A Low Standard of Religious Life--Faith in Relics--The Cross
an Ancient Pagan (Phallic) Symbol--A “Charm” Borrowed from
Paganism--Constantine’s use of the Composite Symbol as a Military
Standard--Prevalence of Faith in “Charms”--Sign of the Cross in
Baptism--Baptism and Holy Water as “Charms”--Stupendous Miracles,
like Pagan Prodigies, through Baptism--Delayed Baptism--Orientation
at Baptism, etc.
Those who have made a study of paganism as it appeared in Christianity
during and after the third century know that many other forms of
it were prominent besides those fundamental errors which have been
discussed in the preceding pages. Some of these have attracted more
attention than the fundamental ones, since they lie more plainly on the
surface of history. We shall glance at several, that the reader may see
the field yet more fully.
A Low Standard of Christian Life.
That the standard of individual character in the Church was brought far
below that of the New Testament, and much below what would be accepted
at the present day, appears in the history of morals and social life,
and in many ways in the Church.
The degenerate character of his time is thus set forth by CHRYSOSTOM:
“Plagues too, teeming with untold mischiefs, have lighted upon the
Churches. The chief offices have become saleable. Hence numberless
evils are springing, and there is no one to redress, no one to
reprove them. Nay the disorder has assumed a sort of method and
consistency. Has a man done wrong and been arraigned for it? His
effort is not to prove himself guiltless, but to find if possible
accomplices in his crimes. What is to become of us? since hell is
our threatened portion. Believe me, had not God stored up punishment
for us there, ye would see every day tragedies deeper than the
disasters of the Jews. What then? However, let no one take offence,
for I mention no names; suppose some one were to come into this
church to present you that are here at this moment, those that are
now with me, and to make inquisition of them; or rather not now, but
suppose on Easter day any one endued with such a spirit, as to have
such a thorough knowledge of the things they had been doing, should
narrowly examine all that came to Communion and were being washed
[in baptism] after they had attended the mysteries; many things
would be discovered more shocking than the Jewish horrors. He would
find persons who practise augury, who make use of charms, and omens,
and incantations, and who have committed fornication, adulterers,
drunkards, and revilers,--covetous I am unwilling to add, lest I
should hurt the feelings of any of those who are standing here. What
more? Suppose any one should make scrutiny into all the communicants
in the world, what kind of transgression is there which he would not
detect? And what if he examined those in authority? Would he not find
them eagerly bent upon gain? making traffic of high places? envious,
malignant, vainglorious, gluttonous and slaves to money?”[206]
A similar vivid description, under the figure of a burning building,
representing the Church as consumed with evil, is found in Homily
10, _On Ephesians_. Another description of the effect of heathenism
upon those who professed to be Christians is sharply set forth in a
_Treatise Attributed to Cyprian_, on the “Public Shows.”[207] He says:
“Believers, and men who claim for themselves the authority of the
Christian name, are not ashamed--are not, I repeat, ashamed to find
a defence in the heavenly Scriptures for the vain superstitions
associated with the public exhibitions of the heathens, and thus to
attribute divine authority to idolatry. For how is it, that what is
done by the heathens in honor of any idol is resorted to in a public
show by faithful Christians, and the heathen idolatry is maintained
and the true and divine religion is trampled upon in contempt of
God? Shame binds me to relate their pretexts and defences in this
behalf. ‘Where,’ say they, ‘are there such Scriptures? Where
are these things prohibited? On the contrary, both Elias as the
charioteer of Israel, and David himself danced before the ark. We
read of psaltries, horns, trumpets, drums, pipes, harps, and choral
dances. Moreover, the apostle, in his struggle, puts before us the
contest of the Cæstus, and of our wrestle against the spiritual
things of wickedness. Again when he borrows his illustrations from
the racecourse, he also proposes the prize of the crown. Why, then,
may not a faithful Christian man gaze upon that which the divine
pen might write about?’ At this point I might not unreasonably say
that it would have been far better for them not to know any writings
at all, than thus to read the writings [of the Scriptures]. For
words and illustrations which are recorded by way of exhortation
to evangelical virtue, are translated by them into pleas for vice;
because those things are written of, not that they should be gazed
upon, but that a greater eagerness might be aroused in our minds
in respect of things that will benefit us, seeing that among the
heathens there is manifest so much eagerness in respect of things
which will be of no advantage.”
That these evils increased with the years, is shown by the words of
AUGUSTINE, when he says:
“Accordingly you will have to witness many drunkards, covetous men,
deceivers, gamesters, adulterers, fornicators, men who bind upon
their persons sacrilegious charms, and others given up to sorcerers
and astrologers, and diviners practised in all kinds of impious arts.
You will also have to observe how those very crowds which fill the
theaters on the festal days of the pagans, also fill the churches on
the festal days of the Christians. And when you see these things
you will be tempted to imitate them. Nay, why should I use the
expression, _you will see_, in reference to what you assuredly are
acquainted with even already. For you are not ignorant of the fact
that many who are called Christians engage in all these evil things
which I have briefly mentioned. Neither are you ignorant that at
times, perchance, men whom you know to bear the name of Christians
are guilty of even more grievous offenses than these.”[208]
Such degradation of Christian life was the unavoidable fruitage of
the various pagan influences which had substituted false standards of
Church membership and of action for the true ones laid down in the
Scriptures.
