Part 17

We therefore may in a certain sense speak of the return of paganism to nature worship; but must this transformation be regarded as a retrogression toward a barbarous past, as a relapse to the level of primitive animism? If so, we should be deceived by appearances. Religions do not fall back into infancy as they grow old. The pagans of the fourth century no longer naively considered their gods as capricious genii, as the disordered powers of a confused natural philosophy; they conceived them as cosmic energies whose providential action was regulated in a harmonious system. Faith was no longer instinctive and impulsive, for erudition and reflection had reconstructed the entire theology. In a certain sense it might be said that theology had passed from the fictitious to the metaphysical state, according to the formula of Comte. It was intimately connected with the knowledge of the day, which was cherished by its last votaries with love and pride, as faithful heirs of the ancient wisdom of the Orient and Greece.[17] In many instances it was nothing but a religious form of the cosmology of the {207} period. This constituted both its strength and its weakness. The rigorous principles of astrology determined its conception of heaven and earth.

The universe was an organism animated by a God, unique, eternal and almighty. Sometimes this God was identified with the destiny that ruled all things, with infinite time that regulated all visible phenomena, and he was worshiped in each subdivision of that endless duration, especially in the months and the seasons.[18] Sometimes, however, he was compared with a king; he was thought of as a sovereign governing an empire, and the various gods then were the princes and dignitaries interceding with the rulers on behalf of his subjects whom they led in some manner into his presence. This heavenly court had its messengers or "angels" conveying to men the will of the master and reporting again the vows and petitions of his subjects. It was an aristocratic monarchy in heaven as on earth.[19] A more philosophic conception made the divinity an infinite power impregnating all nature with its overflowing forces. "There is only one God, sole and supreme," wrote Maximus of Madaura about 390, "without beginning or parentage, whose energies, diffused through the world, we invoke under various names, because we are ignorant of his real name. By successively addressing our supplications to his different members we intend to honor him in his entirety. Through the mediation of the subordinate gods the common father both of themselves and of all men is honored in a thousand different ways by mortals who are thus in accord in spite of their discord."[20]

However, this ineffable God, who comprehensively embraces everything, manifests himself especially in {208} the resplendent brightness of the ethereal sky.[21] He reveals his power in water and in fire, in the earth, the sea and the blowing of the winds; but his purest, most radiant and most active epiphany is in the stars whose revolutions determine every event and all our actions. Above all he manifests himself in the sun, the motive power of the celestial spheres, the inexhaustible seat of light and life, the creator of all intelligence on earth. Certain philosophers like the senator Praetextatus, one of the _dramatis personae_ of Macrobius, confounded all the ancient divinities of paganism with the sun in a thorough-going syncretism.[22]

Just as a superficial observation might lead to the belief that the theology of the last pagans had reverted to its origin, so at first sight the transformation of the ritual might appear like a return to savagery. With the adoption of the Oriental mysteries barbarous, cruel and obscene practices were undoubtedly spread, as for instance the masquerading in the guise of animals in the Mithraic initiations, the bloody dances of the _galli_ of the Great Mother and the mutilations of the Syrian priests. Nature worship was originally as "amoral" as nature itself. But an ethereal spiritualism ideally transfigured the coarseness of those primitive customs. Just as the doctrine had become completely impregnated with philosophy and erudition, so the liturgy had become saturated with ethical ideas.

The taurobolium, a disgusting shower-bath of lukewarm blood, had become a means of obtaining a new and eternal life; the ritualistic ablutions were no longer external and material acts, but were supposed to cleanse the soul of its impurities and to restore its original innocence; the sacred repasts {209} imparted an intimate virtue to the soul and furnished sustenance to the spiritual life. While efforts were made to maintain the continuity of tradition, its content had slowly been transformed. The most shocking and licentious fables were metamorphosed into edifying narratives by convenient and subtle interpretations which were a joy to the learned mythographers. Paganism had become a school of morality, the priest a doctor and director of the conscience.[23]

The purity and holiness imparted by the practice of sacred ceremonies were the indispensable condition for obtaining eternal life.[24] The mysteries promised a blessed immortality to their initiates, and claimed to reveal to them infallible means of effecting their salvation. According to a generally accepted symbol, the spirit animating man was a spark, detached from the fires shining in the ether; it partook of their divinity and so, it was believed, had descended to the earth to undergo a trial. It could literally be said that

"Man is a fallen god who still remembers heaven."

