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 PAGANISM

390

PAGANISM

ilization than ever was the iriXis of the Greeks. As long as the ultimate source of authority, the inalien- able rights of conscience, and the equality of all in a Divine sonship were unrealized, no true solution of the antinomy of state and individual, such as Paul could offer (Rom., xiii etc.) was possible. [Cf. E. Barker, "Polit. Thought of Plato and Aristotle", London, 1906, esp. pp. 237-50, 281-91, 119-61, 497-515; G. ^lurray, "Rise of the Gk. Epic", Cambridge, 1907; P. Allard, "Ten Lectures on the Martyrs", tr. (Lon- don, 1907); Idem, "Les Persecutions" (Paris, 1885- 90); Sir W. Ramsay's books on St. Paul, esp. "Pauline Studies" (London, 1906); "Paul the Traveller" (1897); "Ancient Iving Worship", C. C. Lattey, S.J., English C.T.S.]

In these systems, the weakest necessarily went to the wall. Even the good Greek legislation on behalf of orphans, wards, the aged, parents, and the like; even the admirable instinct of aidus which shielded the de- fenceless, the suppliant, the stranger, the "stricken of God and afflicted", could not (c. g.) stop the exposi- tion of sickly or deformed infants (defended even by Plato), or render poverty not ridiculous, suffering not merely ugly, death not defiling. Yet the sober re- ligion of the Avesta preaches charity and hospitality, and these, the latter especially, were recognized Greek virtues. In proportion as travel widened minds, and ideals became cosmopolitan, the barbarian became a brother; under the Antonines charity became official and organized. Always, in the Greek world, the temples of jEsculapius were hospices for the sick. Yet all this is as different in motive, and therefore in prac- tical effect, from the "mutual ministry of love" oblig- atory within the great family of God's children, as is the counterpart of Christian self-sacrifice, Buddhist Altruism. (Cf. L. de la V. Poussin, "Bouddhisme", Paris, 1909, especially pp. 7-8, where he quotes Olden- berg, "Buddhismusu.christlicheLiebe" in "Deutsche Rundschau", 1908, and "Orientalischen Relig.", pp. 58, 266 sqq., 275 sqq.) In slavery, of course, a chasm is cleft between Paganism and Christianity. By pro- claiming the rights of conscience and the brotherhood of men, Christianity did for the slave what could never have been accomplished by demanding the in- stant and universal abolition of slavery, thereby risk- ing the dislocation of society. In Christ, a new rela- tion of master to man springs up (I Cor., vii, 21; I Tim., vi, 2) : the Epistle to Philemon becomes possible. Yet w'hile it is true that in many ways the slave's lot might be miserable (the ergaslulum), and inhuman (the Roman slave might technically not marry), and immoral (Petronius: "nil turpe quod dominus jubet"), yet here too, human nature has risen above its own phi- losophies, laws, and conventions. Kindness increases steadily : even Cato was kind ; social motives ( Horace) , philosophical considerations (Seneca), sheer legisla- tion (already under Augustus), devotion (at Delphi, slaves are manumitted to Apollo: contrast the beauti- ful Christian emancipation in Ennodius, P. L., LXIII, 257; sentiment, and even law protected the slaves' tomb or loculus) answered the promptings of gentle hearts. The contubernium became parallel to mar- riage; nationality never of itself meant slavery; edu- cation could make friends of master and man ("loco filii habitus", says one in.scription) ; Seneca general- izes: "homo res sacra homini; servi, humiles amici." But not all the sense of the "dignity of man", taught by the Roman comedians and philosophers, could sup- ply even the emancipating priuciplfs, far less the force, of Christian equality in the service of God and the fellowship of Christ (H. A. Wallon, "Hist, de I'Esclav- age de l'.\ntiq.", Paris, 1847; Bocckh, "Staatshaus- haltung d. Athener.", I, 13; C. S. Devas, "Key en." (1906), 143-150 and c. v; P. Allard, "Les Esclaves chr6t.", Paris, 1876; G. Boissier, "Relig. romaine", II, Paris, 1892).

