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INTO THE ORIGINSOF RELIGIONSBYGRANT ALLEN\AU'TUVR 01' If
PHYSiOLOGICU MSTHRTICS. I U TUIt COL()U~ 01' p'L.Owa:w.s,IIInJ
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Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, ColombiaPREF
ACETwo mainschools of religious thinkingexistinour midstat the
present day:theschoolof humanists and the schoolof animists. This
work is to someextent anattemptto reconcile them. Itcontains,
Ibelieve,the first extendedeffort that has yetbeen nude to
tracethegenesis of the belief inaGod fromitsearliest
origininthemind of primitiveman up to its fullest development
inadvanced and etherealised Christiantheology. My method is
therefore con-structive, not destructive. Instead ofsettingout
toargue away 0:'demolish adeep-seated and ancestral element
inourcomplex nature,this book merely positsfor itself
thepsychologicalcuestion, ., Bywhat successive steps did men come
toframefor themselves the conception of adeity?"-or, if the reader
so prefers it,"How did we arrive atomknowledgeof God?" It
seeksprovisionally toanswer these profound andimportantquestionsby
referenceto the earliestbeliefs of savages, past or present,andto
the testimony of historicaldocumentsand ancient monuments. Itdoes
notconcern itself atall with thevalidity orinvalidity of the ideas
inthemselves; itdoes but endeavour to showhowinevitable they
were,and how man'srelation with the external universe
wascertainapnori to beget them as ofnecessity.In so vast a
synthesis, it would beabsurdto pretend at the present daythat one
approached one's subjectentirely de nooo. Everyinquirer mustneeds
dependmuch upon the various-researches of his
predecessorsinvariousparts of hisfield of inquiry. Theproblem
before us dividesitself intothree main portions: first, how did
mencome tobelievein many gods-the-origin of polytheism; second,
how,byelimination of most of these gods, didcertainraces of mencome
to believe in-onesingle supreme and omnipotentGod-the origin of
monotheism; third,how, havingarrived at thatconcept,didthe most
advanced racesand civilisationscome to conceive of that God
asTriune,and to identify one of his Persons with _aparticular
divine and human incarna-tion-the origin of Christianity.
Inconsidering eachof these three main-problems Ihave been
greatlyguidedand assisted by three previous inquirersor sets of
inquirers.Astotheorigi 0/ jolytheism, I haveadopted inthe mainMr.
HerbertSpencer's remarkable ghost theory,though with certain
important modifica--tions and additions. Inthis part of mywork I
have also been largely aidedbymaterials derived from Mr.
DuffMacdonald,the ableauthor of Africana;fromMr.
Turner,thewell-knownSamoanmissionary; and from several
otherwriters, supplemented as they are by myown researches amongthe
works ofexplorers andethnologists in general.Este Libro fue Editado
por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la
Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La Biblioteca Luis
ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, ColombiaPRRFACE:'Onthewhole,
I have here accepted the.theory which traces the origin of
the:-\telief in gods to primeval ancestor-~.jrorship, or rather
corpse-worship,as'_mst the rival theory which
tracesits'Uigintoasupposed primitiveanimism.1> As to the rise of
mono/keis"" I haveiHleninfluenced inno small degreeby~J tuenenand
theTeutonic school of Oldtgtlltament criticism, whose ideas have~
supplementedby laterconceptsijterivedfromProfessor
RobertsonSmith's'Mtnirable work, Tlte Religionof /ke'~tes. Buthere,
on the whole, the~~tral explanationI have to offer is, I~ture
tothink, newand original: the''theory, goodor bad, of
thecircumstances~Wbichled totheelevationof theethnical;Hebrew God,
J ahweh,above all hisrivals,~d hisfinal recognitionastheonly true~
livinggod, is my ownand no one~.---- ,_~8.- - As to the ongt'nof
Christianity, and'~relations to the preceding cults of~cornand
winegods, I havebeenguided')0 agreat extentby Mr. ]. G. Frazer~
Mnnhardt, though I donot suppose;!hat either theliving or the
dead'anthropologist would wholly acquiesceintheuseI havemadeof
their splendidlliaterials. Mr. Frazer,the author of_that learned
work, Tk Golden Bough,:bas profoundly influenced the opinionsl)f
allserious workers atanthropology.&nd thescienceof religion,
and I cannottoo oftenacknowledgethe deep obliga-tions under which I
lie to his profound:and able treatises. At the sametime,:~have so
transformed the material~ved fromhimand fromDr. Robertson,smith
astohave madeit inmany ways[practically my own; and Ihave
sup-plemented it by severalnew examplesand ideas, suggested
inthecourseof myowntolerably widereading.Throughout the book,as
awhole, Ialso owe a considerabledebtto Dr.E. B. Tylor, fromwhomI
haveborrowedmuch valuable matter;to Mr. SidneyHartland's Legend of
Perseus j to Mr.Laurence Gomme, whohascome nearerat timesthananyone
else to thespecialviews and theories here promulgated;and to Mr.
WilliamSimpson, of theIUustrated London lVews, anunobtrusivescholar
whose excellent monographs onT!Je Worslupof Death and
kindredsubjects have never yetreceived theattentionthey deserve. My
other obliga-tions, to Dr. Mommsen,to my friendsMr. Edward Clodd,
Professor J ohnRhys, and Professor YorkPowell, aswellas to numerous
travellers, missionaries,historians, and classicists,
aretoofrequenttospecify.Looking at the subject broadly, Iwould
presume to say once more thatmy general conclusions may
beregardedasrepresentingto some extent arecon-ciliationbetweenthe
conflictingschoolsof humanists and animists, headedrespectively by
Mr. Spencerand Mr.Frazer, though with aleaning rather totheformer
thanthelatter.At thesametime, it would beagreatmistaketolookuponmy
bookasinanysenseamere eirenicon or compromise.Onthecontrary, it
isineverypart anewand personal work, containing, whateveritsvalue,
afresh and originalsynthesisof thesubject. I wouldventuretopointout
asespecially novel thetwofollowingpoints; the complete demarcation
ofreligion from mythology,aspracticefrommere explanatory gloss or
guess-work; and theimportantshareassignedinthegenesisof most
existingreligioussystemstothedeliberate manufacture ofgods by
killing. This doctrine of themanufactured god, towhich nearly
halfEste Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del
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Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica,
ColombiaPRlfFACE,my book is devoted,seems to metobea notionof
cardinal value. Amongother new ideas of secondary rank, Iwould
bebold enough to enumerate thefollowing: the establishment of
threesuccessive stages in the conception ofthe Life of the
Dead,which might besummedup as Corpse-worship, Ghost-worship, and
Shade-worship, and whichanswer to the threestagesof preservationor
mummification, burial, and crema-tion; therecognition of the high
placeto beassigned tothe safe-keepingof theoracular headin the
growth 0':'idol-worship; the importance attached to thesacred
stone, the sacred stake, and thesacred tree, and the provisional
proof oftheir closeconnection with thegraves ofthe dead; the
entirely newconception ofthe development of monotheism amongthe J
ews fromtheexclusive cultof thejealois god; the hypothesis of
theoriginof cultivationfrom tumulus-offerings,andits connection
with the growth ofgods of cultivation; the wide expansiongiventothe
ancientnotionof the divine-human victim; the recognition of
theworld-wide prevalenceof the five-dayfestivalof the corn- or
wine-god, and ofthe closesimilarity which marks its ritesthroughout
allthecontinents, includingAmerica; the suggested evolutionof
thegod-eating sacraments of lower religionsfromthecannibalpractice
ofhonorificallyeating one's deadrelations ;' andtheevidence of
thewidesurvival of primitivecorpse-worship down to our own timesin
civilised Europe. I think it will beWhile this work waspa_sing
through thepress asimilar theory has been propounded byMr. Flinders
Petriein an arricle em "EatenwithHonour,"in whichhe reviews briefly
theevidence for the custom inEgypt and elsewhere.allowed that, if
evenafewof these ideastumout onexamination to be both newand true,
my book willhave succeeded'injustifyingits existence.I put forth
this workwith the utmoltdiffidence. The harvestisvast and
thelabourers arefew. I havebeenengageduponcollectingand comparing
materialsfor more thantwenty years. I havebeen engagedin writing my
book formore thanten. AsI explain inthelastchapter,the present
first sketch of theconclusions atwhichI have at lastarrived is
little more than provisional.I should also like to add here,
whatIpoint outat greater length inthe bodyof the work, that I do
not holddogmatically to allor to asingleone ofthe ideas I have now
expressed. Theyare merely conceptionsforced upon mymind by
thepresent stateoftheevidence;and I recognisethefact that insovast
andvaried aprovince,wherealmost encyc1 o-psedic knowledge would be
necessary inorder to enable one to reach adecidedconclusion, every
single one or alltogether of these conceptions are liableto beupset
by further research.I have endeavoured towritewithoutfavour or
prejudice,animated by asingledesire to discover the truth. WhetherI
havesucceeded inthat attemptor not,I trust my book may be received
inthesame spiritinwhich it has been written-aspirit of earnest
anxiety to leamallthat canbe learnt by inquiry andinvestigation of
man's connection withhis God, in the pastand the present.Inthis
hope I commit it tothe kindlyconsideration of that small sectionof
thereadingpublic which takes a livinginterestinreligious
questions.Este Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango
del Banco de la Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La
Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica,
ColombiaCONTENTS(HAPTS.I. CHRISTIANITY ASA RELIGIOUS STANDARDII.
