widely, living largely under Persian rule, and subjected after
Alexander's conquest to Greek influences. Later they were scattered
still more widely, becoming in time a mercantile race. In Egypt they
enjoyed greater privileges than elsewhere, and in Alexandria saw the
acme of Grecian art and teaching. While retaining their reverence for
their scriptures and for the temple at Jerusalem, they quite generally
adopted the language of the country, and particularly was this true of
the Jews living in Alexandria in the third century, B. C., during which
the Pentateuch was translated into the Septuagint, the remainder of the
Hebrew bible being translated about 125 B. C. Thus the Greeks gained
an introduction to Jewish theology, while the Hellenist Jews learned
for the first time a Grecian philosophy; thus, too, among the scholars
of one race was begotten a high esteem for the sages and philosophers
of the other, while from the polytheism of one and the monotheism
of the other was constructed a new mysticism. In this Alexandrian
mysticism appeared in particular and for the first time the new idea
of divine revelation, which was applied by enthusiasts alike to the
Old Testament and to the Grecian writings. The Jew Aristobulus devised
a most ingenious allegorical interpretation of the Old Testament, and
traced to it all the wisdom of the Greeks, who until recently had never
heard of it; and Philo, another Hebrew philosopher, contemporary with
Christ, yet of whom he knew nothing, so construed the traditions of his
race as to see in the four rivers of Eden the four cardinal virtues,
in the trees of paradise the lesser virtues, and in the great figures
of Jewish history personifications of various moral conceptions, all
of which was out-doing the manner in which his Grecian friends had
developed their own mysteries. Moreover, and this is very important,
Philo taught that God had made a world of ideas and according to this
model had subsequently made a corporeal world; the former having for
its central point the Word. This statement that the _Word_ was the
first and the _World_ his second deed passed later into the gospel of
St. John, which opens "In the beginning was the _word_, and the _word_
was God."
Philo founded a sect based upon the doctrine that the soul's union
with the body is to be regarded as a punishment from which man should
free himself, for his soul's sake. This sect was known as the Essenes,
who in spite of claims to the highest antiquity really were founded
during the first century B. C., and who constituted in effect a secret
society. They were the true socialists of their day, and held things
in common. They invented a peculiar nomenclature for the angels
and imposed upon their new members to keep these names secret. As
a society they did not long survive the beginning of the Christian
era, being made superfluous by Christian asceticism. The Essenes,
however, were of importance in this regard that they constituted the
middle terms between the Grecian mysteries and Christianity, as they
did between Grecian philosophy and Judaism. They were, in effect,
a Jewish imitation of the Pythagorean league. _When with Grecian
mysticism were associated the nobility of Socrates, the philosophy
of Plato, the science of Aristotle and the Jewish belief in one God,
it is not strange that out of these elements, combined with the
teachings of simple humanity enunciated by Christ, there resulted a
power which transformed the world._ The view that all mankind are
brothers, originally Jewish, was also of independent Greek origin and
came especially from the Stoics, who had to lie dormant until some tie
stronger than mere political association held men together. This tie
subsequently became a religious one. Polytheism had nothing more to
give up; all the forces had been worked over in the God-making process,
the Pantheon was full, and men ridiculed alike the Gods, their oracles
and their priests. These same priests smiled at each other when they
met, and forfeited all public respect by the lives they led. Olympic
wantoning and derision of the Gods must necessarily have ended so soon
as anything better could be substituted therefor.
The long felt want was for a God of definite character, of approved
prowess, with human feelings, human wrath, and human love, made after
man's own likeness, who should stand for a doctrine of personal
immortality, and give some promise of a hereafter. The Jews, the only
monotheists of the time, were prepared to furnish such a God, but he
was too spiritual, and was worshiped by altogether too indefinite
rites and peculiar usages. Nevertheless the God of the Jews was
utilized for this purpose while the mystic elements with which he was
to be surrounded were furnished by the ancient Grecian mysteries and
the doctrines of the Pythagoreans and Essenes. So completely did the
Jews and Greeks mingle in Egypt and in Judea, that the idea prevailed
among both races that the time had come for something new in the
desired direction. The various secret leagues demanded a separation of
the divine from the human and their subsequent reconciliation, all of
which was subsequently furnished to their satisfaction in the accounts
of the origin and death of Christ. Even during the early years of the
Roman Empire men looked for a new kingdom in the East, and both Jews
and Heathen awaited some divine intervention. This took more definite
form in the Jewish expectation of a Messiah who should restore the
kingdom of Israel, and in their worship of Jehovah, while the Greeks
yearned for something to take the place of their degenerate polytheism.
