1919

MESSIAHS:
CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN

MESSIAHS: CHRISTIAN
AND PAGAN

BY

WILSON D. WALLIS

ARTIetveRlTAnl

BOSTON
RICHARD G. BADGER
THE GORHAM PRESS

COPTEIGHT, 1918, BT RiCHABD G. BaDGEE

All Rights Reserved

AT

Made in the United States of America

The Gorham Press, Boston, U.S.A.

TO
THE MEMORY OF
WILLIAM H. GOODING
TEACHER, FRIEND, GUIDE

" Christianity, after all, is, in one respect, a manifestation
conditioned by time and circumstance. Even if the Church
was divinely instituted, its history cannot be entirely dis
severed from the general history of religious belief." — R. R.
Makett, Magic or ReUgion? in The Edinburg Review,
April, 1914.
" There is a unity in the history of nature and of men."
— W. Douglas Mackenzie.

PREFACE
SAMUEL BUTLER once remarked that " the more orig
inal a writer is, the more pleasure will he take in calling
attention to the forgotten work of those who have gone be
fore him." The present writer would, indeed, fain be orig
inal in the sense denoted by Butler, but the circumstances
surrounding the subject of messianic religions seem success
fully to preclude this type of originality. The topic of
messianic religions, in its wider bearings, has been, so far as
we are aware, a neglected one. Nowhere do we have a study
of the distribution of these phenomena. Neither, it would
seem, has any one attempted to correlate the phenomena of
a given culture with other social qr political conditions so'
as to give us an insight into causes, or even occasions.
From this point of view it must be confessed that not even
the Jewish messianic movements, the best known and most
studied of all of them, have ever received adequate treatment.
Theologians have generally restricted their studies to a par
ticular period or to a particular influence, paying more at
tention to textual matters than to sociological and psycho
logical conditions. Even those who have approached the
matter historically, as, for example. Greenstone in his study
of The Messiah Idea, have left large gaps in the evidence
and seem unaware of the connecting threads and the similar
underlying conditions that open up a large field for original
investigation. Mooney and Chamberlain, among ethnolo
gists, have approached the study of American messianic
movements from a more profitable angle, but they too have
left the evidence incomplete.
Although it seems safe to say that no one has attempted
this most important study in comparative religion and so
ciology, the need for such an investigation has more than
once been pointed out by scholars who were familiar with at

8 Preface
least some important phases of the major topic. Foremost
among these are three American scholars, two of them theo
logians, and the other a psychologist, who was earlier a stu
dent of theology, and who has remained deeply interested in
anthropological theory and Weltanschauung — G. Stanley
Hall. In 1892 Dr. Ellinwood in lectures given in Union Theo
logical Seminary, New York City, called attention to the
universality of a vague expectation of coming messiahs, than
which, he declared, " nothing found in the study of the reli
gious history of mankind is more striking." He pointed out
that " in modem as well as in ancient times nations and races
have looked for deliverers or for some brighter hope. The
very last instance of an anxious looking for a deliverer is
that which quite recently has so sadly misled our Sioux
Indians." (Oriental Religions and Christianity, 282-5,
New York, 1896. Second Edition.)
Several years later another American Biblical scholar in
sisted that " Jewish and, Christian scholars ought to be able
by this time to break the spell of a name and to accord a fair
judgment tot those political leaders, social reformers, mys
tics, and prophets who from Simon bar Kozeba to Sabatai
Zewi have assumed or received from others the title of the
Messiah, . . . These Messianic movements should also be
more closely examined in the light of similar phenomena in
the East which is so prodigal with the Saoshyants, Mahdis,
prophets and revealers." (Nathaniel Schmidt, The
Prophet of Nazareth, 93, 1905.) G. Stanley Hall has
more recently emphasised this need. (In the first volume of
The American Journal of Religious Psychology and in
Jesus and Christ im, the Light of Recent Psychology, 1917.)
These suggestions have been little heeded. Although we
have descriptions of Messiahs and of messianic movements
among various peoples there is nowhere, so far as we have
been able to ascertain, any comprehensive description or in
terpretation of them. For this task the writer can profess
no especial fitness. On the contrary, he is especially unfitted
for many of its extreme demands of scholarship and erudi
tion. Being unable to control much of the source material

Preface 9
he has had to depend on translations and the corroborations
of more able scholars. It will not be surprising if this has
led to mistakes in more than one instance, though in no case
has he ventured to decide where specialists in their field have
disagreed. Neither can he profess to have presented the data in its
completeness. The lacunae will probably not be filled until
some published work has called the attention of scholars to
a field of research in comparative religion and sociology
whose importance has never been adequately realized. If the
present work is influential to this end its existence will be,
justified. Theologians may retain their peculiar right to judge of
the sources which only such thorough scholarship as they
possess is able to interpret confidently. But they can no
longer claim that the interpretation of the meaning of the
facts which they adduce belongs exclusively to them — if,
indeed, they have ever made such a claim. The messianic
faiths which they present appear in Judaism, but they are
not its peculiar possession. Rather do they belong to hu
manity. They are a phase of human life which has its par
allels in many widely separated, and historically unrelated,
regions of the globe; they constitute one chapter in the
exulting, if often mistaken, faith of mankind, their comple
ment being found in Mohammedanism, in Buddhism, and in
those cruder cultures which pertain to savagery. The light
of universality must play upon them, in order that we may
ascertain wherein they are the outcome of the genius of the
Semite, and wherein they share in a larger human brother
hood. In no other way can they be properly evaluated.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I The Messianic Movement in Judaism . . .15
II The Mahdi : The Messiah of Mohammedanism 90
III The Buddhist Messiah  120
rV Messianic Movements Among the Negroes . 12G
V Messiahs of the North American Aborigines 130
VI The Messianic Idea in Christianity . . .153
VII Messiahs and Miracles  197
VIII The Messiah and Politics  207
IX An Interpretatioin of Messianic Movements 2'40

MESSIAHS:
CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN

MESSIAHS: CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN
CHAPTER I
the messianic movement in JUDAISM
The Background of Jewish Messianic Hope
THE cruder view that each people is responsible for its
own life and development has given place to the more
fruitful view that no people is solely responsible for its social
life and ideals. These can be shown, in many cases, to
have been inspired by surrounding and older cultures which
have left an impress upon their neighbours. The early life
of Judaism is, accordingly, to be found, not in the oldest
documents which they have left us, but in the older contigu
ous cultures that represent, in part, the dawn of their own
life. The Jewish people are members of a larger group of
influences that have shot through their civilization giving it
new content and, often, new trend.
It detracts nothing from the genius of this race to dis
cover that the messianic idea itself, which is generally sup
posed peculiar to Judaism, has its roots elsewhere and is,
after all, only a transplanted idea flourishing more luxuri
antly and more persistently in a more favourable soil. As
syria, Babylonia, and Egypt have, each of them, probably,
influenced Israel in generating the messianic ideal, as well as
in many other ways.
Thus, Asumasipal's prayer to Ishtar shows belief in the
divine mission of the ruler — a prominent idea in the early
Jewish belief:
" But thou, O Ishtar, mighty princess of the gods, in lift
ing up thine eyes didst thou teach me, and didst desire my
15

16 Messiahs: Christian amd Pagan
rule. Thou didst take from out of the mountains and didst
call me to the threshold of the people, thou didst preserve
for me the sceptre of the temples until the becoming old of
mankind. And thou, O Ishtar, didst make great my name,
and thou hast granted to the faithful salvation, mercy,"
[Zeitschrift fur Assyriologie, V (1890), p. 70.]
Similarly, in Egypt, Merneptah is praised as the divinely-
sent protector of Egypt's peace: "Great joy has come
into Egypt, rejoicing comes forth from the town of Tomeri
{i.e., Egypt). They converse of the victories which Mer
neptah has achieved among the Tehenu : ' How amiable is
he, the victorious ruler, how magnified is the king among the
gods, how fortunate is he, the commanding lord ; sit happily
down and talk or walk, or walk far out upon the way, for
there is no fear in the heart of the people.' " [Breasted,
Ancient Records of Egypt, III, 263. Chicago, 1906. God
(Egyptian), Hastings' E.R.E., VI, 278.]
In what is known as the Leiden papyrus, No. 344, trans
lated by Alan H. Gardiner under the title, " Admonitions of
an Egyptian Sage " (Leipzig, 1909), there are elements that
come close to the messianic ideal, and at least distinctly
adumbrate it. The date of the document is not settled, some
Egyptologists placing it about the middle of the seventeenth
or the sixteenth century, others believing it prior to the year
2100. By either reckoning it easily antedates the appear
ance of the messianic idea in Judaism. The speaker, Ipuwer,
represents first a state of calamity:
" The door-keepers say . . . Let us go and plunder.
The washerman refuses tO' carry his load. A man looks upon
his son as his enemy. The virtuous man walks in mourning
on account of that which has happened in the land. The
wrong-doer is everywhere. Plague is throughout the land.
Blood is everywhere. Crocodiles are glutted with what they
have captured, men go to them of their own accord. For
sooth, hair has fallen out for every one. Great and small
say : ' I wish I might die.' Little children say : ' He
ought never to have caused me to live.' Forsooth, all ani
mals, their hearts weep. Cattle moan because of the state
of the land. A man strikes his brother, the son of his

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 17
mother. The roads are guarded. Men sit over the hushes
until the benighted traveller comes, in order to plunder his
burden. What is upon him is taken away. He is belabored
with blows of the stick, and slain wrongfully. Forsooth,
grain has perished on every side. All is ruin."
The social order is overwhelmed. " Forsooth, poor men
are become owners of good things. He who could make for
himself no sandals is now the possessor of riches."
There is no longer respect for law. " Folrsooth, the
splendid judgment-hall, its writings are taken away. Behold
the judges of the land are driven out through the land."
After this array of calamities comes the Messiah — if such
we may call him. " He bringeth coolness upon that which is
hot. It is said he is the herdsman of mankind. No evil is
in his heart. When his herds are few, he passes the day to
gather them together, their hearts being on fire. Would that
he had perceived their nature in the first generation of man
kind; then he would have repressed evil, he would have
stretched forth his arm against it ; he would have destro'yed
their seed and their inheritance. Where is he to-day.? Is
he sleeping.? Behold, his might is seen."
By Professors H, O. Lange, Ed. Meyer, J. H. Breasted,
and others, this has been interpreted as messianic, the proph
ecy of a coming prince who would rescue and heal his people,
restoring Egypt to her old-time place of prestige and power.
A. H. Gardiner refers it to an account of the activity of the
god Re, the creator and preserver of mankind, whose return
to the earth will restore peace and prosperity. Since Re
was regarded as the first king and all subsequent kings as the
" sons of Re," it would, as Prof. J. M. P. Smith observes, be
natural to think of the messiah king as a re-incarnation of
Re. " Indeed," to quote Prof. Smith, " we recall that Micah
speaks of a coming Messiah ' whose origins are from of old,
from ancient time.' It is to be noticed, however, as Gardiner
reminds us, that Ipuwer does not predict the coming of the
messianic ruler, but merely gives expression to his longing
that such an one might appear. Whether or not the thought
is concerned with an individual Messiah in the ordinary sense
of the word, the context is too uncertain to determine. But

18 Messiah: Christian amd Pagan
it is perfectly clear," and this is a point we would stress, " it
is perfectly clear that there is here presented a longing for
the coming of a golden age such as that so gloriously de
picted and so confidently predicted by the prophets of the
Old Testament." [J. M. P. Smith, Semitic Prophecy, in
the Biblical World, Vol. 36, No. 4 (April, 1910), p. 223-33.
J. H. Breasted, The Earhest Social Prophet, in the American
Journal of Theology, Jan., 1910'.]
These ideas are, in many respects, similar to the early
Jewish hopes wherein the prophets lament the evils that befall
the people under wicked rulers, and paint, in contrast, that
ideal kingdom of the future when the righteous king shall
reign and peace shall prevail.
Hammurabi, like other Babylonian rulers, was a descend
ant of the gods, their representative on earth, and was
expected to inaugurate a golden age of peace. [Cheney be
lieves the Jewish messianic hope may be the result of Baby
lonian influence. See Messiah, Ency. Bibl. The view that it
is derived from Chaldea is advanced by H. P. Blavatsky,
Isis Unveiled, II, 256. Madras, 1910.]
From other older Oriental cultures there comes an unmis
takable strain of messianic hope. " Wake ! Be thyself !
Arise, Scourge of thy Foes ! " is the admonition of Krishna
in the Bhagavad-Gita.
In Zoroastrian religion the idea of a savior, political and
moral, is clearly developed. The concept of the Iranian
messiah, the Saoshyant, is implied, if not plainly expressed
in the Gathas, the oldest portion of the Avesta, whUe in the
later Avesta, the nineteenth Yast, the idea reaches fruition.
In the later Pahlavi texts it is developed in some detail. The
Saoshyant is the greatest and last of the three millenial
prophets and will usher in the day of judgment for all man
kind. The way is paved by his predecessors, Ukhshetara,
Aushetar, and Ukhshatnemah, or Aushetar-mah, each of
whom rule or supervise for a thousand years, the world,
meanwhile, undergoing slight improvement. The Saoshyant
is assisted in his first duties, supervising the resurrection of
the dead, by fifteen men and fifteen maidens. A mystic drink
confers immortality upon the resuscitated, and the Saoshyant

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 19
then proceeds to recompense all according to their deeds.
[Art. on Saoshyant, in New Intern, Ency, (1911), N,
Soderblom, La Vie Future D'Apres Mazdeisme, 305-^, 246-7,
Angers, 1901. J. H. Moulton, Early Religious Poetry of
Persia. Cambridge, 1911. Incarnation (Parsi) in Hastings'
E.R.E., VII, 198. Ages of the World (ZoroastriabI), lb,, I,
205-10. Messiah, lb., VIII, 579. Gaster, however, in
sists that the Zoroastrian Taheb, or Messiah, plays as color
less a part as the Messiah in the Testament of the Twelve
Patriarchs or in the Apocalypse of Baruch. See Art.
Parsiism in Judaism, in Hastings' E.R.E,, IX (1917), p,
640.] The Fathers of the Church regarded Orpheus as the fore
runner of Christ, remarking that he had come to teach man
kind and had died a tragic death. In fact a Roman em
peror placed in his private chapel a statue of Orpheus beside
the statue of the Christian Messiah, [Hutton Webster,
Ancient History, 513 (D, C, Heath & Co, 1913),]
The Greeks, however, had no typical messiahs, though ele
ments of messianism had entered feebly into the religious as
well as into the social and political life. The Eleusinian
mysteries conducted the initiate into a new world of saving,
if not absolving grace. The rebirth to a new life was sym
bolized in the Demeter and Persephone myth, known to all
Greeks, and in the Dionysian rites divine inspiration was ex
pected, [Farnell, in art, on Greek Religion in Hastings'
E.R.E, For a fuller account, see the excellent chapter on
Hellenistic Religions of Redemptions, in S, J, Case, Evolu
tion of Early Christianity. Chicago, 1914,]
Even in Rome itself, cold, austere, self-controlled, and won
derfully cosmopolite, vague foreshadowings of a messianic
kingdom are not wanting. The Golden Age pictured by
Virgil will be established by Augustus Caesar, ofl'spring of
a god, than whom, sings Horace,
. , , no boon of nobler worth
Fate or kind gods ere gave, or ere shall give
Ev'n though the golden age upon the earth
Once more may live again.

20 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Caesar " lives to save " — a " winged god who deigns to
don a manly frame," a " present god." He is a " patri
monial Zeus, and savior of the common race of mankind, all
of whose prayers Providence has not only fulfilled but even
surpassed. For earth and sea have peace, cities flourish,
well-governed, harmonious, and prosperous, the course of all
good things has reached a climax, and all mankind has been
filled with hopes for the future and good cheer for the
present." Such is the optimistic doctrine recorded in a
Halicamassus inscription. [Ch. on The Religious Signifi
cance of Emperor-Worship in S. J. Case, op. cit., and W.
Warde Fowler and others, Virgil and the Messianic Ec
logue.'] And so the devout Roman believed that " the birth-
dajr of the divine Caesar, which we might justly rate equal to
the beginning of all creation, gave another aspect to the
whole world, which would truly have perished utterly had not
Caesar, the common good fortune of all men, been born."
Thus the Eastern pagan world found its Messiah in Caesar,
the language in some places bearing a close resemblance in
form as well as in spirit to the Jewish messianic psalms and
prophecies. For example, an inscription, dated 9—4 b. c,
in honor of the birthday of Augustus, declares :
" This day has given the earth an entirely new aspect.
. , . Rightly does he judge who recognises in this birthday
the beginning of life and of all the powers of life ; now is the
time ended when men pitied themselves for being bom. All-
ruling Providence has filled this man with such gifts for the
salvation of the world as designate him the Saviour for us
and for the coming generations ; of wars will he raake an end,
and establish all things worthily. The birthday of God has
brought to the world glad tidings. From his birthday a
new era begins." [W. Ramsay, Letters to the Se7>en
Churches, 436. London, 1904. Art,, Emperor-Worship,
Diet, of the Apostolic Church, I, 330-2, The hymns and
eclogues of Virgil were later confused with the Messianic
outlook of the prophets, Hastings' E.R.E., VI, 717. Art.,
Caesarism, in Hastings' E.R.E,, III, 50^6,]
The words of the Sibylline Oracle, given by Virgil some
fifty years before the birth of Christ, are as follows : " The

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 21
last era, the subject of the Sibyl song of Cumae, has now
arrived; the great series of ages begins anew. The virgin
returns — returns the reign of Saturn. The progeny from
heaven now descends. Be thou propitious to the Infant Boy
by whom the Iron Age shall expire, and the Golden Age over
the whole world shall commence. Whilst thou, 0 Pollio, art
consul, this glory of our age shall be made manifest, and the
celestial months begin their revolutions. Under thy auspices
whatever vestiges of our guilt remain, shall, by being atoned
for, redeem the earth from fear forever. He shall partake
of the life of the gods. He shall reign over a world in peace
with his father's virtues. The earth, sweet boy, as her first
fruits, shall pour thee forth spontaneous flowers,"
Whether this reflects the influence of Hebrew prophecy,
or is an adaptation of those prevailing Roman ideas that
later expanded into a fully developed eraperor worship under
Augustus, it is at least the expression of a vague messianic
expectation, even though the Messiah be identified as the
ruling Caesar or as the heir to the throne. [See on this point
Ellinwood, Oriental Religions and Christianity, 283^4.]
For Nero an almost messianic reign was to commence in
the East. [E. Renan, The Anti-Christ.'] Vespasian, no
doubt as a result of the Jewish influences by which he was
surrounded, was induced to accept a messianic character,
and to show works of healing and miracles in support of his
claims, [Tacitus, Hist,, IV, 81—2; Suetonius, Vesp., 7;
Dion Cass., LXVI, 8.] Messianic ideas were, in fact, rife
in the Roman empire about this time and liable to attach to
any emperor. They represent, however, the influence of Jew
ish thought upon Roraan life rather than the reverse, and are
really an off^shoot of Jewish messianic faith. The messianic
beliefs of Christians of the first and second centuries a. d.
off'ered comfort to the citizens of the Eternal City, proud
mistress of the world, as well as to poverty-stricken Jewish
exiles. [Art. on Akiba Ben Joseph, in Ha.stings' E.R.E.,
I, 275. Antichrist, Diet, of Apost. Church, I, 67-8. Beast,
lb., and in Diet, of Christ and the Gospels. Apocalypse,
Ency. Bibl., I, 210^1.]
A;fter this brief survey of surrounding cultures let us tum to

22 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
The Growth of the Messianic Idea in Old Testament Times
From the first, Jewish national life was closely linked with
the religious. Jehovah was the god of the Hebrews and for
the Hebrews, national in every sense of the word, and in no
sense international. Moses, the law-giver and religion-
giver, rose at a time of great need when the Jews were hard-
pressed from without and in danger of losing national in-
tegritj' and independence. When Moses seemed to fail them
in the wilderness and they no longer had actual every-day
guidance they turned, disappointed, from his God and wor
shipped a golden calf.
Nathan Spira, preacher and rector of the Talmudic acad
emy in Cracow (1685—1633), a specialist on the Practical
Cabala, published in Cracow in 1627 a book called Discover
ing Deep Things, in which he argued that Moses prayed to
God concerning the appearance of the two Messiahs of the
house of Joseph and David. [Dubnow, I, 135.] The sup
position that Moses predicted the Messiah is based on Deut.
xviii. 18: "I will raise them up a Prophet from among their
brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth ;
and he shall speak unto them aU that I shall command him."
The Jewish rabbis drew elaborate parallels between Moses
and the Messiah, [See J. H. Allen, Hebrew Men and Times
from the Patriarchs to the Messiah, 392-3. Boston, 1883.
L. S. Houghton, Hebrew Life and Thought, 306. Chicago
1906. A. H. Lewis, Paganism Sunmnng in Christianity,
54-6. New York, 1892. William Smith {Old Testament
History from the Creation to the Return of the Jews from.
Captivity, 19, 70. New York N. D.) finds promise of the
Messiah given in the Garden of Eden as well as later to
Abraham. See also S. Schechter, Some Aspects of Rabbinic
Theology, 291-2. New York 1910.]
Tliis seventeenth century view seems odd to us to-day.
Yet half a century has not elapsed since an American theo
logian advanced the idea that " in some sense, vague per
haps, [Abraham] foresaw a Messiah and a Kingdom of
Righteousness, and he was girded with confidence to the last,
though he died without the sight." [Frank F. Ellinwood,

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 23
Oriental Religions and Christianity, 365. New York 2nd ed.
1896.] There is, of course, no doubt that the messianic idea had
its Biblical inception at a much later period. The Prophets
who wrote before the Assyrian captivity seem concerned
mainly, if not solely, with immediate political ills and reme
dies. They deal with present evils and warn the people to re
pent because of impending disasters. It is not until after the
captivity that we find distinct promise of an ultimate rather
than an immediate millennium, in the form of a Messianic
Age wherein all wrongs will be righted. The return of the
Jews under Zerubbabel had been a disappointment, now that
the commonplaces and hardships of habitation in the actual
Jerusalem had displaced the glamour which surrounded the
Holy City when they longed for it, captives in a foreign
land. They had not successfully established national au
tonomy. Theirs was not the position among the nations of
the world which their pride and ambition deraanded. Un
equal to these demands — so at least they thought — were
their leaders. Amid these conditions there evolved the idea
of a Messiah, ideal and distant rather than immediate and
merely practical, who would fulfil national ambitions. As
the Messianic Age became increasingly needed national ira
patience insisted on fixing its date. [Comill has advanced
the view that Zerubbabel was regarded as the Messiah.
Carl H. ComUl, The Prophets of Israel: Popular Sketches
from Old Testament History, 150. Chicago, 1907, Trans
lated by S, P. Corkran. Seventh Edition. The book is one
of the best of the earlier expositions. Cheney endorses Cor-
nill, Messiah, Ency, Bibl., Ill, 3059,]
Most of the Old Testament prophets were inspired with
the ideal of a social regeneration of regenerate Israel, It
was especially during periods of national stress that promise
was given of a Messiah who would cleanse the nation and
raise it to a position above aU its neighbors. The exalta
tion of Jahweh-worship to its preeminent position above all
of the other cults seems to have owed its great impetus to
the spur of a national enthusiasm, in answer to a dangerous
external attack upon the existence of Israel and of Israel's