RELIGIONAND MYTHOLOGYIII. THE LIFE OF THE DEADIV. THE ORIGINOF
GODSV. SACRED STONESVI. SACRED STAKESVII. SACRED TREESVIII. THE
GODS OV EGYPTIX. THE GODS OF ISRAELX. THE RISE OF MO:-lOT!IEISMXI.
HUMAN GODSXII. THE MA:-lUFACTURF.OF GODSXIII. GODS OF
CULTIVATIONXIV. CORN- AND WINE-GODSXV. SACRIFICE AND SACRAMENTXVI.
THE DOCTRINK OF THE ATONEMENTXVII. THE WORLD BEFORE CHRISTXVIII.
THE GROWTH OF CHRISTIANITYXIX. SURVIVALS IN CHRISTKNDOMXX.
CONCLUSION.AG.91623324SoS459687784911 001101 1 51251 291 3S1
47ISSEste Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del
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V O L U TI O N O F THE I DE A O F GO DCHAPTER1 .CHRISTIANITY ASA
RELIGIOUSSTANDARDI PR',}POSE in thiswork to traceoutinrough outline
the evolution of the idea ofGod fi ornitsearliest and
crudestbeginningsin the savagemindof primitive man tothat highly
evolved and abstract formwhich it finally assumes in
contemporaryphilosophical and theological thinking,Intie eyes of
the modernevolut onaryinquire" the interest of the origin
andhistory of this widespread idea is mainlypsychol.igical. \Ve
have before us avastgroupf humanopinions, true or false,which h.ive
exercised and still exercise animmense influence up'0n the
developmentof manki nd and of civilisation : the questionarises,Why
did human beings ever cometo hold these opinions atall? What
wasthere inthe conditionsof early man whichled himt frame to
himself such abstractnotions of one or more great
supernaturalagents, of whose objective existence he hadcertainly n
nature no clear or obviousevidence? Regarding' the problem
inthislight, asessentially a problemof theprocesses of the human
mind, I setasidefromthe oitsct, as foreign to my purpose,any kind
of inquiry into theobjectivevalidity uf anyone amongthe
religiousbeliefs thus -et before us as subject-matter.The question
whether there may be a Godor gods, an.l, if so, what may be his
ortheir substar ceand attributes, do not hereconcernus. All we
haveto do in ourpresent capacity istoask ourselves strictly,What
first su.rgested to the mindof manthe notion of deity inthe
abstract atall?Andhow, from the early multiplicity ofdeities which
-ve find to have prevailedinall primitive times among all human
races,did the conceptionof a single great andunlimiteddeity first
take its rise?To put the questioninthis form is to---0.... -leave
entirely out of consideration theobjectivereality or otherwise of
the ideaitself. To analyse the origin of aconceptis not to attack
the validit y of the belief itencloses. Theideaof gravitation, f
orexample, arose by slow degreesin humanminds, andreached at last
its final ex-pressionin Newton's law. But to tracethe steps by
which thatidea was graduallyreached is not inany way to disprove or
todiscredit it. The Christianbeliever maysimilarly hold that men
arrived by naturalstages at the knowledge of the one trueGod; he is
not boundto reject the finalconceptionas false merely becauseof
thesteps by whichit was slowlyevolved. Acreative God, it is true,
might prefer tomakea suddenrevelationof himself tosome chosen body
of men; but an evolu-tionary Cod, we may well believe, mightprefer
in his inscrutablewisdom to revealhis ownexistence and qualities to
his crea-tures by means of thesameslowand tentativeintellectual
gropings as those by which herevealed to them the flhysical truths
ofnature. I wish my inquiry,therefore, toberegarded, not as
destructive, but as recon-structive. It attempts torecover
andfollow out thevarious planes intheevolutionof the idea of {;od,
rather than to castdoubt uponthetruth of theevolvedconcept.In
investigating any abstruse subject,it is often best to proceed from
the knowntotheunknown, evenalthough the unknownitself may happen to
come first intheorderof nature ant! uf logical development. Forthis
reason, itmay be advisable to beginhere with a brief preliminary
examinationof Christianity, which is not onlythe mostfamiliar of
all religiolls to us Christiannations, but alsothe best knuwn in
itsorigins; and then to show how far wemaysafely use it as a
standard of referenceinexplaining the less obvious and
certainfeatures of earlier or collateral cults.Christianity,
then,viewedas a religiousstandard, hasthis clear andundeniableEste
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Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, Colombiai oTHE
EYOLUTioN-OF THEiDEAOP(;O!Jadvantage over almost every
otherknown-form of faith-that itquite franklyandconfessedly sets
out in its development. with the worship of aparticular
DeifiedMan.This pointinits history cannot,I think,beoverrated
inimportance,because inthatsingle indubitable central factit gives
usthe key to much that iscardinalinall otherreligions; everyone of
which,as I hopehereafter toshow, equally springs,directlyor
indirectly,fromtheworship of asingleDeified Man, or of many Deified
Men,..more or less etherealised.Whatever else may be said about
theoriginof Christianity, it is atleast fairlyagreed oneither side,
both by friends andfoes, that this great religion took its
risearound the personality of a certain par-ticular Galilean
teacher, by name J esus,concerning whom, if weknow anything atall
with any approach tocertainty,weknowat least that hewas aman of the
people,hung onacross inJ erusalem under theprocuratorshipof Cains
Pontius Pilatus,From the very beginning, however, alegend, true or
false (butwhose truth orfalsity has no relation whatever to
ourpresent subject), gathered about the per-sonality of this
particularGalilean peasantreformer. Reverenced at firstby a
smallbody of disciples of his ownraceand caste,he grew gradually in
theirminds into adivine personage, of whomstrange
storiesweretold,and astrange historybelievedby agroup of
ever-increasing adherents inall parts of the Grseco-Rornan
Mediterra-nean civilisation. The earliest of thesestories,inall
probability-certainly theoneto which most importance wasattached
bythe pioneers of the faith -clustered abouthis deathand its
immediate sequence.J esus,weare told, was crurified,dead,
andburied. But atthe end of three days, ifwemay credit the early
documentsof ourChristian faith, his body was no longer tobefound
inthe sepulchre whereit had beenlaid by friendly hands; and the
report.spread abroad that hehad risenagainfromthe dead.