III. Abt and Ritdal. — Omnia plena dco: the

nearer God is realized to be, the richer the efflores- cence of religious art and ritual; and the purer the concept of His nature, the nobler the sense-worship that greets it. Hence the world's grandest art has grown round Christ's Real Presence, though Christ said no word of art. Thus, heresy has always been iconoclastic; the distant God of Puritanism, the dis- incarnate Allah of Islam must be worshipped, but not in beauty. To Hindus, gods were near, but vile; and their art went mad. To the Greeks, save to a smaller band of mystics, whose enthusiasm annihilated external beauty in the effort after spirit- ual loveliness, all comeliness was bodily; hence the splendid soulless statues of gods (though for a few choice perceptions — Pausanias, Plutarch — the Olym- pian Zeus had "expression", and conveyed divine significance); hence their treatment of the inanimate beauty of Nature was far less successful and profound than was that of the austere Hebrew, to whom, in his struggle against nature worship and idolatry, plastic art was forbidden, but whose nature-psalms rise higher than anything in Greek literature. The pure new spirit breathing in the art of the Catacombs disguises from us, at first, that its categories are all pagan — though in human models little was directly borrowed, the Orpheus, Hercules, Aristeas type are given to Christ; strange symbols (the disguised cross, the dol- phin speared on trident) occur sporadically; "pagan" sarcophagi were doubtless bought direct from pa- gan warehouses; most startlingly is the difference felt in the spiritual treatment by early Christian Art of the nude (E. Muntz, "Etudes s. I'hist. de la peinture et de I'iconographie chretienne", Paris, 1886; A. Pirate, " L'archeologie chret.", Paris, 1892; Wil- pert," Roma Sotteranea:lepitture, etc.", Rome, 1903). Christian ritual developed when, in the third cen- tury, the Church left the Catacombs. Many forms of self-expression must needs be identical, in varying times, places, cults, as long as human nature is the same. Water, oil, light, incense, singmg, procession, prostration, decoration of altars, vestments of priests, are naturally at the service of universal religious in- stinct. Little enough, however, was directly bor- rowed by the Church — nothing, without being "bap- tized", as was the Pantheon. In all these things, the spirit is the essential: the Church assimilates to her- self what she takes, or, if she cannot adapt, she rejects it (cf. Augustine, Epp., xlvii, 3, in P. L., XXXIII, 185; "Contra Fau.st.", XX, xxiii, ibid., XLII, 387; Jerome, "Epp.", cix, ibid., XXII, 907). Even pagan feasts may be "baptized": certainly our processions of 25 April are the Robigalia; the Rogation days may re- place the Ambarualia; the date of Christmas Day may be due to the same instinct which placed on 25 Dec., the Natalis Invicti of the solar cult. But there is little of this ; our wonder is, that there is not far more [see Kell- ner, "Heortologie" (Freiburg, 1906). See Christmas; Epiphany. Also Thurston, "Influence of Paganism on theChristian Calendar "in "Month" (1907), pp. 225 sqq. ; Duchesne, "Orig. du Culte chr(5tien",tr. (London, 1910)passim; Braun, "Die priestlichen Gewiinder " (Freiburg, 1897); Idem, "DiepontificalenGewander" (Freiburg, 1898); Rouse, "Greek Votive OfTerings " (Cambridge, 1902), esp. e. v]. The cult of saints and relics is based on natural instinct and sanctioned by the lives, death, and tombs (in the first instance) of martyrs, and by the dogma of the Communion of Saints; it is not developed from definite instances of hero-worship as a general rule, tlujugh often a local martyr-cult was purposely instituted to defeat (e. g.) an oracle tenacious of pagan life (P. (!., L, 551 ; P. L., LXXI, 831; Newman, "E.s.sayon Development, etc.", II, cc. ix,xii., etc.; Anrich, "Anfangdcs Heiligenkults, etc.", Tubingen, 1904; especially Delehaye, "h6- gendeshagiographiques," Brussels, 1906). Augustine and Jerome (Ep. cii, 8, in P. L., XXXIII, 377; "C. Vigil.", vii, ibid., XXXIII, 361) mark wise tolerance'