HISTORY OF THE

SECRET DOCTRINES and MYSTIC

R ITES of ANC I ENT

RELIGIONS

AND

Medieval and Mo dern

Secret Orders

By

DR . OTTO HENNE AM

State Archivist of S t. Ga l l

S S SS S S S S S S S

STOCKHAM PUBLI SH ING COMPANY , I n c .

CH ICAGO , ILLINO IS

TRANSLATOR ’ S,

NOTE.

The Mysteries o f the Ancient Grecian rel igions ; the

cryptic teachings and occult interp retations of the popu

lar religious beliefs communicated to disciples by the

priests in the temples of ancient Egypt, Assyria, and

India : the interesting, half fabulous , hal f historical epi

sode of Pythagoras and the Pythagorean League in

Magna Graecia ; the mystic , ascetic , and semi-monastic

communiti es o f the Therapeutae and the Essenes in Pal

estine a century before the birth of Jesus Chri st ; the

later developments of Mysticism in the time of the

Roman Empire, as seen in the history o f Apollonius of

Tyana and in I si s worship,Mithras wo rship , worship o f

the Great Mother, etc . ; the secret creed and rites o f the

Knights Templar and the usages o f the lodges .o f the

Stonemasons in the Middle Age ; the constitution and

procedure o f the Femgerich te of Westphalia in the four

teenth and fi fteenth centuries ; the origin and history and

the aims o f Freemasonry,Rosicrucianism ,

I lluminism ,

and a swarm of honest and fraudulent secret organiza

tions in modern ‘ times : all these top ics have before been

made subj ect-matter of numerous l earned tractates or of

po pular compends ; but hitherto these doctrines , rites,

associati ons,have not beea ; s tudied in their unity, in

iv TRANSLATOR’

S NOTE

their mutual relation . One service which the author of

this work renders to thestudent o f this parti cular phase

o f human psychology—the longing for mystery andsecret associations—i s that he develops this relationship

,

thus enabling the reader to get a clear understanding o f

the whole subj ect .

But the author does very much more than to co

ordinate the facts o f mystic associations . He is both a

scholar and an artist. Having amassed whatever in

formation regarding the Mysteries and allied phe

n omena i s accessible in universal l iterature,he hand le s

his materials with the skill o f a consummate master of

style and o f the art of popular exposition . The result

i s a history of the anci ent Mysterie s and o f their counter

parts and imitations in later times, as authentic as the

most painstaking research could m ake it, yet po ssessing

all the charm and grace o f a l iterary masterpiece .

JOSEPH FITZGERALD .

CONTENTS .

PART FIRST.

—MYSTERIES OF THE EAST AND

OF BARBAROUS NATIONS .

Introduction

The Gods

The Higher Development o f Egyptian Ree

l igio n

A Reformation in the La'nd of Nile

The Egyptian Realm o f the DeadThe Secret Teaching o f the Priests o f Nile

20

8 . Babylon and Ninive 26

9 . Zoroaster and the Persians 3

I O . Blrahman s and! Buddhist s 33

I I . Secret Leagues o f Barbarous Peoples 36

PART SECOND—THE GRECIAN MYSTERIES

AND THE ROMAN BACCHANALIA .

I . Hellas

2 . Hellenic Divine Worship

3 . Th ei

H el len ic Mysteries

4 . Thle Eleu sinian Mysteri es

5. The Mysteries of Samothrace

6. The Mysteries o f Crete

7. The Dionysia

8 . The Roman Bacchanalia

9 . Debased Mysteries from the EastV

D ! .

vi CONTENTS

PART THIRD—THE PYTHAGOREAN LEAGUEAND OTHER SECRET ASSOCIATIONS .

I . Pythagoras .

2 . The Pythago rean ts .

3 . Th e Orph ici

4. Mysterious Personages of Ancient Times .

PART FOURTH .

—SON OF MAN . SON OF GOD .

I . Helleni sm and Judaism 9 1

2 . 94

3 . Christianism 96

4 . Jesus .

5. The Early Christians

6. Th e New Testament

7 . The Elements of the Church

fiPART FIFTH .

—A PSEUDO-MESSIAH . A LYING

PROPHET.

I . Apo l lonius of Tyana

2 . Alexander,the False Prophet

PART SIXTH—THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR.

I . The Middle Age

2 .

3 . The Secrets o f the Temp lars

4. The Downfall o f'

the Knights Templar

PART SEVENTH .

—THE FEMGERICHTE .

I . Courts of Justice in the Middle Age2 . The Secret Tribunal

3 . The End of the Feme

CONTENTS v1i

PART EI‘GHTH .—STONEMASONS ’ LODGES OF

THE MIDDLE AGE.

PAGE

I . Medieval Architecture 162

2 . The Stonemas on s ’ Lodges of Germany 164

3 . French Craftsmen 169

4 . The English Stonemasons 172

ASTROLOGERS AND ALCHElM ISTS 174

PART NINTH .-RISE AND CONSTITUTION OFFREEMASONRY .

1 . Rise o f Freemasonry

2 . Constitution of the Order

3 . The Lodge

PART TENTH .—SECRET SOCIETIES OF THE

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

I . Miscellaneous Secret Societies

2 . Obscurantist Influences

3 . The “High Degrees” Swmd le

4. Apostles o f Nonsense

5. The Swedish Rite

6. The New Ro s icrusian s

PART ELEVENTH .

—THE ILLUMINATI‘ .

I . The I lluminati 2 16

2 . Imitations of I lluminism 226

PART TWELFTH .—S E‘CRET SOCIETIES OF

VARIOUS KINDS .

1 . Societies o f Wits

2 . Imitations o f Ancient Mystic Leagues

3 . Imitations o f Freemasonry

MYSTERIA .

PART F IRST.

My s teri es o f th e Eas t an d o f B arbaro us

Na ti on s .

1 . INTRODUCTION .

In al l ages mystery has had a special attraction formankind . Curiosity i s innate in us . The child asksabout everything , What is this . what is it for, why i s it

made so , or so? The child fairly harries its parents withquestions, never wearies o f rai sing new ones, often so un

expected and so d ifficult,that it would puzzle the wisest

ph ilc scpher to answer them . And this instinct of in

quiry i s dominant in the adult,too .

‘The grown man

wants to know what is to be found behind every curtain ,every locked door, in every sealed letter. And whensated with such trifles he must push inquiry further, intothe infinite ; must li ft the veil that hides the wondrousimage at Sais ; must pluck from the forb idden tree ofknowledge the tempting golden fruit . He would withthe Titans sto rm heaven

,and ascend to heights “where

stirs no breath of air,where stands the boundary-stone

of creation .

” At last when Faust, after manifold crosses

and disappointmen ts,sees that “we can know nothing,

”

the thought “consumes the heart within him .

”

And so we must ever be worried by the reflection

2 MY STE RIA

that the great riddle o f existence wil l not be solved ; nay ,never can be solved . Why

,we ask

,why does anything

exist at all ? and what does exist,whence comes it

,and

whither does it go ? And though oceans of ink werewritten on worlds o f paper to define the relation betweenthe H ere and Beyond , we should not know ,

after it all ,the lot o f the thought-endowed tenant of the narrowesthuman brain-case after its term of l iving is reached . Nevershal l we be able to comprehend Being as having a beginning and an end , but neither shall we ever understand

how, without beginning or end, it may endure for ever,and extend limitless ever farther and farther into the

shoreless o cean of the All . The thinker must by forcerefrain himsel f from such inference, lest h is brain shouldbe seized by delirium ; and the progressive man of action

turns to what i s sure and clear and understandable, while

the l istless disciple o f Buddha, despairing of ever comprehending existence

,longs for nirvana, the so ul

’ s stateof everlasting rest and freedom from cares .

Mankind,then

,i s encompassed by a vast mystery

which never has been discovered,though it presses upon

us with force all around , and though we know it exists

and are consc ious that it attends us at every step we take .But man i s too prend to endure the thought that anything

i s beyond his powers : man must in all t hings do whatthe primordial creative power does . The Eternal In

comprehensib le created worlds that no mortal eye cansee : man with the help o f glasses sees them. The Eternalset worlds c ircl ing around worlds in such wise that forlong we mortals were led into error, and took the

earth to be the centre of the universe : but men made calculatio n s and measurements, and discovered that their

giant sphere was but a grain of sand among colos sal

MYSTER IE S OF TH E E A ST 3

worlds . The Eternal caused mountains to rise and riversto flow

,man

,too

, p i led'

up mountains and .scooped out

river-beds and seas . Immense oceans separated the continents : man navigated the oceans and discovered shoresnever seen before . The lightning

,i s suing from the

clouds,rends asunder great trees that have stood for cen

turies : man imitates the l ightning, and employs the electric current for sending messages across continents and

oceans,and for illumination. Steam

,vapor o f water, he

harnesses to his car,or employs it to propel ship s across

the seas . He takes the sun’ s rays and makes o f them a

limner’ s pencil . Even the Eternal himsel f man fashion safter his own thoughts

,and gives to him a name and at

tributes,a throne and a court, a form , and even a son .

And lest he should in any point fail of acting like theUnsearchable, man sets over against the grand everlast

ing mystery of creation and eternity,which h e cannot

comprehend , other mysteries of his own invention—themystery of the Incarnation

,the Resurrection

,Redemp

tio n,the Trinity

,and the rest ; and requires his fellowmen

to acknowledge and reverence these things as mysteries ,and to worship as truth what man ’ s own self-conceit hasdevised in rivalry with the Eternal .Thus are mysterie s of man ’ s invention propagated

from generation to generation . The love o f mystery iscontagious ; the one who hears of mysteries will himselfinvent more

,and with them impose upon others . And

the Initiates shut themselves up in secret ch ambers,swear

fearful oaths never to betrav to anyone what others knowalready, employ emblems which they interpret in onesense or another

,speak in language pecul iar to them

selves, exchange special signs wi th one another, whisperto each other mysterious words

,admit persons to their

4 MY STE 'RIA

secret associations with direful or with harmless tests andrites

,and form aristocracies o f intellect

,of creed

,or o f

benevolence,of art or o f science

,even of humor and of

fo l ly . Such is the origin of mystic teach ings and secretsociet ies , the teachings designed to hold the societiestogether

,and the societies to propagate the teachings :

one hand washes the other. In all ages, among all races

we find these mysteries existing under the most variousforms

,and for ends the most d iverse

,but they all have

this in common that they shut out the profane (outsiders),and that their end is to win and hold power and influence .But they have also had secondary aims such as couldbe attained without secret doctrines or secret association ;and these aims have been of all kinds . Now the purpose may be to promote social freedom

[

and religious or

scientific enlightenment, anon to repress these ; again, it

may be to enrich the members,or

,on the other hand,

to stimulate them to self-sacri fi cing charity ; or a societywill have for its obj ect the Beauti fu l

,and will create works

o f art to glorify the Eternal,but another society will de

sp i se whatever i s ideal, professing contempt for the world

and them selves ; or the aim may be nothing short o f the

destruction of all human society and a return to Chaos .A variegated picture and full o f li fe ! At the head

of the moving procession stalk priests in long robes,

begarlanded,carrying the sacred image o f Isis or chant

ing hymns to the Eleusinian Demeter. Then come thewild-eyed troops o f the Bacchan tes, and in sharp contrast

to these, philosophers o f the Py thagorean League , in

white cloaks,looking down on the populace with

'

a smile

o f mild scorn ; after these the unpretending Essenes, whoshoulder the cross of suffering, the Roman brotherhoods

(collegia), and then the English and German gilds o f

MYS’TE RIE S OF TH E EA ST 5

stonemasons, with hammer, compass , and square ; theKnights Templar

,in white cloaks blazoned wi th the red

cross , their haughty mien betraying contempt of al l autho rity ; the Fathers of the Company of Jesus, in blackcassock

‘

and four—cornered - hat,eyes sanctimoniously

downcast , every man of them a corpse in the hands ofhis superiors ; then come seigneurs and scholars and menof every condition

,in white aprons and blue ribbons,and

last o f al l an indistinguishable multitude of variously-cladfigures . Let us contemplate the several groups of thispicture . First

,the priests o f the so -called heathen re

l igio n s o f antiquity . Here we have men using a: twofoldmanner o f sp eech . To the people they gave o ut a teaching different from that communicated to the Initiates oftheir secret associations

,their m ysteries . How came

that about,how. i s i t accounted for, and how can it be

j ustified ?2. THE GOD S .

To answer these questions we must study the o rigino f rel igious ideas and the forms they assumed in different

periods . Here we meet a phase of thought which standsrelated to the vain attempts to fathom the Eternal

, to

scrutinize the Unsearchable,and which , therefore, i s

necessarily connected with the earliest expression of man ’ slove o f the mysterious .In the dim ages before the dawn o f civilization , when

the cave-dweller,or the lake-dweller, had completed hi s

day'

s work,and h is ch ildren were in safety for the night ,

and their hunger stil led,then

,in the glad co nsciousness

of duty discharged,he would rise above mere sense

,and

would contemplate his surroundings with greater atten

tion than would be possible am id his hard labors as b read

6 MY ISTERDA

winner. Th en , surely, what most profoundly impressedhis imaginatio n was the b lue vault o f the sky acro sswhich by day t he sun, source of light and warmth , or ofb lazing and scorching heat

,and at night the mi ld-faced

moon,diffusing her Witching beams , and the innumerab l e

twinkling stars glided in strange unalterab l e series . Be

neath the arch lay extended the surrounding country,and

the man gazed on the diversified panorama of snowdecked alp

,roaring cataract, mirror-l ike lake, and ver

dant daisy-gemmed prairie . Or he contemplated the

tossing billows o f the sea, the dread phenomena o f thethunder clap and the lightning flash

,the ravages o i the

h urricane, the crash o f mountains rent by internal forces,the piti less

,headlong sweep of the river that has over

flowed the plain .

These mani festations o f the forces of nature , whetherwinsome or fearsome, impressed the man ; and acknowl

edging his nothingness and impotence he prostrated

himself before them and worshiped them . But in worshiping the forces of nature

,he must needs think of them

as a personality ; and the process of personification neces

sarily began with the phenomena which possess the most

p ronounced individuality, viz .

,on the earth , rocks, moun

tains , trees , animal s, rivers, lakes ; in the sky , the sun,moon, and stars ; between earth and sky, the c louds , winds ,thunder

,and ligh tning ; finally, fire

, the production ofwhich was the first step in human culture .The further observation o f nature led man from

particular to general concepts : those were formed moreeasily

,these were hard to compass , and to understand

their import required a greater power o f reflection .

Mythology had its origin in the simple worship of na

ture, and in this wise.

MYSTE R IE ’S OF TH E E A ST 7

In the mind of the man who knows nothing o f thetrue relat ions o f the heavenly bodies, all existence must bedivided into two principal categories, heaven overhead ,earth underfoot . Heaven and Earth—that i s the beginning of all mythologies and cosmogonies . Heaven andEarth are for the I srael ite the first works o f the Eternal ;for the Chinese they are “father and mother of all things” ;for the Hellenes and the Teutons the first divine beings(Uranos and u aea, Wodan and Ertha) . As. men further

considered the question how thi s whole scene of nature,both in its grateful and in its terrib l e aspects , came to be ,Heaven and Earth were regarded as sexed beings , Heavenas fructi fy ing

,nob le

,lofty

,male

,controlling the light ning

and thunder ; Earth as prolific, conceptive , passive , female .

Heaven and Earth formed a union , and Sun , Moon , andStars were reputed their children . Among the heavenlybodies the first place i s held by the Sun ,

god of day,who

,

at h is rising in the East by magic power compels h i sbrother and sister deities to obey him : he reigns alone ina sea of light and splendor. Sister and consort of theSun i s the Moon , and the course of these! two across theheavens

,their rising and their setting, their shining and

their obscuration are the source o f endless fanci ful myths :in these myths

,however

,there are frequent transforma

tions , the same hero being now the Sun, again Heaven ,and the same heroine being now the Moon

,anon the

Earth . And phantasy discovered in Sun and Moon somany diverse properties that it separated these from o ne

ano ther, and by degrees formed out of them distinct perso nal ities . The Sun , ri sing out of the ocean and againsinking into it, became Poseidon (Neptune), and the invisible Sun that through the night tarries in the under'

Wor1d became go d of the world of shades, Pluto ; and so

8 M'

YlS ‘T’E B lIA'

Wl tll other phenomena o f the sun . The Mo on,to o ,

in

her different forms o f waxing,full

,and waning moon

,

rising and setting moon,gives rise to groups of th ree or

four sisters (Graces, Fates, Furies) , and to many otherforms of goddesses , and these. are. sad , austere , chaste , o ralluring, winsome, complaisant ; or the Moon assumes the

fo rm of some fair daughter of man , who , being loved bysome god, becomes mother of gods and heroes . Hencegod-descended races and dynasties

,whose fortunes. and

wars are the subj ect of epics,tragedies

,and romances

,and

the innumerable host of the stars , in the fanciful shapesin which imagination grouped them , afforded inex

haustible material for story and myth . Here was seen'

a

herd faith ful ly guarded by the herdsman,there a chase

conducted by bold hunters,or a company of daring mar

iners going to win the goldenfleece,or the golden apple s

o f the Hesperides , or the thousand eyes o f the watchfulArgus . On the mantle o f the goddess of night phantasysaw pictured Aries

,Taurus

, Capricornus, Capella , Ursus

Maj or, Orion, Bootes , Draco, Hercules , and all the otherfigures of the endless web o f poesy in which are told thewondrous deeds o f gods and heroes .

Such is the light in which mythology appeared when ,in the beginnings of scientific inquiry, the forces o f natureWere personified . As centuries passed the true sense ofthese myths

,transmitted from father to son

,was lost

, and

the whole was taken to be actual fact. But the mas term inds discerned the true state o f the case , and soon

‘

re

gained the real meanings. Such men as Aristotle , Plutarch , and others often told in their writings what theythought regarding the traditions

,but not so the wily

priests within the walls of the temples . Their secret doctrines doubtless conveyed a mo re o r less rationalistic in

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10 MY STE lR l A

bounded on the East and West by stony deserts , whichthe Egyptians did not reckon as belonging to their country . The Semites called the land Misr

,or M israim ; the

Greeks gave first to the river,then to the region , the name

Egypt (on what grounds we know not) , and finally tothe river the name Neilo s . It has ever been a land ofenigmas

,this Nileland . Whence comes its river? Why

does it overflow the country in Summer and Autumn?Why those mighty pyramids ? What were the doings inthose temples

,planted so close together? What mean

those strange - characters,the hieroglyphs ? Why do the

gods wear heads of animals,and why

,on the other hand

,

have the sphinxes a human head on a lion’ s body ?

In order to exercise undisputed mastery over thecountry the conquerors . divided among themselves al lthe land and all the authority . They formed two'heredi

tary classes or estates- Priests,who controlled the minds

,

and Warriors, who control led the bodies of the conqueredpeople . O f the subj ect race there were several classes,most probably six

,though the accounts we have are

mutually contradictory . These classes are : Artists,me~

chan ics , traders , mari ners , agriculturists , herdsmen ; inthe latter clas s o f the swineherds

,most despi sed of all

Egyptians,because o f the unclean animal which they

tended .

Now,while the warrior class had the management

of mil itary affairs and the executive government, and as a

rule supplied the occupants of the throne,the priests possessed the legal lore and the scientific knowledge

,and

prescribed to the people what they must believe , whileamong themselves and in the company of Initiates they

thought very differently .

The Egyptian religion has its foundation in astron

MYS’TER IE S OF TH E EA ST 11

omy. The regular overflow of the Nile, which-involveda p recise divi sion of the year into seasons , must at anearly period have led to a diligent observation of thecourse of the stars, in order to make timely preparationfor the floods ; and the splendor o f the starry sky in thatregio n ,

'

near the tropics, where hardly a single co n stel

lation is out of sight through the whole year,favored

the study of astronomic science : The Egyptians contemplated the glories o f the heavens , not with the stol idityo f the Chinese

,who therein see only obj ects to be counted

and measured ; nor yet with the ideal ist imagination o fEuropeans . Hence their perso n i fi catio n s of the worldof stars are uncouth

,confused

,without grace or charm .

The heavenly body that for us is mightiest o f all,the sun

,must have been for the Egyptians the most an

cient and the mightiest o f gods . Their sun-god wasnamed Re . But even as among the Hellenes

,so in

Egypt the several attribute s o f the sun were assignedto different personalities . Thus, the rising sun, as theyouthful warrior-god Horos , was early distinguished fromRe ; over against Horos stood his opposite and his tw inbrother, Set, spiri t of darkness . For mothers the sungod had Isis

,Hathor, and Neit

,goddesses of heaven . To

these deities were added Aah , the moon-go d ,and the gods

of the several stars and constellations . Besides thesegods of the whole land

,particular p laces and regions had

their own gods ; thus Ptah was lord and god o f’ Memphis

,

Amon of Thebes,and so on .

Very often certain worship ful obj ects,as trees and

animals inhabited by sp irits , were developed into localdeities . In this way the feti chism of the black aboriginalp eople got entry into the more cultured rel igion of thelight-complexioned conquerors, and had a very powerful

12 M '

Y ST'E R IA

influence on it. Few were the indigenous animals thatwere not worshiped in one place or in many as the wrap

pages of deities : That worship was paid to animals notfor their own sake

,i s b est seen from the way in which

the gods are portrayed,namely

,for the most part with a

human body and the head of the animal sacred to them ,

though in some cases entirely in human form . ThusAmon

,god of Thebes

,has the head of a ram

,Hathor of

Anut the head o f a cow, Anubis that of a j ackal, Bast

that of a cat,Sechet o f a l ioness , Sebak of a crocodile ,

and so on . And inasmuch as it was bel ieved that godsdwelt in them, such animals were themselves made o b

jects o f worship ; for examp le, the ox Hapi (Gr. Ap i s) atMemphis

,the goat at Mendes , and so forth . This honor

belonged to the entire species,and as representing the

species , certain individual animals were maintained in thetemples by the contributions of the faithful

,and had ser

vito rs to wait upon them . Any harm done to these

fetiches was sternly punished : to kill one of them was

death . Not so when a god did not grant the prayers o fthe faithful

, e .g.

,for rain : in that case the priests made

the feti ch pay the penaltv. First, they threatened the ani

mal , but when menaces were vain, they killed the sacredb east

,though in secret ; the people must not know of it.

4. TH E HIGHE R DE VE LOPME NT OF E GYP TIANRE LIGION .

As Egyp t advanced in c ivi lization and the government became more concentrated , the local deities andzao latry were less regarded , while the l ight-gods , the sungods , Re and H c ro s , with their asso ciate deities , became

more p rominent. \The lives and fortunes of these l ight

MYSTER IE ‘S OF THE E A ST 13

gods, and in p articular their wars with the powers o fdarkness

,became the subj ect o f myths . The inhabitants

o f the Nile valley imagined to themselves the sun ’ s coursenot as the p rogress o f a chariot l ike that in which theMithra o f the Persians and the Helios o f the Greekswere borne

,but as the voyage of a Nile bark on which

Re navigates the o cean of the heavens . In the battle withdark Set he fal l s and drop s into the netherwo

’

rld in theWest , but the youthful Horos, sun

-go d of the coming

day,takes hi s p lace and begin s hi s career across the sky.

This ever-rej uvenescent sun-god, who through all transformations remained sti ll the same deity , so that the sel f

same goddess was now his mother, anon his consort, wasso truly the supreme god

,nay

,the sole god of Egypt,

that his hieroglyph,the sparrowhawk, came to be the .

sign of the id ea “god,

” and in writing that s ign was at

tached to the names of gods to indicate that they weresuch . On the other hand , the names o f the mothers andccnso rts of the sun-gods had app ended to them the signfor a

"

cow.

From this it’

i s seen that the rel igion of Nileland

that is to say, the relig ion o f the p riests—was slowly progress ing toward monotheism . Unlike the beliefs o f the

commonalty,the secret teaching s or mysteries o f the

priests,as gradually developed, regarded not simply the

existence o f the gods , but , above al l. what the gods stoodfor. For a while thisdevelopment halted at the sun-god,and reached its first stage in the city Anu ( in lower Egypt),called by the Greeks Heliopol is (city of the sun), wherethey incorporated the god of the p lace , Tum ,

in the sun

god Re . This took p lace under the fourth dynas ty ,whose monarchs bui lt the great pyramids o f Ghizeh at

Memphis . But one o f the greatest o f these transfo rma

H MY STE R I A

tions was in giving the name o f O siri s , go d of the cityAbdu (Gr. Abydos) in upper Egyp t , to the god of the

sunset, ruler of the netherworld and of the kingdom ofdeath . I sis became his sister and consort , Set at oncehi s brother and his slayer

,Horos his son

,who

,as a new

sun, takes hi s p lace after sunset. and also his avenger on

Set . Horos gi ves Set battle. but as he cannot destroy

him utterly,leaves to him the desert as a kingdom , while

Horos himself holds the Nile valley . This story of godswas represented scenically on public holidays, but onlythe Initiated

,i . e . ,

the p riests and their fol lowers who had

been let into the secret,knew the meaning of the repre

sentatio n . Even the name of O siri s and his abode in therealm of the dead were kept secret , and outsiders heard

only o f the “great god” dwelling in the West. Besides

the mysteries o f O siri s,the most famous o f all , there were

other mysteries o f local Egyptian gods transformed intosun—gods ; and so the sun mythos was further developed .

Thus Thot,god of Hermopolis

,whose sacred animal

was the bird Ibis,became H o ro s

’

s auxil iary in the war

with Set, and also became the moon-god, the god of ebron ometry and of order, inventor of writing, reve

‘

aler of

the sacred books . Memphis alone,cap ital of the an cient

kingdom,held her god Ptah too exalted a being to share

in the transformation of the rest ; for Ptah was: regardedby his worshipers as father of al l '

go d s , creator of the

world and of men,and more ancient than Re ; besides, he

was the god of the royal court . Nevertheless, he did notescape the fate o f becoming a sun—god . The most celebrated obj ect of Egyptian zoolatry was sacred to Ptah ,namely

,Apis (Hapi) , the sacred bull of Memphis, symbol

o f the sun and also of the fructi fying N il e. This bull

must be black with a white spot on the forehead,and with

MYSTE R IE S OF TH E E A ST 15

a growth under the tongue having the form of the sacred,

beetle . The bull was kep t in the temp l e at Memphisfrom calfhood til l death ; the body was then mummified ,laid out in state

,and honored with inscriptions as a god .

The behavior o f Apis in various conjunctures and cir~

cumstances was reputed to be oracular.Another form of the sun-god was the Sphinx

,a half

human , half-brute figure in stone , repeated a thousandtimes in the Ni le valley . The most famous sphinx of al li s seen at the great pyramids of Ghizeh . Regular avenuesflanked by sphinxes formed the approaches Of the greattemples . In Egypt the sphinx was thought o f as male ;the head was that of some king

,and the whole figure

represented the sun-god Harmachis,a name compounded

of Re and Horos (Ra-H armchuti) . In later times thesph inx was introduced in Asia and Greece ; the Greciansphinx is always female .When the local deities of Egypt were reduced to

system,Rewas stil l supreme , but now Re had a father,

Nunu,god of Chaos

,source of all being—c learly a pro d

uct of priestly meditation,qu ite alien to the popular mind .

Re was the first divine r uler of the earth . The starswere his c ompanions . He was succeeded by his son Shu

(represented with a lion’ s head), god of air, who made the

props that sustain the sky. Shu was followed by the godKeb and the goddess Nut

,parents o f O siri s and I sis

,who

then became the earth ’ s rulers . To them,after Set ’ s

usurpation , succeeded Horos the avenger and the goddessHathor. A second class compri ses the inferior gods

,as

Thot, Anubis, etc ; and in a third class are the localdeities . The number of gods and of daemons subordinateto them was enormous . But in their gods the Egyptianslooked not at al l for the perfection o f goodness

,nor did

'MY STE 'R IA

they regard right behavior as essential for gaining heav

emly favor ; they rather looked on the practices of rel igionfrankly as a means of advancing their individual interestswith the gods .Now

,the greater the number of gods the less was the

difference between them; and the easier became thetran sition to the belief in the sun—god as supreme and

only true deity—a belief entertained by the priesthood ,not by the people . Re became for the priests the onegod

,creator of the universe ; and this was due to the fact

that the priests o f the foremost cities,following the ex

amp le o i those o f Heliopoli s, praised the local god as

supreme over all , and at the same

’

time made himident i cal with Re

,whose name was appended to the

original name,thus

,Tum—Re, Amon-Re . When Thebes

became the capital o f the kingdom its god Amon naturally too k the foremost place

,and while Thebes flourished

,

in the beginning of the so -called new emp ire, i t wasknown to al l Initiates that the sun-god was the one true

god,sel f—created

,sole obj ect o f the worship paid to the

innumerable host of other gods . Nay,the evi l deity

Set came to pass for a form of Re,and was allowed a

place in the Sun ’s bark . Sel f- creation was also attributedto the moon-god . The king

,as lord o f the whole country

,

prayed in identical words in every place to'

the local deityas lord of heaven and earth .

5 . A RE FORMA TION IN TH E LAND OF NILE .

But now the secret doctrine of the priests was to bepublished to the peop le . The pharao Amenhotep IV. ,

ofthe 18th dynasty (about 1460 B . saw in the power o f

the priesthood a menace to the dignity of the cro wn .

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M-Y STERIA

and festivals . The distance separating the pr i esthoodfrom the peop le— and ,

the Pharaos were , though not ofthe p riestly class , reckoned ,

as compeers of the priests

was signalized by the temples with their various com

partments in the inmost o f which , the holy of holies

(adyton), were guarded the mysteries o f the priests, whilethe peop l e were admitted only to the temple proper andits forecourt. In all probability the famed Labyrinth near

Lake Moeris,at Crocodilopolis

,was designed for p riestly

ends . The labyrinth was an underground maze of cham

bers . Herodotus tells that there were chambersabove ground and as many under the surface

,and that

the underground chambers were not shown t o the profane

,for they contained the remains of Pharaos and

'

o f

sacred crocodiles . Not Herodotus only,but D io do rus

,

Strabo , and Pliny celebrate the glory of thi s vast palace,in whose hidden compartments

,no doubt

,fit quarters

were found for the mysteries .

6 . TH E E GYP TIAN R EA LM OF TH E DEAD

Finally,the secret teaching of the priests played a

part in the people ’ s ideas regarding death and the otherli fe . According to the Egyptian teaching, man is madeup of three constituent parts, viz . ,

besides the body,the

sou l (ba), conceived to be of purely material essence ,which at death quitted the body in the

’

form of a bird ;and the immaterial spirit (ka), which held to the man the

same relation a god held to the animal in which he dwelt :at death the spirit departed from the body like the imageof a dream . The gods

,too

,had their ka and their ba.

The continued existence of both soul and sp irit was con

tingent on the care the corp se received ; i f the ka and the

MYSTE R IE S OF TH E E A ST 19

ba were to live on , the body must be embalmed and laidin a chamber hollowed in a rock

,or in a sepulchral edifice

(of such buildings the pyramids were the most notable),and the relatives must supply to the dead meat and drinkand clothing . The sp irit of the deceased went to O siri s ,lord of the other world—a luxuriant p lain (Aaru) in theWest

,where the earth ’ s products required no toil

,but

grew spontaneous . By means of the magic formula withwhich Horos recalled to life the slain O siris, the dead isnot only in l ike manner revivi fi ed , but is even made onewith O siri s ; and hence in the formulas of funeral servicewhich constitute the so—called “Book o f th e Dead ,

” the

deceased i s addressed as O siri s with addition of his ownname. Therefore , he may now sail in the sun-bark , andlead a glorious l i fe in the other world

,and walk amid the

stars l ike other gods . The pictures on the walls of thesepulchral chambers show that the Egyptians conceivedthe other li fe to be much like the present, only pleasanterand ful ler. The deceased is portrayed surrounded bysuch enjoyments as were attainable in Ni leland—ban

quets , property, the chase , voyaging, music, and the l ike .But from the texts of the “Book o f the Dead

,

” which usedto be laid with the dead in the sepulchre, we see thatthese representations had a more sp iritual import in the“middle than in the “old” emp ire . In these texts thedeceased himsel f speaks, identi fying himself with somegod, or with one god after another ; no longer with O siri sonly , for acco rding to the developed teaching of that timeall the gods are one god . The route of the dead towardthe otherw orld is the sun ’ s track from East to West ; buton his journey he needs the help o f th e sorcerer

’ s art

against th e host of daemons an d monsters that threaten

him. Arrived there, he acquires the power of revi siting

MY STE R I'

A

the earth at will in the form of god,man, or animal , or

even,should he so choose

,in his own former body. At

this period puppets made o f wood or of clay , and sundry

tools and utensils,were laid in the grave with the dead

for their service . -Under the “new emp ire” the repre

sentatio n s of the other l i fe and of the way thither are

ufo re detailed and more fanciful . Here, too , we find

representations o f the famous“j udgment of the dead, an

event belonging to the li fe beyond,and not

,as the Greeks

mistakenly supposed, to the present state and to the timeimmediately before burial . O siri s presides over the tribunal with two-and—forty assessors -in whose presence the

newcomer has to prove himsel f guiltless of any one o ftwo-and—forty sins

,thus

,for example : Never have I done

an injusti ce,never have I stolen

,never have I craftily

compassed the death o f any man, never have I killed any

sacred animal, etc . Yet all th is was rather a magic

formula for attaining blessedness according to Egyptian

notions than a truthful protestation of guiltlessness in

order to establish the postulant ’ s moral purity . Nevertheless, in a p icture o f the Judgment of the Dead in

'

the“Book of the Dead” the deceased is brought by the god

dess o f truth and righteousness (Ma) into the pal ace ofO si ri s

,and his sins and his good deeds are weighed in a

balance . The hippopotamus i s present as accuser and thegod Thot as defender.

7 . TH E SE CRE T TEACHING OF TTIE P R IE ST-S OFN I LE LAND .

Though from the foregoing we get a general notion

o r the relation between the priests and the people , still

we are no t clear as to the nature o f the secret teaching

MYSTER IE S OF TH E E AST 21

and the mode of its organization . Here we have to de

pend almost entirely o n the accounts given by Greekwriters

,not always trustworthy , and o n conj ecture or in

ference .Unquestionab ly the secret doctrine necessitated a

spec ie s o f secret society which presumably consisted o f

the higher orders of priests,and which comprised sub

divisions only 1005e held together. I t is stated positively that the pharao for the time being was alwaysadmitted to membership . Hence the king was the onlyEgyptian outside of the priestly order that was acquaintedwith the secret doctrine

,and thus was al l danger of be

trayal at home most effectually averted . But as the priestshad less to fear in this regard from foreigners , becauseforeigners went away again ; and as in the indoctrinationof foreigners the p riests saw an opportunity for cultivating their own reputation for erudition , therefore theyo ften will ingly admitted to initiation men of distinctionfrom abroad

,and especially Greeks . Among the fabulous

personages who were believed to have b een impelled bythirst for knowledge to visit Egypt

,there to learn the

secret wisdom of the priests,were the bards Orpheus

,

Musaeus, and Homer ; among the histori c characters werethe lawgivers Lycurgus and Solon

,the historian Herod

otus,the philosophers Thales

,Pythagoras

,Plato

,D emo c

ritus , the mathematician Archimedes, and very many more .

But it was not always easy for these to li ft the vei lthat h id the mysteries . Pythagoras

,for example

,though

recommended by King Aahmes (Amasis) , applied in vainto the priests o f Heliopolis and Memphis, and only afterhe had submitted to the circumcision p rescribed for postulants did he receive from the priests o f Diospolis instruc

tion in their recondite sciences .

22 ‘MFYSTEFRIA'

In the form of admission to thi s secret doctrine werelong and tedious but significant ceremonies, and the

Initiates had at certain intervals to ascend a number ofdegrees

,or stages of knowledge

,til l they mastered the

sum of the wi sdom taught b y the pries ts . But with re

gard to the mode of this progression and the differencebetween the degrees we have unfortunately no reliab le

testimony.

O f the contents o f the Egyptian secret teaching weknow little more than we do of its forms, for all Initiates

were pledged to stri ctest s ilence regarding the subj ect matter of in struction . Yet we are not without scatteredhints from competent authorities , and in the light of these

we cannot go seriously astray . According to the Greekhistorian Dio do rus , who lived in the time of Julius Caesarand Augustus

,and who had himself b een initiated in

Egypt,Orpheus, or rather the O rphic mystae named after

him,owed the Grecian mysteries to the pri ests o f Egypt ;

and to the same source were Ly curgus and Solon be

ho lden for their legislation,Pythagoras and Plato for

their philosophical systems,and Pythagoras furthermore

for his mathematical knowledge,and Democritus for his

astronomical doctrine . Now,as for the exact sciences

here mentioned,the Egyptian secret teaching could not

h ave comprised anything thereanent which was not attainable by anybody with the scientific helps o f the time ;nor anything in the way o f. astro n omic knowledge not relating to the calculation o f time ; and i f with regard to thisknowledge nothing fundamental was taught to the people

,

then that was a base huckstering of mysteries and not asecret teaching. As for legislation

,the systems of Ly~

eurgus and Solon differ so much from each other, and are

so pronouncedly Spartan and Athenian, respectively, in

MYSTER IE 'S OF TH E E A ST 23

spirit,that from them we cannot infer what the teaching

was in that department . The Probability i s that the twoGrecian lawgivers merely used the Egyptian laws as a basis

,

and for the rest adapted their ideas to the needs of theirrespective countries . Nor is it to be assumed that be

cause the Egyptian priests were al so j udges, thereforetheir ideas o n legislation , which assuredly they must haveapplied freely and above board, belonged to theirmysteries .From the hieroglyphic remains, however, it appearsthat there existed in Egypt high-grade schools conductedby the priests

,and hence we may infer that in these in

stitutio ns the Greek searchers after knowledge obtainedinstruction in lawgiving and in the exact sciences of theEgyptians .It i s true that the h ieroglyphs , a species o f Egyptian

writing which consisted o f figures o f actual obj ec ts , wereknown only to the priests ; but in early times that was soonly because the rest o f the people could not read andwrite . After ward there was a special popular form ofwrit ing (demotic) derived from the hieroglyphs and re

sembling an earlier abbreviated_ _ form of hieroglyphic

writing, the hieratic or writing o f the priests .It is different with philo sophical and religious speculartion , in which positive , unimpeachable conclusions suchas may be had in the exact sciences

,are out of theques

tion , and which has no practical appl ication as i n j uri s

prudence and diplomatics l ; wh ich , in fact , give s playrather to hypoth esi s and arbitrary opinion, tomysticismand symbolism . This, therefore , was the subj ect matterof the teach ing conveyed to Initiates in the Egyptian

my steries , but fo r good reasons then wi thheld from thevulgar, because here the very existence o f the pri estly

24 MYSTERIA

class was at stake : the priesthood would lose al l its im

portance once the people were aware that the priests hadno regard for the received religion .

Hence there i s no doubt that the secret doctrine ofthe Egyptian priests was at once philosophic and rel igions ; that i s, that it tested the traditional belief, analyzedit, and accepted what it found to be reasonable and re

jected what appeared irrational ; and it was sharply distinguished from the popular belief, which took traditionfor absolute and indubitable truth .

What, then, were the principles underlying the philosophic religion of the Egyptian pri ests ? Putting asideal l arbitrary and fi ne-drawn theories, we infer from variousclear indications that it was o f a monothei stic character

,

i . e ., that it po stulated one personal god , and that it re

j ected polytheism and zoolatry , as well as the materialistic conceptions of the popular creed with regard to whattakes p lace after death . Indeed

,we hold it not impro b

able that the secret doctrine was often more radical than

the views of the royal refo rmer Amenhotep IV .

