Lindsay, Thomas Martin, 1843–1914

I did a little checking and was able to determine that the effects of the Reverend T. M. Lindsay's life (author of the powerful essay “The Triumph of Christianity” republished recently in Impearls) have not completely dropped off the world's cultural radar screen over the past century.  The Rev. T. M. Lindsay is Thomas Martin Lindsay, who lived from 1843 to 1914, passing on a few years after his remarkable essay appeared, in 1911, in the original Cambridge Medieval History.

A number of Lindsay's books are still in circulation.  Searching the University of California's Melvyl database, card catalog to all the U.C. system libraries, one finds the following works available:

A history of the reformation (in 2 volumes, L/C call no. BR305 .L5 1913)

Luther and the German Reformation (BR325 .L5)

The church and the ministry in the early centuries (BR155 .L5)

College addresses and sermons / preached on various occasions / by the late Thomas Martin Lindsay (BV4310 .L5)

Letters of Principal T. M. Lindsay to Janet Ross (BX9225.L5 A2)
 

Of the foregoing, Lindsay's The church and the ministry in the early centuries would seem closest in subject matter to his “The Triumph of Christianity,” and might contain expanded material compared with the latter (with regard to the former, moreover, see below).  His Letters of Principal T. M. Lindsay to Janet Ross (including correspondence from 1906 to 1914) would seem likely an interesting look at him, his correspondent and the times.  (Janet [Ann Duff-Gordon] Ross, 1842-1927, was a literary figure of the day, a close contemporary of Lindsay's and, to hazard a guess, a lifelong friend.)

Beyond those directly authored works, Reverend Lindsay produced annotated versions of:

The gospel according to St. Mark / with introduction, notes and maps (microform; Mfiche cab ATLA 1987-2017)

The gospel according to St. Luke / with introduction, notes and maps (microform; Mfiche cab ATLA 1985-2138)

The Acts of the Apostles / with introduction, notes and maps (microform; Mfiche cab ATLA 1987-1131)
 

Lindsay also did the “chronological arrangement” for:

The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ / arranged in the order in which its parts came to those in the first century who believed in our Lord (BS2085 1906 .L6).
 

Finally, Lindsay translated and annotated the following:

System der Logik und Geschichte der logischen Lehren by Friedrich Ueberweg; translated from the German, with notes and appendices, by Thomas M. Lindsay as:  System of logic and history of logical doctrines (microform; BC15 .U4).
 

All of the above (as they're in the Melvyl catalog) are available at University of California libraries, and certainly elsewhere as well, either directly or via interlibrary loan.  Beyond that, a search of the world's best used bookstore (the collection of many of the planet's bookstores, the Advanced Book Exchange, or ABE books) shows that many of the above are available for purchase there (as is the Cambridge Medieval History, for Lindsay's “The Triumph of Christianity” along with much else, for that matter).

Furthermore, Google reveals a site called the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (maintained by Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan) containing Lindsay's book The Church and the Ministry in the Early Centuries in an online, PDF format.  (CCEL shows a different L/C call number for that book, i.e. BV648, than the U.C. system's Melvyl catalog does, for some reason.)  I haven't had a chance to peruse the online version as yet, but I imagine it's worth checking out.

Bibliography for The Triumph of Christianity  by the Rev. T. M. Lindsay, D.D., LL.D.

Contents
General Bibliography for the (original, 1911) Cambridge Medieval History, Volume I:  The Christian Roman Empire and the Foundation of the Teutonic Kingdoms

Abbreviations

I.  Dictionaries, Bibliographies and General Works of Reference

III.  Chronology

IV.  Collections of Sources

V.  Modern Works
 

Bibliography for Chapter IV:  the Rev. T. M. Lindsay's The Triumph of Christianity

A.  Original Authorities

B.  Modern Works
 
 

The exact text of Lindsay's essay was extracted from The Cambridge Medieval History, planned by J. B. Bury, Volume I: The Christian Roman Empire and the Foundation of the Teutonic Kingdoms, Edited by H. M. Gwatkin and J. P. Whitney, Chapter IV (in its entirety): “The Triumph of Christianity,” by the Rev. T. M. Lindsay, D.D., LL.D. (Principal of the Glasgow College of the United Free Church of Scotland), 1911, Cambridge at the University Press; p. xiii (Table of Contents), pp. 87-117 (Chapter IV), pp. 615-623 (Abbreviations, General Bibliography), and pp. 636-641 (Chapter IV Bibliography).

General Bibliography for Volume I.   The Christian Roman Empire.   Abbreviations.

AARAB.    Annales de l'Académie royale d'archéologie de Belgique.    Antwerp.

AB.    Analecta Bollandiana.    Brussels.

ABe.    Archives belges.    Liège.

AHR.    American Historical Review.    New York and London.

AKKR.    Archiv für katholisches Kirchenrecht.    Mainz.

AM.    Annales du Midi.    Toulouse.

AMur.    Archivio Muratoriano.    Rome.

ASAK.    Anzeiger für schweizerische Alterthumskunde.    Zurich.

ASBoll.    Acta Sanctorum Bollandiana.    Brussels.    1643-1894.    60 vols.

ASHF.    Annuaire-Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire de France.    Paris.

ASI.    Archivio storico italiano.    Florence.

ASL.    Aschivio storico Lombardo.    Milan.

ASRSP.    Archivio della Società romana di storia patria.    Rome.

BCRH.    Bulletins de la Commission royale d'histoire.    Brussels.

BEC.    Bibliothèque de l'Ècole des Chartres.

BHisp.    Bulletin hispanique.    Bordeaux.

BRAH.    Boletin de la R. Academia de la historia.    Madrid.

BZ.    Byzantinische Zeitschrift.    Leipsic.

CQR.    Church Quarterly Review.    London.

CR.    Classical Review.    London.

CRSA.    Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres.    Paris.

CSEL.    Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum.    Vienna.    1866, in prog.

CSHB.    Corpus scriptorum historiae Byzantinae.    Bonn.    1828-97.

DCB.    Dictionary of Christian Biography.    Smith, W. and Wace, H.    London.    1877-87.    4 vols.

DZKR.    Deutsche Zeitschrift für Kirchenrecht.    Leipsic.

EHR.    English Historical Review.    London.

HJ.    Historisches Jahrbuch.    Munich.

Hm.    Hermes.    Berlin.

HVJS.    Historische Vierteljahrsschrift.    Leipsic.

HZ.    Historische Zeitschrift (von Sybel).    Munich.

JA.    Journal Asiatique.    Paris.

JB.    Jahresberichte der Geschichtswissenschaft im Auftrage der historischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin, 1878 ff.    Berlin.

JSG.    Jahrbuch für schweizerische Geschichte.    Zurich.

JTS.    Journal of Theological Studies.    London.

MA.    Le moyen âge.    Paris.

