ian communities were founded, formed and
developed in the heart of Oriental populations, Semites, Phrygians and
Egyptians. Moreover the religions of those people were much farther
advanced, much richer in ideas and sentiments, more striking and stirring
than the Greco-Latin anthropomorphism. Their liturgy always derives its
inspiration from generally accepted beliefs {xvii} about purification
embodied in certain acts regarded as sanctifying. These facts were almost
identical in the various sects. The new faith poured its revelation into
the hallowed moulds of earlier religions because in that form alone could
the world in which it developed receive its message.

This is approximately the point of view adopted by the latest historians.

But, however absorbing this important problem may be, we could not think of
going into it, even briefly, in these studies on Roman paganism. In the
Latin world the question assumes much more modest proportions, and its
aspect changes completely. Here Christianity spread only after it had
outgrown the embryonic state and really became established. Moreover like
Christianity the Oriental mysteries at Rome remained for a long time
chiefly the religion of a foreign minority. Did any exchange take place
between these rival sects? The silence of the ecclesiastical writers is not
sufficient reason for denying it. We dislike to acknowledge a debt to our
adversaries, because it means that we recognize some value in the cause
they defend, but I believe that the importance of these exchanges should
not be exaggerated. Without a doubt certain ceremonies and holidays of the
church were based on pagan models. In the fourth century Christmas was
placed on the 25th of December because on that date was celebrated the
birth of the sun (_Natalis Invicti_) who was born to a new life each year
after the solstice.[3] Certain vestiges of the religions of Isis and Cybele
besides other polytheistic practices perpetuated themselves in the
adoration of local saints. On the other hand as soon as Christianity became
a moral power in {xviii} the world, it imposed itself even on its enemies.
The Phrygian priests of the Great Mother openly opposed their celebration
of the vernal equinox to the Christian Easter, and attributed to the blood
shed in the taurobolium the redemptive power of the blood of the divine
Lamb.[4]

All these facts constitute a series of very delicate problems of chronology
and interrelation, and it