,or Chuen

aten,and that, unlike him,

the priests believed the true

god to be , not a material thing, the sun’ s di sk , but the un

seen creaton himself, cal led by them Nunu , father o f Re ,and source of all -thi ngs . Thus we find in the “Book ofthe Dead” and in later writings mention of a demiurge

(or architect) of the universe ,” to whom no special divine

name i s given . Plutarch,too

,in his ingenious work,

“O f I si s and O siri s” (cc . 67, says : “The godheadi s not any m indless or soulless creature subj ect to man

,

an allusion to zoolatry ; and again :“There is only one

rational being that orders al l things , but one rul ing providence

,and subordinate powers which are set over the sev

eral things and which in different nations receive thro ugh

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MY STE R I xA

l iterally as reco unting actual occurrences . The morecautious Herodotus (I I 6 1) agrees with Plutarch , thoughhe expresses himself more enigmatically : On the ‘

festival

of Isi s in the city of Bubastis , after the sacrifice al l , bothmen and women , thousands o f them , beat themselves . But

for me to name the one for whose sake they beat themselves were impiety.

”

All the traditions ‘ and rites of the Egyptian popular

religion then were explained in a rationalist sense to theinitiated . Many particulars o f this explanation have beenlost, but what has been lost can hardly have been of anyreal value for us , and is l ittle to be regretted.

8 . EBAl Y‘

LTON A'

ND N I-NIV E .

In the traditions of classic antiquity the secret wisdom of the Egyptian p riests was not held in greater esteem than that o i their fellow-priests in Chaldaea or Babylonia, the enlightened empire on the lower Tigri s andEuphrates , of which Assyria, land o f the upper Tigris,was only a colony. Recent research has brought up thequestion which civilization was the earlier, that of the Nile

land or that of Western Asia , in the region of the twinrivers . But as we possess with regard to the Babylonianreligion even less information than with regard to the

Egyptian,we must be conten t with a brief account o f it.

Th e Chaldaean rel igion beyond a doubt had itsorigin in the country around the lower Tigris and Euphrates ' among a people o f Turanian or Ural-Altai c stock

(akin to the Turks) , cal led Sumerians, or Akkadians : itsroot was Shamanism

,a form of rel igion peculiar to the

Turki c races . The most ancient rel igious writings of

this people (among whom cuneiform writing originated)

MYSTER IE S OF TH E EA ST 27

consist in formulas for exorcising evi l sp irits ; these spiritsare usually represented as coming from the desert ingroup s of seven . Over these daemons p resided the sp irito f the heavens (In - l i lla

,afterward called Anu

,i . e .,

sky) ;after Anu greatest reverence was paid to the spirit o f theearth (In-kia or Ea), who was afterward spirit -o f thewaters also . From the higher spirits were evolved godsand goddesses innumerable . Th e most ancient goddesswas Ba-u, a name signifying primordial water,

” or chaos .After Ba-u came the “daughter of the heavens

,

” namedat first Anun

,later Ninni or Ninna

,and afterward I star

The Sumerian groundwork of Chaldaean civil izationand religion was built upon by a Semitic people , theBabylonians and Assyrians proper, traces o f whom arefound nearly 4000 years B . C .

,and whose domination

seems established B . C . 2500 . The highest god of this racewas called srmply

“God” (in the ir language I lu), or“Lord”

(Baal) . Sun and moon were worshiped as his images .

The scene of the li fe after death was laid in the realm ofshades (shualu, in Hebrew Sheol) . This religion wasblended with that of the Sumerians . The gods Ann and

I lu became one god of the sky, Bel ; and I star becameBel ’ s wi fe . Other Sumerian gods were associated withthe p lanets worsh iped by the Semites : Marduk with Jupi

ter, Nindar with Saturn, Nirgal with Mars, Nabu wi thMercury, while I star was special ly related to Venus .There was a sort o f trinity made up of Samas (sun), Sin

(moon), Ramman (god of storms) . Similarly, Anu , spirito f the sky

,and Ea , spirit of the earth, were placed side by

side with Bel . This system was comp leted about

B . C.,and it remained unchanged in Assyria

,save that

there the autochthonous god Assur held the first p laceamong the gods .

28 M'Y ‘ST’ERIA

Among the Baby lonians and Assyrians the priestswere held in great reverence . In Assyria they stood nextafter the king

,and the king was high priest ; in the Baby

Io nian kingdom they occupied a more independent andmore influential station . Like the priests o f Egypt , they

pro bablv had a secret doctrine withheld: from the vulgar.From the meanings o f the Babylonian deities ’ names

,as

given above , it i s easy to infer the nature o f thi s secretdoctrine . The Chaldees were throughout al l antiquityknown as observers o f the heavenly bodies . And though

probably they were astrologers rather than astronomers ,at least they knew enough about the stars

,the heavens

,

and the facts o f meteorology to regard th em fo r what

they were instead of holding them to be gods . We therefore believe that the Chaldaean priests among themselves looked o n the obj ects which before the peoplethey held to be gods as simply sky

,sun

,moon

,planets

,

lightning,thunder.

Besides the early cunei form writings already men~

tio ned (forms o f exorci sm) there have been found amidthe ruins of Babylon great libraries” of writings on tiles

,

in the cuneiform characters . Among these are “peni

tential psalms” and hymns to gods . In the fo llowing

psalm,deciphered from the ti le tablets , a priest, in the

name of a penitent sinner, entreats the goddess

0 Lad y , fo r tiby s ervan t th e cup i s fu l l .

Sp eak th e wo rd to h im , Le t th y heart b e tranqui l .T h y s ervan t—ev i l have I d o neG ive h im a s surance o f mercy“

Turn th y co un tenanc e h imward .

C o n s i d er h i s en t rea ty .

Th y s ervan t , tho u art angry wi th h im,

B e to h im grac i o us .

0 La d y , my‘han d s are tied .

I c l ing to thee .

MYST’

E R IE S OF THE E A ST 29

Many of the mythological poems , indeed , mo st ofthem

,and great part o f the less sacred l iterature of the

tablets,are so obscure and unintel ligible that for their

understanding a“key

” was necessary, and the priests held

the key. Of sp ecial interest are the fragments containing portions of the Babylonian co smogony ; and as ourBible (Gen .

xi ., 3 1) tell s that Abraham was o f Urin Chaldaea

,

’

his descendants would inherit from him

(supposing him to have been an historical personage)some p ortions of the ancient traditions and folklore o f

the Chaldaeans . Here i s a fragment o f the Babylonianstory of the Creation

W hen th e sk y ab ove was no t ye t named .

E artlh beneath h ad y et n o n am e ,

and th e wat ery d eep , th e never-beg inn ing ,

was the ir p ro d ucer,

the cha o s o f th e s ea , gen d eres s o f them a l l ,

fo r h er waters u'

n i ted to ge ther in o n e.

Th e d ark n es s was no t y et d o n e away ,

n o t a p lan t h ad y et bud d ed .

A s o f th e go d s n o ne h ad y et go ne forth ,an d the y y et h ad n o n am e

then th e grea t g o d s , too , were crea ted , etc .

Th e Chaldee Noah. called Samas-Nap ishtim (sun ofli fe), tells the story of the deluge in this form : The go d

Ea having made known to him the punishment decreedfor mankind on account of their sins

,he built a great

ship at the god ’ s command, and into it brought all hi s

po s sessions, his kinsmen , his servants , also domesti c and

wild animals . Then the gods let a great tempest loose ,and with the spirits entered the combat to destroy al lliving th ings . But the flood rose up to the sky andthreatened even the lower gods

,who had to take re fuge

with the higher gods . The gods,therefore

,repented of

MY STE HJI'A

what they had done . But after seven days the storm wasquieted , and the waters were abated ; Samas-Napish tim

opened the window of his ship,now resting on the moun

tain Nizir,and after other seven days freed a dove, but

the dove found no resting place . Then a swallow, whichd id in like manner ; then a raven , which preyed on the

b o dies of the drowned . It was now possible fo r/Samas

Napishtim to let the animals out ; he erected°

an altar ando ffered sacrifice , whereto the gods gathered

“l ike masseso f fl ies .” Then the go d Bel, who had ordered th e flood ,became reconciled with the other gods

,who were angry

with him on that account ; he led Samas-Napishtim forthwith his wife

,and made a covenant with them and the

peop le . But the p airwere taken afar to l ive for evermore .

This Chaldai c history of the deluge is but one sec

tion of a great poem,an epos contained in twelve earthen

tablets,wherein are recounted the fortunes and exploits of

a hero, apparently the Nimrod of the Hebrew B ible .

This poem i s reputed to date from the twenty-third century

,B . C . The deeds of thi s hero , Gishdubarra, or Nam

rass i t, as he i s called , forcib ly recal l the story of the H el

lenie Herakles , and the Heraclean myth, perhaps , had itsorigin in the Chaldaean epos . Gishdubarra i s a descendant o i Samas-Napishtim,

whom he seeks out in his re

treat to obtain a cure of his disease and who takes thatoccasion to narrate to him the history of the flood . Now

,

his disease was a visitation o f the goddessAnatu, becausethat he had spurned the love of the goddess I star. Ashort poem graphically and effectively tells of how Istar

in her distress over this repulse sought help in the netherworld .

“I star

’

s Descent into Hell” impresses o ne l ike

Dante ’ s“Inferno indeed , in the opening verses it em~

MYSTE R IE S OF TH E E A ST 3 1

p loys nearly the same words as the great Florentine .

I star goes,says the poet,

To that ‘hous e w‘h etnee n o ne comes fo rth that en ters ,

On tha t pa th tha t a l l ows a d van ce , b ut regres s . n everTo tha t ho us e Who s e inma tes l ig ht s ha l l s ee n everm o re ,

To t h a t p lace where d us t i s t he ir v ictua l an d o rd ure th e irm ea t , et c .

In the netherworld the goddess A llatu reign s asqueen . She is I star

’

s counterpart : as I star (daughter of

the moo n-god) i s the rising moon , or the morning-star,so i s A l latu the setting moon , or the even ing-star. Thetwo are the mutually confl icting opposite sides of o nebeing ; and here , perhap s , we have an intimation of adeeper ethical interpretation , according to the secret doctrine of the Chaldaeans . The hell o f the Chaldaean theology is divided into seven compartments separated bygates . At each gate I star must surrender to its keepersome portion o f her paraphernalia ; at

.

the first the crown,at the second the earrings

,at the third the necklace

,at

the fourth the mantle, at the fi fth the girdle,crusted with

precious stones , at the sixth the armlets and anklets,and

at'

the seventh the last vesture . Possibly,we have here

a symbolic allusion to the Chaldaean mysti c teaching,

which may have had seven degrees of initiation into asmany orders of mysteries , till al l were disclosed . The

queen of the nether world not only renders to I star no

assistance, but, contrariwise , treats her as an enemy, andheaps bodily inj urie s upon her. Meanwhile on earth

,

Istar being the goddess of love,all union of the sexes

,

wh ether among men or animals , ceases, and at last thegods request of A llatu the l iberation o f I star. Reluc

tantly she consents . Istar i s made whole and set free,

32 MY STE R IA

an d at each gate gets back again what had been taken .

from her. The poem was-

intended to be recited by the

priest at'

the obsequies o f the dead,to give assurance to

the mour ning survivors that the gates of the netherworldare not unconquerab le

,but that there is stil l a possi

bi lity for the shades to reach the land of the b lest, theabode of I star.

9 . ZOROAJSTER AND TH E P ERSIANS .

I f in Chaldaea the traces of actual secret teachingseem faint and indistinct

,they quite disappear the fur

ther we go from the centres of ancient culture in Northern Africa and Western Asia

,though analogies are found

everywhere . In Persia,whose culture for the rest was an

offshoot of that of Chaldaea,the priests (athravan) of Zara

thustra’

s, or Zoroaster’ s , religion were the highest o f the

three classes of the population,and the priestly class was

considered further removed from the other two (warriors

and farmers) than they from each other. Sprung originallv from a Median stock, the priests marri ed only women

of their own race,and alone o f the population possessed

high culture . As in Egypt , the King was adopted intothe priestly class . The priests wen t about the countryas teachers

,but gave rel igious instruction only to those

of their class . The chief priest was styled Zarathustrotema

,i . e., the one nearest to Zarathustra, and had his

see in the holy city Ragha (now Rai) , whose inhabitants,l ike those o f modern Rome, had the name of being un ~

bel ievers . The priests alone held rule in Ragha,and no

secular power had right to give orders . Even elsewherethroughout the kingdom the priests regarded themselvesas subj ect only to the commands of the Zarathustro tema :

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were not so , a secret doctrine naturally sprung up among

them , and so they instituted a mystic society , whose

members alone knew how the matter really stood, and“that the peop le were hoodwinked . Accordingly, thebasis of religion was total ly different for the Brahmansfrom what it was for the rest of the people . Th e latterwere idolaters

,the former pantheists . This pantheism

i s taught in all their sacred books ; but these books thesecond and third castes (warriors and farmers) did not

understand , and the fourth caste , the servile (which wasalso the most numerous) , durst not read them at all .According to thi s doctrine

,all gods and the whole

creation are sprung from Eternity (Aditi) . Penitents andsolitarie s were esteemed by the Brahmans above kings andheroes

,even above gods . But the li fe o f a hermit was

not perfect enough for them,for that was attained by the

next two castes . Therefore as their own peculiar spe

c ialty, they concocted the idea of a sort of a soul of theuniverse

,the Atman-Brahman (the All-Me, or Me-All).

This dogma was originated by the Brahman Yadshna~

valkva : but Brahmans themselves sav that no man cancomprehend it, and that no man can instruct ano ther in

it. Thus,despairing of a solution of l i fe ’ s enigma

,the

Brahmans hit upon the idea that the universe is only a

phantasm, a Dream of the Soul of the Universe, and as aco nsequence that the earth

,with al l that it contains

,i s

ne th ing : thi s is pessimism . They imagined enormousaeons of time, in the lap se o f which the world grew ever

worse and creatures were born only to suffer, to die , and

either to awaken to suffering in the soul ’ s migration,or

to do penance in the unspeakable torments of hell . Now,

as o f all this the people cou ld understand only what wassaid about the hell torments

,the Brahmans contrived for

MYSTE RIE S OF TH E E A ST 35

them also a supreme deity under the same name as theirown So ul of the Universe, Brahma , and for Brahma theyprovided a Wi fe , Sarasvati . Brahma they made thecreator

,but the part played bv him was only passive and

the people, not content with such a do nothing, paidmore attention to other gods

,special ly to resplendent

Vishnu and dread Siva . Long afterward the three godswere united in a sort of trinity

,or , rather , were represented

by a three-headed figure,which had neither temple nor

sacrificial worship . Thus the Brahmans went on refining

and refining in their theological speculations , while the

peop le became divided into parties, Vishnuites and Sivaites

,and the rel igion of the Hindus reached at last the

state of debasement in which we find it to-day .

Before degeneration had gone so far Budd ha,in the

sixth century,B . C.

,endeavored to save the Hindu re

l igio n . Buddhism was not a new religion, o nly a re

form of Brahmani sm . Though it failed to strike rootdeep in its native so il , the mo re. westerly co untries o f

India, on the other hand it wo n a great following infarther India

,Tibet, China, and Japan : it has since as

sumed a peculi ar composite character by fusion with theancient religions of those countries . It grew out o f amonastic society founded by Siddhartha

,afterward Bud

dha , surnamed the Perfect One . His doctrine waswholly eth ical , and its profoundest principle was that onlyin complete renunciation of all things can man find safetyand peace . Buddha himself was rather strict with postulants for adm ission to the society , so that in his time theteach ing was in many respects a secret doctrine . But

after the death o f Buddha,when first himsel f

,then several

other Buddhas believed to have l ived before him,and ex

pected to come after him, had beenraised to the rank of

MY STER IA.

gods ; and when to these had been added the Hindu gods

and the gods o f other peoples ; the rel igion o f the founderh aving thus degenerated into a polytheism

,the learned

began to interpret the original doctrine now in one sense ,again in another

,opinions differing on the question

whether the Nirvana (l iterally, extingu’

i shment) preachedby Buddha meant Death and Nothingness

,or a Blest

State . Thus the Buddhism of the priests assumed a stronglikeness to a secret doctrine

,though we know not of any

formal organization to that end .

I I . S E CRE T LEAGUE S OF B ARB AROUS P E OP LE S .

Even among Savages so -called are found secret doctrines and ' secret soc ietie s o f priests analogous to thoseof more cultured peoples . The priests o f Hawaii

,who

in this respect perhaps rank highest among savageraces

,had a theory of their own regarding creation which

shows great elevation of thought . The sorcerers,or

priests,of savage races wherever they stil l remain

,are

banded in secret societies,which withhold from the peo

ple al l knowledge o f their tri cks . Th e Angekoks of the

Eskimos,the Medic ine Men of the

’

No rth Americanaboriginals , the Shamans of Siberia , as well as the sor

cerers, however named, of African and other races, nearlv all form close castes, hand down their p retended arts ofweather-making , of heal ing disease, discovering thieves,counteracting spells

,etc .

,to their successors

,and prepare

themselves for their office by undergoing strange tests and

perfo rming o utlan ishl rites ; they also wear fantastic togs .Among the Zulu Kaffi rs the one who desires to be

come a sorcerer (usually a descendant of a sorcerer) givesup the cus tomary mod e of li fe

,has strange dreams, seeks

MYSTE R IE ’S OF TH E E A S T 3 7

solitude , hop s and jumps about, utters cries , handles serpents that other Kaffi rs will not touch . at last rece ivesinstruction from some aged sorcerer, and is formally ad

mitted by the assembly o f those charlatans . There arealso witches

,or sorceresses

,who go through a like form

of consecration .

There exist also among savages other species of

secret societies . In the Society I slands the chiefs , calledAreoi or B rih

,form an association , the origin of which

they trace to O ros,god of war. They are divided into

twelve classes under as many grandmasters , each classdistinguished by a peculiar tattoo

,the members are united

by the fi rmest ties, show unbounded hosp itality to oneanother

,l ive without marriage

,kill t heir own children

,

and refrain from all work . There are similar societiesin Micronesia

,called Klo bbergo ll , which assemble in

special houses , and serve their chiefs in war as bodyguard .

On the isle o f New Britain (now a German possession,and named New Pomerania) there exists a secret societycalled the Duk—Duk

,whose members

,wearing frightful

masks, care for the execution of the laws , collect fines,

and inflict punishment on ince‘

ndiaries and homicides .They are known to each other by secret s1gn s , and out;

siders are denied admission to their festivals under painof death . In West Africa there are many secret societieswhose members are distinguished by a chalk l ine

,with

which they are marked at their initiation . Th eir officeis to pursue and punish criminals

,and to collect the

tribute . In each locality these associations possesshouses for their special use , and their members are boundto the strictest secrecy. Thus even savages have theirsecret police and their privy tribunals .

PART SECOND .

Th e Greci an My s teri es an d th e Roman

B a cch an a l i a .

1 . HE LLA S .

Grecian religion is worship of the beautiful . Itsorigin was as that of the other poly theistic rel igions : itsbasis was a personification of nature

’ s forces and of theheavenly bodies

,but in its evolution it differed essen

tially from the rel igions of the Oriental peoples , who hadno sense for the beautiful

,and who ascrib ed to their gods

forms quaint,or unnatural

,or hideous . In the dawn of

their h istory the Hellenes did,undoubtedly

,worship the

forces of nature under the form of animals , especially o f

serpents . In time the human and animal forms wereunited , and there were deities with heads o f animals or

the bodies of horses (centaurs) or the hoofs of goats

(saty rs) . But the native genius of Greece asserted itsel fat an early period

,and the figures of gods came by de

grees to express the highest physical perfection withwhich they were acquainted— the human form . True

,

the Hellenes, l ike the Eastern s , forgot the astronomicand cosmic signification of th eir myths ; but, whereas , fo rtheir neighbors oversea—at least for the mass of the people—the natural powers transformed into gods weresimply fetiches exi sting only in the matter out o f whichthey were made—o bj ects o f dumb reverence or of madterror ; for the man of Hellas they became changed into

38

TH E GRE C IAN MYSTE R IE S 3 2!

moral forces , into ideas which he represented to himselfin beautiful forms that were to him not obj ects of fearat all

,but beings with whom he might converse as with

fellowmen,and of whom his poets sang as though of

mortal heroes . Here we have the distinguishing char

acteristic of Grecian religious worship .

The Hellenes knew nothing of dogma, creeds} catech is ing,

or revelation . In their eyes, i f a man did but honor

the go ds as representing the groundwork o f moral ity,he

sati sfied all the requirements o f religion : the how,the

when, the where , the how often, were matters left to thediscretion o f each one ; and nobody else judged him concerning them . O f course, We must not apply our modern ethical yardsti ck to the princip les o f morality forwhich the gods stood sponsor, after the origin of thegods had been forgotten . The Greeks were , with regardto n zatters that we nowadays hold to be within the sphereo f ethics

,not at all scruple—ridden ; and in truth we need

to bear in mind their great services on behalf o f thebeautiful i f we would look with some measure o f allow

ance on their shortcomings with regard to virtue . Intwo points, specially straightforwardness (honesty, can

dor, truthfulness) and chastity , they left much to be des ired ; but what else was to be expected , seeing that inthe ir gods

,as in course of time they came to conceive of

them mistakenly,they had by no means edifying exemplars

o f the moral principles to which those deities were sup

p osed to give sanction . Nevertheless,history will

,even

to the Hellenes,forgive much , because they loved much .

O f so l ittle obligation was the Grecian belief regarding the gods , that the several divisions of the Hellenicrace were by no means agreed as to the number of thegods and their respective ranks . O f the twelve gods o f

40 MY STE R IA

O lympus , one would be disown ed here, another there . Inone place greater honor would be paid to this god , in

another place to that ; the case i s exactly that o f the saintsin Catholic countries to-day . Nay

,local deities, e . g.

,

Athene in Athens,often received more homage than Zeus ,

father o f the gods and lord of the thunderclouds . Theworship of the beauti ful went even so far as to multiplv

gods,and ' to divide them among the different localities

that possessed renowned statues o f them : these statues

then came to be regarded as di stinct individual s , so thateven a Socrates could be in doubt whether the AphroditeUrania (Aphrodite in the sky) and Aphrodite Pandemos

(the popular Aphrodite) were or were not one person .

Nay,when the known gods did not suffice , they made

gods that had no name : thus we find a “greatest go d ,

also “pure and “reconciling”,and “ruling”, and, as we

learn from the Acts of the Apostles”

,

“unknown” gods .

And now as regards the character of all these deities : forthe Greeks

,who in all things studied the beauti ful

,they

were neither monsters l ike the gods of Egypt,India

,and

Pho enicia,nor incorporeal spirits like the gods of the

Persians and the I srael ites , but human existences thatnever could die

,mighty beings with human feelings

,ih

clinatio ns,and passions . The Greeks knew no Yahve :

but then neither d id they know any Devil . Their godswere neither faultless nor virtueless

,j ust like the Greeks

themselves . O f course there are to be found in Hellenicreligion survivals from that period of mythology in which

human and beast forms were mingled . This we see inthe Centaurs, the Chimaera , the Minotaur, the Satyrs, etc .but such beings were become merely figures in folk-tales

,

and there they enacted parts ranging from terror to farcethey no more received divine honors . And the same is

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MY srniRIA

law,therefore

,upon complaint made—and then o nly

denial o f their existence, sco ffi ng, and blasphemy were

punished wi th banishment as the worst sort o f crimes .

Nor was there in this any fanatic i sm or any intolerance ,s imply an idea of right and wrong. Th at this i s so i s

proved by the fact that there was no prohibition o f thebringing in of al ien gods or of the worship o f such , pro

vided only the customs of the land were not infringed ;nay

,alien gods

,i f their religion gained vogue, might be

adopted into the religion of the state .

Such freedom of religion could,of course , exist only

where no priestly caste existed, nor, in fact, any specialpriestly class . It was competent for persons in variouswalks of li fe to perform religious ceremonies . In thename o f the state

,the king (or other head of the gov

ernment)“transacted business” with the gods

,for ex

ample, conducted the sacrifices . Only in temples and

other localities consecrated to divine worship were priestsas such employed : but outside the wall s of these they hadno thing to do ; for instance , they had nothing to do with

men ’ s consciences . In Hellas the priest had no priv~

ileges , no influence such as he had in Egypt , and priestlysocieties and priestly secret doctrine were o ut of thequestion . The service of some of the gods was conducted bv women, and in the worship of certain deitiesonly unmarried priests could engage ; there were alsocertain other restri ctions put on the priest ’ s mode of li fe .Among the Greeks religious ministration was no

more restricted to certain p laces than to certain persons .The gods were everywhere, the highest inhabiting O lympus , others the sea , the netherworld, certaih groves, trees ,streams, mountains, grottoes , etc . Not in temples alone,but everywhere stood altars : in houses

,in the streets

,

TH E GRE C IAN MYSTE R IE S 43

in forests . All consecrated places, whether temples o r

sacred groves,etc

. , w ere Asyla, places of refuge for o f

fenders against law. The honor done to‘

the gods con

sisted in :I

.Invocation

,comprising Prayers addressed,

whether to the images of the gods or to their supposedabode

,and pronounced low or loud or in song ; Oaths,

summoning the gods as witnesses of truth—this at timesdegenerated into a species o f Ordeal ; Imprecations, calling on the gods to punish evildoers .

2.Votive Offerings (anathemata), obj ects o f al l kinds

laid at the feet of the gods ’ images : the o ffering might bean animal

,fattened specially for the god

,or it might be

a person dedicated for l i fe to the service o f the god byhimself

,his father

,or his master.

3 . Sacrifices, mostly meat and drink offerings, butsometimes l iving: animal s immolated to the gods , inatonement for sin

,or to ratify treaties , or to obtain an in

timatio n of the divine will or foreknowledge . In the

earl iest times human victims were immolated .

I f religion consists in a belief in superterres'trial

powers and in worship o f them , so, on the other . hand ,the belief in mira

’

cle has its root in the conviction thatthis worship i s answered by action of the heavenly powers011 the physical world . One instance of thi s action o f thesupersensual world is called Revelation . Here theGrecian religion was distinguished from other forms o fbelief in that it accepted no official standing revelationwhich every one was required to believe

,while it main

tained the possibil ity of a revelation from the gods foremergen cies . This belief was firmly held even by themost eminent Grecian philosophers

,in particular by S0

crates and the Stoics . And i f the granting of prayers

44 MY STE R IA

and the decision of questions by ordeal s was a first feeblestep toward revelation

,the same m i staken abel ief led to

stil l further degeneration o f the rel igious idea in the

forms of Seership,Orac les

,and Conjuration .

Seership (in Greek, mantike, seer’ s art) was un inten

tio nal or intentional . Unintentional seership we see indreams

,and in trance . Intentional seersh ip was prae

ticed by interpretation o f sign s or omens (sign-reading) .A ’ seer (mantis) was one who practiced sign-reading ,

whether sel f-deluded or simply pretending to be underdivine inspiration . Folklore and history tel l of famousseers who foretold the future from observation of th efl ight of birds

,atmospheric phenomena

,the posi tion of

constel lations, and the entrail s o f animals ; or who interpreted dreams and on occasion had ecstasies and

visions . Then there were unpro fessmnal practicers ofthe art who divined the future by other means ; thus onewould write the letters of the alphabet in a circle on the

ground , lay on each letter a grain of corn, then let acock pick up the grains

,the operator meanwhile care

ful lv noting the order in which the grains were p i cked

up : thi s was known as aleetromancy (Gr.,alekto r, cock ;

manto ia, seership , divination) .Oracles are properly divinations obtainable only in

parti cular places (as temples and other sanctuaries) , andpracti ced only by duly qual ified persons . There were

several kinds of oracles, viz . :I . Oracles from Signs . The most ancient orac le o f

thi s class was that of Zeus at Dodona,in Epirus, men

tioned by Homer. The priests o f the sanctuary at Do ~

dona divined by observation of the rustling o f the leaveso f the sacred oak ; they al so cast lots on the altar, or questinned a sacred bronze basin .

TH E GRE C IAN MYSTE R IE S 45

2. Sententious Oracles . These were all sanctuariessacred to Apollo, and were numerous in Hellas and AsiaMinor. The most notable of them was one at Delphi .

Th e minister of the oracle of Delph i, avirgin priestesscalled the Pythia

,while questioning the oracle sat on a

tripod which stood over a crevice in the ground ; thencei ssued a gas

,and

,intoxicated by inhaling this, the Pythia

uttered words which the priests dressed up in verse orin sententious form .

3 . Dream Oracles . O f these there we re many , insanctuaries dedicated to Asklep io s (Aesculapius , god ofleechcraft) to which the sick were taken in order thatthro ugh interpretation of the dreams thev had on the

spot they might obtain from the priests o f Asklepioscounsel upon the healing of their complaints . Th e most

renowned of this class o f oracles was at Epidaurus, inArgolis .

Co nj uration,which developed into magic

, was muchused in ancient Greece

,especially after the Greeks had

come in contact with the Oriental world ; but the godsand daemons concerned in thi s pfactice were all takenfrom foreign mythologi es . People believed in conjuration o f the weather

,in transformation o f men into ani

mals, in love potions, etc ., and employed magic formulasexpressed in words that no one understood and that belonged to no earthly language .

3 . THE HE LLE NIC MYSTER IE S .

Such was the theol o gy,and such the thaumatology*

—image and reflectio n—o f Grecian religion . The two

*Th e o rigna'

l h a s Go et terg l iaub e , b e li ef in g o d s , and Wun

d erjg laub e , be l ief in m irac les , in a l lusi on to th e p reced ing sec

MY STERIA.

‘

elements!

constitute the popular religion,the rel igion o f

feeling, worship of the gods , as far as sensibility i s co ncerned . But in the most ancient times there stood overagainst the popular religion (in Greece as in Egypt) a rel igio n of priests , their Initiates, and Elect ; over againstthe religion of feel ing a religion of reflec tion ; over

against the nai f, sensorial view,the sentimental

,romantic

,

mystical one,the one which aims to acquire for bel ief

an ethical side, and to subordinate that to faith . This

phase of rel igion results from the mystic considerationthat the individual i s essentially different from the divinenature, subj ect thereto, and dependent on it ; in short, itresults from the idea of “alienation from God

,toward

which the superstitions o f seership,oracles and magic were

already showing the way . It was the impulse,given by

reflection, to seek the lost god” that led to the

institution o f mysteries in Greece : men were nolonger satisfied with gods that were but man ’ sequals . The mysteries contradict the origin o f re

l igio n in feel ing , they deny its dependence on art

and the beauti ful ; theyponder and brood over the lostgod, and are ever seeking him . They would subordinateli fe and all its interests to his service ; they would regulate

all man ’ s acts,and hence morality

,according to faith ;

they hold in contempt either man ’ s power or hi s knowl

edge . The Grecian mysteries , indeed, borrowed fromthe popular rel igion its art

,and turned it to account, but

in them art was not cultivated for itsel f,and science

was completely ignored . As science was free in Hellasand not tied to any priestly order

,the mysteries could

t i o n 2. Go etterg laub e i s o f coure equ iva len t to theo l o gy ,

an d i f s o , then W un d erg l aube i s equ iva l en t -t o th aumato l

o gy”from Greek th auma ta ,

m iracl es , an d l og o s , d i scours e.

TH E GRE C IAN MYSTE R IE S 47

there render no service : there was nothing for them to

do . O f all the many philosophers of Greece , not o ne

employed the doctrines of the mysteries in his system :

not one showed any regard for them . The mysterieswere then what they had ever been

,and stil l are , to wit,

self-introspection,interpretation of divine things , a

mourning over the lost god,and search after the same ,

an endeavor for union with God, for grace and salvation

,a sensible delight in the thought of a god suffering

and dying,in meditation on the soul ’ s state after death,

on revelation,incarnation

,and resurrection ; and a rep

resentatio n of all these ideas in dramatic forms and cere

monies the main effect of which is to make an illusiveand blinding impression on the senses .Thus

,the Grecian mysteries were the exact opposite

o f genuine Hellenism . Cheerfulness,j oyousness

,clear~

ness of perception and of thought , absence of al l mistsand vapors

,were the notes of your true Hellene : his

statues of gods with their grand,bold

,full

,rounded

contours to thi s day demonstrate this ; and his superstition even took things j ust as they looked to him . Onthe other hand

,gloom

,ruefulness

,a morbid

,overween

ing, owlish phantastry, symbolry, mystici sm,with every

shallow trick of strained interpretation , and all the smugnesses o f pharisaic p iety are the earmarks of your mystic .On the one side day on the other night, there action hereques t and longing, there fact here makebelieve , there

alertness here moping, there a hearty meal o ffwhat is athand here a hungering and thirsting after truth that never

can be attained . The mysteries were therefore in everyway u

'

ngrec1an , outlandish , and abnormal . They had nofit p lace on Hellenic soil , no r in that age ; they were the

propaedeutic of a future age when one should come upon

MY STE RIA

the scene who was to hurl O lympos , Okeano s, and Hadesinto the everlasting night‘ of oblivion .

And yet from the difference between the Grecianmysteries and the ordinary life o f the people it by nomeans fol lows that the Initiates did not find satisfaction ,at least a

’

partial satisfaction,in these mystic exercita~

tions . The man who nurses the feeling of a want for something other than what his times and his surroundingsafford, finds at the last in his very brooding the sati sfaction of his need . Sentimental

,romantic

,fanci ful

,and

my stical characters , therefore, must find uncommon delight in mysteries

,while practical

,clear-sighted

,undis~

to rted,and stri ctly logical minds are unmoved by them .

Let us then listen to the testimony of two celebratedmystae, a Grec ian and a Roman , both, it i s true, l iving ina

‘

time when their respective nations had begun to de~

cl ine . The tragi c poet Euripides sings : O bles t is hewhose fortune it i s to have learned the divine initiations ;he sancti fi es his l i fe .

” And Cicero (De Legibus I I .,14)

makes Marcus say to Atticus : “O f al l the gran d,and as

I fain would think , the divine elements imported by thyAthens into human li fe

,there i s nought better than those

Mysteries whereby we have been developed out of rudeness and savagery and trained to the human manner of

l i fe . And we, too, even as the Mysteries are called Initia

(beginnings) so in them have found the princip les (a playon words,

“ initia and “

principia, principl es, being

homonyms) of right l iving, and have learned not only tolive

,j oyously

,but also to die with better hope .” Then

,as

shadow follows light,he adds : The thing I do mislike

in the nocturnal rites,i s told in the comic poets . Were

such liberties permitted in Rome,what had not that in

famous wretch (Clo d ius) done, who brought lewdness

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MYSTERIA

in the mysterie s under the name of Iacchos ; and thoughthere is no affinity between the letters I and B , Iacchos

came in time to stand for Bacchus . The origi nal Iacchoswould seem to have been a god in the people ’ s rel igion ,and thi s name is probably related to Jao (found in Jovis

pater, Jup iter) and to the Hebrew Yahve . D io do rus (I

94) gives l the name Jao to the God o f the Hebrews ; andan oracular utteran ce of the Apollo of Claros says

Kn ow thou tha t th e h igh est o f a l l th e go d s i s named J ao ,

an d i n W in ter A i d es , an d Zeu s in o p en ing Sp ring ,

then Hel io s in Summ er , an d o n ce m o re J ao s i n Fa l l .

The fact that Jao s was the harvest-god tended strongly to identi fy him with Bacchus , personification of thesun which ripens the grape ; and, besides, Bacchus wasallied to Demeter (originally Gemeter—Earthmother) who

was the patroness of husbandry . The name of the city,Eleusis, means in Greek

( advent and it commemorate sthe stay of Demeter there inthe course of her wanderingin search of her daughter : a like story is told of I sis inEgypt. In gratitude for their hospital ity

,Demeter be

stowed on the people o f Eleusis the bread-grain and themysteries . From Eleusi s the cult of the two deities

spread all over Greece and part o f Asia Minor,and in a

modified form passed into Italy : in several p laces arose

affi l iated institution s resembling that at Eleusis,having

the same festivals and the same secret cult ; but Eleusi salway s held the supremacy . The buildings at Eleusis

,in

the pure Dori c style , consisted. of the temp le of Demeter

and the Mystic House, in which the secret festival s wereheld . They were connected with Athens by the “SacredWay a road flanked by temples and sanctuaries : inAthens itsel f was an Eleus inian building (Eleusinion)

TH E GRE CIAN MYSTER IE S 01

m wh ich a portion of the mysteries was cel ebrated . In

front of the city gate toward the Piraeus was also asanctuary dedicated to thi s cult

,and furthermore an

Eleusinion at Agrae . The buildings at Eleusis stoo dtill the fourth century of our era : they were then destroyed by the Goth s under Alaric

,at the instigation o f

monkish fanatics .The Eleusinia were always under the direction of the

Athenian Government. When Athens became a demo c~

racy the functions ti ll then performed by the King , asprotector of the Eleusinia

,devolved on the head o f the

executive,the Archons

, wh o , therefore, bore the titleBasi leus (king) because the mo st important duties o f theKing had been concerned with Eleusi s and its Mysterie s .The Basileus was assi sted bv four councilors (epimele

tae), of whom two were chosen from among the Athen

ians, and other two from the two Eleusinian gentes,Eumo lp idae , and Kerytae . The report on the celebration of the Mysteries was always rendered to the GrandCounc i l (Boule) of Athens, assembled in the Eleusinion .

The function o f prie st in the institutions at Eleusis wasalways the exclusive privilege of the Eumo lpidae andKerytae. The chief of the priests was the h ierOphan-t,and with him was associated a h iero phantes s . Next tothese in dignity were the torchbearer (daduchus), thesacred herald (h iero keryx) , and the

“al tar-priest . These

offi cials constituted the Sacred Council,which had the

immediate direction of the mysteries .It would be a great mi stake to regard the Eleusinian

Mysterie s as a result of il luminism or rationalism . Ratherwere they an institution not less religious , not less faithful to the ancient traditions than the popular religionitself ; with this difference only , that the latter contented

MY STE RIA

itsel f with honoring the gods contemplated in the humanform, while the mysteries emphasized the infinite preeminence o f the divine nature over the human . Hencethe mvstic rel igion was guarded by the state authori tieswith the same zeal as the anthropomorphic rel igion of thevulgar.

No one saw in the one any danger to the other. Thetwo forms of religion were branches of one tree , Panthei sm, and herein only differed, that the one saw the Divinein all earthly things

,the other sought for it there and

strove for union with it . It i s equally vain to look inthe Eleusinia for either Rationalism or Monotheism .

Monothei sm. i . e .,absolute severance of the earthly from

the divine wi thout hope o f union,was a purely Oriental

idea, quite incomprehensib le to the Grecian mind : no ah

cient Greek writer ever dreamed of a creative demiurgus ,in the Egyptian sense

,nor of an angry and revengeful

Yahve , l ike the Hebrews .

So great was the veneration for the Eleusinia amongthe Grecian states

,that during the mystic festival s

hostilities were suspended between: opposing armies ;and desp isers of the mysteries

,betrayers o f the secret

doctrine , and unbidden witnesses of th e rites , were punished cap itally or with li felong banishment . In the year

4 1 1 B . C . the poet D iago ras of Melos , who threw a figur eof Herakles into fire

,to put the hero to his thirteenth

labor,and who had betrayed the mysteries , was banish-ed

for hi s i rrel igi on . Even after the death of Helleni c

l iberty the Roman emperors took an interest in maintaining the Eleusinian sanctuaries . Hadrian sought and

obtained the initiation,Antoninus erected edifices at

Eleusis,nay

,some of the early Christian emp erors , as

Constantius I I . and J ovian , in their decrees forbidding

TH E GREC IAN MYSTERIE S O3

nocturnal festival s made an exception o f the Eleusinia ;and after the destruction o f the sacred buildings , the ritesseem to have been still practiced .

