The Two Babylons
Alexander Hislop
Chapter IV
Section III
The Sacrifice of the Mass
If baptismal regeneration, the initiating
ordinance of Rome, and justification by works, be both Chaldean, the principle embodied in
the "unbloody sacrifice" of the mass is not less so. We have evidence that goes
to show the Babylonian origin of the idea of that "unbloody sacrifice" very
distinctly. From Tacitus we learn that no blood was allowed to be offered on the altars of
Paphian Venus. Victims were used for the purposes of the Haruspex, that presages of the
issues of events might be drawn from the inspection of the entrails of these victims; but
the altars of the Paphian goddess were required to be kept pure from blood. Tacitus shows
that the Haruspex of the temple of the Paphian Venus was brought from Cilicia, for
his knowledge of her rites, that they might be duly performed according to the supposed
will of the goddess, the Cilicians having peculiar knowledge of her rites. Now, Tarsus,
the capital of Cilicia, was built by Sennacerib, the Assyrian king, in express imitation
of Babylon. Its religion would naturally correspond; and when we find "unbloody
sacrifice" in Cyprus, whose priest came from Cilicia, that, in the circumstances, is
itself a strong presumption that the "unbloody sacrifice" came to it through
Cilicia from Babylon. This presumption is greatly strengthened when we find from Herodotus
that the peculiar and abominable institution of Babylon in prostituting virgins in honour
of Mylitta, was observed also in Cyprus in honour of Venus. But the positive testimony of
Pausanias brings this presumption to a certainty. "Near this," says that
historian, speaking of the temple of Vulcan at Athens, "is the temple of Celestial
Venus, who was first worshipped by the Assyrians, and after these by the Paphians in
Cyprus, and the Phoenicians who inhabited the city of Ascalon in Palestine. But the
Cythereans venerated this goddess in consequence of learning her sacred rites from the
Phoenicians." The Assyrian Venus, then--that is, the great goddess of Babylon--and
the Cyprian Venus were one and the same, and consequently the "bloodless" altars
of the Paphian goddess show the character of the worship peculiar to the Babylonian
goddess, from whom she was derived. In this respect the goddess-queen of Chaldea differed
from her son, who was worshipped in her arms. He was, as we have seen, represented
as delighting in blood. But she, as the mother of grace and mercy, as the celestial
"Dove," as "the hope of the whole world," (BRYANT) was averse to
blood, and was represented in a benign and gentle character. Accordingly, in Babylon she
bore the name of Mylitta--that is, "The Mediatrix." *
* Mylitta is the same as Melitta, the feminine of
Melitz, "a mediator," which in Chaldee becomes Melitt. Melitz is the word used
in Job 33:23, 24: "If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter (Heb.
Melitz, "a mediator"), one among a thousand, to show unto man his
uprightness, then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the
pit; I have found a ransom."
Every one who reads the Bible, and sees how
expressly it declares that, as there is only "one God," so there is only
"one Mediator between God and man" (1 Tim 2:5), must marvel how it could ever
have entered the mind of any one to bestow on Mary, as is done by the Church of Rome, the
character of the "Mediatrix." But the character ascribed to the Babylonian
goddess as Mylitta sufficiently accounts for this. In accordance with this character of
Mediatrix, she was called Aphrodite--that is, "the wrath-subduer" *--who by her
charms could soothe the breast of angry Jove, and soften the most rugged spirits of gods
or mortal-men. In Athens she was called Amarusia (PAUSANIAS)--that is, "The Mother of
gracious acceptance." **
* From Chaldee "aph,"
"wrath," and "radah," "to subdue"; "radite" is the
feminine emphatic.
** From "Ama," "mother," and
"Retza," "to accept graciously," which in the participle active is
"Rutza." Pausanias expresses his perplexity as to the meaning of the name
Amarusia as applied to Diana, saying, "Concerning which appellation I never could
find any one able to give a satisfactory account." The sacred tongue plainly shows
the meaning of it.
