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 MITHRAISM

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MITHRAISM

1S65. He finally won tlie Ciuie in the Supreme Court of the United States (see Oath, Missouui Test).

Pmncipal Religious Denominations. — Accord- ing to the Bulletin issued by the Department of Com- merce and Labour Bureau of the Census concerning religious bcnlios in liUHi, the total population of church members in the State of Missouri was l,l!)i).J:i'.). and the principal rolij;ious denominations were as follows: Roman Catholics, :!SJ.0l2; Baptists, •_'lS,:i,'):5; Con- grcgationalists, 11, (VIS; Disciples or Christians, IfiG,- 137; Ciernian Kvansdical, 32,71">; Lutherans, 4G,SliS; Metho<lists, 211,001; Presbyterians, 71,999; Episco-

galians, 13,:5JS; Reformed Bodies, 1284; United brethren bodies, 3311); other Protestant bodies, 23,1(56; Latter-day Saints, 8042; all other bodies, 6439. Thus, 33.9 per cent of the total nuiiiber of church-going people in the state are Catholics, the Baptists having the next highest percentage (18.2), and the Metho, nABF. St. Louis City and Coun/j/ (Phil . 1 'ii !^-, ' n I Relations: Beck, Gazetteer of Missouri u^- I,.;(., I^:. . i-M-^.^. Conquest of Fhrida(Sew York. 1851); < „i,.,t, ii.t,„i, „j Mi.,..,Hiri; Revised Statutes (1K99); Red Book: Bureau of l^liour Statistics (Jefferson City, 1909); Manual of the Stale of Missouri. 1909-10; Bulletin No. 103, Religious Bodies, 1906, Bureau of the Census (Washington).

John L. Corley.

Mithraism. — .V pagan religion consisting mainly of the cult of the ancient Indo-Iranian Sun-god Milhra. It enteretl Europe from Asia Minor after .\lexander's conquest, spread rapidly over the whole Roman Em- pire at the beginning of our era. reached it.s zenith dur- ing the thiril century, and vanished under the repres- sive regulations of Theodosius at the end of the fourth century. Of late the researches of Cumont have brought it into prominence mainly because of its sup- posed similarity to Christianity.

Origin. — The origin of the cult of Mithra dates from the time that Hindus and Persians still formed one people, for the god Mithra occurs in the religion and the sacred books of both races, i. e. in the \'ed:i,s and in the Avesta. In Vedic hymns he is frequently men- tioned and is nearly always coupled with V'aruna, but beyond the bare occurrence of his name, little is known of him ; only one, possibly two, hymns are dedi- cated to him (Rigveda. Ill, 59). It is conjectured (Oldenterg, " Die Religion des Veda, " Berlin, 1894) that Mithra was the rising sun, Varuna the setting sun ; or, Mithra, the sky at dajlime, Varuna, the sky at night; or, the one the sun, the other the moon. In any case Mithra is a light or solar deity of some sort- ; but in Vedic times the vague and general mention of him seems to indicate that his name was little more than a memory. In the Avesta he is much more of a living and ruling deity than in Indian piety ; neverthe- less, he is not only secondary to .\hura Mazda, but he does not belong to the .seven Amshaspands or personi- fied virtues which immediately surroimd Ahura; he is but a Yazad, a popular demigod or genius. The Avesta however gives us his position only after the Zoroastrian reformation; the inscriptions of the AchjEmenidae (seventh to fourth century n. c.) assign him a much higher place, naming him immediately aft«r Ahura Maz<la and associating him with the goci- dess Anaitw (.Vnahata), whose name sometimes pre- cedes his own. Mithra is the god of light, Anaitis the goddess of water. Independently of the Zoroastrian reform, Mithra retained his place'as foremost cleity in the north-west of the Iranian highlands. After'the conquest of Babylon this Persian cult came into con- tact with Chalflean astrology and with the national worship of Marduk. For a time the two priesthoods of Mithra and Marduk (magi and chaldiei respectively) coexisted in the capital and Mithraism borrowed much from this intercourse. This modified Mithraism travelled farther north-westward and became the

