Sprinkling and Immersion Both Used--Prominence of “Baptismal
Regeneration”--Lustral Water at Temple Doors--Baptism of
Animals--Influence of “The Greek Mysteries” on Christian
Baptism--Initiatory Baptisms--Scenic Illustrations--Mithraic
Baptism Engrafted on Grecian--“Creed,” “Symbol,” Drawn from Grecian
Water-Worship Cult--Identity of Grecian and Roman Catholic Forms--The
Use of Spittle in Pagan Baptism.
In our survey of the wide field, we now come to a still more specific
view of the pagan cult, along the line of Hellenic thought, where it
impinged most strongly upon Christianity.
POTTER writes learnedly of water-worship among the Greeks, in the
following:
“At least every person who came to the solemn sacrifices was
purified by water. To which end at the entrance to the temples
there was commonly placed a vessel full of holy water. This water
was consecrated by putting into it a burning torch taken from the
altar. The same torch was sometimes made use of to sprinkle those
who entered into the temple. Thus we find in Euripides, and also
in Aristophanes, where the scholiast observes that this torch was
used because of the quality of fire, which is thought to purify
all things. Instead of the torches, they sometimes used a branch
of laurel, as we find in Pliny. Thus Sozomen, where he speaks of
Valentinian following Julian into a pagan temple, relates that when
they were about to enter, a priest holding certain green boughs
dropping water besprinkled them after the Grecian manner. Instead of
laurel, olive was sometimes used. Thus we find in Virgil:
‘Old Corianæus compassed thrice the crew,
And dipped an olive branch in holy dew.’
“This custom of surrounding here expressed, was so constant in
purifying that most of the terms which relate to any sort of
purification are compounded with περι, around, thus: περιῤῥαίνειν,
περιμάττεσθαι, περιθειοῦν, περιαγνίζειν, etc.
“The vessel which contained the water of purification was termed,
περιῤῥαντήριον. And the Latin word _lustrare_, which signifies to
purify or expiate, came hence to be a general word for any sort of
surrounding or encompassing. Thus it is used by Virgil, _... dum
montibus umbræ lustrabunt convexo_. Spondanus tells us that before
the sacrifices of the celestial gods, the worshippers had their whole
bodies washed, or if that could not be, at least their hands; but for
those that performed the sacred rites to the infernal gods, a small
sprinkling was sufficient. Sometimes the feet were washed as well as
the hands; whence came the proverbs, ανιπτοις χερσιν and ανιπτοις
ποσιν. In Latin _illotis manibus_, and _illotis pedibus_,--which are
usually applied to men who undertake anything without due care and
preparation. Porphyry tells us there was a programme fixed up, that
no man should go beyond the περιῤῥαντήριον till he had washed his
hands; so great a crime was it counted to omit this ceremony, that
Timarchides hath related a story of one Asterius, who was struck dead
with thunder because he had approached the altar of Jupiter with
unwashed hands. Nor was this custom only used at solemn sacrifices,
but also at the smallest parts of their worship. Hector tells us that
he was afraid to make so much as a libation to Jupiter before he had
washed.
‘I dread with unwashed hands to bring,
My incensed wine to Jove, an offering.’
“And Telemachus is said, in Homer’s _Odysseis_, to have washed his
hands before he ventured to pray to the gods. This they did out of a
conceit that thereby they were purified from their sins; and withal
signifying that nothing impure ought to approach the deities. On the
same account, they sometimes washed their clothes, as Homer relates
of Penelope, before she offered prayers to the gods. The water used
in purification was required to be clear, and without mud and all
other impurities. It was commonly fetched from fountains and rivers.
The water of lakes or standing ponds was unfit for this purpose.
So also was the purest stream if it had been a considerable time
separated from its source.”[103]
BARING GOULD gives another picture of baptism and lustration among the
Greeks:
“Among the Greeks, the mysteries of Cotys commenced with a
purification, a sort of baptism, and the priests of the Thracian
Goddess derived from this their title of βάπται. But Apollo, from
a supposed derivation of his name from ἀπολούω to purify, was the
special god of expiation by baptismal acts. In Thessaly was yearly
celebrated a great festival of cleansing. A work bearing the name of
_Musæus_ was a complete ritual of purifications. It distinguished the
ceremonies into two orders, τελεταί and καθαρμοί. The latter were
purifications and expiations accomplished by special sacrifices. The
former resembled the purifications performed in the Mysteries. The
usual mode of purification was dipping in water, or it was performed
by aspersion. The baptism of immersion was called λοῦτρον, the other
περίῤῥανσις. These sacraments were held to have virtue independent
of the disposition of the candidate, an opinion which called forth
the sneer of Diogenes 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?’
