d Fall of the Roman Empire."

[32] Barbour, _Edinburgh Medical Journal_, vol. xxxiv, p. 331.

CHAPTER XI.

INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY ON ALTRUISM AND THE HEALING ART.

Essenes--Cabalists and Gnostics--Object of Christ's
Mission--Stoics--Constantine and Justinian--Gladiatorial
Games--Orphanages--Support of the Poor--Hospitals--Their
Foundation--Christianity and Hospitals--Fabiola--Christian
Philanthropy--Demon Theories of Disease receive the Church's
Sanction--Monastic Medicine--Miracles of Healing--St. Paul--St.
Luke--Proclus--Practice of Anatomy denounced--Christianity the
prime factor in promoting Altruism.

The sect of the _Essenes_ embraced part of the teaching of Christianity
among their other beliefs. They conceived that the Almighty had to be
propitiated by signs and symbols. Words, they considered, were the
direct gift of God to man, and, therefore, signs representing words were
of great avail. Hence arose the use of amulets and cabalistic signs, or,
rather, the common use, for they had been in evidence long prior to the
foundation of this sect. Amulets were worn on the person. The Jews had
phylacteries or bits of parchment on which were written passages from
the Scriptures. In the first century after Christ, Jews, Pythagoreans,
Essenes, and various sects of mystics combined and formed the
_Cabalists_ and _Gnostics_. Their creed embraced the magic of the
Persians, the dreams of the Asclepiads, the numbers of Pythagoras, and
the theory of atoms of Democritus. The Sophists of Alexandria actually
regarded magic as a science. A section of the early Christians were
Gnostics, and were imbued with the philosophy of the Orientals.
According to the beliefs of the Cabalists and Gnostics, demons were the
cause of disease. These sects interrogated evil spirits to find out
where they lurked, and exorcised them with the help of charms and
talismans. Various geometric figures and devices were held to have power
against evil spirits. One of these figures was the device of two
triangles interlaced thus [Symbol: David's Star]. This was used
as a symbol of God, not only by Cabalists and Gnostics, but also
by Jews. The great majority of the early Christians opposed the
Gnostics, and repudiated and abhorred their strange mixture of
the Christian religion with Eastern philosophy.

Christ came into the world at a time when the evils of _slavery_ were
probably at their worst. He did