Chapter XIX: Part 19

Having traced the history of opinion in the Christian churches on the subject of heresy, we must now return to resume a subject already mentioned, the persecution of heretics. According to the Canon Law, which "was the ecclesiastical law of medieval Europe, and is still the law of the Roman Catholic Church," heresy was defined as "error which is voluntarily held in contradiction to a doctrine which has been clearly stated in the creed, and has become part of the defined faith of the church," and which is "persisted in by a member of the church." It was regarded not only as an error, but also as a crime to be detected and punished. As it belongs, however, to a man's thoughts and not his deeds, it often can be proved only from suspicions. The canonists define the degrees of suspicion as "light" calling for vigilance, "vehement" demanding denunciation, and "violent" requiring punishment. The grounds of suspicion have been formulated "Pope Innocent III. declared that to lead a solitary life, to refuse to accommodate oneself to the prevailing manners of society and to frequent unauthorized religious meetings were abundant grounds of suspicion; while later canonists were accustomed to give lists of deeds which made the doers suspect: a priest who did not celebrate mass, a layman who was seen in clerical robes, those who favoured heretics, received them as guests, gave them safe conduct, tolerated them, trusted them, defended them, fought under them or read their books were all to be suspect" (T. M. Lindsay in article "Heresy," _Ency. Brit._ 9th edition). That the dangers of heresy might be avoided, laymen were forbidden to argue about matters of faith by Pope Alexander IV., an oath "to abjure every heresy and to maintain in its completeness the Catholic faith" was required by the council of Toledo (1129), the reading of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue was not allowed to the laity by Pope Pius IV. The reading of books was restricted and certain books were prohibited. Regarding heresy as a crime, the church was not content with inflicting its spiritual penalties, such as excommunication and such civil disabilities as its own organization allowed it to impose (e.g. the heretics were forbidden to give evidence in ecclesiastical courts, fathers were forbidden to allow a son or a daughter to marry a heretic, and to hold social intercourse with a heretic was an offence). It regarded itself as justified in invoking the power of the state to suppress heresy by civil pains and penalties, including even torture and death.

The story of the persecution of heretics by the state must be briefly sketched.

As long as the Christian Church was itself persecuted by the pagan empire, it advocated freedom of conscience, and insisted that religion could be promoted only by instruction and persuasion (Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Lactantius); but almost immediately after Christianity was adopted as the religion of the Roman empire the persecution of men for religious opinions began. While Constantine at the beginning of his reign (313) declared complete religious liberty, and kept on the whole to this declaration, yet he confined his favours to the orthodox hierarchical church, and even by an edict of the year 326 formally asserted the exclusion from these of heretics and schismatics. Arianism, when favoured by the reigning emperor, showed itself even more intolerant than Catholic Orthodoxy. Theodosius the Great, in 380, soon after his baptism, issued, with his co-emperors, the following edict: "We, the three emperors, will that all our subjects steadfastly adhere to the religion which was taught by St Peter to the Romans, which has been faithfully preserved by tradition, and which is now professed by the pontiff Damasus of Rome, and Peter, bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic holiness. According to the institution of the Apostles, and the doctrine of the Gospel, let us believe in the one Godhead of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, of equal majesty in the Holy Trinity. We order that the adherents of this faith be called _Catholic Christians_; we brand all the senseless followers of the other religions with the infamous name of _heretics_, and forbid their conventicles assuming the name of churches. Besides the condemnation of divine justice, they must expect the heavy penalties which our authority, guided by heavenly wisdom, shall think proper to inflict" (Schaff's _Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity_, i. 142). The fifteen penal laws which this emperor issued in as many years deprived them of all right to the exercise of their religion, "excluded them from all civil offices, and threatened them with fines, confiscation, banishment and even in some cases with death." In 385 Maximus, his rival and colleague, caused seven heretics to be put to death at Treves (Trier). Many bishops approved the act, but Ambrose of Milan and Martin of Tours condemned it. While Chrysostom disapproved of the execution of heretics, he approved "the prohibition of their assemblies and the confiscation of their churches." Jerome by an appeal to Deut. xiii. 6-10 appears to defend even the execution of heretics. Augustine found a justification for these penal measures in the "compel them to come in" of Luke xiv. 23, although his personal leanings were towards clemency. Only the persecuted themselves insisted on toleration as a Christian duty. In the middle ages the church showed no hesitation about persecuting unto death all who dared to contradict her doctrine, or challenge her practice, or question her authority. The instruction and persuasion which St Bernard favoured found little imitation. Even the Dominicans, who began as a preaching order to convert heretics, soon became persecutors. In the Albigensian Crusade (A.D. 1209-1229) thousands were slaughtered. As the bishops were not zealous enough in enforcing penal laws against heretics, the Tribunal of the Inquisition was founded in 1232 by Gregory IX., and was entrusted to the Dominicans who "as _Domini canes_ subjected to the most cruel tortures all on whom the suspicion of heresy fell, and all the resolute were handed over to the civil authorities, who readily undertook their execution" (Kurtz, _Church History_, ii. 137-138).

At the Reformation Luther laid down the principle that the civil government is concerned with the province of the external and temporal life, and has nothing to do with faith and conscience. "How could the emperor gain the right," he asks, "to rule my faith?" With that only the Word of God is concerned. "Heresy is a spiritual thing," he says, "which one cannot hew with any iron, burn with any fire, drown with any water. The Word of God alone is there to do it." Nevertheless Luther assigned to the state, which he assumes to be Christian, the function of maintaining the Gospel and the Word of God in public life. He was not quite consistent in carrying out his principle (see Luthard's _Geschichte der christlichen Ethik_, ii. 33). In the Religious Peace of Augsburg the principle "cujus regio ejus religio" was accepted; by it a ruler's choice between Catholicism and Lutheranism bound his subjects, but any subject unwilling to accept the decision might emigrate without hindrance.

