Hermesiaiis. See Hermes, Georg.
Hermetic Books. See Hermes Trismegistus.
Hermians, a heretical sect of the 2d century, which, according to Augustine, denied baptism by wa- ter on the pretence that this was not the kind of bap- tism instituted by Christ ; for John the Baptist, com- paring his own baptism with that of our Lord, says, " I baptize you with water: but he that cometh after me shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire" (Augustine, De Hear. c. 59). They affirmed that the souls of men consisted of fire and spirit, and therefore a baptism of fire was more suitable to their nature. Early ecclesiastical ■^^Titers arc not agreed as to what was meant by this expression. Clemens Alexandrinus men- tions some who, v.-hen they had baptized men in water, also made a mark on their ears with fire, so joining to- gether baptism by water, and, as they imagined, bap- tism by fire (apud Combefis, A uctarium, i, 202). Oth- ers, by some deceptive art during baptism, made fire to appear on the surface of the water, and confirmed this by a reference to some apocrji)hal writing of their ovni invention called " The Preaching of Paul or Peter," in which it was said that, when Christ was baittized, firo appeared on the water. See Bmgham, Orig. L'cclts. bk. xi, ch. ii, § 3.
Hermias, a writer, supposed by some to date front the 2d centuri'. Nothing is known of his life, but wf possess under his name a work entitled Aiamp/ioc rwv tgw (piXoaofwv, "A satirizing of the Heathen Philoso- phers." It is written in the form of a dialogue ad- dressed to the author's friends. Hermias reviews the opinions of the philosophers on nature, the universe, God, his essence, his relations to the world, the human soul, etc. He shows their differences and contradic- tions oil all these points, and thus proves the insufficien-
HERMIT
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HERMON
cy and futility of all their theories. This little work, written in the manner anil somewhat in the style of Lucian, is an interesting document for the history of ancient philosophy, but has no other merit, philosoph- ical or theological. It was pubUshed, with a Latin translation by Seller (Zurich, 1553, 8vo; 1560, fol), and is inserted iii several collections of ecclesiastical works, namely, in Morel, Tabula compemliosa (Basle, 1580, 8vo);'in several editions of Justin INIartyr; in Worth's edition of Tatian (Oxford, 1700, 8vo) ; in the Aiictarium BiU. Pair. (Paris, 1624, fol.), and in Gallandii Biblioth. Pair. J. C. Dommerich published a separate edition, with notes by H.Wolf, Gale, and Worth (Halle, 17C4, 8vo). See Hoefer, Nouv. Biogr. Geiierale, xxiv, 387; Dupin, Ecdes. Writers, 2d cent. ; Donaldson, Historij of Christian Literature, ii, 179.
Hermit (Gr. iprifioQ, desert), one devoted to relig- ious solitude ; properly, the solitude of a wilderness. It became, at a later period, the name of certain classes of monks. See Monasticism ; Monk.
Hermog'enes ('Epjuoy£i^/;e> Mermry-borri), a dis- ciple of Asia iMinor, and probably companion in labor of the apostle Paul ; mentioned, along with Ph\'gellus, as liaving abandoned him during his second imprison- ment at Rome, doubtless from alarm at the perils of the connection (2 Tim. i, 15). A.D. 64. In the Roman Breviary {in Fest. S. Jac. Apost. Pars. (Bstiva, p. 485, Milan, 1851) the conversion of Hermogenes is attributed to St. James the Great, and in the legendary history of Abdias, the so-called bishop of Babylon (Fabricius, Cod. Apocryph. N, T. p. 517 sq.), Hermogenes is represented as first practising magic, and converted, with Philetus, by the same apostle. Grotius, apparently misled by the circumstance that the historian or geographer Her- mogenes, mentioned by the scholiast of ApoUonius Rho- dius (ii, 722, Frag. Hist. Grmc. Didot. ed., iii, 523), wrote on primitive history, and incidentally (?) speaks of Nan- nacus or An.icus — and may therefore probably be the same as the Hermogenes whom Josephus mentions as having treated on Jewish history {Apion, i, 23) — sug- gests that he may be the person mentioned by the apo - tie Paul. This, however, is not likely. Nothing more is kno\ra of the Hermogenes in question, and he cannot be identified either with Hermogenes of Tarsus, a histo- rian of the time of Domitian, who was put to death by that emperor (Sueton. Dnmit. 10 ; Hoffman, Lex. Univ. s. V. ; Alford on 2 Tim. i, 15), nor with Hennogenes the painter, against whom TertidUan -wTote (Smith's Diet, of Class. Biography, s. v.), nor with the saints of the Byzantine Church, commemorated on Jan. 24 and Sept. 1 (Neale, Eastern Church, n, 770, 781). — Kitto, s. v.
Hermogenes, a heretic of the 2d centurj'. Our knowledge of him is chiefly derived from a treatise against him by Tertullian {adv. Hermngenem'), and from an account in the newly-discovered >IS. of llippoh'tus. He was living, probably in Africa, when TortuUian wrote against him, and was a painter by profession. Tertul- lian charged that Hennogenes was a believer in the doctrines of the heathen philosophers, and especially in those of the Stoics, and especially that he taught' the eternity of matter. Hermogenes argued that God must have made the world either out of his own substance, or out of nothing, or out of pre-existent matter. The first, he thouglit, was inconsistent with God's immutability ; the second Avith the origin of evil ; and therefore the third must be received as true. " He rejected both the (inostic Emanation doctrine and the Church doctrine of Creation : the former contradicted the michangeable nature of God, and necessitated attributing to him the origin of evil ; the latter was contradicted by the nature of this world ; for if the creation of the perf'ect God had been conditioned by nothing, a perfect world must have been the result. Hence he believed that creation sup- posed something conditioning, and this he thought must be the Hyle which he received from Platonism into connection with the Christian svstem. He did not