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A.,17, Johllso1l's Court, Fleet Street, E.C.,68. perYearwill E nableyou toBecomea Member.Este Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, ColombiaTHE EVOLUTION OF THE IDEA OF GODEste Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, ColombiaIN THE PRESSPAGANClIIUSTS. By J . M. ROBERTSON.THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF MORAL LESSONS. Vol.II.By F. J . GOULD. 2S.ANEASY OUTLINE OF EVOLUTION. ByD&NNlS HIRD,Warden of Ruskin Hall, Oxford. 25. 6d. net.WORKS BY SAMUEL LAINGMODERN SCIENCE ANDMODERN THOUGHT. 25.net.AMODERN ZOROASTRIAN. 2S. net.PROBLEMS OF THE FUTURE. 25. net.HUMAN ORIGINS. 25. net.The .bove are the originlll editions, bound incloth, and pllblished at 35. 6d. each. Only . limited number can be suppliedatzs. each net,or by post2S. Sd. The four vols. willbe sent carriagepaid for 9s.Este Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, ColombiaTHEEVOLUTION OF THE IDEAOF GODAN INQ UIRY INTO THE ORIGINSOF RELIGIONSBYGRANT ALLEN\AU'TUVR 01' If PHYSiOLOGICU MSTHRTICS. I U TUIt COL()U~ 01' p'L.Owa:w.s,IIInJ l'ORCII: ANDfl;~);II:GY." arc.)Revised and Slightly Abridged by Franklln T. Richards. M.A.(UIIV&DrOI( TIlB llA'nONALlST PRESSASSOCIATION, LIMITED, BVARRANGEMKNTwrruMil., ~RANT KICIiARDSjWATTS & CO"1 7, J OHNSON'S COURT, FLEET STREET,LONDON, E.C.1 903BANCO DE L'\ REPUBLICAOIBLlorE~A LUiS-ANGeL ARANGO Este Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, ColombiaPREF ACETwo mainschools of religious thinkingexistinour midstat the present day:theschoolof humanists and the schoolof animists. This work is to someextent anattemptto reconcile them. Itcontains, Ibelieve,the first extendedeffort that has yetbeen nude to tracethegenesis of the belief inaGod fromitsearliest origininthemind of primitiveman up to its fullest development inadvanced and etherealised Christiantheology. My method is therefore con-structive, not destructive. Instead ofsettingout toargue away 0:'demolish adeep-seated and ancestral element inourcomplex nature,this book merely positsfor itself thepsychologicalcuestion, ., Bywhat successive steps did men come toframefor themselves the conception of adeity?"-or, if the reader so prefers it,"How did we arrive atomknowledgeof God?" It seeksprovisionally toanswer these profound andimportantquestionsby referenceto the earliestbeliefs of savages, past or present,andto the testimony of historicaldocumentsand ancient monuments. Itdoes notconcern itself atall with thevalidity orinvalidity of the ideas inthemselves; itdoes but endeavour to showhowinevitable they were,and how man'srelation with the external universe wascertainapnori to beget them as ofnecessity.In so vast a synthesis, it would beabsurdto pretend at the present daythat one approached one's subjectentirely de nooo. Everyinquirer mustneeds dependmuch upon the various-researches of his predecessorsinvariousparts of hisfield of inquiry. Theproblem before us dividesitself intothree main portions: first, how did mencome tobelievein many gods-the-origin of polytheism; second, how,byelimination of most of these gods, didcertainraces of mencome to believe in-onesingle supreme and omnipotentGod-the origin of monotheism; third,how, havingarrived at thatconcept,didthe most advanced racesand civilisationscome to conceive of that God asTriune,and to identify one of his Persons with _aparticular divine and human incarna-tion-the origin of Christianity. Inconsidering eachof these three main-problems Ihave been greatlyguidedand assisted by three previous inquirersor sets of inquirers.Astotheorigi 0/ jolytheism, I haveadopted inthe mainMr. HerbertSpencer's remarkable ghost theory,though with certain important modifica--tions and additions. Inthis part of mywork I have also been largely aidedbymaterials derived from Mr. DuffMacdonald,the ableauthor of Africana;fromMr. Turner,thewell-knownSamoanmissionary; and from several otherwriters, supplemented as they are by myown researches amongthe works ofexplorers andethnologists in general.Este Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, ColombiaPRRFACE:'Onthewhole, I have here accepted the.theory which traces the origin of the:-\telief in gods to primeval ancestor-~.jrorship, or rather corpse-worship,as'_mst the rival theory which tracesits'Uigintoasupposed primitiveanimism.1> As to the rise of mono/keis"" I haveiHleninfluenced inno small degreeby~J tuenenand theTeutonic school of Oldtgtlltament criticism, whose ideas have~ supplementedby laterconceptsijterivedfromProfessor RobertsonSmith's'Mtnirable work, Tlte Religionof /ke'~tes. Buthere, on the whole, the~~tral explanationI have to offer is, I~ture tothink, newand original: the''theory, goodor bad, of thecircumstances~Wbichled totheelevationof theethnical;Hebrew God, J ahweh,above all hisrivals,~d hisfinal recognitionastheonly true~ livinggod, is my ownand no one~.---- ,_~8.- - As to the ongt'nof Christianity, and'~relations to the preceding cults of~cornand winegods, I havebeenguided')0 agreat extentby Mr. ]. G. Frazer~ Mnnhardt, though I donot suppose;!hat either theliving or the dead'anthropologist would wholly acquiesceintheuseI havemadeof their splendidlliaterials. Mr. Frazer,the author of_that learned work, Tk Golden Bough,:bas profoundly influenced the opinionsl)f allserious workers atanthropology.&nd thescienceof religion, and I cannottoo oftenacknowledgethe deep obliga-tions under which I lie to his profound:and able treatises. At the sametime,:~have so transformed the material~ved fromhimand fromDr. Robertson,smith astohave madeit inmany ways[practically my own; and Ihave sup-plemented it by severalnew examplesand ideas, suggested inthecourseof myowntolerably widereading.Throughout the book,as awhole, Ialso owe a considerabledebtto Dr.E. B. Tylor, fromwhomI haveborrowedmuch valuable matter;to Mr. SidneyHartland's Legend of Perseus j to Mr.Laurence Gomme, whohascome nearerat timesthananyone else to thespecialviews and theories here promulgated;and to Mr. WilliamSimpson, of theIUustrated London lVews, anunobtrusivescholar whose excellent monographs onT!Je Worslupof Death and kindredsubjects have never yetreceived theattentionthey deserve. My other obliga-tions, to Dr. Mommsen,to my friendsMr. Edward Clodd, Professor J ohnRhys, and Professor YorkPowell, aswellas to numerous travellers, missionaries,historians, and classicists, aretoofrequenttospecify.Looking at the subject broadly, Iwould presume to say once more thatmy general conclusions may beregardedasrepresentingto some extent arecon-ciliationbetweenthe conflictingschoolsof humanists and animists, headedrespectively by Mr. Spencerand Mr.Frazer, though with aleaning rather totheformer thanthelatter.At thesametime, it would beagreatmistaketolookuponmy bookasinanysenseamere eirenicon or compromise.Onthecontrary, it isineverypart anewand personal work, containing, whateveritsvalue, afresh and originalsynthesisof thesubject. I wouldventuretopointout asespecially novel thetwofollowingpoints; the complete demarcation ofreligion from mythology,aspracticefrommere explanatory gloss or guess-work; and theimportantshareassignedinthegenesisof most existingreligioussystemstothedeliberate manufacture ofgods by killing. This doctrine of themanufactured god, towhich nearly halfEste Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, ColombiaPRlfFACE,my book is devoted,seems to metobea notionof cardinal value. Amongother new ideas of secondary rank, Iwould bebold enough to enumerate thefollowing: the establishment of threesuccessive stages in the conception ofthe Life of the Dead,which might besummedup as Corpse-worship, Ghost-worship, and Shade-worship, and whichanswer to the threestagesof preservationor mummification, burial, and