=The Taurobolia.=--One of the most urgent needs of this time was
reconciliation with the deity; and so ceremonies of purification were
invented.
The most striking of these was the Taurobolia. The devotee, clad in a
white robe with ornaments of gold, takes his place in the bottom of a
ditch which is covered by a platform pierced with holes. A bull is led
over this platform, the priest kills him and his blood runs through
the holes of the platform upon the garments, the face, and the hair of
the worshipper. It was believed that this "baptism of blood" purified
one of all sins. He who had received it was born to a new life; he
came forth from the ditch hideous to look upon, but happy and envied.
=Confusion of Religions.=--In the century that preceded the victory of
Christianity, all religions fell into confusion. The sun was adored at
once under many names (Sol, Helios, Baal, Elagabal, and Mithra). All
the cults imitated one another and sometimes copied Christian forms.
Even the life of Christ was copied. The Asiatic philosopher,
Apollonius of Tyana, who lived in the first century (3-96), became in
legend a kind of prophet, son of a god, who went about surrounded by
his disciples, expelling demons, curing sicknesses, raising the dead.
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