textfiles-politics/pythonCode/personTestingOutput/forg1.xml

<xml><p> 32 page printout, pages 24 to 55 of 322
FORGERY IN <ent type='NORP'>CHRISTIANITY</ent></p>

<p> "Being crafty, I caught you with guile" ...
For if the truth of God hath more abounded
through my LIE unto his glory; why yet am
I also adjudged a sinner?"
St. <ent type='PERSON'>Paul</ent>.</p>

<p> "What profit has not that fable of Christ
brought us!"
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent> Leo X.</p>

<div> **** ****</div>

<p> CHAPTER I</p>

<p> PAGAN <ent type='ORG'>FRAUDS</ent> -- <ent type='NORP'>CHRISTIAN</ent> PRECEDENTS</p>

<p> "Neither in the confusion of <ent type='NORP'>pagan</ent>ism, nor in the
defilement of heresy, nor yet in the blindness of <ent type='ORG'>Judaism</ent>, is
religion to be sought, but among those alone who are called
<ent type='NORP'><ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s</ent>." (St. Augustine, De Vera Religions, v.)</p>

<p> EVERY RELIGION, <ent type='ORG'>PRIESTCRAFT</ent>, and <ent type='ORG'>Sacred Book</ent>, other than the
<ent type='NORP'><ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent></ent>, is thus branded as false in fact and
fraudulent in practice. The <ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent>, however, excluded by those who
have expropriated their ancient faith, make the same imputations of
falsity and fraud against the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> religion, based on their
own ancient sacred Scriptures, and founded, as the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s
claim, by a <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent> Incarnation of the Hebrew God, -- which, say the
<ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent>, is a horrid blasphemy; and they brand the <ent type='ORG'>Sacred Book</ent>s of
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> origin as false and forged.</p>

<p> The <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s, all their hundreds of warring Sects, in their
turn impute to the <ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent> the blasphemous repudiation and monstrous
murder of the Son of the ancient Hebrew God, <ent type='PERSON'>Yahweh</ent>; and with ample
usury of blood and torture have visited that fabulous iniquity upon
the hapless sons and daughters of <ent type='ORG'>Jewry</ent> unto half a hundred
generations of "God's Chosen People."</p>

<p> But, of the countless Sects of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s, one alone, it
avers, is of the True Faith; all the others are false and beyond
the hope of heaven: "Whoever will be saved, it is necessary above
all else that he hold to the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Faith," -- so reads the
venerable forged <ent type='PERSON'>Athanasian Creed</ent>. (CE. ii, 33, 34.) The Protestant
Sects, however, though they all admit the same origin and accept in
full fatuity of faith most of the same forged sacred writings for
their rule of faith as the One <ent type='ORG'>True Church</ent>, yet apply the scornful
epithet "<ent type='PERSON'>Antichrist</ent>" to their venerable Mother in Christ; freely
dub a dozen of her canonical sacred Books of <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent> origin, and
most of her thousands of canonized Saints, forgeries and frauds;
and assert many of her most holy dogmas and sacraments to be
blasphemous and degrading superstitions. The while their own scores
of hostile factions mutually recriminate each the other as blind
leaders of the blind and perverters of the sacred Truth.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
24
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FORGERY IN <ent type='NORP'>CHRISTIANITY</ent></p>

<p> It will serve a useful purpose to take a look behind all this
dust-and-smoke screen of "Odium Theologicum" and make a brief
survey of the origins of religious superstitions and priestcraft,
and of the known and admitted falsities and frauds of <ent type='NORP'>Paganism</ent>, and
some venerable other religious 'isms.' This will demonstrate that
these same things are now part and parcel of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity. This
induces the inquiry, Wherein the data of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity as a whole
may haply differ from the admitted frauds of the false religions
and priestcrafts of the Past. We shall learn whether and to what
degree truth may be found in any of the confused and confusing
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> claims of Truth.</p>

<p> THE DAWN-MAN AND THE SHAMAN</p>

<p> "There is no origin for the idea of an after-life save
the conclusion which the savage draws from the notion
suggested by dreams." -- <ent type='PERSON'>Herbert Spencer</ent>.</p>

<p> Lo, the poor <ent type='NORP'>Indian</ent>, with his untutored mind, saw his god in
clouds and heard him in the wind. Ages before him, the <ent type='PERSON'>Dawn</ent>-man,
the earliest Cave-man, saw his shadow in the sun, his reflection in
the water, and crudely thought that he had a sort of shadowy
double, which accompanied him and at times showed itself visible to
him. At night, when the <ent type='PERSON'>Dawn</ent>-man, gorged with raw and often putrid
flesh, in a night-mare dream saw terrible monsters assailing him,
or in more normal sleep wandered forth and visited distant scenes
of his previous roamings, or saw, as in the flesh living and acting
before his eyes, his dead father or friend, thus he got further
immature notions of a double, "ka," or detachable spirit of man,
dwelling within him, which could leave the body and return at will,
or which survived the death of the body and lived on in spirit
form, and could revisit the old habitation and hold converse with,
do good or harm to, the frightened living. Thus came the belief in
the existence and survival after death of this double or spirit-ghost, thus the notion of the immortality of the soul, it primitive
belief held by every people of antiquity, and surviving yet by
inheritance among the priest-taught of modern times.</p>

<p> These strange phantoms of the night naturally worked further
upon the fear-filled mind of the early child-men, terrified by the
frightful vicissitudes of life, the violent deaths by wild animals,
the storms and floods that killed and maimed them, the lightnings
and thunders that terrified them. All these things were to them
clearly the manifestations of the anger and revenge of the departed
spirits, especially of the Old Man of the clan who had bossed it
in life and had grudges against all who had not been sufficiently
obedient to him. Awaking from these dread visions of the night, the
frightened Down-man would relate the uncanny visitations to his
fellows, who would have like ghostly dream-stuff to exchange;
together they would wonder whether something could be done to
propitiate or pileate the wandering ghost-men and to win their
favor for benefits to be had from their superior other-worldly
status and powers.</p>

<p> It could not be long before some old and crafty member of the
nomadic clan would hint that he had known the Old Man well during
life, had been very friendly with him living and had a powerful </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
25
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FORGERY IN <ent type='NORP'>CHRISTIANITY</ent></p>

<p>influence with him; that he was wise to the ways and whims of
ghosts or gods; and no doubt he could get in touch with his spirit
and cajole him into reasonableness and favor. This suggestion
meeting with awed acquiescence, it would quickly be followed by the
forthright bold claim to super-ghostly powers, and by sundry weird
mumblings and mystic rites and incantations the old faker would
further awe the clan into credulous faith in the claim. The new
spiritualist would pretend to get into communion with the Old Man's
spirit, and to receive from him "revelations" of his will and
commands for the obedience of the clan. Thus began spirit-worship
or religion -- the fancied relations between man and the spirits of
the dead or gods. Here, too, we have the first shaman, medicine-man, magician, witch-doctor, or what-not; in a word, the first
priest; and the priestly game was on. The pretended ghost-cajoler
would naturally be held in dread awe and reverence by his credulous
dupes, and would gain enormous respect and prestige: he could quit
the drudgery of hunting and fishing for his precarious living, and
let the awed and believing members of the clan keep him in food and
idle ease; here the first social parasite. This is priestcraft --
by whatever name and in whatever age and guise pursued.</p>

<p> A very modern instance comes to hand and is added for
confirmation. Fortunately, or lamentably for <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> pretensions,
there yet exist in the world races of very primitive descendants of
<ent type='PERSON'>Adam</ent>, who yet preserve their primeval forms of superstition and
priestcraft, wherein may be seen their origins in yet active
reality of operation. In no more remote a region of these our
United States than <ent type='GPE'>the Diomede Islands</ent> of <ent type='LOC'>the Aleutian archipelago</ent>
of <ent type='GPE'>Alaska</ent>, tribal superstition and primitive priestcraft may be
seen in all their ridiculous crudity today. In the Report of the
Stoll-McCracken Expedition of <ent type='ORG'>the American Museum</ent> of Natural
<ent type='ORG'>Hist</ent>ory, 1928, primitive religious superstition and the power of
the priest are graphically described; with simple change of form
and ritual it is Religion through the Ages, the war-blessers and
rain-makers in action to cajole and control the deity through his
priests. As one reads the following extracts from the Report, let
him see what differences he may discover, other than of technique,
between the <ent type='ORG'>Diomeder</ent> and the <ent type='ORG'>Dupe</ent> of any other <ent type='ORG'>Cult</ent>. "For the
<ent type='ORG'>Diomeder</ent> humbles himself before the imaginary forces of his spirit
world, often disregarding the realities of life with typical
primitive inconsistency. ... The only powers really worthy of his
respect are the supernatural ones. This is why the <ent type='NORP'>Eskimo</ent> medicine
man, or angutkok, as he is called, holds a position of such
influence. He is the middleman between the natural and supernatural
world. The <ent type='ORG'>Diomeder</ent>s have no real chiefs or any system of
government. Each family is able to manage its own affairs. The
common events of life take care of themselves. But whatever is
unusual, whatever cannot be readily understood, engages the
attention of every <ent type='ORG'>Diomeder</ent>. Such things as sickness and weather,
good or bad luck and the complicated workings of nature fascinate
him because they are utterly beyond his comprehension. Indeed,
superstition is the basis of the angutkok's hold over his people.
It is chiefly for his supposed alliance with the forces of the
supernatural that he is venerated. ... He is supposed to have
marvelous powers over bodily ailments. ... The power of
conversation with the ancestral spirits is one of the angutkok's
strongest holds upon his public. For the ancestral spirits are said</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
26
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FORGERY IN <ent type='NORP'>CHRISTIANITY</ent></p>

<p>to exert a tremendous influence over the lives of the natives. The
Diomeder's attitude toward them is more than one of wholesome
respect. It is made up of a definite and deep-sated fear. This is
because the spirits, if they choose, can send down either good luck
or bad -- and usually elect the latter. And clever must be the
ruses whereby they may be tricked into benignity. For a departed
soul, no matter how kindly has been its earthly owner, is a
potential agent of misfortune and must be treated accordingly" (New
York Times Magazine, Dee. 16, 1928, p. 9.) The methods of
incantation, of placating the spirits and gods, the charms and
amulets used for these conjurations, differ only in material from
those in holy vogue today in some very <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> countries.
Angutkok, shaman, medicine-man, exorciser, priest, <ent type='GPE'>Pennsylvania</ent>
Witch-doctors, nature-fakers and superstition-mongers, parasites
preying on ignorance and fear -- the whole genealogy of dupe-craft,
of priest-craft, -- what difference in kind and craft is
discernible between the one and the others of the god-placating,
devil-chasing <ent type='PERSON'>Genus Shamanensis</ent>? Bombarding the irate god with
eggs, as with the <ent type='ORG'>Diomedes</ent>, or by the prayer of faith as with more
up-to-date God-compellers, the cause is the same, and the effect is
equally ineffective and desultory.</p>

<p> The <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Encyclopedia, describing <ent type='ORG'>the Doctors</ent> of Divinity
as in vogue among sundry <ent type='NORP'>African</ent> tribes, well describes the entire
confraternity in all religions: "Certain specialists, however,
exist, known to us as sorcerers, witch-doctors, etc. who are
familiar with the mysterious secrets of things, who make use of
them on behalf of those interested, and hand them down to chosen
disciples." (CE. i, 183.) One of the highest and most potent
functions of all these primitive shamans and devil-doctors is the
conjuring of the infinitude of devils which afflict the inner-works
of the superstitious, and work havoc in weather, crops, herds,
etc.; the practice and its ceremonial of incantation are very
elaborate in some modern schemes: "This ceremony takes up over
thirty pages of the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> Ritual. It is, however, but rarely used
-- [in these more enlightened and skeptical days], and never
without the express permission of the Bishop, for there is room for
no end of deception and hallucination when it is a question of
dealing with the unseen powers"! (CE. i, 142). Thus the System is
yet in vogue; and its priestcraft has waxed very powerful and very
wealthy. Artificial Fear and <ent type='ORG'>Credulity</ent> are its sole source and
sustenance. As the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> poet <ent type='PERSON'>Lucretius</ent> said: "Fear was the first
thing on earth to make gods."</p>

<p> <ent type='PERSON'>Reinach</ent>, after a critique of many varied definitions of
Religion, thus formulates his own -- which a moment's reflection
upon the infinite sacred "Thou Shalt Not's" of Faith will fully
justify: "A sum of scruples (<ent type='ORG'>Taboos</ent>) which impede the, free
exercise of our faculties." (Orpheus, 1930 ed. p. 3.)</p>

<p> As primitive society progressed towards organization, the
<ent type='PERSON'>Headman</ent> of the clan or tribe would find advantage in a close and
not disinterested association with the Shaman, whose intimations of
good from the spirits or dreadful evil would assist powerfully in
the subordination and control of maybe otherwise ambitious or
unruly subjects: thus began the cooperation of ruler and priest for
the subjection of the ruled. Later yet, as government and </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
27
.
FORGERY IN <ent type='NORP'>CHRISTIANITY</ent></p>

<p>priestcraft developed, the ruler was also priest or the priest
ruler, as in early <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Assyria</ent>, and as in ancient theocratic
<ent type='GPE'>Israel</ent> before the <ent type='PERSON'>Kings</ent> and after the return from Captivity. So
too, later, in <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>. In <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent> and under the <ent type='LOC'>Empire</ent> in
<ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> the <ent type='PERSON'>King</ent> was God, in <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent> by divine descent, in <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> by
apotheosis. Even <ent type='PERSON'>Alexander</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Macedon</ent> was a god by divine
generation, as declared by the <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> Oracle of <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='LOC'>Jupiter</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Ammon</ent></ent>, to
the great scandal of Alexander's mother <ent type='PERSON'>Olympias</ent>, who was wont to
complain, "I wish that <ent type='PERSON'>Alexander</ent> would cease from incessantly
embroiling me with the wife of <ent type='LOC'>Jupiter</ent>!" Thus priestcraft thrived
and gained immense dominion over the superstitious minds of men, to
say nothing of powers and prestige unlimited, privileges,
immunities, wealth and aggrandizement beyond rivalry -- in ancient
<ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> times.</p>