In Rome she was called "Bona Dea,"
"the good goddess," the mysteries of this goddess being celebrated by women with
peculiar secrecy. In India the goddess Lakshmi, "the Mother of the Universe,"
the consort of Vishnu, is represented also as possessing the most gracious and genial
disposition; and that disposition is indicated in the same way as in the case of the
Babylonian goddess. "In the festivals of Lakshmi," says Coleman, "no sanguinary
sacrifices are offered." In China, the great gods, on whom the final destinies of
mankind depend, are held up to the popular mind as objects of dread; but the goddess
Kuanyin, "the goddess of mercy," whom the Chinese of Canton recognise as bearing
an analogy to the Virgin or Rome, is described as looking with an eye of compassion on the
guilty, and interposing to save miserable souls even from torments to which in the world
of spirits they have been doomed. Therefore she is regarded with peculiar favour by the
Chinese. This character of the goddess-mother has evidently radiated in all directions
from Chaldea. Now, thus we see how it comes that Rome represents Christ, the "Lamb of
God," meek and lowly in heart, who never brake the bruised reed, nor quenched the
smoking flax--who spake words of sweetest encouragement to every mourning penitent--who
wept over Jerusalem--who prayed for His murderers--as a stern and inexorable judge, before
whom the sinner "might grovel in the dust, and still never be sure that his prayers
would be heard," while Mary is set off in the most winning and engaging light, as the
hope of the guilty, as the grand refuge of sinners; how it is that the former is said to
have "reserved justice and judgment to Himself," but to have committed the
exercise of all mercy to His Mother! The most standard devotional works of Rome are
pervaded by this very principle, exalting the compassion and gentleness of the mother at
the expense of the loving character of the Son. Thus, St. Alphonsus Liguori tells his
readers that the sinner that ventures to come directly to Christ may come with dread and
apprehension of His wrath; but let him only employ the mediation of the Virgin with her
Son, and she has only to "show" that Son "the breasts that gave
him suck," (Catholic Layman, July, 1856) and His wrath will immediately be
appeased. But where in the Word of God could such an idea have been found? Not surely in
the answer of the Lord Jesus to the woman who exclaimed, "Blessed is the womb that
bare thee, and the paps that thou hast sucked!" Jesus answered and said unto her,
"Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it"
(Luke 11:27,28). There cannot be a doubt that this answer was given by the prescient
Saviour, to check in the very bud every idea akin to that expressed by Liguori. Yet this
idea, which is not to be found in Scripture, which the Scripture expressly repudiates, was
widely diffused in the realms of Paganism. Thus we find an exactly parallel representation
in the Hindoo mythology in regard to the god Siva and his wife Kali, when that god
appeared as a little child. "Siva," says the Lainga Puran, "appeared as an
infant in a cemetery, surrounded by ghosts, and on beholding him, Kali (his wife) took him
up, and, caressing him, gave him her breast. He sucked the nectareous fluid; but
becoming ANGRY, in order to divert and PACIFY him, Kali clasping him to her bosom,
danced with her attendant goblins and demons amongst the dead, until he was pleased and
delighted; while Vishnu, Brahma, Indra, and all the gods, bowing themselves, praised
with laudatory strains the god of gods, Kal and Parvati." Kali, in India, is the
goddess of destruction; but even into the myth that concerns this goddess of destruction,
the power of the goddess mother, in appeasing an offended god, by means only suited
to PACIFY a peevish child, has found an introduction. If the Hindoo story exhibits its
"god of gods" in such a degrading light, how much more honouring is the Papal
story to the Son of the Blessed, when it represents Him as needing to be pacified
by His mother exposing to Him "the breasts that He has sucked." All this is done
only to exalt the Mother, as more gracious and more compassionate than her
glorious Son. Now, this was the very case in Babylon: and to this character of the goddess
queen her favourite offerings exactly corresponded. Therefore, we find the women of Judah
represented as simply "burning incense, pouring out drink-offerings, and offering cakes
to the queen of heaven" (Jer 44:19). The cakes were "the unbloody
sacrifice" she required. That "unbloody sacrifice" her votaries not only
offered, but when admitted to the higher mysteries, they partook of, swearing anew
fidelity to her. In the fourth century, when the queen of heaven, under the name of Mary,
was beginning to be worshipped in the Christian Church, this "unbloody
sacrifice" also was brought in. Epiphanius states that the practice of offering and
eating it began among the women of Arabia; and at that time it was well known to have been
adopted from the Pagans. The very shape of the unbloody sacrifice of Rome may indicate
whence it came. It is a small thin, round wafer; and on its roundness the