After having left their corporeal prisons, the pious souls reascended towards the celestial regions of the divine stars, to live forever in endless brightness beyond the starry spheres.[25]

But at the other extremity of the world, facing this luminous realm, extended the somber kingdom of evil spirits. They were irreconcilable adversaries of the gods and men of good will, and constantly left the infernal regions to roam about the earth and scatter evil. With the aid of the celestial spirits, the faithful had to struggle forever against their designs and seek to avert their anger by means of bloody sacrifices. {210} But, with the help of occult and terrible processes, the magician could subject them to his power and compel them to serve his purposes. This demonology, the monstrous offspring of Persian dualism, favored the rise of every superstition.[26]

However, the reign of the evil powers was not to last forever. According to common opinion the universe would be destroyed by fire[27] after the times had been fulfilled. All the wicked would perish, but the just would be revived and establish the reign of universal happiness in the regenerated world.[28]

The foregoing is a rapid sketch of the theology of paganism after three centuries of Oriental influence. From coarse fetichism and savage superstitions the learned priests of the Asiatic cults had gradually produced a complete system of metaphysics and eschatology, as the Brahmins built up the spiritualistic monism of the Vedanta beside the monstrous idolatry of Hinduism, or, to confine our comparisons to the Latin world, as the jurists drew from the traditional customs of primitive tribes the abstract principles of a legal system that governs the most cultivated societies. This religion was no longer like that of ancient Rome, a mere collection of propitiatory and expiatory rites performed by the citizen for the good of the state; it now pretended to offer to all men a world-conception which gave rise to a rule of conduct and placed the end of existence in the future life. It was more unlike the worship that Augustus had attempted to restore than the Christianity that fought it. The two opposed creeds moved in the same intellectual and moral sphere,[29] and one could actually pass from one to the other without shock or interruption. Sometimes when {211} reading the long works of the last Latin writers, like Ammianus Marcellinus or Boëthius, or the panegyrics of the official orators,[30] scholars could well ask whether their authors were pagan or Christian. In the time of Symmachus and Praetextatus, the members of the Roman aristocracy who had remained faithful to the gods of their ancestors did not have a mentality or morality very different from that of adherents of the new faith who sat with them in the senate. The religious and mystical spirit of the Orient had slowly overcome the whole social organism and had prepared all nations to unite in the bosom of a universal church.

* * * * *

{213}

NOTES.

PREFACE.

1 We are indebted for more than one useful suggestion to our colleagues Messrs. Charles Michel and Joseph Bidez, who were kind enough to read the proofs of the French edition.

2 An outline of the present state of the subject will be found in a recent volume by Gruppe, _Griechische Mythologie_, 1906, pp. 1606 ff., whose views are sharply opposed to the negative conclusions formulated, with certain reservations, by Harnack, _Ausbreitung des Christentums_, II, pp. 274 ff. Among the latest studies intended for the general reader that have appeared on this subject, may be mentioned in Germany those of Geffcken (_Aus der Werdezeit des Christentums_, Leipsic, 1904, pp. 114 ff.), and in England those of Cheyne (_Bible Problems_, 1904), who expresses his opinion in these terms: "The Christian religion is a synthesis, and only those who have dim eyes can assert that the intellectual empires of Babylonia and Persia have fallen."--Very useful is the new book of Clemen, _Religionsgeschichtliche Erklärung des Neuen Testaments_, Giessen, 1909.

3 _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 342, n. 4; see the new texts commented on by Usener, _Rhein. Museum_, LX, 1905, pp. 466 ff.; 489 ff., and my paper "Natalis Invicti," _C. R. Acad. des inscr._, 1911.