crema-tion; therecognition of the high placeto beassigned tothe safe-keepingof theoracular headin the growth 0':'idol-worship; the importance attached to thesacred stone, the sacred stake, and thesacred tree, and the provisional proof oftheir closeconnection with thegraves ofthe dead; the entirely newconception ofthe development of monotheism amongthe J ews fromtheexclusive cultof thejealois god; the hypothesis of theoriginof cultivationfrom tumulus-offerings,andits connection with the growth ofgods of cultivation; the wide expansiongiventothe ancientnotionof the divine-human victim; the recognition of theworld-wide prevalenceof the five-dayfestivalof the corn- or wine-god, and ofthe closesimilarity which marks its ritesthroughout allthecontinents, includingAmerica; the suggested evolutionof thegod-eating sacraments of lower religionsfromthecannibalpractice ofhonorificallyeating one's deadrelations ;' andtheevidence of thewidesurvival of primitivecorpse-worship down to our own timesin civilised Europe. I think it will beWhile this work waspa_sing through thepress asimilar theory has been propounded byMr. Flinders Petriein an arricle em "EatenwithHonour,"in whichhe reviews briefly theevidence for the custom inEgypt and elsewhere.allowed that, if evenafewof these ideastumout onexamination to be both newand true, my book willhave succeeded'injustifyingits existence.I put forth this workwith the utmoltdiffidence. The harvestisvast and thelabourers arefew. I havebeenengageduponcollectingand comparing materialsfor more thantwenty years. I havebeen engagedin writing my book formore thanten. AsI explain inthelastchapter,the present first sketch of theconclusions atwhichI have at lastarrived is little more than provisional.I should also like to add here, whatIpoint outat greater length inthe bodyof the work, that I do not holddogmatically to allor to asingleone ofthe ideas I have now expressed. Theyare merely conceptionsforced upon mymind by thepresent stateoftheevidence;and I recognisethefact that insovast andvaried aprovince,wherealmost encyc1 o-psedic knowledge would be necessary inorder to enable one to reach adecidedconclusion, every single one or alltogether of these conceptions are liableto beupset by further research.I have endeavoured towritewithoutfavour or prejudice,animated by asingledesire to discover the truth. WhetherI havesucceeded inthat attemptor not,I trust my book may be received inthesame spiritinwhich it has been written-aspirit of earnest anxiety to leamallthat canbe learnt by inquiry andinvestigation of man's connection withhis God, in the pastand the present.Inthis hope I commit it tothe kindlyconsideration of that small sectionof thereadingpublic which takes a livinginterestinreligious questions.Este Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, ColombiaCONTENTS(HAPTS.I. CHRISTIANITY ASA RELIGIOUS STANDARDII. RELIGIONAND MYTHOLOGYIII. THE LIFE OF THE DEADIV. THE ORIGINOF GODSV. SACRED STONESVI. SACRED STAKESVII. SACRED TREESVIII. THE GODS OV EGYPTIX. THE GODS OF ISRAELX. THE RISE OF MO:-lOT!IEISMXI. HUMAN GODSXII. THE MA:-lUFACTURF.OF GODSXIII. GODS OF CULTIVATIONXIV. CORN- AND WINE-GODSXV. SACRIFICE AND SACRAMENTXVI. THE DOCTRINK OF THE ATONEMENTXVII. THE WORLD BEFORE CHRISTXVIII. THE GROWTH OF CHRISTIANITYXIX. SURVIVALS IN CHRISTKNDOMXX. CONCLUSION.AG.91623324SoS459687784911 001101 1 51251 291 3S1 47ISSEste Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, ColombiaTHE E V O L U TI O N O F THE I DE A O F GO DCHAPTER1 .CHRISTIANITY ASA RELIGIOUSSTANDARDI PR',}POSE in thiswork to traceoutinrough outline the evolution of the idea ofGod fi ornitsearliest and crudestbeginningsin the savagemindof primitive man tothat highly evolved and abstract formwhich it finally assumes in contemporaryphilosophical and theological thinking,Intie eyes of the modernevolut onaryinquire" the interest of the origin andhistory of this widespread idea is mainlypsychol.igical. \Ve have before us avastgroupf humanopinions, true or false,which h.ive exercised and still exercise animmense influence up'0n the developmentof manki nd and of civilisation : the questionarises,Why did human beings ever cometo hold these opinions atall? What wasthere inthe conditionsof early man whichled himt frame to himself such abstractnotions of one or more great supernaturalagents, of whose objective existence he hadcertainly n nature no clear or obviousevidence? Regarding' the problem inthislight, asessentially a problemof theprocesses of the human mind, I setasidefromthe oitsct, as foreign to my purpose,any kind of inquiry into theobjectivevalidity uf anyone amongthe religiousbeliefs thus -et before us as subject-matter.The question whether there may be a Godor gods, an.l, if so, what may be his ortheir substar ceand attributes, do not hereconcernus. All we haveto do in ourpresent capacity istoask ourselves strictly,What first su.rgested to the mindof manthe notion of deity inthe abstract atall?Andhow, from the early multiplicity ofdeities which -ve find to have prevailedinall primitive times among all human races,did the conceptionof a single great andunlimiteddeity first take its rise?To put the questioninthis form is to---0.... -leave entirely out of consideration theobjectivereality or otherwise of the ideaitself. To analyse the origin of aconceptis not to attack the validit y of the belief itencloses. Theideaof gravitation, f orexample, arose by slow degreesin humanminds, andreached at last its final ex-pressionin Newton's law. But to tracethe steps by which thatidea was graduallyreached is not inany way to disprove or todiscredit it. The Christianbeliever maysimilarly hold that men arrived by naturalstages at the knowledge of the one trueGod; he is not boundto reject the finalconceptionas false merely becauseof thesteps by whichit was slowlyevolved. Acreative God, it is true, might prefer tomakea suddenrevelationof himself tosome chosen body of men; but an evolu-tionary Cod, we may well believe, mightprefer in his inscrutablewisdom to revealhis ownexistence and qualities to his crea-tures by means of thesameslowand tentativeintellectual gropings as those by which herevealed to them the flhysical truths ofnature. I wish my inquiry,therefore, toberegarded, not as destructive, but as recon-structive. It attempts torecover andfollow out thevarious planes intheevolutionof the idea of {;od, rather than to castdoubt uponthetruth of theevolvedconcept.In investigating any abstruse subject,it is often best to proceed from the knowntotheunknown, evenalthough the unknownitself may happen to come first intheorderof nature ant! uf logical development. Forthis reason, itmay be advisable to beginhere with a brief preliminary examinationof Christianity, which is not onlythe mostfamiliar of all religiolls to us Christiannations, but alsothe best knuwn in itsorigins; and then to show how far wemaysafely use it as a standard of referenceinexplaining the less obvious and certainfeatures of earlier or collateral cults.Christianity, then,viewedas a religiousstandard, hasthis clear andundeniableEste Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, Colombiai oTHE EYOLUTioN-OF THEiDEAOP(;O!Jadvantage over almost every otherknown-form of faith-that itquite franklyandconfessedly sets out in its development. with the worship of aparticular DeifiedMan.This pointinits history cannot,I think,beoverrated inimportance,because inthatsingle indubitable central factit gives usthe key to much that iscardinalinall otherreligions; everyone of which,as I hopehereafter toshow, equally springs,directlyor indirectly,fromtheworship of asingleDeified Man, or of many Deified Men,..more or less etherealised.Whatever else may be said about theoriginof Christianity, it is atleast fairlyagreed oneither