The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

110 HISTORY OF INITIATION.
tions. 80 The rites passed, however, with all their con-
taminations, from Greece to Rome, and remained a
lasting stain to the empire, long after the establishment of
Christianity. At length the bold and frequent censures
of the Christian fathers roused the people to a sense of
shame ; by a public edict the excesses sanctioned by
the mysteries were restrained within more decent bounds ;
and soon afterwards they were altogether suppressed
under heavy penalties.
M Plato, speaking of the abomination of the Dionysiaca, says that
.
he was present at one of these celebrations, and saw the whole city
of Athens in a state of beastly drunkenness. (De Leg., 1. i.) Hence
the prophetical figure used in the threatened destruction of Babylon.
"In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken,
that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not awake,
saith the Lord. (Jerem. li., 39.)