The Eleusinian mysteries & rites. - The Masonic Trowel

46 ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES AND RITES
Although the forms of initiation were still symbolical
of the original and noble objects of the institution,
the licentious Romans mistook the shadow for the
substance, and while they passed through all the
ceremonies they were strangers to the objects for
which they were framed.
In A.D. 364, a law prohibiting nocturnal rites was
pubhshed by Valentinian, but Praetextatus, whom
Julian had constituted governor of Achaia, prevailed
on him to revoke it, urging that the lives of the
Greeks would be rendered utterly unsupportable
if he deprived them of this, their most holy and
comprehensive festival. Much has been made by
some writers of the fact that the ceremonies were
held at night, but in the early days of Christianity also
it was the custom for Christians to forgather either
at night or before daybreak, a circumstance which
led to their assemblies being known as anteUicani
and themselves as lucifugce or " light-haters," by
way of reproach. About the beginning of the fifth
century Theodosius the Great prohibited and almost
totally extinguished the pagan theology in the Roman
Empire, and the Eleusinian Mysteries suffered in
the general destruction. It is probable, however,
that the Mysteries were celebrated secretly in spite
of the severe edicts of Theodosius and that they were
partly continued through the dark ages, though
stripped of their splendour. It is certain that many
rites of the pagan religion were performed under