Pagan Origin of Partialist Doctrines

by John Claudius Pitrat

One of the greatest blessings and privileges of the initiation, the hierophant and other priests taught, was to secure here below a direct communion with the gods, and more especially beyond the grave. According to Cicero, Isocrates, and the rhetor Aristides, when he who had been initiated departed from this earthly life he inhabited meadows enameled with flowers of a celestial beauty, and lighted with a sun brighter and purer than the one we see. In that charming abode he was to live centuries, and long preserve his youth. When arrived at an old age, he was to become young again. There was no labor, no sorrow, but all was rapture and delight.

In the Greek and Roman mysteries the unity and also the trinity of God were consecrated dogmas. Jupiter was adored as the father of the gods and of men, and as filling the whole universe with his power. He was the supreme monarch of nature: the names of gods ascribed to the other deities were more of an association in the title than in the nature of their power, for each one of them had a particular work to perform under the command of the supreme God. In the mysteries of the religion of the Greeks, a hymn expressing the unity of God or Jupiter was sung; and the High Priest, turning towards the worshipers, said: "Admire the master of the universe; he is one; he is everywhere." It was acknowledged by Eusebius, St. Augustine, Lactance, Justin, Athenagoras, and many other Fathers of the Church, that the dogma of the unity of God was admitted by ancient philosophers, and was the basis of the religion of Orpheus, and of all the mysteries of the Greeks.

The Platonicians believed in the unity of the archetype, or model on which God formed the world; also they believed in the unity of demiourgos, or god-forming, by a consequence of the same philosophical principles, namely, from the unity itself of the universe, as can be seen in Proclus, and in the writings of the Platonician authors.

Trinity also, (see chapter fifth) was taught in the mysteries. Pythagoras, and many other philosophers, explained the unity and trinity of God by the theory of numbers. They called the monade cause, or principle. They expressed by the number one, or unit, the first cause, and they concluded to the unity of God from mathematical abstractions. Next to this unity they placed triades, which expressed faculties or powers emanated from them, and also intelligences of a second order. The triple incarnation of the god Wichnou into the body of a virgin was one of the doctrines taught in the mysteries of Mithra.

So much for the mysteries of Paganism; however, we shall, in the course of this work, refer to them several times. Let us now examine the origin of the mysteries, which, the Partialists say, Jesus Christ has taught. Mysteries suppose secrecy; but Jesus Christ preached his Gospel in the open air to his apostles, to his disciples, to crowds of people, and to all who were willing to hear his doctrines. He urged upon his disciples to preach above the roofs what he taught them. When, after his death, his apostles spread his gospel, they spoke in open air, everywhere, to masses of people; Paul to the Areopagus, to thousands in Jerusalem, etc. How then can it be supposed that Jesus Christ taught mysteries? Indeed, he did not, but afterwards several Christian churches did.

The Protestant historian, Mosheim, cites in his History of the Church, several authors, who state, that, in the second century, several Christian churches imitated the mysteries of Paganism. The profound respect, they say, that the people entertained for those mysteries, and the extraordinary sacredness ascribed to them were for the Christians a motive sufficient to give a mysterious appearance to their religion, so as to command as much respect to the public as the religion of the Pagans. To this effect they called mysteries the institutions of the Gospel, particularly the Eucharist. They used in this ceremony, and in that of baptism, several words and rites consecrated in the mysteries of the Pagans. This abuse commenced in Orient, chiefly in Egypt; Clement of Alexandria, in the beginning of the third century, was one of those who contributed the most to this innovation, which then spread in Occident when Adrian had introduced the mysteries in that portion of the Empire. Hence, a large portion of the service of the Church hardly differed from that of Paganism.

That the Church of Rome copied many of the ceremonies, rites, customs, and fables of Pagan mysteries is certain, for they have been perpetuated in that Church down to our days. From the Pagan mysteries the Roman Church borrowed the following:

In the initiation to the Pagan mysteries there were degrees; so in the Roman Church there are the degrees of porter or door-keeper, of acolyte, of reader and of exorcist; the latter degree confers the power of expelling the devil. The ecclesiastical ornaments in the Church of Rome, with the difference of the cross represented on them and of some trimming, are like those used in the mysteries of the Pagans, at least in Rome, and in Greece. The long floating gown, the girdle, the casula, the stola, the dalmatica, the round and pyramidal cap, the capa, and several other garments and ornaments, are alike to those used in the temples, where the mysteries of the Pagans were celebrated.

In those temples there was an altar richly decorated; so it is in the Church of Rome. In those temples there were twelve flambeaux, representing the twelve months of the year: so there are in Catholic churches, upon the first degree above the altar, six chandeliers with six tapers burning during the celebration of the mysteries or mass; six others are on the second degree. The vestals kept a light constantly burning in the Pagan temples: so a lamp is kept burning, day and night, near the altar, in the Catholic churches. In the Pagan temples the disc of the sun and his beams were represented: so they are in the Catholic churches. Upon the altar, in the Pagan temples, there was an image of the god Osiris or Bacchus, and the emblems of an aries or lamb: so upon the altar, in Catholic churches, there is a tabernacle in which God is said to dwell, and the door of the tabernacle represents a bleeding lamb.

The Pagans solemnly and processionally carried the image of Osiris, or Bacchus, around the head of which there was a halo representing the rays of the sun: so in the Romish church the priests processionally and with great pomp, carry, both in the aisles of the churches and on the streets, a wafer which they call God. It is encased in a silver or gold ostenserium, whose circular centre, in which their pretended God is seen between two crystals, is shaped like the disc of the sun; and the outside, of which called halo or glory, is shaped like his rays. In the Pagan temples there was a sanctuary exclusively reserved to the high-pontiff, and to the priests: so it is in the Catholic churches. In the Pagan temples the sanctuary was turned towards the Orient: so it is in the Catholic churches.