HERMAS
205
HERMENEUTICS
The Pastor is written in the form of a dialogue, and is divided into three parts: 1 Visiones ; 2. Mandata; 3. Siinilitudinex. Hermas, in his childhood, had been iiroiiLcht up with a young slave. In after life, and when he was married, he met her again, and ex]ierienced for her a passion which, however pure in itscll', was yet for- bidden by the Church under the circumstances. Soon afterwards the young slave died. One day, as Hermas was >vandering in the countrj% thinking of her, he sat down and fell asleep. "Diuring my sleep," says he, " my mind carried me away to a steep path, which I found great difhciilty in ascending on account of rocks and streams. Arriving on a piece of table-laud; I knelt down to pray ; and as I was praymg the heavens open- ed, and I saw the j'oiuig maiden I was wishing for, who saluted me from the sky, saying, ' Good day. Hernias.' And I, looking at her, answered, ' What art thou doing there V ' I have been called here,' she answered, ' to de- noiuice thy sins before the Lord.' ' What !' exclaimed I, ' and wilt thou accuse me ?' ' No ; but listen to me ... ,' " etc. The conversation goes on with a blendijig of se- verity and tenderness. " Pray to the Lord," says the young girl, as she disappears from his sight; "he will heal thy soul, and will efface the sins of all thy house, as lie has done those of all the saints." One cannot help noticing the striking similarity which exists be- tween this Vision and the celebrated passage in the Di- vina Commedia where Beatrice appears to Dante. This vision is followed by three others. They are all invita- tions to penitence, and though in the tirst it appears as if the invitation was especially directed to Hermas, it clearly applies also to the Church in general. This be- comes more evident in the following visions.
The Mandata begin also with a vision. An angel appears to Hermas under t^e form ofn shepherd, wear- ing a ^v•hite cloak, and bearing a staff in his hand. This Bhe]iherd is the angel of penitence, and gi\-es Hermas twelve precepts, which embrace the rules of Christian morals. They are giveii under the difterent headings : 1. Be fide in unum JJeum; 2. Defugienda ohtrectatione, et eleemosyna facienda in simjilicitate ; 3. De fitgiendo mendacio ; 4. De dimittenda adultera ; 5. De tristitia cor- dis et patientia; 6. De agnoscendis uniusatjusque hominis duohus geniis et utriusque inspiratioiiibus ; 7. De Deo ti- mendo et dcemone non timendo ; 8. Declinandum est a malo et facienda bona; 9. Postiilandum a Deo assidue et sine heesitatione ; 10. De aninii ti'istitia et non contristando Spirit urn Dei, qui in nobis est; 11. Spirittis et pi'ophetas j)robari ex operibus, et de duplici spiritu ; 12. De diq>lici cupiditate, Dei mandata non esse impossibilia et diubo- lum non metuendum credentihus.
The Similitudines, finally, are a series of parables and allegories. The vine, with its rich fruits and flexible boughs, is used to symbolize the fruitfuhiess of the Church. The willow is made the emblem of divine law. This latter image is made by Hermas the ground of a most graceful allegory. Similitudines 1 to 4 are short and simple images or descriptions; Sirnil. 5 to 9 are visions of the approaching completion of the Church, and of judgment, as well as invitations to penitence on that account; Simil. 10, finally, is a sort of conclusion of the whole.
This -^vork was perhaps the most popular book in the Christian Church of the 2d and 3d centuries. Yet, while it jileased the masses, it did not always satisfy the teachers. Iren«us {adv. Hair, iv, 3), Clement of Alex- andria (A9^7-om.i,29), andOrigen (Explan.Ejnst.adRom. 16) held it in high estimation. Eusebius asserts {Flist. Eccles. iii, 3) that many other ecclesiastical writers con- tested its authenticity. Jerome, after praising Hermas in his Chronicon, accuses him of foolishness (stidtitia) in his Comment, in Habacuc (i, 1), and Tertullian treats him no better, designating the book as apocryphal in De Pudicit. (10). The learned Puguet, in his Confe- rences ecclesiastiques (i, 7), even claims to find in the Pastor the germ of all heresies which foubled the Church ill the 2d centurj'. Others among modem the-
ologians, and especially IMosheim, have violently attack- ed the Pastor, and considered Hermas as an impostor. The book "knows little of the Gospel, and less of justi- fying faith; on the contrarj-, it talks much of the law of Christ and of repentance, enjoins fasting and volun- tar\' poverty, and teaches the merit, even the sii])ercr- ogatorj' merit, of good works, and the sin-atoning virtue of martvTdom" (Schaif, /. c). See Gratz, Disquisitio in Past. Jlermce (Bonn, 1820) ; Hefele, Patr. Apost. Prole- gomena ; Hilgenfeld, Apost. Voter (Halle, 1853) ; Cave, Hist. literai-ia; Fabricius, Bibl. Graca,v\i, 18; Tille- mont, Memoires eccles. vol. ii. May 9th ; Dom. Ceillier, Hist, des A uteurs sacres et eccles. i, 582 ; Jlosheim, Com- ment, i, 20S~d ; Ncander, C/(. //(a7. i,660; Uasc,Ch. I/ist. § 39 and Appendix; lloekT,Noui:Biog.Generalc,KKiv, 371 ; Schaff, Church Historic, § 121 ; Bunsen, Chrisiian- itg and Mankind, i, 182; E. Gaab, Z'er JJirt d. Hermas (Basel, 186G,8vo) ; Zahn, Der IHrt d. Heimas nntersucht (Gotha, 18G8, 8vo) ; Alzog, Patrologie, § 19; Lipsius, in- Zeitschrift f. Wissenschaftliche Theologie, 1865, heft 3 ; Hilgenfeld, Der IHrt d. Hernias u. sein neitester Bearbei- ter, in Zeitsch.f. Wiss. Theol. 1869, heft 2; Lipsius (in same journal, 1869, heft 3), Die Polemik eines Ajwlogeten (a severe review of Zahn's Hennas).