Faith in “Relics.”
Faith in “Relics,” bodies, bones, garments, places, etc., as retaining
the virtues of the persons with whom they were associated, was
a prominent characteristic of paganism, from the earliest time.
Paganism brought this element into Christianity, where it took root
and flourished, like a fast-growing, noxious weed. The whole system
of relic worship, down to the “Holy Coat at Treves,” in 1891, is a
direct harvest from pagan planting. Relics were believed to be powerful
agents for good, by direct influence, and by acting as charms to ward
off evils of all kinds. Take an example from one of the early Church
historians, SOZOMEN, who gives the following with all the soberness of
undoubted fact:
“While the Church everywhere was under the sway of these eminent
men, the clergy and people were excited to the imitation of their
virtue and zeal. Nor was the Church of this era distinguished only
by these illustrious examples of piety; for the relics of the
proto-prophets, Habakkuk, and a little while after, Micah, were
brought to light about this time. As I understand, God made known
the place where both these bodies were deposited, by a divine vision
in a dream to Zebennus, who was then acting as bishop of the Church
of Eleutheropolis. The relics of Habakkuk were found at Cela a city
formerly called Ceila. The tomb of Micah was discovered at a distance
of ten stadia from Cela, at a place called Berathsatia. This tomb was
ignorantly styled by the people of the country, ‘the tomb of the
faithful’; or, in their native language, Nephsameemana. These events,
which occurred during the reign of Theodosius, were sufficient for
the good repute of the Christian religion.”[209]
The same author reports the discovery of the relics of Zechariah the
prophet. Calemerus, a serf, was directed in a dream to dig at a certain
place in a garden, being assured that he would find two coffins, the
inner one of wood, the other of lead; “beside the coffins you will see
a glass vessel full of water, and two serpents of moderate size, but
tame and perfectly innoxious, so that they seem to be used to being
handled.” Calemerus followed the directions, and found the body of
Zechariah, “clad in a white stole,” with a royal child lying at his
feet; and “although the prophet had lain under the earth for so many
generations, he appeared sound; his hair was closely shorn, his nose
was straight; his beard moderately grown, his head quite short, his
eyes rather sunken, and concealed by the eyebrows.”[210] In a similar
style,[211] Sozomen relates how the head of John the Baptist was
discovered in the suburbs of Constantinople. That such ridiculous myths
could be written down as a part of genuine Church history, shows how
fully the pagan falsehoods corrupted the best currents of Christian
life.
The Cross, its Sign, and other Charms.
Comparatively few readers realize that the cross was of heathen origin,
and a religious symbol of the lowest order, and that it was not adopted
as a symbol of Christianity until the Church was well paganized.
Its origin lies in the shadows of the prehistoric period. It was a
religious symbol in the Asiatic, Egyptian, Grecian, Roman, Druidic,
and Central American heathenism. It originated in the lowest department
of sun-worship _cultus_. Ishtar, the Assyrian Venus, was represented
as holding a staff, the upper end of which was in the form of a Latin
cross. The worship of Ishtar was one of the darkest features of the
Babylonian religion. It was conducted with lascivious rites which may
not be named. It corrupted the Hebrews on every side. We find it, with
other forms of sun-worship, polluting the temple itself, and sharply
condemned by the prophet of Jehovah.[212]
Tammuz was the young and beautiful sun-god, the bridegroom of Ishtar
who bore the cross-crowned sceptre; and this mourning for him was
associated with gross obscenity.
Another form of this same worship is condemned by Jeremiah, thus:
“Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the
streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers
kindle the fire, and the women knead _their_ dough, to make cakes to
the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto other gods,
that they may provoke me to anger.”[213]
There is evidence to show that these cakes were marked with one form
of the cross, the Greek _tau_ (_Τ_). In later times the Greeks offered
cakes thus marked to Bacchus, in connection with the vilest orgies.
Specimens of these are found at Herculaneum. Similar ones have been
found in the catacombs. The “hot cross-bun” is the lineal descendant of
the _tau_ (_Τ_)-marked cakes of the obscene sun-worship _cultus_. Its
association with Friday--day of Ishtar, Venus, Frega--is a remnant of
paganism, although later efforts to Christianize it have associated it
with “Good Friday.”
The cross appears in Assyrian history, worn as a religious emblem
by the priest-king, Samsi-Vul, son of Shalamanezar, and also by
Assur-Nazir-Pal. These specimens may be seen in the British Museum.
It is the Greek cross, and identical with the “pectoral cross,” worn
by the Pope, and seen on altar-cloths at the present day. Priority of
possession is several thousand years in favor of the Assyrian. The same
style of crosses are found in the Etruscan department of the Vatican
Museum at Rome. They are on the breasts--painted--of certain large
Etruscan male figures, and are taken from mural decorations in ancient
Etruscan burial-places. Similar “pectoral” crosses may be seen also in
the British Museum on two figures from Thebes, in the Egyptian Hall.
