Page:Apollonius of Tyana - the pagan Christ of the third century.pdf/78

Rh of a solar type. The address "Soli invicto" would thus have become the universal prayer.

Hence the worship of one god under different names, and the pre-eminence of virtue amongst the elements of religious life, is the foundation on which this theology rests; its toleration is evident, and its nature such that it might easily have viewed Christianity as an approximation—a distant one, perhaps, but still an endurable approximation—to the ideal conceived by the new Pagan school. There is only a step between this and the comprehensive religious scheme which was fully developed in the reign of Alexander Severus, the young pupil of Julia Mamaea, who, with his mother’s consent, placed Christ by the side of Abraham, Orpheus, and Apollonius of Tyana. The only thing is that Christianity seems to be held in higher estimation by Julia Mamaea than by her parents.

There is a tradition extant that Mamaea sent for the great Origen in order that she might hear him speak on religious topics, and certainly by none better than the philosophical theologian could the Christian