MGH.    Monumenta Germaniae Historica.    Berlin.    Pertz, G. H.    1902, in progress.

MIOGF.    Mittheilungen des Instituts für österreichische Geschichtsforschung.    Innsbruck.

MPG.    Migne, J. P.    Patrologiae cursus completus.    Series graeca.    Paris.    1857.

MPL.    Migne, J. P.    Patrologiae cursus completus.    Series latina.

NAGDG.    Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde.    Hanover.

QFIA.    Quellen und Forschungen aus italianischen Archiven und Bibliotheken.    Rome.

RA.    Revue archéologique.    Paris.

RBAB.    Revue des bibliothèques et des archives de la Belgique.    Brussels.

RBén.    Revue bénédictine.    Maredsous.

RCel.    Revue celtique.    Paris.

RCHL.    Revue critique d'histoire et de littérature.    Paris.

RE³.    Real-Encyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche.    Herzog and Hauck.    Leipsic.

RH.    Revue historique.    Paris.

RHD.    Revue d'histoire diplomatique.    Paris.

RHE.    Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique.    Louvain.

RN.    Revue de numismatique.    Paris.

ROC.    Revue de l'Orient chrétien.    Paris.

RQCA.    Römische Quartalschrift für christliche Altertumskunde und Kirchengeschichte.    Rome.

RQH.    Revue des questions historiques.    Paris.

RSH.    Revue de synthèse historique.    Paris.

RSI.    Rivista storica italiana.    Turin.

RSS.    Rivista di scienze storiche.    Pavia.

SPAW.    Sitzungsberichte der k. preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.    Berlin.

TQS.    Theologische Quartalschrift.    Tübingen.

TRHS.    Transactions of the Royal Historical Society.    London.

TSK.    Theologische Studien und Kritiken.    Gotha.

VV.    Vizantiiskii Vremenik.    St Petersburg.

ZCK.    Zeitschrift für christliche Kunst.    Düsseldorf.

ZKG.    Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte.    Gotha.

ZKT.    Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie.    Gotha.

ZWT.    Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Theologie.    Frankfurt-a.-M.
 
 

In the case of many other works given in the General Bibliography abbreviations as stated there are used.
 
 

UPDATE:  2003-12-06 15:00 UT.  Combined Abbreviations (originally posted as two) into one.

General Bibliography for Volume I.   The Christian Roman Empire.   I.  Dictionaries, Bibliographies and General Works of Reference

{Editor's note:  Entries from General Bibliography for Volume I which were cross referenced from Chapter IV's Bibliography, or which otherwise caught the Editor's eye, are included herein.}

Encyclopædia Britannica.    9th edn.    London.    1885-9.    Additional vols.    (10th edn.)    1902-3.    11th edn.    Cambridge.    1911.    (Enc. Br.)

Fabricius, J. A.    Bibliotheca Graeca sive Notitia Scriptorum Veterum Graecorum.    4th edn.    Ed. Harles, G. C.    12 vols.    Hamburg.    1790-1809.    Index.    Leipsic.    1837.

General Bibliography for Volume I.   The Christian Roman Empire.   III.  Chronology.

{Editor's note:  Entries from General Bibliography for Volume I which were cross referenced from Chapter IV's Bibliography, or which otherwise caught the Editor's eye, are included herein.}

Clinton, H. F.    Fasti Hellenici.    3 vols.    Oxford.    1827-34.

———    Fasti Romani.    2 vols.    Oxford.    1845-50.    (Clinton, F. R.)

Goyan, G., ed. Cagnat, R.    Chronologie de l'empire romain.    Paris.    1891.    [Excellent handbook up to A.D. 395.]

General Bibliography for Volume I.   The Christian Roman Empire.   IV.  Collections of Sources.

{Editor's note:  Entries from General Bibliography for Volume I which were cross referenced from Chapter IV's Bibliography, or which otherwise caught the Editor's eye, are included herein.}

Codex Theodosianus, Gothofred, J.    Ed. Marvillius, A. and Ritter, I. D.    6 vols. in 3.    Leipsic.    1736-45.    Ed. Mommsen, Th. and Meyer, P. M.    Berlin.    1905.

Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum latinorum.    Vienna.    1866, in progress.    (CSEL.)

Corpus scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae.    Bonn.    1828-97.    (CSHB.)

Migne, J. P.    Patrologiae cursus completus.    Series graeca.    Paris.    1857-66.    161 vols. in 166.    (MPG.)

———    Do.    Series latina.    221 vols.    Paris.    1844-55.    Index, 4 vols.    1862-4.    (MPL.)

Monumenta Germaniae Historica.    Ed. Pertz, G. H., Mommsen, Th. and others.    Berlin.    1826, in progress.    (MGH.)

Inscriptions:

Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum.    Ed. Böckh and others.    Berlin.    1828-77.    (For Christian inscriptions cf. vol. IV, part 2, ed. Kirchhoff.)    (CIG.)

Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum.    Ed. Mommsen and others.    Berlin.    1862, in progress.    New edn.    1893, in progress.    (CIL.)

General Bibliography for Volume I.   The Christian Roman Empire.   V.  Modern Works.

{Editor's note:  Entries from General Bibliography for Volume I which were cross referenced from Chapter IV's Bibliography, or which otherwise caught the Editor's eye, are included herein.}

Broglie, J. V. A. duc de.    L'église et l'empire au IV^e siècle.    6 vols.    Paris.    1856.    And later edns.

Bury, J. B.    A History of the later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene.    (395 A.D. to 800 A.D.)    2 vols.    London.    1889.

Dill, S.    Roman Society in the last Century of the Western Empire.    London.    1898.

Duruy, V.    Histoire des Romains depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à l'invasion des barbares.    1870 ff.    Transl. ed. Mahaffy, J. P.    History of Rome and of the Roman people.    London.    1883 ff.

Gibbon, Edward.    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.    1776-81.    Ed. in 7 vols. by Bury, J. B.    1896.    Latest edn. 1909 ff.    (Bury-Gibbon.)    [Notes essential especially for chronology.]

Glover, T. R.    Life and Letters in the Fourth Century.    Cambridge.    1901.

———    The Conflict of Religions in the Early Roman Empire.    London.    1909.

Gregorovius, F.    Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter.    8 vols.    Stuttgart.    1859-72.    (Translated from 4th edition by Miss A. Hamilton.    London.    1894-1902.    8 vols. in 13.)

Harnack, Adolf.    Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte.    Freiburg-i.-B.    1886 ff.    Second enlarged edn.    1894-7.    4th edn.    1905 ff.    Transl. Buchanan, N. and others.    7 vols.    London.    1894-9.    Also Mitchel, A.    London and N.Y.    1893.

Hodgkin, T.    Italy and her invaders.    8 vols.    Oxford.    1880-99.    2nd edn.    Vols. 1-4 in 5.    1892-6.