<p> The temples of the ancient gods throughout <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>dom were
marvels of sumptuous wealth and beauty, thanks to the lavish
munificence of rulers and the offerings of the votaries of the
respective false gods. <ent type='ORG'>The Temple</ent> of <ent type='PERSON'>Diana</ent> at <ent type='PERSON'>Ephesus</ent>, the
Parthenon or Temple of the <ent type='ORG'>Virgin</ent>-goddess at <ent type='GPE'>Athens</ent>, were wonders
of the ancient world. The greatest ruins of antiquity yet standing
in splendid ruin or unearthed by the excavations of the
archaeologists, are the temples of the <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> gods, testifying in
their decayed grandeur to their pristine magnificence and wealth.</p>

<p> Through the priests and the fear of the gods the rulers ruled:
"Thus saith our god" was the awful sanction of their commands and
of their legal enactments. The Hebrews had no word for religion";
their nearest approximation to the idea is the oft-repeated Bible
phrase, "The fear of <ent type='PERSON'>Yahweh</ent> [the Lord]." The ancient Code of
<ent type='ORG'>Hammurabi</ent>, graven on the stela discovered by De Morgan in the ruins
of <ent type='PERSON'>Susa</ent> at the beginning of this century and now preserved in the
Louvre at <ent type='GPE'>Paris</ent>, represents the <ent type='PERSON'>King</ent> humbly receiving the Code of
Laws from the great god <ent type='PERSON'>Bel</ent> through the <ent type='LOC'>Sun</ent>-god <ent type='PERSON'>Shamash</ent>; this for
its greater sanction to obedience by the superstitious people, who
knew no better than to believe the pious fraud of the priests and
<ent type='PERSON'>King</ent>. A thousand years more or less later, the Hebrew God <ent type='PERSON'>Yahweh</ent>,
along with many divine laws, delivered to <ent type='PERSON'>Moses</ent> his Code of
Commandments neatly scratched with his own finger on two stone
slabs; of these, like the grave of <ent type='PERSON'>Moses</ent>, no man knoweth the
whereabouts unto this day. It was plain but pious fraud for
<ent type='ORG'>Hammurabi</ent> to issue his laws under the name of his god. Common sense
and common honesty make us disbelieve and condemn the <ent type='ORG'>Hammurabi</ent>
fraud, and no one chides us for disbelieving it. Perforce we must
believe the <ent type='PERSON'>Moses</ent>-tale of identical import, or be dubbed atheists,
reviled and ostracized, and be damned in the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> Hell
forever, to boot. Both fables of Divine enactment were invented for
and served the same purpose to dupe the credulous to believe and
obey <ent type='PERSON'>King</ent> and Priest. Is it honest?</p>

<p> This principle, involved in the pretense of divine <ent type='GPE'>San</ent>ctions,
and effective through the cooperation of <ent type='PERSON'>King</ent> and Priest for
dominion over the ruled, was frankly recognized by many ancient
writers, and even by some lauded as salutary for the ignorant.
Critics, friend of Socrates, saw the State "with false reason
covering truth," which by this device "quenched lawlessness,; with
laws." <ent type='PERSON'>Diodorus Siculus</ent> admitted it to be the duty of the State "to</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
28
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FORGERY IN <ent type='NORP'>CHRISTIANITY</ent></p>

<p>establish effective gods to do the work of police," and laid it
down, that "It is to the interest of States to be deceived in
religion." <ent type='PERSON'>Livy</ent> admires the wisdom of Numa, who "introduced the
fear of the gods as a most efficacious means of controlling an
ignorant and barbarous populace." <ent type='ORG'>Polybius</ent>, the celebrated <ent type='NORP'>Greet</ent>
historian, gives his philosophic admiration to the religious system
of the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>s as an effective means of government of the populace:</p>

<p> "In my opinion their object is to use it as a cheek upon the
common people. If it were possible to form a State wholly of
philosophers, such a custom would perhaps be unnecessary. But
seeing that every multitude is fickle and full of lawless desires,
unreasoning anger and violent passions, the only recourse is to
keep them in check by mysterious terrors and scenic effects of this
sort. Wherefore, to my mind the ancients were not acting without
purpose or it random, when they brought in among the Vulgar those
opinions about the gods and the belief in the punishments in
Hades." (<ent type='ORG'>Hist</ent>oriae, quoted by Grover, The Conflict of Religions in
the Early <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='LOC'>Empire</ent>, pp. 3-4.)</p>

<p> This pious notion of God and religion as the Big Policeman of
the common herd, is not yet extinct. the Attorney General of
<ent type='GPE'>England</ent>, in a celebrated State trial for the sale of it copy of
<ent type='PERSON'>Thomas Paine</ent>'s The Age of Reason, urged to the jury the necessity
"to prevent its circulation among the industrious poor"; for, he
declaimed, "Of all human beings they stand most in need of the
consolations of religion; ... because no man can be expected to be
faithful to the authority of man who revolts against the government
of God"! (Williams' Case, 26 Howard's State Trials, p. 719;
1798-99.) But times and creeds change; this is the Twentieth
century. The professional religionists of today, however, forever
dingdong the old "Morality Lie," that without the God-given Ten
Commandments and like divine laws, ministered by them and reenacted
and enforced by the State there can be no morality, no human
virtues, no decent government. The "<ent type='ORG'>True Church</ent>" makes mighty boast
of its "saving civilization" after <ent type='EVENT'>the Fall</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> by the
industrious preachment -- as we shall amply see -- of pious lies
and practice of most unholy frauds among the semi-<ent type='NORP'>pagan</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>
peoples who rose -- despite the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> -- on the ruins of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, --</p>

<p> . . . Whilst human kind
Throughout the lands lay miserably crushed
Before all eyes beneath Religion -- who
Would show her head along the region skies,
Glowering on mortals with her hideous face."
(<ent type='PERSON'>Lucretius</ent>, De Rerum Natura, I.)</p>

<p> <ent type='NORP'>PAGANISM</ent> AT THE <ent type='ORG'>CROSS</ent>-ROADS WITH <ent type='NORP'>CHRISTIANITY</ent></p>

<p> At the time of the advent of "that newer form of <ent type='NORP'>Paganism</ent>
later called <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity," the Greeco-<ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> world seethed with
religions in a great state of flux and re-formation. Wonder-workers, miracle-mongers, impostors in the guise of gods and
<ent type='NORP'>Christs</ent> abounded. <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Magus</ent></ent>, <ent type='PERSON'>Apollonius</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Tyana</ent>, Apuleius,
<ent type='PERSON'>Alexander</ent>, Porphyry, Iamblichus, -- performed prodigies of divine
power and were hailed as genuine gods, -- just as were <ent type='PERSON'>Paul</ent> and
<ent type='PERSON'>Barnabas</ent> (Acts xiv, 11-12), and, later, <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> the Christ. Of these </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
29
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FORGERY IN <ent type='NORP'>CHRISTIANITY</ent></p>

<p><ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent> "<ent type='NORP'>Christs</ent>" two will be briefly noted, for their
very important <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> contacts and analogies. But first, some
analogies of <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> priestly fakeries.</p>

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

<p> False prophecies and miracles and fraudulent relics were the
chief reliance among the <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>s, as among the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s, 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 <ent type='PERSON'>Minerva</ent> could brandish
spears, those of <ent type='LOC'>Venus</ent> could weep; others could sweat; paintings
there were which could blush. The Holy Crucifix of <ent type='ORG'>Boxley</ent>, in <ent type='GPE'>Kent</ent>,
moved, lifted its head, moved its lips and eyes; it was broken up
in <ent type='GPE'>London</ent>, and the springs exposed, and shown to the deriding
public;, but this relation is out of place, -- this was a pious
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>, not <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>, fake. One of the marvels of many centuries
was the vocal statue of <ent type='ORG'>Memnon</ent>, whose divine voice was heard at the
first dawn of day, "the sweet voice of <ent type='ORG'>Memnon</ent>" 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 <ent type='PERSON'>Ammon</ent>; the secret was discovered
by <ent type='PERSON'>Wilkinson</ent>: 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 <ent type='PERSON'>Minerva</ent>, thrown down from heaven by <ent type='PERSON'>Zeus</ent> into <ent type='PERSON'>Troy</ent>, 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; <ent type='GPE'>Ulysses</ent> and <ent type='ORG'>Diomede</ent> entered the city in disguise and stole
out the sacred statue to the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> camp; thence <ent type='GPE'>AEneas</ent> is said to
have taken it to <ent type='GPE'>Italy</ent>, where it was preserved in <ent type='LOC'>the Temple</ent> of
<ent type='ORG'>Vesta</ent>. Many cities of <ent type='GPE'>Greece</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> claimed to have the genuine
original. Another miraculous statue of like divine origin was that
of "the great goddess, <ent type='PERSON'>Diana</ent>" at <ent type='PERSON'>Ephesus</ent>, which the <ent type='ORG'>Town</ent>-clerk (in
Acts 3 xix, 35) declared that all men knew "fell down from
<ent type='LOC'>Jupiter</ent>." Other holy relics galore were preserved and shown to the
pious: The AEgis of <ent type='PERSON'>Jove</ent>, forged by Vulcan and ornamented with the
head of the <ent type='ORG'>Gorgon</ent>; the very tools with which the Trojan horse was
made, at <ent type='ORG'>Metapontum</ent>; the scepter of <ent type='GPE'>Pelops</ent>, at Chaeronea; the spear
of <ent type='PERSON'>Achilles</ent>, at <ent type='LOC'>Pharselis</ent>; the sword of <ent type='ORG'>Memnon</ent>, at Nicomedia; the
hide of the <ent type='NORP'>Chalcydonian</ent> boar, among the <ent type='ORG'>Tegeates</ent>; the stone
bearing the authentic marks of the trident of <ent type='ORG'>Neptune</ent>, at <ent type='GPE'>Athens</ent>;
the <ent type='NORP'>Cretans</ent> exhibited the tomb of <ent type='PERSON'>Zeus</ent>, which earned for them their
reputation as Liars. But <ent type='NORP'>Mohammedans</ent> show the tomb of <ent type='PERSON'>Adam</ent> and
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s that of <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent>! There were endless shrines and
sanctuaries at which miracle-cures could be performed: oracular </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
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<p>temples full of caverns, and secret passages, -- that of the
Cumaean <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyl</ent> 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
<ent type='ORG'>Hist</ent>ory of <ent type='PERSON'>Bel</ent> and the Dragon, interpolated in the <ent type='ORG'>True Church</ent>'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 <ent type='PERSON'>King</ent> 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 <ent type='ORG'>Herodotus</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Josephus</ent>, among other chroniclers of
the wiles of priestcraft.</p>

<p> <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> prodigies of every conceivable kind were articles of
popular credulity, affectitig the commonalty as well as many of the
highest category. The great Emperor <ent type='PERSON'>Augustus</ent>, obedient to dreams,
went begging money through the streets of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, and used to wear
the skin of a sea-calf to protect himself against lightning.
<ent type='PERSON'>Tiberius</ent> placed greater faith in the efficacy of laurel leaves;
both remedies are highly praised by Pliny. <ent type='PERSON'>Caligula</ent> would crawl
under the bed in thunder storms; the augurs had listed eleven kinds
of lightning with different significations. Comets and <ent type='ORG'>dreanis</ent>
portended the gravest crises. <ent type='PERSON'>Cicero</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Valerius Alaximus</ent> cite
numerous instances of dreams being verified by the event. <ent type='PERSON'>Livy</ent>
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 "<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>" Emperor,
<ent type='PERSON'>Constantine</ent>, 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 <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> priests. Such
puerilities of the prevalent superstitions might be multiplied to
fill volumes. (See case, Experiences with the Supernatural, etc.)</p>

<p> APOLLONIUS OF TYANA</p>

<p> <ent type='PERSON'>Apollonius</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Tyana</ent> was one of the most notable of these
wonder-working <ent type='NORP'>Christs</ent>. So extremely moral and pure were his
doctrines and his conduct, and so mighty the works he wrought, that
the <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>s insisted that <ent type='PERSON'>Apollonius</ent> was the actual personage whom
the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s called <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> Christ. By all reports, implicitly
credited, <ent type='PERSON'>Apollonius</ent> 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 <ent type='PERSON'>Ephesus</ent> the assassination of <ent type='PERSON'>Domitian</ent>
at <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, and had filled the world with the fame of his miracles and
of his sanctity, just as did <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> Christ. <ent type='PERSON'>Apollonius</ent> was born
about the same time as <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Nazareth</ent>; 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, Clairsical Dictintiary, p. 165;
see generally, <ent type='PERSON'>Lecky</ent>, <ent type='ORG'>Hist</ent>. of European Morals, i, 372, passim; any
good Encyclopedia.) Recall the current histories of <ent type='PERSON'>Mohammed</ent>, the
<ent type='NORP'>Mormon</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Joseph Smith</ent>, Mother <ent type='PERSON'>Eddy</ent> -- <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> Christ -- for instances
of analogous pretensions.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
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<p> This customary pretense of wonder-workers is confirmed by the
great <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> Fathers <ent type='PERSON'>Lactantius</ent>, in his Divine Institutes,
dedicated to the "<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>" Emperor <ent type='PERSON'>Constantine</ent>, in which he
combated the <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> imputation that <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> was a magician, like
<ent type='PERSON'>Apollonius</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Aputeius</ent>, whose wonder-workings he admits. Like all
the Fathers, as we shall see, <ent type='PERSON'>Lactantius</ent>, an ex-<ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>, had firm
faith in magic, and believed all the magical wonders of the <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>
magicians as veritable miracles wrought by the divine power of
demons or devils. He says that the <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>s "endeavored to overthrow
his [<ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent>'] wonderful deeds [by showing] that <ent type='PERSON'>Appllonius</ent> 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 <ent type='PERSON'>Apollonius</ent>,
who, according to your description, when <ent type='PERSON'>Domitian</ent> 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 [<ent type='PERSON'>Apollonius</ent>] 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; <ent type='ORG'>ANP</ent>. vii, 138, 139,)</p>