Church of Rome lays so much stress, to use the pithy language of John Knox in regard to
the wafer-god, "If, in making the roundness the ring be broken, then must
another of his fellow-cakes receive that honour to be made a god, and the crazed or
cracked miserable cake, that once was in hope to be made a god, must be given to a baby to
play withal." What could have induced the Papacy to insist so much on the "roundness"
of its "unbloody sacrifice"? Clearly not any reference to the Divine institution
of the Supper of our Lord; for in all the accounts that are given of it, no reference
whatever is made to the form of the bread which our Lord took, when He blessed and
break it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, "Take, eat; this is My body: this do
in remembrance of Me." As little can it be taken from any regard to injunctions about
the form of the Jewish Paschal bread; for no injunctions on that subject are given in the
books of Moses. The importance, however, which Rome attaches to the roundness of
the wafer, must have a reason; and that reason will be found, if we look at the altars of
Egypt. "The thin, round cake," says Wilkinson, "occurs on all
altars." Almost every jot or tittle in the Egyptian worship had a symbolical meaning.
The round disk, so frequent in the sacred emblems of Egypt, symbolised the sun.
Now, when Osiris, the sun-divinity, became incarnate, and was born, it was not merely that
he should give his life as a sacrifice for men, but that he might also be the life
and nourishment of the souls of men. It is universally admitted that Isis was the
original of the Greek and Roman Ceres. But Ceres, be it observed, was worshipped not
simply as the discoverer of corn; she was worshipped as "the MOTHER of
Corn." The child she brought forth was He-Siri, "the Seed," or, as he was
most frequently called in Assyria, "Bar," which signifies at once "the Son"
and "the Corn." (Fig. 37).
The uninitiated might reverence Ceres for the gift of material corn to nourish
their bodies, but the initiated adored her for a higher gift--for food to nourish
their souls--for giving them that bread of God that cometh down from heaven--for the life
of the world, of which, "if a man eat, he shall never die." Does any one imagine
that it is a mere New Testament doctrine, that Christ is the "bread of
life"? There never was, there never could be, spiritual life in any
soul, since the world began, at least since the expulsion from Eden, that was not
nourished and supported by a continual feeding by faith on the Son of God, "in whom
it hath pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell" (Col 1:19), "that out
of His fulness we might receive, and grace for grace" (John 1:16). Paul tells us that
the manna of which the Israelites ate in the wilderness was to them a type and lively
symbol of "the bread of life"; (1 Cor 10:3), "They did all eat the same spiritual
meat"--i.e., meat which was intended not only to support their natural lives, but to
point them to Him who was the life of their souls. Now, Clement of Alexandria, to whom we
are largely indebted for all the discoveries that, in modern times, have been made in
Egypt, expressly assures us that, "in their hidden character, the enigmas of
the Egyptians were VERY SIMILAR TO THOSE OF THE JEWS." That the initiated Pagans
actually believed that the "Corn" which Ceres bestowed on the world was not the
"Corn" of this earth, but the Divine "Son," through whom alone
spiritual and eternal life could be enjoyed, we have clear and decisive proof. The Druids
were devoted worshippers of Ceres, and as such they were celebrated in their mystic poems
as "bearers of the ears of corn." Now, the following is the account which the
Druids give of their great divinity, under the form of "Corn." That
divinity was represented as having, in the first instance, incurred, for some reason or
other, the displeasure of Ceres, and was fleeing in terror from her. In his terror,
"he took the form of a bird, and mounted into the air. That element afforded him no
refuge: for The Lady, in the form of a sparrow-hawk, was gaining upon him--she was
just in the act of pouncing upon him. Shuddering with dread, he perceived a heap of clean
wheat upon a floor, dropped into the midst of it, and assumed the form of a single
grain. Ceridwen [i.e., the British Ceres] took the form of a black high-crested hen,
descended into the wheat, scratched him out, distinguished, and swallowed him. And, as the
history relates, she was pregnant of him nine months, and when delivered of him, she found
him so lovely a babe, that she had not resolution to put him to death"
("Song of Taliesin," DAVIES'S British Druids). Here it is evident that
the grain of corn, is expressly identified with "the lovely babe";
from which it is still further evident that Ceres, who, to the profane vulgar was known
only as the Mother of "Bar," "the Corn," was known to the initiated as
the Mother of "Bar," "the Son." And now, the reader will be prepared
to understand the full significance of the representation in the Celestial sphere of
"the Virgin with the ear of wheat in her hand." That ear of wheat in the
Virgin's hand is just another symbol for the child in the arms of the
Virgin Mother.
