his thirties. A few years later, Tertullian was ordained a priest. His writings discussed the proper behavior of Christians in a pagan world, defending the Faith from pagan attacks and heresies, and covered various theological topics. Tertullian was the first Christian writer to use the terms “Trinity” and “person” to explain the relationship in the Godhead, writing that God is “one substance consisting of three persons.”69 Tertullian reveled in the apparent paradoxes inherent in the Church’s teachings, such as the fact that God is one yet three, that Christ is man yet God, and that the eternal God could suffer and die. In the mind of Tertullian, these “absurdities” were what made the Faith believable.70 Unlike other apologists, Tertullian had no use for pagan philosophy and did not believe the Faith needed to be reconciled to it, writing, “What indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem?”71 A focus on philosophy, he believed, led to heresies.
In his apologetic works, Tertullian focused on educating the Roman populace about Christians, illustrating that they were no different from any other Romans, apart from their religious beliefs. Christians were not a secret organization bent on the destruction of the Empire but rather “a body knit together by the sense of one belief, united in discipline, bound together by a common hope. We pray, too, for the emperors. … We live with you, eat the same food, wear the same clothing, have the same way of life as you. We live in the same world as you. We sail with you, we serve as soldiers with you, and till the ground and engage in trade.”72 Tertullian informed his pagan readers that persecutions would not eradicate the Christians: “your cruelty serves no purpose. On the contrary, for our community, it is an invitation. We multiply every time one of us is mowed down. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christians.”73 Unfortunately, Tertullian agreed with the Montanist assessment that the Church was too lax in her enforcement of penitential discipline, and joined the heretical group in the year 211. While a Montanist, he even repudiated teachings he had held during his orthodox days, including whether or not Christians could serve in the military. Ultimately, even the Montanists were too lax for Tertullian, so he left them and founded his own group. Although he was an astute defender of the Faith in his early Christian life, Tertullian provides an example to all Christians, especially theologians, about the need for humility and adherence to the Church’s teachings.
The apologist