358 ELEMENTS OF SCIENCE 



to them. But although for a time the worship of 

 foreign deities in Rome was forbidden, later on there 

 was, as it were, an interchange of religious worship all 

 over the Empire, and thus a sort of universal pagan 

 church a church of practices, not doctrines preceded 

 the diffusion of a universal Christian church. 



So it came about that Isis and Serapis were wor- 

 shipped at Rome in the second century after Christ. 



The Oriental religions differed generally from that of 

 Rome in their more sacerdotal and emotional character. 

 Worshippers were invited to mourn over the death of an 

 Adonis, to sympathise with a divine mother w r ho sees the 

 beauteous Athis expire in her arms, or to rejoice at the 

 resurrection of a god such as Osiris. These practices, 

 mixed with sanguinary rites and devotions of very 

 doubtful morality, began to exercise great influence over 

 the lower classes of Italy, and above all of Rome. But 

 such beliefs and worships readily accommodated them- 

 selves to, and harmonised with, the State religion, as 

 also did the widely diffused and very successful Oriental 

 worship of Mithra. 



During the period which elapsed between the days of 

 the republic and the end of the second century, a tendency 

 arose to recognise one God as supreme over all other 

 gods, or even to revere one solely existing God ; and 

 this tendency grew and developed itself. Nevertheless 

 the educated Romans of the period of Cicero, and for a 

 time afterwards, were doubtful with respect to a future 

 life. Under the empire, however, scepticism in this 

 respect tended to diminish, while the great influence of 

 that belief and the vivid fears it inspired, are attested by 

 the number of associations formed (in which even slaves 

 bore their part) for the purpose of providing their 

 members with the requisite funeral rites and sepulture. 



