NOTES TO CHAPTER 7
1. I purposely omit the consideration of the "Beast from the bottomless pit" (Rev. xvii. 8). The reader will find an argument on that subject in the Red Republic.
2. PAUSANIAS, lib. ii., Corinthiaca, cap. 28, p. 175.
3. JOHANN. CLERICUS, tom. ii. p. 199, and VAUX, p. 8.
4. MULLER, Frag., 68, vol. i. p. 440.
5. VITRUVIUS, lib. ii. cap. 1, vol. ii. p. 36, &c.
6. From Phoenician Coin, in MAURICE'S Indian Antiquities, vol. vi. p. 368. London, 1796.
7. OWEN, apud DAVIES'S Druids, in Note, p. 437.
8. BUNSEN, Hieroglyphics, vol. i. p. 497.
9. SANCHUNIATHON, lib. i. pp. 46-49.
10. See page 56.
11. Vol. ii. p. 114.
12. DRYDEN'S Virgil, Book v. 11. 111-116, vol. ii. pp. 460, 461; in Original, 11. 84-88.
13. WILKINSON, vol. iv. p. 239.
14. Implied in ibid. vol. iv. p. 239.
15. BUNSEN, vol. i. pp. 407, 457.
16. The word Purros in the text does not exclude the idea of "Red," for the sun-god was painted red to identify him with Moloch, at once the god of fire and god of blood. (WILKINSON, vol. iv. pp. 288-296.) The primary leading idea, however, is that of Fire.
17. In regard to Zoroaster as head of the fire worshippers, see Appendix, Note N.
18. BUNSEN, vol. i. p. 710.
19. BRYANT, vol. i. p. 10, and vol. iv. p. 152. Bryant derives the name Alorus from Al-Aur, "god of fire." I incline to think that, from the analogy of the name that succeeds it, it cores from Al-Hor, "The burning god;" but the meaning is the same either way.
20. Commonly spelled Mulciber (Ovid, Art. Am., lib. ii. 1. 562, vol. i. p. 535); but the Roman c was hard. From the epithet "Gheber," the Parsees, or fire-worshippers of India, are still called "Guebres."
21. OVID, De Art. Am., ibid., Note.
22. Heathen Mythology Illustrated, p. 66.
23. Ibid. p. 75.
24. Nimrod, as universal king, was Khuk-hold, "King of the world." As such, the emblem of his power was the bull's horns. Hence the origin of the Cuckhold's horns.
25. Kuclops, from Khuk, "king," and Lohb, "flame." The image of the great god was represented with three eyes one in the forehead; hence the story of the Cyclops with the one eye in the forehead.
26. ARNOBIUS, lib. i. p. 327, col. 1.
27. EUSEBIUS, Chronicon. Armenian translation, Pars. i. p. 81.
29. SALVERTE, Des Sciences Occultes, p. 415.
30. Phaethon is called an Ethiopian i.e., a Cushite. For explanation of his story, see Appendix, Note O.
31. HUMBOLDT'S Mexico, vol. ii. pp. 21, 22.
32. SKANDA PURAN, and PADMA PURAN, apud KENNEDY'S Hindoo Mythology, p. 275. In the myth, this divinity is represented as the fifth head of Brahma; but as this head is represented as having gained the knowledge that made him so insufferably proud by perusing the Vedas produced by the other four heads of Brahma, that shows that he must have been regarded as having a distinct individuality.
33. DAVIES'S Druids, p. 226.
34. Phaethon, though the child of the sun, is also called the Father of the gods. (LACTANTIUS, De Falsa Religione, lib. i. cap. 5, p. 10.) In Egypt, too, Vulcan was the Father of the gods. (AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS, lib. xvii. cap. 4, p. 163.)
35. LEMPRIERE, "Saturn."
36. See woodcut, Fig. 10, p. 33.
37. EUSEB. De Laud. Constantini, cap. xiii. p. 267, A, C.
38. DIODORUS, lib. xx. pp. 739, 740.
39. The word Cahna is the emphatic form of Cahn. Cahn is "a priest," Cahna is " the priest."
40. From the historian Castor (in Armenian translation of EUSEBIUS, pars. i. p. 81) we learn that it was under Bel, or Belus, that is Baal, that the Cyclops lived; and the Scholiast on Æschylus (p. 32, ante, Note) states that these Cyclops were the brethren of Kronos, who was also Bel or Bal, as we have else where seen (p. 32). The eye in their forehead shows that originally this name was a name of the great god; for that eye in India and Greece is found the characteristic of the supreme divinity. The Cyclops, then, had been representatives of that God in other words, priests, and priests of Bel or Baal. Now, we find that the Cyclops were well-known as cannibals, Referre ritus Cyclopum, "to bring back the rites of the Cyclops," meaning to revive the practice of eating human flesh. (OVID, Metam., xv. 93, vol. ii. p. 132.)
41. The wars of the giants against heaven, referred to in ancient heathen writers, had primary reference to this war against the saints; for men cannot make war upon God except by attacking the people of God. The ancient writer Eupolemus, as quoted by Eusebius (Praeparatio Evang., lib. i. cap. 17, vol. ii. p. 19), states, that the builders of the tower of Babel were these giants; which statement amounts nearly to the same thing as the conclusion to which we have already come, for we have seen that the "mighty ones" of Nimrod were "the giants" of antiquity (see ante, p. 54, Notes). Epiphanius records (lib. i., vol. i. p. 7) that Nimrod was a ringleader among these giants, and that "conspiracy, sedition, and tyranny were carried on under him." From the very necessity of the case, the faithful must have suffered most, as being most opposed to his ambitious and sacrilegious schemes. That Nimrod's reign terminated in some very signal catastrophe, we have seen abundant reason already to conclude. The following statement of Syncellus confirms the conclusions to which we have already come as to the nature of that catastrophe; referring to the arresting of the tower-building scheme, Syncellus (Chronographia, vol. i. p. 77) proceeds thus: "But Nimrod would still obstinately stay (when most of the other tower-builders were dispersed), and reside upon the spot; nor could he be withdrawn from the tower, still having the command over no contemptible body of men. Upon this, we are informed, that the tower, being beat upon by violent winds, gave way, and by the just judgment of God, crushed him to pieces." Though this could not be literally true, for the tower stood for many ages, yet there is a considerable amount of tradition to the effect that the tower in which Nimrod gloried was overthrown by wind, which gives reason to suspect that this story, when properly understood, had a real meaning in it. Take it figuratively, and remembering that the same word which signifies the wind signifies also the Spirit of God, it becomes highly probable that the meaning is, that his lofty and ambitious scheme, by which, in Scriptural language, he was seeking to "mount up to heaven," and "set his nest among the stars," was overthrown for a time by the Spirit of God, as we have already concluded, and that, in that overthrow he himself perished.
