ion, and regarded
Jesus as the divine messenger of God, who in turn had appointed the
Apostles as the foundation of the Church. It is a very simple form of
cult, and in the prayer which Clement quotes almost everything is
directed towards the Father. It is Hellenised Judaism without the
ceremonial law, but with a belief in Jesus and the Church.

The next document concerned with the Church of Rome is in many ways the
most important. _The Shepherd_ of Hermas is not an easy book to
appreciate {111} at first. It is a series of interviews between Hermas
and various supernatural beings who give him good advice. It may be as
late as 140, but many think that it is earlier. The book was written
with the practical purpose of guiding rightly the Christians in Rome.
There is nothing in Hermas which really contradicts anything in 1
Clement, but it supplements it in several directions. In the first
place, like Clement, it attaches great importance to the Church. No
salvation is possible except in the Church, and those who are and
remain in it secure eternal life, or, in the phrase of Hermas himself,
"live to God." The only point on which Hermas is really different is
that he seems to have nothing to say about a resurrection, and
apparently was content with immortality. But this may be merely an
accident and cannot be pressed.

The book throws great light on the development of thought and practice
in Rome, and its Christology is the most instructive example which we
possess of early Adoptionism.

The evidence is so important, and Hermas is in general so little
studied, that the main passage (Sim. v. 2. 1 ff.) may be quoted:
"Listen to the Parable which I am going to tell you concerning Fasting.
A certain man had a field, and many servants, and on part of the field
he planted a vineyard. And he chose out a certain servant, who was
faithful, in good esteem and honour with him, and he called him and
said to him: Take this vineyard which I have planted, and fence it
until I come, and do nothing more to the {112} vineyard. And follow
this order of mine and you shall have your freedom from me. And the
master of the servant went abroad. Now when he had gone the servant
took and fenced the vineyard, and when he had finished the fencing of
the vineyard he saw that the vineyard was full of weeds. Therefore he
reasoned in himself, saying: I have finished this order of the Lord; I
will next dig this vineyard, and it will be bett