Supernatural messengers an-nounced his resurrectionto the
womenwhohad loved him: he was seen intheflesh fromtime to time for
very shortperiods by oneor other amongthe faithfulwho still revered
his memory. Atlast,after many such appearances, hewassuddenly
carried upto the sky before theeyes of his followers, where, as one
of theversions authoritatively remarks, he was"received into
heaven, and sat on theright handof God "-that is to say, ofJ
ahweh,the ethnicaldeity of the Hebrewpeople.Such initskernelwas
theoriginalChris-tiandoctrine as handed down to u. arnid-amist of
miracle,infour or fivedocumentsof doubtfulageand uncertain
authenticity,Even thiscentral idea doesnot fullyappear inthe
Pauline epistles, believedtobetheoldest in date of allour
Christianwritings: it first takes fullshape in thesomewhat later
Gospels and Acts of theApostles. In the SImplestand perhapsthe
earliest of these definite accounts weare merely told thestory of
the deathandresurrection, the latter factbeing vouchedfor
onthedubious testimony of "a youngman clothed in a long white
garment,"supplemented (apparently at alater period)by subsequent
"appearances" to variousbelievers. With the controversies whichhave
ragedabout these different stories,however, the broad
anthropological inquiryinto theevolution of God has no concern,It
isenough for us here toadmit,what theevidence probably warrants
usinconcluding,that areal historical man of the name ofJ esus did
once exist in Lower Syria, andthat his disciples ataperiod very
shortlyafter his execution believed himto haveactually risenfromthe
dead, and in duetime tohaveascended into heaven.At avery early
date,too,it was furtherasserted that J esus was insome unnaturalor
supernatural sense" the sonof God"-that is to say, once more, the
son ofJ ahweh,the local and nationaldeity of theJ ewish people.
Inother words, hisworshipwas affiliated upon the earlier
historicalworship of the people inwhose midsthelived, and
fromwhomhis firstdiscipleswere exclusively gathered. It was not,
asweshall morefully seehereafter, arevolutionary or purely
destructive system.It based itself upon the common concep-tionsof
theSemiticcommunity. Thehandfulof J ewsand Galileans whoacceptedJ
esus as adivine figure did notthink itnecessary, inadopting himas
agod, togetrid of their own preconceived religiousopinions. They
believed rather in hisprior existence, as apart of J ahweh,
andinhis incarnation inahuman body for thepurpose of redemption.
And whenhis cultspread around into neighbouring countries(chiefly,
it would seem, through the instru-mentality of one Paul of Tarsus,
who hadnever seenhim, or had beheld himonly inwhatisvaguely called"
avision") the cultof J ahwehwent hand inhand with it, soEste Libro
fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la
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ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, ColombiaCHRISTIANITY AS A
RELIGIOUS STANDARDu--- ._-_._---- -----
-----------------------thatasort of modified mystic
monotheism,based onJ udaism, became the early creedof the new
cosmopolitan ChristianChurch.Other le;,;e!ld~, of ason familiar in
thelives of the founders of crce.ls emdchurchcse.lsewhere, grewlip
about th~life of theChristian leader ; or, at any r...te,
incidc.usofa typical kind were narrated by hisdisciples as part of
his history, That atod or agodlike person shouldbe born ofa woman
by the ordinary ptiysiologicalprocesses of humanity seems . The
existence of such artificially-manu-factured gods has beenmore or
less recog-nised for sometime past, and attention hasbeencalled
toone or other class of themby Mr, BaringGould and Mr. J . G.
Frazer;.but I believe the present work will be the. '!rat in which
their profound importance:,~ !-heirplace inthegenesis ?f
thehigher.J 'ebglons have been fully pointed out In"'.)IiJ
stematicdetail.-; The best knowninstances of such delibe-c"mte
god-making are those which refer to:"the foundation of cities, city
walls, andirhouses. Insuch cases, ahuman victimisoftensacrificed
inorder that his blood maybeused as cement,and his soul bebuiltinto
thevery stones of thefabric. Thereafter.he becomes thetutelary
deity or "fortune"'of the house or city. In many cases,
thevictimoffers himself voluntarily for thepur-pose ; frequently he
is of kingly or divine.-ancestry. In Polynesia,where
weusually.-stand nearest to thevery core of religion,~l1 is heard
thatthe central pillarof thetemple at Mrevawas planted
uponthebodyof ahuman victim. Amongthe Dyaks of. Borneo aslavegirl
was crushedto deathunder thefirst post of ahouse, InOctober,1 881 ,
the king of Ashanti put fifty girls to:deaty, that their blood
might bemixed withthe mud usedin the repairof the royalbuildings,
Evenin J apan, a couple ofcenturies since, whenagreat wall was
tobebuilt, "somewretched slave would offer"himself as
afoundation."Observe inthis~instance the important fact that the
immo-lation was purely voluntary. Mr. Tyler,it. Istrue, treats most
ofthese cases as thoughthe victimwere intended to appease
the.earth-demons, which is the natural inter-pretation for theelder
schoolof thinkers toput uponsuch ceremonies; butthose whohave read
Mr. Frazer and Mr. BaringGouldwill know that the offeringisreally
apieceoldeliberate god-making. Many oftheoriginal witnesses,indeed,
correctlyreportthis intention on the part of theperpetra-tors; thus
Mason was told by an eye-witness that at the building of the new
cityof Tavoy in Tennasserim" acriminal wasput ineach post-hole to
become aprotect-mgdemon,"or ratherdeity. So in Siam,when a new city
gate was being erected,says Mr. Speth, officers seized thefirst
fouror eight people who passed, and buriedthemunder it as guardian
angels."Andin Rournania astahic is defined as "theghostof aperson
who has been immuredinthe walls of abuilding inorder tomakeit
moresolid." The Irish Banshee isdoubt-less of similar origin.Other
curious examples arereported fromAfrica, and human victims are said
to havebeenburied" for spirit-watchers" under thegates of Mandelay.
So, too, according tolegend,here atolerably safeguide, aqueenwas
drowned in a Burmese reservoir, tomake thedyke safe; while the
choice forsuch a purpose of aroyal victim showsclearly
thedesirability of divineblood beingpresent in the body of the
future deity.When RajahSala Bynewas building thefort of Sialkot
inthe Punjaub,the founda-tiongave way sooften that
heconsultedasoothsayer. The soothsayer advisedthattheblood of
anonly sonshould beshed onthe spot; and theonly sonof awidow
wasaccordingly killed there. I may add thatthe blood of
"anonly-begotten son" hasalways beenheld to possess peculiar
effi-cacy.InEurope itself not afewtraces surviveof such
foundation-gods, or spirits of towns,town-walls, and houses. The
Picts are saidto have bathedtheir foundation-stones inhuman blood.