They date from about 1100 B.C., and represent men of Asia bringing
tribute. In Wilkinson’s _Ancient Egypt_ the same cross may be seen on
the breast of two warriors.
There is a figure of the youthful Bacchus, taken from an ancient
vase, with which antiquarians are familiar, holding a cup and fennel
branch--a figure of much beauty. The head-dress is a band with crosses
as of Horus. A portion of the band falls from the head, and with its
fringe and single cross, if lengthened, would form a modern “stole.”
The cross is also found on Greek pottery, dating from 700 to 500 B.C.
It appears in relics of the Latin people of the same period. It was
used as a symbol in Buddhism in India long before the time of Christ.
It is also found in Thibet, Scandinavia, and other parts of northern
Europe.
That the cross was extensively known and used before the Christian era
is shown by an admirable article in the _Edinburgh Review_ of October,
1870, on the pre-Christian Cross. The author of the article claims
to have collected nearly two hundred varieties of the cross, in its
heathen form. He speaks of it as follows:
“From the dawn of organized paganism in the Eastern world, to the
final establishment of Christianity in the Western, the cross was
undoubtedly the commonest and most sacred of symbolical monuments,
and to a remarkable extent it is so still in almost every land
where that of Calvary is unrecognized or unknown. 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 of antiquity--the elastic
girdle, so to say, which embraced the most widely separated heathen
communities, the most significant token of universal brotherhood,
the principal point of contact in every system of pagan mythology,
to which all the families of mankind were severally and irresistibly
drawn, and by which their common descent was emphatically
expressed....
“Of the several varieties of the cross still in vogue as national
or ecclesiastical emblems in this and other European states, and
distinguished by the familiar appellations of St. George, St. Andrew,
the Maltese, the Greek, the Latin, etc., there is not one amongst
them the existence of which may not be traced to the remotest
antiquity.”[214]
It is also true that the cross does not appear as the symbol of
Christianity until after its paganization under Constantine. He made a
composite symbol, known as the _Chi-ro_, of which see below. It seems
probable that he added these to the pagan cross. On this point BLAKE
says:
“The Cross and the Crescent were combined in the Oriental standards
(Fig. 29.) centuries before the time of Christ.
“Roman coins of the period of 269 B.C. show the cross of Saturn (Fig.
30.) with distinctness. According to Gaume, the illustrious writer,
all the Roman standards bore this cross, and Constantine being unable
to vary the banner of the empire, added ‘XP’ the Greek sign for
Christ, to the imperial flag, 312 A.D.”[215]
The similarity between the heathenism of Asia and Central America is a
well-known fact of history.
“The religion of the Mexicans was purely Chaldean. They professed
to believe in a Supreme God, but idol-worship was general. They
had a regular priesthood, gorgeous temples and convents; they
had processions, in which crosses, and even red crosses, were
carried; and incense, flowers, and fruit-offerings were employed
in their worship. They confessed to their priests, and generally
confessed only once, receiving a written absolution which served
for the remainder of their lives as an effectual safeguard against
punishment, even for crimes committed after receiving the said
absolution. They worshipped, and afterwards ate, a wafer-god, an idol
made of flour and honey, which they called ‘the god of penitence,’
and they always ate him fasting. They also venerated the black calf,
or bull, and adored a goddess-mother, with an infant son in her
arms. They sacrificed human victims to the God of Hell, of whom they
considered the cross to be a symbol, and to whom they were largely
sacrificed, by laying them on a great black stone and tearing out
their hearts.
“We are now prepared to see how easily the heathen, in adopting a
nominal Christianity, as they did from the reign of Constantine,
would have modified and Christianized their views of the heathen
cross. Hitherto that emblem had been associated with their worship
of the gods. In their temples, in their houses, on their images,
their clothes, their cattle, etc., the worshippers were accustomed
to see the peculiar cross, or, crosses, dedicated to each. Bacchus
had his, Serapis his, and so forth. Some of the new converts were
themselves wearing on their own persons the emblem of their gods.
This was the case with certain Asiatics and Etruscans, who wore the
cross round their necks, but not, apparently, with the Egyptians as
far as relating to a neck ornament. Wilkinson, chapter v., plate
342, gives the figures of four warriors from the monuments of Egypt,
from Asiatic tribes, wearing crosses round their necks, or on their
clothes. Their date is about 1400 B.C.
“In plate 47 of his _Peintures Antiques de Vases Grecs_ (Rome, 1817,
fol.), Milligen gives examples of the cross on the apron of the
warrior, and within a circle on his horse.
“To enter then, into a heathen temple just rededicated to Christ,
where the cross of the rejected pagan deity still existed, or
where a new church cross had been substituted--to visit a temple
so reconsecrated, or to enter a basilica (judgment hall) by the
Emperor’s order just handed over to the bishop for Christian use--all
this would aid in making the change from the worship of the gods to
the worship of the Emperor’s God very easy to the convert.
