



m Biunr. 



HERMES, OEORO. 



to take him to Konigiberf mid thenos to Petersburg, designing to 

 instruct him In urgrry gratis. Herder accepted the offer, but at 

 Kbnigibrrg fainted at the first diiMction which lie attended, and 

 thereupon resolved to study theology. He fortunately gained the 

 acquaintance of persons who appreciated him, and procured him a 

 place as instructor in the Frederick 1 ! College at Kunigiberg. With 

 the mot indefatigable industry he studied philosophy, natural scienw, 

 history, and languages, and in 1764 became assistant at the cathedral 

 school at Riga, to which office that also of preacher was attached. 

 Though his sermons were greatly admired, he soon left the situation, 

 as he desired to study the world at large. He accordingly went to 

 France, and was there chosen by the Priuce of Holstein-Oldenburg as 

 bis travelling-companion. He would have gone from France to Italy 

 bad he not been arrested by the complaint in his eyes at Strasbourg, 

 where he first became acquainted with Gb'the. In 1775 he became 

 theological professor at (iottingen, where he was enabled to punue his 

 favourite studies under the benign influence of the Duke of Saxe- 

 Wfimar and his wife. He died in 1S03. 



The writings of Herder fill about sixty volumes, and are on the 

 greatest variety of subjects. As a theologian he has gained celebrity 

 by his ' Spirit of Hebrew Poetry ; ' as a philosopher he is known as 

 the author of the ' Philosophy of the History of Man,' a work which 

 has been translated into English. He was not so much a metaphysician 

 as an observer. He strove to discover a point of union where science, 

 religion, history, poetry, and art should meet; and in order to take 

 one comprehensive view of all the tendencies of man, he made himself 

 acquainted with the literature of a variety of countries, Oriental as well 

 as European, ancient as well as modern. His collection of popular 

 ballads of all nations has a high reputation ; and a poem by him called 

 the ' Cid ' has been declared by the Spaniards themselves to be truly 

 Spanish. The great influence which he exercised on German literature, 

 by introducing his countrymen to the knowledge of an infinite variety 

 of subjects, was undoubtedly great ; and his name is never mentioned 

 among them but in terms of high respect and admiration. 



HERMANN, the Arminius of the Roman historians, the son of 

 Sigimer, chief of the Cberusci, was born about ac. 16 or 17. Being sent 

 in early youth as a hostage to Rome, probably in consequence of the 

 victories of Druaus, which had established the supremacy of Rome 

 over the Catti, Cherusci, and other tribes of North Germany, he 

 obtained the favour of Augustus, and was inscribed among the Roman 

 knights. On his return to bis native country, he conceived the 

 project of delivering it from the Romans, whose oppression had 

 become intolerable. Quintilius Varun, a rapacious man, was then 

 the Roman governor in Germany. Hermann pretended to be his 

 friend, while at the same time he kept up a secret understanding with 

 the chiefs of the Catti, Bructeri, and other tribes that lived between 

 the Rhine and the Albis (Elbe), some of which broke out into insur- 

 rection. Hermann offered Yarns his assistance in reducing them to 

 (abjection, and thus enticed him to advance some distance from the 

 Rhine into the interior. Yarns began his march with three legions, 

 tix cohorts, and a body of cavalry, and Hermann served him as a 

 guide through the forests. The Romans were thus drawn into an 

 ambuscade, and found themselves all at once surrounded by numerous 

 bodies of German?, who were directed by Hermann himself. The 

 Romans fought desperately ; but being unacquainted with the 

 localities, and unable to form their ranks owing to the thickness of the 

 forests and the marshy nature of the ground, they remained exposed 

 for two days to the missiles of the Germans, who destroyed them in 

 detail. At last, Varus, being wounded and seeing no chance of 

 escaping, run himself through with his sword, and the other chief 

 fficers followed his example. The legions were entirely destroyed, 

 and the cavalry alone cut their way through the enemy and regained 

 the banks of the Rhine. By this defeat the Romans lost all their 

 conquests beyond that river ; and although Germanicus some years 

 after again carried their arms to the \Veser, they never established 

 anything like a solid dominion over those regions. The defeat of 

 Yarns occurred, according to various chronologists, in the year 763 of 

 Rome (A.D. 9). The scene of the defeat is conjectured to have been 

 in the country of the Bructeri, near the sources of the Ems and the 

 Lippe. The news of this calamity, the greatest that had befallen the 

 Roman arms since the defeat of Crassus, caused much alarm at Rome. 