42. OVID, Metamorphoses, lib. v., fab. 5, 11. 321-323.
43. KENNEDY'S Hindoo Mythology, p. 336.
44. COLEMAN, p. 89.
45. KENNEDY'S Hindoo Mythology, p. 350.
46. POPE'S Homer, Iliad, Book i. 11. 750-765, vol. i. p. 39.
47. Paradise Lost, lib. i. 11. 738-745.
48. The Greek poets speak of two downfalls of Vulcan. In the one case he was cast down by Jupiter, in the other by Juno. When Jupiter cast him down, it was for rebellion; when Juno did so, one of the reasons specially singled out for doing so was his "malformation," that is, his ugliness. (HOMER'S Hymn to Apollo, 11. 316-318, p. 37 of Hymn.) How exactly does this agree with the story of Nimrod: First he was personally cast down, when, by Divine authority, he was slain. Then he was cast down, in effigy, by Juno, when his image was degraded from the arms of the Queen of Heaven, to make way for the fairer child. See ante, p. 69.
49. See pages 62-65. Though Orpheus was commonly represented as having been torn in pieces, he too was fabled to have been killed by lightning. (PAUSANIAS, Boeotica, cap. xxx. p. 768.) When Zoroaster died, he also is said in the myth to have perished by lightning (SUIDAS, vol. i. pp. 1133, 1134); and therefore, in accordance with that myth, he is represented as charging his countrymen to preserve not his body, but his "ashes." The death by lightning, however, is evidently a mere figure.
50. The birth of the Man-child, as given above, is different from that usually given: but let the reader consider if the view which I have taken does not meet all the requirements of the case. I think there will be but few who will assent to the opinion of Mr. Elliot, which in substance amounts to this, that the Man-child was Constantine the Great, and that when Christianity, in his person sat down on the throne of Imperial Rome, that was the fulfilment of the saying, that the child brought forth by the woman, amid such pangs of travail, was "caught up to God and His throne." When Constantine came to the empire, the Church indeed, as foretold in Daniel xi. 34, "was holpen with a little help;" but that was all. The Christianity of Constantine was but of a very doubtful kind, the Pagans seeing nothing in it to hinder but that when he died, he should be enrolled among their gods. (EUTROPIUS, x. pp. 131-133.) But even though it had been better, the description of the woman's child is far too high for Constantine, or any Christian emperor that succeeded him on the imperial throne. "The Man-child, born to rule all nations with a rod of iron," is unequivocally Christ (see Psalms ii. 9; Rev. xix. 15). True believers, as one with Him in a subordinate sense, share in that honour (Rev. ii. 27); but to Christ alone, properly, does that prerogative belong; and I think it must be evident that it is His birth that is here referred to. But those who have contended for this view have done injustice to their cause by representing this passage as referring to His literal birth in Bethlehem. When Christ was born in Bethlehem, no doubt Herod endeavoured to cut Him off, and Herod was a subject of the Roman Empire. But it was not from any respect to Caesar that he did so, but simply from fear of danger to his own dignity as King of Judea. So little did Caesar sympathise with the slaughter of the children of Bethlehem, that it is recorded that Augustus, on hearing of it, remarked that it was "better to be Herod's hog than to be his child," (MACROBIUS, Saturnalia, lib. ii. cap. 4, p. 77, B.) Then, even if it were admitted that Herod's bloody attempt to cut off the infant Saviour was symbolised by the Roman dragon, standing ready to devour the child as soon as it should be born," where was there anything that could correspond to the statement that the child, to save it from that dragon, "was caught up to God and His throne"? The flight of Joseph and Mary with the Child into Egypt could never answer to such language. Moreover, it is worthy of special note, that when the Lord Jesus was born in Bethlehem, He was born, in a very important sense only as "King of the Jews." "Where is He that is born King of the Jews?" was the inquiry of the wise men that came from the East to seek Him. All His life long, He appeared in no other character; and when He died, the inscription on His cross ran in these terms: "This is the King of the Jews." Now, this was no accidental thing. Paul tells us (Rom. xv. 8) that "Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers." Our Lord Himself plainly declared the same thing. "I am not sent," said He to the Syrophoanician woman, "save to the lost sheep of the house of Israel;" and, in sending out His disciples during His personal ministry, this was the charge which He gave them: "Go not in the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not." It was only when He was "begotten from the dead," and "declared to be the Son of God with power," by His victory over the grave, that He was revealed as "the Man-child, born to rule all nations." Then said He to His disciples, when He had risen, and was about to ascend on high: "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth: go ye therefore, and teach agnations." To this glorious "birth" from the tomb, and to the birth-pangs of His Church that preceded it, our Lord Himself made distinct allusion on the night before He was betrayed (John xvi. 20-22), "Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a MAN is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice." Here the grief of the apostles, and, of course, all the true Church that sympathised with them during the hour and power of darkness, is compared to the pangs of a travailing woman; and their joy, when the Saviour should see them again after His resurrection, to the joy of a mother when safely delivered of a Man-child. Can there be a doubt, then, what the symbol before us means, when the woman is represented as travailing in pain to be delivered of a "Man-child, that was to rule all nations," and when it is said that that "Man-child was caught up to God and His throne "?
51. VIRGIL'S Æneid, Book ii. 11. 296, 297, p. 78.
52. De Civitate, lib. iii. cap. 28, vol. ix. p. 110.
53. OVID, Fasti, lib. iv. 11. 722-743.
54. Ibid. Metam., lib. xv. 11. 736-745.
55. Ibid, and Æneid, lib. vii. 11. 769-773, pp. 364, 365.
56. WILKINSON, vol. i. p. 267, and APULEIUS, Metam., cap. xi.
57. The birth of Æsculapius in the myth was just the same as that of Bacchus. His mother was consumed by lightning, and the infant was rescued from the lightning that consumed her, as Bacchus was snatched from the flames that burnt up his mother. LEMPRIERE.
58. DYMOCK, sub voce.
59. DRYDEN'S Virgil, Book xii. 11. 245-248, vol. iii. p. 775; in Original, 11. 161-164.
60. LACTANTIUS, De Origine Erroris, p. 82.
61. Pompeii, vol. ii. pp. 114, 115.
62. Ibid. vol. ii. p. 105.
63. "All the faces in his (MAZOIS'S) engraving are quite black." (Pompeii, vol. ii. p. 106.) In India, the infant Crishna (emphatically the black god), in the arms of the goddess Devaki, is represented with the woolly hair and marked features of the Negro or African race (see Fig. 54; from MOOR, Plate 59).
64. AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS, lib. xvi. cap. 12, p. 145. (See Appendix, Note P.)
65. ZOSIMI, Hist., lib. iv. p. 761.
66. AURELIUS VICTOR, Origo Gent. Roman., cap. 3.
67. PLUTARCH (in Hist. Numoe, vol. i. p. 65) states, that Numa forbade the making of images, and that for 170 years after the founding of Rome, no images were allowed in the Roman temples.
68. Æneid, lib. viii. 11. 467-470, vol. iii. p. 608.
69. DIONYSIUS HALICARN., vol. i. p. 22, Sir W. Betham (Etruria Celtica, vol. i. p. 47) opposes the Lydian origin of the Etrurians; but Layard (Nineveh and Babylon, chap. xxiv. p. 563) seems to have set the question at rest in favour of their Oriental extraction, or at least their close connection with the East.
70. KENNETT'S Antiquities, Part ii., Book ii. chap. 3, p. 67; ADAM'S Antiquities, "Ministers of Religion," p. 255.
71. KENNETT'S Antiquities, Book ii. chap. 4, p. 69.
72. CICERO, De Divinatione, lib. i. cap. 41, vol. iii. pp. 34, 35.
73. LIVY, lib. iv. cap. 4, vol. i. p. 260.
74. BARKER and AINSWORTH'S Lares and Penates of Cilicia, chap. viii. p. 232. Barker says, "The defeated Chaldeans fled to Asia Minor, and fixed their central college at Pergamos." Phrygia, that was so remarkable for the worship of Cybele and Atys, formed part of the kingdom of Pergamos. Mysia also was another, and the Mysians, in the Paschal Chronicle, are said to be descended from Nimrod. The words are, "Nebrod, the huntsman and giant from whence came the Mysians." (Pasch. Chron. vol. i. p. 50.) [This is borrowed by M. See BB 2:350.] Lydia, also, from which Livy and Herodotus say the Etrurians came, formed part of the same kingdom. For the fact that Mysia, Lydia, and Phrygia were constituent parts of the kingdom of Pergamos, see SMITH'S Classical Dictionary, p. 542.
75. The kings of Pergamos, in whose dominions the Chaldean Magi found an asylum, were evidently by them, and by the general voice of Paganism that sympathised with them, put into the vacant place which Belshazzar and his predecessors had occupied. They were hailed as the representatives of the old Babylonian god. This is evident from the statements of Pausanias. First, he quotes the following words from the oracle of a prophetess called Phaennis, in reference to the Gauls: "But divinity will still more seriously afflict those that dwell near the sea. However, in a short time after, Jupiter will send them a defender, the beloved son of a Jove-nourished bull, who will bring destruction on all the Gauls." (Lib. x., Phocica, cap. xv. p. 833.) Then on this he comments as follows: "Phaennis, in this oracle, means by the son of a bull, Attalus, king of Pergamos, whom the oracle of Apollo called Taurokeron," or bull-horned. (Ibid.) This title given by the Delphian god, proves that Attalus, in whose dominions the Magi had their chief seat, had been set up and recognised in the very character of Bacchus, the Head of the Magi. Thus the vacant seat of Belshazzar was filled, and the broken chain of the Chaldean succession renewed.
76. SMITH'S Classical Dictionary, p. 542.
77. NIEBUHR, vol. iii. p. 27.
78. DYMOCK, sub voce "Julius Caesar," p. 460, col. 1.
79. The deification of the emperors that continued in succession from the days of Divus Julius, or the "Deified Julius," can be traced to no cause so likely as their representing the "Bull-horned" Attalus both as Pontiff and Sovereign.
80. That "scarlet" was the robe of honour in Belshazzar's time, see Dan. v. 7, 29.
81. That the key was one of the symbols used in the Mysteries, the reader will find on consulting TAYLOR'S Note on Orphic Hymn to Pluto, where that divinity is spoken of as "keeper of the keys." Now the Pontifex, as "Hierophant," was "arrayed in the habit and adorned with the symbols of the great Creator of the world, of whom in these Mysteries he was supposed to be the substitute." (MAURICE'S Antiquities, vol. iii. p. 356.) The Primeval or Creative god was mystic ally represented as Androgyne, as combining in his own person both sexes (Ibid. vol. v. p. 933), being therefore both Janus and Cybele at the same time. In opening up the Mysteries, therefore, of this mysterious divinity, it was natural that the Pontifex should bear the key of both these divinities. Janus himself, however, as well as Pluto, was often represented with more than one key. The edition of Maurice above referred to is London, 1793-94.
82. The original authority of Zosimus has already been given for this statement. The reader may find the same fact stated in GIBBON, vol. iii. p. 397, Note.
83. HUMBOLDT'S Researches, vol. ii. pp. 21, 23.
84. DAVIES'S Druids, Note at p. 555, compared with p. 142.
85. DIODORUS, lib. iii., cap. 4, p. 142.
86. The quote is as follows:
Ille relicto
Imperio, ripas virides, amnemque querelis
Eridanum implerat, silvamque sororibus auctam,
. . . . . . . . . . nec se coeloque Jovique
Credit, ut injuste missi memor ignis ah illo,
Stagna petit, patulosque lacus; ignemque perosus,
olat, elegit contraria flumina flammis.
Metam., lib. ii. v. 369-380, vol. ii. pp. 88, 89. The reader will notice the ambiguity of colat, as signifying either "to worship" or "to inhabit."
87. COLEMAN'S Hindu Mythology, p. 89.
88. BEROSUS, lib. i. p. 48.
89. WILKINSON, vol. iv. pp. 239 and 412. In Egypt, the Uraeus, or the Cerastes, was the good serpent, the Apophis the evil one. (WILKINSON, vol. v. p. 243.)
90. DAVIES'S Druids, p. 180. Davies identifies Noah with Bacchus.
91. WILSON'S Parsi Religion, pp. 192, 251, 252, 262, 305.
92. The name Tammuz, as applied to Nimrod or Osiris, was equivalent to Alorus, or the "god of fire," and seems to have been given to him as the great purifier by fire. Tammuz is derived from tam, "to make perfect," and muz, "fire," and signifies "Fire the perfecter," or "the perfecting fire." To this meaning of the name, as well as to the character of Nimrod as the Father of the gods, the Zoroastrian verse alludes when it says: "All things are the progeny of ONE FIRE. The FATHER perfected all things, and delivered them to the second mind, whom all nations of men call the first." (CORY'S Fragments, p. 242.) Here Fire is declared to be the Father of all; for all things are said to be its progeny, and it is also called the "perfecter of all things." The second mind is evidently the child who displaced Nimrod's image as an object of worship; but yet the agency of Nimrod, as the first of the gods, and the fire-god, was held indispensable for "perfecting" men. And hence, too, no doubt, the necessity of the fire of Purgatory to "perfect" men's souls at last, and to purge away all the sins that they have carried with them into the unseen world.
