[296:10] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 228.
[296:11] Matt. v. 27, 28.
On one occasion Buddha preached a sermon on the five senses and the
heart (which he regarded as a sixth organ of sense), which pertained to
guarding against the passion of lust. Rhys Davids, who, in speaking of
this sermon, says: "One may pause and wonder at finding such a sermon
preached so early in the history of the world--more than 400 years
before the rise of Christianity--and among a people who have long been
thought peculiarly idolatrous and sensual." (Buddhism, p. 60.)
[297:1] Rhys Davids' Buddhism, p. 138.
[297:2] I. Corinth. vii. 1-7.
[297:3] Rhys Davids' Buddhism, p. 103.
[297:4] John, ix. 1, 2.
This is the doctrine of transmigration clearly taught. If this man was
born blind, as punishment for some sin committed by him, this sin must
have been committed in _some former birth_.
[297:5] Hardy: Buddhist Legends, p. 181.
[297:6] See the story of his conversation with the woman of Samaria.
(John, iv. 1.) And with the woman who was cured of the "bloody issue."
(Matt. ix. 20.)
[297:7] Müller: Science of Religion, p. 245.
[297:8] Matt. v. 29.
[297:9] Hardy: Buddhist Legends, p. 134.
[297:10] Matt. xxi. 1-9.
_Bacchus_ rode in a triumphal procession, on approaching the city of
_Thebes_. "Pantheus, the king, who had no respect for the new worship
(instituted by Bacchus) forbade its rites to be performed. But when it
was known that Bacchus was advancing, men and women, but chiefly the
latter, young and old, poured forth to meet him and to join his
triumphal march. . . . It was in vain Pantheus remonstrated, commanded
and threatened. 'Go,' said he to his attendants, 'seize this vagabond
leader of the rout and bring him to me. I will soon make him confess his
false claim of heavenly parentage and renounce his counterfeit
worship.'" (Bulfinch: Age of Fable, p. 222. Compare with Matt. xxvi.;
Luke, xxii.; John xviii.)
[297:11] "There are few names among the men of the West that stand forth
as saliently as Gotama Buddha, in the annals of the East. In little more
than two centuries from his decease the system he established had spread
throughout the whole of India, overcoming opposition the most
formidable, and binding together the most discordant elements; and at
the present moment Buddhism is the prevailing religion, under various
modifications, of Tibet, Nepal, Siam, Burma, Japan, and South Ceylon;
and in China it has a position of at least equal prominence with its two
great rivals, Confucianism and Taouism. A long time its influence
extended throughout nearly three-fourths of Asia; from the steppes of
Tartary to the palm groves of Ceylon, and from the vale of Cashmere to
the isles of Japan." (R. Spence Hardy: Buddhist Leg. p. xi.)
[298:1] "Gautama was _very early_ regarded as omniscient, and absolutely
sinless. His perfect wisdom is declared by the ancient epithet of
_Samma-sambuddha_, 'the Completely Enlightened One;' found at the
commencement of every Pali text; and at the present day, in Ceylon, the
usual way in which Gautama is styled is _Sarwajnan-wahanse_,' the
Venerable Omniscient One.' From his perfect wisdom, according to
Buddhist belief, _his sinlessness would follow as a matter of course_.
He was the first and the greatest of the Arahats. _As a consequence of
this doctrine_ the belief soon sprang up that he could not have been,
that he was not, born as ordinary men are; that he had no earthly
father; that he descended of his own accord into his mother's womb from
his throne in heaven; and that he gave unmistakable signs, immediately
after his birth of his high character and of his future greatness."
(Rhys Davids' Buddhism, p. 162.)
[299:1] Gautama Buddha left behind him no written works, but the
Buddhists believe that he composed works which his immediate disciples
learned by heart in his life-time, and which were handed down by memory
in their original state until they were committed to writing. This is
not impossible: it is known that the _Vedas_ were handed down in this
manner for many hundreds of years, and none would now dispute the
enormous powers of memory to which Indian priests and monks attained,
when written books were not invented, or only used as helps to memory.
Even though they are well acquainted with writing, the monks in Ceylon
do not use books in their religions services, but, repeat, for instance,
the whole of the _Patimokkha_ on Uposatha (Sabbath) days by heart. (See
Rhys Davids' Buddhism, pp. 9, 10.)
[299:2] Compare this with the names, titles, and characters given to
Jesus. He is called the "Deliverer," (Acts, vii. 35); the "First
Begotten" (Rev. i. 5); "God blessed forever" (Rom. ix. 5); the "Holy
One" (Luke, iv. 34; Acts, iii. 14); the "King Everlasting" (Luke, i.
33); "King of Kings" (Rev. xvii. 14); "Lamb of God" (John, i. 29, 36);
"Lord of Glory" (I. Cor. ii. 8); "Lord of Lords" (Rev. xvii. 14); "Lion
of the tribe of Judah" (Rev. v. 5); "Maker and Preserver of all things"
(John, i. 3, 10; I. Cor. viii. 6; Col. i. 16); "Prince of Peace" (Isai.
ix. 6); "Redeemer," "Saviour," "Mediator," "Word," &c., &c.
[300:1] Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, p. 41.
[300:2] "He joined to his gifts as a thinker a prophetic ardor and
missionary zeal which prompted him to popularize his doctrine, and to
preach to all without exception, men and women, high and low, ignorant
and learned alike." (Rhys Davids' Buddhism, p. 53.)
[300:3] Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, p. 45.
[300:4] Ibid. p. 46.
[300:5] "The success of Buddhism was in great part due to the reverence
the Buddha inspired by his own personal character. He practiced honestly
what he preached enthusiastically. He was sincere, energetic, earnest,
self-sacrificing, and devout. Adherents gathered in thousands around the
person of the consistent preacher, and the Buddha himself became the
real centre of Buddhism." (Williams' Hinduism, p. 102.)
[300:6] "It may be said to be the prevailing religion of the world. Its
adherents are estimated at _four hundred millions_, more than a third of
the human race." (Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Buddhism." See also,
Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 251.)
[301:1] It should be understood that the Buddha of this chapter, and in
fact, the Buddha of _this_ work, is _Gautama_ Buddha, the Sakya Prince.
According to Buddhist belief there have been many different Buddhas on
earth. _The names_ of _twenty-four_ of the Buddhas who appeared previous
to Gautama have been handed down to us. The _Buddhavansa_ or "History of
the Buddhas," gives the lives of all the previous Buddhas before
commencing the account of Gautama himself. (See Rhys Davids' Buddhism,
pp. 179, 180.)
[301:2] "The date usually fixed for Buddha's death is 543 B. C. Whether
this precise year for one of the greatest epochs in the religious
history of the human race can be accepted is doubtful, but it is
tolerably certain that Buddhism arose in Behar and Eastern Hindustan
about five centuries B. C.; and that it spread with great rapidity, _not
by force of arms, or coercion of any kind_, like Muhammedanism, but by
the sheer persuasiveness of its doctrine." (Monier Williams' Hinduism,
p. 72.)
[301:3] "Of the high antiquity of Buddhism there is much collateral as
well as direct evidence--evidence that neither internecine nor foreign
strife, not even religious persecution, has been able to destroy. . . .
Witness the gigantic images in the caves of Elephanta, near Bombay and
those of Lingi Sara, in the interior of Java, all of which are known to
have been in existence at least four centuries prior to our Lord's
advent." (The Mammoth Religion.)
[301:4] Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 250.
[302:1] Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. vi.
[302:2] Ibid. pp. x. and xi.
[302:3] Ibid. pp. vii., ix. and _note_.
[303:1] Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 50.
[303:2] Quoted by Prof. Beal: Hist. Buddha, p. viii.
[303:3] Rhys Davids' Buddhism, p. 86.
[303:4] Science of Religion, p. 243.
[303:5] Rhys Davids' Buddhism.
[303:6] Ibid. p. 184.
"It is surprising," says Rhys Davids, "that, like Romans worshiping
Augustus, or Greeks adding the glow of the sun-myth to the glory of
Alexander, the Indians should have formed an ideal of their Chakravarti,
and transferred to this new ideal many of the dimly sacred and half
understood traits of the Vedic heroes? Is it surprising that the
Buddhists should have found it edifying to recognize in _their_ hero the
Chakravarti of Righteousness, and that the story of the Buddha should be
tinged with the coloring of these Chakravarti myths?" (Ibid. Buddhism,
p. 220.)
[303:7] In Chapter xxxix., we shall explain the _origin_ of these myths.
CHAPTER XXX.
THE EUCHARIST OR LORD'S SUPPER.
We are informed by the _Matthew_ narrator that when Jesus was eating his
last supper with the disciples,
"He took bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to
the disciples, and said, Take, eat, _this is my body_. And he
took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying,
drink ye all of it, _for this is my blood_ of the New
Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of
sins."[305:1]
According to Christian belief, Jesus _instituted_ this
"_Sacrament_"[305:2]--as it is called--and it was observed by the
primitive Christians, as he had enjoined them; but we shall find that
this breaking of bread, and drinking of wine,--_supposed to be the body
and blood of a god_[305:3]--is simply another piece of Paganism imbibed
by the Christians.
The _Eucharist_ was instituted many hundreds of years before the time
assigned for the birth of Christ Jesus. Cicero, the greatest orator of
Rome, and one of the most illustrious of her statesmen, born in the year
106 B. C., mentions it in his works, and wonders at the strangeness of
the rite. "How can a man be so stupid," says he, "as to imagine that
which he eats to be a God?" There had been an esoteric meaning attached
to it from the first establishment of the _mysteries_ among the Pagans,
and the Eucharistia is one of the oldest rites of antiquity.
The adherents of the Grand Lama in Thibet and Tartary offer to their god
a sacrament of _bread and wine_.[305:4]
P. Andrada La Crozius, a French missionary, and one of the first
Christians who went to Nepaul and Thibet, says in his "History of
India:"
"Their Grand Lama celebrates a species of sacrifice with
_bread_ and _wine_, in which, after taking a small quantity
himself, he distributes the rest among the Lamas present at
this ceremony."[306:1]
In certain rites both in the _Indian_ and the _Parsee_ religions, the
devotees drink the juice of the Soma, or _Haoma_ plant. They consider it
a _god_ as well as a plant, just as the wine of the Christian sacrament
is considered both the juice of the grape, and the blood of the
Redeemer.[306:2] Says Mr. Baring-Gould:
"Among the ancient Hindoos, _Soma_ was a chief deity; he is
called 'the Giver of Life and of health,' the 'Protector,' he
who is 'the Guide to Immortality.' He became incarnate among
men, was taken by them and slain, and brayed in a mortar. But
he rose in flame to heaven, to be the 'Benefactor of the
World,' and the 'Mediator between God and Man.' Through
communion with him in his sacrifice, man, (who partook of this
god), has an assurance of immortality, for by that _sacrament_
he obtains union with his divinity."[306:3]
The ancient _Egyptians_--as we have seen--annually celebrated the
_Resurrection_ of their God and Saviour _Osiris_, at which time they
commemorated his death by the _Eucharist_, eating the sacred cake, or
wafer, _after it had been consecrated by the priest, and become
veritable flesh of his flesh_.[306:4] The bread, after sacerdotal rites,
became mystically the body of _Osiris_, and, in such a manner, _they ate
their god_.[306:5] Bread and wine were brought to the temples by the
worshipers, as offerings.[306:6]
The _Therapeutes_ or _Essenes_, whom we believe to be of Buddhist
origin, and who lived in large numbers in Egypt, also had the ceremony
of the sacrament among them.[306:7] Most of them, however, being
temperate, substituted water for wine, while others drank a mixture of
water and wine.
Pythagoras, the celebrated Grecian philosopher, who was born about the
year 570 B. C., performed this ceremony of the _sacrament_.[306:8] He is
supposed to have visited Egypt, and there availed himself of all such
mysterious lore as the priests could be induced to impart. He and his
followers practiced asceticism, and peculiarities of diet and clothing,
similar to the Essenes, which has led some scholars to believe that he
instituted the order, but this is evidently not the case.
The Kenite "King of Righteousness," _Melchizedek_, "a priest of the Most
High God," brought out BREAD _and_ WINE as a _sign_ or _symbol_ of
worship; as _the mystic elements of Divine presence_. In the visible
symbol of _bread and wine_ they worshiped _the invisible presence of the
Creator of heaven and earth_.[307:1]
To account for this, Christian divines have been much puzzled. The Rev.
Dr. Milner says, in speaking of this passage:
"It was in offering up a sacrifice of bread and wine, instead
of slaughtered animals, that Melchizedek's sacrifice differed
from the generality of those in the old law, and that he
_prefigured_ the sacrifice which Christ was to _institute_ in
the new law from the same elements. No other sense than this
can be elicited from the Scripture as to this matter; and
accordingly the holy fathers unanimously adhere to this
meaning."[307:2]
This style of reasoning is in accord with the TYPE theory concerning the
Virgin-born, Crucified and Resurrected Saviours, but it is not
altogether satisfactory. If it had been said that the religion of
Melchizedek, and the religion of the Persians, were the _same_, there
would be no difficulty in explaining the passage.
Not only were bread and wine brought forth by Melchizedek when he
blessed Abraham, but it was offered to God and eaten before him by
Jethro and the elders of Israel, and some, at least, of the _mourning_
Israelites broke bread and drank "the cup of consolation," in
remembrance of the departed, "to comfort them for the dead."[307:3]
It is in the ancient religion of Persia--the religion of Mithra, the
Mediator, the Redeemer and Saviour--that we find the nearest resemblance
to the sacrament of the Christians, and from which it was evidently
borrowed. Those who were initiated into the mysteries of Mithra, or
became _members_, took the sacrament of bread and wine.[307:4]
M. Renan, speaking of _Mithraicism_, says:
"It had its mysterious meetings: its chapels, which bore a
strong resemblance to little churches. It forged a very
lasting bond of brotherhood between its initiates: it had a
_Eucharist_, a Supper so like the Christian Mysteries, that
good Justin Martyr, the Apologist, can find only one
explanation of the apparent identity, namely, that Satan, in
order to deceive the human race, determined to imitate the
Christian ceremonies, and so stole them."[307:5]
The words of St. Justin, wherein he alludes to this ceremony, are as
follows:
"The apostles, in the commentaries written by themselves,
which we call Gospels, have delivered down to us how that
Jesus thus commanded them: He having taken bread, _after he
had given thanks_,[308:1] said, Do this in commemoration of
me; this is my body. And having taken a cup, and returned
thanks, he said: This is my blood, and delivered it to them
alone. Which thing indeed the evil spirits have taught to be
done out of mimicry in the Mysteries and Initiatory rites of
Mithra.