Lecky, W. E. H.    History of European morals from Augustus to Charlemagne.    2 vols.    London.    1870.    [Very superficial.]

Le Nain de Tillemont, L. S. de.    Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique des six premiers siècles.    15 vols.    Brussels.    1693-1707.    2nd edn.    16 vols.    Paris.    1701-12.

———    Histoire des Empereurs.    6 vols.    1690-1738.

Mommsen, Th.    Römische Geschichte.    Vol V.    Leipsic.    1885.    Translated by Dickson, W. P.    The Provinces from Caesar to Diocletian.    2 vols.    1886.    2nd edn.    London.    1909.    Ed. Haverfield, F. J.

———    Römisches Staatsrecht.    3 vols.    1873-8.    3rd edn.    Leipsic.    1887-8.

Rainy, R.    The Ancient Catholic Church.    Edinburgh.    1902.    [Convenient handbook.]

Seeck, O.    Geschichte des Untergangs der antiken Welt.    3 vols.    Berlin.    1895-1909.    2nd edn.    I-II and 2 supplements.    1898-1901.

Bibliography.   Chapter IV.   The Triumph of Christianity.   A.  Original Authorities.  by the Rev. T. M. Lindsay, D.D., LL.D.

For de Broglie, Bury, Dill, Duruy (hist. rom.), Gibbon, Glover, Gregorovius, Harnack (D. G.), Hodgkin (Italy and Inv.), Lecky, Seeck (Untergang), Le Nain de Tillemont, see Gen. Bibl.

Ambrose, Bishop of Milan.    Opera Omnia.    8 vols.    Venice.    1781.    English translation.    Select works and letters.    Oxford.    1896.

Ammianus Marcellinus.    See Gen. Bibl.

Apuleius Madaurensis.    Opera Omnia ex optimis codicibus edidit....    Hildebrand, G. F.    Leipsic.    1843.    Thomas, P.    Leipsic.    1908.    Transl. The Metamophoses of Apuleius,    Head, Sir G.    London.    1851.    The Golden Ass,    Adlington, W.    London.    1566 and 1904.    (Chiswick Library.)    Butler, H. E.    2 vols.    Oxford.    1910.

Arnobius Afer.    Adversus nationes; libri septem.    CSEL.    1866.    Transl. in Clark's Ante-Nicene Library.    Edinburgh.    1871.

Augustinus Aurelius.    De Civitate Dei.    Ed. Dombart, 1st and 3rd edn.    1877-92.    Transl. in Dent's Temple Classics.    Also by    Dods, E. M.    Edinburgh.    1871-6.    And other edns.

———    The Confessions of Augustine.    A critical edition by Gibb, J. and Montgomery, W.    Cambridge.    1908.    Transl. in Dent's Everyman's Library.

———    Epistolae.    The 2nd vol. of Opera Omnia.    Bassano.    1797.

———    Works also in    CSEL.    1891-1900.    MPL 32-46.

Ausonius, Decimus Magnus.    Opera.    MPL 19.    Paris.    1844.

Cassiodorus Senator.    Variae ... recensuit    Mommsen, T.    In MGH, auct. ant.    Vol. XII.

———    The letters of Cassiodorus ...    with an introduction by Hodgkin, T.    London.    1886.

Chronicon Paschale.    CSHB.    1832.    Cf. JTS, April, 1906.

Claudianus.    Carmina.    Ed. Birt, T.    MGH.    1892.    Koch, J.    Leipsic.    1893.    Ludwich, A.    Leipsic.    1897.

———    Opera.    Ed. Doullay.    Paris.    1845.    English transl. Hawkins, A.    London.    1817.

Cyrilli, Alexandriae Episcopi, pro sancta Christianorum religione, adversus libros Athei Juliani.    Ed. Berbosio, N. and Aubertus, J.    Leipsic.    1696.

Ephraim the Syrian.    (The four poems of Ephraim against Julian have been translated into German and published, by Bickell, in ZKT for 1878.)

Eunapius.    Vitae Sophistarum et Fragmenta Historiarum.    MPG.    Boissonnade, J. F.    2 vols.    Amsterdam.    1822.    Another edn. Paris.    1849.    Dindorf, L.    Historici Graeci Minores.    2 vols.    Leipsic.    1870-1.

Eutropius.    Breviarium Historiae Romanae.    Ed. Havercamp.    Leyden.    1729.    Rühl, F.    Leipsic.    1887.    MGH.    1879.    Transl. Watson, J. S.    London.    1875.    And others.

Gregory of Nazianzus.    Orationes contra Julianum.    MPG 35.    Paris.    1857.    Mason, A. J.    Cambridge.    1899.

Himerii Sophistae Oratio qua laudes urbis Constantinopoleos et Juliani Augusti celebrantur.    Ed. Wernsdorf, G.    Erlangen.    1785.

———    Declamationes ...    Dübner, Fr.    Paris.    1849.

Iamblichus.    De Mysteriis Egyptiorum Liber.    Ed. Parthey, G.    Berlin.    1857.    Transl. by Taylor, T.    Chiswick.    1821.

———    Vita Pythagorica.    Leipsic.    1815-16.

Jerome.    Eusebii Hieronymi Opera.    Venice.    1766, and MPL.    English transl. of the Epistles in Nicene Library.    2nd series.    Vol. VI.    1893.    See Bibl. to ch. I, II, and V.

Julianus, Flavius Claudius.    Juliani Imperatoris quae supersunt praeter reliquias apud Cyrillum omnia.    Ed. Hertlein.    (Teubner.)    2 vols.    Leipsic.    1875.

———    Juliani Imperatoris librorum contra Christianos quae supersunt.    Collected and ed. by Neumann, C. J.    Leipsic.    1880.    Also German transl.    Kaiser Julians Bücher gegen die Christen.    Neumann, C. J.    Leipsic.    1880.

Lactantius, Lucius Coelius Firmianus.    Opera Omnia.    MPG 6, 7.    Ed. Brandt, S.    CSEL.    2 vols.    1890-3.    Transl. in Ante-Nicene Library.

Libanius.    Libanii Opera recensuit Richardus Förster.    (Teubner.)    4 vols.    Leipsic.    1903-8.    (Does not contain the Epistles.)

———    Libanii Epistolae.    Ed. Wolff, J. C.    Amsterdam.    1738.

Macrobius.    Opera.    Ed. Eyssenhardt.    (Teubner.)    Leipsic.    1868.

Mamertinus.    Gratiarum actio Juliano Augusto pro consulato.    MPG 18.    Paris.    1848.    Ed. Bährens.    (Teubner.)    Leipsic.    1874.

Maternus.    Julius Firmicus.    De errore profanorum religionum.    Ed. Halm, C.    CSEL.    1867.

Maximus of Turin.    Opera Omnia (chiefly homilies).    MPL 67.

