describe the early church, and say: "These regulations must on no
account be communicated to all sorts of persons, because of the
Mysteries contained in them." They speak of the Deacon's duty to keep
the doors, that none uninitiated should enter at the oblation.
_Ostiarii_, or doorkeepers, kept guard, and gave notice of the time of
prayer and church-assemblies; and also by private signal, in times of
persecution, gave notice to those within, to enable them to avoid
danger. The Mysteries were open to the _Fideles_ or _Faithful_ only; and
no spectators were allowed at the communion.
Tertullian, who died about A.D. 216, says in his _Apology_: "None are
admitted to the religious Mysteries without an oath of secrecy. We
appeal to your Thracian and Eleusinian Mysteries; and we are especially
bound to this caution, because if we prove faithless, we should not only
provoke Heaven, but draw upon our heads the utmost rigor of human
displeasure. And should strangers betray us? They know nothing but by
report and hearsay. Far hence, ye Profane! is the prohibition from all
holy Mysteries."
Clemens, Bishop of Alexandria, born about A.D. 191, says, in his
_Stromata_, that he cannot explain the Mysteries, because he should
thereby, according to the old proverb, put a sword into the hands of a
child. He frequently compares the Discipline of the Secret with the
heathen Mysteries, as to their internal and recondite wisdom.
Whenever the early Christians happened to be in company with strangers,
more properly termed _the Profane_, they never spoke of their
sacraments, but indicated to one another what they meant by means of
symbols and secret watchwords, disguisedly, and as by direct
communication of mind with mind, and by enigmas.
Origen, born A.D. 134 or 135, answering Celsus, who had objected that
the Christians had a concealed doctrine said: "Inasmuch as the essential
and important doctrines and principles of Christianity are openly
taught, it is foolish to object that there are other things that are
recondite; for this is common to Christian discipline with that of those
philosophers in whose teaching some things were exoteric and some
esoteric: and it is enough to say that it was so with some of the
disciples of Pythagoras."
The formula which the primitive church pronounced at the moment of
celebrating its Mysteries, was this: "Depart, ye Profane! Let the
Catechumens, and those who have not been admitted or initiated, go
forth."
Archelaus, Bishop of Cascara in Mesopotamia, who, in the year 278,
conducted a controversy with the Manichæans, said: "These Mysteries the
church now communicates to him who has passed through the introductory
Degree. They are not explained to the Gentiles at all; nor are they
taught openly in the hearing of Catechumens: but much that is spoken is
in disguised terms, that the Faithful ([Greek: Πιστοί]), who possess
the knowledge, may be still more informed, and those who are not
acquainted with it, may suffer no disadvantage."
Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, was born in the year 315, and died in 386,
In his _Catechesis_ he says; "The Lord spake in parables to His hearers
in general; but to His disciples He explained in private the parables
and allegories which He spoke in public. The splendor of glory is for
those who are early enlightened: obscurity and darkness are the portion
of the unbelievers and ignorant. Just so the church discovers its
Mysteries to those who have advanced beyond the class of Catechumens: we
employ obscure terms with others."
St. Basil, the Great Bishop of Cæsarea, born in the year 326, and dying
in the year 376, says: "We receive the dogmas transmitted to us by
writing, and those which have descended to us from the Apostles, beneath
the mystery of oral tradition: for several things have been handed to us
without writing, lest the vulgar, too familiar with our dogmas, should
lose a due respect for them. ... This is what the uninitiated are not
permitted to contemplate; and how should it ever be proper to write and
circulate among the people an account of them?"
St. Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop of Constantinople, A.D. 379, says; "You
have heard as much of the Mystery as we are allowed to speak openly in
the ears of all; the rest will be communicated to you in private; and
that you must retain within yourself.... Our Mysteries are not to be
made known to strangers."
St Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, who was born in 340, and died in 393,
says in his work _De Mysteries_: "All the Mystery should be kept
concealed, guarded by faithful silence, lest it should be inconsiderately
divulged to the ears of the Profane..... It is not given to all to
contemplate the depths of our Mysteries..... that they may not be seen
by those who ought not to behold them; nor received by those who cannot
preserve them." And in another work: "He sins against God, who divulges
to the unworthy the Mysteries confided to him. The danger is not merely
in violating truth, but in telling truth, if he allow himself to give
hints of them to those from whom they ought to be concealed.....Beware
of casting pearls before swine!... Every Mystery ought to be kept
secret; as it were, to be covered over by silence, lest it should rashly
be divulged to the ears of the Profane. Take heed that you do not
incautiously reveal the Mysteries!"