<p> <ent type='PERSON'>SIMON</ent> MAGUS</p>

<p> Most notorious and important, from the viewpoint of the rising
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity, was the <ent type='ORG'>Samaritan</ent> impostor, <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Magus</ent></ent>, the "great
power of God," vouched for by divine inspiration as having "used
sorcery, and bewitched the people of <ent type='GPE'>Samaria</ent>," he having "of a long
time bewitched them with sorceries," as the Holy Ghost of God
ridiculously assures us in Acts viii. Not content with his own
"great power of God," <ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent>, heaving seen some of the apostles at
work bestowing the holy Ghost on the peasants, offered money for
the gift of like power to himself, but was curtly rebuked and
refused by <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent>. The especial importance of <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Magus</ent></ent> is his
legendary Scriptural contact with the fisherman <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent>, which
developed, under the early <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> propensity for expansive
mendacity, into a veritable literature of pious lies and prodigies
associated with <ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent>, which was the chiefest if not sole
basis, be it remembered for the false pretense, later developed, as
we shall duly see, of the "sojourn" of <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> at <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> as Bishop and
<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>. As legends of the <ent type='ORG'>Samaritan</ent> impostor are wholly <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>
impostures, the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Encyclopedia will be called upon for an
account of the <ent type='NORP'>Patristic</ent> canards. "By his magic arts," says our
exponent of "<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Truth," <ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent> was called <ent type='ORG'>Magus</ent>, or the
Magician, the account just given from Acts is "the sole
authoritative [?] report that we have about him": and it confesses
the chronic mendadacity of the Fathers by the remark, "The
statements of the [clerical] writers of the second century
concerning him are largely legendary, and it is difficult or rather
impossible to extract from them any historical fact the details of
which are established with certainty." Let us remember this
characterization of these same Fatherly writers, who, lying about
<ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> together, in <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, yet tell unvarnished truth about
<ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> alone, or <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Paul</ent> together, in <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
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<p> I may remark, that serious argument is made, that <ent type='PERSON'>Paul</ent> himself
is maliciously intended by some of the Fathers under the name of
<ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent>, the constant conflict between <ent type='PERSON'>Paul</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> being disguised
under the accounts of the inveterate struggles of <ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent>,
(See Ency. Bib. vol. iv, Art, <ent type='PERSON'><ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Magus</ent></ent>.) The childish and
fabulous histories of the Fathers regarding <ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> and
<ent type='PERSON'>Paul</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> and their contests of magic powers, are thus related:</p>

<p> "St. <ent type='ORG'>Justin</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> ('First Apolog.' xxvi, lvi; 'Dialog. c.
Tryphonem, cxx), describes <ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent> as a man who, at the instigation
of demons, claimed to be a god. <ent type='ORG'>Justin</ent> says further that <ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent> came
to <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> during the reign of the Emperor Claudius and by his magic
arts won many followers so that these erected on an island in the
<ent type='PERSON'>Tiber</ent> a statue to him as a divinity with the inscription '<ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent> the
Holy God.' The statue, however, that <ent type='ORG'>Justin</ent> took for one dedicated
to <ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent> was undoubtedly one to the old <ent type='PERSON'>Sabine</ent> divinity <ent type='PERSON'>Semo Sancus</ent>
(797) ... The later anti-heretical writers who report Simon's
residence at <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, take <ent type='ORG'>Justin</ent> and the apocryphal Acts of <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> as
their authority, so that their testimony is of no value. [p. 798.]</p>

<p> "<ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent> plays an important part in the 'Pseudo-Clementines.' He appears here as the chief antagonist of the
<ent type='PERSON'>Apostle</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent>, by whom he is everywhere followed and opposed.
The alleged magical arts of the magician and Peter's efforts
against him are described in a way that is absolutely
imaginary. The entire account lacks all historical basis
[citing several WORKS] ... The apocryphal Acts of St. <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent>
give an entirely different account of Simon's condition at
<ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> and of his death. In this work also great stress is laid
upon the straggle between <ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent> and the <ent type='PERSON'>Apostle</ent>s <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> and
<ent type='PERSON'>Paul</ent> at <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>. By his magic arts <ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent> had also sought to win
the Emperor <ent type='PERSON'>Nero</ent> for himself, an attempt in which he had been
thwarted by the apostles. As proof of the truth of his
doctrines <ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent> offered to ascend into the heavens before the
eyes of <ent type='PERSON'>Nero</ent> and the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> populace; by magic did he rise in
the air in the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> Forum, but the prayers of the <ent type='PERSON'>Apostle</ent>s
<ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Paul</ent> caused him to fall, so that he was severely
injured and shortly afterwards died miserably. ... This legend
led later to the erection of a church dedicated to the
apostles on the alleged spot of Simon's fall near the Via
Sacra above the Forum. The stones of the pavement on which the
apostles knelt in prayer and which are said to contain the
impression of their knees, are now in the wall of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
of <ent type='GPE'>San</ent>ta Francesca <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>a." (CE. xiii, 797, 798.)</p>

<p> With respect to that statue erected in the <ent type='PERSON'>Tiber</ent> to "<ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent> the
Holy Hod," the account, above mentioned, does not do justice to
Father Justin's invention; it is thus explicit: he says that <ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent>
"performed feats of magic by demonic arts in <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> during the reign
of Claudius, was held to be a god, and was honored by Senate and
people with a statue in the middle of the <ent type='PERSON'>Tiber</ent>, between the two
bridges, bearing the inscription in <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent>: '<ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent>i, Deo sancto ...
To <ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent> the holy God.' The base of the pillar refereed to was dug
up on the island in the <ent type='PERSON'>Tiber</ent>, at the place indicated by <ent type='ORG'>Justin</ent>, in
1574; the inscription, which was deciphered, runs: 'Semoni <ent type='GPE'>San</ent>co
deo fidio sacrum ... Sex. Pompeius ... donum dedit.' Thus the
pillar was dedicated to the <ent type='PERSON'>Sabine</ent> god <ent type='PERSON'>Semo Sancus</ent>, and not by the
Senate and people, but by the piety of a private individual." (EB. </p>

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<p>iv, 4538-9; cf. CE. xiii, 797-8.) The same authority, referring to
the clerical fabrications above mentioned, says: "<ent type='ORG'>The Pseudo</ent>-Clementine Homilies and Recognitions contain yet another element of
the very greatest importance. In them <ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent> displays features which
are unquestionably derived from <ent type='PERSON'>Paul</ent>, and plainly show him to be a
caricature of that apostle drawn by an unfriendly hand." (EB. iv,
4540, with citations in proof.) <ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent> proclaimed as his doctrine --
"asserting that none could possibly have salvation without being
baptized in his name" (Tert., adv. Haereyes, c.i; <ent type='ORG'>ANF</ent>. iii, 649);
which group plagiarized the sentiment from the other, <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s,
or <ent type='PERSON'>Simon</ent>eans, I cannot verify.</p>

<p> <ent type='ORG'>SUPERSTITIONS</ent> AND <ent type='ORG'>REVELATION</ent>S</p>

<p> The <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>s would appear almost to have been good <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s:
they had their gods, (whom they fondly called Savior and Messiah)
the death and resurrections of gods; devils, angels, and spirits
good, bad and indifferent; their heavens, hells and purgatories;
they believed in immortality of the soul, -- witness the <ent type='LOC'>Pyramids</ent>
and the tombs of the <ent type='PERSON'>Kings</ent>, as of Tut-ankh-Amen in <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>, and of
the Queen Shub-Ad, just unearthed in Ur of the <ent type='NORP'>Chaldees</ent>; their
elaborate sacrifices, animal and human, even of their dear little
children to appease their gods, as in <ent type='GPE'>Carthage</ent> and <ent type='GPE'>Canaan</ent>, -- a
chronic Hebrew practice. <ent type='ORG'>Virgin</ent>-births of demigods by the
intervention of gods and human maids were common-places of <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>
faith, as were <ent type='ORG'>Virgin</ent>-mothers and god-child: the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s
imported theirs from <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent> -- the <ent type='PERSON'>Madonna</ent> statues of <ent type='PERSON'>Isis</ent> and the
Child Horus -- of universal vogue at the beginning of this era of
the Christ -- may be seen in almost any first-class Museum, as the
<ent type='GPE'>Metropolitan</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>New York</ent> and <ent type='ORG'>the University</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Philadelphia</ent>. This
popular <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> device, the "Mother of God" and her God-baby-in-arms,
was taken over as a <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> sop to the crowds of <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>s who were
being enticed and forced into the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>; it was violently opposed
by many of the more intelligent <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>men: "<ent type='ORG'>Nestorius</ent> [Bishop of
<ent type='GPE'>Constantinople</ent> about 404] had declared against the new and, as he
asserted, idolatrous expression 'Mother of God' (<ent type='PERSON'>Theotokos</ent>),
thereby opposing the sentiments and wishes of the humbler people"
(CE. iii, 101); and in protest <ent type='ORG'>Nestorius</ent> left the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
and founded one of the most wide-spread and powerful "heresies,"
which exists in the <ent type='LOC'>East</ent> to the present time. The <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>s had their
holy mysteries and sacraments, baptisms of water and of blood,
communions with the gods at their sacred altars, partaking of
sacred meals to ingest the divine spirit and become godlike. they
believed in the resurrection of the dead, and in final judgments
meting rewards and punishments according to the deeds done in the
flesh, -- the <ent type='GPE'>Egypt</ent>ian Book of the Dead, 3000 years B.C., giving
priestly prescriptions for use before the judgment seat of <ent type='ORG'>Osiris</ent>,
is found in almost every tomb of those able to pay for the
hieroglyphic papyrus rolls. The <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>s had their holy days (from
which the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s plagiarized their Christmas, <ent type='LOC'>East</ent>er, Rogation
Days, etc.); their monks, nuns, religious processions carrying
images of idols (like those of saints today); incense, holy water,
holy oil, chants, hymns, liturgies, confessions of sins to priests,
forgiveness of sins by priests, revelations by gods to priests,
prophecies, sacred writings of "holy bibles," Pontiffs, Holy
Fathers, holy crafty priesthood. All these sacrosanct things of
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> "Revealed Religion," were age-old pre-<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>
myths and superstitions.</p>

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<p> I puzzle myself to understand how there could be "divine
revelations," to <ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s, of things which for ages had
been identically ancient <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> delusions and the inventions and
common holy stock in trade of all <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> priestcrafts. Indeed and in
truth, there can be no divine revelation of miraculous "facts" and
"heavenly dogmas" which for centuries had been, and in the early
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> ages were, the current mythology of credulous <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>dom.
this I shall make exceeding clear.</p>

<p> <ent type='NORP'>CHRISTIAN</ent> "<ent type='ORG'>REVELATION</ent>" DEFINED AND DISPROVED</p>

<p> This paragraph is one of the most important in this book, and
to it I invite Specially serious attention and thought. It will
disclose the substantial identity of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity with the most
popular and wide-spread "<ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>" religion of the times, <ent type='NORP'>Mithraism</ent>,
or the <ent type='NORP'>Persian</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Zoroastrian</ent> religion, the closest and all but
successful rival of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity in the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> world, and which
might indeed have been successful, but that, soon after <ent type='PERSON'>Constantine</ent>
prostituted the <ent type='LOC'>Empire</ent> to the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, -- "with the triumph of
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity Mythraism came to a sudden end. The laws of <ent type='PERSON'>Theodosius</ent>
signed its death warrant." (CE. x, 402.) That there may be no
suspicion that the recital of these remarkable identities of
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> "revelation" with <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> inventions is fanciful or
exaggerated, the tale shall be told in the quoted words of the
<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Encyclopedia, which naively makes so many extraordinary
admissions without seeming to be aware of their fatal Implications.</p>

<p> "The essence of Revelation lies in the fact that it is the
direct speech of God to man," says the Holy Ghost speaking through
<ent type='ORG'>the Vatican Council</ent> (1870), thus confirming what I have above said,
that "divine revelation" cannot be of <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> myths already current
and long known to everyone. The same Heavenly Instructor tells us
what Revelation is: "Revelation may be defined as the communication
of some truth by God to a rational creature through means which are
beyond the ordinary course of nature. The truths thus revealed may
be such as are otherwise inaccessible to the human mind --
mysteries, which even when revealed, the intellect of man is
incapable of fully penetrating. ... The Decree 'Lamentabili' (3
July, 1907) declares that the dogmas which the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> proposes as
revealed are 'truths which have come down to us from heaven' and
not 'an interpretation of religious facts which the human mind has
acquired by its own strenuous efforts.'" (Vatican Decrees, 1870;
CE. xiii, 1.) And, asserts CE.: "The existence of revelation is as
reasonably established as any historical fact"! (CE. xiii, 607.)
Isn't CE. funny!</p>

<p> Divine Revelation is thus of things not previously known and
which the revelationless mind of man is incapable of acquiring or
inventing by its own efforts. Divine Revelation rests thus upon the
same principle as the Law of Patents and Copyright, A book
published, that is made known and given to the world cannot be the
subject of subsequent copyright even by its author. When an
application for a patent is presented, the first act is to search
the records to ascertain whether a similar art or article has ever
previously been known and in use: if so, no patent can be obtained:
the thing lacks novelty. So exactly with "revelation": if some
impostor or deluded person (e.g. <ent type='PERSON'>Mohammed</ent> or <ent type='PERSON'>Joseph Smith</ent>) claims </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
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<p>that hie has received a personal -- and therefore necessarily
private -- "revelation" from some god, the only way whereby he can
get a valid patent of authenticity and credibility for his
"revelation," is to prove that its subject-matter has never before
been known and in credulous circulation, the moment that from the
search of the records -- of other, or comparative religions, -- it
is shown that the same proposition has been previously known and
current, in use and practice among some other priestcraft and its
votaries -- the thing is no revelation: the claim is a fraud. Let
us see how this indisputable rule works to the destruction and
proof of fraudulence of the "divine revelations" of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>
credulity.</p>

<p> MITHRAISM -- AND <ent type='NORP'>CHRISTIAN</ent> MYTH</p>

<p> The religion of <ent type='NORP'>Zoroaster</ent>, known as <ent type='NORP'>Mithraism</ent>, is confessed by
CE. to be a divinely revealed <ent type='NORP'>Monotheism</ent>, or worship of a One God,
and having a divinely revealed Moral Code comparable to the
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>, -- a sacred system claimed by <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s to be a
monopoly of the Hebrew-<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> religion to the exclusion of all
heathen systems. This notable confession reads: "The Avesta system
may be best defined as <ent type='ORG'>MONOTHEISM</ent>, modified by a physical and moral
dualism, with an ethical system based on a Divinely revealed moral
code and human free will." (CE. ii, 156.) Though it quotes a Jesuit
as saying: "<ent type='NORP'>Mithraism</ent> is the highest religious result to which
human reason unaided by Revelation, can attain." (Id.) Revealed or
invented, it is virtually identical with <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity; but as the
mythic <ent type='PERSON'>Mithraic god</ent> could not "reveal" anything, the human reason
which devised <ent type='NORP'>Mithraism</ent> was quite equal to the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> God so far
as devising mythology and ethics is an attribute of godhead.</p>

