Lights in Worship--Worshipping “toward the East”--Easter
Fires--Beltane or Baal Fires--Penance--Mariolatry--The
Mass--Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead--Peter’s
Keys--Christmas--Easter--Lent, etc.
Sun-worship, as the dominant cult in all pagan systems, furnished more
elements of corruption than any other.
Lights in Worship.
The pagan origin of lights in worship is universally acknowledged.
Their use was sharply condemned in the earlier times.[234] The Synod of
Elviri (305 or 306 A.D.) condemned their use in cemeteries, where they
already formed a part of the services for the dead. Canon 34 reads: “It
is forbidden to light wax candles during the day in cemeteries for fear
of disquieting the spirits of the saints.”
Baronius explains this as follows: “Many Neophytes brought the custom
from paganism of lighting wax candles upon tombs. The Synod forbids
this, because, metaphysically, it troubles the souls of the dead; that
is to say, this superstition wounds them.”
Abespine gives another explanation, which is, that the synod accepted
the belief that was then general, that the souls of the dead hovered
around their tombs. “The Synod consequently forbade that wax candles
should be lighted by day, perhaps to abolish a remnant of paganism,
but also to prevent the repose of the souls of the dead from being
troubled.”[235]
MAITLAND says:
“The burning of lights is specified among the idolatrous rites
forbidden by the Theodosian Code: ‘Let no one in any kind of place
whatsoever in any city, burn lights, offer incense, or hang up
garlands to senseless idols.’ Vigilantius, in reference to the
custom of using lights in divine service, exclaims: ‘We almost see
the ceremonial of the gentiles introduced into the Churches under
pretence of religion; piles of candles lighted while the sun is still
shining; and everywhere people kissing and worshipping, and I know
not what; a little dust in a small vessel wrapped up in a precious
cloth. Great honor do such persons render to the blessed martyrs,
thinking with miserable tapers to illumine those whom the Lamb,
in the midst of the throne, shines upon with the splendor of his
majesty.’ This passage proves that Vigilantius, who must have known
well the customs of paganism, was struck with the resemblance between
them and the rites newly introduced into the Church.”[236]
But love for paganism was too strong, and the custom soon became
universal. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola (396 A.D.), gloried in the use of
lights. _In Natalis_ (3:100) he says:
“The bright altars are crowned with thickly clustered lamps, the
fragrant lights smell of waxed papyri; day and night they burn; so
that night glitters with the splendor of day; and day itself glories
with heavenly honors, shines the more, its lustre being doubled by
innumerable lamps.”[237]
The persistency with which the use of lights yet holds a place in many
branches of the Church shows how long and how vigorously paganism has
continued to corrupt Christianity.
“Orientation.”
Another residuum from sun-worship led to building churches with the
altar at the east, praying toward the east, burying the dead with
reference to the east, etc. Of the pagan origin of the custom, GALE
speaks as follows:
“Another piece of Pagan Demonolatry was their ceremony of bowing and
worshipping towards the East. For the Pagans universally worshipped
the sun as their supreme God, even the more reformed of them, the
new Platonists, Plotinus, Porphyry, and Julian the apostate, as it
appears by his oration to the Sun. Whence it came to pass, that the
sun rising in the east they usually worshipped in that way (as the
Jews in Babylon usually worshipped west, because Jerusalem stood west
thence). Hence also they built their temples and buried their dead
towards the East. So Diogenes Laertius, in the life of Solon, says:
that the Athenians buried their dead towards the East, the head of
their graves being made that way. And do not Anti-Christ and his
sons exactly follow this Pagan ceremony in building their temples
and High Altars towards the East, and in bowing that way in their
worship?”[238]
Various explanations were made concerning this practice, to cover up
the prominence of this paganism. For instance, CLEMENT of Alexandria
says:
“And since the dawn is an image of the day of birth, and from that
point the light which has shone forth at first from the darkness,
increases, there has also dawned on those involved in darkness a
day of the knowledge of truth. In correspondence with the manner of
the sun’s rising, prayers are made looking towards the sunrise in
the East. Whence also the most ancient temples looked towards the
West, that people might be taught to turn to the East when facing
the images. ‘Let my prayer be directed before thee as incense, the
uplifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice,’ say the Psalms.”[239]
TERTULLIAN seeks to avoid the charge of paganism, while defending this
practice, as follows:
“Others, with greater regard to good manners, it must be confessed,
suppose that the sun is the god of the Christians, because it is a
well known fact that we pray toward the East, or because we make
Sunday a day of festivity. What then? Do you do less than this? Do
not many among you, with an affectation of sometimes worshipping
the heavenly bodies, likewise, move your lips in the direction
of the sunrise? It is you, at all events, who have even admitted
the sun into the calendar of the week; and you have selected its
day, in preference to the preceding day, as the most suitable in
the week, for either an entire abstinence from the bath, or for
its postponement until the evening, or for taking rest, and for
banqueting.”[240]
Easter Fires.
