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

WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD. 29
above all, to secure the .. protectionJ^-thfL^odsLfor. the
state and to avert the effects of their malevolence by
the strict execution of appropriate practices. It entered
into a contract with the celestial powers
from which
mutual obligations arose : sacrifices on one side, favors
on the other. The pontiffs, who were also magistrates,
regulated the religious practices with the exact preci
sion of jurists ;9 as far as we know the prayers were all
couched in formulas as dry and verbose as notarial
instruments. The liturgy reminds one of the ancient
civil law on account of the minuteness of its prescrip
tions. This r^gjonjo^gd_suspiciously at the abandonment
of the soul to the ecstasies of devotion. It re
pressed, by force if necessary, the exuberant manifes
tations of too ardent faith and everything that was
not in keeping with the grave dignity befitting the
relations of a civis Romanics with a god. The Jews
had the same scrupulous respect as the Romans for a
religious code and formulas of the past, "but in spite
of their dry and minute practices, the legalism of the
Pharisees stirred the heart more strongly than did
Roman formalism." 10
^Lacking the recognized authority of official creeds,
the Oriental religions had to appeal to the passions of
the individual in order to make proselytes. They at
tracted men first by the disturbing seductiveness of
their mysteries, where terror and hope" were evoked in
turns/ and charmed them by the pomp of their festiv
ities and the magnificence of their processions. Men
were fascinated by the languishing songs and intoxi
cating melodies. Above all these religions taught men
how to reach that blissful state in which the soul was
freed from the tyranny of the body and of suffering,