St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, who was born in 347, and died in 430,
says in one of his discourses: "Having dismissed the Catechumens, we
have retained you only to be our hearers; because besides those things
which belong to all Christians in common, we are now to discourse to you
of sublime Mysteries, which none are qualified to hear, but those who,
by the Master's favor, are made partakers of them.....To have taught
them openly, would have been to betray them." And he refers to the Ark
of the Covenant and says that it signified a Mystery, or secret of God,
shadowed over by the cherubim of glory, and honored by being veiled.
St. Chrysostom and St. Augustine speak of initiation more than fifty
times. St. Ambrose writes to those who are initiated; and initiation was
not merely baptism, or admission into the church, but it referred to
initiation into the Mysteries. To the baptized and initiated the
Mysteries of religion were unveiled; they were kept secret from the
Catechumens; who were permitted to hear the Scriptures read and the
ordinary discourses delivered, in which the Mysteries, reserved for the
Faithful, were never treated of. When the services and prayers were
ended, the Catechumens and spectators all withdrew.
Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople, was born in 354, and died in 417.
He says: "I wish to speak openly: but I dare not, on account of those
who are not initiated. I shall therefore avail myself of disguised
terms, discoursing in a shadowy manner..... Where the holy Mysteries are
celebrated, we drive away all uninitiated persons, and then close the
doors" He mentions the acclamations of the initiated; "which", he says,
"I here pass over in silence; for it is forbidden to disclose such
things to the Profane". Palladius, in his life of Chrysostom, records, as
a great outrage, that, a tumult having been excited against him by his
enemies, they forced their way into the _penetralia_, where the
uninitiated beheld what was not proper for them to see; and Chrysostom
mentions the same circumstance in his epistle to Pope Innocent.
St. Cyril of Alexandria, who was made Bishop in 412, and died in 444,
says in his 7th Book against Julian: "These Mysteries are so profound
and so exalted, that they can be comprehended by those only who are
enlightened. I shall not, therefore, attempt to speak of what is so
admirable in them, lest by discovering them to the uninitiated, I
should offend against the injunction not to give what is holy to the
impure, nor cast pearls before such as cannot estimate their worth.....I
should say much more, if I were not afraid of being heard by those who
are uninitiated: because men are apt to deride what they do not
understand. And the ignorant, not being aware of the weakness of their
minds, condemn what they ought most to venerate."
Theodoret, Bishop of Cyropolis in Syria, was born in 393, and made
Bishop in 420. In one of his three Dialogues, called the Immutable, he
introduces _Orthodoxus_, speaking thus: "Answer me, if you please, in
mystical or obscure terms: for perhaps there are some persons present
who are not initiated into the Mysteries." And in his preface to
Ezekiel, tracing up the secret discipline to the commencement of the
Christian era, he says: "These Mysteries are so august, that we ought to
keep them with the greatest caution."
Minucius Felix, an eminent lawyer of Rome, who lived in 212, and wrote a
defence of Christianity, says: "Many of them [the Christians] know each
other by tokens and signs (_notis et insignibus_), and they form a
friendship for each other, almost before they become acquainted."
The Latin Word, _tessera_, originally meant a square piece of wood or
stone, used in making tesselated pavements; afterward a tablet on which
anything was written, and then a cube or die. Its most general use was
to designate a piece of metal or wood, square in shape, on which the
watchword of an Army was inscribed; whence _tessera_ came to mean the
watchword itself. There was also a _tessera hospitalis_, which was a
piece of wood cut into two parts, as a pledge of friendship. Each party
kept one of the parts; and they swore mutual fidelity by Jupiter. To
break the _tessera_ was considered a dissolution of the friendship. The
early Christians used it as a Mark, the watchword of friendship. With
them it was generally in the shape of a fish, and made of bone. On its
face was inscribed the word [Greek: Ίχθύς], a fish, the initials of
which represented the Greek words, [Greek: Ιησούς Χριστός ϴεού Υίός
Σωτήρ]; _Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour_.
St. Augustine (_de Fide et Symbolis_) says: "This is the faith which in
a few words is given to the Novices to be kept by a symbol; these few
words are known to all the Faithful; that by believing they may be
submissive to God; by being thus submissive, they may live rightly; by
living rightly, they may purify their hearts and with a pure heart may
understand what they believe."