The sum of all that i s known of the doctrine taughtat Eleusis i s as fol lows : The myth underlying thes e

mysteries was the rape, by Pluto , of Persephone, daughter

of Demeter . Pluto , god of the netherworld in the po pular belie f, lord o f the abode of the damned , in other terni s ,the personifi cation of the sun that goes down in the west

,

hence of the sun of the nighttime , or of the Wintertime ,carries o ff Persephone (personification of the world ofplants), as she i s p lucking flowers (fo r as the cold seasonccmes on the flowers wither and die), and takes her withhim to the realm of shades

,where she occupies the throne

with him . But her mother Demeter,being

,as goddess of

the earth . the mother of the plant—world , and so too pro~

tectress o f husbandry, wanders about lamenting, for indeedthe earth loses its adornments

,its loveliest features

,in Win

ter. But at last the gods take pity on the hapless wandererand bring about an agreement between her and Pluto ,whereby Persephone i s permitted to live in the upperwo rldin Summer, returning to the netherworld for Winter : herei s s ignified the fecundity of the soil , and also the resurrection of man after his body has been dropped like a grainof corn in the earth .

"

The union of Persephone with

Bacchus, i . e .

,with the sun-god whose work is to promote

fruitfulness,i s a n idea special to the mysteries

,and means

the union of humanity with godhead, the consummationaimed at in the mystic rites . Hence in all probabilitythe central teaching of the mysteries was Personal Im

mortality,analogue o f the return of the bloom to plants

in Spring.

Now the festivals at Eleusis have reference to this

MYSTERIA

myth . Of these festival s there were two , the Lesser Eleusinia in Spring (the month Anthesterion , March) , when theravished one came up out of the netherwo rld into thesunlight ; these festivals were ob served at Agrae ; and theGreater Eleusinia in Autumn (the month Boedrom ion,October), when she must follow her sullen spouse again toHades ; they were observed at Athens and Eleusis . Therewas a preliminary celebration at Athens

,and at Eleusis the

high celebration . The preliminary solemnity lasted six

days , Boedromion 1sth to 20th . On the first day Initiatesfrom every region wherever the Greek language was heardand Grecian hearts beat for the gods, assembled in thePoecile at Athens and there heard the order of the exercises proc laimed by the Hierophant, after hi s aides hadfirst in a loud voice bidden the b loodguilty to depart. Onthe second day the mystae were summoned to go down tothe seashore and to p erform in the sacred brine the act ofpurification

,requisite for a worthy observance of the

solemnity . The remaining days were spent in performing the prescribed sacrifices

,sharing in the sacrificial ban

quets, and making the customary solemn processions .

On the sixth day came the grand Iac chus Procession ,numbering thousands of mystae, of both sexes ; these , i ssuing from the Sacred Gate

,wended along the Sacred Road

to Eleusis . They wore crowns of parsley and myrtle,and

in their hands carried ears of corn,implements o f hus

bandry and torches ; for though the p rocession set outbetimes it moved slowly

,and reached

'

the destination late,

to celebrate the festival in the hallowed night . Iacchushimself was believed to be the leader of the procession ,which was headed by his image in the form o fa babe withcostly toys and cradle . The line of march lay along theb rink o f the sea over the same fl owery fields and gras sy

TH E GRE CIAN MYSTERIE S 55

meadows of the Thrias ian p lains, which had been the sceneof the rape o f Persephone . The route was fourteen mileslong

,but to the partic ipants in their festive mood it was

short,and besides they made frequent halts at the various

sanctuaries on the way,practicing mystic rites and offering

sacrifices . The rude wild chorus of the Hymn to Iacchusresounded, with intervals o f animated dances and flute~

playing,and frequent shouts of Io , Iacchus, hai l ! But as

we learn from the “Frogs” of Aristophanes, the pro ces

s io n ists meanwhile indulged freely in merriment , chafli ngtheir fellows

,and making love to the women and girls . It

was customary for women to make the journey in wainstil l a demagogue in the time of Demosthenes procured theabolition of this “privilege of the rich .

”

In the evening of the first day at Eleusis the mystae1n common drank of the sacred potion Kykeo n , by

which Demeter was comforted at Eleusis during her wandering. It was a decoction of barley

,wine

,and grated

cheese ; to these afterward were added , one by one , honey .

milk, certain herbs , salt, and onions . During the threesucceed ing nights the performing of the mystic rites andthe initiations took place , the principal feature being thetorch-processions representing Demeter’ s search for Perse

phone : during the day the Initiates seem to have fasted .

After the initiations the festival was transformed into a

scene of merriment and gymnastic competition . Pro bab lythe mystae returned to Athens processionally, and therethe rep ort on the festival was made to the Boule , whosenon-initiated members had first to retire .

It was at these festival s that the rites of initiationinto the Eleusinian mysteries were p erformed . Initiationwas in two degrees , viz .

, that o f the Lesser, and that of

the Greater mysteries . Initiation into the Lesser mys

56 MY STERIA

ferie s too k place during the preliminary festival,and that

into the Greater mysteries either at the greater festival

next ensuing or at the g reater festival of a sub sequent year.The Initiates of the Lesser my steries were called Mystae,those of the Greater mysteries

,Epoptae (those who have

seen) . It i s p robable that at both of the annual festivalsthe mystae took p art only in the external ceremonies , andthat only the Epo ptae (or adep ts) were admitted into theSacred House at Eleusis , or inducted into the occult meaning of the festivals and ceremonies : thi s we infer from theexceedingly large number of the mvstae .

The one who wished to be admitted to the mysterieshad to app ly to an initiated citizen of Athens , who byappointment o fthe authori ties served as mediator betweenhim and the priests : hence he was cal led Mystago go s ,guide or sponsor o f the postulant. As a rule the postulant was required to be a Hellene . Foreigners were admitted only when they were men o f di stinction

,such

,for

example,as the Scythian philosopher Anachars is . After

the conquest of Greece by the Romans , Roman citizens

stood o n equality with Hellenes . There was no discrimination on the ground of sex . But no one stained

wi th bloodguiltiness could be admitted .

Those who came up for admission to the degree ofEpoptes

,and who

,as we suppose , had never entered

the My stic House.” were left to wander through its

mazes’

,in pro found darkness

,meeting toils and hindrances

and dangers . Then followed ri tes in which the courageo f the candidates was subj ected to the severest tests , soas to fil l them with “fear and trembling and dread amaze .

”

It i s very p robab l e that the terrors of the test were borro wed from the Grecian ideas o f the netherworld . But

after the darkness came brightness , after Tartarus Ely

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MY STER IA

e lusion has yet been reached on these pomts .

”

But theydate from very high antiquity, before the evolution of theseveral Grecian deities . In Egyp t, according to Herodotus (I I I ., they were

“worship ed as sons o f H eph

aestus (he means Ptah, god of Memphis) ; and were , l iketheir father, figured in the shrine as Pygmies .

” That inthe language of Phoenicia Kabirim means “the great

,the

m ighty ones ,” i s o f no consequence , for here

“

great is

not used in the sense of bodily largeness . Neither 1s i tany obj ection that in Greece the Kabeiro i are regarded

as beings subordinate to the gods : for the earlier godsever do take second p lace when new gods get fo oting.

In early Egypti an mythology and rel ig ion the Cabiri were

perso n i fi catio ns of the stars ; and the mysteries of Samothrace were originally an astromytho lo gy ,

though in time

their astral s ign i fi catio n s were forgotten . From a remarkof Herodotus (IL, that the Athenians got from the

Pelasg ians inhab iting the island of Samothrace their custom of fi gurmg Hermes with the Phallus (and everyonewho has acq uaintance with the secret cult o f the Cab iriknows what that means) , we are led to infer that in theCabiri c mysteries the rep roductive forces of nature playedan important p art : the symbol of those forces , the Phallus ,was emp loyed by the nations of the East and from thempassed to the Greeks

,who orig i nally had no leaning

toward such obscene 1mag1n1ng s . The same inference issuggested by Juvenal ’ s remark that in love affairs it wasthe fash ion to swear by the Cabiri . For initiation intothe Samothracian my steries the novice was required tosubm it to a purification by fire and to fumigation

,and to

make a sort of confe ssion . Plutarch tells o f a Spartanwho at hi s initiation inquired o f the priest whether he

should confess his sins to him or to the gods ; and on the

TH E GRE C IAN MYSTE R IE S 59

priest replying,To the gods .” “Then

,said the penitent

,

“give way, I will tel l it to the godhead alone .” Men

,

women. even children were initiated . and the professedreceived a purple band, whi ch they we re around the body ,in the assurance that by this means they would be safeagainst p eri l s by sea.

The Greeks used to tell o f their fabled heroes, Or

pheus , Agamemnon , Odysseus, etc that they were Initiates of these mysteries ; and Philip I I . o f Macedon and

his queen O lymp ias p arents of Alexander the Great,underwent this in itiat1o n . There were Cabirian mysteriesalso in several other Grecian islands. and in several placeson the continent

,both in Greece and in Asia Minor.

6 . TH E MYSTE R IE S OF CRE TE .

In the island of Crete were celebrated the mysteries of Zeus . According to the myth

,the father o f

the gods and lord of al l the world . to foi l the designs ofhis father Cronos . who had devoured all hi s other children, was , while yet a child , taken by his mother Rhea tothat island for refuge , and there guarded in a grotto ofMt. Ida and nouri shed with m i lk and honey by the people,who meanwhile

,by dealing blows on each other ’ s shields

,

kept up such a din as drowned the wailing of the babe.In Crete was also shown a sep ulchre o f Zeus . Regardingthe Cretan mysteries we know this on ly , that in the Springtime the birth o f the go d was commemorated at the grottoand his death at the sep ulchre , and that the while th eyoung peop le (who rep resented the Curetae), in armor,with dance and song an d with loud beating of cymbals

and drums . enacted the story of the childhood of Zeus .

60 MY STERIA

7. TH E D IONYSIA .

An anc ient national cult among the Hellenes , intowhich a mystic element was imp orted from wi thout, wasthe worship of Dionyso s or Bacchus

,i . e .

,of the sun as

promoting the g rowth o f the vine : its end was plainly toglori fy the phy sical world , the material world, in all itsma ni festations o f li fe and force . Hence the Bacchus culti s one predominantly materialistic, addressed to the senseo f bodily p leasure, the app etite for food and the sexualdesire ; and yet, inasmuch as viticulture, l ike agriculture ,is one o f the facto rs o f c ivil ization . and as the Drama hadits origin in these Dionysiac festivals

,it cannot be denied

that for manv elements of our intellectual and sp iritualculture we are indebted to this cult. O f the festival s ofDionysos some belonged exclusivelv to the popular rel igi o n , but others were connected with mysteri es . Th oseo f the former class had their chief seat in Attica, the otherselsewhere . Of these non-mystic festival s of Dionysos inAttica there were seven, occurring in different months ofthe year

,from the season of the vintag e in Autumn till

toward Sp ring , or while the new wine was in fermentation ;and some o f these festivals were held in the country

,

others in the c ity . On such occasions gymnastic sportsof a ludicrous sort were carried on . as dai i cing on one leg,leaping on a leathern bag b lown up with air and greasedwith oil outside , and trying to maintain equ il ibrium ,

etc.'

At the head of a p rocession compo sed of men and women of al l ranks and degrees were borne the sacrificial im

plements , then followed the victim , a he-goat, and sooncame the imag e of the Phallus. borne aloft with greatpomp . So littl e did the Greeks p ossess o f our peculiarsense o f shamet hat they looked on thi s symbol as some

TH E GRE C IAN MYSTER IE S 6 1

thing entirely p roper, not scrup l ing even to’ sing satiri cal

verses about it. After the sacrifice came jesting, banter,travesty, and with travesty p antomime . in which wasenacted the history of the go d , including of course hisfabled adventures . The stage had its ri se in such festivalsas these . The Spring festival, held in the month Anthesterio n (month of flowers) was kep t with special solemnity .

It marked the time when the wine was racked o ff into theearthen p ots . It was at this festival that the Basil i ssa

(wife o f the Basileus) , accompanied by fourteen otherwomen , entered the holy o f holie s o f the ancient templeof Dionyso s (at -all other times women were forbidden toenter it) , and there made a secret offering wi th mystic rite sand vows .But we have the genuine m

‘

ysterium m the DionysiaTrietera, or triennial festival o f Dionysos . Festivals of

’

this class seem to have originated in Thrace,and hence

among a people of Pelasgian stock . Th e spirit of theThracians

,which was natural ly o f a gloomy cast, but

when their slumbering passions were awakened becamewildly enthusiastic

,seemed in these festivals , or rather

these transports o f meral frenzy , to pass into the persons of

the lighthearted and selfcontrolled Hellenes . The madextravaganza of this phenomenon in the history of manand hi s wavs is seen in the Grecian hero-myth

, which tellso f the great singer O rpheus and Pentheus

,king of Thebes ,

being torn limb from limb by the furious Maenades atfestivals of Bacchus, the former because after the death ofhi s beloved Eurydice he never more would hear o f woman ’ s love

,and the latter because he had sp ied on the festi

vals . For these festivals were observed by women exclu~

s ively, who , drunken with wine , knew no restraints of reason

,or human ity : they were called maenades (madwomen)

or Bacchae,and their festivals Orgia (orgies). . The orgies

MY STERIA

were conducted on mountain sides or in mountain gorgesat n ight under the light o f torches

,the fair participants

,

clothed in fawnskins,armed with the thyrsus wreathed

with ivy an d vine leaves,with hair disheveled

,and

,as the

story goes, snakes tangled with its locks , or held in thebacchantes ’ hands . This festival

,which occurred in the

mild midwinter o f Hellas,th e time of shortest days and

longest nights , continued over several days. during whichthe maenads , shunning al l association w1th the male Sex,

sacrificed,drank

,danced

,j ub ilated

,made noise with the

double—pipe and the brazen tymbal,nay

,as the (mani

festly improbable) story runs, with therr own hands toreasunder the bull

,symbol of the god

,and destined to the

sacrifice , and gloated over the victim’ s bellowing for pain .

This feat was to show forth the death of Zagreus,one o f

the forms under which Dionysos appeared , and in whichhe was torn as under by the Titan s because he had beenchosen by Zeus for his successor as ruler o f the universe .The flesh of the bull was torn in shreds with the teeth bythe maenads and devou red raw. Then the raving Bacchae invented a fable about the death o f their god , and .

how he was lost and how he must be found agai n . Butall the anxious searching was vain

,and hope was centered

in the finding again of the all-quickening Springtide . The

observance of the Dionysiawas not marked with these extravagan ces everywhere : in Attica such excesses werenever seen . But Athenian women would attend the secretfestival on Parnassus near Delphi, heedless of the mantl eo f snow on the summit.

8 . TH E ROMAN} B A CCHANAL IA .

The worst disorders o f Bacchus-worship,as prae

ticed in Greece,would seem to have been equaled

,or even

TH E GRE CIAN MYSTERIE S (33

surpassed, in the Roman Commonwealth . The historianLivy (xxxix .

,8-20) compares the introduction of the cult

into the city and its rapid spread to a visitation of plague .

According to Livy the cult was brought to Rome fromEtruria. In its Etruscan and Ro man form the worship of Bacchus was simply debauchery , under the thinnest possible cloak o i religion . The festivals o r orgieswere at first observed by women ; but a certain priestesso f Bacchus , by command o f the god, introduced the innovation of admitting men

,and instead of three Bacchic

fe stivals a year, instituted five festivals for each month ;and whereas in Etruria the rite s had been practiced inthe day time , they now began to be held at night. Fromconsiderations of prudence the abominations of the Bacchanal ia were guarded from public view by a hedge ofceremonial

,and postulants for admission were required

to practice for several days the strictest continence . Butthe term of probation being over

,and the postulant ad

m itted to the company of the Bacchan als,he or she found

themselves surrounded by al l conceivable incitements tothe gratification of lust

,in every way that the depraved

instincts o f man or woman had ever before, o r. perhapshas ever since contrived . According to Livy the Initiatesof these mysteries numbered several thousan d persons inthe city

,many of them belonging to the most dis

tinguished families . In addition to the abominations oftheir secret meetmgs the Initiates were charged with co n~

sp i ring against the commonwealth , with forgery o f lasttestaments

,with poisonings and assassinations , with the

most revolting rapes . In the year 186 B . C . the ConsulSpurius Po stum ius Albinus , having privately made in

quiries into the doings of the sect, resolved to employ allthe resources o fthe state for its suppression . The circum

MY STE RIA

stances which led to this resolution were as follows : Ayouth o f noble birth, Publius Aebutius , whose father wasdead , was the ward of his stepfather, Titus SemproniusRutilus . Now Sempronius had mismanaged the estateof Aebutius , and was unable to give an account o f hisguardianship , and therefore wished eith er to have theyouth put out of the way

,or to get him under his power.

The easiest way was by debauching him in the Bacchanalia . Aebutius

’

s mother,devoted to her husband

,pre

tended to the son that during his illness she had madevow to the gods to consecrate him to Bacchus in the eventof recovery . Aebutius

,noth ing suspecting, told of this to

one H ispala, a damsel o f questionable reputation , with

whom he had fo r some time been very intimate ; but sheentreated him for all the gods ’ sake not to have anythingto do with the Bacchanalia : that she hersel f

,as maid

,had

been initiated with her mistress , and knew what shockingdeeds were done in those assemblies . Having p romisedher that he would not seek initiation , he made his resolu ‘

tion knownto his parents,and was by them turned out

of their house . Aebutius made comp laint to his auntA ebutia, and by her advice to the Consul Po stumius.The Consul summoned H ispala to his presence , and from

her,not without difficulty

,for she feared the vengeance

of the sect,learned what she knew of the proceedings at

the secret assemblies . Then he brough t the matter before the Senate

,who gave to him and his colleague ,

! uintus Marcius Philippus, ful l powers for the suppres

sron of the evil . Rewards were offered for trustworthytestimony

,measures were taken to prevent the escape

of guilty ones,and there were numerous arrests . Seven

thousand persons in all were imp l i cated, and all I talyawaited the outcome of the p rosecution intently and with

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duced from the Orient into Greece and then into Rome,

we have the rnvsteries of the mother of the gods Rhea orCybele , those o f Mithras, and those o f Sabazios—cultsand deities that were finally grouped together by theOrphic sect, of which anon .

Rhea was sister and spouse of Crono s and mother o fthe king of the gods , Zeus , whom she took to Crete , as wehave already seen

,to save him from his father’ s violence .

She i s the Earth deified,l ike her mother Gaea

,and is

therefore often confounded with other goddesses answering to the same element

,special ly with the earth-goddess

Kybele (Cybele), named after Mt. Kybelo s or Kybelain Phrygia, who, according to Phrygian myth , when exposed by her father, King Maeon , was suckled by pan

thers and brought up by herdsmen , and afterward fell inlove with the youth Attis (afterward Papas , both meaning of whom she exacted a vow of chastity asher priest. Attis having broken his vow for the sake ofa lovely nymph

,the goddess in her wrath deprived him o f

reason,and in hi s frenzy he castrated himself. The god

dess thereupon ordained that in future all her priestsshould be eunuchs . There are countless o ther stories toldof Atti s and Cybele

,but they nearly all agree in tel l ing

that Attis with manhood lost l i fe also , and that Cybele,frenzied by grief

,thereafter roamed about disconsolate and

despairing. Like Dionysos,she was always fol lowed by

a long human and animal retinue (the moon with thestarry and rode in a wain drawn by lions , a

‘ muralcrown circling her veiled head ; while Attis was alwaysrepresented as an ecstatically sentimental youth beneath atree

,with the Phrygian cap on his head and wearing white

bag trousers . In Phrygia Cybele was worshiped under

the form o f a s imple stone. The scene o f her feats and

TH E GRE C IAN MYSTE R IE S 67

sufferances was laid in gorgeous wildernesses, in fragrant

groves,among the hillsides and glades known to the

shepherd and the hunter. As in Dionysos we see the wildabandon of a jovial sp i ri t

,so in Cybele we have the ree l :

lessness of a soul weary of l i fe ; henc e at her festivals al lcentred in the loss of Atti s

,and a p ine tree was felled, be

cause his catastrophe took place under a tree o f that species .

All thi s was accompanied by a hubbub of wild music, andthe winding of horns on the second day announced theresurrection of Atti s . In the ecstasy of joy the participants were seized by a wild frenzy . With shouts andcries , their long locks disheveled, and in thei r hands bearing torches

,the priests danced and capered

‘ l ike madmen ,

roaming over hil l and dale,mutilating themselves

,even

emasculating themselves (as the myth required) , and bearing about

,instead of the figure of the Phal lus

,the proo fs

of their comp liance with the precept o f the goddess . Thecult o f Cybele was for the first time formally organ ized asa mystic society in Rome

,but the orgiast frenzy clung to

it at al l times . The processions did not move with measured step s and in orderly ranks , as those of other cults,but the Initiates ran in confused troop s , shouting theirreligious songs

,through hamlets and towns

,armed with

curved blades, tokens of castration . At Rome the priestsof Cybele were called Galli

,that i s , cocks . In the time o f

the emperors puri fi catio ns in the blood of bull s and ramswere introduced

,apparently in honor of the Springtide,

when the sun enters the constellations Taurus and. Aries,

and the vegetable powers of nature reappear. That is thetheme of all the ancient mysteries

,and indeed of al l mysti

cism from the earliest times to this day . In all o f them

the vici ssitudes of the vegetal world, its sickening, decline,and death in the Fall

,its new-b irth and resurrection in the

68 MY STE RIA

Spring, are allegorized into the sufferances, the death andthe resurrection o f a god . Out of thi s nature- cult arelittle by little developed the feel ing o f al ienation of manfrom God, the quest for the god , the finding of him

,and

the consequent reunion,with the result o f strengthening

the assurance of the soul ’ s immortality . The excess of sen

sual delight found in the Bacchanalia, and the extreme renunciatio n of del ights by the castrate ministers of Cybele

,

are only variations o f o ne same theory of human li fe .No w, as thi s suffering godhead—which was the prime

insp i ration o f all these sensual ists and adventurers—wasan importation from Thrace in the form of ZagreusDionysos

,and from Phrygia as Attis

,so was Mithras an

importation from Persia . Among the ancient PersiansMithra-s was the light

,conceived as a personal i ty

,and

hence was the highest manifestation of the good godOrmuzd

,while the darkness represented Ahriman , the

evi l god . Hence the worship o f Mithras i s worship of thelight

,and

,therefore is the purest cult that heathendom

could imagine ; in the later times of the Persian empireMithras—worship was combined with sun-worship , and

Mithras,as sun-god ,

found a place in the religion ofEuropean peoples . In tho se later times also came beliefin a female deity cal led Mithra : but Mithra was unknownto the primitive Persians

,and the name was a tran s

formation o f the Babylonian Mylitta, the moon-goddess .Of the exi stence of secret cults among the Persians weknow nothing whatever, hence nothing about any mys

teries sacred to Mithras . To the Greeks Mithras was un

known,but in the latter days o f the Roman empire, among

many mysterie s those o f Mithras made their appearanceand even gamed great pre-eminence , as i s proved bynumerous monuments still extant. These monuments all

TH E GRE C IAN MYSTER IE S 69

consist o f representations in stone of a young man in acave

,wearing the Phrygian cap

,in the act of slaying with

a dagger a bull ; all around are figures o f men and animals ,al l symbolical o f constel lations

,as the scorp ion

,dog

,ser

pent, etc . The groups have been variously interpreted,but the most probable view is that the youth stands forthe sun-god

,who

,on subduing Taurus (in May), begins

to develop his highest power.The mysteries o f Mithras

,l ike their symbol ic rcpre

sentatio n in the monuments , were celebrated . in grottoes,

and had for their original end worship of l ight and of the

sun,and the glorifying of the sun ’ s victory over

the darkness ; but this lofty idea gave way,in

these as in other mysteries,to vain reveries and

subtilities ; and in the corrupt age o f the Romanemperors it had

,in all probabil ity, some very ugly

developments , such as were seen in the Bachanal ia.

The rites o f initiation were more elaborate than in theGrecian mysteries . The postulants we re subj ected to along series o f probationary tests—eighty in all , it i s supposed—which grew more and more severe til l they becameactually dangerous to li fe . Among the initiatory rites theprincipal ones were a bapti sm and the drinking of a potion of meal and water. Admission to the highest secretswas reached through several degrees

,probably seven, each

having its special ritual and its special doctrines . At'

times the Initi ates were required to fast,and those o f the

highest degree were vowed to cel ibacyf Such abstinenceswere all unknown to the ancient Persians ; on the other

hand human sacrifice s came in: wi th Mithrai sm from the

East, and , desp ite the decrees of the Emperor Hadri an,such sacrifices were offered in the Mithras cult. Commodus with his own: hand immolated a man to Mithras,

70 MY STE RIA.

and his successors“ in particular the monster Helio

gabalus, carried the abomination farther,and made of

the pure god of l ight a bloodthirsty Moloch . Nay, after

the empire had been chri stianized,Julian the apostate

con secrated in Constantinop l e a sanctuary to Mithras .

But after the death of Julian the cult was forb idden in

the empire (A. D . 378) an d the grotto of Mithras at

Rome destroyed . Coins were struck in honor of Mith

ras , and he was honored with public inscriptions in thewords

,Soli Invicto (to the unconquered sun) ; a festival

al so was instituted in his honor,cal led the Natal Day

o f the Unconquered Sun : it fel l on December 25th andwas pub l icly observed : the same day was in Persia NewYear ’ s . In the monuments already m entioned, whichcommemorate the worship o f Mithras

,are seen inscribed

alongside the neck of the bull the wo rd s " ‘

Namal Sebe

sio,” supposed by some to be a mixture of Sanskrit and

Persian,and to signify Worship to the Pure ; but in these

words we have an allusion to a new god and his. cult.

In the latter Graeco -Roman time , when the mystery craze

possessed all minds a comb ination o f Zagreus , Attis , andMithras was made

,and the result was dubbed Sabazius .

The name Sabazius i s given by sundry writers to various

gods and sons of gods,and the word comes probably

from the Greek verb Sabazein (to smash , break to pieces) ,indicating the w i ld disorder of this cult. Dio do rus gives

thi s name to the inventor of the use of oxen in ploughing,

other authors confound Sabazius , as discoverer o f thevine, with Bacchus . Th ere existed in Greece a pub l i cand a secret cult o f Sabazius , both resemb l ing the Bacchiccult, with ludicrous dances , uproarious singi ng, and loudthumping of cymbals and drums . The orator Aeschines

,

rival o f Demosthenes, was an enthusiastic Sabazist. At

TH E GRE C IAN MYSTE R IE S 7 1

in itiation into the Sabazian mvsteries the postulant had

snakes dropped into hi s bosom , was robed in fawnskin ,his face daubed with clay

,then washed in token of a

mystic purification ; he was now to exclaim : From. evil I

am escaped and have found the better. There was much

hocuspo'cus and absurd jugglery withal,but the real o b

iect was to give opportunity to Initiates of both sexesto indulge in the most shameless gluttony and lewdness .

The priests o f this cult were the most impudent of mendicants . Aristophanes exhausted on Sabazius , the trump

ery god , al l the resources of h is caustic sarcasm .

And thus in t ime,as Grec ian philosophy began to

undermine the thrones of the O lympian gods,and to

banish the phantoms of the netherworld,and the educated

peop le to look on the fair forms o f the world of gods asfictions of imagination ; simultaneously the mysterie s

began to be stript o f the glory o f a heavenly origin. and

it was seen that their rites were not only of the earth

earthy, but as time went on, that they were become mis

chievo us : yet the Initiates , lost to all shame and all moralsense, persisted nevertheless in their sacred hypocrisy , til lheathendom as a whole had passed out of the b loody,hideous night of the gods .

PART TH IRD .

Th e Py th ago rean League an d Oth er S ecre t

As s o ci ati on s .

I . P YTHAGORA S .

The mysteries so far considered had for thei r fo und ation the worship o f the gods . ‘ They were accessibleo n lv to the initiated ; but candidates for admission werenot carefully selected ; and in Athen s anyone of fairrepute was el igible for initiation into the Eleusinia . Nor

do we discern in the mysteries any “end

” aimed at—anyidea to be real ized

,any thought to be embodied in action .

From all that we can learn with certainty regarding themysteries, their obj ect was either simply to i llustrate orinterpret certain ideas (such as we have already characterized) by means of elaborate ceremonies ; o r—in theirstate o f decay and degeneration—to minister to unbridledsensual ity . For this reason we cannot

'

regard the

mysterie s we have been studying as true “secret soc ieties ,”

for the distinctive note o f such societies i s that they makea special selection of their members, and have a specificaim . The earl iest historic instance of such a secret societyi s afforded by the Pythagorean League .

The great philosopher Pythagoras was a sort o f

Grecian Moses or Jesu s, a Messiah to whom were ascribed72

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IVIY STE R IA

commended him to his friend the Pharao Amasis—o f

this we have no certainty,though the thing is not im

probable,for the chronology i s consistent

,especially when

we bear in mind the di screpancies between authors as tothe year of Pythagoras ’ s b irth : at all events , Pythagorasvoyaged to Egypt . The serious diffi culties -he met with

on the part of the priests o f O siri s,then not so com

plaisant as they afterward became,we have described

already when giving account o f the Egyptian mysteri es .

By ho ok or by crook he' obtained , wheth er at Th ebes,Heliopoli s , or el sewhere, we know not, indoctrination in

the th eology o f the One God . But of what avail could

that be to him ? His countrymen had already fashioned

their own ideas of the divine nature . They based their

theology on nature and spiritual ized nature : the Greeksknew nothing o f an impassable gulf yawning between

god and world ; for them these two were bound togetherand pervaded each other : to such a peop le one could not

preach an“architect of the universe . Pythagoras

,there

fore,fain would communicate to the Greeks

,o f th e Egyp

tian wi sdom whatever seemed adapted to their use ; and

he the more Wi l lingly complied with the Initiate ’ s oath toobserve li felong silence regarding what he had seen andh eard in the temples

,as his countrymen would not have

understood even a monotheism specially designed forthem . For the Greeks the intimate association betweengod and universe was not only an idea

,it was flesh o f

their flesh bone of their bones : it was gloriously immo r

tal ized in the imperishable masterworks of their archi

tecture and sculpture and surely Grecian sculptors must

not go to school in Egypt to learn how to carve cows’

horns and hawks ’ heads . Nevertheless,the doctrine o f

the one god must necessari ly have impressed the mind of

TH E PYTHAGORE AN LE AGUE . 75

Py thagoras deeply : he must have recognized therein aprofound philo sophy

,though it may not have satisfied

him completely ; and hence it was his task, as it was the

task of Plato and o f al l other Greeks initiated in theEgyptian my steries , to expound the doctrine o f the onegod according to Grecian ideas—to couple Oriental wisdom with Grecian fancy .

The traditional story represents Pythagoras as tarrymg in Egy pt when the Persian king Cambyses conqueredthe country

,and tells how that tvran t had the Grecian

ph ilo scph cr deported , with other captives, to Babylon ,where Pythagoras became acquainted with Zoroaster

,and

to his knowledge of the Egyptian wisdom now added amastery of the wisdom of the Persians . Pythagoras wasundoubtedly contemporary with Cambyses ; but the timeof Zoroaster is so undecided that the story must be re

garded as fiction .

When he returned to his native Samos,purposing to

set up as a master, he found to his chagrin that inde

pendent science is a p lant that does not thrive undertyranny , and, compelled by force of circumstances tochange his abode

,he settled in Magna Graecia—Southern

Italy. On the eastern coast,in what became afterward

Calabria, were two Achaean cities, Sybaris and Cro to na.

Pythagoras intended at first to make his home in Sybari s,

but Sybari s could be no congenial home for such a‘ phil

o sopher. Cro to na afforded a more promising field for

his work,and there the labors o f Pythagoras before long

were abundantly rewarded . The Greeks ever were eagerfor noveltie s (novarum rerum cupidi), and whoever

brought anything new was welcome . As yet, philosophy

was a thing unknown among the Cro to n iats ; therefore

they received its apostle with gladness and enthusiasm .

MYSTE R IA

Pythagoras commenced by giving publ io lectures in thecouncil hall ; as these awakened more and more interestevery day

,the philosopher was employed by the author

ities to give counsel to the citizens ; he then established a

school, thus add ing to his public functions the duties o f a

private instructor. Pythagoras used three agencies in hi s

work,viz .

,his Doctrine

,his School , and the Leag ue in

stituted by him .

The Doctrine o f Pythagoras holds a distinct placeamong the ph iIOSOph ic systems o f the Greeks . With re

gard to the opposition existing between the spiritual and

the physical,and the uncertainty and obscurity that reigns

as to the relatio ns ‘

between them and the true constitution

o f each,the doctrine solves all difficulties by the theory

that Number i s at once the form and the substance of allthings . All things consist of Numbers

,corporeal ele

ments as well as sp iritual (mental, or intellectual) forces ,and henceforth Pythagoras ’ s philo sophy became mathematies . But the si lly tricks with numbers that occupied

the ingenuity of later Pythagoreans possess no interest for

us . It i s probab le that the master contented himsel f withthe undeniable fact that the matter and essence o f things

rest on mathematical relations— a V i ew of great pro

fund ity, considering the age in which the philosopher

l ived . To Pythagoras and his school are credited the dis

tinction of numbers into even and odd , the decimalnumeration

,square and cubic numbers , as also the famous

Pythagorean theorem ,the triumph o f geometry .

Pythagoras brought music into closest relation withmathematics . As in numbers he recognized the most

perfect “harmony,

” so he must needs regard harmony o fsounds as a necessary part o f the harmony of numbers .

By this association he became the discoverer o f our pres s

TH E PYTHAGORE A N LE AGUE 77

ent scale o f seven musical notes—4the octave . But his

idea of harmony found most perfect embodiment in theuniversal creation

,and in astronomy he was the first to

surmi se that the earth does not stand still , but has a;

revolution around a centre ; hence, that it i s not the prin~

cipal existence in the universal frame of things, that al l

things‘

do not exist for its sake , that Earth is not twin

sister o f the Heavens . True,Pythagoras had no idea ,

nor could have in the then existing lack of astronomicalinstruments

,how the heavenly bodies were related : that

was the discovery of Copernicus and Kepler. He took

for the mid-point of the universe a central fire” out ofwhich were formed all the heavenly bodies—this. the seato f the power that sustains the world

,the centre o f gravity

o f al l things . Around this central fire revolve the “ten”

heavenly bodies—farthest o ff the heaven of the fixed stars ,then the five planets known to antiquity

,then the sun

,

moon,earth , and lastly the

“counter-earth”,which re

volves between the earth and the central fire . Revolving

along with the earth , the counter-earth i s always inter

posed between the earth and the central fire : light comesto the earth only indirectly

,by reflection from the sun .

When the earth is on the same side of the central fire asthe sun we have day ; when it i s on the other side , night .Thus , Pythagoras may be said to have surmised a centralsun though his theory d id not contemplate the actual sun

as that centre . He was also the first to explain the viciss itudes of the seasons by the obliquity of the earth ’ s axis

to the ecliptic . Further,he discovered the identity o f the

morning and evening star. His school held the moon tobe the home of fai rer and larger plants

,animals

, and hu

man creatures, than those o f earth ,

In accordance with11 18 d o ctrlne of harmony he ventured to express the bold

MY STER IA

idea that the heavenly bodies by their movement producetones which together constitute a perfectly harmoniousmusi c —the music of the spheres . We do not hear thisharmony

,being so wonted to it.

Nor did he fai l to app ly to the soul o f man this d o c

trine o f harmony . Bv harmony the opposition between

reason and passion was to be reconciled . But as this

consummation i s never to be achieved as long as souland body are tied together, the sage o f Samos regardedthis union as a measure o f probation

,destined to endure

til l man shall have made himself worthy of liberation

from the same ; and when he fails o f this during his span

o f l i fe,then his soul must migrate through the bodies of

other men and animals til l it shall become worthy o f

leading,in a higher region of light

,an incorporeal l i fe o f

purity and perfection . His disciple s,furthermore

,cher

i shed the fantastic idea that the master was able to recognize in another body the man whose soul had tran sm i

grated into it . That Pythagoras himsel f ever pretended

or believed that he himself was in his fifth metem~

psychosis, or that he was son of Apollo , or that he had

a golden hip,or a golden thigh

,are either ridiculous ex

travaganzas o f imaginative discip les or the sarcasticstories o f h is enemies . But noble and beauti ful are the

conclusion s which he draws from his doctrine regardingpurity of l i fe

,namely

,the moral precepts which he lai d

down for the attainment of the supreme end . They re

quired an absolutely stainless li fe . Pythagoras enforcedthe duty o f reverence toward parents and the aged

,fidelity

in friendship,strict sel f-examination

,c ircumspection in

al l our acts,patrioti sm

,etc . Further

,his discip les were

required to be cleanly o f body and cleanly in attire ; they

were to abstain from all “unclean” food, especially flesh

TH E PYTHAGORE AN LE AGUE 79

meat,and from intoxicating liquors , and hence to l ive o n

bread and fruits . only,but beans were an exceptio n to

this rule : for some not fully explained reason beans werean abomination to the Pythagoreans . And that which

was unfit as food was unfit also as matter for offerings to

God : for the god our philosopher reverenced was a godof light and pur ity. H i s clear intellect rej ected polytheism

,though what his V iew of the unity of godhead

was we know nothing save that hi s faith was an eminent

ly pure and exalted one .

2. TH E PYTHAGOREANS .

The li fe o f Pythagoras was devoted enti rely to hi sSchool and his League . The School was the seed fi eld

o r seminary of the League , and the League was the prae

tical application of the School ’ s teaching. Thus the

School was preparatory to the League, whose memberswere educated in the School .Pythagoras enjoyed the boundless reverence of his

discip les when they wished to assert any proposition as

indisputab ly true,they would say, He himself said it

(Gr.,autos ephe, Lat , ipse dixit) . And this reverence

for the Master increas ed as in time the School waschanged from an open institution to a secret one . For

at first everybody,even the most learned and most emi

nent of the c itizens,attended the lecture s of the Ph ilo so

pher. Those who were simply hearers o f the lectureswere called Acusmatics (akusmatiko i) . But those whowere of proper age fo r receiving a further education, andwho had leisure to devote themselves to learning, wereafforded opportunity for pursuing higher studies underthe personal direction o f Pythagoras

,and were known ,

M Y STE R IA

not as simple Hearers,but as Students

,or Mathematici .