93. HUMBOLDT'S Researches, vol. i. p. 185.
94. OVID, Fasti, lib. iv. 11. 794,
795, vol. iii. p. 274. It was not a little interesting to me, after being led by
strict induction from circumstantial evidence to the conclusion that the
purgation by fire was derived from the fire-worship of Adon or Tammuz, and that
by water had reference to Noah's Flood, to find an express statement in Ovid,
that such was the actual belief at Rome in his day. After mentioning, in the
passage to which the above citation refers, various fanciful reasons for the
twofold purgation by fire and water, he concludes thus: "For my part, I do not
believe them; there are some (however) who say that the one is intended to
commemorate Phaethon, and the other the flood of Deucalion."
If, however, any one should still think it unlikely that the worship of Noah
should be mingled in the ancient world with the worship of the Queen of Heaven
and her son, let him open his eyes to what is taking place in Italy at this hour
[in 1856] in regard to the worship of that patriarch and the Roman Queen of
Heaven. The following, kindly sent me by Lord John Scott, as confirmatory of the
views propounded in these pages, appeared in the Morning Herald, Oct. 26, 1855:
"AN ARCHBISHOP'S PRAYER TO THE PATRIARCH NOAH. POPERY IN TURIN. For several
consecutive years the vintage has been almost entirely destroyed in Tuscany, in
consequence of the prevalent disease. The Archbishop of Florence has conceived
the idea of arresting this plague by directing prayers to be offered, not to
God, but to the patriarch Noah; and he has just published a collection,
containing eight forms of supplication, addressed to this distinguished
personage of the ancient covenant. Most holy patriarch Noah! is the language of
one of these prayers, who didst employ thyself in thy long career in cultivating
the vine, and gratifying the human race with that precious beverage, which
allays the thirst, restores the strength, and enlivens the spirits of us all,
deign to regard our vines, which, following thine example, we have cultivated
hitherto; and, while thou beholdest them languishing and blighted by that
disastrous visitation, which, before the vintage, destroys the fruit (in severe
punishment for many blasphemies and other enormous sins we have committed), have
compassion on us, and, prostrate before the lofty throne of God, who has
promised to His children the fruits of the earth, and an abundance of corn and
wine, entreat Him on our behalf; promise Him in our name, that, with the aid of
Divine grace, we will forsake the ways of vice and sin, that we will no longer
abuse His sacred gifts, and will scrupulously observe His holy law, and that of
our holy Mother, the Catholic Church, &c. The collection concludes with a new
prayer, addressed to the Virgin Mary, who is invoked in these words: immaculate
Mary, behold our fields and vineyards! and, should it seem to thee that we merit
so great a favour, stay, we beseech thee, this terrible plague, which, inflicted
for our sins, renders our fields unfruitful, and deprives our vines of the
honours of the vintage, &c. The work contains a vignette, representing the
patriarch Noah presiding over the operations of the vintage, as well as a
notification from the Archbishop, granting an indulgence of forty days to all
who shall devoutly recite the prayers in question. Christian Times." In
view of such rank Paganism as this, well may the noble Lord already referred to
remark, that surely here is the world turned backwards, and the worship of the
old god Bacchus unmistakably restored!
95. GIESELER, vol. ii. p. 42, Note.
96. The Greeks chose as their war-god Arioch or Arius, the grandson of Nimrod. (CEDRENUS, vol. i pp. 28, 29.)
97. From about A.D. 360, to the time of the Emperor Justinian, about 550, we have evidence both of the promulgation of this doctrine, and also of the deep hold it came at last to take of professing Christians. See GIESELER, vol. ii., Second Period, "Public Worship," p. 145.
98. AUGUSTINE, De Civitate, lib. xviii. cap. 23, vol. ix. p. 665.
99. Codex Theodosianus, lib. xvi. tit. 1, leg. 2. See also leg. 3. The reader will notice, that while the Bishop of Rome alone is called Pontifex, the heads of the other churches referred to are simply " Episcopi."
100. Rescript of Gratian, in answer to application of Roman Council, in GIESELER, vol. i., Second Period, div. i. chap. 3, "Hierarchy in the West," p. 434, Note 12. See also BOWER, "Damasus," AD 378. For the demands of the Roman Council, see Ibid. vol. i. p. 209. This rescript was prior to the decree in the Codex above referred to, which decree runs in the name of Valentinian and Theodosius, as well as of Gratian, who had associated them with himself.
101. The celibacy of the clergy was enacted by Syricius, Bishop of Rome, AD 385. (GIESELER, vol. i., Second Period, div. i. chap. 4, "Monachism," vol. ii. p. 20; and BOWER'S Lives of the Popes, vol. i. p. 235.)
102. Against the use of flesh and wine, see what is said at the same period by Jerome, the great advocate of the Papacy. (HIERONYMUS, Adv. Jovin., lib. ii., throughout the book, vol. i. pp. 360-380.)
103. BOWER, vol. ii. p. 14.
104. GIESELER, vol. ii., Second Period, div. ii. c. 6, "German Nations," p. 157.
105. Comment, in Epist. ad Galat., iv. 3, torn. iii. p. 138, col. 1.
106. Decline and Fall, chap, xxviii., vol. v. p. 87.
107. Codex Theodosianus, xvi. 10, 22, p. 1625.
108. Decline and Fall, chap, xxviii., vol. v. pp. 90-93, and p. 112.
109. GIESELER, vol. ii. pp. 40, 45.
110. Decline and Fall, chap, xxviii., vol. v. pp. 121, &c.
111. Gibbon distinctly admits this. "It must ingenuously be confessed," says he, "that the ministers of the Catholic Church imitated the profane model they were so impatient to destroy."
112. BOWER'S Lives of the Popes, vol. i., "Damasus," pp. 180-183 inclusive.
114. Bacchus himself was called by the very name "Ichthys." (HESYCHIUS, p. 179.) [This is borrowed by M. see NG 1:452. See also p. 301.]
