Hypsistarians

HYPSISTARIANS. - A sect of the 4th century widespread in Cappadocia, but whose existence as late as the 9th century is recalled by Nicephorus, patriarch of Constantinople (Antirrhet. adversus Constantinum Copronymum, 1, 5).

The name derives from the fact that the adherents of the sect claimed to believe in one God, the Most High (τὸν ὕψιστον), perhaps to protest against the Trinitarian faith of Nicaea; hence the name ὑπιστάριοι. Their doctrine was a mixture of Hellenic paganism and Judaism. From the former they took certain idolatrous practices, such as the worship of fire and light, though without sacrifices or idols; from Judaism certain legal observances, such as the sanctification of the Sabbath, and certain precepts concerning food, as also the distinction between pure and impure, while they rejected circumcision.

Identical to them appear to be the Hypsistanoi, of whom St. Gregory of Nyssa speaks (contra Eunomium, 2: PG 45, 482 ff.), and who likewise acknowledged one God only, whom they named the Most High or Pantocrator, but not Father. The Hypsistarians recall in some way the Messalians or Euphemites described by Epiphanius (Haer., 80), the rheosebei whom St. Cyril of Alexandria mentions (De adoratione in spir. et veritate, 3: PG 68, 282), and the Coelicolae of Africa, of whom St. Augustine speaks (Ep., 44, ch. 6, no. 13: PL 33, 180).

Since the information is scanty, the opinions of historians of religion concerning the Hypsistarians do not agree. Thus, while Ullman considers them an eclectic sect combining elements of Judaism and Hellenism, Böhmer on the other hand judges them a remnant of Sabaeism.

Lucchesio Spätling