Now, this Son, who was symbolised as
"Corn," was the SUN-divinity incarnate, according to the sacred oracle of the
great goddess of Egypt: "No mortal hath lifted my veil. The fruit which I have
brought forth is the SUN" (BUNSEN'S Egypt). What more natural then, if this
incarnate divinity is symbolised as the "bread of God," than that he
should be represented as a "round wafer," to identify him with the Sun?
Is this a mere fancy? Let the reader peruse the following extract from Hurd, in which he
describes the embellishments of the Romish altar, on which the sacrament or consecrated
wafer is deposited, and then he will be able to judge: "A plate of silver, in the
form of a SUN, is fixed opposite to the SACRAMENT on the altar; which, with the light of
the tapers, makes a most brilliant appearance." What has that "brilliant"
"Sun" to do there, on the altar, over against the "sacrament,"
or round wafer? In Egypt, the disk of the Sun was represented in the
temples, and the sovereign and his wife and children were represented as adoring it. Near
the small town of Babain, in Upper Egypt, there still exists in a grotto, a representation
of a sacrifice to the sun, where two priests are seen worshipping the sun's image, as in
the accompanying woodcut (Fig. 38). In the
great temple of Babylon, the golden image of the Sun was exhibited for the worship of the
Babylonians. In the temple of Cuzco, in Peru, the disk of the sun was fixed up in flaming
gold upon the wall, that all who entered might bow down before it. The Paeonians of Thrace
were sun-worshippers; and in their worship they adored an image of the sun in the form of
a disk at the top of a long pole. In the worship of Baal, as practised by the idolatrous
Israelites in the days of their apostacy, the worship of the sun's image was equally
observed; and it is striking to find that the image of the sun, which apostate Israel
worshipped, was erected above the altar. When the good king Josiah set about the
work of reformation, we read that his servants in carrying out the work, proceeded thus (2
Chron 34:4): "And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence, and
the images (margin, SUN-IMAGES) that were on high above them, he cut down." Benjamin
of Tudela, the great Jewish traveller, gives a striking account of sun-worship even in
comparatively modern times, as subsisting among the Cushites of the East, from which we
find that the image of the sun was, even in his day, worshipped on the altar. "There
is a temple," says he, "of the posterity of Chus, addicted to the contemplation
of the stars. They worship the sun as a god, and the whole country, for half-a-mile round
their town, is filled with great altars dedicated to him. By the dawn of morn they get up
and run out of town, to wait the rising sun, to whom, on every altar, there is a consecrated
image, not in the likeness of a man, but of the solar orb, framed by magic art.