St. Columbahimself, thoughnominally aChristian, did not scruple
thusto securethe safety of his monastery.Columbkille said tohis
people,, It wouldhewellfor us that our roots should passinto
theearth here.' And hesaid tothem,'It is permitted to you thatsome
one ofyou go under theearthto consecrateit.'"St. Oran volunteered
to accept the task,and was ever after honoured as the patronsaint
of themonastery. Here again It maybe noted that the offering was
voluntary.As late as 1 463, when the broken damofthe Nogat had
toberepaired,thepeasants,beingadvised tothrow inalivingman, aresaid
to have made a beggar drunk(inwhich state hewould of course be
"full ofthe god ") and utilised himfor the purpose.In1 885, on the
restoration of Holsworthychurch inDevon,askeleton with amassEste
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OF GODS__ ' ..:::::c- --"of mortar plasteredover the mouth wasfound
imbedded in an angle of thebuilding. To make the castle of
Lieben-stein fast andimpregnable, a child wasbought for hard money
of its mother, andwalled into thebuilding. Again, whenthechurch at
Blex inOldenburg was beingbuilt, theauthorities of the village
crossedtheWeser, "bought achild fromapoormother atBremerleke, and
built it aliveinto thefoundations."\Veshall see here-after that"
tobebrought with aprice" isa variant, as itwere,on the
voluntaryoffering; great stress is often laid, whenavictim is
offered,on this particular fact,which is held to absolve the
perpetratorsfromthe crime of god murder. So,weshallseeinthe
sequel,the divine animal-victim, which isthe god offered to
himself,his animal embodiment to his image oraltar, must
alwaysconsent to its ownsacrifice; if it refuseor show the
slightestdisinclination,it isnogood victim. Legendsays that the
childin the case of theLiebenstein offering was beguiled with
acake, probably so as to make it acon-senting party, and was slowly
walled upbefore the eyes of the mother. Allthesedetails arefull of
incidental instructivenessand importance. As late as 1
865,according to Mr.Speth, some Christianlabourers, working at a
block-houseatDuga, near Scutari, found two youngChristian children
inthehands of Moham-medanArnauts, who were trying to
burythemaliveunder theblock-house.Itis about city walls that we
oftenestread such legendary stories. Thus thewall of Copenhagen
sankas fast as it wasbuilt; sothey took an innocent little girl,and
sether at a table withtoys andeatables. Then, while she played
andeat, twelve master masons closed avaultover her. InItaly the
bridge of Arta fellin, timeafter time,tillthey walled inthemaster
builder's wife; thelast pointbeinga significant detail, whose
meaning willcomeout stillmore clearly in the sequel.At Scutari
inServia, oncemore, the fortresscould onlybe satisfactorily
builtafter ahuman victimwas walled into it; so thethree brothers
who wrought atit decidedto offer up the firstofthe-ir wives whocame
to the place to bring- them food.(Compare the case of J epht.ia's
daughter,where the first livingthingmet by chanceistobe sacrificed
to ]ahwcL) So, too, inWelsh legend, Vortigern coild notfinishhis
tower till the foundation-stone was'Wettedwith"the blood of a child
born ofamother without afather "-thisof thevirgin-born infantbeing
aelement inthe generation of man-gMr. Sidney Hartland has
abunproved for us. , ' .. :Inonecasecited above we saw a m~gation
of the primitive custom, inthat _~:criminal was substituted for a
persona{;royal blood or divine origin-a form(){csubstitution of
which Mr. Frazer hai"supplied abundant examples inother c'To!,olis,
orcity of the dead. J ustoutsideCairo, onthe edge of the desert, a
precisely similarmodern Nccr0l'"Es""iSh to this day, rcgu-l.uly
planned instreetsand quarters, withthe tomb of each family standing
initsOWl'courtyard or enclosure, and often verjclosely resembling
thecommonroundroofed or domed Egyptian houses. Inthistown of
deadbodies every distinctionQrankandwealth may now be observedEste
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OFTHE IDEA OFGOD_.Therich areburied under splendid mausoleaI_of
great architectural pretensions; thepoor-OCcupy humble tombs just
raised above thesurface of the desert,and marked at head'cand foot
with simple Egyptian tombstones.. Still, theentire aspectof such
acemetery;-i;, the aspect of a town. In northern",climates the
deadsleep their lastsleep_under grassy little tumuli, wholly
unlike- the streets of acity; inEgypt,tothis day,the deadoccupy, as
in life, whole lanes, and alleys of eternal houses. Even thespirit
which produced the Pyramidsand--theTombs of the Kings is
conspicuous inmodern or media-val Cairoin the tastewhich begot
those vast domed mosquesknown as the Tombs of the Khalifs andthe
Tombs of the Marnelooks, Whateverisbiggestinthe neighbourhood of
ancientMemphis turns outon examination to betli~lastresting-place
of aDead Man, and-, aplace of worship._ _Almost everyoneof the
greatmosques'of Cairo is either atomb built for himselfby_
aruler-and this is the more frequent'case-c-or elsethe holy shrine
of some saintof Islam. Itis characteristic of Egypt,however, where
kingand god have alwaysbeen so closely combined,that
whileelse-wherethemosque isusually theprayer-tombof aholy man,
illCairo it is usually thememorial-temple of aSultan,an
Erncer,aviceroy, or aKhedive. It is interesting tofind, too, after
allwehave seen as to thespecial sanctity of the oracular
head,thatperhapsthe holiest of all these mosquescontains thehead of
Hoseyn,thegrandsonof the Prophet. A ceremonial washing
isparticularly mentioned inthe story of itstranslation..__I will
not linger any longer,however, in Ithe precincts of Islam, further
than tomention the significant fact thatthe greatcentral objectof
worship for the Moham-medan world isthc Kaabaat Mecca,
whichitself,as Mr. William Simpson long agopointedout, bears
obvious traces of beingatonce atomb and asacred altar-stone.Sir
Richard Burton'soriginal sketch ofthis mystic object shows itas a
squareand undecorated temple-tomb, coveredthroughout with
atasselledblack pall-amost funerealobject--the so-called
"sacredcarpet."Itis, inpointof fact,a simplecatafalque. As the
Kaaba was adopteddirect by Mohammed from theearlySemitic heathenism
of Arabia, andas itmust always have been treatedwith thesame
respect, I do not think wecanavoidtheobvious conclusionthat this
very ancienttomb has been funereally draned in theself-same manner,
like those 'of Biskra,Algiers,and Kerouan,fromthe time of itsfirst
erection. This case thus throws lightonthe draping of theashera, as
doalso themany-coloured draperies and hangings ofsaints'catafalques
inAlgeriaand Tunis.Nor can I resist a passing mention
oftheMoharramfestival, which is said tobethecommemoration of
thedeath of H oseyn,the son of Ali (whose holy headis 'pre-served
at Cairo). This is a rude piece ofacting,inwhich the events
supposed to beconnectedwith the deathof Hoseyn
aregraphicallyrepresented; and it ends with asacredAdonis-like or
Osiris-like proces-sion, in which the body of the saint iscarried
and mourned over. Thefuneral isthe grand partof the performance;
cata-falques are constructed for theholy corpse,covered with green
andgold tinsel-thegreenbeingobviously alastreminiscenceof the god
ofvegetation. In Bombay,after the dead body and shrine have
beencarriedthrough the streets amid weepingand wailing, they are
finally thrown intothe sea, like King Carnival. I think weneed
hardly doubt that here we have anevanescent relicof the rites of
the corn-god, ending in a rain-charm, andveryclosely
resemblingthose of AJ onis andOsiris.But if inIslamthegreat objects
of wor-ship are the Kaabatombat Meccaand theTomb of the Prophet at
Medina,so themost holy spot intheworld for Christendomis--theHoly
Sepulchre. It was for pos-session of that mostsacredplace of
pil-grimagethat Christiansfought Moslemsthroughthe Middle Ages; and
it is therethat while faith inthe human Christwasstrong and
vigorousthe vast majority ofthemost meritorious pilgrimages
continuedtobedirected.For themostpart, however, inChristen-dom, and
especially inthoseparts of Chris-tendomremote fromPalestine, men
con-tented themselves with nearer andmoredomestic saints. From
avery early dateweseeinthecatacombs the growth of thispractice of
offeringupprayer by (or to) thebodies of the dead who slept
inChrist. Achapel or cajJella,as Dean Burgon haspointedout, meant
originally an archedsepulchre inthe walls of thecatacombs, atwhich
prayer was afterwardshabituallymade; and above-ground chapels
weremodelled, later on, upon the patternofthese ancient
undergroundshrines. I havealluded briefly inmy second chapter
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consecrated, ~whose. top' the ~ody and blood of chl_lwasdistributed
IIIthe Euchanst. Asearlr'-ias the fourth century we know that
no~church was completewithout some suchrelic; and the passion for
martyrs spreadv50 greatly fromthatperiod onward that at .one timeno
less than2,300 corpses of holymen together wereburied atS.
