The chief source for the little we know about Hypatia is the account given by Socrates (_Hist. ecclesiastica_, vii. 15). She is the subject of an epigram by Palladas in the Greek Anthology (ix. 400). See Fabricius, _Bibliotheca Graeca_ (ed. Harles), ix. 187; John Toland, _Tetradymus_ (1720); R. Hoche in _Philologus_ (1860), xv. 435; monographs by Stephan Wolf (Czernowitz, 1879), H. Ligier (Dijon, 1880) and W. A. Meyer (Heidelberg, 1885), who devotes attention to the relation of Hypatia to the chief representatives of Neoplatonism; J. B. Bury, _Hist. of the Later Roman Empire_ (1889), i. 208,317; A. Güldenpenning, _Geschichte des oströmischen Reiches unter Arcadius und Theodosius II._ (Halle, 1885), p. 230; Wetzer and Welte, _Kirchenlexikon_, vi. (1889), from a Catholic standpoint. The story of Hypatia also forms the basis of the well-known historical romance by Charles Kingsley (1853). Entry: HYPATIA
The hydrometer is said by Synesius Cyreneus in his fifth letter to have been invented by Hypatia at Alexandria,[1] but appears to have been neglected until it was reinvented by Robert Boyle, whose "New Essay Instrument," as described in the _Phil. Trans._ for June 1675, differs in no essential particular from Nicholson's hydrometer. This instrument was devised for the purpose of detecting counterfeit coin, especially guineas and half-guineas. In the first section of the paper (_Phil. Trans._ No. 115, p. 329) the author refers to a glass instrument exhibited by himself many years before, and "consisting of a bubble furnished with a long and slender stem, which was to be put into several liquors, to compare and estimate their specific gravities." This seems to be the first reference to the hydrometer in modern times. Entry: HYDROMETER
The Ptolemaic system was, in a geometrical sense, defensible; it harmonized fairly well with appearances, and physical reasonings had not then been extended to the heavens. To the ignorant it was recommended by its conformity to crude common sense; to the learned, by the wealth of ingenuity expended in bringing it to perfection. The _Almagest_ was the consummation of Greek astronomy. Ptolemy had no successor; he found only commentators, among the more noteworthy of whom were Theon of Alexandria (fl. A.D. 400) and his daughter Hypatia (370-415). With the capture of Alexandria by Omar in 641, the last glimmer of its scientific light became extinct, to be rekindled, a century and a half later, on the banks of the Tigris. The first Arabic translation of the _Almagest_ was made by order of Harun al-Rashid about the year 800; others followed, and the Caliph al-Mamun built in 829 a grand observatory at Bagdad. Here Albumazar (805-885) watched the skies and cast horoscopes; here Tobit ben Korra (836-901) developed his long unquestioned, yet misleading theory of the "trepidation" of the equinoxes; Abd-ar-rahman al-Suf (903-986) revised at first hand the catalogue of Ptolemy;[13] and Abulwefa (939-998), like al-Sufi, a native of Persia, made continuous planetary observations, but did not (as alleged by L. Sédillot) anticipate Tycho Brahe's discovery of the moon's variation. Ibn Junis (c. 950-1008), although the scene of his activity was in Egypt, falls into line with the astronomers of Bagdad. He compiled the Hakimite Tables of the planets, and observed at Cairo, in 977 and 978, two solar eclipses which, as being the first recorded with scientific accuracy,[14] were made available in fixing the amount of lunar acceleration. Nasir ud-din (1201-1274) drew up the Ilkhanic Tables, and determined the constant of precession at 51". He directed an observatory established by Hulagu Khan (d. 1265) at Maraga in Persia, and equipped with a mural quadrant of 12 ft. radius, besides altitude and azimuth instruments. Ulugh Beg (1394-1449), a grandson of Tamerlane, was the illustrious personification of Tatar astronomy. He founded about 1420 a splendid observatory at Samarkand, in which he re-determined nearly all Ptolemy's stars, while the Tables published by him held the primacy for two centuries.[15] Entry: A