<p> <ent type='NORP'>Mithraism</ent> is one of the oldest religious systems on earth, as
it dates from the dawn of history before the primitive <ent type='NORP'>Iranian</ent> race
divided into the sections which became <ent type='NORP'>Persian</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Indian</ent>, as this
same religion is contained both in the <ent type='NORP'>Persian</ent> Avesta and <ent type='NORP'>Indian</ent>
Vedas. This its "revealed" or invented <ent type='NORP'>Monotheism</ent> by ages outdates
the "revelation" of <ent type='PERSON'>Yahweh</ent> to <ent type='PERSON'>Moses</ent>; and it is yet a living faith
to some thousands of surviving Parsees: "The religious cult is
[yet] scrupulously maintained as of old. The ancient traditional
and nationally characteristic national virtues of truth and
open-handed generosity flourish exceedingly in the small, but
highly intelligent community" of Parsees in India. (CE. ii, 156.)</p>

<p> The religion of <ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent> anciently dominated <ent type='GPE'>Persia</ent> and the vast
regions of the <ent type='NORP'>Orient</ent>; it entered Europe following the conquests of
<ent type='PERSON'>Alexander</ent> the Great. When in 65-63 B.C. the conquering armies of
<ent type='PERSON'>Pompey</ent> were largely converted by its high precepts, they brought it
with them into the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='LOC'>Empire</ent>. <ent type='NORP'>Mithraism</ent> spread with great
rapidity throughout the <ent type='LOC'>Empire</ent>, and was adopted patronized and
protected by a number of the Emperors up to the time of
<ent type='PERSON'>Constantine</ent>; it was only overthrown by the prescriptive laws and
sword of <ent type='PERSON'>Constantine</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Theodosius</ent>, who "signed its death warrant"
at the behest of the triumphant and intolerant <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s, who
absorbed virtually the entire system of <ent type='NORP'>Mithraism</ent>. But let CE,
proceed with the story. The reader is asked to cheek mentally each
of the uninspired details of <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> invention with the "divinely
revealed" identities of the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> Faith.</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
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<p> "MITHRAISM" -- PRE-<ent type='NORP'>CHRISTIAN</ent> <ent type='NORP'>CHRISTIANITY</ent></p>

<p> "<ent type='NORP'>Mithraism</ent> is a <ent type='NORP'>pagan</ent> religion consisting mainly of the cult
of the ancient Indo-<ent type='NORP'>Iranian</ent> <ent type='LOC'>Sun</ent>-God <ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent>. It entered Europe from
<ent type='LOC'>Asia</ent> Minor after Alexander's conquest, spread rapidly over the
whole <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='LOC'>Empire</ent> at the beginning of our era, reached its zenith
during the third century, and vanished under the repressive
regulations of <ent type='PERSON'>Theodosius</ent> at the end of the fourth, [Of late it has
been] brought into prominence mainly because of its supposed [?]
similarity to <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity.</p>

<p> "The origin of the cult of <ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent> dates from the time that
<ent type='NORP'>Hindus</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Persian</ent>s still formed one people, for the god <ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent>
occurs in the religion and sacred books of both races, i.e. in the
Vedas and in the Avesta. ... After the conquest of <ent type='GPE'>Babylon</ent> (538
B.C.) this <ent type='NORP'>Persian</ent> cult came into contact with <ent type='NORP'>Chaldean</ent> astrology
and with the national worship of <ent type='PERSON'>Marduk</ent>. For a time the two
priesthood of <ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Marduk</ent> coexisted in the capital and
<ent type='NORP'>Mithraism</ent> borrowed much from this intercourse. ... This religion,
in which the <ent type='NORP'>Iranian</ent> element remained predominant, came, after
Alexander's conquest, in touch with the <ent type='NORP'>Western</ent> world. When finally
the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>s took possession of the <ent type='PERSON'>King</ent>dom of <ent type='NORP'>Pergamum</ent> (in 133
B.C.), occupied <ent type='LOC'>Asia</ent> Minor, and stationed two legions of soldiers
on the <ent type='ORG'>Euphrates</ent>, the success of <ent type='NORP'>Mithraism</ent> was secured. It spread
rapidly from the Bosphorus to the <ent type='LOC'>Atlantic</ent>, from <ent type='GPE'>Illyria</ent> to
<ent type='GPE'>Britain</ent>. Its foremost apostles were the legionaries; hence it
spread first to the frontier stations of the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> army.</p>

<p> "<ent type='NORP'>Mithraism</ent> was emphatically a soldier religion; <ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent>, its
hero, was especially a divinity of fidelity, manliness, and
bravery; the stress it laid on good-fellowship and brotherliness,
its exclusion of women, and the secret bond among its members have
suggested the idea that <ent type='NORP'>Mithraism</ent> was Masonry among the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent>
soldiery." Several of the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> Emperors, down to <ent type='PERSON'>Licinius</ent>,
colleague of <ent type='PERSON'>Constantine</ent>, built temples to <ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent>, and issued coins
with his symbols. "But with the triumph of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity [after
<ent type='PERSON'>Constantine</ent>] <ent type='NORP'>Mithraism</ent> came to a sudden end. The laws of <ent type='PERSON'>Theodosius</ent>
[proscribing it under penalty of death, to please the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s]
signed its death warrant. Though he was still worshiped a thousand
years later by <ent type='ORG'>the Manichees</ent> (p. 402). ...</p>

<p> "<ent type='PERSON'>Ahura Mazda</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Ahriman</ent>. -- This incarnate evil (<ent type='PERSON'>Ahriman</ent>)
rose; with the army of darkness to attack and depose Oromasdes
(<ent type='PERSON'>Ahura Mazda</ent>) They were however thrown back into hell, whence they
escape, wander over the face of the earth and afflict man. ... As
evil spirits ever lie in wait for hapless man, he needs a friend
and savior, who is <ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent>. ... <ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent> is the Mediator between God
and Man. The <ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent>ists... battled on Mithra's side against all
impurity, against all evil within and without. They believed in the
immortality of the soul; sinners after death were dragged down to
hell; the just passed through the seven spheres of the planets,
leaving at each planet a part of their lower humanity until, as
pure spirits, they stood before God. At the end of the world <ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent>
will desectid to earth, ... and will make all drink the beverage of
immortality. He will thus have proved himself <ent type='ORG'>Nabarses</ent>, 'the never
conquered.' ...</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
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FORGERY IN <ent type='NORP'>CHRISTIANITY</ent></p>

<p> "The fathers conducted the worship. The chief of the fathers,
a sort of pope, who always lived at <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, was called 'Pater
Patratus' ... The members below the grade of pater called one
another 'brother,' and social distinctions were forgotten in
<ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent>ic unity. ... A sacred meal was celebrated of bread and haoma
juce for which in the <ent type='LOC'>West</ent> wine was substituted. This meal was
supposed to give the participants supernatural virtue. ...</p>

<p> "Three times a day prayer was offered the sun towards east,
south, or west according to the hour. SUNDAY was kept holy in honor
of <ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent>, and the sixteenth of each month was sacred to him as
Mediator. The 25 December was observed as his birthday, the Natalis
Invictis, the rebirth of the winter-sun, unconquered by the rigors
of the season." (pp. 403-104.) It may be noted that <ent type='LOC'>Sun</ent>day was made
a <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> holiday by edict of <ent type='PERSON'>Constantine</ent>, In <ent type='ORG'>the fifth Tablet</ent> of the
<ent type='GPE'>Babylon</ent>ian (<ent type='NORP'>Chaldean</ent>) Epic of Creation, by the great God <ent type='PERSON'>Marduk</ent>, we
read, lines 17 and 18: "On the seventh day he appointed a holy day,
And to cease from all work he commanded." (Records of the Past,
vol. ix; quoted, <ent type='ORG'>Clarke</ent>, Ten Great Religions, ii, p. 383.)</p>

<p> To resume with CE.: "No proof of immorality or obscene
practices has ever been established against <ent type='NORP'>Mithraism</ent>; and as far
as can be ascertained, or rixther conjectured, it had an elevating
and invigorating effect on its followers. [So different from
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity!] ...</p>

<p> "Relation to <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity. -- A similarity between <ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent> and
Christ struck even early observers, such as <ent type='ORG'>Justin</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>Tertullian</ent>, and
other Fathers, and in recent times has been urged to prove that
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity is but an adaptation of <ent type='NORP'>Mithraism</ent>, or at least the
outcome of the same religious ideas and aspirations. Some apparent
[they are very apparent] similarities exist; but in a number of
details -- [it is substance that is identical] -- it is quite as
probable that <ent type='NORP'>Mithraism</ent> was the borrower from <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity. -- [But
these essential identities are found in the Vedas and Avesta, of
maybe two thousand years before <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity; <ent type='NORP'>Zoroaster</ent>, who, gave
final form to the creed, lived some 600 years before the Christ!]
-- It is not unnatural to suppose that a religion which swept the
whole world, should have been copied at least in some details by
another religion which was quite popular daring the third century
-- [and for nine, Or twenty centuries before!] Similarity in words
and names means nothing; it is the sense that matters. [To be sure;
we proceed to see more of the sense, -- the essence -- to be
identical] ...</p>

<p> "<ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent> is called a mediator; and so is Christ ... And so in
similar instances. <ent type='NORP'>Mithraism</ent> had a <ent type='NORP'>Eucharist</ent>, but the idea of the
sacred banquet is as old as the human race and existed at all ages
and amongst all peoples. -- [Not much "divine revelation" in this
greatest of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> mysteries!]. <ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent> saved the world by
sacrificing a bull -- [just as the <ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent> saved themselves] Christ by
sacrificing himself. ... <ent type='NORP'>Mithraism</ent> was all comprehensive and
tolerant of every other cult; <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity was essentially
exclusive, condemning every other religion in the world, alone and
unique in its majesty." (CE. x, 402-404.)</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
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<p> But this "unique majesty" was hidden away in the catacombs of
<ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent> for quite three centuries; coming out, it condemned and
persecuted to death every other religion because rivals for the
rich perquisites of priestcraft and dominion.</p>

<p> The above striking analogies, or identities, between the ages-old <ent type='NORP'>Mithraism</ent> and the "newer <ent type='NORP'>Paganism</ent> called <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity,"
compelling as they are of the certainty of "borrowing" by
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity, are dwarfed by the evidences now to be presented in
the confessions of CE., that the <ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent> first, then the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s,
took over bodily from the <ent type='GPE'>Babylon</ent>ians and the <ent type='NORP'>Persian</ent>s, not only
the entire celestial and infernal systems of those two closely
related religions, but virtually that high ethic, or moral code --
"the highest religious result to which human reason, unaided by
revelation, can attain'" -- which <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s so loudly pretend is,
by "divine revelation" of their God -- theirs alone, while all
other peoples "sat in darkness and in the shadow of death" without
its saving light. <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity looks with disdain on the <ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent>ic
religion because it is a "dualism"; that is, the Evil <ent type='ORG'>Spirit</ent> was
separately created apart from the Good God; while it is a
fundamental tenet of the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> Faith, that its God himself
created the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Devil</ent> and all evil -- and is therefore
morally responsible for all his deviltry,</p>

<p> Speaking particularly of Angiology, -- though the admission
will be found to apply to all the other features to be noticed, --
CE. shows that all this is an importation into <ent type='ORG'>Judaism</ent> from the
<ent type='NORP'>Persian</ent>s and <ent type='GPE'>Babylon</ent>ians: "That the <ent type='NORP'>Persian</ent> domination and the
<ent type='GPE'>Babylon</ent>ian Captivity exercised a large influence upon the Hebrew
conception -- [not, therefore, a revelation] -- of the angels is
acknowledge in the <ent type='NORP'>Talmud</ent> of <ent type='GPE'>Jerusalem</ent> (<ent type='PERSON'>Rosh Haschanna</ent>, 56) where
it is said that [even] the names of the angels were introduced from
<ent type='GPE'>Babylon</ent>. ... Stress has been laid upon the similarity of the 'seven
who stand before God' and the seven Amesha-Spentas of the Zend-Avesta. ... it is easy for the student to trace the influence of
surrounding nations and of other religions in the Biblical account
of angels" (CE. i, 481); -- which seriously cripples the notion of
divine revelation regarding these celestial messengers of God.
Again it indicates the "connection between the angels of the Bible,
and <ent type='ORG'>the greatt archangels</ent>' or 'Amesha-Spentas' of the Zend-Avesta";
also "we find an interesting parallel to the 'angel of the Lord' in
<ent type='ORG'>Nebo</ent>, 'the minister of Merodach.' ... The <ent type='GPE'>Babylon</ent>ian sukalli
corresponded to the spirit-messengers of the Bible; they declared
their Lord's will and executed his behests." ... "The belief in
guardian angels ... was also the belief of the <ent type='GPE'>Babylon</ent>ians and
<ent type='GPE'>Assyria</ent>ns"; the origin of the Bible "cherubim" was the same, as
also of guardian angels, "as their monuments testify, for a figure
now in <ent type='ORG'>the British Museum</ent> might well serv for a modern
representation." For detailed accounts, see the articles "<ent type='ORG'>Angels</ent>"
and Guardian <ent type='ORG'>Angels</ent>." in CE. And so of Demons and Demonology, and
Demoniac possession: "In many ways one of the most remarkable
demonologies is that presented in the Avesta"; <ent type='PERSON'>Ahriman</ent> being their
chief devil, or <ent type='PERSON'>Daeva</ent>; "the original meaning of the word is
'shinning one,' and it comes from a primitive <ent type='NORP'>Aryan</ent> root 'div,'
which is likewise the source of the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Zeus</ent> and the <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent> Deus.
But while these words, like the <ent type='GPE'>San</ent>skrit 'deva,' retain the good
meaning, 'daeva' has come to mean 'an evil spirit.' There is at </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
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39
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<p>least a coincidence, if no deeper significance, in the fact that,
while the word in its original sense was synonymous with '<ent type='PERSON'>Lucifer</ent>,'
it has now come to mean much the same as devil" (CE iv, 714-15,
pasism; 764). <ent type='PERSON'>Lucifer</ent>, in the Bible, having also been originally "a
shinning one" in Heaven, was cast out into Hell and is now the
<ent type='PERSON'>Devil</ent>.</p>

