religion and the secret of failure in Christians about him, to many of
whom Christianity had come by birth rather than personal conviction.
They shared the worldly spirit in its various forms, particularly the
desire for wealth and the luxuries it affords, and for a place in "good
society"--which meant a pagan atmosphere. Thus they were divided in soul
between spiritual goods and worldly pleasures, and were apt to doubt
whether the rewards promised by God to the life of "simplicity" (all
Christ meant by the childlike spirit, including generosity in giving and
forgiving) and self-restraint, were real or not. For while the expected
"end of the age" delayed, persecutions abounded. Such "doubled-souled"
persons, like Mr Facing-both-ways, inclined to say, "The Christian ideal
may be glorious, but is it practicable?" It is this most fatal doubt
which evokes the Shepherd's sternest rebuke; and he meets it with the
ultimate religious appeal, viz. to "the glory of God." He who made man
"to rule over all things under heaven," could He have given behests
beyond man's ability? If only a man "hath the Lord in his heart," he
"shall know that there is nothing easier nor sweeter nor gentler than
these mandates" (_Mand._ xii. 3-4). So in the forefront of the
_Mandates_ stands the secret of all: "First of all believe that there is
one God.... Believe therefore in Him, and fear Him, and fearing Him have
self-mastery. For the fear of the Lord dwelleth in the good desire," and
to "put on" this master-desire is to possess power to curb "evil desire"
in all its shapes (_Mand._ xii. 1-2). Elsewhere "good desire" is
analysed into the "spirits" of the several virtues, which yet are
organically related, Faith being mother, and Self-mastery her daughter,
and so on (_Vis._ iii. 8. 3 seq.; cf. _Sim._ ix. 15). These are the
specific forms of the Holy Spirit power, without whose indwelling the
mandates cannot be kept (_Sim._ x. 3; cf. ix. 13. 2, 24. 2).
Thus the "moralism" sometimes traced in Hermas is apparent rather than
real, for he has a deep sense of the enabling grace of God. His defect
lies rather in not presenting the historic Christ as the Christian's
chief inspiration, a fact which connects itself with the strange absence
of the names "Jesus" and "Christ." He uses rather "the Son of God," in a
peculiar Adoptianist sense, which, as taken for granted in a work by the
bishop's own brother, must be held typical of the Roman Church of his
day. But as it is implicit and not part of his distinctive message, it
did not hinder his book from enjoying wide quasi-canonical honour during
most of the Ante-Nicene period.
The absence of the historic names, "Jesus" and "Christ," may be due to
the form of the book as purporting to quote angelic communications.
This would also explain the absence of explicit scriptural citations
generally, though knowledge both of the Old Testament and of several
New Testament books--including the congenially symbolic Gospel of
John--is clear (cf. _The New Testament in the Apostolic Fathers_,
Oxford, 1905, 105 seq.). The one exception is a prophetic writing, the
apocryphal _Book of Eldad and Modad_, which is cited apparently as
being similar in the scope of its message. Among its non-scriptural
sources may be named the allegoric picture of human life known as
_Tabula Cebetis_ (cf. C. Taylor, as below), the _Didache_, and perhaps
certain "Sibylline Oracles."
Hermas regarded Christians as "justified by the most reverend Angel"
(i.e. the pre-existent Holy Spirit or Son, who dwelt in Christ's
"flesh"), in baptism, the "seal" which even Old Testament saints had
to receive in Hades (_Sim._ ix. 16. 3-7) and so attain to "life." Yet
the degree of "honour" (e.g. that of martyrs, _Vis._ iii. 2; _Sim._
ix. 28), the exact place in the kingdom or consummated church (the
Tower), is given as reward for zeal in doing God's will beyond the
minimum requisite in all. Here comes in Hermas's doctrine of works of
supererogation, in fulfilment of counsels of perfection, on lines
already seen in _Did._ vi. 2, cf. i. 4, and reappearing in the two
types of Christian recognized by Clement and Origen and in later
Catholicism. Again his doctrine of fasting is a spiritualizing of a
current _opus operatum_ conception on Jewish lines as though "keeping
a watch" (_statio_) in that way atoned for sins (_Sim._ v.). The
Shepherd enjoins instead, first, as "a perfect fast," a fast "from
every evil word and every evil desire, ... from all the vanities of
this world-age" (3. 6; cf. _Barn._ iii. and the Oxyrhynchus Saying,
"except ye fast from the world"); and next, as a counsel of
perfection, a fast to yield somewhat for the relief of the widow and
orphan, that this extra "service" may be to God for a "sacrifice."