These were the nucleus of the Pythagorean sect . Thisclass o f discip les having grown considerably in numbersand influence

,it became possible for Pythagoras , helped

by the contributions that flowed in,to erect for hi s

academy a special building,or

,rather

,group of buildings,

in which he and his disciples might live secluded from

the in fluences of the o uterwo rld . This institution, called

the Ko ino bio n (coenobium ,place where

“

people live in

community) was a world in itsel f, and embraced al l theconveniences of plain l iving—gardens

,groves , prome

nades,halls, baths , etc ., so that the student did not regret

the hurlyburly o f the world without. Henceforth theAcusmatici

,or Acustic i

,were no longer persons of all

classes and degrees,admitted to attend the lectures

,but

the newly admitted pupils,who rece1ved instruction in the

elements of the sciences,and were preparing themselves

for the higher studies . They had to ob serve strict silenceand to yield blind obedience

,and were not permitted to

see the Master ’ s face : at the lectures a curtain screenedhim from view. The advanced students were admitted

behind the screen , and hence were called eso teriko i

(esoterici , insiders) : those before the curtain , exo terikoi

(exoteri ci, outsiders) . To gain admission to the esoteric

class a pupil was required to spend from two to five years

in study,and

_

then had to undergo severe -tests . I f a

student failed to answer the tests he was rej ected : but if

he passed successfully,he was no longer required to

observe silence and to be content with listening only :he might now see the Master face to face

,and under h is

direction might pursue a study chosen by himself, as

philosophy,mathematics

,astronomy ,

music,etc . Gym

nastic exercise was practiced dil igently, and was made

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MY STERIA

hear of Mathematici,who devoted themselves special ly

to the sciences,of Theo retici , who were professors

.

of

ethics , of Politici, concerned with government, of Sebastici, whose province was religion . The religion o f the

Pythagoreans seems to have been compounded of doctrines o f the ancient popular religion o f the Greeks , of themysteries

,and of the monotheism of the Egyptian priests ;

and it had a secret cult,with elaborate ceremonial o f in

itiatio n,the purpose o f wh ich , . h owever, was to enforce

the teaching of the Master.The pol itical p rincip les o f the Pythagoreans favored

a transformation of the Dorian oligarchism into an aristo cratism of culture . Democracy they hated . Their aimwas to acquire for themselves powerful influence in thethe state , to fi l l the public o ffices with their own members

,

and to administer government according to their Mas~

ter’

s ideas . As matter o f fact,they appear to have at

tained these ends fully or approximately in Cro to na,Locri , Metapo ntum ,

Tarentum,and other cities o f Mag

na Graecia. There is no doubt that the secrets that thePythagoreans were sworn to keep had reference to these

political aims . To bar out the uninitiated the mem

bers‘ are said to have had a badge , a fi ve-pointed star

(pentagrammo n ,pentalpha) and to have employed a sym

bo l ic form of speech, by means of which they concealed

their secrets under cover of apparently trivial words , or

words not to be understood by outsiders .

But the League of the Sage of Cro to na, after a glori

ous,though brief

,ascendency

,had a tragic end . The

cities o f Magna Graecia had grown rich by commerce,and with wealth and ease had come great corruption of

manners . In Sybaris the lower classes of citizens—artisans and shopkeepers—rose in revolt, and five hundred

TH E PYTHAGORE AN LE AGUE 83

patricians were banished , their property seized by the

people,and the popular leader Telys admini stered the

government in their stead . The exiles took refuge in

Cro to na, and there , according to Grecian custom ,sit

ting around the altar in the agora,or market place , im

plo red the aid of that city , then ruled by the Pythagoreans .

Thus for two reasons the rulers of Cro to na were obj ectso f hate to the tyranno s of Sybari s : they were the enemiesof democracy

,and thev were protectors of the exiled o li

garch s . He,therefore

,demanded of Cro to na surrender

o f the fugitives . Th e demand having been refused (atthe urgent instance of Py thagoras it i s said), war followed . A desperate battle was fought

,and the Croton

iats,though inferior in number

,were victorious (510

B . Sybaris fel l into their hands,and was looted

without mercy, and the town leveled with the ground : in

fact,a stream was made to flow through the once mag

n i fi cen t city .

This atrocious deed,which though no consequence

of Pythagorean teaching,was nevertheless a consequence

of Pythagorean exclusiveness and Pythagorean contempt

for the people , had its nemesis . The democratic spirit,so mortally offended

,took an equally atrocious revenge .

In Cro to na, too, as before in Sy baris , the democracy tookaction

,and demanded a division o f the conquered Sybar

ite territory among all the citizens o f Cro to na,and equal

suffrage for al l in the election of the rulers . At the head

o f the democracy stood Cylon,an enemy o f the Pytha

go reans . The aged Master,because of the hosti l ity mani

tested toward him personally ,was obliged to flee from

the scene o f hi s great labors . It i s supposed that he diedat Metapo ntum , hard on a hundred years old . In Crotona the stri fe o f parties went on . The government un

MYSTERIA

wisely rej ected the demands o f the democrats , and there !upon

,about the m iddle o f the fifth century B . C ., the

storm burst. The rage of the oppressed and despised

people was vented first upon the Pythagoreans, a great

number of whom were assemb led in the house o f Milo .

The house was taken by storm, the assemb lage butcheredeither on the spot or in flight

,an d their property dis

tributed among the people.'

Ari stocracy was also over-1

thrown in Tarentum,Metapo ntum,

and Locri . The

Pythagorean League was annihilated,and its rel igious

and politi cal labors disappeared,l eaving no trace .

3 . TH E ORP H IC I .

The scattered fragments of the Pythagorean Leagueattached themselves to another association

,that o f the

Orph ici, named after the fabled singer O rpheus . Thiscurious association

,a fantasti c compound of the mysteries

and Pythagori sm ,i s rightly credited to Onomacritus

,apos

tle and reformer of the Eleusinian and Dionysian myster

i es, who lived in the time of the Athenian tyranno s Pisis~

tratus : he was h igh in the favor of Pisi stratus , an d enjoyed

much celebrity . By some of his contemporaries,men of

s ense and not easily imposed on , he was suspected ofpalming o ff hi s own compositions for poems of O rpheus

(who never existed) ; but probably he did this withoutintent to deceive

,but simply because of his irresistib le

passion for the mummery of secret societies and mysteri es .

This adventurer and my stic , who understood very wel l

the meaning o f the mysteri es and the uses to which theycould be turned

,was one of the first to speak o ut the

thought h idden in them : that man was born in sin and

fallen away from God, and that he cannot be saved til l

TH E PYTHAGORE AN LE AGUE 85

grace shall be afforded him . His doctrine was j ust Pietism

,with th is exception

,that in stead o f “the lord Jesus”

we have here the god Dionysos,or the Iaccho s of the

mysteries,or Orpheus . Such inane babblement as this

,

and such doctrines as that the soul o f man is confinedin the body as in a prison

,that the world i s for it a vale

of tears and a place of banishment , that it i s p ining an d

longing to return to its tr ue home , Heaven , are an o i

fense to the joyous spirit o f Greece, an outrage againsther religion o f beauty

,truth

,and vi rtue

,the last blow

dealt at Grecian art and science . The outcome of them

was a tedious , voluminous“O rphic l iterature” consisting

of mythological poems full o f mysticism and sentimen

tal ity .

The Orphic societie s were not,l ike the mysteries

,

great assemblages of people in temples , but, after thePythagorean pattern

,secret schools or clubs ; and they

followed, at least ostensibly, the Pythagorean rule of l i fe,abstaining from fleshmeat, beans , and wine ; but withthis they coupled two cults in themselves incompatible

,

that o f the ideal god Apollo, and that of the sensual deityDionysos . But being stript of the semi-publ ic

’

and official

chraracter attaching to the mysteries , and o f the philosophic dignity of the Pythagorean sect, the Orphic societies became simply nests o f swindlers and mendicantsand vagabond p riests

, Orpheo telestae, admitted to theirridiculous degrees

,for a consideration

,every credulous

and marvel-go bbeting postulant ; there were even victimswho had themselves wi th wife and children initiated everymonth . Other tri cksters combined the O rphic cult withthe Phrygian cult of Cybele

,mother o f the gods, and

with that of Sabazios : these’

were known as Metragyrtae

(mother-beggars) or Menagyrtae (monthly beggars) .

MY STE RIA.

These and their like were regular mountebanks,giving out

that they had the power o f curing the insane,their method

being to dance and caper around the patient to the sound

of timbrels,the while flagel lating themselves : for this

they took up a little collection . One o f these metragyrtae

was cap itally punished at Athens in the middle o f the

fi fth century B . C. : but the judges,seized by remorse

,

questioned the oracle,and got response that in atonement

they should build a temple to the Great Mother : thereuponthe followers of the dead juggler were set free . A

priestess o f Sabazios,Ninus by name

,was also put to

death for brewing philters : she was the one sole victim of

witchcraft trials in all antiquity. Thus did the Orphicsect in Greece degenerate to the same low estate as themysteries

,desp ised by all honest and enlightened men .

But both the mysteries and the Orphic as wel l asPythagorean societies were links in a chain of phenomenathat reached all through Grecian antiquity

,indicating

plainly a reaction against the popular rel igion , and an c i

fort to introduce essentially different religious viewsviews which in aftertimes , in

’ an improved form,were to

triumph definitely over the O lympian gods .

4 . MYSTE 'R IOUS P E R SONA GE S OF ANC IE NT TIME S .

In‘

antiquity we are able to distinguish three religioussystems

,monotheism

,mysticism . The

first was a dei fi catio n of nature : and as nature manifests

h ersel f in various forces,the religion

,too

,had to postu

late a multitude of deities . This is the system of the

Oriental and Graeco eRoman popular rel igion ; and in

these its two b ranches it i s again differentiated by the factthat on the o ne side it assumed a gloomy, awe- inspiring

TH E PYTHAGORE AN LEAGUE 87

character,while on the other side it wore a j oyous aspect

,

inviting to mirth and pleasure . The second system rested

on a total separation o f God from nature, and thus it ac

quired a monotonous,one-sided character o f abstruse

ness,without any feel ing for form and beauty : it was the

system of the Egyptian priests and of the Israelites , and in

after times passed over into Mohammedanism and someChristian sects as Un itarianism ,

etc . Th e third system

also postulated the separation of God and nature, but itwas not a definitive separation , for there was hope of areconciliation ; it consisted , therefore, in a sen se of al ienation from God

,and in an incessant longing for reunion

with him . This system found embodiment in the Grecianmysteries and the Pythago reo -O rphic societies , and laterin “positive” Chris tianity : it was neither absolutely poly

theistic nor absolutely monotheistic,but compact of these

two systems,in that it contemplated many gods em

braced under one form,or one god manifested in sundry

forms . Even in the myths underlying the Eleusinianmysteries we have a conversion of the gods , especial lyDemeter and Dionysos

,into human form and a resurrec

tion and ascension of Persephone ; an important part was

played in the same mysteries by the bread and wine employed for religious purposes . by the puri fi catio ns in

water,and by the fasts observed ; in the Bacchi c mysteri es

O rpheus,Zagreus

,and others appear as suffering and

dying demigods ; in the O rphic rite s there is al lusion tothe natural sinfulnes s o f man

,and to grace and redemp

tion ; in the mysteries o f Cybele sexual continence is comnended as highly meritorious in the mysteries and in

the Pythagorean sect,even as m Chri stianity , the bodi ly

li fe i s regarded as an evil,an incorporeal immortality

o i ' the soul as true blissh stre ss i s, laid on the soul’

s

88 MY STE R IA

delights,and on the punishment o f the wi cked

,whe reas

,in

polytheism the soul after death is but a shadow ; andmany are the other points o f contact between those sys

tems and Chri stianism,which

,being o f a more general

nature , have not y et been mentioned in these pages, forexample , certain myste rious and enigmatical personageswho have remained hitherto quite unnoticed, except bythe learned .

Commonly schools and the books give informationonly about the offi cial ly recognized O lympian gods, andperhaps the gods o f sea

'

and netherworld ; but the“Best

God,” in Greek Aristaio s

,i s passed over in si lence , j ust

because one knows not what to make o f him . Th isAristaio s passed fo r a so n of Apollo the god of l ight. Held

apart from the scandalous chronic les” and naughty gossip that was in circulation around the rest o f the gods

,

he was represented as inventor of sheep—husbandry,bee

keep ing,the production of oil from the o live

,etc .

,as

man ’ s helper in drought and aridity, practicer of leechcraft (l ike his brother Aesculap ius), subduer of the winds,originator of rites, laws , and sciences . As the l ittle

vogue of hi s name would indicate , he was less honored

on the Grec1an terra fi rma than in the Hellenic i slands andico lo n ies , and there ofttimes was j oined with the father of

the gods,as Zeus-Ari staio s (particularly in his role of pro

tector of the bees), with the god of light as Aristaio sApollon

,with the god of fertility as Aristaio s-Dionysos .

In the i sland Ceo s he was the most highly reverenced of

all the gods . Thus we see in Aristaio s a conception of

o ne almighty,allwise god, transcending all the co ncep~

tions of polytheism,and al l the gods in human form wor

shiped by an cient Greece .

Now p lainly Aristeas and Aristaio s are one same

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90 MY STE R IA

(Theogony 969) mention Jasion or Jas io s (names closelyresembling the Hebrew Joshua and Jesus) , a son of Zeus ,who had a sister Harmonia

,and who with

’

the goddess

Demeter (the earth , or ferti l ity) produced out of a thricep lowed field Plutus (wealth) : meaning that the discovererof husbandry became discoverer o f thrift. But in punishment of his sacrilegious love of a go ddess Zeus struck

him dead with a thunderbolt,yet at the same time assigned

him a place among the gods . As beloved of the Eleusiniangoddess

, Jasio s , after initiation into the mysteries by Zeushimself, became the indefatigable herald o f the mysti cdoctrines . Says D io do rus (V.

“Weal th! i s a gift im

parted through the intermediation of Jas io s . I t i sknown o f all that these gods (Demeter, Jasio s , and Plutos),when invoked amid dangers by the initiated straightway

offered them help ; and whoso hath part in the mysteries,the same will be mo re devout, mo re upright, and in everyrespect b etter.” Thus does Jasion figure as son‘ of thehighest god

,as himself raised to divine honors

,as a wan

dering apostle o f religion,and as the source o f all good

fortune . His name is equivalent to “savior,

” “healer,

being from the same root as iatro s (healer) , and the verbiaomai (to heal , cure) . Compare Iao , the Greek form ofthe Hebrew divine name Yahve or Jehova ; al so Iaccho s,and Jason (i . e., Iaso n) .Thus in mystic Hel lenism we find the basi c ideas o f

the later system of divine incarnation and human dei fi cation

,of redemption

,etc . ; and there can be no do ubt that

we must seek in the Grecian mysteries for, one of the

sources o f Christian ism.

PART FOURTH .

S on of Man . S on of Go d .

1 . HE LLENISM AND J UDA ISM .

I f one attends solely to the fact that the founder ofthe Christian religion was a Jew

,and that not only he

executed his mission in Judea,butt took Judai sm for the

basi s o fhis teaching, the assertio n made in the preceding.

section,viz . : that the sources of Chri stianism are to be

sought in the Grec ian mysteries,may appear singular.

But the apparent contradiction disappears at once whenwe reflect that long before

'

Christ ’ s day Judaism wasthoroughly yeasted with Grecian elements ; an d that afterhis death the wo rk of p ropagating his system was done farmore largely by Greeks and men of Grecian educationthan by Jews . We wil l not only prove that this was so ,but also wil l show that the Christianism o f Christians i sat roo t and in substance a totally different thing from the

Christianism of Jesus .

Sharper contrast can hardly be than that between theGrecian and the Jewi sh character. On one side closestunion between Go d and world : on the other, widest

divulsion ; on one side most untiring research and thefinest sense of art-fo rm : on the other only theology andrel igious poetry ; on the one side a priesthood that makes

no pretension, and has little or no influence : o n the othera nation ruled by priests ; the Greeks maintaining an

active commerce with all the world, their ships travers ing

91

MY STE R IA

the seas,from the Strait o f Gibraltar to the remotest

angle o f th e Euxine : Judea sealed against al l access from

without,against every ship that touched at Joppa, against

every caravan from the desert ; in Greece eager seizingo f everything new and readiness to rej ect what i s an ti

quated : in Judea holding fast to what i s old and mistrust

o f al l change .

These fundamentally different elements were fated to

come in mutual contact. Ever since their l iberation fromBabylonian captivity by the decree of Cyrus , the Jews ,both those who remained in the region of Euphrates andTigri s and the small number o f them who returned to th e

native land,had l ived under the Persian sceptre, and

therefore after the conquest of Persia by Alexander, wereexposed to the powerful influence of Grecian culture .

The Jews were scattered sti ll more in co nsequence of thewars between Alexander’ s successors : soon they were tobe found in every port an d every i sle o f the Med iter

rancah as far as Spain ; on the edge of the Asian andAfrican deserts ; and after this dispersion (in Greek , dias~

p ora), they became a shopkeeping or mercantile race .

But nowhere o utside Palestine were they so numerous as

in Egypt and its splendid new capital, Alexandria, seat

of Grecian art,l iterature and learning. They enj oyed

large privileges'

in Egypt ; and they erected at Leonto po l is a temple , after the model o f the temple at Jerusalem . But though the Jews of the Diaspora, thanks totheir laws regarding foods and the Sabbath

,their posses

sion o f the Scriptures, their undiminished reverence forthe Temple of Jerusalem

, and the ob l igation laid onevery Jew to p ilgrim thither once at least

,remained most

firmly attached to the religion of their fathers, neverthe~

less in many places they adopted the language (usually

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MY STE R IA’

he knew nothing of h is li fe or doctrine,so spiritual ized the

tradition o f his race as to see in the four rivers of Eden thefour cardinal virtues

,in: the trees of Paradi se the other

virtues , in the ptatriarch s and heroes of I srael only perso n i fi catio n s o f various moral conceptions : all in the

Grecian manner. According to Philo, before he createdthe world, God made a world _

o i ideas,which found its

centre of unity in hi s Word (logos) ; the corporeal worldwas made after the model o f thi s ideal world . The logo s

was God ’ s first work,the world his second : this passed

afte rward into the gospel called o f John : “In the beginning was the word,

” etc . He understood the history of

man ’ s creation to mean that the first human creature was

immortal, ideal, perfect, but that by the c reation o f woman

he was made sinful , imperfect. Philo took the idea o fimmortality from the Grecian philosophy rather than

from the ancient Jewish doctrines ; and with Pythagorashe regards the so ul

’ s union wi th the body as a punish

ment. He therefore taught that man should free himsel f

as much as possible from this burdensome asso c iation,that i s

,should despise sense and live entirely in the

thought of God,that so he might obtain release . One

should think such views are inconsi stent with the laws

of man ’ s nature,and so in truth they are ; but neverthe~

l ess in Philo ’ s day there existed a soci ety that aimed tofashio n their l i fe in accordan ce with these opinions .

2. TH E E SSENE S .

Such a soc iety was the ord er or sect of the Essenes,who trac ed their o rigin back to high antiquity , but whose

doctrines real ly were first put forth about the year 100

B . C . Th e Grecizing Jew Josephus makes them a “third

SON OF MAN . SON OF GOD 95

party , standing between the Pharisees and the Sadducees .

But the Essenes,as such

,had nothing to do with the

pol iti cal questions at i ssue between the two principal

parties . The Essenes constituted a secret society.

The name,Es senes , Essen ii , i s of unknown derivation .

But as they practiced the healing art they got the name ofThenapeutae (healers, physician s) . Josephus says that

they l ived in sp ecial settlements in the country parts ;Philo

,that they lived in the hamlets , avoiding the cities ;

Pliny the elder p lants them on the western shore of theDead Sea

,in settlements apart . Their number i s stated

at Th'

eir occupations were husbandry and handi

craft,but they sternly refused to have anything to do wi th

whatever served the uses o f warfare , as the manufactureof arms ; they also declined all trades engaged in for in

dividual profit,as traffic

,seafaring, innkeeping. They

had no private property, but community o f goods ; among

themselves they neither bought nor sold,but each to each

gave according to the need . They repudiated not aloneservitude

,but mastery in general

,and whatever in any

wise annuls the natura l equality of mankind . Their food

was such as necessity required , and was prepared stri ctlyaccording to the rules o f the order. On this point weknow with certainty only that they held oil in abomination, whether for anointing or fo r use with victuals . But

from the circumstance that they condemned b loody offerings and always practiced great abstemiousness in food,we must infer that they abstained totally from fleshmeat

and intoxicating liquors . Sexual lo ve also they condemned,

and a party among them (the leading party), ab stainedfrom marriage and maintained its numeri cal strength by

adopting outside children ; another faction , however, deeming this strictness to be fatal to the sect

,retained the in

96 MY STE R IA

stitutio n of marriage,though under severe restri ctions .

The members observed th e most scrupulous cleanliness,taking the bath dai ly in cold water

,and wearing white

garments . Their daily tasks were minutely prescribed.

Before rise of sun they spoke no word,only the prayers ,

in which they paid honor to the sun as symbol of God .

Then they went about their work,coming thence back

to the common meal,first washing themselves and put

ting on clean garments . No one tasted anything till thepriest had made prayer. The meal conc luded

,they o i

fered prayer in unison, laid o ff the i r cl ean garments,and

went back to work . At the last meal of the day the same

customs were observed : at meat on ly one person spoke ata time . . They did nothing without orders from the

superiors,practiced moderation in al l things , studied to

control the passions,to b e faithful to all obligations , to

be at peace among themselves and with all the world,and

to be help ful to the poor. There was a twelve—month

term of probation prior to admission into the o rder. Dur

ing that time the postulant conformed to the Es sen ian

rule o f l i fe : he received a small hatchet (borne by al lEssenes , as an emblem of labor), a

“ lo incloth for the bath ,and a white gown . If the result of p robation was satis

factory, a second term of probation (two years) followed ;if found worthy

,the postulant was admitted to member

ship . The rite of admission consisted o f a meal in com

mon,preceded by the pronouncing of the vow by the

new brother. The tenor o f the vow was that he obli

gated himself to b e ever faith ful to the rules o f the orderand to lead a virtuous l i fe ; to observe secrecy regardingthe doings of the order and the names of members : this

with reference to the world without ; but wi th regard to

the society itsel f, to keep nothing secret from the brethren .

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MY STE R IA

tween the Grecian mys teries and Christianism, as al so

between the Grecia n philosophy and Judaism . As appears from what has gone before , the Essenian societywas a Judaic imitation of the Pythagorean league , and that

league , again, represen ted in philosophy what the Grecian mysteries represented in religion

,namely

,humiliation

of man by showing him that there exi st h igher powersthat far transcend humanity ; and then the elevation ofman by inculcation of the thought o f immo rtal ity and o ffuture union with the Creator. With this mystici sm wasassociated

,in Greece , the lofty morality o f a Socrates, a

Plato,an Aristotl e ; and in Judea the bel ief in One God .

The comb ination of all these elements could have butone result

,to wit

,to call forth that great power which

transformed the world—Christi anism .

This now power w a s b o u n d to arise, to reco n

cile contrarie s that confronted each other in that time ,after the Roma n Empire had brought under its universal

sway the lands that had cradled all the diverse rel igions

and philosophies ; Those religious and philosophical systems were n o longer

,as be fore, separated : bri sk inter-t

communication favored by the commerce and the warso f the vast empire

,brought them daily into contact. The

result was two fold : first, a certain indifference for rel igious

opinions,the diversity of which gave men occasion to

j udge that in supersensual things no direct knowledge i s

possib le ; and the mischief o f it al l was that nothing wasdone for the education or enlightenment of the people,and

,in fact

,science existed only for the higher orders ,

and the people found no subst itute forl their ancientbel ief. But secondly, the result al so was that peoplebegan to be conscious of the feeling

,implanted by the

Grec ian philosophers, and particularly by the. Stoics, that

SON OF MA N . SON OF GOD 99

in spite of national and religious differences , all men arebrothers

,and that mankind is one great whole . How

ever beauti ful and nob le this idea, i t had to lie dormantso long as no bond of sp iritual kinship save that o f: po

l itical unity held together the people s who within the

empire jointly obeyed one law and one wi ll . Th i s

missing bond of sp iritual union could not be o ther thana religious one ; for so long as the sciences were soundeveloped no other spiritual guidance but that Godwardcould lead all hearts

,however educated , of whatever na

tion,to the one end toward which men were being forced

by the consciousness that,above al l

,they were m e n .

And if it be asked what sort o f a religion that must be

which shal l satisfy all nations at once , first o f all it

i s very clear that it could be no polytheistic rel igi on .

That form of religion had outlived its usefulness . Thevarious natio nal religions—Egyptian ,

Chaldaean, Syrian ,

Grecian,Roman—had completely exhausted themselves

in the production of deities : polytheism could give forth ‘

no more new shoo ts , as was shown by the fact that theRomans, al l the forces of nature having been worked up ,had gone and made goddesses of the virtues, e . g.

,Pudi

citia, Concordia, Pax, Victoria , and the rest, had no re

course but to admit to their Pantheon al l the gods o f theconquered nations, and paid now to I sis , Cybele, Mithras ,and Baal the same worship as before they had paid toJupiter and Juno . Into such disrepute had polyth eismfal len in the estimation of al l educated men

,who if they

were persons o f serious character despised such gods ; buti f they were frivolous

,rid iculed worship and sacrifice and

oracles and priests . The priests themselves smiled when

they met, a nd by their irregular lives and their superstitio us practices forfeited all respect. At last every hon

MY STE R IA

est man must have been transported with indignationwhen the emperors in the paroxysms of their despotic

frenzy had themselves worshiped as gods and a race ofhounds in human form burned the incense o f adulationbefore them .

Hence, the new religion for which mankind sought,to give true expression to the sentiment o f a commonhumanity c ould not b e any of the h eathen systems .

Rather, by insisting on the oneness o f Godh ead , i t h ad tomake an end o f polyth eism

,of godmaking

,and of O lym

pian wantoning,and at the same time, o f scorn and

derision o f the gods .

Thus , then, what was wanted was a go d who shouldhave vanqui shed all other gods

,and he a god of definite

outline and fixed character —no nebulous , lackadaisical ,inert deity such as the Greci an philosophers preached : noabstract “world-soul

,

” signifying nothing to the unedu~

cated people ; but a god like unto man himself, and whom

man should have “made after h is own likeness” ; one with

human feelings,sentiments

,and passions

,wi th human

wrath and human lovingness . And this god must stand

for a doctrine of personal immortal ity to the end the

prec ious Ego of every man might have infal lible and

trustwo rthy assurance that hi s title to a Mansio n in th e

Skies wil l stand unchallengeable for ever and fo r ever.And again , thi s god must be no abstract entity, allegedto have existed somewhere , somewhen , but a personalityassociated with definite localities

,and possessing, very

d efinite traits , And so the prob lem was to find this o ne

go d , thi s doctrine o f immortality, to find a person al ity that

would b e the middle term between the two .

No where was a monotheism to be found save in Judaism, and there it was plain an d open to view. We have al

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to be founded in the East. and that a new Go lden Agewas about to begin. Mo re

‘ defi n ite was the expectationentertained by the Jews of a Messiah to come, who wouldrestore the kingdom of I srael

,and the worship of Jehova .

This longing of the Jews coincided with the desire o fheathendom for a new rel igion to take the place o f a

dying and degenerate polytheism .

4. J E SUS .

At this j un cture appeared Jesus . He lived and diedin ob scuri ty. O f h is career not one word of mention isfound in contemporaryGreek and Roman writers , eagerly as they investigated everything. But this obscuri tywrought no detriment

,for it left those who were longi ng

for a new religi on free to make o f him whatever theythought best for their cause ; that i s to say, they made ofhim a personal ity very different from what he really was .Out of a circumcised son o f a Jewish carpenter, who rose ,indeed

,above the b igotry of his people

,and who suffered

death for his revolt against the rule o f priests and scribes ,was developed the longed-for Messiah . H e was no

lo nger merely human , but the Son of God, born of a virgin ; a thaumaturge ; his death was formally and imtentio nal ly a

'sacrifice for the “redemption” of mankind ; after

death he rose again,and then as cended into heaven : in

a word,Jesus the man had become a god . And thus on

the Jewi sh b ranch were grafted quite unj ewi sh , Gracco~

mystical shoots ti l l the branch was no longer reco gn izable.

We thus have in the l i fe o f the founder of the Chri stian Church

, as handed down to us, two elements, truthand fi ction . Th e

/element of truth is whatever i s con

sistent wi th h istorical research and psychologi cal fac t and

SON OF MAN . SON OF GOD 103

nature ’ s laws ; and the element o f fiction compri ses whatever is in confl ict with these . Jesus himself never pretended to be more than a?man . Virtue was the burdenof his teaching

,and he never pro pounded a creed . To

the many names o f God he added that of“Father ”—father

of all mankind . He was no dogmatist, but a moral reformer, and as such occupied‘ common ground wi th theEssenes and with John the Baptist

,though he differed

from them,and particularly from the Essen es, with re

gard to methods and measures : the Essenes wouldsave men ’ s souls by withdrawing them from human so

ciety ; Jesus sought to save men living in the wo rld—tosave human soc i ety itsel f.Jesus taught the people in parab les

,enforcing h is

doctrine o f virtuous l iving by the use o f sim ile s that nohearer could fai l to understand . Those who afterward essayed to write the history of his l i fe and work, in l ikemanner made a free use o f figurative language, and thepersonal ity of Jesus was glorified, and his

“mission”magn i fi ed ti ll the world saw in him ,

indeed , the desired o f

all the natio ns ,” the Messiah longed fo r by Israel , the

reconciler of the divine and the human , toward whom allthe mysterie s had pointed .

The m iracles of Jesus,namely, acts and o ocurrences

that contradict the laws of nature,are not actual events ;

for as they are reco rded in the New Testament they showa needless abrogation of natural law—needless, becausethe truths which Jesus preached could not be made moretrue by miracl e s. And thus

,as the rational i sts o f the

18th century exp lained them as actual occurrences indeed , but yet as in acco rdance with the natural law, so

now they are held to be quite needless jugglerie s alto

gether unwo rthy of Jesus . Hence the rational interpre

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tatio n of the m iracles is,that they represent the effort o f

the evangelists to portray the l ife and person of the Mas

ter in such colors as their notions of hi s supereminentd ignity required . We divide these miracles into threeclasses—the m i rac les o f the b irth, the li fe, and the deathof Jesus .

The b irth,

o fJesus, as narrated in the go spel sto ry, i s

itsel f a miracle . The legi timate son of Joseph , the car!

penter of Nazareth , and of Mary—for such he was , acco rding to the genealogy found in Matthew and Luke

had to be transformed into the Son of God, nay, made

God himself,i f his doctrine was to appear as of divine

origi n . O f types o f such transfo rmation there was nolack in heathendom . The first Chri stians , it i s true , knewnothing of the sun-god Buddha

,born again of a wo man ,

but th ey were acquainted with Grecian and: Roman mythology . Apollo

,himself a god

,walked on earth as a

shepherd . Herakles,son o f Zeus

,and Romulus

,son‘ of

Mars and of a virgin, were founders of states and citi es ,and progenitors of nations ; then why should not the

founder of a religi on and of a church be also son of Go dand of a virgin ? Nay

,why might not God himsel f walk

on earth in human form ? That such was the actualorigin of the story of the D ivine B irth i s not doubtful : allthe rest i s mere embelli shment—as when the an gel ahno unces to the virgin the coming birth of the Son of God ;when another angel , accompanied by the heavenly hosts

tel ls the shepherds of his actual b irth ; when a star comducts the “wise men of the East” to the wo ndrous babe

,

and they,with the shepherds and Simeon and Anna, pay

him homage ; and when Herod, purposing to take thel i fe o f the predestined Messiah , in order to compass thatend orders the slaughter of the innocents .

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The m iracl e s o f Jesus ’ death,viz .

,the darkening of

the sun , the rending of the veil of the Holy of Holiesin the Temple, the resurrection of the dead, were occurrenees quite inomiss ible at the death of a god ; they betoken the mourning of nature and of rel igion . But themi racles that followed his death

,the resurrection and the

ascension, together with the apparitions of the Cruci fi edin the mean time

,were imagined purely and: plainly to

confirm the bel ie f in an everlasting redeemer and in thepe rsonal immortal ity of each indivi dual o ne of the faithful .O f far greater importance than the miracles o f Jesus

are his teachings,and in particular his fine discourse o n

the mountain,also hi s beautiful p arables . But hi s ut

terances contain nothing that i s e ssentially new, the samethoughts having been often expressed by religious teach

ers and sages of other times and in other lands ; and yetthey possess a charm al l their own , by reason o f theirunassuming simpl icity . It was not the doctrine of the

unity o f God and of love for the neighbor that wroughtthe propagat ion of his teachings—the Jews possessedthat do ctrine already ; nor was it h i s cal l to a higher l i fe

than that o f sense- the Grecian phi losophers precededhim in that respect ; nor his alleged divinity , n o r the miracle s ascribed to him—his contemporarie s in every landhad had experience o f miracles in every shape : it was theforcefulness, the grandeur, the simplicity o f his discourse,speaking to the heart o f man and mastering it, and calm

ing its unrest. H ere he was self~based and individual,supreme and i rresistible . H is teaching

,and in particular

the sermon o n the mount, i s the most emphatic , blistering condemnation o f those who

,for the last nineteen

hundred years,have called themselves not only Chri s

SON OF MAN . SON OF GOD 107

tians,but the only Christians ; who , nevertheless , in open

contempt of their supposed Mas ter, not only take oaths ,and require an eye for an eye, cheri sh mortal hate fortheir enemi es

,trumpet their almsgiving abroad, o ffer

their prayers aloud at the street crossings, fast ostentatio usly, lay up for themselves treasures on earth, whichare eaten by the moth and the rust ; serve two masters ormore

,see the mote

,though blind to the b eam

,throw the

holy thing to the dogs , when one asks them for a loafgive him a stone

,do not unto others as they would that

others should do unto them : who no t only do all this,

but who even enact laws which oblige men to do allthis . He whom they hypocritically call Master, butwhom they never have understood, were he to appear

amo ng/

them ,would anathematize them in the no ble

words,I know you not. Depart from me

,ye doers of

evil ! Such language was unheard be fore hi s day ; therefore wondered the peop le , for he spake with power, andnot like the scribes and pharisees .

5 . TH E E ARLY CHR ISTIANS

What , then , i s the difference between the Christian ~

ism o f Jesus and the Chri stianism of Christians? Theformer, as seen in the discourses of the New Testament,and above all in the ever beautiful sermon on the mount

,

is a simple and unpretending,yet world-transform ing

do ctrine o f God , Virtue, and Love of Man : a monotheismborrowed from the Jews for the behoof of al l men , butpurified of ceremonialism , sabbatism ,

sacrifices, highpriesthood : in short, the Christian ism of Jesus meant thecoming “Kingdom of God ,

” in which the virtuous manwould enjoy happiness and peace . But the Christianism

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of Christians i s a Mvsticism ingrafted on this monothei sm,

comprising the dogmas o f the Incarnation,Atonement

,

Redemption,Resurrection , and Second Coming, and the

Miracle s invented to buttress these dogmas . The Christian ism of Jesus fel l when he and his first disciples diedthey had no hair-splitting theology, only a devout heartthat system was too simple , too unadorned , to o l ittle flattering to sense and to man ’ s vainglo ry to cut any figurein the world . But the Christian ism of Christians

,which

had for its mother the Grecian mysteries , borrowed from

Jesus, i ts father (without whose personality and name itnever could have lived at al l) , what little was known concerning him

,but swadded it in a thick wrappage of mystic

dogmatism . Let,us see how this dogmatic Christiani sm

succeeded in erecting itsel f upon the simple ethic-religioussystem o f Jesus

, and in making itsel f a power in the worldby evolving new mysteries .Were it not for the grafting on it o f the Graeco -mysti

cal elements, Christianism wo uld never have grown to

be even a church,to say nothing of its pro spects

‘

o f be

coming a power in the world . Its adherents in the beginning were

,

good,zealous

,beli eving folk , but among

them were no men of education o r o f commanding abil ity.

The first congregation in Jerusalem , therefore, unable tocomprehend the lofty views of the Cruci fi ed , took theirstand on a narrow ground not essential ly different fromthat o f Judai sm ; for example, they held that no one wasworthy to be baptized who would not first undergo c ir!

cumcisio n ,thus b ecoming by adoption a Jew. The

Apostle James,a devout ascetic

,was the head o f this

school,the adheren ts of which were cal led Jewi sh Chris

tians . The first to demand repudiation of Judaism was

Stephen, a man of Grecian education ; but he paid the

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MY STE R IA.

ground as contradistinguished from the Judaeo -Ch ri stian

(which i s partly al so the Catholic) ground of Peter, James ,and John, who upheld the Mosai c law ,

an d received intothe Church only circumci sed‘ converts . Peter wavered,being a Jew among Jews, but o ften forgetting the Mosaiclaw in the company of Gentile Christians ; but Paulwould never consent that Genti le converts should beob l iged to conform to the Jewi sh’ rites : hen ce Paul wasthe real founder of the Chri stian Church, which , had hisoppo nents been victorio us, would have remained a Jewish sect. The Church was split into two parti es . To theJewish-Christian party adhered the numerous convertsfro m Essenism , with whom the tie of blo o d was strongerthan the spiritual bond which united them with the schoolo f Pythagoras . This party did not regard Jesus as God

,

but classed him with the angels .Between the two parties, Judaeo -Ch

’

ri stian .and Genti leChri stian, arose a third party , that o f the AlexandrineChri stian Jews . Their l eader was Apollos (properlyApollonius), o f who m it i s related in the Acts of theApostl es

,that he recognized only the bapti sm of John ,

and not that o fJesus, but that he was converted to beliefin the lattter .by certain o f Paul

’ s disciples at Ephesus .He it was that imported into Chri stianism the Al'exain

drine do ctrine o f the Lo gos o rWo rd .

6. TH E NEW TE STAMENT.

With such a distribution! o f parties , the New. Testa

ment l iterature arose . It may now be affi rmed withouth esitation that no t one piece o f thi s l iterature was composed by any o f the di sciples o f Jesus , who were al l un

educated men . Th e early Chri sti an s had at first no

SON OF MA N . SON OF GOD 111

Sacred Scripture other than the O ld Testament ; with re

gard to the doctrine of Jesus they depended on oral instruction . Even the la nguage in which the New Testament was written

,the Hellenistic (or literary dialect o f the

Alexandrines) i s proof that it was the wo rk of men ofGreek education . As far as can be determined now the

earliest New Testament writer was Paul . ThePaulineepistles that are his ind i sputably, are those to the

Romans, the Corinthians , and the Gal atian s ; the mostdubious among them are the epistle s to Timothy

,Titus ,

and Philemon . There are ep i stles of some of the o therapostles, as James , Peter, John , and Jude, and these, ofcourse, according to

,

the party stand of their writers,rep

resent views opposed to those o f Paul . They are of laterdate than Paul ’ s ep istles , and are hardly to be credited tothe apostles whose names are prefixed to them

,To the

Alexandrine school i s to be referred the ep istl e to theHebrews , distinguished from the Paul ine writings by thefact that it holds the O ld and New Testaments to be, notopposites

, but complements of each other.Apart from the Epistles the Revelation of John (Apo

calypse) i s the oldest book o f the New Testament. Written in the spirit o f an Old Testament prophet, i t ex

presses the indignation o f a Jew against the Romans dur~

ing the siege and shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem

,A. D . 70 ; it contains the prediction that not Jerusa

lem,but the whore of Babylon (Rome) , together with the

entire heathen world,will perish amid fire

,b lood , and

ruin ; but that there wil l be let down from Heaven a newand glorious Jerusalem

,abode of the blest, seat of the

“bride o f the lamb .

” After the destruction o f Jerusal emthe Apocalypse was writtenanew by an unknown hand , inthe Christian sense. As every one knows, the prophecies

112 MY STER IA

of the bo ok did not come true ; but its fantastic, morbidimaginings have ever since been interpreted by enthusiastsas infal lible forewarnings o f th ings to come ; and many a

searcher of its pages has lost what modicum of sensethey ever had in wo rking out its meaning.

The other historical writings o f the New Testamentconsist o f four Go spels and the Acts of the Apostles . Iti s now evident that, when in the course of time the oraltraditions

“

were comm itted to writing , Jesus’ discourses

,

which , with an adm i rab l e simplicity and’ admirab le clearne ss, e xpressed a good deal in a few words, must have

been handed down in; far more authentic fo rm than thehistory of h is deeds ; and that among his discourses , thosewhich contained truths of general appli cation were morefaithfully remembered than those which expressed personal views—as

,for example

,tho se in which he claims to

be Messiah . The oldest written accounts of his li fe and

work are lo st to us forever ; they were , wi thout doubt, written in the language

.

which was used by Jesus and hisdiscip les

,Aramaic, a sister tongue of Hebrew. O f the

existing Gospels , written in Greek , the first three , cal led“synoptics” (i . e .