The fears however which were entertained that the Germans might 

 invade Gaul, were not realised. L. Asprcna guarded the banks of the 

 Rhine, and the Germans were too little united among themselves to 

 attack the empire. Augustus in the following year sent Tiberius to 

 the Rhine with a fresh army, who does not seem to have effected any- 

 thing of importance. Hermann meantime quarrelled with Scgestes, 

 chief of the Catti, whose daughter Tusnelda he had carried off, and 

 married against her father's consent. When Germanicus, after the 

 death of Augustus, marched into the interior of Germany to avenge 

 the defeat of Varus. he was assisted by Segcstes, and also by the 

 Chaud and other tribes. [OEKMAXICTS.] In the fint battle against 

 Hermann his wife Tunnclda was taken prisoner by the Romans, and 

 she afterwards figured in the triumph of Germanicus. Germanicus 

 having reached the scene of Varus's defeat, paid funeral honours to 

 the remains of the legions ; but Hermann, who was hovering about 

 bis line of march, without coming to a pitched battle, harassed him 

 in bis retreat, and occasioned a great lots to Ctecina, the lieutenant of 



Germanicus. (Tacitus, ' Anna].,' L) In the following year Germanicus 

 advanced again as far as the Vinurgi", or Weser, where he found 

 Hermann encamped ready for battle. A desperate fight took place, 

 in which Hermann, after performing prodigies of valour, was defeated, 

 and escaped with difficulty. When Tiberius recalled Germanicus. he 

 observed that the Cheruaci, Bructeri, and other unsubdued tribes 

 might be left to their own internal dissension*. He teems to have 

 guessed right, for a war broke out soon after between Hermann on 

 one side and Maroboduus, king of the Suevi, on the other, who was 

 accused of aspiring to absolute dominion. The Semnones and the 

 Langobards joined Hermann, who defeated Maroboduus on the borders 

 of the Hercynian Forest, and obliged him to seek refuge among the 

 Maroomanni, from whence he applied to Rome for assistance. Tiberius 

 then sent his son Drusus into the Illyricum ; but the Romans did not 

 advance beyond the Danube, and Hermann remained unmolested in 

 Northern Germany. Shortly after however Hermann was killed by 

 his own relatives, being accused, as it would seem, of aspiring to 

 absolute dominion. He died at the age of thirty-seven, in the twenty- 

 first year of our icra, after being for twelve years the leader and 

 champion of Germany. 



HERMAS, a Christian writer of the first century; who is saM by 

 Eusebius ('Hist. Keel.,' iii. c. 8) and Jerome ('De Illustr. Viri-,' 

 c. 10) to have been the same individual whom St. Paul salutes in his 

 Epistle to the Romans (xvi. 14). He was the author of a work 

 entitled ' The Shepherd ; ' which is called by this name because the 

 angel who bears the principal part in it is represented in the form of 

 a shepherd. This work is divided into three books; of which the 

 first contains four visions; the second, twelve commands; and the 

 third, ten similitude?. Hennas appears to have followed the plan of 

 the Apocalypse ; which he has imitated in many parts of his work. 

 Lardner in his ' Credibility of the Gospel History ' (' Works,' vol. ii., 

 p. 69-72) has given many instances of such imitations. Mosheim 

 ('Eccles. Hist,' vol. i., p. 100-1, ed. of 1826) and many other critics 

 have maintained that the 'Shepherd' was written by Hermas, who 

 was a brother of Pius, bishop of Rome, in the year 141. 



The ' Shepherd ' of Hermas is frequently quoted with the greatest 

 respect by almost all the early Christian writers. We learn from 

 Eusebius (' Hist. Ecc.,' iii., c. 3, 6) and other writers that it was 

 received by many churches as a canonical work. It is quoted by 

 Irenscus and Clement of Alexandria as a part of Scripture, and also 

 by Tertullian, before ho became a Montanist (see the passages in 

 Lardner's 'Works,' vol. ii., pp. 186, 249, 303, 304). Origen also con- 

 sidered it of divine authority ; but informs us that it was rejected by 

 some churches. After the time of Origen its canonical authority 

 appears to have been generally denied. Eusebius, Jerome, Athanasius, 

 Rutlinus, Gelasius, and Prosper expressly declare that it should not 

 be included in the canon. 



The ' Shepherd ' contains no express citations of any books of the 

 Old or New Testament. This work was originally written in Greek ; 

 but there is only an ancient Latin version of it extant. There is an 

 English translation by Wake, London, 1693 and 1710. 



(Lardner, WorJa, vol. it, pp. 57-73 ; Du Pin, Ecclesiastical History, 

 vol. i, pp. 26, 27 ; Wake, Preliminary Ducourte, c, viii. ; Tillemont, 

 Mem. Ecclet., vol. ii. ; Neander, EirchcngetchicMe, vol. L) 



HERMES, GEORG, the founder of a philosophical school of Roman 

 Catholic theology, was born on the 22nd of April 1775, at Dreyerwalde, 

 near Munster in Westphalia, where he received his first education from 

 the priest of the place. He subsequently became a pupil of the gym- 

 nasium at Rheina, and there gave the first proofs, especially iu his 

 mathematical lessons, of his strong mental powers. After the year 

 1792, he entered the theological faculty at Munster, where he de- 

 voted himself with great zeal to the study of the philosophy of 

 Kant. In 1798 he was appointed teacher at the gymnasium of Mun- 

 ster, and all his exertions henceforth were directed towards restoring, 

 ou a firm basis, that which had been demolished by Kant's ' Criticism 

 of Pure Reason.' But as a teacher at the gymnasium, be had no oppor- 

 tunity of making known the results of his philosophical studies. This 

 opportunity however was offered to him in 1807, when he was appoiiitnl 

 professor of theology at Munster. His great talent as a lecturer, and 

 his kind and benevolent manners, attracted great numbers of students. 

 Ou one occasion, when ho had to give his opinion ou some ecclesiastical 

 question, he greatly offended Droste-Vischering, afterwards archbishop 

 of Cologne, and the ill feeling thus created is thought to have had 

 some influence in the subsequent proceedings against the doctrines 

 and followers of Hermes. In 1819 Hermes was appointed professor 

 of theology in the newly-established University of Bonn. His lectures 

 again attracted students not only from all parts of Roman Catholic 

 Germany, but the king of the Netherlands sent a large number of 

 young men to Bonn for the special purpose of studying under Hermes. 

 In the enjoyment of the highest esteem, both of his colleagues and 

 pupils, he died at Bonn on the 26th of May 1831. 



The only work that Hermes published bears the title ' Eiuleitung in 

 die Christ- Katholiscbe Theologie,' Munster, 1819, Svo; a second edition 

 appeared in 1831. So long as the Archbishop Spiegel zum Desenberg 

 was alive, Hermes and his views were not attacked by the see of Rome ; 

 but soon after the elevation of Drostc-Vischering to the archbishopric 

 of Cologne, reports wore made to Rome about the infidel tendency of 

 Hermes' s work, which still continued to be the chief theological manual 