Generally speaking, Hermas's piety, especially in its language,
adheres closely to Old Testament forms. But it is doubtful (_pace_
Spina and Volter, who assume a Jewish or a proselyte basis) whether
this means more than that the Old Testament was still _the_ Scriptures
of the Church. In this respect, too, Hermas faithfully reflects the
Roman Church of the early 2nd century (cf. the language of 1 Clem.,
esp. the liturgical parts, and even the Roman Mass). Indeed the prime
value of the _Shepherd_ is the light it casts on Christianity at Rome
in the otherwise obscure period c. 110-140, when it had as yet hardly
felt the influences converging on it from other centres of tradition
and thought. Thus Hermas's comparatively mild censures on Gnostic
teachers in _Sim._ ix. suggest that the greater systems, like the
Valentinian and Marcionite, had not yet made an impression there, as
Harnack argues that they must have done by c. 145. This date, then, is
a likely lower limit for Hermas's revision of his earlier prophetic
memoranda, and their publication in a single homogeneous work, such as
the _Shepherd_ appears to be. Its wider historic significance--it was
felt by its author to be adapted to the needs of the Church at large,
and was generally welcomed as such--is great but hard to determine in
detail.[5] What is certain is its influence on the development of the
Church's policy as to discipline in grave cases, like apostasy and
adultery--a burning question for some generations from the end of the
2nd century, particularly in Rome and North Africa. Indirectly, too,
Hermas tended to keep alive the idea of the Christian prophet, even
after Montanism had helped to discredit it.
LITERATURE.--The chief modern edition is by O. von Gebhardt and A.
Harnack, in Fasc. iii. of their _Patr. apost. opera_ (Leipzig, 1877);
it is edited less fully by F. X. Funk, _Patr. apost._ (Tubingen,
1901), and in an English trans., with Introduction and occasional
notes, by Dr C. Taylor (S.P.C.K., 2 vols., 1903-1906). For the wide
literature of the subject, see the two former editions, also Harnack's
_Chronologie der altchr. Lit._ i. 257 seq., and O. Bardenhewer,
_Gesch. der altkirchl. Lit._ i. 557 seq. For the authorship see
APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE, sect. III. (J. V. B.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] More than one interpretation, typical or otherwise, of this
"Clement" is possible; but none justifies us in assigning even to
this _Vision_ a date consistent with that usually given to the
traditional bishop of this name (see CLEMENT I.). Yet we may have to
correct the dubious chronology of the first Roman bishops by this
datum, and prolong his life to about A.D. 110. This is Harnack's date
for the nucleus of _Vis._ ii., though he places our _Vis._ i.-iii.
later in Trajan's reign, and thinks _Vis._ iv. later still.
[2] That a prior vision in which Hermas was "delivered" to the
Shepherd's charge, has dropped out, seems implied by _Vis._ v. 3 f.,
_Sim._ x. 1. 1.
[3] Harnack places "The Shepherd" proper mostly under Hadrian
(117-138), and the completed work c. 140-145.
[4] A careful study of practical Christian ethics at Rome as implied
in the _Shepherd_, will be found in E. von Dobschutz, _Christian Life
in the Primitive Church_ (1904).
[5] Note the prestige of martyrs and confessors, the ways of true and
false prophets in _Mand._ xi., and the different types of evil and
good "walk" among Christians, e.g. in _Vis._ iii. 5-7; _Mand._ viii.;
_Sim._ viii.