In Geneva under Calvin, while the _Consistoire_, or ecclesiastical court, could inflict only spiritual penalties, yet the medieval idea of the duty of the state to co-operate with the church to maintain the religious purity of the community in matters of belief as well as of conduct so far survived that the civil authority was sure to punish those whom the ecclesiastical had censured. Calvin consented to the death of Servetus, whose views on the Trinity he regarded as most dangerous heresy, and whose denial of the full authority of the Scriptures he dreaded as overthrowing the foundations of all religious authority. Protestantism generally, it is to be observed, quite approved the execution of the heretic. The Synod of Dort (1619) not only condemned Arminianism, but its defenders were expelled from the Netherlands; only in 1625 did they venture to return, and not till 1630 were they allowed to erect schools and churches. In modern Protestantism there is a growing disinclination to deal even with errors of belief by ecclesiastical censure; the appeal to the civil authority to inflict any penalty is abandoned. During the course of the 19th century in Scottish Presbyterianism the affirmation of Christ's atoning death for _all_ men, the denial of eternal punishment, the modification of the doctrine of the inspiration of the Scriptures by acceptance of the results of the Higher Criticism, were all censured as perilous errors.

The subject cannot be left without a brief reference to the persecution of witches. To the beginning of the 13th century the popular superstitions regarding sorcery, witchcraft and compacts with the devil were condemned by the ecclesiastical authorities as heathenish, sinful and heretical. But after the establishment of the Inquisition "heresy and sorcery were regarded as correlates, like two agencies resting on and serviceable to the demoniacal powers, and were therefore treated in the same way as offences to be punished with torture and the stake" (Kurtz, _Church History_, ii. 195). While the Franciscans rejected the belief in witchcraft, the Dominicans were most zealous in persecuting witches. In the 15th century this delusion, fostered by the ecclesiastical authorities, took possession of the mind of the people, and thousands, mostly old women, but also a number of girls, were tortured and burned as witches. Protestantism took over the superstition from Catholicism. It was defended by James I. of England. As late as the 18th century death was inflicted in Germany and Switzerland on men, women and even children accused of this crime. This superstition dominated Scotland. Not till 1736 were the statutes against witchcraft repealed; an act which the Associate Presbytery at Edinburgh in 1743 declared to be "contrary to the express law of God, for which a holy God may be provoked in a way of righteous judgment."

Non-Christian religions.

The recognition and condemnation of errors in religious belief is by no means confined to the Christian Church. Only a few instances of heresy in other religions can be given. In regard to the fetishism of the Gold Coast of Africa, Jevons (_Introduction to the History of Religion_, pp. 165-166) maintains that "public opinion does not approve of the worship by an individual of a _suhman_, or private tutelary deity, and that his dealings with it are regarded in the nature of 'black art' as it is not a god of the community." In China there is a "classical or canonical, primitive and therefore alone orthodox (_tsching_) and true religion," Confucianism and Taoism, while the "heterodox (_sic_)," Buddhism especially, is "partly tolerated, but generally forbidden, and even cruelly persecuted" (Chantepie de la Saussaye, _Religionsgeschichte_, i. 57). In Islam "according to an unconfirmed tradition Mahomet is said to have foretold that his community would split into seventy-three sects (see MAHOMMEDAN RELIGION, S _Sects_), of which only one would escape the flames of hell." The first split was due to uncertainty regarding the principle which should rule the succession to the Caliphate. The Arabic and orthodox party (i.e. the Sunnites, who held by the Koran and tradition) maintained that this should be determined by the choice of the community. The Persian and heterodox party (the Shiites) insisted on heredity. But this political difference was connected with theological differences. The sect of the Mu'tazilites which affirmed that the Koran had been created, and denied predestination, began to be persecuted by the government in the 9th century, and discussion of religious questions was forbidden (see CALIPHATE, sections B and C). The mystical tendency in Islam, Sufism, is also regarded as heretical (see Kuenen's Hibbert Lecture, pp. 45-50). Buddhism is a wide departure in doctrine and practice from Brahmanism, and hence after a swift unfolding and quick spread it was driven out of India and had to find a home in other lands. Essenism from the standpoint of Judaism was heterodox in two respects, the abandonment of animal sacrifices and the adoration of the sun.

Although in Greece there was generally wide tolerance, yet in 399 B.C. Socrates "was indicted as an irreligious man, a corrupter of youth, and an innovator in worship."

Besides the works quoted above, see Gottfried Arnold's _Unparteiische
Kirchen- und Ketzer-Historie_ (1699-1700; ed. Schaffhausen, 1740). A
very good list of writers on heresy, ancient and medieval, is given in
Burton's _Bampton Lectures on Heresies of the Apostolic Age_ (1829).
The various Trinitarian and Christological heresies may be studied in
Dorner's _History of the Doctrine of the Person of Christ_ (1845-1856;
Eng. trans., 1861-1862); the Gnostic and Manichaean heresies in the
works of Mansel, Matter and Beausobre; the medieval heresies in Hahn's
_Geschichte der Ketzer im Mittelalter_ (1846-1850), and Preger's
_Geschichte der deutschen Mystik_ (1875); Quietism in Heppe's
_Geschichte der quietistischen Mystik_ (1875); the Pietist sects in
Palmer's _Gemeinschaften und Secten Wurttembergs_ (1875); the
Reformation and 17th-century heresies and sects in the _Anabaptisticum
et enthusiasticum Pantheon und geistliches Rust-Haus_ (1702). Bohmer's
_Jus ecclesiasticum Protestantium_ (1714-1723), and van Espen's _Jus
ecclesiasticum_ (1702) detail at great length the relations of heresy
to canon and civil law. On the question of the baptism of heretics see
Smith and Cheetham's _Dict. of Eccl. Antiquities_, "Baptism, Iteration
of"; and on that of the readmission of heretics into the church,
compare Martene, _De ritibus_, and Morinus, _De poenitentia_.
(A. E. G.*)