,agreeing), are b ased on one older o ri gi é

nal gospel o r’

account ; the third Gospel , John’

s , stands byitsel f

. The new critici sm regards Mark’

s Gospel as themost anc ient : it contains almost exclusively narratives offacts

,written down from memo ry, with the a ccruing em

bel lishments and modifications ; but Mark gives little ofthe discourses of Jesus ; he says nothing, knows nothingof any supernatural b irth of Jesus, and regards him s imply

as man .Mark’ s Gospel i s the basis o f the other two

synoptics,which draw on him for narrative, while they

both add the d iscourses . The Gospel according to Matthew gives the discourses a Judaeo -Chri stian tinge; that

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MYSTERIA

tree, Peter’s draugh t o f fishes , etc . ; or they are of a stil l

more paltry sort, and tell of a number of m irac les wroughtby Jesus in his childhood . There are also apo cryphalActs of Apostles

,apocryphal Apocalypses

,and apocryphal

Epistles , all o f them what we should now call “pamphlets”

composed in the interest o f parties in the ch urch .

But the “Word” of the Jo ann ine Gospel became thepassword for the reunion of al l parti es . The influencesthat had brought thousands o f Gen tiles into the Churchwere all too strong for the resistan ce o f the Judaeo -Christian party to overcome . The little Judaeo -Christian foldhad no choice , therefore , but either to go back to Judaismor to become Genti le Christians—unless they were readyto suffer excommunication by the latter. Only smallfractions o f the Jewish-Christian body held out as sectsapart

,while the union of the ever-multip lying Gentile

Christians, now styled the Cathol ic” church

,unchurched

the “heretics,

” and set up the “new law” in o pposition to

the old,as its own inviolable foundati on . Thus came

into b eing the present collection of New Testamentbooks

,the Church Catholic

” having,about the end of

the second century, separated the apocryphal from thecanonical Scriptures . But stil l for a long time the character o f individual boo ks was in dispute

,and John ’ s“Rev

elation,

” together with several o f the Epistles, was ti l lrecent times regarded by different perso ns or parties asapocryphal . To the decrees of councils and’ popes

_alonei s it owing that there exists to-day a canonical collectiono f Scriptures

,and that the books of the Canon are held to

be inspired .

7 . TH E E LE M E NTS OF TH E CHURCH .

In this wise was Christianism developed out of the

SON OF MAN . . SON OF GOD 115

secret associations of the ancient world . Th e early Christians themselves were

,while under persecution, in a cer

tain sense a secret society . Their worship possessed anessentially mystic character. It was not so from the beginning. In Jesus ’ teachings there is not one wo rd aboutdivine service or cults ; his surviving discip les knew of no

other cult than the Jewish,and they assembled for

“breaking bread in their ho uses witho ut any parade. No t unti lthe Christians had been excluded from the synagog ueswere distinctive rites developed among them . Th erearose among them prophets whose inspired wo rds were

the principal feature of the rel igious service . Psalms

were sung, not yet in the grand, impressive melodies ofthe Middle Age

,but in “the long-drawn , partly nasal

moaning tones,sti l l usual in Eastern lands—tones that

defy all musical harmony .

” B esides, men then“spake

tongues,

” or at least uttered “heaven-storming words”

pell-mell in the heat of enthusiasm, which no one ,speaker or hearer

,could wel l understand ; and men

“prophesied,espec ially about the end of the world, the

too slow oncoming o f which caused much wonderment inthose days . All these stupidities

,by degrees , gave way

before the efforts o f strong-willed men like Paul .

Th e“wo rd s in meeting” and the Lord ’ s Supper (or Love

Feast), fel l into the backgro und, and the supper came tobe simply a souven ir o f the Saviour’ s death

,and at last

was developed into a sacrament possessing the characterof a mystery i . e ., a performance that

'

must remain in

scrutab le to men,though it was men that contrived it.

Baptism was assoc iated as a sacrament with the supper,and the mysteries were multipl ied . We have al ready seenhow the mysteries of the Incarnation and Resurrection

aros e, namely, out of the necessity of giving to Jesus the

MY STE R IA

stamp o f deity,for without that Christianism never would

have attained a commanding place in the world . H ow

to these mysteries,by the purely human decrees o f the

Nicaean Synod,the supreme and most incomprehens ibl e

mystery o f all was added,the mystery o f the Trinity ; how,

because o f the impossib il ity of coming to agreement t egarding this

,the Church Catholic was split into the

Roman and Greek , or Western and Eastern churches ;how in the Western Church the bi shop s o f Rome achievedsupremacy ; all thi s belongs , not to the hi sto ry of the

mysteries, but to the history o f the Church .

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118 MY STE R IA.

a contemporary o f Jesus, and was deeply venerated.

And, as it chanced, a certain learned Greek , Flavius Phil o stratus

, wrote“a heathen gospel o f the li fe of th i s

Grecian saint, not as one hostile toward the Christians ,nor as one who would prove their doctrine fal se , but withintent to come to the aid o f decaying h eathendom,

and

prevent for a time its overthrow by Chri stianism . Toattain this end there must be no mention of Christianism

or its author, so that O lympus might tower again in al l itsancient glory and triumph over Sinai and Tabo r. Philostratus composed his work, as he states, out o f the noteso f a discip l e of Apollonius, one Damis, native o f Ninive,by order o f Jul ia Domna

,wife of the Emperor Septim ius

Severus . What part of his wo rk consisted o f matterdrawn from Damis

’

s notes,and what h e added out

'

o f his

own fancy, we can never determine . But he showed

true insight in making out hi s hero to have been a

Pythagorean . He therefore represents Apollo nius as deriving his wisdom indirectly from the most ancient mysteries, those of Egypt, and from the venerated Greciansacred leagues .Apollonius was born in Tyana

,a town in Cappa~

docia . Previous to his birth, says Ph ilo stratus , the go dProteus appeared to his mother and told her that the

chi ld soon to see the light was the God himself. Thishappened in a meadow

,where

,after gathering flowers

,

she had fallen asleep,while swans gathered round her

and into nedl their song. When the child was grown up

he became a strict ob server of the Pythagorean rule o f

li fe,abstaining from fleshmeat and wine , and wearing

linen garments . His abode was a temple sacred to Aesculap ius , god of heal ing. Unworthy offerers of gifts t o

the god he drove out,and healed such of the sick as re

A P SEUDO-ME SSIAH 119

pented o f their transgressions . He rej ected the Grecianmythology as fabulous

,preferring far to it the fables of

Esop,and his only pray er was addressed to the sun . He

refused to tak e possession of an estate inherited from hisfather

,and imposed on himself a silence o f several years

’

duration . During his extensive travels he alway s lodgedin temples

,corrected abuses in the conduct of the divine

service,couched his teachings in brief sentences , gathered

aroun d him discip les, of whom o ne was false and a

traitor ; sided with the persecuted and righted the wrongsof the Oppressed . Everywhere he understood the languages of the natives without learning them, and evenread the thoughts of men ; but the language of the beastshe lear ned from the Arab s of Mesopotamia. On e nteringthat country the publican asked him whether he had withhim anything subj ect to toll . The an swe r o f Apol lonius

was that he carried about righteousness , temperance , amanly soul and a patient spirit—and many another virtue named he . The sullen taxman , who had no mind foranything that lav outside his own duties

,took the names

of virtues for names o f women, saying :“There

,your

maids are all down in the book .

” But Apollonius calmlywent hi s way , with the brief remark :

“They are no t

maids , but high-born dames ;” nor paid he impost o n his

ideal goods . In spite of his fran kness o f speech he wastreated wi th great distinction by the king of that country . He told the king that he would best strengthen h i sroyal power by honoring many and putting trust in buta few. The king, who was il l, having been comfortedby the prophet, confessed that he had been freed fromanxiety, not only with regard to his kingdom,

but alsowith regard to death . From Babylon Apol lonius bent

his s teps toward India, and there , according to the highly

M Y STE R IA

embellished story,saw men four or five ells in height

,

also men who were hal f whi te an d hal f black dragons,too

,

o f vari ous size he s aw. He constantly carried on withDamis , the one disciple who accompanied him, instruc

tive conversations; about the animals and the people

whom they met. An Indian king, dazzled by the splendorof the prophet’ s genius

,would not wear the crown in his

presence. With the Brahmans, many o f whose co njurfeats are recorded , e . g.

,fl itting through the air, or at

touch o f their wands causing the earth to spring alo ft,

Apollonius swapped wisdoms ; and as , in the o pinion ofDamis , the wisdom of the Brahmans was derived fromPythagoras, i t was from Pythagoras also , of course , that

they got their doctrine of metempsychosis . We learn thatApollonius also entertained that curious idea

,and that

he imagined himself to have been once an Indian taxgatherer

,and was wont to tel l o f many incidents of that

phase of his l i fe . Furthermore,in his p resen ce the

Brahmans cured the possessed , the lame, the blind , andwomen in difficult labor

,by imposition of hands , and

'

bygiving good counsels—practices resembling those used

'

in our day by sympath ists, so -called . Apollonius re

turned to Babylon and Ninive,pas sing through fabulous

lands,and then journeyed to the Ionian s o f Asia Minor.

Apollo nius banished from Ephesus an ep idemic whichwas there raging

,by requiring the citizens to stone 3.

beggar in whom he discerned the daemon who was thecause of the di sease ; the culprit, under the storm ofstones

,was changed itito a ,

dog. Voyaging by sea‘

to

Greece, the Sage Apollonius imposed on his shipmateswith the story that Achilles had appeared unto him fi ve

el ls in height,and before hi s eyes had grown to twelve

ells . At Athens,where he arrived during the Eleusinian

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MY STE R IA

and the prevailing immorality, was expelled the c ity byTigellinus

,captain of the emperor’ s bodyguard, and

trusty tool of the tyrant, while Apollonius himself waskept under surveil lance . But no t only could nothing bepro ved against him ; his wi sdom fil l ed even the sanguinaryminions with admiration

,though he spoke to them o nly

the stern truth . For example , being asked by Tigel linus why he had no fear of Nero , he answered :

“The Go dwho makes him an obj ect of fear made me fearless .Asked what he thought o f Nero ,

“Better than you do ,he replied

’

;“ye think him gifted for singing

,I for sil ence .

Whereupon Tigel linus : “Go wherever youi pl ease ; youare stro nger than lany power '

o f min e .” A b ridle in

Rome having died , the bo dy was on the way to the placeof inter ment. Apollon ius b ade! the bearers to, halt,touched the damsel

,uttering some secret wo rds , and

called her back from death . Philo stratus himself i s indoubt whether the death

'

was not apparent on ly . The

philosopher then journeyed to th e Strait o f Gibral tar,whence he traversed Spain

,Sici ly and Greece, and then

revisited Egypt. At Alexandria he recognized the in

no cence of one among eight criminals, interceded forhim and had the man ’ s execution put o ff til l th e last

moment ; then arrived the order to spare his l i fe ; he hadconfessed only under torture . The story is also told thatApollonius, on paying,

a visit to Vespasian , in Alexan

dria,

“made him Caesar,

” thus gi ving to the Roman Empire once again

,after a long interval, a j ust ruler ; but

after Vespas ian’ s elevation to the thro ne

,the philosopher

frankly spoke the truth to him, when the Emperor annulled

,as an unjust privilege, th e l iberties o f Greece,

which Nero had in a capricious humor granted on theoccas ion o f the O lympian Games . Leaving Egypt,

A P SEUDO -ME SSIAH 123

Apollo nius journeyed to Ethiopia to visit the Gymno so

ph ists, who dwelt in a sort o f l ittle repub l ic o f thei rown

,on a mountain

,and conducted a famous school .

Probably because they were less conceited , went naked ,and performed no magical feats , our Sage deemed themless wise than the Brahmans

,and had resultless contro

versies with them about the relative superiority of Greeian and Egyptian art

,the former representing the gods

as resemb ling man,the latter as resemb l ing animals . In

that region Apollonius exorc ised a satyr that was said tohave killed two women . About the time of the taking ofJerusalem by Titus

,Apollonius happened to be in the

neighborhood of that c ity , and praised the Roman generalfor his “moderation” (though it was a curious sort o f moderatio n which leveled a great city with the ground) . Titusanswered : “I have made conquest o f Solyma ; you havemade conquest of me

,

” and thereafter employed Apollonius as his adviser. At Tarsus he not only cured a youngman o f hydrophob ia

,but the dog also that had bitten

him.

Having boldly denounced the Empero r Domitianat Ephesus

,Apollonius was betrayed by h is disciple

Euphrates , and a plot was laid against h im . Straightway h e took ship for Rome , to confront the tyrant inhis pal ace . In Rome h e was thro wn into pri son

,and

treated with much harshness ; but he defended himsel fwi th great sp irit against the charges brought by his aceuser, and was acquitted . Thereupon he uttered a

'

tirade

of reproaches against D omitian’

s satel lites,and suddenly

vanished mi raculously from the judgment hall,appear

ing the same day in the vrcmity of Naples, where he hadfriends. From Naples he went to Ephesus ; there , in

ecstasy, he saw the assass ination o f Domitian , at that

MYSTE R IA

moment taking place in Rome ; then he died . Noneknew what age he had attained

,whether 80 years or 100

,

nor the time, nor the place, no r the manner of his death .

According to Ph ilo stratus -he appeared after h is deathto a young man of his native town ,

Tyana,who doubted

the immortal ity o f the soul , and invoked Apollonius toexplain the matter ; but he was invisib le to the o therperso ns present.

2. AIIEXANDER TH 'E FALSE PROPHE T.

It is no matter o f surprise that the cold, austere

virtue and wisdom,the rather hol low religion

,and the

clumsy miracles o f Apollonius neither built up a schoo lfor him nor kept the heathen religi on on its feet ; andthough the empero rs of the third century , from Caracal la to Diocletian , consecrated temples to him ,

and one ofthem

,Alexander Severus

,placed his bust, with

'

tho se ofMoses, Socrates and Jesus, in his private chapel , neverth eless the Sage of Tyana was soon forgotten

,and with

him,alas ! the memo ry o f his nob l e courage in the pres

ence of tyrants . On the other hand , the charlatanry h epracticed becamemo re and more the order of the day , til lat last it threw o ff all disguise . Whether this result i schargeab le to his disciples, who , l ike the disciples o f another master, prized his miracles more than h is teachings ,i s a question that cannot be decided ; but the fact i s thatsoo n after hi s death (the close of the first century) a

number of impostors , wearing the cloak of religion , beganto ply their trade . The sati rist Lucian , who lived in thesecond century

,and wh o made sport of everything—t e

l igio n and philosophy, gods and men , heathen andChristians—has immo rtal ized the tom foo leries of th ese

pseudoprophets.

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126 MYSTE RIA

temple in the form of a serpent. To prove h is oracle truehe held up before them the egg with the snak e. On the

publication of this wondrous news , the populace flo ckedto the market-place . Alexander had a hut o f boardserected, within which he seated himsel f in a recl iningchair ; then taking up the large snake already mentioned ,which he had kept out of sight

,he laid it on his b reast

,

drew over its head a l inen mask,painted to resemb le a

human face,the mouth of which would open and shut on

pull ing a string , and gave out to the people that the

newborn god had already grown to that great size,and

was now ready to give oracles . From all Asia Minor

and Thrace the people came in thousands to witness. themiracl e . The mystic semi-o bscurity of the hut and themagical effec ts of artificial l ight magnified the impression

that the charlatan and his snake mad e on the people .Whoever wi shed to receive anoracle o f the god had towrite his question o n a tablet, which was then to besealed with wax and handed to the prophet. When the

people had retired he melted the seals,read the ques

tions,wrote the answers

,then sealed the tablets again ,

and gave them back (with the answers) the seal s. apparently intact. The tariff for orac les was a drachma andeight oboli (about 25 cents) , and the annual receiptsamounted to seventy or eighty thousand drachmas (say

but he had out o f thi s sum to pay a host ofassistants and confederates . When the temple was com

p leted Alexander carried on his business there .

But his title to pub l ic regard did not pass unchal lenged .

The Epicureans,who detested all trickery ,

and who be

l ieved that enjoyment was the only end in li fe worththinking o f

,manifested their hostil ity to the prophet, and

were,in turn , denounced by him as atheists and Chri s

A P SEUDO -M E SSIAH 127

tians . To safeguard his reputation he added to hisreperto ire .

First,he began to give oracles viva voce , a

confederate behind a screen speaking the responses intoa tube terminating at the mouth o f the snake

’

s mask .

But the charge for such oracles was higher, and they

were el icited only for the behoo f o f p ersons o f eminence .Alexander’ s fame spread even to Rome , and dupes fromthat seat o f enlightenment came to consult the ser

pent-god . One of these addle-pate pilgrims from Romeasked the oracl e what manner of woman he should take “

to wife . The oracle named the daughter of Alexander ;so he married her

,and offered hecatomb s to his mother

in-law,his bride ’ s mother

,in her capacity o f moon-god

dess, for such Alexander gave her out to be . Enco ur

aged by many succes ses not inferior to this,the prophet

instituted many mystic festival s,from which he excluded

all unbel ievers in Go d , as Epicureans and Christian s . Atthese festivals the birth of Aesculapiu s and the nuptialso f Alexander and the Moo n-Goddess were representeddramat ically, though perhaps a trifle too real istically .

The prophet also claimed to be a reincarnation ofPythagoras

,and in proof showed his thigh encased in

gilded leather. H i s l i fe was a“

continuous debauch . Intime he began to hold what we should now cal l darkseances ; that i s, he would sit in absolute darkness andmake frespo nse to questions submitted in writing onsealed tab lets . As he could not read the. questions atall, his answers (the oracles) were expressed for the mostpart in unintelligible lang uage . Lucian once tested hispo wers by submitting to him the o ne question

,

“Whenwill Alexander be caught at his tricks

,

” wri tten on eighttablets ; he go t eight differen t answers, al l irrelevant. He

mi ssed no opportunity of unmasking the rogue,and of

MY STE RIA’

teaching the people by the evidence o f their own sensesthat the man was a vulgar impostor. Th e knave affecteda mild fri endship for hi s adversary, but he b ribed the

helmsman of a vessel on which Lucian sailed to throwhim overboard ; this the man had not the courage to : do .

Luc1an wished to have the impostor put on trial forthis crime, but the pro consul advised him not to

' invokethe help of the law

,Alexander being too high in favor

with the officials and the pub l ic . The city o f Abonotichus had coins struck bearing the effigy of the Aescula

p ius serpent,and the pseudo prophet attained th e age o f

seventy years , enj oying to the end the undiminished respect of the people .Many were the imposto-rs that sprang up after Alex

ander, and wherever th ere was any lack of real ones, fi c ~

titious pseudoprophets were imagi ned by sati ric writers,Lucian ’ s Peregrinus

,for example

,a renegade Christian

who devotes himsel f to a death by fi re to win fame . Itwas a mad world then . New mysteries were invented in

p l enty, and people came in crowds for initiation . The“Golden Ass” of Apuleius i s a striking satire on this

mystery furore . To this period belong the Gnostics',who se doctrines were a mixture of Judaism , heathenism

and Christian i sm ; the Manichees, who gave a Chri stianvarnish to the Persian fire worship ; th e Kabbalists , whoh eaped a vast amount of rubb i sh together

, go t out of

the Hebrew Bible by j uggling with its sentences, words,l etters and numbers . Amid this tangle o f doctrines theheathen rel igi ons sank , Judai sm lost its native land, andChri stianism fel l into an i ncalculab le number o f sectsah evil that was not to b e corrected even by the artificialunity of the Church under the Apostolical See.

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130 MY STE R IA

tion o f printing. During that period o f a thousand years

no addition was made to the sum of human knowledge .

‘

Arabian and Jewish physicians alone labored to savethe intel le ctual wealth inherited from the anc ient Greeks .As for Chri stendom

,it was involved in profound intellec

tual darkness,and the Doctrine of Light that had been

published by the Carpenter ’ s Son , was lost amid pettycontroversies and inane interpretations, till at last its

strict ly monotheistic groundwork was forgotten , an d

there remained vi sible only the superstructure o f eth nicmystici sm and of doctrines

,as the Trinity

,Incarnation ,

Resurrection,and Ascension

,borrowed from Egyptian

and Grecian mythology .

And th is'

ethn ico -mystic structure acquired a splen

dor and a power never befo re equaled,so that the system

was credited to divine intervention,whereas its purely

human origin might easily have been traced . The root

idea o f the ethnic mysticism was to seek the supposedly“lost deity ,

” to find him,to b e unified with him . And the

sel f-same idea underlay the Chri stian mystic i sm,an d it

was by calling that idea into play and by giving it expression in bri ll iant achievement, that this mystici sm wonits highest triumph

,and

,aided by the Papacy

,its wi dest

influen ce . This new embodiment of the mystical ideawas seen in the Crusades

,in which the Chri stian mysti cs

joined,going forth to seek the lost sepulchre o f their

God,and to obtain control of it. Possession o f the sepul

ch re would be the surest guarantee for the unification o fgodhead and humanity.

In this undertaking the two most powerful estates

of the Midd l e A ge took part—the monks and the knights .The monks

,under o rders from the Pope, j oined the

armies of the cross; the knights, commanded by the Em

TH E KNIGHTS TEM P LA R 13 1

pero r, marched to the Holy Land and conquered i t.

After the conquest,when there was a kingdom of Jer u

salem after the model o f the kingdoms of the West, therearose

,as the necessary summit of mediaeval aspiration ,

the union of monkery and chival ry,in the monkish orders

of knights,whose members wore the sword of the kn ight

and took the monastic vows of poverty , chastity , and

obed ience .Th ese organizations had their origi n in the gradual

assumption of knightly elements by the mo nasti c orders .

Some merchants of Amal fi , oldest commercial emporiumof Italy

,had , as early as 1048 , founded a monastery and

a church at Jerusalem,and in conjunction with these a

hosp ital in honor of John the Baptist . There the monkscared for pilgrims who were poor or ai ling. Pope Paschal I I . granted them a mo nastic constitution in 1 1 13,

and Godfrey of Bou i l lon , soon after the capture o f Jerusal em

,endowed them wi th considerable properties .

They took the title o f Brothers Hospitalers o f SaintJohn o f Jerusal em ; their habit consi sted of a black mantlewith a white cross . A few years later ( 1 1 19) the KnightsHugo of Payns , and Godfrey of Saint Omers , associatedthemselves and six other knights

,al l French

,in a mili

tary league , under the style“Poor Knights o f Christ

,

”

pledging themselves to keep the highways o f the HolyLand safe for pilgrims

,and to observe the rule o f Saint

Benedi ct . The members were favored by King BaldwinI . and the Patriarch o f Jerusalem

,and came to be cal led

Templars, because their convent stood on the site o f the

Solomonic Temple . The Templars received from theSynod o f Troyes in 1 128 recognition as a regular order

,

a monastic rule,a‘ monas tic habit, a spec ial banner, etc .

About the same date the Hosp italers, Johannites, or

132 MY STER IA

Knights o f Saint John of Jerusal em,became invested

with the knightly character. After the Hospitalers came

the German Knights,whose theatre o f action was princi

pally the region of the Balti c Sea,but th ey also saw

servi ce in Spain in the war against the Saracen s . Otherknightly orders were those of Calatrava, of Alcantara , of

Santiago de Compo stella, in England the order of theKnights o f the Holy Sepulchre, etc.

2. TH E TE M ‘

PLARS .

None o f these orders rose to higher di stinction thanthe order of the Templars

,or o f “the Poor Companions

of the Temple o f Jerusalem,

” as it was styled in its rule .In those days it was full o f the ' spirit of lowl iness

,but

the time came when the knights were no longer calledthemselves “Poor Compan ions ,

” but “Knights Templar.At first the brethren begged their bread

,fasted

,were. dili

gent in attendance on divine worship, performed the duties

o f their religion,fed the poor

,cared for the si ck. Plain

and unadorned was their attire,in color either bl ack ,

white or brown ; and the b rother who tried to get thefinest hab it got the shabb iest. The hair and beard wereclo se cropped . The chase was not permitted

, excep t for

the extermination of beasts of prey . Women were notallowed to l ive in the houses of the order ; the brethrenmight not so much as kiss their female relations . Buttheir mode of l ife became in time very different. Theybecame ri ch in worldly goods

,and so b roke the vow of

poverty . As an order and as individual s they followed

their own incl inations , and thus was their vow of obedience made nought ; and their vow o f chastity fared notbetter ; whilethe specific vow o f the order—protection o fp ilgrims to the Holy Land - became a nullity through

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134 MY STE RIA'

All these religious orders o f knights possessed great

power in the Middle Age,their grandmasters ranking

next after Popes an d monarchs . In fact they recognizedno emperor or king as their lord

,but only the Pope .

The orders were favored by the Pontiffs, who loaded themwith praise and privileges

,though they feared them . I f

the Popes had now the arm of the flesh and not of the

spirit only to defend them against the secular power,they

owed that advantage to the knightly orders . And spec ial ly

were they beholden to the Templars in this regard . The

Templars were free from all Church tribute,and by the

Pope ’ s favor had the right to harbor excommunicatedknights , to conduct divine service in churches that wereunder interdict, to found churches and

‘churchyards ;which privileges brought down upon them the enmity ofthe clergy . As the order was exempt from al l episcopal

j urisdiction and subj ect only to the Roman See,the

bishop s endeavored to have that and o ther like pri vi

leges abated by the Lateran Council in 1 179 . At thetime o f their suppression the Templars possessed an em

p i re o f five provinces in the East and'sixteen in the West,

wi th houses o f th e order. In possession. of such

resources,they aimed at nothing short of making all

Chri stendom dependent on their o rder,and to set up a

so rt of military ari sto cratic commonwealth , governed ostensibly by the Pope

,but really by themselves

,with their

grandmaster at the head . The gran dmaster of the Tem

plars was elected by a college o f eight knights , four ser

vientes and o ne cleric .“

Th e Grandmaster was only

president of the Council and its representative ; but inwar he had supreme command ; as the Pope

’

s deputy hehad jurisdi ction over the clerics . A splendid retinue attended him

,and he had a treasury at hi s disposal . Next

TH E KN IGHTS TE M P LA R 135

.n rank after him stood the Seneschal , h is deputy forcivil affairs , and the Marshal for military , the Treasurer,the Drapier. The Council (Co nventus) consisted of theGrandmaster

,his assistants the ' grand officers just

mentioned), Provincial Masters who might be present ,and such knights as the Grandmaster might summon .

By addition of all eminent Templars the Council becamethe General Chapter ; this was the legislative body . Theo ther knightly orders were organized on a plan not es

sentiai ly different. What interests us most at present isthose features o f the Templar order which marked it as

in some re s pects a s e c r e t s o c i e t y .

The order took its first step s in this direction in thethirteenth century

,moved thereto by

‘

desire to safeguardits riches and power. Its secret doctrines o r tenets wereborrowed from the heretical sects of the time—Albigensesand W

'

aldenses—o r were such beliefs as were held in s ecret by many of the most enl ightened men . Such viewswere shared by religious men

,scholars , and worldlings

alike,by the first class out of indignation against the

moral degeneration of the rulers of the Church ; by thesecond

,because they suspected that the Church

’

s dog

mas were but inventions of Popes and council s , and bythe third, because in rej ecting the Church

’ s authorityand accepting the heretical doctrines

,they fan cied that

they were freed from the obligations of morality . But

the Templars,who

j

were neither p ious nor learned ,but of whom many were very worldly indeed , found theenlightened new op inions to coincide well wi th their interest, which prompted them to care rather fo r theirnumerous possess ions in the West than for the few theyheld in lands occupied by the Moslem . God , sai d they ,showed his favor to the Mohammedans in the Crusades .

MY STE R IA

and evidently willed the defeat o f the Christian . arms . Soby adopting the more enlighten ed views

,they prepared

the way for a withdrawal from the useless Crusades, an d

a return with bag and baggage to Europe , where they

could rest from their glo rious but hard and thanklessmartial labors, and devote themselves to the service of

p rinc es, or pass the time in the splendid houses of theirorder, amid Oriental luxury, and surrounded by gardenslike Fairyland , beguil ing the hours wi th gaming an d thechase, with songs and lovemaking, the while not neglecting their political interests. But the Templars wererapidly nearing their downfall .

3 . TH E S E CRE TS OF TH E TE lMP I JA'R lS .

The Arcana of the Templars consisted of a secretdoctri ne and of a cult based on the same . The do ctrine

,

which had no ground in scientific research,seems to have

been akin to the doctrine of certain sects,specially the

Albigenses , who worshiped a superior god of h e aven and

an inferior god of earth,and ascribed to the latter the

origin o f evil . Fo r the Templars,Christ was no S o n o f

God , had worked no miracles , had neither ri sen from th e

dead nor ascended into heaven ; he was , in fact, oftenspoken of as a. fal se prophet . The Church

’ s doctrine. re

garding the tra nsubstantiation o f the bread in the mass

was for them crass superstition,the eucharist only a com

memorative rite,the sacrament o f penance a pri estly im

posture , the Trinity a human invention, veneration of the

cross an act of idolatry. That the opposition o f the order

to the last-mentioned custom led on festival occasions,and particularly when new members were admitted , to

overt acts of contempt for the cross, to spitting on the

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138 MY STE RIA

the members were forb idden to confess to priests thatwere not Templars . By them the communion was taken

in the natural species and substance of bread and wine,and in token of brotherly love, not as commemorative o f

any sacrifice .Two images played a part in the Templar ri tes . The

image of John the Baptist typified the o rder’ s opposition

to the Church’ s creed . The other image , j ealously

guarded from the eyes o f outsiders,has been called an

“idol .” It was made ch ieflv of copper, gi lt, and repre

sented -

no w a human skull, anon the countenance of ano ld man heavily bearded (makro pro sopo s) , again a verysmall face (m ikro pro so po s) , which would be now the faceof a man, then of a woman, anon male and femal e at

once ; it would have now one , again‘ two or three

,head s ,

wi th bright shining eyes o f carbuncles . The idol was bysome Templars called “

Bassomet,” but why

,do es not ap

p ear. From the statements of members of the order itwould seem that this idol was a kind o f tal isman that

brought all manner o f good fo rtune ; that it was set upfo r veneratio n as rival to the cross , and that they,

cal led

it “the savio r of the order.

There were two forms of admission , the general and

the spec ial (or secret) form : the latter was used only at the

admission of postulants that could be trusted with the

secrets of the order. The Scribe,acting as Receptor, first

asked the brethren,in chapter

,i f they had any obj ection

to make the admi ssion of the postulant . I f none o b

jected the postulant was led into an adjoining roo mand questioned as to h is purpose in seeking entrance

'

to

the order, whether he knew of any impediment on his

part, whether he owed debts that he could not pay,whether he was married or engaged to be married , and

T‘H E KNIGHTS TEMP LAR 139

so forth . The questions having been satis factorily an

swered,and the minutes of the replies reported to the

brethren,the matter was again put to vote . Next

,the

candidate was brought before the chapter,and , after

more questioning,took the vows and .was formally ad

m itted . In the secret rite o f adm i ssion the Receptorshowed to the candidate the Idol , with the se words :

“Be

lieve in this,put your trust in this , and all wi l l b e wel l

with you . Then he girded the candidate with a cord ofwhite wool fibres

,the Bapti st

’ s gi rdle , as it was called ,

which he was to wear'

over the. shirt. The obligation of

secrecy was very sternly enforced . Th ose who betrayedany of the secrets of the . o rder were cast into pri so n, andthe candidate was threatened with dungeons and death

should he communicate to an outsider any in formationabout the ceremony o f initiation .

Thus did the Templars,an order instituted fo r the

purpose o f guarding the Church ’ s interests, in the endrej ect the Church ’ s doctrines , and adopt principles thattended inevitably to the overthrow, not only o f the Papacy,but o f Christianism itsel f. Such was the irreconci lableopposition between the avowed and the

‘

secret convietions of the Temp lars , and such was the hypocrisy of theorder : for, tho ugh they had apostatized from the creedso f the Church , they would not formally quit her communion ; and though they regarded as true many pointsof anti-Christian do ctrine , they veiled these wi th mystery,or even on o cccas io n made sport of them, instead

“o f publ ish ing them, as so many poor, unarmed heretics did ; andhence their asp iratio ns were foiled, and the most powerfulassociation o f that time peri shed

,not in glo rious battle ,

but in ignominious dungeo ns and at the stake.

MY STE R IA'

4. TH E D OVVN FA I JL OF TH E KN IGHTS TEMPL ‘A 'R .

The Crusades having failed utterly, the Holy Land

having again come under the power of the “in fi dels ,

”and

the occupation of the knightly o rd ers having gone , the

Popes cast about f0r a remedy fo r this undesirab l e stateof things . The order of German Knights had alreadyforestalled the prob lem by choosing as their theatre of

action the countries on the Baltic Sea,and the Spanish

orders by waging continual wars agai nst the Moors ; and

the Knights o f Saint John (Hosp italers) later found a

place fo r themselves by occupying Rhodes . But theTem

plars were wi thout any fit employment, and that circumstance was the occasion of their downfall . About theyear 1305 Pope Clement V . proposed a union of the

Templars with the Hosp italers,and , i f possib l e , wi th other

orders,but bo th Templars and Hosp ital ers rej ected the

advice .

Philip IV. (the Fair) o fFrance found in the Templarsa serious ob stacl e to his amb ition , and in the early years o fhis reign sought to co mpel them by fo rce to aid him in hisschemes ; but fail ing in that design , tried to win them byloading them with favors . Many differen t explanations

have been offered to account for another change o f poli cyo n the part of Philip

,but none o f them is hi stori cal ly

sound! Pro bab ly the change noticeab l e in the king’ s

attitude toward the o rder in 1305 was in some way co n

nected with the outrageous doings o f the Inquisition inthe South of France ; doubtless rumors o f heresy in the

Templ ar order had come to the omnipresent ear o f theHoly Court. The Inquisitor-General o fFrance

,Wi ll iam

Imbert , prior o f the Dominicans in Pari s , begged theKing to cal l the Templars to acco unt.The King, on Nov.

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142 MY STER IA

the order. The King took up h is residence in the “Term

ple,” the Pari s house of the order, in which was hid the

treasure of the Grandmaster gold flo rins , and

twelve ho rselo ads o f silver pence) . I t was not quite

500 years later when the Temple became the pri son of adescendan t o f the King. I n that same building

,in pres

ence of the masters and bachelors of the university,the

trial of the Grandmaster and his brethren was commenced

,and proceeded under the direction o f Imbert.

Th e p rocedure was the same as in the ordinary tri al s fo rheresy and witchcraft in the court o f the Inqui sition .

Con fessions were obtained by use o f the torture , and it i s

impossib le at this day to tell how much in those co nfes

s ion s was due to the employment of that peculiar method

of e liciting truth,and how much

,i f any part, was pro mpt

ed by the desire to atone for past offenses by truthful

(even i f forced) admission o f guilt.The Pope was not p leased with this turn of affairs.

H e claimed for himsel f the right to pro ceed against theTemplars

,declared that the King was infringing the

privileges of the See o f Rome,and attributed the actio n

taken against the‘ Templars to a desire to get possession

o f the order’ s treasury and to annihilate a society whoseexistence was a cause o f anxiety to the King. He

,there

fore, protested against the whole proceeding, and demanded that the arrested Temp lars and their property

should be surrendered to him as j udge of the questions at

i ssue . The King re fused, but he came to an understand

ing with the Pope in the matter o f the prosecution,and

Nov. 22 the Pope, by the bull“Pasto ral is Praeem inen

tiac,” ordered the arrest o f all t he Templars throughout

the Chri stian world . The King of England,Edward I I .

who was Philip’

s son-in-law,obeyed this precept

,though

TH E KNIGHT'S rampan t 143

he had previously expressed disbelief o f the gui lt of the

Temp lars . A like change of mind was seen in A'

ragon .

In Cyprus the Templars attempted resistan ce , but subm itted . Denis

,King of Portugal , refused to institute a

pro secution against them .

Inasmuch as the measure was one that affected all

countries,the case of the Templars belonged of right to

the Papal j uri sdiction . Even Philip admitted this ; but

he mistrusted the Pope,and feared that the Templars

might be acquitted , and then take revenge on the King.

Negotiations were opened . The Ki ng demanded the

death o f the Templars,but the Po pe wo ul d not consent

to thi s till their guilt was fully proven ; and again he demanded the surrender to him of their persons and their

possess ions . The King at last acceded to the demand ,for hehad need of the Pope ’ s assistan ce in procuringthe election of his brother as successor to the assassinatedGerman King

,Albert .

Under the Papal j uri sdiction the trial s were conducted with more len ity : torture was not employed

.But

the Pope became convinced of the guilt o f the accused ;til l then he had been in doubt. Molay made

,witho ut

compulsion , many very important admissions,as did sev

eral high offi cials o f the order,but o n sun dry points th ev

contradicted one another. Nevertheless,the Pope was

stil l firmly of the opinion that only individual Templars

were on trial , not the order, while for the King the annih ilatio n o f the order was the main thing

.August 8 ,

1308 , the bull “Faciens Misericordiam ordered a prosecutio n of the Templars in every country of Christendomand on the 12th of the same month

,by the bul l “Regnans

in Co elis ,”

a council was summoned for the year 13 10,to

d etermine the question o f the Templars . Further o rdi

MY STE RIA

nances of the Pope had to do with the surrender of the

properties o f the order to the Church .

Meanwhile the Pope had forgotten to aid the FrenchKing’ s brother in his pretentions to the crown of th e

Roman Empire . On the contrary , he favored the election o f Henry VII . of Luxemburg

,and was glad to fi nd

i n him a prince who would strenuously oppose the over

weening ambition of Phil ip IV. The tension between th e

Pope and the French King was increasing,and the trials

of the Templars went on sluggishly for two years more .

There was much arbitrary ill-usage of Templars . Th e

bishop s,to whom the Pope had committed the pro secu

tion of the individual members of the order,in many

places gave loose rein to their an cient enmity toward theTemplars , and freely used the torture ; n evertheless, very

many o f the accused maintained’

the innocence o f their

order,and declared the prior co nfessions false . This can

be explained only by supposing that the abuses in the

order did not extend to all the houses . Mo lay’

s be

havior on his trial was neither firm nor dignified , ever

balancing between sel f-accusation and vindication . He

was never sure of his ground , sought to retard pro

cedure, used equivocal and obscure phrases, and continually protested h is orthodoxy ; and the other members for

the most part acted in like manner : but their excuse i s thehard usage they endured

,and Molay was not permitted to

complain of that.

All the Templars arrested in Pari s , numbering 546,were on the 28th of May , 1 3 10, mustered in the gard en

o f the Bishop ’ s p alace,and there the accusation was read

to them . Six of the accused—three knights and threeclerics —protested inthe name of al l against the treatmentthey had received , and demanded the release of all

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MY STER IA

The unfortunate Grandmaster Molay, who receiveda pittan ce o f four sous per diem to alleviate his m i sery ,bore his imprisonment with great fortitude ; but March1 1

,13 13 , he and Godfrey de Charney, an official o f the

order,having retracted their confes sions

,were slowlv

burnt to death !on an island in the Seine, by order of the

King,without any judicial process . Molay, it i s sai d.

cited' the two murderers o f hi s “

brethren,

“Ph i l ip and

Clement, to appear before the judgment seat of Go d .