“The old temples, and the old basilicas, the arrangements of the
apse, etc., in the latter almost unchanged--the lustral, or holy
water--the mural paintings sometimes left, sometimes altered to suit
the persons of the new heroes, or saints--the incense, the pomp of
worship, the long train of vested priests--all and much more, would
make the transition from the old to the new faith, externally, a
matter of little difficulty. As to the cross, there it was, and there
it would continue, and has continued.”[216]
In view of these and many similar facts, it is easy to understand how
the cross became a permanent and prominent feature in the symbolism of
paganized Christianity. The famous vision of Constantine the Great, in
which he is said to have seen a cross in the sky, in connection with
the sun, is not supported by evidence which places it among facts.
It was not unnatural, however, that he, a devout sun-worshipper,
and familiar with the cross as the symbol of the lowest form of
that worship, should associate the two, as he has been said to have
done. The symbol which he adopted on his military standard was not
the cross proper, but the two Greek initials of the name of Christ,
the “_chi-ro_.” One of these letters, resembling the English X, gave
the standard a similarity to the cross. Under Valens, Emperor of the
East, who died in 378 A.D., the cross appears without the letters, and
from that time the letters gradually disappear. The Empress Eudocia
wore the heathen form of the cross on her head.[217] It was the exact
counterpart of that which the moon-goddess, Diana, had worn before. The
leading facts concerning the cross may be summed up as follows:
Up to the time of Constantine--early part of the fourth century--the
cross remained what it had always been, a pagan symbol, type of
its most revolting _cultus_. It is the same in India to-day. By
the opening of the fifth century it had become the symbol of
paganized Christianity. The crucifix--a figure of Christ nailed to
the cross--appears first about the middle of the fifth century. The
following is the general order whereby the transition was accomplished:
1. Constantine adopts the initial letters, giving the _chi-ro_
standard, about 312 A.D.[218]
2. The _chi_ (_Χ_) was gradually changed to the form of a cross, while
the _ro_, similar to the English P, remained in its original position.
3. The _ro_ was rejected, and the _chi_ (_Χ_) was changed to the Greek
cross of Bacchus.
4. The heathen _tau_ (_Τ_), as used in India and Egypt, was brought
in, probably because of its supposed resemblance to the cross on which
Christ was (said to have been) put to death.
5. The _tau_ appears, surmounted by a roundel, evidently the sacred
egg of the heathen. This was the emblem of the Goddess of Nature, the
productive principle. This brought the original heathen symbol into
still greater similarity to what is now known as the Latin cross.
6. The _crux ansata_, or handled cross. This is the form usually seen
in the hands of the gods of India and Egypt. It is the symbol of the
sun-god, and is interpreted by modern Egyptologists as the symbol of
life. It was primarily a phallic symbol of reproduction. An English
writer (Rev. MOURANT BROCK) has pertinently said:
“And it is high time that Christians should understand a fact of
which skeptics have been long talking and writing, that the cross
was the central symbol of ancient paganism. What it represents, must
remain untold; but it was probably made the medium of our Lord’s
death, through the crafty device of the wicked one, into whose hands
he was for a while delivered, with a view to the future corruption
of Christianity, and the carrying on, under its name, of all the
abominations of the heathen.”
The prominence and value which the “sign of the Cross” and its
associate pagan symbols gained as “charms” in paganized Christianity
can be readily understood in view of the foregoing facts. It is wholly
unexplainable from the New Testament standpoint, and without these
facts. A few examples must suffice, showing how this pagan conception
was transferred to Christianity. BINGHAM, a learned and conservative
writer, says:
“But there was one sort of enchantment, which many ignorant and
superstitious Christians, out of the remains of heathen error, much
affected; that was the use of charms and amulets and spells to cure
diseases, or avert dangers or mischiefs, both from themselves and
the fruits of the earth. For Constantine had allowed the heathen, in
the beginning of his reformation, for some time, not only to consult
their augurs in public, but also to use charms by way of remedy
for bodily distempers, and to prevent storms of rain and hail from
injuring the ripe fruits, as appears from that very law, where he
condemns the other sort of magic, that tended to do mischief, to be
punished with death. And probably from this indulgence granted to
the heathen, many Christians who brought a tincture of heathenism
with them into their religion, might take occasion to think there
was no great harm in such charms or enchantments, when the design
was only to do good, and not evil. However it was, this is certain
in fact, that many Christians were much inclined to this practice,
and therefore made use of charms and amulets, which they called
_periammata_ and _phylacteria_, pendants and preservatives to secure
themselves from danger, and drive away bodily distempers. These
phylacteries, as they called them, were a sort of amulets made of
ribands, with a text of Scripture or some other charm of words
written in them, which they imagined without any natural means to be
effectual remedies or preservatives against diseases.”[219]
The extent to which this evil existed in the Church is indicated
by Chrysostom, as is also his belief in the sign of the cross as a
superior “charm.” He says:
“For these amulets, though they who make money by them are forever
rationalizing about them, and saying, ‘We call upon God, and do
nothing extraordinary,’ and the like; and ‘the old woman [who made
the amulets] is a Christian,’ says he, ‘and one of the faithful’; the
thing is idolatry. Art thou one of the faithful? Sign the cross; say,
this I have for my only weapon; this for my remedy; and other I know
none. Tell me, if a physician should come to one, and, neglecting the
remedies belonging to his art, should use incantations, should we
call that man a physician? By no means: for we see not the medicines
of the healing art; so neither, in this case, do we see those of
Christianity.
