CHAPTER V

MITHRA
The worship of Mithra arose in the east at that remote period of time when the Persian and Hindu nations were still one people.
Of Zoroaster, the putative founder of this religion, almost nothing is known; and the extant Zend-Avesta, the sacred book that contains its tenets, dates only from the third century a.d.; of the original only trifling fragments remain. The philosophy of this book accounts for the presence of un¬ happiness in the world by presuming a constant struggle between the good and evil principles, named Ormuzd and Ahriman, who have chosen mankind as their battle¬ field.
Ormuzd is the omnipotent lord ; luminous space, anterior to all things, and containing all; the sky is his garment broidered with stars, the sun his eye wherewith he oversees all things created; “in body he resembles the light, in soul the truth”; by his word he has created the earth, and this word in naming beings has inspired them with the breath of life.
Three separate classes of angelic or superhuman beings attend upon Ormuzd to do his bidding, and aid him in his struggle against Ahriman. First in rank come the Amshas- pands, who seem to represent abstract qualities emanating from the soul of goodness; next come the Izeds, who are genii of the four elements, fire, water, earth, and air; last come the Ferouers or Fravashis, who are immortal types or ideas of things; their service consists in descending tem¬ porarily to earth and becoming incarnate, ascending again to heaven when their work is done.
28
MITHRA
29
Mithra was originally one of the Izeds, and thus belongs to the oldest Pagan mythology. In his earliest form he seems identical with the sun ; then by process of evolution he be¬ came in turn the god of truth, the intercessor between men and Ahura (Ormuzd), the warrior god, the family god as friend and consoler; he T>ecame, too, the guide of men after death, and weighed them in the balance.
When the Persians conquered the Assyrians, the pure form of religion, as described above, received a strange medley of additions gathered up from the popular mythology of the Babylonian people; astrology, astronomy, magic and demons, monsters and chimeras were grafted on the original stem. The religion henceforth bore unmistakable traces of its passage through the land of the Chaldees.
Other changes crept in also that exalted Mithra at the expense of Ormuzd, and advanced him grade by grade, so that he first became co-adjutor of the god, and finally dis¬ placed him in the popular imagination and worship. In the end Mithra had in practice dethroned Ahura-Mazda (Ormuzd) ; yet the existence of the latter continued to be a matter of faith, and to him in the third century a.d. we find Mithra conducting the souls of the dead. It is, however, doubtful whether the former supreme god, the principle of good, received much notice or reverence from the common herd of worshippers.
From Assyria the worship of Mithra passed into Phrygia, where it borrowed the costume of Atys, in which Mithra is always represented henceforth.
From Phrygia the creed spread to Rome. In this last phase, the days of his greatness and decline under the Roman Empire, Mithra was still Persian in the trend of his morality and the character of his doctrines; Chaldean in the form of his dogmas and astronomical symbolism; Phrygian in his garb; Roman in the discipline whereby his devotees were bound together.
Mithra was an essentially Aryan deity., Both Hindu and Persian recognized him as the protector of truth and anta¬ gonist of error; but this view of the god as a guiding and morality-inspiring spirit was only attained after centuries
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30 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
of religious evolution, and the legend with which his name was chiefly associated seems to go back to a very remote period when men clothed their divinities in a mortal shape wherein to fulfil works of love or enmity. The legend of the bull, which gave Mithra the name of Bull-slayer, ran as follows.
Mithra was born of the rock, a piece of symbolism per¬ petuated by his statues down to the latest age of the worship and probably embodying the idea of a physical phenomenon, the creation of fire from flint, light and heat being his special attributes. The first antagonist against whom he turned his arms was .the sun, whom he conquered and made his ally. There is a certain amount of confusion in this myth, for during his later career Mithra was generally identified with the sun and regarded as its god; such con¬ tradictions and blendings of deities are not uncommon in the history of religions. The most serious of Mithra’s struggles was one with a great bull created by Jupiter Orosmasdes, during which the hero laid hold of it by the horns, and was borne away on its back. At last it fell exhausted, whereupon the hero caught it up by the hind legs and carried it slung over his shoulders into a cave.
In the Mithraic monuments the god is very often portrayed in this attitude, carrying the bull; and this transitus, as it was called, became emblematical of the course of life; the esoteric teaching, one may surmise, would follow the line that all men have a burden to bear of passions, sorrows and duties, that none can escape it, and that courage is needed in order to overcome ... a lesson not lacking in morality.
