The only work that Hermes published bears the title Einleitung in die Christ-Katholische Theologie; 3Iiinster, /819, Svo; a second edition appeared in /831. So long as the Archbishop Spiegel zum Desenbcrg was alive, Hermes and his views were not attacked by the see of Rome ; but soon after the elevation of Droste-Vischering to the archbishopric of Cologne, reports were made to Rome about the infidel tendency of Hermea's work, which still continued to be the chief theological manual at Bonn and other German universities, where the chairs were filled by the disciples of Hermes. The denunciation against Hermes was taken up very eagerly at Rome by Perroune, who made his report to the pope. The objectionable point in Hermes's work was his principle, that reason or philosophy must in the first place prove the reality of a divine revelation, and in the second, the truth of the Roman Catholic system. These points being ascertained, Hermes demanded absolute submission to revelation. He does not attempt philosophically to prove the truth of every particular dogma, but only to show that the Church has a right to establish her dogmas, and to demand submission to them. Hermes thus did not attack a single dogma of the Church,
and his orthodoxy can scarcely be disputed; but if we consider that the whole,method of Hermes claimed for every theologian the right of exercising his private judgment, it will not be surprising to find that, on the 26th of September 1835, the pope issued a brief against the work of Hermes. The severity with which Archbishop Droste Viachering carried the brief into execution produced a rupture between the courts of Berlin and Rome. The disciples of Hermes made all possible efforts to defend their master, and two of them, professors Braun and Elvenich, went to Rome to point out to his holiness that Perronne had misrepresented the views of Hermes. But their exer tions were of no avail. The number of pamphlets which were written for and against Hermes was prodigious, and the controversy probably contributed not a little towards the subsequent religious movements among the Roman Catholics of Germany. The best exposition of the whole controversy may be found in Elvenich's 'Der Hermesianismus and rein Romischer Gegner Perronne,' Breslau, 1844, 8vo.