The times were thus ready for the appearance of Jesus, who lived for
most of his life in obscurity, and of whose career no mention is made
by contemporary Greek and Roman writers. This was perhaps fortunate for
his followers, for none could contradict what any other might choose
to say of Him who rose above the bigotry of his day and people, who
was executed because of his independence of the priests and scribes,
and who was thus regarded as the longed for Messiah. On the Jewish
branch of his real origin were grafted Grecian mystical off-shoots of
superhuman origin;--an immaculate conception, a vicarious sacrifice,
a resurrection and an assumption of a portion of the God-head. Thus,
in what has come down to us concerning the Founder of the Christian
church, truth and fiction mingle; the former being that which is
consistent with highest laws and natural phenomena; and the latter that
which conflicts with these. Jesus himself never made pretentions to
being more than a man. When he spoke of his father he spoke of him as
equally the father of all mankind; he was the greatest moral reformer
that ever lived, and he differed widely from the Essenes in that he
sought to save man, not by Essenism and withdrawing him from the world,
but by living with him and setting him a beautiful example.
The ancients were firm believers in signs and portents from the heavens
which were supposed to serve both for the instruction and warning
of mankind. Stars, meteors, the aurora, comets and sudden lights of
any kind were regarded as presaging events like the birth of Gods,
heroes, etc. Great lights were supposed to have appeared both at the
conception and birth of Buddha, and of Crishna. The sacred writings of
China tell of like events in the history of the founder of her first
dynasty, Yu, and of her inspired sages. The Greeks and Romans had
similar traditions regarding the birth of Aesculapius and several of
the Caesars. In Jewish history we read that a star appeared at the
birth of Moses, and of Abraham--for whom an unusual one appeared in
the East. The prominence which a similar star in the East played in
the legends of the Founder of Christianity and the effect which, as
also in the case of Moses it had upon Magi, needs here no rehearsing. A
very different significance was attached to eclipse or to any phenomena
by which unexpected darkness is produced. The Greeks held that at the
deaths of Prometheus, Hercules, Aesculapius and Alexander, a great
darkness overspread the earth. In Roman history the earth was shadowed
in darkness for six hours when Romulus died. Much the same thing is
reported to have occurred when Julius Caesar died. So also one of the
most conspicuous features attending the crucifixion of Jesus was a
similar phenomenon which is made to play a most conspicuous part, for
we read in three of the gospels that "darkness spread over the earth
from the sixth to the ninth hour;" although the only evangelist who
claims to have been present says nothing about it, nor do historians of
that time, like Seneca and Pliny, make note of any such event in Judea.
In view of all this, however, to deny the star in the East, and the
hours of darkness following the crucifixion, is regarded by many pious
people as rank blasphemy or heresy of the deepest dye.
The parables in which Jesus taught so unmistakably were similes adapted
to the simple comprehension of his people, who likewise often made use
of such figurative language. Those who followed him used this form
of speech much more freely, and quickly erected his personality into
the dignity of a God, magnified him and his mission, and soon saw him
generally accepted as the equivalent of the Messiah, for whom Greeks
and Jews alike had longed. His alleged miracles were unnecessary,
in addition to being contradictory to all known natural sequences,
because the simple and sublime truths which he preached could not be
made more expressive by any such help. In the light of to-day they
seem unnecessary juggleries, quite unworthy of so grand a character.
They probably represent the effort of his followers, who portrayed his
life and personality in colors which would make them more generally
acceptable.
