HERMES, heemes, GEORG (1775-1831). A German Roman Catholic theologian and philos opher, born in Dreyerwalde, Westphalia. His student life was passed in Mfinster, where he after wards taught at the gymnasium (179S-18071, and lectured with marked success at the Academy (1807-19). In 1799 he was ordained to the priesthood. In 1819 lie was called to the Univer sity of Bonn, where, he spent the remainder of his life. As a professor of theology Bermes achieved the distinction of being the founder of a 'school,' known after him as the Ilermesians. It was not long before all his colleagues at Bonn recognized him as their leader. It is said that his influence was sufficient. to prevent the appointment of Mohler and Dellinger to professorships there. In Breslau. too, he gained many adherents. Spiegel. Archbishop of Cologne. was an active and powerful supporter of the new movement. and until his death (18301 the Hermesians were in high favor throughout the provinces of the lower Rhine. There seems to have been no doubt of their orthodoxy or of their loyalty to Catholi cism, and so long as Hermes lived hardly a sign of opposition appeared. He died in I831. at peace with the Church, and generally recog nized as one of the foremost leaders of German Catholicism.
Four years later (1S35). to the astonishment of the Hermesian party. Pope Gregory XVI. issued a brief. condemning Hermes's teaching and prohibiting his writings. The brief declared that many complaints had reached the cars of the Pon ta and that after careful examination Hermes's works had been found erroneous, scandalous, and injurious to faith. The sections especially objec tionable related to the nature of faith and of divine revelation, the authority of Scripture and tradition, the necessity of grace, the evidence of God's existence, and the idea that through reason men could gain a knowledge of super natund truth. Such teaching was declared to lead toward skepticism and inditTerence.
Since the year 1832 the party had had an or gan, the ZcifsehrifI far Philosophic and katho lisehe Theologic. In its columns and elsewhere defenses at once began to appear. The Der mesians declared that the Pope had been mis informed by persons who were ignorant of phi losophy and theology alike. It was freely ad mitted that the doctrines specified in the Papal brief were heterodox. but it was alleged that these were not the doctrines of 'Hennes; that neither he nor his school had ever held or taught them. At this point the similarity of their defense to that adopted long before by the Jansenists should be noticed. So confident were they that the Pope was wrong that two of the Bonn professors ( Braun and Elve nich) undertook a mission to Home to persuade him to withdraw the brief. They found, how ever, that their hopes were baseless. and they were forced to return without having accom plished anything. About 1838 philosophical criticism began to add its strength to the oppo sition which had already developed in other quarters. and the decline of ilermesianism was rapid. The two Bonn professors. Braun and Aehterfeldt, who had been most active in defense of Ilermes's memory, retired in I S4 I. They were not subjected, however, to any ecclesiastical cen sure. Before the middle of the century the whole movement had become a matter of history.
Ilermes's writings are few. Their titles are: l'eher die Wahrheit des Christentums, which ap peared in 1 SO5 Einhitung in die ehristkalho lisehe Theologie, in two parts (181(1 and 1829): ristkatholisehe Dogmatik 1534) published posthumously under the editorship of Achterfeldt. In general consult: Niedner. Philosophiw Der wesii (Leipzig. 1838): Braun and F.Ivenieh. Aeta Romana (Hanover. 153S1: \Ver ner, aeschiehte der kalholiRchen Theologie (Munich. 18661: Lichtenberger, History of Orr man Theology in the :Vint trenth Century/ (Edin burgh. 1559).