THE KE7. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL, D.D., ON MITHRAISM. 267 



for a sacrifice and petition to Mithra, lord of wide pastures." 

 Western Mithraists bathed the neophyte and branded him 

 {apparently with a hot iron) on the forehead. They had a rite 

 in which bread and water* w^ere eaten and drunk.f In at least 

 one Mithraic subterranean sanctuary a sculpture represents 

 seven priests at table, and the inscriptions are described as 

 equivalent to " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrowj we die." 

 Plutarch§ is the only writer who tells us that one of the 

 libations offered in Mithraic crypts was composed of wolfs 

 blood and the juice of the plant which he calls ficoXv, but we 

 know from others that certain of the initiated were suftused 

 with the blood of a bull or of a ram (the so-called ravpofBoXLov 

 and KpLo^oXiov respectively) poured upon them from an 

 elevated platform. || Tertullian mentions that at one of their 

 ceremonies a crown or garland was placed upon the " Soldier 

 of Mithra's " head, but that he was required to refuse it, saying 

 that Mithra was his crown.H One or all of these rites together 



* On the significance of this, vide Porphyry, De Antro Nympharura. 



t Tertullian (Z>e Pmescriptione Haereticorum^ cap. 40, ed. Erwin 

 Preiischen) says : " Sed quaeritur, a quo intellectus interpretetur eorum, 

 quae ad haereses faciant 1 A diabolo scilicet, cuius sunt partes interver- 

 tendi veritatem, qui ipsas quoque res sacramentorum divinorum idolorum 

 mysteriis aemulatur. Tingit et ipse quosdam, utique credentes et fideles 

 suos ; expiationem delictorum de lavacro repromittit, et sic adhuc initiat 

 Mithrae. Signat illic in frontibus milites suos, celebrat et panis oblationem, 

 €t imaginem resurrectionis inducit, et sub gladio redimit coronam. Quid, 

 quod et summum pontificem in unius nuptiis statuit ? Habet et virgines, 

 habet et continentes. Ceterum, si Numae Ponipilii super^ititiones 

 revolvamus, si sacerdotalia officia, insignia, et privilegia, si sacrificaKa 

 ministeria, et instrumenta et vasa ipsorum sacrificiorunj, ac piaculorum et 

 votorum curiositates consideremus, nonne manifeste diabolus morositatem 

 illam ludaicae legis imitatus est 1 " The only important varied reading 

 given by Preuschen is memini Mithrae for initiat Mithrae^ the latter being 

 the best supported. 



I As admitted by Mr. Robertson, Pagan Christs^ p. 325, new ed. 

 ^ De hide et Osiride, cap. 46, quoted above, note t to p. 249. 



II Vide the description of the tauroholion in Prudentius, quoted above 

 p. 252, note ||. 



IF Tertullian, Ed. Migne, vol. ii, p. 102, De Corona Militis, cap. 15 : 

 " Erubescite, commilitones Eius, iam non ab ipso iudicandi, sed ab aliquo 

 Mithrae milite, qui cum initiatur in spelaeo, in castria vere tenebrarum, 

 coronam interposito gladio sibi oblatam, quasi mimum martyrii, debinc 

 capiti suo accommodatam, monetur obvia manu a capite pellere, et in 

 humerum, si forte, transferre, dicens Mithram esse coronam suam, atque 

 exinde nunquam coronatur, idque in signum habet ad probationem sui, 

 sicubi tentatus fuerit de sacramento : statimque creditur Mithras miles, 

 si deiecerit coronam, si eam in deo suo esse dixerit. Agnoscamus ingenia 

 diaboli, idcirco quaedam de divinis affectantis, ut nos de suorum fide 