Of such transformations as that by which the son of a carpenter was
made to appear of divine origin history has no lack. The Grecian
polytheism furnished numerous illustrations; Apollo appeared on earth
as a shepherd, Herakles, the son of Zeus, and Romulus (who was also the
son of a _virgin_ and of _Mars_), were founders of cities, states and
nations. The Jewish accounts of creation stated that God walked the
earth, and why not in human form? Why also should not the founder of a
religion be the son of God and of a virgin? The rest of the beautiful
story upon which we were all brought up must be regarded as fanciful
embellishment, beautiful in its imagery, but having no foundation in
fact or scientific possibility. The annunciation, the star in the
East, the slaughter of the innocents, etc., can only be regarded in
this light.
The stories of the miracles are probably distinctively purposive.
In the Grecian mysteries Demeter and Dionysos figured as givers of
bread and wine; Jesus, too, was made lord and giver of these two
sacred viands, all of which appears in his changing water into wine,
multiplying the loaves, and later in the institution of the Last
Supper, at which bread and wine became a part of these Christian
mysteries which are still widely perpetuated. In his quieting the
storm, walking upon the water, finding the penny in the fishes' mouth,
and the draught of fishes, are portrayed his power over the forces of
nature and lower forms of life. His power over disease was personified
by stories of healing paralytics, lepers, blind, deaf and dumb people,
casting out devils, and even by restoring the dead to life. Apparitions
were common according to the history of his life, as of the holy spirit
in form of a dove, his encounter with Satan, the appearance of Moses
and Elias, etc. The ancient tendency to personify appears again in the
form of Satan or a personal devil, namely the power of evil, while in
the Transfiguration is personified the superiority of the new law over
the old. Finally the miracles attending his last days, the darkening
of the sun, the rending of the veil and the Resurrection, were all
occurrences which it would be impossible to omit from the closing
scenes in the life of anyone who has figured as a God. They betoken
the mourning of nature, while the Ascension personified the belief in
an everlasting Redeemer and the individual immortality of those who
believed in him.
In thus epitomizing the events in the life of Jesus upon which, from
his day until now, men have laid such fearful stress, and upon whose
acceptance the present life as well as the future of all men has been
conditioned, I should be far from doing justice to myself should I
fail to point out my own attitude in the matter. I hold it true that
the self-evident truth, as well as the wonderful sublimity of Christ's
teachings, become apparent upon the study of the same, and are weakened
rather than strengthened by insistence upon all that is supernatural,
mysterious and inconceivable in the generally accepted account of his
life and labor. My mind is freed from the necessity for the mysterious
which the Graeco-Jewish people demanded, and which the superstitious
people of to-day still demand, and I prefer to let him stand for what
he seems to me to be,--_the greatest moralist and teacher of all
time_, rather than to surround him with a veil of imagery and with
statements so impossible of belief as to make it impossible to accept
one part without accepting them all. The Jews already had doctrines
of unity of God and love for others; the Grecian philosophy antedated
him in insisting upon elevation of life to a higher plane than that
of mere gratification of the senses, and everywhere his predecessors
and contemporaries could furnish miracles by the hundred, but in
force, grandeur and simplicity of his teachings, in his comprehensive
humanity, in his directness of appeal, in his condemnations of those
who departed from the model which he set, he never has had and probably
never will have an equal. In his self-abasement and love for others he
was as irresistible as have been these principles in civilizing and, in
this sense, christianizing the world.
In Jesus' own day there was no hair-splitting theology; devotion, love
of fellow-men, charity, repentance, these were all that were needed.
But the beautiful simplicity of his teaching was lost with the death of
his first disciples. The system was esteemed too simple, too unadorned
to appeal to the people used to something quite the contrary. And so
Stephen the Martyr, who was of Grecian education, was stoned because
he demanded a repudiation of certain Jewish teachings, although the
congregation at Antioch adopted his views.