"For you either know, or can know, that bread and a cup of
water (or wine) are given out, with certain incantations, in
the consecration of the person who is being initiated in the
Mysteries of Mithra."[308:2]
This food they called the Eucharist, of which no one was allowed to
partake but the persons who believed that the things they taught were
true, and who had been washed with the washing that is for the remission
of sin.[308:3] Tertullian, who flourished from 193 to 220 A. D., also
speaks of the Mithraic devotees celebrating the Eucharist.[308:4]
The Eucharist of the Lord and Saviour, as the Magi called Mithra, the
second person in their Trinity, or their Eucharistic sacrifice, was
always made exactly and in every respect the same as that of the
orthodox Christians, for both sometimes used water instead of wine, or a
mixture of the two.[308:5]
The Christian Fathers often liken their rites to those of the Therapeuts
(Essenes) and worshipers of Mithra. Here is Justin Martyr's account of
Christian initiation:
"But we, after we have thus washed him who has been convinced
and assented to our teachings, bring him to the place where
those who are called _brethren_ are assembled, in order that
we may offer hearty prayers in common for ourselves and the
_illuminated_ person. Having ended our prayers, we salute one
another with a kiss. There is then brought to the president of
the brethren _bread and a cup of wine mixed with water_. When
the president has given thanks, and all the people have
expressed their assent, those that are called by us _deacons_
give to each of those present to partake of the bread and wine
mixed with water."[308:6]
In the service of Edward the Sixth of England, water is directed to be
mixed with the wine.[309:1] This is a union of the two; not a half
measure, but a double one. If it be correct to take it with wine, then
they were right; if with water, they still were right; as they took
both, they could not be wrong.
The _bread_, used in these Pagan Mysteries, was carried in _baskets_,
which practice was also adopted by the Christians. St. Jerome, speaking
of it, says:
"Nothing can be richer than one who carries _the body of
Christ_ (viz.: _the bread_) in a basket made of twigs."[309:2]
The Persian Magi introduced the worship of Mithra into Rome, and his
mysteries were solemnized in a _cave_. In the process of initiation
there, candidates were also administered the sacrament of _bread and
wine_, and were marked on the forehead with the sign of the
cross.[309:3]
The ancient _Greeks_ also had their "_Mysteries_," wherein they
celebrated the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The Rev. Robert Taylor,
speaking of this, says:
"The _Eleusinian_ Mysteries, or, Sacrament of the Lord's
Supper, was the most august of all the Pagan ceremonies
celebrated, more especially by the Athenians, every fifth
year,[309:4] in honor of _Ceres_, the goddess of corn, who, in
allegorical language, _had given us her flesh to eat_; as
_Bacchus_, the god of wine, in like sense, _had given us his
blood to drink_. . . .
"From these ceremonies is derived the very name attached to
our _Christian_ sacrament of the Lord's Supper,--'_those holy
Mysteries_;'--and not one or two, but absolutely all and every
one of the observances used in our Christian solemnity. Very
many of our forms of expression in that solemnity are
precisely the same as those that appertained to the Pagan
rite."[309:5]
Prodicus (a Greek sophist of the 5th century B. C.) says that, the
ancients worshiped _bread_ as Demeter (_Ceres_) and _wine_ as Dionysos
(_Bacchus_);[309:6] therefore, when they ate the bread, and drank the
wine, after it had been consecrated, they were doing as the Romanists
claim to do at the present day, _i. e._, _eating the flesh and drinking
the blood of their god_.[309:7]
Mosheim, the celebrated ecclesiastical historian, acknowledges that:
"The profound respect that was paid to the Greek and Roman
_Mysteries_, and the extraordinary sanctity that was
attributed to them, induced the Christians of the second
century, to give _their_ religion a _mystic_ air, in order to
put it upon an equal footing in point of dignity, with that of
the Pagans. For this purpose they gave the name of _Mysteries_
to the institutions of the Gospels, and decorated particularly
the 'Holy Sacrament' with that title; they used the very terms
employed in the _Heathen Mysteries_, and adopted some of the
rites and ceremonies of which those renowned mysteries
consisted. This imitation began in the eastern provinces; but,
after the time of Adrian, who first introduced the mysteries
among the Latins, it was followed by the Christians who dwelt
in the western part of the empire. A great part, therefore, of
the service of the Church in this--the second--century, had a
certain air of the Heathen Mysteries, and resembled them
considerably in many particulars."[310:1]
_Eleusinian Mysteries_ and _Christian Sacraments Compared_.
1. "But as the benefit of Initiation was great, such as were convicted
of witchcraft, murder, even though unintentional, or any other heinous
crimes, were debarred from those mysteries."[310:2]
1. "For as the benefit is great, if, with a true penitent
heart and lively faith, we receive that holy sacrament, &c.,
if any be an open and notorious evil-liver, or hath done wrong
to his neighbor, &c., that he presume not to come to the
Lord's table."[310:3]
2. "At their entrance, purifying themselves, by washing their hands in
_holy water_, they were at the same time admonished to present
themselves with pure minds, without which the external cleanness of the
body would by no means be accepted."[310:4]
2. See the fonts of _holy water_ at the entrance of every
Catholic chapel in Christendom for the same purpose.
"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of
faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience,
and our bodies washed with pure water."[310:5]
3. "The priests who officiated in these sacred solemnities, were called
Hierophants, or '_revealers of holy things_.'"[310:6]
3. The priests who officiate at these Christian solemnities
are supposed to be 'revealers of holy things.'
4. The Pagan Priest dismissed their congregation with these words:
"_The Lord be with you._"[310:7]
4. The Christian priests dismiss their congregation with these
words:
"_The Lord be with you._"
These Eleusinian Mysteries were accompanied with various rites,
expressive of the purity and self-denial of the worshiper, and were
therefore considered to be an expiation of past sins, and to place the
initiated under the special protection of the awful and potent goddess
who presided over them.[310:8]
These _mysteries_ were, as we have said, also celebrated in honor of
_Bacchus_ as well as _Ceres_. A consecrated cup of wine was handed
around after supper, called the "Cup of the Agathodaemon"--the Good
Divinity.[311:1] Throughout the whole ceremony, the name of the _Lord_
was many times repeated, and his brightness or glory not only exhibited
to the eye by the rays which surrounded his name (or his monogram, I. H.
S.), but was made the peculiar theme or subject of their triumphant
exultation.[311:2]
The mystical wine and bread were used during the Mysteries of _Adonis_,
the Lord and Saviour.[311:3] In fact, the communion of bread and wine
was used in the worship of nearly every important deity.[311:4]
The rites of _Bacchus_ were celebrated in the British Islands in heathen
times,[311:5] and so were those of _Mithra_, which were spread over Gaul
and Great Britain.[311:6] We therefore find that the ancient _Druids_
offered the sacrament of bread and wine, during which ceremony they were
dressed in white robes,[311:7] just as the Egyptian priests of Isis were
in the habit of dressing, and as the priests of many Christian sects
dress at the present day.
Among some negro tribes in Africa there is a belief that "on eating and
drinking consecrated food they eat and drink the god himself."[311:8]
The ancient _Mexicans_ celebrated the mysterious sacrament of the
Eucharist, called the "most holy supper," during which they ate the
flesh of their god. The bread used at their Eucharist was made of _corn_
meal, which they mixed with _blood_, instead of wine. This was
_consecrated_ by the priest, and given to the people, who ate it with
humility and penitence, _as the flesh of their god_.[311:9]
Lord Kingsborough, in his "_Mexican Antiquities_," speaks of the ancient
Mexicans as performing this sacrament; when they made a cake, which they
called _Tzoalia_. The high priest blessed it in his manner, after which
he broke it into pieces, and put it into certain very clean vessels. He
then took a thorn of _maguery_, which resembles a thick needle, with
which he took up with the utmost reverence single morsels, _which he put
into the mouth of each individual, after the manner of a
communion_.[311:10]
The writer of the "Explanation of Plates of the _Codex
Vaticanus_,"--which are copies of Mexican _hieroglyphics_--says:
"I am disposed to believe that these poor people have had the
knowledge of our mode of communion, or of the annunciation of
the gospel; or perhaps the _devil_, most envious of the honor
of God, may have led them into this superstition, in order
that by this ceremony he might be adored and served as Christ
our Lord."[312:1]
The Rev. Father Acosta says:
"That which is most admirable in the hatred and presumption of
Satan is, that he hath not only counterfeited in idolatry and
sacrifice, but also in certain ceremonies, _our Sacraments_,
which Jesus Christ our Lord hath instituted and the holy
Church doth use, having especially pretended to imitate in
some sort the _Sacrament of the Communion_, which is the most
high and divine of all others."
He then relates how the _Mexicans_ and _Peruvians_, in certain
ceremonies, ate the flesh of their god, and called certain morsels of
paste, "the flesh and bones of _Vitzilipuzlti_."
"After putting themselves in order about these morsels and
pieces of paste, they used certain ceremonies with singing, by
means whereof they (the pieces of paste) were blessed and
consecrated for the flesh and bones of this idol."[312:2]
These facts show that the _Eucharist_ is another piece of Paganism
adopted by the Christians. The story of Jesus and his disciples being at
supper, where the Master did break bread, may be true, but the statement
that he said, "Do this in remembrance of me,"--"this is my body," and
"this is my blood," was undoubtedly invented to give authority to the
_mystic_ ceremony, which had been borrowed from Paganism.
Why should they do this in remembrance of Jesus? Provided he took this
supper with his disciples--which the _John_ narrator denies[312:3]--he
did not do anything on that occasion new or unusual among Jews. To
pronounce the benediction, break the bread, and distribute pieces
thereof to the persons at table, was, and is now, a common usage of the
Hebrews. Jesus could not have commanded born Jews to do in remembrance
of him what they already practiced, and what every religious Jew does to
this day. The whole story is evidently a myth, as a perusal of it with
the eye of a critic clearly demonstrates.
The _Mark_ narrator informs us that Jesus sent two of his disciples to
the city, and told them this:
"Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a
pitcher of water; follow him. And wheresoever he shall go in,
say ye to the _goodman_ of the house, The Master saith, Where
is the guest-chamber, where I shall eat the passover with my
disciples? And he will show you a large upper room _furnished
and prepared_: there make ready for us. And his disciples went
forth, and came into the city, and found as he had said unto
them: and they made ready the passover."[313:1]
The story of the passover or the last supper, seems to be introduced in
this unusual manner to make it manifest that a divine power is
interested in, and conducting the whole affair, parallels of which we
find in the story of Elieser and Rebecca, where Rebecca is to identify
herself in a manner pre-arranged by Elieser with God;[313:2] and also in
the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, where by God's
directions a journey is made, and the widow is found.[313:3]
It suggests itself to our mind that this style of connecting a
supernatural interest with human affairs was not entirely original with
the Mark narrator. In this connection it is interesting to note that a
man in Jerusalem should have had an unoccupied and _properly_ furnished
room just at _that_ time, when two millions of pilgrims sojourned in and
around the city. The man, it appears, was not distinguished either for
wealth or piety, for his _name_ is not mentioned; he was not present at
the supper, and no further reference is made to him. It appears rather
that the Mark narrator imagined an ordinary man who had a furnished room
to let for such purposes, and would imply that Jesus knew it
_prophetically_. He had only to pass in his mind from Elijah to his
disciple Elisha, for whom the great woman of Shunem had so richly
furnished an upper chamber, to find a like instance.[313:4] _Why should
not somebody have furnished also an upper chamber for the Messiah?_
The Matthew narrator's account is free from these embellishments, and
simply runs thus: Jesus said to some of his disciples--the number is not
given--
"Go into the city to such a man, and say unto him, The Master
saith, My time is at hand; I will keep the passover at thy
house with my disciples. And the disciples did as Jesus had
appointed them; and _they_ made ready the passover."[313:5]
In this account, no pitcher, no water, no prophecy is mentioned.[313:6]
It was many centuries before the genuine heathen doctrine of
_Transubstantiation_--a change of the elements of the Eucharist into
the _real_ body and blood of Christ Jesus--became a tenet of the
Christian faith. This greatest of mysteries was developed gradually. As
early as the second century, however, the seeds were planted, when we
find Ignatius, Justin Martyr, and Irenæus advancing the opinion, that
the mere bread and wine became, in the Eucharist, _something
higher_--the earthly, something heavenly--without, however, ceasing to
be bread and wine. Though these views were opposed by some eminent
individual Christian teachers, yet both among the people and in the
ritual of the Church, the miraculous or supernatural view of the Lord's
Supper gained ground. After the third century the office of presenting
the bread and wine came to be confined to the _ministers_ or _priests_.
This practice arose from, and in turn strengthened, the notion which was
gaining ground, that in this act of presentation by the priest, a
sacrifice, similar to that once offered up in the death of Christ Jesus,
though bloodless, was ever anew presented to God. This still deepened
the feeling of _mysterious_ significance and importance with which the
rite of the Lord's Supper was viewed, and led to that gradually
increasing splendor of celebration which took the form of the _Mass_. As
in Christ Jesus two distinct natures, the divine and the human, were
wonderfully combined, so in the Eucharist there was a corresponding
union of the earthly and the heavenly.
For a long time there was no formal declaration of the mind of the
Church on the _real presence_ of Christ Jesus in the Eucharist. At
length a _discussion_ on the point was raised, and the most
distinguished men of the time took part in it. One party maintained that
"the bread and wine are, in the act of consecration, transformed by the
omnipotence of God into the _very body_ of Christ which was once born of
Mary, nailed to the cross, and raised from the dead." According to this
conception, nothing remains of the bread and wine but the outward form,
the taste and the smell; while the other party would only allow that
there is _some change_ in the bread and wine themselves, but granted
that an actual transformation of their power and efficacy takes place.
The greater accordance of the first view with the credulity of the age,
its love for the wonderful and magical, the interest of the priesthood
to add lustre, in accordance with the heathens, to a rite which enhanced
their own office, resulted in the doctrine of Transubstantiation being
declared an article of faith of the Christian Church.