To resume the myth. The bull escaped from its prison in the cave while the hero was resting after his labours ; but it did not evade the watchful eye of the Sun-god, who sent his special messenger, the crow, to wake Mithra with the command that when he had overtaken the fugitive it should be slain.
Mithra, much against his own will, for he loved mercy and hated bloodshed, obeyed the will of the Sun-god. Accompanied by his dog, the symbol of faithfulness and obedience, he pursued and overtook the bull, cast it to
MITHRA
31
the ground, and averting his head in horror at his own act, plunged his dagger into its heart. Thereupon from its flowing blood sprang all the plants and herbs useful to man. The spirit of evil, however, did not wish the sacrifice to be consummated, and sent his emissaries, the ant, the scorpion and the serpent to destroy the sources of life; but their attempts were unavailing. The seed of the bull was translated to the sphere of the moon,11 where it ger¬ minated, grew, and bore fruit. Thus by the immolation of the bull, committed against his will, Mithra became the regenerator of the earth and creator of a new life, richer and more fruitful than the former.
Such is the legend, details of which are carefully expressed in many of the Mithraic monuments that have been pre¬ served; such is the legend that formed the basis of a cult which became immensely popular wherever the Roman eagles flew over Europe.
The first planting of Mithra-worship among the Romans probably dates from the military expeditions into Cilicia and Cappadocia about b.c. 102. While the religion seems never to have taken root in Greece, we find it firmly established in Rome at the end of the first century a.d. Here it had been preceded by various other Oriental cults, notably those of Cybele and Isis. Towards the decline of the republic the ground was prepared at Rome for a new faith. The old official religion was dying of formalism; paganism had proved itself impotent to form a popular morality; and the disastrous effects of state dry-nursing were reflected in the minds of men. Since the proletariat had come to be fed and entertained at the public expense, panem et circenses, the plebeian had no personal interest in politics, no anxiety about his daily bread, no popular religion to appeal to his heart and intellect; in fact, nothing in his environment tended to raise him above the level of the brutes or develop the higher side of his nature. Augustus attempted to supply this need by what may be termed an Apotheosis of Government, and declared the state to be the ruling deity of Rome; but the populace would have none of it ; it wanted something more tangible,
32 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
a personal god, a ceremonious ritual. The cultured classes, of course, pursued the study and practice of philosophy, which formed many noble characters; but the worship of “ self- reverence, self-knowledge, self-control” was quite unsuited to the masses ; they had other needs, and so devoted themselves to the grossest superstitions. Orgiastic rites and nature-worship did not suffice for all, and many sought light elsewhere; initiations into the mysteries became very common among the lower classes, indeed most of the recruits came from the men of the people, for a well-bred philosophic atheism contented the Patricians. The aim of all these mysteries was identical, expressed in many different ceremonies, to do away with the old man and cause him to be born anew to a fresh life.
Mithra-worship measured itself against other competing religions in Rome, and by the end of the first century a.d. was well ahead of all its Pagan rivals.
Judaism, which at one time bid fair to become the most popular of foreign creeds at Rome, ceased to be a vital force after the fall of Jerusalem; Cybelism was discredited and disgraced about the same time; there remained the religions of Isis, Mithra and Christ. The tender feminism of the first of this trilogy was unsuited to struggle against the third, the common enemy of all paganism; so Isis yielded place to Mithra, who by the end of the third century had gone a long way towards absorbing all pagan religions into his own. But it was a partial absorption only. This peculiar fact should be remembered: to follow Mithra it was not necessary to abandon every other creed, and his service was compatible with vows paid to different deities; in other words, a man might become a soldier of Mithra without renouncing the faith he previously held; so the worship of Mithra became a composite religion, receiving recruits from the most diverse sects and adapting itself to the most varied regions and spheres. So far as is known, neither language nor race nor belief in any exoteric divinity ever barred a candidate from participating in its mysteries.
The first followers of Mithra in Rome, like those of Christ,
MITHRA
33
came from the poor and lowly. A class of intelligentsia had arisen among the plebeians, consisting of skilled artificers and artists, to say nothing of the host of educated slaves maintained in patrician houses as secretaries, doctors, accountants, and so forth; these men had learnt discipline in the school of hard endeavour; they saw strength and beauty in the world, and wished to attain to its wisdom as well; a firm and unbending rule of morality had its attractions for such as these; and they accepted the doctrine of the immortality of the soul as an axiom. The religion of Mithra fulfilled all their requirements, and so his temples gradually increased in numbers.