Paul the great leader was an epileptic and had frequent fits and
visions, and these made a strong impression, not only on himself but
on his followers. On the creations of his imagination the doctrine of
the resurrection is largely based. He set up the God-man Jesus as the
counterpart of the first man Adam, who represented sin and death, and
who was to be crucified and born anew in Christ. Between Paul, the
great Gentile Christian, and Peter, the Jewish Christian, the church
was quickly split into two parties; these two soon subdividing into
others, and among them all arose the New Testament literature, whose
Alexandrine dialect establishes the influence of Greek education.
Thus did Christianity develop out of the secret associations of the
ancient world. The early Christians themselves constituted, at least
while under persecution, a sort of secret society. Their worship
was mystical, but not because Jesus so taught;--rather because of
their environment and traditions. The practice of baptism, the last
supper and the doctrines of incarnation and resurrection have been as
certainly added to the Nazarene's sublime code of ethics as to them in
turn, in the centuries to follow, were added every conceivable notion,
mystery and stupid absurdity which the diseased minds of men could
imagine, and which have been the cause of more departure from Christ's
original teachings, and of more strife and bloodshed than any other
feature in the history of mankind.
Indeed it is one of the greatest inconsistencies of history that
the doctrines of love, unity and peace, taught by the Founder of
Christianity, should have been the greatest of all factors to rend
mankind apart, beget feelings of hatred, and result in the death, from
this cause, of millions of men such as Jesus himself most loved.
VI
THE KNIGHTS HOSPITALLER OF ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM
The three great militant, mendicant and monastic orders of the middle
ages were the Knights Hospitaller of St. John, the Knights Templar,
and the Teutonic Order. In addition were numerous others, smaller,
shorter lived, less important in every respect, scarcely mentioned in
even the larger histories, like the knights of Calatrava, Alcantara,
Santiago de Compostella, and the English Knights of the Holy Sepulchre.
These orders were the immediate as well as the indirect outgrowth
of mediaeval conditions for which both the Church and the State
were responsible. The secret tenets of the Christians had been made
public, and those who held to them had for some time ceased to be a
secret society; their faith was now a part of that church which was
essentially the State, and which occupied a goodly part of Europe.
Sad to say the Church was rent, and the State suffered accordingly
from constant strife between sects and parties, who contested, even
to the death, over interpretations to be given to the scriptures, and
the matter of creeds. Thus while discussing at point of the sword
whether the soul is to be saved by good works, or by grace of God, they
disregarded the very essence of the simple teachings of Jesus, and
brought upon theology, even in those days, the contempt and ridicule of
the liberal minded and the non-believer, so that even to-day it suffers
because of the unfortunate light in which it was made to appear.
That theology should lead to war is the antithesis of the Christian
doctrine, yet no wars have been so fierce and bloody as those waged in
"spreading the cross" and propagating a misinterpreted gospel. And so
theology suffered doubly from the Monks who perverted it, and from the
Knights and the State that inculcated it with fire and sword.
For a thousand years nothing of importance was added to human
knowledge, and mental confusion reigned supreme. At the end of
this period all the original teachings of Christ were forgotten,
and after passing through the hands and tongues of fanatics or
deluded and ignorant men, Christianity was left with the semblance
of a monotheistic basis on which had been crudely built up certain
doctrines borrowed from Egyptian and Grecian sources, among which may
be mentioned the Trinity, Immaculate Conception, Resurrection and
Ascension, as well as certain practices like that of the Lord's Supper,
plainly borrowed from pagan customs. There was in all this so much
to challenge belief, and so much at first unacceptable to minds not
trained to believe it, that, in order to be effective their propaganda
had to be carried on with the sword. Moreover to the Christian mystic,
anxious to unify himself with the hidden, unknown deity the idea of
Moslem unbelievers in possession of the high places which they regarded
with such reverence, was simply intolerable and repugnant beyond
description.
