CHAPTER V.
RITES AND CEREMONIES
THOSE who have read the account of the last idol procession in the
capital of Scotland, in John Knox's History of the Reformation, cannot
easily have forgot the tragi-comedy with which it ended. The light of
the Gospel had widely spread, the Popish idols had lost their
fascination, and popular antipathy was everywhere rising against them. "The
images," says the historian, "were stolen away in all
parts of the country; and in Edinburgh was that great idol called Sanct
Geyle [the patron saint of the capital], first drowned in the North
Loch, after burnt, which raised no small trouble in the town." *
The bishops demanded of the Town Council either "to get them
again the old Sanct Geyle, or else, upon their (own) expenses, to make a
new image." * The Town Council could not do the one, and the
other they absolutely refused to do; for they were now convinced of the
sin of idolatry. The bishops and priests, however, were still mad upon
their idols; and, as the anniversary of the feast of St. Giles was
approaching, when the saint used to be carried in procession through the
town, they determined to do their best, that the accustomed procession
should take place with as much pomp as possible. For this purpose, "a
marmouset idole" was borrowed from the Grey friars, which the
people, in derision, called "Young Sanct Geyle," and
which was made to do service instead of the old one. On the appointed
day, says Knox, "there assembled priests, friars,
canons....with taborns and trumpets, banners, and bagpipes; and who was
there to lead the ring but the Queen regent herself, with all her
shavelings, for honour of that feast. West about goes it, and comes down
the High Street, and down to the Canno Cross." * As long as
the Queen was present, all went to the heart's content of the priests
and their partisans. But no sooner had majesty retired to dine, than
some in the crowd, who had viewed the whole concern with an evil eye, "drew
nigh to the idol, as willing to help to bear him, and getting the
fertour (or barrow) on their shoulders, began to shudder, thinking that
thereby the idol should have fallen. But that was provided and prevented
by the iron nails [with which it was fastened to the fertour]; and so
began one to cry, 'Down with the idol, down with it;' and so without
delay it was pulled down. Some brag made the priests' patrons at the
first; but when they saw the feebleness of their god, for one took him
by the heels, and dadding * his head to the calsay, * left Dagon without
head or hands, and said, 'Fye upon thee, thou young Sanct Geyle, thy
father would have tarried * four such [blows];' this considered, we say,
the priests and friars fled faster than they did at Pinkey Cleuch. There
might have been seen so sudden a fray as seldom has been seen amongst
that sort of men within this realm; for down goes the crosses, off goes
the surplice, round caps corner with the crowns. The Grey friars gaped,
the Black friars blew, the priests panted and fled, and happy was he
that first gat the house; for such ane sudden fray came never amongst
the generation of Antichrist within this realm before." *
Such an idol procession among a people who had begun to study and
relish the Word of God, elicited nothing but indignation and scorn. But
in Popish lands, among a people studiously kept in the dark, such
processions are among the favourite means which the Romish Church
employs to bind its votaries to itself. The long processions with images
borne on men's shoulders, with the gorgeous dresses of the priests, and
the various habits of different orders of monks and nuns, with the aids
of flying banners and the thrilling strains of instrumental music, if
not too closely scanned, are well fitted "plausibly to
amuse" the worldly mind, to gratify the love for the
picturesque, and when the emotions thereby called forth are dignified
with the name of piety and religion, to minister to the purposes of
spiritual despotism. Accordingly, Popery has ever largely availed itself
of such pageants. On joyous occasions, it has sought to consecrate the
hilarity and excitement created by such processions to the service of
its idols; and in seasons of sorrow, it has made use of the same means
to draw forth the deeper wail of distress from the multitudes that
throng the procession, as if the mere loudness of the cry would avert
the displeasure of a justly offended God. Gregory, commonly called the
Great, seems to have been the first who, on a large scale, introduced
those religious processions unto the Roman Church. In 590, when Rome was
suffering under the heavy hand of God from the pestilence, he exhorted
the people to unite publicly in supplication to God, appointing that