<p> With these preliminaries of identity between the invention of
angels and devils of <ent type='PERSON'>Mathraic</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Paganism</ent> and Hebrew-<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>
"revelation," we will now let CE. confess further identities, both
of "revelation" and of the "divinely revealed moral codes," --
summarized from the <ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent>ic Zend-Avesta. We seem to be reading the
Catechism or a tract on "<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> Evidences."</p>

<p> "The name of the Supreme God of the <ent type='NORP'>Avestic</ent> system is <ent type='PERSON'>Ahura</ent>
Mazda, which probably signifies the All-Wise Lord. ... <ent type='PERSON'>Ahura Mazda</ent>
is a pure <ent type='ORG'>Spirit</ent>; his chief attributes are eternity, wisdom, truth,
goodness, majesty, power. He is the creator of all good creatures
-- not, however, of Evil, of evil being, -- [as is the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>
God]. He is the supreme Lawgiver, the Rewarder of moral good, and
the Punisher of moral evil. He dwells in Eternal Light, ... a kind
of manifestation of His presence, like the Old Testament Shekinah.
... We find frequent enumerations of the attributes of <ent type='PERSON'>Ahura Mazda</ent>;
thus these are said to be 'omniscience, all-sovereignty, all
goodness.' Again He is styled 'Supreme Sovereign, Wise Creator,
Supporter, Protector, Giver of good things, Virtuous in acts,
Merciful, Pure Lawgiver, Lord of the Good Creations.' ...</p>

<p> "Opposed to <ent type='PERSON'>Ahura Mazda</ent>, or <ent type='ORG'>Ormuzd</ent>, is His rival, Anro
Mainyus, (later <ent type='PERSON'>Ahriman</ent>), the Evil <ent type='ORG'>Spirit</ent>. He is conceived as
existing quite independently of <ent type='PERSON'>Ahura Mazda</ent>, apparently from
eternity, but destined to destruction at the end of time. Evil by
nature and in every detail the exact opposite of <ent type='PERSON'>Ahura Mazda</ent>, he is
the creator of all both moral and physical. -- [But of the
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> God: "I Jehovah create evil"; Isa. xlv, 7]. ...</p>

<p> "The specific name of <ent type='PERSON'>Ahura Mazda</ent> in opposition to the Evil
<ent type='ORG'>Spirit</ent> is <ent type='PERSON'>Spento Mainyus</ent>, THE HOLY SPIRIT: and <ent type='PERSON'>Ahura Mazda</ent> and
<ent type='PERSON'>Spento Mainyus</ent> are synonymous throughout the Avesta. [p. 154] ...</p>

<p> "Around <ent type='PERSON'>Ahura Mazda</ent> is a whole hierarchy of spirits,
corresponding very closely to our 'angels.' ... Of the good spirits
who surround <ent type='PERSON'>Ahura</ent>, the most important are the <ent type='PERSON'>Amesha Spentas</ent>
('Holy Immortals' or 'Holy Saints'), generally reckoned as six in
number (but seven when <ent type='PERSON'>Ahura Mazda</ent> is included). ... Most of all
<ent type='PERSON'>Vohu Manah</ent> rises to a position of unique importance. ... <ent type='PERSON'>Vohu Manah</ent>
is conceived as the 'SON OF THE CREATOR,' and identified with the
<ent type='GPE'>Alexandria</ent>n LOGOS [of <ent type='PERSON'>John</ent> i, 1]. <ent type='PERSON'>Asha</ent>, also, is the Divine Law,
Right, <ent type='GPE'>San</ent>ctity (cf. Psalm 118), and occupies a most conspicuous
place throughout the Avesta. ... With him are associated in a trio
[TRINITY], Rashnu (Right, Justice), and MITHRA. -- [These <ent type='NORP'>Aryan</ent>
names sound unfamiliar; but as CE. has assured, "names mean
nothing; it is the sense that matters"; -- and here we have the
whole <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> hierarchies of Heaven and Hell a thousand
years before <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> "revelation" identities!l ...</p>

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<p> "Face to face with the hierarchy of celestial spirits is a
diabolical one, that of the daevas (Pers. div or dev) and druj's of
the Evil <ent type='ORG'>Spirit</ent>. They fill exactly the places of the devils in
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent> theology. ... perhaps the most frequently
mentioned of all is Aesmma, the Demon of Wrath or Violence, whose
name has come down to us in the <ent type='PERSON'>Asmodeus</ent> (Aeshmo daeva) of the Book
of Tobias [Tobit]...</p>

<p> "In the midst of the secular warfare that has gone on from the
beginning between the two hosts of good and Evil stands Man. Man is
the creature of the Good <ent type='ORG'>Spirit</ent>, but endowed with a free will and
power of choice, able to place himself on the side of <ent type='PERSON'>Ahura Mazda</ent>
or on that of <ent type='PERSON'>Anro Mainyus</ent>. The former has given him, through His
Prophet <ent type='NORP'>Zarathushtra</ent> (<ent type='NORP'>Zoroaster</ent>) His Divine Revelation and law.
According as man obeys or disobeys this Divine Law his future lot
will be decided; by it he will be judged at his death. The whole
ethical system is built upon this great principle, as in the
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> theology -- ["revelation"?]. Moral good, righteousness,
sanctity (asha) is according to the Divine will and decrees; Man by
his free will conforms to, or transgresses, these. The Evil <ent type='ORG'>Spirit</ent>
and his innumerable hosts tempt Man to deny or transgress the
Divine Law, as he tempted <ent type='NORP'>Zoroaster</ent> himself, promising him as a
reward the sovereignty of the whole world. -- [Exactly <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> and
the <ent type='PERSON'>Devil</ent>.] -- 'No,' replied the Prophet, 'I will not renounce it,
even if body and soul and life should be severed!' (Vendidad, xix,
25, 26). -- ["Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God, for it is
written," -- way sound more Godlike but maybe little more heroic.]
...</p>

<p> "The moral teaching is closely akin to our own. Stress is
constantly laid on the necessity of goodness in thought, word, and
deed. -- ["Through the Three Steps, the good thought, the good
word, and the good deed, I enter Paradise."] -- Note the emphatic
recognition of sin in thought. Virtues and vices are enumerated and
estimated much as in <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> ethics. Special value is attributed
to the virtues of religion, truthfulness, purity, and generosity to
the poor (p. 155). Heresy, untruthfulness perjury, sexual sins,
violence, tyranny, are especially reprobated. ...</p>

<p> "The soul of the just passes over the bridge into a happy
eternity, into heaven, the abode of <ent type='PERSON'>Ahura</ent> and His blessed angels.
The wicked soul falls from the fatal bridge and is precipitated
into hell. Of this abode of misery a lively description occurs in
the later <ent type='PERSON'>Pahlavi</ent> 'Vision of <ent type='PERSON'>Arda Viraf</ent>,' whose visit to the
<ent type='ORG'>Inferno</ent>, with realistic description of the torments, vividly
recalls that of <ent type='PERSON'>Dante</ent>. ...</p>

<p> "At the end of time, the approach of which is described in the
<ent type='PERSON'>Pahlavi</ent> literature in terms strikingly like those of our
Apocalypse, will come <ent type='ORG'>Saoshyant</ent> (SAVIOR) under whom will occur the
Resurrection of the dead, the General Judgment, the renewal of the
whole world -- ["a new heaven and a new earth"] -- by a general
conflagration and terrible flood of burning matter ["the heavens
being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat"]. This terrible flood will purify all creatures; even
the wicked will be purified from all stains, and even hell will be
cleansed and added to the 'new heavens and new earth.' Meanwhile a </p>

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<p>mighty combat takes place between <ent type='PERSON'>Soashyant</ent> [the "Savior"] and his
followers and the demon hosts of the Evil <ent type='ORG'>Spirit</ent>, who are utterly
routed and destroyed forever. ...</p>

<p> "The highest religious result to which human reason unaided by
Revelation can attain"! (CE. ii, 154-156, passim.)</p>

<p> Thus "human reason unaided by revelation" had attained, ages
before <ent type='PERSON'>Moses</ent>, the Prophets, and <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> Christ, a system of religious
beliefs and a moral code in substantial identity with the "divine
revelations" of God to <ent type='PERSON'>Moses</ent>, the Prophets, and his Son <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent>
Christ. At the time of <ent type='EVENT'>the Advent</ent> of the Latter, and for three
hundred years later, throughout the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='LOC'>Empire</ent>, that is,
throughout the then known world, this wonderful <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> invention,
with its "<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>" and <ent type='PERSON'>Scat</ent> in <ent type='ORG'>Imperial</ent> <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, and patronized by the
Emperors, lived along side with and mightily rivalled the
struggling Faith hid in the catacombs, -- until its rival
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s got hold of the sword under <ent type='PERSON'>Constantine</ent>, and
"triumphed," its "death warrant was signed" in blood by the laws of
the persecuting <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s. Did any God wondrously "reveal" to the
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s these holy <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> dreams and myths? What a waste of while
for a God to mysteriously "reveal" these "heathen deceits"
thousands of years old, and that everybody in the world already
knew!</p>

<p> BUDDHISM IN <ent type='NORP'>CHRISTIANITY</ent></p>

<p> The account given by CE. of the Lord <ent type='PERSON'>Buddha</ent> and of <ent type='NORP'>Buddhism</ent>,
by the simple substitution of the names Christ -- [the Savior of
<ent type='NORP'>Buddhism</ent> is Crishna, the 'incarnation" of the supreme god Vishnu]
-- and <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity, might well be mistaken for a homily on our own
holy faith and its Founder -- who would no more recognize present day <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity than would <ent type='PERSON'>Buddha</ent> the crass superstition which is
today tagged with his holy name. Says CE.:</p>

<p> "It is note worthy that <ent type='PERSON'>Buddha</ent> was a contemporary of two other
famous religious philosophers, Pythagoras and <ent type='NORP'>Confucius</ent>. In the
sacred books of later times <ent type='PERSON'>Buddha</ent> is depicted as a character
without a flaw, adorned with every grace of mind and heart. There
may be some hesitation in taking the highly colored portrait of
<ent type='NORP'>Buddhist</ent> tradition as an exact representation of the original, but
<ent type='PERSON'>Buddha</ent> may be credited with the qualities of a great and good man.
... In all <ent type='NORP'>pagan</ent> antiquity no character has been depicted as so
noble and attractive. ...</p>

<p> "Buddha's order was composed only of those who renounced the
world to live a life of contemplation as monks and nuns. ... [In
the time of <ent type='PERSON'>King</ent> Asoka, 3rd century B.C.) <ent type='NORP'>Buddhism</ent> was in a most
flourishing condition; it had become a formidable rival of the
older religion [Brahmanism), while a tolerant and kindly spirit --
[unknown to <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity] -- was displayed towards other forms of
religion. ... [By the seventh century A.D. -- here it parallels
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity again] an excessive devotion to statues and relies,
the employment of magic arts to keep off evil spirits, and the
observance of many gross superstitions, complete the picture of
<ent type='NORP'>Buddhism</ent>, a sorry representation of what <ent type='PERSON'>Buddha</ent> made known to men.
... The vast majority of the adherents of <ent type='NORP'>Buddhism</ent> cling to forms </p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
42
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FORGERY IN <ent type='NORP'>CHRISTIANITY</ent></p>

<p>of creed and worship that <ent type='PERSON'>Buddha</ent>, if alive, would reprobate -- [as
would Christ in the case of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity]. <ent type='PERSON'>Northern</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Buddhism</ent> became
the very opposite of what <ent type='PERSON'>Buddha</ent> taught to men, and in spreading to
foreign lands accommodated itself to the degrading superstition of
the people it Sought to win -- [precisely as we shall see that
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity did to inveigle the <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>s). ...</p>

<p> "Between <ent type='NORP'>Buddhism</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity there are a number of
resemblances, at first sight striking. The <ent type='NORP'>Buddhist</ent> order of monks
and nuns offers points of similarity with <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> monastic
systems, particularly the mendicant orders. There are moral
aphorisms ascribed to <ent type='PERSON'>Buddha</ent> that are not unlike some of the
sayings of Christ. Most of all, in the legendary life of <ent type='PERSON'>Buddha</ent> ...
there are many parallelisms, some more, some less striking, to the
Gospel stories of Christ. A few third rate scholars [contend that
these are borrowings from <ent type='NORP'>Buddhism</ent>. Why not, as everything else is
"borrowed" or filched?]. ...</p>

<p> "One of its most attractive features was its practice of
benevolence towards the sick and needy. Between <ent type='NORP'>Buddhist</ent>s and
<ent type='NORP'>Brahmins</ent> there was a commendable rivalry in maintaining
dispensaries of food and medicine" -- long claimed as a holy
monopoly of "<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> charity." (CE. iii, 28-34, passim.)</p>

<p> As elsewhere recounted, the Holy Ghost made a curious mistake
in inspiring the certification of sundry Saints, and the lord
<ent type='PERSON'>Buddha</ent> was himself canonized by Holy <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, as St. Josaphat, and
the "Life" of this holy Saint was highly edifying to the Faithful
as well as effective in spreading the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> truth: "During the
Middle Ages the 'life of <ent type='PERSON'>Barlaam</ent> and Josaphat' had been translated
into some twenty languages, English included, so that in reality
the story of <ent type='PERSON'>Buddha</ent> became the vehicle of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> truth in many
nations"' (CE. i, 713.)</p>

<p> It is now evident, and will further so appear, that there is
no single novel feature nor "revealed truth" in all the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>
religion: our Holy Faith is all a hodgepodge or pot pourri of the
credulitles of every superstition from <ent type='GPE'>Afric</ent> Voodooism to the
latest one anywhere in holy vogue among the credulous. Even our
"idea" of God with its superlatives of "revealed" high attributes
is very primitive: "The idea of a Being higher than man, invisible,
inaccessible, master of life and death, orderer of all things,
seems to exist everywhere, among the Negritos, the Hottentots, the
<ent type='NORP'>Bantu</ent>, the <ent type='NORP'>Nigritians</ent>, the <ent type='ORG'>Hamites</ent>; for everywhere this Being has
a name. He is the 'Great,' the 'Ancient One,' the 'Heavenly One,'
the 'Bright one,' the 'Master,' sometimes the 'Author' or
'Creator'. ... Nowhere is He represented under any image, for He is
incapable of representation." (CE. i, 183, 184.)</p>