Transubstantiation, the invisible change of the bread and wine into the
body and blood of Christ, is a tenet that may defy the powers of
argument and pleasantry; but instead of consulting the evidence of their
senses, of their sight, their feeling, and their taste, the first
Protestants were entangled in their own scruples, and awed by the
reputed words of Jesus in the institution of the sacrament. Luther
maintained a _corporeal_, and Calvin a _real_ presence of Christ in the
Eucharist; and the opinion of Zuinglius, that it is no more than a
spiritual communion, a simple memorial, has slowly prevailed in the
reformed churches.[315:1]
Under Edward VI. the reformation was more bold and perfect, but in the
fundamental articles of the Church of England, a strong and explicit
declaration against the real presence was _obliterated_ in the original
copy, to please the people, or the Lutherans, or Queen Elizabeth. At the
present day, the Greek and Roman Catholics alone hold to the original
doctrine of the _real presence_.
Of all the religious observances among heathens, Jews, or Turks, none
has been the cause of more hatred, persecution, outrage, and bloodshed,
than the Eucharist. Christians persecuted one another like relentless
foes, and thousands of Jews were slaughtered on account of the Eucharist
and the Host.
FOOTNOTES:
[305:1] Matt. xxvi. 26. See also, Mark, xiv. 22.
[305:2] At the heading of the chapters named in the above note may be
seen the words: "Jesus keepeth the Passover (and) _instituteth_ the
Lord's Supper."
[305:3] According to the Roman Christians, the Eucharist is the natural
body and blood of Christ Jesus _verè et realiter_, but the Protestant
sophistically explains away these two plain words _verily_ and _indeed_,
and by the grossest abuse of language, makes them to mean _spiritually
by grace and efficacy_. "In the sacrament of the altar," says the
Protestant divine, "is the _natural_ body and blood of Christ _verè et
realiter_, verily and indeed, if you take these terms for _spiritually
by grace and efficacy_; but if you mean _really and indeed_, so that
thereby you would include a lively and movable body under the form of
bread and wine, then in that sense it is _not_ Christ's body in the
sacrament really and indeed."
[305:4] See Inman's Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 203, and Anacalypsis, i.
232.
[306:1] "Leur grand Lama célèbre une espèce de sacrifice avec du pain et
du vin dont il prend une petite quantité, et distribue le reste aux
Lamas presens à cette cérémonie." (Quoted in Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p.
118.)
[306:2] Viscount Amberly's Analysis, p. 46.
[306:3] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 401.
[306:4] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 163.
[306:5] See Ibid. p. 417.
[306:6] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 179.
[306:7] See Bunsen's Keys of St. Peter, p. 199; Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p.
60, and Lillie's Buddhism, p. 136.
[306:8] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 60.
[307:1] See Bunsen's Keys of St. Peter, p. 55, and Genesis, xiv. 18, 19.
[307:2] St. Jerome says: "Melchizédek in typo Christi panem et vinum
obtulit: et mysterium Christianum in Salvatoris sanguine et corpore
dedicavit."
[307:3] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 227.
[307:4] See King's Gnostics and their Remains, p. xxv., and Higgins'
Anacalypsis, vol. ii. pp. 58, 59.
[307:5] Renan's Hibbert Lectures, p. 35.
[308:1] In the words of Mr. King: "This expression shows that the notion
of blessing or consecrating the elements was _as yet_ unknown to the
Christians."
[308:2] Apol. 1. ch. lxvi.
[308:3] Ibid.
[308:4] De Præscriptione Hæreticorum, ch. xl. Tertullian explains this
conformity between Christianity and Paganism, by asserting that the
devil copied the Christian mysteries.
[308:5] "De Tinctione, de oblatione panis, et de imagine resurrectionis,
videatur doctiss, de la Cerda ad ea Tertulliani loca ubi de hiscerebus
agitur. Gentiles citra Christum, talia celébradant Mithriaca quæ
videbantur cum doctrinâ _eucharistæ_ et _resurrectionis_ et aliis
ritibus Christianis convenire, quæ fecerunt ex industria ad imitationem
Christianismi: unde Tertulliani et Patres aiunt eos talia fecisse, duce
diabolo, quo vult esse simia Christi, &c. Volunt itaque eos res suas ita
compârasse, ut _Mithræ mysteria essent eucharistiæ Christianæ imago_.
Sic Just. Martyr (p. 98), et Tertullianus et Chrysostomus. In suis etiam
sacris habebant Mithriaci lavacra (quasi regenerationis) in quibus
tingit et ipse (sc. sacerdos) quosdam utique credentes et fideles suos,
et expiatoria delictorum de lavacro repromittit et sic adhuc initiat
Mithræ." (Hyde: De Relig. Vet. Persian, p. 113.)
[308:6] Justin: 1st Apol., ch. lvi.
[309:1] Dr. Grabes' Notes on Irenæus, lib. v. c. 2, in Anac., vol. i. p.
60.
[309:2] Quoted in Monumental Christianity, p. 370.
[309:3] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 369.
"The Divine Presence called his angel of mercy and said unto him: 'Go
through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set
the mark of Tau ({~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER TAU~}, the headless cross) upon the foreheads of the men
that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that are done in the
midst thereof.'" Bunsen: The Angel-Messiah, p. 305.
[309:4] They were celebrated every fifth year at _Eleusis_, a town of
Attica, from whence their name.
[309:5] Taylor's Diegesis, p. 212.
[309:6] Müller: Origin of Religion, p. 181.
[309:7] "In the _Bacchic_ Mysteries a consecrated cup (of wine) was
handed around after supper, called the cup of the _Agathodaemon_."
(Cousin: Lec. on Modn. Phil. Quoted in Isis Unveiled, ii. 513. See also,
Dunlap's Spirit Hist., p. 217.)
[310:1] Eccl. Hist. cent. ii. pt. 2, sec. v.
[310:2] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 282.
[310:3] Episcopal Communion Service.
[310:4] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 282.
[310:5] Hebrews, x. 22.
[310:6] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 213.
[310:7] See Ibid.
[310:8] Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i. p. 471.
[311:1] See Dunlap's Spirit Hist., p. 217, and Isis Unveiled, vol. ii.
p. 513.
[311:2] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 214.
[311:3] See Isis Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 139.
[311:4] See Ibid. p. 513.
[311:5] See Myths of the British Druids, p. 89.
[311:6] See Dupuis: Origin of Relig. Belief, p. 238.
[311:7] See Myths of the British Druids, p. 280, and Prog. Relig. Ideas,
vol. i. p. 376.
[311:8] Herbert Spencer: Principles of Sociology, vol. i. p. 299.
[311:9] See Monumental Christianity, pp. 390 and 393.
[311:10] Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 220.
[312:1] Quoted In Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 221.
[312:2] Acosta: Hist. Indies, vol. ii. chs. xiii. and xiv.
[312:3] According to the "_John_" narrator, Jesus ate no Paschal meal,
but was captured the evening before Passover, and was crucified before
the feast opened. According to the _Synoptics_, Jesus partook of the
Paschal supper, was captured the first night of the feast, and executed
on the first day thereof, which was on a Friday. If the _John_
narrator's account is true, that of the _Synoptics_ is not, or _vice
versa_.
[313:1] Mark, xiv. 13-16.
[313:2] Gen. xxiv.
[313:3] I. Kings, xvii. 8.
[313:4] II. Kings, iv. 8.
[313:5] Matt. xxvi. 18, 19.
[313:6] For further observations on this subject, see Dr. Isaac M.
Wise's "Martyrdom of Jesus of Nazareth," a valuable little work,
published at the office of the American Israelite, Cincinnati, Ohio.
[315:1] See Gibbon's Rome, vol. v. pp. 399, 400. Calvin, after quoting
_Matt._ xxvi. 26, 27, says: "There is no doubt that as soon as these
words are added to the bread and the wine, the bread and the wine become
the _true_ body and the _true_ blood of Christ, so that the substance of
bread and wine is transmuted into the _true_ body and blood of Christ.
He who denies this calls the omnipotence of Christ in question, and
charges Christ himself with foolishness." (Calvin's Tracts, p. 214.
Translated by Henry Beveridge, Edinburgh, 1851.) In other parts of his
writings, Calvin seems to contradict this statement, and speaks of the
bread and wine in the Eucharist as being _symbolical_. Gibbon evidently
refers to the passage quoted above.
CHAPTER XXXI.
BAPTISM.
Baptism, or purification from sin by water, is supposed by many to be an
exclusive _Christian_ ceremony. The idea is that circumcision was given
up, but _baptism took its place_ as a compulsory form indispensable to
salvation, and was declared to have been instituted by Jesus himself or
by his predecessor John.[316:1] That Jesus was baptized by John may be
true, or it may not, but that he never directly enjoined his followers
to call the _heathen_ to a share in the privileges of the _Golden Age_
is gospel doctrine;[316:2] and this saying:
"Go out into _all the world_ to preach the gospel to every
creature. And whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved,
but whoever believes not shall be damned,"
must therefore be of comparatively late origin, dating from a period at
which the mission to the heathen was not only fully recognized, but even
declared to have originated with the followers of Jesus.[316:3] When the
early Christians received members among them they were _not_ initiated
by baptism, but with prayer and laying on of hands. This, says
_Eusebius_, was the "_ancient custom_," which was followed until the
time of Stephen. During his bishopric controversies arose as to whether
members should be received "after the ancient Christian custom" or by
baptism,[316:4] after the heathen custom. Rev. J. P. Lundy, who has made
ancient religions a special study, and who, being a thorough Christian
writer, endeavors to get over the difficulty by saying that:
"John the Baptist simply _adopted_ and practiced the
_universal custom_ of sacred bathing _for the remission of
sins_. Christ sanctioned it; the church inherited it from his
example."[316:5]
When we say that baptism is a _heathen_ rite adopted by the Christians,
we come near the truth. Mr. Lundy is a strong advocate of the _type_
theory--of which we shall speak anon--therefore the above mode of
reasoning is not to be wondered at.
The facts in the case are that baptism by immersion, or sprinkling in
infancy, _for the remission of sin_, was a common rite, to be found in
countries the most widely separated on the face of the earth, and the
most unconnected in religious genealogy.[317:1]
If we turn to India we shall find that in the vast domain of the
Buddhist faith the birth of children is regularly the occasion of a
ceremony, at which the priest is present. In Mongolia and Thibet this
ceremony assumes the special form of _baptism_. Candles burn and incense
is offered on the domestic altar, the priest reads the prescribed
prayers, _dips the child three times in water, and imposes on it a
name_.[317:2]
_Brahmanism_, from the very earliest times, had its initiatory rites,
similar to what we shall find among the ancient Persians, Egyptians,
Greeks and Romans. Mr. Mackenzie, in his "Royal Masonic Cyclopædia,"
(_sub voce_ "Mysteries of Hindustan,") gives a capital digest of these
mysteries from the "Indische Alterthum-Skunde" of Lassen. After an
invocation to the SUN, an oath was demanded of the aspirant, to the
effect of implicit obedience to superiors, purity of body, and
inviolable secrecy. _Water was then sprinkled over him_, suitable
addresses were made to him, &c. This was supposed to constitute the
_regeneration_ of the candidate, and he was now invested with the white
robe and the tiara. A peculiar cross was marked on his forehead, and the
Tau cross on his breast. Finally, he was given the sacred word, A. U.
M.[317:3]
The Brahmans had also a mode of baptism similar to the Christian sect of
Baptists, the ceremony being performed in a river.
The officiating Brahman priest, who was called Gooroo, or
Pastor,[318:1] rubbed mud on the candidate, _and then plunged him three
times into the water_. During the process the priest said:
"O Supreme Lord, this man is impure, like the mud of this
stream; but as water cleanses him from this dirt, _do thou
free him from his sin_."[318:2]
Rivers, as sources of fertility and purification, were at an early date
invested with a sacred character. Every great river was supposed to be
permeated with the divine essence, and its waters held to cleanse from
all moral guilt and contamination. And as the Ganges was the most
majestic, so it soon became the holiest and most revered of all rivers.
No sin too heinous to be removed, no character too black to be washed
clean by its waters. Hence the countless temples, with flights of steps,
lining its banks; hence the array of priests, called "Sons of the
Ganges," sitting on the edge of its streams, ready to aid the ablutions
of conscience-stricken bathers, and stamp them as white-washed when they
emerge from its waters. Hence also the constant traffic carried on in
transporting Ganges water in small bottles to all parts of the
country.[318:3]
The ceremony of baptism was a practice of the followers of _Zoroaster_,
both for infants and adults.
M. Beausobre tells us that:
"The ancient _Persians_ carried their infants to the temple a
few days after they were born, and presented them to the
priest before the sun, and before the fire, which was his
symbol. _Then the priest took the child and baptized it for
the purification of the soul._ Sometimes he plunged it into a
great vase full of water: it was in the same ceremony that the
father gave a name to the child."[318:4]
The learned Dr. Hyde also tells us that infants were brought to the
temples and baptized by the priests, sometimes by sprinkling and
sometimes by immersion, plunging the child into a large vase filled with
water. This was to them a regeneration, or a purification of their
souls. A name was at the same time imposed upon the child, as indicated
by the parents.[318:5]
The rite of baptism was also administered to adults in the _Mithraic_
mysteries during initiation. The foreheads of the initiated being marked
at the same time with the "_sacred sign_," which was none other than the
sign of the CROSS.[319:1] The Christian Father Tertullian, who believed
it to be the work of the devil, says:
"He BAPTIZES his believers and followers; he promises the
remission of sins at the _sacred fount_, and thus initiates
them into the religion of _Mithra_; he _marks on the forehead_
his own soldiers," &c.[319:2]
"He marks on the forehead," _i. e._, he marks _the sign of the cross_ on
their foreheads, just as priests of Christ Jesus do at the present day
to those who are initiated into the Christian mysteries.
Again, he says:
"The nations who are strangers to all spiritual powers (the
heathens), ascribe to their idols (gods) the power of
impregnating the waters with the same efficacy as in Christian
baptism." For, "in certain sacred rites of theirs, the mode of
initiation is by baptism," and "whoever had defiled himself
with murder, expiation was sought in purifying water."[319:3]
He also says that:
"The devil signed his soldiers in the forehead, in imitation
of the Christians."[319:4]
And St. Augustin says:
"The _cross_ and _baptism_ were never parted."[319:5]
The ancient _Egyptians_ performed their rite of baptism, and those who
were initiated into the mysteries of Isis were baptized.[319:6]
Apuleius of Madura, in Africa, who was initiated into these mysteries,
shows that baptism was used; that the ceremony was performed by the
attending priest, and that purification and forgiveness of sin was the
result.[319:7]
The custom of baptism in Egypt is known by the hieroglyphic term of
"_water of purification_." The water so used in immersion absolutely
cleansed the soul, _and the person was said to be regenerated_.[320:1]
They also believed in baptism _after death_, for it was held that the
dead were washed from their sins by Osiris, the beneficent saviour, in
the land of shades, and the departed are often represented (on the
sarcophagi) kneeling before Osiris, who pours over them water from a
pitcher.[320:2]
The ancient _Etruscans_ performed the rite of baptism. In _Tab._ clxxii.
