Northern mythology

266 EPITOME OF GERMAN MYTHOLOGY.
The Indiculus (cap. 26) leads to the supposition of a
The Simulacrum de consparsa
particular kind of offering.
farina there mentioned appears to
be the baked image of
a sacrificial animal^ which was offered to the gods in the
stead of a real one. Similar usages are known to us among
the Greeks and Romans, and in Sweden, even in recent
times, it was a custom on Christmas eve to bake cakes in
the form of a hog^
It was extremely difficult to prevent a relapse into
heathenism, seeing that to retain a converted community
in the true faith, well-instructed ecclesiastics were indispensable,
and these were few in number, the
clergy being
but too frequently persons of profane and ungodly life.
In many cases it w^as doubtful whether they had even received
ordination^. Instances might therefore occur like
that recorded in the Life of St. Gall, that in an oratory
dedicated to St. Aurelia idols were afterwards worshiped
with offerings^; and we have seen that the Franks, after
their conversion, in an irruption into Italy, still sacrificed
human victims. Even when the missionaries believed
their work sure, the return of the season, in which the
joyous heathen festivals occurred, might in a moment call
to remembrance the scarcely repressed idolatry ; an interesting
instance of which, from the twelfth century, we
shall see presently. The priests, whose duty it was to
retain the people in their Christianity, permitted themselves
to sacrifice to the heathen gods, if, at the same time,
they could perform the rite of ba])tism ^. They were
addicted to magic and soothsaying^, and were so infatu-
J
Miiller, p. 80. See vol. ii. p. 50. " Bonifac. Ep. 38, 46.
^ See page 249.
^ Bonifac. Ep. 25 : Qui a presbytero Jovi mactante et imraolatitias carnes
vescente baptizati sunt. Comp. Ep. 82 and Capitul. vii. 405.
^ Statut. Bonifac. 33, p. 142, ed. ^Viil•dtw. : Si quis presbyter aut clerious
auguria, vel divinationes, aut somnia, sive sortes, seu i^hylacteria, id
est, scripturas, observaverit.