HYPOCRISY, pretence, or false assumption of a high character, especially in regard to religious belief or practice. The Greek ὑπόκρισις, from which the word is derived through the Old French, meant primarily the acting of a part on the stage, from ὑποκρίνεσθαι, to give an answer, to speak dialogue, play a part on the stage, hence to practice dissimulation.
HYPOSTASIS, in theology, a term frequently occurring in the Trinitarian controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries. According to Irenaeus (i. 5, 4) it was introduced into theology by Gnostic writers, and in earliest ecclesiastical usage appears, as among the Stoics, to have been synonymous with οὐσία. Thus Dionysius of Rome (cf. Routh, Rel. Sacr. iii. 373) condemns the attempt to sever the Godhead into three separate hypostases and three deities, and the Nicene Creed in the anathemas speaks of ὲξ ἑτέρας ὑποστάσεως ἢ οὐσίας. Alongside, however, of this persistent interchange there was a desire to distinguish between the terms, and to confine ὑπόστασις to the Divine persons. This tendency arose in Alexandria, and its progress may be seen in comparing the early and later writings of Athanasius. That writer, in view of the Arian trouble, felt that it was better to speak of οὐσία as “the common undifferentiated substance of Deity,” and ὑπόστασις as “Deity existing in a personal mode, the substance of Deity with certain special properties” (οὐσία μετά τινων ἰδιωμάτων). At the council of Alexandria in 362 the phrase τρεῖς ὑποστάσεις was permitted, and the work of this council was supplemented by Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa in the formula μία οὐσία, τρεῖς ὑποστάσεις or μία οὐσία ἐν τρίσιν ὑποστάσεσιν.
The results arrived at by these Cappadocian fathers were stated in a later age by John of Damascus (De orth. fid. iii. 6), quoted in R. L. Ottley, The Doctrine of the Incarnation, ii. 257.
HYPOSTYLE, in architecture, the term applied to a hall, the flat ceiling of which is supported by columns, as in the Hall of Columns at Karnak. In this case the columns flanking the central avenue are of greater height than those of the side aisles, and this admits of openings in the wall above the smaller columns, through which light is admitted over the aisle roof, through clerestory windows.
HYPOSULPHITE OF SODA, the name originally given to the substance known in chemistry as sodium thiosulphate, Na2S2O3; the earlier name is still commonly used, especially by photographers, who employ this chemical as a fixer. In systematic chemistry, sodium hyposulphite is a salt of hyposulphurous acid, to which Schutzenberger gave the formula H2SO2, but which Bernthsen showed to be H2S2O4. (See [Sulphur].)