תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS. By Mrs. Frederic

[blocks in formation]

MEDIEVAL TIMES, HABITS AND CUSTOMS OF. By Lady Cook. Westminster Review.
MISCELLANY.

MODERN HABITS AND CUSTOMS. By Lady Cook.

[blocks in formation]

Westminster Review.....
..Nineteenth Century...

MOHAMMEDANISM AND CHRISTIANITY. By Professor Max
Müller..

MODERN TRAVELLING, ON. By Vernon Lee..
MOSSES IN LITERATURE..

Nineteenth Century....
Macmillan's Magazine..
Chambers's Journal..

844

456

351

588

708

300

601

.139, 282, 426, 572, 712, 859

735

798

468

380

275

Harrison......Nineteenth Century..

493

NERVES AND NERVOUSNESS..

NEW EIRENIKON, THE.By W. R. Sullivan...

OLD EDINBURGH INNS. By Alexander W. Stewart.
OLD PREMIER AND THE NEW, THE. By W. H. Massingham.. Contemporary Review..
OLD WENLOCK AND ITS FOLKLORE, By Lady Catherine
Milnes Gaskell.....

ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF PROPERTY IN LAND, THE. By
Hugh H. L. Bellot...

ORIGIN OF CULTIVATION. By Grant Allen.
ORIGIN OF MANKIND, THE. By Professor Ludwig
OUR LADY OF POOтoo. By R. S. Gundry

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

National Review...

172

....

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

QUOTATION..

......Nineteenth Century
Temple Bar....

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

REVOLT OF THE DAUGHTERS, THE. By Lady Jeune.
ROMAN SOCIETY A CENTURY AGO. By Charles Edwardes.....National Review.
RUN FOR THE Atlantic RecORD, A. By James Milne.......Gentleman's Magazine.
RUSKIN, MR., in Relation tO MODERN PROBLEMS. By E. T.
Cook

..National Review

SCIENTIFIC PROblems of the FUTURE. By Lieutenant-Colonel
Elsdale.

SHADOW OF DEATH, THE. C. Stein..

SHAKESPEARE'S NATURAL HISTORY. By Phil Robinson ...... Contemporary Review..
SHUDDERMAN SOLDIER. By Neil Munro...

SIGNIFICANCE OF CARBON IN THE UNIVERSE, THE. By Sir

Contemparary Review... ....Blackwood's Magazine..

612

812

547

[blocks in formation]
[subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

THE purpose of this article is by no means that of endeavoring to define wherein the essence of Christianity consists, but merely to note certain characteristics which history shows us, by contrast, to have pertained to the essence of that religion. What these characteristics are may, I think, be learned by considering some of the relations which arose between the early Church and the religions which, at its coming, it found established in the Roman Empire.

Such an inquiry has been greatly facilitated by the labors of M. Gaston Boissier (of the French Academy), whose works the present writer strongly recommends to all those who may be interested in the question here considered.

*

* La Religion Romaine and La Fin du Pagan.

isme. Paris: Hachette et Cie.

NEW SERIES.-VOL. LIX., No. 1.

M. Boissier shows us, with great wealth of illustration and abundant evidence, how the religious restoration inaugurated by Augustus went on augmenting during the first two centuries of our era, and how the results of that movement in part promoted, as they in part hindered, the progress of Christianity.

A review, then, of such characteristics of pagan religions as were directly hurtful or helpful to the Christian Church, as well as of those which, by defect, served indirectly to help it, may lead us to the apprehension of characters which pertained and pertain to the essence of that system.

Modern society is the direct descendant and outcome of the pagan Roman Empire. It is, therefore, the merits and defects of the ancient Roman re

ligion, modified as it grew to be by successive Eastern influences, which for

1

our present purpose have to be considered.

The early Romans were a serious, practical, and prosaic people, who, in spite of their bravery, were more given to fear than hope, and dreaded, as well as respected, the gods they scrupulously worshipped. Among these were some extremely matter-of-fact deities, such as Vaticanus, who caused the new-born infant to emit its first cry, and Fabulinus to pronounce its first word. Educa taught it to eat and Potina to drink; Cuba watched over its repose, while four goddesses presided over its first footsteps.

Of such divinities there could hardly be separate histories or legends, and indeed, as we all know, Romans had not that tendency to humanize their gods which prevailed in Greece. Statues do not appear to have existed in their temples till they began to imitate, first the Etrurians and then more distant peoples. But when any event took place which was so remarkable as to seem to them divine," a name was given and a worship initiated. Thus the Roman gods mainly arose as consequences of observation and analysis, and not through poetic enthusiasm.