Maximus Taurinus says: "The tessera is a symbol and sign by which to
distinguish between the Faithful and the Profane."
There are _three_ Degrees in Blue Masonry; and in addition to the two
words of two syllables each, embodying the binary, three of three
syllables each. There were three Grand Masters, the two Kings, and
Khir-Om the Artificer. The candidate gains admission by three raps, and
three raps call up the Brethren. There are three principal officers of
the Lodge, three lights at the Altar, three gates of the Temple, all in
the East, West, and South. The three lights represent the Sun, the Moon,
and Mercury; Osiris, Isis, and Horus; the Father, the Mother, and the
Child; Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty; Hakamah, Binah, and Daath; Gedulah,
Geburah, and Tepareth. The candidate makes three circuits of the Lodge:
there were three assassins of Khir-Om, and he was slain by three blows
while seeking to escape by the three gates of the Temple. The
ejaculation at his grave was repeated three times. There are three
divisions of the Temple, and three, five, and seven Steps. A Master
works with Chalk, Charcoal, and a vessel of Clay; there are three
movable and three immovable jewels. The Triangle appears among the
Symbols: the two parallel lines enclosing the circle are connected at
top, as are the Columns Jachin and Boaz, symbolizing the equilibrium
which explains the great Mysteries of Nature.
This continual reproduction of the number three is not accidental, nor
without a profound meaning: and we shall find the same repeated in all
the Ancient philosophies.
The Egyptian Gods formed Triads, the third member in each proceeding
from the other two. Thus we have the Triad of Thebes, Amun, Maut, and
Kharso; that of Philae, Osiris, Isis, and Horus; that of Elephantinē and
the Cataracts, Neph, Sate, and Anoukē.
Osiris, Isis, and Horus were the Father, Mother, and Son; the latter
being Light, the Soul of the World, the Son, the Protogonos or
First-Begotten.
Sometimes this Triad was regarded as SPIRIT, or the _active_ Principle
or Generative Power; MATTER, or the PASSIVE Principle or Productive
Capacity; and the Universe, which proceeds from the two Principles.
We also find in Egypt this Triad or Trinity; Ammon-Ra, the Creator:
Osiris-Ra, the Giver of Fruitfulness: Horus-Ra, the Queller of Light;
symbolized by the Summer, Autumn, and Spring Sun. For the Egyptians had
but three Seasons, the three gates of the Temple; and on account of the
different effects of the Sun on those three Seasons, the Deity appears
in these three forms.
The Phœnician Trinity was Ulomos, Chusoros, and the Egg out of which the
Universe proceeded.
The Chaldean Triad consisted of Bel, [the Persian Zervana Akherana],
Oromasdes, and Ahriman; the Good and Evil Principle alike outflowing
from the Father, by their equilibrium and alternating preponderance to
produce harmony. Each was to rule, in turn, for equal periods, until
finally the Evil Principle should itself become good.
The Chaldean and Persian oracles of Zoroaster give us the Triad, Fire,
Light, and Ether.
Orpheus celebrates the Triad of Phanes, Ouranos, and Kronos. Corry says
the Orphic Trinity consisted of Metis, Phanes, and Ericapaeus; Will,
Light or Love, and Life. Acusilaus makes it consist of Metis, Eros, and
Æther: Will, Love, and Ether. Phereycides of Syros, of Fire, Water, and
Air or Spirit. In the two former we readily recognize Osiris and Isis,
the Sun and the Nile.
The first three of the Persian Amshaspands were BAHMAN, the Lord of
LIGHT; Ardibehest, the Lord of FIRE; and Shariver, the Lord of SPLENDOR.
These at once lead us back to the Kabala.
Plutarch says: "The better and diviner nature consists of three; the
Intelligible (_i.e._ that which exists within the Intellect only as
yet), and Matter; [Greek: το Νοητος] and [Greek: Ύλη], and that which
proceeds from these, which the Greeks call Kosmos: of which Plato calls
the Intelligible, the Idea, the Exemplar, the Father: Matter, the
Mother, the Nurse, and the receptacle and place of generation: and the
issue of these two, the Offspring and Genesis."
The Pythagorean fragments say: "Therefore, before the Heaven was made,
there existed Idea and Matter, and God the Demiourgos [workman or active
instrument], of the former. He made the world out of matter, perfect,
only-begotten, with a soul and intellect, and constituted it a
divinity."
