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 HILTON

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HIMERIA

only source of information concerning him is the Talinud, from which the following account of Hillel's career can be gathered. He was born in Babylonia, and was a descendant of the family of David. Al- though he lived in poor circumstances, his zeal for God's Law prompted him to devote himself to its study while yet in Babylon. Out of the same zeal, he went, at the age of forty it is said, to Jerusalem, where Shemaiah and Abtalion were at the time the leading teachers. In the Holy City he hired himself as a day-labourer to earn his own living and that of his family, and also to meet the expenses of receiving instruction. He thus spent the ne.xt forty years of his life, with the result that he understood, we are told, all languages, including those of the inanimate and of the brute creation, and of the demons themselves. Some time after the death of Shemaiah and Abtalion, Hillel was recognized as the best jurist of the day, and was so regarded during the last forty years of his hfe. He is also represented as the head of the Sanhedrin with the title of Nasi (prince), as the founder of a lenient school, in usual oppo.sition to the stricter school of Shammai, as the author of seven hermeneu- tic rules, as the framerof certain decrees which happily accommodated some points of the Law to the changed circumstances of his age, as the ancestor of the patri- archs who stood at the head of Palestinian Judaism till about the fifth century of our era. Hillel was sur- nanied "the Great", and also "the Elder", and over his tomb were uttered the words "Oh the gentle! Oh the piousi Oh the disciple of Esdras!" Several anec- dotes illustrating his zeal for the Law and his wonder- ful patience are embodied in the Talmud. Among the sayings ascribed to him, the following are particularly worthy of notice: " Whatever is hateful to thee, do not imto thy fellow man: this is the whole Law; the rest is mere commentary"; "Be of the di.sciples of Aaron; loving peace and pursuing peace; loving mankind and bringing them near to the Torah." It is certain that a good deal of what is contained in the Talmudic account of Hillel's career is unhistorical; for example, the division of his life into three periods of forty years each; his presidency of the Sanhedrin; his understand- ing of all languages, etc. When all this has been duly deducted, however, one cannot help feeling that he finds himself in presence of a strong personality, of a character stamped with unusual sweetness and eleva- tion. Again, when all Hillel's good deeds and wise sayings are closely examined, one can readily see that he was in truth simply a rabbi, perhaps the cleverest and best of the rabbis of his day ; a Jewish casuist rather than a deep moralist; a man who, for personal char- acter and spiritual insight and permanent influence, cannot in any way compare with, much less equal or surpass, as some have affirmed of late, Christ, the Light, and Saviour of the World. It has been ably argued that the Pollion referred to a few times by Josephus is Hillel under a Greek name.

Catholic authors: von Himpel in TCiVrAenZear., s.v.: FotJARD, Lije of Christ, tr. (New York. 1891); I.E Camus, Life of Christ, tr. (New York, 1906); DuLLiNGEn, The Gentile and the Jew, tr. (London, 1906). — Non-Catholic authors: Ewald, History of Israel, tr., V (London, 1874); Fahrab, Life of Christ, vol'. II, Excursus iii (London, 1874); Taylor, Sayings of the Jeu'ish Fathers (Cambridge, 1877); Fz. Delitzsch. Jesus and Hillel, 3rd ed. (Erlan^en, 1879); Schechter, Ahoth de Rabbi Nathan (Vienna, 1887); SciiiiRER, The Jeivish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, tr., 2.5 (New York, 1891); Gratz. History of the Jews, tr., Ill (Philadelphia, 1894).

Francis E. Gigot.

Hilton, Waltf.r, .-Vugustinian mystic, d. 24 March, l.'SOf). Little is known of his life, save that he was the head of a house of .\ugustinian Canons at Thurgarton, near Newark, in Nottinghamshire. He was closely in touch with the Carthusians, though not a member of that order. A man of great sanctity, his spiritual writings were widely influential during the fifteenth century in England. The most famous of these is the "Scala Perfectionis", or "Ladder of Perfection", in

two books, first printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1494. This work may be described as a guide-book for the journey to the spiritual Jerusalem, which is "con- templation in perfect love of God". The soul is reformed to the image and likeness of God, first in faith only, and then in faith and in feeling. Speeded by humility and love, it passes through the mystical dark night, which "is nought else but a forbearing and a withdrawing of the thought and of the soul from earthly things by great desire and yearning for to love and see and feel Jesus and spiritual things". By the gift of love all the vices are destroyed, and tlie soul at length becomes a perfect lover of Jesus, "fully united to Him with softness of love". His presence is the life of the soul, even as the soul is the life of the body. Purified to know His secret voice, its spiritual eyes are opened to see His workings in all things and to behold His blessed nature. Hilton's mystical system is, in the main, a simplification of that of Richard of St. Victor, and, like Richard, he humbly disclaims any personal experience of the Divine familiarity which he describes, declaring that he has not the grace of con- templation himself "in feehng and in working, as I have it in talking". The book is distinguished by beauty of thought and simplicity of expression; it is illustrated by homely, but efl'ective imagery, anil in spite of its high spirituality it is full of practical guid- ance. "A soul", it concludes "that is pure, stirred up by grace to use this working, may see more of such spiritual matter in an hour than can be writ in a great book." It was translated into Latin, as "Speculum Contemplationis", or "Bacculum Contemplationis", by Thomas Fyslawe, a Carmelite.

Two other treatises by Hilton were printed in 1506 and 1521, by Pynson and Henry Pepwell, respectively: "To a Devout Man in Temporal Estate", and "The Song of Angels". The former contains spiritual counsel for the gviidance of a religious man of wealth and social position in the world, one of those to whom the nii.xed life, that is both active and contemplative, pertains; it shows how the external works that such a one has to perform may be made acceptable to God, and a means to inflame the desire to Him and to the sight of spiritual things. The latter is more purely mystical, dealing with the Divine visitations and spiritual consolations vouchsafed to a contemplative soul on earth that is in perfect charity and purified by the fire of love. A number of other works, attributed with more or less probability to Hilton, remain still unpublished. A curious tradition, dating from manu- scripts of the fifteenth century, attributes to him a treatise both in Latin and in English, entitled "Musica Ecclesiastica", which is identical with the first three books of the "De Imitatione Christi". For this reason, the latter work, now almost universally as- signed to Thomas k Kempis, has been frequently ascribed to Hilton. The probable explanation is that the "De Imitatione" reached England anonymously, and when translated into English was naturally at- tributed to the one mystical writer whose name was universally known throughout the land.

Wynkyn de Worde, The volume of Waltere Hi/Uon namyd in Latin Seala Perfereinnis enplisshed the Ladder of Perfertion (Lon- don, 1494); The Scale or Ladder of Perfection written bit Walter Hilton, ed. Cressy (London, 16.59). ed. Guy (London. 1869), ed, Dalgairns (London, 1870); Horstman, Richard Potle of Ham* pole and His Follotvers (London, 1895): Martin, in Di^t. of Nat. Biofj., S.V.; De Montmorency. Thomas u Kempis. hU Age and Book (London. 1906); Inge. Studie.-i of English MysticSi (London, 1906); Gardner. The Cell of Self-Knowle^lge (London and New York, 1909). The last-named volume includes a re- print of the treatises published by Pepwell; the Letter to a Der'out Man accompanies all later editions of the Scala Perfec tionis.

Edmund G. G.'VRdner.

Himeria, a titular see in the province of Osrhoene, suffragan of Edessa. The " Notitia" of Anastasius, in the sixth century, still mentions this see as being in that province and in the Patriarchate of Antiocb