Another element of pagan sun-worship continues to the present time in
the Easter fires, which abound especially in Northern Europe. Fire is
regarded as a living thing, in Teutonic mythology. It is often spoken
of as a bird, the “Red Cock.” _Notfuer_, “Need-fire,” is yet produced
by friction, at certain times. Such fire is deemed sacred. On such
occasions all fires in the neighborhood are extinguished, that they
may be rekindled from the _Notfuer_. This fire is yet used to ward off
evil, and to cure diseases in domestic animals. Traces of sex-worship
appear in connection with the producing of this sacred fire; “two
chaste boys” must pull the ropes which produce the friction necessary
to generate the fire; and a “chaste youth” must strike the light for
curing the disease known as “St. Anthony’s fire.” In Scotland such fire
is held as a safeguard against the “bewitching of domestic animals.”
GRIMM, who is the highest authority on the mythology of Northern
Europe, has abundant material touching all forms of fire-worship in
that region. Here is a single extract with reference to _Easter Fires_.
“At all the cities, towns and villages of the country, towards
evening on the first (or third) day of Easter, there is lighted every
year, on mountain and hill, a great fire of straw turf and wood,
amidst a concourse and jubilation, not only of the young, but of
many grown up people. On the Weser, especially in Schaumburg, they
tie up a tar barrel on a fir tree wrapt around with straw, and set
it on fire at night. Men and maids, and all who come dance, exulting
and singing, hats are waved, handkerchiefs thrown into the fire.
The mountains all around are lighted up, and it is an elevating
spectacle, scarcely paralleled by any thing else, to survey the
country for many miles around from one of the higher points, and
in every direction at once to see a vast number of these bonfires,
brighter or fainter, blazing up to heaven. In some places they
marched up the hill in stately procession, carrying white rods: by
turns they sang Easter hymns, grasping each other’s hands, and at the
Hallelujah, clashed their rods together. They liked to carry some of
the fire home with them.
“For these _ignes paschales_ there is no authority reaching beyond
the sixteenth century; but they must be a great deal older, if only
for the contrast with Midsummer fires, which never could penetrate
into North Germany, because the people there held fast by their
Easter fires. Now seeing that the fires of St. John, as we shall
presently show, are more immediately connected with the Christian
Church than those of Easter, it is not unreasonable to trace these
all the way back to the worship of the goddess Ostara, or Eastre,
who seems to have been more a Saxon and Anglican divinity than one
revered all over Germany. Her name and her fires, which are likely
to have come at the beginning of May, would, after the conversion of
the Saxons, be shifted back to the Christian feast. Those mountain
fires of the people are scarcely derivable from the taper lighted in
the Church the same day: it is true that Boniface calls it _ignis
paschalis_, and such Easter lights are mentioned in the sixteenth
century. Even now, in the Hildesheim country, they light the lamp on
Maundy Thursday, and that on Easter day, at an Easter fire which has
been _struck with a steel_. The people flock to this fire, carrying
oaken crosses, or simply crossed sticks, which they set on fire and
then preserve for a whole year. But the common folk distinguish
between this fire and the wild fire produced by rubbing wood. Jager
speaks of _a consecration fire of logs_.”[241]
Midsummer Fires.