Gorius gives two pictures of ancient Etruscan baptism by water. In the
first, the youth is held in the arms of one priest, and another is
pouring water upon his head. In the second, the young person is going
through the same ceremony, kneeling on a kind of altar. At the time of
its baptism the child was named, blessed and marked on the forehead with
_the sign of the cross_.[320:3]
Baptism, or the application of water, was a rite well known to the Jews
before the time of Christ Jesus, and was practiced by them when they
admitted proselytes to their religion from heathenism. When children
were baptized they received the sign of the cross, were anointed, and
fed with milk and honey.[320:4] "It was not customary, however, among
them, to baptize those who were converted to the Jewish religion, _until
after the Babylonish captivity_."[320:5] This clearly shows that they
learned the rite from their heathen oppressors.
Baptism was practiced by the ascetics of Buddhist origin, known as the
_Essenes_.[320:6] John the Baptist was, evidently, nothing more than a
member of this order, with which the deserts of Syria and the Thebais of
Egypt abounded.
The idea that man is restrained from perfect union with God by his
imperfection, uncleanness and sin, was implicitly believed by the
ancient _Greeks_ and _Romans_. In Thessaly was yearly celebrated a great
festival of cleansing. A work bearing the name of "_Museus_" was a
complete ritual of purifications. The usual mode of purification was
dipping in water (immersion), or it was performed by aspersion. These
sacraments were held to have virtue independent of the dispositions of
the candidates, an opinion which called forth the sneer of Diogenes, the
Grecian historian, when he saw some one undergoing baptism by aspersion.
"Poor wretch! do you not see that since these sprinklings
cannot repair your grammatical errors, they cannot repair
either, the faults of your life."[321:1]
And the belief that water could wash out the stains of original sin, led
the poet _Ovid_ (43 B. C.) to say:
"Ah, easy fools, to think that a whole flood
Of water e'er can purge the stain of blood."
These ancient Pagans had especial gods and goddesses who presided over
the birth of children. The goddess _Nundina_ took her name from the
ninth day, _on which all male children were sprinkled with holy
water_,[321:2] as females were on the eighth, at the same time receiving
their name, of which _addition_ to the ceremonial of Christian baptism
we find no mention in the Christian Scriptures. When all the forms of
the Pagan nundination were duly complied with, the priest gave a
certificate to the parents of the regenerated infant; it was, therefore,
duly recognized as a legitimate member of the family and of society, and
the day was spent in feasting and hilarity.[321:3]
Adults were also baptized; and those who were initiated in the sacred
rites of the _Bacchic_ mysteries were regenerated and admitted by
baptism, just as they were admitted into the mysteries of Mithra.[321:4]
Justin Martyr, like his brother Tertullian, claimed that this ablution
was invented by demons, in imitation of the _true_ baptism, that their
votaries might also have their pretended purification by water.[321:5]
Infant Baptism was practiced among the ancient inhabitants of northern
Europe--the Danes, Swedes, Norwegians and Icelanders--long before the
first dawn of Christianity had reached those parts. Water was poured on
the head of the new-born child, and a name was given it at the same
time. Baptism is expressly mentioned in the _Hava-mal_ and _Rigs-mal_,
and alluded to in other epic poems.[322:1]
The ancient _Livonians_ (inhabitants of the three modern Baltic
provinces of Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia), observed the same
ceremony; which also prevailed among the ancient _Germans_. This is
expressly stated in a letter which the famous Pope Gregory III. sent to
their apostle Boniface, directing him how to act in respect to
it.[322:2]
The same ceremony was performed by the ancient Druids of Britain.[322:3]
Among the _New Zealanders_ young children were baptized. After the
ceremony of baptism had taken place, prayers were offered to make the
child sacred, and clean from all impurities.[322:4]
The ancient _Mexicans_ baptized their children shortly after birth.
After the relatives had assembled in the court of the parents' house,
the midwife placed the child's head to the east, and prayed for a
blessing from the _Saviour_ Quetzalcoatle, and the goddess of the water.
The breast of the child was then touched with the fingers dipped in
water, and the following prayer said:
"May it (the water) destroy and separate from thee all the
evil that was beginning in thee before the beginning of the
world."
After this the child's body was washed with water, and all things that
might injure him were requested to depart from him, "that now he may
live again and be born again."[322:5]
Mr. Prescott alludes to it as follows, in his "Conquest of
Mexico:"[322:6]
"The lips and bosom of the infant were sprinkled with water,
and the Lord was implored to permit the holy drops to wash
away that sin that was given to it before the foundation of
the world, so that the child might be born anew." "This
interesting rite, usually solemnized with great formality, in
the presence of assembled friends and relations, is detailed
with minuteness by Sahagun and by Zuazo, both of them
eyewitnesses."
Rev. J. P. Lundy says:
"Now, as baptism of some kind has been the _universal custom_
of all religious nations and peoples for purification and
regeneration, it is not to be wondered at that it had found
its way from high Asia, the centre of the Old World's religion
and civilization, into the American continent. . . .
"American priests were found in Mexico, beyond Darien,
baptizing boys and girls a year old in the temples at the
cross, pouring the water upon them from a small
pitcher."[323:1]
The water which they used was called the "WATER OF REGENERATION."[323:2]
The Rev. Father Acosta alludes to this baptism by saying:
"The Indians had an infinite number of other ceremonies and
customs which resembled to the ancient law of Moses, and some
to those which the Moores use, and some approaching near to
the Law of the Gospel, as the baths or _Opacuna_, as they
called them; _they did wash themselves in water to cleanse
themselves from sin_."[323:3]
After speaking of "_confession which the Indians used_," he says:
"When the Inca had been confessed, he made a certain bath to
cleanse himself, in a running river, saying these words: '_I
have told my sins to the Sun_ (his god); _receive them, O thou
River, and carry them to the Sea, where they may never appear
more._'"[323:4]
He tells us that the Mexicans also had a baptism for infants, which they
performed with great ceremony.[323:5]
Baptism was also practiced in Yucatan. They administered it to children
three years old; and called it REGENERATION.[323:6]
The ancient Peruvians also baptized their children.[323:7]
History, then, records the fact that all the principal nations of
antiquity administered the rite of baptism to their children, and to
adults who were initiated into the sacred mysteries. The words
"_regenerationem et impunitatem perjuriorum suorum_"--used by the
heathen in this ceremony--prove that the doctrines as well as the
outward forms were the same. The giving of a name to the child, the
marking of him with the _cross_ as a sign of his being a soldier of
Christ, followed at fifteen years of age by his admission into the
mysteries of the ceremony of _confirmation_, also prove that the two
institutions are identical. But the most striking feature of all is the
_regeneration_--and consequent forgiveness of sins--the being "_born
again_." This shows that the Christian baptism in _doctrine_ as well as
in _outward ceremony_, was precisely that of the heathen. We have seen
that it was supposed to destroy all the evil in him, and all things that
might injure him were requested to depart from him. So likewise among
the Christians; the priest, looking upon the child, and baptizing him,
was formerly accustomed to say:
"I command thee, unclean spirit, in the name of the Father,
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, that thou come out and
depart from this infant, whom our Lord Jesus Christ has
vouchsafed to call to this holy baptism, to be made member of
his body and of his holy congregation. And presume not
hereafter to exercise any tyranny towards this infant, whom
Christ hath bought with his precious blood, and by this holy
baptism called to be of his flock."
The ancients also baptized with _fire_ as well as water. This is what is
alluded to many times in the gospels; for instance, Matt. (iii. 11)
makes John say, "I, indeed, baptize you with water; he shall baptize you
with the Holy Ghost and with FIRE."
The baptism by _fire_ was in use by the Romans; it was performed by
jumping _three times_ through the flames of a sacred fire. This is still
practiced in India. Even at the present day, in some parts of Scotland,
it is a custom at the baptism of children to swing them in their clothes
over a fire _three times_, saying, "_Now, fire, burn this child, or
never._" Here is evidently a relic of the heathen _baptism by fire_.
Christian baptism was not originally intended to be administered to
unconscious infants, but to persons in full possession of their
faculties, and responsible for their actions. Moreover, it was
performed, as is well known, not merely by sprinkling the forehead, but
by causing the candidate to descend naked into the water, the priest
joining him there, and pouring the water over his head. The catechumen
could not receive baptism until after he understood something of the
nature of the faith he was embracing, and was prepared to assume its
obligations. A rite more totally unfitted for administration to
_infants_ could hardly have been found. Yet such was the need that was
felt for a solemn recognition by religion of the entrance of a child
into the world, that this rite, in course of time, completely lost its
original nature, and, as with the heathen, _infancy_ took the place of
maturity: sprinkling of immersion. But while the age and manner of
baptism were altered, the ritual remained under the influence of the
primitive idea with which it had been instituted. The obligations were
no longer confined to the persons baptized, hence they must be
undertaken for them. Thus was the Christian Church landed in the
absurdity--unparalleled, we believe, in any other natal ceremony--of
requiring the most solemn promises to be made, not by those who were
thereafter to fulfill them, _but by others in their name_; these others
having no power to enforce their fulfillment, and neither those actually
assuming the engagement, nor those on whose behalf it was assumed, being
morally responsible in case it should be broken. Yet this strange
incongruity was forced upon the church by an imperious want of human
nature itself, and the insignificant sects who have adopted the baptism
of adults only, have failed, in their zeal for historical consistency,
to recognize a sentiment whose roots lie far deeper than the
chronological foundation of Christian rites, and stretch far wider than
the geographical boundaries of the Christian faith.
The intention of all these forms of baptism is identical. Water, as the
natural means of physical cleansing, is the universal symbol of
spiritual purification. Hence immersion, or washing, or sprinkling,
implies the deliverance of the infant from the stain of original
sin.[325:1] The _Pagan_ and _Christian_ rituals, as we have seen, are
perfectly clear on this head. In both, the avowed intention is to wash
away the sinful nature common to humanity; in both, the infant is
declared to be born again by the agency of water. Among the early
Christians, as with the Pagans, the sacrament of baptism was supposed to
contain a full and absolute expiation of sin; and the soul was instantly
restored to its original purity, and entitled to the promise of eternal
salvation. Among the proselytes of Christianity, there were many who
judged it imprudent to precipitate a salutary rite, which could not be
repeated; to throw away an inestimable privilege, which could never be
recovered. By the delay of their baptism, they could venture freely to
indulge their passions in the enjoyments of this world, while they still
retained in their own hands the means of a sure and easy absolution. St.
Constantine was one of these.
FOOTNOTES:
[316:1] The Rev. Dr. Geikie makes the assertion that: "With the call to
repent, John united a significant rite for all who were willing to own
their sins, and promise amendment of life. It was the _new_ and striking
requirement of baptism, _which John had been sent by divine appointment
to_ INTRODUCE." (Life of Christ, vol. i. p. 394.)
[316:2] See Galatians, ii. 7-9. Acts, x. and xi.
[316:3] See The Bible for Learners, vol. iii. pp. 658 and 472.
[316:4] See Eusebius: Eccl. Hist., lib. 7, ch. ii.
[316:5] Monumental Christianity, p. 385.
[317:1] "Among all nations, and from the very earliest period, WATER has
been used as a species of religious sacrament. . . . Water was the agent
by means of which everything was _regenerated or born again_. Hence, in
all nations, we find the Dove, or Divine Love, operating by means of its
agent, water, and all nations using the ceremony of plunging, or, as we
call it, baptizing, for the remission of sins, to introduce the
candidate to a regeneration, to a new birth unto righteousness."
(Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 529.)
"Baptism is a very ancient rite pertaining to _heathen_ religions,
whether of Asia, Africa, Europe or America." (Bonwick: Egyptian Belief,
p. 416.)
"Baptism, or purification by water, was a ceremony common to all
religions of antiquity. It consists in being made clean from some
supposed pollution or defilement." (Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 201.)
"L'usage de ce _Baptéme_ par immersion, qui subsista dans l'Occident
jusqu' au 8{e} ciècle, se maintient encore dans l'Eglise Greque: c'est
celui que Jean le _Précurseur_ administra, dans le Jourdain, à Jesus
Christ même. Il fut pratiqué chez les Juifs, chez les Grecs, _et chez
presque tous les peuples_, bien des siècles _avant_ l'existence de la
religion Chrétienne." (D'Ancarville: Res., vol. i. p. 292.)
[317:2] See Amberly's Analysis, p. 61. Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 42.
Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 69, and Lillie's Buddhism, pp. 55 and
184.
[317:3] Lillie's Buddhism, p. 134.
[318:1] Life and Religion of the Hindus, p. 94.
[318:2] Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 125.
"Every orthodox Hindu is perfectly persuaded that the dirtiest water, if
taken from a _sacred stream_ and applied to his body, either externally
or internally, _will purify his soul_." (Prof. Monier Williams:
Hinduism, p. 157.) The Egyptians bathed in the water of the Nile; the
Chaldeans and Persians in the Euphrates, and the Hindus, at we have
seen, in the Ganges, all of which were considered as "sacred waters" by
the different nations. The Jews looked upon the Jordan in the same
manner.
Herodotus, speaking of the Persians' manners, says:
"They (the Persians) neither make water, nor spit, nor wash their hands
in a river, nor defile the stream with urine, nor do they allow any one
else to do so, but they pay extreme veneration to all rivers." (Hist.
lib. i. ch. 138.)
[318:3] Williams' Hinduism, p. 176.
[318:4] Hist. Manichee, lib. ix. ch. vi. sect. xvi. in Anac., vol. ii.
p. 65. See also, Dupuis: Orig. Relig. Belief, p. 249, and Baring-Gould:
Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 392.
[318:5] "Pro infantibus non utuntur circumcisione, sed tantum baptismo
seu lotione ad animæ purificationem internam. Infantem ad sacerdotem in
ecclesiam adductum sistunt coram sole et igne, quâ factâ ceremoniâ,
eundem sanctiorem existimant. D. Lord dicit quod aquam ad hoc afferunt
in cortice arboris Holm: ea autem arbor revers est Haum Magorum, cujus
mentionem aliâ occasione supra fecimus. Alias, aliquando fit immergendo
in magnum vas aquæ, ut dicit Tavernier. Post talem lotionem seu
baptismum, sacerdos imponit nomen à parentibus inditum." (Hyde de Rel.
