VI. It will sometimes become necessary to modify our conclusions as to particular passages in consequence of the discoveries and deductions of jiodern science. In- stances in point are the theories respecting the creation and deluge, arising from the progress of astronomical and geological knowledge. All truth is consistent with itself; and although the Bible was not given for the pur- pose of determining scientific questions, yet it must not, and need not be so interpreted as to contradict the " eld- er scripture writ by God's own hand" in the volume of natiu-e. In like manner history is often the best expos- itor of prophecy.
Her'mes ('EpjUf')c, i. e. ihQ Greek Mercury [q. v.]), the name of a man mentioned in the Epistle to the Ro- mans as a disciple at Rome (Rom. xvi, 14). A.D. 55. "According to the Greeks," says Calmet {Diet. s. v.), "he was one of the seventy disciples, and afterwards bishop of Dalmatia." His festival occurs in tlieir calendar upon April 8 (Neale, Eastern Church, ii, 774) Smith, s. v.
Hermes, Georg, a distinguished modern Roman-
I ist theologian and philosopher. He was born at Dreier- walde, near jMunster, April 22, 1775, became gymnasial teacher in 1798, priest in 1799, and professor of theol- ogy at Minister in 1807. The bent of his mind was towards philosophy, and his theological studies were all through his life conducted on philosophical methods. His first publication of this class was the Irinere Wahr- heit des Christenthums (jMiinst. 1805, 8vo). In 1819 he published his Philosophische Einkitung in die Chi-ist- Kaiholische Theologie, which passed to a second edition in 1831. In 1819 he was appointed professor of theolo- gy in the new University of Bonn, where he soon added greatly to his reputation, and his system, before his death, had found its way into most of the Roman Cath- olic schools of Prussia. He died at Bonn !May 26, 1831. His followers have since been called Ilermesians. The writings of Hermes published in his lifetime have been mentioned above. After his death appeared his Christ- liche-Kutholische Dogmatik (Munst. 1834-5, 3 vols. 8vo). In 1832 the Hermesians established a journal at Cologne as their organ. During the lifetime of Hermes there had been many complaints of the heretical tendencies of hia system, which, in fact, demanded philosophy, rather than faith, as the basis of theologj% Hermes admitted all the dogmas of the Church, but held that the ground of be- lief in these dogmas could only be laid in a philosophical proof, first, of a divine revelation ; and, secondly, that the Roman Church is the medium of that revelation. At Rome the question was put into Perrone's hands, whose report strongly condemned Hernies and his doc- trines. On the 2Gth of September. 1835, a papal brief was issued against them. The Hermesians, however, maintained that the doctrines censured were not con- tained in the system of Hermes. In accordance with their request to be allowed to present in Rome a Latin translation of the works of ^ermes, and to plead their orthodoxy, in 1837 two of their prominent spokesmen, professor Braun, of Bonn, and professor Elvenich, of Breslau, arrived in Rome, but, finding that they would not get an impartial hearing, soon returned. In con- secpience of the pressure brought upon the Hermesi- ans by the bishops, most of them now gradually sub- mitted ; two professors of the University of Bonn who refused to submit, Braun and Achterfeld, were in 1845 forbidden by the archbishop of Cologne to continue their theological lectures. In 1847, Pius IX again sanc- tioned the condemnatory brief of 1835, and Hermesian- ism gradually died out. A sketch of the controversy from the Hermesian side may be found in Elvenich, Der Ifermesianismus vnd seiii Rumischer Ger/ner Perrone (Breslau, 1844, 8vo). Perrone's refutation of Hermes is given in Migne's Demonstrations Ecangeliques, ii, 945 sq. See also Stupp, Die letzten Hermesianer (Cologne, 1844- 5) ; Hagenbach, History of \Sth and 19</» Centuries, tr. by Hurst, ii, 444; and art. Guntiier.
Hermes Trismegistus, or Mercurius ('Epjt<?7c, 'Epittjg TpirTjittyirTToc), the putative author of a large number of Greek works, many of which are still extant. The Greek Hermes was in the time of Plato identified with the Egyiitian Thot, Thoth, or Theut (as it -was also with the Alexandrian Thoyth), a mythical personage- regarded as the discoverer of all sciences, especially as the originator of language, of the alphabet, and of the art of -wTiting ; of geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, etc. In Egj-pt, all works relating to religion or science bore the name of Thot or of Tfermes. According to a passage in Clement of Alexandria (»S'/?-o?h.1. vi), two of Hermes's books contained the hymns of the gods and rules of con- duct for the kings, four related to astrology, etc. The expressions used by Clement of Alexandria imply that there was a much larger number of so-called Hermetic books than he mentions. As for the 3G,525 mentioned by lamblichus {De Myst. ^Jgypt.), a number which cor- responds to the great sacred period of Egypt, Goerres supposes it to refer to verses, not to books. All this leads to the belief that Hermes Trismegistus was but a personification of the Egyptian priesthood. According
HERMES TRISMEGISTUS
207
HERMIAS
i
to Champdllion junior, Hermes Trismegistus was, like llonis, re|ir('senteil by a hawk's head. The surname of 'J'risiiii<iisli(s (thrice f;reat ) apjiears to have been given III him on arcoiuit of the many discoveries attributed to liim. Looked at in the mystical sense, Thot, or the Egyii- tian Hermes, was the symbol of divine intelligence, tliought incarnate, the living word — the primitive type of Plato's Logos.