115. The reader who has seen the first edition of this work, will perceive that, in the above reasoning, I found nothing upon the formal appointment by Gratian of the Pope as Pontifex, with direct authority over the Pagans, as was done in that edition. That is not because I do not believe that such an appointment was made, but because, at the present moment, some obscurity rests on the subject. The Rev. Barcroft Boake, a very learned minister of the Church of England in Ceylon, when in this country, communicated to me his researches on the subject, which have made me hesitate to assert that there was any formal authority given to the Bishop of Rome over the Pagans by Gratian. At the same time, I am still convinced that the original statement was substantially true. The late Mr. Jones, in the Journal of Prophecy, not only referred to the Appendix to the Codex Theodosianus, in proof of such an appointment, but, in elucidation of the words of the Codex, asserted in express terms that there was a contest for the office of Pontifex, and that there were two candidates, the one a Pagan, Symmachus, who had previously been Valentinian's deputy, and the other the Bishop of Rome. (Quarterly Journal of Prophecy, Oct. 1852, p. 328.) I have not been able to find Mr. Jones's authority for this statement; but the statement is so circumstantial, that it cannot easily be called in question without impugning the veracity of him that made it. I have found Mr. Jones in error on divers points, but in no error of such a nature as this; and the character of the man forbids such a supposition. Moreover, the language of the Appendix cannot easily admit of any other interpretation. But, even though there were no formal appointment of Bishop Damasus to a pontificate extending over the Pagans, yet it is clear that, by the rescript of Gratian (the authenticity of which is fully admitted by the accurate Gieseler), he was made the supreme spiritual authority in the Western Empire, in all religious questions. When, therefore, in the year 400, Pagan priests were, by the Christian Emperor of the West, from political motives, "acknowledged as public officers" (Cod. Theod. , xii. 1, ad POMPEJANUM, Procons. Africæ, p. 1262), these Pagan priests necessarily came under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, as there was then no other tribunal but his for determining all matters affecting religion. In the text, however, I have made no allusion to this. The argument, as I think the reader will admit, is sufficiently decisive without it.
116. The reader will observe, it is not said he shall not worship any god; the reverse is evident; but that he shall not regard any, that his own glory is his highest end.
117. The word here is the same as above rendered "fortifications."
118. GIBBON, vol. v. p. 176, states that he was persecuted and exiled, and that as the enemy of celibacy and fasts, that is, such fasts as Rome enforced. See also in regard to his excommunication, BOWER, vol. i. p. 256 ; and MlLNER, Church History, cent. 5th, cap. 10, vol. ii., Note, p. 476.
119. CICERO, De Natura Deorum, lib. iii. cap. 16, vol. ii. p. 500.
120. It is from this period only that the well-known 1260 days can begin to be counted; for not before did the Pope appear as Head of the ten-horned beast, and head of the Universal Church. The reader will observe that though the beast above referred to has passed through the sea, it still retains its primitive characteristic. The head of the apostasy at first was Kronos, "The Horned One." The head of the apostasy is Kronos still, for he is the beast "with seven heads and ten horns."
121. In Egypt, especially among the Greek-speaking population, the Egyptian b frequently passed into an m. See BUNSEN, vol. i. pp. 273, 472.
122. AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS, lib. xxi. cap. 1, p. 264.
123. From WILKINSON, Plate 22, "Amun." By comparing this figure with what is said in WILKINSON, vol. iv. pp. 235, 238, it will be seen, that though the above figure is called by the name of "Amun," the ram's head makes it out as having the attributes of Noub.
124. From Antiquites Etrusques. Par. F. A. DAVID. Vol. v. Plate 57. I am indebted for the above, and many other things that have helped to elucidate this work, to my friend and neighbour, the Rev. A. Peebles, of Colliston.
125. OVID, Metam., lib. xv. 11. 558, 559, p. 760.
126. LUCAN, Civ. Bell., lib. i. v. 356, 357, p. 41.
127. Georgics, Book i. 1. 480, p. 129.
128. AUGUSTINE, De Civitate, lib. iii. cap. 11, vol. ix. p. 86.
129. PSELLUS on Demons, pp. 40, 41.
130. EUNAPIUS, p. 73.
131. JUVENAL'S Satires, vi. 1. 537.
132. NEWMAN'S Lectures, 285-287, apud BEGG'S Handbook of Popery, p. 93.
133. TODD'S Western India, p. 277.
134. EUSEBE SALVERTE, p. 37.
135. Flores Seraphici, p. 158.
136. Ibid. p. 391.
137. SALVERTE, p. 37. The story of the above-mentioned Francis of Macerata, is the exact counterpart of the story of Zoroaster; for not only was he raised aloft in prayer, but his body became luminous at the same time, "flammamque capiti insidentem," a "flame resting on his head" (Flores Ser. p. 391).
138. Ibid.
139. AUGUSTINE, De Civitate, lib. viii. cap. 26, vol. ix. p. 284, col. 2.
140. See SAIVERTE, p. 382.
141. Ibid. p. 383; LIVY, Historia, lib. i. cap. 31, vol. i. p. 46; PLINY, lib. xxviii. p. 684. The means appointed for drawing down the lightning were described in the books of the Etrurian Tages. Numa had copied from these books, and had left commentaries behind him on the subject, which Tullus had misunderstood, and hence the catastrophe.
142. JUSTIN MARTYR, vol. ii. p. 193. It is remarkable that, as Mithra was bow, out of a cave, so the idolatrous nominal Christians of the East represent our Saviour as having in like manner been born in a cave. (See KITTO'S Cyclopaedia, "Bethlehem," vol. i. p. 327.) There is not the least hint of such a thing in the Scripture.
143. LEMPRIERE.
144. GUIZOT, History of Civilisation, vol. i. sect. ii. pp. 36, 37.
145. GIBBON, vol. iii. chap. xx. p. 287.
146. Rome in the 19th Century, vol. i. pp. 246, 247.
147. Though the Pope be the great Jupiter Tonans of the Papacy, and "fulminates" from the Vatican, as his predecessor was formerly believed to do from the Capitol, yet it is not he in reality that brings down the fire from heaven, but his clergy. But for the influence of the clergy in everywhere blinding the minds of the people, the Papal thunders would be but "bruta fulmina" after all. The symbol, therefore, is most exact, when it attributes the " bringing down of the fire from heaven," to the beast from the earth, rather than to the beast from the sea.
148. GIESELER, vol. ii., 2nd Period, Division 2nd, Sect. 117. From Gieseler we learn that so early as 501, the Bishop of Rome had laid the foundation of the corporation of bishops by the bestowal of the pallium; but, at the same time, he expressly states that it was only about 602, at the ascent of Phocas to the imperial throne that Phocas that made the Pope Universal Bishop that the Popes began to bestow the pallium, that is, of course, systematically, and on a large scale.
149. Rome in the 19th Century, vol. iii. p. 214. In the present day, the pallium is given only to the Archbishops; Gieseler, in passage already quoted, shows that it was given to simple bishops as well.
