HER MAS, the name of one of those who were members of the Roman church at the time at which St. Paul wrote his epistle to the Romans, and, as may be inferred from the apostle's addressing a special greeting to him, a person of some eminence among his fellow-Christians. He was, though resident at Rome, most probably, judging from his name, of Greek origin. Hernias, however, has obtained even more consideration from the circumstance of his being the reputed author of the well-known early treatise, called The Shepherd, which is commonly classed among the writings of the apostolic fathers. It is ascribed to the Hernias of St. Paul, more or less positively, by Origen, Eusebius, and St. Jerome. But there is a second Hermas, who lived about the middle of the 2d c., a brother of Pius 1., bishop of Rome, to whom the is attributed by other writers, and it would seem with greater intrinsic probability. The work contains allusions which appear to be directed specially against the Montanistic errors—a fact. quite irreconcilable with the supposition of its having been written in the apostolic age.
The Shepherd, whichever Hernias may have been its author, seems to have been originally written in Greek. However, until recently, it was known only by a Latin version, with the exception of some Greek fragments collected from the quotations of the work by the Greek fathers. But in the year 1856 a Greek text, said to have been found at Mt. Athos, by the since too notorious M. Simonides, was published at Leipsic, the genuine ness of which is more than doubtful; and an Ethiopic version was printed in 1860 by 31. Antoine d'Abbadie, the well-known Abyssinia/1 traveler and scholar. The Shepherd is a mystical work, divided into three parts—the first containing four "Visions;" the second, twelve "Precepts;" and the third, ten "Similitudes." It has been described as the Pilgrim's Progress of the early church; and although it contains but little of posi tive dogmatic teaching, is a most interesting monument of the Christian life of that period. •