“Other women, again, tie about them the names of rivers, and venture
numberless things of like nature. Lo, I say, and forewarn you all,
that if any be detected, I will not spare them again, whether they
have made amulet, or incantation, or any other thing of such an art
as this.”[220]
“This sign [the cross], both in the days of our forefathers and now
hath opened doors that were shut up; this hath quenched poisonous
drugs; this hath taken away the power of hemlock; this hath healed
bites of venomous beasts. For if it opened the gates of hell, and
threw wide the archways of Heaven, and made a new entrance into
Paradise, and cut away the nerves of the devil; what marvel if it
prevailed over poisonous drugs, and venomous beasts, and all other
such things?”[221]
TERTULLIAN shows his faith in the sign of the cross as a cure for
disease,[222] in his discussion of the nature and cure of the
scorpion’s sting. He says:
“We have faith for a defense if we are not smitten with distrust,
itself, also, in immediately making the sign [of the cross over the
wounded part] and adjuring [that part in the name of Jesus] and
besmearing the [poisoned] heel with [the gore of] the beast.”
The Sign of the Cross in Baptism.
As one of the supreme charms, the sign of the cross was associated with
baptism, which was also made a “charm” under the influence of pagan
water-worship. It was associated with anointing, which was also a pure
importation from paganism. Speaking of this sign Bingham says:
“The third use of it was in this unction before baptism. For so
the author under the name of Dionysius, describing the ceremony of
anointing the party, before the consecration of the water, says,
The Bishop begins the unction by thrice signing him with the sign
of the cross, and then commits him to the priest to be anointed all
over the body, whilst he goes and consecrates the water in the font.
St. Austin also may be understood of this when he says, The cross
is always joined with baptism. And by this we may interpret several
passages in Cyprian, as where he tells Demetrian, They, only, escape,
who are born again, and signed with the sign of Christ. And what that
sign is, and on what part of the body it is made, the Lord signified
in another place, saying, ‘Go through the midst of Jerusalem and set
a mark upon their foreheads.’ And so again in his book of the Unity
of the Church, speaking of Uzziah’s leprosy, he says, He was marked
for his offense against the Lord in that part of his body, where
those are signed who obtain his mercy. Which seems plainly to refer
to the sign of the cross made in baptism. The author of the Apostolic
Constitutions is very express in this matter. For explaining the
meaning of the several parts and ceremonies used in baptism, he says,
The water is to represent Christ’s burial, the oil to represent the
Holy Ghost, the sign of the cross to represent the cross, and the
ointment or chrism, the confirmation of men’s professions. And not
improbably St. Jerome might refer to this, though his words be not so
restrained to this time of unction, when he says, He was a Christian,
born of Christian parents, and carried the banner of the cross in
his forehead. Some add also those words of Cyprian. Let us guard
our foreheads that we may preserve the sign of God without danger.
And those of Pontius in his life, where speaking of the Christian
confessors who were branded by the heathen in the forehead, and sent
as slaves into the mines, he says, They were marked in the forehead a
second time; alluding to the sign of the cross, which as Christians
they had received before. But these passages do not necessarily
relate to baptism, but are only general expressions that may refer to
the use of the sign of the cross upon any other occasion; it being
usual in those times to sign themselves upon the forehead in the
commonest actions of their lives, upon every motion, as Tertullian
expresses it, at their going out and coming in, at their going
to bath, or to bed, or to meals, or whatever their employment or
occasions called them to. Yet thus far it may be argued from them,
that they who used it so commonly upon all other occasions, would
hardly omit it in this solemn unction of baptism. And therefore
these allegations may be allowed to be a sort of collateral evidence
of the practice.”[223]
Again he says:
“Secondly, I observe, that together with this prayer, it was usual to
make the sign of the cross also, not, as before, upon the person to
be baptised, but as a circumstance of the consecration. This we learn
not only from Dionysius, but from St. Austin, who says, The water
of baptism was signed with the Cross of Christ. And St. Chrysostom
says, They used it in all their sacred mysteries; when they were
regenerated in baptism, when they were fed with the mystical food
in the eucharist, when they were ordained, that symbol of victory
was always represented in the action, whatever religious matter they
were concerned in. To which we may add the author under the name of
St. Austin, who runs over all the solemn consecrations of the Church
and tells us, the symbol of the cross was used in every one, in
catechising of new converts, in consecrating the waters of baptism,
in giving imposition of hands in confirmation, in the dedication of
Churches, and altars, in consecrating the eucharist, and in promoting
priests and Levites to holy orders.