HYDROMECHANICS HYTHE HYDROMEDUSAE I HYDROMETER IAMBIC HYDROPATHY IAMBLICHUS (Greek philosopher) HYDROPHOBIA IAMBLICHUS (Greek romance writer) HYDROSPHERE IANNINA HYDROSTATICS IAPETUS HYDROXYLAMINE IAPYDES HYDROZOA IATROCHEMISTRY HYENA IAZYGES HYÈRES IBADAN HYGIEIA IBAGUÉ HYGIENE IBARRA HYGINUS (eighth pope) IBERIANS HYGINUS (Latin writer) IBEX HYGINUS, GAIUS JULIUS IBIS HYGROMETER IBLIS HYKSOS IBN 'ABD RABBIHI HYLAS IBN 'ARABI HYLOZOISM IBN ATHIR HYMEN IBN BATUTA HYMENOPTERA IBN DURAID HYMETTUS IBN FARADI HYMNS IBN FARID HYPAETHROS IBN GABIROL HYPALLAGE IBN HAUKAL HYPATIA IBN HAZM HYPERBATON IBN HISHAM HYPERBOLA IBN ISHAQ HYPERBOLE IBN JUBAIR HYPERBOREANS IBN KHALDUN HYPEREIDES IBN KHALLIKAN HYPERION IBN QUTAIBA HYPERSTHENE IBN SA'D HYPERTROPHY IBN TIBBON HYPNOTISM IBN TUFAIL HYPOCAUST IBN USAIBI'A HYPOCHONDRIASIS IBO HYPOCRISY IBRAHIM AL-MAUSILI HYPOSTASIS IBRAHIM PASHA HYPOSTYLE IBSEN, HENRIK HYPOSULPHITE OF SODA IBYCUS HYPOTHEC ICA HYPOTHESIS ICE HYPOTRACHELIUM ICEBERG HYPSOMETER ICELAND HYRACOIDEA ICELAND MOSS HYRCANIA ICE-PLANT HYRCANUS ICE-YACHTING HYSSOP I-CH'ANG HYSTASPES ICHNEUMON HYSTERESIS ICHNEUMON-FLY HYSTERIA ICHNOGRAPHY HYSTERON-PROTERON Entry: HYDROMECHANICS
CYRIL (376-444), bishop of Alexandria, a more distinguished father of the church than his namesake of Jerusalem, was born in 376, and died in 444. Becoming patriarch of Alexandria about 412, he soon made himself known by the violence of his zeal against Jews, pagans and heretics or supposed heretics alike. He had hardly entered upon his office when he closed all the churches of the Novatians and seized their ecclesiastical effects. He assailed the Jewish synagogues with an armed force, drove the Jews in thousands from the city, and exposed their houses and property to pillage. The prefect of Egypt, Orestes, who endeavoured to withstand his furious zeal, was in turn denounced himself, and had difficulty in maintaining his ground against the fury of the Christian multitude. It was during one of the violent commotions kindled by the strifes of these parties in Alexandria that the illustrious Hypatia, famed for her beauty and her eloquent advocacy of the Neo-Platonic philosophy in opposition to Christianity, was murdered. Her murder has been attributed to the direct instigation of the patriarch himself; but this charge is held to be baseless by others, although there can be no doubt that "the perpetrators were officers of his church," and undoubtedly drew encouragement from his own violent proceedings. Hypatia was a friend of Orestes, and the hostility that existed betwixt the prefect and the patriarch overflowed towards her, and undoubtedly led to her destruction. Entry: CYRIL
By the edict of Milan (A.D. 313), Constantine, with the agreement of his colleague Licinius, acknowledged Christianity as having at least equal rights with other religions, and when he gained sole power he wrote to all his subjects advising them, like him, to become Christians (A.D. 324). The Egyptian Church, hitherto free from schism, was now divided by a fierce controversy, in which we see two Greek parties, rather than a Greek and an Egyptian, in conflict. The council of Nicaea was called together (A.D. 325) to determine between the Orthodox and the party of the Alexandrian presbyter Arius. At that council the native Egyptian bishops were chiefly remarkable for their manly protest against enforcing celibacy on the clergy. The most conspicuous controversialist on the Orthodox side was the young Alexandrian deacon Athanasius, who returned home to be made archbishop of Alexandria (A.D. 326). After being four times expelled by the Arians, and once by the emperor Julian, he died, A.D. 373, at the moment when an Arian persecution began. So large a proportion of the population had taken religious vows that under Valens it became necessary to abolish the privilege of monks which exempted them from military service. The reign of Theodosius I. witnessed the overthrow of Arianism, and this was followed by the suppression of Paganism, against which a final edict was promulgated A.D. 390. In Egypt, the year before, the temple of Serapis at Alexandria had been captured after much bloodshed by the Christian mob