Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

But it was not Synesius only, and the disciples of the Alexandrian school, who admired Hypatia for her great virtue and learning: never woman was more caressed by the public, and yet never woman had a more unspotted character. She was held as an oracle for her wisdom, which made her consulted by the magistrates in all important cases; and this frequently drew her among the greatest concourse of men, without the least censure of her manners. "On account of the confidence and authority," says Socrates, "which she had acquired by her learning, she sometimes came to the judges with singular modesty. Nor was she any thing abashed to appear thus among a crowd of men; for all persons, by reason of her extraor dinary discretion, did at the same time both reverence and admire her." The same is confirmed by Nicephorus, and other authors, whom we have already cited. Damascius and Suidas relate, that the governors and magistrates of Alexandria regularly visited her, and paid their court to her; and, when Nicephorus intended to pass the highest compliment on the princess Eudocia, he thought he could. not do it better, than by calling her " another Hypatia."

While Hypatia thus reigned the brightest ornament of' Alexandria, Orestes was governor of the same place for the emperor Theodosius, and Cyril bishop or patriarch. Orestes, having had a liberal education, admired Hypatia, and frequently consulted her. This created an intimacy between them that was highly displeasing to Cyril, who had a great aversion to Orestes: which intimacy, as it is supposed, had like to have proved fatal to Orestes, as we may collect from the following account of Socrates. "Certain of the Monks," says he, "living in the Nitrian mountains, leaving their monasteries to the number of about five hundred, flocked to the city, and spied the governor going abroad in his chariot: whereupou approaching, they called him by the names of Sacrificer and Heathen, using many other scandalous expressions. The governor, suspecting that this was a trick played him by Cyril, cried out that he was a Christian; and that he had been baptized at Constantinople by bishop Atticus. But the monks giving no heed to what he said, one of them, called Ammonius, threw a stone at Orestes, which struck him on the head; and being all covered with blood from his wounds, his guards, a few excepted, fled, some one way and some another, hiding themselves in the crowd, lest they should

be stoned to death. In the mean while, the people of Alexandria ran to defend their governor against the monks, and putting the rest to flight, brought Ammonius, whom they apprehended, to Orestes; who, as the laws prescribed, put him publicly to the torture, and racked him till he expired."

But though Orestes escaped with his life, Hypatia afterwards fell a sacrifice. This lady, as we have observed, was profoundly respected by Orestes, who much frequented and consulted her: "for which reason," says Socrates, "she was not a little traduced among the Christian multitude, as if she obstructed a reconciliation between Cyril and Orestes. This occasioned certain enthusiasts, headed by one Peter a lecturer, to enter into a conspiracy against her; who watching an opportunity, when she was returning home from some place, first dragged her out of her chair; then hurried her to the church called Cæsars; and, stripping her naked, killed her with tiles. After this, they tore her to pieces; and, carrying her limbs to a place called Cinaron, there burnt them to ashes." Cave endeavours to remove the imputation of this horrid murder from Cyril, thinking him too honest a man to have had any hand in it; and lays it upon the Alexandrian mob in general, whom he calls "levissimum hominum genus," "a very trifling inconstant people." But though Cyril should be allowed to have been neither the perpetrator, nor even the contriver of it, others have thought that he did not discountenance it in the manner he ought to have done and was so far from blaming the outrage committed by the Nitrian monks upon the governor Orestes, that "he afterwards. received the dead body of Ammonius, whom Orestes had punished with the rack; made a panegyric upon him, in the church where he was laid, in which he extolled his courage and constancy, as one that had contended for the truth; and, changing his name to Thaumasius, or the Admirable, ordered him to be considered as a martyr. However, continues Socrates, the wiser sort of Christians did not approve the zeal which Cyril shewed on this man's behalf; being convinced, that Ammonius had justly suffered for his desperate attempt." We learn from the same historian, that the death of Hypatia happened in March, in the 10th year of Honorius's, and the 6th of Theodosius's, consulship; that is, about A. D. 415.'

1 Socrates, VII. Eccl. Hist, c. 15.-Fabricii Bibl. Græc.-Moreri.-Saxii Onomasticon.

tian æra.

HYPERIDES, an Athenian orator, disciple of Plato and Isocrates, flourished about 335 years before the ChrisHe was a sincere patriot, and so strenuous a lover of justice and liberty, that he did not hesitate to accuse his friend Demosthenes of receiving money from Harpalus, and actually drove him into banishment. They were afterwards reconciled, and perished about the same time. When the Athenians were beaten at Cranon, he was dragged out of the temple of Ceres, and delivered up to Antipater. He died about 322. He published many of bis orations, of which one only is extant, and that in some degree dubious. It stands the 17th among those of Demosthenes. There are also some fragments. His style of eloquence has been variously estimated by the critics of his own country.

