Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. I — G. R. S. Mead (1906)

That the General Christian of these days, as of all subsequent centuries, had naturally much to learn in these matters from the trained Mystic, whether of his own faith or of another, is saying nothing to his discredit, for he naturally belonged to the " many " who were striving to become the "few." General Christianity, however, spread so rapidly that the definite cultivation of the spiritual faculties practised by the early contemplatives of the faith soon gave place to a fanatical enthusiasm for a misunderstood monkdom, which swamped the monasteries with a flood of the " many," who were often without any true vocation for the holy life, and not unfrequently quite ignorant of the elements of contemplation.

We need not speak of the wild fanaticism of warrior monkdom let loose with pick and hatchet and fire-brand to destroy the treasures of religious art throughout the beautiful Hellenic world, but even among the quiet and peaceable brethren there was much ignorance. How unknowing some of these good folk were, we may learn from a naive story, the very simplicity of which convinces the reader of its genuineness.

Perhaps some one may here interject : But this has nothing to do with " Hermas " ! Perhaps not ; but it has a great deal to do with a proper understanding of the history of the development of General Christianity and its relationship to the deeper religious consciousness of the first centuries. When, then, I read the Greek text of this simple story, as reproduced by Eeitzenstein,1 I thought that some who could not read

1 R. 34 — from Apophthegmata Patrum, in Cotelerius' Ecclesice
Graces Monumenta, i. 582.

Greek, but who take a very deep interest in such matters, might like to hear it, and so I have set it down in English.

THE STORY OF ABBOT OLYMPIUS

The story runs as follows :

" Abbot Olympius l said that one day a priest of the [Heathen] Greeks came down to Scetis ; 2 he came to my cell and passed the night there.

" Seeing the manner of life of the monks, he saith to me : ' Living in this way, do ye not enjoy visions from your God ? ' ' Nay ! ' I answer.

" Then saith the priest to me : ' So long as we duly serve our God with holy deeds, he hideth nought from us, but revealeth unto us his mysteries. And ye, in spite of all your great labours — watchings, keeping silence, disciplines — sayest thou, ye see nought ? Assuredly, then, if ye see nought, ye have let evil reasonings come into your hearts which shut you from your God ; and 'tis for this cause his mysteries are not revealed to you.'

" And I went and told the elder [brethren] the words of the priest ; and they were astonished and agreed that so it was. For impure reasonings do shut off God from man."

I do not exactly understand what is the precise meaning of Xoytoyxou?, which usually means " reason-

1 I do not know who this Olympius was, unless, perchance, he may have been the monk referred to by Nilus (ii. 77), the famous ascetic of Sinai, who flourished in the first quarter of the fifth century.

2 Again, I can find no information about this place ; it was, however, presumably in the Nitriote nome south of the Delta — for the priest " came down.''

" HERMAS " AND " HERMES " 385

ings," and seems on the face of it to suggest that the monks' intellectual grasp of the matter was at fault. It may, however, mean simply that their " thoughts " were impure. But this is not any more satisfactory, for the monks must have known already that impure thoughts were to be driven out.

What is clear is that the " priest of the Greeks " had personal experience of these pious exercises, and came from a circle where such things were normally practised ; he, moreover, knew what was the reason for the monks' non-success in contemplation. He knew that it all depended on thought, and that, too, on " good thought," so that the " Good " might descend on the "good," as the Hermes-Prayer (i. 9, 13) says. But he knew more than this; he knew that there was also need of " right thought," of Gnosis as well as of faith, of the proper use of the intelligence and the driving out of erroneous ideas with regard to the nature of God.

A FINAL WORD