Pagan Origin of Partialist Doctrines

by John Claudius Pitrat

In China, the invocation of Omyto is sufficient to remit the punishment of the greatest crimes. It is on account of it that the followers of the sect of Fo repeat oftentimes, every day, the words, O-myto-Fo! The Indians believed, and still believe, that when a man expires in pronouncing the name of God, and in holding, at the same time, the tail of a cow, he immediately ascends to Paradise. The Bramas never failed, and even do not now, to read every morning the mysterious legend of Gosgendre-Mootsjam; because it is a dogma of the Indian religion that any one who reads this legend every morning, obtains the forgiveness of the punishment of all his sins; so the Church of Rome holds that any one who recites the Angelus when the bell rings, in the morning, at noon, and at sun down, or recites the acts of faith, of hope, and of charity, obtains the remittance of the punishment of several of his venial sins; and, also, that any one who regularly recites the prayers of Saint Brigitte, or who, when he dies, recites with great devotion the prayer Memorare o piissima, etc., will go to Paradise.

Greece was flooded with rituals, ascribed to Orpheus and to Museus, prescribing ceremonies, rites, and practices, which had the virtue of purifying the soul, and of exempting the sinners from the punishment of their sins. The priests of the Pagans persuaded entire towns, cities, and nations, that they could be purified of their crimes, and be exempted from the punishment, which the Deity would inflict upon them, through the means of expiatory rites, of feasts, and of initiations. They made the people believe that this purification, and this exemption, could extend to the living and to the dead, in what they called Teletes, or mysteries; and it was as a consequence of this belief that the priests of Cybel, those of Isis, the Orpheotelestes and others, went among the people to initiate them; but on the condition that they would pay to them large sums of money. This traffic was practiced even by priestesses, and bad women. Demosthenes informs us that the mother of Eschine made a living by it, and also in prostituting her body.

Likewise, the Church of Rome is flooded with rituals prescribing ceremonies, rites, and practices, which have the virtue of purifying the soul, and of exempting the sinners from the punishment of their sins. The priests make towns, cities, and nations believe that they can be purified of their crimes, and be exempted of the punishment they deserve, by fasting, by going processionally to churches, or to chapels of saints and of the virgin Mary. The priests, the monks, the begging-friars, and even the nuns, go among the people; they pledge themselves to obtain the forgiveness of their sins, and the exemption from divine punishment, if they give them sums of money.

The priests of the Pagans offered expiatory sacrifices for the living and for the dead for money; so, in the Church of Rome, the priests offer the sacrifice of Mass for the expiation of the sins of the living and of the dead, if they are well paid. The Pagans believed that the foundation of temples, their endowment, and other gifts presented to the gods and to their priests, had an expiatory virtue. Socrates portrayed the unjust man in saying, that initiation to mysteries caused them to despise the Tartarus with all its torments. He made the following remark: "The apologist of injustice says, they frighten us with the threat of the pains of the Tartarus; but who ignores that we find in the initiations a remedy to that fear? They are a great resource to us; and they inform us that there are gods who exempt us from the punishment deserved by crime. True, we have committed injustice, but injustice has been pecuniarily profitable to us. We are told that the gods are appeased by prayers, sacrifices, and offerings." Biache, one of the interlocutors in the Ezourvedam, said, that there is in the country called Magouodechan, a sacred spot, where, through some offerings, ancestors can be freed from the tortures of hell.

Likewise, the Church of Rome holds that the foundation of churches, of priest's houses, of monasteries, of convents, and of nunneries, and their endowment; or any other gift, presented to the saints, bishops, priests, monks, and nuns have a virtue so much the more expiatory for sins, as they are greater and more valuable. It is owing to this horrible doctrine, that the Church of Rome has acquired so much church property that its valuation is beyond any approximate calculation. The French poet, Boileau, spoke the truth when, in his ninth satire, he said:

"Si l'on vient à chercher pour quel secret mystère,

Alidor, à ses frais, bâtit un monastère....

C'est un homme d'honneur, de piété profonde,

Et qui veut rendre à Dieu ce qu'il a pris au monde."

Translation: "If we wish to inquire for what secret mystery Alidor, at his own expense, built a monastery.... He is a man of honor, of profound piety, and who wishes to restore to God what he stole from the world."