side, both by friends andfoes, that this great religion took its risearound the personality of a certain par-ticular Galilean teacher, by name J esus,concerning whom, if weknow anything atall with any approach tocertainty,weknowat least that hewas aman of the people,hung onacross inJ erusalem under theprocuratorshipof Cains Pontius Pilatus,From the very beginning, however, alegend, true or false (butwhose truth orfalsity has no relation whatever to ourpresent subject), gathered about the per-sonality of this particularGalilean peasantreformer. Reverenced at firstby a smallbody of disciples of his ownraceand caste,he grew gradually in theirminds into adivine personage, of whomstrange storiesweretold,and astrange historybelievedby agroup of ever-increasing adherents inall parts of the Grseco-Rornan Mediterra-nean civilisation. The earliest of thesestories,inall probability-certainly theoneto which most importance wasattached bythe pioneers of the faith -clustered abouthis deathand its immediate sequence.J esus,weare told, was crurified,dead, andburied. But atthe end of three days, ifwemay credit the early documentsof ourChristian faith, his body was no longer tobefound inthe sepulchre whereit had beenlaid by friendly hands; and the report.spread abroad that hehad risenagainfromthe dead. Supernatural messengers an-nounced his resurrectionto the womenwhohad loved him: he was seen intheflesh fromtime to time for very shortperiods by oneor other amongthe faithfulwho still revered his memory. Atlast,after many such appearances, hewassuddenly carried upto the sky before theeyes of his followers, where, as one of theversions authoritatively remarks, he was"received into heaven, and sat on theright handof God "-that is to say, ofJ ahweh,the ethnicaldeity of the Hebrewpeople.Such initskernelwas theoriginalChris-tiandoctrine as handed down to u. arnid-amist of miracle,infour or fivedocumentsof doubtfulageand uncertain authenticity,Even thiscentral idea doesnot fullyappear inthe Pauline epistles, believedtobetheoldest in date of allour Christianwritings: it first takes fullshape in thesomewhat later Gospels and Acts of theApostles. In the SImplestand perhapsthe earliest of these definite accounts weare merely told thestory of the deathandresurrection, the latter factbeing vouchedfor onthedubious testimony of "a youngman clothed in a long white garment,"supplemented (apparently at alater period)by subsequent "appearances" to variousbelievers. With the controversies whichhave ragedabout these different stories,however, the broad anthropological inquiryinto theevolution of God has no concern,It isenough for us here toadmit,what theevidence probably warrants usinconcluding,that areal historical man of the name ofJ esus did once exist in Lower Syria, andthat his disciples ataperiod very shortlyafter his execution believed himto haveactually risenfromthe dead, and in duetime tohaveascended into heaven.At avery early date,too,it was furtherasserted that J esus was insome unnaturalor supernatural sense" the sonof God"-that is to say, once more, the son ofJ ahweh,the local and nationaldeity of theJ ewish people. Inother words, hisworshipwas affiliated upon the earlier historicalworship of the people inwhose midsthelived, and fromwhomhis firstdiscipleswere exclusively gathered. It was not, asweshall morefully seehereafter, arevolutionary or purely destructive system.It based itself upon the common concep-tionsof theSemiticcommunity. Thehandfulof J ewsand Galileans whoacceptedJ esus as adivine figure did notthink itnecessary, inadopting himas agod, togetrid of their own preconceived religiousopinions. They believed rather in hisprior existence, as apart of J ahweh, andinhis incarnation inahuman body for thepurpose of redemption. And whenhis cultspread around into neighbouring countries(chiefly, it would seem, through the instru-mentality of one Paul of Tarsus, who hadnever seenhim, or had beheld himonly inwhatisvaguely called" avision") the cultof J ahwehwent hand inhand with it, soEste Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, ColombiaCHRISTIANITY AS A RELIGIOUS STANDARDu--- ._-_._---- ----- -----------------------thatasort of modified mystic monotheism,based onJ udaism, became the early creedof the new cosmopolitan ChristianChurch.Other le;,;e!ld~, of ason familiar in thelives of the founders of crce.ls emdchurchcse.lsewhere, grewlip about th~life of theChristian leader ; or, at any r...te, incidc.usofa typical kind were narrated by hisdisciples as part of his history, That atod or agodlike person shouldbe born ofa woman by the ordinary ptiysiologicalprocesses of humanity seems . The existence of such artificially-manu-factured gods has beenmore or less recog-nised for sometime past, and attention hasbeencalled toone or other class of themby Mr, BaringGould and Mr. J . G. Frazer;.but I believe the present work will be the. '!rat in which their profound importance:,~ !-heirplace inthegenesis ?f thehigher.J 'ebglons have been fully pointed out In"'.)IiJ stematicdetail.-; The best knowninstances of such delibe-c"mte god-making are those which refer to:"the foundation of cities, city walls, andirhouses. Insuch cases, ahuman victimisoftensacrificed inorder that his blood maybeused as cement,and his soul bebuiltinto thevery stones of thefabric. Thereafter.he becomes thetutelary deity or "fortune"'of the house or city. In many cases, thevictimoffers himself voluntarily for thepur-pose ; frequently he is of kingly or divine.-ancestry. In Polynesia,where weusually.-stand nearest to thevery core of religion,~l1 is heard thatthe central pillarof thetemple at Mrevawas planted uponthebodyof ahuman victim. Amongthe Dyaks of. Borneo aslavegirl was crushedto deathunder thefirst post of ahouse, InOctober,1 881 , the king of Ashanti put fifty girls to:deaty, that their blood might bemixed withthe mud usedin the repairof the royalbuildings, Evenin J apan, a couple ofcenturies since, whenagreat wall was tobebuilt, "somewretched slave would offer"himself as afoundation."Observe inthis~instance the important fact that the immo-lation was purely voluntary. Mr. Tyler,it. Istrue, treats most ofthese cases as thoughthe victimwere intended to appease the.earth-demons, which is the natural inter-pretation for theelder schoolof thinkers toput uponsuch ceremonies; butthose whohave read Mr. Frazer and Mr. BaringGouldwill know that the offeringisreally apieceoldeliberate god-making. Many oftheoriginal witnesses,indeed, correctlyreportthis intention on the part of theperpetra-tors; thus Mason was told by an eye-witness that at the building of the new cityof Tavoy in Tennasserim" acriminal wasput ineach post-hole to become aprotect-mgdemon,"or ratherdeity. So in Siam,when a new city gate was being erected,says Mr. Speth, officers seized thefirst fouror eight people who passed, and buriedthemunder it as guardian angels."Andin Rournania astahic is defined as "theghostof aperson who has been immuredinthe walls of abuilding inorder tomakeit moresolid." The Irish Banshee isdoubt-less of similar origin.Other curious examples arereported fromAfrica, and human victims are said to havebeenburied" for spirit-watchers" under thegates of Mandelay. So, too, according tolegend,here atolerably safeguide, aqueenwas drowned in a Burmese reservoir, tomake thedyke safe; while the choice forsuch a purpose of aroyal victim showsclearly thedesirability of divineblood beingpresent in the body of the future deity.When RajahSala Bynewas building thefort of Sialkot inthe Punjaub,the founda-tiongave way sooften that heconsultedasoothsayer. The soothsayer advisedthattheblood of anonly sonshould beshed onthe spot; and theonly sonof awidow wasaccordingly killed there. I may add thatthe blood of "anonly-begotten son" hasalways