MYSTERY 



561 4 



MYSTICISM 



of the Phrygian Corybantes, which 

 were ceremonial dances symbolis- 

 ing death and burial as magical in- 

 centives to fertility. 



A third group was concerned 

 with Orpheus, himself perhaps of 

 Thracian birth. With his venera- 

 tion Greece associated the refine- 

 ments of melody and poetry. In 

 these Orphic mysteries the idea of 

 recurrent death and resurrection 

 was symbolised, and the ritual 

 phenomena bore relationships to 

 those which centered about the 

 Egyptian worship of Isis and Sera- 

 pis, and the Phrygian worship of 

 Attis and Cybele. At the beginning 

 of our era these mysteries were 

 practised throughout the Greco- 

 Roman world by the private mem- 

 bers of secret societies, side by side 

 with those of the Persian Mithras. 

 All of them were for centuries en- 

 gaged in a life-and-death struggle 

 with the Christian faith. 



In the N.T. the word mystery, as 

 used by S. Paul, denoted the 

 Divine plan, and there is reason to 

 doubt whether the apostle referred 

 directly to, or was personally fami- 

 liar with, any of the mystery - 

 religions of his time. In a later age 

 the early fathers began to draw 

 comparisons between Christian and 

 pagan mysteries. But the resem- 

 blances with Christian practice ob- 

 servable in the later forms of the 

 oriental cults prevalent in the 

 Roman world, notably those of 

 Isis and Mithras, are mainly ex- 

 plicable as imitations and not pre- 

 cursors of Christian institutions. 



The religious mysteries already 

 discussed are a special develop- 

 ment of a social institution of wide- 

 spread occurrence, and arose out of 

 the emotional life of settled agri- 

 cultural peoples. The main ele- 

 ments purification, offering, pro- 

 cession, song, dance, drama, secret 

 formula, and mechanical acces- 

 soriesare so universal that these 

 rituals must be deemed to have 

 their roots in neolithic culture. 

 They sometimes occur as modes of 

 admission into general society, as 

 in the case of primitive puberty- 

 rites, and sometimes as devices for 

 securing the local or specialised in- 

 terests of artificial social groups. 

 Thus the daubing of initiates with 

 clay, characteristic of some Greek 

 mysteries, is still practised in W. 

 Africa, Guiana, Australia, Mela- 

 nesia, and the Andamans, while the 

 scope of the mystic bull-roarer 

 (q.v.) is wider still. See Eleusinia ; 

 Freemasonry ; Initiation : consult 

 also The Cults of the Greek States, 

 L. R. Farnell, 1896-1909; Primi- 

 tive Secret Societies, H. Webster, 

 1908 ; St. Paul and the Mystery- 

 Religions, H. A. A. Kennedy, 1913. 

 E. G. Harmer 



Mystery of Edwin Drood, 



THE. Novel by Charles Dickens. 

 It was to have run into twelve 

 monthly parts, illustrated by Luke 

 Fildes, R.A., but the author died 

 on the day on which he completed 

 (or all but completed) Part VI, 

 June 9, 1870. Ever since discus- 

 sion has been active as to who 

 murdered Edwin Drood, whether 

 Drood was murdered, who was 

 Datchery, and similar points in 

 this grim story of an uncle's jea- 

 lousy, the qualities of which have 

 been eagerly discussed by ad- 

 mirers and critics alike. Of plays 

 founded on the novel, one by W. 

 Stephens, was produced as early as 

 Nov., 1871, but the most notable is 

 that by J. Comyns Carr, first wit- 

 nessed at Cardiff in Nov., 1907, and 

 then in London, Jan., 1908, with 

 H. Beerbohm (later Sir Herbert) 

 Tree as Jasper. Carr's solution was 

 that Drood was not murdered, but 

 that Jasper had an opium-inspired 

 dream, on waking from which he 

 was convinced he was his nephew's 

 slayer. The Cloisterham of the 

 story is Rochester. 