_Heresy according to the Law of England._--The highest point reached
by the ecclesiastical power in England was in the Act _De Haeretico
comburendo_ (2 Henry IV. c. 15). Some have supposed that a writ of
that name is as old as the common law, but its execution might be
arrested by a pardon from the crown. The Act of Henry IV. enabled the
diocesan alone, without the co-operation of a synod, to pronounce
sentence of heresy, and required the sheriff to execute it by burning
the offender, without waiting for the consent of the crown.[2] A large
number of penal statutes were enacted in the following reigns, and the
statute 1 Eliz. c. 1 is regarded by lawyers as limiting for the first
time the description of heresy to tenets declared heretical either by
the canonical Scripture or by the first four general councils, or such
as should thereafter be so declared by parliament with the assent of
Convocation. The writ was abolished by 29 Car. II. c. 9, which
reserved to the ecclesiastical courts their jurisdiction over heresy
and similar offences, and their power of awarding punishments not
extending to death. Heresy became henceforward a purely ecclesiastical
offence, although disabling laws of various kinds continued to be
enforced against Jews, Catholics and other dissenters. The temporal
courts have no knowledge of any offence known as heresy, although
incidentally (e.g. in questions of copyright) they have refused
protection to persons promulgating irreligious or blasphemous
opinions. As an ecclesiastical offence it would at this moment be
almost impossible to say what opinion, in the case of a layman at
least, would be deemed heretical. Apparently, if a proper case could
be made out, an ecclesiastical court might still sentence a layman to
excommunication for heresy, but by no other means could his opinions
be brought under censure. The last case on the subject (Jenkins _v._
Cook, _L.R._ 1 P.D. 80) leaves the matter in the same uncertainty. In
that case a clergyman refused the communion to a parishioner who
denied the personality of the devil. The judicial committee held that
the rights of the parishioners are expressly defined in the statute of
I Edw. VI. c. i, and, without admitting that the canons of the church,
which are not binding on the laity, could specify a lawful cause for
rejection, held that no lawful cause within the meaning of either the
canons or the rubric had been shown. It was maintained at the bar that
the denial of the most fundamental doctrines of Christianity would not
be a lawful cause for such rejection, but the judgment only queries
whether a denial of the personality of the devil or eternal punishment
is consistent with membership of the church. The right of every layman
to the offices of the church is established by statute without
reference to opinions, and it is not possible to say what opinions, if
any, would operate to disqualify him.

The case of clergymen is entirely different. The statute 13 Eliz. c.
12, S 2, enacts that "if any person ecclesiastical, or which shall
have an ecclesiastical living, shall advisedly maintain or affirm any
doctrine directly contrary or repugnant to any of the said articles,
and by conventicle before the bishop of the diocese, or the ordinary,
or before the queen's highness's commissioners in matters
ecclesiastical, shall persist therein or not revoke his error, or
after such revocation eftsoons affirm such untrue doctrine," he shall
be deprived of his ecclesiastical promotions. The act it will be
observed applies only to clergymen, and the punishment is strictly
limited to deprivation of benefice. The judicial committee of the
privy council, as the last court of appeal, has on several occasions
pronounced judgments by which the scope of the act has been confined
to its narrowest legal effect. The court will construe the Articles of
Religion and formularies according to the _legal rules for the
interpretation of statutes and written instruments_. No rule of
doctrine is to be ascribed to the church which is not distinctly and
expressly stated or plainly involved in the _written law of the
Church_, and where there is no rule, a clergyman may express his
opinion without fear of penal consequences. In the _Essays and
Reviews_ cases (Williams _v._ the Bishop of Salisbury, and Wilson _v._
Fendall, 2 _Moo._ P.C.C., N.S. 375) it was held to be not penal for a
clergyman to speak of merit by transfer as a "fiction," or to express
a hope of the ultimate pardon of the wicked, or to affirm that any
part of the Old or New Testament, however unconnected with religious
faith or moral duty, was not written under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit. In the case of Noble _v._ Voysey (_L.R._ 3 P.C. 357) in 1871
the committee held that it was not bound to affix a meaning to
articles of really dubious import, as it would have been in cases
affecting property. At the same time any manifest contradiction of the
Articles, or any obvious evasion of them, would subject the offender
to the penalties of deprivation. In some of the cases the question has
been raised how far the doctrine of the church could be ascertained by
reference to the opinions generally expressed by divines belonging to
its communion. Such opinions, it would seem, might be taken into
account as showing the extent of liberty which had been in practice,
claimed and exercised on the interpretation of the articles, but would
certainly not be allowed to increase their stringency. It is not the
business of the court to pronounce upon the absolute truth or
falsehood of any given opinion, but simply to say whether it is
formally consistent with the legal doctrines of the Church of England.
Whether Convocation has any jurisdiction in cases of heresy is a
question which has occasioned some difference of opinion among
lawyers. Hale, as quoted by Phillimore (_Ecc. Law_), says that before
the time of Richard II., that is, before any acts of Parliament were
made about heretics, it is without question that in a convocation of
the clergy or provincial synod "they might and frequently did here in
England proceed to the sentencing of heretics." But later writers,
while adhering to the statement that Convocation might declare
opinions to be heretical, doubted whether it could proceed to punish
the offender, even when he was a clerk in orders. Phillimore states
that there is no longer any doubt, even apart from the effect of the
Church Discipline Act 1840, that Convocation has no power to condemn
clergymen for heresy. The supposed right of Convocation to stamp
heretical opinions with its disapproval was exercised on a somewhat
memorable occasion. In 1864 the Convocation of the province of
Canterbury, having taken the opinion of two of the most eminent
lawyers of the day (Sir Hugh Cairns and Sir John Rolt), passed
judgment upon the volume entitled _Essays and Reviews_. The judgment
purported to "synodically condemn the said volume as containing
teaching contrary to the doctrine received by the United Church of
England and Ireland, in common with the whole Catholic Church of
Christ." These proceedings were challenged in the House of Lords by
Lord Houghton, and the lord chancellor (Westbury), speaking on behalf
of the government, stated that if there was any "synodical judgment"
it would be a violation of the law, subjecting those concerned in it
to the penalties of a _praemunire_, but that the sentence in question,
was "simply nothing, literally no sentence at all." It is thus at
least doubtful whether Convocation has a right even to express an
opinion unless specially authorized to do so by the crown, and it is
certain that it cannot do anything more. Heresy or no heresy, in the
last resort, like all other ecclesiastical questions, is decided by
the judicial committee of the council.