beenheld to possess peculiar effi-cacy.InEurope itself not afewtraces surviveof such foundation-gods, or spirits of towns,town-walls, and houses. The Picts are saidto have bathedtheir foundation-stones inhuman blood. St. Columbahimself, thoughnominally aChristian, did not scruple thusto securethe safety of his monastery.Columbkille said tohis people,, It wouldhewellfor us that our roots should passinto theearth here.' And hesaid tothem,'It is permitted to you thatsome one ofyou go under theearthto consecrateit.'"St. Oran volunteered to accept the task,and was ever after honoured as the patronsaint of themonastery. Here again It maybe noted that the offering was voluntary.As late as 1 463, when the broken damofthe Nogat had toberepaired,thepeasants,beingadvised tothrow inalivingman, aresaid to have made a beggar drunk(inwhich state hewould of course be "full ofthe god ") and utilised himfor the purpose.In1 885, on the restoration of Holsworthychurch inDevon,askeleton with amassEste Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, ColombiaTHEMANUFACTURE OF GODS__ ' ..:::::c- --"of mortar plasteredover the mouth wasfound imbedded in an angle of thebuilding. To make the castle of Lieben-stein fast andimpregnable, a child wasbought for hard money of its mother, andwalled into thebuilding. Again, whenthechurch at Blex inOldenburg was beingbuilt, theauthorities of the village crossedtheWeser, "bought achild fromapoormother atBremerleke, and built it aliveinto thefoundations."\Veshall see here-after that" tobebrought with aprice" isa variant, as itwere,on the voluntaryoffering; great stress is often laid, whenavictim is offered,on this particular fact,which is held to absolve the perpetratorsfromthe crime of god murder. So,weshallseeinthe sequel,the divine animal-victim, which isthe god offered to himself,his animal embodiment to his image oraltar, must alwaysconsent to its ownsacrifice; if it refuseor show the slightestdisinclination,it isnogood victim. Legendsays that the childin the case of theLiebenstein offering was beguiled with acake, probably so as to make it acon-senting party, and was slowly walled upbefore the eyes of the mother. Allthesedetails arefull of incidental instructivenessand importance. As late as 1 865,according to Mr.Speth, some Christianlabourers, working at a block-houseatDuga, near Scutari, found two youngChristian children inthehands of Moham-medanArnauts, who were trying to burythemaliveunder theblock-house.Itis about city walls that we oftenestread such legendary stories. Thus thewall of Copenhagen sankas fast as it wasbuilt; sothey took an innocent little girl,and sether at a table withtoys andeatables. Then, while she played andeat, twelve master masons closed avaultover her. InItaly the bridge of Arta fellin, timeafter time,tillthey walled inthemaster builder's wife; thelast pointbeinga significant detail, whose meaning willcomeout stillmore clearly in the sequel.At Scutari inServia, oncemore, the fortresscould onlybe satisfactorily builtafter ahuman victimwas walled into it; so thethree brothers who wrought atit decidedto offer up the firstofthe-ir wives whocame to the place to bring- them food.(Compare the case of J epht.ia's daughter,where the first livingthingmet by chanceistobe sacrificed to ]ahwcL) So, too, inWelsh legend, Vortigern coild notfinishhis tower till the foundation-stone was'Wettedwith"the blood of a child born ofamother without afather "-thisof thevirgin-born infantbeing aelement inthe generation of man-gMr. Sidney Hartland has abunproved for us. , ' .. :Inonecasecited above we saw a m~gation of the primitive custom, inthat _~:criminal was substituted for a persona{;royal blood or divine origin-a form(){csubstitution of which Mr. Frazer hai"supplied abundant examples inother c'To!,olis, orcity of the dead. J ustoutsideCairo, onthe edge of the desert, a precisely similarmodern Nccr0l'"Es""iSh to this day, rcgu-l.uly planned instreetsand quarters, withthe tomb of each family standing initsOWl'courtyard or enclosure, and often verjclosely resembling thecommonroundroofed or domed Egyptian houses. Inthistown of deadbodies every distinctionQrankandwealth may now be observedEste Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, Colombia!--THE EVOLUTION OFTHE IDEA OFGOD_.Therich areburied under splendid mausoleaI_of great architectural pretensions; thepoor-OCcupy humble tombs just raised above thesurface of the desert,and marked at head'cand foot with simple Egyptian tombstones.. Still, theentire aspectof such acemetery;-i;, the aspect of a town. In northern",climates the deadsleep their lastsleep_under grassy little tumuli, wholly unlike- the streets of acity; inEgypt,tothis day,the deadoccupy, as in life, whole lanes, and alleys of eternal houses. Even thespirit which produced the Pyramidsand--theTombs of the Kings is conspicuous inmodern or media-val Cairoin the tastewhich begot those vast domed mosquesknown as the Tombs of the Khalifs andthe Tombs of the Marnelooks, Whateverisbiggestinthe neighbourhood of ancientMemphis turns outon examination to betli~lastresting-place of aDead Man, and-, aplace of worship._ _Almost everyoneof the greatmosques'of Cairo is either atomb built for himselfby_ aruler-and this is the more frequent'case-c-or elsethe holy shrine of some saintof Islam. Itis characteristic of Egypt,however, where kingand god have alwaysbeen so closely combined,that whileelse-wherethemosque isusually theprayer-tombof aholy man, illCairo it is usually thememorial-temple of aSultan,an Erncer,aviceroy, or aKhedive. It is interesting tofind, too, after allwehave seen as to thespecial sanctity of the oracular head,thatperhapsthe holiest of all these mosquescontains thehead of Hoseyn,thegrandsonof the Prophet. A ceremonial washing isparticularly mentioned inthe story of itstranslation..__I will not linger any longer,however, in Ithe precincts of Islam, further than tomention the significant fact thatthe greatcentral objectof worship for the Moham-medan world isthc Kaabaat Mecca, whichitself,as Mr. William Simpson long agopointedout, bears obvious traces of beingatonce atomb and asacred altar-stone.Sir Richard Burton'soriginal sketch ofthis mystic object shows itas a squareand undecorated temple-tomb, coveredthroughout with atasselledblack pall-amost funerealobject--the so-called "sacredcarpet."Itis, inpointof fact,a simplecatafalque. As the Kaaba was adopteddirect by Mohammed from theearlySemitic heathenism of Arabia, andas itmust always have been treatedwith thesame respect, I do not think wecanavoidtheobvious conclusionthat this very ancienttomb has been funereally draned in theself-same manner, like those 'of Biskra,Algiers,and Kerouan,fromthe time of itsfirst erection. This case thus throws lightonthe draping of theashera, as doalso themany-coloured draperies and hangings ofsaints'catafalques inAlgeriaand Tunis.Nor can I resist a passing mention oftheMoharramfestival, which is said tobethecommemoration of thedeath of H oseyn,the son of Ali (whose holy headis 'pre-served at Cairo). This is a rude piece ofacting,inwhich the events supposed to beconnectedwith the deathof Hoseyn aregraphicallyrepresented; and it ends with asacredAdonis-like or Osiris-like proces-sion, in which the body of the saint iscarried and mourned over. Thefuneral isthe grand partof the performance; cata-falques are constructed for theholy corpse,covered with green andgold tinsel-thegreenbeingobviously alastreminiscenceof the god ofvegetation. In Bombay,after the dead body and shrine have beencarriedthrough the streets amid weepingand wailing, they are finally thrown intothe sea, like King Carnival. I think weneed hardly doubt that here we have anevanescent relicof the rites of the corn-god, ending in a