His followers were not called upon to face persecution such as had attended other Oriental sects in Rome ; partly, no doubt, because their creed was later in arriving there, but partly because its doctrines were less open to objection. The rites were free from that gross immorality which led to the suppression of Cybelism ; it did not interfere with the everyday affairs of life ; it permeated the army, so that no charge of bad citizenship could be brought against its devotees; and while it imposed a strict rule of life upon its followers, it sought no converts, nor gave rise to civil broils by attacking the practices and beliefs of other sects.
Soldiers were the first apostles of the new creed in Rome; and as time went on it grew increasingly popular in the army, indeed some of its degrees seem to have had an essentially military character. No wonder then that Mithra came to be regarded with great favour by the emperors; some of the best of them, and some of the worst also, took his vows.
Nero was initiated into the Mithraic mysteries; they flourished under Trajan's protection and favour; Hadrian forbade them, swayed by hearsay accounts of candidates subjected to cruel tests; with Commodus the emperor was again numbered among the initiated, and is reported to have soiled his hands by a murder during the ceremonies of his admission. In Aurelian’s time the creed had reached the summit of its popularity, and was widely diffused over the Roman world. The pleasant valleys of the Rhine, the
34 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
plains of Belgium, the hills of Rumania, the garrison towns of Britain, all received its temples.
At this the time of his greatest glory .Mithra became finally synonymous with the sun. He appeared as the Deus Invictus, the unconquered god, on the coinage of Constantine the Great, who is said to have composed a prayer that could be used by the followers of either Mithra or Christ and to have hesitated for a long time between the two guides before he finally inclined to the service of the latter.
Under the last pagan emperor the already discredited religion emerged in glory once more, when Julian chose Mithra to be the “Guardian of his soul.” After his death Christianity would tolerate no other creed, and persecution ensued that would seem to have been entirely successful in extirpating the abhorred Mithraism. Its monuments were defaced, followers scattered, priests slain, and for greater shame buried in the profaned sanctuaries, so that these places might be for ever polluted by the preseq.ee of the dead. Finally, the spelaea, or underground temples, were filled in with earth. The creed was stamped out. So was all knowledge of its secret doctrines.
There are very few fragments in Greek and Latin writers referring to Mithra worship, for the Christians hated and feared this sect so much that they destroyed all evidences of their chief rival when possible; it is probable, too, that much of what they did write concerning the creed that supplanted theirs under Julian was either unjust or untrue. Owing to this lack of material knowledge, the creed of Mithra has sometimes been termed the “Freemasonry of Antiquity,” and some ingenious writers, notably Lajard, have exercised their invention in reconstituting a complete system of rites and ceremonies for which there is hardly a tittle of evidence either written or graven.
This much is beyond doubt: the initiates were bound by an oath of secrecy; there were various degrees of initiation; the members were known to one another by certain signs; and membership was restricted to men. Because of the lack of written memorials, our chief source of information about the rites is the collection of monuments disinterred from the
MITHRA
35
spelaea; many of these which seem trivial or foolish to us may have been employed as allegories to teach some lesson neither ignoble nor unuseful in its purport.
Originally, in their purest form, the ceremonies of Mithra were celebrated on the tops of mountains, a suitable situa¬ tion for sun-worship; then the place was changed to a natural cavern in the hill-side; finally, as in Europe generally, to an artificial cave underground, designed to look as if it had been formed by the operations of nature. The technical name for such temples was spelaeum, though templum was also in use. They have been discovered scattered over all the countries of Europe that knew the Roman occupation, and invariably conform to one ritual plan that does not change with the locality.
No rule about orientation was observed. All of them were supplied with a spring of water for lustral purposes; it will be remembered that a ceremonial washing is common to many religions. These spelaea were not large; the most capacious held only about forty worshippers, so that when a congregation grew too numerous the overflow members would acquire a spelaeum for themselves; this accounts for several being located in the same neighbourhood.
Entering by a portico the visitor found himself in a hall, known as the Pronaos, closed at the far end by a wall with a door that gave entrance to a smaller hall, the Apparitorium. This was the apartment where the candidates awaited their initiation. From this ante-room a flight of steps led down¬ wards to the sanctuary, the Crypta. This subterranean room had a vaulted ceiling, and was built so as to resemble a cave. In some cases the roof was perforated to admit light and air.
Inside the entrance of the crypta a platform raised a few inches above the floor-level ran across the width of the room. The floor-space was divided longitudinally into three parts. Up the middle ran a passage about seven feet wide, known as the cella or choir, and flanking its sides two low walls of masonry, or podia , forming two benches about four feet wide, along which the initiates ranged themselves, resting one knee on the podia.
