er, the bishop, to inquire into
his belief, and to condemn it if found unsound. Arius frankly and openly
acknowledged his opinions: he thought Jesus a created being, and would
speak of him in no higher terms than those used in the New Testament
and Apostles' Creed, and defended his opinions by an appeal to the
Scriptures. But he soon found that his defence was thought weak,
and, without waiting to be condemned, he withdrew before the storm to
Palestine, where he remained till summoned before the council of Nicaea
in the coming reign.

It was during these reigns of trouble, about which history is sadly
silent, when Greek learning was sinking, and after the country had
been for a year or two in the power of the Syrians, that the worship of
Mithra was brought into Alexandria, where superstitious ceremonies and
philosophical subtleties were equally welcome. Mithra was the Persian
god of the sun; and in the system of two gods, one good and the other
wicked, he was the god of goodness.

[Illustration: 179.jpg SYMBOL OF MITHRA]

The chief symbol in his worship was the figure of a young hero in
Phrygian cap and trousers, mounted on a sinking bull, and stabbing it
in sacrifice to the god. In a deserted part of Alexandria, called the
Mithrium, his rites were celebrated among ruins and rubbish; and his
ignorant followers were as ignorantly accused of there slaying their
fellow-citizens on his altars.

It was about the same time that the eastern doctrine of Manicheism was
said to have been brought into Egypt by Papus, and Thomas or Hernias.
This sect, if sect it may be called, owed its origin to a certain
Majus Mani, banished from Persia under the Sassanides; this Mani was
a talented man, highly civilised through his studies and voyages in
distant lands. In his exile he conceived the idea of putting himself
forward as the reformer of the religions of all the peoples he had
visited, and of reducing them all to one universal religion. Banished by
the Christians, to whom he represented himself as the divinely inspired
apostle of Jesus, in whom the Comforter had appeared, he returned to
Persia, taking with him a book of the Gospels adorned by extraordinary
paintings. Here he obtained at first the favour of the king and the
people, till finally, after many changes of fortune, he was pursued by
the magi, and convicted in a solemn disputation of falsifying religion;
he was condemned to the terrible punishment of being flayed alive, af