4 See page 70. Compare also _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 341. The imitation of the church is plain in the pagan reform attempted by the emperor Julian.

5 See Harnack, _Militia Christi_, 1905.

6 I have collected a number of texts on the religious "militias" in _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 317, n. 1. Others could certainly be discovered: Apuleius, _Metam._, XI, 14: _E cohorte {214} religionis unus_ (in connection with a mystic of Isis);--Vettius Valens (V, 2, p. 220, 27, Kroll ed.): [Greek: Stratiôtai tês heimarmenês]; (VII, 3, p. 271, 28) [Greek: Sustrateuesthai tois kairois gennaiôs]. See Minucius Felix, 36, § 7: _Quod patimur non est poena, militia est._--We might also mention the commonplace term _militia Veneris_, which was popular with the Augustan poets (Propertius, IV, 1, 137; see I, 6, 30; Horace, _Od._, III, 26, and especially the parallel developed by Ovid, _Amor._, I, 9, 1 ff., and _Ars amat._, III, 233 ff.)--Socrates, in Plato's _Apologia_ (p. 28 E), incidentally likens the philosophic mission imposed on him by the divinity to the campaigns he waged under the orders of the archons, but the comparison of God with a "strategus" was developed especially by the Stoics; see Capelle, "Schrift von der Welt," _Neue Jahrb. für das klass. Altert._, XV, 1905, p. 558, n. 6, and Seneca, _Epist._, 107, 9: _Optimum est Deum sine murmuratione comitari, malus miles est qui imperatorem gemens sequitur_.--See now also Reitzenstein, _Hellenistische Mysterienreligion_, 1910, p. 66.

7 See _Rev. des études grecques_, XIV, 1901, pp. 43 ff.

8 This has been clearly shown by Wendland in connection with the idea of the [Greek: sôtêria], _Zeitschrift für neutest. Wiss._, V, 1904, pp. 355 ff. More recently he has thrown light on the general influence of Hellenistic civilization on Christianity (_Die hellenistisch-römische Kultur in ihren Beziehungen zum Judentum und Christentum_, Tübingen, 1908). A first attempt to determine the character of Hellenistic mysteries is to be found in Reitzenstein's _Hellenistische Mysterienreligion_, 1910.

I. ROME AND THE ORIENT.

1 Renan, _L'Antéchrist_, p. 130.

2 M. Krumbacher (_Byzant. Zeitschr._, XVI, 1907, p. 710) notes, in connection with the idea that I am defending here: "In ähnlicher Weise war dieser Gedanke (der Ueberflügelung des Abendlandes durch die auf allen Kulturgebieten vordringende Regsamkeit der Orientalen) kurz vorher in meiner Skizze der byzantinischen Literatur (_Kultur der Gegenwart_, I, 8 [1907], pp. 246-253) auseinandergelegt worden; es ist ein erfreulicher und bei dem Wirrsal widerstreitender Doctrinen tröstlicher Beweis für den Fortschritt der Erkenntniss, dass {215} zwei von ganz verschiedenen Richtungen ausgehende Diener der Wissenschaft sich in so wichtigen allgemeinen Fragen so nahe kommen."

3. Cf. Kornemann, "Aegyptische Einflüsse im römischen Kaiserreich" (_Neue Jahrb. für das klass. Altertum_, II, 1898, p. 118 ff.) and Otto Hirschfeld, _Die kaiserl. Verwaltungsbeamten_, 2d. ed., p. 469.

4. See Cicero's statement regarding the ancient Roman dominion (_De off._, II, 8): "Illud patrocinium orbis terrae verius quam imperium poterat nominari."

5. O. Hirschfeld, _op. cit._, pp. 53, 91, 93, etc.; cf. Mitteis, _Reichsrecht und Volksrecht_, p. 9, n. 2, etc. Thus have various institutions been transmitted from the ancient Persians to the Romans; see Ch. VI, n. 5.

6. Rostovtzew, "Der Ursprung des Kolonats" (_Beiträge zur alten Gesch._, I, 1901, p. 295); Haussoullier, _Histoire de Milet et du Didymeion_, 1902, p. 106.