24 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
God. "This final touch was given by the aggression of
Assyria, and, later, of Babylon. For two years the two
tiny Israelitish kingdoras had maintained a precarious inde
pendence between the mighty empires of Egypt and Meso
potamia. In the eighth century it became certain that they
could no longer play their accustomed game of clever diplo
macy and polite subjection. The very existence of Israel
was at stake ; and the fanatical worshippers of Jahweh broke
out in that memorable ecstasy of enthusiasm which we raay
fairly call the Age of the Prophets, and which produced the
earliest masterpieces of Hebrew literature in the wild effort
to oppose to the arras of the invaders the passive resistance
of the supreme Jahweh. In times of old, the prophets say,
when Jahweh led the forces of Israel, the horses and the
chariots of their enemies counted for nought : if in this crisis
Israel would cease to think of aid from Egypt or alliance
with Assyria — if Israel would get rid of all her other gods
and trust only to Jahweh — then Jahweh would break asun
der the strength of Assyria and would reduce Babylon to
nothing before his chosen people." [Grant Allen, Evolution
of the Idea of God, Ch. X; Prideaux, Old and New Testa
ment, I, 62, 141, 227,] This was the language of Isaiah in
the crisis of a grave national danger. [See Ewald, Die
Lehre der Bibel von Gott, Bk. Ill, and his Old Testament
Theology, 363 (translated by Goodby). Also S. D. F.
Salmond, The Christian Doctrine of Immortality (1903).]
Under the Restoration, when the people and prophets alike
were optimistic about the present and the immediate future,
the messianic idea was not so strongly dominant. [Juda
isra, Hastings' E,R,E., VII, 586, 695. C. F. Kent, The
Origin and Permanent Value of the Old Testament, 119-21.
New York, 1906.] The forecast of a bright future became
more vivid and more concrete as the circumstances of the
time seemed the raore to contradict it. C'est quand tout
semblera perdu que tout sera vraiment suave, said a French
man to his compatriots after the Prussian invasion and the
Paris revolution, Jeremiah made a sirailar reraark to his
brethren after the invasion of Palestine.
The Babylonian exile was not only a crisis representing a

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 25
fundamental social and political transformation in Israel,
but was equally a period of religious transformation. The
destruction of the ancient state cleared the way for the con
struction of the new, and religion and ritual underwent re
vision in keeping with the political changes. [C. F. Kent,
Hist, of Jewish People during the Babylonian, Persian, and
Greek Periods, 92-8, 147-53. New York 1910. Kittel, His
tory of the Hebrews, II, 319, 346; in the Gerraan edition,
II, 432, 480. Gotha, 1909. Emil Schurer, History of the
Jewish People in the Time of Christ. First Dimsion, I, 188ff.
Hugo Winckler, Geschichte Israels in EinzeldarsteUungen,
L, chapter entitled Der Jahvismus und die Propheten in
Politishen Leben, 78-113. Leipzig 1895, S, E, Fuller, His
torical and Religious Significance of the Reign of Manassali,
see esp, 71—91, Leipzig 1912, An account of Messianic
hope is given by H, O, Taylor, Ancient Ideals, II, 146-71,
132, 228-31, See also Ewald, History of Israel, III, 11,
202, 226, 242, 272, 292; IV, 19, 50, 59-63; V, 67-9,]
In the tirae of the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, " in its
complete form the Messianic expectation involved four
things : the punishment of foreign nations ; the restoration
of Israel to its own land ; a new covenant ; and the rule of a
king of David's line, . , , The political coloring varies
greatly," some hearts ardently longing for the supremacy
over other nations, while sorae yearn more for a religious
regeneration, Isaiah's prediction of the child to be bom,
whose name, Emmanuel, will testify to the deliverance of
Jerusalem from its besiegers, suggests a rapturous descrip
tion of the Coming One, whose very name indicates that he
will be a hero prince, godlike in his deeds (Isaiah 9:5).
[Henry Preserved Smith, The Religion of Israel, 247-8.]
The Jews seem to have held throughout to a belief that only
a supernatural power could save a nation that is once started
on the road to ruin. [J. E. Dewe, Psycliology of Politics
and History, 180. 1910, Emil Schiirer, op, cit,] Indeed,
Jahweh may intentionally allow Israel to be conquered by
Babylon in order to awake their faith in him and so, through
disaster, secure their united conversion : " that they may
know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that

26 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
there is no God beside me " (Isaiah xiv).
There is no doubt that as Israel's day waned more and
more, faith learned to cling with an intenser grasp to this
expectation of the consummation of a divine kingdom, and to
the prospect of the coming of Jehovah Himself to reign on
earth. The message of prophecy became in increasing meas
ure the announcement of a future which God held for the
theocracy, wherein right should finally be done to his people,
justice executed upon His enemies, and hope fulfilled. As
the vision of the Messianic era became larger and clearer, the
whole conception of the future partook of this expansion
and illumination, [Salmond, The Christian Doctrine of Im
mortality, 208, Edinburgh, 1903,] In later years, when the
Messiah's coming seemed too long postponed, impatient Jews
(and Christians) asked: "Where is his promised coming,
for since the fathers fell asleep, all things remain in the same
condition as since the creation " (2 Peter iii, 4). To arouse
and invigorate, a Messiah is needed, [See Huidekofer,
Judaism at Rome, 259,]
The messianic hope has served as a powerful stimulus to
self-preservative effort. When Israel, at whatever period
in its history, was impelled tO' a more vigorous religious life,
its marvellous ancient courage against external enemies re
vived: witness the days of Josiah, those of Zedekiah, those
also of Zerubbabel, [Ewald, History of Israel, IV, 242,
272; V, 117,27,]
To assert that these efforts were self-preservative is not
inconsistent with the fact that every recrudescence of na
tionalism has brought misfortune to the Jews and to Juda
ism, that " it was the cause of the catastrophe of 678 b, c,
of the fall of the Maccabees, of the decay of the Sadducees,
of the destruction by Titus, and of the desolation of Judaea
in 136." [Herbert Loewe, in Judaism, Hastings' E,R,E.,
VII, 608, seeras to imply otherwise.]
The Messianic Idea in the Apocryphal Books — The First
Two Centuries B. C. and the First Century A. D.
The development of the messianic hope in the decades pre
ceding and following the appearance of Christianity can be

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 27
read in the Apocryphal books, made accessible to the lay
world largely through the patient efforts of Dr, R. H.
Charles. As has been mentioned, in the second century b. c,
the messianic hope was practically non-existent. " So long
as Judas and Simon were chiefs of the nation, the need of a
Messiah was hardly felt. But in the first half of the next
century (i, e,, the first century b, c) it was very different.
Subject to ruthless oppressions, the righteous were in sore
need of help. But inasmuch as the Maccabean princes were
themselves the leaders in this oppression, the thoughts of
the faithful were forced to look for divine aid. Thus the
bold and original thinker to whom we owe the Parables con
ceived the Messiah as the supernatural Son of Man, who
should enjoy universal dominion and execute judgment on
raen and angels. But other religious thinkers, returning to
the study of the Old Testament, revived the expectation of
the prophetic Messiah, sprung from the house and lineage of
David, These very divergent conceptions took such a firm
hold of the national consciousness that henceforth the Mes
siah becomes almost the central and chief figure in the Messi
anic kingdom," [R, H, Charles, Eschatology, 296,] The
Messiah would, after purging Jerusalem, allow no stranger
to dwell within the gates; " the sojourner and the stranger
shall dwell with thera no more," says the Psalms of Solomon
(written 70—40 b, c). As for the ungodly nations he wiU
destroy them with the word of his mouth ; the hostile nations
shall be destroyed.
He shall judge the nations and the peoples with the wisdom of
his righteousness
And he shall possess the nations of the heathen to serve him
beneath his yoke.
And he shall have mercy on all the nations that come before
him in fear.
(Yea) the nations shall come from the ends of the world to see
his glory,
Bringing as gifts her sons that had fainted.
The future that is predicted and fondly hoped for is the
time when God will succor his own people, the psalmists dwell-

28 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
ing on the vengeance that will befall hostile nations and the
sinners among men, rather than on the saving features of this
kingdom. It was to be not so much a kingdom of grace as
one of power vindicating national superiority. In the Apoc
alypse of Baruch, written in the second half of the first cen
tury A. D., the Messiah, who in the first Apocalypse is con
ceived as wholly passive, is here pictured as a warrior who
slays the enemies of Israel with his own hand. " Against
Him all the heathen powers are arrayed under a great
leader." [Ib., 327.]
For the Pharisee who wrote the Similitudes of Enoch,
" the blood of the martyred Pharisees cries out to Heaven,
and the angels of heaven join their supplications with those
of the living. He finds relief in two directions: first, in his
conception of the origin of evil, and, second, in the belief in
a preexistent Messiah, who will come and establish a uni
versal kingdom of righteousness, and execute judgment upon
all." (Ib., 75.) Israel, oppressed from without, must have
a new ruler, one who brings with him not only new religious
conceptions but new temporal authority that will vindicate
the reality of this people's racial authority, and vanquish
every formidable foe.
That portion of the Book of Sirach (second century b. c.)
which refers to a Messianic hope Schmidt [See Ecclesiasticus,
in the Temple Bible, p. xxvi.] believes to be " manifestly an
interpolation," However this may be, " it voices the feel
ings of a people sorely oppressed by a foreign enemy, long
ing for deliverance and vengeance, encouraged by prophecies
concerning the ' end ' and anxious to see the fulfilment of
their predictions,"
As regards the distribution and occurrence of the Messi
anic belief the absence of it in certain of the Jewish apocry
phal literature is no less significant than its presence in other
writings. We have noted its prevalence in the literature of
doctrinally tom Palestine during the century or more pre
ceding the appearance of Christ, and in the first century of
our era. In none of the Alexandrian literature of these cen
turies, however, do we find expression of the hope of a per
sonal Messiah. Its absence in the Alexandrian writings is

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 29
" explained by the fact that, removed from the center of
political aspiration and life, and influenced by the more spir
itualized Judaism represented in the Book of Wisdom, the
faith and ideals of the Alexandrian Jews did not suffer secu
larization to the same extent as those of their Palestinian
brethren." [It raust be pointed out, however, that if the
conception of a personal Messiah is absent, that of a messi
anic kingdom is not. The book known as Slavonic Enoch,
for example, represents this kingdom as being realized in a
coming millennium — not as near at hand.]
Great is the contrast in the Palestinian literature of the
sarae centuries, wherein " we can trace diversity and raodi-
fication of the Messianic belief." The Assuraption of Moses
is a protest against the hope of a personal Messiah — a hope
then prevalent and potent enough to call forth this extended
and dignified protest — and a plea for reversion to the older
theocratic idea. Again, " the Apocalypse of Baruch, in the
sections written before a. d. 70, foreshadows the coming of
the Messiah ; but of the sections composed after the destruc
tion of Jerusalem some cherish the hope of a Messianic king
dom without a Messiah, others look for a speedy consumma
tion and judgment, and one fragment bears witness to the
survival of the Sadducaic view of the present and the future."
In at least three of the books written after a. d. 70 (Baruch,
Sibylhne Oracles, and the Apocal3rpse of Abrahara) , although
there is the vision of a Messianic kingdora there is no refer
ence to a personal Messiah. Evidently the destruction of
Jerusalera dealt a severe blow to the political hopes of Juda
ism, but that they were not entirely destroyed is clear from
4 Ezra, where the person of the Messiah is brought into
the foreground of the picture of the future." [Maldwyn
Hughes, Ethics of the Jexmsh Apocryphal Literature, 309-
12, 249. Alexandrian Theology, Hastings' E.R.E., I, 309,]
The Jews of the mother-country were face to face with the
great crises which threatened their nation ; those of Alex
andria, the Jews of the Dispersion, viewed the course of events
from a more dispassionate standpoint. If the latter saw
them from a truer perspective, the former viewed them with
a more vital interest and national concern. [Dewick, op.

30 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
cit., ch. X.] It was only in later centuries that Alexandria
became " the most fatal scene of Jewish turbulence and Jew
ish calamity." [H. H. Milman, op. cit., Ill, 42ff. N.
Schmidt, op. cit., 80-1, 76. Ch. on the Alexandrians, in
J. H. Allen, op. cit.]
The history of Palestine from about 105 B.C. till 63 b. C.
exhibits a struggle for power by the opposing sects of the
Pharisees and the Maccabean house with alternating suc
cesses and failures. " When one party was in power it per
secuted the other." The psalms of Solomon bear witness
to the bitterness of this mutual hatred, a bitterness aug
mented by the theological in addition to the pohtical differ
ences. Thus the first century b, c. which introduced to Juda
ism and to the larger Gentile world John the Baptist and
Christ himself was a time of intense activity, and of the
impact of many conflicting forces, all of which played their
part in shaping the Messianic hope. [M. Hughes, op. cit,,
25-6, 66.]
It was the attempt to solve the problem, " why it is that
Israel, which with all its perversity is more faithful to the
law than other nations, is yet oppressed by them," that led
the apocalyptists to cast their gaze into the future, and to
foreshadow a Messianic kingdom in which Israel and the law
should be vindicated and its enemies overthrown. The
emergence of this Messianic Prince is pictured in Jubilees
and the Testaments, [Eschatology, in Hastings' E,R,E.
Apocalyptic Literature (by R. H. Charles) in Ency, Britt.
II ; in Ency, Bibl,, I, 213-50 ; in Diet, of Christ and the Gos
pels, Apocrypha, in the last mentioned, I, 79-94, Eschatol
ogy (by R, H, Charles), Ency, Bibl,, II, 1351-72, and in
Diet, of the Apostolic Church, I, 334-65. Apocalypse, and
Christ, Christology, lb., I, 71-81 ; I, 177-99. Also, in lb,,
art, Barnabas, Epistle of, 139-40 ; Baruch, Apocalypse of,
142-4; Esdras, The Second Book of, 365-6; Enoch, Book
of, 334-40 ; Assumption of Moses, 107 ; Ascension of Isaiah,
100,] In view of this political tinge it is not surprising that
Cyrus was regarded by the Israelites as Messiah, for he
seemed to insure political salvation. [P.P.C. De La Saussaye,
Lehrbuch der Religious geschichte I, 446. Tiibingen, 1905,]

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 31
Resuscitation of the Messianic Idea in Roman Days
If this relationship between the harshness of the times
and the intensity of the messianic hope is true of the days
of the prophets, it is none the less true of a later Israel, of
the Israel which meets us in the centuries preceding and fol
lowing the birth of Christ, " Had the dream of Daniel
been realized," it has been said, " and the dominion over the
nations been given to the saints of the Maccabean period,
the king of Israel would have been worshipped as a God, and
Jerusalem rather than Rome would have become the seat of
the imperial cult," [Nathaniel Schmidt, The Prophet of
Nazareth, 71-2. 1905.]
That dream of Jewish national domination was, however,
not to be realized. The revival of national strength was
short-lived. As national prosperity waxed the messianic
idea waned, and, when Israel fell upon evil days, the messi
anic idea, now in more favorable soil, took new root and bore
fruit abundantly. This inverse relationship is well estab
lished. " Scarcely can it be supposed that the cry for a
Messiah burst forth with loud accents while the Maccabean
prince, Simon, ruled over the country. . . . The Jewish
people were then content with the prevailing order of things.
If it be true, as the author of the first book of Maccabees
avers, that in those days ' every man was sitting under his
vine, and under his fig-tree,' we cannot for one moment sup
pose that, under such realization of Messianic bliss, there
should have existed an impulsive yearning toward another
ruler, the iraagined Messiah of the house of David. . . . The
sarae may be said of the prosperous reign of his son, John
Hyrcanus (b. c. 135—105), Under him almost a Davidic
splendor, greatness and power prevailed. By the side of
proud national self-consciousness the morbid sigh for an
unknown and unknowable royal personage who should yet
iraprove upon the present common happiness, can not well be
imagined to have burst forth,
" The Messianic vision, it must be adraitted by all, was
originally bom of gloora. It was always expressed, with
more or less demonstrative force, under the somber aspects

32 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
of the times. Its ' reason of existence ' was either the weary
night of oppression — or the dim twilight of a dubious des
tiny. In the serene radiance of the light of freedom and
peace, or the lucid gleam of teraporal bliss, the motive for its
being is only hypothetical. If it nevertheless exists under
such favorable conditions, it is due to a mere emotional at
tachment to the past and a pious repugnance to part from
the wonted track cut by venerated ancestors and trodden all
along in subsequent ages. That, therefore, the Jews were,
under the prosperous reign of the high-priestly prince, John
Hyrcanus, little troubled about the Messianic future, may
be set down as a reasonable conclusion." [I. Schwab, A
Review of the Messianic Idea from the Earliest Times to the
Rise of Christianity. Published in Judaism at the World's
Parliament of Religions. Cincinnati (R, Clarke), 1894,]
Seldom in the history of mankind has the need for a re
deemer been so strongly felt as in the century before and
the century after Christ, the apocalyptic frame of mind
being so wide-spread that even a Seneca could not keep his
thoughts frora the early arrival of the end of the world.
The messianic character of Augustus reflects the temper of
mind of the emperor-worshipping Romans of this age,
[Arthur Drews, The Christ Myth, 35. Art., Caesarism, in
Hastings' E,R,E,, III, 50-6.]
If security lulled the messianic hope into quiescence, dan
ger and oppression revived it. For its stimulus Judaism
has many peoples to thank, Assyrians, Egyptians, Ro
mans, and, later, many a European people. The Apoca
lypse fitly represents the messianic raoveraent as beginning
at the time when Rorae was extending her dominions over
Judea, Its inception was amid " the beginnings of sor
row," and the foremnners of the Messiah's advent were dis
asters without precedent, "Revolution and Messianism,"
wrote Ernest Renan, " were indeed the min of the Jewish
people considered as a nation," and, perhaps one should add,
" the trae vocation of that people, its one contribution to
the structure of a world-wide civilization,"
The first evidence of belief in a Messiah who was expected
to deliver Israel has been attributed to the period following

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 33
the conquest of Palestine by Pompey, in 63 b. c. [N.
Schmidt, op. cit,, 68,] In view of the prevalent Messianic
expectation, it can not be considered pure accident that
Dosithee proclaimed his raessiahship among the Samaritans
at alraost the sarae tirae that Christ proclairaed his raessiah
ship among the Jews, [Krauss, Dosithee et les Dositheens.
Rev, d. Etudes Juives, Vol. 42 (1901), 27-42; A, Buchler,
Les Dositheens dans le Midrash, lb.. Vol. 43 (1901), 50-71 ;
Vol. 42, p. 220-31, Dositheans, in Cath, Ency., and in the
New Inter. Ency. (1915'), VII, 195.] According to Origen,
Dosithee was long believed by some of his followers to be still
alive on this earth.
The galling oppression of the stranger, and the bitter
sense of helplessness under the crushing power of the Roman
legions, bred in the Jews a wild despair which made them
look forward raore eagerly than ever to the appearance of
some one with extraordinary powers, who, as the Messiah,
would, in accordance with ancient oracles, free them, and,
with them, the world, from the prevailing material and moral
bondage, [P. Goodman, A History of the Jews, 28. Lon
don, 1909,]
While the people were raiserable, impatient, and longing
for a leader, " if such a hero had arisen, and had dealt with
the Romans as Judas Maccabeus had dealt with the Syrians,
he would assuredly have been hailed by the Jews as the Mes
siah, the anointed of the Lord, The restlessness and riot
ing, which had their center in Jerusalem, prevailed through
out Palestine, and nowhere more strongly than in Galilee, the
northern provinces in which Jesus, the son of Joseph a car
penter, first attracted attention. When Jesus was a tiny
child a certain Judas of Galilee, a very ordinary hero indeed,
only just escaped the perilous distinction of being altogether
believed in by his countrymen, Judas the Galilean had
headed a frantic outburst of passionate patriotisra. It had
been locally successful. Led by him, the Galileans had re
volted and the Romans had retreated, and, like his great
namesake, this Judas conquered for a while. But it was for
a very little while; and his followers had not time to tum
this leader of theirs into Messiah before he was crucified

34 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
by the Romans as a rebel. The enthusiastic reception which
was given to this poor straw of a hero shows the tendency of
the time and the temper of the people. The very stones
seemed crying out for a Redeemer and Deliverer to come
unto Zion. Under the circumstances a Messiah was almost
bound to appear," [Lady Magnus, Outlines of Jewish His
tory, 49, 226. Philadelphia, 1890. Hope for a political
Messiah who will save from Roman domination is recognised
by G. P. Fisher, History of the Christian Church, 16.]
It is easy to forget but important to remember that in the
days of Jesus the word " Messiah " would inevitably suggest
a powerful king, a warrior, a sudden and successful revolu
tion. The Son of Man as pictured in Enoch 37-70 will
execute judgraent on men and angels alike. In fact, it was
only after the year a. d. 135, in Talmudic times, that Juda
ism accepted belief in a Messiah who would die — a belief
that may be related directly to the death of the national
Messiah-hero, Bar-Kokebas. [Messiah, in Hastings' E.R.E,,
VIII, 580, Jesus Christ, lb,, VII, 514, 517, Eschatology,
lb., V, 379-80, 381,]
Jesus of Nazareth was not accepted by the more patriotic
Jews as their Messiah for he failed to respond to national
political hopes. Only in the Greek language does the name
" Christ " signify the " Anointed One," i, e., the " Messiah."
It is true Josephus does not attribute a political .philosophy
to the Zealots, the sect led by Judas against the Romans,
and says nothing of the messianic hope that dominated them ;
but his silence may well be out of regard for Roman feeling.
[An interpretation given by Norman Bentwick, Josephu.s,
117. Philadelphia, 1914.]
The belief in the coming of a triumphant Messiah was so
widely diffused as to be mentioned by both Suetonius and
Tacitus, [Cf. H. H. Milman, History of the Jews, II, 210^
11,] so that Josephus must certainly have been cognisant
of it. Only by virtue of this prevailing idea can we explain
that state of expectancy which seldom failed to welcome any
would-be Messiah. Thus it was that Theudas (beheaded
46 A, D.) could persuade the people to follow him to the river
Jordan, expecting to see its waters miraculously divide as

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 35
the Red Sea divided for Moses. An Egyptian impostor
(about 68 A. D.) could induce thera to go out to the Mount
of Olives expecting to see the walls of Jerusalem fall pros
trate at his command. Even when the Roman soldiers were
raaking preparations to set fire to the temple, a Messiah
was able to assemble 6,000 raen, woraen and children, into its
courts and porches to await a proraised miraculous deliver
ance. [See Josephus, Ant., XX, and Wars, VI ; Edersheira,
Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ, 65—7,
London, 1896.]
Many of these, like Menahem, son of Judah, the Galilean,
who appeared during the siege of Jerusalem, clothed in royal
garraents, and led the attack upon the Roman garrison,
finally fell victims to their messianic pride or arbitrariness.
All of them were inspired with a fervor as patriotic as it was
religious. Under the prosperous rule of the Maccabees, the old pro
phetic hope of a Messiah-king of David's line either lay
dormant, or else became transformed into the expectation of
a great Maccabean Priest-King of the House of Levi,
When the Pharisees found themselves oppressed by the ex
isting King of the Jews, the Messianic hope revived. It is
clear, also, that at the time of Christ we need not expect to
find one stereotyped form of Messianic hope. It was, in
deed, a pious belief of certain individuals, not a recognised
article of the Pharisaic creed, and, where the belief was held,
its expression varied considerably, [Dewick, Primitive
Christian Eschatology, ch, IX, and Emil Schiirer, op. cit,]
The expectation of a Messiah was no part of the doctrine
of the Hillelites, though it was exuberant among the Graeco-
Roman Jews, and, among them, was raised to a high pitch by
the edict against the Hebrews promulgated by Tiberius and
Sejan, [I. M, Wise, History of the Hebrews' Second Com
monwealth, 265. Cincinnati, 1880,] The success of Jesus'
Messiahship varied according to the needs of the respective
classes to whom it appealed, [lb., 260.] Nor is this rela
tivism peculiar to any age. The Pharisees cherished the
Messianic hope, but with them it was interwoven with the
hope of national and political redemption which, with them,

