HERMOGENES

HERMOGENES

3

stoic notion that God pervades matter, or is init like honey in a honeycomb; his idea was thatthe Deity, without intermixing with matter,operated on it by His mere approach and byshewing Himself, just as beauty affects themind by the mere sight of it (an illustrationvery appropriate for a painter to use), or asa magnet causes motion without any actualcontact and merely on being brought near.By this approach part of matter was reducedto order, and became the k6<T}xos , but partalways remains unsubdued; and this it is tobe supposed was in the theory of Hermogenesthe source of evil.

Tertullian acutely remarks that this languageabout God’s drawing near to matter as well asthe use of the words above and below withreference to the relative position of God andmatter cannot be reconciled with the doctrineof Hermogenes as to the infinity of matter.

The lost tract of Tertullian against Hermo-genes discussed the origin of the soul, whichHermogenes ascribed to matter, Tertullian tothe breath of life inspired by God at the forma-tion of man (Gen. ii. 7). Tertullian accuses hisopponent of mistranslation of this passage insubstituting the word Spirit for breath, hissupposed object in substituting the higher wordapparently being to exclude the possibility ofinterpreting this part of the verse with referenceto the communication of the soul, since theDivine Spirit could not be supposed capable offalling into sin. This passage gives one of theindications that the tract to which Tertullianreplies was written in Latin; and it is not sur-prising if Hermogenes, as a Greek by birth, didnot use the current Latin translation of theBible, but rendered tor himself.

We have said that Tertullian has not men-tioned an opinion of Hermogenes recorded byClement, Hippolytus, and Theodoret. This isthat our Lord on His ascension left His body inthe sun, and Himself ascended to the Father, adoctrine which he derived or confirmed from thewords of the 19th Psalm, “He hath placed histabernacle in the sun.” Theodoret adds thatHermogenes taught that the devil and thedemons would be resolved into hyle. This lastdoctrine agrees very well with the doctrine thatthe soul derived its origin from matter. Withregard to the former, it is a common point ofGnostic doctrine that our Lord’s nature wasafter the Passion resolved into its elements, andthat only the purely spiritual part ascended tothe Father. But on no other point does Her-mogenes approach to Gnostic teaching; in histheory of creation, he recognises neither ema-nation from God nor anything interveningbetween God and matter; his general doctrinewas confessedly orthodox, and it would seemthat he had no wish to separate from the church,and that he did not consider himself as trans-gressing the limits of Christian philosophicspeculation.

It remains to notice Philaster’s confusedaccount of Hermogenes. It would not causemuch difficulty that (Ilaer. 53) he counts theHermogenians but as a school of Sabellians,called after Hermogenes in the same way as thePraxeani after Praxeas. Though the silence ofTertullian gives us every reason to believe thatHermogenes himself was orthodox on this point,

his followers may very possibly have alliedthemselves with those of Praxeas against theircommon opponent. But in the next sectionPhilaster tells of Galatian heretics, Seleucus andHermias, and attributes to them the very doctrinesof Hermogenes that matter was co-eternal withGod, that man’s soul was from matter, and thatour Lord deposited His body in the sun inaccordance with the words of the Psalm alreadyquoted. It is beyond all probability that sucha combination of doctrines could have beentaught independently by two heretics, and it isnot very likely that Hermogenes had disciples inGalatia ; we may therefore reasonably believethat Philaster’s Hermias is Hermogenes. Philas-ter however attributes to his heretics otherdoctrines which we have no reason to thinkwere held by Hermogenes: that evil proceededsometimes from God, sometimes from matter;that there was no visible Paradise; that waterbaptism was not to be used, seeing that soulshad been formed from wind and fire, and thatthe Baptist had said that Christ should baptizewith the Holy Ghost and with fire; that angels,not Christ, had created men’s souls; that thisworld was the only “ infernum,” and that theonly resurrection is that resurrection of thehuman race which daily takes place in the pro-creation of children. Philaster may have readtracts which have not come down to us, inwhich Tertullian made mention of Hermogenes,and possibly if we had the lost tract De Tara-diso it might throw light on Philaster’s state-ments. But we are safe in rejecting his accountas untrustworthy, even though it be not possiblefor us now to trace the origin of his confusion.

The tract against Hermogenes has beenanalysed by writers on Tertullian; e.g. Neander,Antignosticus , p. 448, Bohn’s translation ; Kaye,Tertullian, p. 532; Hauck, Tertullian , p. 240.The reader may also consult the articles onHermogenes in Tillemont, iii. and Walch, Hist,der Ketz. i. 576. [G. S.]

HERMOGENES (2), ST. In the Mart. Hiero -nym. May 3, mention is made of Hermogenes ofLiminata, which should be probably emendatedto Anineta in the ecclesiastical province of Asia,of which sec he is accounted the first bishop.(Gams, Senes Episc. 444; Le Quien, QriensChrist, i. 709.) He is conjecturally identifiedwith the person mentioned by St. Paul (2 Tim.i. 15) . [L. D.]

HERMOGENES (3)—Dec. 10. Martyr atAlexandria under Maximin with Menas andEupaphus. (Bas. Men. ; Mart. Molani.)

[G. T. S.]

HERMOGENES (4), bishop of Caesarea inCappadocia, predecessor of Dianius. The one actby which he is known to us is his ordinationof Eustathius of Sebaste (after deposition byEulalius), on his production of a confession offaith so strictly orthodox as to set at rest all pre-vious suspicions. His death must be placed beforeA.D. 341. (Basil. Ep. 244 [82], § 9; 263 [74],§ 3; Le Quien, Or. Chr. i. 371.) [E. V.]

HERMOGENES (5), a Novatian bishopwho assisted at the episcopal consecration of thepresbyter Sabbatius at Constantinople, causinga division in that sect between 391 and 407on the paschal question. Hermogenes had been

B 2