HERMAS. — One of the Apostolic Fathers, flourishing around the middle of the 2nd century. He wrote *The Shepherd*, in Greek. The Muratorian Fragment attests that he was the brother of Pope Pius I and that he composed his work in Rome during the latter’s pontificate (c. 140–155); the same is stated in the Liberian Catalogue. The work itself provides further details. The author, who repeatedly declares his name (Vis., I, 4; 2, 2; 4, 3; II, 2, 2, etc.), was probably born a slave in Arcadia (Sim., IX, 1, 1–10), sold to a Roman matron, Rhodē, whom he wished to marry (Vis., I, 1, 1–2). After being freed, he engaged in commerce, took a wife, and had children (Vis., I, 3, 1; II, 3, 3; II, 6, 7). Due to his own faults, particularly lying (Mand., II, 3), and to those of his wife, who was sharp-tongued, and of his sons, who, blasphemous and lustful, denounced their parents during a persecution (Vis., II, 2, 2–3), he was reduced to poverty and took up farming a small plot on the Campanian Way, about ten stades from the Appian Way (Vis., III, 1, 2; IV, 1, 2). He and his household repented of their past misdeeds (Sim., VII, 4). While traveling toward Cumae, he received his revelations (Vis., I, 3; II, 1, 1; II, 1, 1), in which he was commanded by an angel to transcribe from a book given to him by the matron what he was to announce to the elect, making two copies; one was to be sent to Clement, evidently the Bishop of Rome, who would send it to other cities (Vis., II, 4, 3).
Some scholars (Bardenhewer, Bareille, Leclercq, Casamassa) regard these autobiographical details as literary fictions, contradicted by the above-cited testimonies and by the conditions of the Church as depicted in the work, which point to the mid-2nd century, the date assigned by the Muratorian Fragment, and incompatible with the author’s personality as revealed in the writing, which shows him to have been an influential member of the Roman clergy. Others (Zahn, Edmundson) reject the testimony of the Muratorian Fragment and rely solely on the data of the work itself. Many (Harnack, Grosse-Brauckmann, De Champagny, Spitta, Altaner) attempt to reconcile the intrinsic and extrinsic testimonies by denying the unity of the work, whose various parts seem to have been written at different times. There is no proof that the author of *The Shepherd* is the Hermas mentioned in Rom 16:14, as Origen asserted (Comm. in Rom., X, 31).
*The Shepherd* has an original structure. It begins with five Visions: in the first, Rhodē reproaches Hermas for an evil desire; then an elderly matron in splendid attire appears to him, declares the Lord’s wrath against him and his household, and urges repentance. In the second, the matron gives him a book to copy, then asks him to reveal its contents, which announce forgiveness and an impending calamity; then a young man tells him that the matron is the Church. In the third, the matron, now appearing rejuvenated, shows him a tower, a figure of the Church; then a young man explains the three aspects under which the Church has appeared. In the fourth vision, he sees a monster, which the Church later tells him symbolizes the great tribulation to come. In the fifth vision, the angel of repentance appears in the guise of a shepherd (whence the title of the book).
This is followed by twelve Mandates (Precetti), dictated by the angel, in which faith, fear of God, continence, simplicity, innocence, long-suffering, prudence are inculcated; doubt and sadness are to be avoided; true and false prophets, good and bad desires are discussed. Finally, in ten Similitudes, the angel exhorts to the proper use of wealth, sets forth the conditions of the Church in this life and the next, the merit of fasting, the necessity of repentance, and the value of tribulation.
*The Shepherd* belongs to the literature of the higher Apocalypses. Its central theme is repentance: to lax Christians, it inculcates the duty of self-examination and conversion, announcing an impending persecution followed by a renewal of the Church. Particularly insistent are the warnings to the rich. Hence, the most important part of its doctrinal content concerns repentance. Hermas proclaims its necessity and affirms that, after that of Baptism, there is a second repentance, of an extraordinary character, granted only once and extending to all sins; it includes repentance and satisfaction and requires membership in the Church. Works of supererogation are praised, and a distinction is drawn between precepts and counsels; among the latter fasting, celibacy, and martyrdom are mentioned. The Trinitarian and Christological doctrine is very confused: the Son of God seems identified with the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is said to have been incarnate, since the flesh in which He dwelt served the Spirit in holiness and chastity, and God made it a partaker of the Holy Spirit (adoptionism); hence one could not speak of the Trinity until after Jesus’ exaltation, a consequence of His holy life.
Concerning angels, Hermas distinguishes six superior ones, created first by God, and many inferior ones; he also speaks of good and bad angels, and says that every person has a good and a bad angel with him. In the Church he mentions apostles, bishops, teachers (didascalici), deacons, deaconesses, prophets, and false prophets; to Clement, the Bishop of Rome, is assigned a kind of oversight of other churches. Baptism is administered by immersion, in the name of the Lord; it remits all sins, gives life, and imprints the seal of the Son of God. Marriage is indissoluble even in the case of adultery; the husband must dismiss a wife who persists in adultery and readmit her, but only once, if she repents; remarriage is permitted, though not without moral censure.
The influence of *The Shepherd*, immense in early times, later declined. Irenaeus (Adv. Haer., V, 30, 2), Clement of Alexandria (Strom., I, 17; VI, 14), the Catholic Tertullian (De orat., 16), and the pseudo-Cyprianic *Adversus aleatores* (ch. 4) cite it as Scripture. Origen inclines to regard it as inspired (Comm. in Rom., X, 31), but knows that others do not so regard it (Comm. in Matth., 4, 21) and that some despise it (De princ., IV, 11); among the latter is the Montanist Tertullian (De pud., chs. 10 and 20). The Muratorian Fragment, while praising it, excludes it from the biblical canon. The Codex Sinaiticus of the Bible transmits the five Visions and the first four Mandates.