Midsummer was the central point of a great pagan festival in honor
of the sun, who had then reached his greatest height, from which he
must soon decline. Catholic Christianity continued these festivals,
in St. John Baptist Day. Many of the peculiarities of these midsummer
fires were similar to those of the Easter fires already noticed. The
following description of the modern festival in Germany is taken from
Grimm:
“We have a fuller description of a Midsummer fire, made in 1823 at
Konz, a Lorrainian but still German village, on the Moselle, near
Sierk and Thionville. Every house delivers a truss of straw on the
top of the Stromberg, where men and youths assemble toward evening.
Women and girls are stationed by the Burbach springs. Then a huge
wheel is wrapt round with straw, so that none of the wood is left in
sight, a strong pole is passed through the middle, which sticks out
a yard on each side, and is grasped by the guiders of the wheel; the
remainder of the straw is tied up into a number of small torches. At
a signal given by the Maire of Sierk (who according to the ancient
custom, earns a basket of cherries by the service), the wheel is
lighted with a torch, and set rapidly in motion; a shout of joy is
raised, all wave their torches on high, part of the men stay on the
hill, part follow the rolling globe of fire, as it is guided down
the hill to the Moselle. It often goes out first: but if alight
when it touches the river, it prognosticates an abundant vintage,
and the Konz people have a right to levy a tun of white wine from
the adjacent vineyards. Whilst the wheel is rushing past the women
and the girls, they break out into cries of joy, answered by the
men on the hill, and inhabitants of neighboring villages, who have
flocked to the river side, mingle their voices in the universal
rejoicing.”[242]
Beltane or Baal Fires.
The Beltane or Baal fires and the ancient sacrifices to the sun-god
still continue in modified form in Scotland. Grimm speaks of them as
follows:
“The present custom is thus described by Armstrong _sub v.
bealtainn_: In some parts of the Highlands the young folks of a
hamlet meet in the moors, on the first of May. They cut a table in
the green sod, of a round figure, by cutting a trench in the ground,
of such circumference as to hold the whole company. They then kindle
a fire and dress a repast of eggs and milk, in the consistence of
a custard. They knead a cake of oatmeal, which is toasted at the
embers, against a stone. After the custard is eaten up, they divide
the cake in so many portions, as similar as possible to one another
in size and shape, as there are persons in the company. They daub
one of these portions with charcoal, until it is perfectly black.
They then put all the bits of the cake into a bonnet, and every
one, blindfold, draws out a portion. The bonnet-holder is entitled
to the last bit. Whoever draws the black bit is the devoted person
who is _to be sacrificed to Baal, whose favor they mean to implore
in rendering the year productive_. The devoted person is compelled
_to leap three times over the flames_. Here the reference to the
worship of a deity is too plain to be mistaken; we see by the leaping
over the flame, that the main point was, to select a human being to
propitiate the god, and make him merciful; that afterwards an animal
sacrifice was substituted for him, and finally nothing remained
of the bodily immolation but a leap through the fire, for man and
beast. The holy rite of friction is not mentioned here, but as it
was necessary for the ‘needfire’ that purged pestilence, it must
originally have been much more in requisition at the great yearly
festival.”[243]
Penance.
The pagan theory of baptismal regeneration created a necessity for the
doctrine of penance. Under the idea that baptism removed all sins up
to the time of the ceremony, something was necessary to atone for sins
committed after baptism. Dr. SCHAFF describes the origin of penance as
follows:
“The effect of baptism, however, was thought to extend only to sins
committed before receiving it. Hence the frequent postponement of
the sacrament, which Tertullian very earnestly recommends, though
he censures it when accompanied with moral levity and presumption.