7. Mitteis, _Reichsrecht und Volksrecht in den östlichen Provinzen_, 1891, pp. 8 ff.

8. Mommsen, _Gesammelte Schriften_, II, 1905, p. 366: "Seit Diocletian übernimmt der östliche Reichsteil, die _partes Orientis_, auf allen Gebieten die Führung. Dieser späte Sieg des Hellenismus über die Lateiner ist vielleicht nirgends auffälliger als auf dem Gebiet der juristischen Schriftstellerei."

9. De Vogüe and Duthoit, _L'Architecture civile et religieuse de la Syrie centrale_, Paris, 1866-1877.

10. This result is especially due to the researches of M. Strzygowski, but we cannot enter here into the controversies aroused by his publications: _Orient oder Rom_, 1911; _Hellas in des Orients Umarmung_, Munich, 1902, and especially _Kleinasien, ein Neuland der Kunstgeschichte_, Leipsic, 1903; [cf. the reports of Ch. Diehl, _Journal des Savants_, 1904, pp. 236 ff. = _Etudes byzantines_, 1905, pp. 336 ff.; Gabriel Millet, _Revue archéolog._, 1905, I, pp. 93 ff.; Marcel Laurent, _Revue de l'Instr. publ. en Belgique_, 1905, pp. 145 ff.]; _Mschatta_, 1904, [cf. _infra_, Ch. VI, n. 12].--M. Bréhier, "Orient ou Byzance?" (_Rev. archéol._, 1907, II, pp. 396 ff.), gives a substantial summary of the question.--In his last volume, _Amida_ (1910), M. {216} Strzygowski tries to find the source of medieval art in Mesopotamia. For this controversy see Diehl's _Manuel d'art byzantin_, 1910.

11. See also Pliny, _Epist. Traian._, 40: "Architecti tibi [in Bithynia] deesse non possunt ... cum ex Graecia etiam ad nos [at Rome] venire soliti sint."--Among the names of architects mentioned in Latin inscriptions there are a great many revealing Greek or Oriental origin (see Ruggiero, _Dizion. epigr._, s. v. "Architectus"), in spite of the consideration which their eminently useful profession always enjoyed at Rome.

12. The question of the artistic and industrial influences exercised by the Orient over Gaul during the Roman period, has been broached frequently--among others by Courajod (_Leçons du Louvre_, I, 1899, pp. 115, 327 ff.)--but it has never been seriously studied in its entirety. Michaëlis has recently devoted a suggestive article to this subject in connection with a statue from the museum of Metz executed in the style of the school of Pergamum (_Jahrb. der Gesellsch. für lothring. Geschichte_, XVII, 1905, pp. 203 ff.). By the influence of Marseilles in Gaul, and the ancient connection of that city with the towns of Hellenic Asia, he explains the great difference between the works of sculpture discovered along the upper Rhine, which had been civilized by the Italian legions, and those unearthed on the other side of the Vosges. This is a very important discovery, rich in results. We believe, however, that Michaëlis ascribes too much importance to the early Marseilles traders traveling along the old "tin road" towards Brittany and the "amber road" towards Germany. The Asiatic merchants and artisans did not set out from one point only. There were many emigrants all over the valley of the Rhone. Lyons was a half-Hellenized city, and the relations of Arles with Syria, of Nîmes with Egypt, etc., are well known. We shall speak of them in connection with the religions of those countries.

13. Even in the bosom of the church the Latin Occident of the fourth century was still subordinate to the Greek Orient, which imposed its doctrinal problems upon it (Harnack, _Mission und Ausbreitung_, II, p. 283, n. 1).