rain-charm, andveryclosely resemblingthose of AJ onis andOsiris.But if inIslamthegreat objects of wor-ship are the Kaabatombat Meccaand theTomb of the Prophet at Medina,so themost holy spot intheworld for Christendomis--theHoly Sepulchre. It was for pos-session of that mostsacredplace of pil-grimagethat Christiansfought Moslemsthroughthe Middle Ages; and it is therethat while faith inthe human Christwasstrong and vigorousthe vast majority ofthemost meritorious pilgrimages continuedtobedirected.For themostpart, however, inChristen-dom, and especially inthoseparts of Chris-tendomremote fromPalestine, men con-tented themselves with nearer andmoredomestic saints. From avery early dateweseeinthecatacombs the growth of thispractice of offeringupprayer by (or to) thebodies of the dead who slept inChrist. Achapel or cajJella,as Dean Burgon haspointedout, meant originally an archedsepulchre inthe walls of thecatacombs, atwhich prayer was afterwardshabituallymade; and above-ground chapels weremodelled, later on, upon the patternofthese ancient undergroundshrines. I havealluded briefly inmy second chapter totheEste Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, ColombiaSURVIVALS INCHRISTENDOM----------- -or sacred stone thus consecrated, ~whose. top' the ~ody and blood of chl_lwasdistributed IIIthe Euchanst. Asearlr'-ias the fourth century we know that no~church was completewithout some suchrelic; and the passion for martyrs spreadv50 greatly fromthatperiod onward that at .one timeno less than2,300 corpses of holymen together wereburied atS. Prassede,It is only inRome itself that the fullim-.portance of this martyr-worship cannowbesufficientlyunderstood, or the large partwhich itplayedin the development of,Christianity adequately rccut:nised. Per-,haps the easiest way for the Protestant,reader to puthimselfintouch with thisside of the subject is to peruse the veryinteresting and graphic account given inthe second volume of :\1 rs. J ameson'sSacred andLegendary Art.I have room for a fewillustrativeexamples only.WhenSt.Ambrosefoundedhis newchurch atMilan, be wished to consecrate-it with some holy relic. In a vision hebeheld twoyoung men inshiningclothes,and it was revealed to himthat these wereholy martyrs whose bodies lay near thespotwhere he lived inthecity. Hedugfor them accordingly, and foundtwobodies,which proved to be those of twosaints,Cervasius and Protasius, who hadsuffered for the faith inthe rt,ignof Nero.They were installed in the new basilicaAmbrose had built at Milan.The body of St. Agnes, saint and martyr;whoisalways represented with that familiar'emblem, the lamb which she duplicates,liesinasarcophagus under the High Altarof Sant' Agncse beyond the Porta Piaat"Rome. The body of St. Cecilialies inthechurch of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere.Almost every church inRome has its entirebody of apatron saint, oftenest amartyr oftheearly persecutions.The great centraltemple of theCatholicChurch isSt. Peter's atRome. The verybody of the crucified saintlies enshrinedunder the high altar, in a sarcophagusbroughtfromthe catacomb ncar S. Sebas-tiano, Upon this Rock, St.Peter's andthe Catholic Church are founded. Ana-cletus, the successor of Clement, built amonument over the bones of the blessedPeter; and if Peter be ahistorical personatall, 1 see no reason to doubt that hisveritable body actually lies there. St. Paulshares with himinthe 5;W1 eshrine; butonly half thetwocorpses nowrepose withinthe stately Confcssio inthe Sacristy of the, I: 1 i'" r.probableongm of the cruciform churchfromtwo gaIleries of thecatacombs cross-ingoneanother at right angles: the HighAltar stands there over thebody or relicsof adead saint; and thechapels representother minor tombs grouped like niches inthe catacombs around it. A chapelisthus,asMr. HerbertSpencer phrases It, "atombwithinatomb"; and agreat cathedral isaserried set of such cumulative tombs, onebt:iltbeside the other. Sometimes thechapels are actual graves, sometimes theyare cenotaphs; but the connection withdeath is always equally evident. Onthissubject I would refer the reader againtoMr. Spencer's pages.SolongasChristianity wasproscribed atRome and throughout theempire the wor-ship of thedead must have gone ononlysilently, and must have centred inthe cata-combs or bythe graves of s.aintsandmartyrs-the last-named being practicallymere Christian successorsof the willingvictims of earlier religions. When Chris-tianity had triumphed,however, and gainednot only official recogni tion hut officialhonour, the cultof the martyrsand theother faithfuldead became with ChristianRcme aperfect passion. The Holy Inno-cents, St. Stephen Protornartyr, the name-lese,martyrs of the TenPersecutions,together with Polycarp, Vivia Perpetua,Fe.icitas, Ignatius,and all therest. came toreceive fromthe Church aformof venera-tionwhich only the nicedistinctions of thetheological mind could enable"J S to dis-criminate fromactualworship. The greatprocession of the slain for Christ in themosaics of Sant' Apollinare NuevoatRavenna gives agood comprehensive listof the more important of these earliestsaints (at least for Aryan worshippers),headedbySt.Martin, St.Clement, St.J ust in, St. Lawrence, and St. H ippolytus,Later on came the more mythical andpoeticfigures, derived apparer.tly fromheathen gods-St. Catherine, St. Barbara,51.George, St. Christopher. These formas they goaperfect new pantheon, circlinground the figures of Christ himself, and hismot.ier the Madonna, who grow, quicklyinturn, by absorption of Isis, Astarte,andArtemis,into the Q ueenof Heaven.The love-feasts oragaj>U! of the earlyChristians were usually held,in:hecata-combs or elsewhere, above the bodies ofthemartyrs. Subsequently the remains oftheMinted dead were transferred tolordlychurches like Sant' Agnese and SanPaolo,where they were deposited!\I,\~er.t~altarEste Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, Colombia(52THE EVOLUTION OFTHE IlJEA OFGOD---------- -- -- _. __ ._------------------------papal basilica: the other portionof St.Peter consecrates the Lateran; the otherportion of St.Paul gives sanctity to SanPaolo fuori IeMura.Other much venerated bodies atRomeare those of the Q uattro Coronati, in thechurch of that name; S. Praxedis and St.I'udentiana in their respective churches;St. Cosmoand St. Damian ; and manymore too numerous to mention. Severalof the Roman churches, like San Clemente,stand upon the site uf the house of thesaintto whomthey are dedicated, or whosebody they preserve, thus recalling the earlyNew Guinea practice. Others occupy thesite of his alleged martyrdomor enclosethe pillar to which he was fastened. Inthe single church of SanZaccaria at Venice,again, I found the bodies of St. Zacharias(father of J ohn the Baptist)' St. Sabina,St. Tarasius, Sts. Nereus and Achilles, andmany othersaints.How great importance was attached tothe possession of theactual corpseormummyof asaintweseeexceptionally wellindeed inthis case of Venice. The bring-ingof the corpse or mummy of St. MarkfromAlexandriato the lagoons was longconsidered themostimportant event inthehistory of the Republic ; thechurch inwhich it washoused is the noblest inChristendom, and contains anendless seriesof records of the connection of St.Markwiththe cityandpeople that so royallyreceived him.Nor was thatthe only important helperthat Venice couldboast. She containedalso the body of St. George at San GiorgioMaggiore, and the body of 51 . Nicholas atSanNiccolo di Lido. The beautiful legend Iof the Doge andthe Fisherman (immor-talised for usby thepencil of Paris IBordone inone of the noblest picturestheworld has ever seen) tellsLIS how the threegreatguardian saints, St. Mark, SI. George,and St.Nicholas, took agondola one dayfrom their respective churches, and rowedout to seaamid araging stormto circum-vent the demons who were comingin atempest to overwhelmVenice. Afourthsaint, of far later date,whomthe Venetiansalso carried off by guile,was 51 . RochofMontpelier. This holy man was a verygreatsanitary prccautionngainst theplague,to which thecity wasmuch exposed throughitseastern commerce. Sothemenof Venicesimply stole the body by fraud fromMont-pelier, andbuilt inits honour the exquisitechurchand Scuola di San Rocco,thegreatmuseum of the art of Tintoret. The factthat merepossessionof theholy bodycounts in itself for much could not bebetter shown thanby these forcible abduc-tions.The corpse of St.Nicholas, who was ahighly revered bishop of Myra in.Lycia,lies, as I said,under the high altar of SanNiccolodiLido at Venice. nutanotherand more authentic body of the same greatsaint,the patron of sailors and likewise ofschoolboys, lies also under the high altarof the magnificent basilica of San Nicolaat Bari, fromwhich circumstance the holybishop isgenerally known as St. !'