436 HISTORY OF RELIGION 



with Egypt and the East; while the "Mycenaean" tombs and the 

 palaces and caves of Crete disclose something'at least of the religion 

 of that remote age. The discovery or evaluation of a multitude of 

 documents of inferior religious authority, but often of the highest 

 historical importance, and above all the critical study of the canonical 

 sources themselves and the comparison of other religions, have led 

 to conceptions of the history of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, 

 differing often radically from those which prevailed only a generation 

 ago. Thus on all sides the authentic knowledge of the chief historical 

 religions of the world has been immeasurably enlarged by the dis- 

 coveries and investigations of the nineteenth century. 



Sacred books and other literary sources are, however, not the only 

 witnesses to ancient religions. 1 The collection of German " Mahrchen " 

 made by the brothers Grimm, proved to contain Teutonic myths, 

 depotentiated and disguised; and comparison with Norse, Greek, 

 and later with Vedic mythology, suggested that in Germanic folk- 

 lore were remains of a common Indo-Germanic tradition. 2 The 

 investigation, by Mannhardt and others, of popular customs, espe- 

 cially peasant customs, and beliefs connected with agriculture and 

 vegetation, showed that here also, in what the prevalence of Christian- 

 ity had reduced to the rank of superstitions, were survivals of the 

 religions which Christianity supplanted. 3 The study of folk-lore and 

 the "lower mythology," and of popular custom and superstition, 

 which has been so diligently prosecuted in the last half-century, 

 opens to the student of the history of religions sources which often 

 supplement or interpret in a most welcome manner his literary 

 material. For the great mass of peoples and religions which have 

 never created a sacred literature the student is wholly dependent on 

 this stream of living tradition and practice. Anthropology, which 

 Waltz raised to the rank of a science, 4 gives to religion a place cor- 

 responding to its pervasive significance in savage and semi-civilized 

 societies, and thus becomes one of the most important auxiliaries 

 of the history of religions. It has established the universality of 

 religion, and shown, beneath all differences, a large measure of agree- 

 ment in the religions of peoples of the most diverse races upon the 

 same plane of culture and with similar social organization. The 

 study of the agreements and the differences shows the common 

 characteristics of the savage mind, the influences of history and 



1 See on the following, Mannhardt, W., Wald und Feldkulte, 1875-77, 2 vols., 

 vol. n, pp. i-xi. 



2 Grimm, J. u. W., Kinder- und-Hausmarchen, 1812-15; 2d ed. 1819-22, 3 vols. 

 See especially, Grimm, J., Deutsche Mythologie, 1835; 2d ed. 1844; 3d ed. 1854; 

 4 ed. besorgt von E. H. Meyer, 1875 sqq. 



3 See Mannhardt, cited above, n. 9. 



4 Waitz, Th., Anthropologie der Naturvolker, 1859 sqq. (continued by G. Ger- 

 land); see also Bastian, A., Der Mensch in der Geschichte, 1860, 3 vols., and in 

 numerous other works. 



