Hermeticum Gnosticism

George Gemistos, known as Plethon, ran a Neoplatonist School in Mistra in the Peloponnese. In 1438CE, with the encouragement of Cosimo de Medici, Plethon relocated his Platonic studies to Florence. There he was outside the influence of the Roman Catholic Church and he established a humanist movement with a belief in universal Platonic religion. 

Although Plethon never mentioned the Corpus Hermeticum, he declared that within a few years the whole world would have one and the same religion. This was not to be the faith of Christ or Mohammed, he said, but another faith, which is not so different from the faith of the Gentiles. 

Shortly afterwards, in 1463CE, Cosimo de Medici s scholar Marsilio Ficino translated the Corpus Hermeticum into Latin. The idea that God had spoken directly to the pagan Egyptians, Sabians and Greeks ignited intellectual Europe  

The Corpus Hermeticum that fell into the hands of Cosimo de Medici was probably the personal copy of Michael Psellus, spirited away from Constantinople in 1453CE before the Arabs captured the city. Michael Psellus received this same copy from the Sabians of Harran in 1055CE. 

The Corpus Hermeticum is composed of Greek writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. It is apparently a collection of doctrinal and inspirational writings by several authors, as is the Bible. The Corpus Hermeticum has a number of key themes. These include the absolute goodness of God who is both One and All self-revelation of the Divine Mind in the cosmos the universe as an emanation of living beings 

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The Hermetic Tradition Represents a Non-Christian Lineage of Hellenistic Gnosticism. The Central Texts of the Tradition, the Corpus Hermeticum Were Lost to the West in Classical Times. Their Rediscovery and Translation During the Late-Fifteenth Century by the Renaissance Court of Cosimo De Medici, Provided a Seminal Force in the Development of Renaissance Thought and Culture. This Translation by G.R.S. Mead Shares 13 of the 18 Tracts. (Retranslated to the Modem by Frater Ego Esse, SOT A). 

Pulver, M. The experience of light in the Gospel of St. John, in the "Corpus Hermeticum", in Gnosticism, and in the Eastern church. Eranos Yearbooks 4 (1960) 239-266. 

Zosimos was a follower of Hermes Trismegistus, the figurehead behind the well-known collection of philosophical and religious dialogues called the corpus hermeticum, written in the first centuries of the Christian era. A prominent theme in the corpus hermeticum is the Gnostic idea that the body is a prison for the soul. The material world, according to Hermes,... 

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