The English lawyers, following the Roman law, distinguish between
heresy and apostasy. The latter offence is dealt with by an act which
still stands on the statute book, although it has long been virtually
obsolete--the 9 & 10 Will. III. c. 35. If any person _who has been
educated in or has professed the Christian religion_ shall, by
writing, printing, teaching, or advised speaking, assert or maintain
that there are more Gods than one, or shall deny any of the persons of
the Holy Trinity to be God, or shall deny the Christian religion to be
true or the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be of
divine authority, he shall for the first offence be declared incapable
of holding any ecclesiastical, civil, or military office or
employment, and for the second incapable of bringing any action, or of
being guardian, executor, legatee, or grantee, and shall suffer three
years' imprisonment without bail. Unitarians were saved from these
atrocious penalties by a later act (53 Geo. III. c. 160), which
permits Christians to deny any of the persons in the Trinity without
penal consequences.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] For fuller details see separate articles.

[2] Stephen's _Commentaries_, bk. iv. ch. 7.

HEREWARD, usually but erroneously styled "the Wake" (an addition of later days), an Englishman famous for his resistance to William the Conqueror. It is now established that he was a tenant of Peterborough Abbey, from which he held lands at Witham-on-the-Hill and Barholme with Stow in the south-western corner of Lincolnshire, and of Crowland Abbey at Rippingale in the neighbouring fenland. His first authentic act is the storm and sacking of Peterborough in 1070, in company with outlaws and Danish invaders. The next year he took part in the desperate stand against the Conqueror's rule made in the isle of Ely, and, on its capture by the Normans, escaped with his followers through the fens. That his exploits made an exceptional impression on the popular mind is certain from the mass of legendary history that clustered round his name; he became, says Mr Davis, "in popular eyes the champion of the English national cause." The Hereward legend has been fully dealt with by him and by Professor Freeman, who observed that "with no name has fiction been more busy."

See E. A. Freeman, _History of the Norman Conquest_, vol. iv.; J. H.
Round, _Feudal England_; H. W. C. Davis, _England under the Normans
and Angevins_. (J. H. R.)

HERFORD, a town in the Prussian province of Westphalia, situated at the confluence of the Werre and Aa, on the Minden & Cologne railway, 9 m. N.E. of Bielefeld, and at the junction of the railway to Detmold and Altenbeken. Pop. (1885) 15,902; (1905) 24,821. It possesses six Evangelical churches, notably the Munsterkirche, a Romanesque building with a Gothic apse of the 15th century; the Marienkirche, in the Gothic style; and the Johanniskirche, with a steeple 280 ft. high. The other principal buildings are the Roman Catholic church, the synagogue, the gymnasium founded in 1540, the agricultural school and the theatre. There is a statue of Frederick William of Brandenburg. The industries include cotton and flax-spinning, and the manufacture of linen cloth, carpets, furniture, machinery, sugar, tobacco and leather.

Herford owes its origin to a Benedictine nunnery which is said to have been founded in 832, and was confirmed by the emperor Louis the Pious in 839. From the emperor Frederick I. the abbess obtained princely rank and a seat in the imperial diet. Among the abbesses was the celebrated Elizabeth (1618-1680), eldest daughter of the elector palatine Frederick V., who was a philosophical princess, and a pupil of Descartes. Under her rule the sect of the Labadists settled for some time in Herford. The foundation was secularized in 1803. Herford was a member of the Hanseatic League, and its suzerainty passed in 1547 from the abbesses to the dukes of Juliers. In 1631 it became a free imperial town, but in 1647 it was subjugated by the elector of Brandenburg. It came into the possession of Westphalia in 1807, and in 1813 into that of Prussia.

See L. Holscher, _Reformationsgeschichte der Stadt Herford_
(Gutersloh, 1888).

HERGENROTHER, JOSEPH VON (1824-1890), German theologian, was born at Wurzburg in Bavaria on the 15th of September 1824. He studied at Wurzburg and at Rome. After spending a year as parish priest at Zellingen, near his native city, he went, in 1850, at his bishop's command, to the university of Munich, where he took his degree of doctor of theology the same year, becoming in 1851 _Privatdozent_, and in 1855 professor of ecclesiastical law and history. At Munich he gained the reputation of being one of the most learned theologians on the Ultramontane side of the Infallibility question, which had begun to be discussed; and in 1868 he was sent to Rome to arrange the proceedings of the Vatican Council. He was a stanch supporter of the infallibility dogma; and in 1870 he wrote _Anti-Janus_, an answer to _The Pope and the Council_, by "Janus" (Dollinger and J. Friedrich), which made a great sensation at the time. In 1877 he was made prelate of the papal household; he became cardinal deacon in 1879, and was afterwards made curator of the Vatican archives. He died in Rome on the 3rd of October 1890.