36 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
was inseparable frora it. This was also essentially the doc
trine of the Zealots, whose passionate zeal sought to hasten
the day of national retribution upon Israel's enemies.
[Riggs, History of the Jerdsh People, 108, 249. New York,
1902.] Though the messianic hope was rampant in Palestine, in
the books of the Cabbala, which were given shape among the
Egyptian Jews, the names " Son of Man " and " Anointed
Prince," the terras used when referring to the Messiah, do
not occur. [C. R. Conder, Judas Maccabaeus and the Jew
ish War of Independence, 68 (1879).] These Alexandrian
Jews were apart from the political depression and turmoil,
and messianic doctrines were correspondingly absent. [A
detailed account of the conditions and doctrines of the Alex
andrian Jews of this and proximate periods will be found in
August Bludan, Juden und Judenverfolgungen im alten
Alexandria, esp, 13-28. Munster i. W. 1906. Also, N.
Schmidt, Prophet of Nazareth.] Messianic hope is ex
pressed in the Book of Enoch and in that of Solomon (Pales
tinian), whereas there is no reference to it in the Sibylline
Oracles (Alexandrian). [Ewald, History of Israel, V, 361,
346, 484.]
Most of the Messianic prophecies are, as Professor Kent
has remarked, [op, cit., 84ff., 175.] determined by the con
ditions and especially by the age in which the prophet lived,
and their success has been closely related to the nature of
the appeal. Before the appearance of John the Baptist
and of Jesus of Nazareth the outrages perpetrated by Pilate
had given rise to several prophets and saviors. One of these,
a Samaritan, called his fellow-patriots to Mount Gerizzim,
promising, in proof of his divine mission, to show them the
sacred vessels and the ark made by Moses, these objects, ac
cording to Samaritan tradition, being buried on that Mount.
Many of his followers came under arms ; but the ever-wary
Roman knew the political danger involved in religious fer
vour and promptly quelled the uprising. [I. M, Wise, op.
cit., 244, 253,] Syria, which had been one of the most op
pressed of the Roman provinces was most fruitful in messi
anic religious movements, while Alexandria, a refuge from

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 37
political oppression, furnished none — not even an appealing
messianic idea.
In Palestine itself there was, prior to the appearance of
Christ, not one prevailing idea of the desired and expected
Messiah, but at least two distinct ones : there were two
classes, each with its own peculiar needs and hopes, and these
were not always reconcilable not to say coincident. If Mr.
Louis Wallis' interpretation is correct, [Sociological Study
of the Old Testament] the messianic idea found its source
in the desire of the upper classes of Israel to have foreigners
work for them, while they, the successful peoples, ate the
wealth of the nations and succeeded to the world's glory.
" But the lower classes were infected with social revolution,
and wanted to set mishpat, or justice in the land," The
final catastrophe of Judaism, its last attempt to get rid of
the Roman yoke, is directly traceable to a messianic upris
ing of the lower class. Although later in its history Chris
tianity was first adopted by the higher classes and by thera
imposed upon the peasantry (as in France, England, Ger
raany, and raost European countries), in the first centuries
of its life it was distinctively and almost exclusively the reli
gion of the lower classes, of the poor and oppressed. To
them it promised salvation from the oppressor, regeneration
and superiority that made the poor rich, the afflicted happy
despite their misery. Such a religion was not for the higher
classes because the oppression felt by them was the result of
conditions external to the nation, not incidental to the social
life, as was the case with the poorer classes. [Prideaux,
op, cit,, II, 404-5, 425, 1849, Riggs, op, cit,, 152-3, 211,
1 228, The Old Testament is, for the raost part written from
the aristocratic point of view, that of the ruling and wealthy
classes, and voices their aspirations. For example from its
account we might supose that all of the Jews were carried away
by Assyria during the captivity, whereas only the leaders and
members of the upper classes were taken. The New Testament,
on the other hand, reflects the views of the poorer classes who
'had little to do with the affairs of the nation.] Thus the
success of Christianity, like the progress of the Jewish reli
gion, is in large part a reflex of political conditions.

38 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Some Jewish Messiahs After the Time of Christ
The hope for the advent of the Messiah lay dormant in
the people awaiting for its fulfillment the time of pressing
need ; this hope reached its fulfilment, or at least its highest
tension, in the troublous times immediately preceding the
destraction of Jerusalem by Titus, " From the simple idea
of a warrior, a protector of the people against foreign foes,
the Messiah idea developed into the expectation of the rise
of a great and glorious king of the house of David." [J. A.
Greenstone, The Messiah Idea in Jewish History, 4i%r-^, 54,
84, 111-112,] " The darker the present grew , . . the
raore eagerly did their minds turn to the comfort offered by
the apocalyptic promises, which predicted the end of their
sufferings and the dawn of their delivery." [Buttenweiser,
in Jewish Encyclopedia,] Indeed, subsequently to b. c. 63,
the Jews at Rome had taught the coraing of a King, or Mes
siah, who would have been for the rest of Europe a King
from the East:
" And ' the People ' of the Great God shall again shine,
Loaded with wealth, with gold and silver,
And fine purple."
As already suggested there can be little doubt that a
Messianic excitement " accompanied as usual by anti-Roman
feeling," was largely responsible for the Jewish revolt sup
pressed by Titus. At this time as well as through the fol
lowing fifteen centuries or longer [see below the account of
Molcho], Rome's downfall was to be the sign of the Messiah's
approach ; or the return of Nero, " the Beast," would herald
it. " A dog chased the lion which throttled the Shepherds "
of Israel; the chasing dog was a powerful Messiah. The
two epistles of Paul which bear, of all his writings, the
strongest evidence of an intense Messianic expectation were
written at a time when the notion was prevalent in the Jew
ish aristocracy, that an emperor at Rome would rival God ;
whUe in the second epistle of Paul reflecting this belief, we
have a reference to this heathen emperor as one who is to
precede the Messiah's coming. [See I Thess. 4 and 5 • II

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 39
Thess, 2, Paul, Diet, of Chr, and Gospels, II, 890, Christ,
Christology, Diet. Apost, Ch., I, 188-91,] This view was
essentially at one with that belief in the Anti-Christ which
prevailed through the Middle Ages as an inheritance from
New Testament times : An Anti-Christ who would be liberal
in bribes, of unbounded wealth, capable of performing great
signs and wonders so as to deceive the very elect, and at
last tear the moral veil from his face revealing himself a
monster of impiety and cruelty. He would inaugurate that
awful persecution which would last three years and a half,
excelling all previous persecutions in horror, " When the
Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? " asks
Christ as though expecting the answer, " No." The vessel
of the Church, says Marchantius, a seventeenth century theo
logian of Flanders, will disappear in the foam of that boil
ing deep of infidelity and be hidden in the blackness of that
storra of destruction which sweeps over the earth. The sun
shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and
the stars shall fall from heaven. After the lapse of those
three and a half years Christ will descend to earth, destroy
Anti-Christ and his world power, thus avenging the blood of
the saints. [For the beliefs about the Anti-Christ, see S.
Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages. Boston,
1889.] Earthquakes and widespread famine, it seems, brought the
Messianic excitement in Rome to a culmination in a. d. 52.
Claudius expelled from Rome the Jews who, to quote Sue
tonius, " under the irapulse of Christianity were keeping up
a constant disturbance." As Huidekofer observes, the
heathen could have had no raotive for exculpating Jews at
the expense of Christians. " Hence the allegation that
Christianity was to blame for the disturbance must have
originated with conservative Jews." The fearful earth
quakes which shook Southern Italy again in a. d. 63, through
the universal apprehension which they aroused, stimulated
Messianic expectations araong Jews and Christians. To
supplement this, in June, 64, the city of Rome was nearly
destroyed by a fire, only four of the fourteen sections of the
city remaining untouched, the other ten being wholly or in

40 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
part destroyed. " Here was an event — Rome's destruc
tion — which for more than a century had by many Jews
been deemed the precursor of their Messiah's coming. Party
strife and Sibylline predictions found place in the capital,
whilst in Judea the autumn cannot have passed without
premonitions of rebellion. From Josephus we know that
revolutionary disturbances were, shortly thereafter, well
under way in Judea, [See Huidekofer, Judaism at Rome,
N, Y,, 1887, 242ff ;, 229-38; 133, 144-7, 154, 425, 501 ; and
the same author's Indirect Testimony of History, 33-5,
For the use by Cicero of the phrase, " A King from the
East," see the orator's work on Divinations and his De
Natura Deorum. Virgil's Messianic Eclogue, edited by
Mayor, Fowler and Conway, London, 1907, contains a dis
cussion of the question of the messianic concept in Virgil,
On the relation between the Dragon and the Messiah, see
Hastings' Dictionary of the Apostolic Church, I, 313, art.
on Dragon. The religious stiraulus of such events has been
discussed by the author in the article on Prodigies and
Portents in Hastings' Ency. of Religion and Ethics, Vol, X.]
" Amongst the magicians and the false prophets who, to
the disturbance of the people, began, in rivalry, with the
robbers, to play a more dangerous part, and whom Felix
endeavored rigorously to put down, there was an Egyptian
Judean who especially distinguished himself (shortly after
a. d. 52). He sought to prove, by a perverse interpretation
of the Bible, that the walls of Jerusalem, having been subject
to the heathen, must fall down in the same way as those of
Jericho, under Joshua, had once done, and that only when
that had been accomplished would the victory over the world
accrue to those who should in that way enter the city. He
had already collected many people from the populace on the
Mount of Olives, in his advance from the eastern desert,
when Felix fell upon him with a large body of horse and
cavalry, killing four hundred and taking two hundred pris
oners." [J. H. Allen, op. cit., 413. Ewald, History of
Israel, VII, 423.]
About a decade later, the Roman governor, Festus, was
compelled to send cavalry and infantry against a similar

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 41
false Messiah, who had promised the people immediate deliv
erance from the oppressive Romans, and a cessation of all
sufferings, if they would follow him into the desert. [Ib.,
426, The account is given in Josephus, Ant,, XX, 8, 10,]
It was in the days of intense excitement and concern, when
Cleopatra was scheming to effect the overthrow of Herod,
that a Judean author foretold the coming destruction of the
Roman-Greek state and heralded the coming of a glorious
Messiah, [Graetz, Hist of Jews, II, 95, See also 143ff,,
240ff,, 290ff,, 409ff,, 610 ; IV, 18, 494ff. ; in II, 610ff. ; of
Messiahs in the early sixteenth century, in IV, 482ff, ; of
Charles V (sixteenth century) in IV, 497,] In a word,
" To trace the rise of the Jewish revolt is hardly anything
less than to trace the growth of the messianic propaganda,"
[See Shaler Matthews, Messianic Hope in the New Testa
ment, 16 ; cf., also, C. A, Briggs, The Messiah of the Apostles,
New York, 1895 ; and by the same author. The Messiah of
the Gospels.]
The periods of greatest oppression and consequent de
pression, from 180 b, c, to 100 a, d,, " far from being ages
of spiritual stagnation and darkness, . . . might with jus
tice be described as the two most fruitful centuries in religion,
life and thought in the history of Israel." [R. H. Charles,
Religious Development between the Old and New Testament,
115. See also his Apocrypha.]
The raessianic conception which Josephus witnessed at
work was erainently national and anti-Roraan, In the
Asmonian period (cir. 130' b, c), in conformity with Jewish
prophecy, the Messiah was to establish a glorious territorial
kingdom. The apocalyptic messiah of this age was to origi
nate a heaven, descend to earth, establish future judgment,
and, as was held after the capture of Jerusalem, avenge the
Jews upon their enemies. The raotive for national venge
ance died hard. In a, d, 132, a Messiah by name of Bar
Kokebas came forward and raised a revolt against the Ro
mans which lasted three years and a half, finally resulting, to
the great injury of the Jewish cause, in the Hebrew temple
being replaced by one dedicated to Jupiter. [Lagrange,
Le Messianism (Paris, 1909), esp. pp. 6, 132, 309. Also

42 Messiahs: Christian amd Pagan
J, A. Greenstone, op. cit., 89. See Virgil's Messianic Ec
logue, edited by J. B. Mayor, W. W. Fowler, and R. S,
Conway (London, 1907), Josephus, Hastings' E,R,E.,
VII, 776, sec, 3-4.] This illustrates the pragmatic value of
messianic ideals and is probably what Briggs had in mind
when he referred to the Old Testament Messianic prophecies
as an " organism of redemption," an ideal to guide the Jew
ish people in " their advance toward the goal of history,"
[C. A. Briggs, Messianic Prophecy. New York, 1891. An
older and less valuable treatise will be found in the book of
James Drummond, The Jewish Messiah: A Critical History
of the Messianic Idea among the Jews from the Rise of the
Maccabees to the Closing of the Talmud. London, 1877.
See also Shailer Mathews, Messianic Hope in the New Testa
ment (Univ. of Chicago Press).]
In less than a year Bar Kokebas had conquered fifty forti
fied cities and nine hundred and forty-five towns and villages.
He led an army of two hundred thousand men. For two and
a half years he reigned as king. Only after fifty-two battles
did Julius Severus, in 136 a, d,, finally vanquish hira. There
is something sublime in this King of Zion bidding defiance
to the arraies of proud imperial Rome. [N. Schmidt, op.
cit., 88-91; Rev. d. Etudes Juives, I (1880), 42.]
This Bar-Kokebas, Son of a Star, whose name was later'
turned by his disappointed followers into Bar-Cosba, Son of
a Lie, though not the first, nor yet the last, of a long line
of Messiahs, is one of the raost dramatic figures. It was an
opinion deeply rooted in the breasts of all faithful Israelites,
that in the darkest hour of the race of Abraham, when his
children were at the extreme point of degradation and
wretchedness, even then the arm of the Lord would be re
vealed, and the expected Messiah would make his sudden and
glorious appearance. In the year 132 a. d., after the death
of Trajan and the ascension of Hadrian, that hour seemed
to have arrived. Not only was their holy Jerusalem a mass
of ruins and inhabited by the stranger, but the pagans were
about to take up permanent residence in Sion, and place a
Roman idol on the very site of the Holy of Holies. At that
moment the Messiah appeared in the person of Bar-Kokebas •

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 43
the greatest of the Rabbis openly avowed the justice of his
claims ; many miraculous feats were attributed to hira, and
thousands of Jews flocked to his banner. [H. H. Milraan,
Hist, of the Jews, II, 432-8'. Emil Schiirer, Hist, of the
Jewish People in the Time of Christ. First Division, II. 297ff.
New York. No date. S. Hecht, Epitome of Post-Biblical
History, 33-5 (1882). R. A. S. Macalister, Hist, of Civili
zation in Palestine, 101. Merivale, Hist, of the Romans,
VII, 316-7, New York, 1896, J. H, Allen, op, cit,, 423.
Gibbon's Roman Empire, I, 58'9,]
Schindler has referred to Bar Kokebas as the only man
who has earned the title of Messiah, if it has been earned by
any one, embodying all the qualities expected of the Mes
siah, " He was of powerful, herculean build ; tall, muscu
lar, strong. He was the model of a soldier. He would sleep
on the bare ground, and share the coarse food of his soldiers.
In battle he would be seen at the most dangerous points,
whirling his battle-axe with undaunted courage. He was a
skilful leader, who outgeneralled the most experienced sol
diers of Rome, Deep as was his hatred of Rorae was his
love for his country. He was raodest and wiUing to listen ;
and for aU this his followers worshipped hira. How he had
passed his youth, where he had obtained his military knowl
edge, nobody knew. There he was at the tirae when all was
prepared, and people were only waiting for the leader ; and
the impression which he must have made upon the people was
such that, without examining his past record; all, the rich
and the poor, the learned and the simple, flocked to his ban
ner, and obeyed implicitly his comraands. Within the space
of a year he storraed fifty fortified places, and freed nine
hundred and eighty-five towns held by the Roraans ; and when
the year 133 dawned, not a single Roman was to be seen in
Palestine." \_Messianic Expectations, 69—73. Mommsen,
ProTnnces of the Roman Empire, II, 244. New York, 1887.]
Later belief that the messianic period would be preceded
by raany raisfortunes and perplexities for Israel [Greenstone,
111—12] raay well have been an inference based on the con
ditions that had, as a raatter of fact, prevailed prior to its
manifestations. A few examples will illustrate this :

44 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
In the fifth century, an enthusiast, one Moses, arose m
the island of Crete, declaring himself the Messiah and attract
ing all the Jewish congregations on the island, ' Business
was neglected, all the common pursuits of life were forsaken,
in the anxious expectation of the time when the new Moses
should lead them dryshod through the sea into the Promised
Land, So convinced were the people of his mission and of
his powers, that they delivered all their belongings to him,
and men, women, and children followed him to the sea.
Standing on a promontory projecting into the sea, he or
dered thera to throw themselves into the ocean, as the waters
would surely part for thera, . . . Many were drowned, some
were rescued by sailors." " Thus the Jews, whom the mag
nanimous offer of a Roman emperor left incredulous, were
deluded by the fancies of an enthusiast, or by the snares of
an impostor, merely because he promised them miracles."
[Greenstone, op, cit,, 109—11 ; G, F. Abbott, Israel in Eu
rope. 48-9; H. H, Milman, III, 40, 96ff,, 366.] His suc
cess is no doubt partly due to the fact that in the beginning
of the fifth century hopes of a millennium were spreading
and the long-awaited deliverer was expected. This expecta
tion was heightened by the prediction of an ancient Sibylline
oracle placing the advent of the Messiah in the eighty-fifth
jubilee, between a, d. 440 and 470. " In proportion as per
secution became stronger, these hopes grew more vigorous."
[Judaisra, Hastings' E.R.E., VII, 598. The Chronicles of
Jerahraeel, probably written in the first century b. c, con
tain similar speculations. There was a tradition among
the Jews that before the destruction of Jerusalem in 686
B. c. the Tabernacle with all its sacred furniture was hidden
by Jeremiah, or, according to the Talmud, by Josiah, in a
cave in Mt. Nebo, whence it was to be miraculously restored
to its place at the coming of the Messiah. 2 Es., X, 22;
Ark, Diet, of Apost. Ch., I, 92. In this connection we may
warn readers of Josephus to bear in mind that he tried to
suppress the messianic expectations of the Jews, or at least
to purge them of all political import. He tries generally to
divest Jewish sects of all political significance, and anxiously
avoids all reference to the stirring messianic expectations

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 45
then current among the Jews. See Josephus, Diet, of Apost.
Ch., I, 651-2,]
Dunaan, who appeared in Nigra, a city of Arabia Felix,
in 434, was a similar character in similar conditions. Simi
lar, too, is the story of the Syrian reformer. Serene, who
appeared about 720, The Jews of that period were suffer
ing heavily at the hands of the fanatical Caliph Omar II,
" When, therefore, the Messiah arose, promising to restore
them to independence and to exterminate their enemies, many
Eastern Jews lent an attentive ear to his gospel. The Re
deemer's fame reached Spain, and the Jews of that country
also, still smarting under the sufferings of centuries and
probably disappointed in the extravagant hopes which they
had built upon the Arab conquest, hastened to enlist under
his banner," Serene, however, after being intercepted by the
successes of Caliph Omar II, was delivered over to the Syna
gogue and, with his disgrace, disappeared that particular
messianic dream.
Not long, however, was the dream absent. In less than a
generation another reforraer of messianic type appeared in
the Persian town of Ispahan, rekindled the enthusiasm and
revived the messianic faith. This reformer, who professed
to be merely a forerunner, by name, Obaiah Abu Isa ben
Ishak, proraised to free the children of Israel from their
thraldom. Nor did he exhort in vain. Ten thousand Jews
rallied around his standard and the war for independence
begun at Ispahan seemed for awhile to proraise success.
His raemory was alive up imtil the tenth century but none
succeeded him who was able to revive the movement toward
liberation, [G, F, Abbott, Israel in Europe, 60—1 ; Silvestre
de Sacy, Chrestomathie Arabie, I, 307, Paris, 1826.]
The Book of the Bee, written by the bishop Shelemon, or
Solomon, a native of Armenia, in the thirteenth century,
gives the messianic generations and shows the importance at
tached to them at that time, [See the translation by E, A,
Wallis Budge, published in Anecdota Oxoniensia, Semitic
Series, I, 1886.] So frequent were the messianic disturb
ances of the Middle Ages that it became necessary for the
Jewish congregations to place all questions bearing upon

46 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Messianic topics or movements before the Nagid of Egypt,
[Jewish Quart. Rev., IV, 505 ; X, 140,]
As early as the middle of the tenth century, Hasdai, the
Jewish statesman of the Cordova Caliphate in Spain, wrote
to the Jewish community settled near the mouth of the Volga
river to find out " whether there is anywhere a soil and
kingdora where scattered Israel is not subordinate and sub
ject to others. Having been cast down from our former
glory, and now living in exile, we are powerless to answer
those who constantly say unto us : ' Every nation hath its
kingdom, while you have no trace of a kingdom on earth.' "
In reply the king of the Khazars writes, in part : " Our
eyes are turned to God and to the wise men of Israel who
preside over the academies of Jerusalem and Babylon. We
are far away from Zion, but it has come to our ears that, on
account of our sins, the calculations concerning the coming
of the Messiah have become confused, so that we know noth
ing. May it please the Lord to act for the sake of his great
Name, May the destruction of his temple, and the cutting
off of the holy service, and the misfortunes that have be
fallen lis, not appear small in His sight. May the words
of the prophet be fulfilled : ' And the Lord, whora ye seek,
shall suddenly come to his temple ' (Mal, iii, 1), We have
nothing in our possession concerning the coming of the Mes
siah except the prophecy of Daniel, May the God of Israel
hasten our redemption and gather together all our exiled
and scattered brethren in my lifetime, in thy lifetime, and in
the lifetime of the whole house of Israel, who love his name,"
[Dubnow, I, 26-27, The author, however, points out that
the authenticity of the document is not above suspicion.
He thinks it raay more probably reflect the mournful Messi
anic temper of the sixteenth century, when this correspond
ence was brought to light by Spanish exiles who had raade
their way to Constantinople, rather than the state of mind
of a Spanish dignitary or a Khazar king of the tenth cen
tury. In that case it must be accounted part of the Sab-
bataian movement described below,]
A powerful messianic movement was initiated in 1096 in
the midst of the Crusades, by the German Jews who had long

