Pagan Origin of Partialist Doctrines

by John Claudius Pitrat

Corollary. Since mysteries are of Pagan origin, and since Jesus Christ and his apostles did not establish mysteries, there ought not to be mysteries in Christianity. Since Jesus Christ and his apostles preached the Gospel in open air to all, everywhere, there cannot be any mysteries in their teaching, and there cannot be any mysteries in their writings, we mean in the New Testament.

CHAPTER III.

PAGAN ORIGIN OF THE DOCTRINE OF A PERSONAL DEVIL.

The celebrated Plutarch, historian, philosopher, and priest of Apollo, in the first century of the Christian era, thus writes: "We ought not to believe that the Principles of the universe are not animated, as Democrite and Epicure thought; nor that an inert matter be organized, and ordained by a Providence that disposes of all, as the Stoicians taught. It is impossible that one sole being, either good or bad, be the author of all, for God can cause no evil. The harmony of the world is a combination of contraries like the strings of a lyre, or like the string of a bow capable of being bent and unbent. In no case, the poet Euripedes says, good is separated from evil: there must be a mixture of the one and of the other. This opinion is of immemorial antiquity, and has been held by theologians, legislators, poets, and philosophers. Its inventor is unknown, but it is verified by the traditions of mankind; it is consecrated by mysteries and sacrifices among the Barbarians, as well as among the Greeks. They all acknowledge the dogma of two opposite Principles in nature, who, by their opposition, produce the mixture of good and evil.

"Therefore it may not be said, that a single dispenser draws events like a liquor from two casks to mix them together; for this mixture is found in all the phenomena of nature. We must admit two opposite causes, two contrary powers, bearing the one to the right, and the other to the left; and who thus govern our life and the whole sublunar world, which for this reason is subject to all the irregularities and vicissitudes we witness, for nothing is done without a cause. As the good cannot produce evil, then there is a principle causing evil, as one causing good."

We see by this passage of Plutarch, that the true origin of two Principles proceeds from the difficulty which men, in all times, found in explaining, by one sole cause, good and evil in nature, and in making flow from one sole spring, virtue and crime, light and darkness. "This dogma," Plutarch adds, "has been admitted by nearly all nations, and more especially by those renowned by their wisdom. They believed in two gods of different trade, if I may say so, who caused, the one good, and the other evil. They called the first God by excellence, and the second Demon."

In fact the Persians, disciples of Zoroaster admitted, and even in our days, the Parsis, their successors, admit two principles, the one called Oromaze, and the other Ahriman. Plutarch says: "The Persians believed that the first was of the nature of light, and the second of that of darkness. Among the Egyptians the first was called Osiris, and the second Typhon, eternal foe to the first."

All the sacred books of the Persians, and of the Egyptians, contain the marvellous and allegorical recital of the various combats given by Ahriman and his angels to Oromaze, and by Typhon to Osiris. These fables have been rehearsed by the Greeks in the war of the Titans against the Giants, against Jupiter, or Principle of good and light; for Jupiter, Plutarch remarks, was the Oromaze of the Persians, and the Osiris of the Egyptians.

To these examples quoted by Plutarch, and which he extracted from the Theogony of the Persians, of the Egyptians, of the Greeks, and of the Chaldeans, we shall add others, which are living yet, at least the most of them. The inhabitants of the kingdom of Pegu admit two Principles; the one author of good, and the other of evil. They particularly endeavor to obtain the favor of the latter. The Indians of Java acknowledge a chief supreme of the universe, and address offerings and prayers to the evil genius lest he harm them. The Indians of the Moluc and Philippine islands do the same. The natives of the island of Formose worshiped a good god, Ishy, and demons, Chouy; they sacrifice to the latter, but seldom to the former.