Ten Great Religions Part 30

_April_.

1. Feast of _Venus_, to whom the month is sacred.

4. _Megalesia_. Feast of Cybele and Altys. It lasted six days, and was the Roman a.n.a.logue of the feast of Ceres in Greece and of Isis in Egypt.

12. _Cerealia_. Feast of Ceres. Games in the circus.

15. _Fordicicia_. Feast of cows.

21. _Palililia_. Feast of Pales, and of the founding of Rome.

23. _Vinalia_. Feast of new wine.

25. _Robigalia_. Feast of the G.o.ddess of blight, Robigo.

28. _Floralia_. Feast of the G.o.ddess Flora; very licentious.

_May_.

1. Feast of the _Bona Dea_, the good G.o.ddess; otherwise Maia, Ops, Tellus, or the Earth. This was the feast held by women secretly in the house of the pontiff.

9. _Lemuralia_. Feast of the departed spirits or ghosts.

12. Games to _Mars_.

23. _Tubil.u.s.tria_, to consecrate wind instruments.

_June_.

1. Feast of _Carna_, G.o.ddess of the internal organs of the body, and of _Juno Moneta_.

4. Feast of _Bellona_.

5. Feast of _Deus Fidius_.

7 to 15. Feast of _Vesta_.

19. _Matralia_. Feast of Mater Matuta.

Other lesser festivals in this month to _Summa.n.u.s, Fortuna, Fortis, Jupiter Stator_, etc.

_July_.

1. Day devoted to changing residences, like the 1st of May in New York.

4. _Fortuna Muliebris_.

5. _Populifuga_. In memory of the people's flight, on some occasion, afterward forgotten.

7. Feast of _Juno Caprotina_.

15. Feast of _Castor and Pollux_.

Other festivals in this month were the _Lucaria, Neptunalia_, and _Furinalia_.

_August_.

1. Games to _Mars_.

17. Feast of the G.o.d _Portumnus_.

18. _Consualia_, feast of Consus. Rape of the Sabines.

23. _Vulca.n.a.lia_, to avert fires.

25. _Opeconsivia_. Feast of Ops Consiva.

_September_.

The chief feasts in this month were the games (_Ludi Magni_ or _Romani_) in honor of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva.

_October_.

13. _Fontinalia_. Feast of fountains, when the springs were strewed with flowers.

15. Sacrifice of a horse to _Mars_.

The feasts in November are unimportant.

_December_.

5. _Faunalia_, in honor of Faunus.

19. _Saturnalia_, sacred to Saturn. A Roman thanksgiving for the harvest. It lasted seven days, during which the slaves had their liberty, in memory of the age of Saturn, when all were equal. The rich kept open table to all comers, and themselves waited on the slaves. Presents were interchanged, schools were closed. The Senate did not sit.

Thus religion everywhere met the public life of the Roman by its festivals, and laid an equal yoke on his private life by its requisition of sacrifices, prayers, and auguries. All pursuits must be conducted according to a system, carefully laid down by the College of Pontiffs.

Sacrifices and prayers of one or another kind were demanded during most of the occasions of life. Hidden in our word "inaugurate" is the record of the fact that nothing could be properly begun without the a.s.sistance of the augurs. Sacrifices of l.u.s.tration and expiation were very common, not so much for moral offences as for ceremonial mistakes. The doctrine of the _opus operatum_ was supreme in Roman religion. The intention was of little importance; the question was whether the ceremony had been performed exactly in accordance with rule. If not, it must be done again. Sometimes fifty or a hundred victims were killed before the priestly etiquette was contented. Sometimes magistrates must resign because the college of augurs suspected some informality in the ceremonies of their election. Laws were annulled and judicial proceedings revoked for the same reason. If the augurs declared the signs unfavorable, a public meeting must be adjourned and no business done. A single mistake in the form of a prayer would make it ineffectual. If a man went out to walk, there was a form to be recited; if he mounted his chariot, another. All these religious acts were of the nature of _charms_, which acted on the G.o.ds by an inherent power, and compelled them to be favorable, whatever their own wishes might be. The G.o.ds were, therefore, as much the slaves of external mechanical laws as the Romans themselves. In reality, the supreme G.o.d of Rome was law, in the form of rule. But these rules afterward expanded, as the Roman civilization increased, into a more generous jurisprudence. Regularity broadened into justice.[289] But for a long period the whole of the Roman organic law was a system of hard external method. And the rise of law as justice and reason was the decline of religion as mere prescription and rule. This one change is the key to the dissolution of the Roman system of religious practices.

The seat of Roman worship in the oldest times was the Regia in the Via Sacra, near the Forum. This was the house of the chief pontiff, and here the sacrifices were performed[290] by the Rex Sacrorum. Near by was the temple of Vesta. The Palatine Hill was regarded as the home of the Latin G.o.ds, while the Quirinal was that of the Sabine deities. But the Penates of Rome remained at Lavinium, the old metropolis of the Latin Confederation, and mother of the later city. Every one of the highest officers of Rome was obliged to go and sacrifice to the ancient G.o.ds, at this mother city of Lavinium, before entering on his office.

The old worship of Rome was free from idolatry. Jupiter, Juno, Ja.n.u.s, Ops, Vesta, were not represented by idols. This feature was subsequently imported by means of h.e.l.lenic influences coming through c.u.ma and other cities of Magna Graecia. By the same channels came the Sibylline books.

There were ten Sibyls,--the Persian, Libyan, Delphian, c.u.maean, Erythraean, Samian, Amalthaean, h.e.l.lespontine, Phrygian, and Tiburtine. The Sibylline books authorized or commanded the worship of various Greek G.o.ds; they were intrusted to the Decemviri.