Prassede,It is only inRome itself that the fullim-.portance of this
martyr-worship cannowbesufficientlyunderstood, or the large
partwhich itplayedin the development of,Christianity adequately
rccut:nised. Per-,haps the easiest way for the Protestant,reader to
puthimselfintouch with thisside of the subject is to peruse the
veryinteresting and graphic account given inthe second volume of
:\1 rs. J ameson'sSacred andLegendary Art.I have room for a
fewillustrativeexamples only.WhenSt.Ambrosefoundedhis newchurch
atMilan, be wished to consecrate-it with some holy relic. In a
vision hebeheld twoyoung men inshiningclothes,and it was revealed
to himthat these wereholy martyrs whose bodies lay near
thespotwhere he lived inthecity. Hedugfor them accordingly, and
foundtwobodies,which proved to be those of twosaints,Cervasius and
Protasius, who hadsuffered for the faith inthe rt,ignof Nero.They
were installed in the new basilicaAmbrose had built at Milan.The
body of St. Agnes, saint and martyr;whoisalways represented with
that familiar'emblem, the lamb which she
duplicates,liesinasarcophagus under the High Altarof Sant' Agncse
beyond the Porta Piaat"Rome. The body of St. Cecilialies
inthechurch of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere.Almost every church
inRome has its entirebody of apatron saint, oftenest amartyr
oftheearly persecutions.The great centraltemple of
theCatholicChurch isSt. Peter's atRome. The verybody of the
crucified saintlies enshrinedunder the high altar, in a
sarcophagusbroughtfromthe catacomb ncar S. Sebas-tiano, Upon this
Rock, St.Peter's andthe Catholic Church are founded. Ana-cletus,
the successor of Clement, built amonument over the bones of the
blessedPeter; and if Peter be ahistorical personatall, 1 see no
reason to doubt that hisveritable body actually lies there. St.
Paulshares with himinthe 5;W1 eshrine; butonly half thetwocorpses
nowrepose withinthe stately Confcssio inthe Sacristy of the, I: 1
i'" r.probableongm of the cruciform churchfromtwo gaIleries of
thecatacombs cross-ingoneanother at right angles: the HighAltar
stands there over thebody or relicsof adead saint; and thechapels
representother minor tombs grouped like niches inthe catacombs
around it. A chapelisthus,asMr. HerbertSpencer phrases It,
"atombwithinatomb"; and agreat cathedral isaserried set of such
cumulative tombs, onebt:iltbeside the other. Sometimes thechapels
are actual graves, sometimes theyare cenotaphs; but the connection
withdeath is always equally evident. Onthissubject I would refer
the reader againtoMr. Spencer's pages.SolongasChristianity
wasproscribed atRome and throughout theempire the wor-ship of
thedead must have gone ononlysilently, and must have centred inthe
cata-combs or bythe graves of s.aintsandmartyrs-the last-named
being practicallymere Christian successorsof the willingvictims of
earlier religions. When Chris-tianity had triumphed,however, and
gainednot only official recogni tion hut officialhonour, the cultof
the martyrsand theother faithfuldead became with ChristianRcme
aperfect passion. The Holy Inno-cents, St. Stephen Protornartyr,
the name-lese,martyrs of the TenPersecutions,together with
Polycarp, Vivia Perpetua,Fe.icitas, Ignatius,and all therest. came
toreceive fromthe Church aformof venera-tionwhich only the
nicedistinctions of thetheological mind could enable"J S to
dis-criminate fromactualworship. The greatprocession of the slain
for Christ in themosaics of Sant' Apollinare NuevoatRavenna gives
agood comprehensive listof the more important of these
earliestsaints (at least for Aryan worshippers),headedbySt.Martin,
St.Clement, St.J ust in, St. Lawrence, and St. H ippolytus,Later on
came the more mythical andpoeticfigures, derived apparer.tly
fromheathen gods-St. Catherine, St. Barbara,51.George, St.
Christopher. These formas they goaperfect new pantheon,
circlinground the figures of Christ himself, and hismot.ier the
Madonna, who grow, quicklyinturn, by absorption of Isis,
Astarte,andArtemis,into the Q ueenof Heaven.The love-feasts
oragaj>U! of the earlyChristians were usually
held,in:hecata-combs or elsewhere, above the bodies ofthemartyrs.
Subsequently the remains oftheMinted dead were transferred
tolordlychurches like Sant' Agnese and SanPaolo,where they were
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-- _. __ ._------------------------papal basilica: the other
portionof St.Peter consecrates the Lateran; the otherportion of
St.Paul gives sanctity to SanPaolo fuori IeMura.Other much
venerated bodies atRomeare those of the Q uattro Coronati, in
thechurch of that name; S. Praxedis and St.I'udentiana in their
respective churches;St. Cosmoand St. Damian ; and manymore too
numerous to mention. Severalof the Roman churches, like San
Clemente,stand upon the site uf the house of thesaintto whomthey
are dedicated, or whosebody they preserve, thus recalling the
earlyNew Guinea practice. Others occupy thesite of his alleged
martyrdomor enclosethe pillar to which he was fastened. Inthe
single church of SanZaccaria at Venice,again, I found the bodies of
St. Zacharias(father of J ohn the Baptist)' St. Sabina,St.
Tarasius, Sts. Nereus and Achilles, andmany othersaints.How great
importance was attached tothe possession of theactual
corpseormummyof asaintweseeexceptionally wellindeed inthis case of
Venice. The bring-ingof the corpse or mummy of St.
MarkfromAlexandriato the lagoons was longconsidered
themostimportant event inthehistory of the Republic ; thechurch
inwhich it washoused is the noblest inChristendom, and contains
anendless seriesof records of the connection of St.Markwiththe
cityandpeople that so royallyreceived him.Nor was thatthe only
important helperthat Venice couldboast. She containedalso the body
of St. George at San GiorgioMaggiore, and the body of 51 . Nicholas
atSanNiccolo di Lido. The beautiful legend Iof the Doge andthe
Fisherman (immor-talised for usby thepencil of Paris IBordone inone
of the noblest picturestheworld has ever seen) tellsLIS how the
threegreatguardian saints, St. Mark, SI. George,and St.Nicholas,
took agondola one dayfrom their respective churches, and rowedout
to seaamid araging stormto circum-vent the demons who were comingin
atempest to overwhelmVenice. Afourthsaint, of far later
date,whomthe Venetiansalso carried off by guile,was 51 .