Minucius Felix.    Ed. Halm, C.    CSEL.    1868.    Transl. in Clark's Ante-Nicene Library.    Edinburgh.    1869.

Orosius, Paulus.    Historiae adversus paganos libri septem.    Ed. Havercamp.    Leyden.    1738.    Also MPL 31.    Paris.    1846.    Also ed. Zangemeister.    CSEL.    1882.    (Teubner.)    Leipsic.    1889.

Paulinus Nolanus.    Carmina de St Martino.    Pressburg (Hungary).    1817.    In A. Jordansky's Biographi Veteres Sancti Martini Turonensis Episcopi.    MPL 61.    CSEL 30.    1894.

Philostorgius.    Ecclesiasticae Historiae Libri septem.    Ed. Valesius, H.    Paris.    1673.    Also MPG 44.

Plotinus.    Opera.    Ed. Kirchhoff, A.    Leipsic.    1856.    Volkmann, R.    (Teubner.)    2 vols.    Leipsic.    1883-4.

Porphyry.    Vita Plotini.    Leipsic.    1815-16.

Procopius.    Anecdota a Historia Arcana.    Ed. Eichel, J.    Helmstädt.    1654.    CSHB.    Muratori.    See Gen. Bibl., Vol I.    Transl.    London.    1672.    Another in the Athenian Society's Publication for 1896.

Prudentius, Clemens Aurelius.    Prudentii quae exstant Carmina recensuit A. Dressel.    Leipsic.    1860.    Also MPL 59, 60.

Rufinus, Tyrannius.    Historia ecclesiastica.    MPL 21.    Nicene Library.    1892.

Rutilius Claudius Namatianus.    Rutilii Claudii Namatiani De Reditu suo libri duo.    Ed. Keene, C. H. and Savage-Armstrong, G. F.    London.    1907.

———    Édition critique, accompagnée d'une traduction française et d'un index, et suivie d'une étude historique et littéraire sur l'œuvre et l'auteur.    Vessereau, J.    Paris.    1904.

Salvianus Massiliensis.    Opera Omnia.    Ed. Pauly, F.    Vienna Corpus.    1868.    De Gubernatione Dei.    Ed. Halm, C.    Berlin.    1878.

Sidonius Apollinaris, Caius Sollius.    Opera Omnia.    In Nisard's Collection des auteurs latins.    Paris.    1850.    Also ed. Krusch, Bruno in MGH.    1887.

Socrates.    Historia ecclesiastica.    Ed. Hussey, R.    Oxford.    1853.    Bright, W.    Oxford.    1872.    MPG 67.    English transl. in Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers...    Wace, H. and Schaff, P.    2nd series.    Vol. II.    Oxford and New York.    1891.

Sozomen.    Historia Ecclesiastica.    Ed. Hussey, R.    Oxford.    1860.    Also MPG 67.    English translation in Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers...    Wace, H. and Schaff, P.    2nd series.    Vol. II.    Oxford and New York.    1891.

Sulpicius Severus.    Libri qui supersunt.    Ed. Halm, C.    CSEL.    1866.

Symmachus, G.    Aurelii Symmachi quae supersunt edidit Otto Seeck.    1883.    MGH, auctores antiquissimi.    VI, pt 1.

Synesius.    Opera.    In MPG 66.

———    Die Briefe des Bischofs Synesius von Kyrene.    Fritz, W.    1898.

Themistius.    Πολιτικοι Λογοι.    Ed. Dindorf.    Leipsic.    1832.

Theodoret.    Historia ecclesiastica.    Ed. Gaisford, Th.    Oxford.    1854.    MPG 82.

Zonaras, Joannes.    Epitomae Historiarum libri XVIII (books XII and XIII).    Ed. Büttner-Wobst, Th.    Berlin.    1897.    MPG.    CSHB.

Zosimus.    Historia nova.    CSHB.    1837.    Also ed. Mendelssohn, L.    Dorpat.    1887.

---

Codex Theodosianus.    Ed. Hänel.    CSHB.    1842.    Mommsen, Th.    1905.    Vol. I.

CIL.    See Gen. Bibl.

CIG.    See Gen. Bibl.

Fabricius.    Bibliotheca Graeca.    7th vol.

Bibliography.   Chapter IV.   The Triumph of Christianity.   B.  Modern Works.  by the Rev. T. M. Lindsay, D.D., LL.D.

For de Broglie, Bury, Dill, Duruy (hist. rom.), Gibbon, Glover, Gregorovius, Harnack (D. G.), Hodgkin (Italy and Inv.), Lecky, Seeck (Untergang), Le Nain de Tillemont, see Gen. Bibl.

Adler, Hermann.    The Emperor Julian and the Jews.    Jewish Quarterly Review for July, 1893.

Allard, Paul.    Julien l'Apostat.    2 vols.    Paris.    1900-3.

———    Le christianisme et l'empire romain de Néron à Théodose.    Paris.    1897.

Anrich, Gustave.    Das antike Mysterienwesen in seinem Einfluss auf das Christentum.    Göttingen.    1894.

Asmus, J. R.    Kaiser Julians philosophische Werke übersetzt und erklärt.    1908.

———    Julian's Brief über Pegasius.    ZKG.    Vol. XXIII.    Gotha.    1902.

———    Ist die pseudojustinische Cohortatio ad Graecos eine Streitschrift gegen Julian?    ZWT.    Leipsic.    1895.

Beugnot, A.    Histoire de la destruction du Paganisme en Occident.    Paris.    1835.

Biegelmair, Andreas.    Die Beteiligung der Christen am öffentlichen Leben in vorconstantinischer Zeit.    Munich.    1902.

Bigg, Charles.    The Church's Task in the Roman Empire.    Oxford.    1905.

Boissier, Gaston.    La Religion Romaine d'Auguste aux Antonius.    2nd edn.    Paris.    1878.

———    La Fin du Paganisme.    Étude sur les dernières luttes religieuses en occident au quatrième siècle.    2 vols.    5th edn.    Paris.    1907.

Bouché-Leclercq, A.    Histoire de la divination dans l'Antiquité.    4 vols.    Paris.    1879-82.

Burckhardt, J.    Die Zeit Constantius des Grossen.    2nd edn.    Leipsic.    1880.

Capes, W. W.    University Life in Ancient Athens.    London.    1877.

Caspari, C. P.    Kirchenhistorische Anecdota.    Vol. I.    Christiania.    1883.

Chassang, Alexis.    Histoire du roman et de ses rapports avec l'histoire dans l'antiquité Grecque et Latine.    Paris.    1862.

Chastel, E.    Histoire de la destruction du paganisme dans l'Empire de Orient.    Paris.    1850.

Clinton.    Fasti Romani.    See Gen. Bibl.

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Welcome visitors from One Hand Clapping, and Beyond!