150. GIESELER, vol. ii., "Papacy," p. 255. The reader who peruses the early letters of the Popes in bestowing the pallium, will not fail to observe the wide difference of meaning between "the one pastoral sheepfold" ("uno pastorali ovili"), above referred to, and "The one sheepfold" of our Lord. The former really means a sheepfold consisting of pastors or shepherds. The papal letters unequivocally imply the organisation of the bishops, as a distinct corporation, altogether independent of the Church, and dependent only on the Papacy, which seems remarkably to agree with the terms of the prediction in regard to the beast from the earth.
151. Original Interpretation of the Apocalypse, p. 123.
154. KITTO'S Cyclopaedia, vol. i. pp. 251, 252.
156. EUSEBIUS, Praeparatio Evangel., lib. i. cap. 10, vol. i. p. 45. This statement is remarkable, as showing that the horns which the great goddess wore were really intended to exhibit her as the express image of Ninus, or "the Son." Had she worn merely the cow's horns, it might have been supposed that these horns were intended only to identify her with the moon. But the bull's horns show that the intention was to represent her as equal in her sovereignty with Nimrod, or Kronos, the "Horned one."
158. Jeremiah vii. 18, and PARKHURST'S Hebrew Lexicon, pp. 402, 403.
159. See ante, p. 72. See ante, p. 78.
160. See ante, p. 158. The Chaldean meaning of the name Amarusia, signifying "Mother of gracious acceptance," shows it to have come from Babylon.
161. Lucius AMPELIUS, in BRYANT, vol. iii. p. 161.
167. TOOKE'S Pantheon, p. 153. That the key of Cybele, in the esoteric story, had a corresponding meaning to that of Janus, will appear from the character above assigned to her as the Mediatrix.
168. Proclus, speaking of Saturn, says, "purity therefore indicates this .... transcendency of Saturn, his undefiled union with the intelligible. This purity and the undefiled, which he possesses," &c., in Notes to TAYLOR'S Orphic Hymns, p. 176.
170. WILKINSON, vol. iv. pp. 314, 315.
171. Ibid. vol. iv. p. 190.
172. Ibid. p. 256. See also ante, p. 57.
173. MOSES OF CHORENE, lib. i. cap. 16, p. 48. "Ninyas enim occasionem nactus matrem (Semiramida) necavit." In like manner, Horus, in Egypt, is said to have cut off his mother s head, as Bel in Babylon also cut asunder the great primeval goddess of the Babylonians. (BUNSEN, vol. i. pp. 436, 708.)
175. Orphic Hymns, "Hymn to Semele," No 43.
176. Apollodorus states that Bacchus, on carrying his mother to heaven, called her Thuone (APOLLODORUS, lib. iii. cap. 5, p. 266), which was just the feminine of his own name, Thuoneus in Latin Thyoneus. (OVID, Metam., lib. iv. 1. 13.) Thuoneus is evidently from the passive participle of Thn, "to lament," a synonym for "Bacchus," "The lamented god." Thuone, in like manner, is "The lamented goddess." The Roman Juno was evidently known in this very character of the "Image"; for there was a temple erected to her in Rome, on the Capitoline hill, under the name of "Juno Moueta." Moneta is the emphatic form of one of the Chaldee words for an "image"; and that this was the real meaning of the name, will appear from the fact that the Mint was contained in the precincts of that temple. (See SMITH'S "Juno," p. 358.) What is the use of a mint but just to stamp "images"? Hence the connection between Juno and the Mint.
177. The very way in which the Popish Madonna is represented is plainly copied from the idolatrous representations of the Pagan goddess. The great god used to be represented as sitting or standing in the cup of a Lotus-flower. (See BRYANT, vol. iii. p. 180, where Harpocrates is thus represented; and VAUX'S Handbook of British Museum, p. 429, where Cupid is sitting on a flower.) In India, the very same mode of representation is common; Brahma being often seen sacred heart," such blasphemous words as these, "Go, then, devout client! go to the heart of Jesus, but let your way be through the heart of Mary; the sword of grief which pierced her sold opens you a passage; enter by the wound which love has made;"178 again we seated on a Lotus-flower, said to have sprung from the navel of Vishnu. The great goddess, in like manner, must have a similar couch; and, therefore, in India, we find Lakshmi, the "Mother of the Universe," sitting on a Lotus, borne by a tortoise (see Fig. 57; from COLEMAN'S Mythology, plate 23). Now, in this very thing, also. Popery has copied from its Pagan model; for, in the Pancarpium, Marianum, p. 88, the Virgin and child are represented sitting in the cup of a tulip (see Fig. 58).
178. Memoir of Rev. Godfrey Massy, pp. 91, 92. In the Paradisus sponsi et sponsae, by the author of Pancarpium Marianum, the following words, addressed to the Virgin, occur in illustration of a plate representing the crucifixion, and Mary, at the foot of the Cross, with the sword in her breast, "Dilectus tuus filius carnem tu vero animam immolasti: immo corpus et animam" (p. 181); "Thy beloved son did sacrifice his flesh; thou thy soul yea, both body and soul." This does much more than put the sacrifice of the Virgin on a level with that of the Lord Jesus, it makes it greater far. This, in 1617, was the creed only of Jesuitism; now there is reason to believe it to be the general creed of the Papacy.
179. Missionary Record of the Free Church, 1855.
180. Ibid.
182. Vol. iv. p. 179.
183. In the Litany of the Mass, the worshippers are taught thus to pray: "GOD HIDDEN, and my Saviour, have mercy upon us." (McGAVIN'S Protestant, vol. ii. p. 79, 1837.) Whence can this invocation of the "God Hidden" have come, but from the ancient worship of Saturn, the "Hidden God"? As the Papacy has canonised the Babylonian god by the name of St. Dionysius, and St. Bacchus, the "martyr," so by this very name of "Satur" is he also enrolled in the calendar; for March 29th is the festival of "St. Satur," the martyr. (CHAMBERS'S Book of Days, p. 435.) [This is borrowed by M. See NG 1:369 and NG 2:414.]