“Thirdly, I observe concerning the effects of this consecration,
that the very same change was supposed to be wrought by it in the
waters of baptism, as by the consecration of bread and wine in the
eucharist. For they supposed not only the presence of the Spirit,
but also the mystical presence of Christ’s blood, to be here after
consecration. Julius Firmicus, speaking of baptism, bids men here
seek for the pure waters, the undefiled fountain, where the blood of
Christ, after many spots and defilements, would whiten them by the
Holy Ghost.”[224]
Superstitious regard for the sign of the cross grew as paganism ripened
in the church; witness the following words of Augustine:
“And lastly as every one knows, what else is the sign of Christ but
the Cross of Christ? For unless that sign be applied, whether it be
to the foreheads of believers, or to the very water out of which they
are regenerated, or to the oil with which they receive the anointing
chrism, or to the sacrifice that nourishes them, none of them is
properly administered.”[225]
Baptism and “Holy Water” as “Charms.”
The pagan doctrine of baptismal regeneration involved the idea of
water as a charm against disease and misfortune, in men, in animals,
in growing crops, and fruits. These notions were brought into the
Christian Church and soon became widely spread and firmly fixed. An
excellent review of this subject is furnished by Canon FARRAR in his
description of Cyprian’s views relative to baptism. These are his words:
“Cyprian holds that in baptism the Priest commands the power of the
Holy Ghost to forgive sin by means of sanctified and purified water,
but only if he be a Catholic Priest, and free from every taint of
what Cyprian or the Episcopate regards as Schism or heresy. When the
grace of forgiveness for all past sins has been bestowed by this act
it is not valid for future sins. They too require that satisfaction
for them should be offered to God, and this satisfaction must be
penitence, penance, and good works.”[226]
“He might have adopted the language of Tertullian about baptism: ‘in
this way, without pomp, with no novelty of preparation, without cost,
a man descends into the water, and being immersed, with the utterance
of a few words, rises up out of it, scarcely, if at all, cleaner
in body, but, incredible consequence, the possessor of eternal
life.’”[227]
Miracles through Baptism.
SOCRATES, the Church historian, tells of miraculous cures through
baptism as gravely as Sozomen does of the finding of “Relics.” Hear him:
“This was one important improvement in the circumstances of the
Church, which happened during the administration of Atticus. Nor
were these times without the attestation of miracles and healing.
For a certain Jew being a paralytic had been confined to his bed for
many years; and as every sort of medical skill, and the prayers of
his Jewish brethren had been resorted to but had availed nothing, he
had recourse at length to Christian baptism, trusting in it as the
only true remedy to be used. When Atticus the bishop was informed of
his wishes, he instructed him in the first principles of Christian
truth, and having preached to him to hope in Christ, directed that he
should be brought in his bed to the font. The paralytic Jew receiving
baptism with a sincere faith, as soon as he was taken out of the
baptismal font found himself perfectly cured of his disease, and
continued to enjoy sound health afterwards. This miraculous power
Christ vouchsafed to be manifested even in our times; and the fame
of it caused many heathens to believe and be baptised. But the Jews,
although zealously ‘seeking after signs,’ not even the signs which
actually took place induced to embrace the faith. Such blessings were
thus conferred by Christ upon men.”[228]...
“A certain Jewish impostor, pretending to be a convert to
Christianity, was in the habit of being baptized often, and by that
artifice he amassed a good deal of money. After having deceived
many of the Christian sects by this fraud--for he received baptism
from the Arians and Macedonians--as there remained no others to
practise his hypocrisy upon, he at length came to Paul bishop of the
Novatians, and declaring that he earnestly desired baptism, requested
that he might obtain it at his hand. Paul commended the determination
of the Jew, but told him he could not perform that rite for him,
until he had been instructed in the fundamental principles of the
faith, and given himself to fasting and prayer for many days. The
Jew compelled to fast against his will became the more importunate
in his request for baptism; now as Paul did not wish to discourage
him by longer delays, since he was so urgent, he consented to grant
his request, and made all the necessary preparations for the
baptism. Having purchased a white vestment for him, he ordered the
font to be filled with water, and then led the Jew to it in order to
baptize him. But a certain invisible power of God caused the water
suddenly to disappear. The bishop, of course, and those present, had
not the least suspicion of the real cause, but imagined that water
had escaped by the channels underneath, by means of which they are
accustomed to empty the font; these passages were therefore very
carefully closed, and the font filled again. Again, however, as the
Jew was taken there a second time, the water vanished as before.
Then Paul, addressing the Jew, said: ‘Either you are an evil-doer,
wretched man, or an ignorant person who has already been baptized.’
The people having crowded together to witness this miracle, one among
them recognized the Jew, and identified him as having been baptized
by Atticus, the bishop, a little while before. Such was the portent
wrought by the hands of Paul bishop of the Novatians.”[229]
That baptism was sought as a shield against bodily ills, without even
the pagan notion of spiritual purity, is shown by the following from
Bingham:
“Yet sometimes, as Euthymius relates in the same place, they would
bring their children to the presbyters of the Church to be baptised
after the Catholic way, because they had an opinion that both baptism
and the cross were of some advantage to the body for the cure of
diseases, but of no other efficacy, benefit, or virtue to purge the
soul. And such an opinion possessed the minds of many others, who had
no further regard for baptism, but only as it was of use to free the
body of some distemper or uncleanliness.”[230]
Delayed Baptism.