They both died,one o f colic

,the other in consequence o f

a fall from his horse,eight and th irteen months

,respect

ively, after the death of Molay . The order was sup

presed everywhere except in Portugal , where it took the

name “O rder of Jesus Christ ,” and continued in existence .

Its Grandmaster,Prince Henry the navigator

,a hundred

years afterward , employed its wealth in promoting the

high ends o f c ivil ization . In other countries the Tem

plars either wandered about as fugitives, or”

entered'the

order of Hospitalers . The seizure of the order’

s estates

i n France was annulled by the bull of suppression, butPhilip

,neverthele ss , maintained h is hold on the house of

the order in Paris, and on the treasure there stored . The

remainder o f the property was p lundered by the nobility

and the Church ; and the Pope surely was not forgetful o fhis own interest. The Hospitalers afterward succeeded

to their rights,but that did them hardly less harm' than

good,for it co st them a great sum to release the estates

of the Templars from the grasp o f the robbers ; besides,many a smal l p iece o f property was made away with byprinces

,great lords

,orders , churches, and monasteries .

PART SE VENTH

Th e F emgeri cb te .

‘I . COUR‘TS OF J USTICE IN THE lM IDDLE AGE .

The wild disorder attending the i rruption o f theGothic nations having subsided

,society

,which had lost

its bearings,had to organize itsel f anew. The first step

toward thi s end was taken“

when society ’ s task was dis

tributed among innumerable fractional parts of itsel f, eachfraction trying to do its own share of the work ; the next

step was the uniting o f all these fractional parts underone religious idea—that of Chri stianism ,

and under o nepolitical law—that o f feudali sm . The Pope and the Em

pero r represented the rel igio us/

and the political ideas re ‘

spectively. As long as one was true to Pope and Emperor was a good Christian and a good subj ect—allwas well with him, and he might , in al l other matters, doas he pleased . The princip le of Justice was not regarded :no wrong act was punished as violating right

,but always

as doing harm . Even murder was not regarded as infringement of human right to l i fe

,but simply as harm

done to the people of the murdered one . If one was

without relative s, his slayer went unpunished ; but ifthe murdered man left a family or kinsmen

,the murderer

,

on pay ing to them a ce rtain sum , went forth free . Thus,

the utmost unrestraint prevailed in the several small aggregatio ns of peo ple , and the utmost diversity between

147

148 [MY ST'E ’REUA

one little community and another. O f bureaucratic, centralized , cast-iron government there was no faintestforeshadow ; nor was government a function assigned toany one

,but

,l ike the administration o f j ustice, an ac

quired right. In a given province this one had acquired

the government,that one the c lvi l and a third the crimi

nal judiciary ; one was obeyed in peace, another commanded the pe0p1e in war. Jurisdictions were undefinedand inextricably mixed up

—a consequence o f the feudal

system,under which the King granted rights now to one

man,again to another

, as favors , never inquiring h owthese might consist wi th rights previously granted toothers . In this way it became possible in the Middle

Age for such j uri stic abnormities as the Femgerichte to

come into existence . Th e Femgerichte resulted from

the confusion existing in judiciary affairs,j ust as the

religious abnormity of the monasti c orders of knights resulted from the very opposite condition of things in the

Church—the excess of regulation . For the confusion (absence o f regulation) and the excessive. regu lation were

near akin ; they both sprang out of the unrestraint of

private li fe in the Middle Age, which unrestraint natu

rally produced,under the rule of the Church, a multitude

o f monasti c rules the Rule o f St . Augustin,of

St . Benedict,of St . Columba, while , on the

contrary,the feebleness of the Empire , due to the j ee l

o usy of the Popes and the ambition and avarice o f thefeudal lords

,was fatal to anv organization of the admin

istrative and judicial functions , and though there weremany codes o f law, there could b e n o standard for d is

tinguish ing right and wrong.

The cause o f this d ifference o f development betwe en

State and Church was,that the Church had grown from

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superior,who made up the court as to h im seemed best,

and who even cared nothing for the Empero r.*

Westphalia was the original home of the Femgeri chte , and they owed their ri se to the fact that there the

royal ban (Ko enigsbann), that is to say, the right po ssessed by the King alone

,o f conferring the grafship on

the grafs, was stil l alive, in modified form indeed,yet

with its substance unimpai red . Owing to the grantingof vari ous privileges to ecclesiastical and secular magnates the j uri sdiction of the grafs was in

’

time dividedup . Besides , there were special courts for freemen , and

special courts for the hal f-free and the unfree,the former

courts being under the free grafs , and the other under'

the

gaugrafafs (district grafs). Now,as the majority of the

population were under the gaugrafs , the possession o f

a gaugrafsh ip developed into sovereign ity while the posi

tion o f the free grafs became peculiar : the office was oftensold and passed from hand to hand . The free grafs , whowere o ften persons of l ittl e means, in } order to maintain

their dignity,had to lean on the King’ s ban, or warrant,

obtai nab le from the King alone . But often the free grafship s died out

,or they were consol idated with gaugraf

ships . But nowhere did they retain‘

so much of theiroriginal character as in Westphal ia—a geographical expression of various meanings, indeed , but in general i tdenoted the regi on between the Rhine and the Weser.The term Freigraf dates from the twel fth century .

W hat fi oflillotws regard i ng th e Femgerich te i s bas ed“

on

Theo d o r I J inldrnier’

s wo rk ,

“D ie F ehngefxii oh t e ,

" M ii n s lt er an d Pa

d er'bo rn , 1888 . (VV'

h aterver may hlave b een t’

h e o rig ina l mean ing

of th e wo rd “fem ”

in“femgeri eh t ,

”it i s emowgih to k n ‘onw that

in usage. i t i s equi valen t t o “e eoret

”; h enee fem-geri

‘

oh t—seeretj u dgmenlt , o r secret tribuna l .)

THEE! FEMGER ICHTE ‘

151

Not only the King but the duke also had influenceover the free grafsh ip s . After the break-up of the anci entduchy o f Saxony

,every princely land proprietor within

its territory was duke o f Westphalia ; th is i s spec iallytrue of the Archb i shop of Colog ne , and also o f the

bishop s o f Muenster, O snabrueck and Minden , and of theDuke of Saxe-Lauenburg— dukes of Westphalia all ,

but with more o r less limitatio n . Pro bab ly the duke wasentitl ed to preside over any free court, and to summon tohis own tribunal

,the “

bo td ing,

” the free grafs . So , too ,the stuh lherr (lord o f the manor) possessed the right o fpresiding

,even when he was no prince , but only a graf ;

and often he assumed that the free graf gave j udgment

only in hi s (the lord’ s) name , and so granted release from

the jurisdiction o f the free courts, to cities , for example .The free graf and his assessors

,the sch o efi

’

en (a lower

grade o f j udges), afterward called freischo effen ,consti

tuted the freigericht (free court), afterward known as ferngericht . These offices might fall to any freeman—andany one was reckoned a freeman who had

“his own

smoke,” i . e .

, a house o f his own .

In the latter half o f the i 4th and the first hal f o f the1sth century the emperors bestowed on the archbi shopsof Cologn e

,as dukes of Westphalia and l ieutenants o f the

Emperor,the right of investiture o f al l free grafs and

supervision o f them all over Westphalia. A chapter o ffree grafs was held yearly at Arnsberg, and hence theArnsberg tribunal obtained the first rank .

As the free grafs held their investiture from the king,they loo ked on themselves as king

’ s o fficers , and l ittl eby little went on extending their j uri sdiction over the

whole empire—a design favored by the confusio n reign

ing everywhere, and even approved by the emperors

M iY‘SlT'E 'RJIA

themselves . At last the free grafs began to think that,

th ey

were higher than the emperor,an d had no need of his

meddling : this arrogan ce was at its height in the re igno f S igmund, and it was sti ll to be seen under FredericVI I . ; in fact, Frederi c, for having taken step s to punishsome insubordinate free grafs, was summoned by freegrafs to stand trial .Some of the emperors did

,indeed , set up free graf

tribunals outside the l imits o f VVestphial ia ; but these neverprospered . In the 1sth century it was an

'axiom that

such courts could exist only in Westphal ia,or, as the say

ing was,“on red earth

,

” a phrase that does not occurprior to 1490, and the sense o f which i s. not quite clear ;for neither i s the soil of all Westphal ia red , nor i s red soilconfined to Westphalia : and the same critici sm may bemade i f

“red earth

” be taken for “b loo d-stained earth .

”

2. TH E SE CRE T TR IBUNAL .

The early free co urts were in a certain: sense “private” courts

,inasmuch as they were not open to all l ike

the courts o f the gaugrafs (or judges o f distri cts) . Theasso ciate j udges (Freischo effen) were called

“wissende

”

(wisemen ,knowing ones), which , in old times, meant

“j udges .” .The “private” tribunal o f the Feme became

by degrees a “secret” tribunal about the middle o f the 14thcentury

,as the free grafs became more conscious of their

amb itious aims . Th e Sch o effen were now required to

bind themselves by oath to observe secrecy : the one whoproved false to his oath was first to have his tongu e

p lucked out , and then he was to be hanged, either three

or seven feet higher than a. thief. The penalty was ex

acted very rarely, and probab ly never the first item o f it

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‘MY STER I ‘A

And the long arm o f the Femgericht j uri sdictionreached as far as the host o f wi ssende : the local ities inwhich the activity of the secret tribunals was manifestedwere scattered all over the emp ire ; in fact, the proceedingso f these courts which affected Westphalia itsel f becamea very small fraction of the whole .But with the spread of the Feme j urisd iction aro se

opposition to the same . There were seen faint begi nn ings

of opposition even in the early part of the 14th century,when B remen decided not to al low memb ers o f the Femecourts to reside within its j urisdiction ; toward the closeof that century other citi es took more effective measures

,

and in the i 5th were even formed leagues of cities forsel f-defense against the encroachments o f the Feme.

Brunswick appealed to the Pope and the Emperor, andHildeshe im and Erfurt to the Counci l o f Basel . In“

the

middle o f the 15th century several cities , especial ly inSouthern Germany and in Holland, were freed from the

j uri sd iction o f the secret courts by the supreme ecclesi

astical and civil authorities . Then the dukes of Bavariaand of Saxo nv forbade their subj ects

,

laying complaints inthe Westphal ian courts, and some ci ties punished that o ifense with death , impri sonment, or ban ishment.A Feme court consi sted of a free g raf and;

l

at leastseven scho effen . The graf was required to be a' freebornWestphal ian of stainless reputation, whatever his station inli fe

,fo r peasants were often chosen to be grafs. Th e

sch o effen al so had to be freemen born , and i f not o fWestphalian b irth

,were required to present proofs o f their

fitness . There.was a fee for admission to the Feme. As

time went on the examination o f applicants became l essand less strict , and often very questionable characters ,even serfs and men accused o fcrimes, were admitted zl such

THlE FEMGE‘

R I'CH TE 155

admissions were illegal,and the men chosen under such

circumstances were cal led no tscho effen (makeshift scho effen) .The free graf sat at a judgmen t-board, on which lay a

naked sword and a rope as symbol s o f avenging justice ,and the sch o effen took oath on these instruments . Eachfree graf and each scho eft

’

e o f a given court was requirednot only to be present at a trial , but to take part in pron o uncing sentence . When the trial was o ne of specialimportance several hundred scho effen wo uld be in at

tendance .The Femgerichte had their special cod es and statutes,

which were from time to time amended . In the se thecompetence o f the courts was defined , and this had to do

!With matters purely criminal , at least so far as the trials

were held in secret. The crime s of which the Femgerichtetook cognizance—vemewrogige punkte (po ints fo r femicfanimadvers io n) —were , according to the l i st drawn up atDortmund in 1430,

as follows : I,robbery and acts o f

violence against ecclesiastics or churches ; 2, larceny ;

3 , robbery of a woman in chi ldbed or of a dying person ;4, plundering the dead ; 5, arson and murder :

6, treach ef-

y ; 7, betrayal of the Feme ; 8, rape ; 9, forgeryo fmoney or of title to property ; 10, robbery on the imperial highway ; 1 1 , perjury and perfi dy ; ,

12,refusal to ap

pear in court on summons . Apostasy fro m the Chri stianfaith was put at the head of the list in an assembly heldat Arn sberg 1437, and in 1490 heresy and witchcraft wereadded . For the person fo und guilty .there was but onepun ishment, death , and only one manner of death, by therepe. This penalty could be infl icted wi thout sen tenceif the o ffender were taken in the act, or i f he co nfessedgui lt, or i f there were eyewitnesses of the crime.

MY ST'E -R I ‘A

That among the offenses punishabl e by the Femeh eresy and witchcraft held almost the first place shows that

these tribunals were no obj ect o f apprehen sion to th e cc

cles iastical power. This secret associat ion , therefo re, differed from that of the Templars , as also from that of theStonemasons (which wi ll be next considered) especial ly inthis, that the Feme was no league of I lluminati , but thattheir special ty was opposition to the law of the strongerand to the rule of petty states , and that their aim was to

uphold and exaggerate antiquated j udicial institutio ns.The procedure of the Femgerichte was entirely in ac

cord with the principle o i ancient Teutonic law,that

“where no complainant appears,neither is there any

judge .

” It was not the inquisito rial court procedure

o f the 16th—19th centuries , in which the j udge: made investigatio n on his own account , but a procedure foundedentire ly in the practice of civil courts

, and one that agreedwel l with the independent sp irit o f the M idd le Age, andthe view that then prevailed that law was a matter of personal rights .The free tribunals took up the complaint from what

ever quarter it came . All scho effen, too , were under o bl igation to bring to the attention of the free courts , andto prosecute all doings coming under the animadversionof the Feme . Hence were a sch o effe to give informationregarding such o ffenses to any other court, he was li ableto be hanged ; and the same fate befel the one who , having been entrusted with a bil l o f accusation

,should open

the same and betray its contents . Accusations were notentertained unless when submitted by wi ssende . The aceuser had to stand betwixt two fellow scho effen

,his spon

sors,in front o f th e tribunal in kneel ing posture.In every case the first thing done was to dec ide

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MY STE RILA

that is in the castle that he must on his appo inted daypresent himsel f before the free tribunal

,on behalf o f high

est law and the Emperor ’ s ban . When the oppositionto the Femgerichte began to gain force , the summonerswere in greater peril o ften than the summoned : o ften theylost their l ives .The day of the trial having arrived

,i f the accuser

was not on hand the accused was disch arged . But if theaccused fai led to appear, the accusation was repeated andtestimony taken . The free graf then thrice called the ac

cused by name, and asked i f any one was there as his atto rney . I f there was no appearance of the accused

, the ac

euser could demand judgment “after a se’

enn igh t.”In

making this demand,he

'

knelt, laid two fingers o f the righthand on his naked sword, affi rmed the guilt of the accused ,and six scho effen

,as his sponsors

,maintained the truth

of what he swore . I f the verdict was against the accused,

the free graf arose,and outlawed the accused , in wo rds

like these : “The accused (name and surname) I exceptfrom the peace, the laws and the freedom (of

“the. em

pire) as the same have been stablished and decreed bypopes

.

and emperors ; and I cast him down and place h imin uttermost unquiet and disgrace, and make him i llegiti

mate, banned, outside the peace , dishonored , in secure,loveless ; and I do outlaw him according to the sentenceo f the secret tribunal

,and deV o te his neck to the rope ,

his carcass to the. birds and beasts to devo ur ; and Icommend his soul to the power of God in heaven ; andhi s fi efs and goods I give up to the lords o f whom the fi efs

are held :

a nd I make his wife a wi dow and his ch i ldreno rphans. Then the free graf threw a twi sted cerd outover the bounds of the court, the sch o effen. spat out, and

the name o f the outlaw was written in the boo k o f the

TH ‘E FEMGER ICH TE 159

condemned . Among the persons thus condemned werenumbered some men of high station

,as the dukes Henry

and Louis o fBavaria John,bishop ofWurtzburg,

and others . All free grafs and scho effen were henceforthunder obligation to arrest and to execute sentence uponthe outlaw (but three members of the Feme were re

quired) ; and executing sentence meant hanging the culprit from the nearest tree . O ften the relatives of executedoutlaws of the Feme accused the executioners in the freecourts as assassins , and the court could outlaw its ownministers for carrying out its own decrees . Man y we rethe abuses that arose

,assassination) of innocent perso ns ,

for example . Murderers, too , pretended to be scho effenand h ighwayfnen robbed under pretense of sequesteringthe property of persons condemned by j udgmen t o f theFeme .

I f ever the condemned,being

,

a wissender and not

having overstayed the se’ennight o f grace, appeared incourt with six compurgators he was set free ; but i f hecon fessed his guilt

,or was convicted

,he was executed

forthwith in the usual way . The ban of the Feme couldnever be l ifted ; but the number o f death sentences ac tually carried out was , says Lind

'

ner, so very small that o nem ight readily allow the Feme ’ s decree o f outlawry to bepronounced upon him .

” Pope Nicolas V . in 1452 condemned the capital executions done by the Feme .

I f a man under sentence of death should be provedinnocent befo reh e fell into the hands o fthe executioners ,he was , i f a wissender, brought before the court , wi th arop e around his neck

,wearing white gloves, carrying a

green cro ss,and attended by two sch o effen ; fal l ing on

his knees before the free graf he pleaded for mercy . The

free graf,taking him by the hand, bade him ri se, removed

Feme ’ s j udgment) .Many of the co ndemned, unab l e to procure the ent

femung, ventured to appeal to the Emperor, the camera,the Pope, or a Church Council . But the Femgerich tenever recognized such appeal s

,and protested strongly to

the Emperor against them . They regarded the condemmed as dead, and said that no one had the right

“toawaken the dead .

” The Emperor Sigmund could think of

no means of saving a man under condemnation, exceptby taking him into his own service , for th e Femgeri chtedid not care to take measures against offi cial s o f theKaiser and the empire . Women

,too , as well as aged

men and children , were excepted from the cognizanceo f the . Feme

,also

,in theory , Jews , for Jews were

“ser

vants of the Emperor’ s bedchamber ecclesiastics , also ,

for they could in the Middle Age be tri ed only in the

spiritual courts ; but in the 15th century the Feme dis

regarded these pro vi sions, and summo ned both'

Jewsand ecclesiastics .

3. THE E ND OF THE PM .

But the Initiates of the Red Earth league met thefate th at overtakes al l movements that lag behind thet imes. The Feme did by no means render in the daysof “faustrecht” (fi st-right, the rule o f the stronger) so

great services as it has been credited with : never was

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S ton emas on s’Lo dges o f th e M i d d Ie Ages .

1. ME D IE V AL ARCHITE CTURE .

We have already noted as a prom i nent characteristico f the Middle Age this

,that freedom of action

,except

so far as it interfered with the interests o f the clergy orthe nobles, was left unrestri cted and that individual s

formed social un i ons for the exercise o f it. Thus wehave seen these two dominan t classes uniting to formassociations which fi nallv were crowned by the institution of the military orders . But the medieval world had

'

not followed the ai ts of peace very long after the sto rmytimes of the barbarian invasions , before it b ecame conscious o f a need no t only o f a union of swordsm en and

penmen,but also and stil l more o f a union of handicrafts

men . True , the Middle Age could not rise to such anintell ectual height as would enable it to see that work ismore to be honored than indolence, peace than war:hence the worker had to take a subordinate place . Of

the agricultural laborer this i s true without any reservatio n

’

: but the arti san was more favorab ly situated as soonas the cities had: begun to develop .

But the progress made by the artisans was due tothei r union in corporations or gilds. The co nstitu

tions of the trade gilds derive partly from the collegia”

o f arti san s in anc ien t Rome and part ly from the mo

TH E STONEMA SONS 163

nastic orders . The collegia had secret rites , mysteries ,but of these we have no reliable information ; and it iscertai n that the medieval gi lds had their mysteri es , too .

O f not all the gilds i s this true ; in some o f them thesecret ceremonial consisted only of passwords and

countersigns by which craftsmen recognized their fel~

lows . Th e most elaborate of these mysteries was that ofthe Ston emasons . And the reason if this i s obvious , forof all trad es that of the builder not only makes most demands on the thinking faculty

,involves most detail s , i s

the first to require new methods o f facil itating opera

tions,new. wrinkles

,

” and these easily are made trade

secrets : besides, as builders of temples, the masons ac

quired a sacred and mystical character.After the great migrations the mason ’ s trade had

its home in the monasterie s . As long as architecture orthe builder’ s art was thus under monastic guidance

,it

affected the Romanic style— simple columns,rounded

arches , squat towers ; but when the monks forsook artand science

,in' the l 1th and 12th centuries, the crafts

men no longer saw why they should serve under the direction of men who had no taste for anything but wine ,the ch ase

, and war. And so there arose unions o f masonsoutside of the monasteries , especial ly in the cities , andhenceforth the monastic churches were inferio r to thecity churches in size and sp lendor. The change in thecircumstances of the builders ’ unions, which were nowsel f-controlled

,was seen in the development o f a new

style . Instead of the single co lumns rose clustered columus , symbo l of free union , and of the strength that

comes of harmonious action between equals ; in the placeof rounded arches , pointed ones, to show that the forcesthat conspired to rai se the structure did not sacrifice their

MY STE R IA

several individualities,but freely contributed each its

share toward the attainment of the end ; in place of squat,close towers, tall sp ires asp iring to in fi n itude, and openon al l sides

,as much as to say

,Here we stand free and

open , acknowledgi ng no laws but those ofTh en came decoration of the window arches , whichshowed a different design in each

,thus entering a pro test

against all stereotyped uniformity . This was the trueGermanic or Gothic architecture

,the triumph of the free

Teutonic sp irit,which favors the unhindered develop

ment a nd the unrestri cted independence of individualgenius . It was also the expression of mystici sm , withinnumerable spirelets striving heavenward to fi nd' theDivine . Hence the Gothic style has somewhat of gloomand melancho lv in its vast arches and narrow windows .It invites the free spontaneous spirit o f man to sound thedepths of hi s own nature, and so is as adverse to o b

trus ive dogmati sm as to reckless investigation . and il

luminsm ,which disturb prejudices . Hence as the

Romanic style i s the architecture o f the popedom, so i sthe Gothic that o f free church l i fe ; and then the archi

tecture o f i l lumini sm fol lowed as the style o f the Renai ssauce.

2. TH E STONEMA SONS ’ LODGE S OF GERMANY .

The meeting places o f the masons ’ unions in thec ities were the board huts that stood on the site o fchurches in process o f constr uction , affording sh elter tothe masons o r stone cutters while at work. These huts,or “lodges ,

” were at an early period leagued together,and the members of the leagues

,in memory o f their

formerly having been' inmates o f monasteries , called‘

one

another Brother, and their unions Brotherhoods ; they

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MY STE R IA’

the other side o f the Moselle ; and to that o f Vienna,Austria, Hungary , I taly. Swi tzerland stood apart undera separate master, who had his seat at Berne ; Zurichafterward succeeded to the place o f B erne . The masonso f Northern Germany

,on the right bank o f the Rhine

(Thuringia , Saxony , were only nominal ly membersof the league : as matter o f fact they were subordinateto none o f these lodges

,but they adopted a speci al “o r

der” for themselves at Torgau in 1462. In these regula

tions we find man y striking evidences of the sturdy goodsense o f the masons . For example

,they were fo rb id

den to disparage deceased masters and their works ; al soto teach others their art for money

,for they ought to

deal wi th each other as friends ; one master was not toexpel a fellowcraft ; to do so he must not only take

counsel with two other masters, but also a majori ty o f

the fellowcrafts must appro ve ; differences between masters should b e settled by arbitrators chosen from mem~

bers of the l eague .In the brotherhoods brotherly comradeship played

an important part. Meetings were held monthly, and'

the business ended wi th a feast. Each General lodgeyearly held a grand assembly ; and the festivals o f Saint

John the Baptist,and of the so -called “Four Crown ed

Ones,

” were holidays for the l eague . Each meeting o f alodge was open ed and c lo sed with questions and an

swers of the master and the comrades . To the j ourney

man,as soon as he began to travel, were communicated

the secret signs of the brotherhood—passwords,grip ,

etc. With these he identified himself as a brother masonwherever he went, an d so had the right to learn the trade

gratis . On coming to a hut where stone-cutting wasgoing on

,he first shut the door, so as to knock on it

TH E STONE MA SONS 167

after the masonic fashion ; then asked , Are Germanmasons at work here ?” Forthwith the comrades madesearch through the hut

,shut the doors, and ranged them

selves in a right angle ; the visitor placed h is feet at righ tangles

,saying, God bless the worthy masons ;

”to which

the answer was “Go d thank the worthy masons ,

” and

so on, questions and answers many , among them

these : “Who sent you forth” ? “My honored master, honored sureties, and the whole honored masons

’

lodge at X .

“What for ?” “For discip l ine and right behavior.” “What is discip line and right b ehavior?” “Theusages of the craft and its customs .”

O f the rites of initiation in those times we knownothing : what Fallou has on that head regarding theusages o f the German stonemasons i s simply borrowedfrom the Freemasons ’ ritual o f the present time . I t i shighly probable that in the medieval masons ’ lodges the

technical detail s of the craft and its sec rets plaved thechief part in the ceremonies o f initiation. The medievalstonemasons also employed as symbols o f their craft thehammer

,the circle . the square, etc ., also mystic figures

,

e . g., the flaming star (which was the Pythagorean pentagram

,or the magic hexagram—two triangles laid across

each other), the two pillars‘

of Solomon ’ s temple, wine

skins,ears of corn

,interlaced cords

,etc . The only

other po int o f any consequence of which we have certainty is that the postulant swore to observe secrecy .

But there i s no doubt that the drinking usages as handed

down to us are authentic . For example , the glass wasnever to b e han ded to the ban queter

,but set on the table

before him ; th en , he must not touch it save wi th theright hand—covered with a white glove or a white napkin

,when a special toast i s drunk.

MY STE R IA’

The masons ’ brotherhoods were a distinctly Chri stian institution : the members were required by the “

Or

dinances” to comp ly with all the usages o f the Church .

This was a survival from the time when the lodges hadtheir origin in monasteri es . The sects that arose onevery side despite bloody persecutions

,and the illumin

i sm spread abroad by them , contributed to bring abouta change in the spirit o f the masons which was noticeable

in the i 4th and 15th centuries : many, perhaps a ma

jo rity, of them acquired a sp iri t o f opposition to Romanecclesiasti cism

,and it was very plainly mani fested in their

sculpture . More b itter satire cannot be imagined thanthey employed ; and what is most significant is that itfound expression in the churches themselves . Thus ina representation o f the Last Judgment in , the Berne min

ster a pope wearing a glittering tiara o f gold is seentumb l ing headlong into Hell ; and in the vestibule theWise and the Foolish Virgins are shown keeping vigil1but the fool ish ones wear cardinal s ’ hats , bishops

’ mitresand priests ’ caps . The Doberan Church in Mecklen

burg shows a mill in which church dogmas are ground

o ut. At Strasburg was seen a p rocession of al l manner

of beasts with blazing torches and an as s performing

the mass ; at Brandenburg was sh owru a fox preachingto a flock of geese , etc.

I lluminism is the foe o f knighthood and ecclesi

asticism ,fo r i llumini sm know-s no privilege o f b i rth or

o f rank or of vocation . Hence, in so far as such bodiesas the Templars and Stonemasons favored illuminism ,

they undermined the institutions to which they owed their

existence,and so were working fo r their own extinction .

The down fal l o f the Stonemasons’ brotherhood had its

causes even in the age b efore the Reformation, in that

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craftsmen fo rm strong societies,with secret constitution s

and usages .There are several soc ieties of French craftsmen

(compagnonnages), but they are not distinguished according to locality, but according to the supposed mannero f their first in stitution and the branch of the craft whichthey represent . They are divided, first

,into two great

sections , the Compagnons du Devoir (companions ofduty), and the Compagnons de la Liberte (companionsof l iberty) . The fo rmer are again divided into the Enfants de Maitre Jacques (Master James

’ s children) , andthe Enfants de Maitre Soub i se (Master Soubise

’ s children),but the latter commonly cal led themselves Enfants d cSalomon . Between the Compagnons du Devoir and the

Compagnons de la Liberte,as well as between the ‘ chil

dren of James and those o f Soubise , there exi sts the b it

terest enmity which is m i rrored in their myths and trad itio n s . According to the story o f the Devoir comrades,at the building of Solomon ’ s temple

,Hiram

,master

builder, to maintai n discipline and order among the workmen

,instituted societies with special passwo rds and secret

ritual . But that act was the o ccasion of his death , forsome workmen slew him because he refused to gi ve themthe countersign of the masters : those evildoers were . the

founders o f the Compagnonnage: de la Liberte ! Now

amo ng the faithful workmen were two Gaulish masters,James

,stonemason

,and Soubise , carp enter : these , after

the completio n of the temp le , returned home , and landing,one at Marseilles

,the other at Bo rdeaux, founded socie

tie s after the pattern o f those instituted by Hiram ; andthese societies , l ittl e by littl e , admitted craftsmen otherthan builders

,but the two bodies l ived in perpetual ha

tred of each other, each claiming prio rity. Each of them

TH E STONEMA SONS 171

refers its own institution (on what grounds is un

known ) to the years 558 B . C . and 550 B . C. , respectively,and each possesses authentic documents in proo f, thoughnone has ever seen them . The Liberte tradition i s thesame as that of the Devoir

,only the respective parts o f

the chief actors are reversed . In the bosom of LaLiberte are gathered four crafts—stonemasons , carp enters

,j oiners

,locksmiths . The Devoir includes 28 crafts,

and of these the children o f Soubise compri se the car

pen ters , ro o ferrs and p lasterers ; to the children o f Jamesbelong the stonemasons, j oiners , locksmiths, and 22 other

trades,introduced in later times

,but all connected with

housebui lding,except hatmakers . All other craftsmen

whose work i s the production of clothing and foodstuffsare excluded from the compagnonnages

,and form sepa

rate societi es o f their own . The sho emakers and thebakers, in particular, are h eld in contempt, and persecuted in .every way

'

by the compagnons ; while among

James ’ s children even the members of the building craftsde sp i se their jun iors (trades o f less ancient lineage) , andin their ignorance derive the word compagnon from“

compas (a pair o f compasses), the symbol of the art

of building ; hence in ”daeir eyes the other trades are quitedestitute of art or skill .

Even craftsmen of the same trade,but belonging to

different leagues , whether Devoir or Liberte , oppose eachother in every way . The carpen ters o f Pari s have madean end o f thi s stri fe by dividing the cosmopol itan city

between themselves , the compagno ns du Devoir takingthe left and those o f La Liberte the right bank of theSeine . With the other trades and in the provinces thecase i s worse , the hostile leagues '.o ften engaging instreet fights and p itched battles . Even in the same tradeand in the same league hosti lities o ften break out.

MY STE R IA.

O f the French corporations o f craftsmen , tho se of thebuilding trades , especially the stonemasons, probab lyarose about the same time as the German masons ’ lodges :at least there existed in the Middle Age in southern

France,a soci ety o f bridge-builders , who , for the behoof

o f p ilgrims to -the Holy Land and wayfarers in general,

maintained bridges, roads and inns . The earl iest

known charter was granted in 1 189 , by ,Pope Clement

I I I .

, who ,l ike hi s third predecessor

,Lucius I I I .

,took

them under his p rotection . As emblem they wore o n

the breast a pointed hammer. The other compagnon~

nages can show no authenti c records of earlier date thanthe 14th century . The most an cient of th em is the soc iety of the Dyers

,dating from 1330. Admission to‘ these

societies involves many ceremo nies derived from theritual of the Catholic Church ; hence , the Tailors andShoemakers were in 1645 denounced to the ecclesiasticaltribunals

,and their meetings forbidden by the theo lo gical

faculty of Paris .

4. TH E ENG‘ IJI S‘

H STONE MA SONS .

While the German soc ieti es of handicraftsmen wereoppressed by the imperial power, and the French societies lived in obscurity

,the English masons ’ lodges

,on the

contrary,attained high importance . Trad ition traces

English (operative) masonry back to King Alfred the

Great (87 1 and his successor, Athel stan , whose

younger son,Edwin

,i s said to have cal led meetings of

masons,and to have given laws to their lodges . H OW

ever that may be,it i s certain that in England , as in

Germany,impo rtant edifices were erected by the clergy,

and that Dunstan,archbisho p of Can terbury, was an ac

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As tro l ogers an d A l ch em i s ts .

Th e ep och of the Reformation closed with the re

co very to the Catholi c Church of a large proportio n of

its lost territory through the labors of the Jesuits . Long

b efore the Thirty Years ’ War the zeal for religious creedshad died out ; pe0p1e had grown weary of theological

stri fes,though they had littl e taste for other serious mat

ters and thus it came about that in the transition from the

l oth to the 17th century such pseudo- sciences as Alchemyand Astrology had great vogue . The study of Astrology

had fo r its aim only fame and g lo rv. and. therefore , was

pursued openly ; while Alchemy being inspired mainly byavarice, had its laboratories in dark cellars , and made astrict secret o f its processes .Hence, it was natural that Alchemy, or the pretended

art of producing gold and silver, should‘ give rise to

secret associations,especially as it employed sundry

mystic,theosophic

,and kabbali stic means for attaining

its e nds,such as were used by the pup il s and fol lowers of

the famous Theophrastus Bombastus Paracelsus , refo r'.

er o f the medical art, and one of the most zealous o f

astronomers and alchemists . That was the era of a JacobBoehme

,shoemaker and philo sopher

,who

,though he

had none of the “accurst h unger

” for the prec ious metals,

gave an impetus to fatuous investigations of divine things .th e beginning of the 17th century a multitude o f

writings about this mystic and superstitious business ap

A STROLOGER S AND A LCHEM ISTS 175

peared , pro and contra . In this battle o f go o sequills the

Lutheran theologi an , John Valentine Andraea of Tueb in

gen (b . 1586, d . took a very p rominent part .

Andrcae in 1614 conceived the thought o f playing a trickon these my stics by publishing two satirical pieces , inwhich was given an account of an alleged secret societydesigned to promote studies o f that kind ; to thi s society

he gave a name suggested by the design of his own fam ilyseal (a Saint Andrew

"9 cross

,with roses at the ends of its

four arms)—Rosicrucians . These writings,

“Fama Fra

tem itatis Ro seae Cruci s” (Fame o f the Brotherhood o f the

Rosy Cross) and“Confessio Fraternitatis” (Confession of

Faith o f the Brotherhood) traced the pretended societyback to a monk named Chri stian Rosenkreuz

,who,

in the 14th and 15th centuri es, visted the holy land ,was instructed in the occult sc iences in the East, foundedamong his fel low—monks the brotherhood called byhis name

,

'

and died.at the age of 106 years . After

a lapse of 120 years , in his tomb , which , in accordancewith the rule of the o rder

,was kept secret

,but which was

a magnificent structure in a vault, was found resting o n

his incorrupt body a p archment book containing the constitutio n and the secrets o f the order. A later document“Chymische Hochzeit Chri stiani Rosenkreuz

”

(alchymic

nuptial s o f Christian Rosenkreuz), which appeared in

1616, span the sto ry out to greater length . Now, so

great was the alchemisti c furore o f that time that the tale

pas sed for solemn! truth , and a swarm of writings fol

lowed , championing or battl ing against the Society o f theRosicrucians . To the opponents of the Rosy Cross be

longed the theologi ans , who sniffed heretical tenets in the“documents . and the medical men who scented dangerto their close gi ld ; while the alchemists, and

'

particularly

MY STE 'R IA

the followers o f Paracelsus, inquired diligently after theRosicrucians, and maintained the authentic ity o f their

Constitution . No r was there lack of attempts at interpreting in a mystical sense the symbol o f the Rosy Cross :it s ignified Holiness j oined with S ilentio usness ; it typefled the rose—colored B lood of Christ poured out on thecross . Astounded by the war of no-wits against l ittle-wits

occasioned unintentionally by himself,Andreae tried to

undo the m i schief by putting forth two pieces,“Myth o

logia Christiana,” and “

Turris Babel,’ to prove that the

whole thing was a j oke,that the Brotherhoo d was a fi c

tion and non—existent. But as he neglected to name himsel f as author o f th e first two writings

,in vai n did he pour

out on the Ro s icrucian istic parti sans all the vitriol o f his

contempt . In vain , w ith a V i ew to lead men ’ s fancy inother directions , did he found a

“Christian B rotherhoo d”

for the purpose o f purging religion of abuses and planting true p iety . The insanity persisted . Alchemy, barely alluded to in Andreae

’

s writings , became the subj ecto f a multitude of new boo ks , whose authors gave o ut thatthey were members of the alleged society . The incident

was also turned to account.

by adventurers and by factions of every sort ; the th ing went so far that in the

Rhineland and the Low Countries secret alchemisti c societies were founded under the name of Rosicr ucians ,which also took the style Fraternitas Roris Co o ti

(Brotherhood of Boiled Dew), that i s, of the Philosoph'

ers ’

Stone ; but these soci eties had‘ no general organizationamong themselves . Many a

' Wight was choused out o fh is money by these schemers . There were branch so

c ieties in Germany and Italy . In England Dr. Rob ert

Fludd,an arden t mystic and alch emist, propagated the

singular order by pub l i shing a number'

o fwritings. W ith

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Ri s e an d Con s ti tuti on o f Freemas on ry .

1 . R I SE OF FRE EMA SONRY.

The Reformation an d the events connected with ithad given people much matter of

"

meditation . But the

intolerance shown by the authorities and by the membersof both creeds

,in maltreating and persecuting their o p

po nents , so ali enated all humane minded men that secretlypeople began to care neither for the interest o f Protestanti sm nor for that of Catholicism,

and in the commonbrotherhood of mankind to d i sregard all differences o fcreed . I lluminism,

which had been “good form” thoughin a frivolou s sense among the Templars

,and in a satiric

sense among the Stonemason s , took a more dignified

shape‘

,not of incredul ity but o f earnest desire to bui ld up

,

and to this consummation the English masb ns con

tributed materially . In England people had had enougho f stri fe over creeds

,enough of persecution of Protestants

under “B loody Mary” and of Catholics under the in

flexible Elizabeth,and they longed for tolerance . They

derived the princip le s of tolerance from renascent litera

ture and art, which made such impression that as in anearlier age the Romanic architecture

, so now the Gothic,as the expression o f a definite phase of b el ief

,lo st its fol

lowing,and the so - called Augustan or “Renaissance

style—an imitation o f the ancient Grecian and Roman

style s—won the day wi th al l who knew anything o f art .

178

FREE MA S ONRY 179

The Renaissance style was brought to England by the

painter Inigo Jones, who had learned his art in Italy, and

who,under James I .

,became in 1607 superintendent gen

eral of royal constructions, and at the same time presidentof the Freemasons

,whose lodges he reformed . Instead

of the yearly general meetings he instituted quarterlymeetings : such masons as adhered to the manual craft

and cared nothing for intel lectual aims were permittedto go back into th e trade gilds ; while, on th e other hand ,men of talent not belonging to the mason ’ s trade, butwho were interested in architec ture and in the aspira

tions of th e time, were taken into the lodges under thename of “accepted brethren .

” Under the altered Cir

cumstances a new,bold sp iri t awoke among the Free

masons,and it found support in the sentiment of brother

l iness , irrespective of creeds , then everywhere p revalent.Thi s disposition o f minds was promoted in an incalcu

lable degree by the pictures drawn by Sir Thomas Morein his “Utop ia,

” and by Sir Franci s Bacon in his “NewAtlanti s

,of countries existing, indeed , only in their

imagination,but which presented ideal conditions

,such as

enlightened minds might desire to realize upon this earth ;also by the writings of the Bohemian preacher, AmosKomensky (latinized Comenius) , who, during the ThirtyYears ’ War was expelled from his country by the partisans o f the Emperor

,and came to England in 1641

writings that condemned all churchly bigotry and pleadedfor cosmopolitanism . As men of the most diverse views ,pol itical and religious , were in the lodges, the order suffered severely during t he civi l commo tions o f the firstand second revolution , but on the return of peace it morethan recovered lost prestige . The rebuilding of London , and in particular St . Paul

’ s Cathedral added

MY STE R IA’

greatly to the fame of English masonry? Sir Chri stopherWren

,builder of Saint Paul ’ s

,was of the brotherhood .