14. The sacred formulas have been collected by Alb. Dieterich, _Eine Mithrasliturgie_, pp. 212 ff. He adds [Greek: Doiê soi Osiris to psuchron hudôr], {217} _Archiv für Religionswiss_., VII, 1905, p. 504, n. 1. [Cf. _infra_, ch. IV, n. 90.] Among the hymns of greatest importance for the Oriental cults we must cite those in honor of Isis, discovered in the island of Andros (Kaibel, _Epigr._, 4028) and elsewhere (see ch. IV, n. 6). Fragments of hymns in honor of Attis have been preserved by Hippolytus (_Philosoph._, V, 9. pp. 168 ff.) The so-called orphic hymns (Abel, _Orphica_, 1883), which date back to a rather remote period, do not seem to contain many Oriental elements (see Maas, _Orpheus_, 1893, pp. 173 ff.), but this does not apply to the gnostic hymns of which we possess very instructive fragments.--Cf. _Mon. myst. de Mithra_, I, p. 313, n. 1.

15. Regarding the imitations of the stage, see Adami, _De poetis scen. Graecis hymnorum sacrorum imitatoribus_, 1901. Wünsch has shown the liturgic character of a prayer to Asklepios, inserted by Herondas into his mimiambi (_Archiv für Religionswiss._, VII, 1904, pp. 95 ff.) Dieterich believes he has found an extensive extract from the Mithraic liturgy in a magic papyrus of Paris (see _infra_, ch. VI, Bibliography). But all these discoveries amount to very little if we think of the enormous number of liturgic texts that have been lost, and even in the case of ancient Greece we know little regarding this sacred literature. See Ausfeld, _De Graecorum precationibus_, Leipsic, 1903; Ziegler, _De precationum apud Graecos formis quaestiones selectae_, Breslau, 1905; H. Schmidt, _Veteres philosophi quomodo iudicaverint de precibus_, Giessen, 1907.

16. For instance, the hymn "which the magi sung" about the steeds of the supreme god; its contents are given by Dion Chrysostom, Oral., XXXVI, 39 (see _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I. p. 298; II, p. 60).

17. I have in mind the hymns of Cleanthes (Von Arnim, _Stoic. fragm._, I, Nos. 527, 537), also Demetrius's act of renunciation in Seneca, _De Provid._, V, 5, which bears a surprising resemblance to one of the most famous Christian prayers, the _Suscipe_ of Saint Ignatius which concludes the book of Spiritual Exercises (Delehaye, _Les légendes hagiographiques_, 1905, p. 170, n. 1).--In this connection we ought to mention the prayer translated in the _Asclepius_, the Greek text {218} of which has recently been found on a papyrus (Reitzenstein, _Archiv für Religionswiss._, VII, 1904, p. 395). On pagan prayers introduced into the Christian liturgy see Reitzenstein and Wendland, _Nachrichten Ges. Wiss._, Göttingen, 1910, pp. 325 ff.

18. This point has been studied more in detail in our _Monuments relatifs aux mystères de Mithra_, from which we have taken parts of the following observations (I, pp. 21 ff.).

19. Lucian's authorship of the treatise [Greek: Peri tês Suriês theou] has been questioned but wrongly; see Maurice Croiset, _Essai sur Lucien_, 1882, pp. 63, 204. I am glad to be able to cite the high authority of Nöldeke in favor of its authenticity. Nöldeke writes me on this subject: "Ich habe jeden Zweifel daran schon lange aufgegeben.... Ich habe lange den Plan gehabt, einen Commentar zu diesem immerhin recht lehrreichen Stück zu schreiben and viel Material dazu gesammelt. Aus der Annahme der Echtheit dieser Schrift ergiebt sich mir, dass auch das [Greek: Peri astronomias] echt ist."

20. Cf. Frisch, _De compositione libri Plutarchei qui inscribitur_, [Greek: Peri Isidos], Leipsic, 1906, and the observations of Neustadt, _Berl. Philol. Wochenschr._, 1907, p. 1117.--One of Plutarch's sources is the [Greek: Ioudaika] by Apion.--See also Scott Moncrieft, _Journ. of Hell. Studies_, XIX, 1909, p. 81.

21. See ch. VII, pp. 202-203.

22. Cf. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 75, p. 219.--For Egypt see Georges Foucart, "L'art et la religion dans l'ancienne Egypte," _Revue des idées_, Nov. 15, 1908.

