(a) There is some doubt as to whether Hermas can be rightly considered an “Apostolic Father.”
(b) His writings are not cast in the Epistolary form, but are purely theological treatises or pamphlets.
They are partially examined below (see pp. [178–84]) with reference to their date, authorship, and contents generally.
[30] Seventeen of these cities so named are commemorated on extant coins and medals; and this number is largely increased by some writers. These cities of Hadrian bearing his name were situated in various districts of the Roman world, notably in Asia Minor, North Africa, Spain, Syria, Pannonia.
[31] De Champagny, Les Antonins, iii. 1, tersely and well sums up his character: “Il a tous les dons, et toutes les faiblesses, toutes les grandeurs, et toutes les puérilitées, toutes les ambitions.”
[32] Cf. Jerome, Ep. 58, Ad Paulin., 3; Euseb. De vitâ Constant. iii. 26; Sozomen, i. 1; St. Paulin, Ep. 31 (ii.) ad Severum; Rufin. H. E. i. 8; Sulp. Severus, ii. 25, 45; Ambrose, Psalm 43; and in modern historians, cf. De Vogüé’s Églises de la terre sainte, iii.; De Champagny, Les Antonins, livre iii. c. iii.
[33] A certain number of them, however, are by all responsible critics received as absolutely genuine, such as: The Letters relating the Martyrdom of Polycarp; the recital of the sufferings and death of the martyrs of Lyons; the Acts of the Scillitan Martyrs; and a few years later the passion of S. Perpetua and of her companions in suffering.
[34] Extracts from them are given on pp. [177–191].
[35] No scholar is more definite here than Renan, who certainly cannot be regarded as one who would be likely to dwell with emphasis on testimony which makes for the ardent faith of the Christians of the first days. And yet this great scholar brushes aside all the theories which maintain that the Christian martyrs of this period were few and insignificant in number; no modern writer is more positive on the awful character of the persecutions between A.D. 135 and A.D. 180.
[36] Æneid, Book viii.