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 47
looked forward to this year as a year of deliverance. Many
thousands of them started for the Holy Land by way of the
Byzantine Empire. The belief was rife that the ten tribes,
from behind their dark mountains, were astir, and wished to
unite with their distant brethren in the West, from whom
they had long been separated. These dark mountains were,
the German Jews declared, before their eyes, brightened with
a great brilliancy. So widespread was the raoveraent that the
Jews of France dispatched a special messenger to' Constanti
nople to obtain reliable inforraation about the success of the
movement for deliverance, and to ascertain whether the time
of freedom had, in very truth, arrived. It was reported also
that from the Byzantine Erapire seventeen congregations had
started, undeterred by the necessity of wandering through
the desert. [David Kaufmann, A Plitherto Unknown Mes
sianic Movement, Jewish Quart. Rev., 10 (1897-8), 139'-51.]
A Messiah appeared in France about 1087, another at
Cordova in 1117, one in Fez in 1127, all of these moveraents
being traceable to the oppression felt by the Jews as a result
of the Crusades.
In Yemen (Persia) in 1172, just when the Mohamraedans
were raaking most ardent efforts to convert the Jews, ap
peared a seK-proclaimed forerunner of the Messiah, who
declared that the misfortunes of the day betokened the ap
proach of the Messianic kingdom.
Sirailar tendencies to rebound from under the severest
calamities characterized this whole period when the Jews
were suffering manifold ills from the direct and indirect
effects of the first and second Crusades. The Jewish trav
eler, Benjarain of Tudela, who visited his co-religionists in
the cities along the Rhine, twenty years after the second
Crusade, found them cheerfully awaiting the Messiah. Here,
as elsewhere, the wish seemed to yield its own fulfilment and
the expectation when at a high pitch was seldom in vain.
Came to the fore at this time, about the middle of the
twelfth century (1160) one David Alroy, who appeared in
Asia Minor and there summoned the brethren to his banner.
A wave of enthusiasm spread from Bagdad through both East
and West, many giving up all they possessed in order to

48 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
respond to the call. The Synagogue, however, excommuni
cated the Messiah, and either his father-in-law, or the execu
tioner of the Sultan hiraself, soon dispatched him. Here
again, as in the case of Sabbatai and of Molcho ^ death did
not extinguish the hopes and beliefs of many of the Jewish
followers for his return was confidently expected. [G. F.
Abbott, Israel in Europe, 89-90, 171 ; Rev. d. Etudes Juives,
IV, 188-91; XVII, 304; A. Neubauer, Mediaeval Jewish
Chronicles, 123. The followers of David Alroy formed a
sect known as Menakemists (q.v. Jewish Ency., I, 454ff.).]
In 1279 or 1280 Abraham Abulafia published a book in
which he claimed to be God's mouth-piece. Later, in 1284,
in Messina, Sicily, he declared his Messiahship and an
nounced that the Messianic era would begin in 1290. Perse
cuted in Sicily, he went to the island of Comino, near Malta,
about 1288, and there pushed his claims; with what success
is not known. One of the two prophets who arose from
among his disciples, claiming to be prophets and miracle-
workers, foretold in mystic language at Ay lion, in Segovia,
the advent of the Messiah.
About this tirae flourished also in Avila, Nissim ben Abra
ham, who was inspired by an angel to write a mystic work,
" The Wonder of Wisdom." He designated the last day of
the fourth month of the year 1295, as the date of the Mes
siah's appearance. The credulous fasted and practised
almsgiving and assembled on the appointed day; but only
to find — by what strange chance may only be surmised —
that to their garments were attached little crosses.
A Lombard enthusiast, Wilhelmina " of Bohemia," claimed
to be an Incarnation of the Spirit appointed to save the
Jews, Saracens, and false Christians. The sect died out
soon after her decease in 1282,
In the fourteenth century there appeared, in Persia, an
other Messiah, Moses Botarel of Cisneras.
Any menace to the Papacy was accepted by the Jews as
a good augury and a presage of the coming of the Messiah.
This was the case after Charles VIII had poured his forces
1 Reubeni, David, Jewish Ency. X, 388ff., and Molcho, Solomon Ib
VII, 604., Judaism, Hastings' E.R.E., VII, 604. ' ''

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 49
like a torrent, over the Italian Peninsula, with consequent
hard fates for the Jews of Spain and Portugal, who were of
the belief that the French conquest marked the end of the
Papacy. They decided upon the year 1490 as the year of
deliverance, though it was not until 1602 or 1603 that a
Messiah, in the person of Ascher Lembein, appeared. Hard
days for the oppressors meant the approach of salvation for
the oppressed. Ascher preached repentance and contrition,
giving assurance that the Messiah would appear in six
months. Many devoted disciples in Italy and Gerraany ral
lied to his support, but his sudden death brought the dreara
to an abrupt end, only to be revived thirty years later by the
rauch-trled Marranos of Spain and Portugal.
In the troublous days of the beginning of the sixteenth
century, " there arose in Istria, near Venice, a German Jew,
whose name was Lembein, a foolish and mad prophet, an
infatuated man, and the Jews ran after him. And they said,
' Surely he is a prophet, whom the Lord has sent as a prince
over his people Israel; and he shall gather the dispersed of
Judah from the four comers of the earth.' And some of
the men were inclined to him and girded themselves with sack
cloth; and every man turned from his evil ways in those
days; for they said, 'Our salvation draweth nigh; but the
Lord, in his own time, will make haste.' "
Tribulations similar to those which beset Lembein, and
anticipations of a still worse fate for the entire Jewish com
munity, were the fertile soil which produced three Messiahs
in the latter part of the fourteenth century — Abrahara of
Granada, Shem-Tob, and Moses Botarel. [G. F. Abbott,
Israel in Europe, 200^1, 160, 279. The Chronicles of Rabbi
Joseph Ben Joshua Ben Meir, the Sphardi, I, 354. London,
1836, Translated by C. H. F, Blalloblotzky,]
Isaac Luria (1534-72) proclaimed hiraself as possessing
the soul of the Messiah, and announced the date of the messi
anic age as 1568, After his death Haylm Vital Calabres
claimed to be the Messiah and preached the speedy advent
of the messianic era.
In 1574, Abraham Shalom, himself a pretender to the Mes
siahship, advised Vital to repair to Jerusalem for two years ;

50 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
should he do so the holy spirit would come upon him. In
1616, there appeared in Coromandel another Messiah. Even
the poet Moses Luzzate (1707-47) declared his messiahship,
fancying himself destined by means of his production, the
Second Zohar, to redeem Israel. He had a small band of
followers but was several times excoramunicated. [Lent, De
Pseudo-Messiis, Art, on Messiah, in the Jewish Encyclo
pedia, Messiahs (Pseudo) in Hastings' Encyclopedia of
Religion and Ethics. Messiah, in the New Intemational
Encyclopedia.] During the reign of the Spanish king, Charles V, there
appeared in the court of the king of Portugal a man by the
name of David, announcing that he had come from India on
a mission from his brother, the King of the Jews, to propose
an alliance directed toward the recovery of the Holy Land
from the Turk. In Portugal, Spain, France, and Italy he
traveled on his mission, winning many converts, and even
securing an Interview with the Pope. Some of the more
worldly-wise detected the iraposture and David fell upon hard
days. In the naive and quaint Chronicles of the Rabbi
Joseph, we find a lengthy description:
" A Jew-man whose name was David, came from a distant
country of India into the court of the king of Portugal in
those days and said unto him: ' I am a Hebrew, and I fear
the Lord, the God of Heaven, and my brother the king of the
Jews sent rae unto thee, O king, for help; and now, be a
helper unto us and we wiU gO' to war against the Turk,
Solyman, and will take the Holy Land from his hands.'
And the king said unto him, ' Be thy coming with peace ;
and now go, I will send thee unto the high priest ; and what
soever he shall say, I will do,' And he went out from him,
and abode on Lisbon several days. And the forced Chris
tians [Literally, the compelled ones; Jews who had been
driven by the Inquisition into outward compliance with ec
clesiastical rites,] believed his words. And each said unto
his neighbor, ' He Is our deliverer, for God hath sent him ;
and they gathered themselves unto him and honoured him
much. And the man departed thence, and passed through
Spain ; and in all the places through which he passed, many

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 51
flowed unto him of those who were scattered there; and he
was unto thera a ¦ sturabling block. And he passed over to
France and went unto Avignon, And he departed thence,
and came unto Italy ; and he raade banners of cunning work,
and wrote upon them the names of the Holy ; and many be
lieved him in those days. And also unto Bologna, Ferrara,
and Mantua, came that man; and he said that he would,
with the consent of the kings of the uncircumcised, lead all
the Jews who were found in the raidst of them unto his place
and into his land. And he spake also unto the pope ; and the
children of Israel feared much. And it came to pass, when
they spake unto him, saying, ' And what shall we do with
our wives this day, if we shall all go into the battle, and what
unto their children which they have home.'' ' That he re
plied, ' Surely there are many women in our country, like
unto these women : fear not, for there is no restraint with the
Lord to save,' And he invented a writing of his own heart
saying, ' My brother, the king, hath sent unto rae written
and sealed with the king's ring; and it came to pass, one
day, that his secret was discovered, and they believed him no
more ; for he decreed decrees of nothingness," [Translated
by Blalloblotzky, London, 1836, II, 149-50. See also, G. F.
Abbott, Israel in Europe, 169—70.]
Succeeded David, one Solomon Molcho, at first a Christian
and an ignorant man. Upon his circumcision the Lord in
vested him with profound knowledge, out of which he was
enabled to master the Cabala and speak with inspiring elo
quence. To kings he preached the Jewish faith, and with
the Pope, Clement VII, he had audience and secured permis
sion to dwell where he would.
" And there came forth a rod from Portugal, whose name
was Solomon Molcho, of a stem of Israel, which had been
scattered there since the days of destruction ; and he was a
lad with the scribes of the king at that time. And when
he saw the man David, the Lord touched his heart, and he
returned unto the Lord, the God of his ancestors; and he
circumcised the skin of his foreskin. And he knew nothing
of the law of the Lord, and of the Holy Scriptures in those
days; and it came to pass, when he was circumcised, that

52 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
the Lord gave wisdora unto Solomon, and he became wiser
than all the men in a very short tirae ; and many wondered
at him ; and he went to Italy, and with a daring face he spake
of the law of our God in the presence of kings, and hid not
his face from them. And he went into Turkey and returned
into Rome, and spake with Clement, who extended towards
him kindness against the desire of all those who knew law
and judgraent. And he gave him a written privilege signed
with his name to dwell as it should be pleasing in his sight,
and he sumamed himself by the name of Israel ; and he was
wise in the wisdom of the Cabala ; and he brought forth from
his mouth words of grace, for the spirit of the Lord spake in
him ; and His word was constantly upon his tongue. And he
continually drew also from the deep fountain of the Cabala
goodly words ; and he wrote them upon tables ; but I have not
yet seen them. And he preached to many at Bologna and
in other places ; and many ran after him to hear his wisdom,
and to prove him with riddles. And Solomon told them all
their words: there was nothing hid from him which he told
them not ; and when they saw the wisdom of Solomon, they
said, ' It was a true report which we heard concerning thee,
and thou hast gained wisdom exceeding the fame which we
heard.' And raany clothed themselves with envy against
him; but they could cast nO' evil upon him in Italy, for he
was beloved in the sight of the nobles : and he united himself
with David, and they were as one in those days.
" And Solomon wrote unto the wise men, words of peace
and truth, saying : —
" ' Incline your ear to hear the words of a worm and no
man, a rod out of the stem of the cluldren of our captivity,
which came forth from a land of our adversaries, sitting in
a forest and in a desert, in a place of thorns, thistles and
briers ; there he fed, and there he lay down ; for his father
and his mother forsook him; he walked In darkness and had
no light, meditating in the night upon his couch by what way
the light is parted, that he raight know the place of the dawn,
to keep hiraself frora the ways of the violent, that he might
walk in the paths of God to seek wisdom of him, and to hear
the words of tmth. And He put in his heart anxiety and

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 53
trouble at all tiraes, to save his soul from destruction, to
shine in the light of life, that he might hold fast unto the
right hand of God, and cast from hira the left.' "
In an ecstatic vision he was shown an earthquake and a
deluge that were to come : " The deluge will be in this coun
try and in another country, on the north side, on the utter
most part of the earth; and the earthquake in the land of
thy kindred. . . . And In those days the earthquake will be
in the kingdom of Portugal; and when the deluge shall be
at Rome, it shall also' be In the north. And the lightnings
which came down from heaven, which separated you from
the birds, shew, that after the flood, two great stars shall be
seen, one upon the citadel on which were the fowls ; and the
second upon the great place which is situated high on the
clefts of the rock. And each star shall have a great tail of
purple color and they shall be in the sight of the inhabitants
of Rome for many days, and they shall all prophesy con
cerning them. And the star which shall be seen over the
place wfll show, that there shall abide a great weeping over
the place, and over all the cities, which are on the west of
Turkey, for they shall be in the inheritance of their enemies.
And the second star showeth that this shall not be forever;
but that Israel shall do valiantly, that singing may be in
the morning. . . . And on the self-same day shall rest upon
the king Messiah a holy spirit, a spirit of wisdom and under
standing, to make him rule over a great people, and to be
at eventide a light to shine through the night. After this
shall awake from the dust the dead of the world and he will
renew them by a perfect resurrection. No Satan and no
evil spirit shall then be, and the Lord will give rest to his
people ! ' And it came to pass that when the old man left
off speaking according to these words, that Solomon awoke
and stretched out his hands toward heaven, and said, ' Lord
God of Israel, I acknowledge before Thee that Thou hast
dealt kindly with me this day, for the sake of thy great
mercies, and not according to my righteousness and for the
sake of thy loving-kindness, and not for ray innocency ; for
what am I, that I should be taught a high matter over which
there is a watcher ; if it was not by thy good and great hand,

54 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
to show the good unto criminals which thou hast shown me
this day, not according to the work of my hend but accord
ing to thy righteousness, 0 living God, that I have seen what
I have seen, and my soul is preserved; blessed be the Lord
who sheweth goodness unto debtors ! ' . . .
" And after I was healed, I went to Rome, to observe the
stars and their appearance; and before they came, I told it
all unto the pope, and to some of the cardinals belonging to
the great of the court, written in a letter. And I also wrote
unto the king of Portugal by the hand of his ambassador,
for I spake to him in his chamber. And when the earth
quake came, they marvelled much. And the ambassadors
said unto me, ' If the king had known before thou removedst
from Portugal, that thou art so very wise, he had given thee
permission to act by every law thou wouldst,' And daily
he and his servants honored me much at his house and before
the pope." [Chronicles of Rabbi Joseph, II. ]
The wonderful vision of Molcho, this would-be Jewish
Messiah who lived in the first half of the sixteenth century, ^
to the effect that Portugal would be visited by an earthquake
and that Rome and a northern country would be swept by a
destructive flood, after which there would appear in Rome,
for a few days, two comets with golden tails, had its major
fulfilment, Rome was inundated in October, 1630, as also
was Flanders ; a brilliant comet appeared ; the earthquake
shook Lisbon in January, 1536, with terrible effect. As a
result of this fulfilment of prophecies, when Molcho again
appeared in Rome, he was greeted with marks of highest con
fidence and reverence, and was regarded by all as the mes
senger of God. The Inquisition, however, was not so favor
ably inclined and soon dispatched him. [Greenstone, Mes
siah Idea, 197ff., 118-122. Lagrange, Le Messianisme,
329ff. S. Schechter, Studies in Judaism, 224-5. Morris
Joseph, Judaism as Creed and Life, 169, H, H, Milman,
Hist, of the Jews, III, 367-8. G. F. Abbott, op. cit., 170-1.]
The spirit of martyrs is not consumed in the flames of
their martyrdom. The buming of Molcho ^ was but as a
1 Schindler, Messianic Expectations, Chapter VII, describes David
Rubeni and Solomon Molcho.

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 55
burnt offering unto the Lord. " And the Lord smelled the
sweet savour, and took to him his spotless soul, and she is
with him as one brought up with him, rejoicing always before
him. . . . And many in Italy believed, at that time, that
Rabbi Soloraon Molcho had been delivered by his wisdom
from the hand of those who sought after his soul to destroy
it, and that the fire had no power over him. And there were
some witnessed, and sware before the assembly and congre
gation, that he stood In his house eight days after the bum
ing, and that he went his way thence and they saw him no
more ; the Almighty God alone knoweth. And would to
God," writes Rabbi Joseph Ben Joshua Ben Meir, the
Sphardi, " would to God I could write in a book with cer
tainty and sincerity whether his words were true or not."
[Said the author's nephew with regard to these Chronicles,
written shortly after the events which they describe, " Who
soever desireth to find delight in the times past, let him take
up this Book of Memorials. . . . Peradventure he will be fa
vored to discern between the greatness of heathen kings and
that of our Messiah," II, 525,]
Canon Moreau, quoted by Baring-Gould, gives the fol
lowing account of a messianic raoveraent in the closing days
of the sixteenth century and the early part of the seven
teenth: " ' In the year 1599 a rumor circulated with pro
digious rapidity through Europe, that Antichrist had been
born in Babylon, and that already the Jews of that part were
hurrying to receive him as their Messiah, The news came
from Italy and Germany, and extended to Spain, England,
and other Western kingdoms, troubling many people, even
the most discreet ; however, the learned gave it no credence,
saying that the signs predicted in Scripture to precede that
event were not yet accoraplished, and, among others, that
the Roman empire was not yet abolished. Others said that,
as for the signs, the majority ha.d already appeared to the
best of their knowledge, and with regard to the rest, they
might have taken place in distant regions without their hav
ing been made known to them ; that the Roman empire existed
but in name, and that the interpretation of the passage on
which its destruction was predicted, might be incorrect; that

56 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
for raany centuries, the most learned and pious had believed
in the near approach of Antichrist, some believing that he
had already come, on account of the persecutions which had
fallen on the Christians; others, on account of fires, or
eclipses, or earthquakes. Every one was in excitement ; some
declared that the news must be correct, others believed noth
ing about it, and the agitation became so excessive, that
Henry IV, who was then on the throne, was compelled by
edict to forbid any mention of the subject.'
" The report spoken of by Moreau gained additional con
firmation from the announcement made by an exorcised
demoniac, that in 1600, the Man of Sin had been bom in the
neighborhood of Paris, of a Jewess, named Blanchefleure,
who had conceived by Satan. The child had been baptised
at the Sabbath of Sorcerers ; and a witch, under torture,
acknowledged that she had rocked the infant Antichrist on
her knees, and she averred that he had claws on his feet, wore
no shoes, and spoke all languages.
" In 1623 appeared the following startling announcement,
which obtained an immense circulation among the lower
orders : ' We, brothers of the Order of St. John of Jerusa
lem, in the Isle of Malta, have received letters from our spies,
who are engaged in our service in the country of Babylon,
now possessed by the Grand Turk; by the which letters we
are advertised, that, on the 1st of May, in the year of our
Lord 1623, a child was bom in the town of Borrydot, other
wise called Calka, near Babylon, of the which chUd the
mother is a very aged woman, of race unknown, called Fort-
Juda : of the father nothing is known. The child is dusky,
has pleasant mouth and eyes, teeth pointed like those of a
cat, ears large, stature by no means exceeding that of other
children ; the said child, incontinent on his birth, walked and
talked perfectly well. His speech is comprehended by every
one, admonishing the people that he is the true Messiah, and
the son of God, and that in him all must believe. Our spies
also swear and protest that they have seen the said child
with their own eyes ; and they add, that, on the occasion of
his nativity, there appeared marvellous signs in heaven, for
at full noon the sun lost its brightness, and was for some

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 67
time obscured,' This is followed by a list of other signs ap
pearing, the most remarkable being a swarm of flying ser
pents, and a shower of precious stones." [Curious Myths
of the Middle Ages, 168—71. The author refers to Moreau,
his authority for the above account, as a " contemporary
historian." I have not been able to consult the work of
Moreau,] In 1640, when the Jews all over Europe were eagerly look
ing for redemption, the belief was entertained that all the
Jews should rise again and be led to Jerusalem by the Mes
siah. When this Messiah had come, " all the ships, barkes,
and vessels of Holland should, by the powere of certain
strange whirle-winds be loosed from their ankers and trans
ported in a moraent to all the desolate ports and havens
throughout the world wherever the dispersion was, to convey
their brethren and tribes to the Holy Citty." [G. F. Ab
bott, Israel in Europe, 251, 278, 296, 494,] Truly this was
an age of Messianic dreams, and of such dreams as inspire
attempt at fulfilment.
The English Jews went so far as to atterapt to prove
Cromwell their Messiah, In the reign of Edward I (in
1290) fifteen thousand Jews, supposed to represent all of
those in England, were banished. Since that time England's
shores had been inhospitable. Now, under the Protectorate,
they were allowed to return and to remain unmolested,
[Frederick Harrison, Oliver Crom.well. London, 1890,] It
Is not surprising, then, in view of their long cherished hope
for a future deliverer, that Cromwell's leniency towards Jews
should induce some of them to apply to him the epithet of
Messiah. Belief in his Messiahship may, in fact, have induced some
of the Jews to Immigrate. " About this time. Rabbi Manas
seh Ben Israel came to England to solicit the Jews' readmls-
sion ; and about the sarae time a deputation of Asiatic Jews
arrived also, with the noted Rabbi Jacob Ben Azabel at their
head, to make inquiry, whether Cromwell was not that Mes
siah they had so long expected. These deputies upon their
arrival, pretending other business, were several times in
dulged with the favor of a private audience with him; and

58 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
at one of them proposed buying all the Hebrew books and
Mss. belonging to the University of Cambridge. But this
the Protector refused, rejecting the proposal with scorn.
However, they had the liberty of viewing them ; after which
they took an opportunity to enquire, among his relations in
Huntingdonshire, where he was born, whether any of his
ancestors in the male line could not be proved of Jewish
extraction," [Raguenet, Hist. d'Olvver Cromwell, 290,
Haye, 1727, Gentleman's Magazine, Jan., IS'IO, Vol, 80,
p, 12.]
[They did not find the desired ancestry. Instead, " their
enquiries into Oliver's pedigree not being carried on with all
the secrecy such a scherae required, the true purpose of their
errand into England became quickly known at London, and
was very much talked of; which causing much scandal among
the Saints, they were suddenly packed out of the kingdom,
without obtaining any of their requests, to the great joy of
the Country, as well as the University of Cambridge, which
being at that time under a cloud, on account of their former
loyalty to the King, had everything to fear from such
visitors."] In the sixteenth century, in the days of Joseph de la Reina,
a citizen of Safed, Upper Galilee, as in the early days of
Roman domination, the destruction of the Evil One was a
preliminary condition to the advent of the Messiah. [S.
Schechter, Studies in Judasim, 248.]
The " Sohar," composed by Rabbi Mose ben Shera Tob
de Leon, bom 1250, prophesied the appearance of the Mes
siah in the beginning of the fourteenth century. In this ac
count he ceased to be the anointed king who was to restore
the political status of Israel, and was pictured as a mythical
being, the incarnation of the En Sof, or Spirit of the Lord,
" the exact image of the Messiah taught by the Christians."
[Schindler, 126-8.]
When, in the seventeenth century the Christians, both
Catholic and Protestant, began with almost unanimity to
predict the end of the world and the reappearance of Christ,
the Jews remembered the Sohar. They declared the pre
diction for the appearance of the Messiah in the beginning