“Lustral water was placed at the temple doors, with which the profane
were purified by the priests. Usually, before entering a temple, the
hands and feet were washed. At Athens, when the prœdrai had opened
the assembly, the peristiarch offered a sacrifice, and then with the
blood of the victim sprinkled the seats. The herald then took the
place of the peristiarch, and continued the lustration by burning
incense; for fumigations (περιθειώσεις), constituted another means of
purification. In default of water, sand was used, and salt, which, as
a symbol of incorruption, was regarded as possessed of purificatory
virtue. Every impure act, murder, the touch of a corpse, illegitimate
commerce, even the conjugal act, demanded purification. In like
manner, baptism was practised by the Romans, and Juvenal satirizes
those who washed away their sins by dipping the head thrice in the
morning into the waters of the Tiber.[104]
“On the feast of Pales, the goddess of flocks, the shepherds
purified themselves by washing their hands thrice in new fallen
dew; or a lustration was effected by aspersion with consecrated
water shaken from a branch of laurel or olive; in reference to
which rite Propertius prays, much as once did David: ‘_Spargite me
lymphis._’”[105]
The Grecian idea of baptism is well set forth by OVID, in the following
lines:
“From Greece the custom came, for Greece esteems
Those free from guilt who bathe in sacred streams.
Thus did old Pelius once Patroclus lave,
And free from stain in the Hæmonian wave:
As, in that same Hæmonian stream before,
Acastus, Pelius freed from Phocus’ gore.
The Phasian sorceress, in her fiery car,
Borne by yoked dragons through the liquid air,
To credulous Ægeus supplication made,
And from him won an undeservèd aid.
In Naupactoan Achelous’ flood,
His horrid hands stained with his mother’s blood,
Alcæmon bathed; ‘Cleanse me from crime,’ he cried,
Nor by the stream was his request denied.
Ah, vain the hope, and far too easy they,
Who think the water takes such guilt away.”
_Fasti_, book ii., line 58 ff.
Influence of the “Greek Mysteries.”
The influence of the Greek mysteries in corrupting Christian baptism
is more plainly seen than that of any other specific department of the
pagan cult. These mysteries were the remnant of the oldest religion
known to the Greeks. They embodied the worship of the gods of the
productive forces in nature, and of the gods of death. The most
important centre of this cult was at Eleusis, where the worship was
celebrated in the largest temple in Greece. The chief elements in the
cult were initiation, sacrifice, and scenic representations of the
great facts in the processes of nature and in human life. The main
conception in the initiation was that the candidate must be purified
before he could approach God. The initiated, being thus purified,
were inducted to a divine life and to the hope of a resurrection. The
ceremonial began with the proclamation: “Let no one enter whose hands
are not clean, and whose tongue is not prudent.”[106]
Confession was followed by a kind of baptism.[107] The candidates for
initiation bathed in the pure waters of the sea. The manner of bathing
and the number of immersions varied with the degree of guilt which
they had confessed. They came from the bath new men. It was a κάθαρσις,
a λουτρὸν, a “laver of regeneration.” Certain forms of abstinence were
imposed; they had to fast; and when they ate they had to abstain from
certain kinds of food.[108]
After this purification came a σωτήρια, “a great public sacrifice
of salvation”; also personal sacrifices. After an interval of two
days still more sacrifices, shows, and “processions” followed. The
initiated carried lighted torches and sang “loud peans in honor of the
God.”[109] Then came the scenic representations at night. The initiated
stood outside the temple in deep darkness. Suddenly the door opened,
and in a blaze of light the drama of Demeter and Kore appeared--in
which the loss of the daughter, the wanderings of the mother, and the
birth of the child, were enacted. This symbolized the earth in its
great experiences, as well as the corresponding experiences in human
life. All this was enacted in silence. Each man saw and meditated
for himself. It was believed that this gave purity to the initiated,
changed their relations to the gods, and made them “partakers of a
life to come.”[110] Mithraicism had a similar form of initiation, a
prominent feature of which was a sacred meal, upon a “holy table,” of
which the initiated took part after they were purified. The societies
which practised these mysteries existed on a large scale during the
earliest centuries of our era, and had a marked influence upon the
earliest Christian communities, and upon the subsequent church. HATCH
thus describes these effects:
“It was inevitable when a new group of associations came to exist
side by side with a large existing body of associations, from which
it was continually detaching members, introducing them into its own
midst, with the practices of their original societies impressed upon
their minds, that this new group should tend to assimilate, with the
assimilation of their members, some of the elements of these existing
groups.