HERMENEUTICS (Gr. [Greek: hermeneutike], sc. [Greek: techne], Lat. _ars
hermeneutica_, from [Greek: hermeneuein], to interpret, from Hermes, the
messenger of the gods), the science or art of interpretation or
explanation, especially of the Holy Scriptures (see THEOLOGY).
HERMES, a Greek god, identified by the Romans with Mercury. The
derivation of his name and his primitive character are very uncertain.
The earliest centres of his cult were Arcadia, where Mt. Cyllene was
reputed to be his birthplace, the islands of Lemnos, Imbros and
Samothrace, in which he was associated with the Cabeiri and Attica. In
Arcadia he was specially worshipped as the god of fertility, and his
images were ithyphallic, as also were the "Hermae" at Athens. Herodotus
(ii. 51) states that the Athenians borrowed this type from the
Pelasgians, thus testifying to the great antiquity of the phallic
Hermes. At Cyllene in Elis a mere phallus served as his emblem, and was
highly venerated in the time of Pausanias (vi. 26. 3). Both in
literature and cult Hermes was constantly associated with the protection
of cattle and sheep; at Tanagra and elsewhere his title was [Greek:
kriophoros], the ram-bearer. As a pastoral god he was often closely
connected with deities of vegetation, especially Pan and the nymphs. His
pastoral character is recognized in the _Iliad_ (xiv. 490) and the later
epic hymn to Hermes; and his Homeric titles [Greek: akaketa, eriounios,
dotor eaon], probably refer to him as the giver of fertility. In the
_Odyssey_, however, he appears mainly as the messenger of the gods, and
the conductor of the dead to Hades. Hence in later times he is often
represented in art and mythology as a herald. The conductor of souls was
naturally a chthonian god; at Athens there was a festival in honour of
Hermes and the souls of the dead, and Aeschylus (_Persae_, 628) invokes
Hermes, with Earth and Hades, in summoning a spirit from the underworld.
The function of a messenger-god may have originated the conception of
Hermes as a dream-god; he is called the "conductor of dreams" ([Greek:
hegetor oneiron]), and the Greeks offered to him the last libation
before sleep. As a messenger he may also have become the god of roads
and doorways; he was the protector of travellers and his images were
used for boundary-marks (see HERMAE). It was a custom to make a cairn of
stones near the wayside statues of Hermes, each passer-by adding a
stone; the significance of the practice, which is found in many
countries, is discussed by Frazer (_Golden Bough_, 2nd ed., iii. 10 f.)
and Hartland (_Legend of Perseus_, ii. 228). Treasure found in the road
([Greek: hermaion]) was the gift of Hermes, and any stroke of good luck
was attributed to him; but it may be doubted whether his patronage of
luck in general was developed from his function as a god of roads. As
the giver of luck he became a deity of gain and commerce ([Greek:
kerdoos, agoraios]), an aspect which caused his identification with
Mercury, the Roman god of trade. From this conception his thievish
character may have been evolved. The trickery and cunning of Hermes is a
prominent theme in literature from Homer downwards, although it is very
rarely recognized in official cult.[1] In the hymn to Hermes the god
figures as a precocious child (a type familiar in folk-lore), who when a
new-born babe steals the cows of Apollo. In addition to these
characteristics various other functions were assigned to Hermes, who
developed, perhaps, into the most complete type of the versatile Greek.
In many respects he was a counterpart of Apollo, less dignified and
powerful, but more human than his greater brother. Hermes was a patron
of music, like Apollo, and invented the cithara; he presided over the
games, with Apollo and Heracles, and his statues were common in the
stadia and gymnasia. He became, in fact, the ideal Greek youth, equally
proficient in the "musical" and "gymnastic" branches of Greek education.