But about the time of the death of Will iam I II .

owing to slackness of occupation in the building trades,the Freemaso n lodges became conscious of a serious defect in their organization . The members who were praetical ly connected with the operative craft of masonry were

steadily decl ining in number, and the“accepted” masons

had become the majority . The lodges,therefore , had

come to be a sort o f club s, an d thi s tran sformation spreadrap idly in London .

Another influence that came in to affect the development o f English freemasonry was the diffusion of dei stical

Op inions by Locke’ s school in philosophy . Though the

lodges then,as now

,made loud protestations o f ortho

doxy,they could not“ withdraw themselves out o f the

deistical atmosphere o f the period .

The resultan t o f these different influencesgained theupper hand in the club s or lodges of the quondam masons,now Freemasons . They now aimed at a more thorough

betterment of morals on a conservatively deistical basis .

But the necessity o f a closer organization was recognized .

Two theologian s,Theophilus D esaguliers (who was both

a naturalist and a mathemati cian) and James Anderson,together with George Payne

,antiquary, were the fore

most men of those who,in the year 17 17, effected the

union of the four lodges of masons in London in oneGrand Lodge

,ari d procured the election of a Grand Mas

ter and two Grand Wardens,thus instituting the Free

masons ’ Union as it exists at this day ; What Jerusalemi s to Jews and Mecca to Mohammedans, and Rome toCatholics , that London is to Freemasons .

Henceforth the masons of England were no lo nger

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M Y STE R I A

proceeds . Political parties,al so

,were not regarded

among Freemasons : one pri ncipl e alone was common to

them al l— love of country,resp ect for law and order, de

sire for the common wel fare .

Inasmuch as the league must prize unity , one ofthe first decrees of the Grand Lodge was one declaringillegitimate all

’

lodges created without its sanction . Henceto thi s day no lodges are recognized as such which are

not founded original ly and mediately from London . Desp ite this restri ction there sprung up even in the first

years after the institution o f the Grand Lodge a multitude o f new lodges

,which received authorization from the

Grand Lodge . With .these numerous accessions theneed of general laws became pressing

,and at request of

the Grand Lodge, Anderso n , one of the founders , under

took to compare the existing statutes of the o rde r with

the ancient records and usages of the Stonemasons , andto compile them in one body of law. The result wasthe “Book of Constitutions

,which i s. sti l l the ground

work of Freemasonry . It has been printed repeatedly,and is accessible to every one . Anothe r foundation stone

o f Freemasonry was laid by the Grand Lodge in 1724,

when it instituted the “committee for benefi cence, thus

giving play to one of th e most admirable features of the

order—that o f'

gi ving help to the needy and unfortunate ,whether within the order or without .The inner organization o f the o rder, finally, was com

p leted by the introduction of the Degrees . Brothers

who had fil led the post of Masters,on retiring from o i

fi ce,did not return to the grade of Fel lows

,but consti

tuted a new degree , that of Masters : on the other hand ,

newly admitted members were no longer forthwith Fel

lows,but only apprentices : these degrees were instituted

FRE EMA SONRY 183

probably in 1720 ; at that time no other higher degreeswere known . Th e right to promote apprentices to the

degree of Fellow,and Fellows to that o f Master, pre

vio us ly a function of the Grand Lodge , was accorded tothe subordinate lodges in 1725.

Soon Freemasonry spread abroad . Lodges arosein all civil ized countries

,founded by English masons or

by foreigners who had received masonic initiation in Engla nd ; these lodges. when sufficiently numerous , unitedunder Grand Lodges . The Gran d Lodge of I relandwas created in 1730,

those of Scotland and of France

in 1736, a provincial lodge o f England at Hamburg in1740,

the Unity Lodge of Frankfort-o n -the-Main in 1742,

and in the same year a lodge at Vienna,the Grand

Mother Lodge of the Three World-spheres at Berlin in1744, etc . A lodge was instituted at Boston

,Mass ,

inI 733 , and from Boston the order spread to Philadelphia .

Thus in the space of thirty years from its o rigin freemasonry existed in all civil ized lands , and so d id not lag

behind its opposite pole, Jesuiti sm ,in respect o f rap idity

of propagation . Opposite poles these two societies are,for each possesses precisely those qualities which the .

other lacks . Th e Jesuits are strongly central ized,the

freemasons only confed erated . Jesuits. are contro lled b y

one man ’ s will,Freemasons are under majority rule .

Jesuits bottom morality in expediency,Freemaso ns in

regard for the wellbeing o f mankind . . Jesu its recogn ize

only one creed , Freemasons hold in respect al l honestconvictions . Jesuits seek to break down personal inde

pendence, Freemasons to build it up .

2. CONSTITUTION OF TH E ORDE R .

The Society of Freemasons , because o f its histori cpropagation

,through sets from the English stock and

through further budding and branching of these , forms

no unitary organic whole . I t has no central or supremeauthority , no common head , whether acknowledged or

unacknowledged . Its sole unity consists in a commonname and a common end

,in the common recogn ition

signs,in agreement as to the general internal polity

,and

in a general unifo rmity o f usages,tho ugh th ese show

marked differences also . But very different between onecountry and another are the methods employed for at

taining the ends of Freemasonry ; different also is the o r

gan izatio n of the lodge and the arrangement o f the work .

Regarding the common end and aim of Freemasonrythere is lack of p erfect defi n iteness . In this regard Free-c

masonry presents a strong contrast to its rival,

“

Jesuiti sm,

which has only too clear perception o f its aim . But so

much i s ab so lutely indisputable , that the end o f Freemasonry i s neither rel igious nor po l itical

,but purely

‘

moral . Freemas onry labors to promote the wellbeing

o f mankind” : here al l Freemasons are at o ne , thoughsome of them may lay more stress on material wellbeing

,some on purely moral

,some on spiritual welfare

,

while again'

o thers will consider the wellbeing of the

whole,and stil l others

,the wellbeing of individual s as the

o bj ect of the society . But as th ese several views are by

no means mutually exclusive , but, in fact , complementary

of one another,this lack of definition in the end of the

society cannot be any hindrance to the'

society ’ s benefi

cent labors . And as matter o f fact the society has

wrought much good . Not only does it help its own

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MY STE R I A

No doubt many persons are desirous o f knowingwhat takes p lace on the admission of a would-be Freemason . For the sake of such persons it may b e re

marked that these ceremonies are different in differents ystems

,and that consequently an exposition o f them

would require a more than ordinarily voluminous work ;that, furthermore, when communicated in writing, they

lo se all the effect they have when employed in the act o fin itiation ; and that thevwould be likely to

'

make no im

pression whatever on one who sho uld desire to know

them out of mere curiosity .

In the ceremonial of Freemasonry symbols or emLlematic devices hold a prominent place . O f these th emost ancien t are borrowed from the stonemasons ’ lodges ,and

,therefore

,represent masons ’ tools and implements ;

other symbo lic devices are reminiscent o f various secretsoci eties or o f ecclesiastical rites . But both in symbolismand in ceremonial many abuses have , in the course oftime

,crept in , and innovations have been mad e which

mar the native simplicity o f the order and divert it fro mthe pursuit o f more useful" ends .The recognition signs

,the ceremonial, and the sym

bols are the only secrets in Freemasonry . Mysteries ,that i s to say

,knowledge of things that are hidden from

all other persons,the order has none

,and the cl aims that

have been made in that regard are without foundation .

Discretion , with respect to the business o f the lodges andthe membership , Freemasonry enjo ins in common withmany other societies ; and so far the order i s a close

society, or a private soc iety , and not a secret soci ety. Of

s ecret machinations and intrigues such as are hatched inthe Jesuit order and in the secret political associations ofo ur

otime, th ere is no trace in Freemasonry .

FRE E'MA SONRY 187

The masonic organization o f each co untry exists foritsel f and in entire independence of other countries . A

'

mino r union of Freemasons,consisting o f members , al l

o f whom,as a rule

,attend its meetings

,i s cal led a Lodge .

The place (city, town , vil lage , in which there are

one or more lodges is cal led Orient ; the presiding officero f a lodge is the Master

,and with him are associated two

Wardens besides other offi cers . The assemblage of themembers

,as well as the place in which they meet, i s

cal led a lodge . A lodge may be an iso lated one,that

i s, entirely independent ; but that i s rarely the cas e ; as arule each lodge belongs to a union of lodges , calledGran d Lodge

,o r Grand Orient. The several lodges of

such a union work sometimes on one common system,

sometimes on different systems . Again,the grand

lodges differ greatly in their organization . As a rule

they,

have a Grand Master,with several Grand Officers,

and these are either elected by delegates from all the as

sociate lodges,or are named by certain specially priv

i leged lodges . The freest masonic constitution is thatof Switzerland

,adopted in 1844 : there the seat of the

Grand Lodge is changed in every five years . In monarchical countries the royal residence city i s usually theseat of the Grand Lodge . There are in Germany eightgrand lodges

,whose jurisdictions overlap one another

,so

that often there may be in a given city several lodges belonging to as many different gran d lodges : but that doesno prejudice to fraternal harmony . France

,Belgium

,

Spain, and Braz i l have each two grand lodges , each witha distinct system o f ritual . But in Holland

,Switzerland

,

Denmark, Sweden , England , Scotland, Ireland, Hungary , Italy, Portugal , and Greece al l the lodges of eachcountry belong to one grand lodge . In each of the states

MY STER IA’

of the American Union there i s a grand lodge,and the

same is to be sai d of the larger states of Central andSouth Ameri ca . In the Briti sh colonies and dependencies

, India , the Cape , Australasia , etc ., the lodges are

under the j uri sdiction o f the Grand Lodge of the UnitedKingdom : British America , however, has its own GrandLodge . The grand lodges of the world number more

than 90, the subordinate lodges more than and

the members,perhaps

,one million

,reckoning only those

in good and regular standing ; but this i s only a roughestimate ; precise figures are not obtainab l e in default o fa unitary o rganization .

3 . TH E LODGE .

The several lodges are named after p erso ns , virtues,masoni c emblems, historic events, etc. In America andEngland they are often designated by numbers indicativeo f th e time of their foundation . A lodge may be erectedwherever a certain number o f resident accepted brethren,among them at least three masters

,desire to effect

an organization,and obtain the approval of the grand

lodge having jurisdiction . An indispensable requisitefor a lodge is a “well tiled apartment—one well protected against the intrusion of outsiders , spies, or eavesdroppers . Usually the lodge i s a square oblong hall o r

room,furnished after the manner o f the time and country,

and decorated with the masonic insignia. The attire o f

the assemb led brethren i s usually black, with white gloves

(emb lematic o f hands not soiled by unj ust gain) and ashort white leather apro n

,a memento o f the stonemason s

and of the o bligation to labor. The use of other insignia

and o f tokens to indicate the rank o f the officials is l eftto the discretion o f the several lodges . In England and

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MY STE B IA

are also known as the Saint John degrees, and the lodges

as'

lodges o f St . John,the Baptist being the chosen. pa

tron o f the order, as he was also o f the medieval stone

maso ns and of the Templars . The fact that the masons

are under the patronage of Saint John the Bapti st i s in ~

terpreted to mean that the order i s the forerunner o f ahapp ier condition o f mankind , as John was the forerun ~

ner of Jesus . On the feast o f Saint John (June 24th) orthereabout, in the year 17 17, the first meeting of the

Grand Lodge of London was held ; and on that same daythere i s held in every masonic lodge througho ut the

world a festival at on ce grave andAll males who have attained legal majority, and

who are of good repute an d their own masters,are el igible

for admission to the o rder,without regard to race, sta

tion , calling, or creed . Unfortunately,Freemasons have

not always and everywhere been free from antiquatedprejud ices in the admission of new members: Down tothi s day lodges in the United States shut their doors in

the face o f men of color,i . e .

,of those who are no t whites ;

and many German,Danish

,and Swedish lodges

,both

grand and particu lar,exclude Jews ; in consequence

,

there are very many lodges o f colored men and in Germany some Jewish lodges

,whereas in the British col

o n ies brethren o f all colors and creed s work together inthe same lodges .Women and children are not altogether shut out

*W e ma k e n o ment i on here o f t h e so -cal led hig her de

grees ,

”wh i ch are , in fa ot , b u t ama teuri sh fabri ca t io n s , w i th.

o u t a ny p racti cal a im . They are d i s ta s tefu l f o rm s o f. th e ,tru e

freema s o nry ; they d iffer a s to name and num ber b et o ne

s y s tem an d an o ther ; an d th e true l o d g es o f Sa in t J o hn free s

ma s o n s reco gn i ze n o sueh “sup ergrad ua t i o n .

”Th e h igher d e

g rees are con s i d ered in an o ther part o f. t h i s work .

FREE MA SONRY 191

from Freemasonry everywhere . I t is the almost universal

custom to admit, before the attainment of majority , ma ~

sons ’ sons , who may have been instructed by their fathers

as to the meaning of Freemasonry . There are also spe

c ial meetings which the wives , the betrothed , the si sters ,and the daughters of masons are permitted to attend . B ut

we have an unmaso n ic excrescence and an abuse when, asin French lodges

,with doors open to the public, a ma~

sonic baptism and a masonic marriage ceremony are performed with special ri tual ; sti l l more worthy o f repro bation are the Adoption lodges or Women ’ s lodges , insti

tuted at various times in France : in these women wereinitiated with a ceremonial adapted to the occasion , and

were promoted to various degrees ; thus , before the Revolutio n the luckless Princess de Lamballe , in the time ofNapoleon the Empress Josephine , and under the Resto ration the Duchess de Laro chefo ucauld were presidents o f

lodges . In other quarters also the cry has been raised

for the admission o f the fair sex : but needless to say thatsuch an innovation would very seriously compromise. thegravity , the dignity , and the secrecy o f the order

,and

breed tro ub l e , both in the lodges and in the famil ies o f themembers . Once a woman was unwittingly admittedto the secrets of Freemasonry . Elizabeth Aldworth

,

daughter of the Irish V i scount D o nneraile, in whose housea lodge used to hold its meetings

,on one occasion

,in her

young girlhood, peeped through a crack in a partition andwitne ssed the admission of a mason . She was caught inthe act

,and

,to prevent betrayal , was hersel f initiated . In

her after l i fe she was noted for her acts o f benevolence,

and once,wearing the masonic togs

,headed a public walk

o f the brethren . The Empress Maria Theresa also,it i s

said , dressed in man’ s apparel , once stole into a lo dge in

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194 MY STE R I A

woman . Th ere were Esperan ce lodges in several cities ofGermany ; at Go ettingen the university students j oined the

order for the sake o f the refinement o f manners got fromassociationwith the ladies . There i s some doubt as to thetrue character of the

“Order o f Saint Jonathan” (afterward of Saint Joachim) , qual ified as

“fo r True and Perfeet Friendship ,

”or

“ for the Defense of the Honor o f

Divine Providence .

” I ts end would seem to have beento propagate belief in the Trinity

,to refrain from th e

dance (esp ecially the waltz) , and from games o f chance ;al so (this for the femal e members) to nurse their own

children . I t was founded by some German nobles , andits first gran dmaster was Christian Fran cis, Duke of

Saxe-Coburg . Though Protestants and Catholics weremembers of the order

,it took on a strongly Catholic

character, and in I 785 adopted the style o f“the knightly

Secular Chapter o f the Order o f Saint Joachim, the b lessedFather o f the Holy Virgin Mary , Mother o f Our Lordand Savior Jesus Christ” (ritterlich bweltliches o rdenska~

pitel von St. Joachim,etc .) Th e society passed quietly

out o f exi stence . The “Order of the Pilgrims ’ Chain

(Kette der Pilgrime) , in Germany and Denmark , whosemembers belonged to the higher classes

,had for its motto

“Courtesy,Steadfastness , and Silence

”

(Wil lfaehri gkeit ,Bestaend igkeit, Still schweigen), and wore in a buttonhole a white ribbon bearing the initial letters

o f those three words . The members , male andfemal e, were cal led Favorites (favoriten) ; to admit

a new member was “to add a link to the chain” ;and any member could add any link whom hemight have known for half a year. The symboli sm

was borrowed from travel . The “O rder o f Argonauts”

was founded in 1772 by Conrad von Rh etz, a Brunswick

SE CRE T SOC IE TIE S OF 18TH CENTURY 195

Freemason . On an islet in a pond leased to him by thestate he built a temple in which the members were in itiated. They app roached the temple in barges and thereWere entertained by th e Grand Adm iral , as the founderwas styled . Th ere was no fee for admis sio n . The mottowas “Long Live Gladness the badge o f the order wasa green-enameled anchor of silver. The officers, besi des

the Grand Admiral, were the Pilot, the Ship’ s Chaplain ,

and so forth,and the members were Argonauts . After

the founder’ s death'

the order went to wreck,and the

temple disappeared, leaving no vestige . The renowned

Fene lon founded at Douai an order called“the Palladi

um ,

” its secret dialect was taken from his romance “Tele

masque .”

The Order of the Mustardseed . said to have beenfounded in England in 1708 : it sp read over Holland and

Germany : it assumed the form o f a‘ Protestant cl ericoknightly order, and concerned itsel f chi efly wi th

'

religious

affa irs : its emblem was a gold cross, wi th mustard tree inthe m iddle . This society was reputed to b e connectedwith the H errnhuters (Moravian brethren) .

The“O rder of the Leal” (Ordensder Echten), founded

in 1758 , at Landeshut, by Bessel , a Prussian military o f

fi cer, had for its end simply good-fellowship : it labo redto win over to Prussia the Silesian nobil ity .

The “Society of the Ducats” (Dukaten so cietat) hadfor its founder (1746) Count Louis of Neuwied , colonel

in the Prussian Army . The members contributed oneducat a month ; but when a member induced outsiders tojoin the society

,then for the first outsider hi s own con

tributio n for the month current was remitted ; fo r thethird

,fifth and each following odd-numbered new ac

cession pro curred by him h e received a ducat. This vul

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gar swindle , which was the sole end‘

of the society ,worked finely

,and the membership grew rapidly : but the

Society of the Ducats was suppressed by the governmentafter an existence of two years .Attempts to establish other fraudulent orders we re

made by a swindler who understood the foible of hisco ntemporaries for mysteries . Matthew Gro s singer, oras

'

hle styled himself, Franc1s Rudolf von‘

Grossing,son

of a butcher,born 1752 , at Komorn , in Hungary , would

seem to have b een once a Jesuit . After the suppressionof his order, he offered to sell to Frederic the Great someAustrian of fi cial documents

,but met with a repulse ; then

he represented himself to Joseph I I . as a victim of thereactionary policy of the preceding reign

,and in 1784

founded in the interest o f hi s own pocket the Order o fthe Rose.

” and again in 1788 ,‘

donning women ’ s clothes,

the “O rder of H armo nv, both orders admitting membersof either sex . He named “Frau von Rosenwald ,

” a non

existent personage,as head of the order

, with the titleS tiftsro se (The Institute

’ s Rose) . The several local societies were known as Roses , and their presiding officers asRo sylo rd s and Ro sylad ies (Ro senh erren , Ro sendamen) .

But in fact Grossing was all in all, and he appropriated to

himself the very liberal contributions and all other income : for that end alone were the societies established .

He died in wretched circumstances , having always

squandered his gains in luxury and extravagance .

2. OB SCURANTIST INFLUENCE S .

The daybreak of il lum i n i sm i n the 18th century gave

to the partisans of the ancient despotism o f creed andprivilege matter of most serious concern . They saw all

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MY STE R IA

exile from the end of the 17th century, but, aided by

France material ly and by Rome intellectually, was ever

striving to regain the lo st throne . The efforts o f kings and

kings’

sons in exile possess a poetical and romanticqual ity. It was possible to win over all sympathetic en

thus iasts by exploiting their foibles , the nobles and legitimists (the Tories) by preaching legitimacy, and the whole

body of the Catholics by appeal ing to their loyalty to the

Church . Now, the masonic order was a secret society,and as such , of course , was a rallying point for al l enthus iasts

, mystics , and dreamers . Besides , the nobilitywas strongly represented in the society : after the firstfour grandmasters o f the Grand Lodge of England

,who

were all practical masons (architects) , al l the“succeeding

grandmasters belonged to the highest nobil ity of the

realm . Among them we find dukes of Montague,Rich

mond , Norfolk , Chandos, to say nothing of a long series

of vi scounts,earls

,and marquises . As for the Catholic

element,it had many things in common with Freema

so nry—ceremonies and mysticism

,hierarchic degrees

,and

cosmopol itan extension ; hence, with a little Jesuit finesse,the order might gradually and insensibly be made Gatho

lic, as had been done with the Buddhist ceremonial inIndia : in thi s way the Society of Saint John might be trans

formed into a preparatory school for the Society of Jesus .And now

,i f we consider what a scandal it must have been

to the coronetted chie fs o f Fremaso nry that their order

originated among mechanics,we can see how easy it

would be , by dishing up a few fables in proo f of a nobler

origin,to make converts o f them for any ends whatever.

In the event of success,the stronghold of illuminism would

be captured , and with the help of its former champ ionsthe most powerful kingdom in Europe , and a great

SE CRE T SOC IE TIE S OF I STH CENTURY 199

centre o f illumin ism,would b e g iven back to a Catholic

King,and thereby the road to conquest opened for the

Church of Rome . O f course , these vast design s couldnot be carried out all at once . The work had to proceed bystages

,as thus : 1 . Aristocratic sentiment would be grati

fi ed by the institution of higher masonic degrees ; 2 . These

degrees would be connected with the religious orders o f

knighthood by a chain of fable ; 3 . Obstinate Protestantswould be quieted by the offer of a cryptic Cathol icismwhich apparently would be i n accordance with their own

beliefs ; 4. Persons inaccessible to religious considerations

would be influenced by hopes of riches to be acquiredthrough the secret arts of alchemy , and the like ; 5. The

whole purpose of the order would be direct ed towardsp iritual and Catholic ends ; finally

, 6, when the pro cesswas completed

,there would stand forth in al l its naked

ness the savage fury of the Inquisition .

3 . TH E HIGH DE GRE E S SW INDLE .

Without any suffic ient reason assigned,th ere arose

in England between the years 1741 and 1743 a new de

gree , Royal Arch , at first as a higher division o f - themaster’ s degree afterward as an independent degree . Its

content was a hotchpotch of New Testament passages, rel igio us dogmas , and masonic , or, rather, unmaso nic ia

bles . Its tradition went back to the building of the second Temple o f Jerusalem

,after the return from Babylo

n ian captivity ; hence the president of a Royal Arch lodgetook the name of Zer ubbabel

,and wo re a vesture o f scar

let and purple . The meeting was called a“chapter

”

; thethree masonic degrees were dubbed “probationary degrees and soon

,on the title page of the rules of the

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’

degree was represented an ark,with the inscription

“

Nulla Salus Extra” (no safety outside), whereby we arereminded that according to Catholic doctrine the arkof Noah was a type o f the Church . Afterward the Royal

Arch degree publ ished'

a program of its work,in which

masonry is divided into Operative and Speculative,and

the former subdivided into manual,instrumental

, and

scientific ; the aim of the“order” was defined to be

,to

gather the human race in one fold under the great Shep

herd o f souls . For the rest,the work of this degree was

childish play.

Even before this fruit was borne in England,there

came into circulation in France,how

'e r why nobody

knows,a statement that Freemasonry arose in Palestine

during the Crusades , and was there consolidated with

the Knights of St. John (Hospitalers), wherefore thelodges came to be called Saint John ’ s lodges ; that afterthe Crusades the order was estab l ished in Scotland

,was

thence afterward introduced into England,and later into

other countries . This histori c l ie was,of course, wel

comed by the nobles who were members o f the order ;as for the many uneducated members who had b eenadmitted into the

'

French lodges,they we

‘

re easily de

luded . Thence forward there were H igh'

D egrees of al l

sorts in France . And as the fab l e assigned to Scotlandthe foremost place in the history of masonry , the highestdegres began to be known as Scotti sh , or, after the nameof Scotland ’ s patron ,

Saint Andrew, Saint Andrew’ s de

grees,and the lo dges Scottish o r Saint Andrew

’ s lodges .In their rite s of admission they adopted from the tradi

tions of the English an d French stonemasons a lot of

myths about the death of Hiram ,and taught the aspirants

for admission to avenge that death , the meaning being

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MYSTE RIA.

‘

in that the Grand Lodge of Scotland and the oldest lo dgeso f that ancient kingdom know nothing of any such creation o f a soci ety ; and , furthermore , the obj ects and thesentiments o f Templarism and masonry differ too widelyfor any unification to take place between them . In theone body free thinking through levity of temperament :in the other rep udiation of odium theo logicum out of

love of fel lowmen ; on one side egoti sm : on,

the other

regard for the general weal ; on one side pride o f aristo cracy : on the other regard

'

only fo r the dignity o f manhood .

And yet the most eminent men of the 18th centurywere fooled into believing that the Freemasons are descended from the Templars . Th e first serio us and formal

introduction of spurious Templarism into masonry tookplace in France . The Chevalier de Boneville

,on Novem

ber 24, 1764, founded at Pari s a chapter of the’

h igh‘

, de

grees called (apparently in honor o f the then grandmaster of Freemasons

,Louis de Bourbon

,count of

Clermont) the“Clermont chapter its members were

,for

the most part, partisans o f the Stuarts, and therefore o f

the Jesuits also . Here it was that the story o f the won

dro us transformation of Templars into Freemasons in

Scotland was invented,taught

,and employed as part o f

the ceremonial o f admission to the higher degrees . The

members wore the masonic togs,and in their ritual the

death o f the Grandmaster Molay . took the place of thatof Hiram ; and , in fact, by Hiram , as some asserted,Molay was meant . From this chapter the influence ofthe Jesuits extended soon over the whole field o f FrenchFreemasonry . Surely , it was not by acc ident nor out ofpatriotism that the very next vear the French Grand

Lodge,till then dependent on England

,declared itself

SE CRE T SOC IE TIE S OF I STH CE NTURY 203

independent,and adopted statutes according to which

the“Scottish Masters” (unknown both in England and

Scotland) were to have oversight o f the work .

4. A ’P OST‘LE S OF

Soon the craze spread further‘ still, and first

,of

course,through Germany

,where , in those degenerate

days,whatever bore the French stamp was received wi th

reverence and conscientiously aped . The Scotti sh lodgesgot entrance into Berlin as early as 1742 . The dubioushonor o f this importation belongs to Baron E. G. von

Marschall , who had been initiated into the new Templarism at Paris . Dying soon afterward

,he was succeeded by

a man who presented the curious spectacle o f noblest andmost strenuous endeavor toward a fantastic goal

,of the

nature o f..which he knew nothing. Charles Gotthil f, Im

perial Baron of Hund and'

A ltengro ttkau (so he wasstyled), born in 1722 , was a nobleman o f Lusatia andactual p rivy counci lor o f the Emperor ; he was a man of

narrow mind,without high education , but he was an

idealist,a chivalrous, hospitable and kindly gentleman .

At Paris he was received into the Catholic Church andinto the spurious order of Temp lars , to which he was devoted heart and soul : he was commissioned “Mas ter o fthe Host” in Germany . He founded a lodge on one ofhis estates, which bore the ominous name o f Unwurde

(unworth), and soon had several subordinate lodges underhi s jurisdiction .

“About this time , says a contemporary writer, the

Seven-Years War broke out . The French tr00ps cameinto Germany , and with them many

'

Jesuits . With the

French Army , and particularly in its Commissariat, were a

great many Freemasons o f the higher degrees, and some

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’

o f those gentlemen h‘ad calculated to make a go od dealo f money by the sale o f merchandise in Germany . I knewone French commissary wh o had a whole wago nload of

decorations for some forty-fi ve degrees , and these he peddled all the way from Strasburg to Hamburg. There

a fter no German lodge was any longer content with thethree symbolic degrees

,but nearly every one of them had

a series o fhigher degrees of one brand or another, according to the particular windbag each fell victim to ; and sothey dropped one system and took up anothe r when a

‘

new apostle came that way and reformed them .

”

Such a n apostl e o f fraud was the Marquis de Lernais or Lerney. Taken prisoner of war to Berlin

,he

there made known the Jesuiti cal doctrine of the Chapter

of Clermont, and even founded a chapter in the Gran dLodge o f the Three World-Spheres . To spread these

chapters over the rest o f Germany, or, in plain terms, togive the whole country into the hands o f the Jesuits

,a

character by no means ambiguous,one Philip Samuel

Rosa, once a Protestant clergyman , counsel to the co ns istory

,and superintendent

,but afterward deposed for 1m

moral ity, was employed . Rosa ’ s whole endeavor was to

make money. Joining the Chapter of Clermont he gotthe title “Knight of Jerusalem and Prior of the Chapter ofHalle .” As he traveled up and down the land, the lodge

at Halle paid hi s expenses . The eyes o f the deluded

brethren were at last opened, on the discovery o f the re

latio n s between Rosa and another swindler, one Leuchte ,who palmed himse l f o ff as an Eng li shman, Baron Johnson

,and who founded a Grand Chapter, admitted novices

and kn igh ts , l ) o asted o f armies and fleets at his command ,and sent forth to all Templars in Germany an encyclical

letter summoning them to his standard . Many were h is

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MY STE R IA’

prin'ces j oined the o rder

,and so puffed up were its dirce

tors in consequence that forthwith they divided Euro peup into provinces

,after the manner o f the Templars and

the Jesuits , naming for each province a Master of theHost. T he subdivisions o f provinces were called, asamong the Templars

,Priories

,Prefectures

, Comptroller

ship s , etc . To give these subdivis ions something more

than an existence on paper, Hund dispatched the Baron

G. A. von Weiler,Knight o f the Golden Ear (of wheat ,

barley, etc .) to France an d Italy, where he founded severalchapters : even the Grand Ori ent o f France united itselfwith the Strict Observance . Toward those Germanlodges which held aloof fro m this bastard masonry theH und ian Templars were supremely disdain ful

,and but

few of the lodges had the spirit to speak out against the“Obscurantist innovations .” Chief among the few was the

gallant o ld Lodge of Unity,at Frankfo rt ‘

o n the Main,which decl ared itsel f an English provinc ial ‘

lodge, toshow its independence o f pseudo-Templarism .

A zealous apostl e o f the Strict Observance was JohnChristian Schubart of Kleefeld

,Knight o f the O strich ;

who was constantly on the road converting lodges to

that system . Schubart devised a plan by which the orderwas to acquire great wealth . Hund ’ s financial affairs

were in con fusi on,in consequence o f the war

,and he pro

posed to bequeath his property to the order, in consideration of a certain sum

'

in cash : but the order had no t the

money. Schubart now proposed to exact enormous fees

for initiations and admissions to high degrees (for example

, 350 thalers for admission) . But the scheme could

not be wo rked , . and Schubart withdrew from the order.

The order had no longer any use for Hund . The

time had come for the Jesuit influence to assert itsel f : it

SE CRE T SOC IE TIE S OF I STH CE NTURY 207

would have no more fooleries with helmets , swords , ac

co utrements and Templar’ s mantles . It was seen by the

original proj ectors o f the“order ” that i f they would suc

ceed in their design of winning over Freemasonry to the

p lan of catho lizing Germany, they must betimes provide aclerical directorate for the organization , which til l now had

worn the mask of knighthood . They found a convenientinstrument in the person of the Protestant theologian ,

John -Augustus von Stark,born at Schwerin in 1741 .

While a student in Go ettingen Stark was admitted ( 1761)to the masonic order ; then he was a teacher in Petersburg

,where he adopted the mystic system of one Mele

sino,a Greek . The ceremonial o f Mels ino

’

s systemcomprised a number of prayers and genuflectio n s , and

even a mass ; the high-degree meetings were called Conclaves , and themembers wo re surp l ices . Later, at Pari s,Stark took an interest in O riental manuscripts , and joinedthe Catholic Church

,but all the same

,on his return home

he served as professor o f theology at Koenigsberg, and

then as court preacher and general ecclesiastical superintendent in the same city, and afterward i n ; Darmstadt.Through some acqua intances, who were members o f theStrict Observance , he got an introduction to Hund , towhom he revealed the great secret which he had learnedat Petersburg, namely, that the grand mysteries o f theTemplars were revealed not to the knights

,but only to

the clerical members,and that these mysteries had been

kept and handed down to that time ; further, that the truechief of the order of Templars was none other but theKnight of the Golden Sun

,Charles Edward Stuart

,the

Pretender, then resident in Florence . Delighted at theprospect o f an enhancement of what he fanc ied to be hi ssci ences, Hund r ecognized Stark and two of Stark

’ s

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fri ends as Clerics o f the O rder o fTemplars . Th ese cleri i

cal Templars thereupon drewup a ceremonial and createddegrees o f their own

,and as a special favor initiated some

secu lar knights into their mysteries . But because Hunddecl ined to accommodate Stark with a loan of two hundred thalers to defray the expenses o f a j ourney to Petersburg

,where Pylades

,head of the Templar clerics, resided ,

the two fel l out,and Stark announced h is purpo se to

keep the “Clericate” independent o f the Order.” Never

theless, he begged a friend to negotiate on his behal f with

the secular Temp l ars . This friend was a noble personage ,Ernest Werner von Raven

,Knight o f the Pearl

, aweal thy

landowner,

“prior” in the “order,

” member o f a Chapterunder Rosa and Hund

,and also an initiate in Stark

’

s

own clerical order of Templars . Like Hund, he was a

man of honor, but vain and narrow-minded,a mystic and

an alchemist . Raven , in 1772, attended a convention held

at Kohlo,in Lusatia

,for the purpose o f bringi ng about

an understanding between the Knights and the cleri cs .

H e appeared in the costume of the Templar cleri cs , viz . ;

white cassock with red‘ cro ss -o n the breas t and a hat like

that: of a cardinal . He presented to the meeting a p ro

ject of union drawn up by Stark, which the knights received witli p laudits o f sati sfactio n . Hund was deposed‘

from hi s high office , and appointed o ne of the Masters

of the Host,while Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick was

made Grandmaster, and other p rinces were named to beSuperiors; and Protectors under him .

But the ritual i sti c pomp of the Clerics had alreadyawakened suspicion in the minds of the Protestant members , and they began to cry out against mysteries offoreign origin and against the dictation o f unknownSuperiors . Thi s disco ntent found expression in the con

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MY STE RIA.

Cyprus (not in Scotland , then), and the archbishops o f

Cyp rus were the successors o f the Grandmasters The

degrees o f Freemaso nry (thus he driveled on) were alater innovation on the original cl erical and knightly system

,which in its organization was

,he said

,exactly the

same as the Jesuit order. The one thing needed in o rderto instruct men in the o ccult sciences was a holy temple.On the completion of such a temple the “natural fire”

would fall from heaven , etc . Many persons recognizedthe fraud ; others walked into the trap, and were initiated .

But seeing how little confidence was placed in him,Gugo

mos ab sconded, and that was the end of Jesuit Freemasonry.

But the farce of Templari sm lived a few years yet,though pe0p1e were growing tired of it . Some o f the

members went back to the old-fashi oned masonry ; othersturned to new lights of mystici sm that had for some timebeen lo oming o ut the horizo n—the Swedish Rite and theNew Rosicruc ianism .

5 . TH E SWE D ISH R IT’E .

Swedish Freemasons , as early as the m iddle of the18th century, had found the genuineEnglish masonry to osimple and inornate : they longed for more glitter and

pomp,mysteries and degrees . King Gustavus I I I . at

tempted to satisfy this want by concocting a new systemthe ingredients being genuine freemasonry, the Stri ct Ob

servan ce, and the system then known at“Rosicrucianism ,

”

and in largest proportion the Clermont system : the doctrines of the famous mysti c and seer

,Swedenborg

,may

also have given a flavor to the compound . In foundingthe Swedi sh Rite or System

,Gustavus counted on obtai n

mg the he lp!of the members in hi s effort to rid himself

SE CRE T SOC IE TIE S OF I STH CE NTURY 211

o f the party o f the nobles . Th e Swedish Rite has tendegrees . It i s founded on two stories , one that certainsecrets have descended to it from Chri st thro ugh theApostles, the cleri cal Templars , and the Freemasons ; theother

,that a nephew of the Grandmaster Beaulieu , a

predecessor o f Molay,visited Molay in prison , and, at the

suggestion o f Molay,went down into his uncle

’

s sepulchre,where

,in a casket

,he found the insignia and the records

o f the order ; that from Paris he took these into Scotland ,and thence into Sweden . The symbols of the higher degrees refer to Templarism and Catholicism . The cere

monies o f the highest degree are said c lo sely to resemblethe mass . O ther alleged usages are, the wearing of thered cross of the Templars on the breast, reciting everynight Saint Bernard ’ s prayer to the Lamb of God

,fasting

on Good Friday til l sundown , then eating three slices ofbread, with oil and salt. The title of the head of theSystem is Vicar of Solomon . Several distinguished

members of the Swedish System,among them the cele

brated poet J . H . Voss , have characterized its ceremonie sas “vain

,useless and ridiculous .”

6. TH E NEW ROSICRUC IANIS'M AND ALLIE D SYSTE MS .

The New Rosicrucianism had its ri se in SouthernGermany about the year 1760,

while Rosa and Johnsonwere busy with their systems . Its originators had no

connection with Freemasonry,and of its nine degrees

not even the first three were named after the masoni cdegrees Several discontented members of the StrictObservance joined the new order. The members assumed fanci ful names

,as Fo ebro n

, Ormesus, Cedrinus

the lodges were called “Circles .” Unquestioning obedi

ence was to be rendered to the-

ESuper‘ iors . The members

MY STE R IA.

learned only the mysteries of their own particular c i rcle .The motto was : “May God and His Word be with us .”

They claimed to possess a crypti c Book containing a

sacred history of events pri o r to the creation o f the world,

esp ecial ly of the Fall o f the Angels .Their specialty was a mystical

,kabbali stic

,and totally

absurd interpretation of the B ibl e,and of other alleged

sacred or o ccult writin gs,whence they deduced an ex

p lanation o f the universe . For example,they taught

that the planets and the other heavenly bodies reflectback on the sun the light they receive from him

,thus

conserving his might and his splendor. They also practiced necromancy, exorcization , alchemy, the art of mak-x

ing gold,of preparing the elixir o f l i fe : they studied such

problems as the production of the noble metal s from rain

water,urine

,and other bodies

,and even o f evolving hu

man beings by chemical processes . In their assemblies

the members wore white and black scarfs, but those o f

the higher degrees wore priestly vestments, with crosses

of si lver or gold . At the initiation the candidates sworefearful oaths . Aspirants to the ninth degree were assured that once they should attain that eminence. theywould understand all nature ’ s secrets and possess supreme

control o f angels,devils , and men .

'

The first prophet

of the New Rosicr ucianism was John George Schrepfer,coffee-house keeper in Leipsi c . In 1777 he founded inhis own shop a lodge of the Scottish Rite

,to afford his

customers a better styl e of masonry than was found inthe ordinary lodges . The Duke of Courland

,protector

o f one o f the masonic lodges,had the man publi cly

bastinadoed : but Schrepfer shortly afterward inspiredboth him and the Duke of B runswick with a curiosity tobe instructed in the mysteries, and visited them at Dres

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214 MY STE R IA

the odious Edict o f Religion of 1788, wh ich was expectedto prove a deathblow to illuminism and free thought : butthe death of the King upset all their. calculations . Thatwas the end of the New Rosicrucian i sm .