“This is what we find to have been in fact the case. It is possible
that they made the Christian associations more secret than before.
Up to a certain time there is no evidence that Christianity had any
secrets. It was preached openly to the world. It guarded worship by
imposing a moral bar to admission. But its rites were simple and its
teaching was public. After a certain time all is changed; mysteries
have arisen in the once open and easily accessible faith, and there
are doctrines which must not be declared in the hearing of the
uninitiated.”[111]
The effect of these pagan mysteries upon Christian baptism, and upon
the Lord’s Supper also, will be more clearly seen when we remember how
simple a ceremony New Testament baptism was. It followed immediately
upon confession of faith in Christ. There was no preparatory ceremony,
no ritual, only the simple formula. There was no confusion or
controversy concerning the “mode,” for submersion alone was known
within Christian circles.
When the current of history emerges at and after the middle of the
second century, marked changes appear which are so identical with
gnosticism and the Greek mysteries that there can be no question as to
their source.[112] Among these changes were the following:
The name is changed, and the new terms used come directly from
the familiar mysteries. Justin calls it ψωτισμός, φωτιζεσθαι,
“enlightenment.”[113] Those who had passed the tests were “sealed,”
φραγις--a term from the mysteries.[114] It was also called
μυστήριον,[115] “Mysteries” and many other terms, all of which sprung
from the “mysteries of Greek paganism, rather than from the New
Testament.”
The time of baptism of adults was changed to meet the pagan conception
of it as a purifying and saving act. A long preparation was demanded,
and, to meet the pagan idea that it removed sins, it was often
deferred until near the close of life in order to make the most of
both worlds.[116] The initiated in the Greek mysteries were given a
password: σύμβολον or σύνθημα. “So the catechumens had a formula which
was only entrusted to them in the last days of their catechumenate,
the baptismal formula itself, and the Lord’s Prayer.”[117] A special
rite accompanied the giving of this formula. Otherwise both the Lord’s
Prayer and the Creed were kept as “mysteries”; the technical name for
creed remains to this day as σύμβολον “symbol.”[118]
Hatch quotes a description of baptism in the Roman Catholic Church,
which shows every essential feature of the Eleusinian mysteries
transferred to “Christian baptism,” falsely so called. The account is
taken from Mabillon.[119] He writes thus:
“I will abridge the account which is given of the practice at Rome
so late as the ninth century. Preparation went on through the
greater part of Lent. The candidates were examined and tested; they
fasted; they received the secret symbols, the Creed and the Lord’s
Prayer. On Easter eve, as the day declined towards afternoon, they
assembled in the Church of St. John Lateran. The rites of exorcism
and renunciation were gone through in solemn form, and the rituals
survive. The Pope and his priests come forth in their sacred
vestments, with lights carried in front of them, which the Pope then
blesses; there is a reading of lessons and a singing of psalms. And
then, while they chant a litany, there is a procession to the great
bath of baptism, and the water is blest. The baptized come forth from
the water, are signed with the cross, and are presented to the Pope
one by one, who vests them in a white robe and signs their foreheads
again with the cross. They are arranged in a great circle, and each
of them carries a light. Then a vast array of lights is kindled;
the blaze of them, says a Greek Father, makes night continuous with
dawn. It is the beginning of a new life. The mass is celebrated--the
mystic offering on the cross is represented in figure; but for the
newly baptized the chalice is filled, not with wine, but with milk
and honey, that they may understand, says an old writer, that they
have entered already upon the promised land. And there was one more
symbolical rite in that early Easter sacrament, the mention of which
is often suppressed--a lamb was offered on the altar, afterwards,
cakes in the shape of a lamb. It was simply the ritual which we have
seen already in the mysteries. The purified crowd at Eleusis saw a
blaze of light, and in the light were represented in symbol life and
death and resurrection.”[120]
Anointing and Baptism.