On the "musical" side he was the special patron of eloquence ([Greek:
logios]); in gymnastic, he was the giver of grace rather than of
strength, which was the province of Heracles. Though athletic, he was
one of the least militant of the gods; a title [Greek: promachos], the
Defender, is found only in connexion with a victory of young men
("ephebes") in a battle at Tanagra. A further point of contact between
Hermes and Apollo may here be noted: both had prophetic powers, although
Hermes held a place far inferior to that of the Pythian god, and
possessed no famous oracle. Certain forms of popular divination were,
however, under his patronage, notably the world-wide process of
divination by pebbles ([Greek: thriai]). The "Homeric" Hymn to Hermes
explains these minor gifts of prophecy as delegated by Apollo, who alone
knew the mind of Zeus. Only a single oracle is recorded for Hermes, in
the market-place of Pharae in Achaea, and here the procedure was akin to
popular divination. An altar, furnished with lamps, was placed before
the statue; the inquirer, after lighting the lamps and offering incense,
placed a coin in the right hand of the god; he then whispered his
question into the ear of the statue, and, stopping his own ears, left
the market place. The first sound which he heard outside was an omen.
From the foregoing account it will be seen that it is difficult to
derive the many-sided character of Hermes from a single elemental
conception. The various theories which identified him with the sun, the
moon or the dawn, may be dismissed, as they do not rest on evidence to
which value would now be attached. The Arcadian or "Pelasgic" Hermes may
have been an earth-deity, as his connexion with fertility suggests; but
his symbol at Cyllene rather points to a mere personification of
reproductive powers. According to Plutarch the ancients "set Hermes by
the side of Aphrodite," i.e. the male and female principles of
generation; and the two deities were worshipped together in Argos and
elsewhere. But this phallic character does not explain other aspects of
Hermes, as the messenger-god, the master-thief or the ideal Greek
ephebe. It is impossible to adopt the view that the Homeric poets turned
the rude shepherd-god of Arcadia into a messenger, in order to provide
him with a place in the Olympian circle. To their Achaean audience
Hermes must have been more than a phallic god. It is more probable that
the Olympian Hermes represents the fusion of several distinct deities.
Some scholars hold that the various functions of Hermes may have
originated from the idea of good luck which is so closely bound up with
his character. As a pastoral god he would give luck to the flocks and
herds; when worshipped by townspeople, he would give luck to the
merchant, the orator, the traveller and the athlete. But though the
notion of luck plays an important part in early thought, it seems
improbable that the primitive Greeks would have personified a mere
abstraction. Another theory, which has much to commend it, has been
advanced by Roscher, who sees in Hermes a wind-god. His strongest
arguments are that the wind would easily develop into the messenger of
the gods ([Greek: Dios ouros]), and that it was often thought to promote
fertility in crops and cattle. Thus the two aspects of Hermes which seem
most discordant are referred to a single origin. The Homeric epithet
[Greek: Argeiphontes], which the Greeks interpreted as "the slayer of
Argus," inventing a myth to account for Argus, is explained as
originally an epithet of the wind ([Greek: argestes]), which clears away
the mists ([Greek: argos, phaino]). The uncertainty of the wind might
well suggest the trickery of a thief, and its whistling might contain
the germ from which a god of music should be developed. But many of
Roscher's arguments are forced, and his method of interpretation is not
altogether sound. For example, the last argument would equally apply to
Apollo, and would lead to the improbable conclusion that Apollo was a
wind-god. It must, in fact, be remembered that men make their gods after
their own likeness; and, whatever his origin, Hermes in particular was
endowed with many of the qualities and habits of the Greek race. If he
was evolved from the wind, his character had become so anthropomorphic
that the Greeks had practically lost the knowledge of his primitive
significance; nor did Greek cult ever associate him with the wind.
The oldest form under which Hermes was represented was that of the
Hermae mentioned above. Alcamenes, the rival or pupil of Pheidias, was
the sculptor of a herm at Athens, a copy of which, dating from Roman
times, was discovered at Pergamum in 1903. But side by side with the
Hermae there grew up a more anthropomorphic conception of the god. In
archaic art he was portrayed as a full-grown and bearded man, clothed in
a long chiton, and often wearing a cap ([Greek: kyne]) or a
broad-brimmed hat ([Greek: petasos]), and winged boots. Sometimes he was
represented in his pastoral character, as when he bears a sheep on his
shoulders; at other times he appears as the messenger or herald of the
gods with the [Greek: kerykeion], or herald's staff, which is his most
frequent attribute. From the latter part of the 5th century his art-type
was changed in conformity with the general development of Greek
sculpture. He now became a nude and beardless youth, the type of the
young athlete. In the 4th century this type was probably fixed by
Praxiteles in his statue of Hermes at Olympia.
