RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Hermes Hermogenes
had disliked Hermes already while bishop at Miinster, and had forbidden his theological students to pursue their studies anywhere but at Minister. The Prussian government tried in vain to have him rescind this order, and had to suspend the seminary in 1820. The papal brief gave Droste-Vischering an opportunity to combat the system of Hermes and liberalism at the same time; and the defeat which both suffered is an indication of the fact that reactionary tendencies had set in.
(Paul Tschackert.)
Bibliography: W. Esser, Denkschrift auf Georg Hermes, Cologne, 1832; A. von Sieger, Urphilosophie und das Nothwendigkeitssystem von G. Hermes, Dusseldorf, 1831; J. Hast, Hauptmomente der hermesischen Philosophie, Miinster, 1832; P. J. Elvenich, Acta Hermesiana, Gottingen, 1836; idem, Pius IX., die Hermesianer und der Erzbischof von Geissel, Breslau, 1848; J. M. Meckel, Die hermesischen Lehren in Bezug auf die papstliche Verurtheilung, Mainz, 1837; J. Braun and G. J. Elvenich, Meletemata theologia, Leipsic, 1838; C. G. Niedner, Philosophic Hermesiw . explicatio et existimatio, ib. 1838; Acta antihermesiana, Regensburg, 1839; P. G. Perrone, Zur Geschichte des Hermesianismus, ib.1839; D. Bernhardi, Laokoon oder Hermes und Perrone, Cologne, 1842; F. X. Werner, Der Hermesianismus vorzugsweise von seiner dogmatischen Seite, Regensburg, 1845; K. Werner, Geschichte der katholischen Theologie, Munich, 1889.
HERMIAS, her'mi-as: The unknown author of a Christian tract of the second or third century. In thirteen partly worthless manuscripts there is preserved the apologetic and polemic treatise called " A Satire on the heathen philosophers by the philosopher Hermias," the real author and the date of which is disputed. According to most authorities, the tract belongs to the age of the great apologists (180-250); although Diels, Harnack, and others believe it to be a forgery, belonging to the fifth or sixth century. But the former view is sustained by a detailed comparison with the pseudo-Justin Martyr's Cohortatio ad Grcecos (ANF, i. 273-289), which used the "Satire" and perverted it. The document castigates, not without a certain cleverness, yet with cheap wit and an absence of deeper understanding, the conflicting assertions of the philosophers on the subject of the human soul, of God and the world; and especially with reference to the elements of matter. G. Kruger.
Bibliography: Editions are by W. F. Wenzel, Leyden, 1840; J. C. T. Otto, Jena, 1872 (in Corpus apologetarum Christianorum); cf. H. Diels, Doxographi Grmci, pp. 259- 263, 649-656, Berlin, 1879. Consult: Harnack, Geschichte, i. 782-783, ii. 2, pp. 196-197; idem, Dogma, ii. 196; W. Gaul, Die Abfassungsverhaltnisse der pseudojustinischen Cohortatio ad Graicos, Berlin, 1903; A. F. di Pauli, Die Irrisio des Hermias, Paderbom, 1907; Neander, Christian Church, i. 673; Schaff, Christian Church, ii. 741-742; Ceillier, Auteurs sacres, vi. 332-333; Kruger, History, pp. 137-138.
HERMINJARD, ar"man"zhar', AIME LOUIS: Swiss Reformed; b. at Vevey (11 m. e.s.e. of Lausanne) Nov. 7, 1817; d. at Lausanne Dec. 11, 1900. He was educated at Lausanne, and, after being a teacher in Russia, France, and Germany for several years, resided first at Geneva and later at Lausanne, dividing his time between teaching and historical and bibliographical researches. After thirty years of labor he began to publish the correspondence of the French Reformers and carried it down to 1544 under the title Correspondence des
reformateurs dans les pays de langue Jrancaise recueillie et publiee avec d'autres lettres relatives a la reforme et des notes historiques et biographiques (9 vols., Geneva, 1866-97). Many of the letters are printed for the first time, and all of them are carefully collated and furnished with copious notes, which render the edition invaluable. It is one of the monumental works of French Protestant scholarship. That it could not have been carried at least down to the death of Calvin is a calamity.
HERMIT (late Lat. eremita, Gk. eremites, " an eremite, one living alone," from eremos, " desolate, solitary "): One who abandons society and lives alone, especially in a desert. In religious usage the word is applied to a Christian who, fleeing from persecution or seeking what was believed to be the more perfect life, retired to a lonely place and there led a life of contemplation and asceticism. Such hermits were especially common in the early time in the desert of Egypt. See Monasticism.
HERMIT ORDERS: A name given to religious orders whose members lived more or less isolated from one another, such as the Agonizants (q.v.), the Eremites of St. Augustine or Augustinian Hermits (see Augustinians), the Camaldolites, the Carmelites, the Carthusians, the Celestines, the Hieronymites, the Servites (qq.v.), the Order of Vallombrosa (see Gualberto, Giovanni), and the Williamites (q.v.).
HERMOGENES, her-mej'e-niz: A teacher of Gnostic tendency at the end of the second century. Tertullian wrote two treatises against him — the Adversus Hermogenem, which is still extant, and De causa animce, which is lost. He mentions and quotes from him in several other places (Adv. Valentinianos, xvi.; De prcescriptione hcereticorum, xxx., xxxiii.; De monogamia, xvi.). According to Eusebius (Hist, eccl., IV., xxiv. 1), Theophilus of Antioch wrote against a heretical teacher named Hermogenes. He is also mentioned in Hippolytus (Philosophuma, VIII., iv. 17), Theodoret (Hear, fabularum compendium, i. 19), Philastrius (Hcer., xliv.)., and Augustine (Hcer., xli). Mosheim and Walch have attempted to find in these references two heretics of the same name; but this is unlikely. It is better to suppose with Tillemont and Harnack that the earlier life of Hermogenes was spent in the East, where Theophilus wrote against him between 181 and 191, and that then he migrated to Carthage, where Tertullian wrote his treatises in 206 or 207 according to Uhlhorn (Hesselberg gives 205; Noldechen, 202). He did not teach a thoroughgoing Gnostic system, but, probably in the belief that he was not contradicting the Church's faith, attempted to complete it by certain propositions taken from philosophy. He is thus not to be reckoned among the Gnostics proper. He asserted the eternity of matter, and denied the creation of the world out of nothing. The soul was material and thus mortal by nature, and obtained immortality only by the imparting of the divine spirit springing from the substance of God. What the Fathers tell of his christological errors is vague; Augustine and Philastrius reckon him among the Patripassians. (G. UHLHORNf.)
Hermon
Herod and His Family