\icolas ofBari, Amiraculous fluid, the Manna diBari, highly prized by the pious, exudesfrom the remains. A gorgeous cathedralrisesover the sepulchre. Suchemulousduplication of bodies and relics isextremelycommon, both inChristendom and inIslam.The corpse of St. Augustine, for example,lies at Pavia inagloriousark, one of themost sumptuous monuments ever erectedby the skillof man,as well as one of theloveliest, Padua similarly boasts the bodyof St. Antony of Padua, locally known as"il Santo,"and farmore important in hisowntownthan allthe rest of the Chris' ianpantheon put together. Dominican monksand nuns make pilgrimages to Bologna, inorder to venerate the body of St. Dominic,who died in thatcity, and whose corpse isenclosed in a magnificent sarcophagus inthe church dedicated to him. Siena hasfor itsspecialglory St. Catherine theSecond-the first was the mythical princess ofAlexandria-and the house of thatecstaticnun is still preserved intactas anoratoryfor theprayers of the pious. ller head,laidby in a silver shrine or casket, decoratesthe altar of herchapel inSan Domenico,where the famous frescoesof Sodorna toooften usurp the entire attention of northernvisitors, Compare the holy head ofHoseynat Cairo. The great Franciscanchurch at Assisi,once more,enshrines theremains of the founder of the Franciscansunder the high altar; the churchof SantaMaria degli Angeli belowit encloses thelittle hut whichwas the first narrowhomeof the nascent order.North of theAlps, again, I cannotrefrain from mentioningafew salient in-stances, which help to enforce the princi-ples already enunciated. At Paris the twogreat local saintsare 51 . Denis andSte.(;enevicve. 51 . Denis was the first bishopof Lutetia and of the Parisii : he issaid tohave been beheaded withhis two com-panions at Montmartre-Mons Martyrum.Este Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, ColombiaSURVIVALS IN CIIRISTENDOJII53--------------------------------------------He afterwards walked withhis head in hishands from that point (now covered by thelttle church ofSt.Pierre, next door to thenew basi lien of the Sane Cccur ) to the spotwhere he p.ousl desire' I to 1)(: buried. Aholy woman named Catull (note thatl..st echo) performed the final rites forhim at thepl.icewhere the st.ucly abbey-church of 51 . Denis now preserves hismemory,As for Ste. Genevicv'e, she rested first int.ie church dedicated to her on the Site nowo::cupied by the Pantheon, w\lich ,;till inpart, thoug h sccular ised, pr~serves herrncmory. l Icr body (or what remains of it)lies at present in il.e nCighuouring churchof St. Etienne du Xlont.Other familiar examples will occur toevery one, suchas thebones of the2\lagior Three Kings, preserved inareliquary inthe Cathedral at Cologne; those of 51 .l"rsula andtheI f,OOO virgins ; those ofSI.Stephen and 51 . Lawrence atFame; thoseofSt. Hubert, disinterred andfound uncor-ruptcd, at thetownof the sar.ic name inthe Ardennes; and those ofSt.Longinusir, his chapel at Mantua. All these relicsand bodies performastounding miracles,audall havebeen the centres l f importantcilts for aconsiderable period,In Britain, from the first stages of Chris-ti uiity, the reverence paid to the bodies ofsaints was most marked, and .hestory oftheir wanderings forms an import ant part0;our early annals. Indeed, I dwell so longuJ lonthis point because fewnorthernersof thepresent day can fully appreciate thelarge part vvhich the Dead Body playsandIus played for many centuries IU Christianworship. Only those who, likeme, havelived long inthoroughly Catholic countries,have madepilgrimages to numerous famousshrines, andhavewaded through reams ofAnglo-Saxon and other early media-valdocuments, can really understand thisphase of Christian hagiology. To suchprople it is abundantly clear that the actualDead Body of somesainted man or womanhas been in many places the chief object ofreverence for millions of Christians in suc-cessive generations. A good British in-su.nce is found inthe case of St Cuthbert'scorpse. Thetale of its wander.ngs can bere.id in any good history (,f Durham.But everywhere in Britain we get similarlocal saints, whose bodies or bones per-formed marvellous miracles and werezealously guarded against sacrilegious il:-truders, Bede himself isalrcr.dy full ofsuchholy corpses; and in later daystheyincreased by the hundred. St. Alban atSt.Alban's, the protornartyr of Britain ;tbifj"white hane!" of St.Oswald, that when atFelseperished remained white and uncor-rupted because blessed by Aidan: St.Ethcklrcda atEly, another remarkable andillusrr.uive inst.mrc ; Edwanl the Confessorat \\'estnlinster Abhe\' ; these are but afewout of hundreds of e~;dnplcs which will atonce occur to students of our history. And-I will acid that somctiuu-s thelegends ofthesesaints linkIlS Oil unexpectedly to farearlier types of hr-athr-u worship ; as whenweread concerning St. Edmund of EastAnglia, the patron of Bury 51 . Edmund's,that l ngvar the v-iking [(1 0k him by force,bcund himto ;t tree, scourged him cruelly,made him a t;trget for the arrows ofthepagan Danes, and finally beheaded him.Either, I say,agod-making- sacrifice of thenorthern heathens; or,faillllgthat, arerni-nisccnce, likeSt. Sebastian, of such god-making rites as :1 1 '(-preserved inthe legendsof ant"lent 111'U-t'd"";.But during thelater ;\1 iddle Ages thesacred Body of Britain, above all others,was undoubtedly that of Thomas A'Becketat Canterbury. I Iither, asweknow, allEngland went on pilgrimage; and nothing1 could more fully show the rapidity ofcanonisation in such lases thanthefactthat eventhe mighty Henry I1 . had toprostrate himself before hisold enemy'sbody and submit to a public scourging atthe shrine of thenew-made martyr. Forseveral hundred years after his death therecan be no doubt :.t all that the cult ofSt.Thomas of Canterbury was much the mostreal and living worship throughout thewhole ofEngland; its only serious rivalsin popular favour being thecult of St.Cuthbert to the north of Humber, andthatof St.Ethcldreda in the Eastern Counties.Holy heads in particular werecommoninBritain before the Reformation. Afamiliar Scottish case is that of theheadof51 . Fergus, the apostle ofBanff andthePictish Highlands, transferred to andpreserved at the royal scat of Scone."By Sanct Fergus heid atScone"was thefavourite oath ofthe Scotch monarchs, as"Par Sainct Dcnvs " was that of theirFrench contemporaries,In aIrnost all rl.cse case" :lgain, anddownto thepresent day, popular appre-ciation goes longbefore official Romancanonisation. Miracles arc firstperformedatthe lomb, andprayers are answered janirregular cult precedes the formal one.Even in our own day, only a fewweeksEste Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, ColombiaTHEEVOLUTION OF THEIDEA OF