State cult of Armenia. Its rulers, anxious to claim descent from the glorious kings of the past, adopted Mithradates as their royal name (so five kings of Oeorgia, and Eupator of the Bosporus). Mithraism then entered Asia Minor, especially Pontus and Cappa- docia. Here it came into contact with the Phrygian cult of Attis and Cybele from which it adopleil a'num- ber of ideas and practices, though apparently not the gross obscenities of the Phrygian worship. This Phrygian-Chaldean-Indo-Iranian religion, in which the Iranian element remained predominant, came, after .Alexander's conquest, in touch with the Western World. Hellenism, however, ami especially Cireece itself, remained remarkably free from its influence. When finally the Romans took possession of the King- dom of Pergamum. occupied .\sia Minor and stationed two legions of soldiers on the Euphrates, the success of Mithraism in the West was secured. It spread rapidly from the Bosporus to the Atlantic, from lUyria to Britain. Its foremost apostles were the legionaries ; hence it spread first to the frontier stations of the Roman army.

Mithraism was emphatically a soldier religion: Mithra, its hero, w'as especialiy a divinity of fidelity, manliness, and bravery; the stress it laid on good- fellowship and brotherliness, its exclusion of women, and the secret bond amongst its members have sug- gested the idea that Mithraism was Masonry amongst the Roman soldiery. At the same time Eastern slaves and foreign tradesmen maintained its propaganda in the cities. When magi, coming from King Tiridates of Armenia, had worshipped in Nero an emanation of Mithra, the emperor wislied to lie initiated in their mysteries. As Mithraism passed as a Phrvgian cult it began to share in the otUcial recognition which Phry- gian worship had long enjoyed in Rome. The Em- peror Commodus was |)ul'iicly initiated. Its greatest devotee however was the iinjierial son of a priestess of the sun-god at Sirmium in Pannonia, Valerian, who accortling to the testimony of Flavins Vopiscus, never forgot the cave where his mother initiated him. In Rome, he established a college of svin priests and his coins bear the legend " Sol, Dominus Iinp.'rii Homani". Dioelelian, (ialerius. and Licinius built at Carnuntum on the Danube a temple to Mithra with the dedication: "Kauiori Imperii Sui". But with the triumph of Christianity Mithraism came toasudden end. Under Julian it had with other pagan cults a short revival. The pagans of Alexandria lynched George the Arian, bishop of the city, for attempting to build a church over a Mithras cave near the town. The laws of Theodosius I signed its death warrant. The magi walled up their sacred caves ; and Mithra has no mar- tyrs to rival the martyrs who died for Christ.

Doctrine. — The first principle or highest God was according to Mithraism "Infinite Time"; this was called Aiiiv or Saeculum, Kp6vos or Saturnus. This Kronos is none other than Zervan, an ancient Iranian conception, which survived the sharp dualism of Zoroaster; for Zervan was father of both Onnuzd and Ahriman and connected the two opposites in a higher unity and was still worshipped a thousand years later by the Manichees. This personified Time, ineffable, sexless, passionless, was represented by a human mon- ster, with the heai 1 of a lion and a serpent coiled about his body. He carried a sceptre and lightning as sove- reign god and held in each hand a key as ma.ster of the heavens. He had two pair of wings to symbolize the swiftness of time. His body was covered with zodiacal signs and t)ie emblems of the seasons (i. e. Chaldean astrology combined with Zervanism). This first principle begat Heaven and Earth, which in turn begat their son and equal. Ocean. As in the European legend, Heaven or Jupiter (Oromasdes) succeeds Kronos. Earth is the Speilta Armaiti of the Persians or the Juno of the Westerns, Ocean is Apfim- Napat or Neptune. The Persian names were not for-