Plato gives us Thought, the Father; Primitive Matter, the Mother; and
KOSMOS, the Son, the issue of the two Principles. Kosmos is the ensouled
Universe.
With the later Platonists, the Triad was Potence, Intellect, and Spirit,
Philo represents Sanchoniathon's as Fire, Light, and Flame, the three
Sons of Genos; but this is the Alexandrian, not the Phœnician idea.
Aurelius says the Demiourgos or Creator is triple, and the three
Intellects are the three Kings: He who exists; He who possesses; He who
beholds. The first is that which exists by its essence; the second
exists in the first, and contains or possesses in itself the Universal
of things; all that afterward becomes: the third beholds this Universal,
formed and fashioned intellectually, and so having a separate existence.
The Third exists in the Second, and the Second in the First.
The most ancient Trinitarian doctrine on record is that of the Brahmins.
The Eternal Supreme Essence, called PARABRAHMA, BRAHM, PARATMA, produced
the Universe by self-reflection, and first revealed himself as BRAHMA,
the _Creating_ Power, then as VISHNU, the Preserving Power, and lastly
as SIVA, the _Destroying_ and _Renovating_ Power; the three Modes in
which the Supreme Essence reveals himself in the material Universe; but
which soon came to be regarded as three distinct Deities. These three
Deities they styled the TRIMURTI, or TRIAD.
The Persians received from the Indians the doctrine of the three
principles, and changed it to that of a principle of Life, which was
individualized by the Sun, and a principle of Death, which was
symbolized by cold and darkness; parallel of the moral world; and in
which the continual and alternating struggle between light and darkness,
life and death, seemed but a phase of the great struggle between the
good and evil principles, embodied in the legend of ORMUZD and AHRIMAN.
MITHRAS, a Median reformer, was deified after his death, and invested
with the attributes of the Sun; the different astronomical phenomena
being figuratively detailed as actual incidents of his life; in the same
manner as the history of BUDDHA was invented among the Hindūs.
The Trinity of the Hindūs became among the Ethiopians and Abyssinians
NEPH-AMON, PHTHA, and NEITH--the God CREATOR, whose emblem was a
ram--MATTER, or the primitive mud, symbolized by a globe or an egg, and
THOUGHT, or the LIGHT which contains the germ of everything; triple
manifestation of one and the same God (ATHOM), considered in three
aspects, as the _creative power, goodness_, and _wisdom_. Other Deities
were speedily invented; and among them OSIRIS, represented by the Sun,
ISIS, his wife, by the Moon or Earth, TYPHON, his Brother, the
Principle of Evil and Darkness, who was the son of Osiris and Isis. And
the Trinity of OSIRIS, ISIS, and HORUS became subsequently the Chief
Gods and objects of worship of the Egyptians.
The ancient Etruscans (a race that emigrated from the Rhætian Alps into
Italy, along whose route evidences of their migration have been
discovered, and whose language none have yet succeeded in reading)
acknowledged only one Supreme God; but they had images for His different
attributes, and temples to these images. Each town had one National
Temple, dedicated to the three great attributes of God, STRENGTH,
RICHES, and WISDOM, or _Tina, Talna_, and _Minerva_. The National Deity
was always a Triad under one roof; and it was the same in Egypt, where
one Supreme God alone was acknowledged, but was worshipped as a Triad,
with different names in each different home. Each city in Etruria might
have as many gods and gates and temples as it pleased; but three sacred
gates, and one Temple to three Divine Attributes were obligatory,
wherever the laws of Tages (or Taunt or Thoth) were received. The only
gate that remains in Italy, of the olden time, undestroyed, is the Porta
del Circo at Volterra; and it has upon it the three heads of the three
National Divinities, one upon the keystone of its magnificent arch, and
one above each side-pillar.
The Buddhists hold that the God SAKYA of the Hindūs, called in Ceylon,
GAUTAMA, in India beyond the Ganges, SOMONAKODOM, and in China, CHY-KIA,
or Fo, constituted a Trinity [TRIRATNA], of BUDDHA, DHARMA, and
SANGA,--_Intelligence, Law_, and _Union_ or _Harmony_.
The Chinese Sabæans represented the Supreme Deity as composed of
CHANG-TI, the _Supreme Sovereign_; TIEN, the _Heavens_; and TAO, the
_Universal Supreme Reason_ and _Principle of Faith_; and that from
Chaos, an immense silence, an immeasurable void without perceptible
forms, alone, infinite, immutable, moving in a circle in illimitable
space, without change or alteration, when vivified by the Principle of
Truth, issued all Beings, under the influence of TAO, Principle of
Faith, who produced one, one produced two, two produced three, and three
produced all that is.
