39. On the [Greek: hierogammateus] Cheremon, see Otto, _Priester und
Tempel_ II, p. 216; Schwartz in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realenc._, III, col. 2025
ff.
40. Doctrines of Plutarch: cf. Decharme, _Traditions religieuses chez les
Grecs_, pp. 486 ff. and _supra_, ch. I, n. 20.
41. I did not mention Hermetism, made prominent by the researches of
Reitzenstein, because I believe its influence in the Occident to have been
purely literary. To my knowledge there is no trace in the Latin world of an
Hermetic sect with a clergy and following. The _Heliognostae_ or
_Deinvictiaci_ who, in Gaul, attempted to assimilate the native Mercury
with the Egyptian Thoth, (_Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 49, n. 2; cf. 359),
were Christian gnostics. I believe that Reitzenstein misunderstood the
facts when he stated (_Wundererzählungen_, 1906, p. 128): "Die hermetische
Literatur ist im zweiten und dritten Jahrhundert für alle
religiös-interessierten der allgemeine Ausdruck der Frömmigkeit geworden."
I believe that {234} Hermetism, which is used as a label for doctrines of
very different origin, was influenced by "the universal spirit of
devotion," and was not its creator. It was the result of a long continued
effort to reconcile the Egyptian traditions first with Chaldean astrology,
then with Greek philosophy, and it became transformed simultaneously with
the philosophy. But this subject would demand extended development. It is
admitted by Otto, the second volume of whose book has been published since
the writing of these lines, that not even during the Hellenistic period was
there enough theological activity of the Egyptian clergy to influence the
religion of the times. (_Priester und Tempel_, II, pp. 218-220).