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 59
of the thirteenth century a mistake, alleging that the proper
time for his appearance was about the same as that pre
dicted by their Christian neighbors, namely, the year 1648.
In that year their Messiah was to corae, riding upon a lion,
reconquer Palestine in a miraculous manner and without
arms, and establish the Kingdom of Heaven upon earth.
" By that time, the Kabbalists said, the last lot of souls
would have arrived on the sublunary world, and with It the
soul of the Messiah; and everything would then be in readi
ness for the absorption by the En Sof."
There can be no doubt that the times amply favored the
revival of these forgotten hopes : the Thirty Years War
then raging in Gerraany ; the rise of Protestantism ; the in
roads which the Turks were making upon Siebenbiirgen ; the
discoveries which were so disturbing to the Intelligent as well
as to the unintelligent — all these were fostering circum
stances and foisted the messianic aspiration.
In the seventeenth century, there arose (in 1666) a messi
anic movement which affected profoundly or slightly almost
the entire Jewish world, raising It to the highest pitch of ex
citement by the news that at Smyrna the long awaited Mes
siah was to be found. This pretender was none other than
Sabbatai Sevi, a Smyman Jew, son of a poulterer in that
Mediterranean port. So rapid had been his progress in the
Cabala that at eighteen years of age he was made a Rabbi.
His fame increased. How could it be otherwise.? Did he
not fast from Sabbath to Sabbath and bathe until his life
was imperilled.'' And did not his beauty, which already was
exquisite, increase from day to day? From his whole body
came a delicious odor, suspected by the physician of the
family to be a perfume, but found on examination, to be a
natural exhalation from the skin. Soon he began to preach,
announcing hiraself opfenly as the Son of David and having
the temerity, in proof of his divine mission, to utter the
Ineffable Name, Jehovah. The offended Rabbis declared
him worthy of death, and denounced him to the Turkish tri
bunal to be punished for this two-fold impudent sacrilege.
Sabbatai was not prepared to stem this effusive torrent and,
like the Apostle Paul, made a pilgrimage to Saloniki. A

60 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
similar attitude upon the part of the Rabbis here induced
him to look to other lands and he besought refuge, first in
Egypt, then in Jerusalem. When passing Gaza there came
before him, trembling, one Nathan Benjamin, declaring by
the Almighty and Dreadful God, " that he had seen the
Lord in his cherub-borne chariot as Ezekiel of old, with the
ten Sephiroth murmuring around him like the waves of the
sea : a voice came forth, — ' Your Redeeraer is come ; his name
is Sabbatai Sevi ; he shall go forth as a mighty one, inflamed
with wrath as a warrior; he shall cry, he shall roar, he shall
prevail against his enemies." [Isaiah xiii, 13.]
This was the turning point of his career. In Jerusalem
he preached, proclaiming himself the Messiah; the Rabbis
trembled, not with rage, but with fear and awe. The prose
lyte, Nathan of Gaza, announced that before long the Mes
siah would reveal himself, and seize the crown of the Sultan
who would follow him like a slave. Sabbatai resided thirteen
years in Jerusalem, then returned to Egypt, and went again,
after three years' absence, to Jerusalem, where he openly
proclaimed himself Messiah in the Synagogue. This was
too much for the Rabbis, who launched an interdict against
him and compelled him to return to Smyrna. This time his
people received him, despite the attaching ban, with rapture.
" In all parts, as if to accomplish the memorable words of
Joel, prophets and prophetesses appeared: men and woraen,
youths and raaidens. In Samaria, Adrianople, Salonichi, Con
stantinople, and in other places, fell to the earth, or went
raving about in prophetic raptures, exclaiming, it was said,
in Hebrew, of which before they knew not a word, ' Sabbatai
Sevi is the true Messiah of the race of David: to him the
crown and the kingdom are given.' Even the daughters of
his bitterest opponent, R. P'echina, were seized, as Sabbatai
had predicted, with the sarae frenzy, and burst out in rap
turous acknowledgraent of the Messiah in the Hebrew lan
guage, which they had never learned."
Sabbatai's claims were further established by his marriage
to a young woman who had long declared herself destined to
be the wife of the Messiah. The story of this messiah's
bride has been romantically told by Israel Zangwill, but we

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 61
follow here the more matter-of-fact account given by
Schindler, for the story in its unembellished outlines is suffi
ciently romantic.
" In far-off Poland a whole Jewish colony had been butch
ered years before by the Cossacks, one little girl only had
been saved by accident. She had been found the next day
by a benevolent person half-starved and almost frozen to
death, who gave her up to the sisters of a neighboring nun
nery. Here she grew up to be a maiden of rare beauty ; and
though she had been instructed in the tenets of the Christian
religion, she still reraained, so she said, a Jewess at heart.
One night this girl was found by some Israelites alraost naked
on their burial place. She claimed that the spirit of her
father had taken her in the stillness of the night and carried
her through the air frora the cloister to this place. He had
told her that she was to become the bride of the Messiah.
To the astonished Jewish women she even showed the finger
marks which her father's spirit had left on her body. The
Jews, being afraid to get into trouble for her sake, did not
investigate the matter, but sent her to Arasterdam, where,
she said, she had a brother. She reraained for a few years
In Amsterdam; then went to Frankfort-on-the-Main, and
later to Livomo, always claiming that she was to be the
bride of the Messiah, She did not, however, lead such a life
as would be becoming to such a distinguished person ; for in
all these cities she bore an ill name. Whenever the incon
sistency of her behavior was shown to her, she would say
that because she was to become the wife of the Messiah, her
irregularities had been allowed to her by divine revelation.
The story of her adventures had reached Cairo and Sabbatai
at once corroborated her story, claiming that he had been
waiting for her appearance as she had for his. He sent for
her, and in the house of the generous Raphael their nuptials
were consummated in gorgeous style. This marriage made
him at once a Messiah, and he justified his action by refer
ring to the prophet Hosea, who likewise had been ordered
by God to marry a lewd woman," [Messianic Expectations,
143—4. See also, Voltaire, Ancient and Modern History,
VI, 107-13. New York, 1901. Enthusiasts (Religious) in

62 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Hastings' Ency. Religion and Ethics, V, 320.]
One wealthy Israelite, of Constantinople, more cautious
than the rest, apprehending that this religious frenzy would
bring some dreadful persecution against the Jews, went to
the Grand Vizier, and requested a certificate that he had
never been a believer in the Messiah. This reached the ears
of the partisans of Sabbatai; they accused their crafty op
ponents of treasonable designs against the Turks, brought
forward false witnesses and the over-cautious unbeliever was
sentenced to the galleys. From many parts of Europe
carae Jews to pay not only their homage, but, what was still
better proof of their unwavering confidence, their money,
to this future deliverer of his people. He, in response to|
their horaage and funds, parcelled out, with great liberality, !
estates in the Holy Land which no more belonged to him than
to the deluded purchaser. Nothing succeeds like success but
seldom does it consider the price. Sabbatai was moving
forward with such headlong impetus that his claims could
not long remain uncontested.
The test carae when he proceeded to Constantinople and
found the Sultan's power greater than his own. It came
again when the Sultan proposed to decide the matter for the
then wavering Sabbatai by shooting three poisoned arrows
at him, suggesting that his invulnerability would be proof
of the genuineness of his claims. Again, came the test: If
you refuse to submit to this ordeal you have the choice of
being put to death or of accepting Mohammedanism. In
view of this alternative it involved no great length of time
for Sabbatai to decide that his true mission in life was to
preach the total abolition of the Jewish religion and the sub
stitution for it of Islaraisra. [G. F. Abbott, Israel in Eu
rope, 174-6, 242, 281, 326, 484. Voltaire, Essai sur les
Moeurs. Morris Joseph, Judaism, 169. Greenstone, op.
cit., 213-27. Lady Magnus, Outlines of Jewish History,
226^30. H. H. Milman, Hist, of the Jews, III, 369-80.
J. G. Frazer, The Dying God (Golden Bough, 3rd edition).
A literary account is given by Israel Zangwill, in his Dream
ers of the Ghetto. See also Leroy Beaulieu, Israel Among
the Nations, 61, 196, G, Karpeles, Sketch of Jewish His-

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 63
tory, 86—9. Graetz, Geschichte der Juden, Vol. VI. Geiger,
Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland, V, 100—5 (1892).]
Among the downtrodden Jews especially there was re
sponse to the appeal of Sabbatai. Among the Persian Jews
confidence and excitement ran so high that the husbandmen
refused to labor in the fields. Neither would they pay trib
ute to the governor, alleging with one voice, that their De
liverer had come. Indeed, they readily agreed to pay two
hundred tomans if the Messiah did not appear within three
raonths. In Poland, where the Jews had but lately suffered
terrible persecutions during the Cossack invasions, the Sab-
batalan craze assumed most alarming proportions. [G.
Karpeles, op. cit., 85—6, 89, P, Goodman, Hist, of the Jews,
104-5, G, F. Abbott, Israel in Europe, 242, 281. Rasker-
ville, The Polish Jew, 261ff, Jost, Allg. Geschichte. Isr.
Volkes, II, 298ff. (Berlin, 1832), Greenstone, 227, For
the Tannaite period see Joseph Klausner, Die Messianischen
VorsteUungen des Judischen Volkes im Zeitalter der Tain-
naiten, Kralsan, 1903. (A thesis at Heidelberg,)] Even in
England the Jews heralded Sabbatai as the Messiah who
would reinstate Israel in the Holy Land. We are indebted
for this information to an entry in the diary of that versatile
gossip, Samuel Pepys, under date of February 19, 1666:
" I am told for certain," writes Pepys, " what I have heard
once or twice already, of a Jew in town, that in the name of
the rest do offer to give any man ten pounds sterling to be
paid one hundred pounds, if a certain person now at Smyrna
be not within two years owned by all the Princes of the East,
and particularly the Grand Segnor, as the King of the
world, in the same manner we do the King of England here,
and that this raan is the true Messiah. One named a friend
of his that had received ten pieces of gold upon this score,
and says that the Jew hath disposed of 1100 pounds in this
raanner, which is very strange ; and certainly this year of
1666 will be a year of great action; but what the conse
quences of it will be, God knows ! " [G. F, Abbott, op, cit,,
281.] " Jonas Salvador, the Jew of Pigueral," wrote Father
Simon from Paris in May, 1670, " has often spoken to me

64 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
about a new Messiah who Is now at Adrianople. His name,
If I recollect right, is Sabbatai Sevi ; and I have seen a Jew
ish convert to him here, who affirms that Sevi performs mira
cles. This is raere illusion. However, since this pretended
Messiah has become a Mahometan, the Turks go from all
parts of Adrianople to see him. M. Hardi has given me a
little book of prayers to be said by the Jews who go to
Adrianople to see their Messiah. This book has been printed
by the Jews of the Portuguese Synagogue at Amsterdam:
if you wish to make a pilgrimage I will make you a present
of It. However, this new Messiah cannot be any obstacle to
your views, as among your good friends, the Jews, one Mes
siah need not stand in the way of another. I ara convinced
that Sabbatai Sevi has no footing but the understanding
carried on between him and some Turkish officers, who are
happy in this opportunity of drawing money frora the over-
credulous Jews. Those who came to pay their respects to ;
the new Messiah are fleeced pretty smartly." [Gentleman's [
Magazine, Vol, 83, p, 614^6 (1813),]
Sabbatai's messiahship found a number of claimants.
First, in the person of Jacob Querido, brother of Sabbatai's
fourth wife. Later, with four hundred followers, he trans
ferred his allegiance to Islamism. The tendency toward imi
tation Is great, especially when circumstances foster it.
Upon his death, his son Berechiah, or Berokia, claimed to be
the Messiah. Next carae Miguel Cardoso (1630-1706), who
also later went over to Islam, Mordecai Mokiah, " the Re-
buker," from 1678^83, made claims to messiahship, at first
preaching that Sabbatai was the true Messiah, that his con
version to Islam was, for mystic reasons, necessary, that he
did not die, and would reveal himself within three years after
his supposed death. The persecutions of the Jews in Spain,
in Austria, in France, and the pestilence in Germany, were
pointed to as heralding the messianic era. Other Sabbatalan
followers who proclaimed their raessiahship were Lobele
Prossnitz, Isaiah Hasid, Jonathan Eybeschiitz, and, finally,
Jacob Frank ( 1726-91 ) , Jacob Frank secured a following
araong Turkish and Wallachian Jews and later went to Po-
dolia where he revealed himself as Santo senior, " Holy

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 65
Lord." He finally advised his followers to elect Christianity,
and about one thousand of them did so. [G. F. Abbott, op.
cit.] A Russian writer has given us a good account of the Sab
batalan movement among the Jews of Poland :
" The mystical and sectarian tendencies which were in
vogue among the masses of Polish Jewry were the outcome
of the Messianic raoveraent, which, originated by Sabbatai
Zevi in 1648, spread like wildfire throughout the whole Jew
ish world. The movement made a particularly deep impres
sion in Poland, where the mystical frame of mind of the
Polish-Jewish masses raade a favorable soil for it. It was
raore than a mere coincidence that one and the same year,
1648, was marked by the wholesale murder of the Jews of
the Ukraine and the first public appearance of Sabbatai Zevi
in Smyrna, The thousands of captive Jews, who in the
summer of that year had been carried to Turkey by the
Tatar allies of Khmelnitzki and ransomed there by their co
religionists, conveyed to the minds of the Oriental Jews an
appalling impression of the destruction of the great Jewish
center in Poland, There can be no doubt that the descrip
tions of this catastrophe deeply affected the impressionable
mind of Sabbatai, and prepared the soil for the success of the
propaganda he carried on during his wanderings in Turkey,
Palestine, and Egypt.
" When, in the year 1666, the whole Jewish world re
sounded with the fame of Sabbatai Zevi as the Messianic
liberator of the Jewish people, the Jews of Poland responded
with particularly keen, almost morbid sensitiveness.
" ' The Jews,' says the contemporary Ukrainian writer
Galatovski, ' triumphed. Some abandoned their houses and
property, refusing to do any work and claiming that the
Messiah would soon arrive and carry them on a cloud to
Jerusalem. Others fasted for days, denying food even to
their little ones, and during that severe winter bathed in
ice-holes, at the same time reciting a recently composed
prayer. Faint-hearted and destitute Christians, hearing the
stories of the rairacles performed by the false Messiah and
beholding the boundless arrogance of the Jews, began to

66 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
doubt Christ.'
"Frora the South, the Sabbatalan agitation penetrated
to the North, to distant White Russia. We are informed
by a contemporary monastic chronicler, that on the walls
of the churches in Moghilev on the Dneiper mysterious in
scriptions appeared proclaiming the Jewish Messiah ' Sapsai.'
" In the course of the eventful year In which the whole
Jewish world raved about the coraing of Messiah and depu
tations arrived from all over the Jewish world at the ' Castle
of Splendor,' Sabbatai's residence in Abydos, near Constan
tinople, a delegation was also despatched by the Jews of
Poland, In this delegation were included Isaiah, the son of
David Halevi, the famous rabbi of Lemberg, author of the
Taz, and the grandson of another celebrity, Joel Sirkis,
The Polish delegates were sent, as it were, on a scouting
expedition, being instructed to investigate on the spot the
correctness of the Messianic claims concerning Sabbatai Zevi.
" When, in the summer of 1666, they were presented to
Sabbatai at Abydos, they were deeply impressed by the
sight of the thousands of enthusiastic admirers who had come
from all possible countries to render homage to him. Sab
batai handed the Polish delegates this enigmatic letter, ad
dressed to the Rabbi of Lemberg :
" ' On the sixth day after the resuscitation of my spirit
and light, on the twenty-second of Tamrauz, I herewith send
a gift to the raan of faith, the venerable old raan. Rabbi
David of the house of Levi, the author of Ture Zahab —
raay he flourish in his old age In strength and freshness !
Soon will I avenge you and comfort you, even as a mother
comforteth her son, and recompence you a hundred fold ( for
the suff'erings endured by you). The day of revenge is in
ray heart, and the year of rederaption hath arrived. Thus
speaketh David, the son of Jesse, the head of all the kings of
the earth, the Messiah of the God of Jacob, the Lion of the
mountain recesses, Sabbatai Zevi.'
" The gift referred to in the letter consisted of a shirt
which Sabbatai handed over to Rabbi David's son, with the
instruction to put it on his aged and feeble father and recite
at the sarae time the words, ' May thy youth be renewed like

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 67
that of the eagle.'
" Having learned from the delegates that a Cabalistic
propagandist, by the name of Nehemiah Cohen, who pre
dicted the coming of the Messiah, had appeared in Poland,
Sabbatai added a postscript in his letter in which he asked
that this ' prophet,' being the forerunner of the Messiah,
be sent to him speedily. The omniscient Messiah failed to
foresee that this Invitation spelled ruin for him. It is gen
erally conceded that the interview between Neheraiah, the
Cabalistic fanatic, and Sabbatai was one of the causes that
accelerated the downfall of the Messiah. After a Cabalistic
arguraent with Sabbatai, which lasted three days, Neheraiah
refused to acknowledge him as the expected Messiah. While
In Adrianople he revealed Sabbatai's plans to the Turkish
authorities, and this led to the arrest of the pseudo-Messiah
and his feigned conversion to Islam.
" The news of the hideous desertion of Judaisra by the
redeemer of the Jewish people was slow In reaching the Jews
of Poland, and when it did reach them, only a part of his
adherents felt it their duty to abandon him. The more
credulous rank and file remained steadfast in their loyalty,
hoping for further miracles, to be performed by the mysteri
ous savior of Judaism, who had ' put on the turban ' tem
porarily in order to gain the confidence of the Sultan and
afterwards to dethrone him. When Sabbatai died, Poland
witnessed the same transformation of political into mystical
Messianism which was taking place at the time in Western
Europe. " The proximity to Turkey and to the city of Saloniki,
the headquarters of the Sabbatalan sect, lent particular in
tensity to the sectarian movement in Poland, foraenting a
spiritual agitation in the Jewish raasses from the end of the
seventeenth down to the end of the eighteenth century. The
main center of the movement came to be in Podolia, part of
which had been annexed by Turkey, after the Polish-Turkish
War of 1672, and was returned to Poland only in 1699 by
the peace treaty of Carlowitz.
" The agitators and originators of these sects were re
cruited partly from the obscure masses, partly from among

68 Messiahs: Christian, and Pagan
the Cabalists whose minds were befogged. At the end of
the seventeenth century, a Lithuanian Jew by the name of
Zadok, a plain, ignorant man, who had been an innkeeper,
began to prophesy that the Messiah would appear in 1695.
About the same time a more serious propagandist of the
Messianic idea appeared in the person of the Cabalist Hay-
yim Malakh. Having resided in Turkey, where he had been
in contact with the Sabbatalan circle in Saloniki, Malakh
returned to Poland and began to muddle the heads of the
Jews. He secretly preached that Sabbatai Zevi was the
Messiah, and that, like Moses, who had kept the Israelites
in the desert for forty years before bringing them to the
borders of the Promised Land, he would rise from the dead
and redeem the Jewish people in 1706, forty years after his
conversion. " Malakh's propaganda proved successful, partly among
the ignorant masses of Podolia and Galicia. Malakh was
soon joined by another agitator, Judah Hasid, from Shldlo-
vltz or Shedletz. Having studied Practical Cabala in Italy,
Judah Hasid returned to his native land and began to initiate
the studious Polish youths into this hidden wisdom. The cir
cle of his pupils and adherents grew larger and larger, and
became consolidated in a special sect, which called itself ' the
Pious,' or Hasidim. The merabers of this sect engaged in
ascetic exercises ; in anticipation of the Messiah, they made
public confession of their sins and inserted mystical prayers
in their liturgy. Hayyim Malakh joined the circle of Judah
Hasid, and brought over to it his Sabbatalan followers.
The number of ' the Pious ' grew so large that the Orthodox
rabbis became alarmed and began to persecute them. Under
the effect of these persecutions the leaders of the sect started
a propaganda for a mass-eralgration to Palestine, there to
welcome in triumph the approaching Messiah.
" Many Jews were carried away by this propaganda. In
the beginning of 1700, a troop of one hundred and twenty
pilgrims started on their way, under the joint leadership of
Judah Hasid and Hayyira Malakh. The emigrants travelled
in groups, by way of Germany, Austria, and Italy, stopping
in various cities, where their leaders, dressed, after the man-

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 69
ner of penitent sinners, in white shrouds, delivered fiery
exhortations, in which they announced the speedy arrival of
the Messiah. The lower classes and the women were par
ticularly impressed by the speeches of the rigorously ascetic
Judah Hasid. On the road the Polish wanderers were joined
by other groups of Jews desirous of visiting the Holy Land,
so that the number of the travellers reached 1300 souls.
One party of emigrants, led by Hayyim Malakh, was des
patched, with the help of charitable Jews of Vienna, from
that city to Constantinople, Another party, headed by
Judah Hasid, travelled to Palestine by way of Venice,
" After much suffering and many losses on their journey,
during which several hundred died or remained behind, one
thousand reached Jerusalera, On arriving at their destina
tion the newcomers experienced severe disappointment. One
of the leaders, Judah Hasid, died shortly after their arrival
in the Holy City. His adherents were cooped up in some
courtyard, and depended on the gifts of charitable Jews.
The destitute inhabitants of Jerusalem, themselves living on
the charity of their European brethren, were not in a posi
tion to support the pilgrims, who soon found themselves
without means of subsistence. Disillusioned and discouraged,
the sectarians rapidly dispersed in all directions. Some
joined the ranks of the Turkish Sabbataians, who posed as
Mohammedans. Others returned to Western Europe and
Poland, mystifying credulous people with all kinds of wild
tales. Still others in their despair let themselves be per
suaded by German missionaries to embrace Christianity.
Hayyim Malakh, the second leader of the pilgrims, remained
in Jerusalem for sorae time with a handful of his adherents.
In this circle symbolic services, patterned after the ritual
of the Sabbataians, were secretly held, and, as rumor had it,
the sectarians perforraed dances before a wooden Iraage of
Sabbatai Zevi, Having been forced to leave Jerusalem, the
dangerous heretic travelled about in Turkey, where he main
tained relations with sectarian circles. After being banished
from Constantinople by the rabbis, Hayyim Malakh returned
to his native country, and renewed his propaganda in Podolia
and Galicia, He died about 1720."

70 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
But Sabbataianism was not yet dead,
"The ill success of the 'Hasidim' failed to check the
spread of sectarianism in Poland, In Galicia and Podolia,
the conventicles of ' Secret Sabbataians,' dubbed by the
people ' Shabsitzvinnikes ' (from the name of Sabbatai Zevi)
or, in abbreviated form, ' Shebsen,' continued as before.
These Sabbataians neglected many ceremonies, among them
the fast of the Ninth of Ab, which, because of its being the
birthday of Sabbatai, had been transformed by them from
a day of mourning into a festival. Their cult contained ele
ments both of asceticism and libertinisra. While sorae gave
theraselves over to repentance, self-torture, and mourning
for Zion, others Indulged In debaucheries and excesses of all
kinds. Alarmed by this dangerous heresy, the rabbis at last
resorted to energetic measures. In the summer of 1722, a
number of rabbis, coming from various communities, assem
bled in Lemberg, and, with solemn ceremonies, proclaimed
the harem (excomraunication) against all Sabbataians who
should fail to renounce their errors and return to the path
of Orthodoxy within a given time.
" The measure was partly successful. Many sectarians
publicly confessed their sins, and submitted to severe
penances. In most cases, however, the ' Shebsen ' clung
stubbornly to their heresy, and in 1725 the rabbis were forced
to launch a second harem against them. By the new act of
excommunication every Orthodox Jew was called upon to
report to the rabbinical authorities all the secret sectarians
known to him. The act of excommunication was sent out to
many coraraunities, and publicly recited in the synagogues.
But even these persecutions failed to wipe out the heresy.
Secret Sabbataianisra continued to linger in the nooks and
corners of Podolia and Galicia, and finally degenerated into
the dangerous raovement known as Frankism." [S. M.
Dubnow, History of the Jews in. Russia and Poland from the
Earliest Times to the Present Day, I, 204-11. Philadelphia,
1916. Translated frora the Russian by I. Friedlander.]
The belief in Sabbatai has been retained to this day by a
sect of Turkish Jews, the Donraeh, who await expectantly
his second coming. [Judaism, Hastings' E.R.E., VII, 605.