23. The narrative and symbolic sculpture of the Oriental cults was a preparation for that of the Middle Ages, and many remarks in Mâle's beautiful book _L'Art du XIII^e siècle en France_, can be applied to the art of dying paganism.

II. WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Boissier, _La religion romaine d'Auguste aux Antonins_, especially Bk. II, ch. II.--Jean Réville, _La religion à Rome sous les Sévères_, Paris, 1886.--Wissowa, _Religion und Cultus der Römer_, Munich, 1902, pp. 71 ff., 289 ff.--Samuel Dill, _Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius_, London, 1905.--Bigg, _The Church's Task Under the Roman Empire_, {219} Oxford, 1905.--Cf. also Gruppe, _Griech. Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte_, 1906, pp. 1519 ff.--Wendland, _Die hellenistisch-römische Kultur in ihren Beziehungen zum Judentum und zum Christentum_, Tübingen, 1907, pp. 54 f.--The monographs will be cited in connection with the different cults which they treat.

1. _Mélanges Fredericq_, Brussels, 1904, pp. 63 ff. (_Pourquoi le latin fut la seule langue liturgique de l'Occident_); cf. the observations of Lejay, _Rev. d'hist. et litt. relig._, XI, 1906, p. 370.

2. Holl, _Volkssprache in Kleinasien_ (_Hermes_, 1908, pp. 250 ff.).

3. The volume of Hahn, _Rom und Romanismus im griechisch-römischen Osten bis auf die Zeit Hadrians_ (Leipsic, 1906) discusses a period for the most part prior to the one that interests us. On the period following we have nothing but a provisional sketch by the same author, _Romanismus und Hellenismus bis auf die Zeit Justinians_ (_Philologus_, Suppl. X), 1907.

4. Cf. Tacitus, Annales, XIV, 44: "_Nationes in familiis habemus quibus diversi ritus, externa sacra aut nulla sunt._"

5. S. Reinach, _Epona_ (Extr. _Rev. archéol._). 1895.

6. The theory of the degeneration of races has been set forth in particular by Stewart Chamberlain, _Die Grundlagen des XIX. Jahrhunderts_, 3d. ed., Munich, 1901, pp. 296 ff.--The idea of selection by retrogression, of the _Ausrottung der Besten_, has been defended, as is well known, by Seeck in his _Geschichte des Untergangs der antiken Welt_, which outlines the religious consequence (II, p. 344). His system is developed in the third volume which appeared in 1909.

7. Apuleius, _Metam._, XI, 14 ff. See Preface. Manilius said of the divine stars (IV, 910; cf. II, 125),

"_Ipse vocat nostros animos ad sidera mundus_."

8. Hepding, _Attis_, pp. 178 ff., 187.

9. The intimate connection between the juridical and religious ideas of the Romans has left numerous traces even in their language. One of the most curious is the double meaning of the term _supplicium_, which stands at the same time for a supplication addressed to the gods and a punishment {220} demanded by custom, and later by law. In regard to the development of this twofold meaning, see the recent note by Richard Heinze, _Archiv für lateinische Lexicographie_, XV, pp. 90 ff. Sematology is often synonymous with the study of customs.

10 Réville, _op. cit._, p. 144.

11 On ecstasy in the mysteries in general, cf. Rohde, _Psyche_, 2d ed., pp. 315-319; in the Oriental religions cf. De Jong, _De Apuleio Isiacorum mysteriorum teste_, 1900, p. 100; De Jong, _Das antike Mysterienwesen_, Leyden, 1909. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 323.

12 Firmicus Maternus mentioned this in _De errore prof. relig._, c. 8.

13 For Babylonia, cf. Strab., XVI, 1, § 6, and _infra_, ch. V, n. 51; for Egypt, _id._, XVII, 21, § 46. From the very interesting account Otto has written of the science of the Egyptian priests during the Hellenistic period (_Priester und Tempel_, II, pp. 211 ff.; 234), it appears that it remained quite worthy of consideration although progress had ceased.