Many, like Constantine the Great, put it off to the bed of sickness
and of death. They preferred the risk of dying unbaptized to that of
forfeiting forever the baptismal grace. Death-bed baptisms were then
what death-bed repentances are now.
“But then the question arose, how the forgiveness of sins committed
after baptism could be obtained? This is the starting-point of the
Roman doctrine of the sacrament of _penance_. Tertullian and Cyprian
were the first to suggest that satisfaction must be made for such
sins by self-imposed penitential exercises and good works, such as
prayers and alms-giving. Tertullian held seven gross sins, which he
denoted mortal sins, to be unpardonable after baptism, and to be left
to the uncovenanted mercies of God; but the Catholic Church took a
milder view, and even received back the adulterers and apostates on
their public repentance.”[244]
More need not be said. The reader will readily see the connection
between these two elements of paganism; he will also see the deeply
corrupting effect of them both.
Mariolatry.
The worship of a Mother Goddess and her son formed a distinct feature
in the paganism of Babylon, India, Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and Rome.
Though variant in conception, the core of Mariolatry runs through all
these pagan systems. Those who desire to follow this theme in detail
will do well to consult ALEXANDER HISLOP.[245] A single extract from
page 82 of that work is all that space will permit:
“The worship of the Goddess-Mother with the child in her arms
continued to be observed in Egypt till Christianity entered. If the
gospel had come in power among the mass of the people, the worship of
this goddess-queen would have been overthrown. With the generality,
it came only in name. Instead, therefore, of the Babylonian goddess
being cast out, in too many cases her name only was changed. She was
called the Virgin Mary, and, with her child, was worshipped with the
same idolatrous feeling by professing Christians, as formerly by open
and avowed pagans.”
The Mass.
The mass, which has been for centuries the central item in Roman
Catholic worship, finds its origin in the “unbloody sacrifices” which
were offered to the Paphian Venus, and to her counterpart in Babylonia
and Assyria. It was this worship of the Queen of Heaven into which the
apostate women of Judah were drawn, whom Jeremiah[246] condemns for
“burning incense, pouring out drink offerings, and offering cakes to
the Queen of Heaven.” These cakes were marked with the phallic symbol
of the cross. As before noted, they were the progenitors of the modern
“hot cross-buns,” which are associated with Friday--day of Venus.
The form of the cake-wafer adopted in paganized Christianity, its
_roundness_, was borrowed from the Egyptians, to whom the form
represented _the disk of the sun_. The mystic letters on the wafer
form another link which connects it with Egyptian paganism. Christians
explain these letters as meaning _Jesus Hominum Salvator_; but when the
worshippers of Isis, who were everywhere in the Roman empire in the
early centuries, read them on the unbloody sacrifice, they understood
by them _Isis_, _Horus_, _Seb_, _i. e._, The Mother, the Child, and the
Father of the Gods. The pagan character of this unbloody sacrifice was
so patent at the first, that it was sharply condemned; but familiarity
changed opposition to acceptance, and what was wholly pagan became the
centre of worship in paganized Christianity.
Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead.
All the leading systems of pagan religions have some form of purgatory,
with its associate prayers for the dead, for which large sums are paid
by the surviving friends. The purgatory which was developed in the
Christian cult is like its pagan prototype in almost every particular.