<p> Cardinal <ent type='PERSON'>Newman</ent>, commenting on <ent type='PERSON'>Dean Milman</ent>'s "<ent type='ORG'>Hist</ent>ory of the
<ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent>," groups a number of these <ent type='NORP'>Paganism</ent>s in <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity, and says
that <ent type='PERSON'>Milman</ent> arrays facts "admitted on all hands," to wit: "that the
doctrine of the <ent type='NORP'>Logos</ent> is <ent type='ORG'>Platonic</ent>; that of the Incarnation <ent type='NORP'>Indian</ent>;
that of a divine <ent type='PERSON'>King</ent>dom <ent type='PERSON'>Judaic</ent>; that of angels and demons (and a
Mediator) <ent type='NORP'>Persian</ent>; that, the connection of sin with the body is
Gnostic; the idea of a new birth <ent type='NORP'>Chinese</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Eleusinian</ent>; that of
sacramental virtue Pythagorian; that of <ent type='ORG'>Trinity</ent> common to <ent type='LOC'>East</ent> and </p>

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<p><ent type='LOC'>West</ent>; and that of the rites of baptism and sacrifice equally
ubiquitous"! (<ent type='PERSON'>Newman</ent>, Essays, Critical and <ent type='ORG'>Hist</ent>orical, 7th ed., p.
231; as summarized by the Rt. Hon. J.M. Robertson in A <ent type='ORG'>Hist</ent>ory of
Freethought in the XIXth Century, p. 145-6. <ent type='GPE'>London</ent>, 1929.)</p>

<p> Such is our holy <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> "Faith which was once delivered
unto the saints," which "superstition, drunk in with their mother's
milk," yet persists with the ignorant and those who do not or will
not know the truth.</p>

<p> That <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity is indeed but a "new form of <ent type='NORP'>Paganism</ent>," and
especially after it became the official or State religion,
consciously and purposely, in furtherance of the <ent type='ORG'>Imperial</ent> policy of
"One State, one Religion," perfected the amalgamation of the
salient features of all the fluxing religions of the <ent type='LOC'>Empire</ent> so as
to bring all <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>s within the one State-<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, is accredited by
secular and <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> history; and is quite ingenuously revealed by
CE., treating of the influence of <ent type='PERSON'>Constantine</ent> on <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity:</p>

<p> "Long before this, belief in the old polytheism had been
shaken. The world was fully ripe for monotheism or its
modified form, henotheism; but this monotheism offered itself
in varied guises, under the forms of <ent type='NORP'>Orient</ent>al religions; in
the worship of the <ent type='LOC'>Sun</ent>, in the veneration of <ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent>s, in
<ent type='ORG'>Judaism</ent>, and in <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity. Whoever wished to make a violent
break with the past and his surroundings sought out some,
<ent type='NORP'>Orient</ent>al form of worship which did not demand from him too
great a sacrifice. Some ... believed that they could
appropriate [the truth contained in <ent type='ORG'>Judaism</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity]
without being obliged on that account to renounce the beauty
of other worships. Such a man was the Emperor <ent type='PERSON'>Alexander</ent>
Severus (222-235); another so minded was Aurelian (270-275),
whose opinions were confirmed by <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s like <ent type='PERSON'>Paul</ent> of
Samosata. Not only Gnostics and other heretics, but <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s
who considered themselves faithful, held in a measure to the
worship of the <ent type='LOC'>Sun</ent>. Leo the Great in his day (440-461) says
that it was the custom of many <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s to stand on the
steps of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> of St. <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> and pay homage to the <ent type='LOC'>Sun</ent> by
obeisance and prayers.</p>

<p> "When such conditions prevailed it is easy to understand
that many of the emperors yielded to the delusion that they
could unite all their subjects in the adoration of the one
<ent type='GPE'>San</ent>-god who combined in himself the Father-God of the
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s and the much-worshipped <ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent>s; thus the empire
could be founded anew on the unity of religion. It looks
almost as though the last persecution of the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s were
directed more against all irreconcilable and extremists than
against the great body of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s. ...</p>

<p> "It was especially in the <ent type='LOC'>West</ent> that the veneration of
<ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent>s predominated -- [after centuries of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity!].
Would it not be possible to gather all the different
nationalities around his altars? Could not <ent type='PERSON'>Sol Deus Invictus</ent>,
to whom even <ent type='PERSON'>Constantine</ent> dedicated his coins for a long time,
or Sol <ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent>s Deus <ent type='ORG'>Invictus</ent>, venerated by <ent type='ORG'>Diocletian</ent> and
Galerius, become the supreme god of the empire? <ent type='PERSON'>Constantine</ent> </p>

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<p>... had not absolutely rejected the thought even after a miraculous
event [!] had strongly influenced him in favor of the God of the
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s, -- (who, however, worshipped the <ent type='LOC'>Sun</ent>!).</p>

<p> "For a time it seemed as if merely tolerance and equality
were to prevail. Constaintine showed equal favor to both
religions. As pontifex maximus he watched over the heathen
worship and protected its rights. ... In the dedication of
<ent type='GPE'>Constantinople</ent> in 330 a ceremonial half <ent type='NORP'>pagan</ent>, half <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>
was used, The chariot of the <ent type='LOC'>Sun</ent>-god was set in the market-place, and over its head was placed <ent type='ORG'>the Cross</ent> of Christ --
[not the original, which his mother had not yet been reputed
by the priests to have discovered -- i.e. "invented," -- of
which more anon], while the Kyrie Eleison was sung. Shortly
before his death <ent type='PERSON'>Constantine</ent> confirmed the privileges of the
priests of the ancient gods. ...</p>

<p> "In the same way religious freedom and tolerance could
not continue as a form of equality; the age was not ready for
such a conception; [with more of the like, p. 299; -- which is
untrue, as <ent type='PERSON'>Constantine</ent> himself had proclaimed religious
freedom in the Edict of Milan of 313 and we have just seen it
admitted in <ent type='NORP'>Buddhism</ent>, and it prevailed at all tunes in the
<ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='LOC'>Empire</ent>, until the "<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> Emperors" gave the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>
the sword, as in Chapter VII exemplified]. ... Without
realizing the full import of his actions, <ent type='PERSON'>Constantine</ent> granted
the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> one privilege, after another. As early as 313 the
<ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> obtained immunity for its ecclesiastics, including
freedom from taxation. ... <ent type='PERSON'>Constantine</ent> moreover placed <ent type='LOC'>Sun</ent>day
under the protection of the State [as a <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> holiday, as
cited. post]. It is true that the believers in <ent type='PERSON'>Mithra</ent>s also
observed <ent type='LOC'>Sun</ent>day as well as Christmas. Consequently <ent type='PERSON'>Constantine</ent>
speaks not of the day of the lord, but of the everlasting day
of the <ent type='LOC'>Sun</ent>. ...</p>

<p> "Of Constantine's sons the eldest, <ent type='PERSON'>Constantine</ent> II, showed
decided leanings to heathenism, and his coins bear many <ent type='NORP'>pagan</ent>
emblems; the second and favorite son, <ent type='PERSON'>Constantius</ent>, was a more
pronounced <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>, but it was <ent type='PERSON'>Arian</ent> -- [anti-Divinity of
Christ] -- <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity to which he adhered. <ent type='PERSON'>Constantius</ent> was
an unwavering opponent of <ent type='NORP'>pagan</ent>ism; he closed all the temples
and forbade, sacrifices under pain of death. His maxim was:
'<ent type='ORG'>Cesset</ent> superstitio; <ent type='ORG'>sacrificiorum aboleatur insania</ent>' -- ('Let
superstition cease; let the folly of sacrifices be
abolished'). Their successors had recourse to persecution
against heretics and <ent type='NORP'>pagan</ent>s. Their laws (Cod. Theod. XVI v;
[post, Chapter VII]) had an unfavorable influence on the
Middle Ages and were the basis of the much-abused[!]
Inquisition." (CE. iv, 297-301, passim.)</p>

<p> Thus was the ultimate merger and total identity of <ent type='NORP'>Paganism</ent>
with "the new <ent type='NORP'>Paganism</ent> called <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity" finally established by
law and by <ent type='ORG'>Imperial</ent> policy of "One State and One Religion," to
which conformity was enforced by laws of confiscation and death;
all the other religions of the <ent type='LOC'>Empire</ent> were fused by fire and sword
into a bastard <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity; and the mental and moral benightedness
known as <ent type='EVENT'>the Dark Ages</ent> of Faith fell as a pall over <ent type='ORG'>Christendom</ent> for
a thousand years until the renaissance of <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> culture and freedom</p>

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<p>of thought darkly dawned over the world, and has fearfully
struggled into a brightening day, whose motto of Hope is again
"<ent type='ORG'>Cesset</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Superstitio</ent>"! when Constantine's funest "League with Death
and Covenant with Hell" of State and <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> will soon in reality be
a forgotten Scrap of Paper!</p>

<p> ALL DEVILISH IMITATIONS!</p>

<p> The pious <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> Fathers were themselves sorely puzzled and
scandalized by these same things; their books are replete with
naive attempts to explain the mystery of it, -- which they
attributed to the blasphemous wiles of the <ent type='PERSON'>Devil</ent>, -- that "the
<ent type='PERSON'>Devil</ent> had blasphemously imitated the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> rites and
doctrines"; -- "always seeing in <ent type='NORP'>pagan</ent> analogies the trickery of
devils." (CE. 393.) "It having reached the Devil's ears," says the
devout Father <ent type='ORG'>Justin</ent> Martyr, "that the prophets had foretold the
coming of Christ, the Son of God, he set the heathen Poets to bring
forward a great many who should be called the sons of <ent type='PERSON'>Jove</ent>. The
<ent type='PERSON'>Devil</ent> laying his scheme in this, to get men to imagine that, the
true history of Christ was of the same character as the prodigious
fables related of the sons of <ent type='PERSON'>Jove</ent>." (I Apology, ch. 54; <ent type='ORG'>INF</ent>. i,
181-182.)</p>

<p> Not only the Fathers, but the Bible, Hebrew and <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>,
recognized and affirmed the actuality and ever-living reality of
the <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> gods, though the late post-exilic writer of the 95th
Psalm maliciously dubs them devils: "All the gods [Heb. elohim] of
the nations are devils" (Heb. elilim -- not much difference between
them -- in Hebrew; Ps. xevi, 5); and this view the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> forger
of the Epistle under the name of <ent type='PERSON'>Paul</ent> to the Corinthians confirms:
"The things which the <ent type='GPE'>Gentiles</ent> sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils"
(I Cor. x, 20). Though these malevolent flings at the venerable
divinities of <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>dom are in direct violation of the Siniatic Law
of God -- "Thou shalt not revile the gods" (Ex. xxii, 28); -- the
Hebrew <ent type='ORG'>Yahvah</ent> being, according to divine revelation, simply one of
many gods -- "a God above all gods," even "God of gods and Lord of
lords," who "judgeth among the [other] gods."</p>

<p> Father <ent type='ORG'>Justin</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>Tertullian</ent>, and many another, says the CE.,
could "see in all the gods, <ent type='PERSON'>Moses</ent>"; the error and folly of which
notions argues our authority, is demonstrated by reference to
Middleton's letter from <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, in which he, with <ent type='PERSON'>Calvin</ent>, "saw an
exact conformity between popery and <ent type='NORP'>pagan</ent>ism." (CE. xii, 393.)
Whether <ent type='PERSON'>Middleton</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Calvin</ent> were so far in error and folly in this
opinion, our researches will reveal. <ent type='PERSON'>Collins</ent>, too, in his
Discourse, supports with good authorities the opinions of <ent type='PERSON'>Middleton</ent>
and <ent type='PERSON'>Calvin</ent>. He cites Father <ent type='PERSON'>Origen</ent> as "so far from disowning an
agreement between [<ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>] <ent type='ORG'>Plutonism</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity, that a great
part of his book <ent type='NORP'>Contra Celsum</ent> consists in showing the conformity
between them." Likewise, he says, <ent type='PERSON'>Amelius</ent>, a heathen <ent type='NORP'>Platonist</ent>, who
flourished in the third century, upon reading the first verses of
St. <ent type='PERSON'>John</ent> the <ent type='NORP'>Evangelist</ent>, exclaimed: "Per <ent type='PERSON'>Jove</ent>m, barbarous iste cum
nostro <ent type='ORG'>Platone</ent> sentit -- By <ent type='PERSON'>Jove</ent>, this barbarian agrees with
<ent type='PERSON'>Plato</ent>"; and he quotes the celebrated saying of Cardinal Palavicino
-- "Senza <ent type='PERSON'>Aristotele noi</ent> mancavamo di molti <ent type='GPE'>Articoli</ent> di Fede --
Without, Aristotle we should be without many Articles of Faith"
(Colins, Discourse of Free Thinking, p. 127.)</p>

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<p> Not only did the Fathers and the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> admit with implicit
faith the living reality of the gods of heathendom, their powers,
oracles, miracles and other "analogies" to the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> faith,
they even made of such anthologies their strongest apologies, or
arguments, in defense of the truth of the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> tenets. In his
Apologia addressed to the Emperor <ent type='PERSON'>Hadrian</ent>, Father <ent type='ORG'>Justin</ent> reasons
from analogy thus:</p>

<p> "By declaring the <ent type='NORP'>Logos</ent>, the first-begotten of God, our
Master, <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> Christ, to be born of a <ent type='ORG'>Virgin</ent>, without any human
mixture, we [<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s] may no more in this than what you [<ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>s]
say of those whom you style the Sons of <ent type='PERSON'>Jove</ent>. For you need not be
told what a parcel of sons the writers most in vogue among you
assign to <ent type='PERSON'>Jove</ent>. ...</p>

<p> "As to the Son of God, called <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent>, should we allow him to be
nothing more than man, yet the title of 'the Son of God' is very
justifiable, upon the account of his wisdom, considering that you
[<ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>s] have your <ent type='ORG'>Mercury</ent> in worship under the title of The Word,
a messenger of God. ...</p>

<p> "As to his [<ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent>] being born of a <ent type='ORG'>Virgin</ent>, you have your
Perseus to balance that." (<ent type='ORG'>Justin</ent>, Apologia, I. ch. xxii; <ent type='ORG'>ANF</ent>. i,
170.)</p>

