HERMOGENES. - Christian heretic (ca. 180-205) who, after living in Syria, where he was opposed by Theophilus of Antioch (Eusebius, Hist. eccl., IV, 24), moved to Carthage, practicing the profession of painter. Against his ideas Tertullian wrote his book Adversus Hermogenem, certainly making use of the earlier work of Theophilus (cf. R. M. Grant, in Journal of biblical literature, 68 [1949], p. xv ff.).

H. spoke of matter (ὕλη) as eternal, the origin of evil, but formed by God. The soul belongs to it and is without free will, unless it is enlightened by the Holy Spirit. This doctrine is not Greek, but corresponds to the speculations of the Gnostics in Syria and has much affinity with that of Tatian; in fact Hippolytus treats the two heretics one after the other (Refutatio VIII, chaps. 16 and 17). In his ascension Jesus would have left, according to Ps. 18:6, his body in the sun (Refutatio VIII, chap. 17,3 ff.); a doctrine that was also known to Clement of Alexandria (Eclog. proph., 56,2) and that presupposes the luminous character of H.'s Christ, in analogy with the doctrine of Tatian.

Bibliography

BIBL.: E. Heintzel, Hermogenes, der Hauptvertreter des philosophischen Dualismus in der alten Kirche, Berlin 1902. On Tertullian and H. see I. H. Waszink, Tertulliani de unione, Amsterdam 1947, introduction, p. 7 ff. and passim.

Erik Peterson

@incollection{ec5_ermogene, author = {Peterson, Erik}, title = {Ermogene}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {V}, pages = {510--511}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/ermogene} }

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