Hippolytus and the Roman Church in the Third Century. Communities in Tension Before the Emergence of a Monarch-bishop.

By Allen Brent. (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae. Texts and Studies of Early Christian Life and Language, 31.) Pp. xiii + 614 + 24 plates. Leiden-New York-Cologne: Brill, 1995. Nlg. 250. 90 0410245 0; 0920 623X

This book is marked by immense erudition and a devotion to historical investigation which approaches the heroic. Allan Brent admits his debt to a large number of predecessors, including A. judge, M. Guarducci, M. Richard, P. Nautin, H. Simonetti and J. Frickel, to mention only those of the twentieth century, but he invariably examines the evidence for himself and draws his own conclusions, which lead to a dramatic revision of the conventional picture of the dispute between Hippolytus and Callistus. Hippolytus was not an antipope; he was not even a monarchical bishop; and he was not the author of all the works which go under his name, but rather a syndicate -- `like Cerberus, three gentlemen at once' (pp. 339, 345, 365). The sources upon which Brent draws to establish his conclusions are …