[21] The Bishop Theodoret of Cyrus in Syria, states, that at the festival of St. John, large fires were annually kindled in several towns, through which men, women and children jumped; and that young children were carried through by their mothers. He considered this custom as an ancient Asiatic ceremony of purification, similar to that recorded of Ahaz, in 2 Kings, xvi. 3. (Quæstiones in IV. Libr. Regum. Interrogat. 47, p. 352. Beati Theodoreti, Episcop. Cyri Opera omnia, Ed. Jac. Sirmondi, Lùt. Paris. 1642. fol. T. I.) Zonaras, Balsamon and Photius speak of the St. John’s fires in Constantinople, and the first looks upon it as the remains of an old Grecian custom. See Reiske, loc. cit. p. 81. That such different nations should have had the same idea of fixing the purification by fire on St. John’s day, is a remarkable coincidence, which perhaps can be accounted for only by its analogy to baptism.
[22] The Life and Adventures of Nathaniel Pearce, written by himself, during a residence in Abyssinia from the year 1810 to 1819. Edited by J. J. Halls. 2 Vols. 8vo. London, 1831. chap. ix. p. 290.
[23] Joann. Trithem. Annal. Hirsaugiens. Oper. Tom. II. Hirsaug. 1690. fol. p. 263. A. 1374. See the before-mentioned Chronicle of Cologne, fol. 276. b., wherein it is said that the people passed in boats and rafts over the city walls.
[24] What took place at the St. John’s fires in the middle ages (about 1280) we learn by a communication from the Bishop Guil. Durantes of Aquitania (Rationale divinorum officiorum. L. VII. c. 26. In Reiske, loc. cit. p. 77.) Bones, horns, and other rubbish, were heaped together to be consumed in smoke, while persons of all ages danced round the flames as if they had been possessed, in the same way as at the Palilia, an ancient Roman lustration by fire, whereat those who took part in them, sprang through a fire made of straw. (Ovid. Met. XIV. 774. Fast. IV. 721.) Others seized burning flambeaux, and made a circuit of the fields, in the supposition that they thereby screened them from danger, while others, again, turned a cart wheel, to represent the retrograde movement of the sun.
[25] J. Chr. Beckmann, Historia des Fürstenthums Anhalt. Zerbst. History of the Principality of Anhalt. Zerbst. 1710. fol. Part III. book 4. chap. 4. § 3. p. 467.
[26] Martini Minoritæ Flores temporum, in Jo. Georg. Eccard, Corpus historiæ medii ævi. Lips. 1723. fol. Tom. I. p. 1632.
[27] Beckmann, loc. cit. § 1. f. p. 465, where many other observations are made on this well known circumstance. The priest named, is the same who is still known in the nursery tales of children as the Knecht Ruprecht.
[28] “Das dich Sanct Veitstanz ankomme.” May you be seized with St. Vitus’s Dance. Joh. Agricola, Sybenhundert und fünffzig Teutscher Sprichwörter. Hagenau, 1537, 8. No. 497. p. 268.
[29] Spangenberg (Adels-Spiegel. Mirror of Nobility, loc. cit.) in his own forcible manner, thus expresses himself on this subject: “It was afterwards pointed out by some, that these people could not have been properly baptized, or at all events, that their baptism was ineffectual, because they had received it from priests who shamelessly lived in open cohabitation with unchaste harlots. Upon this the lower classes rose in rebellion, and would have killed all the priests.” Compare Appendix, No. I.
[30] Bzovii Annal. ecclesiastic. loc. cit. 1468.