they should meet at daybreak in SEVEN DIFFERENT COMPANIES, according to
their respective ages, SEXES, and stations, and walk in seven different
processions, reciting litanies or supplications, till they all met at
one place. * They did so, and proceeded singing and uttering the words, "Lord,
have mercy upon us," carrying along with them, as Baronius
relates, by Gregory's express command, an image of the Virgin. * The
very idea of such processions was an affront to the majesty of heaven;
it implied that God who is a Spirit "saw with eyes of
flesh," and might be moved by the imposing picturesqueness of
such a spectacle, just as sensuous mortals might. As an experiment it
had but slender success. In the space of one hour, while thus engaged,
eighty persons fell to the ground, and breathed their last. * Yet this
is now held up to Britons as "the more excellent way" for
deprecating the wrath of God in a season of national distress. "Had
this calamity," says Dr. Wiseman, referring to the Indian
disasters, "had this calamity fallen upon our forefathers in
Catholic days, one would have seen the streets of this city [London]
trodden in every direction by penitential processions, crying out, like
David, when pestilence had struck the people." If this
allusion to David has any pertinence or meaning, it must imply that
David, in the time of pestilence, headed some such "penitential
procession." But Dr. Wiseman knows, or ought to know, that
David did nothing of the sort, that his penitence was expressed in no
such way as by processions, and far less by idol processions, as
"in the Catholic days of our forefathers," to which we
are invited to turn back. This reference to David, then, is a mere
blind, intended to mislead those who are not given to Bible reading, as
if such "penitential processions" had something of
Scripture warrant to rest upon. The Times, commenting on this
recommendation of the Papal dignitary, has hit the nail on the head.
"The historic idea," says that journal, "is
simple enough, and as old as old can be. We have it in Homer--the
procession of Hecuba and the ladies of Troy to the shrine of Minerva, in
the Acropolis of that city." It was a time of terror and
dismay in Tory, when Diomede, with resistless might, was driving
everything before him, and the overthrow of the proud city seemed at
hand. To avert the apparently inevitable doom, the Trojan Queen was
divinely directed:-
"To lead the assembled train
Of Troy's chief matron's to Minerva's fane."
And she did so:--
"Herself....the long procession leads;
The train majestically slow proceeds.
Soon as to Ilion's topmost tower they come,
And awful reach the high Palladian dome,
Antenor's consort, fair Theano, waits
As Pallas' priestess, and unbars the gates.
With hands uplifted and imploring eyes,
They fill the dome with supplicating cries." *
Here is a precedent for "penitential processions" in
connection with idolatry entirely to the point, such as will be sought
for in vain in the history of David, or any of the Old Testament saints.
Religious processions, and especially processions with images, whether
of a jubilant or sorrowful description, are purely Pagan. In the Word of
God we find two instances in which there were processions practised with
Divine sanction; but when the object of these processions is compared
with the avowed object and character of Romish processions, it will be
seen that there is no analogy between them and the processions of Rome.
The two cases to which I refer are the seven days' encompassing of
Jericho, and the procession at the bringing up of the ark of God from
Kirjath-jearim to the city of David. The processions, in the first case,
though attended with the symbols of Divine worship, were not intended as
acts of religious worship, but were a miraculous mode of conducting war,
when a signal interposition of Divine power was to be vouchsafed. In the
other, there was simply the removing of the ark, the symbol of Jehovah's
presence, from the place where, for a long period, it had been allowed
to lie in obscurity, to the place which the Lord Himself had chosen for
its abode; and on such an occasion it was entirely fitting and proper
that the transference should be made with all religious solemnity. But
these were simply occasional things, and have nothing at all in common
with Romish processions, which form a regular part of the Papal
ceremonial. But, though Scripture speaks nothing of religious
processions in the approved worship of God, it refers once and again to
Pagan processions, and these, too, accompanied with images; and it
vividly exposes the folly of those who can expect any good from gods
that cannot move from one place to another, unless they are carried.