GODafter Cardinal Manning's death,advertise-ments appeared in CatholicpapersinLondongiving thanks for spiritual andtemporal blessingsreceivedthroughtheintervention of Our Lady, thesaints,"andour beloved Cardinal."This popular canonisation has often faroutrun the regularofficial acceptance, asinthe case of J oan of Arc in France atthe present day, or of "Maister J ohnSchorn, that blessedman born," in theKent ofthe Middle Ages. Walesand- Cornwall are fullof local and patrioticsaints, often of doubtful Catholicity, likeSt.Cadoc, St.Padcrn, St.Pet rock, St.Piran, St.Ruan, andSt. Illtyd, not tomentionmoreaccepted cases, like St.Asaph and St. David. The factis, menhave everywhere felt the natural desire foranear, afamiliar,arecent,and apresentgod or saint; they have worshipped ratherthe dead whomthey loved and reveredthemselves thanthe elder godsandthe remoter martyrs who have no body-amongthem, no personal shrine, no localassociations, nolivingmemories. "I haveseen in Brittany," says a Frenchcorres-pondent of Mr.Herbert Spencer's, "thetomb of a pious and charitable priestcovered with garlands: people flocked toitby hundredsto pray of him that hewould procure themrestoration to health,and guardover their children." There,with the Christian addition of the supremeGod,we getonce more the root-idea ofreligion.I should like to add that beyond suchactual veneration of the bodies of saintsand martyrs, there has always existed adefinite theory inthe Roman Church thatno altar can exist without a relic. Thealtar, being itself a monumental stone,needs abody or part of abody to justifyand consecrate it. Dr. Rock, a highauthority, says inhis Hterurgia : "By theregulations of the Church it is ordainedthat the HolySacrifice of the Mass beoffered upon an altar whichcontainsastone consecrated by a Bishop, enclosingthe relics of somesaint or martyr; and becoveredwith three linencloths that havebeen blessed for that purpose with anappropriate form ofbenediction." Theconsecrationof the altar, indeed, is con-sidered evenmore serious thantheconsecration of the church itself; forwithout the stone and its relic the cere-mony of the mass cannotbeperformedatall. Even whenmass has tobe said inaprivate housethe priest brings aconse-crated stone and its relicalongwith him;and other such stones werecarriedintheretaoiesor portable altars so common inmilitary expeditionsof the Middle Ages.The church is thus atomb, with chapeltombs around it; it contains astonemonu-ment covering adead body or part of abody; and init ismade and exhibited theBody of Christ,inthe formof the conse-crated and transmutedwafer.Notonly,however, is the altar in thismanner areduced or symbolicaltomb, andnot only isit often placed above the bodyof asaint, as at St. Mark's and St. Peter's,butitsometimes is itself a stone sarco-phagus. One such sarcophagusexists inthe Cathedral at St. Malo; I .have seenother coffin-shaped altars inthemonasteryof LaTrappe near Algiers and elsewhere.When,however,the altarstands,likethatat St. Peter's,above the actual body of asaint, it does not require tocontain arelic;otherwise it does. That is to say, it mustbe either arealor elseanattenuatedandsymbolicalsarcophagus.Apart fromcorpse-worship and relic-worship in the case of saints, CatholicChristendom has longpossessed anannualCommemoration of the Dead, theJour des.&[o1'ls, which links itself on directly toearlier ancestor-worship. It is true, thiscommemoration is stated officially, and nodoubt correctly, to owe its origin (in itsrecognised form) to aparticular historicalperson, Saint Odilo of Cluny; but whenweconsider how universal such commemora-tions and annual dead-feasts have been inall times and places, we canhardly doubtthat the Church did but adopt and sanctifyapractice which, though perhaps accountedheathenish, had never died out at all amongthe mass of believers. The very desire tobeburied ina church or churchyard, andall thatit implies, link onChristian usagehere oncemoretoprimitive corpse-worship.Compare with the dead who sleep withOsiris. In the Middle Ages many peoplewereburied inchapels containing thebody(or arelic) of their patron saint.Inshort, fromfirst to last religion nevergets far away fromthese its earliest andprofoundest associations. "Godandim-mortality"-those two are its key-notes.And those twoare one; for thegod inthelast resort is nothing more than the im-mortalghost, etherealised and extended.On the other hand, whenever religiontravels toofar afield fromits emotionalandprimalbase inthe cult of the nearer dead,Itmust eitherbe constantly renewed byEste Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, ColombiaCONCLUSIONI SSfresh and familiar objects of worship, or ittendsto dissipateitself into mere vaguepantheism. Anewgod, a new saint, a"re\ival of religion," is continually neces-sary. The Sacrifice of the Mass is wiselyrepeated at frequent intervals; but thatalonedoesnot suffice: menwant theassu-ancc of anearer,amore fami.iar deity.Iu 0.11' owntime,and especially in Protes-tant and sceptical England andAmerica,this need has made itself felt in tl.e rise ofspiritualism and kindred beliefs,which arebut'hedoctrine of the ghost or shade inits purified form, .ip.rrt, as arule, fromthehigl.er conceptionof a supremeruler. Ihavr known many men of intellc:t, suffer-ing under asevere bereavement-the lossof t, wife ora dearly-loved child-takerefu.rc for a time either in spiritualism orCatholicism. Theformer seemsto givether.i thepractical assurance of actualbodily intercourse with the dead,throughmediums or table-turning; the Litter sup-plies them with a theory of death whichmakes reunion aprobable futurefor them.Thi. desire fordirect conversewith thedeadwe saw exemplified in averyearlyor primitive stage inthecase of theMandanwives who talk lovingly to their husbands'skulls; it probably forms the bas.s for thecorrmonhabit of keeping the head whileburying thebody,whose widespread resultswe have so frequently noticed. Ihaveknown twoinstances of modern spiritualistswho similarly had their wives'bodies em-balrned, in order that thespirit mightreturn and inhabit them.Thus the Cult of the Dead, which is theearlestorigin of all religion, inthe senseof worship, isalso the last relic of the reli-gicvsspirit whichsurvives the decay offaitl. due to modern scepticism. To thiscause I refer onthe whole the spiritualisticuttcranccs of so manyamong our leadersof .nodcrnscience. They have rejectedrelipion, but they cannotrejecttheInheritedand ingrained religious emotions.CIIAPTER XX.CONCLUSIO~AN[,now wehave reachedat lastthe endof oir long andtoilsomedisquisition. Ineeha,rdly say to those who have per-sistel WIth me so far that I do not regardasingle part of it all as by any means ~~-There is not achapter inthis book, indeed,"which I could not have expanded todouble-or treble its present length hadI chosento includein it atithe of the evidence1have gathered on the subject with whichit deals. IlLlt for many adequate reasonscompressionwas imperative. Some of thegreatest treatises ever written on this pro-foundly important and interestingquestionhave met with far less than the attentionthey deserved becausethey were so bulkyand so overloaded with evidencethat thereader couldhardly see the wood for thetrees: he lostthe thread of the argument'inthe mazes of example. Inmy owncaseI had,or believed I had,a central idea;andI desired to set that idea forth withsuchsimple brevity as wouldenablethereader to grasp it and to follow it. I go}as itwere, before aGrand J ury only. 1do not pretendinanyone instance to haveproved my points; I amsatisfied if I havemade outaprima faci case for furtherinquiry.My object inthe present reconstructivetreatisehas therefore been merely to setforth, inas short aformas was consistentwith clearness, my