An extract from Wilkinson describing the practical workings of the
doctrine in pagan Egypt would need little changing to fit the facts
connected with the purgatory of Christians. We quote from Hislop[247]:
“‘The Priest,’ says Wilkinson, ‘induced the people to expend large
sums on the celebration of funeral rites; and _many who had barely
sufficient to obtain the necessaries of life_ were anxious to save
something for the expenses of their death. For besides the embalming
process, which sometimes cost a talent of silver, or about £250,
English money, the tomb itself was purchased at an immense expense;
and numerous demands were made upon the estate of the deceased, for
the celebration of prayer and other services for the soul.’ ‘The
ceremonies,’ we find him elsewhere saying, ‘consisted of a sacrifice
similar to those offered in the temples, vowed for the deceased
to one or more gods (as Osiris, Anubis, and others connected with
Amenti); incense and libation were also presented; and a prayer was
sometimes read, the relations and friends being present as mourners.
They even joined their prayers to those of the priest. The priest
who officiated at the burial service was selected from the grade of
Pontiffs, who wore the leopard skin; but various other rites were
performed by one of the minor priests, to the mummies, previous to
their being lowered into the pit of the tomb after that ceremony.
Indeed, they continued to be administered at intervals, _as long as
the family paid for their performance_.’ Such was the operation of
the doctrine of purgatory and prayers for the dead among avowed and
acknowledged pagans; and in what essential respect does it differ
from the operation of the same doctrine in Papal Rome?”
Saint Peter’s Keys.
Those who claim the primacy of St. Peter and his right to the keys
of heaven, pretend to found that claim upon Christ’s words to
Peter. But an examination of the history and characteristics of the
doctrine reveals its pagan origin too clearly to admit of question.
Roman paganism had its college of pontiffs, headed by the emperor, as
_Pontifex Maximus_. Babylonian and Assyrian paganism had a similar
council of pontiffs. The especial primacy among the deities was
associated with Janus and Cybele. Each of these bore a key. The Pope
assumed them both in the fifth century, after Christianity had been
paganized. The term cardinal is plainly derived from _cardo_, a hinge.
Janus was God of the Hinges, and was called the “Opener, and Shutter.”
The sovereign pontiff of the pagan cult was the representative of the
divinity on earth, and was worshipped as a god. This continued in the
Roman empire long after the emperors were called “Christian.” After
that the Pope became God’s representative among men. A single quotation
from OVID will close this glance at St. Peter and his keys. In it Janus
is described, and he in turn describes his office:
“He, holding in his right hand a staff, and in his left a key,
uttered these accents to me from the mouth of his front face....
‘Whatever thou beholdest around thee, the sky, the sea, the air, the
earth, all these have been shut up and are opened by my hand. In
my power alone is the guardianship of the vast universe, and the
prerogative of turning the hinge is entirely my own. When it has
been my pleasure to send forth Peace, from her tranquil habitation,
then at liberty she treads her paths unobstructed _by the restraints
of war_. The whole world would be thrown into confusion in deadly
bloodshed, did not my rigid bolts confine imprisoned warfare.
Together with the gentle seasons, I preside over the portals of
Heaven; through my agency Jupiter himself doth pass and repass.’”[248]
Representative Festivals.
Those who have given even a cursory examination of the subject, know
that the swarm of festivals which came into Christianity, after the
second century, were nearly, if not all, pagan days, with new or
modified names, but with little or no change of character. A few of the
representative ones will be noticed here.
Christmas.
The Scriptures are wholly silent as to the date of Christ’s birth.
The 25th of December, the winter solstice, was not fixed as Christmas
until a long time after the New Testament period. But in spite of
serious objections, historical and otherwise, that date triumphed. The
winter solstice was the date of the birth of Osiris, son of Isis the
Egyptian Queen of Heaven. The term “Yule,” another name for Christmas,
comes from the Chaldee, and signifies “child’s day.” This name for the
festival was familiar to our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, long before they
knew anything of Christianity. In Rome, this winter-solstice festival
was Saturn’s festival; the wild, drunken, licentious “Saturnalia.”
It was observed in Babylonia in a similar manner. When it came into
Christianity its leading features were like those of the Saturnalia.
These have been far too prevalent from that time. Lighted candles and
ornamented trees were a part of the observance of the festival among
the pagans. The “Christmas goose” and “Yule cakes” came, with the day,
from paganism.
