The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism [1911] - Get a Free Blog

NOTES THE TRANSFORMATION OF PAGANISM. 283
iectos nulli dubium est. . . .Paganos
elementa colere omnibus
cognitum est"; cf. 103 (p. 304, 4 Souter ed.) : "Solent (pa-
gani) ad elementa confugere dicentes haec se colere quibus
gubernaculis regitur vita humana" (cf. Rev. hist. lit. rel., VIII,
J9O3, p. 426, n. 3). Maximus of Turin (Migne, P. L., LVII,
783) : "Dicunt pagani : nos solem, lunam et Stellas et uni versa
elementa colimus et veneramur." Cf. Mon myst. Mithra, I,
p. 103, n. 4, p. 108.
15. Firmicus Maternus, Mathes., VII prooem: "(Deus) qui
ad fabricationem omnium elementorum diversitate composita
ex contrariis et repugnantibus cuncta perfecit."
16. Elementum is the translation of ffroixeiov, which has
had the same meaning in Greek at least ever since the first
century (see Diels, Elementum, 1899, pp. 44 ff., and the Septuagint,
Sap. Sal., 7, 18; 19, 17. Pfister, "Die ffroixela. rov Koa^ov
in den Briefen des Paulus," Philologus, LXIX, 1910, p. 410. In
the fourth century this meaning was generally accepted : Macro-
bius, Sown. Scipionis, I, 12, 16: "Caeli dico et siderum, aliorumque
elementorum"; cf. I, n, 7 ff. Martianus Capella,
II, 209; Ambrosiaster, he. cit.\ Maximus of Turin, loc. cit.;
Lactantius, II, 13, 2: "Elementa mundi, caelum, solem, ter-
ram, mare." Cf. Diels, op. cit., pp. 78 ff.
17. Cf. Rev. hist. litt. rel, VIII, 1903, pp. 429 ff. Until the
end of the fifth century higher education in the Orient re
mained in the hands of the pagans. The life of Severus of
Antioch, by Zachariah the Scholastic, preserved in a Syrian
translation [supra, ch. VII, n. 81], is particularly instructive
in this regard. The Christians, who were opposed to pagan
ism and astrology, consequently manifested an aversion to the
profane sciences in general, and in that way they became
responsible to a serious extent for the gradual
extinction of
the knowledge of the past (cf. Rev. hist. litt. rel, ibid., p. 431 ;
Royer, L enseignement d Ausone a Alcuin, 1906, p. 130 ff.).
But it must be said in their behalf that before them Greek
philosophy had taught the vanity of every
science that did
not have the moral culture of the ego for its purpose, see
Geffcken, Aus der IVerdeseit des Christentums, p. 7, p. m.
18. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 294. Cf. supra, pp. 175 f.