Mystery Play. Type of religious 

 drama in medieval Europe. It was 

 so called either as representing 

 mysteries of the faith, or more 

 probably as being a ministry or 

 craft. Medieval plays with biblical 

 subjects are commonly called 

 mysteries. The medieval drama 

 was evolved from religious ritual. 

 To the recitation of sacred narra- 

 tives and antiphonal singing were 

 added at the great church festi- 

 vals quasi-dramatic dialogues and 

 symbolical acts. By the 12th cen- 

 tury the clergy and choirs per- 

 formed dramas in French churches. 



From the churches the dramas 

 were transferred to the churchyards 

 and to open spaces in towns, and 

 when in 1210 the clergy were for- 

 bidden to act except in churches, 

 the performances were given by 

 laymen. A great impetus was given 

 to the movement by the institu- 

 tion in 1311 of the Corpus Christi 

 festival on the Thursday after 

 Trinity. The guilds in English and 

 continental towns collaborated in 

 producing cycles of plays repre- 

 senting sacred events from the 

 Creation to Doomsday. Comic 

 relief was provided by Noah's wife, 

 the shepherds of Bethlehem, and 

 other stock characters. 



Of the extant English cycles, the 

 oldest are those of Chester (24 

 plays) and York (48), dating from 

 about 1350. The- 32 so-called 

 Towneley mysteries were probably 

 acted at or near Wakefield. The 42 

 Coventry plays seem to have been 

 written for monks or friars. Some 

 mystery plays in the Cornish lan- 

 guage are also preserved. The re- 



ligious drama lingered in England 

 until the end of the 16th century. 

 In many continental countries 

 examples of mystery plays abound. 

 In Paris the representations were re- 

 stricted to the confraternity of the 

 Passion. The Scandinavian reform- 

 ers encouraged the art, which was 

 widely practised in Germany until 

 its prohibition by the archbishop 

 of Salzburg in 1779 was followed by 

 that of other prelates of the em- 

 pire, the inhabitants of Oberam- 

 mergau alone obtaining permission 

 to perform a passion play. Similar 

 dramas are still acted in Spain, and 

 at Bruges and Furnes in Belgium. 

 See Drama ; Miracle Play ; Ober- 

 ammergau. A. B. Oougb 



Mysticism (Gr. myein, to close 

 the eyes). Term originally used in 

 connexion with the Greek mys- 

 teries ; a mystic was one who had 

 been initiated into the esoteric 

 knowledge of divine things which 

 the mysteries imparted to their con- 

 verts. The word is used in modern 

 times in different senses, but in its 

 technical meaning it has been de- 

 fined by Dean Inge as " the at- 

 tempt to realize the presence of the 

 living God in the soul and in na- 

 ture, or more generally as the at- 

 tempt to realize in thought and 

 feeling the immanence of the tem- 

 poral in the eternal and the eternal 

 in the temporal." All the mystics 

 claim the power of immediate ap- 

 proach to God without the aid of 

 any external means. 



Traces of mysticism are to be 

 found in most religions. The spirit 

 of mysticism has left its mark upon 

 the Upanishads and the Hindu 

 philosophical schools. In Islam it 

 appears in Sufism. In Greece its 

 origin may be traced to Plato, 

 though its development was due to 

 oriental influences connected with 

 the Greek mysteries ; it reached its 

 climax in Neo-Platonism, espe- 

 cially in the writings of Plotinus. 



Christianity has always been a 

 favourable soil for the growth of 

 mysticism. There are mystic ele- 

 ments in the N.T., particularly in 

 the Johannine and Pauline litera- 

 ture. It was not, however, till the 

 fifth century that the movement 

 assumed large proportions, The 

 writings of Pseudo-Dionysius are 

 an attempt to transform Christian- 

 ity under the influence of Neo- 

 PJatonism into mysticism pure and 

 simple, and exercised a remarkable 

 influence on Christian thought for 

 several centuries. 



The golden age of Christian mys- 

 ticism falls within the period A.D. 

 1250-1500. It originated in a Pan- 

 theistic society which flourished 

 in the 13th and 14th centuries, 

 known as " The Brethren of the 

 Free Spirit." The watchword of 



