History | Page 41

THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES. 25 ^ as well as in symbols on tombs, that Mithraism prevailed extensively in this country and Gaul,- in eacli case, no doubt, having been introduced by the Eoman Legions. Germany By those authors who attempt to prove that all secret fraternities form but the successive links of one Persia, unbroken chain, it is alleged that the esoteric doctrines and in Greece, preserved the speculations illiterate heretics ; which in of the wise from the ears Egj'pt, in and tongues of an multitude, passed, with slight modifications, into the possession of the early Christian from the Gnostic schools of Spia and Egypt to their successors the Manicheans ; aud that from these tlirough the PaulicianSj Albigenses, and Templars, they have been bequeathed to the modern Freemasons.^ Into the abyss of Gnosticism it is not my intention to plunge, but the following summary be of assistance in our general inquiry. Gnosticism was the earliest attenqjt to construct a philosophical system of fait