Hergenrother's first published work was a dissertation on the doctrine
of the Trinity according to Gregory Nazianzen (Regensburg, 1850), and
from this time onward his literary activity was immense. After several
articles and brochures on Hippolytus and the question of the
authorship of the _Philosophumena_, he turned to the study of Photius,
patriarch of Constantinople, and the history of the Greek schism. For
twelve years he was engaged upon this work, the result being his
monumental _Photius, Patriarch von Constantinopel. Sein Leben, seine
Schriften und das griechische Schisma_ (3 vols., Regensburg,
1867-1869); an additional volume (1869) gave, under the title
_Monumenta Graeca ad Photium ... pertinentia_, a collection of the
unpublished documents on which the work was largely based. Of
Hergenrother's other works, the most important are his history of the
Papal States since the Revolution (_Der Kirchenstaat seit der
franzosischen Revolution_, Freiburg i. B., 1860; Fr. trans., Leipzig,
1860), his great work on the relations of church and state
(_Katholische Kirche und christlicher Staat in ihrer geschichtlichen
Entwickelung und in Beziehung auf Fragen der Gegenwart_, 2 parts,
Freiburg i. B., 1872; 2nd ed. expanded, 1876; Eng. trans., London,
1876, Baltimore, 1889), and his universal church history (_Handbuch
der allgemeinen Kirchengeschichte_, 3 vols., Freiburg i. B.,
1876-1880; 2nd ed., 1879, &c.; 3rd ed., 1884-1886; 4th ed., by Peter
Kirsch, 1902, &c.; French trans., Paris, 1880, &c.). He also found
time for a while to edit the new edition of Wetzer and Welte's
_Kirchenlexikon_ (1877), to superintend the publication of part of the
_Regesta_ of Pope Leo X. (Freiburg i. B., 1884-1885), and to add two
volumes to Hefele's _Conciliengeschichte_ (ib., 1887 and 1890).

HERINGSDORF, a seaside resort of Germany, in the Prussian province of Pomerania, on the north coast of the island of Usedom, 5 m. by rail N.W. of Swinemunde. It is surrounded by beech woods, and is perhaps the most popular seaside resort on the German shore of the Baltic, being frequented by some 12,000 visitors annually.

HERIOT, GEORGE (1563-1623), the founder of Heriot's Hospital, Edinburgh, was descended from an old Haddington family; his father, a goldsmith in Edinburgh, represented the city in the Scottish parliament. George was born in 1563, and after receiving a good education was apprenticed to his father's trade. In 1586 he married the daughter of a deceased Edinburgh merchant, and with the assistance of her patrimony set up in business on his own account. At first he occupied a small "buith" at the north-east corner of St Giles's church, and afterwards a more pretentious shop at the west end of the building. To the business of a goldsmith he joined that of a money-lender, and in 1597 he had acquired such a reputation that he was appointed goldsmith to Queen Anne, consort of James VI. In 1601 he became jeweller to the king, and followed him to London, occupying a shop opposite the Exchange. Heriot was largely indebted for his fortune to the extravagance of the queen, and the imitation of this extravagance by the nobility. Latterly he had such an extensive business as a jeweller that on one occasion a government proclamation was issued calling upon all the magistrates of the kingdom to aid him in securing the workmen he required. He died in London on the 10th of February 1623. In 1608, having some time previously lost his first wife, he married Alison Primrose, daughter of James Primrose, grandfather of the first earl of Rosebery, but she died in 1612; by neither marriage had he any issue. The surplus of his estate, after deducting legacies to his nearest relations and some of his more intimate friends, was bequeathed to found a hospital for the education of freemen's sons of the town of Edinburgh; and its value afterwards increased so greatly as to supply funds for the erection of several Heriot foundation schools in different parts of the city.

Heriot takes a leading part in Scott's novel, _The Fortunes of Nigel_
(see also the Introduction). A _History of Heriot's Hospital, with a
Memoir of the Founder_, by William Steven, D.D., appeared in 1827; 2nd
ed. 1859.

HERIOT, by derivation the arms and equipment (_geatwa_) of a soldier or army (_here_); the O. Eng. word is thus here-geatwa. The lord of a fee provided his tenant with arms and a horse, either as a gift or loan, which he was to use in the military service paid by him. On the death of the tenant the lord claimed the return of the equipment. When by the 10th century land was being given instead of arms, the heriot was still paid, but more in the nature of a "relief" (q.v.). There seems to have been some connexion between the payment of the heriot and the power of making a will (F. W. Maitland, _Domesday Book and Beyond_, p. 298). By the 13th century the payment was made either in money or in kind by the handing over of the best beast or of the best other chattel of the tenant (see Pollock and Maitland, _History of English Law_, i. 270 sq.). For the manorial law relating to heriots, see COPYHOLD.

HERISAU, the largest town in the entire Swiss canton of Appenzell, built on the Glatt torrent, and by light railway 7 m. south-west of St Gall or 13(1/2) m. north of Appenzell. In 1900 it had 13,497 inhabitants, mainly Protestant and German-speaking. The lower portion of the massive tower of the parish church (Protestant) dates from the 11th century or even earlier. It is a prosperous little industrial town in the Ausser Rhoden half of the canton, especially busied with the manufacture of embroidery by machinery, and of muslins. Near it is the goats' whey cure establishment of Heinrichsbad, and the two castles of Rosenberg and Rosenburg, ruined in 1403 when the land rose against its lord, the abbot of St Gall. About 5 m. to the south-east is Hundwil, a village of 1523 inhabitants, where the _Landsgemeinde_ of Ausser Rhoden meets In the odd years (in other years at Trogen) on the last Sunday in April.

HERITABLE JURISDICTIONS, in the law of Scotland, grants of jurisdiction made to a man and his heirs. They were a usual accompaniment to feudal tenures, and the power which they conferred on great families, being recognized as a source of danger to the state, led to frequent attempts being made by statute to restrict them, both before and after the Union. They were all abolished in 1746.