RochofMontpelier. This holy man was a verygreatsanitary
prccautionngainst theplague,to which thecity wasmuch exposed
throughitseastern commerce. Sothemenof Venicesimply stole the body
by fraud fromMont-pelier, andbuilt inits honour the
exquisitechurchand Scuola di San Rocco,thegreatmuseum of the art of
Tintoret. The factthat merepossessionof theholy bodycounts in
itself for much could not bebetter shown thanby these forcible
abduc-tions.The corpse of St.Nicholas, who was ahighly revered
bishop of Myra in.Lycia,lies, as I said,under the high altar of
SanNiccolodiLido at Venice. nutanotherand more authentic body of
the same greatsaint,the patron of sailors and likewise
ofschoolboys, lies also under the high altarof the magnificent
basilica of San Nicolaat Bari, fromwhich circumstance the
holybishop isgenerally known as St. !'\icolas ofBari, Amiraculous
fluid, the Manna diBari, highly prized by the pious, exudesfrom the
remains. A gorgeous cathedralrisesover the sepulchre.
Suchemulousduplication of bodies and relics isextremelycommon, both
inChristendom and inIslam.The corpse of St. Augustine, for
example,lies at Pavia inagloriousark, one of themost sumptuous
monuments ever erectedby the skillof man,as well as one of
theloveliest, Padua similarly boasts the bodyof St. Antony of
Padua, locally known as"il Santo,"and farmore important in
hisowntownthan allthe rest of the Chris' ianpantheon put together.
Dominican monksand nuns make pilgrimages to Bologna, inorder to
venerate the body of St. Dominic,who died in thatcity, and whose
corpse isenclosed in a magnificent sarcophagus inthe church
dedicated to him. Siena hasfor itsspecialglory St. Catherine
theSecond-the first was the mythical princess ofAlexandria-and the
house of thatecstaticnun is still preserved intactas anoratoryfor
theprayers of the pious. ller head,laidby in a silver shrine or
casket, decoratesthe altar of herchapel inSan Domenico,where the
famous frescoesof Sodorna toooften usurp the entire attention of
northernvisitors, Compare the holy head ofHoseynat Cairo. The great
Franciscanchurch at Assisi,once more,enshrines theremains of the
founder of the Franciscansunder the high altar; the churchof
SantaMaria degli Angeli belowit encloses thelittle hut whichwas the
first narrowhomeof the nascent order.North of theAlps, again, I
cannotrefrain from mentioningafew salient in-stances, which help to
enforce the princi-ples already enunciated. At Paris the twogreat
local saintsare 51 . Denis andSte.(;enevicve. 51 . Denis was the
first bishopof Lutetia and of the Parisii : he issaid tohave been
beheaded withhis two com-panions at Montmartre-Mons Martyrum.Este
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CIIRISTENDOJII53--------------------------------------------He
afterwards walked withhis head in hishands from that point (now
covered by thelttle church ofSt.Pierre, next door to thenew basi
lien of the Sane Cccur ) to the spotwhere he p.ousl desire' I to
1)(: buried. Aholy woman named Catull (note thatl..st echo)
performed the final rites forhim at thepl.icewhere the st.ucly
abbey-church of 51 . Denis now preserves hismemory,As for Ste.
Genevicv'e, she rested first int.ie church dedicated to her on the
Site nowo::cupied by the Pantheon, w\lich ,;till inpart, thoug h
sccular ised, pr~serves herrncmory. l Icr body (or what remains of
it)lies at present in il.e nCighuouring churchof St. Etienne du
Xlont.Other familiar examples will occur toevery one, suchas
thebones of the2\lagior Three Kings, preserved inareliquary inthe
Cathedral at Cologne; those of 51 .l"rsula andtheI f,OOO virgins ;
those ofSI.Stephen and 51 . Lawrence atFame; thoseofSt. Hubert,
disinterred andfound uncor-ruptcd, at thetownof the sar.ic name
inthe Ardennes; and those ofSt.Longinusir, his chapel at Mantua.
All these relicsand bodies performastounding miracles,audall
havebeen the centres l f importantcilts for aconsiderable period,In
Britain, from the first stages of Chris-ti uiity, the reverence
paid to the bodies ofsaints was most marked, and .hestory oftheir
wanderings forms an import ant part0;our early annals. Indeed, I
dwell so longuJ lonthis point because fewnorthernersof thepresent
day can fully appreciate thelarge part vvhich the Dead Body
playsandIus played for many centuries IU Christianworship. Only
those who, likeme, havelived long inthoroughly Catholic
countries,have madepilgrimages to numerous famousshrines,
andhavewaded through reams ofAnglo-Saxon and other early
media-valdocuments, can really understand thisphase of Christian
hagiology. To suchprople it is abundantly clear that the actualDead
Body of somesainted man or womanhas been in many places the chief
object ofreverence for millions of Christians in suc-cessive
generations. A good British in-su.nce is found inthe case of St
Cuthbert'scorpse. Thetale of its wander.ngs can bere.id in any good
history (,f Durham.But everywhere in Britain we get similarlocal
saints, whose bodies or bones per-formed marvellous miracles and
werezealously guarded against sacrilegious il:-truders, Bede
himself isalrcr.dy full ofsuchholy corpses; and in later
daystheyincreased by the hundred. St. Alban atSt.Alban's, the
protornartyr of Britain ;tbifj"white hane!" of St.Oswald, that when
atFelseperished remained white and uncor-rupted because blessed by
Aidan: St.Ethcklrcda atEly, another remarkable andillusrr.uive
inst.mrc ; Edwanl the Confessorat \\'estnlinster Abhe\' ; these are
but afewout of hundreds of e~;dnplcs which will atonce occur to
students of our history. And-I will acid that somctiuu-s thelegends
ofthesesaints linkIlS Oil unexpectedly to farearlier types of
hr-athr-u worship ; as whenweread concerning St. Edmund of
EastAnglia, the patron of Bury 51 . Edmund's,that l ngvar the
v-iking [(1 0k him by force,bcund himto ;t tree, scourged him
cruelly,made him a t;trget for the arrows ofthepagan Danes, and
finally beheaded him.Either, I say,agod-making- sacrifice of
thenorthern heathens; or,faillllgthat, arerni-nisccnce, likeSt.
Sebastian, of such god-making rites as :1 1 '(-preserved inthe
legendsof ant"lent 111'U-t'd"";.But during thelater ;\1 iddle Ages
thesacred Body of Britain, above all others,was undoubtedly that of
Thomas A'Becketat Canterbury. I Iither, asweknow, allEngland went
on pilgrimage; and nothing1 could more fully show the rapidity
ofcanonisation in such lases thanthefactthat eventhe mighty Henry
I1 . had toprostrate himself before hisold enemy'sbody and submit
to a public scourging atthe shrine of thenew-made martyr.
Forseveral hundred years after his death therecan be no doubt :.t
all that the cult ofSt.Thomas of Canterbury was much the mostreal
and living worship throughout thewhole ofEngland; its only serious
rivalsin popular favour being thecult of St.Cuthbert to the north
of Humber, andthatof St.Ethcldreda in the Eastern Counties.Holy
heads in particular werecommoninBritain before the Reformation.
