MITHRAISM. The doctrines and rites of the old Persian deity Mithras or Mithra. S. Reinach points out (0.) that the Iranians and Hindus, who about the year 1400 B.C. were still united, have several gods with similar names. One of these is Mithra (see MITRA). After the reign of Alexander the Great Mithra came to be wor shipped in all the Oriental kingdoms. The introduction of the worship into the Roman provinces in the West is supposed to have taken place during the first half of the first century B.C. By the beginning of the second century A.D. it had spread throughout the Roman empire. " The immense popularity of his worship is attested by the monuments illustrative of it which have been found scattered in profusion all over the Roman empire. In respect both of doctrines and of rites the cult of Mithra appears to have presented many points of resemblance not only to the religion of the Mother of the Gods but also to Christianity. The similarity struck the Christian doctors themselves and was explained by them as a work of the devil, who sought to seduce the souls of men from the true faith by a false and insidious imitation of it. . . . However that may be, there can be no doubt that the Mithraie religion proved a formid able rival to Christianity, combining as it did a solemn ritual with aspirations after moral purity and a hope of immortality. Indeed the issue of the conflict between the two faiths appears for a time to have hung in the balance. An instructive relic of the long struggle is preserved in our festival of Christmas, which the Church seems to have borrowed directly from its heathen rival " (J. G. Frazer). S. Reinach (Cults) gives the following account of the god Mithra. "Mithra was a young god. beautiful as the day, who, clothed in Phrygian garb, sojourned of old among men and won their love by doing good. He was born of na mortal mother. One day, in a grotto
or stable, he issued from a stone, to the astonishment of the shepherds who alone were present at his birth. Waxing in strength and courage, he overcame the pesti lent creatures that infested the world. Most redoubt able of these was a bull, himself divine, whose blood, if shed upon the ground, would render it fruitful and cause miraculous crops to spring. Mithra gave him battle, gained the victory, plunged a knife into his breast, and by this sacrifice assured riches and peace to men. Then he ascended into Heaven, where he still keeps watch over the children of earth. He grants the petitions of them that pray to him. Those who are initiated Into his mysteries, in caverns like that where he first saw the day, receive after death his powerful protection against those enemies beyond the tomb who threaten the tran quillity of the dead. Furthermore, he will one day give to them a better life, and has promised a resurrection. When the fate-appointed time comes round, he will cut the throat of another celestial bull, the source of life and felicity, whose blood shall revive the flagging energies of earth and restore a life of happiness to all who have believed on Mithra." The rites by which persons were initiated into the mysteries of the god were called sacra ments (sacramenta). " One of them was baptism by blood—the blood of a bull; and there was also a baptism by pure water, as well as anointings of the forehead with honey. Further, it was the custom to consecrate bread and wine by certain formulae, and then to distribute the elements among the faithful." The head over the initiated was called Father, while the initiated were called Brethren. See J. G. Frazer, G.B., Pt. iv. 2nd ed., 1907; 0. Seyffert, Diet.; Reinach, 0.; J. M. Robert son, P.C.; Reinach, Cults.