Thanks to Donald Sensing from One Hand Clapping for the link, and welcome to visitors from his site!

Just a couple of comments and a minor clarification to Rev. Sensing's posting.  The essay “The Triumph of Christianity” by the Rev. T. M. Lindsay, which after nearly a century is now being republished online in Impearls, is not represented merely by “a series of summary posts” as Sensing incorrectly infers, but is exhibited in its entirety.  Impearls' Contents page for its edition of Lindsay's essay (which as originally published consisted of one chapter of a larger volume by various authors) indicates the sections within Lindsay's chapter — as shown within the original volume's table of contents, in combination with marginal headers at the top of each page of the text.

Also, Clayton Cramer wrote in, wondering where's the bibliography?  Any self-respecting history ought to have footnotes, or at least a bibliography!  He's right, and I'd overlooked inputting the bibliography for Lindsay's essay from the original source.  I've now gone ahead and typed that in (at least the chapter specific bibliography, if not the general one for the volume as a whole), and it should soon appear in Impearls.

UPDATE: 2003-06-20 08:00 UT:  I've fixed a handful of typos.  My apologies for presuming yet again that I'm too careful in typing and initial proofreading to allow any mistakes.  (My father had a saying, whenever as a child I would pop up with something like “I thought I'd done it right!” after not having done so.  “You know what ‘Thought’ did?” he would ask, and immediately answer himself:  “‘Thought’ messed his pants and thought he didn't!”)  I might add that the Bibliography to Lindsay's essay is almost ready for posting.  Here too I've used so much care in entering the information that there simply can't be any errors... I wish!

Meanwhile, Glenn Reynolds the Instapundit has linked to Sensing's One Hand Clapping with the pithy note:  “DONALD SENSING has a bunch of good stuff. Just keep scrolling.”  Now, I like to think that one of the things Glenn had in mind here was Lindsay's essay in Impearls (despite its title “The Triumph of Christianity,” Glenn being of the Judaic persuasion!), and no doubt some of the traffic I've seen coming in through One Hand Clapping arrived there via Instapundit's tip.  Thanks, Glenn.

Certainly, that's what happened to Eric Scheie, proprietor of the recently-established blog Classical Values.  Scheie had followed Instapundit's link to One Hand Clapping thence to Lindsay's essay here in Impearls — and was so thrilled thereby that he wrote:

That master of understatement, Glenn Reynolds, outdid himself here.

I stumbled — deeply — upon the best discussion of Classical Values [link to Impearls] of any blog, anywhere, at Donald Sensing's great blog.

“A bunch of good stuff,” said the Instapundit.

Indeed.

(Hey, am I allowed to say “Indeed” when I'm this happy about something?  Really, this gem of a post positively drips with scholastic brilliance, and it is so delightful to read that it really doesn't matter whether you agree entirely with the central thesis.  That's as things should be.)

It's thrilling in turn that Eric was so pleased, and while I'd like to claim some of the “positively drips with scholastic brilliance” credit he bestows, I know he's directing his acclamation at the author of this (one must agree) brilliant essay, the Reverend T. M. Lindsay (a man no doubt long dead, whom one wishes one knew more about) himself — a sentiment with which I wholeheartedly concur.  It's just great others are finally getting to experience a similar joy at psychically consuming such a fascinating, enthralling “gem” of a work (as Eric well described it).  And I must agree 100% with Scheie in his accolade — it is “so delightful to read that it really doesn't matter whether you agree entirely with the central thesis.”  I'd add that in my view that's one of the most delightful things about it.

A couple of other acknowledgments.  An Anglican site CANN Anglican News has linked to Lindsay's essay in Impearls, with the quip:  “SOME BLOG-THOUGHTS on The Triumph of Christianity; link via One Hand Clapping (wouldn't that be just one hand waving sideways?)....” 

And finally, a writer who calls himself “decimon,” on the Liberty Net forum, also introduced a link to the essay, adding:  “I'm struck by the clarity of writing from that era.”  I agree; not only that, I'm awed by the author's masterful exhibition of proper use of the semicolon in all its old time, full magnificence!

UPDATE: 2003-06-20 20:30 UT:  I finally broke down and ran a spell-checker over Lindsay's essay — only to find (and fix) another set of typos.  I know, I know:  “Get with the 21st century, McNeil!”

Monotheistic Paganism — or, Just what was it Christianity fought and faced?  by Michael McNeil

I was astounded years ago to discover that Hinduism — that supposedly “polytheistic” religion with many hundreds and thousands of deities — was actually, in essence, monotheistic: the supreme gods Vishnu and Shiva (according to different Hindu cults) partaking of the attributes of that Absolute Being from Whom all things emanate (usually termed capital-G “God” in Western monotheistic religions), while lesser deities in Hinduism possess characteristics one might attribute to angels or daemons (maybe even saints) in Christian parlance.  (Hinduism is extraordinarily diverse, including within its orthodox folds schools as various as one [Samkhya] holding that no deities exist: i.e., atheistic.  A fit subject for extensive discussion in its own right, Hinduism is beyond the scope of the present work.)

Somewhat later, however, I was even more astonished to learn that the so-called paganism — the heathen religions facing Christianity during their final struggle for supremacy in the Roman world of the third and fourth centuries A.D. — was itself, in essence, monotheistic.  The pagan religions of late Roman times not only shared many characteristics with each other and the Christianity they all opposed, but formed a kind of single, multi-form, monotheistic religion, incorporating varied means of expressing (and reaching out and touching) the one Supreme Being that all envisioned.

To consider more deeply the nature of these non Judeo-Christian, “pagan” but fundamentally monotheist faiths, let's delve into that renowned comprehensive history of the Middle Ages, Cambridge University's (originally) eight-volume Cambridge Medieval History, which has become justly famed over nearly a century since the first volume's publication in 1911.  Volume I of the series, entitled “The Christian Roman Empire and the Foundation of the Teutonic Kingdoms,” has now passed into the public domain, beyond even the multiply extended periods of copyright protection, so this fine work is available for wider distribution than the dusty university library shelves that had been its commonest abode.

As a result of Impearls' desire to see this excellent book better read, we're taking this opportunity to republish in its entirety Chapter IV from Volume I of the original Cambridge Medieval History, to wit, the Reverend T. M. Lindsay's powerful essay “The Triumph of Christianity” (in the Roman Empire of the third and fourth centuries), into which we are here segueing via the question, “Just what was it Christianity fought and faced?”  Lindsay answers it superbly.

UPDATE: 2003-06-20 21:00 UT:  A handful of typographical errors have been found and fixed in the text of Lindsay's essay since publication earlier this month.  Sorry about that.  Also, see this Update.

UPDATE: 2003-06-28 14:45 UT:  The Bibliography to Chapter IV from the (1911) Cambridge Medieval History has now been published in Impearls, and the Contents below updated to reflect that. 