HERKIMER, a village and the county-seat of Herkimer county, New York, U.S.A., in the township of the same name, on the Mohawk river, about 15 m. S.E. of Utica. Pop. (1900) 5555 (724 being foreign-born); (1905, state census) 6596; (1910) 7520. It is served by the New York Central & Hudson River railway, a branch of which (the Mohawk & Malone railway) extends through the Adirondacks to Malone, N.Y.; by inter-urban electric railway to Little Falls, Syracuse, Richfield Springs, Cooperstown and Oneonta, and by the Erie canal. The village has a public library, and is the seat of the Folts Mission Institute (opened 1893), a training school for young women, controlled by the Women's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Herkimer is situated in a rich dairying region, and has various manufactures. The municipality owns and operates its water-supply system and electric-lighting plant. Herkimer, named in honour of General Nicholas Herkimer (c. 1728-1777), who was mortally wounded in the Battle of Oriskany, and in whose memory there is a monument (unveiled on the 6th of August 1907) in the village, was settled about 1725 by Palatine Germans, who bought from the Mohawk Indians a large tract of land including the present site of the village and established thereon several settlements which became known collectively as the "German Flats." In 1756 a stone house, built in 1740 by General Herkimer's father, John Jost Herkimer (d. 1775)--apparently one of the original group of settlers--a stone church, and other buildings, standing within what is now Herkimer village, were enclosed in a stockade and ditch fortifications by Sir William Johnson, and this post, at first known as Fort Kouari (the Indian name), was subsequently called Fort Herkimer. Another fort (Ft. Dayton) was built within the limits of the present village in 1776 by Colonel Elias Dayton (1737-1807), who later became a brigadier-general (1783) and served in the Confederation Congress in 1787-1788. During the French and Indian War the settlement was attacked (12th November 1757) and practically destroyed, many of the settlers being killed or taken prisoners; and it was again attacked on the 30th of April 1758. In the War of Independence General Herkimer assembled here the force which on the 6th of August 1777 was ambushed near Oriskany on its march from Ft. Dayton to the relief of Ft. Schuyler (see ORISKANY); and the settlement was attacked by Indians and "Tories" in September 1778 and in June 1782. The township of Herkimer was organized in 1788, and in 1807 the village was incorporated.

See Nathaniel I. Benton, _History of Herkimer County_ (Albany, 1856);
and Phoebe S. Cowen, _The Herkimers and Schuylers_, (1903).

HERKOMER, SIR HUBERT VON (1849- ), British painter, was born at Waal, in Bavaria, and eight years later was brought to England by his father, a wood-carver of great ability. He lived for some time at Southampton and in the school of art there began his art training; but in 1866 he entered upon a more serious course of study at the South Kensington Schools, and in 1869 exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy. By his picture, "The Last Muster," at the Academy in 1875, he definitely established his position as an artist of high distinction. He was elected an associate of the Academy in 1879, and academician in 1890; an associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1893, and a full member in 1894; and in 1885 he was appointed Slade professor at Oxford. He exhibited a very large number of memorable portraits, figure subjects and landscapes, in oil and water colour; he achieved marked success as a worker in enamel, as an etcher, mezzotint engraver and illustrative draughtsman; and he exercised wide influence upon art education by means of the Herkomer School (Incorporated), at Bushey, which he founded in 1883 and directed gratuitously until 1904, when he retired. It was then voluntarily wound up, and is now conducted privately. Two of his pictures, "Found" (1885) and "The Chapel of the Charterhouse" (1889), are in the National Gallery of British Art. In the year 1907 he received the honorary degree of D.C.L. at Oxford, and a knighthood was conferred upon him by the king in addition to the commandership of the Royal Victorian Order with which he was already decorated.

See _Hubert von Herkomer, R.A., a Study and a Biography_, by A. L.
Baldry (London, 1901); _Professor Hubert Herkomer, Royal Academician,
His Life and Work_, by W. L. Courtney (London, 1892).

HERLEN (or HERLIN), FRITZ, of Nordlingen, German artist of the early Swabian school, in the 15th century. The date and place of his birth are unknown, but his name is on the roll of the tax-gatherers of Ulm in 1449; and in 1467 he was made citizen and town painter at Nordlingen, "because of his acquaintance with Flemish methods of painting." One of the first of his acknowledged productions is a shrine on one of the altars of the church of Rothenburg on the Tauber, the wings of which were finished in 1466, with seven scenes from the lives of Christ and the Virgin Mary. In the town-hall of Rothenburg is a Madonna and St Catherine of 1467; and in the choir of Nordlingen cathedral a triptych of 1488, representing the "Nativity" and "Christ amidst the Doctors," at the side of a votive Madonna attended by St Joseph and St Margaret as patrons of a family. In each of these works the painter's name certifies the picture, and the manner is truly that of an artist "acquainted with Flemish methods." We are not told under whom Herlen laboured in the Netherlands, but he probably took the same course as Schongauer and Hans Holbein the elder, who studied in the school of van der Weyden. His altarpiece at Rothenburg contains groups and figures, as well as forms of action and drapery, which seem copied from those of van der Weyden's or Memlinc's disciples, and the votive Madonna of 1488, whilst characterized by similar features, only displays such further changes as may be accounted for by the master's constant later contact with contemporaries in Swabia. Herlen had none of the genius of Schongauer. He failed to acquire the delicacy even of the second-rate men who handed down to Matsys the traditions of the 15th century; but his example was certainly favourable to the development of art in Swabia. By general consent critics have assigned to him a large altar-piece, with scenes from the gospels and figures of St Florian and St Floriana, and a Crucifixion, the principal figure of which is carved in high relief on the surface of a large panel in the church of Dinkelsbuhl. A Crucifixion, with eight scenes from the New Testament, is shown as his in the cathedral, a "Christ in Judgment, with Mary and John," and the "Resurrection of Souls" in the town-hall of Nordlingen. A small Epiphany, once in the convent of the Minorites of Ulm, is in the Holzschuher collection at Augsburg, a Madonna and Circumcision in the National Museum at Munich. Herlen's epitaph, preserved by Rathgeber, states that he died on the 12th of October 1491, and was buried at Nordlingen.