184. Fasti, lib. vi. 11. 31-34, vol. iii. p. 342.
185. Hist. Nat., lib. iii. 5, p. 55.
186. AUREL. VICT., Origo Gent. Roman, cap. iii. See ante, p. 236.
187. OVID, Fasti, lib. i. 1. 238, vol. iii. p. 29; also VIRGIL, Æneid lib. viii. 1. 319, &c., p. 384.
188. Latium Latinus (the Roman form of the Greek Lateinos), and Lateo, "to lie hid," all alike come from the Chaldee "Lat," which has the same meaning. The name "Lat," or the hidden one, had evidently been given, as well as Saturn, to the Great Babylonian god. This is evident from the name of the fish Latus, which was worshipped along with the Egyptian Minerva, in the city of Latopolis in Egypt, now Esneh (WILKINSON, vol. iv. p. 284, and vol. v. p. 253), that fish Latus evidently just being another name for the fish-god Dagon. We have seen that Ichthys, or the Fish, was one of the names of Bacchus; and the Assyrian goddess Atergatis, with her son Ichthys is said to have been cast into the lake of Ascalon. ( Vossius de Idololatria, lib. i. cap. xxiii. p. 89, also ATHENÆUS, lib. viii. cap. viii. p. 346, E.) [This is borrowed by M. See NG 1:452.] That the sun-god Apollo had been known under the name of Lat, may be inferred from the Greek name of his mother-wife Leto, or in Doric, Late, which is just the feminine of Lat. The Roman name Latona confirms this, for it signifies "The lamenter of Lat," as Bellona signifies "The lamenter of Bel." The Indian god Siva, who, as we have seen, is sometimes represented as a child at the breast of its mother, and has the same bloody character as Moloch, or the Roman Saturn, is called by this very name, as may be seen from the following verse made in reference to the image found in his celebrated temple at Somnaut:—
"This image grim, whose name was LAUT,
Bold Mahmoud found when he took Sumnaut."
BORROW'S Gypsies in Spain, or Zincali, vol. ii. p. 113.
189. As Lat was used as a synonym for Saturn, there can be Httle doubt that Latinus was used in the same sense. Virgil makes the Latinus, who was the contemporary of ^Eneas, third in descent from Saturn:—
"Rex arva Latinus et urbes
Jam senior longa placidus in pace regebat.
Hunc Fauno et Myunpha genitum Laurente Marica
Accipimus. Fauno Picus pater, isque parentem
Te, Saturne, refert."
Æneid, lib. vii. 11. 45-49, p. 323.
The deified kings were called after the gods from whom they professed to spring, and not after their territories. The same, we may be sure, was the case with Latinus.
190. Saturnalia, lib. i. cap. 9, p. 54, G.
191. The name, as given in Greek by Berosus, is O-annes (p. 48); but this is just the very way we might expect "He-anesh," "the man," to appear in Greek. He-siri, in Greek, becomes Osiris; and He-sarsiphon, Osarsiphon; and, in like manner, He-anesh naturally becomes Oannes. In the sense of a "Man-god," the name Oannes is taken by Barker (Lares and Penates, p. 224). We find the conversion of the H into O among our own immediate neighbours, the Irish; what is now O'Brien and O'Connell was originally H'Brien and H'Connell. (Sketches of Irish History, p. 72.)
192. See ante, Chapter III. p. 96.
193. Bibliotheca, lib. i. in PARKHURST, sub voce "aaz," No. v.; see also MACROBIUS, Saturnalia, lib. i. cap. 20, in regard to "Hercules the man."
194. TERENTIANUS MAURUS in BRYANT, vol. iii. p. 82.
195. WILKINSON, vol. iv. p. 191.
196. Anesh properly signifies only the weakness or frailty of fallen humanity; but any one who consults OVID, Fasti, "Kal. Jun.," 11. 100, &c., vol. iii. p. 346, as to the character of Janus, will see that when E-anush was deified, it was not simply as Fallen man with his weakness, but Fallen man with his corruption.
197. SMITH'S Classical Dictionary, "Atys," p. 107. The identification of Attes with Bacchus or Adonis, who was at once the Father of the gods, and the Mediator, is proved from divers considerations.
While it is certain that the favourite god of the Phrygian Cybele was Attes, whence he was called "Cybelius Attes," from Strabo, lib. x. p. 452, we learn that the divinity worshipped along with Cybele in Phrygia, was called by the very name of Dionusos or Bacchus.
Attes was represented in the very same way as Bacchus. In Bryant there is an inscription to him along with the Idaean goddess, that is Cybele, under the name of "Attis the Minotaur" (Mythol., vol. ii. p. 109, Note). Bacchus was bull-horned; it is well known that the Minotaur, in like manner, was half-man, half-bull.
He was represented in the exoteric story, as perishing in the same way as Adonis by a wild boar (PAUSAN., lib. vii., Achaica, cap. 17).
In the rites of Magna Mater or Cybele, the priests invoked him as the "Deus propitiu", "Deus sanctus," "the merciful God, the holy God" (ARNOBIUS, lib. i. in Maxima Biblioth. Patrum, in Ed. Adv. Lib., tom. iii. p. 435, Lugd., 1677), the very character which Bacchus or Adonis sustained as the mediatorial god.
199. The whole story of Attes can be proved in detail to be the story of the Fall. Suffice it here only to state that, even on the surface, his sin was said to be connected with undue love for "a nymph, whose fate depended on a tree" (OVID, Fasti, lib. iv., Ludi Megalenses). The love of Attes for this nymph was in one aspect an offence to Cybele, but, in another, it was the love of Cybele herself; for Cybele has two distinct fundamental characters that of the Holy Spirit, and also that of our mother Eve (see Appendix, Note G). "The nymph whose fate depended on a tree" was evidently Rhea, the mother of mankind.
200. BRYANT, vol. i. p. 387, Note. The ground of the identification of Attis with the sun evidently was, that as Hata signifies to sin, so Hatah, which signifies to burn, is in pronunciation nearly the same. In illustration of the name Attes, or Attis, as "The Sinner," see Appendix, Note R.
201. PAUSAN., lib. vii., Achaica, cap. 17.
202. The very term "energy" here employed, is the term continually used in the Chaldean books, describing the inspiration coming from the gods and demons to their worshippers. (TAYLOR'S Jamblichus, p. 163, et passim.)
203. IRENÆUS, lib. v. cap. 30, p. 802. Though the name Teitan was originally derived from Chaldee, yet it became thoroughly naturalised in the Greek language. Therefore, to give the more abundant evidence on this important subject, the Spirit of God seems to have ordered it, that the number of Teitan should be found according to the Greek computation, while that of Satur is found by the Chaldee. [The quote from Irenaeus on this page is borrowed by M. See NG 1:367. And by Kenneth Grant, through M. See his Nightside of Eden, p. 143. Oddly, Hislop's book is listed in the bibliography to this book, but not in the one mentioned below. See following note. See also my essay wherein I prove that M. derived his source from Hislop, and not the other way round, contrary to Grant.]
204. The learned reader has no need of examples in proof of this frequent Chaldean transformation of the Sh or S into T; but for the common reader, the following may be adduced: Hebrew, Shekel, to weigh, becomes Tekel in Chaldee; Hebrew, Shabar, to break Chaldee, Tabar; Hebrew, Seraphim, Chaldee, Teraphim, the Babylonian counterfeit of the Divine Cherubim or Seraphim; Hebrew, Asar, to be rich, Chaldee, Atar; Hebrew, Shani, second Chaldee, Tanin, &c. [This page, 276, is quoted by Grant in his Cults of the Shadow. See p. 141. He also quotes it on p. 143, Nightside of Eden, as above.]