These orbs, as soon as the sun rises, take fire, and resound with a great noise, while
everybody there, men and women, hold censers in their hands, and all burn incense to the
sun." From all this, it is manifest that the image of the sun above, or on the altar,
was one of the recognised symbols of those who worshipped Baal or the sun. And here, in a
so-called Christian Church, a brilliant plate of silver, "in the form of a SUN,"
is so placed on the altar, that every one who adores at that altar must bow down in lowly
reverence before that image of the "Sun." Whence, I ask, could that have
come, but from the ancient sun-worship, or the worship of Baal? And when the wafer is so
placed that the silver "SUN" is fronting the "round" wafer,
whose "roundness" is so important an element in the Romish Mystery, what
can be the meaning of it, but just to show to those who have eyes to see, that the
"Wafer" itself is only another symbol of Baal, or the Sun. If the sun-divinity
was worshipped in Egypt as "the Seed," or in Babylon as the "Corn,"
precisely so is the wafer adored in Rome. "Bread-corn of the elect, have mercy
upon us," is one of the appointed prayers of the Roman Litany, addressed to the
wafer, in the celebration of the mass. And one at least of the imperative requirements as
to the way in which that wafer is to be partaken of, is the very same as was enforced in
the old worship of the Babylonian divinity. Those who partake of it are required to
partake absolutely fasting. This is very stringently laid down. Bishop Hay, laying down
the law on the subject, says that it is indispensable, "that we be fasting from
midnight, so as to have taken nothing into our stomach from twelve o'clock at night before
we receive, neither food, nor drink, nor medicine." Considering that our Lord Jesus
Christ instituted the Holy Communion immediately after His disciples had partaken of the
paschal feast, such a strict requirement of fasting might seem very unaccountable. But
look at this provision in regard to the "unbloody sacrifice" of the mass in the
light of the Eleusinian Mysteries, and it is accounted for at once; for there the first
question put to those who sought initiation was, "Are you fasting?" (POTTER, Eleusiania)
and unless that question was answered in the affirmative, no initiation could take place.
There is no question that fasting is in certain circumstances a Christian duty; but while
neither the letter nor the spirit of the Divine institution requires any such stringent
regulation as the above, the regulations in regard to the Babylonian Mysteries make it
evident whence this requirement has really come.
Although the god whom Isis or Ceres brought
forth, and who was offered to her under the symbol of the wafer or thin round cake, as
"the bread of life," was in reality the fierce, scorching Sun, or terrible
Moloch, yet in that offering all his terror was veiled, and everything repulsive was cast
into the shade. In the appointed symbol he is offered up to the benignant Mother, who
tempers judgment with mercy, and to whom all spiritual blessings are ultimately referred;
and blessed by that mother, he is given back to be feasted upon, as the staff of life, as
the nourishment of her worshippers' souls. Thus the Mother was held up as the favourite
divinity. And thus, also, and for an entirely similar reason, does the Madonna of Rome
entirely eclipse her son as the "Mother of grace and mercy."
In regard to the Pagan character of the
"unbloody sacrifice" of the mass, we have seen not little already. But there is
something yet to be considered, in which the working of the mystery of iniquity will still
further appear. There are letters on the wafer that are worth reading. These letters are
I. H. S. What mean these mystical letters? To a Christian these letters are represented as
signifying, "Iesus Hominum Salvator," "Jesus the Saviour of
men." But let a Roman worshipper of Isis (for in the age of the emperors there were
innumerable worshippers of Isis in Rome) cast his eyes upon them, and how will he read
them? He will read them, of course, according to his own well known system of idolatry:
"Isis, Horus, Seb," that is, "The Mother, the Child, and the Father
of the gods,"--in other words, "The Egyptian Trinity." Can the reader
imagine that this double sense is accidental? Surely not. The very same spirit that
converted the festival of the Pagan Oannes into the feast of the Christian Joannes,
retaining at the same time all its ancient Paganism, has skilfully planned the initials I.
H. S. to pay the semblance of a tribute to Christianity, while Paganism in reality
has all the substance of the homage bestowed upon it.
When the women of Arabia began to adopt this
wafer and offer the "unbloody sacrifice," all genuine Christians saw at once the
real character of their sacrifice. They were treated as heretics, and branded with the
name of Collyridians, from the Greek name for the cake which they employed. But Rome saw
that the heresy might be turned to account; and therefore, though condemned by the sound
portion of the Church, the practice of offering and eating this "unbloody
sacrifice" was patronised by the Papacy; and now, throughout the whole bounds of the
Romish communion, it has superseded the simple but most precious sacrament of the Supper
instituted by our Lord Himself.
Intimately connected with the sacrifice of the
mass is the subject of transubstantiation; but the consideration of it will come more
conveniently at a subsequent stage of this inquiry.
