CALIXTUS I  ., pope from 217 to 222, was little known before the discovery of the book of the Philosophumena . From this work, which is in part a pamphlet directed against him, we learn that Calixtus was originally a slave and engaged in banking . Falling on evil times, he was brought into collision with the Jews, who denounced him as a Christian and procured his exile to Sardinia . On his return from exile he was pensioned by Pope Victor, and, later, was associated by Pope Zephyrinus in the government of the Roman church . On the death of Zephyrinus (217) he was elected in his place and occupied the papal chair for five years . His theological adversary Hippolytus, the author of the Philosophumena, accused him of having favoured the modalist or Patripassian doctrines both before and after his election . Calixtus, however, condemned Sabellius, the most prominent champion of that system . Hippolytus accused him also of certain relaxations of discipline . It appears that Calixtus reduced the penitential severities applied until his time to those guilty of adultery and other analogous sins . Under Calixtus and his two immediate successors, Hippolytus was the leader of a schismatic group, organized by way of protestagainst the election of Calixtus . Calixtus died in 222, in circumstances obscured by legends . In the time of Constantine the Roman church reckoned him officially among the martyr popes .

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