Roman worship was at first administered by certain patrician families, and this was continued till B.C. 300, when plebeians were allowed to enter the sacred colleges. A plebeian became Pontifex Maximus, for the first time, B.C. 253.

The pontiffs (Pontifices) derived their name (bridge-builders) from a bridge over the Tiber, which it was their duty to build and repair in order to sacrifice on either bank. They possessed the supreme authority in all matters of worship, and decided questions concerning marriage, inheritance, public games.

The Flamens were the priests of particular deities. The office was for life, and there were fifteen Flamens in all. The Flamen Dialis, or priest of Jupiter, had a life burdened with etiquette. He must not take an oath, ride, have anything tied with knots on his person, see armed men, look at a prisoner, see any one at work on a Festa, touch a goat, or dog, or raw flesh, or yeast. He must not bathe in the open air, pa.s.s a night outside the city, and he could only resign his office on the death of his wife.

This office is Pelasgic, and very ancient.

The Salii were from early times priests of Mars, who danced in armor, and sang old hymns. The Luperci were another body of priests, also of very ancient origin. Other colleges of priests were the Epulones, Curiones, t.i.ties.

The Vestal virgins were highly honored and very sacred. Their work was to tend the fire of Vesta, and prevent the evil omen of its extinction. They were appointed by the Pontifex Maximus. They were selected when very young, and could resign their office after thirty years of service. They had a large revenue, enjoyed the highest honors, and to strike them was a capital offence. If a criminal about to be executed met them, his life was spared. Consuls and praetors must give way to them in the streets. They a.s.sisted at the theatres and at all public entertainments. They could go out to visit and to dine with their relations. Their very presence protected any one from a.s.sault, and their intercession must not be neglected. They prepared the sacred cakes, took part in many sacrifices, and had the charge of a holy serpent, keeping his table supplied with meat.

The duty of the augurs was to inquire into the divine will; and they could prevent any public business by declaring the omens unfavorable. The name is probably derived from an old Aryan word, meaning "sight" or "eye,"

which has come to us in the Greek a???, and the German _auge_. Our words "auspicious" and "auspicate" are derived from the "auspices," or outlook on nature which these seers practised. For they were in truth the Roman _seers_. Their business was to look, at midnight, into the starry heavens; to observe thunder, lightning, meteors; the chirping or flying of birds; the habits of the sacred chickens; the appearance of quadrupeds; or casualties of various kinds, as sneezing, stumbling, spilling salt or wine. The last relics of these superst.i.tions are to be found in the little books sold in Rome, in which the fortunate number in a lottery is indicated by such accidents and events of common life.

The Romans, when at prayer, were in the habit of covering their heads, so that no sound of evil augury might be heard. The suppliant was to kiss his right hand, and then turn round in a circle and sit down. Many formulae of prayers were prescribed to be used on all occasions of life. They must be repeated three times, at least, to insure success. Different animals were sacrificed to different G.o.ds,--white cattle with gilded horns to Jupiter, a bull to Apollo, a horse to Mars. Sometimes the number of victims was enormous. On Caligula's accession, one hundred and sixty thousand victims were killed in the Roman Empire.

l.u.s.trations were great acts of atonement or purification, and are often described by ancient writers. The city was l.u.s.trated by a grand procession of the four colleges of Augurs, Pontifices, Quindecemviri, and Septemviri.

Lucan, in his Pharsalia, describes such a l.u.s.tration.[291] Tacitus gives a like description, in his History,[292] of the ceremonies attending the rebuilding the Capitol. On an auspicious day, beneath a serene sky, the ground chosen for the foundation was surrounded with ribbons and flowers.

Soldiers, selected for their auspicious names, brought into the enclosure branches from the trees sacred to the G.o.ds. The Vestal virgins, followed by a band of children, sprinkled the place with water drawn from three fountains and three rivers. The praetor and the pontiff next sacrificed a swine, a sheep, and a bull, and besought Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva to favor the undertaking. The magistrates, priests, senators, and knights then drew the corner-stone to its place, throwing in ingots of gold and silver.

The Romans, ever anxious about the will of the G.o.ds, naturalized among themselves the Etruscan inst.i.tution of the Haruspices. The prodigies observed were in the entrails of animals and the phenomena of nature. The parts of the entrails observed were the tongue, lungs, heart, liver, gall bladder, spleen, kidneys, and caul. If the head of the right lobe of the liver was absent, it was considered a very bad omen. If certain fissures existed, or were absent, it was a portent of the first importance. But the Romans were a very practical people, and not easily deterred from their purpose. So if one sacrifice failed they would try another and another, until the portents were favorable. But sceptical persons were naturally led to ask some puzzling questions, such as these, which Cicero puts in his work on Divination:[293] How can a cleft in a liver be connected, by any natural law, with my acquisition of a property? If it is so connected, what would be the result, if some one else, who was about to _lose_ his property, had examined the same victim? If you answer that the divine energy, which extends through the universe, directs each man in the choice of a victim, then how happens it that a man having first had an unfavorable omen, by trying again should get a good one? How happens it that a sacrifice to one deity gives a favorable sign, and that to another the opposite? But these criticisms only arrived after the old Roman faith had begun to decline.

Funeral solemnities were held with great care and pomp, and festivals for the dead were regularly celebrated. The dead father or mother was accounted a G.o.d, and yet a certain terror of ancestral spectres was shown by a practice of driving them out of the house by l.u.s.trations. For it was uncertain whether the paternal Manes were good spirits, Lares, or evil spirits, and Lemures. Consequently in May there was the Lemuria, or feast for exorcising the evil spirits from houses and homes, conducted with great solemnity.