Alternative Religion/ Library

PAGANISM AT THE CROSS-ROADS WITH CHRISTIANITY

At the time of the advent of “that newer form of Paganism later called Christianity,” the Greco-Roman world seethed with religions in a great state of flux and re-formation. Wonder-workers, miracle-mongers, impostors in the guise of gods and Christs abounded. Simon Magus, Apollonius of Tyana, Apuleius, Alexander, Porphyry, Iamblichus,—performed prodigies of divine power and were hailed as genuine gods,—just as were Paul and Barnabas (Acts xiv, 11-12), and, later, Jesus the Christ. Of these ²⁹ Pagan and Jewish “Christs” two will be briefly noted, for their very important Christian contacts and analogies. But first, some analogies of Pagan priestly fakeries.

The petty frauds of the Pagan priests to dupe their credulous votaries would fill a large book; the ancient poets and philosophers, and modern histories of Gentilic religions, abound in instances. Simply for examples of a few of the more common frauds of the Pagan priests, outdone a thousand-fold by the Christian priests and church, as—(out of the Catholic Encyclopedia)we shall see,—we may mention some well-known pious frauds of the Greeks and Romans prevalent around the beginning of the Christian era and forming the religious atmosphere of the times in which the new faith was born and propagated.

False prophecies and miracles and fraudulent relics were the chief reliance among the Pagans, as among the Christians, for stimulating the faith, or credulity, of the ignorant and superstitious masses. The images of the gods were believed to be endowed with supernatural power. Of some, the wounds could bleed; of others, the eyes could wink, of others, the heads could nod,the limbs could be raised; the statues of Minerva could brandish spears,those of Venus could weep; others could sweat; paintings there were which could blush. The Holy Crucifix of Boxley, in Kent, moved, lifted its head,moved its lips and eyes; it was broken up in London, and the springs exposed,and shown to the deriding public;, but this relation is out of place,—this was a pious Christian, not Pagan, fake. One of the marvels of many centuries was the vocal statue of Memnon, whose divine voice was heard at the first dawn of day, “the sweet voice of Memnon” which greeted the sun, as sung by poets and attested by inscriptions on the statue made by noted visitors,who credited the assertion of the priests that the voice was that of the god Ammon; the secret was discovered by Wilkinson: a cavity in which a priest was concealed, who struck a stone at sunrise when the worshippers were assembled,thus giving out a melodious ringing sound. Very famous was the Palladium or statute of Minerva, thrown down from heaven by Zeus into Troy, and guarded sacredly in the citadel as protection of the city, which was believed to be impregnable so long as the statue was in the city; Ulysses and Diomede entered the city in disguise and stole out the sacred statue to the Greek camp; thence Aeneas is said to have taken it to Italy, where it was preserved in the Temple of Vesta. Many cities of Greece and Rome claimed to have the genuine original. Another miraculous statue of like divine origin was that of “the great goddess, Diana” at Ephesus, which the Town-clerk (in Acts 3 xix, 35) declared that all men knew “fell down from Jupiter.” Other holy relics galore were preserved and shown to the pious: The Aegis of Jove, forged by Vulcan and ornamented with the head of the Gorgon; the very tools with which the Trojan horse was made, at Metapontum; the scepter of Pelops, at Chaeronea; the spear of Achilles, at Pharselis; the sword of Memnon, at Nicomedia; the hide of the Chalcydonian boar, among the Tegeates; the stone bearing the authentic marks of the trident of Neptune, at Athens; the Cretans exhibited the tomb of Zeus, which earned for them their reputation as Liars.But Mohammedans show the tomb of Adam and Christians that of Peter! There were endless shrines and sanctuaries at which miracle-cures could be performed:oracular ³⁰ temples full of caverns, and secret passages,—that of the Cumaean Sibyl has recently been explored, and its fraudulent devices exposed. The gods themselves came down regularly and ate the fine feasts spread before their statues. In the apocryphal History of Bel and the Dragon,interpolated in the True Church's Book of Daniel (Chapter xiv), the Holy Ghost tells how this hero trapped the priests who stole at night through secret passages into the throne-room of the god and ate the good things furnished by the pious King and people. The gods came frequently to earth, too, and with the connivance of the priests kept amorous tryst in the temples with unsuspecting pious ladies, edifying instances of which are related by Herodotus and Josephus, among other chroniclers of the wiles of priestcraft.