AUTHORITIES.--F. G. Welcker, _Griech. Gotterl._ i. 342 f. (Gottingen,
1857-1863); L. Preller, ed. C. Robert, _Griech. Mythologie_, ii. 385
seq. (Berlin, 1894); W. H. Roscher, _Lex. der griech. u. rom.
Mythologie_, s.v. (Leipzig, 1884-1886); A. Lang, _Myth, Ritual and
Religion_, ii. 225 seq. (London, 1887); C. Daremberg and E. Saglio,
_Dict. des ant. grecques et rom._; Farnell, _Cults_ v. (1909); O.
Gruppe, _Griech. Mythologie u. Religionsgesch._ p. 1318 seq. (Munich,
1906). In the article GREEK ART, figs. 43 and 82 (Plate VI.) represent
the Hermes of Praxiteles; fig. 57 (Plate II.), a professed copy of the
Hermes of Alcamenes. (E. E. S.)
FOOTNOTE:
[1] We only hear of a Hermes [Greek: dolios] at Pellene (Paus. vii.
27. 1) and of the custom of allowing promiscuous thieving during the
festival of Hermes at Samos (Plut. _Quaest. Graec._ 55).
HERMES, GEORG (1775-1831), German Roman Catholic theologian, was born on
the 22nd of April 1775, at Dreyerwalde, in Westphalia, and was educated
at the gymnasium and university of Munster, in both of which
institutions he afterwards taught. In 1820 he was appointed professor of
theology at Bonn, where he died on the 26th of May 1831. Hermes had a
devoted band of adherents, of whom the most notable was Peter Josef
Elvenich (1796-1886), who became professor at Breslau in 1829, and in
1870 threw in his lot with the Old Catholic movement. His works were
_Untersuchungen uber die innere Wahrheit des Christenthums_ (Munster,
1805), and _Einleitung in die christkatholische Theologie_, of which the
first part, a philosophical introduction, was published in 1819, the
second part, on positive theology, in 1829. The _Einleitung_ was never
completed. His _Christkatholische Dogmatik_ was published, from his
lectures, after his death by two of his students, Achterfeld and Braun
(3 vols., 1831-1834).
The _Einleitung_ is a remarkable work, both in itself and in its effect
upon Catholic theology in Germany. Few works of modern times have
excited a more keen and bitter controversy. Hermes himself was very
largely under the influence of the Kantian and Fichtean ideas, and
though in the philosophical portion of his _Einleitung_ he criticizes
both these thinkers severely, rejects their doctrine of the moral law as
the sole guarantee for the existence of God, and condemns their
restricted view of the possibility and nature of revelation, enough
remained of purely speculative material to render his system obnoxious
to his church. After his death, the contests between his followers and
their opponents grew so bitter that the dispute was referred to the
papal see. The judgment was adverse, and on the 25th of September 1835 a
papal bull condemned both parts of the _Einleitung_ and the first volume
of the _Dogmatik_. Two months later the remaining volumes of the
_Dogmatik_ were likewise condemned. The controversy did not cease, and
in 1845 a systematic attempt was made anonymously by F. X. Werner to
examine and refute the Hermesian doctrines, as contrasted with the
orthodox Catholic faith (_Der Hermesianismus_, 1845). In 1847 the
condemnation of 1835 was confirmed by Pius IX.
See K. Werner, _Geschichte der katholischen Theologie_ (1866), pp. 405
sqq.
HERMES TRISMEGISTUS ("the thrice greatest Hermes"), an honorific
designation of the Egyptian Hermes, i.e. Thoth (q.v.), the god of
wisdom. In late hieroglyphic the name of Thoth often has the epithet
"the twice very great," sometimes "the thrice very great"; in the
popular language (demotic) the corresponding epithet is "the five times
very great," found as early as the 3rd century B.C. Greek translations
give [Greek: ho megas kai megas] and [Greek: megistos: trismegas] occurs
in a late magical text. [Greek: ho trismegistos] has not yet been found
earlier than the 2nd century A.D., but there can now be no doubt of its
origin in the above Egyptian epithets.
