708 



HE RIOT HERMAPHRODITE. 



according to the Catholic representation, denth has 

 never been inflicted upon heretics by the church, 

 which merely declared them, after due admonition, 

 to be heretics, excommunicated them, and gave 

 them up to the secular government, to be treated ac- 

 cording to the laws, a view of religious persecutions 

 which has been adopted by other sects also ; but, for 

 the impartial historian, this argument can have no 

 other weight, than that the church, as such, has not 

 ordered the execution of heretics, whilst its members 

 were often affected by the spirit of the age, and, by 

 giving up a heretic to the secular government, aware 

 that a painful torture and cruel death awaited him, 

 in fact, devoted him to destruction. It must be re- 

 membered, however, that secular princes were often 

 active in the prosecution of heretics, considering 

 them as disturbers of the peace ; and several in- 

 stances are on record, in which the pope requested 

 sovereigns to avoid cruelty towards heretics. Before 

 Christianity was made the religion of the Roman 

 state, nothing but excommunication was inflicted 

 upon the heretic ; but severe laws were passed soon 

 after the conversion of the emperors. When the 

 bishop excommunicated a heretic, the secular 

 authority banished him ; he lost his civil rights, and 

 was even punished with death ; he could not be an 

 accuser, witness nor judge ; could not make a will ; 

 and even his family were subjected to some penalties. 

 The code of Justinian contains many ordinances 

 against heretics, and the canon law m.ide it a duty 

 to denounce them, under pain of excommunication, 

 even if the party were a wife or husband, parent or 

 child, and to assist their judges, without remunera- 

 tion, &c. They were not permitted to be acquainted 

 with the witnesses against them, nor with their testi- 

 mony; they were not allowed to have counsel, nor to 

 appeal. As early as 385, Priscillian was condemned 

 to death, as a heretic, by the Spanish bishops at the 

 council of Treves; and the punishment of death, 

 which the emperors ordered to be inflicted on the 

 Arians, after the Nicene council, was more common- 

 ly inflicted on heretics. But tlw persecutions of here- 

 tics, properly so called, began in the pontificate of 

 Gregory VII., in the eleventh century. The em- 

 peror Frederic II. authorized them, against the Albi- 

 genses and Waldenses, by an edict, issued at Padua, in 

 1222. From that time, persecutions of heretics took 

 place in almost all Christian countries. Spain, Italy, 

 and France, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth cen- 

 tury, suffered much from these persecutions, which 

 were often conducted with more fury, as political 

 considerations were mingled with them ; and the 

 massacre of St Bartholomew, and the acts of the 

 Spanish inquisition, are foul blots on the history of 

 man. The states of Germany, collectively, have 

 never shown that spirit of persecution which has 

 stained other countries. The Carolina does not 

 mention heresy at all ; and, by the peace of West- 

 phalia, it was settled that neither of the three con- 

 fessions (Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists), should 

 accuse the other of heresy. As the unity of the 

 church is considered, by the Catholics, one of its 

 three essential qualities, heresy, or a deviation from 

 the dogmas of the church, must appear to them 

 much more alarming than to other Christian sects. 

 See Semler's Introduction to Baumgarteii's Polemics; 

 C. M. F. Walch's Sketch of a Complete History of 

 Heresy ; Baumgarten's History of Religious Divi- 

 sions, and J. G. Walch's Biblio. Theol. 



HERIOT. See Hariot. 



HERMANDAD (Spanish, brotherhood). The 

 cities of Castile, as they advanced in consideration, 

 and obtained, by the grants of the kings, who made 

 use of their services against the arrogant nobility, a 

 feeling of their own importance, frequently formed 



connexions to defend themselves against the usurpa- 

 tions and the rapaciousness of the feudal nobility. 

 This object was most clearly apparent in the brother- 

 hood (Hermandad), formed in 1295, by the cities of 

 the kingdoms of Castile and Leon, which threatened 

 with the destruction of his houses, vineyards, and 

 gardens, every nobleman who should rob or injure a 

 member of the association, and who would not make 

 satisfaction, or give security for the observance of 

 the law. Even if a nobleman had only challenged a 

 member of the association, and refused to give se- 

 curity, the challenged person had the right ofputting 

 him to death. These fraternities were the model of 

 the later Hermandad of the municipal communities, 

 which was formed in Castile, under the reign of Fer- 

 dinand and Isabella. It was established in 1486, 

 with the approbation of the king, at a time when 

 the nobles paid no attention to the royal commands 

 to keep the peace, robbed the defenceless villagers 

 and industrious citizens, and made the highways 

 unsafe. The city authorities raised a military force, 

 and appointed judges in different parts of the king- 

 dom. The disturbers of the public peace were 

 sought out by the armed bands, carried before the 

 judges, and punished. Neither rank nor station 

 protected the offender against the tranquillity of the 

 country, nor could he find safety even in the churches. 

 The nobility, who saw their turbulence restrained, 

 and their judicial power limited, by this institution, 

 opposed it in vain ; for the king protected the Her- 

 mandad, as a powerful means of preserving public 

 peace, and, at the same time, an effectual means of 

 strengthening and extending the royal power ; 

 since the forces of the city authorities composed 

 a part of the standing army, without needing to be 

 paid by the court. The Hermandad was also intro- 

 duced into Arragon, in 1488. The Santa Herman- 

 dad (holy brotherhood) (a name which has occasioned 

 some to confound this institution with the inquisition, 

 or to consider it as depending upon that establish- 

 ment), had, like the earlier institution, of which 

 it was a continuation, the object of securing inter- 

 nal safety, and seizing disturbers of the peace and 

 highway robbers, but did not act except in case of 

 offences actually committed. It consisted only of a 

 company of armed police officers, who were distri- 

 buted in the different provinces of the kingdom of 

 Castile, and whose duty it was to provide for the 

 security of the roads outside of the cities. One 

 of their strictest regulations was, not to use their 

 power within the cities. They were subject to the 

 council of Castile. The principal divisions of the 

 company had fixed stations at Toledo, at Ciudad 

 Rodrigo, and at Talavera. 



HERMANN, or ARMIN1US. See Arminius. 



HERMANSTADT, or, in Hungarian, SZEBEN 

 (anciently Cibinium, or Hermanopolis) ; a city of 

 Transylvania, capital of the division settled by 

 Saxons, on the Szeben ; 147 miles N. E. Belgrade, 

 300 S. E. Vienna; Ion. 23 50' E.; lat. 46 0' N.; 

 population, 13,300. It contains four Lutheran 

 churches, three Catholic, one Calvinist, one Greek ; 

 a university with the national archives ; a gymnasium 

 with a library of 5000 vols. ; another library of 1 5,000 

 vols. ; and some other seminaries. The streets are 

 narrow and crooked. Its chief manufacture is soap 

 and candles. It is fortified with a double wall and a 

 deep moat. It is situated on the side of the Szeben, 

 which soon after runs into the Aluta. In the neigh- 

 bourhood is the pass of Rothethurm. 



HERMAPHRODITE ; a term formerly applied 

 exclusively to signify a human creature possessed of 

 the organs of both sexes. The term is now applied 

 to other animals, and to plants. It is now well 

 known there is no such thing as an hermaphrodite in 