The use of anointing oil in baptism was borrowed directly from
paganism. To economize space, and fortify by the power of a great name,
we again quote from Hatch:
“The general inference of the large influence of the Gnostics on
baptism, is confirmed by the fact that another element, which
certainly came through them, though its source is not certain, and
is more likely to have been Oriental than Greek, has maintained a
permanent place in most rituals--the element of anointing. There were
two customs in this matter, one more characteristic of the East, the
other of the West--the anointing with (1) the oil of exorcism before
baptism and after the renunciation of the devil, and (2) the oil of
thanksgiving, which was used immediately after baptism, first by the
presbyter and then by the bishop, who then sealed the candidate on
the forehead. The very variety of the custom shows how deep and yet
natural the action of the Gnostic systems, with the mystic and magic
customs of the Gnostic societies or associations, had been on the
practices and ceremonies of the Church.”[121]
Use of Spittle in Baptism.
The pagan doctrine of exorcism was carried still further, and baptism
was corrupted yet more by adding the use of human saliva as a “charm.”
This arose from the general use of spittle by the pagans as a talisman
against harm and evil influences. Rev. JOHN JAMES BLUNT says:
“Human saliva was heretofore very generally used as a charm, and
was thought particularly efficacious against the venom of poisonous
animals. Pliny quotes some authorities to prove that the pernicious
powers of toads and frogs may be disarmed by this means, and that
serpents may be rendered innoxious by spitting into their mouths. The
testimony of Varro is also cited by the naturalist to show that there
were people in the Hellespont, near Pasium, who could cure the bite
of snakes by their saliva.... It is remarkable that in administering
the rite of baptism the priest, among other ceremonies, moistens a
napkin with his own saliva, and then touches with it the eyes and
nose of the child, accompanying the action by the word _Ephphatha_.
It was with a similar rite that Roman infants received their names on
the _Dies Lustricus_.”[122]
The Satirists were not slow in holding up these various superstitions
to deserved ridicule. PERSEUS touches the spittle superstition in the
following stanza:
“Lo! from his little crib the grandam hoar,
Or aunt, well-versed in superstitious lore,
Snatches the babe; in lustral spittle dips
Her middle finger, and anoints his lips
And forehead.”[123]
PLINY supports the statement of Blunt as follows:
“The Marsi, in Italy, are still in possession of the same power,
for which it is said they are indebted to their origin from the son
of Circe, from whom they acquired it as a natural quality. But the
fact is, that all men possess in their bodies a poison which acts
upon serpents, and the human saliva, it is said, makes them take
to flight as though they had been touched with boiling water. The
same substance, it is said, destroys them as soon as it enters their
throat, and more particularly so, if it should happen to be the
saliva of a man who is fasting.”[124]
In another place Pliny enumerates many uses to which spittle is put:
“But it is the fasting spittle of a human being that is, as already
stated by us, the sovereign preservative against the poison of
serpents: while, at the same time, our daily experience may recognize
its efficacy and utility in many other respects. We are in the habit
of spitting, for instance, as a preservative from epilepsy, or, in
other words, we repel contagion thereby; in a similar manner, too,
we repel fascinations, and the evil presages attendant upon meeting
a person who is lame in the right leg. We ask pardon of the gods, by
spitting in the lap, for entertaining some too presumptuous hope or
expectation. On the same principle, it is the practice, in all cases
where medicine is employed, to spit three times on the ground, and to
conjure the malady as often, the object being to aid the operation
of the remedy employed. It is usual, too, to mark a boil, when it
first makes its appearance, three times with fasting spittle. What
we are going to say is marvellous, but it may easily be tested by
experiment: if a person repents of a blow given to another, either
by hand or with a missile, he has nothing to do but to spit at
once in the palm of the hand which has inflicted the blow, and all
feelings of resentment will be instantly alleviated in the person
struck. This, too, is often verified in the case of a beast of burden
when brought on its haunches with blows; for upon this remedy being
adopted, the animal will immediately step out and mend its pace. Some
persons, however, before making an effort, spit into the hand in the
manner above stated, in order to make the blow more heavy. We may
well believe, then, that lichens and leprous spots may be removed by
a constant application of fasting spittle; that ophthalmia may be
cured by anointing, as it were, the eyes every morning with fasting
spittle; that carcinomata may be effectually treated by kneading
the root of the plant known as ‘apple of the earth’ with human
spittle; that crick in the neck may be got rid of by carrying fasting
spittle to the right knee with the right hand, and to the left knee
with the left; and when an insect has got into the ear it is quite
sufficient to spit into that organ to make it come out. Among the
counter-charms, too, are reckoned the practice of spitting into the
urine the moment it is voided, of spitting into the shoe of the right
foot before putting it on, and of spitting while a person is passing
a place in which he has incurred any kind of peril.