Vet. Pers., p. 414.) After this Hyde goes on to say, that when he comes
to be fifteen years of age he is confirmed by receiving the girdle, and
the sudra or cassock.
[319:1] See Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. xxv. Higgins: _Anac._, vol.
i pp. 218 and 222. Dunlap: Mysteries of Adoni, p. 189. King: The
Gnostics and their Remains, p. 51.
[319:2] De Præscrip. ch. xi.
[319:3] Ibid.
[319:4] "Mithra signat illic in frontibus milites suos."
[319:5] "Semper enim cruci baptismus jungitur." (Aug. Temp. Ser. ci.)
[319:6] See Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 69, and Monumental Christianity, p.
385.
[319:7] "Sacerdos, stipatum me religiosa cohorte, deducit ad proximas
balucas; et prius sueto lavraco traditum, proefatus deûm veniam,
purissime circumrorans abluit." (Apuleius: Milesi, ii. citat. a
Higgins: Anac., vol. ii. p. 69.)
[320:1] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 416. Dunlap: Mysteries Adoni, p.
139.
[320:2] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 392.
[320:3] See Higgins: Anac., vol. ii. pp. 67-69.
[320:4] Barnes: Notes, vol. i. p. 38. Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p.
65.
[320:5] Barnes: Notes, vol. i. p. 41.
[320:6] See Bunsen's Angel-Messiah, p. 121, Gainsburgh's Essenes, and
Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. ii. pp. 66, 67.
[321:1] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 391.
[321:2] "_Holy Water_"--water wherein the person is baptized, in the
name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. (Church of
England Catechism.)
[321:3] See Taylor's Diegesis, pp. 333, 334, and Higgins' Anacalypsis,
ii. p. 65.
[321:4] See Taylor's Diegesis, pp. 80 and 232, and Baring-Gould's Orig.
Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 391.
"De-là-vint, que pour devenir capable d'entendre les secrets de la
création, révélés dans ces mêmes mystères, il fallut se faire
_régénérer_ par _l'initiation_. Cette cérémonie, par laquelle, _on
apprenoit les vrais principes de la vie_, s'opéroit par le moyen de
_l'eau_ qui voit été celui de la _régénération_ du monde. On conduisoit
sur les bords de l'Ilissus le candidat qui devoit être initié; apres
l'avoir purifié avec le sel et l'eau de la mer, on repandoit de l'orge
sur lui, on le couronnoit de fleurs, et _l'Hydranos_ ou le _Baptisseur_
le plongeoit dans le fleuve." (D'Ancarville: Res., vol. i. p. 292.
Anac., ii. p. 65.)
[321:5] Taylor's Diegesis, p. 232.
[322:1] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities, pp. 306, 313, 320, 366.
Baring-Gould's Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. pp. 392, 393, and Dupuis, p.
242.
[322:2] Mallet: Northern Antiquities, p. 206.
[322:3] Baring-Gould: Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 393. Higgins:
Anac., vol. ii. p. 67, and Davies: Myths of the British Druids.
[322:4] Sir George Grey: Polynesian Mytho., p. 32, in Baring-Gould:
Orig. Relig. Belief, vol. i. p. 392.
[322:5] See Viscount Amberly's Analysis Relig. Belief, p. 59.
[322:6] Vol. i. p. 64.
[323:1] Monumental Christianity, pp. 389, 390.
[323:2] Kingsborough: Mex. Antiq., vol. vi. p. 114.
[323:3] Hist. Indies, vol. ii. p. 369.
[323:4] Ibid. p. 361.
[323:5] Ibid. p. 369.
[323:6] Monumental Christianity, p. 390.
[323:7] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, p. 416.
[325:1] That man is born in _original sin_ seems to have been the belief
of all nations of antiquity, especially the Hindus. This sense of
original corruption is expressed in the following prayer, used by them:
"I am sinful, I commit sin, my nature is sinful, _I am conceived in
sin_. Save me, O thou lotus-eyed Heri, the remover of Sin." (Williams'
Hinduism, p. 214.)
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER.
The worship of the "Virgin," the "Queen of Heaven," the "Great Goddess,"
the "Mother of God," &c., which has become one of the grand features of
the Christian religion--the Council of Ephesus (A. D. 431) having
declared Mary "Mother of God," her assumption being declared in 813, and
her Immaculate Conception by the Pope and Council in 1851[326:1]--was
almost universal, for ages before the birth of Jesus, and "the _pure
virginity_ of the celestial mother was a tenet of faith for two thousand
years before the virgin now adored was born."[326:2]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 16]
In _India_, they have worshiped, for ages, _Devi_, _Maha-Devi_--"The One
Great Goddess"[326:3]--and have temples erected in honor of her.[326:4]
Gonzales states that among the Indians he found a temple "_Parituræ
Virginis_"--of the Virgin about to bring forth.[326:5]
_Maya_, the mother of Buddha, and _Devaki_ the mother of Crishna, were
worshiped as _virgins_,[326:6] and represented with the infant Saviours
in their arms, just as the virgin of the Christians is represented at
the present day. Maya was so pure that it was impossible for God, man,
or Asura to view her with carnal desire. Fig. No. 16 is a
representation of the Virgin Devaki, with, the infant Saviour Crishna,
taken from Moor's "Hindu Pantheon."[327:1] "No person could bear to gaze
upon Devaki, because of the light that invested her." "The gods,
invisible to mortals, celebrated her praise continually from the time
that _Vishnu_ was contained in her person."[327:2]
"Crishna and his mother are almost always represented _black_,"[327:3]
and the word "_Crishna_" means "_the black_."
The _Chinese_, who have had several _avatars_, or virgin-born gods,
among them, have also worshiped a Virgin Mother from time immemorial.
Sir Charles Francis Davis, in his "History of China," tells us that the
Chinese at Canton worshiped an idol, to which they gave the name of "The
Virgin."[327:4]
The Rev. Joseph B. Gross, in his "Heathen Religion," tells us that:
"Upon the altars of the Chinese temples were placed, behind a
screen, an image of _Shin-moo_, or the '_Holy Mother_,'
_sitting with a child in her arms_, in an alcove, with rays of
glory around her head, and tapers constantly burning before
her."[327:5]
Shin-moo is called the "Mother Goddess," and the "Virgin." Her child,
who was exposed in his infancy, was brought up by poor fishermen. He
became a great man, and performed wonderful miracles. In wealthy houses
the sacred image of the "Mother Goddess" is carefully kept in a recess
behind an altar, veiled with a silken screen.[327:6]
The Rev. Mr. Gutzlaff, in his "Travels," speaking of the Chinese people,
says:
"Though otherwise very reasonable men, they have always showed
themselves bigoted heathens. . . . They have everywhere built
splendid temples, chiefly in honor of _Ma-tsoo-po_, the
'_Queen of Heaven_.'"[327:7]
_Isis_, mother of the Egyptian Saviour, Horus, was worshiped as a
virgin. Nothing is more common on the religious monuments of Egypt than
the infant Horus seated in the lap of his virgin mother. She is styled
"Our Lady," the "Queen of Heaven," "Star of the Sea," "Governess,"
"Mother of God," "Intercessor," "Immaculate Virgin," &c.;[328:1] all of
which epithets were in after years applied to the Virgin Mother
worshiped by the Christians.[328:2]
"The most common representation of Horus is being nursed on the knee of
Isis, or suckled at her breast."[328:3] In _Monumental Christianity_
(Fig. 92), is to be seen a representation of "Isis and Horus." The
infant Saviour is sitting on his mother's knee, while she gazes into his
face. A cross is on the back of the seat. The author, Rev. J. P. Lundy,
says, in speaking of it:
"Is this Egyptian mother, too, meditating her son's conflict,
suffering, and triumph, as she holds him before her and gazes
into his face? And is this CROSS meant to convey the idea of
life through suffering, and conflict with Typho or Evil?"
In some statues and _basso-relievos_, when Isis appears alone, she is
entirely veiled from head to foot, in common with nearly every other
goddess, as a symbol of a mother's chastity. No mortal man hath ever
lifted her veil.
Isis was also represented standing on the _crescent_ moon, with _twelve
stars_ surrounding her head.[328:4] In almost every Roman Catholic
Church on the continent of Europe may be seen pictures and statues of
_Mary_, the "Queen of Heaven," standing on the crescent moon, and her
head surrounded with _twelve_ stars.
Dr. Inman, in his "Pagan and Christian Symbolism," gives a figure of the
Virgin Mary, with her infant, standing on the _crescent moon_. In
speaking of this figure, he says:
"In it the Virgin is seen as the 'Queen of Heaven,' nursing
her infant, and identified with the crescent moon. . . . Than
this, nothing could more completely identify the Christian
mother and child, with Isis and Horus."[328:5]
This _crescent moon_ is the symbol of Isis and Juno, and is the _Yoni_
of the Hindoos.[328:6]
The priests of Isis yearly dedicated to her a new ship (emblematic of
the YONI), laden with the first fruits of spring. Strange as it may
seem, the carrying in procession of ships, in which the Virgin Mary
takes the place of the heathen goddesses, has not yet wholly gone out of
use.[328:7]
Isis is also represented, with the infant Saviour in her arms, enclosed
in a framework of the flowers of the Egyptian bean, or _lotus_.[328:8]
The Virgin _Mary_ is very often represented in this manner, as those who
have studied mediæval art, well know.
Dr. Inman, describing a painting of the Virgin Mary, which is to be
seen in the South Kensington Museum, and which is enclosed in a
framework of flowers, says:
"It represents the Virgin and Child precisely as she used to
be represented in Egypt, in India, in Assyria, Babylonia,
Phoenicia, and Etruria."[329:1]
The lotus and poppy were sacred among all Eastern nations, and were
consecrated to the various virgins worshiped by them. These virgins are
represented holding this plant in their hands, just as the Virgin,
adored by the Christians, is represented at the present day.[329:2] Mr.
Squire, speaking of this plant, says:
"It is well known that the '_Nymphe_'--lotus or water-lily--is
held sacred throughout the East, and the various sects of that
quarter of the globe represented their deities either
decorated with its flowers, holding it as a sceptre, or seated
on a lotus throne or pedestal. _Lacshmi_, the beautiful Hindoo
goddess, is associated with the lotus. The Egyptian _Isis_ is
often called the 'Lotus-_crowned_,' in the ancient
invocations. The Mexican goddess _Corieotl_, is often
represented with a water-plant resembling the lotus in her
hand."[329:3]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 17]
In Egyptian and Hindoo mythology, the offspring of the virgin is made to
bruise the head of the serpent, but the Romanists have given this office
to the mother. Mary is often seen represented standing on the serpent.
Fig. 17 alludes to this, and to her _immaculate conception_, which, as
we have seen, was declared by the Pope and council in 1851. The notion
of the divinity of Mary was broached by some at the Council of Nice, and
they were thence named Marianites.
The Christian Father Epiphanius accounts for the fact of the Egyptians
worshiping a virgin and child, by declaring that the prophecy--"Behold,
a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son"--must have been revealed
to them.[329:4]
In an ancient Christian work, called the "Chronicle of Alexandria,"
occurs the following:
"Watch how Egypt has constructed the childbirth of a virgin,
and the birth of her son, _who was exposed in a crib to the
adoration of the people_."[330:1]
We have another Egyptian Virgin Mother in Neith or Nout, mother of
"Osiris the Saviour." She was known as the "Great Mother," and yet
"Immaculate Virgin."[330:2] M. Beauregard speaks of
"The Immaculate Conception of the Virgin (Mary), who can
henceforth, as well as the Egyptian Minerva, the mysterious
Neith, boast of having come from herself, and of having given
birth to god."[330:3]
What is known in Christian countries as "Candlemas day," or the
Purification of the Virgin Mary, is of Egyptian origin. The feast of
Candlemas was kept by the ancient Egyptians in honor of the goddess
Neith, and on the very day that is marked on our Christian almanacs as
"Candlemas day."[330:4]
The ancient _Chaldees_ believed in a celestial virgin, who had purity of
body, loveliness of person, and tenderness of affection; and who was one
to whom the erring sinner could appeal with more chance of success than
to a stern father. She was portrayed as a mother, although a virgin,
with a child in her arms.[330:5]
The ancient Babylonians and Assyrians worshiped a goddess mother, and
son, who was represented in pictures and in images as an infant in his
mother's arms (see Fig. No. 18). Her name was _Mylitta_, the divine son
was _Tammuz_, the Saviour, whom we have seen rose from the dead. He was
invested with all his father's attributes and glory, and identified with
him. He was worshiped as _mediator_.[330:6]
There was a temple at Paphos, in Cyprus, dedicated to the Virgin
Mylitta, and was the most celebrated one in Grecian times.[330:7]
The ancient _Etruscans_ worshiped a Virgin Mother and Son, who was
represented in pictures and images in the arms of his mother. This was
the goddess _Nutria_, to be seen in Fig. No. 19. On the arm of the
mother is an inscription in Etruscan letters. This goddess was also
worshiped in Italy. Long before the Christian era temples and statues
were erected in memory of her. "To the Great Goddess Nutria," is an
inscription which has been found among the ruins of a temple dedicated
to her. No doubt the Roman Church would have claimed her for a Madonna,
but most unluckily for them, she has the name "_Nutria_," in Etruscan
letters on her arm, after the Etruscan practice.
The Egyptian _Isis_ was also worshiped in Italy, many centuries before
the Christian era, and all images of her, with the infant Horus in her
arms, have been adopted, as we shall presently see, by the Christians,
even though they represent her and her child as _black_ as an Ethiopian,
in the same manner as we have seen that Devaki and Crishna were
represented.
[Illustration: Fig. No. 18]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 19]
The children of Israel, who, as we have seen in a previous chapter, were
idolaters of the worst kind--worshiping the sun, moon and stars, and
offering human sacrifices to their god, Moloch--were also worshipers of
a Virgin Mother, whom they styled the "Queen of Heaven."