HERMAE, in Greek antiquities, quadrangular pillars, broader above than at the base, surmounted by a head or bust, so called either because the head of Hermes was most common or from their etymological connexion with the Greek word [Greek: hermata] (blocks of stone), which originally had no reference to Hermes at all. In the oldest times Hermes, like other divinities, was worshipped in the form of a heap of stones or of an amorphous block of wood or stone, which afterwards took the shape of a phallus, the symbol of productivity. The next step was the addition of a head to this phallic column which became quadrangular (the number 4 was sacred to Hermes, who was born on the fourth day of the month), with the significant indication of sex still prominent. In this shape the number of herms rapidly increased, especially those of Hermes, for which the distinctive name of Hermhermae has been suggested. In Athens they were found at the corners of streets; before the gates and in the courtyards of houses, where they were worshipped by women as having the power to make them prolific; before the temples; in the gymnasia and palaestrae. On each side of the road leading from the Stoa Poikile to the Stoa Basileios, rows of Hermae were set up in such numbers by the piety of private individuals or public corporations, that the Stoa Basileios was called the Stoa of the Hermae. The function of Hermes as protector of the roads, of merchants and of commerce, explains the number of Hermae that served the purpose of signposts on the roads outside the city. It is stated in the pseudo-Platonic _Hipparchus_ that the son of Peisistratus had set up marble pillars at suitable places on the roads leading from the different country districts to Athens, having the places connected with the roads inscribed on the one side in a hexameter verse, and on the other a pentameter containing a short proverb or moral precept for the edification of travellers. Sometimes they bore inscriptions celebrating the valour of those who had fought for their country. Just as it was customary for the passer-by to show respect to the rudest form of the god (the heap of stones) by contributing a stone to the heap or anointing it with oil, in like manner small offerings, generally of dried figs, were deposited near the Hermae, to appease the hunger of the necessitous wayfarer. Garlands of flowers were also suspended on the two arm-like tenons projecting from either side of the column at the top (for the oracle at Pharae see HERMES). These pillars were also used to mark the frontier boundaries or the limits of different estates. The great respect attaching to them is shown by the excitement caused in Athens by the "Mutilation of the Hermae" just before the departure of the Sicilian expedition (May 415 B.C.). They formed the object of a special industry, the makers of them being called Hermoglyphi. The surmounting heads were not, however, confined to those of Hermes; those of other gods and heroes, and even of distinguished mortals, were of frequent occurrence. In this case a compound was formed: Hermathena (a herm of Athena), Hermares, Hermaphroditus, Hermanubis, Hermalcibiades, and so on. In the case of these compounds it is disputed whether they indicated a herm with the head of Athena, or with a Janus-like head of both Hermes and Athena, or a figure compounded of both deities. The Romans not only borrowed the Hermes pillars for their deities which at an early period they assimilated to those of the Greeks (as Heracles--Hercules) but also for the indigenous gods who preserved their individuality. Thus herms of Jupiter Terminalis (the hermae being identified with the Roman termini) and of Silvanus occur. Under the empire, the function of the hermae was rather architectural than religious. They were used to keep up the draperies in the interior of a house, and in the Circus Maximus they were used to support the barriers.

See the article with bibliography by Pierre Paris in Daremberg and
Saglio's _Dictionnaire des antiquites_; for the mutilation of the
Hermae, Thucydides vi. 27; Andocides, _De mysteriis_; Grote, _Hist. of
Greece_, ch. 58; H. Weil, _Etudes sur l'antiquite grecque_ (1900);
Burolt, _Griech. Gesch._ (ed. 1904), III. ii. p. 1287.

HERMAGORAS, of Temnos, Greek rhetorician of the Rhodian school and teacher of oratory in Rome, flourished during the first half of the 1st century B.C. He obtained a great reputation among a certain section and founded a special school, the members of which called themselves Hermagorei. His chief opponent was Posidonius of Rhodes, who is said to have contended with him in argument in the presence of Pompey (Plutarch, _Pompey_, 42). Hermagoras devoted himself particularly to the branch of rhetoric known as [Greek: oikonomia] (_inventio_), and is said to have invented the doctrine of the four [Greek: staseis] (_status_) and to have arranged the parts of an oration differently from his predecessors. Cicero held an unfavourable opinion of his methods, which were approved by Quintilian, although he considers that Hermagoras neglected the practical side of rhetoric for the theoretical. According to Suidas and Strabo, he was the author of [Greek: technai rhetorikai] (rhetorical manuals) and of other works, which should perhaps be attributed to his younger namesake, surnamed Carion, the pupil of Theodorus of Gadara.

See Strabo xiii. p. 621; Cicero, _De inventione_, i. 6. 8, _Brutus_,
76, 263. 78, 271; Quintilian, _Instit._ iii. 1. 16, 3. 9, 11. 22; C.
W. Piderit, _De Hermagora rhetore_ (1839); G. Thiele, _Hermagoras Ein
Beitrag zur Geschichte der Rhetorik_ (1893).

HERMANDAD (from _hermano_, Lat. _germanus_, a brother), a Castilian word meaning, strictly speaking, a brotherhood. In the Romance language spoken on the east coast of Spain in Catalonia it is written _germandat_ or _germania_. In the form _germania_ it has acquired the significance of "thieves' Latin" or "thieves' cant," and is applied to any jargon supposed to be understood only by the Initiated. But the typical "germania" is a mixture of slang and of the gipsy language. The hermandades have played a conspicuous part in the history of Spain. The first recorded case of the formation of an hermandad occurred in the 12th century when the towns and the peasantry of the north united to police the pilgrim road to Santiago in Galicia, and protect the pilgrims against robber knights. Throughout the middle ages such alliances were frequently formed by combinations of towns to protect the roads connecting them, and were occasionally extended to political purposes. They acted to some extent like the Fehmic courts of Germany. The Catholic sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, adapted an existing hermandad to the purpose of a general police acting under officials appointed by themselves, and endowed with large powers of summary jurisdiction even in capital cases. The hermandad became, in fact, a constabulary, which, however, fell gradually into neglect. In Catalonia and Valencia the "germanias" were combinations of the peasantry to resist the exactions of the feudal lords.

