THE ARREST OF INQUIRY. 71 



unleavened by the old Roman religion. The legions 

 took back to Rome the gods which they brought with 

 them. The names of Mithra and Serapis occur on 

 numerous tablets, the worship of the one — that " Sol 

 invictus " whose birthday at the winter solstice be- 

 came (see p. 42) the anniversary of the birth of 

 Christ — had ranged as far west as South Wales and 

 Northumberland; while the foundations of a temple 

 to the other have been unearthed at York. The chief 

 Celtic gods, in virtue of common attributes as ele- 

 mental nature-deities, were identified with certain 

 dii majores of the Roman pantheon, and the deae 

 matres equated with the gracious or malevolent spirits 

 of the indigenous faith. But the old names were not 

 displaced. Neither did the earlier Christian mission- 

 aries effect any organic change in popular beliefs, 

 while, during the submergence of Christianity under 

 waves of barbaric invasion, there were infused into 

 the old religion kindred elements from oversea which 

 gave it yet more vigorous life. The eagle penetra- 

 tion of Gibbon detected this persistent element at 

 work when he described the sequel to the futile ef- 

 forts of Theodosius to extirpate paganism. The an- 

 cestor worship which lay at the core of much of it took 

 shape among the Christianized pagans in the wor- 

 ship of martyrs and in the scramble after their relics. 

 The bodies of prophets and apostles were discovered 

 by the strangest coincidences, and transported to the 

 churches by the Tiber and the Bosphorus, and al- 

 though the supply of these more important remains 