36 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
The central passage was reserved for the celebrants and ceremonial of initiation. In more than one instance a cemented receptacle has been found sunk into the floor of the cella, and was probably used to catch the blood of sacrificial animals. Chains, knives and other instruments for immolating the victims have also been discovered.
At the far end of the crypta , facing the entrance, the statue of Mithra slaying the bull was placed. This was concealed from the neophyte by either a veil or a wooden wainscoting, and the withdrawal of this screen was the culminating point of the initiatory ceremony. On each side of the main statue were two niches to contain the figures of the attendant torch-bearers, the Dadophori , known by the names of Cautes and Cautopates. Holy- water basins and lamps were placed around the walls.
The various articles found in the ruins of these temples afford a clue to the nature of the ceremonies; in addition to the knives and chains already mentioned are included vessels of different shapes and sizes for lustration and drink¬ ing purposes, lamps, bells, flutes, square urns, pedestals, keys, bones of mammalian quadrupeds and chickens.
Evemimman bones have been found, possibly those of some unfortunate priest of the cult murdered and interred in the sanctuary to render it a polluted spot. In this con¬ nexion, however, it must not be forgotten that one of the charges laid against the Mithraists by the Christians was that of ritual murder, so it will be as well to consider the possibility of such an explanation to account for the presence of these human bones. All contemporary records of the creed bear witness that it taught a noble morality to and demanded a high standard of conduct from its votaries; murder is incompatible with such things; and since dead bodies were buried in the spelaea by the Christians in token of desecration, this procedure indicates that the presence of a corpse in such a place was looked upon with horror by the initiated. This fact alone is a strong argument against the charge that ritual murder was ever committed there with their consent and approbation.
To complete the orthodox furniture of the crypta two altars
MITHRA
37
were placed in front of the statue of the Bull-slayer, one dedicated to the sun and the other to the moon. These altars and images were usually the gift of an initiate, and often bear inscriptions with the donor’s name and the god’s peculiar titles of honour.
Of the other statues found in these temples the commonest and most peculiar is that of the Mithraic Eon, or god of time. The form of this extraordinary deity shows that it had its origin in Assyria. It consists of a lion-headed man round whose body a serpent is coiled, while in many cases the signs of the zodiac appear within the folds of the reptile ; the statue holds a key or keys in its hands. Various explana¬ tions of the symbolism of this figure have been suggested, the four elements, the course of the sun, etc.
Another sign found in the temples is the cross, referring to some star or planet; and no doubt its presence in the crypta helped to provoke the angry accusation of the Chris¬ tians that the followers of Mithra perpetrated a parody of the rites and ceremonies of the only true religion, and that this had been delivered to them by the devil in person.
Images of the sun and moon were hardly ever lacking in the crypta. The moon usually appears as a female figure driving two horses yoked to a chariot; the sun as a youth driving four.
As for the statues of Mithra himself. He was always dis¬ played wearing the pilots, the Phrygian bonnet, better known in the world now as the Cap of Liberty. Though the most general way of portraying him was as the bull- slayer, he also appeared at times as rising from the rock, as being borne away by the bull, and in various other phases of the legend.
The peculiar names whereby he was known to his followers were Deus pileatus, the god with the cap, Deus invictus de pelra natus, the unconquered god born of the rock, and Bouklopos, the bull-stealer. But the term “ unconquered” was applied to the planets as well as the sun, and is an obvious allusion to the triumph of these luminaries over death, typified by their diurnal setting.
Beyond doubt a deep symbolic meaning was attached to
38 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
all these statues and ritual paraphernalia. From Maternus comes the hint: “ The Magians feign to adore a man killing a bull, but they explain this creed by stating it alludes to the power of light.”
The best authorities agree that the rite consisted of seven degrees in an ascending scale. Lajard, whose statements must be accepted with caution, though he merits gratitude for having been the first to attempt a catalogue of extant Mithraic monuments, says there were twelve grades, but produces no evidence in support of this. As for the seven certain degrees, different savants arrange them in different orders; the one here given is that of Cumont who agrees with Goblet d’Alviella, two scholars whose diligence in collecting evidence is equalled by their critical faculty and love of truth. According to them the order of the grades was: (1) Crow {Corax) ; (2) Occult {Cryptius) ; (3) Soldier {Miles) ; (4) Lion {Leo) ; (5) Persian {Perses) ; (6) Courier of the Sun {Heliodromus) ; (7) Father {Pater). The Pater Sacrorum (Father of the sacrifices) was a superior class of the Patres ; and the chief of the Patres Sacrorum , the supreme head of the order, was known as the Pater Patrum or Pater Patratus.