Hence the Crusades undertaken in order to regain the Sepulchre; in
which by Papal decree the Monks joined the Knights, and under command
of emperors and the greatest generals of their day, made temporary
conquest of the Holy Land, founding the kingdom of Jerusalem. The
immediate outcome of the general movement was that alliance, made wise
and even necessary, when theology and chivalry joined hands, from
which resulted the foundation of such orders as those mentioned at the
beginning of this paper. These allies of which they were composed, all
took the monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, and for a
time kept them, until the possession of power and the acquisition of
wealth brought their inevitably accompanying temptations. Each of these
orders and many of the others passed through the successive stages of
poverty, with meekness and constant benefaction, succeeded sooner or
later by temporal aggrandizement, selfishness, greed, and rapacity,
with all the crimes in the calendar, and the inevitable ultimate
downfall. Of them all the Hospital Knights bore by all means the least
smirched record, on which account, partly, as well as because of their
most prominent purpose, i. e., their work among the sick, wounded and
distressed, I deem their careers worthy of more particular study.
For this purpose we may quickly dismiss the Teutonic knights from
present consideration, simply reminding you that they were really
the founders of modern Prussia. They had their own origin in the
commendable public spirit of the merchants of Lübeck and Bremen, who
during the siege of Acre made tents out of the sails of their ships, in
which their wounded countrymen might be nursed and attended. Most of
their active service against the Saracens was in Spain.
Of the Knights Templar a little must be said here. About 1119 two
Knights, Hugo (or Hugh) of Payens, and Godfrey of St. Omers, associated
with themselves six other French Knights in a league of military
character, styling themselves "Poor Knights of Christ," and pledged
themselves to keep safe for pilgrims the highways of the Holy Land.
They prospered and grew, and came into the favor of Baldwin I, king
of that kingdom of Jerusalem already mentioned. Inasmuch as their
Monastery occupied a part of the site of Solomon's temple of old they
were known as _Templars_. At the synod of Troyes, in 1128, they were
recognized as a regular Order, and received monastic rules and habits,
with a special banner. They were also known as "Poor Companions of the
Temple of Jerusalem," a name which did not very long befit them. At
first, like the Hospital Knights, they begged their food, fasted, kept
vows, worshipped diligently, and cared for the poor and infirm. Beard
and hair were cropped short, the chase was forbidden, and they took
the usual vows of chastity. But as they acquired property they forgot
the simple life and habit, as well as their vows of obedience and
chastity, while their pledge to protect the pilgrim on his way became
in time a farce, not alone through their indifference and negligence,
but through their treasonable dealings with the Saracens, and even
treacherous surrender of their strongholds.
Thus, whatever their pristine purpose, lucre and power became the later
objects of their strife and the impelling motives of their lives. By
the accession of so-called "affiliated members" they avoided the rule
of celibacy, and admitted married knights and those engaged to be
married.
Their Grand Masters in time ranked next after Popes and Monarchs. While
the former favored them it was mainly because they feared them. They
were exempt from all episcopal jurisdiction, and subject only to the
Pope. So rich and powerful did they become that at the time of their
suppression they controlled an Empire of five provinces in the East and
sixteen in the West, while the Order possessed some 15,000 houses. They
aimed to make all Christendom dependent upon themselves, with only the
Pope as their nominal head.
Of their personal bravery, which was usually impeccable, of their
affluence and intolerable effrontery, and of many of their traits and
characteristics, one may form an excellent idea by reading _Ivanhoe_,
where these seem to be quite faithfully depicted. It is, to me I
confess, just a little amusing as well as saddening to see the men, who
name their secret Masonic associations after the founders of the Order,
displaying and imitating, at least in public where alone they can be
judged by outsiders, only those features of Templar Knighthood which
marked the period of their decadence or their downfall. As imitations
they may be historically accurate, but as worthy of emulation, or even
of imitation such displays are matters of questionable taste, at least,
to those who read medieval history.
The Templars in their days of splendor and later downfall, were neither
pious, nor learned, nor good Christians. Many of their secret doctrines
were of heretical origin, taken from the Waldenses or the Albigenses,
and they cared far more for their own possessions than for the Holy
Land. They promulgated the shameful excuse that God evidently willed
that the Saracen should win; that the defects of the Crusaders were
evidently according to His decision, and that therefore they were
released from their vows, and could return to Europe, where indeed they
rested--after their fashion,--from their labors, and passed their time
in doing everything their founders had vowed not to do.