conception of the steps--by whichmankind arrived at its idea ofits God. I have nottried to produce evi-dence on eachstep in full ; I have only -tried to lay beforethe gcncral public arough sketch of apsychological rebuilding,and to suggest at the same time toscholarsandanthropologists some inkling of thelines along which evidence infavour of myproposed reconstruction is likeliest to befound. This book isthus no more than asummary of probabilities. As inthis pre-liminary outline of my views I have dealtwith few save well-knownfacts, and reliedfor the most partuponfamiliar collocationsof evidence, I have not thought it necessaryto encumber my pages with frequent andpedantic footnotes, referring tothepassagesor persons quoted.I wish also to remark before I close thatI do not hold dogmatically to the whole orany part of the elaborate doctrineheretentatively suggested. I have changed myownmint! far 100 often, with regard tothesematters, inthe course of my personal evolu-tion ever tothink I have reachedcompletefinality. Fifteenor twerty years ago, in-deed, I was rashenough to thinkI hadcometo anchor,when I iirst read Mr. Her-bertSpencer'ssketch of the origin of reli-gionintheopening volume of thePn"nczplerof Soaotogy. Ten or twelve years since.Este Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, ColombiaTHEEVOLUTION OF THEIDEA OF GODdoubts and difficulties again obtrudedthemselves, Six years ago oncemore,when TheGolden lJulI,[[h appeared, afterthis book had been planned and in partexecuted, I was forcedto go back entirelyupon many cherished former opinions, andto reconsider manyquestionswhichI hadfondly imag:neuwere longsince closed forme. Since that time new lights have beenconstantly shedupon me fromwithout,orhave occurred to me fromwithin; andIhumbly put thissketchforward now forwhat itmaybe worth,not withthe ideathat I have by any meansfathomed thewhole vast truth, butinthe .lint hope thatI may perhaps have looked down here andthere a littledeeper intotheprofoundabysses beneath us than has been the lot ofmost previous investigators. Atthe sametime,I need hardly reiterate my sense ofthe immense Obligations under whichI lietonot afewamong them,and pre-eminentlyto Mr. Spencer, Mr.Frazer, Mr. Hartland,and Dr. Tylor, My onlyclaim is that Imay perhaps have set forth ascheme of re-construction whichfurther evidence willpossibly show to betrue in parts 'inc! mis-taken inothers.On the other hand, by strictlyconfiningmy attention to religiousfeatures, properlyso called, to the exclusionof mythology,ethics, and all other external accretions oraccidents, I trust I have been able to de-monstrate more clearly than has hithertobeen done the intimateconnection whichalways exists between cults in general andthe worshipof the Dead God,natural orartificial. Even if I have 110t quite suc-ceeded ininducing thebeliever inprimitiveanimism to reconsider his prime dogma oftheorigin of gods fromall-pervading spirits(of which affiliation I cansee no proofinthe evidence before us),I venture to thinkI shallat any rate have made himfeel thatAncestor-\Vorship and the Cult of theDeadGod have played a far larger and deeperpart than he has hithertobeen willing toadmit inthe genesis of the religiousemo-tions. Though I may not have raised theworship of the Dead Man toasupreme andunique place inthe god-making process, Ihave at least, I trust,raised it to apositionof higher importance than it has hithertoheld, ever sincethepublication of Mr.Herbert Spencer's epoch -makingresearches.I believe I have made it tolerablyclear thatthe vast mass of existing gods or divinepersons, when we come to analyse them,do actually turn out to bedeadand deifiedhuman beings.This is not the place,at the very end ofsolongadisquisition, toexamine the theoryof primitiveanimism. I would thereforeonly say briefly here thatI do not deny theactualexistence of that profoundly animisticframe of mind which Mr. 1 mThurn has sowell depicted among the Indians of Guiana;nor thatwhich exists among the SamoyedsofSiberia; nor that whichmeetsus atevery turn inhistorical accounts of the oldRoman religion. I amquite ready toadmitthat, to people at that stage of religiousevolution,the world seems simply throngedwith spirits onevery side, each of whomhasoftenhis ownspecialfl!nctions and peculiarprerogatives. But I fail toseethatanyoneof these ideas is demonstrably primitive.Most oftenwecantrace ghosts, spirits,andgods to particular human origins: where: spirits existinabundance andpervadeallInature, I stillfailto understand why theyi may not bereferred totheoneknownsourceI_ and spring of all ghostly beings. It is. abundantly clear that nodistinction of: name or rite habitually demarcates these'I ubiquitous spirits at large from thosedomestic gods whose origin is perfectlywellremembered in the family circle. II make bold to believe, therefore, that inJ every such case we have to dealwith un-i knownand generalised ghosts-with ghosts: of varying degrees of antiquity. If anyoneIcanshow me arace of spirit-believers whoI do not worship their own ancestral spirits,I or canadduce any effective prime differentiabetween the spirit that was once alivingman and the spirit thatnever was humanI at all, I will gladly hear him. Up to date,however, no such race hasbeen pointedlout, andno suchdifferentia ever posited.The truth is,we have now no primitivemenat all. Existing menare the descen-I dants of people who have had religions, injallprobability, forover a million years.I The best we can do, therefore, is to tracewhat gods wecan to their original source,and believethat the rest are ofsimilarI development. Andwhither do we trackthem?"Sofar as I have been able to traceI back the origin of the best-knownminorprovincial deities," says Sir AlfredLyall,Ispeakingof India in general, "they areusually menof past generations who haveearned special promotion and brevet rankamong disembodied ghosts Of thenumerous localgods known to have beenliving men, by farthe greater proportionderive from the ordinary canonisation ofholy personages ...... The number of shrinesEste Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, ColombiaCONCLUSIONI S7---- ---_ ..._----- - -_._._._-----------------------------thus raised inBerar alone to these ancho-riles ann persons deceased inthe odour ofsanctity is large, and it is constantlyincreasing. Some of them have alrcacyattained the rank of temples." Ermancame to asimilarconclusion about thegodsof those very Ostyaks whoarcoftenquoudas typical examples of primitiveanimists.or late years numerous unprejudiced inves-til;ators, likeMr. Duff Macdonald andCaptainHenderson, have similarly cometo the conclusionthat the godsof thenr.tives among- whomtheyworked were allof human origin; whileweknow that somewl.ole greatnational creeds,likethe Shintoof J apan, recogniseno deities at allsaveliving kings and dead ancestral spirits.Under thesecircumstances, judgingtheunknownby the known, I hesitate to positanynew and fanciful source for the smallresiduum of gods whose human origin isless certainlv known to LIS.Inoneword, I believe that corpse-worshipis the protoplasm of f(ligion,while admit-ting that folk-loreis the protoplasmofmythology, ann ofits more modern andphilosophical offshoot,theology.-_.~,--._.----_._------------Tilenext R.P. A. CheapReprint will be Mr. S,HIVF.L Lvrxc's HU11ANORIGINS (illustrated;. revised and hOI/gIll Itp todalebyMr. EDWARDeLODD.Este Libro fue Editado por la Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango del Banco de la Repblica,ColombiaEste Libro Fue Digitalizado Por La Biblioteca Luis ngel Arango Del Banco De La Repblica, ColombiaJ ;8ADVERTISEMENTSPU BL I CATI O N S O F THERATI O N AL I STPRE S SLIMITEDANo~nfOUS.- Mr. Balfour's Apolo-getics CrItically Examined. 232 1 '1 '.;cloth,3s. 6