and turned into a church. Generally the Coptic Christians were content to build their churches within the ancient temples, plastering over or effacing the sculptures which were nearest to the ground and in the way of the worshippers. They do not seem to have been very zealous in the work of destruction; the native religion was already dead and they had no fear of it. The prosperity of the church was the sign of its decay, and before long we find persecution and injustice disgracing the seat of Athanasius. Cyril, the patriarch of Alexandria (A.D. 415), expelled the Jews from the capital with the aid of the mob, and by the murder of the beautiful philosopher Hypatia marked the lowest depth to which ignorant fanaticism could descend. A schism now produced lengthened civil war and alienated Egypt from the empire. The distinction between religion and politics seemed to be lost, and the government grew weaker and weaker. The system of local government by citizens had now entirely disappeared. Offices, with new Byzantine names, were now almost hereditary in the wealthy land-owning families. The Greek rulers of the Orthodox faith were unable to protect the tillers of the soil, and these being of the Monophysite persuasion and having their own church and patriarch, hated the Orthodox patriarch (who from the time of Justinian onwards was identical with the prefect) and all his following. Towards the middle of the 5th century, the Blemmyes, quiet since the reign of Diocletian, recommenced their incursions, and were even joined in them by the Nobatae. These tribes were twice brought to account severely for their misdoings, but not effectually checked. It was in these circumstances that Egypt fell without a conflict when attacked by Chosroës (A.D. 616). After ten years of Persian dominion the success of Heraclius restored Egypt to the empire, and for a time it again received a Greek governor. The Monophysites, who had taken advantage of the Persian occupation, were persecuted and their patriarch expelled. The Arab conquest was welcomed by the native Christians, but with it they ceased to be the Egyptian nation. Their language is still used in their churches, but it is no longer spoken, and its literature, which is wholly ecclesiastical, has been long unproductive. Entry: A
Of all these marvellous incidents very little, by the universal admission of Catholic scholars, has survived the test of modern criticism. That St Catherine actually existed there is, indeed, no evidence to disprove; and it is possible that some of the elements in her legend are due to confusion with the story of Hypatia (q.v.), the neo-platonic philosopher of Alexandria, who was done to death by a Christian mob. To the men of the middle ages, in any case, St Catherine was very real; she was ranked with the fourteen most helpful saints in heaven, and was the constant theme of preachers and of poets. Her festival was celebrated in many places with the utmost splendour, and in certain dioceses in France was a holy day of obligation as late as the beginning of the 17th century. Numberless chapels were dedicated to her, and in nearly all churches her statue was set up, the saint being represented with a wheel, her instrument of torture, and sometimes with a crown and a book. The wheel being her symbol she was the patron saint of wheelwrights and mechanics; as the confounder of heathen sophistry she was invoked by theologians, apologists, preachers and philosophers, and was chosen as the patron saint of the university of Paris; as the most holy and illustrious of Christian virgins she became the tutelary saint of nuns and virgins generally. So late as the 16th century, Bossuet delivered a panegyric upon her, and it was the action of Dom Deforis, the Benedictine editor of his works, in criticizing the accuracy of the data on which this was based, that first discredited the legend. The saint's feast was removed from the Breviary at Paris about this time, and the devotion to St Catherine has since lost its earlier popularity. See Leon Clugnet's article in the _Catholic Encyclopaedia_, vol. iii. (London, 1908). Entry: CATHERINE