The Triumph of Christianity

by the Rev. T. M. Lindsay, D.D., LL.D.
Principal of the Glasgow College of the United Free Church of Scotland

Contents
Preface: Monotheistic Paganism  by Michael McNeil
 
  1.  Nature of the Triumph
  2.  Cosmopolitan Society
  3.  Oriental Religions
  4.  The New Paganism
  5.  Neoplatonism and Christianity
  6.  Growing strength of Christianity
  7.  Legislation against Paganism
  8.  Julian's youth and education
  9.  Julian in Gaul
10.  Julian's religious policy
11.  Julian's endeavours to reform Paganism
12.  The Mysteries and Pagan Piety
13.  Julian's failure
14.  Survivals of Paganism in the East
15.  Paganism in the West, and its influence on literature and Christianity
 
Reference
Bibliography

1.  Nature of the Triumph  by the Rev. T. M. Lindsay, D.D., LL.D.

The old or official religions of Greece and of Rome had lost most of their power long before Constantine first declared that Christianity was henceforth to be recognised as a religio licita and then proceeded to bestow the Imperial favour on the faith which his predecessors had persecuted.  Hellenism had destroyed their influence over the cultivated classes, and other religions, coming from the East, had captivated the masses of the people.  If temples, dedicated to the gods of Olympus, were still standing open; if the time-honoured rites were still duly and continuously celebrated; if the official priesthood, recognised and largely supported by the State, still performed its appointed functions; these things no longer compelled the devotion of the crowd.  The Imperial cult of the Divi and Divae, once so popular, had also lost its power to attract and to charm; the routine of ceremonial worship was still performed; the well-organised priesthood spreading all over the Empire maintained its privileged position; but crowds no longer thronged the temples, and the rites were neglected by the great mass of the population.

Yet this did not mean, as has often been supposed, the universal triumph of Christianity.  It may almost be said that Paganism was never so active, so assertive, so combative, as in the third century.  But this paganism, for long the successful rival of Christianity and its real opponent, was almost as new to Europe as Christianity itself.  Something must be known about it and its environment ere the reaction under Julian and the final triumph of Christianity can be sympathetically understood.

2.  Cosmopolitan Society  by the Rev. T. M. Lindsay, D.D., LL.D.

During the earlier centuries of the Roman Empire the process of disintegration was completed which had begun with the conquests of Alexander the Great.  Instead of a system of self-contained societies, solidly united internally and fenced off from all external social, political and religious influences, which characterised ancient civilisation, this age saw a mixing of peoples and a cosmopolitan society hitherto unknown.

If fighting went on continuously somewhere or other on the extended frontiers of the great Empire, peace reigned within its vast domains.  A system of roads, for the most part passable all the year round, united the capitals with the extremities, from Britain and Spain on the west to the Euphrates on the east.  The Mediterranean had been cleared of pirates, and lines of vessels united the great cities on its shores.  Travelling, whether for business, health or pleasure, was possible under the Empire with a certainty and a safety unknown in after centuries until the introduction of steam.  It was facilitated by a common language, a coinage universally valid, and the protection of the same laws.  Men could start from the Euphrates and travel onwards to Spain using one lingua-franca everywhere understood.  Greek could be heard in the streets of every commercial town — in Rome, Marseilles, Cadiz and Bordeaux, on the banks of the Nile, of the Orontes and of the Tigris.

With all these things to favour it, the movements of peoples within the Empire had become incalculably great, and all the larger cities were cosmopolitan.  Families from all lands, of differing religions and social habits, dwelt within the same walls.  National, social, intellectual and religious differences faded insensibly.  Thinking became eclectic as it had never been before.

This growing community in habit of thought and even of religious belief was fed by something peculiar to the times.  The soldier of many lands, the travelled trader, the tourist in search of pleasure, and the invalid wandering in quest of health were common then as now.  But a special characteristic of the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth century was the widely wandering student, the teacher far from the land of his birth, and the itinerant preacher of new religions.

The empire was well provided with what we should now call universities.  Rome, Milan and Cremona were seats of higher learning for Italy; Marseilles, Bordeaux and Autun for Gaul; Carthage for North Africa; Athens and Apollonia for Greece; Tarsus for Cilicia; Smyrna for Asia; Beyrout and Antioch for Syria; and Alexandria for Egypt.  The number of foreign students to be found at each was remarkable.  Young Romans enrolled themselves at Marseilles and Bordeaux.  Greeks crossed the seas to attend lectures at Antioch, and found as their neighbours men from Assyria, Phoenicia and Egypt.  At Alexandria the number of students from distant parts of the Empire exceeded largely those from the neighbourhood.  At Athens, whose schools were the most famous in the beginning of the fourth century, the crowds of Barbarians (for so the citizens called those foreign students) were so great that it was said that their presence threatened to spoil the purity of the language.  Everywhere, in that age of wandering, the student seemed to prefer to study far from home and to flit from one place of learning to another.

Nor were the professors much different.  They commonly taught far from their native land.  Even at Athens it became increasingly rare to find a teacher who belonged by birth to Greece.  They too travelled from one university seat to another.  Lucian, Philostratus, Apuleius, all who portray the age and the class, describe their wanderings.

Missionaries of new cults went about in the same way.  Bands of itinerant devotees, the prophets and priests of Syrian, Persian, possibly of Hindu cults, passed along the great Roman roads.  Solitary preachers of Oriental faiths, with all the fire of missionary enthusiasm, tramped from town to town, drawn by an irresistible impulse to Rome, the centre of power, the protectress of the religions of her myriad subjects, the tribune from which, if a speaker could only ascend it, he might address the world.  The end of the third and the beginning of the fourth century was an age of religious excitements, of curiosity about strange faiths, when all who had something new to teach about the secrets of the soul and of the universe, hawked their theories as traders their merchandise.

3.  Oriental Religions  by the Rev. T. M. Lindsay, D.D., LL.D.

This mixture of peoples, this new cosmopolitanism, this hurrying to and fro of religious teachers, brought it about that Oriental faiths, at first only the religions of groups of families who had brought their cults with them into the West, made numerous converts and spread themselves over the Roman Empire.  These Oriental religions prospered the more because from the middle of the third century onwards Rome was looking to the East for many things.  From it came the deftest artizans and mechanics who gave to life most of its material comforts.  It largely contributed to feed Rome with its grain.  Its philosophy (for most of the greatest stoical thinkers were not Greeks but Orientals) gave the substructure to Roman Law; and the most famous Law School in the third, fourth and fifth centuries was not in Rome but at Beyrout.  Ulpian came from Tyre and Papinian from Syria.  The greatest non-Christian thinkers of these centuries were neither Greeks nor Romans but Orientals.  Plotinus was an Egyptian; Iamblichus, Porphyry and Libanius were Syrians; Galen was an Asiatic.  Oriental ideas were slowly changing Rome's political institutions themselves, and the Princeps of a Republic, as was Octavius, became, in the persons of Diocletian and Constantine, an Oriental monarch.  Rome, by the discipline of its legions, by the mingled severity and generosity of its rule, by the justice of its legislation, had conquered the East.  Eastern thought, wedded to Hellenism, was in its turn subjugating the Empire.  Its religions had their share in the conquest.