Simultaneously with the order o f the Rosicruciansarose two variant forms of the same, the soc iety of theAsiatic Brethren , an l that of the African Bui ld ingmas ters

(Asiati sche Brueder,Afrikani sche The

Asiatic Brethren ’

s order was founded in Vienna by .Baro n

Hans Henry von Eckhofen,an ex-Rosicrucian : it ad

mitted only Freemasons , but did not exclude Jews , andits aims were the same as those of the Rosicrucians . Itschief seat was at Vienna, called by them Thessalonica ,for they gave a foreign name to every plac e . Its head

offi cers were styled Inquisitors . There were five degrees ,viz .

,two probationary—those of Seekers and o f Sufferers

—and three superior degrees . The members in the twolower degrees wo re round black hats with distinctivefeathers for each degree , b lack mantles, and white orblack ribbons

,broidered wi th different emblems ; these

in the higher degrees wore red hats and mantles ; the attire o f those in the highest degree was all rosy-red . Tenmembers constituted a Mastership ,

ten mastership s a Decade

,and so on . The order became shockingly corrupt

in Austria .

The African soc i ety , fo unded by War Counc i lorKoeppen in Berlin

, had rather higher aims than the Rosicrucians and the Asiati c B rethren : they stud ied o the his

tory of Freemasonry , admitted to their order only scholars

and arti sts, conducted their business in Latin, and of

fered prizes for scientific researches : but they indulged infarfetched and absurd symbolism , kabbali sm, magic, and

mysticism . Their degrees were five inferior or prepara

S E CRE T SOC IE TIE S OF I STH CE NTURY 215

tory, and five higher or esoteric . Th e order l ived fo r a

few years only .

There were many other soc ieties,instituted mostly

for the purpose o f fraud and moneymaking : of these wegive no account here . But there still remains one societywhich i s worthy of mention—that of the Brethren of theCross (Kreuzbrueder) or Devotees of the Cross (Kreuzfromme) , founded by Count Christian von H augwitz

(1752 who was at one time Knight o f the H olyMount in the Strict Observanc e

,afterward belonged to a

German imitation o f the Swedish rite,and at last founded

a society which was described by a contemporary as “aconsp iracy of despotism against l iberty, of vice againstvirtue , of stup idity against tal ent

,of darkness against eu

l igh tenment.”

The Devotees of the Cross observed thestrictest secrecy

,corresponded in cipher, inveigled princes,

in order to rul e in their stead (after the manner of B isch o fswerder and Wo ellner) and practiced al l manner of

superstitions to make an end of science . They had noconnection whatever wi th Freemasonry .

Unfortunately thi s multip li cation of mystical orders

was n o t without effect on the fortunes of the masonic body ,in that it has led to a vicious growth of “high degrees .”

It was a French adventurer,Stepheni Morin,

’

who,in

1761 , introduced into the United States the 33 degrees :they entered France again in 1803 , and were regarded as

a novelty,having been forgotten during the Revolution .

The titles of these degrees are at once bombastic and un

meaning : Grand Scots, Knights of the East , High Princeso f Jerusalem

,Princes of Grace

,Grand Inquisitors , Princes

of the Royal Secret; etc .

,and in some of the variations

of these ridicu lous degrees we have Knights o f the Ape,and of the Lion

,and Emperor o f East and West.

PART ELE VENTI I .

Th e I l l um in a ti an d Th ei r Era .

1 . TH E ILLU-M INA TI .

By the suppression o f the Jesuit order by ClementX IV. , the results of two centuri es of painful toi l in the

interest o f a universal e cclesiastical dom inion were un

done . Then it was that an ingenious mind conceived thethought of employing on behalf of enl ightenment suchinstrumentality as the Jesuits had employed against it .It was a pupil of the Jesuits to whom this thought first

occurred : their mechanical,soul-stifling method of educa

tion had made him their enemy ; but besides he had

learned the arti fi ces and the secrets of the Jesuits , andhoped that by imitating them in a Catholi c country

likely to be influenced by such arts,he might thereby

promote the ve ly opposite interests . Adam Weishauptwas born in 1748 , and when only 25 years o f age was pro

fes so r of canon law and jurisprudence in the university o fIngolstadt

,and also lecturer on histo ry and philosophy

,

being the first in that institute to deliver lectures in

the German language, and in consonance with the moreenlightened sp irit o f the age . The intrigues of the ousted

Fathers against their successor in a pro fessorial chair

which they had held for nearly a century forced to ma

turity the thought which he had cherished from his

student days : and the founding in the neighboring villageof Burghausen of a lodge of Rosicrucians , who were try

216

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218 MY STE R IA

whose acquaintance he made was destined to be, afterWeishaupt

,the most effective promoter of the new so

c iety. This was Baron Adolf von Knigge,well known

for his much read book. Ueber den Umgang mit Memschen .

” He was born in 1752, an d from his youth uphad been an amateur of sp iriti sm (gh o stseersh ip) . He

was already an Initiate of the higher degrees o f the Stri ctOb servance ; but, dissati sfied with that order, he ado ptedthe idea of I lluminism enthusiastical ly

,and bro ught into

the system a number o f men who became its apostles ; forexamp le , Bode, the translator ; Franci s von Ditfurth, as

sociate justice , of Weimar. With these two Knigge at

tended the Co nventus of VVi lhelmsbad , and there cham

pioned the cause of I llum in ism stoutly, and helped to

give the,deathblow to Templari sm . And now as Knigge

,

who supposed the o rder to be an ancient one,entered

into a correspondence with Weishaupt,he was not a l ittl e

asto nished on learning from him that the society was

as yet no more than an embryo : in fac t, i t had only the

degree of the minor Il luminates (Kleine I lluminaten) .

Nothing disheartened, however, he j ourneyed to Bavar1a,an d was admitted to the order in sp lendid style . But

his lively fancy led him to develop the order further ; a ndthe sober-mindel Weishaupt

,whose gi fts were those of th e

thinker rather'

than of the contriver o f forms , left to

Knigge the elaboration of the several degrees and their

Lessons , in which both were agreed that allus ions to the

fi rewo rsh ip and l ightwo rsh ip of the Persians should be

employed,as typical o f the spiri tual fire and spiritual l ight

of I lluminism .

The groundwork of the polity o f the I lluminati was

as follows : A supreme president ruled the whole,having

next below him two officers, each of whom again had

ILLUM INA TI 219

two others under him,and so on , so that the first could

most conveniently govern all . The doings o f the order

were kept most strictly secret . Each member took thename of some historic or mythic personage of distinction :

Weishaupt was Spartacus ; Zwackh , Cato ; Costan zo , Diomede ; Knigge, Philo ; Ditfurth , Minos ; Nicolai , Lucian ,and so on . Countries an d cities also had pseudonyms :

Munich was Athens ; Frankfort, Edessa ; Austria , Egypt ;Franco nia

,I llyria, and so forth . In correspondence the

members used a

'

secret cipher, numbers taking the

p lace of letters ; in reckoning time they followed the

calendar o f the ancient Persians with the P ersian namesof months and the Persian. aera.

The number o f degrees"

and their designations werenever definitely fixed

,hence they are different in different

localities . But all the accounts agree that there were

three principal degrees . The first of the se , the School ofPlants (Pflanzschule) was design ed to rec eive youths appro aching adult age .

’

The candidate for admission was atfirst a Novice , and , except the one who indoctrinated him ,

knew no member o f the order. He was required , bysubmitting a detailed account of his l i fe, with full particulars as to all his doings , and by keep ing a journal , toprove himself a fit subj ect fo r admission

,and one likely

to be of service to the order. From the grade of Novicehe passed to that of Minerval . The members o f the

Minerval class formed a sort o f learned soc iety,which o c

cup ie‘

d itsel f with answering questions in. the domain o f

morals . Th e Minervals , furthermore , were required tomake known what they thought of the order

,and what

they expected of it , and they assumed the obliga tion ofobedience . They were under the eye of their superiorofficers

,read and wrote whatever superiors required o f

220 MY STE R IA.

’

them , and spied on each other, and reported o ne an

other’

s faults to superiors as in the Jesuit system . Theleaders of the Minervals were call ed Minor I lluminati ;were taken by surp rise at the meetings of th eir degreeand nominated to tha t dignity—a method that wonderfully

stimulated ambition ; they were instructed in the management and oversight of their subj ects

,and practiced them

selves in that art ; they were besides required to report

their experiences . The second principal degree was Freemasonry

,through the three original degrees o i which and

the two so -called Scotti sh degrees the I lluminati passed ;and strenuous effort was made to have the masonic lodgesadopt a system agreeable to the ideas o f the I lluminati

,

so that the membership o f the order might be steadily in

creased . The three original degrees of masonry were im

parted to the regular I lluminati wi thout ceremonies . The

memb ers of the two Sco ttish degrees were called GreaterI lluminati

,and the task of these was to study the char

acters of their fellowmembers ; and Dirigent I lluminati ,who presided over the several divisions o f the i l luministi cmasonry . The third and highest degree was that of theMysteries

,comprising the four stages o f Priest, Regent,

Magus and King (rex) . This principal degree was elabo

rated only in part, and was not brought into use . Inthese four divisions of the third degree the ends of the

order were,according to Knigge

’ s p lan , to be exp lained .

The supreme heads o f the several divisions o f the orderwere called Areo p-agites, but their functions were neverfully defined . I t was proposed also to add a department

for women . The aims of thi s organization of the I l lumi

nati remind us forcibly of those'

of the Pythagorean

League . They contemplated, not a sudden and violentbut a gradual and peaceful revolution , in wh 1ch the

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M Y STE R IA.

’

Mo ntgilas, afterward minister o f state ; President CountGeinsheim ; the celebrated philosopher Baader ; Professo rs Semmer. o f Igo lstadt, Moldenhauer

'

o f Kiel,

Feder of Go ettingen ; the educator Leuch senring

of Darmstadt ; the Catholi c cathedral prebendarie s

Schro eckenstein of Eichstadt and Schmelzer o f Mayence ;Haefelin

,b i shop of Munich ; the authors Bah rdt, Biester,

Gedike,Bode

,Nicolai

,etc . Goethe, Herder, and prob

ably Pestalozzi also belonged to the order. The l eague

in “Wilhelm Meister” reminds us strongly o f the I lluminati .

The order was n o t yet spread abro ad” beyond theGerman borders, tho ugh

'

a few Frenchmen had been ad

m itted while vi siting Germany ; but its plans , were al~

ready reaching out farther. And now the head of the

whole organization was to be th e General (as among theJesuits) ; under him there was to be in each country ahead officer, the National ; in each principal divi sion ofa country a Provincial ; in subdivisions o f p rovinces a

Prefect, and'

so on .

This ap ing o f Jesuit pol ity and the imprudent admission o f obj ectionable or indifferent charac ters proved theruin of the order. Despotic rule and espionage couldnever promote the cause o f l iberty and enl ightenment

and the fo under o f the order propo sed to make enlightenment the means of attaining l iberty.

Then the dissensions ever growing more serious

between Weishaupt and Knigge . Whereas Weishauptcared only for the ends of the society , all else being in hiseyes only incidental , mere formalism , Knigge, on theother hand

,being a man of the world , shrank in. horror

from the program of his associate“

: rel ig ion , morality

the State were imperiled . H e dreaded Liberal ist books ,

ILLUM INA TI 223

and would have been far better p leased to see the orderworking on the lines of the Freemasons o f that day

,

though with an elaborate ceremonial and‘ manifold degrees and mysteries

,and with some harmless , innocent

ideal of human welfare and brotherly love as the obj ect

o f their endeavors . Weishaupt called Knigge ’ s pet contrivance tinsel and trumpery and child

’ s p laythings , and

the pair o f “Areopagites” grew steadily ever more asunder.This rising storm within boded less i l l to the order

than the attacks from without growing from day to

day more vio lent . “ I lluminism was assailed by enemieso f al l sorts , that sprung up like mushrooms . First there

were’

the masonic systems of the reactionary or superstitio us kind

,such as the Rosicrucians

,the Asiatic B reth

ren , the African Masterbuilders,the Swedish Rite , the

remnant o f the Strict Observance,etc . ; then such of the

I lluminati as thought the hopes o f the o rder had beendisappointed

,or who expected to profit by a betrayal of

the order to the enemies o f liberty and light ; finally , andabove all

,there were the sons of Loyo la

,ever laboring

industriously in the dark though their society had beensuppressed

,and now again , thanks to the licentious ,

bigoted despotic Elector Charles Theodore , possessinggreat influence in Bavaria, the country m which the

memb ership of the Order of I lluminati was o f longeststanding and most numerous . At that court

,the seat

of corruption , some courtiers , professors , and clergymenwho had been members of the order, wi th the secretpamphleteer

,Joseph Utzschn eider, at their head , played

traitor,charging the order wi th rebellion

,infidelity

,and

al l manner of vices and crimes, and at the same time ,Without ado , classing with the I l luminati the Freemasons .

MY STE R IA

By a decree of August the lodges of al l secret

soci eties establ ished without government’ s approval,in

cluding the I lluminati and the Freemasons , were banned .

The masonic lodges submitted at once,and closed their

doors ; but Weishaupt and his associates went on withtheir work, hoping to change th e mind of the Elector bybringing up for pub lic discussion their rules and theirusages . Vain h0pe. The Elector’ s confessor

,Father

Frank, an ex~Jesuit, who already had labored againstFreemasonry , procured on March 2

,178 1 , a second de~

cree , by which the previous one was confirmed , and allsecret organizations that continued to exi st in violation

of it,and sp ecifically the ' Order of I lluminati

,were fo r

b idden to hold meetings,and all their property was con

fi scated . The Minister of State , Aloysius Xavier Kreit

mayr,distinguished himsel f by the rigor with which he

executed the ukaz . Weishaupt was deposed from hisp lace at Ingolstadt

,expelled from that city

,and declared

incapable o f legal defense ; he had to flee the co untry .

H e first tarried in Ratisbon ; but soon , in consequenceo f the discovery of compromising documents in a search

of the houses of I lluminati , very grave charges werebrought against the members

,and the Elector became

alarmed for hi s throne . Without distinction o f class or

station a prosecution was entered against al l persons ao

cused of membership in the order, or even suspected of

sympathy with it,and they were imprisoned , deposed

from office, bani shed, and in the case of persons o f thelower classes

,punished wi th stripes . This whole busi

nes was managed,without any recourse to

'

the regular

tribunals,by a special commission under Court dirce

tion.This persecution lasted til l after the outbreak of

the French Revolution , and a refusal to condemn the

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MY STE R IA \

2. IlMTTAYI‘ ION ‘

S OF I'LLUM INISM .

No t long after the break-up o f the Order of I l luminatiin the South , a similar order sprang up in Northern Ger

many . It originated in the brain o f a man unfortunatelyat once a zealous I lluminist and a morally depravedvagabond , who made a deplorab le m i suse o f the talentswith which nature had endowed h im richly . Th i s wasDr. Charles Frederic Bahrdt

, Protestant theologian,sometime preacher, professo r, or teacher in sundry places ,and once even keeper o f an eating house at Halle . In1788 it occurred to him to found an association to promote enlightened views, and his plan was to comb ine itwith the masonic society

,o f which he had become a

member in England . The proj ected assoc iation he calledthe “German Union of the XXII .” (Deutsche Union der

XXII ) , for the reason, as he explained in a ci rcular letter, that twenty-two men had formed a union for theends set fo rth . The Union was to b e organized on theplan of Jesus Chri st

,whom Bahrdt in a voluminous work

portrayed as the founder of a sort o f Freemasonry, ando f whose miracle s he offered a rather forced natural explanation . In accordance with this plan the association was to b e a “si lent bro therhood” that was to hurlfrom their throne superstition and fanatici sm , and this

chiefly by the literary activity of the members . The literarylabor was ingeniously organized in such fashion that the

Union would by dil igent effort in time gain control o fthe press and fhe whole book trade, thus acquiring themeans of insuring the triumph o f enlightenment. Outward ly the Union was to have the appearance of a purelyl iterary association ; but inwardly it was to consist o f threedegrees, of which the lower ones were to be simply read

ILLUM INA TI 227

ing societies,while the third alone would understand the

real purpose o f the order,viz .

, advancement of science ,art, commerce , and religion , betterment o f education , en

co uragement of men o f talent, remuneration for services ,provision for meritorious workers in age and misfo r

tune,also for the widows and orphans of members . But

inasmuch as Bahrdt had painted this beautiful picturesolely to make money

,the Deutsche Union existed only

on paper ; but it wrought for its proj ector a protractedterm of imp risonment , which he survived but a

' short

time ; he died in 1792 .

Another imitation of the Order o f I lluminati, the

League o f the Evergetes (Bund der Evergeten , or benefactors

, o r welldoers) which sprang up at the close o f

the 18th century, had a longer term o f l ife, though butlittle expansion . Its activity extended over al l the artsand sciences

,except positive theology and po sitive juris

prudence . The members were design ated after the manner o f the I lluminati ; but they acknowledged no un

known superiors . Time was reckoned from the deatho f Socrates

,B . C . 400 . The supreme head was called

Arch iepistat (archiepistates , chie f overseer) ; there weretwo degrees

,of which only the higher one had a.political

aim, popular representation . Fessler,by his protests

against such tendencie s, brought about a split in the as~sociation , and afterward his adversaries tried to convertit into a sort of moral Femgericht by tracking and brand

ing al l offenses . One o f the three leaders b etrayed theother two , and was with them put in p rison , but soonafter ward released : that ended the asso c iation .

4. FRE EMAJSONRY AN D TH E FRE NC‘H REVOLUTION .

That there was any alliance o f the Freemasons,or

even of the I lluminists,with the men of the French Revo

lutio n , which broke out in 1789, can b e affirmed only bytho se who are ignorant of hi story or wilfully b l ind —bymen like the Privy Councilor Gro lman o f Giessen

,fri end

o f Stark (significantly named in the Strict Observance,Knight o f the Golden Crab), or, l ike the abbe and canonAugustin Barruel in France

,or the ship ’ s captain and

p rofessor, John Robinson , in England : their allegations

were received only with ridicule , and passed into obl ivion .

As we have seen , the I lluminati were to be found onlyin Germany

,where no revolution took place : in fact

,

they were no longer in existence when the French revolutio n broke out . As for the Freemasons

,we have al

ready shown that they were o pposed to the movement ;but that movement could have no other ground than the

dissatisfaction of the people of France wi th the shamefulBourbon dynasty, whose mischief could not be repaired

by the well- intentioned but narrow-minded Louis XVI .No critical or serious work of histo ry gi ves any justi fication o f the bel ief that Freemasonry had a hand inbringing about that Revolution : but a deci sive proof ofthe true relation of Freemasonry to the troubles of those

times is had in the fact that the Terror made an end o f the

Grand O rient of Fran ce . All the clubs of the French

Revolution were open : the people would no t tolerate

secret clubs , not even private assemb lages, and hence asearly as 1791 began to persecute the Freemasons as aristo crats . The Gran dmaster then existing, Louis Philip

Joseph , Duke o f Orleans, gave up his title , as we know,

and called himself Citizen Equality,and at last, in 1793,

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S ecret S o ci eti es o f Vari o us Kin d s .

1. SOCIE TI ES OF WITS .

The Com ic: has a place everywhere in history : therei s no lack o f it in secret societies ; indeed , in such so c i etiesit assumes many different forms . For there be secretsoc ietie s that would be comic ; there be secret societiesthat are com ic without knowing it ; and final ly there bemen and parties that by their action against so -calledsecret societies make themselves com ic wi thout intendingit.

While Goethe l ived at Weimar, there was formed inthat city a satirical Soci ety of Chevaliers . Curious ly

enough it was suggested by Frederi c von Go ne, a Knight“

of the Strict Observance and a strong believer in thede scent of Freemasonry from Templari sm,

but a comicalold soul withal , and author o f a parody of Goethe

’ s

Werther. The members took knightly name s : Go ethe,for example , was Goetz von Berlichi ngen ; they spoke in

the style of chivalry, and they had four degrees . In sarcastic allusion to the revelations prom ised (but nevercommunicated) in the high pseudomaso nic degrees , thedegrees of the Society o f Cheval iers were, 1 , Transition ;2 , Transition

’

s Transition ; 3 , Transition’

s Transition to

Transitio n ; 4, Transition’ s Transition to Transition of

230

S E CRE T SOCIE TIE S OF V AR IOUS K INDS 231

Transition . Only the initiated understood the profoundmeaning of the Degrees .Another society of similar nature was that of the

Mad Court Councilors founded at Frankfort-o n-theMain by the physician Ehrmann in 1809 . Membershipcons i sted only in the receipt from the founder (in recogn itio n of some humorous p iece) o f a Diploma written inburlesque style in Latin

,and bearing the impress of a

broad seal . Among men honored with the diploma wereJean Paul , E. M . Arndt, Go ethe, Iffi and

,_Schloss er,

Creuzer, Chladny, etc. Goethe earned his d iploma by aparody of hi s own “Westo estl icher Diwan ,

”—“Occidenta

l ischcr O rientalismus .”

Many societies o f this sort have since arisen, butthose of Vienna are wo rthy of special mention . One ofthese was called “

Lud lamsh o eh le, after a not very successful drama of Oeh lenschlager

’

s . It had many di stinguished men in its membership . The memb ers werecal led Bodies

,the candidates Shadows . Though mirth

was the only obj ect, the police thought it best to sup~press the society in 1826. In 1855 appeared the GreenI sland

,a comic-chevalresque society, though it rendered

good service to literature and art . Several writers andactors o f note belonged to it . A society, the A l lsch lar

affi a was founded at Prague in the’

fi fties , which , in 1885,

had eighty-fi ve affiliated so cieties in: Germany, Austria,Switzerland and other countries . A

,

congress of theleagued societie s met at Leipsi c in 1876, and another at

Prague in 1883 . The president o f each Sch laraffenreich

(or soc iety) was called Uhu , but on festive occasions wasAha

,and in condemning offenses against the Al lsch lar

affi a, Oho .

MY STE R IA

2. IM ITATION'S OF TH E ANC IENT MYSTIC LEAGUES .

There have been and stil l are in France secret societies that have thought they could in our time transplan t to Europe

,under Masonic forms

,the Egyptian;

Mysteries . Once there was a Holy Order of the Soo h is ians , founded by French military officers who hadbeen with Bonaparte in Egypt. The highest dignitarie s

were cal led I s iarch s , and the rest of the officers of the

society bore similar titles (mostly fictitious) of Egyptian

priests . The lodges were Pyramids , and their aera beganyears before Christ. Two orders which sti l l sub

sist are those o f M israim and of Memphis , both of which

in downright earnest trace their origin back to Egyptianantiquity and regard all the secret associations mentioned

in the present volume,except those having political aims .

as members of one grand association . The fact is thatthe M israim system had its origi n in 1805, and was

founded by some men of loose morals, who contrived toget themselves received into a Freemasons

’ lodge in

Milan,but who

,because they were not promoted as they

had hoped to be , went out and formed a Freemasonry oftheir own . The order spread first over Italy and in 18 14

to France . The system has no fewer than ninety degrees ,grouped in' seventeen clas ses, and three series . Only theGran dmaster received the nineti eth'degree : the

“content”

of all the degrees i s pure nonsense . The Memphis sy stemwas introduced into France in 18 14 by a Cairene ad

venturer. It held its first lodge at Montauban in 18 15,

but has often since that time been obliged to interruptits work . The Grand Lodge of Paris was called O siris ,the head o f the order was Grandmaster of Lig h t ; thehierarchy of officials was complex and showy . The de~

grees were more than ninety in number, to which were

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MY STE RIA.

too, the highest grade being that o f B ishop . The rules

o f the New Templari sm permitted none to be admitted tothe order save men

’

o i nob l e b irth : but many a shopkeeper wore the white mantle with red cross .There are New Templars also in England

,Scotland;

Ireland and the United States,almost all of whom have

received the so -called higher degrees o f Freemasonry .

The Engli sh Templars are divided into two opposing

part ies , from one o f‘

wh ich came the Irish and‘ the Ameri

can Templars . No one is competent fo r admission to

any of these Templar societies who does not believe thatChrist came on earth to save sinners wi th hi s blood , andthe members must swear to defend this bel ief with'their

swords and with their lives . But no one , alas, has yetheard of their deeds on behalf of those imperiled articles

o f faith . Their lodges are called Commanderies . Th ey

have Swordbearers,Bannerbearers , Prelates .

3 . IM I TATIONS OF FRE EM ’

A SONRY.

The resuscitation o f the ancient order o f Druids isanother example of imitation of the secret societies ofantiquity. Among the Kelts of Gaul and Britain the

Druids were , next after the nob les and the warriors , thehighest estate . Religion , art, and science were their ex

clus ive province : hence they were priests, poets , andscholars . Their head was a Ch i ef Druid , and they formed

an order wi th special garb,a special mode of writing, de

grees and mysteries . The mysteries were certain theo~logical

,philosophical

,medical

,mathematical

,etc ., dog

mata,and these were conveyed in three-membered sen

tences (tri ads) . They believed in the immortality of thesoul and its transm igration , in one god, creation o f the

S E CRE T SOC IE TIE S OF VA R IOUS K INDS 235

world out of nothing, and its transformation (not destruction) by water and fi re. Their assembl ies were held incaverns and forests

,on mo untains, and within circles,

ringed round with e normous b locks o f stone . TheRoman emperors persecuted them as they did Jews andChristians

,because the Druidic mysterie s seemed to

them dangerous to the state. In Britain the Bards , i . e .

,

those of the Druids who cultivated poetry and song,were

the most influential division of their order. There werethree degrees of the Bards—Probationers , Passed Scholars and Learned Bards .In 178 1 a society was formed in London whose

members called themselves Druids,and who practiced

rites resembling those of Freemasonry . In 1858 there

were twenty—seven mutually independent societies o fDruids in Britain

,but by consolidation the number is

now reduced to fi fteen . Druidism was introduced intothe United State s in 1833 . Their local organizationsare called Groves

,and the central organizations Grand

Groves . They have three degrees, to which are appendedother higher degrees

,each with its own High Arch Chap~

ter. There is no close connection between British’

andAmerican Druidism . In 1872 Druidism was importedinto Germany from the United

.

States : there are in the

German empire forty Groves , wi th about members .The order of Odd Fellows i s o f English origi n, but i svery strong in the United States . I t was founded towardthe end of the first hal f o f the 18th century , but appears

to have been at first a convivial society of “goodfellows ,”

or o dd fel lows , with mutual benefi t as a secondary obj ect.‘It was reorganized in 18 12, the feature of convivial itydropped

,and the benefi cent ends made paramount ; this

i s th e Independent Order o f Odd Fellows . A rather

MY STE R IA

sim ilar organization, the Ancient Order o f Foresters,was founded in England about the same time with theOdd Fellows ’ order. Forestry also has been transplantedto the United States . American Oddfellowship severedits connection with the British Grand Lodge in 1842.

There were in the United States in 1889 more than 600,000 Oddfellow’

s in lodges . A society of Americanorigin i s that of the Knights o fPythias

,founded in Wash

ingto n in 1864 ; its obj ect i s to disseminate the great

princip les of fri endship,charity

,and benevolence” : it had

in 1885 separate lodges and members . TheOrder o f Red Men (Improved Order of Red Men) i so f earlier origin than the preceding zthe members in theirlodge meetings imitate some o f the customs of the American aboriginals

,and wear an attire resembling that of the

Indians . Besides these there are in the United States

very many other secret societies having for their endmutual benefi cence, as Knights of Malta, Senate of Sparta ,Knights of the Mystic Chain

,Legion of the Red Cross,

Knights of Friendship,Royal Arcanum . Th e Grand

Army of the Republic was founded soon after the close

of the civil war. Its members are veteran so ldiers o fthat war. Its ends are to perpetuate the associations ofcomrades in arms , to rel ieve distress o f members and pro

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INDEX

R e , th e sun go d , becom ingth e o ne g o d ,

i h . ; wo rsh ip o fa n ima l s an d p lan ts , 12m y s te ries . 20

E gyp t ian g o ds . S hu, S et , Tho t ,Nunu , Tum , Ho ro s R e . Is i s ,

Os iri s , N e i t , P tah , Am on ,

Ha th o r, Harmac h i s 13 s q q .

E l eu s in ian my s teri es , 49 s q q . ;bas i l eu s , ba s i l i s s a , 51 ; E u

m o lp i d ae , K ery tae , 51 ; h ierop han t , 51 ; wars susp en d edd uring th e s o l em n i t ie s , 52 ;th e m y th un d erly ing th e

E l eu s in ia , 53 ; le s s er an d

grea ter E l eu s in ia , 54 ; p ro

ces s i o n to E l eu s i s , 55 ; m y stae

, ep o p tae , 50; th e M y s t i cH o u s e

E s senes, a P a l es t in ian o rd er

o r s ec t o f pu ri tan s , 94 s q q .

c a l led a l s o T'herap eu tae , 95 ;ri tes o f a dm i s s i on , 96 ;E s s en i sm a m i d d l e term b etween th e Gre c ian my sferi es an d Chri s t ian i sm . . 98

E verge te s , l eague o f 227

F emg eri ch te o f W e s tp ha l ia ,

147 s qq . ; o rig in , 148 ; fem icco urts exerc i se j uri s d i c t io na l l o ver th e em p ire , 154 ;p ro ced ure , 165 ; d ea th b y th ero p e , 159 ; co n d em n i n g to

d ea th a town’

s p o p u la t i o n ,

161 : fem ic c o urt s s up er

ceded

F i re W o rs h ipFo re s ters . .236Freem as o nry , 178 s q q . ; grewo u t o f th e S to n em a s o n s

’

o r

gan iza ti o n ,180; firs t gran d

l o d ge in s t i tu ted 1717 ,i h .

re co gn i ze s human bro therh o o d regard le s s o i race o r

creed . 181 : in s t i tu t io n o f th e

thre e d egrees ,182; d iffu s i o n

o f th e o rd er,183 ; i t s a im s ,

184 ; s ign s , ri tua l , s ym bo l s ,

186 ; gran d an d p art i cu l ar

l’

o d g es , 187 ; wom en n o t ad

m i tted to th e l o d ge , 190

Freemaso nry in th e Frenchrevo lut io n 228 s qq .

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

German Un io n o f th eXX I I 226Go d s , an ima l s an d p lan ts a s ,

11 ; o f E gyp t , 130 s qq . ; o f

B aby lo n ia ,27 s qq . ; o f I n

33 sqq .

Graces , Fa tes , Furi es 8

Grec ian re l ig i o n , 38 sq qk n ew n o d o gma , 39 ; n o r

d ev i l s , 40; ho s p i tabl e t o fo re ig h go d s , 40; wo rs h i p ,

a

S ta te fun c t i o n , 41 ; ri tua l

an d s acri fice , 43 ; s eers h ipan d p ro p hecy , 44 ; o rac l e s ,

i b . ; c o n j ura t i o n . 45Gre ek in i t ia te s o f E gy p t i an

my s teri e s 21Gug omo s a my s terio us p er

s o nage 209

Heaven an d E arth a s go d s 7He l l en ic my s terie s ,

45 s qqan an om a ly ,

47 ; E ur ip i d es ,

h i s p ra i se o f th e my s teri e s ,

a l s o C i cero’

s , 48 ; the ir mean

ing—p ur i fi ca t io n a n d exp ia

t i o n ,49 ; s ee

“E leus in ian

M y s teri es .

”

Hero d o tu s o n th e grea t Labyr in th , 18 ; o n E gyp t ian my s

H i ero g ly p h s 23H i ero ph an t 51“H igh Degrees , 195 s qq .

R oya l A rch , 199 ; my th i c d es cen t fro m Temp lari sm , 200;Sco t t i sh (o r Sa in t A n d rew

’

s )d egrees , 201 ; p ed d l ing h ighd egree s , 203 ; L erna i s (M ar

qu i s ) , R o s a (P h i l . S am ) ,204 ;

th e n ew Tem p lari sm in Germ any , i b . ; S tri c t Ob s erva n ce ,

205 s qq . ; fan ta s t i c t i tl es

K n igh t o f th e C o ck chafer,e tc 206 ; J o hn A ug . S tarki nven ts c l erica l Tem p l ari sm ,

207 ; Gug om o s tra ces t h e

h igh d egre es back to

M o se s 209

INDEX

H iram my th . .199 , 202, 215

Hun d , B aro n vo n ,a D o n

! u ixo te .203 s qq .

Iaccho sI l lum ina t i .

216 s qq .

Im i ta t i o n s o f anc i en t my s t i c

l eagues , 232 s qq . ; Ho l yOrd er o f S o p h i s i

'an s,232 :

Ord er o f M i s ra im , Ord er o f

M emph i s .. ib .

In i t ia te s , 5 ; in i t ia ti o n i n to

E gyp t ian my s teries . .22

I s tar ,C h a l d a ean g o d d es s ,

h er

d e s cen t in to th e in fern a l

re a lm 31

J a s i o s , s o n o f Zeus ,inven to r

o f hu s ban d ry .90

J esu s ,h i s p ers o n a l i ty , tea ch

i ng , p re ten s i o n s , m irac le s ,

102 s q q .

J o h n so n B aro n ,a sw in d

l er

J ud a i sm an d Hel l en i sm ,91

sqq . ; exch ang e o f i d ea s b e

twe en J ews an d He l l ene s ,

i ts effects

K ing s an d queen s , d ecea s e d .

m ad e go d s . 17

K l o b berg o l l .. 37

Kn igge , B aro n A d o l f vo n ,

found er o f I l lum in i sm ,21 ;

ap o s tat i zes .225

Kn igh ts Temp lar ,129 s qq . ;

o rig in , 13 1 ; d egrees , 133 ;

wea l th an d p ower ,134 ;

secret a im s an d cry p t ic b e

l i efs ,135 ; co n temp t fo r th e

cro s s , 13 6 ; wo rs h ip o f an

i d o l , 138 ; accuse d o f here syan d m embers tri ed b y th e

Inqu i s i t i o n , 141 ; m any co n

vic ted an d b urn t to d ea th ,

th e o rd er d i s s o lved 145

Laby rin th a t Cro co d i l o p o l i s .18

Lerna i s , a n ap o s t le o f

frau d .204

Lo d ge o f Un i ty'

at Frank fo rt

239

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

fa i thful to genu ine free

ma s o nry 206‘ Lo s t Go d th e 46Ly curgu s i n E gyp t 21

M an riva l ing De i ty 2

M i thra s wo rsh ip imp o rtedfrom P ers ia i n t o R om e

, 68 ;e lab o ra te symbo l i sm o f th e

in i t ia t i o n , h uman s acri fice s ,

69 ; He l i o gaba lu s an i n i t ia te ,

70; M i thras c o up l ed w i thZagreu s an d A t t i s , an d th e

com p o un d d e i ty ca l l ed S a

b az iu s , 70; in i t ia t i o n in to

th e S abaz ian my s terie s . .7 1

M y s te ri e s ,i nve n t i o n o f, 3 ; o f

E gyp t in c lud ed M o n o th e

i sm . .23M y tho l o gy o f na tura l p h e

h om en a

Na tura l fo rce s w o rsh iped . 6

N ew Tes tam en t , 110 s q q . ; J o

ann in e go s p e l a pro d uct . o f

th e A l exan d rin e s cho o l . . 113

Ni le ,m ak er o f E gyp t

N irvana 2

Orpheu s in E gyp t 22

Orp h ic s o c ie t i es , 84 sdq . ;

s ecre t s ch o o l s o r c lubs , 85 ;becam e n es t s o f m en d i can ts

an d sw in d le rs 85O s iri s , my s teri es o f 14

P an thei sm o f B rahman s 34

P ers ep ho n e , rap e o f 49P ers ian re l ig i o n 32 s qq .

P h i l o , He l len i s t J ew i s h p h i lo s o p h er . .94

P la to i n E gy p t .22P lu tarch o n E gyp t ian re

l ig i o n .24P lu to . 7P o s e i d o n

P ri e s ts ,an c ien t , the ir o eco n

omy o f re l ig i o u s tru th s . . 8P ri e s ts o f A s s yria an d B abyl o n ia

P y th ag o ra s , 72 s qq . ; h i s v i s i tto E gy p t , 75 ; to B aby l o n , 75l i fe in Cro to na, 76 : h i s

INDEX

mathemat ical s cience , as tro

n om i ca l k n owl ed ge , 77 ;

p h i l o s o p h i ca l v i ews, 78 ; h i s

s choo l an d th e P y thag o reanl eague , fal l o f th e l eague,

79 s qq .

Re , E gyp tian supreme go d . . 16

R e l ig i o u s i d ea s , o rig in o f . . 5

R i d d l e o f ex i s te n ce .

R o s a , P h i l ip Samue l , p ro

m o ter o f th e H i gh D e

grees”fraud .

R o s icruc ian i sm , 174 s qq

J o hn Va l en t in e A n d reae i ts

o rig ina to r, 175 ; th e m y th i ca lfriar Chri s t ian R o s enk reu z ,i b . ; th e o rd er cla im ed to b e

an o ffsho o t o f th e k n igh t ly

o rd er o f th e Ho s p i ta l ers . 177

R o s icruc ian i sm , th e new ,

211 s qq .

Sab aziu-s : s ee M i thras .

Sa i s,im age at .

S am o thra ce , m y s teri es o f; 57

s q q . ; Cab iri , i h°

p ha l l icw o rsh ip , 58 ; th e i n i t ia

t i o n i. b .

Sa ty rs . .

S ch rep fer , fo un d er o f th e n ewR o s i cruc ian i sm . .212

Schubart , J o h n C h ri s t ian, p ro

m o ter o f th e H igh Degree s ”fraud 206Secret Leagues am o ng s avages . 36S ecre t S o c i e tie s , m i s cel lan eo us : Th e W o o d s p l i tters , 192Ord er o f Ho p e , 193 ; o f Sa in tJ 0na th an (o r J o ach im ) , 194 ;th e P i lgrims

’

Ch a in , i b . :

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0

V i shnu

W e i shaup t , A d am , fa ther o f

I l lum in i sm

Zara t-h u s tro tema

Zo roas ter . 9 0 0 0 0

216 s qq .

. 32

32sqq .

Order of Argonau ts , i h . ; o f

th e M u s tard s eed ,195 ; o f th e

Lea l , o f th e Ducat s , i b . ; o f

th e R o s e 196

Sh aman i sm 26

S iva .

So l om o n ic Legen d , 174 , 199

s ee“H iram M y th , an d

“H igh Degrees .

S o l o n in E gy p t 22

So rcery am o ng s avages 36Sp h inxes . 15

Sp iri t , s o u l , an d bo d y 18

S tark , p rom o ter o f th e H ighDegrees d e lus i o n 207

S to n emas o n s’

l o d g es , 166 s qq . ;

o f Germ any , 168 s qq . ; league

o f lo d ges o rgan i zed b y A l

bertu s M agnu s , 169 ; u s ag es ,

ri tes , p as swo rd s , 170; h o s

t i l i ty t o ecc l es ia s ti c i sm , 172

s to nemas o n s an d o th er

craftsmen in Fran ce , 173sq q . ; th e So l om o n i c my th ,174 ; riva l o rgan i zat io n sC omp agn o n nag es , 175 ; E ng

l i s h s to n ema s o n s , 176 s q .

S tri c t Ob s ervance . s q q .

S tuart , Charl es E dward . .207Sumerian s

S un an d m oo n a s g o d s 7Swed i sh ri te 210

Temp lari sm an d F reem a

s o n ry , 201 , 233 ; s ee“H igh

Degre es .

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