Afamiliar Scottish case is that of theheadof51 . Fergus, the
apostle ofBanff andthePictish Highlands, transferred to
andpreserved at the royal scat of Scone."By Sanct Fergus heid
atScone"was thefavourite oath ofthe Scotch monarchs, as"Par Sainct
Dcnvs " was that of theirFrench contemporaries,In aIrnost all
rl.cse case" :lgain, anddownto thepresent day, popular
appre-ciation goes longbefore official Romancanonisation. Miracles
arc firstperformedatthe lomb, andprayers are answered janirregular
cult precedes the formal one.Even in our own day, only a
fewweeksEste Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango
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ColombiaTHEEVOLUTION OF THEIDEA OF GODafter Cardinal Manning's
death,advertise-ments appeared in CatholicpapersinLondongiving
thanks for spiritual andtemporal
blessingsreceivedthroughtheintervention of Our Lady,
thesaints,"andour beloved Cardinal."This popular canonisation has
often faroutrun the regularofficial acceptance, asinthe case of J
oan of Arc in France atthe present day, or of "Maister J ohnSchorn,
that blessedman born," in theKent ofthe Middle Ages. Walesand-
Cornwall are fullof local and patrioticsaints, often of doubtful
Catholicity, likeSt.Cadoc, St.Padcrn, St.Pet rock, St.Piran,
St.Ruan, andSt. Illtyd, not tomentionmoreaccepted cases, like
St.Asaph and St. David. The factis, menhave everywhere felt the
natural desire foranear, afamiliar,arecent,and apresentgod or
saint; they have worshipped ratherthe dead whomthey loved and
reveredthemselves thanthe elder godsandthe remoter martyrs who have
no body-amongthem, no personal shrine, no localassociations,
nolivingmemories. "I haveseen in Brittany," says a
Frenchcorres-pondent of Mr.Herbert Spencer's, "thetomb of a pious
and charitable priestcovered with garlands: people flocked toitby
hundredsto pray of him that hewould procure themrestoration to
health,and guardover their children." There,with the Christian
addition of the supremeGod,we getonce more the root-idea
ofreligion.I should like to add that beyond suchactual veneration
of the bodies of saintsand martyrs, there has always existed
adefinite theory inthe Roman Church thatno altar can exist without
a relic. Thealtar, being itself a monumental stone,needs abody or
part of abody to justifyand consecrate it. Dr. Rock, a
highauthority, says inhis Hterurgia : "By theregulations of the
Church it is ordainedthat the HolySacrifice of the Mass beoffered
upon an altar whichcontainsastone consecrated by a Bishop,
enclosingthe relics of somesaint or martyr; and becoveredwith three
linencloths that havebeen blessed for that purpose with
anappropriate form ofbenediction." Theconsecrationof the altar,
indeed, is con-sidered evenmore serious thantheconsecration of the
church itself; forwithout the stone and its relic the cere-mony of
the mass cannotbeperformedatall. Even whenmass has tobe said
inaprivate housethe priest brings aconse-crated stone and its
relicalongwith him;and other such stones werecarriedintheretaoiesor
portable altars so common inmilitary expeditionsof the Middle
Ages.The church is thus atomb, with chapeltombs around it; it
contains astonemonu-ment covering adead body or part of abody; and
init ismade and exhibited theBody of Christ,inthe formof the
conse-crated and transmutedwafer.Notonly,however, is the altar in
thismanner areduced or symbolicaltomb, andnot only isit often
placed above the bodyof asaint, as at St. Mark's and St.
Peter's,butitsometimes is itself a stone sarco-phagus. One such
sarcophagusexists inthe Cathedral at St. Malo; I .have seenother
coffin-shaped altars inthemonasteryof LaTrappe near Algiers and
elsewhere.When,however,the altarstands,likethatat St. Peter's,above
the actual body of asaint, it does not require tocontain
arelic;otherwise it does. That is to say, it mustbe either arealor
elseanattenuatedandsymbolicalsarcophagus.Apart fromcorpse-worship
and relic-worship in the case of saints, CatholicChristendom has
longpossessed anannualCommemoration of the Dead, theJour
des.&[o1'ls, which links itself on directly toearlier
ancestor-worship. It is true, thiscommemoration is stated
officially, and nodoubt correctly, to owe its origin (in
itsrecognised form) to aparticular historicalperson, Saint Odilo of
Cluny; but whenweconsider how universal such commemora-tions and
annual dead-feasts have been inall times and places, we canhardly
doubtthat the Church did but adopt and sanctifyapractice which,
though perhaps accountedheathenish, had never died out at all
amongthe mass of believers. The very desire tobeburied ina church
or churchyard, andall thatit implies, link onChristian usagehere
oncemoretoprimitive corpse-worship.Compare with the dead who sleep
withOsiris. In the Middle Ages many peoplewereburied inchapels
containing thebody(or arelic) of their patron saint.Inshort,
fromfirst to last religion nevergets far away fromthese its
earliest andprofoundest associations. "Godandim-mortality"-those
two are its key-notes.And those twoare one; for thegod inthelast
resort is nothing more than the im-mortalghost, etherealised and
extended.On the other hand, whenever religiontravels toofar afield
fromits emotionalandprimalbase inthe cult of the nearer dead,Itmust
eitherbe constantly renewed byEste Libro fue Editado por la
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De La Repblica, ColombiaCONCLUSIONI SSfresh and familiar objects of
worship, or ittendsto dissipateitself into mere vaguepantheism.
Anewgod, a new saint, a"re\ival of religion," is continually
neces-sary. The Sacrifice of the Mass is wiselyrepeated at frequent
intervals; but thatalonedoesnot suffice: menwant theassu-ancc of
anearer,amore fami.iar deity.Iu 0.11' owntime,and especially in
Protes-tant and sceptical England andAmerica,this need has made
itself felt in tl.e rise ofspiritualism and kindred beliefs,which
arebut'hedoctrine of the ghost or shade inits purified form,
.ip.rrt, as arule, fromthehigl.er conceptionof a supremeruler.
Ihavr known many men of intellc:t, suffer-ing under asevere
bereavement-the lossof t, wife ora dearly-loved child-takerefu.rc
for a time either in spiritualism orCatholicism. Theformer seemsto
givether.i thepractical assurance of actualbodily intercourse with
the dead,throughmediums or table-turning; the Litter sup-plies them
with a theory of death whichmakes reunion aprobable futurefor
them.Thi. desire fordirect conversewith thedeadwe saw exemplified
in averyearlyor primitive stage inthecase of theMandanwives who
talk lovingly to their husbands'skulls; it probably forms the bas.s
for thecorrmonhabit of keeping the head whileburying thebody,whose
widespread resultswe have so frequently noticed. Ihaveknown
twoinstances of modern spiritualistswho similarly had their
wives'bodies em-balrned, in order that thespirit mightreturn and
inhabit them.Thus the Cult of the Dead, which is theearlestorigin
of all religion, inthe senseof worship, isalso the last relic of
the reli-gicvsspirit whichsurvives the decay offaitl. due to modern
scepticism. To thiscause I refer onthe whole the
spiritualisticuttcranccs of so manyamong our leadersof
.nodcrnscience. They have rejectedrelipion, but they
cannotrejecttheInheritedand ingrained religious emotions.CIIAPTER
XX.CONCLUSIO~AN[,now wehave reachedat lastthe endof oir long
andtoilsomedisquisition. Ineeha,rdly say to those who have
per-sistel WIth me so far that I do not regardasingle part of it
all as by any means ~~-There is not achapter inthis book,
indeed,"which I could not have expanded todouble-or treble its
present length hadI chosento includein it atithe of the
evidence1have gathered on the subject with whichit deals. IlLlt for
many adequate reasonscompressionwas imperative. Some of thegreatest
treatises ever written on this pro-foundly important and
interestingquestionhave met with far less than the attentionthey
deserved becausethey were so bulkyand so overloaded with
evidencethat thereader couldhardly see the wood for thetrees: he
lostthe thread of the argument'inthe mazes of example. Inmy
owncaseI had,or believed I had,a central idea;andI desired to set
that idea forth withsuchsimple brevity as wouldenablethereader to
grasp it and to follow it. I go}as itwere, before aGrand J ury
only. 1do not pretendinanyone instance to haveproved my points; I
amsatisfied if I havemade outaprima faci case for furtherinquiry.My
object inthe present reconstructivetreatisehas therefore been
merely to setforth, inas short aformas was consistentwith
clearness, my conception of the steps--by whichmankind arrived at
its idea ofits God. I have nottried to produce evi-dence on
eachstep in full ; I have only -tried to lay beforethe gcncral
public arough sketch of apsychological rebuilding,and to suggest at
the same time toscholarsandanthropologists some inkling of thelines
along which evidence infavour of myproposed reconstruction is
likeliest to befound. This book isthus no more than asummary of
probabilities. As inthis pre-liminary outline of my views I have
dealtwith few save well-knownfacts, and reliedfor the most
partuponfamiliar collocationsof evidence, I have not thought it
necessaryto encumber my pages with frequent andpedantic footnotes,
referring tothepassagesor persons quoted.I wish also to remark
before I close thatI do not hold dogmatically to the whole orany
part of the elaborate doctrineheretentatively suggested. I have
changed myownmint! far 100 often, with regard tothesematters, inthe
course of my personal evolu-tion ever tothink I have
reachedcompletefinality. Fifteenor twerty years ago, in-deed, I was
rashenough to thinkI hadcometo anchor,when I iirst read Mr.