The Sclavono-Vendes typified the Trinity by the three heads of the God
TRICLAV; and the Pruczi or Prussians by the Tri-une God PERKOUN,
PIKOLLOS, and POTRIMPOS, the Deities of _Light_ and _Thunder_, of
_Hell_ and the _Earth_, its fruits and animals: and the Scandinavians by
ODIN, FREA, and THOR.
In the KABALAH, or the Hebrew traditional philosophy, the Infinite
Deity, beyond the reach of the Human Intellect, and without Name, Form,
or Limitation, was represented as developing Himself, in order to
create, and by self-limitation, in ten emanations or out-flowings,
called SEPHIROTH, or _rays_. The first of these, in the world AZILUTH,
that is, within the Deity, was KETHER, or the _Crown_, by which we
understand the Divine Will or Potency. Next came, as a pair, HAKEMAH and
BAINAH, ordinarily translated "Wisdom" and "Intelligence," the former
termed the FATHER, and the latter the MOTHER. HAKEMAH is the active
_Power_ or _Energy_ of Deity, by which He produces within Himself
Intellection or Thinking: and BAINAH, the passive _Capacity_, from
which, acted on by the Power, the Intellection flows. This Intellection
is called DAATH: and it is the "WORD," of Plato and the Gnostics; the
_unuttered_ word, _within_ the Deity. Here is the origin of the Trinity
of the Father, the Mother or Holy Spirit, and the Son or Word.
Another Trinity was composed of the fourth Sephirah, GEDULAH or KHASED,
_Benignity_ or _Mercy_, also termed FATHER (_Aba_); the fifth, GEBURAH,
_Severity_ or Strict _Justice_, also termed the MOTHER (_Imma_); and the
sixth, the SON or _Issue_ of these, TIPHARETH, _Beauty_ or _Harmony_.
"Everything," says the SOHAR, "proceeds according to the Mystery of the
Balance"--that is, by the equilibrium of Opposites: and thus from the
Infinite Mercy and the Infinite Justice, in equilibrium, flows the
perfect Harmony of the Universe. Infinite POWER, which is Lawless, and
Infinite WISDOM, in Equilibrium, also produce BEAUTY or HARMONY, as Son,
Issue, or Result--the Word, or utterance of the Thought of God. Power
and Justice or Severity are the _same_: Wisdom and Mercy or Benignity
are the same;--in the Infinite Divine Nature.
According to Philo of Alexandria, the Supreme Being, Primitive Light or
Archetype of Light, uniting with WISDOM [Σοψια], the mother of Creation,
forms in Himself the types of all things, and acts upon the Universe
through the WORD [Λογος ... Logos], who dwells in God, and in whom all
His powers and attributes develop themselves; a doctrine borrowed by him
from Plato.
Simon Magus and his disciples taught that the Supreme Being or Centre of
Light produced first of all, three couples of united Existences, of
both sexes, [[Greek: Συζυγίας] ...Suzugias], which were the origins of
all things: REASON and INVENTIVENESS; SPEECH and THOUGHT; CALCULATION
and REFLECTION: [[Greek: Νούς] and [Greek: Επίνοιa, Φωνή] and [Greek:
Εννοια, Λογισμός] and [Greek: Ενθύμησις] ... Nöus and Epinoia, Phōne and
Ennoia, Logismos and Enthumēsis]; of which Ennoia or WISDOM was the
first produced, and Mother of all that exists.
Other Disciples of Simon, and with them most of the Gnostics, adopting
and modifying the doctrine, taught that the [Greek: Πλήρωμα] .. Plerōma,
or PLENITUDE of Superior Intelligences, having the Supreme Being at
their head, was composed of eight Eons [[Greek: Αίόνης] .. Aiōnes] of
different sexes;.. PROFUNDITY and SILENCE; SPIRIT and TRUTH; the WORD
and LIFE; MAN and the CHURCH: [[Greek: Βυθός] and [Greek: Σιγή; Πνεϋμα]
and [Greek: Αλήθεια; Λόγος] and [Greek: Ζωή; Ανθρωπος] and [Greek:
Έκκλησία] ... Buthos and Sigē; Pneuma and Aletheia; Logos and Zōe;
Anthrōpos and Ekklēsia].