Jeremiah, who appeared in Jerusalem about the year 625 B. C., and who
was one of the prophets and reformers, rebukes the Israelites for their
idolatry and worship of the "Queen of Heaven," whereupon they answer him
as follows:
"As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us, in the name of
the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. But we will certainly
do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn
incense unto the _Queen of Heaven_, and to pour out drink
offerings unto her, _as we have done, we, and our fathers, our
kings, and our princes, in the city of Judah, and in the
streets of Jerusalem_: for then we had plenty of victuals, and
were well, and saw no evil.
"But since we left off to burn incense to the _Queen of
Heaven_, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have
wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by
the famine. And when we burned incense to the _Queen of
Heaven_, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make
her _cakes_ to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto
her, without our men?"[332:1]
The "_cakes_" which were offered to the "Queen of Heaven" by the
Israelites were marked with a _cross_, or other symbol of sun
worship.[332:2] The ancient Egyptians also put a cross on their "sacred
cakes."[332:3] Some of the early Christians offered "sacred cakes" to
the Virgin Mary centuries after.[332:4]
The ancient Persians worshiped the Virgin and Child. On the monuments of
Mithra, the Saviour, the Mediating and Redeeming God of the Persians,
the Virgin Mother of this god is to be seen suckling her infant.[332:5]
The ancient Greeks and Romans worshiped the Virgin Mother and Child for
centuries before the Christian era. One of these was _Myrrha_,[332:6]
the mother of _Bacchus_, the Saviour, who was represented with the
infant in her arms. She had the title of "Queen of Heaven."[332:7] At
many a _Christian_ shrine the infant Saviour Bacchus may be seen
reposing in the arms of his deified mother. The names are changed--the
ideas remain as before.[332:8]
The Rev. Dr. Stuckley writes:
"Diodorus says Bacchus was born of Jupiter, the Supreme God,
and Ceres (Myrrha). Both Ceres and Proserpine were called
_Virgo_ (Virgin). The story of this woman being deserted by a
man, and espoused by a god, has somewhat so exceedingly like
that passage, Matt. i. 19, 20, of the blessed Virgin's
history, that we should wonder at it, _did we not see the
parallelism infinite between the sacred and the profane
history before us_.
"There are many similitudes between the Virgin (Mary) and the
mother of Bacchus (also called Mary--see note 6 below)--in all
the old fables. Mary, or Miriam, St. Jerome interprets Myrrha
Maris. Orpheus calls the mother of Bacchus a _Sea Goddess_
(and the mother of Jesus is called '_Mary, Star of the
Sea_.'")[332:9]
Thus we see that the reverend and learned Dr. Stuckley has clearly made
out that the story of Mary, the "Queen of Heaven," the "Star of the
Sea," the mother of the Lord, with her translation to heaven, &c., was
an _old story_ long before Jesus of Nazareth was born. After this
Stuckley observes that the _Pagan_ "Queen of Heaven" has upon her head a
crown of twelve stars. This, as we have observed above, is the case of
the _Christian_ "Queen of Heaven" in almost every Romish church on the
continent of Europe.
The goddess _Cybele_ was another. She was equally called the "Queen of
Heaven" and the "Mother of God." As devotees now collect alms in the
name of the Virgin Mary, so did they in ancient times in the name of
Cybele. The _Galli_ now used in the churches of Italy, were anciently
used in the worship of Cybele (called _Galliambus_, and sang by her
priests). "Our Lady Day," or the day of the Blessed Virgin of the Roman
Church, was heretofore dedicated to Cybele.[333:1]
_Minerva_, who was distinguished by the title of "Virgin Queen,"[333:2]
was extensively worshiped in ancient Greece. Among the innumerable
temples of Greece, the most beautiful was the _Parthenon_, meaning, the
_Temple of the Virgin Goddess_. It was a magnificent Doric edifice,
dedicated to Minerva, the presiding deity of Athens.
_Juno_ was called the "Virgin Queen of Heaven."[333:3] She was
represented, like _Isis_ and _Mary_, standing on the crescent
moon,[333:4] and was considered the special protectress of women, from
the cradle to the grave, just as Mary is considered at the present day.
_Diana_, who had the title of "Mother," was nevertheless famed for her
virginal purity.[333:5] She was represented, like _Isis_ and _Mary_,
with stars surrounding her head.[333:6]
The ancient _Muscovites_ worshiped a sacred group, composed of a woman
with a _male child_ in her lap, and another _standing by her_. They had
likewise another idol, called _the golden heifer_, which, says Mr.
Knight, "seems to have been the animal _symbol_ of the same
personage."[333:7] Here we have the Virgin and infant Saviour, with the
companion (John the Baptist), and "The _Lamb_ that taketh away the sins
of the world," among the ancient _Muscovites_ before the time of Christ
Jesus. This goddess had also the title of "Queen of Heaven."[334:1]
The ancient _Germans_ worshiped a virgin goddess under the name of
_Hertha_, or Ostara, who was fecundated by the active spirit, _i. e._,
the "Holy Spirit."[334:2] She was represented in images as a woman with
a child in her arms. This image was common in their consecrated forests,
and was held peculiarly sacred.[334:3] The Christian celebration called
_Easter_ derived its _name_ from this goddess.
The ancient _Scandinavians_ worshiped a virgin goddess called Disa. Mr.
R. Payne Knight tells us that:
"This goddess is delineated on the sacred drums of the
Laplanders, _accompanied by a child_, similar to the _Horus_
of the Egyptians, who so often appears in the lap of Isis on
the religious monuments of that people."[334:4]
The ancient _Scandinavians_ also worshiped the goddess Frigga. She was
mother of "Baldur the Good," his father being Odin, the supreme god of
the northern nations. It was she who was addressed, as Mary is at the
present day, in order to obtain happy marriages and easy childbirths.
The Eddas style her the most favorable of the goddesses.[334:5]
In _Gaul_, the ancient Druids worshiped the _Virgo-Paritura_ as the
"Mother of God," and a festival was annually celebrated in honor of this
virgin.[334:6]
In the year 1747 a monument was found at Oxford, England, of pagan
origin, on which is exhibited a female nursing an infant.[334:7] Thus we
see that the Virgin and Child were worshiped, in pagan times, from China
to Britain, and, if we turn to the New World, we shall find the same
thing there; for, in the words of Dr. Inman, "even in Mexico the 'Mother
and Child' were worshiped."[334:8]
This mother, who had the title of "Virgin," and "Queen of
Heaven,"[334:9] was Chimalman, or Sochiquetzal, and the infant was
Quetzalcoatle, the crucified Saviour. Lord Kingsborough says:
"She who represented 'Our Lady' (among the ancient Mexicans)
had her hair tied up in the manner in which the Indian women
tie and fasten their hair, and in the knot behind was
inserted a small _cross_, by which it was intended to show
that she was the Most Holy."[335:1]
The Mexicans had pictures of this "Heavenly Goddess" on long pieces of
leather, which they rolled up.[335:2]
The annunciation to the Virgin Chimalman, that she should become the
mother of the Saviour Quetzalcoatle, was the subject of a Mexican
hieroglyphic, and is remarkable in more than one respect. She appears to
be receiving a bunch of flowers from the embassador or angel,[335:3]
which brings to mind the _lotus_, the sacred plant of the East, which is
placed in the hands of the Pagan and Christian virgins.
The 25th of March, which was celebrated throughout the ancient Grecian
and Roman world, in honor of "the Mother of the Gods," was appointed to
the honor of the Christian "Mother of God," and is now celebrated in
Catholic countries, and called "Lady day."[335:4] The festival of the
conception of the "Blessed Virgin Mary" is also held on the very day
that the festival of the miraculous conception of the "Blessed Virgin
Juno" was held among the pagans,[335:5] which, says the author of the
"Perennial Calendar," "is a remarkable coincidence."[335:6] It is not
such a very "remarkable coincidence" after all, when we find that, even
as early as the time of St. Gregory, Bishop of Neo-Cæsarea, who
flourished about A. D. 240-250, Pagan festivals were changed into
Christian holidays. This saint was commended by his namesake of Nyssa
for changing the Pagan festivals into Christian holidays, the better to
draw the heathens to the religion of Christ.[335:7]
The month of _May_, which was dedicated to the heathen Virgin Mothers,
is also the month of Mary, the Christian Virgin.
Now that we have seen that the worship of the Virgin and Child was
universal for ages before the Christian era, we shall say a few words on
the subject of pictures and images of the Madonna--so called.
The most ancient pictures and statues in Italy and other parts of
Europe, of what are supposed to be representations of the Virgin _Mary_
and the infant Jesus, are _black_. The infant god, in the arms of his
black mother, his eyes and drapery white, is himself perfectly
black.[335:8]
Godfrey Higgins, on whose authority we have stated the above, informs us
that, at the time of his writing--1825-1835--images and paintings of
this kind were to be seen at the cathedral of Moulins; the famous chapel
of "the Virgin" at Loretto; the church of the Annunciation, the church
of St. Lazaro, and the church of St. Stephens, at _Genoa_; St. Francis,
at _Pisa_; the church at _Brixen_, in the Tyrol; the church at _Padua_;
the church of St. Theodore, at _Munich_--in the two last of which the
white of the eyes and teeth, and the studied redness of the lips, are
very observable.[336:1]
"The _Bambino_[336:2] at _Rome_ is black," says Dr. Inman, "and so are
the Virgin and Child at Loretto."[336:3] Many more are to be seen in
Rome, and in innumerable other places; in fact, says Mr. Higgins,
"There is scarcely an old church in Italy where some remains
of the worship of the _black Virgin_, and _black child_, are
not met with;" and that "pictures in great numbers are to be
met with, where the white of the eyes, and of the teeth, and
the lips a little tinged with red, like the black figures in
the museum of the Indian company."[336:4]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 20]
Fig. No. 20 is a copy of the image of the Virgin of Loretto. Dr. Conyers
Middleton, speaking of it, says:
"The mention of Loretto puts me in mind of the surprise that I
was in at the first sight of the Holy Image, for its face is
as black as a negro's. But I soon recollected, that this very
circumstance of its complexion made it but resemble the more
exactly the _old idols of Paganism_."[336:5]
The reason assigned by the Christian priests for the images being black,
is that they are made so by smoke and incense, but, we may ask, if they
became black by smoke, why is it that the _white_ drapery, _white_
teeth, and the _white_ of the eyes have not changed in color? Why are
the lips of a bright red color? Why, we may also ask, are the black
images crowned and adorned with jewels, just as the images of the Hindoo
and Egyptian virgins are represented?
When we find that the Virgin Devaki, and the Virgin Isis were
represented just as these so-called _ancient Christian_ idols represent
Mary, we are led to the conclusion that they are Pagan idols adopted by
the Christians.
We may say, in the words of Mr. Lundy, "what jewels are doing on the
neck of this poor and lowly maid, it is not easy to say."[337:1] The
_crown_ is also foreign to early representations of the Madonna and
Child, but not so to Devaki and Crishna,[337:2] and Isis and Horus. The
_coronation_ of the Virgin Mary is unknown to primitive Christian art,
but is common in Pagan art.[337:3] "It may be well," says Mr. Lundy, "to
compare some of the oldest _Hindoo_ representations of the subject with
the Romish, and see how complete the resemblance is;"[337:4] and Dr.
Inman says that, "the head-dress, as put on the head of the Virgin Mary,
is of Grecian, Egyptian, and Indian origin."[337:5]
The whole secret of the fact of these early representations of the
Virgin Mary and Jesus--so-called--being _black_, crowned, and covered
with jewels, is that they are of pre-Christian origin; they are _Isis_
and _Horus_, and perhaps, in some cases, Devaki and Crishna, baptized
anew.
The Egyptian "Queen of Heaven" was worshiped in Europe for centuries
before and after the Christian Era.[337:6] Temples and statues were also
erected in honor of Isis, one of which was at Bologna, in Italy.
Mr. King tells us that the Emperor Hadrian zealously strove to reanimate
the forms of that old religion, whose spirit had long since passed away,
and it was under his patronage that the creed of the Pharaohs blazed up
for a moment with a bright but fictitious lustre.[337:7] To this period
belongs a beautiful sard, in Mr. King's collection, representing
Serapis[337:8] and Isis, with the legend: "Immaculate is Our Lady
Isis."[337:9]
Mr. King further tells us that:
"The '_Black Virgins_' so highly reverenced in certain French
cathedrals during the long night of the middle ages, proved,
when at last examined critically, basalt figures of
Isis."[337:10]
And Mr. Bonwick says:
"We may be surprised that, as Europe has _Black_ Madonnas,
Egypt had _Black_ images and pictures of Isis. At the same
time it is a little odd that the Virgin Mary copies most
honored should not only be _Black_, but have a decided _Isis
cast_ of feature."[338:1]
The shrine now known as that of the "Virgin in Amadon," in France, was
formerly an old Black _Venus_.[338:2]
"To this we may add," (says Dr. Inman), "that at the Abbey of
Einsiedelen, on Lake Zurich, the object of adoration is an old
_black doll_, dressed in gold brocade, and glittering with
jewels. She is called, apparently, the Virgin of the Swiss
Mountains. My friend, Mr. Newton, also tells me that he saw,
over a church door at Ivrea, in Italy, twenty-nine miles from
Turin, the fresco of a _Black_ Virgin and child, the former
bearing a _triple crown_."[338:3]
This _triple crown_ is to be seen on the heads of Pagan gods and
goddesses, especially those of the Hindoos.
Dr. Barlow says:
"The doctrine of the Mother of God was of Egyptian origin. It
was brought in along with the worship of the Madonna by Cyril
(Bishop of Alexandria, and the Cyril of Hypatia) and the monks
of Alexandria, in the fifth century. The earliest
representations of the Madonna have quite a Greco-Egyptian
character, and there can be little doubt that Isis nursing
Horus was the origin of them all."[338:4]
And Arthur Murphy tells us that:
"The superstition and religious ceremonies of the _Egyptians_
were diffused over Asia, Greece, _and the rest of Europe_.
Brotier says, that inscriptions of Isis and Serapis (Horus?)
have been frequently found in _Germany_. . . . The missionaries
who went in the eighth and ninth centuries to propagate the
Christian religion in those parts, _saw many images and
statues of these gods_."[338:5]
These "many images and statues of these gods" were evidently baptized
anew, given other names, and allowed to remain where they were.
In many parts of Italy are to be seen pictures of the Virgin with her
infant in her arms, inscribed with the words: "Deo Soli." This betrays
their Pagan origin.
FOOTNOTES:
[326:1] See Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 115, and Monumental
Christianity, pp. 206 and 226.
[326:2] Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 159.
[326:3] See Williams' Hinduism.