The pagan idea of “baptismal regeneration” took such hold of the Church
as to become a grave evil, by inducing men to live in sin, under the
belief that they could gain salvation at the last moment. The testimony
of Bingham is presented again, which testimony is the more valuable,
because coming from a conservative English Churchman.
“Others deferred it out of heathenish principles still remaining in
them, because they were in love with the world and its pleasures,
which they were unwilling to renounce, to take upon them the yoke
of Christ, which they thought would lay greater restraints upon
them, and deny them those liberties which they could now more freely
indulge themselves in and securely enjoy. They could spend their life
in pleasure, and be baptised at last, and then they should gain as
much as those that were baptised before; for the laborers who came
into the vineyard at the last hour, had the same reward as those that
had borne the burden and heat of the day.”[231]
Orientation at Baptism.
The corruption of baptism by the pagan sun-worship cult was especially
shown in the practice of turning eastward and westward in connection
with baptism. This chapter has space for a single quotation on this
point from Bingham:
“This custom of turning about to the East when they made their
profession of obedience to Christ is also mentioned by St. Ambrose,
Gregory Nazianzen, Cyril of Jerusalem, and the author under the name
of Dionysius. For which they assign two reasons: 1, Cyril tells his
disciples that as soon as they had renounced the devil, the paradise
of God, which was planted in the East, and whence our first parent
for his transgression was driven into banishment, was now laid open
to them; and their turning about from the West to the East, which
is the region of light, was a symbol of this. For the same reason,
St. Basil and some others of the ancients tell us, they prayed
toward the East, that they might have their faces toward paradise.
The other reason for turning to the East in baptism, was because
the East or rising sun was an emblem of the Sun of Righteousness,
to whom they now turned from Satan. Thou art turned about to the
East, says St. Ambrose, for he that renounces the devil, turns unto
Christ. Where he plainly intimates with St. Jerome, that turning to
the East was a symbol of their aversion from Satan, and conversion
unto Christ,--that is, from darkness to light, from serving idols,
to serve him who is the Sun of Righteousness and Fountain of
Light.”[232]
Faith in the magical effects of baptism increased, until its sway ruled
the wisest and best of the leaders in the Church. The great Augustine
recounts many cases which indicate, if possible, more than pagan
credulity. Among them are the following. The chapter from which they
are taken is entitled: “_Of Miracles which were wrought that the world
might believe in Christ, and which have not ceased since the world
believed._”
“In the same city of Carthage lived Innocentia, a very devout
woman of the highest rank in the state. She had a cancer in one of
her breasts, a disease, which, as physicians say, is incurable.
Ordinarily, therefore, they either amputated, and so separated from
the body the member on which the disease has seized, or, that the
patient’s life may be prolonged a little, though death is inevitable,
even if somewhat delayed, they abandon all remedies following, as
they say, the advice of Hippocrates. This lady we speak of had been
advised to by a skilful physician, who was intimate with her family;
and she betook herself to God alone by prayer. On the approach of
Easter she was instructed in a dream to wait for the first woman that
came out from the baptistry after being baptised, and ask her to make
the sign of Christ upon her sore. She did so and was immediately
cured....
“A gouty doctor of the same city, when he had given in his name for
baptism, and had been prohibited the day before his baptism from
being baptised that year, by black woolly-haired boys who appeared
to him in his dream, and whom he understood to be devils, and when,
though they trod on his feet, and inflicted the acutest pain he had
ever yet experienced, he refused to obey them, but overcame them,
and would not defer being washed in the laver of regeneration, was
relieved in the very act of baptism, not only of the extraordinary
pain he was tortured with, but also of the disease itself, so that,
though he lived a long time afterwards, he never suffered from gout;
and yet who knows of this miracle? We, however, do know it, and so,
too, do the small number of brethren who were in the neighborhood,
and to whose ears it might come.
“An old comedian of Curubis was cured at baptism not only of
paralysis, but also of hernia, and being delivered from both
afflictions, came up out of the font of regeneration as if he had
nothing wrong with his body. Who outside of Curubis knows of this,
or who but a very few who might hear it elsewhere? But we, when we
heard of it, made the man come to Carthage, by order of the holy
bishop Aurelius, although we had already ascertained the fact on the
information of persons whose word we could not doubt.
“Hesperius, of a tribunitian family, and a neighbor of our own, has
a farm called Zubedi in the Fussalian district; and finding that
his family, his cattle, and his servants were suffering from the
malice of evil spirits, he asked our presbyters, during my absence,
that one of them would go with him and banish the spirits by his
prayers. One went, offered there the sacrifice of the body of Christ,
praying with all his might that vexation might cease. It did cease
forthwith, through God’s mercy. Now he had received from a friend
of his own some holy earth brought from Jerusalem, where Christ,
having been buried, rose again the third day. This earth he had hung
up in his bedroom to preserve himself from harm. But when his house
was purged of that demoniacal invasion, he began to consider what
should be done with the earth; for his reverence for it made him
unwilling to have it any longer in his bedroom. It so happened that I
and Maximinus, Bishop of Synita, and then my colleague, were in the
neighborhood. Hesperius asked us to visit him, and we did so. When he
had related all the circumstances, he begged that the earth might be
buried somewhere, and that the spot should be made a place of prayer
where Christians might assemble for the worship of God. We made no
objection; it was done as he desired. There was in that neighborhood
a young countryman who was paralytic, who, when he heard of this,
begged his parents to take him without delay to that holy place. When
he had been brought there he prayed, and forthwith went away on his
own feet perfectly cured.