The first three grades probably did not confer full parti¬ cipation in the mysteries, only to be attained with that of Leo, when the initiate {sacratus) advanced thus far.
The sacrati addressed one another as “brother,” for they were instructed that co-initiates {co-sacranei) should cherish each other with a mutual affection, and that they were bound together more closely than by the ties of blood.
Admission {acceptio) into the lower grades could be ob¬ tained even by children; and this inferior initiation seems to have borne the name of sacramentum and entailed the usual obligation of secrecy. Perhaps Tertullian had this in his mind when complaining that the heathens had copied the Christian sacraments.1
1 The early Christian rites had probably borrowed from those of Mithra, not the other away about. Lustrations, ceremonial banquets, etc., appealed to the populace, whence the adoption of many pagan customs in the early Church, not all of which have survived. Some have held that Tertullian had himself been a soldier of Mithra; if so, his bitterness against his old associates has been often copied since then by other converts.
MITHRA
39
Julius Firmicus Maternus in De erroribus profanarum religionum asserts that the followers of Mithra had certain secret ways of recognizing each other. He says :
“I think I should not omit the signs and symbols which are current in these miserable sects in order to discern those who profess the like superstition. They have their pass-words and replies, which are taught them by the demon. There is a temple where those who seek to be admitted say: ‘ I have eaten from off a drum; I have drunk from a cymbal; and I have learnt the secret of religion.’ . . .
“There is another ceremony, when those of the Pagans who observe it recognize one another by pronouncing these words: ‘ The God born of the rock
The degree of Miles must have taught a very noble lesson of renunciation. The Soldier in this degree was offered a crown, which he was instructed to refuse with the reply, “Mithra is my crown!” Thenceforth he was not supposed to wear a crown of any kind at a banquet or other festivity, and if a military one should be offered, he must refuse it also, with the words, “It belongs to my god!”
Tertullian refers to this ceremony more than once, notably in a fine passage of De Corona , written about a.d. 201, where the unbending antagonist of paganism can scarcely forbear to express an admiration for his enemies. He is addressing his co-religionists.
“Blush ye, his fellow-soldiers, who shall now stand condemned, not by him, but even by any soldier of Mithra, who when he is enrolled in the cavern — the camp, in very truth, of darkness — when the crown is offered him (a sword being placed between him and it, as if in mimicry of martyrdom) and after placed upon his head, is then taught to put it aside with his hand, and remove it as low as his shoulder, saying, that Mithra is his crown. And thenceforth he never weareth a crown; and he hath this as a sign whereby he is approved, if at any time he is tried touching his oath as a soldier,1 and he is forthwith believed to be a soldier of Mithra, if he throweth down his crown, and if he declareth that he hath it in his god. See we the
Or, perhaps better, “touching his religious ideas.”
40 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
wiles of the devil, who pretendeth to some of the ways of God, for this cause, that through the faithfulness of his own servants he may put us to shame and condemn us.”
Another passage from Tertullian throws some light on the lustral and other ceremonies of the Mithraists. It is from his De Praescriplione Haereticorum, of uncertain date, but prior to a.d. 220.
“He (the Devil) too baptizeth some, to wit, his own be¬ lieving and faithful people; he promiseth a putting away of sin by washing; and if my memory serves me up to this time, Mithra there sealeth his soldiers in their foreheads; he celebrateth also the oblation of bread, and introduceth a representation of the resurrection; and [the initiate] pur¬ chased! a crown at the sword’s point.1 What shall we say also of his decreeing that the chief priest shall marry one only? He, too, hath his virgins; he, too, hath his self¬ restraining folk.”
Tertullian here suggests that the followers of Mithra were sealed on the forehead with water; Cumont thinks that this ceremony was done with a hot iron. Honey was used instead of water as a lustration in the degrees of Leo and Perses. It is probable also, from the evidence of some disinterred bas-reliefs, that the Miles or lower grades were excluded from the ritual banquet, regarded by Tertullian as a parody of Christian rites.
The allusion to a “resurrection” in the passage quoted above must refer to the ceremony in one of the grades. It was a common feature in all the mysteries for the can¬ didate to die symbolically and be born anew; but what form this simulacrum of death took in the mysteries of Mithra is not known, nor do we know in what grade it took place ; possibly that of Leo was the summit to which the ordinary initiate could attain, certain it is that to become a Leo meant devoting oneself completely to the service of the god.