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 71
Donmeh, Jewish Ency., IV, 639. J. H. Allen, op. cit., 424.
E. W. Latimer, Europe in Africa in the Nineteenth Century
(Chicago, 1896), p. 77.]
" Jacob Frank was born in 1726 in a town of Podolia.
His father Judah Leib belonged to the lower Jewish clergy,
among whom all kinds of perverted mystical notions were
particularly in vogue. Judah Leib fell under suspicion as
an adherent of Sabbataianisra, and was expelled frora the
community, which he had served as rabbi or preacher. He
settled in Wallachia, where little Jacob grew up in an atmos
phere filled with mystic and Messianic fancies and marked
by superstition and raoral laxity. From his early youth he
showed repugnance to study, and reraained, as he later called
himself, an ignoramus. While living with his parents in
Wallachia, he first served as clerk In a shop, and afterwards
became a travelling salesman, peddling jewelry and notions
through the towns and villages. Occasionally young Jacob
travelled with his goods to adjoining Turkey, where he lived
for some time in Saloniki and Smyrna, the centers of the
Sabbatalan sect. Here, it seems, Jacob received his nick
name Frank, or Frenk, a designation applied [since the
Crusades] to all Europeans. Between 1762 and 1755 he
lived alternately in Smyrna and Saloniki, and came into con
tact with the Sabbataians, participating in their symbolic,
semi-Mohammedan cult. It was then and there that Jacob
Frank was struck with the idea of returning to Poland and
playing the role of prophet and leader araong the local
secret Sabbataians, who were oppressed and disorganized.
Selfish ambition and the spirit of adventure rather than mys
tical enthusiasm pushed hira in that direction.
" In 1755 Frank made his appearance in Podolia and,
joining hands with the leaders of the local ' Shebsen,' began
to Initiate them into the doctrines he had imported from
Turkey. The sectarians arranged secret meetings, at
which the religious mysteries centering around the Sab
batalan ' Trinity ' (God, the Messiah, and a female hypos
tasis of God, the Shekhinah) were enunciated. Frank was
evidently regarded as the second person of the Trinity and
as a reincarnation of Sabbatai Zevi, being designated as

72 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
S.S., i. e., Santo Seriior, * the Holy Lord.' One of these as
semblies ended in a scandal, and turned the attention of the
rabbis to this new agitation.
" During the fair held in Lantzkorona, Frank and two
score of his followers, consisting of raen and woraen, had as
sembled in an inn to hold their mystical services. They sang
their hymns, exciting themselves to the point of ecstasy by
merrymaking and dancing. Inquisitive outsiders managed
to catch a glimpse of the assembly, and afterwards related
that the sectarians danced around a nude woman, who raay
possibly have represented the Shekhinah, or Matronitha, the
third person of the Trinity. The Orthodox Jews on the
market-place, who were not used to such orgies, were pro
foundly disgusted by the conduct of the sectarians. They
informed the local Polish authorities that a Turkish subject
was exciting the people and propagating a new religion.
The gay company was arrested, Frank, being a foreigner,
was banished to Turkey, and his followers were delivered into
the hands of the rabbis and the Kahal authorities (1766)."
[Dubnow, I, 211-20,]
Later the followers of Frank summoned him from Turkey.
" The latter iraraediately appeared in Podolia with a new
plan, which, he hoped, would at once rid him and his ad
herents of all opponents. In the discourses delivered before
his followers Frank dwelt a great deal on his exalted mis
sion and on the divine revelations which commanded him to
follow in the footsteps of Sabbatai Zevi. Just as Sabbatai
had been compelled to embrace the Mohammedan faith tem
porarily, so he and his adherents were predestined from above
to adopt the Christian religion as a mere disguise and as a
stepping stone to the ' faith of the true Messiah.' Filled
with thirst for revenge, the sectarians hit upon the thought
of lending the weight of their testimony to the hideous ritual
murder accusation, which was agitating the whole of Poland
at that time, claiming many a victim in the Jewish ranks,"
[Frank, Jacob, in Cyclopedia of Bibl,, Theol., and Eccles.
Literature.] About 1760, Besht, another Polish Jew, inspired no doubt
by the Frankish movement, heralded anew the coming of the

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 73
Messiah. To his brother-in-law, Kutover, living in the Holy
Land, he sent a prophetic manifesto telling of his miraculous
vision, or revelation. He herein asserted that on the day
of the Jewish New Year, " his soul had been lifted up to
heaven, where he beheld the Messiah and many souls of the
dead. In reply to the petitions of Besht, ' Let me know, my
Master, when thou wilt appear on earth,' the Messiah said:
" ' This shall be a sign unto thee : when thy doctrine shall
become known, and the fountains of thy wisdora shall be
poured forth, when all other men shall have the power of
perforraing the sarae raysteries as thyself, then shall disap
pear aU the hosts of impurity, and the time of great favor
and salvation shall arrive.'
" Revelations of this kind were greatly in vogue at the
time, and had a profound effect upon mystically inclined
minds. The notion spread that Besht was in contact with
the prophet Elijah, and that his ' teacher' was the Biblical
seer Ahijah of Shilo. As far as the coramon people were
concerned, they believed in Besht as a miracle-worker, and
loved him as a religious teacher who raade no distinction be
tween the educated and the ordinary Jew. The scholars and
the Cabalists were fascinated by his wise discourses and para
bles, in which the most abstract tenets of the Cabala were
concretely illustrated, reduced to popular language, and ap
plied to the experiences of everyday life. Besht's circle in
Madzhlbozh grew constantly in number. Shortly before his
death, Besht witnessed the agitation conducted by the Frank-
ists in Podolia and their subsequent wholesale baptism. The
Polish rabbis rejoiced in the conversion of the sectarians to
Christianity, since it rid the Jewish people of dangerous
heretics. But when Besht learned of the fact he exclairaed:
' I heard the Lord cry and say : As long as the diseased limb
is joined to the body, there is hope that it may be cured in
time ; but when it has been cut off, it is lost forever.' There
is reason to believe that Besht was one of the rabbis who had
been invited to participate in the Frankist disputation in
Leraberg, in 1769. In the spring of the following year,
Besht breathed his last, surrounded by his disciples."
[Dubnow, I, 228-9,]

74 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
A Messiah by the name of Mordecai, who appeared in
Germany in the year 1682 had a considerable following.
When the imposture was discovered he was corapelled to flee
to Poland to save his life, and nothing further has been re
corded about him.
The Molokane, the Russian Sabbatarians, expect the com
ing of the Messiah, since the promises of the Prophets remain
unfulfilled, Jesus being not a Messiah but merely a great
prophet. The coming Messiah will not be a King and Con
queror, but a great philosopher and moral teacher, who
will reveal to mankind the greatest truths, scatter the Mosaic
creed over the entire world, and thus establish the reign of
universal happiness on earth,
" The rites and worship of the Sabbatarians of Russia
proper," declares Stepniak, " contain nothing Jewish, On
Saturdays they assemble in their houses of prayer, where
their elders or teachers deliver a sermon, which is interrupted
from tirae to tirae by the sacred songs of the congregation.
The Sabbatarians hold these meetings In great secrecy, and
also, as a rule, conceal their affiliation to the sect. The
criminal code, which still punishes conversion to Judaism
with deportation and hard labor, and the easily aroused
aversion of the surrounding Christian peasantry, are suf
ficient grounds for this, A lady friend of mine, a Socialist,
who lived among the Molokane peasantry for the sake of
propagandisra, was once invited by her hostess, a Sabba
tarian, to one of their secret meetings, when a famous wan
dering preacher of the sect was expected to speak. She
was instructed not to speak to anybody, and not to answer
any questions. On entering the house they had to give the
pass-word. " As to the service, it was very unlike that of the Russian
Jews. The small congregation was seated in rows on wooden
benches on one side of the roora. Opposite there was an open
space, on which stood the preacher, in silent prayer, clad in
a sort of black raantle, with an open Bible before him.
When all were assembled and the doors shut, he delivered a
prayer animated by the broad Deistic spirit of the Jews, and
then began to address the audience. He spoke of God, the

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 75
soul, penitence, and salvation in the same Unitarian spirit,
appealing with great power to the emotions of his hearers.
After a very pathetic allocution, he fell to the ground, as
if overwhelmed by the vehemence of his feelings.
" The Sabbatarian colony in the Caucasus, where they
were deported in Nicholas I's time, have developed into a
sect much more nearly allied to Judaism than that of their
Russian coreligionists. They accept the Talraud, and they
expect the Messiah in the guise of a king and conqueror, who
is to appear at the close of the seven thousandth year, dating
frora the creation of the world (Mosaic style). They follow
the Jewish ritual in the marriage cereraony and the burial
service, and permit divorce ; and they use the Jewish prayers
in a Russian translation.
" Among the Caucasian Sabbatarians we meet with an
other curious subdivision of the sect - — the so-caUed Herrs,
who are as completely Judaised as is possible to any of their
nationality. They elect a born Jew as rabbi, and they pray
in the Jewish language, which they try to learn. The num
ber of these Russian moujiks who strive for the sake of their
creed to become Jews is small — about one thousand —
one-fifth of the whole body of Sabbatarians. None of the
branches of this sect give any sign of great vitality. They
do not increase, and they have no influence on the popular
movements among the masses. They are shunned, and in
their tum shun the people." [Stepniak, The Russian Peas
antry, 326-9, New York, 1888,]
In 1806 Napoleon assembled in Paris the " Jewish Parlia
ment " which raised apprehension among the sovereigns of
those countries which had cause to fear the machinations of
the Eraperor, A circular frora the Russian Holy Synod,
sent to the Greek Orthodox clergy, declared that " he now
planneth to unite the Jews, whom the wrath of the Alraighty
hath scattered over the face of the whole earth, so as to
Incite them to overthrow the Christian Church and proclaim
the pseudo-Messiah in the person of Napoleon," " By these
devices," says Dubnow, " the Government, finding itself at
its wits' end in the face of a great war, shrewdly atterapted
to frighten at once the Jewish people by the specter of an

76 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
anti-Jewish Napoleon and the Orthodox Russians by Napo
leon's leaning toward Judaism, The former were made to
believe that the Sanhedrian was directed against the Jewish
religion, and the latter were told that it was established by
the Jewish ' pseudo-Messiah ' for the overthrow of Christi
anity." [Dubnow, I, 348-9.]
The Fremdenblatt of August, 1872, describes a Messiah
who appeared in Berlin in the last half of the nineteenth
century. He told the congregation to announce that the
commemoration day of the fall of Jerusalem was no longer
to be observed, for the King of Israel had come and was
about to assume the throne as a veritable Messiah.
At about the sarae tirae another Messiah was operating in
Yemen. He distinguished himself as a worker of miracles
and in this way attracted the attention of the Bedouins.
They were blessed with an increase of flocks. His reputa
tion spread far and wide. Later, however, raisfortune came
upon the flocks of the worshipping Arabs, whereupon their
allegiance turned to opposition, and he was forced to flee for
his life. He took refuge in a cave. The Arabs, remember
ing that he was a Jew, asserted that he was the Messiah,
His Jewish countryraen expected him to crush the Arabs and
lead them to the Holy Land, He accepted the character at
tributed to him by his followers, receiving many presents and
living in princely style until some Arabs waylaid and mur
dered him, thus proving his vulnerability and the falsity of
his claims, Ari Shocher, as he was called, is not considered
dead; he appeared in another form In the neighborhood of
Sana, proclairalng that at a later tirae he would reappear
in his forraer shape. The government took steps to seize
this reappearance, which immediately disappeared and has
not been seen since.
At Nablous, the modern Shechem, at the foot of the sacred
raountain Gerizira, there lives a sect of Saraaritans, small and
almost forgotten, among whom the messianic hope still bums
with undiminished vigor. Through them the hope of gener
ation upon generation voices the expectation of a Messiah
still to come. This hope they base on Old Testament inter
pretation, but largely on other passages than those used by

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 77
Christians. They posit no less than ten " proofs " of his coming.
Among these are the promise given to Abrahara ; the advices
of Jacob to his sons ; the miracles performed by Moses ; a
part of the parable of Balaam : " A star shall come out of
Jacob and a rod shall rise out of Israel " ; the disasters that
will befall the eneraies of Israel ; the subsequent purification
and rectification of the nation,
" As to the appearance and coming of the lord Christ,
recorded in our chronicles," says Jacob, Son of Aaron, High
Priest of the Samaritans, " we regard its validity not from
the viewpoint of our law, but as a matter of history. As to
the Messiah, with whose coming we are promised, there are
proofs and demonstrations in regard to his coming. As our
learned men have explained in their voluminous commen
taries, he wfll rise and perform miracles and demonstrations ;
he will uphold religion and justice. Among other proofs he
wfll produce the following three :
" 1. The production of the ark of testimony, which is the
greatest attestation of Israel. For Deut. xxxi. 19, says:
' It shall be there for thee a witness.'
" 2. He will produce at his hand, the staff which was
given by the Creator (who is exalted) to our lord Moses
(upon him be peace), about whose attribute a reference is
made as follows : ' And this shall be to thee as a sign,' in
order that miracles be performed thereby.
" 3. He must produce the omer of manna which our fa
thers ate, while in the wilderness, for forty years. This is
the greatest proof, because, after all this period, it will be
found not to have undergone the slightest change. When
our ancestors, in the days when manna used to fall, would
keep some of it till the morrow, it would become rotten and
wormy. Therefore, it would be a proof none could deny if
it should appear after this long interval, and remain in its
sound state. Thus the people of the second kingdom might
see it, and confess reverently and increase in exalting and
glorifying the Creator (who is exalted), for the power of
producing such a marvel.
" These three proofs must be verified by the Prophet ; and

78 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
without them his claim would be considered illegal. No mat
ter could ever be sustained unless with two or three testi
monies, in accordance with the saying of the holy Law:
' Upon the testimony of two or three witnesses a matter is
sustained,' Without such proof he has no standing."
" There is," says the High Priest, " nothing in prophecy
to say whether he will be of the priestly line or not. Some
of our learned men say he will corae frora the children of
Aaron, and be a priest. Others say that he will be of the
children of Joseph, and ' like unto his brethren,' My own
private opinion is that he will be of the children of Joseph,
" The Messiah will be a prophet, and will be acknowledged
as a prophet. That will be his title, as the prophecies give
it. But he will also be a king,
" The Messiah will not be in any sense a Son of God, He
will be a prophet like Moses and like his brethren, as is told
in Deut, xviii, 15-22,
" The Messiah wfll be a prophet, as I have told you, and
will no doubt work signs to prove his mission. There will
be unusual signs and wonders. But he is to be a king and
rule the earth from Shechem, the ancient seat of power, and
frora his holy mountain, Gerizim, He will call all the world
to acknowledge hira, and they will do so. He will bring
blessings to all nations that acknowledge him," [The Messi
anic Hope of the Samaritans. By Jacob, Son of Aaron,
High Priest of the Saraaritans, Translated from the Arabic
by Abdullah Ben Kori, Edited with an introduction by Wil
liam Eleazar Barton, Reprinted from the Open Court,
May and September, 1907,]
Thus in the remotest parts of Judaism the messianic faith
still flourishes. Even the Isolated and almost submerged
comraunlty of Falashas, the so-called Jews of Abyssinia,
vaguely expect the Messiah and look forward to the re
building of Jerusalem. [Agaos, in Hastings' E.R.E., I,
165.] There are many distant echoes of the Eighteen Benedic
tions of the Targum, that Aramaic paraphrase of the Old
Testament, used in the synagogues of Palestine and Baby
lonia, containing prayers for the rebuilding of Jerusalem

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 79
and for the near advent of the Messiah and the Resurrection.
[Judaism, in Hastings' E.R.E., VII, 696.]
The Conditions that have Fostered Jewish Messianic Faith
How shall we explain this constant recurrence of the mes
sianic idea in Jewish history ? Its ultimate explanation will,
of course, not be forthcoming. Yet it is germane to point
out that Israel is otherwise peculiar. No other people have
shown such racial and religious persistence under the severest
trials of poverty, dissemination and social contempt. No
other people has shown such persistent and out-vying faith
in its destiny, no other such unwavering fidelity to religious
law. The messianic peculiarity is not unrelated to these
other peculiarities, but rather a counterpart, their supple
ment and directly dependent upon them. " If in physiologi
cal experiments we cut the connection between brain and
heart, we have to arrange for artificial breathing or the
functions of life cease ; this the priestly founders of religion
did by the introduction of the Messianic kingdom of the
future." [H. S. Chamberlain, Foundations of the Nine
teenth Century, I, 477-8-3. 1913.]
Israel seems, both unitedly and severally, to have realized
the importance of this hope. " The magnificent picture of
the future kingdom, the glorious position of Israel, the venge
ance the Messiah would wreak upon all Israel's enemies, and
the vision of the restored Jerusalem and the rebuilt Temple,
were a constant consolation to the oppressed and downtrod
den Israelites. They fondled the hope with intense affection,
the mother sang it to her babe, the father on all occasions
related it to his household, the teacher impressed it upon the
minds and hearts of his pupils — all were invigorated by the
assurance to suffer and hope, to withstand the onslaughts of
the enemy, and remain faithfifl to their religion. The feel
ing of the ancient Jew towards his persecutor was not sO'
much one of hatred and revenge as of sneering pity."
[Greenstone, 112-3.]
It is still true that, " die messianlsche Idee betrifft einem
der Zentralen der jiidische Lehre." [I. Elbogen, in Judaica

80 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
(Berlin, 1912).] In his Dreamers of the Ghetto Israel
Zangwfll has shown us the pathetic tragedy of a dream still
stirring at the heart of the mummied race, of a fire quenched
two thousand years ago stfll slumbering In the ashes, flaming
out here and there in fitful, hopeless, and apparently endless
atterapts to enkindle the hearts of the faithful with new mes
sianic faith. Prayers for the coming of a personal Messiah
have in recent years been abolished or modified by liberal
Jews and the messianic hope interpreted as the spiritual re
generation of the Jews.- [Phflipson, Reform Movement in
Judaism, 46, 105, 113', 176, 470. Israel Cohen, Jexmsh Life
in Modern Times, 278, 286^7, New York, 1914,] But, al
though Reformed Judaism has relinquished hope of the per
sonal Messiah, Rabbinical Judaism still holds fast to this
hope, [lb,, 8, 115, 117, 163, 168, 181, 246ff., 328, 331, 470,
472, 492,] Many Reformed Jews who have surrendered this
belief have given it up reluctantly, and often only half
heartedly, reinterpreting it in terms of national or religious
regeneration. Thus, one of these eminent Jews, Morris
Joseph, who discountenances the messianic belief, assures us
that " even the word ' Messiah ' as used in the Hebrew Bible,
has not that half-supernatural significance which it has come
to possess. It means only the ' anointed one,' and was ap
plied to ordinary Israelitish kings like Saul and David and
Zedekiah, and even to a foreign potentate like Cyrus, In like
manner passages which, according to some interpl-eters,
speak of a Golden Age yet to come, were meant only to por
tray in highly figurative language a happy state of things
that was inaugurated and came to an end long ago." But
the renunciation is rauch tempered by a hasty assurance
that, " it does not necessarily follow, however, that the be
lief in a Messiah or in the Restoration of the Jewish State is
a delusion. . . . Among oppressed Jewish communities, such
as those of Russia and the East, the belief in the national
revival of Israel is a powerful solace and support under
galling persecutions. Who would wilfully seal up the springs
of so much blessing? Who would dare to tell these compa
nies of sorrowing, trusting souls that heir hope is vain, their
faith a chimera? No one can say what the future has in

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 81
store for us. It may possibly be God's wfll that Israel is
once more to enjoy political independence, and be settled in
his own land under his own rulers. Nay, it would be rash
to declare positively that even the prophets could not have
had this far-off event in their minds when they dreamt of the
future. If, then, we meet with Jews who believe in the Re
turn, in national revival, in a personal Messiah, let no one
venture to say dogmatically that they are wrong," [Juda
ism in Creed and Life, 169^70 (London, 1903) ; Robertson,
The Early Religion of Israel (New York, 2nd ed,, 1892),
116, 499, also seem to admit that the earliest messianic ex
pectation referred rather vaguely merely to the " day of
Jahaveh " (Amos v, 18-20), and " a good time coming."]
As another liberal Jew has phrased it, " Liberal Judaism has
always tended to a firra grasp of Messianism, in the form of
a behef in the perfectlbflity of human nature, of a steady
advance toward that end, and of the ultimate conversion of
the world to monotheism, and the establishment of the uni
versal Kingdora of God," [Liberal Judaisra, by I, Abrahara,
in Hastings' E.R.E,, VII, 901, and Judaism, lb., esp, p. 608,
Israel, lb,, 456.]
There can be little doubt that since its earliest promulga
tion the messianic hope has been shot through with political
aspirations. This political-social stimulus has been a thread
of continuity from the inception of messianic faith to its very
latest manifestations, [W. Staerk, Neutestamentliche Zeit-
geschichte, II, 85ff. G. F, Abbott, Israel in Europe, Ch, 24
et passim. Paul Cams, The Pleroma: An Essay on the Ori
gin of Christianity, 21, 43, 61 (1909). Geo. P, Fisher, The
Beginnings of Christianity with a View of the State of the
Roman World at the Birth of Christ, 8-10, 228, 248-57, 26,
370-5, 416-20. New York, 1911, Carl Clemens, Primitive
Christianity and Its Non-Jermsh Sources, 190-99, 232, 294,
298, 300-17, 346, 363-8, 139-59, 337-40, 292, 166, 243,
173, Edinburgh, 1912 (translated by R, G, Nisbet). His
tory of All Nations Series, II, 225,]
The Jewish Messiah has been, throughout, the product of
oppression and the apostle of hope. As Jehudah Halevi
sings, in his Song of the Oppressed :

82 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Men have despised me, knowing not that shame
For Thy Name's glory is my glorious pride,
Wounded and crushed, beneath my load I sigh,
Despised and abject, outcast, trampled low,
How long, O Lord, shall I of violence cry ?
My heart dissolve with woe?
How many tears without a gleam of light.
Has thraldom been our lot, our portion pain!
With Ishmael as a lion in his might,
And Persia as an owl of darksome night.
Beset on either side, behold our plight
Betwixt the twain.
Wherefore wilt Thou forget us. Lord, for aye?
Mercy we crave !
O Lord, we hope in Thee alway.
Our King will save!
Is this Thy voice?
The voice of captive Ariel's woe unhealed?
Virgin of Israel, arise, rej oice !
In Daniel's vision, lo, the end is sealed:
When Michael on the height
Shall stand aloft in strength.
And shout aloud in might,
And a Redeemer come to Zion at length.
Amen, amen, behold
The Lord's decree foretold
E'en as Thou hast our souls afflicted sore.
So wilt Thou make us glad f orevermore !
Wherefore wilt Thou forget us, Lord, for aye?
Mercy we crave !
O Lord, we hope in Thee alway.
Our King will save !
[Solomon Ibu Gabiral's Song of Redemption; a poet, gram
marian and philosopher, bom in Spain in 1021. Translated
by Nina Davis, Songs of ExRe by Hebrew Poets. Philadel
phia, 1901.]
Both Isaiah and the author of Micah had given reason
to expect that the Messianic era would be inaugurated imme-

