DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0057
47
or insulting the mysteries; the only part of their worship which
seems to have possessed any energy : for, as to the popular deities,
they were publicly ridiculed and censured with impunity, by those
who dared not utter a word against the very populace that wor-
shipped them and, as to forms and ceremonies of devotion, they
were held to be no otherwise important, than as they constituted a
part of the civil government of the state ; the Pythian priestess
having pronounced from the tripod, that whoever performed the
rites of his religion according to the laws of his country, per-
formed them in a mariner pleasing to the Deity.1' Hence the Ro-
mans made no alterations in the religious institutions of any of the
conquered countries ; but allowed the inhabitants to be as absurd
and extravagant as they pleased ; and even to enforce their absur-
dities and extravagancies, wherever they had any pre-existing laws
in their favor. An JEgyptian magistrate would put one of his
fellow-subjects to death for killing a cat or a monkey ;3 and though
the religious fanaticism of the Jews was too sanguinary and violent
to be left entirely free from restraint, a chief of the synagogue
could order any one of his congregation to be whipped for neglecting
or violating any part of the Mosaic Ritual.*
62. The principle of the system of emanations was, that all
things were of one substance ; from which they were fashioned,
and into which they were again dissolved, by the operation of one
plastic spirit universally diffused and expanded.5 The liberal and
1 See the Prometheus of TEschvlus, and the Plutus and Frogs of Aristo-
phanes, which are full of blasphemies; the former serious, and the latter
comic, or rather farcical.
* Xenoph. Memorab. lib. 1. c. iii. s. i.
3 Tertullian. Apol. c. xxiv.
* See Acta Apost.
5 Toiv Sri TtpuTtnv §i\otto$y\oa.vTav, ot ttXeio-toi ras ev vtojj eiSei fiovov tfqllriffav ap%as
civai iravroiv1 e£ ou yap t&riv anavTara opra, Kat e£ ov yiyverai Trpwrov, Kai e/s 6 (pOzi-
percu TeXzvTtuov, rrjs p.tv ovcrtas mroftej/ou<n)r, tois 5e TraB&n p.fralia?Aov<rris, tovto
trrotxciov ttai ravTrjv Tf\v apxrjv eivai toiv ovraiv nat 5xa tovto, owe ytyvzvQat ou6*y
otovrai, outc diroT^virOui, u'j tjjs TOiavrr)* (pwtus atl ffu^ofityrjs. Aristot. Mctapliys.
A, fu.f\ c. iii.
or insulting the mysteries; the only part of their worship which
seems to have possessed any energy : for, as to the popular deities,
they were publicly ridiculed and censured with impunity, by those
who dared not utter a word against the very populace that wor-
shipped them and, as to forms and ceremonies of devotion, they
were held to be no otherwise important, than as they constituted a
part of the civil government of the state ; the Pythian priestess
having pronounced from the tripod, that whoever performed the
rites of his religion according to the laws of his country, per-
formed them in a mariner pleasing to the Deity.1' Hence the Ro-
mans made no alterations in the religious institutions of any of the
conquered countries ; but allowed the inhabitants to be as absurd
and extravagant as they pleased ; and even to enforce their absur-
dities and extravagancies, wherever they had any pre-existing laws
in their favor. An JEgyptian magistrate would put one of his
fellow-subjects to death for killing a cat or a monkey ;3 and though
the religious fanaticism of the Jews was too sanguinary and violent
to be left entirely free from restraint, a chief of the synagogue
could order any one of his congregation to be whipped for neglecting
or violating any part of the Mosaic Ritual.*
62. The principle of the system of emanations was, that all
things were of one substance ; from which they were fashioned,
and into which they were again dissolved, by the operation of one
plastic spirit universally diffused and expanded.5 The liberal and
1 See the Prometheus of TEschvlus, and the Plutus and Frogs of Aristo-
phanes, which are full of blasphemies; the former serious, and the latter
comic, or rather farcical.
* Xenoph. Memorab. lib. 1. c. iii. s. i.
3 Tertullian. Apol. c. xxiv.
* See Acta Apost.
5 Toiv Sri TtpuTtnv §i\otto$y\oa.vTav, ot ttXeio-toi ras ev vtojj eiSei fiovov tfqllriffav ap%as
civai iravroiv1 e£ ou yap t&riv anavTara opra, Kat e£ ov yiyverai Trpwrov, Kai e/s 6 (pOzi-
percu TeXzvTtuov, rrjs p.tv ovcrtas mroftej/ou<n)r, tois 5e TraB&n p.fralia?Aov<rris, tovto
trrotxciov ttai ravTrjv Tf\v apxrjv eivai toiv ovraiv nat 5xa tovto, owe ytyvzvQat ou6*y
otovrai, outc diroT^virOui, u'j tjjs TOiavrr)* (pwtus atl ffu^ofityrjs. Aristot. Mctapliys.
A, fu.f\ c. iii.