According to Goblet d’Alviella, the mysteries in their
1 A corrupt passage: Mithra seems the subject of et sub gladio redemit coronam, which is nonsense.
MITHRA
41
later development taught that the human soul in order to gain the upper heaven where Ormuzd reigned had to traverse the seven spheres of the planets, using as pass¬ words for each the secret formulas imparted in the mysteries.
The trials to which the neophyte was put during his initiation were celebrated for their severity, and rumours were current that several candidates had lost their lives during the ceremony. Hearsay and report in such cases are no sure guides.
The opinion that in its latest stages the worship of Mithra had become highly allegorical is borne out by a curious manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale, in Parish sup¬ posed to contain a fragment of the liturgy used in one of the grades of Mithra. The Greek text written on papyrus is very mutilated, and interlarded with the hocus-pocus of a professional magician who had made use of it in his alchemistic rites. It consists largely of prayers to be re¬ peated by the initiate at various stages of the ceremony, and what seem to be moral explanations of the objects shown to him. It seems to include the doctrine of trans¬ migration of souls, and to impress on the neophyte that all ills attendant on humanity are negligible, because existence on earth is only given to prepare the soul for an ascent to heaven. .Secrecy is enjoined more than once. Astronomical allusions are met with at every turn. The path of the neophyte seems to lead him to various obstacles which are passed by means of prayers and by the utterance of certain words. At the culminating point a god makes his appearance, “young, with fiery locks, in a white gar¬ ment and scarlet mantle, with a circlet of fire.” The fire- god is succeeded by the appearance of Mithra himself, exactly as we see him depicted on the monuments; and the ceremony seems to close with his accepting the neophyte as his follower in response to this prayer: “Hail, Lord, master of the water, hail, ruler of the earth, hail, prince of the spirit! Lord, born again I pass away being exalted; and being exalted I die; born by the birth that begetteth life I am released in death and pass on my way as thou
1 Edited by Albrecht Dieterich, Leipzig, 1903.
42 FAMOUS SECRET SOCIETIES
hast ordained, as thou hast established the law and made the sacrament.”
If this be indeed a veritable fragment of the liturgy used in the mysteries, while much remains inexplicable, enough is there to show that the religion which inspired it was not lacking in what has always appealed to the hearts and emotions of men.
Goblet d’Alviella has well summed up the demonstrable causes that led to the temporary success of Mithra worship. It satisfied the monotheistic tendencies of the day which saw in all the gods of mythology merely elements and personified forces. In Mithra an intercessor was provided between the supreme deity and man. The ascetic and militant morality of the religion withstood the licence of the times. Its eschatology promised a future life, an ardent desire for which is inherent in human nature. It did not interfere with the worship of other deities. The organization of its grades encouraged emulation in some, and perhaps flattered the vanity of others, while preserving a spirit of brotherhood throughout the order. Finally, by its symbolism it gave the neophyte hope of attaining by perseverance even more sublime truths, which should crown the mysterious secrets borrowed from the legendary wisdom of the east.
Why then did it fail in the struggle against Christianity?
The followers of the Galilean admitted women to a full participation in their rites, while the older religion excluded them; and women are speedily jealous of any secret they may not share. Their influence in matters religious would be hard to over-estimate, and that influence was cast against Mithra.
Christianity knew no toleration of other creeds, whereas Mithra-worship merely aimed at absorbing others within itself. The conviction that beliefs differing from one’s own are wicked is very potent in begetting an earnestness that will carry one far on the road to temporal success; whereas a philosophic toleration, admirable in itself, is no such spur.
Imperial influence and court favour finally inclined to¬ wards Christianity; possibly because, owing to its militant
MITHRA
43
zeal for conversion, it was on the increase, while the nature of Mithra-worship, whose mysteries were secret, did not admit the use of recruiting-sergeants.
Finally, without entering into matters of the spirit, there can be no doubt that the victor was more suited to the heart of the masses. The fact that He had lived and died and suffered as man gave Him an appeal to humanity that made Him the real Deus Invictus.
A religion that jealously conceals its tenets, and seeks no converts, aims at embodying the chosen few of a nation alone; and while its influences may be great and noble in its own sphere, it will never appeal to the heart of the ordinary man, and its martyrs, seers, and prophets need expect no wider circle of recognition than is afforded by a very small state within a state; if the approbation of the chosen few is not without its value, let not those who seek it be unprepared to dispense with popular applause.