205. WALPOLE'S Ansayri, vol. i. p. 397. LAYARD'S Nineveh, vol. i. pp. 287, 288. See also REDHOUSE'S Turkish Dictionary, sub voce "Satan," p. 303. The Turks came from the Euphrates.
206. HOMER, Iliad, lib. xiv. 1. 279, p. 549.
207. HESIOD, Theogonia, 1. 207, pp. 18, 19.
208. Ibid. 11. 717, 729, pp. 56-59. I think the reader will see that Ouranos, or Heaven, against whom the Titans rebelled, was just God.
209. LACTANTIUS, De Falsa Religione, p. 221; CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS, also, vol. i. p. 30.
210. We have seen that Shem was the actual slayer of Tammuz. As the grand adversary of the Pagan Messiah, those who hated him for his deed called him for that very deed by the name of the Grand Adversary of all, Typhon, or the Devil. "If they called the Master of the house Beelzebub," no wonder that his servant was called by a similar name.
211. PLUTARCH, De Iside, vol. ii. p. 362.
212. Ibid. vol. ii. p. 364.
213. POTTER'S Antiquities, vol. i., sub voce "Titania," p. 400.
214. TAYLOR'S Pausanias, vol. iii. p. 321, Note.
215. EUSEBIUS, Praeparatio Evang., lib. i. vol. i. p. 50.
216. OVID, Metam., lib. vi. 1. 114. So deeply was the idea of the seed of the serpent "being the great World-king imprinted on the Pagan mind, that when a man set up to be a god upon earth, it was held essential to establish his title to that character, that he prove himself to be the serpent's seed." Thus, when Alexander the Great claimed divine honours, it is well known that his mother Olympias, declared that he was not sprung from King Philip, her husband, but from Jupiter, in the form of a serpent. In like manner, says the authoress of Rome in the 19th Century, vol. i. p. 388, the Roman emperor, "Augustus, pretended that he was the son of Apollo, and that the god had assumed the form of a serpent for the purpose of giving him birth." Vid. SUET. AUGUSTUS.
218. We find that Semele, the mother of the Grecian Bacchus, had been identified with Eve; for the name of Eve had been given to her, as Photius tells us that "Pherecydes called Semele, Hue." (PHOT. Lex., pars ii. p. 616.) Hue is just the Hebrew name for Eve, without the points.
219. TERTULLIAN, De Prescript, adv. Haereticos, cap. 47, vol. ii. pp. 63, 64.
220. Aish-shkul-ape, from Aish, "man"; shkul, "to instruct;" and Aphe, or Ape "a serpent." The Greek form of this name, Asklepios, signifies simply "the instructing snake," and comes from A, "the," ski, "to teach," and heft, "a snake," the Chaldean words being thus modified in Egypt. The name Asclepios, however, is capable of another sense, as derived from Aaz, "strength," and Khlep, "to renew;" and, therefore, in the exoteric doctrine, Asclepios was known simply as "the strength-restorer," or the Healing God. But, as identified with the serpent, the true meaning of the name seems to be that which is first stated. Macrobius, giving an account of the mystic doctrine of the ancients, says that Æsculapius was that beneficent influence of the sun which pervaded the souls of men. (Sat., lib. i. cap. 23.) Now the Serpent was the symbol of the enlightening sun.
221. MACROBIUS, Saturnalia, lib. i. cap. 17, 23, pp. 65, C, and 72, 1, 2.
222. From Pompeii, vol. ii. p. 141.
223. KITTO'S Illustrated Commentary, vol. ii. p. 317.
224. See CLAVIS STOCKII, sub voce "Zebub," where it is stated that the word zebub, as applied to the fly, comes from an Arabic root, which signifies to move from place to place, as flies do, without settling anywhere. Baal-zebub, therefore, in its secret meaning, signifies, "Lord of restless and unsettled motion."
225. I find Lactantius was led to the conclusion that the Æsculapian serpent was the express symbol of Satan, for, giving an account of the bringing of the Epidaurian snake to Rome, he says: "Thither [i.e., to Rome] the Demoniarches [or Prince of the Devils] in his own proper shape, without disguise, was brought; for those who were sent on that business brought back with them a dragon of amazing size." (De Origine Ærroris, lib. ii. cap. 16, p. 108.)
226. The facts stated above cast a very singular light on a well-known superstition among ourselves. Everybody has heard of St. Swithin's day, on which, if it rain, the current belief is, that it will rain in uninterrupted succession for six weeks. And who or what was St. Swithin that his day should be connected with forty days uninterrupted rain? for six weeks is just the round number of weeks equivalent to forty days. It is evident, in the first place, that he was no Christian saint, though an Archbishop of Canterbury in the tenth century is said to have been called by his name. The patron saint of the forty days rain was just Tammuz or Odin, who was worshipped among our ancestors as the incarnation of Noah, in whose time it rained forty days and forty nights without intermission. Tammuz and St. Swithin, then, must have been one and the same. But, as in Egypt, and Rome, and Greece, and almost everywhere else, long before the Christian era, Tammuz had come to be recognised as an incarnation of the Devil, we need not be surprised to find that St. Swithin is no other than St. Satan. One of the current forms of the grand adversary's name among the Pagans was just Sytan or Sythan. This name, as applied to the Evil Being, is found as far to the east as the kingdom of Siam. It had evidently been known to the Druids, and that in connection with the flood; for they say that it was the son of Seithin that, under the influence of drink, let in the sea over the country so as to over whelm a large and populous district. (DAVIES'S Druids, p. 198.) The Anglo-Saxons, when they received that name, in the very same way as they made Odin into Wodin, would naturally change Sythan into Swythan; and thus, in St. Swithin's day and the superstition therewith connected, we have at once a striking proof of the wide extent of Devil-worship in the heathen world, and of the thorough acquaintance of our Pagan ancestors with the great Scriptural fact of the forty days incessant rain at the Deluge.
If any one thinks it incredible that Satan should thus be canonised by the Papacy in the Dark Ages, let me call attention to the pregnant fact that, even in comparatively recent times, the Dragon the Devil's universally recognised symbol was worshipped by the Romanists of Poitiers under the came of "the good St. Vermine"!! (Notes of the Society of the Antiquaries of France, vol. i. p. 464, apud SALVERT&, p. 475.) [This is borrowed by M. See NG 1:341.]
227. This gives a new and darker significance to the mystic Tau, or sign of the cross. At first it was the emblem of Tammuz, at last it became the emblem of Teitan, or Satan himself.