Easter.
The earliest Christians continued to observe the Jewish Passover on
the 14th of the month _Nisan_. As the pagan element increased in
the Church, and the anti-Jewish feeling accordingly, after a sharp
struggle, the time was changed from the fourteenth of the month to
the Sunday nearest the vernal equinox. This brought it in conjunction
with the festival of the Goddess of Spring, an ancient pagan feast,
which probably dates back to the time of Astarte-worship, in Babylonia.
The name “Easter” is comparatively modern. It comes from Oestra, the
Goddess of Spring, in the Northern European mythology. The forms of
observance were almost wholly heathen. Easter eggs, dyed, and “hot
cross-buns,” figured in the Chaldean Easter, as they have done in the
Christian. The Hindus, and Chinese, and Egyptians had a sacred egg,
the history of which can be traced to the Euphrates and the worship of
Astarte.
Lent.
Lent has been given some appearance of having a Christian origin by
the assumption, for which there is not a shadow of scriptural, or
even apostolic authority, that it is the counterpart of Christ’s fast
of forty days. But the history of Lent shows unmistakably its pagan
origin. Its source is found in the fasting which the Babylonians
associated with the Goddess of Reproduction, whose worship formed the
starting-point of Easter. During that period of fasting, social joy and
all expressions of sexual regard were forbidden, because the goddess
then mourned the loss of her consort. From this came the germ of Lent,
and especially the practice of abstaining from marriage at that season.
The pagan tribes of Koordistan still keep such a fast. Humboldt found
the same in Mexico, and Landseer in Egypt. It came into Christianity
comparatively slowly, and brought gross evils with it. Witness the
following:
“This change of the calendar in regard to Easter was attended with
momentous consequences. It brought into the Church the grossest
corruption, and the rankest superstition in connection with the
abstinence of Lent. Let any one only read the atrocities that were
commemorated during the ‘sacred fast’ or pagan Lent, as described
by Arnobius and Clemens Alexandrinus, and surely he must blush for
the Christianity of those, who with the full knowledge of all these
abominations ‘went down to Egypt for help’ to stir up the languid
devotion of the degenerate Church, and who could find no more
excellent way to ‘revive’ it than by borrowing from so polluted a
source; the absurdities and abominations connected with which the
early Christian writers held up to scorn.”[249]
Many devout Christians now observe Lent without taint of paganism; but
with the undevout, Lent is only a resting time from the fashionable
dissipation of “society,” which refreshes them for the excesses that
follow Easter.
FOOTNOTES:
[234] See Tertullian, _Apologeticus_, chap. xlvi., and _Ad Uxorum_,
lib. ii., chap. vi.
[235] See Hefele, _History of the Councils_, etc., to 325 A.D., pp.
150, 151. Clark’s edition, Edinburgh, 1872.
[236] _The Church in the Catacombs_, p. 225, London, 1846.
[237] See Maitland, p. 228.
[238] _Court of the Gentiles_, by Theophilus Gale, part iii., book ii.,
chap. ii., section 3, paragraph 4.
[239] _Stromata_, book vii., chap. vii.
[240] _Ad Nationes_, chap. xiii.
[241] _Teutonic Mythology_, by Jacob Grimm, four vols., London, 1883,
vol. ii., p. 115.
[242] _Ibid._, vol. ii., p. 619.
[243] _Ibid._, vol. ii., p. 613.
[244] _Schaff_, vol. ii., p. 254.
[245] _The Two Babylons_, seventh edition, London, p. 21 ff.
[246] Jer. xliv., 19.
[247] _Two Babylons_, p. 169. The references to Wilkinson’s Egyptians
are vol. ii., p. 94, and vol. v., pp. 383, 384.
[248] Ovid, _Fasti_, bk. i.
[249] Hislop, _Two Babylons_, p. 106.