The Eleusinian mysteries & rites. - The Masonic Trowel

THE INITIATORY RITES 67
journeyed to Athens to take advantage of the oppor-
tunity to become initiates. Even the Emperors
of Rome, the official heads of the Roman rehgion,
the masters of the world, came to the Eumolpides
to proffer the request that they might receive the
honour of initiation and become participants in the
Sacred Mysteries revealed by the goddess.
While Augustus, who was initiated in the year
21 B.C., did not hesitate to show his antipathy
towards the religion of the Egyptians, towards
Judaism and Druidism, he was always scrupulous in
observing the pledge of secrecy demanded of initiates
into the Eleusinian Mysteries, and on one occasion,
when it became necessary for some of the priests
of the Eleusinian temple to proceed to Rome to
plead before his tribunal on the question of privilege,
and in the course of the evidence to speak of certain
ceremonial in connection with the Mysteries of
which it was not lawful to speak in the presence
of the uninitiated, he ordered every one who had
not received the privilege of initiation to leave the
tribunal so that he and the witnesses alone remained.
The Eleusinian Mysteries were not deemed inimical
to the welfare of the Roman Empire as were the
religions of the Egyptians, Jews, and ancient Britons.
Claudius, another imperial initiate, conceived the
idea of transferring the scene of the Mysteries to
Rome, and, according to Suetonius, was about to put
the project into execution, when it was ruled that it