Pagan Origin of Partialist Doctrines

by John Claudius Pitrat

From the fact that, according to the Christians of the first and of the second centuries themselves, the dogma of endless hell is not taught in the New Testament, we draw the conclusion that the Church of Rome, which first, and successively, introduced in the body of Christians the dogma of hell and of endless hell, did not originate it from the New Testament; because there would have been a general protestation against it from all the other churches.

It has been proved, in the second Article of this chapter, that the Jews did not believe the dogma of endless hell. Therefore the Church of Rome did not originate the dogma of endless hell from the Jews, or from their Holy Writs.

Wherefrom, then, did the Church of Rome originate the dogma of endless hell?

From Paganism:—

The Church of Rome established mysteries towards the beginning of the third century. They were an imitation of the Pagan mysteries.

We refer the reader for the proofs of this proposition to the last pages of the second chapter of this work.

Thereupon we continue. It was only successively, and to make more proselytes, that the Church of Rome had established those ceremonies, rites and doctrines, to the reading thereof we have invited the reader, and which were not only unspoken of in the Scriptures, but which were a pure imitation of those of the mysteries of the Pagans. We say, to make more proselytes; for the aim of the Church of Rome was evidently to diminish the abruptness of the transition between Paganism and Christianity; to throw a bridge, if we may thus illustrate our idea, over the steep, wide, and deep abyss that lies between Paganism and Christianity.

Now let us compare the hell of the Church of Rome with the Tartarus of the Pagans. The Pagans called the place where the wicked were punished, Tartarus, or Infernus; the Church of Rome called, and still calls, the same place, Tartarus, or Infernus. The Pagans believed that the Tartarus was in the profundities of the earth; the Church of Rome held, and still holds, that the Tartarus, called in English, Hell, is in the profundities of the earth.

Remark.—Before proceeding further, let us give the native signification of the words Tartarus, Infernus and Hell. Τἁρταρος, ου, dark and deep place: Τάρταρα γαίης, [in Hesiode,] abysses of the earth. The word Τἁρταρος has been adopted and kept in the Latin, though with the change of the final ος into us, Tartarus, and its native meaning preserved. The Latin word Infernus derives from the word inferior, which signifies a place under, below an other, a cavity, a profundity. The words Tartarus, Infernus, have been kept in French, Tartare, Enfer; in Spanish, Tartaro, Infierno; and also in the other languages derived from the Latin. The English word hell is the genitive case of the Anglo-Saxon word hole, [See Webster's Dictionary,] which means a cavity, a profundity. The word Tartarus has been kept from the Latin, with its native signification. In Greek Τἁρταρος has a plural, as seen before. In Latin Tartarus has a plural, Tartari; so Infernus, Inferi. In French Tartare has a plural, Tartares; so, Enfer, Enfers. In Spanish Tartaro has a plural, Tartaros; so, Infierno, Infiernos.

Now we continue the comparison that we have commenced between the Infernus of the Pagans and the Infernus, or Hell, of the Church of Rome. We will use the word Hell, to express the Tartarus, or Infernus, of both the Pagans and the Church of Rome.