“There is a country seat called Victoriana, less than thirty miles
from Hippo-regius. At it there is a monument to the Milanese martyrs,
Protasius and Gervasius. Thither a young man was carried, who, when
he was watering his horse one summer day at noon, in a pool of a
river, had been taken possession of by a devil. As he lay at the
monument, near death, or even quiet like a dead person, the lady of
the manor, with her maids and religious attendants, entered the place
for evening prayer and praise, as her custom was, and they began to
sing hymns. At this sound, the young man, as if electrified, was
thoroughly aroused, and with frightful screaming seized the altar,
and held it as if he did not dare or were not able to let it go, and
as if he were fixed or tied to it; and the devil in him, with loud
lamentation, besought that he might be spared, and confessed where
and when and how he took possession of the youth. At last declaring
that he would go out of him, he named one by one the parts of his
body which he threatened to mutilate as he went out, and with these
words he departed from the man. But his eye falling out on his cheek,
hung by a slender vein as by a root, and the whole of the pupil which
had been black became white. When this was witnessed by those present
(others, too, had now gathered to his cries, and had all joined in
prayer for him), although they were delighted that he had recovered
his sanity of mind, yet, on the other hand, they were grieved about
his eye, and said he should seek medical advice. But his sister’s
husband, who had brought him there, said, ‘God who has banished the
devil, is able to restore his eye at the prayers of his saints.’
Therewith he replaced the eye that was fallen out and hanging, and
bound it in its place with his handkerchief as well as he could, and
advised him not to loose the bandage for seven days. When he did so,
he found it quite healthy. Others also were cured there, but of them
it were tedious to speak.
“I know that a young woman of Hippo was immediately dispossessed of
a devil, on anointing herself with oil, mixed with the tears of the
presbyter who had been praying for her. I know also that a bishop
once prayed for a demoniac young man whom he never saw, and that he
was cured on the spot.”[233]
Many other similar miraculous occurrences are related by Augustine, in
this same chapter, showing how fully paganism mingled with his belief.
He reports also many miracles performed by the power of a shrine which
was situated near Carthage. The chapter sounds more like a record of
heathen prodigies than like sober Christian history.
FOOTNOTES:
[206] Homily 6, _On Ephesians_.
[207] Page 222 of vol. ii. of _The Writings of Cyprian_, in Ante-Nicene
Library.
[208] _On the Catechising of the Uninstructed_, chap. xxv., ¶ 48.
[209] _Ecc. Hist._, book vii., chap. xxix.
[210] _Ibid._, book ix., chap. xvii.
[211] Book vii., chap. xxi.
[212] See Ezek. viii., 14-18.
[213] Jer. vii., 17-19.
[214] Pp. 224, 226.
[215] _The Cross, Ancient and Modern_, by Willson W. Blake,
illustrated, pp. 18, 19, New York.
[216] _The Cross, Heathen and Christian_, by Mourant Brock, M.A., pp.
18, 57-59, London.
[217] Died 460 A.D.
[218] Boissier gives a minute account of the vision of Constantine
and its effects in leading him to favor Christianity. He quotes from
Lactantius, tutor of Constantine’s sons, who describes the vision of
the Emperor in his treatise, _The Death of the Persecutors_. This
summary, given by Boissier, shows that the sign which Constantine saw
in his vision, and which he engraved upon his military standard, was
not the cross proper, but the monogram known as the Chi-Ro. It is
described by Lactantius in these words: “The letter ‘X’ crossed by a
bar, the top of which was gently recurved, forming thus the monogram of
Christ”--(_cf._ _La Fin du Paganisme_).
[219] _Antiquities_, etc., book xvi., chap. v., sec. 6.
[220] Hom. viii., _On Colossians_.
[221] Homily liv., ¶ 7, _On the Gospel of St. Matthew_.
[222] _Scorpiace_, xv.
[223] _Antiquities_, book xi., chap. ix., sec. 5.
[224] _Antiquities_, book xi., chap. x., secs. 3 and 4.
[225] Tractate 118, _On the Gospel of St. John_.
[226] Epists. 64 and 69.
[227] _Lives of the Fathers_, by F. W. Farrar, D.D., F.R.S., vol. i.,
pp. 332, 333, Edinburgh, 1889.
[228] Socrates, _Eccl. History_, book vii., chap. iv.
[229] _Ibid._, chap. xvii.
[230] _Antiquities_, book ii., chap. ii.
[231] _Antiquities_, book ii., chap. vi., sec. 3.
[232] _Antiquities_, book xi., chap. vii., sec. 7.
[233] _The City of God_, book xxii., chap. viii.