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 83
diately after the deliverance of Jerusalem (In 701 b. c.)
and that it would herald the overthrow of the power of
Assyria, [C. F. Kent, Hist, of Hebrew People, N. Y., 1914,
153—9. Kent is echoing the thought J. Wellhausen, History
of Israel, p. 414ff., Edinburgh, 1885.] In the phrase of
Wellhausen, the Prophet sat close to the helm of the vessel
of state and took a very real part in directing the course of
that vessel. [Hist, of Israel and Judah, 108ff. London,
1891, The same view is expressed by H, H, Milman, Hist.
of the Jews, I, 417, 469, New York, 1875,]
It is certainly fruitless to deny the persistence, even to
the present, of this messianic hope In Judaism, The false
messiahs that have appeared from time to time — and at no
long interval — through the centuries after Christ seera
rather to have kept alive this belief than to have submerged
it in that discredit into which, to an outsider, they might
seem to have brought it, " The disappointment in each par
ticular case raight break the spirit and confound the faith of
the immediate followers of the pretender, but it kept the
whole nation incessantly on the watch. The Messiah was
ever present to the thoughts and to the visions of the Jews :
their prosperity seemed the harbinger of his coming; their
darkest calamities gathered around thera only to display,
with the force of a stronger contrast, the mercy of their
God and the glory of their Redeemer. In vain the Rab
binical interdict repressed the dangerous curiosity which,
stfll baffled, would seek to penetrate the secrets of futurity.
' Cursed is he who calculates the tirae of the Messiah's com
ing,' was constantly repeated in the synagogue, but as con
stantly disregarded. That chord in the national feeling was
never struck but it seemed to vibrate through the whole com
munity." [H. H. Milman, op, cit,. III, 366.]
Without some such hope of national revival what hope is
there for a dispersed race? [See on this point, G. F, Ab
bott, Israel in Europe, XIX, 39, 85, 89, 212-13,] Through
the centuries, and especially in the Ghetto, " The Feast of
Tabernacles year after year rekindled their gratitude for the
miraculous preservation in the wilderness. The Feast of
Dedication reminded them of their deliverance from the

84 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Hellenic yoke. On the Passover Eve was read the Seder,
most ancient of house services, and round the festive board
were then gathered the shades of gifted men of old who had
sung the glories of Israel, and of the brave raen who had
suffered for the faith of Israel. Then was retold for the
thousandth tirae, with tears and with laughter, to the accom
paniment of song and wine, the tale of their ancestors' de
parture from Egypt. At the end of the meal the door was
opened and a wine cup was left upon the table. This was
done for the reception of Elijah, the harbinger of the ex
pected Messiah. In this and like domestic rites the memory
of the past was annually revived, and, if its splendor made
the sordid present look more sordid still, it also kept alive
the hope of redemption. The magic carpet of faith, that
priceless heirloom of Israel, transported the inmates of the
Ghetto out of their noisome surroundings far away to the
radiant realms of Zion." The Messianic Utopia never was
more real to the Jews than at the periods of greatest oppres
sion such as we find, for example, in the seventeenth century.
During these troublous years, " from a favourite dream it
grew into a permanent desire. It was firmly held that the
Redeemer would soon come in His glory and might; would
gather His people from the four comers of the earth, would
slay their foes, would restore the Temple of Jerusalem, and
would compel the nations to acknowledge the Majesty of
the God of the Jews." [See the chapters on the Ghetto and
on Zionism in G, F, Abbott, Israel in Europe. BaskervIUe,
The Polish Jew, 253, New York, 1906, Leroy-Beaulieu,
Israel Among the Nations, 70, 203-4, 293-9, 370. The
political forces inherent in new religions or religious move
ments has been recognized by B. K. Sarkar, in his Science of
History and Hope of Mankind. London, 1912.]
The messianic ideal, like a pillar of fire, has guided the
Jews through the long nights of despair, and, like a veritable
will-o'-the-wisp, has faded with the dawn of better times, and
vanished in the garish light of freedom and prosperity. Yet
still the stream of these messianic aspirations flows on, hid
den in prosperity, coming to the surface in times of oppres
sion, with a continuity that has remained unbroken from the

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 85
tirae of Jereraiah unto the present day. The average Jewish
lad in Russia looks forward to the coming of the Messiah as
confidently as he anticipates the return of the father to the
household. Even in America, the orthodox Jew still antici
pates this personal Messiah. During the Passover cele
bration held in every Jewish household, the door, at a certain
part of the ritual, is thrown open that the Messiah, if he
be at the threshold, may enter and not be kept waiting, and
a glass of wine is placed aside for Elijah, the forerunner
of the Messiah. [Israel Cohen, op. cit., 67.] In the weekly
prayers at the Sjmagogue his coming and protection is de
voutly besought. The Haggadic Midrashim closes with
verses of encouragement, prophesying the redemption of
Israel and the advent of the Messianic era, while the twelfth
article of the present Jewish creed, as drawn up by Maimoni
des, states : " I believe with perfect faith in the coraing of
the Messiah, and though he tarry I wfll wait for his coming,"
The ancient Jewish community in Kai-Fung-Fu, China,
finally fell into such religious destitution and decay that even
the expectation of a Messiah seems to have been entirely lost.
But this was when no member of the comraunlty could read
its scrolls, and only one of them, a woman of raore than
seventy years, had any recollection of the tenets of their
faith, [Cf, the article by David Kaufmann in the Jewish
Quarterly Review, Vol. 10; articles on Messiah, in J. Ham
burger's Real-Encyclopadie fiir Bibel und Talmud, AbteU.,
I, 745-50, II, 735-79, Leipzig, 1883; lb., Supplem., II, 76-
93. Leipzig, 1891. B. F. Wescott, An Introduction to the
Study of the Gospels, 92-164, London, 1881. Paul Wend-
land. Die Hellenistisch-Romische Kultur. Tiibingen, 1907 ;
lb.. Die Urchristlichen Literaturformen. Tiibingen, 1912.
Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, art. Messias, Vol.
IV. Tubingen, 1913, W, Baldensperger, Die Messianisch-
Apokalyptischen Hofnungen des Judentums. Strassburg,
1903, Dalman, The Words of Jesus, 234^324. A, Haus-
rath, A History of the New Testament Times, I, 191-204,
London, 1878, The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopaedia of
Religious Knowledge, VII, 323—9, Oeuxfres diverses de Mr.
Pierre Bayle. By La Haye, I, 156, Amsterdam, 1727.

86 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Midrash and Midrashic Literature in Hastings' E.R.E.,
VIII, 626. China (Jews in), lb.. Ill, 668. Ages of the
World (Jewish, Christian, Greek, and Roman), lb., I, 190-
205. Judaism, lb., VII, 596.]
The Talmud has done much to keep alive this faith in
Judaism by constant reference to the Messiah and by pic
turing the conditions that betokened his coming :
" The generation that will bring the Messiah will consist
of but few learned raen. As to those few, their eyes will
waste because of their grief and sighing over the many sor
rows that will overtake them. There will be new mandares
daily pregnant with evil; before the effects of the one have
gone, another wifl come. The seven years preceding the
Messiah's coraing will be marked by great untoward events,
and at the end of the seventh year Messiah will make his
appearance. Although the untoward events have happened
before and Messiah did not come, it must be remembered
that they have not yet happened in the order and in the
succession described. Again, at his coming the very schools
where the Torah was taught will become houses of ill fame,
the large cities will become desolate, and those who taught
others religion will themselves become notorious sinners.
The dweUers of Palestine will become fugitives, will wander
from place to place without exciting pity. Men of learning
and piety will be despised : men of distinction will be looked
upon as dogs, and there will be a total absence of truth.
The young wfll abuse the old and the grey-headed wfll rise
for the young, and give them every honor. The daughter
will rise against her own mother and the son will be shame
less in the presence of his father. Even those known as the
most honoured and the most honourable will be full of duplic
ity. Whflst there will be abundant wine harvests, there wfll
be a very great rise in the price of wine owing to the huge
consumption, as drinking wifl go on to an alarming extent.
Scepticism wifl be the order of the day and there wifl be no
rebuking of the evil-doer. And when all wiU be afflicted \rith
the leprosy of sin, then Messiah wifl appear. Even as with
the leper when his leprosy had covered all his flesh, the Priest
pronounced him clean.

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 87
" There is yet another period fixed for the coming- of Mes
siah : when we Jews will be quite helpless ; when many will
slander us and denounce us to the powers that be and we
wfll be in abject poverty. Or again, when all hope of Mes
siah's appearance wIU be quite abandoned, when all hope will
seem to be gone for ever, then Messiah will put in an ap
pearance. And amongst the varied opinions, one is that this
world was to last six thousand years, divided into three
series of two thousand years each, during the last series of
which Messiah was to come. Another opinion has it, that it
would be idle to hope for the arrival of Messiah before eighty-
five jubilees have passed over the world. R, Samuel b.
Nachmlna is inclined to censure those who fix a time for
Messiah's appearance, inasmuch as if he does not arrive at
the time fixed, the hope deferred may destroy the faith in his
coming at all, and that would be a grievous sin, as it is our
duty to believe in his coming and patiently await his arrival.
Yet another opinion exists, that there is no fixed time for the
coming of Messiah, since it entirely depends on Israel's re
pentance." [Senhedrin, 97, 11 and 98, See S, Rapaport,
Tales and Maxims from the Talmud, New York, 1910, S,
Schechter, Some Aspects of Rabbinic Theology, passim. New
York, 1910,]
" May he establish his Kingdom in your days " is the
prayer of the Qaddish ; while in the Sabbath Morning Service
raany a Jewish heart echoes the words : " There is none to
be compared unto thee, O Lord our God, in this world, neither
is there any beside thee, 0 our King, for the life of the world
to come; there is none but thee, 0 our Redeemer, for the
days of the Messiah."
Hopeless, then, of man's assistance, we have searched the proph
ets o'er,
Seeking promise in the judgments which our fathers writ of yore.
This has been the practical answer to the question of the
Hasidim, or Law, " Why standeth thou so far off, 0 Jah
weh? "
[The lines quoted are not Jewish but are taken from a
Moorish ballad of 1568, written for the comfort of the

88 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Moris cos prior to the Rebeflion of Granada. H, C. Lea,
The Moriscos of Spain, 434h-7, Philadelphia, 1901,]
" Cooped up as the Jews were in former ages in Ghettos,
isolated from the rest of the population not only locally and
socially, but also economically and intellectually, they led
a life of their own, self-contained if not always self-con
tented, in which they cultivated their traditional ideals and
customs and fostered and developed their cultural posses
sions. Although they had no land of their own they raade
of their Ghetto a little Zion, pending the call of the Messiah
whom they were wflling at any moment to follow to the his
toric Zion; although they no longer dwelt on the banks of
the Jordan or at the foot of Mount Carrael their lives were
colored by customs and visions of the Holy Land, and all
their sufferings were soothed by the thought that they would
one day be gathered again to the land of their ancestors.
Living as they did in the midst of all nations, and exposed
on every side to obloquy and hostility, they nevertheless had
the surest guarantee of survival, for they lived a life of their
own and were sustained by the hope of a national restora
tion," [Israel Cohen, Jewish Life in Modern Times,
310-11.] " None of the Messiahs," declares Schindler, " ever im
proved the state of affairs ; on the contrary, they aU left the
nation in still greater misery than they had found it. This,
too, is a cause why so very little is known of any of them'.
Had they lived in times of prosperity, when their actions
could have been judged in calmness ; had they been able to
improve the condition of their friends, morally or materiaUy,
we should have heard much more of them. But the hard
ships of their times were so great that nobody thought of
fixing dates or of establishing a historical fame for them."
[Messianic Expectations, 155.]
It was a wise forethought on the part of Maimonides
when, after inserting, in the creed still followed by orthodox
Judaism, a plank in favor of the messianic expectations, he
added a warning against giving such aspirations a practi
cal tum. This warning, as we have amply demonstrated,
has been little heeded, but, on the contrary, has been honored

The Messianic Movement in Judaism 89
in the breach. Schindler goes beyond the facts when he
insists " that the idea of the advent of a Messiah has died of
late ; is stone dead now, and ought to be buried by the side
of similar defunct ideas, in spite of all opposition which may
be raised against its final interment " ; and that " there is not
one among us who expects the advent of a Messiah." [Solo
mon Schindler, Messianic Expectations and Modern Judaism,
4-5, 86. Boston, 1886.]
Even the social obligation to marry was strengthened in
Israel by the belief that the Messiah would not come until all
souls stored up for the earthly life had been bom, nor has
this raotive entirely disappeared in orthodox Judaisra. [I.
Abrahams, in art. Marriage, in Hastings' Ency. Rei. and
Ethics, VIII, 460.]

CHAPTER II
the mahdi: the messiah of Mohammedanism
MOHAMMEDANISM awaits a Mahdi, or " Director "
who is now somewhere concealed and will some day re
appear. Upon his reappearance. In true raessianic fashion,
injustice will disappear, a raillenniura of happiness will be
ushered in, and the law will be restored. Whether or not
this Mahdi belief was borrowed by the Mohammedans frora
the Jews, and, in fact, paved the way to the acceptance of
Mohammed himself as well as of later Mahdi, as seems prob
able, it shows a marked resemblance to the Jewish messi
anic hope. [Sell, Essays on Islam, 50. Wherry, Commen
tary on the Koran, I, 139'-5. Margoliouth, Early Develop
ment of Mohammedanism (London, 1914), 18. MacDonald,
Muslim Theology, Jurisprudence, and Constitutional Theory,
27, 114 (New York, 1903). Hughes' Dictionary of Islam,
304, 640, 674 (1885). W. Muir, Life of Mahomet, 112-3,
152. Art., " Mahdi," In Ency. Britt. (11th ed.) ; in Hast
ings' Ency. of Religion and Ethics ; The New International
Ency. Assassins, in Hastings' E.R.E,, II; Incarnation,
(Introductory) (Muslira), lb,, VII, 183-4, 197-8, A. Gfl-
man. The Saracens, 50, 100, 266, 311-2, 414 (1908). E, C,
Sykes, Persia and Its People, 134, 141, Meaken, The
Moors, 351, London, 1902, J, W, Buel, Heroes of the Dark
Continent, 330-50, San Francisco, 1890, M, F. Von Op-
penheim. Von Mittelmeer zum Persichen Golf, I, 121-2, Ber
lin, 1899, A, J, B, Wavell, A Modern Pilgrim in Mecca, 24,
London, 1913, Ameer Ali Syed, A Short History of the
Saracens, 296, London, 1900, H. C, Lukach, The Fringe
of the East, 211-2, 264. London, 1913, Art, on Islam, in
Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, III, Tiibingen,
1912, B. Meakin, Moorish Empire, 68, Paul Cams, The
Pleroma, An Essay on the Origin of Christianity, 111, 1909,
90

The Mahdi: The Messiah of Mohammedanism 91
H. S, Jarrett, History of the Caliphs, p, 5, Calcutta, 1881,
WiUiam Muir, The Caliphate, 557-63. Edinburgh, 1916,
Napier Malcolm, Five Years in a Persian Town, 73-5, New
York, 1907, Ella C. Sykes, Persia and Its People, 134, 141.
London, 1910, P, M, Sykes, Ten Thousand Miles in Persia
or Eight Years in Iran, 192, New York, 1902, The true
Imam is hidden away to be revealed by the Lord later, J, B,
Pratt, India and Its Faiths, 310, Ghair Mahdi, Hastings'
E,R,E,, VI, 189. The Shias believe he will conquer all re
ligions and take vengeance on the wicked, V, Piquet, Les
Civilisations de I'Afrique du Nord, 74-6,] Mohamraed car
ried his religion to a people already expecting a Mahdi and
confident of his arrival. Here, too, disasters precede the
dawn of better times. ^
It has been asserted — and denied — that Waraka, an
Arab acquainted with Hebrew, and later a Christian convert,
a contemporary of Mohammed, had entertained the persua
sion that some messenger from heaven, a Mahdi, was about
to come into the world. Some scholars believe this expec
tation of a Messiah or Mahdi was entertained by the Arabs
of Medina as early as a. d. 621, thus insuring a favorable
reception of Mohammed's mission. His followers could not
believe him dead, but awaited his return, and, until rebuked
by Mohammed's father-in-law, were ready to worship him
as a god. There can be no doubt that the soil was prepared
for the sowing of the seeds of the messianic faith, [Hutton
Webster, Early European History, 372, New York, 1917,
A, Gllman, The Story of the Saracens, 60^1, 63, 100,]
A work written at Mecca in 1883, by a Sherif of that city,
bearing the title, The Conquests of Islam, gives the following
means of identifying the true Mahdi:
1 According to Mohammedan belief, and as a result of Judeo-Christlan
influence. Antichrist wiU overrun the earth mounted on an ass, and fol
lowed by 40,000 Jews. " His empire will last forty days, whereof the
first day will be a year long, the duration of the second will be a month,
that of the third a week, the others being of their usual length. He will
devastate the whole world, leaving Mecca and Medina alone in security,
as these holy cities will be guarded by angelic legions. Christ at last
will descend to earth, and in a great battle will destroy the Man-devil."
[S. Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, 172. Al-Ash'ari,
Hastings' E.R.E., I, 112.]

92 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
" The greatest of these signs shall be that he shall be of
the line of Fatima (i. e,, a Sherif, or descendant of the
Prophet) ; that he shall be proclairaed Mahdi against his
will, not seeking such proclamation for himself, and not caus
ing strife amongst the faithful to obtain it, nor even yielding
to It till threatened with death by them. He shall be pro
claimed in the Mosque of Mecca, not elsewhere; he shall not
appear save when there is strife after the death of a Khalifa ;
he shall neither come nor be proclaimed until such time as
there is no Khalifa over the Moslems. His advent shall
coincide with that of Anti-Christ, after whom Jesus will de
scend and join himself to the Mahdi, These are the signs
of his coming. The others are imaginary or disputed, and
whosoever shall, of his own wfll, declare himself to be the
Mahdi and try to assert himself by force, is a pretender,
such as have already appeared raany times," [Quoted by
the Earl of Croraer, Modern Egypt, I, 351-2,]
As the following pages will show, most of the Mahdi who
have appeared from time to time have not been distinguished
by the stigmata given by this Sherif, almost all of them
having been self-proclaimed.
The Mahdi in Spain, Africa, and Arabia
The revolt of the Shiites against the Abbasids in the sec
ond century a, h, was a messianic movement in Mohamme
danism closely paralleling those of Judaism. The revolt
came about the middle of this century, when the Abbasids
were hard-pressed, and when the heavens themselves seemed
to herald their downf aU. There were great showers of shoot
ing stars which both parties interpreted as heralding the
downfall of the ruling Abbasids.
" Messianic hope was alive, and a Mahdi, a Guided of
God, was looked for. This had long been the attitude of the
Alids, and the Abbasids began to feel a necessity to gain
for their de facto rule the sanction of theocratic hopes. In
143 Halley's comet was visible for twenty days, and in 147
there were again showers of shooting stars. On the part of
the Abbasids, homage was solemnly rendered to the eldest

The Mahdi: The Messiah of Mohammedanism 93
son of Al-Mansur, the Khalifa of the time as successor of
his father, under the title of al-Mahdi, and several sayings
were forged and ascribed to the Prophet which told who
and what manner of man the Mahdi would be, in terms which
clearly pointed to this heir-apparent. The Alids, on their
side, were urged on to fresh revolts." [MacDonald, Muslim
Theology, etc., 34-5.]
It was during the time of oppression when Othman was
Caliph (654—5 a. d, ), that Ibn Saba, or Ibn as-Sanda, a Jew
from the south of Arabia, appeared in Al-Basra and ex
pressed a desire to embrace the Islamic faith. It was not
long before the astute Mohammedans discovered that he was
a firebrand of sedition, steeped in disaffection toward the
existing government and they forcibly removed him. From
Al-Basra he went to Al-Kufa, Expelled from Al-Kufa he
sought refuge in Syria, From here, too, he was expelled,
but not until he had given a dangerous impulse to the already
discontented classes of that province. He found a safer re
treat in Egypt, and here he set forth strange and startling
doctrines, Mohammed was to come again, as was also the
Messiah, " Meanwhile Ali was his legate. Othraan was a
usurper, and his governors a set of godless tyrants. Impiety
and wrong were rampant everywhere ; truth and justice could
be restored no otherwise than by the overthrow of this wicked
dynasty. Such was the preaching which daily gained ground
in Egypt ; by busy correspondence it was spread all over the
Erapire, and startled the minds of raen already foreboding
evil from the sensible heavings of a slumbering volcano."
[Sir William Muir, The Caliphate — Its Rise, Decline and
Fall, 216-7. Edinburgh, 1915,]
The first Mahdi seems to have been Mohammed Ibn al
Hanafiyah, son of Ali, though not of Fatima, He was pro
claimed by one Mukhtar in the reign of Abd al Malik (685—
705), after the murder of Hasain, All's son. The Persian
foUowers refused to believe him dead, declaring that he would
return at the end of seventy years. [A. Gilman, Story of
the Saracens, 311,]
In the latter part of the eighth century. Hakim Ibn Allah,
or Al Mokama, " tlje Veiled," was regarded as divine and

94 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
was worshipped for centuries, despite the fact that during
his lifetime his armies were disastrously defeated by Mahdi,
the third Abbasid Caliph. That his foUowers might be able
to recognize him, he promised to reappear at his subsequent
reincarnation as a gray man riding a gray beast.
One of the earliest Moroccan Mahdi was Mudhdhen of
Tlemcen, In 851 he forbade the cutting, of the hair or nails,
and the wearing of ornaraents. This addition to or detrac
tion frora the natural person was a reflection upon the Al
mighty. He secured many proselytes In Africa and in Spain
but was eventually captured and crucified by the Ameer of
Andalusia. The next Mahdi was Hameem. He proclaimed his mes
siahship in 936 in Ghomara and secured a goodly following.
The hours of prayer were reduced from the orthodox five to
two — one at sunrise and one at sunset. At each prayer
there were to be weepings and three prostrations, the hand
being held between the head and the floor. The devotee was
to begin his prayer with the words, " Deliver me from sin, O
Thou who givest eyes to see the Universe. Deliver me from
sin, 0 Thou who drewest Jonah from the stomach of the fish,
and Moses from the flood." To the ordinary confession he
was to add, " And I believe in Hameem, and In his companion,
Abn Ikhlaf, and I believe in Tabia, aunt of Hameem," He
provided fasts for Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays dur
ing the ten days of Ramadan and the ten of the feast of
Shoowal. To break the fast on Thursday was to incur a fine
of three bullocks, and to break it on Tuesday a fine of two
bullocks. Sows were now permitted as food, but eggs and
the heads of animals were, among other things, forbidden.
Pilgrimages and certain purifications were aboHshed, This
Mahdi also met with crucifixion and his head was sent to
Cordova, During the Muwahhadi Period (1149-1269) Mohamraed
Ibn Hud assuraed the title of El Madi, " the Director," and
secured a large following, though he, too, was overthrown.
In this same period, while Abd El Mumin was in charge of
affairs in Spain (1130-1163) there arose in the western
part of that country a Mahdi. He was, however, forthwith