Her-bertSpencer'ssketch of the origin of reli-gionintheopening
volume of thePn"nczplerof Soaotogy. Ten or twelve years since.Este
Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de
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Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, ColombiaTHEEVOLUTION OF
THEIDEA OF GODdoubts and difficulties again obtrudedthemselves, Six
years ago oncemore,when TheGolden lJulI,[[h appeared, afterthis
book had been planned and in partexecuted, I was forcedto go back
entirelyupon many cherished former opinions, andto reconsider
manyquestionswhichI hadfondly imag:neuwere longsince closed forme.
Since that time new lights have beenconstantly shedupon me
fromwithout,orhave occurred to me fromwithin; andIhumbly put
thissketchforward now forwhat itmaybe worth,not withthe ideathat I
have by any meansfathomed thewhole vast truth, butinthe .lint hope
thatI may perhaps have looked down here andthere a littledeeper
intotheprofoundabysses beneath us than has been the lot ofmost
previous investigators. Atthe sametime,I need hardly reiterate my
sense ofthe immense Obligations under whichI lietonot afewamong
them,and pre-eminentlyto Mr. Spencer, Mr.Frazer, Mr. Hartland,and
Dr. Tylor, My onlyclaim is that Imay perhaps have set forth ascheme
of re-construction whichfurther evidence willpossibly show to
betrue in parts 'inc! mis-taken inothers.On the other hand, by
strictlyconfiningmy attention to religiousfeatures, properlyso
called, to the exclusionof mythology,ethics, and all other external
accretions oraccidents, I trust I have been able to de-monstrate
more clearly than has hithertobeen done the intimateconnection
whichalways exists between cults in general andthe worshipof the
Dead God,natural orartificial. Even if I have 110t quite suc-ceeded
ininducing thebeliever inprimitiveanimism to reconsider his prime
dogma oftheorigin of gods fromall-pervading spirits(of which
affiliation I cansee no proofinthe evidence before us),I venture to
thinkI shallat any rate have made himfeel thatAncestor-\Vorship and
the Cult of theDeadGod have played a far larger and deeperpart than
he has hithertobeen willing toadmit inthe genesis of the
religiousemo-tions. Though I may not have raised theworship of the
Dead Man toasupreme andunique place inthe god-making process, Ihave
at least, I trust,raised it to apositionof higher importance than
it has hithertoheld, ever sincethepublication of Mr.Herbert
Spencer's epoch -makingresearches.I believe I have made it
tolerablyclear thatthe vast mass of existing gods or divinepersons,
when we come to analyse them,do actually turn out to bedeadand
deifiedhuman beings.This is not the place,at the very end
ofsolongadisquisition, toexamine the theoryof primitiveanimism. I
would thereforeonly say briefly here thatI do not deny
theactualexistence of that profoundly animisticframe of mind which
Mr. 1 mThurn has sowell depicted among the Indians of Guiana;nor
thatwhich exists among the SamoyedsofSiberia; nor that whichmeetsus
atevery turn inhistorical accounts of the oldRoman religion. I
amquite ready toadmitthat, to people at that stage of
religiousevolution,the world seems simply throngedwith spirits
onevery side, each of whomhasoftenhis ownspecialfl!nctions and
peculiarprerogatives. But I fail toseethatanyoneof these ideas is
demonstrably primitive.Most oftenwecantrace ghosts, spirits,andgods
to particular human origins: where: spirits existinabundance
andpervadeallInature, I stillfailto understand why theyi may not
bereferred totheoneknownsourceI_ and spring of all ghostly beings.
It is. abundantly clear that nodistinction of: name or rite
habitually demarcates these'I ubiquitous spirits at large from
thosedomestic gods whose origin is perfectlywellremembered in the
family circle. II make bold to believe, therefore, that inJ every
such case we have to dealwith un-i knownand generalised ghosts-with
ghosts: of varying degrees of antiquity. If anyoneIcanshow me arace
of spirit-believers whoI do not worship their own ancestral
spirits,I or canadduce any effective prime differentiabetween the
spirit that was once alivingman and the spirit thatnever was humanI
at all, I will gladly hear him. Up to date,however, no such race
hasbeen pointedlout, andno suchdifferentia ever posited.The truth
is,we have now no primitivemenat all. Existing menare the descen-I
dants of people who have had religions, injallprobability, forover
a million years.I The best we can do, therefore, is to tracewhat
gods wecan to their original source,and believethat the rest are
ofsimilarI development. Andwhither do we trackthem?"Sofar as I have
been able to traceI back the origin of the
best-knownminorprovincial deities," says Sir
AlfredLyall,Ispeakingof India in general, "they areusually menof
past generations who haveearned special promotion and brevet
rankamong disembodied ghosts Of thenumerous localgods known to have
beenliving men, by farthe greater proportionderive from the
ordinary canonisation ofholy personages ...... The number of
shrinesEste Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango
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ColombiaCONCLUSIONI S7---- ---_ ..._----- -
-_._._._-----------------------------thus raised inBerar alone to
these ancho-riles ann persons deceased inthe odour ofsanctity is
large, and it is constantlyincreasing. Some of them have
alrcacyattained the rank of temples." Ermancame to
asimilarconclusion about thegodsof those very Ostyaks
whoarcoftenquoudas typical examples of primitiveanimists.or late
years numerous unprejudiced inves-til;ators, likeMr. Duff Macdonald
andCaptainHenderson, have similarly cometo the conclusionthat the
godsof thenr.tives among- whomtheyworked were allof human origin;
whileweknow that somewl.ole greatnational creeds,likethe Shintoof J
apan, recogniseno deities at allsaveliving kings and dead ancestral
spirits.Under thesecircumstances, judgingtheunknownby the known, I
hesitate to positanynew and fanciful source for the smallresiduum
of gods whose human origin isless certainlv known to LIS.Inoneword,
I believe that corpse-worshipis the protoplasm of f(ligion,while
admit-ting that folk-loreis the protoplasmofmythology, ann ofits
more modern andphilosophical
offshoot,theology.-_.~,--._.----_._------------Tilenext R.P. A.
CheapReprint will be Mr. S,HIVF.L Lvrxc's HU11ANORIGINS
(illustrated;. revised and hOI/gIll Itp todalebyMr.
EDWARDeLODD.Este Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel
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