66

It might seem that the government of a people so timid and scrupulous as regards the supernatural must have developed into a theocracy; and yet the very contrary took place. Powerful and respected as the Roman religion was, it was subject to, or rather incorporated with, the state. There was no incompatibility between civil and sacerdotal functions, and there was never any conflict between the government and the pagan Church, because the members of the various priesthoods were thoroughly imbued with lay sentiments.

Religion consisted in external acts of worship, which had to be carried out with a nice precision, with proper attitudes, due offerings, and correct formulæ. Therefore the worshipper of the gods was often careful to have two priests beside him when he prayedone to dictate the words, while the other followed them with his eyes on a book, so that no syllable should be accidentally omitted.* Thus the priests

On the other hand, the petitioner was very anxious not, by a verbal slip, to engge Lim

were rather "masters of the ceremonies" than men endowed with a supernatural power of acting efficiently as intercessors.

There were no dogmas. Men's thoughts and beliefs were free, and only external acts were demanded of them. Even as to the priests themselves, though a certain gravity of demeanor was expected of an augur or a pontiff, neither his morals nor his beliefs were taken into account.

The object of most ancient religions was not to make men moral, but to obtain from powerful supernatural beings, by performing acts (good or bad) which pleased them, safety and succor for citizens and their city. Morality was not the business of religion, but of philosophy, and it was the special subject of the dominant philosophy of Rome. Religion was not moral, save that there was necessarily a certain goodness in practices performed, not for any pleasure in them, but to obtain advantages from fellow-citizens. The Roman system was, in early days, a strict school of discipline, and co-existed with great simplicity of life.

The Greeks were greatly edified by the way in which religion was honored. and practised at Rome, by the order and dignity of private life there, and by the intensity of Roman patriotism. The titles of Jupiter were "greatest and best," and Vesta was-as every one knows-a goddess of purity.

For the popularity and continuance of the Roman religion it was hardly less useful to be free of such ridiculous and immoral legends as those of the Greek mythology than to be devoid of dogma. Since Romans might think of the gods as they pleased, they were more easily able to reconcile with older notions and ancient practices, such new ideas as the advance of intellectual culture and foreign influences from time to time. gave rise to. The fact that the gods. were rather divine manifestations and deified abstractions than anything else, made it easy to regard them as symbols of different attributes of one all-embrac

self unwittingly to anything exceeding his intention-as, for example, when offering wine, not, by the omission of limiting words, to bind himself to sacrifice all the wine in his cellar.

ing divinity; and thus it was that men of very different views could unite in the traditional acts of worship of the Roman state.

As the republic approached its end, the religion of Rome lost very much of its influence. Incredulity or indifference became the prevailing characteristics of the higher classes, who were saturated with Epicurean views. Even at the commencement of the empire Cæsar, before the senate, boldly denied the immortality of the soul. What wonder that temples began to fall into ruin, that the domains of the gods were plundered by neighboring proprietors, that various ancient feasts ceased to be celebrated, and that an utter destruction of religion, through neglect, came to be anticipated.

Small chance of success would have attended Christianity had it appeared at Rome when Cicero wrote the following remarkable words: Nolite enim id putare accidere posse, quod in fabulis sæpe videtis fieri, ut deus aliquis, lapsus de cælo, cœtus hominum adeat, versetur in terris, cum hominibus colloquatur.* This sentence may serve both to show the low-water mark to which belief in the supernatural had fallen, and the inopportuneness at that time of preaching the doctrine that God incarnate had not only recently conversed with men, but had been crucified for their salvation. How hateful such a notion would have been is shown by the fact that Cicero desired that even the name of the cross should be absent, not only from the ears and eyes of Roman citizens, but that it should be banished from their very thoughts.

The Christian era marks the commencement of that upward religious movement before spoken of as initiated by Augustus. The latter was a politic proceeding, whereby he sought to procure a support for his power, not to be obtained either from a decimated nobility or a populace which was already so largely composed of freedmen and strangers. It was also a popular movement, because it harmonized with a change produced in men's minds by the terrible

* Do not think it possible that any god should come down from heaven (as is told in fables) to the earth, to mix and converse with

men.

trials society had undergone, and, with nations as with individuals, calamity very often tends to promote piety-a result temporarily brought about in France during, and after, the FrancoGerman war. But the movement was also due to the emperor's personal inclination, since he was so superstitious that the fact of his having accidentally put his right foot into his left slipper would disquiet him for a whole day. When he became Pontifex Maximus he followed most scrupulously all ritual exigencies, never wearing a garment that had not been woven for him either by his wife or his daughter.