“Marcion, of Smyrna, who has written a work on the virtues of
simples, informs that the sea scolopendra will burst asunder if spit
upon; and that the same is the case with bramble frogs, and other
kinds of frogs. Opilius says that serpents will do the same if a
person spits into their open mouth; and Salpe tells us that when any
part of the body is asleep the numbness may be got rid of by the
person spitting into his lap, or touching the upper eyelid with his
spittle. If we are ready to give faith to such statements as these,
we must believe also in the efficacy of the following practices:
upon the entrance of a stranger, or when a person looks at an infant
while asleep, it is usual for the nurse to spit three times upon the
ground; and this, although infants are under the special guardianship
of the god Fascinus, the protector, not of infants only, but of
generals as well, and a divinity whose worship is entrusted to the
vestal virgins, and forms a part of the Roman rites.”[125]
FOOTNOTES:
[103] _Antiquities of Greece_, by John Potter, D.D., vol. i., pp.
261-263, Edinburgh, 1832.
[104] See Satire vi., line 522.
[105] _The Origin and Development of Religious Belief_, by S. Baring
Gould, M.A., vol. i., p. 397, London, 1869.
[106] See Keil, _Attische Culte aus Inschriften_, _Philologus_, bd.
xxiii., 212, 259, 592, 622; also Weingarten, _Histor. Zeitschrift_, bd.
xlv., 1881, p. 441 ff.
[107] See Tertullian, _De Baptismo_, chap. v.; and Clem. of Alex.,
_Strom._, book v., chap. iv.
[108] _Cf._ Hatch, _Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the
Christian Church_.
[109] _Cf._ Clem. of Alex., _Exhortation to the Heathen_, chap. xii.
[110] _Cf._ Hatch as above; and Lenormant, in _Contemporary Review_ for
September, 1880.
[111] “The objection which Celsus makes (c. _Cels._, i., 1, Keim, p.
3) to the secrecy of the Christian associations would hardly have
held good in the apostolic age. Origen admits (c. _Cels._, i., 7)
that there are exoteric and esoteric doctrines in Christianity, and
justifies it by (1) the philosophies, (2) the mysteries. On the rise
of this conception of Christian teaching as something to be hidden
from the mass, _cf._ the Valentians in Tert., c. _Valent._, i., where
there is a direct parallel drawn between them and the mysteries; also
the distinction of men into two classes--πνευματικοὶ and ψυχικοὶ or
ὑλικοί,--among the Gnostics. Yet this very secrecy was naturalized in
the Church. _Cf._ Cyril Hier., _Catech._, vi., 30; Aug. in _Psalm_
ciii.; _Hom._, xcvi., in _Joan_; Theodoret, _Quæst._ xv., in _Num._,
and _Dial._, ii., (_Inconfusus_); Chry., _Hom._, xix., in _Matt._
Sozomen’s (i., 20, 3) reason for not giving the Nicene creed is
significant alike as regards motive and language.”--Hibbert Lectures,
1888, p. 293 and footnote.
[112] _Cf._ Hatch, p. 294 ff.
[113] _Apol._, i., 61.
[114] _Cf._ Clem. of Alex., _Stroma._, bk. ii., chap. iii.
[115] Chrysostom, _Hom._, 85, in _Joan_, xix., 34.
[116] _Cf._ _Apostol. Const._ and _Bingham Antiq. in loco._
[117] Hatch, p. 298.
[118] _Cf._ _Dic. Chris. Antiq._, “Baptism” and “Creed.”
[119] Com. Praev. Ad. Ord. Rom. Museum, Ital., ii., xcix.
[120] Hatch, p. 299.
[121] Pp. 307-308.
[122] _Vestiges of Ancient Manners and Customs in Italy and Sicily_, by
John James Blunt, pp. 164, 165, and 167. London, 1823.
[123] Perseus, Satire ii., 31.
[124] _Natural History_, book vii., chap. ii., vol. ii., p. 126.
London, edition 1856.
[125] _Natural History_, book xxviii., chap. vii., vol. v., pp. 288-90.
London, 1856.