Thoth was "the scribe of the gods," "Lord of divine words," and to
Hermes was attributed the authorship of all the strictly sacred books
generally called by Greek authors Hermetic. These, according to Clemens
Alexandrinus, our sole ancient authority (_Strom._ vi. p. 268 et seq.),
were forty-two in number, and were subdivided into six divisions, of
which the first, containing ten books, was in charge of the "prophet"
and dealt with laws, deities and the education of priests; the second,
consisting of the ten books of the _stolistes_, the official whose duty
it was to dress and ornament the statues of the gods, treated of
sacrifices and offerings, prayers, hymns, festive processions; the
third, of the "hierogrammatist," also in ten books, was called
"hieroglyphics," and was a repertory of cosmographical, geographical and
topographical information; the four books of the "horoscopus" were
devoted to astronomy and astrology; the two books of the "chanter"
contained respectively a collection of songs in honour of the gods and a
description of the royal life and its duties; while the sixth and last
division, consisting of the six books of the "pastophorus," was medical.
Clemens's statement cannot be contradicted. Works are extant in papyri
and on temple walls, treating of geography, astronomy, ritual, myths,
medicine, &c. It is probable that the native priests would have been
ready to ascribe the authorship or inspiration, as well as the care and
protection of all their books of sacred lore to Thoth, although there
were a goddess of writing (Seshit), and the ancient deified scribes
Imuthes and Amenophis, and later inspired doctors Petosiris, Nechepso,
&c., to be reckoned with; there are indeed some definite traces of such
an attribution extant in individual cases. Whether a canon of such books
was ever established, even in the latest times, may be seriously
doubted. We know, however, that the vizier of Upper Egypt (at Thebes) in
the eighteenth dynasty, had 40 (not 42) parchment rolls laid before him
as he sat in the hall of audience. Unfortunately we have no hint of
their contents. Forty-two was the number of divine assessors at the
judgment of the dead before Osiris, and was the standard number of the
nomes or counties in Egypt.
The name of Hermes seems during the 3rd and following centuries to have
been regarded as a convenient pseudonym to place at the head of the
numerous syncretistic writings in which it was sought to combine
Neo-Platonic philosophy, Philonic Judaism and cabalistic theosophy, and
so provide the world with some acceptable substitute for the
Christianity which had even at that time begun to give indications of
the ascendancy it was destined afterwards to attain. Of these
pseudepigraphic Hermetic writings some have come down to us in the
original Greek; others survive in Latin or Arabic translations; but the
majority appear to have perished. That which is best known and has been
most frequently edited is the [Greek: Poimandres] _sive De potestate et
sapientia divina_ ([Greek: Poimandres] being the Divine Intelligence,
[Greek: poimen andron]), which consists of fifteen chapters treating of
such subjects as the nature of God, the origin of the world, the
creation and fall of man, and the divine illumination which is the sole
means of his deliverance. The _editio princeps_ appeared in Paris in
1554; there is also an edition by G. Parthey (1854); the work has also
been translated into German by D. Tiedemann (1781). Other Hermetic
writings which have been preserved, and which have been for the most
part collected by Patricius in the _Nova de universis philosophia_
(1593), are (in Greek) [Greek: Iatromathematika pros Ammona Aiguption,
Peri katakliseos nosounton perignostika, Ek tes mathematikes epistemes
pros Ammona]: (in Latin) _Aphorismi sive Centiloquium, Cyranides_; (in
Arabic, but doubtless from a Greek original) an address to the human
soul, which has been translated by H. L. Fleischer (_An die menschliche
Seele_, 1870).
The connexion of the name of Hermes with alchemy will explain what is
meant by hermetic sealing, and will account for the use of the phrase
"hermetic medicine" by Paracelsus, as also for the so-called "hermetic
freemasonry" of the middle ages.