<p> The good Fathers carried their argument by analogy into proof
of all sorts of holy <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> mysteries; the <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> Oracles and
miracles were undeniably valid and true, why not therefore their
new <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> counterparts? "Without a single exception," says the
historian of European Mortals, "the Fathers maintained the reality
of the <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> miracles as fully as their own. The oracles had been
ridiculed and rejected by numbers of the philosophers, but the
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s unanimously admitted their reality. They appealed to a
long series of Oracles as predictions of their faith; not until
1696 was there a denial of their supernatural character, when a
<ent type='NORP'>Dutch Anabaptist</ent> minister, <ent type='PERSON'>Van Dale</ent>, in a remarkable book, De
Origine Progressu Idolatriae, asserted in opposition to the
unanimous voice of ecclesiastical authority, that they were simple
impostures." (<ent type='PERSON'>Lecky</ent>, <ent type='ORG'>Hist</ent>ory of European Morals, i, 374-375, et
seq.; see pp. 378-381, et seq.) The <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> Fathers and their
followers made themselves so ridiculous by their fatuous faith in
the <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyls</ent> that they were derisively called "<ent type='GPE'>Sibyllists</ent>" by the
<ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>s.</p>

<p> THE SIBYLLINE ORACLES</p>

<p> The most curious in all respects, and for our purposes the
most instructive of the ancient <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> religious frauds, are the
<ent type='PERSON'>Sibtlline Oracles</ent>, which, extensively reinforced by <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent> and
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> forgeries, were perhaps the most potent and popular
"proofs" of the early <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> for the divinity of <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> Christ and
the truth of the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> religion; thus they derive special
notice here. All will remember, from their school histories of
ancient <ent type='GPE'>Rome</ent>, the well-known legend of one of the <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyls</ent> who came
to <ent type='PERSON'>King</ent> Tarquin the Second with nine volumes of Oracles, which she
offered to sell to him for a very high price; being refused, she
went away and burned three of the books, and returning offered the </p>

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<p>remaining six at the same price; again the <ent type='PERSON'>King</ent> refused to buy, and
she departed, burned three more of the books, and returned with the
last three for which she demanded the original price. Astonished at
this conduct and greatly impressed, the <ent type='PERSON'>King</ent> consulted his augurs
and was advised to secure the remaining treasures of prophecy
before it was too late; he did So, and immediately the <ent type='ORG'>Seeress</ent>
disappeared and was never seen again. The precious tomes were
deposited with great care and jealously guarded in <ent type='LOC'>the Temple</ent> of
<ent type='LOC'>Jupiter</ent> Capitolinus; a college of priests was instituted to have
charge of them; and the divine Oracles were consulted with great
solemnity only in times of the greatest crises of the State. The
books were finally destroyed when the Capitol was burned during the
wars of <ent type='PERSON'>Sylla</ent>, but many ethers continued in existence.</p>

<p> The oracles were composed in <ent type='NORP'>Alexandrine</ent> verse, and claimed to
be the work of inspired <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> prophetesses called <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyls</ent>; they
enjoyed the greatest vogue and were believed with the most implicit
faith by <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>s and <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s alike. There were a number of these
<ent type='PERSON'>Sibyls</ent>, and the number of the volumes of oracles is differently
estimated as a dozen or more; those with which we are chiefly
concerned are the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> Cumaean and <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> <ent type='LOC'>Erythraean</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyls</ent> and the
Oracles going under their names. The inveterate bent of the
priestly mind for forgery in furtherance of its holy mission of
imposture, led to the prompt adoption and corruption of these <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>
frauds, for the propagation first of the <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent>, then of the
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> Faith. "Because of the vogue enjoyed by these heathen
oracles," says the <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Encyclopedia, "and because of the
influence they had in, shaping the religious views of the period,
the <ent type='NORP'>Hellenistic</ent> <ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent> in <ent type='GPE'>Alexandria</ent>, during the second century b.c,.
composed [i.e. forged] verses in the same form, and circulated them
among the <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>s as a means of diffusing <ent type='NORP'>Judaistic</ent> doctrines and
teaching. This custom was continued down into <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> times, and
was borrowed by some <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s, so that in the second or third
century, a new class of Oracles emanating from <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> sources
came into being, Hence the <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyl</ent>line Oracles can be classed as
<ent type='NORP'>Paggan</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent>, or <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>. In many cases, however, the
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s merely revised or interpolated the <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent> documents, and
thus we have two classes of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> oracles, those adopted from
<ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent> sources and those entirely written by <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s. ... It
seems clear, however, that the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> Oracles and those revised
from <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent> sources all emanated from the same circle [or band of
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> forgers] and were intended to aid in the diffusion of
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity.</p>

<p> "The <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyls</ent> are quoted frequently by the early Fathers and
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> writers, <ent type='ORG'>Justin</ent>, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of
<ent type='GPE'>Alexandria</ent>, etc. ... They were known and used during the Middle
Ages in both the <ent type='LOC'>East</ent> and the <ent type='LOC'>West</ent>. ... They all purport to be the
work of the <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyls</ent>." (CE. v. xiii, p. 770.)</p>

<p> Most notable of these forged <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> addenda to the <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent> forged Oracles, 'Is found in Book VIII, a lengthy composite
of <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> fraud, consisting of some 500 hexameter
verses. The first 216 verses, says the CE., "are most likely the
work of a second century Jew, while the latter part (verses 217-500), beginning with an acrostic on the symbolical <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> word
<ent type='ORG'>Ichthus</ent> is undoubtedly <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>, and dates most probably from the </p>

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<p>third century." (CE. xiii, 770.) <ent type='ORG'>Ichthus</ent> is the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> word for
fish, and the fish was the fitting and universal symbol of the
early <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s as typical of the "catch" of the Apostolic fishers
of men. This cabalistic word <ent type='ORG'>Ichthus</ent>, worked into the professedly
<ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> Oracle in the form of an acrostic, is composed of the initial
letters of the popular name and title of the Son of the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>
God, in the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent>: "Iesous Christos Theou <ent type='PERSON'>Uios Soter</ent> -- <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent>
Christ, Son of God, Savior" This fish anagram was an ancient <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>
symbol of fecundity, of great vogue and veneration throughout
<ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>dom, and was adopted by <ent type='ORG'>Christendom</ent> for the double reason that
the initials acrostically formed the name and title of its new
deity, and that in the ancient science fish were supposed to be
generated in the water without carnal copulation, and were thus
peculiarly symbolic of the <ent type='ORG'>Virgin</ent>-born Christ. Says <ent type='PERSON'>Tertuilian</ent>:
"We, little fishes, after the example of our <ent type='ORG'>Ichthus</ent>, are born in
water." (On Baptism, ch. i; <ent type='ORG'>ANP</ent>. iii, 669.)</p>

<p> The <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> historian, Bishop <ent type='PERSON'>Eusebius</ent>, preserves the <ent type='NORP'>Acrostic</ent>,
taken from the <ent type='LOC'>Erythraean</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyl</ent>, but says: "Many people, though
they allowed <ent type='PERSON'>the Erythrian Sibyl</ent> to have been a prophetess, yet
reject this <ent type='NORP'>Acrostic</ent>, suspecting it to have been forged by the
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s"; which suspicion the good Bishop refutes by an appeal
to <ent type='PERSON'>Cicero</ent>, who, he assures, had read and translated it into <ent type='NORP'>Latin</ent>.
(<ent type='PERSON'>Eusebius</ent>, Oration on Const., chs. 18-19; I, 274-5.) Father St.
Augustine quotes the verses and says: "<ent type='ORG'>The <ent type='LOC'>Erythraean</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyl</ent></ent> has
indeed written some things clearly and manifestly relating to
Christ. ... There are some, who suspected all these prophecies
which relate to Christ and passed under the name of the <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyl</ent>, to
have been forged by the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s." (Aug., De Civ. Dei, xviii, 23;
N,&amp;PNF. ii, 3723.) Father Clement of <ent type='GPE'>Alexandria</ent> attributes to the
<ent type='PERSON'>Sibyls</ent> the same inspiration as the Old Testament, and cites <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent>
and <ent type='PERSON'>Paul</ent> as appealing to them for a prediction of the life and
character of <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> Christ, <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent> and <ent type='PERSON'>Paul</ent> speaking thus: "Take the
<ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> books in your hand, and look into the <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyl</ent>. How clearly she
speaks of one God, and of the things to come; then take <ent type='PERSON'>Hystaspes</ent>
also and read, and you will find the Son of God much more clearly
and evidently described." (<ent type='PERSON'>Strom</ent>. I, 6, p. 761, Ed. <ent type='PERSON'>Oxon</ent>.; also
Lact., De ver. sap., I, 4, 15; Free Inquiry, p. 34.)</p>

<p> The importance of the <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyl</ent>line Oracles, speaking through
countless "interpolations" forged by <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> pens, for not only
the propagation of the faith among the <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>s, but as actual proofs
of the truth of the fictitious "facts" of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity, cannot be
overestimated; this justifies the following extracts from the
Divine Institutes of <ent type='PERSON'>Lactantius</ent>. The greater part, I dare say, of
the seven Books of that notable work, addressed to the "mighty
Emperor <ent type='PERSON'>Constantine</ent>," is devoted to arguments and proofs of <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent>
Christ and the principal events of his recorded life and acts,
drawn copiously from the heathen gods and the forged Oracles of the
<ent type='PERSON'>Sibyls</ent>. These proofs, to the minds of Father <ent type='PERSON'>Lactantius</ent> and of all
the Fathers, as to the <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>s generally, were "more strong than
proofs of Holy Writ"; for, he says, "perhaps the sacred writings
[in the Old Testament] speak falsely when they teach [such and so
about <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent>); ... the <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyls</ent> before taught the same things in their
verses." Citing scores of <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyl</ent>line "prophecies" forged by the
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s for the belief and persuasion of the <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>s, who were
effectively "refuted by these testimonies" and thus "brought to </p>

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49
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<p>Christ," some of them, says <ent type='PERSON'>Lactantius</ent>, urge that these prophetic
verses "were not by the <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyls</ent>, but made up and composed by our own
writers," as the fact is above confessed by CE.; but not so, argues
the great Apologist; "do not <ent type='PERSON'>Cicero</ent> and other <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> authors, dead
long before <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent>, testify to the <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyls</ent>?" -- Yes, to the <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyls</ent>
and their utterances then extant; not to the later <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>
forgeries in their names. Moreover, these <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>
"interpolations" imputed to the <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyls</ent>, exactly as the muddled,
ambiguous, meaningless "prophecies" of the Old Testament writings,
meant nothing and were not understood to mean anything, until <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent>
Christ came along, and these <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> mummeries were seized
upon by the avid forging <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s to make up and pad out the
pretended life and wondrous acts of the Christ. Even a cursory
examination and the marginal cross-references will demonstrate,
that virtually every act imputed in <ent type='EVENT'>the New Testament</ent> Gospels to
the <ent type='ORG'>Nazarene</ent>, was cut to fit of some scrap of mummery or pretended
"prophecy" of Hebrew Scriptures and <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyl</ent>line Oracles. Of
numberless instances of the latter quoted in the, Divine
Institutes, a few typical ones only can be here cited, but they are
illuminating of the Christ-tales.</p>

<p> In Book I, chapter vi is entitled, "Of Divine Testimonies, and
of the <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyls</ent> and their Predictions." Appealing for faith to
<ent type='PERSON'>Constantine</ent>, the chapter begins: "Now let us pass to divine
testimonies?; and he cites and quotes, in numerous chapters, the
<ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> gods <ent type='ORG'>Mercury</ent>, <ent type='PERSON'>Hermes Trismegistus</ent>, <ent type='ORG'>Apollo</ent>, and other mystic
deities and personages, all testifying to the One <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> God and
to his Son <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent>. After infinite such appeals for proofs, we come
to Book IV, a veritable arsenal of manufactured "divine
testimonies"; and we pause to con with wonder chapter xv, "Of the
life and Miracles of <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent>, and Testimonies concerning Him." <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent>,
after his baptism, says <ent type='PERSON'>Lactantius</ent>, "began to perform the greatest
miracles, not by magical powers, but by heavenly strength and
power. ... His powers were those which <ent type='ORG'>Apollo</ent> called wonderful. ...
And he performed all these things not by His hands, or the
application of any remedy, but by His word and command, as the
<ent type='PERSON'>Sibyl</ent> had foretold: 'Doing all things by His word, and healing
every disease.'"</p>

<p> Many chapters are replete with instances of the miracles of
<ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent>, alleged each of them to have been foretold by one or another
of the <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyls</ent>, and quoting the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>-forged prophetic verses in
proof. The Christ came to fulfill the Law; "and the <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyl</ent> shows
that it would come to pass that this law would be destroyed by the
Son of God: 'But when all these things which I told you shall be
accomplished, then all the law is fulfilled with respect to Him.'"
(c. xvii.) Of a few others, and the arguments above sketched, I
quote the text:</p>

<p> "What can be more wonderful, either in narration or in
action? But the <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyl</ent> had before foretold that it would take
place, whose verses are related to this effect.</p>

<p> "With five loaves at the same time, and with two fishes,
He shall satisfy five thousand men in the wilderness;
And Afterwards taking all the fragments that remain,
He shall fill twelve baskets to the hope of many.'</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
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<p> "But perhaps the sacred writings speak falsely when they teach
that there was such power in Him, that by His command He compelled
the winds to obey Him, the seas to serve Him, disease to depart,
the dead to be submissive. Why should I say that the <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyls</ent> before
had taught the same things in their one verses? One of whom,
already mentioned, thus speaks:</p>

<p> "But shall still the winds by His word, and calm the sea
As it rages, treading with feet of peace and in faith.'</p>

<p> "And again another which says:</p>

<p> 'He shall walk on the waves, He shall release men from
disease.
He shall raise the dead, and drive away many pains;
And from the bread of one wallet there shall be a satisfying
[of men].'</p>

<p> "Some, refuted by these testimonies, are accustomed to
have recourse to the assertion that these poems were not by
the <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyls</ent>, but made up and composed by our own writers. But
he, will assuredly not think this who has read <ent type='PERSON'>Cicero</ent> [De
Natura Deorum, ii], and <ent type='PERSON'>Varro</ent>, and other ancient writers, who
make mention of the <ent type='LOC'>Erythraean</ent> and other <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyls</ent> from whose
books we bring forth these examples; And these authors died
before the birth of Christ according to the flesh. But I do
not doubt that these poems were in former times regarded as
ravings, since no one understood them. For they announced some
marvelous wonders, of which neither the manner, nor the time,
nor the author was signified. Lastly the <ent type='LOC'>Erythraean</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyl</ent> says
that it would come to pass that she would be called mad and
deceitful. But assuredly</p>