He built new temples, rebuilt and redecorated old ones, augmented sacerdotal privileges and restored neglected festivals. As censor he also strove to reform public morals, promoting marriage and severely punishing adultery and outrages on public decency. He found Roman religion grateful for his favors during his life, and when he died his apotheosis was decreed.

The movement he set on foot, as a reaction against the materialism and incredulity of the republic, may be compared with the "romanticism" which set in as a reaction against the horrors which marked the close of the eighteenth century. The writers of both epochs strove for an impossible ideal, and were alike full of contradictions, the spirit of their own day mingling with and modifying their laudations of times gone by.

Of the writers whom Augustus commissioned to revive a taste for antiquity, and for that rusticity whence Roman paganism took its rise, Virgil was by far the most remarkable. He is especially remarkable because (as our readers will recollect) his poetry sometimes assumes a Christian character. He is full of tenderness for human suffering (sunt lacrymæ rerum). He is humble before the gods, whose morality he proclaims: Sperate Deos memores fandi atque nefandi; and when their decrees perplex him he exclaims, Dis aliter visum! Most remarkable of all is that well-known passage in his fourth etc., which shows how he participated eclogue beginning Jam nova progenies, in the then widely diffused feeling that a time of crisis had arrived, which

should renovate a worn-out world. This expectation was alike proclaimed by disciples of Pythagoras and of Plato, and thus poets and philosophers were most unsuspectingly preparing the way for Christianity by evolving from the old pagan world ideas and sentiments which facilitated its reception. Thanks to them it was becoming, as it were, desired before it was known, with the result that so many of the poor, the despised, the ill-treated, and the unhappy, who, with undefined hopes, were awaiting the realization of vague dreams, became, for the new faith, an easy conquest.

Virgil may be taken as a type of those religiously inclined persons who sincerely welcomed the religious revival. Their numbers gradually augmented after the death of Augustus, for the days of Tiberius and Caligula can have little disposed men to gayety and frivolity.

Philosophy, as a whole, supported and developed the upward development Augustus had initiated, and it promoted the tendency toward monotheism. It was popularized by the theatre, where the rights of parent and child, husband and wife, master and slave were freely discussed, and moderation, humanity, and tenderness lauded. Tam ego homo sum quam tu, Plautus makes a slave say to his master.

The essential and substantial equality of men (as having the same origin and end) had, indeed, been proclaimed by Cicero, who taught that nothing so accords with a generous soul as benevo lence and forgiveness, and that men should regard themselves as citizens of the world, and not of one city only.

For two hundred years these ideas developed themselves, and fructified in many practical ways, being greatly promoted, as the reader well knows, by the Stoic Seneca, many of whose notions were so congruous with Christianity (though others were extremely incongruous therewith) as to have given rise to the legend that he was a disciple of St. Paul. That there was a moral advance as time went on is shown us by the satires of Juvenal and the letters of Pliny. Horace advocates a good treatment of slaves as conduct befitting a gentleman, but Juvenal declares it to

be the positive duty of all masters. Great was the contrast between the high esteem expressed under the empire for mothers who nursed their own children, and the brutal indifference to infancy of the days of the republic.

It would be a great mistake to suppose that pagan Rome did not know or did not practise almsgiving. Under the republic large sums were often disbursed to secure popularity and influence; but toward its close philosophy promoted a truly philanthropic, instead of an ostentatious and selfish, expenditure-to succor widows and orphans, to redeem captives, and bury the dead. From the beginning of the second century, state aid was bestowed monthly on the children of poor families. When Antoninus lost his beloved but not very meritorious wife, Faustina, he founded in her honor a charitable institution for poor girls, who were termed puella Faustina. The example thus given was followed by private individuals, and Pliny made many a noble gift during his life, known to us through his not possessing the specially Christian virtue of concealing his own good deeds. lady of Terracina gave £8000 to found an institution for poor children, and charitable legacies were not uncommon; and epitaphs were sometimes written which represented a dead man congratulating himself on having been merciful and a friend to the poor. A society largely animated by so benevolent a spirit was one prepared to appreciate Christian charity.

Such moral and religious progress was also accompanied by the practical redemption of the weaker sex from the rigors of Roman law. Those who imagine that the "emancipation of women" is a recent conquest would be much surprised to read many ancient inscriptions. They prove that women had the right of forming associations, the officers of which they freely elected. One of these bore the highly respectable title of "Society for the Preservation of Modesty"-Sodalitas pudicitiæ servandæ. There was also, at Rome, a society which might be called a "mothers' meeting"-Conventus matronarum. It persisted till the ruin of the Empire; many great ladies belonged to it and it performed important functions.

« הקודםהמשך »