Among those Oriental faiths which spread themselves over civilised Europe some were much more popular than others.  All entered the Empire at an early date and won their way very slowly at first.  Most of them seem to have made some alliance with the survivals of such Greek mysteries as those of Eleusis and of Dionysos.  All of them, save that of Mithras, had been affected and to some extent changed by Hellenism before they entered into the full light of history in the beginning of the third century.

From Asia Minor came the worship of Cybele with its hymns and dances, its mysterious ideas of a deity dying to live again, its frenzies and trances, its soothsayings, and its blood-baths of purification and sanctification.  From Syria came the cult of the Dea Syra, described by Lucian the sceptic, with its sacred prostitutions, its more than hints of human sacrifices, its mystics and its pillar saints.  Persia sent forth the worship of Mithras, with its initiations, its sacraments, its mysteries and the stern discipline which made it a favourite religion among the Roman legionaries.  Egypt gave birth to many a cult.  Chief among them was the worship of Isis.  Before the end of the second century it had far outstripped Christianity and could boast of its thousands where the religion of the Cross could only number hundreds.  It had penetrated everywhere, even to far-off Britain.  A ring bearing the figure of the goddess' constant companion, the dog-headed Anubis, has been discovered in a grave in the Isle of Man.  Votaries of Isis could be found from the Roman Wall to Land's End.

The worship of Isis may be taken as a type of those Oriental faiths before whose presence the official gods of Olympus were receding into the background.  The cult had a body of clergy, highly organised, a book of prayers, a code of liturgical actions, a tonsure, vestments, and an elaborate impressive ceremonial.  The inner circle of its devotees were called “the religious,” like the monks of the Middle Ages; those who were altogether outside the faith were termed “pagans”; the service of the goddess was a “holy war,” and her worshippers of all grades were banded together in a “militia.”  Apuleius, himself converted to the faith, has, in his Metamorphoses, described its ceremonies of worship and enabled us to see how desires after a better life drew men like himself to reverence the deity and enroll himself among her followers.  He has described, with a vividness that makes us see them, the stately processions which moved with deliberate pace through the crowded narrow streets of oriental towns, and drew after them to the temple many a hitherto unattached inquirer.  We can enter the temple with him and listen to the solemn exhortation of the high-priest; hear him dwell upon the past sins and follies of the neophyte and the unfailing goodness and mercy of the goddess whose eyes had followed him through them all and who now waited to receive him if he truly desired to become her disciple and worshipper.  The initiation was a secret rite and Apuleius is careful not to profane it by description; but we learn that there was a baptism, a fast of ten days, a course of priestly instruction, sponsors given to the neophyte, and, in the evening, a reception of the new brother by the congregation, when every one greeted him kindly and presented him with some small gift.  We can penetrate with him into the secret chamber reserved for the higher initiation where he was taught that he would endure a voluntary death which he was to look upon as the gateway into a higher and better life.  We can dimly see him excited with wild anticipations, dizzy with protracted fasting, almost suffocated by surging vapours, blinded by sudden and unexpected flashes of light, undergo his hypnotic trance during which he saw unutterable things.  “I trod the confines of death and the threshold of Proserpine; I was swept round all the elements and back again; I saw the sun shining at midnight in purest radiance; gods of heaven and gods of hell I saw face to face and adored in presence.”  We can understand how such an hypnotic trance marked a man for life.

Isis worship, humanised by Hellenism, extracted from the crude wild legends of Egypt the thought of a suffering and all-merciful Mother-Goddess who yearned to ease the woes of mankind.  It raised the beast-gods of the Nile and the tales about them into emblems and parables.  It captured the common man by its thaumaturgy.  For the more cultured intelligences it had a more sublime theology which appealed to the philosophy of the day.  In all this it was a type, perhaps the best, of those Oriental cults which were permeating the Empire.

4.  The New Paganism  by the Rev. T. M. Lindsay, D.D., LL.D.

All those religions, whatever their special form of teaching or variety of cult, brought with them thoughts foreign to the old official worships of Greece and Rome; though not altogether strange to the Mysteries which had for long been the real people's religion in Greece nor to the cult of Dionysos which in various forms had preserved its vitality.

They taught (or perhaps it would be more correct to say that the action of the subtle Greek intellect, playing upon the crude ideas which these Oriental religions presented to it, evolved from them) a series of religious conceptions foreign to the old paganism, and these became common parts of the newer non-Christian intelligence which was powerful in the third and fourth centuries.

A sharp distinction, much more definite than anything previous, was drawn between the soul and the body.  The soul belonged to a different sphere and was more estimable than the body.  The former was the inhabitant of a higher and better world and was therefore immortal.  The thoughts of individuality and personality became much clearer.  In the same way the thoughts of Godhead as a whole and of the world as a whole — conceptions scarcely separate before — were distinguished more or less clearly.  Godhead became what the world was not, and yet Something good and great Which was the primal basis of all things.

The earlier philosophical depreciation of the world of matter became more emphatic, and raised the question whether the creation of the whole material world and of the body which belonged to it was not after all a mistake; whether the body was not a prison or at least a house of correction in which the soul was grievously detained; whether the soul could ever become what it really was until it had undergone a deliverance from the body.  Such a deliverance was called salvation, and much practical thinking was expended on the proper means of effecting it.  Might not knowledge and the means it suggested of living purely or with as little bodily contamination as possible while this life lasted, be the beginnings of entrance into the real and eternal life of the soul?  Was it not most likely that souls had been gradually confined in bodies, and must not the process of delivery be gradual also?  The gradual Way of Return to God became a feature in almost all those Eastern cults, by whatever means they sought to accomplish it.

Perhaps however the most novel thought was the conviction that something more than knowledge, beyond any means of living purely which human wisdom could suggest, something outside man and belonging to the sphere of divinity, was needed to start the soul on this gradual Way of Return and sustain his faltering footsteps along the difficult path.  Contact with the Godhead was needed to save and redeem.  Such contact was to be found in a consecration (mysterium, sacramentum, initiation) wherein the soul, in some hypnotic trance, was possessed by the deity who overpowered it and for ever afterwards led it step by step along the path of salvation or Way of Return.  Perhaps something more than any such consecration was needed; might not some surer way be found if only diligently sought for?  It might be in some of the older cults whose inner meaning had never been rightly understood; or in some mystery not yet completely accessible; or in a divinely commissioned man who had not yet appeared.  It might even be found within the soul itself, if men could only discover and use the true powers of the human soul (Higher Thought).  At all events it was held that true religion really implied a detachment from the world, and included a strict discipline of soul and body while life lasted.

