HEGESIPPUS (fl. A.D. 150-180), early Christian writer, was of Palestinian origin, and lived under the Emperors Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Like Aristo of Pella he belonged to that group of Judaistic Christians which, while keeping the law themselves, did not attempt to impose on others the requirements of circumcision and Sabbath observance. He was the author of a treatise (ὑπομνήματα) in five books dealing with such subjects as Christian literature, the unity of church doctrine, paganism, heresy and Jewish Christianity, fragments of which are found in Eusebius, who obtained much of his information concerning early Palestinian church history and chronology from this source. Hegesippus was also a great traveller, and like many other leaders of his time came to Rome (having visited Corinth on the way) about the middle of the 2nd century. His journeyings impressed him with the idea that the continuity of the church in the cities he visited was a guarantee of its fidelity to apostolic orthodoxy: “in each succession and in every city, the doctrine is in accordance with that which the Law and the Prophets and the Lord [i.e. the Old Testament and the evangelical tradition] proclaim.” To illustrate this opinion he drew up a list of the Roman bishops. Hegesippus is thus a significant figure both for the type of Christianity taught in the circle to which he belonged, and as accentuating the point of view which the church began to assume in the presence of a developing gnosticism.
HEGESIPPUS, the supposed author of a free Latin adaptation of the Jewish War of Josephus under the title De bello Judaico et excidio urbis Hierosolymitanae. The seven books of Josephus are compressed into five, but much has been added from the Antiquities and from the works of Roman historians, while several entirely new speeches are introduced to suit the occasion. Internal evidence shows that the work could not have been written before the 4th century A.D. The author, who is undoubtedly a Christian, describes it in his preface as a kind of revised edition of Josephus. Some authorities attribute it to Ambrose, bishop of Milan (340-397), but there is nothing to settle the authorship definitely. The name Hegesippus itself appears to be a corruption of Josephus, through the stages Ἰώσηπος, Iosippus, Egesippus, Hegesippus, unless it was purposely adopted as reminiscent of Hegesippus, the father of ecclesiastical history (2nd century).
Best edition by C. F. Weber and J. Caesar (1864); authorities in E. Schürer, History of the Jewish People (Eng. trans.), i. 99 seq.; F. Vogel, De Hegesippo, qui dicitur, Josephi interprete (Erlangen, 1881).
HEGIUS [VON HEEK], ALEXANDER (c. 1433-1498), German humanist, so called from his birthplace Heek in Westphalia. In his youth he was a pupil of Thomas à Kempis, at that time canon of the convent of St Agnes at Zwolle. In 1474 he settled down at Deventer in Holland, where he either founded or succeeded to the headship of a school, which became famous for the number of its distinguished alumni. First and foremost of these was Erasmus; others were Hermann von dem Busche, the missionary of humanism, Conrad Goclenius (Gockelen), Conrad Mutianus (Muth von Mudt) and pope Adrian VI. Hegius died at Deventer on the 7th of December 1498. His writings, consisting of short poems, philosophical essays, grammatical notes and letters, were published after his death by his pupil Jacob Faber. They display considerable knowledge of Latin, but less of Greek, on the value of which he strongly insisted. Hegius’s chief claim to be remembered rests not upon his published works, but upon his services in the cause of humanism. He succeeded in abolishing the old-fashioned medieval textbooks and methods of instruction, and led his pupils to the study of the classical authors themselves. His generosity in assisting poor students exhausted a considerable fortune, and at his death he left nothing but his books and clothes.
See D. Reichling, “Beiträge zur Charakteristik des Alex. Hegius,” in the Monatsschrift für Westdeutschland (1877); H. Hamelmann, Opera genealogico-historica (1711); H. A. Erhard, Geschichte des Wiederaufblühens wissenschaftlicher Bildung (1826); C. Krafft and W. Crecelius, “Alexander Hegius und seine Schüler,” from the works of Johannes Butzbach, one of Hegius’s pupils, in Zeitschrift des bergischen Geschichtsvereins, vii. (Bonn, 1871).
HEIBERG, JOHAN LUDVIG (1791-1860), Danish poet and critic, son of the political writer Peter Andreas Heiberg (1758-1841), and of the famous novelist, afterwards the Baroness Gyllembourg-Ehrensvärd, was born at Copenhagen on the 14th of December 1791. In 1800 his father was exiled and settled in Paris, where he was employed in the French foreign office, retiring in 1817 with a pension. His political and satirical writings continued to exercise great influence over his fellow-countrymen. Johan Ludvig Heiberg was taken by K. L. Rahbek and his wife into their house at Bakkehuset. He was educated at the university of Copenhagen, and his first publication, entitled The Theatre for Marionettes (1814), included two romantic dramas. This was followed by Christmas Jokes and New Year’s Tricks (1816), The Initiation of Psyche (1817), and The Prophecy of Tycho Brahé, a satire on the eccentricities of the Romantic writers, especially on the sentimentality of Ingemann. These works attracted attention at a time when Baggesen, Öhlenschläger and Ingemann possessed the popular ear, and were understood at once to be the opening of a great career. In 1817 Heiberg took his degree, and in 1819 went abroad with a grant from government. He proceeded to Paris, and spent the next three years there with his father. In 1822 he published his drama of Nina, and was made professor of the Danish language at the university of Kiel, where he delivered a course of lectures, comparing the Scandinavian mythology as found in the Edda with the poems of Öhlenschläger. These lectures were published in German in 1827.