EERMAS
268
HERMAS
Order, which had dwindled down to a mere handful of
knights, enjoyed a period of unprecedented prosperity
during his term of office. In IL'll King Andrew II of
Hungary applied to Hermann for assistance against
the pagan Cumanes who had repeatedly devastated
the south-eastern portion of Transylvania. Hermann
sent some of his knights to settle in that district and
protect it against further devastation. As reward he
received the so-called Burzaland, a territory along the
River Burza. including Kronstadt and its vicinity.
The Hungarian nobility, however, protested against
this grant and the knights were compelled to leave
Burzaland in 1225. About this time Uuke Conrad of
Masovia and Bishop Christian of Prussia agreed to ask
the Grand Master for assistance against the pagan
Prussians who continually harassed the Christian set-
tlers in and near Prussia. In case the Prussians were
subdued by the order, the Duke of Masovia offered
Hermann the district of Culm and all the territory which
the order could bring under subjection in Prussia. In
a diploma of March, 1226, Emperor Frederick II al-
lowed Hermann to accept the offer and gave him all the
rights of a sovereign. The Grand Master appointed
Hermann von Balk to take charge of the hostile opera-
tions against the Prussians, and under his direction be-
gan, in 1230, that memorable .scries of expeditions
which finally resulted in the Christ ianization of Prus-
sia and raisetl the Teutonic Order to one of the great
powers of the Middle .Vges. The strength of the order
was materially increased when in 1237 it absorbed the
Order of the Brothers of the Sword.
Amidst these activities of the Teutonic Order in the north, Hermann never lost sight of the main object of his order, the recovery of the Holy Land. With many of his knights he accompanied the German crusaders to the Holy Land and distinguished himself for his heroism at the taking of Damietta in 1219. In reward forhis bravery John of Brienne, the King of Jerusalem, honoured him with the Golden Cross of Jerusalem, which he thereafter wore beside the black cross of his order. He incessantly urged Emjieror Frederick II to undertake the crusade which he had repeatedly prom- ised to Honorius III, and in order to join the interests of the Holy Land with those of the emperor he influ- enced him to marry the daughter of John of Brienne, lolanthe, who was heiress to the throne of Jerusalem. It was chiefly due to the efforts of Hermann that in 1226 a reconciliation was effected between the em- peror and the Lombard cities. In 1228-9 he accom- panied the excommunicated emperor to Jerusalem, and upon their return to Italy he effected the famous Treaty of San Germano on 23 July, 1230, by which the Patrimony of St. Peter was reconstituted anil the ban removed from Frederick II. Ilermaim spent the re- maining nine years of his life mostly in Italy, working incessantly for the welfare of the Teutonic Order.
Koch, Hermann von Salza, Meister des deutschen Ordens (Leipzig. 1SS.5): Lavisse. De Hermano Salzensi, ordinis Teu- tonici mafjislro (Paris, 1875); Lorck, Hermann de Salza, sein Jlinerar (Kiel, 1881).
Michael Ott.
Hennas, Saint, MartjT. — The Roman Martvrol- Dgy sets down for 18 August (XV Kal. Septemhris) the feast of the holy martyrs Ilcrmas, Serapion, and Polya?nus, with the statement that they suffered death in Rome for the Faith. The Greek calendars note all three names for the s;ime day; but there is nothing in the historical notices of the Men^a and Synaxaria from which any inference can be drawn either as to the circumstances or the time of their martyrdom. The Martyrologium Hieronymianum does not give these names under the above date. On the other hand, the 28 August (V Kal. Septemhris) is the day set apart for the feast of the Roman martyr Hermes and of several others who were liuried in the catacomb of Hermes and Basilla, and under the .same date appear two Alexandrian martyrs, Polienus and
Serapion. The writer surmises that the three martjTS
of 18 August are identical with those of the 2Sth of
the same month, namely, with the Roman murtyrs
Hermes and the Alexandrians Polienus and Serapion.
Their appearance under the earlier date could have
been the result of a mistake easily accounted for (XV
instead of V Kal. Septemhris). The name Hermas
also appears for Hermajus ('Ep/xatoj), a priest men-
tioned in the Roman Martyrology and in the Greek
Menoea as companion of Bishop Nicander of Myra in
Lycia, and whose feast as a martyr is set down for
4 November. It would seem from the Greek calen-
dars that both saints had been ordained by St. Titus,
the disciple of St. Paul.
Acta SS., .\ugust, III, 546-547; M artyrolooium Hieronymi- anum. edd. De Rossi ani> Duchesne. 112; Nilles, Kalendarium manuale lUriusque ecclesia, I (Innsbruck, 1896), 315; Synaxa- rium ecdesicB Conatanlinopolitana, ed. Deleuaye (Brussels, 1902), 908.
J. P. KlRSCH.
Hennas (first or second century), author of the book called " The Shepherd " (IIoim'?, Pastor), a work which had great authority in ancient times and was ranked with Holy Scripture. Euscbius tells us th;it it was publicly read in the churches, and tli;tt while some denied it to be canonical, others " considereil it most necessary". St. Athanasius speaks of it, together with the Didache, in connexion with the deuteroca- nonical books of the Old Testament, as uncanonical yet recommended by the ancients for the reading of catechumens. Elsew^here he calls it a most profitable book. Rufinus similarly says that the ancients wished it to be read, but not to be used as an author- ity as to the Faith. It is found with the Epistle of Barnabas at the end of the New Testament in the great Sinaitic Bible S (fourth century), and between the Acts of the .\postles and the Acts of Paul in the stichometrical list of the Codex Claromontanus. In accordance with this conflicting evidence, we find two lines of opinion among the earlier Fathers. St. Irena>us and Tertullian (in his Catholic days) cite the "Shepherd" as Scripture. Clement of Alexandria constantly quotes it with reverence, and so does Ori- gen, who held that the author was the Hermas men- tioned by St. Paul, Rom., xvi, 14. He says the work seems to him to be very useful, and Divinely inspired; yet he repeatedly apologizes, when he has occasion to quote it, on the ground that many people despise it ". Tertullian, when a Montanist, implies that Pope St. Callistus had quoted it as an authority (though evi- dently not as Scripture), for he replies: "I would admit your argument, if the writing of the Shepherd had deserved to be included in the Divine Instru- ment, and if it were not juilged by every council of the Churches, even of your own Churches, among the apocryphal and fal.se. " .\nd again, he says that the Epistle of Barn;ibas is " more received among the Churches than that apocryphal Shepherd " (De pudic, 10 and 20). Tertullian was no doubt right, that the book had been excluded at Rome from the Bible Inxtrumentum, but he is exaggerating in referring to "every council " and to a total rejection, for the teach- ing of the " Pastor" was in direct contnidiction with his own rigid views as to penance. His e:irlicr use of it is paralleled by the .\cts of Sts. Pcrpetua and Felicitas, before the end of the second century, but there is no trace of it in St. Cyprian, so tlwit it woukl seem to have gone out of use in Africa during the early decades of the third century. Somewhat later it is quoted by the author of the p.scudo-Cyprianic tract "Adv. alea- tores" as "Scriptura divina ", but in St. Jerome's day it was "almost unknown to the Latins". Curiously, it went out of fashion in the East, so that the Greek MSS. of it are but two in number, whereas in the West it became better known and was frequently copied in the Middle Ages.
Contents. — The book consists of five visions.