HYPERIUS (Gerard Andrew), a celebrated Lutheran divine and professor of divinity, was born at Ypres in Flanders, whence he took his name, May 16, 1511. His father, who was a civilian, and had sent him to study at various places, when near his death in 1528, removed him to Paris, where he studied philosophy for three years, in the college of Calvi; and after he had taken a journey to Ypres, he returned to Paris in 1532, and studied divinity there till 1535. He went afterwards to Louvain, and then he travelled through several provinces of the Low-Countries and of Germany; which rendered ineffectual the pains his friends had taken to procure him a living without his knowledge; for as soon as it was represented to Caron dilet, archbishop of Palermo and chancellor to the emperor, that he had travelled in Germany, this rendered him so much suspected of heresy, that he was obliged to think of a sanctuary. He went into England, and lived about four years with an English nobleman, Charles lord Mountjoy, who was a lover of learning, and settled a handsome pension on him. He crossed the sea again in 1541, and designed to visit the university of Strasburg, and particularly to see Bucer, who made that university very famous. But as he passed through the country of Hesse, he met at Marpurg with a professor of divinity, named Geldenhaur, who was one of his friends, and who, in order to keep him there, gave him hopes of some employment in the university of that city. He ac

'Saxii Onomasticon.

cordingly settled there, and soon after succeeded his friend, who died in January 1542. He continued in that employment until his death at Marpurg, February the 1st, 1564. He was author of numerous works, some of which were published by himself, and the rest were published after his death. They consist of "Commentaries on the Scriptures;" "Theological Dissertations;" "Controversial Tracts;" treatises in rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, optics, natural philosophy, &c. Several of these, enumerated by Ames and Herbert, were translated into English, and published here in the sixteenth century. Hyperius had a very clear head, and a very happy talent in conveying instruction. He was meek and polite in conversation, and delighted in social convivial intercourse, possessed true wit and good sense, and added to those qualities a high degree of virtue and zeal.'

HYPSICLES, of Alexandria, a disciple of Isidorus, flourished under M. Aurelius, and Lucius Verus, in the second century. He has been supposed to be the author of a certain work called "Anaphoricus," or a book of ascensions, which was written in opposition to the doctrines of some astronomer. It was published in Greek, with the Latin version of Mentelius, and in conjunction with the Optics of Heliodorus, at Paris, in 1680, 4to. Vossius, in his book" de Scientiis Mathematicis," has erroneously supposed him to have lived at a much earlier period. '

1 Gen. Dict.—Melchior Adam.-Dupin.—Foppen Bibl, Belg.—Fuller's Abel Redivivus. Saxii Onomast.

Fabric. Bibl. Græc.-Saxii Onomast.

J.

JAAPHAR EBN THOPHAIL, an Arabian philosopher, was contemporary with Averroes, who died about the year 1198. He composed a philosophical romance, entitled "The Life or History of Hai Ebn Yokdhan:" in which he endeavours to demonstrate, how a man may, by the mere light of nature, attain the knowledge of things natural and supernatural; particularly the knowledge of God, and the affairs of another life. He lived at Seville in Spain, as appears from one or two passages in this work, and was famous for his medical skill, and for his knowledge of the Peripatetic philosophy, of which this work exhibits a favourable specimen, as it was taught among the Saracens. He wrote some other pieces, which are not come to our hands; but, that this was well received in the East, appears from its having been translated by R. Moses Narbonensis, into Hebrew, and illustrated with a large commentary. It was published in 1671, with an accurate Latin version, by Mr. Edward Pococke, son of Dr. Pococke, professor of the Oriental languages at Oxford; and, in 1708, an English translation of it from the Arabic was given by Simon Ockley, soon after Arabic professor at Cambridge. It is written with great elegance of language, and vigour of imagination.'

JABLONOWSKY (JOSEPH ALEXANDER VON), a Polish prince, devoted himself chiefly to the sciences, and, for the sake of improvement, frequently visited Germany and France. When the troubles broke out in Poland he resigned his senatorial dignity, left the country, and took up his residence at Leipsic, where he distinguished himself not only as a friend and protector of science, but as a man of great literary acquirements. He founded a society which was named after himself, and assigned a liberal sum for the purpose of distributing premiums to the authors of

1 Moreri.-Brucker.

« VorigeDoorgaan »