Speaking of the gods of Babylon, thus saith the prophet Isaiah (chap.
xivi. 6), "They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in
the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he maketh it a god: they fall
down, yea, they worship. They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry
him, and set him in his place, and he standeth; from his place he shall
not remove." In the sculptures of Nineveh these processions of
idols, borne on men's shoulders, are forcibly represented, * and form at
once a striking illustration of the prophetic language, and of the real
origin of the Popish processions. In Egypt, the same practice was
observed. In "the procession of shrines," says
Wilkinson, "it was usual to carry the statue of the principal
deity, in whose honour the procession took place, together with that of
the king, and the figures of his ancestors, borne in the same manner, on
men's shoulders." * But not only are the processions in
general identified with the Babylonian system. We have evidence that
these processions trace their origin to that very disastrous event in
the history of Nimrod, which has already occupied so much of our
attention. Wilkinson says "that Diodorus speaks of an Ethiopian
festival of Jupiter, when his statue was carried in procession, probably
to commemorate the supposed refuge of the gods in that country,
which," says he, "may have been a memorial of the
flight of the Egyptians with their gods." * The passage of
Diodorus, to which Wilkinson refers, is not very decisive as to the
object for which the statues of Jupiter and Juno (for Diodorus mentions
the shrine of Juno as well as of Jupiter) were annually carried into the
land of Ethiopia, and then, after a certain period of sojourn there,
were brought back to Egypt again. * But, on comparing it with other
passages of antiquity, its object very clearly appears. Eustathius says,
that at the festival in question, "according to some, the
Ethiopians used to fetch the images of Zeus, and other gods from the
great temple of Zeus at Thebes. With these images they went about at a
certain period in Libya, and celebrated a splendid festival for twelve
gods." * As the festival was called an Ethiopian festival; and
as it was Ethiopians that both carried away the idols and brought them
back again, this indicates that the idols must have been Ethiopian
idols; and as we have seen that Egypt was under the power of Nimrod, and
consequently of the Cushites or Ethiopians, when idolatry was for a time
put down in Egypt, * what would this carrying of the idols into
Ethiopia, the land of the Cushites, that was solemnly commemorated every
year, be, but just the natural result of the temporary suppression of
the idol-worship inaugurated by Nimrod. In Mexico, we have an account of
an exact counterpart of this Ethiopian festival. There, at a certain
period, the images of the gods were carried out of the country in a
mourning procession, as if taking their leave of it, and then, after a
time, they were brought back to it again with every demonstration of
joy. * In Greece, we find a festival of an entirely similar kind, which,
while it connects itself with the Ethiopian festival of Egypt on the one
hand, brings that festival, on the other, into the closest relation to
the penitential procession of Pope Gregory. Thus we find Potter
referring first to a "Delphian festival in memory of a JOURNEY
of Apollo;" * and then under the head of the festival called
Apollonia, we thus read: "To Apollo, at AEgialea on this
account: Apollo having obtained a victory over Python, went to AEgialea,
accompanied with his sister Diana; but, being frightened from thence,
fled into Crete. After this, the AEgialeans were infected with an
epidemical distemper; and, being advised by the prophets to appease the
two offended deities, sent SEVEN boys and as many virgins to entreat
them to return. [Here is the typical germ of 'The Sevenfold litany' of
Pope Gregory.] Apollo and Diana accepted their piety,....and it became a
custom to appoint chosen boys and virgins, to make a solemn procession,
in show, as if they designed to bring back Apollo and Diana, which
continued till Pausanias's time." * The contest between Python
and Apollo, in Greece, is just the counterpart of that between Typho and
Osiris in Egypt; in other words, between Shem and Nimrod. Thus we see
the real meaning and origin of the Ethiopian festival, when the
Ethiopians carried away the gods from the Egyptian temples. That
festival evidently goes back to the time when Nimrod being cut off,
idolatry durst not show itself except among the devoted adherents of the
"Mighty hunter" (who were found in his own
family--the family of Cush), when, with great weepings and lamentations,
the idolaters fled with their gods on their shoulders, to hide
themselves where they might. * In commemoration of the suppression of
idolatry, and the unhappy consequences that were supposed to flow from
that suppression, the first part of the festival, as we get light upon
it both from Mexico and Greece, had consisted of a procession of
mourners; and then the mourning was turned into joy, in memory of the
happy return of these banished gods to their former exaltation. Truly a
worthy origin for Pope Gregory's "Sevenfold Litany" and
the Popish processions.
[ Back ] [ Up ] [ Next ]
|
