[96] “The mind of the writer is practically restricted to the Roman world.... He thinks like a Roman that ‘genus humanum’ is the Roman world. The nations which did not worship the Roman Emperor were never present to his mind” (Ramsay, The Church in the Empire).
[97] So called from the position it holds between the longer recension of the “ten Letters,” three of which are put aside as later compilations, and the shorter recension of three Letters which Canon Cureton found in the Syrian MS. and published, believing that these “three” were the only genuine Epistles of the martyr-bishop.
[98] Prof. Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire, chap. xiii.
[99] See Part I. section 1, chap. iii. in the author’s work, The Golden Age of the Church, entitled, “The Monks and the Animal World,” where this interesting question has been discussed at some length, and various examples are given.
[100] The history, contents, and authenticity of this most weighty reference has been already discussed in all its bearings (see above, pp. [45–62]).
[101] The well-known reference of Tacitus to the persecution of Nero has been referred to (see p. [103]).
[102] The date circa A.D. 117 is suggested by Bishop Westcott, and Bishop Lightfoot generally agrees in placing the writing about this time. Some would even place its composition in the very early years of the second century. The last two chapters, xi.–xii., are fragmentary, and apparently were written a little—but very little—later.
[103] So Harnack; Duchesne, in his Histoire ancienne de l’Église, vol. i. p. 225 (published 1908), generally adopts Harnack’s conclusions respecting the early date. Lightfoot (vol. i. p. 360, Clement of Rome) also leans to the conclusion that the Clement of the Shepherd is the illustrious Bishop of Rome. This would postulate the earlier date for parts of the work.
[104] What Hermas wrote specially of Rome, no doubt in a very large degree was the state of things in the provinces of the Empire. This is clear from the great and general popularity enjoyed by the Shepherd in the first two centuries. The picture of Christian life in Rome was recognized as an accurate picture of their own life, by the citizens of Corinth and Alexandria, by the dwellers in Ephesus and Antioch.
[105] A more detailed description of the famous Dialogue of Minucius Felix will be found on pp. [145–6].