Pagan prodigies of every conceivable kind were articles of popular credulity,affecting the commonalty as well as many of the highest category. The great Emperor Augustus, obedient to dreams, went begging money through the streets of Rome, and used to wear the skin of a sea-calf to protect himself against lightning. Tiberius placed greater faith in the efficacy of laurel leaves;both remedies are highly praised by Pliny. Caligula would crawl under the bed in thunder storms; the augurs had listed eleven kinds of lightning with different significations. Comets and dreams portended the gravest crises. Cicero and Valerius Alaximus cite numerous instances of dreams being verified by the event. Livy relates with perfect faith innumerable prodigies, though he acutely observed, that “the more prodigies are believed, the more they are announced.” The Emperors made numerous enactments against sorcery,divination, and all kinds of magic; the “Christian” Emperor, Constantine,prohibited all forms of magic, but specially excepted and authorized “that which was intended to avert hail and lightning,” one of the specialties of the Christian priests. Such puerilities of the prevalent superstitions might be multiplied to fill volumes. (See case, Experiences with the Supernatural,etc.)

APOLLONIUS OF TYANA

Apollonius of Tyana was one of the most notable of these wonder-working Christs. So extremely moral and pure were his doctrines and his conduct, and so mighty the works he wrought, that the Pagans insisted that Apollonius was the actual personage whom the Christians called Jesus Christ. By all reports, implicitly credited, Apollonius had raised the dead, healed the sick, cast out devils,freed a young man from a lamia or vampire with whom he was enamored, prophesied, seen in one country events which were occurring in another, as from Ephesus the assassination of Domitian at Rome, and had filled the world with the fame of his miracles and of his sanctity, just as did Jesus Christ. Apollonius was born about the same time as Jesus of Nazareth; the legends of their lives and deeds were very similar; the former, at least, has been justly described as “among that least obnoxious class of impostors, who pretend to be divinely gifted, with a view to secure attention and obedience to precepts, which,delivered in the usual way, would be generally neglected.” (Anthon, Classical Dictionary, p. 165; see generally, Lecky, Hist. of European Morals, i, 372,passim; any good Encyclopedia.) Recall the current histories of Mohammed,the Mormon Joseph Smith, Mother Eddy—Jesus Christ—for instances of analogous pretensions. ³¹

This customary pretense of wonder-workers is confirmed by the great Church Fathers Lactantius, in his Divine Institutes, dedicated to the “Christian” Emperor Constantine, in which he combated the Pagan imputation that Jesus was a magician, like Apollonius and Apuleius, whose wonder-workings he admits. Like all the Fathers, as we shall see, Lactantius, an ex-Pagan,had firm faith in magic, and believed all the magical wonders of the Pagan magicians as veritable miracles wrought by the divine power of demons or devils. He says that the Pagans “endeavored to overthrow his [Jesus'] wonderful deeds [by showing] that Apollonius performed equal or even greater deeds. ”But, “It is strange,” he argues, “that he omitted to mention Apuleius, of whom many and wonderful things are accustomed to be related. ... If Christ is a magician because He performed wonderful deeds, it is plain that Apollonius,who, according to your description, when Domitian wished to punish him, suddenly disappeared on his trial, was more skilful than He who was both arrested and crucified. ... It was evident, therefore, that he [Apollonius] was both a man and a magician; and for this reason he affected divinity under the title of a name belonging to another [Hercules], for in his own name he was unable to attain it.” (Lact. Div. Inst. Bk. V, ch. iii; ANP. vii, 138, 139,)

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