ism. It was therefore natural that Jewish doctrine, of which
Christianity is heir, should have been closely allied to the mysteries of
Mithra. A considerable part of the more or less orthodox beliefs and
visions that gave the Middle Ages their nightmare of hell and the devil
thus came from Persia by two channels: on the one hand Judeo-Christian
literature, both canonical and apocryphal; and on the other, the remnants
of the Mithra cult and the various sects of Manicheism that continued to
preach the old Persian doctrines on the antagonism between the two world
principles.

But a theoretical adherence of the mind to dogmas that satisfy it, does not
suffice to convert it to a new religion. There must be motives of conduct
and a basis for hope besides grounds for belief. The Persian dualism was
not only a powerful metaphysical conception; it was also the foundation of
a very efficacious system of ethics, and this was the chief agent in the
success of the mysteries of Mithra during the second and third centuries in
the Roman world then animated by unrealized aspirations for more perfect
justice and holiness.

A sentence of the Emperor Julian,[46] unfortunately too brief, tells us
that Mithra subjected his worshipers to "commandments" ([Greek: entolai])
and rewarded faithful observance both in this world and in the next. The
{155} importance attached by the Persians to their peculiar ethics and the
rigor with which they observed its precepts, are perhaps the most striking
features of their national character as manifested in history. They were a
race of conquerors subject to a severe discipline, like the Romans, and
like them they realized the necessity of discipline in the administration
of a vast empire. Certain affinities between the two imperial nations
connected them directly without the mediation of the Greek world. Mazdaism
brought long awaited satisfaction to the old-time Roman desire for a
practical religion that would subject the individual to a rule of conduct
and contribute to the welfare of the state.[47] Mithra infused a new vigor
into the paganism of the Occident by introducing the imperative ethics of
Persia.

Unhappily the text of the Mithraic decalogue has not been preserved and its
principal commandments can be restored only by implication.

Mithra, the ancient spirit of light, became the god of truth and justice in
the religion of Zoroaster and retained that character in the Occident. He
was the Mazdea