[326:4] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 540.
[326:5] See Taylor's Diegesis, p. 185.
[326:6] _St. Jerome_ says: "It is handed down as a tradition among the
Gymnosophists of India, that _Buddha_, the founder of their system was
brought forth by a virgin from her side." (_Contra Jovian_, bk. i.
Quoted in Rhys Davids' Buddhism, p. 183.)
[327:1] Plate 59.
[327:2] Monumental Christianity, p. 218.
Of the Virgin _Mary_ we read: "Her face was shining as snow, and its
brightness could hardly be borne. Her conversation was with the angels,
&c." (Nativity of Mary, _Apoc._)
[327:3] See Ancient Faiths, i. 401.
[327:4] Davis' China, vol. ii. p. 95.
[327:5] The Heathen Relig., p. 60.
[327:6] Barrows: Travels in China, p. 467.
[327:7] Gutzlaff's Voyages, p. 154.
[328:1] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 141.
[328:2] See The Lily of Israel, p. 14.
[328:3] Kenrick's Egypt, vol. i. p. 425.
[328:4] See Draper's Science and Religion, pp. 47, 48, and Higgins'
Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 804.
[328:5] Pagan and Christian Symbolism, p. 50.
[328:6] See Monumental Christianity, p. 307, and Dr. Inman's Ancient
Faiths.
[328:7] See Cox's Aryan Mytho., vol. ii. p. 119, _note_.
[328:8] See Pagan and Christian Symbolism, pp. 13, 14.
[329:1] Pagan and Christian Symbolism, pp. 4, 5.
[329:2] See Knight: Ancient Art and Mythology, pp. 45, 104, 105.
"We see, in pictures, that the Virgin and Child are associated in modern
times with the split apricot, the pomegranate, rimmon, and the Vine,
just as was the ancient Venus." (Dr. Inman: Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p.
528.)
[329:3] Serpent Symbol, p. 39.
[329:4] Taylor's Diegesis, p. 185.
[330:1] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 143.
[330:2] Ibid. p. 115.
[330:3] Quoted in Ibid. p. 115.
[330:4] Ibid., and Kenrick's Egypt.
[330:5] Inman's Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 59.
[330:6] See Monumental Christianity, p. 211, and Ancient Faiths, vol.
ii. p. 350.
[330:7] Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 213.
[332:1] Jeremiah, xliv. 16-22.
[332:2] See Colenso's Lectures, p. 297, and Bonwick's Egyptian Belief,
p. 148.
[332:3] See the Pentateuch Examined, vol. vi. p. 115, App., and
Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 148.
[332:4] See King's Gnostics, p. 91, and Monumental Christianity, p. 224.
[332:5] See Dupuis: Origin of Relig. Belief, p. 237.
[332:6] It would seem more than chance that so many of the virgin
mothers and goddesses of antiquity should have the same name. The mother
of _Bacchus_ was Myrrha: the mother of Mercury or Hermes was Myrrha or
Maia (See Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship, p. 186, and Inman's
Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 233); the mother of the Siamese
Saviour--Sommona Cadom--was called Maya Maria, _i. e._, "the Great
Mary;" the mother of Adonis was Myrrha (See Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 314,
and Inman's Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 253); the mother of Buddha was
Maya; now, all these names, whether Myrrha, Maia or Maria, are the same
as _Mary_, the name of the mother of the Christian Saviour. (See Inman's
Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. pp. 353 and 780. Also, Dunlap's Mysteries of
Adoni, p. 124.) The month of _May_ was sacred to these goddesses, so
likewise is it sacred to the Virgin Mary at the present day. _She_ was
also called Myrrha and Maria, as well as Mary. (See Anacalypsis, vol. i.
p. 304, and Son of the Man, p. 26.)
[332:7] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. pp. 303, 304.
[332:8] Prof. Wilder, in "Evolution," June, '77. Isis Unveiled, vol. ii.
[332:9] Stuckley: Pal. Sac. No. 1, p. 34, in Anacalypsis, i. p. 304.
[333:1] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 305.
[333:2] See Bell's Pantheon, and Knight: Ancient Art and Mytho., p. 175.
[333:3] See Roman Antiquities, p. 73. Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 82, and
Bell's Pantheon, vol. ii. p. 160.
[333:4] See Monumental Christianity, p. 308--Fig. 144.
[333:5] See Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., pp. 175, 176.
[333:6] See Montfaucon, vol. i. plate xcii.
[333:7] Knight's Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 147.
[334:1] Anacalypsis, vol. ii. pp. 109, 110.
[334:2] See Knight's Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 21.
[334:3] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 374, and Mallet: Northern
Antiquities.
[334:4] Knight: Anct. Art and Mytho., p. 147.
[334:5] See Mallet's Northern Antiquities.
[334:6] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. ii. pp. 108, 109, 259. Dupuis:
Orig. Relig. Belief, p. 257. Celtic Druids, p. 163, and Taylor's
Diegesis, p. 184.
[334:7] See Celtic Druids, p. 163, and Dupuis, p. 237.
[334:8] Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 100.
[334:9] See Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 33, and Mexican Antiquities, vol.
vi. p. 176.
[335:1] Mexican Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 176.
[335:2] Ibid.
[335:3] Ibid.
[335:4] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 304.
[335:5] Ibid. vol. ii. p. 82.
[335:6] Quoted in Ibid.
[335:7] See Middleton's Letters from Rome, p. 236.
[335:8] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 138.
[336:1] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 138.
[336:2] _Bambino_--a term in art, descriptive of the swaddled figure of
the infant Saviour.
[336:3] Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 401.
[336:4] Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 138.
[336:5] Letters from Rome, p. 84.
[337:1] Monumental Christianity, p. 208.
[337:2] See Ibid. p. 229, and Moore's Hindu Pantheon, Inman's Christian
and Pagan Symbolism, Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. ii., where the figures
of Crishna and Devaki may be seen, crowned, laden with jewels, and a ray
of glory surrounding their heads.
[337:3] Monumental Christianity, p. 227.
[337:4] Ibid.
[337:5] Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 767.
[337:6] In King's Gnostics and their Remains, p. 109, the author gives a
description of a procession, given during the second century by
Apuleius, in honor of _Isis_, the "Immaculate Lady."
[337:7] King's Gnostics, p. 71.
[337:8] "Serapis does not appear to be one of the native gods, or
monsters, who sprung from the fruitful soil of Egypt. The first of the
Ptolemies had been commanded, by a dream, to import the mysterious
stranger from the coast of Pontus, where he had been long adored by the
inhabitants of Sinope; but his attributes and his reign were so
imperfectly understood, that it became a subject of dispute, whether he
represented the bright orb of day, or the gloomy monarch of the
subterraneous regions." (Gibbon's Rome, vol. iii. p. 143.)
[337:9] Ibid.
[337:10] King's Gnostics, p. 71, _note_.
[338:1] Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 141. "_Black_ is the color of the
Egyptian Isis." (The Rosecrucians, p. 154.)
[338:2] Ancient Faiths, vol. i. p. 159. In Montfaucon, vol. i. plate
xcv., may be seen a representation of a _Black_ Venus.
[338:3] Ancient Faiths, vol. ii. p. 264.
[338:4] Quoted in Bonwick's Egyptian Belief, p. 142.
[338:5] Notes 3 and 4 to Tacitus' Manners of the Germans.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS.
A thorough investigation of this subject would require a volume,
therefore, as we can devote but a chapter to it, it must necessarily be
treated somewhat slightingly.
The first of the Christian Symbols which we shall notice is the CROSS.
Overwhelming historical facts show that the cross was used, _as a
religious emblem_, many centuries before the Christian era, by every
nation in the world. Bishop Colenso, speaking on this subject, says:--
"From the dawn of organized Paganism in the Eastern world, to
the final establishment of Christianity in the West, the cross
was undoubtedly one of the commonest and most sacred of
symbolical monuments. Apart from any distinctions of social or
intellectual superiority, of caste, color, nationality, or
location in either hemisphere, it appears to have been the
aboriginal possession of every people in antiquity.
"Diversified forms of the symbol are delineated more or less
artistically, according to the progress achieved in
civilization at the period, on the ruined walls of temples and
palaces, on natural rocks and sepulchral galleries, on the
hoariest monoliths and the rudest statuary; on coins, medals,
and vases of every description; and in not a few instances,
are preserved in the architectural proportions of subterranean
as well as superterranean structures of tumuli, as well as
fanes.
"Populations of essentially different culture, tastes, and
pursuits--the highly-civilized and the semi-civilized, the
settled and the nomadic--vied with each other in their
superstitious _adoration_ of it, and in their efforts to
extend the knowledge of its exceptional import and virtue
amongst their latest posterities.
"Of the several varieties of the cross still in vogue, as
national and ecclesiastical emblems, and distinguished by the
familiar appellations of St. George, St. Andrew, the Maltese,
the Greek, the Latin, &c., &c., _there is not one amongst
them, the existence of which may not be traced to the remotest
antiquity. They were the common property of the Eastern
nations._
"That each known variety has been derived from a common
source, and is emblematical of one and the same truth may be
inferred from the fact of forms identically the same, whether
simple or complex, cropping out in contrary directions, in the
Western as well as the Eastern hemisphere."[339:1]
The cross has been adored in _India_ from time immemorial, and was a
symbol of mysterious significance in Brahmanical iconography. It was the
symbol of the Hindoo god Agni, the "Light of the World."[340:1]
In the Cave of Elephanta, over the head of the figure represented as
destroying the infants, whence the story of Herod and the infants of
Bethlehem (which was unknown to all the Jewish, Roman, and Grecian
historians) took its origin, may be seen the Mitre, the Crosier, and the
Cross.[340:2]
It is placed by Müller in the hand of Siva, Brahma, Vishnu, Crishna,
Tvashtri and Jama. To it the worshipers of Vishnu attribute as many
virtues as does the devout Catholic to the Christian cross.[340:3] Fra
Paolino tells us it was used by the ancient kings of India as a
sceptre.[340:4]
Two of the principal pagodas of India--Benares and Mathura--were erected
in the forms of vast crosses.[340:5] The pagoda at Mathura was sacred to
the memory of the Virgin-born and crucified Saviour Crishna.[340:6]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 21]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 22]
The cross has been an object of profound veneration among the Buddhists
from the earliest times. One is the sacred Swastica (Fig. No. 21). It is
seen in the old Buddhist Zodiacs, and is one of the symbols in the Asoka
inscriptions. It is the sectarian mark of the Jains, and the distinctive
badge of the sect of Xaca Japonicus. The Vaishnavas of India have also
the same sacred sign.[340:7] And, according to Arthur Lillie,[340:8]
"_the only Christian cross in the catacombs is this Buddhist Swastica_."
The cross is adored by the followers of the Lama of Thibet.[340:9] Fig.
No. 22 is a representation of the most familiar form of Buddhist cross.
The close resemblance between the ancient religion of Thibet and that
of the Christians has been noticed by many European travellers and
missionaries, among whom may be mentioned Pere Grebillon, Pere Grueber,
Horace de la Paon, D'Orville, and M. L'Abbé Huc. The Buddhists, and
indeed all the sects of India, marked their followers on the head with
the sign of the cross.[341:1] This was undoubtedly practiced by almost
all heathen nations, as we have seen in the chapter on the _Eucharist_
that the initiates into the Heathen mysteries were marked in that
manner.
The ancient _Egyptians_ adored the cross with the profoundest
veneration. This sacred symbol is to be found on many of their ancient
monuments, some of which may be seen at the present day in the British
Museum.[341:2] In the museum of the London University, a cross upon a
Calvary is to be seen upon the breast of one of the Egyptian
mummies.[341:3] Many of the Egyptian images hold a cross in their hand.
There is one now extant of the Egyptian Saviour Horus holding a cross in
his hand,[341:4] and he is represented as an infant sitting on his
mother's knee, with a cross on the back of the seat they occupy.[341:5]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 23]
The commonest of all the Egyptian crosses, the CRUX ANSATA (Fig. No. 23)
was adopted by the Christians. Thus, beside one of the Christian
inscriptions at Phile (a celebrated island lying in the midst of the
Nile) is seen both a _Maltese cross_ and a _crux ansata_.[341:6] In a
painting covering the end of a church in the cemetery of El Khargeh, in
the Great Oasis, are three of these crosses round the principal subject,
which seems to have been a figure of a saint.[341:7] In an inscription
in a Christian church to the east of the Nile, in the desert, these
crosses are also to be seen. Beside, or in the hand of, the Egyptian
gods, this symbol is generally to be seen. When the Saviour Osiris is
represented holding out the _crux ansata_ to a mortal, it signifies that
the person to whom he presents it has put off mortality, and entered on
the life to come.[341:8]
The Greek cross, and the cross of St. Anthony, are also found on
Egyptian monuments. A figure of a Shari (Fig. No. 24), from Sir Gardner
Wilkinson's book, has a necklace round his throat, from which depends a
pectoral cross. A third Egyptian cross is that represented in Fig. No.
25, which is apparently intended for a Latin cross rising out of a
heart, like the mediæval emblem of "_Cor in Cruce, Crux in Corde_:" it
is the hieroglyph of goodness.[342:1]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 24]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 25]
It is related by the ecclesiastical historians Socrates and Sozomon,
that when the temple of Serapis, at Alexandria, in Egypt, was demolished
by one of the Christian emperors, beneath the foundation was discovered
a cross. The words of Socrates are as follows:
"In the temple of Serapis, now overthrown and rifled
throughout, there were found engraven in the stones certain
letters . . . resembling the form of the cross. The which when
both Christians and Ethnics beheld, every one applied to his
proper religion. The Christians affirmed that the cross was a
sign or token of the passion of Christ, and the proper
cognizance of their profession. _The Ethnics avouched that
therein was contained something in common, belonging as well
to Serapis as to Christ._"[342:2]
It should be remembered, in connection with this, that the Emperor
Hadrian saw no difference between the worshipers of Serapis and the
worshipers of Christ Jesus. In a letter to the Consul Servanus he says:
"There are there (in Egypt) _Christians_ who worship
_Serapis_, and devoted to Serapis are those who call
themselves '_Bishops of Christ_.'"[342:3]
The ancient Egyptians were in the habit of putting a cross on their
sacred cakes, just as the Christians of the present day do on Good
Friday.[342:4] The plan of the chamber of some Egyptian sepulchres has
the form of a cross,[342:5] and the cross was worn by Egyptian ladies as
an ornament, in precisely the same manner as Christian ladies wear it at
the present day.[342:6]
The ancient Babylonians honored the cross as a religious symbol. It is
to be found on their oldest monuments. Anu, a deity who stood at the
head of the Babylonian mythology, had a cross for his sign or
symbol.[343:1] It is also the symbol of the Babylonian god Bal.[343:2] A
cross hangs on the breast of Tiglath Pileser, in the colossal tablet
from Nimroud, now in the British Museum. Another king, from the ruins of
Ninevah, wears a Maltese cross on his bosom. And another, from the hall
of Nisroch, carries an emblematic necklace, to which a Maltese cross is
attached.[343:3] The most common of crosses, the _crux ansata_ (Fig. No.