<p> 'They will say that the <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyl</ent>
is mad, and deceitful: but when all things shall come to pass,
Then ye will remember me; and no one will any longer
Say that I, the prophetess of the great God, am mad.'</p>

<p> "Therefore they were neglected for many ages; but they
received attention after the nativity and passion of Christ
had revealed secret things. Thus it was also with the
utterances of the prophets, which were read by the people of
the <ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent> for fifteen hundred [!] years and more, but yet were
not understood until after Christ had explained them by His
word and by His works. For the prophets spoke of Him; nor
could the things which they said have been in any way
understood, unless they had been altogether fulfilled."
(Lact., Div. Inst., Bk. IV, chap. xv; <ent type='ORG'>ANF</ent>. vii, 115, 116.)</p>

<p> In view of these "divine testimonies" of <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> Oracles forged
by pious <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s in proof of their Christ, need one wonder that
the like testimonies in the Gospels themselves may be under
suspicion of like forgery? We shall have the proofs in their due
order. Father <ent type='ORG'>Justin</ent> Martyr treats these <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> books of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>
evidences, as prophetic Scriptures and divine, and speaking of
their prohibition by the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> Emperors, says: "By the contrivance </p>

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51
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FORGERY IN <ent type='NORP'>CHRISTIANITY</ent></p>

<p>of Demons it was made a capital crime to read them, in order to
deter men from coming to a knowledge of what is good." (Apologia,
I, ch. 77; <ent type='ORG'>ANF</ent>. i, 178.)</p>

<p> That heathens and even devils may be specially endued with the
gift of prophecy by God for his glory, and God may make use of the
<ent type='PERSON'>Devil</ent>-in-Chief for this purpose, is expressly asserted by <ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>
Benedict XIV" (Heroic Virtue, III, 144, 150). And "<ent type='ORG'>the Angel</ent>ic
Doctor," St. <ent type='PERSON'>Thomas Aquinas</ent>, "in order to prove that the heathens
were capable of prophecy, refers to the instance of the <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyls</ent>, who
make clear mention of the mysteries of the <ent type='ORG'>Trinity</ent>, of the
Incarnation of the Word, of <ent type='ORG'>the Life</ent>, Passion, and Resurrection of
Christ. It is true that the <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyl</ent>line poems now extant became in
course of time interpolated; but as Benedict XIV (1740-1758)
remarks, this does not hinder much of them, especially what the
early Fathers referred to, from being genuine and in no wise
apocryphal"! (CE. xii, 474.)</p>

<p> Thus the Holy Ghost of God, speaking through its official
mouthpiece, its Vive-God on earth, infallibly guarded by the <ent type='ORG'>Spirit</ent>
against the possibility of error, in the year 1742 of our Era of
Christ, sings the Doxology of these admitted frauds of <ent type='NORP'>pagan</ent>ish and
forging <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity, and canonizes them as the God-inspired origin
of the holiest mysteries of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> revelation. The inference is
inevitable, that <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> <ent type='PERSON'>Sibyls</ent>, <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> Fathers, and Vicars
of God, are strongly characterized by Ignorance and Imposture.</p>

<p> A noted classical and critical authority, Anthon,
contemplating the shifts of the new <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity rising from the
debacle of <ent type='NORP'>Paganism</ent>, falls into a philosophical reflection,
pertinent alike to the old and the new systems of priestcraft:</p>

<p> "When a religion has fallen and been succeeded by
another, the more zealous advocates of the new belief
sometimes find themselves in a curious state of embarrassment.
So it is with regard to the heathen system and the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>
code. Among the numerous oracles given to the world in former
days, some have chanced to find a remarkable accomplishment;
and the pious but ill-judging <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>, unable to ascribe
them to deities in whom men no longer believes, is driven to
create for them a different origin. 'God,' says <ent type='ORG'>Rollin</ent>, 'in
order to punish the blindness of the heathen, sometimes
permits evil spirits to give responses conformable to the
truth.' (<ent type='ORG'>Rollin</ent>, <ent type='ORG'>Hist</ent>oire Ancienne, I, 887.) The only evil
spirit which had an agency in the oracular responses of
antiquity was that spirit of craft imposture which finds so
congenial a home among an artful and cunning priesthood."
(Anthon, Classical Dictionary, 4th ed., p. 929; Art. Orv
alum.)</p>

<p> The historian of European Morals, in his amazing review of the
infinite variety and number of superstitions, frauds, forgeries,
false miracles and lying oracles of <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>dom, which were taken over
almost 'in masse' by the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s, and implicitly and with
childlike credulity accepted and believed, taught and preached by
every <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> Father of the <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, by the infallible popes, and
the millions of their ignorant and superstitious ex-<ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> lay </p>

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<p>dupes, makes this very pertinent and just remark apropos the value
of their pious opinions, testimonies and "traditions" of the
origins of the <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> faith:</p>

<p> "To suppose that men who held these opinions were
capable, in the second and third centuries, of ascertaining
with any degree of just confidence whether miracles had taken
place in <ent type='LOC'>Judaea</ent> in the first century, is grossly absurd; nor
would the conviction of their reality have made any great
impression on their minds at a time when miracles were
supposed to be so abundantly diffused." (<ent type='PERSON'>Lecky</ent>, <ent type='ORG'>Hist</ent>. Europ.
Morals, i, 375.)</p>

<p> The confession that the vast mass of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> miracles were
<ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> frauds and lies taken 'en bloc' over into <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity to
make a good showing as against the <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>s and to dupe the
superstitious new converts, is made by CE., with the notable
further admission that the only alteration made was that the <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>
gods were made over into <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> saints: "This transference was
promoted by the numerous cases in which <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> saints became the
successors of local deities, and <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> worship supplanted the
ancient local worship. This explains the great number of
similarities between gods and saints. For the often maintained
metamorphosis of gods into saints no proof is to be found." This
immense confession of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> fraudulence and imposture, in
conjuring fictitious <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> gods -- which according to <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>
faith were all actual devils -- into canonized Saints of God and
Holy <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent>, is several times reported by CE., of which this
instance is before me: "It has indeed been said that the 'Saints
are the successors to the Gods.' Instances have been cited ... of
statues of <ent type='NORP'>pagan</ent> Gods baptized and transformed into <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>
Saints"! (CE. xv. 710; cf. Is It God's Word? 5, 7-9.) This truly
wonderful psycho-religious miracle is thereupon wrought: The
idolatrous <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> who just before the "baptism" actually worshipped
these "statues of the <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> gods," immediately afterwards simply
venerated or adored the same gods "baptized and transformed into
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> saints" -- fully comprehending the non-understandable
hair-splitting theological distinction between pious "dulia" and
idolatrous "latria," as defined by Holy <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> and droned by CE. in
its article on Idolatry. And vast hoards of utterly illiterate and
stupid Faithful go into the <ent type='ORG'>True Church</ent>es every day, kneel before
and pray to these same <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> gods conjured into <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> saints --
with countless other counterfeit near-divinities of their near-Idolatry -- and appreciate the difference to a split-second of
devotion and true faith. Tis passing strange.</p>

<p> A very remarkable confession of purposeful fraud, with the
mechanics of the fraud, and the vast extent of it in faking <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent>
miracle-lies into <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> truth of the most driveling nonsense,
reads:</p>

<p> "Manifold as the varieties of [miracle] legends now seem
to be, there are fundamentally not so very many different
notions utilized. The legend considers the saint as a kind of
lord of the elements, who commands the water, rain, fire,
mountain, and rock; he changes, enlarges, or diminishes
objects; flies through the air; delivers from dungeons --
(examples, <ent type='PERSON'>Peter</ent>, <ent type='PERSON'>Paul</ent>) -- and gallows; takes part in battles,

Bank of Wisdom
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<p> and even in martyrdom is invulnerable; animals, the wildest
and the most timid, serve him (e.g., the stories of the bear
as a beast of burden; the ring in the fish; the frogs becoming
silent, etc.); his birth is glorified by a miracle; a voice,
or letters, from Heaven proclaim his identity -- [all these
score for <ent type='PERSON'>Jesus</ent> the Christ]; bells ring of themselves; the
heavenly ones enter into personal intercourse with him
(betrothal of <ent type='PERSON'>Mary</ent>); he speaks with the dead and beholds
heaven, hell, and purgatory; forces the devil to release
people from compacts; he is victorious over dragons; etc. Of
all this the authentic [?] <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> narratives know nothing
-- [a confession that every saint-tale of Bible and <ent type='ORG'>Church</ent> is
a lie].</p>

<p> "But whence does this world of fantastic concepts arise? A
glance at the pre-<ent type='NORP'>christian</ent> religious narratives will dispel every
doubt. All these stories are anticipated by the <ent type='NORP'>Greek</ent> chroniclers,
writers of myths, collectors of strange tales, neo-<ent type='ORG'>Plutonism</ent>, and
neo-Pythagorism. One need only refer to the '<ent type='ORG'>Ellados Periegesis</ent>' of
<ent type='ORG'>Pausanius</ent>, or glance through the codices collected by <ent type='PERSON'>Photius</ent> in
his 'Bibliotheca,' to recognize what great importance was attached
to the reports of miracles in antiquity by both the educated and
uneducated." ...</p>

<p> Reversing only the order of the sentences, and CE. reversing
the truth of the answer it gives to its own question, the
confession of shame continues:</p>

<p> "But how was the transference of [these miracle] legends
to <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity consummated? ... <ent type='NORP'>Hellenism</ent> had already
recognized this [fraudulent] characteristic of the religious
fable, and would thus have been obliged to free itself from it
in the coarse of time, had not the competition with
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity forced the champions of the ancient polytheism to
seek again in the ancient fables incidents to set against the
miraculous power of Christ. [!] In this way popular illusions
found their way from <ent type='NORP'>Hellenism</ent> to <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity." (CE. ix,
129-30.)</p>

<p> And in 1900 years no priest, bishop, pope, depositaries and
guardians of divine truth, has ever said a word to prevent or put
end to this shameful prostitution of mind of their poor grovelling
dupes, but to this day perpetuate them in it. Far from ending the
shameful thing, many bishops and popes have won the title Mendax
Maximus by peddling these <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> lies as God's truth; as witness
this one instance from the article we are quoting: "St. Augustine
(De Cura, xii) and also [<ent type='PERSON'>Pope</ent>] St. Gregory the Great (Dialogues,
IV, xxxvi) -- [the greatest book of Lies outside the Bible] --
relate of a man, who died by an error of <ent type='ORG'>the Angel</ent> of Death and was
again restored to life, the same story which is already given by
Lucian in his 'Philopseudes.'" (Ib. p. 130.) Such, verily for
shame, is "that new <ent type='NORP'>Paganism</ent> later called <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity."</p>

<p> Mythology has well been called the Theology of dead religions.
The world is a vast cemetery of deceased gods and teeming scrap-heap of decayed and discarded priest-imposed religious beliefs --
superstitions. All the dead gods and religions of <ent type='NORP'>Paganism</ent>, all the</p>

<p> Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
54
.
FORGERY IN <ent type='NORP'>CHRISTIANITY</ent></p>

<p>yet surviving but fast moribund deities and faiths of the XXth
Century world, all -- (except -- the <ent type='NORP'>Jews</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>s say, their
own), -- all were admittedly the fraudulent handiwork of priests
and professional god-and-myth makers. In a word, short and ugly,
but true -- every priest of every god and religion (saving, for the
nonce, the <ent type='NORP'>Jewish</ent>-<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> ones) -- was a conscious and
unconscionable falsifier and impostor, -- a common liar for his
god. All plied their artful, unholy priestcraft in the name of
gods; for power and pelf, those grafting <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> priests. No
<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> will, or truthfully can, deny their portentous fact, The
verdict of lying guilt of <ent type='NORP'>Pagan</ent> Priestcraft is unanimous.</p>

<p> No one can now doubt that <ent type='PERSON'>Lecky</ent>, after voluminous review of
pre-<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> frauds and impostures, spoke the precise historical
truth: "<ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity floated into the <ent type='NORP'>Roman</ent> <ent type='LOC'>Empire</ent> on the wave of
credulity that brought with it this long train of <ent type='NORP'>Orient</ent>al
superstitions and legends." (<ent type='ORG'>Hist</ent>. of European Morals, i, 373-4.)</p>

<p> The mainstream of <ent type='NORP'>Orient</ent>al superstition and priestly imposture
will now be seen to swell with the turgid flood of Hebrew fables
and forgery, before pouring the mingled flood of myth and fraud
into the pure tide of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> Truth; -- where, <ent type='ORG'>Presto</ent>! change! it
is beheld transformed -- "baptized" -- into the "revealed
mysteries" and "<ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Truth" of God!</p>

<div> **** ****</div>

<p> FORGERY IN <ent type='NORP'>CHRISTIANITY</ent></p>

<p> Abbreviations for most often used sources:</p>

<p> The libraries of <ent type='ORG'>the Union Theological Seminary</ent> and of
<ent type='GPE'>Columbia</ent> University, in <ent type='GPE'>New York</ent> City, were the places of the finds
here recorded. Cited so often, space will be saved for more
valuable uses by citing by their initials, -- which will become
very familiar -- my chief ecclesiastical authorities, towit:</p>

<p> The Ante-Nicene Fathers, cited as <ent type='ORG'>ANF</ent>.; A Collection of the
extant Writings of all the Founders of <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent>ity down to the
Council of Nicaea, or Nice, in 325 A.D. <ent type='ORG'>American Reprint</ent>, eight
volumes. The <ent type='NORP'>Christian</ent> Literature Publishing Co., <ent type='GPE'>Buffalo</ent>, N.Y.,
1885. [xxx]</p>

<p> The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, cited as N&amp;PNF.; First and
Second Series; many volumes; same publishers.</p>

<p> The <ent type='NORP'>Catholic</ent> Encyclopedia, cited as CE.; fifteen volumes and
index, published under the Imprimatur of Archbishop <ent type='PERSON'>Farley</ent>; New
York, <ent type='ORG'>Robert Appleton</ent> Co., 1907-9.</p>

<p> The Encyclopedia Biblica, cited as EB., four volumes; <ent type='PERSON'>Adam</ent> &amp;
Charles Black, <ent type='GPE'>London</ent>, 1899; <ent type='ORG'>American Reprint</ent>, The Macmillan Co.,
<ent type='GPE'>New York</ent>, 1914.</p>

<div> **** ****</div>

<p> Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.

Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, <ent type='GPE'>Louisville</ent>, KY 40201
55
</p></xml>