Such a paganism was very different from the polytheism with its furred, feathered and scaly deities which first confronted Christianity and was attacked by the early Christian apologists.  The later ones recognised its power.  Firmicus Maternus, writing in the time of Constantine, dismisses with good-humoured scorn the deities of Olympus and their myths, but criticises with thorough earnestness the Oriental religions.  It had, in spite of its external multiformity, a natural cohesion in virtue of the circle of common thoughts above described.  It hardly deserves the name of polytheism; for its idea of one abstract divinity, separate from the world of matter, made it monotheism of a kind; and evidence shews that its votaries regarded Isis, Cybele and the rest more as the representatives and impersonations of the one godhead than as individual deities.  Inscriptions from tombstones reveal that worshippers did not attach themselves to one cult exclusively.  The varying forms of initiation were all separate methods of attaining to union with the one divinity, the different ceremonies of purification were all ways of reaching the same end, and, as one might succeed where another failed, they could be all tried impartially.  Just as we find men and women in the beginning of the sixteenth century enrolling themselves in several religious associations of different kinds (witness Dr Pfeffinger, a member of thirty-two religious confraternities), so in the third and fourth centuries members of both sexes were initiated into several cults and performed the lustrations prescribed by very different worships, in order to miss no chance of union with divinity and to leave no means of purification and sanctification untried.  The tombstone of Vettius Agorius Praetextatus, the friend of Symmachus, who took part in the Saturnalia of Macrobius, records that he had been initiated into several cults and that he had performed the taurobolium.  His wife, Aconia Paulina, was more indefatigable still.  This lady, a member of the exclusive circle of the old pagan nobility of Rome, went to Eleusis and was initiated with baptism, fasting, vigil, hymn-singing into the several mysteries of Dionysos, of Ceres and Koré.  Not content with these, she went on to Lerna and sought communion with the same three deities in different rites of initiation.  She travelled to Aegina, was again initiated, slept or waked in the porches of the small temples there in the hope that the divinities of the place in dream or waking vision might communicate to her their way of salvation.  She became a hierophant of Hecate with still different and more dreaded rites of consecration.  Finally, like her husband, she submitted herself to the dreadful, and to us disgusting, purification won in the taurobolium.  A great pit was dug into which the neophyte descended naked; it was covered with stout planks placed about an inch apart; a young bull was led or forced upon the planks; it was stabbed by the officiating priest in such a way that the thrust was mortal and that the blood might flow as freely as possible.  As the blood poured down on the planks and dripped into the pit the neophyte moved backwards and forwards to receive as much as possible of the red warm shower and remained until every drop had ceased to drip.  Inscription after inscription records the fact that the deceased had been a tauroboliatus or a tauroboliata, had gone through this blood-bath in search of sanctification.  Evidence from inscriptions seems to shew that in the declining days of paganism, the energy of its votaries drove them in greater numbers to accumulate initiations and to undergo the more severe rites of purification.

5.  Neoplatonism and Christianity  by the Rev. T. M. Lindsay, D.D., LL.D.

This multiform and yet homogeneous paganism had the further support of a system of philosophy expounded and enforced by the greatest non-Christian thinkers of the age.  Neoplatonism, the last birth of Hellenic thought, not without traces of Oriental parentage, has the look of a philosophy of hesitation and expectancy.  It had lost the firm tread of Plato and Aristotle, and feared that the human intelligence unaided could not penetrate and explain all things.  The intellectual faculty of man was reduced to something intermediate between mere sense perception and some vague intuition of the supernatural, and the whole energy of the movement was concentrated on discovering the means to follow out this intuition and to attain by it not only communion but union with what was completely and externally divine.

Its great thinker was Plotinus (d. 269).  His disciples Porphyry (233-304) and Iamblichus (d. circa 330) made it the basis and buttress of paganism when it was fighting for its life against a conquering Christianity.  If the Universe of things seen and unseen be an emanation from Absolute Being, the Primal Cause of all things, the fountain from which all existence flows and the haven to which everything that has reality in it will return when its cycle is complete, then every heathen deity has its place in this flow of existence.  Its cult, however crude, is an obscure witness to the presence of the intuition of the supernatural.  The legends which have gathered round its name, if only rightly understood, are mystic revelations of the divine which permeates all things.  Its initiations and rites of purification are all meant to help the soul on the same path of return by which it completes its cycle of wanderings.  The new paganism can be represented to be the collected flower and fruit of all the older faiths presented and ready to satisfy the deeper desires of the spirit of man.  Neoplatonism could present itself as a naturalistic, rational polytheism, retaining all the old structures of tradition, of thought and of social organisation.  The “common man” was not asked to forsake the deities he was wont to reverence.  The Roman was not required to despise the gods who, as his forefathers believed, had led them to the conquest of the world.  The cultured Hellenist was taught to overstep, without disturbing, creeds which for him were worn out and to seek and find communion with the Divine which lies behind all gods.  The very conjuror was encouraged to cultivate his magic.  Pantheism, that wonder-child of thought and of the phantasy, included all within the wide sweep of its sheltering arms and made them feel the claim of a common kinship.  Jesus Himself, had His followers allowed, might have had a place between Dionysos and Isis; but Christianity, which according to Porphyry had departed widely from the simple teaching of the mystic of Galilee, was sternly excluded from the Neoplatonist brotherhood of religions.  Its idea of a creation in time seemed irreligious to Porphyry; its doctrine of the Incarnation introduced a false conception of the union between God and the world; its teaching about the end of all things he thought both irreverent and irreligious; above all things its claim to be the one religion, its exclusiveness, was hateful to him.  He was too noble a man (philosophus nobilis, says Augustine) not to sympathise with much in Christianity, and seems to have appreciated it more and more in his later writings.  Still his opinion remained unchanged:  “The gods have declared Christ to have been most pious; he has become immortal, and by them his memory is cherished.  Whereas the Christians are a polluted set, contaminated and enmeshed in error.”  Christianity was the one religion to be fought against and if possible conquered.

What Neoplatonism did theoretically the force of circumstances accomplished on the practical side.  The Oriental creeds had not merely gained multitudes of private worshippers; they had forced their way among the public deities of Rome.  Isis, Mithras, Sol Invictus, Dea Syra, the Great Mother, took their places alongside of Jupiter, Venus, Mars, etc., and the Sacra peregrina appeared on the calendar of public festivals.  As most of these Oriental cults contained within them the monotheist idea it is possible that they might have fought for pre-eminence and each aspired to become the official religion of the Empire.  But they all recognised Christianity to be a common danger, and M. Cumont has shewn that this feeling united them and made them think and act as one.