21) was also a sacred symbol among the Babylonians. It occurs repeatedly
on their cylinders, bricks and gems.[343:4]
The ensigns and standards carried by the Persians during their wars with
Alexander the Great (B. C. 335), were made in the form of a cross--as we
shall presently see was the style of the ancient _Roman_ standards--and
representations of these cross-standards have been handed down to the
present day.
Sir Robert Ker Porter, in his very valuable work entitled: "Travels in
Georgia, Persia, Armenia, and Ancient Babylonia,"[343:5] shows the
representation of a _bas-relief_, of very ancient antiquity, which he
found at Nashi-Roustam, or the Mountain of Sepulchres. It represents a
combat between two horsemen--Baharam-Gour, one of the old Persian kings,
and a Tartar prince. Baharam-Gour is in the act of charging his opponent
with a spear, and behind him, scarcely visible, appears an almost
effaced form, which must have been his standard-bearer, as the _ensign_
is very plainly to be seen. _This ensign is a cross._ There is another
representation of the same subject to be seen in a _bas-relief_, which
shows the standard-bearer and his _cross_ ensign very plainly.[343:6]
This _bas-relief_ belongs to a period when the Arsacedian kings governed
Persia,[343:7] which was within a century after the time of Alexander,
and consequently more than two centuries B. C.
Sir Robert also found at this place, sculptures cut in the solid rock,
which are in the form of crosses. These belong to the early race of
Persian monarchs, whose dynasty terminated under the sword of Alexander
the Great.[343:8] At the foot of Mount Nakshi-Rajab, he also found
_bas-reliefs_, among which were two figures carrying a cross-standard.
Fig. No. 26 is a representation of this.[343:9] It is coeval with the
sculptures found at Nashi-Roustam,[343:10] and therefore belongs to a
period before the time of Alexander's invasion.
The cross is represented frequently and prominently on the coins of
Asia Minor. Several have a ram or lamb on one side, and a cross on the
other.[344:1] On some of the early coins of the Phenicians, the cross is
found attached to a chaplet of beads placed in a circle, so as to form a
complete rosary, such as the Lamas of Thibet and China, the Hindoos, and
the Roman Catholics, now tell over while they pray.[344:2] On a
Phenician medal, found in the ruins of Citium, in Cyprus, and printed in
Dr. Clark's "Travels" (vol. ii. c. xi.), are engraved a cross, a rosary,
and a lamb.[344:3] This is the "Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of
the world."
[Illustration: Fig. No. 26]
The ancient Etruscans revered the cross as a religious emblem. This
sacred sign, accompanied with the heart, is to be seen on their
monuments. Fig. No. 27, taken from the work of Gorrio (Tab. xxxv.),
shows an ancient tomb with angels and the cross thereon. It would answer
perfectly for a Christian cemetery.
[Illustration: Fig. No. 27]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 28]
The cross was adored by the ancient Greeks and Romans for centuries
before the Augustan era. An ancient inscription in Thessaly is
accompanied by a Calvary cross (Fig. No. 28); and Greek crosses of equal
arms adorn the tomb of Midas (one of the ancient kings), in
Phrygia.[344:4]
The adoration of the cross by the Romans is spoken of by the Christian
Father Minucius Felix, when denying the charge of idolatry which was
made against his sect.
"As for the adoration of cross," (says he to the Romans),
"which you object against us, I must tell you that we neither
adore crosses nor desire them. You it is, ye Pagans, who
worship wooden gods, who are the most likely people to adore
wooden crosses, as being part of the same substance with your
deities. For what else are your ensigns, flags, and standards,
but crosses, gilt and beautiful. Your victorious trophies not
only represent a cross, but a cross with a man upon
it."[345:1]
The principal silver coin among the Romans, called the _denarius_, had
on one side a personification of Rome as a warrior with a helmet, and on
the reverse, a chariot drawn by four horses. The driver had a
cross-standard in one hand. This is a representation of a denarius of
the earliest kind, which was first coined 296 B. C.[345:2] The cross was
used on the roll of the Roman soldiery as the sign of _life_.[345:3]
But, long before the Romans, long before the Etruscans, there lived in
the plains of Northern Italy a people to whom the cross was a religious
symbol, the sign beneath which they laid their dead to rest; a people of
whom history tells nothing, knowing not their name; but of whom
antiquarian research has learned this, that they lived in ignorance of
the arts of civilization, that they dwelt in villages built on platforms
over lakes, and that they trusted to the cross to guard, and may be to
revive, their loved ones whom they committed to the dust.
The examination of the tombs of Golasecca proves, in a most convincing,
positive, and precise manner that which the terramares of Emilia had
only indicated, but which had been confirmed by the cemetery of
Villanova, that above a thousand years B. C., the cross was already a
religious emblem of frequent employment.[345:4]
"It is more than a coincidence," (says the Rev. S.
Baring-Gould), "that Osiris by the cross should give life
eternal to the spirits of the just; that with the cross Thor
should smite the head of the great Serpent, and bring to life
those who were slain; that beneath the cross the Muysca
mothers should lay their babes, trusting to that sign to
secure them from the power of evil spirits; that with that
symbol to protect them, the ancient people of Northern Italy
should lay them down in the dust."[345:5]
The cross was also found among the ruins of Pompeii.[345:6]
It was a sacred emblem among the ancient Scandinavians.
"It occurs" (says Mr. R. Payne Knight), "on many Runic
monuments found in Sweden and Denmark, which are of an age
long anterior to the approach of Christianity to those
countries, and, probably, to its appearance in the
world."[346:1]
Their god Thor, son of the Supreme god Odin, and the goddess Freyga, had
the hammer for his symbol. It was with this hammer that Thor crushed the
head of the great Mitgard serpent, that he destroyed the giants, that he
restored the dead goats to life, which drew his car, that he consecrated
the pyre of Baldur. _This hammer was a cross._[346:2]
The cross of Thor is still used in Iceland as a magical sign in
connection with storms of wind and rain.
King Olaf, Longfellow tells us, when keeping Christmas at Drontheim:
"O'er his drinking-horn, the sign
He made of the Cross Divine,
And he drank, and mutter'd his prayers;
But the Berserks evermore
Made the sign of the hammer of Thor
Over theirs."
Actually, they both made the same symbol.
This we are told by Snorro Sturleson, in the Heimskringla (Saga iv. c.
18), when he describes the sacrifice at Lade, at which King Hakon,
Athelstan's foster-son, was present:
"Now when the first full goblet was filled, Earl Sigurd spoke
some words over it, and blessed it in Odin's name, and drank
to the king out of the horn; and the king then took it, and
made the sign of the cross over it. Then said Kaare of
Greyting, 'What does the king mean by doing so? will he not
sacrifice?' But Earl Sigurd replied, 'The King is doing what
all of you do who trust in your power and strength; for he is
blessing the full goblet in the name of Thor, by making the
sign of his hammer over it before he drinks it."[346:3]
The cross was also a _sacred_ emblem among the _Laplanders_. "In solemn
sacrifices, all the Lapland idols were marked with it from the blood of
the victims."[346:4]
It was adored by the ancient _Druids_ of Britain, and is to be seen on
the so-called "fire towers" of Ireland and Scotland. The "consecrated
trees" of the Druids had a _cross beam_ attached to them, making the
figure of a cross. On several of the most curious and most ancient
monuments of Britain, the cross is to be seen, evidently cut thereon by
the Druids. Many large stones throughout Ireland have these Druid
crosses cut in them.[346:5]
Cleland observes, in his "Attempt to Revive Celtic Literature," that
the Druids taught the doctrine of an overruling providence, and the
immortality of the soul: that they had also their Lent, their Purgatory,
their Paradise, their Hell, their Sanctuaries, and the similitude of the
May-pole _in form to the cross_.[347:1]
"In the Island of I-com-kill, at the monastery of the Culdees, at the
time of the Reformation, there were three hundred and sixty
crosses."[347:2] The Caaba at Mecca was surrounded by three hundred and
sixty crosses.[347:3] This number has nothing whatever to do with
Christianity, but is to be found everywhere among the ancients. It
represents the number of days of the ancient year.[347:4]
When the Spanish missionaries first set foot upon the soil of _America_,
in the fifteenth century, they were amazed to find that the _cross_ was
as devoutly worshiped by the red Indians as by themselves. The hallowed
symbol challenged their attention on every hand, and in almost every
variety of form. And, what is still more remarkable, the cross was not
only associated with other objects corresponding in every particular
with those delineated on Babylonian monuments; but it was also
distinguished by the Catholic appellations, "the tree of subsistence,"
"the wood of health," "the emblem of life," &c.[347:5]
When the Spanish missionaries found that the cross was no new object of
veneration to the red men, they were in doubt whether to ascribe the
fact to the pious labors of St. Thomas, whom they thought might have
found his way to America, or the sacrilegious subtlety of Satan. It was
the central object in the great temple of Cozamel, and is still
preserved on the _bas-reliefs_ of the ruined city of Palenque. From time
immemorial it had received the prayers and sacrifices of the Aztecs and
Toltecs, and was suspended as an august emblem from the walls of temples
in Popogan and Cundinamarca.[347:6]
The ruined city of Palenque is in the depths of the forests of Central
America. It was not inhabited at the time of the conquest of Mexico by
the Spaniards. They discovered the temples and palaces of Chiapa, but of
Palenque they knew nothing. According to tradition it was founded by
Votan in the ninth century before the Christian era. The principal
building in this ruined city is the palace. A noble tower rises above
the courtyard in the centre. In this building are several small temples
or chapels, with altars standing. At the back of one of these altars is
a slab of gypsum, on which are sculptured two figures, one on each side
of a cross (Fig. No. 29). The cross is surrounded with rich
feather-work, and ornamental chains.[348:1] "The style of scripture,"
says Mr. Baring-Gould, "and the accompanying hieroglyphic inscriptions,
leave no room for doubting it to be a heathen representation."[348:2]
[Illustration: Fig. No. 29]
The same cross is represented on old pre-Mexican MSS., as in the Dresden
Codex, and that in the possession of Herr Fejervary, at the end of which
is a colossal cross, in the midst of which is represented a bleeding
deity, and figures stand round a _Tau_ cross, upon which is perched the
sacred bird.[348:3]
The cross was also used in the north of Mexico. It occurs among the
Mixtecas and in Queredaro. Siguenza speaks of an Indian cross which was
found in the cave of Mixteca Baja. Among the ruins on the island of
Zaputero, in Lake Nicaragua, were also found old crosses reverenced by
the Indians. White marble crosses were found on the island of St. Ulloa,
on its discovery. In the state of Oaxaca, the Spaniards found that
wooden crosses were erected as sacred symbols, so also in Aguatoleo, and
among the Zapatecas. The cross was venerated as far as Florida on one
side, and Cibola on the other. In South America, the same sign was
considered symbolical and sacred. It was revered in Paraguay. In Peru
the Incas honored a cross made out of a single piece of jasper; it was
an emblem belonging to a former civilization.[348:4]
Among the Muyscas at Cumana the cross was regarded with devotion, and
was believed to be endowed with power to drive away evil spirits;
consequently new-born children were placed under the sign.[348:5]
The Toltecs said that their national deity Quetzalcoatle--whom we have
found to be a virgin-born and crucified Saviour--had introduced the
sign and ritual of the cross, and it was called the "Tree of Nutriment,"
or "Tree of Life."[349:1]
Malcom, in his "Antiquities of Britain," says
"Gomara tells that St. Andrew's cross, which is the same with
that of Burgundy, was in great veneration among the Cumas, in
South America, and that they fortified themselves with the
cross against the incursions of evil spirits, and were in use
to put them upon new-born infants; which thing very justly
deserves admiration."[349:2]
Felix Cabrara, in his "Description of the Ancient City of Mexico," says:
"The adoration of the cross has been more general in the
world, than that of any other emblem. It is to be found in the
ruins of the fine city of Mexico, near Palenque, where there
are many examples of it among the hieroglyphics on the
buildings."[349:3]
In "Chambers's Encyclopædia" we find the following:
"It appears that the sign of the _cross_ was in use _as an
emblem having certain religious and mystic meanings attached
to it, long before the Christian era_; and the Spanish
conquerors were astonished to find it _an object of religious
veneration_ among the nations of Central and South
America."[349:4]
Lord Kingsborough, in his "Antiquities of Mexico," speaks of crosses
being found in Mexico, Peru, and Yucatan.[349:5] He also informs us that
the _banner_ of Montezuma was a cross, and that the historical paintings
of the "Codex Vaticanus" represent him carrying a cross as his
banner.[349:6]
A very fine and highly polished marble cross which was taken from the
Incas, was placed in the Roman Catholic cathedral at Cuzco.[349:7]
Few cases have been more powerful in producing mistakes in ancient
history, than the idea, hastily taken by Christians in all ages, that
every monument of antiquity marked with a cross, or with any of those
symbols which they conceived to be monograms of their god, was of
Christian origin. The early Christians did not adopt it as one of their
symbols; it was not until Christianity began to be paganized that it
became a Christian monogram, and even then it was not the cross as we
know it to-day. "It is not until the middle of the _fifth_ century that
the pure form of the cross emerges to light."[349:8] The cross of
Constantine was nothing more than the [Symbol: PX], the monogram of
Osiris, and afterwards of Christ.[349:9] This is seen from the fact
that the "_Labarum_," or sacred banner of Constantine--on which was
placed the sign by which he was to conquer--was inscribed with this
sacred monogram. Fig. No. 30 is a representation of the Labarum, taken
from Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. The author of "The History of Our
Lord in Art" says:
"It would be difficult to prove that the cross of Constantine
was of the simple construction as now understood. As regards
the Labarum, the coins of the time, in which it is expressly
set forth, proves that the so-called cross upon it was nothing
else than the same ever-recurring monogram of Christ."[350:1]