HERMAN DE VALENCIENNES, 12th-century French poet, was born at Valenciennes, of good parentage. His father and mother, Robert and Herembourg, belonged to Hainault, and gave him for god-parents Count Baldwin and Countess Yoland--doubtless Baldwin IV. of Hainault and his mother Yoland. Herman was a priest and the author of a verse _Histoire de la Bible_, which includes a separate poem on the Assumption of the Virgin. The work is generally known as _Le Roman de sapience_, the name arising from a copyist's error in the first line of the poem:

"Comens de sapiense, ce est la cremors de Deu"

the first word being miswritten in one MS. _Romens_, and In another _Romanz_. His work has, indeed, the form of an ordinary romance, and cannot be regarded as a translation. He selects such stories from the Bible as suit his purpose, and adds freely from legendary sources, displaying considerable art in the selection and use of his materials. This scriptural poem, very popular in its day, mentions Henry II. of England as already dead, and must therefore be assigned to a date posterior to 1189.

See _Notices et extraits des manuscrits_ (Paris, vol. 34), and Jean
Bonnard, _Les Traductions de la Bible en vers francais au moyen age_
(1884).

HERMANN I. (d. 1217), landgrave of Thuringia and count palatine of Saxony, was the second son of Louis II. the Hard, landgrave of Thuringia, and Judith of Hohenstaufen, sister of the emperor Frederick I. Little is known of his early years, but in 1180 he joined a coalition against Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, and with his brother, the landgrave Louis III., suffered a short imprisonment after his defeat at Weissensee by Henry. About this time he received from his brother Louis the Saxon palatinate, over which he strengthened his authority by marrying Sophia, sister of Adalbert, count of Sommerschenburg, a former count palatine. In 1190 Louis died and Hermann by his energetic measures frustrated the attempt of the emperor Henry VI. to seize Thuringia as a vacant fief of the Empire, and established himself as landgrave. Having joined a league against the emperor he was accused, probably wrongly, of an attempt to murder him. Henry was not only successful in detaching Hermann from the hostile combination, but gained his support for the scheme to unite Sicily with the Empire. In 1197 Hermann went on crusade. When Henry VI. died in 1198 Hermann's support was purchased by the late emperor's brother Philip, duke of Swabia, but as soon as Philip's cause appeared to be weakening he transferred his allegiance to Otto of Brunswick, afterwards the emperor Otto IV. Philip accordingly invaded Thuringia in 1204 and compelled Hermann to come to terms by which he surrendered the lands he had obtained in 1198. After the death of Philip and the recognition of Otto he was among the princes who invited Frederick of Hohenstaufen, afterwards the emperor Frederick II., to come to Germany and assume the crown. In consequence of this step the Saxons attacked Thuringia, but the landgrave was saved by Frederick's arrival in Germany in 1212. After the death of his first wife in 1195 Hermann married Sophia, daughter of Otto I., duke of Bavaria. By her he had four sons, two of whom, Louis and Henry Raspe, succeeded their father in turn as landgrave. Hermann died at Gotha on the 25th of April 1217, and was buried at Reinhardsbrunn. He was fond of the society of men of letters, and Walther von der Vogelweide and other Minnesingers were welcomed to his castle of the Wartburg. In this connexion he figures in Wagner's _Tannhauser_.

See E. Winkelmann, _Philipp von Schwaben und Otto IV. von
Braunschweig_ (Leipzig, 1873-1878); T. Knochenhauer, _Geschichte
Thuringens_ (Gotha, 1871); and F. Wachter, _Thuringische und
obersachsische Geschichte_ (Leipzig, 1826).

HERMANN OF REICHENAU (HERIMANNUS AUGIENSIS), commonly distinguished as Hermannus Contractus, i.e. the Lame (1013-1054), German scholar and chronicler, was the son of Count Wolferad of Alshausen in Swabia. Hermann, who became a monk of the famous abbey of Reichenau, is at once one of the most attractive and one of the most pathetic figures of medieval monasticism. Crippled and distorted by gout from his childhood, he was deprived of the use of his legs; but, in spite of this, he became one of the most learned men of his time, and exercised a great personal and intellectual influence on the numerous band of scholars he gathered round him. He died on the 24th of September 1054, at the family castle of Alshausen near Biberach. Besides the ordinary studies of the monastic scholar, he devoted himself to mathematics, astronomy and music, and constructed watches and instruments of various kinds.

His chief work is a _Chronicon ad annum_ 1054, which furnishes
important and original material for the history of the emperor Henry
III. The first edition, from a MS. no longer extant, was printed by J.
Sichard at Basel in 1529, and reissued by Heinrich Peter in 1549;
another edition appeared at St Blaise in 1790 under the supervision of
Ussermann; and a third, as a result of the collation of numerous MSS.,
forms part of vol. v. of Pertz's _Monumenta Germaniae historica_. A
German translation of the last is contributed by K. F. A. Nobbe to
_Die Geschichtsschreiber der deutschen Vorzeit_ (1st ed., Berlin,
1851; 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1893). The separate lives of Conrad II. and
Henry III., often ascribed to Hermann, appear to have perished. His
treatises _De mensura astrolabii_ and _De utilitatibus astrolabii_ (to
be found, on the authority of Salzburg MSS., in Pez, _Thesaurus
anecdotorum novissimus_, iii.) being the first contributions of moment
furnished by a European to this subject, Hermann was for a time
considered the inventor of the astrolabe. A didactic poem from his
pen, _De octo vitiis principalibus_, is printed in Haupt's
_Zeitschrift fur deutsches Alterthum_ (vol. xiii.); and he is
sometimes credited with the composition of the Latin hymns _Veni
Sancte Spiritus, Salve Regina_, and _Alma Redemptoris_. A
_martyrologium_ by Hermann was discovered by E. Dummler in a MS. at
Stuttgart, and was published by him in "Das Martyrologium Notkers und
seine Verwandten" in _Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte_, xxv.
(Gottingen, 1885).

See H. Hansjakob, _Herimann der Lahme_ (Mainz, 1875); Potthast,
_Bibliotheca med. aev._ s. "Herimannus Augiensis."