The Mahdi: The Messiah of Mohammedanism 95
captured, and, upon his explanation and confession that he
was the " false dawn," was pardoned. [B. Meakim, The
Moorish Empire, 87-8. London, 1899,]
Early in the tenth century (902) Abn Abdallah (or
Obeidalla) found the Berbers of Algeria ready for the call.
He drew vast crowds after him and, by their help, defeated
the Aghlabid dynasty, getting possession of the capital of
the kingdom, " He preached the impending advent of the
Mehdl (Mahdi), and, to meet the expectation so raised, sum
moned Sa'id the son of his deceased master Mohammed,
Sa'id came, but not under his real name. He claimed to be
descended from the Imam Iswa'il, and called hiraself Obei-
dallah. The adventures of this Mahdi in his flight through
Egypt and wanderings as a merchant with a caravan to
Tripoli, are little less than a romance. Suspected by the
Aghlabis, he was cast into prison, and so remained until re
leased by the victorious Abn Abdallah, who for a time pro
fessed to be In doubt whether Obeidallah were the veritable
Mahdi or not. At last, however, he placed him on the
throne, and himself reaped the not infrequent fruit of dis
interested labours in the founding of a dynasty, for he was
assassinated by command of the monarch who owed to him
his throne, but had now become jealous of his influence. As
suming the title, Commander of the Faithful, Obeidallah, in
virtue of his aUeged descent from the Prophet's daughter
Fatima, became the Fatimid Caliph of a kingdom which em
braced both the dominions heretofore held by the Aghlabid
dynasty, and the nearer districts of the Caliphate bordering
on the Mediterranean. Its capital was Al-Mehdiga — near
Tunls — the ' Africa ' of Froissart. The narae means ' be
longing to the Mehdi.' He made repeated attempts to gain
Egypt also, but was repulsed by Mumis, Al-Muktadlr's com
mander there." [Sir William Muir, op. cit., 662-3. B.
Meakim, 41, 87. Jeremiah Curtin, The Mongols, 206. Bos
ton, 1908. A. Gilman, The Saracens, 414^6.]
The Mad Hakim (996-1020), most faraous of the earlier
Egyptian Mahdi, " disappeared " rather than died, and his
reappearance is still confidently awaited by the Druses in the
Lebanon Mountains and the Hauran. The Israaili sect, also,

96 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
is inspired by this idea and awaits the retum of a Mahdi,
Mohammed Ibn Ismafl, of the famfly of Ali, as, simflarly,
do the Carmations. [Art. on Dmses in Ency. Britt., 11th
ed.] "At the beginning of the sixth century (twelfth century
A, D.) a certain Berber student of theology, Ibn Tumart by
name, traveUed in the East in search of knowledge. An
early and persistent western tradition asserts that he was a
favorite pupil of al-Ghazzali's, and was marked out by him
as showing the signs of a future founder of empire. This
may be taken for what it is worth. What is certain is that
Ibn Tumart went back to the Maghrib and there brought
about the triumph of a doctrine which was derived, if modi
fied, from that of the Ash'arites.
" Ibn Tumart started in life as a reformer of the corrup
tions of the day, and seems to have slipped from that into the
belief that he had been appointed by God as the reformer
for all time. As happens with reformers, from expectation
it came to force ; from preaching at the abuses of the govern
ment to rebellion against the government. That govern
ment, the Murabit, went down before Ibn Tumart and his
successors, and the pontifical rule of the Muwahlids, the
asserters of God's tawhid or unity, rose in its place.
" The success of Ibn Turaart, if halting at first, was even
tually complete. As a simple lawyer who felt called upon
to protest — as, indeed, all good Muslims, in virtue of a
tradition from Muhammad — against the abuses of the time,
he accoraplished coraparatively little. As Mahdi, he and his
supporter and successor, Abd al-Mu'mim, swept the country.
For his movement was not raerely Iraamite and Muslim, but
an expression as well of Berber nationalism. Here was a
man, sprung from their midst, of their own stock and tongue,
who, as Prophet of God, called them to arras. They obeyed
his call, worshipped hira and fought for hira. He translated
the Qur'an for thera into Berber ; functionaries of the church
had to know Berber ; his own theological writings circulated
in Berber as well as in Arabic. As Persia took Islam and
moulded it to suit herself, so now did ;the Berber tribes."
Ibn Tumart, as a personality, is no less interesting be-

The Mahdi: The Messiah of Mohammedanism 97
cause of the departure from tradition which he effected, first
within himself, and, secondly, within the larger social unit.
The current theology explained the anthropomorphic pas
sages of the Koran literally, while he gave thera a meta
physical interpretation and in this manner explained away
the stumbling blocks. As he had power to deliver from na
tional enemies so, by virtue of his own divinity, he could pro
claim the truth in his own strength, " Such a leader, then,
could claim from the people absolute obedience and credence.
His word must be for them the source of truth," He accord
ingly dispensed with all the prevaUIng analogical arguments.
The new theology as entertained by his followers may deserve
the epithet of " a strange jumble," but it was a new system
and one imposed by this remarkable personality. " With
them, the Zahirite system of canon law, rejected by all other
Muslim peoples, enjoyed its own brief period of power and
glory. Shi'Ite legends and superstitions mingled with philo
sophical free thought." Ibn Turaart is one of the most re
markable figures that appear upon the stage of Moorish his
tory. [MacDonald, 244-9. B, Meakim, 65-70, Art, on
Ibn Tumart in Hastings' Ency. Rei, and Eth,, VII, 74-6.
Berbers and North Africa, lb., II, 506-19.]
Hallaj was executed at Bagdad in a. d. 922 on the charge
of pretending to be an incarnation of the Deity and of hav
ing disciples who accepted this claim. His head was sent
to lOiurasan to be shown to his followers there and the
ashes of his cremated body were thrown into the Tigris.
But many of his followers refused to believe their lord and
master dead and confidently expected his reappearance.
They based their faith on a passage in the Koran (IV, 156)
regarding Christ's reappearance, declared Hallaj trans
ported to heaven, and asserted that the victim of the exe
cution of the supposed Hallaj was one of his enemies changed
by God into a likeness of their master, or, said others, of a
horse or a mule, [Art,, Hallaj, in Hastings' E,R.E., VI,
480-2,]
' " In Hakim a final appeal was raade to raankind, and after
the door of raercy had stood open to all for twenty-six
years, it was finally and forever closed. When the tribula-

98 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
tion of the faithful has reached its height, Hakim will re
appear to conquer the world and render his religion supreme,
Dmses believed to be dispersed to China wfll retum to Syria,
The combined body of the Faithful wiU take Mecca, and
finally Jerusalem, and all the world will accept the Faith,"
A defender of Hakim, Moktana Baba ud-DIn, whose writ
ings were known from Constantinople to India, addressed a
letter to Constantine VIII, and one to Michael the Paphla-
gonlan, in which he endeavored" to prove that the Christian
Messiah had reappeared in the person of Hanza. Hakim
had believed himself in direct intercourse with the Deity and
even an incarnation of divine intelligence. In 1016 his
claims, supported by Ismael Darazi (whence, possibly, the
narae " Druse "), were made known in the mosque at Cairo,
They received some small support in the Lebanons, where
they are still championed by the Dmses, and also, to a slight
extent, araong Mohammedan sects In Persia, When Hakim
was assassinated in 1020 his vizier and apostle, Hanzi ibn
Ali ibn Ahmed, announced that Hakim had but withdrawn
for a season, and encouraged his followers to look forward
with confidence to his triumphant return.
Shortly after the middle of the twelfth century Rashld-ad-
Din Sinan announced hiraself as the Imam, and as God in
carnate, the all-powerful Mahdi. His lameness was a stum
bling block to sorae who expected a Mahdi unblemished
physically as weU as spiritually, but among the sect of the
Isma'ili he won many followers. [Assassins, in Hastings'
E.R.E., II, 141. For a detailed account see S. Guyard in
Journal Asiatique, 1877.]
Khidr, " the green one," is the name, or title, of a Mo
hammedan saint whom Islam believes is still alive and to
whom, along the coast of Syria, numerous sanctuaries have
been built wherein sacrifices and the first-bom of animals are
still offered to him. Mohammedan literature has, at times,
identified him with the Messiah, and he has been regarded as
a mediator, an ever present help in time of trouble, a balra to
the afflicted. [Khidr, in Hastings' E.R.E., VII, 693-5. S.
I. Curtiss, Primitive Semitic Religion To-day.]
Ibn Khaldun, the great theologian of the fourteenth cen-

The MaJidi: The Messiah of Mohammedanism 99
tury, discountenances the belief that Khidr is alive, brand
ing it as a superstition. [Araeer Ali, Short History of the
Saracens, 295. London, 1910.] But popular belief In Mo
hammedan lands, as in more cultured regions, outstrips the
limits of conservative dogma.
The Shiites expect the return of the last Imam, Moham
med al Mahdi, who died in a. d. 873, and never mention his
name without adding, " May God hasten his glad advent."
This last Imam or Mahdi, when a boy five years of age, pined
for his father, who had been deported from Medina to Sa-
marra by the tyrant Mutawakkil, and there detained until
his death. In his distress the child entered, in search of his
father, a cavern not far from the lad's home. From this
cavern he never returned, " The pathos of this calamity
culminated In the hope — the expectation which fills the
hearts of Hassan's followers — that the child may retum to
relieve a sorrowing and sinful world of its burden of sin and
oppression. So late as the fourteenth century when Ibn
Khaldun was writing his great work,. the Shias (Shiites) were
wont to assemble at eventide at the entrance of the cavern
and supplicate the missing child to retum to them. After
waiting for a considerable time, they departed to their
homes, disappointed and sorrowful. This, says Ibn Khal
dun, was a daily occurrence. When they were told it was
hardly possible he could be alive, they answered that as the
prophet Khizr (Khidr) was alive, why should not their Imam
be alive too? , , , This Imam is therefore called the Mun-
tazzar, the Expected One, the Hujja, or the Proof (of the
Truth), and the Kaim, the Living." [Araeer Ali, Short
History of the Saracens, 295. London, 1900. Art., Kaim, in
Hastings' E.R.E. A, Gilman, Story of the Saracens, 266,
311-2, 414.]
The Carmations, a religio-polltical sect of the Shi'Ites
which arose about the raiddle of the third century a. h., has
been productive of many Mahdi. The tenet of this order
is that Universal Reason and the Universal Soul have mani
fested themselves in human form, and that this human form
is subject to a series of reincarnations. The last of these
reincarnations will be realized in the Mahdi, at which time the

100 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
end and fullness of human life will be realized. AbdaUah ibn
Malraum (died a. h, 180), of this sect, did not die but becarae
invisible, so to remain until his reappearance as the Mahdi,
[Art,, Carmations, in Hastings' E,R,E,, III, 222-5, contains
a description of other Mahdi of this sect,]
One of the most remarkable of the African Mahdi was
Mohammed Ahmed Ibn Seyyid Abdullah, bom 1848 in Don-
galo, in the Sudan. After a varied religious career of revolt
against religious authority he proraulgated new religious and
social laws and declared hiraself the Mahdi. His followers
were greatly oppressed by the tax gatherers and other of
ficials of the Turkish and Egyptian governments. Among
them his doctrines met with notable success. After thrice
defeating the government troops, which the Sudanese had
regarded as incoraparably superior and not to be coped with,
his claims received increasing attention and respect.
Numerous miracles were credited to him, and his claims
that the bullets of the enemy would become water when they
struck the bodies of his followers seemed for a tirae to have
some foundation in fact. The rebellion which he raised
against the Turks and English was not quelled until Gordon
had been massacred and Kitchener had appeared at Khar
toum. The Turkish forces which attacked the Dongala, the
Mahdi's followers, shared the superstition that these follow
ers were impervious to ordinary bullets, and declared they
saw them fall from the Dongala as rain drops off one's
body. The Turks were more successful with silver bullets
which they made out of doUar pieces, and, almost as effica
cious as these, were ordinary bullets hollowed out, a peg
of ebony-wood or of copper being then firmly fastened in
them. These gave new courage to the soldiers who believed
them capable of killing the devil hiraself and, with thera, they
returned to the attack with renewed vigor and bravery, [A.
J. Mounteney-Jephson, Emin Pasha, 267, New York, 1891,^]
No better description of this Sudanese Mahdi and the be
liefs inspired by hira can be given than that contained in a
[ 1 A similar belief had been current in Scotland. Claverhouse was
considered proof against bullets but was eventually killed by a silver

The Mahdi: The Messiah of Mohammedanism 101
letter written by one of his followers, Oraar Saleh, to Melimed
Emin, Mudir of Hatalastiva, After the ordinary Moham
medan greetings and preliminary observations upon the
changefulness and temporality of life and the world, and the
absoluteness of Allah, in whose hands are the keys of all
things, the letter proceeds to its main purpose : " We be
long to God's army," writes Omar, " and follow His word
only ; with our army is the victory, and we foUow the Imara,
Mahoraed el Mahdi, the son of Abdullah — before whom we
bow — the Khalifa and Prophet of God — to whom we offer
our greetings, and of whom the Master of all has said, ' And
in those days there shall be raised from my seat a man who
shall fill the earth with justice and light as it was filled before
with injustice and darkness' (the Koran). We have now
come by his order, and there is no possible result but what
is good from his comraandments in this changeful world.
We have given ourselves, our children, and possessions to him
as an offering to God, and He has accepted them from us.
He has bought His true believers, their souls and posses
sions with His Word, and Paradise belongs to them. If they
are killed, they are kflled as an offering to God, and if they
kill, they kfll in His cause, as it is written In the Old Testa
ment, in the New Testament, and in the Koran.
" In the month of Ramadan, 1298, God revealed the ex
pected Mahdi, and made him sit on His footstool, and girded
him with the sword of victory. He told him that whoever
was his enemy was unfaithful to God and His Prophet, and
should suffer in this world and in the next, and his children
and goods should become the prey of the true Moslems, and
he (the Mahdi) should be victorious over all his foes, though
they were as numberless as the sands of the desert ; and who-
button made into a bullet. This was during the reign of William and
Mary. Belief in immunity from bullets was current in the Plains area during
the outbreak of the Sioux in 1890.
Again immunity from bullets was promised bis followers by
the Moorish Pretender, Jilali el Zarhoumy, " Father of the She-
Ass," who disturbed the peace of Morocco early in the present
century, and was a forerunner of the Mahdi. A. J. Dawson, Things
Seen in Morocco, 308, 313. New York, 1904.]

102 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
soever should disobey him should be punished by God. And
God showed him his angels and saints, from the time of Adam
tfll this day, and aU the spirits and devils. He has before
Him an array — its chief is Israel — to whom our greetings ;
and He ever goes before the victorious army, a distance of
forty miles. Besides this God related to him many miracles.
It was Impossible to count thera, but they were as clear as
the sun at midday, whose light is seen by all. And the peo
ple flocked to him by the order of God and His Prophet.
" He commanded the people to collect and assist him
against his foes from all parts of the country, and he wrote
to the Governor-General at Khartoum, and to all the gover
nors in the Soudan, and his orders were fulfilled. He wrote
to every king, especially to the Sultan of Stamboul, Abdul
Hamid, to Mahomed Tewfik, Vali of Egypt, and to Victoria,
Queen of Brittania, because she was in alliance with the
Egyptian Government. Then the people came from every
side and submitted to his rule, and told him they submitted
to God and His Prophet, and to him, for there Is only one
God, and He Is supreme, and they promised they would ab
stain frora aU evil, and that they would neither steal nor
commit adultery, nor do anything which was forbidden by
God. They would give up the world and strive only for
God's Word, and make war for their Holy Belief for ever.
" And we have found him, the Mahdi, more compassionate
to us than a pitying mother ; he lives with the great, but has
pity for the poor; he collects the people of honour around
him and honours the generous ; he speaks only the truth and
brings people to God, and relieves them In this world, and
shows them the path to the next." [Quoted by A. J. Mounte
ney-Jephson, Emin Pasha, 245'— 8.]
The letter concludes with a detailed account of the Mahdi's
successes over his various enemies, and an exhortation to join
the host of this triumphant one.
The Soudanese Mahdi roused a tremor throughout the
downtrodden Mohammedan world. During the Egyptian
war Mohararaedans from Assma and Lucknow looked to
Arabi to restore their fortunes, " for," said they, " we are
in a desperate strait and need a deliverer." In Yemen and

The Mahdi: The Messiah of Mohammedanism 103
In Hejaz the Arabs, weary of Turkish rule, were ready to
join the Mahdi should he cross the Red Sea. [Blunt, India
Under Ripon, 203. 1909. For accounts of this Soudanese
Mahdi, see article on Mahommed Ahmed in Enc. Britt. (11th
ed.) ; F. R. Wingate, Ten Years Captivity in the Mahdi's
Camp. London, 1892, esp. Ch. I ; lb.. Fire and Sword in the
Sudan. London, 18'96, Ch. IV, XX; lb., Mahdiism in the
Sudan. London, 1889; A. J. B. Wavell, A Modern PUgrvm
in Mecca, 24; Hist, of All Nations, XX, 385-6. Sir Harry
Johnston, Africa, 348. London, N. D. ; S. Low, Egypt in
Transition, 12-34, 82; E. M. Bliss, Turkey and the Arme
nian A trocities, 62, 327—9 ; De Bunsen, The Soul of the Turk,
205, 258; M. M. Shoemaker, Islam Lands, 25, 37, 45, 48-52,
58, 71-3, 89-91, 98-102. E. FothergiU, Five Years in the
Sudan, 15—39, 229. Alf ord and Sword, Egyptian Soudan,
Ch. II. London, 1898. A. H. Atteridge, Towards Khar
toum, Ch. XIX. London, 1897. W. S, ChurchiU, The River
War, I, 12-116, II, 99, 212. B. Alexander, From the Niger
to the NUe, II, 357, New York, 1907, W. E, Curtis, Egypt,
Bu,rma and British Malaysia, 186—7, 1906,]
It Is often deemed advisable to fight fire with fire and to
overcome divine aid by countervailing supernatural sanction.
Accordingly, when Gordon arrived In Egypt to quell the
Mahdi uprising, he was Instructed by the Khedive to embark
on the divine raission of subduing the false Mahdi and pre
paring the way for the True Messiah, Gordon hiraself
seeraed irapressed with the supernatural sanction attaching
to his mission and his diary has been likened, by Moncure D.
Conway, to what one raight expect in the diary of Peter the
Hermit ; containing such verses as " I take this prophecy as
my own " ; " And it shall be for a sign and for a witness
unto the Lord of Hosts in the Land of Egypt." Hence, con
cludes the venerable commentator, " I reached the conclusion
that if one scratches the Englishman with a Moslem spear
he will find a Crusader." [My Pilgrimage to the Wise Men
of the East, 347—8. 1906. See, in confirraation, the pub
lished diary of Gen. Gordon.]
The Sudanese followers of the Mahdi may be said to have
" returned the compliment " by looking upon Gordon as the

104 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Anti-Christ whom their promised Mahdi was destined to de
stroy. [A. Gilman, Story of the Saracens, 414. James
Darrasteter, Le Mahdi depuis les origines de I'Islam. jusqu' a
nos jour. Paris, 1885. E. W. Latiraer, Europe in Africa in
the Nineteenth Century, 76-108, W. E. B. Du Bols, The
Negro, 45-6. New York, 1915. E. B. Bronson, In Closed
Territory, 181. London, 1907. A. B. Lloyd, Uganda to
Khartoum, 303, London, 1907,]
Many persons had appeared in Egypt prior to 1881 claim
ing to be the Mahdi, one of them in Upper Egypt during the
time of Ismail Pasha, a contemporary of the Sudanese
Mahdi, [Eari of Cromer, Modern Egypt, I, 352, 356ff.,
470; II, 20-30, 61-5, N, D. Harris, Intervention and
Colonization in Africa, 97, 119, 332-44, 348, New York,
1914,] In 1799 there appeared in Egypt a Mahdi who, though
killed by the French, was expected by his foUowers to return.
When the French soon afterward retired from Egypt they
supposed that the Mahdi's prayers had been answered by
Allah. [E. W. Latiraer, 78.] For generations before the
appearance of the Sudan Mahdi the ruraor had been abroad
that in the latter part of this century a new prophet would
arise, gather to hiraself the scattered forces of the faithful
and restore the Moslem faith and power to their ancient
height. This prepared the way for the announcement in
1881 of himself as the Mahdi foretold by Mohammed, whose
advent had been predicted for that year, and gave persuasion
to the message which he sent to the sheiks and fakirs round
about, declaring his divine mission to reform Islam, establish
universal equality, a universal law, a universal religion, and
a comraunlty of goods ; with the accorapanying threat that
he would destroy all, both Mohararaedan and Christian, who
should refuse to accept his claims of being the true prophet.
The ignorant and credulous Arabs found further proof of
his genuineness in peculiar marks upon his face symbolic of
a true prophetic character, and in difference in the length of
his two arms, and in difference in the color of his two eyes —
differences which pertained to Mohammed the Prophet. [G.
M. Towle, England in Egypt, Ch. V. Boston, 1886. Another

The Mahdi: The Messiah of Mohammedanism 106
tradition asserted that the Mahdi would have long hands.
See Earl of Cromer, op, cit,, I, 351,]
As already mentioned the excitement in the Sudan reverber
ated to Abyssinia, " There was an old prophecy in Abys
sinia, handed down from generation to generation, which said
that in the fulness of time a king should arise in Ethiopia, of
Solomon's lineage, who should be acknowledged to be the
greatest king on earth; and his power should erabrace all
Ethiopia and Egypt. He should scourge the Infidels out of
Palestine and purge Jerusalem from all defilers. He should
destroy all the inhabitants thereof, and his name should be
Theodorus." This prophecy brought to the fore a man who had been
known as Kassai, but who now clairaed that his narae was
Theodorus. Great successes attended his arms and he con
quered province after province. When the conquests of the
Sudanese Mahdi had reached to the borders of Abyssinia he
determined to advance on Omdurman and destroy Mahdiisra,
In this he was aided by another prophecy current among the
Arabs to the effect that a king of Abyssinia should advance
on Khartoum, his horsemen wading in blood, and that he
should tie his horse to a lone tree standing on a certain hill
near the city. When the war broke out belief in this proph
ecy caused almost a panic in Omdurman, Subsequent events,
however, failed to justify it, for King John, as he was then
known, was struck by a bullet and killed, his army defeated,
and his head fell into the hands of the exulting eneray. [E,
W. Latimer, op, cit,, 229^48,]
The messianic movement initiated by the Sudanese Mahdi
stin lingers. In 1903 Mohammed-el-Amin, a native of Tunis,
proclairaed himself the Mahdi and secured a following in
Kordofan. He was captured by the governor of Kordofan
and publicly executed at El Obeid. In April, 1908, Abdel-
Kader, a Halowin Arab and ex-dervish, rebelled in the Blue
Nile province, claiming to be the prophet Issa (Jesus). He
murdered the deputy inspector of the province and the
Egyptian mamur, after which the rising was promptly sup
pressed and Issa captured and hdnged. [Cf. art,, Sudan,
in Ency. Britt,, 11th ed.]

106 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
The Mahdi in India
Nor have Indian Mussulmans been without their redeemers,
at once religious and political. In the eleventh century
A. h. we find a remarkable movement among them, roused by
the expected advent of the Imam Mahdi. [F. T. Wheeler,
History of India, IV, Part I, 161-3. W. W. Hunter, In
Our Indian Mussulmans, was the first to bring home to the
English mind the political danger inherent in Mohammedan
religious revivals. See also Sell, Essays on Islam.] The
revolution in Calcutta has been attributed in part to a reli
gious cause, naraely, the uprising of a Mohammedan sect,
the Arya Samaj ; there is no doubt that, on occasions, its
activity reaches out into the sphere of politics no less
assiduously than into that of theology. [J. F, Hurst,
Indika, 489-90. Holdemess, Peoples and Problems of
India, 122 (Horae University Library), Imperial Gazetter
of India, I, 426-8, Oxford, 1909,] My esteemed friend, Mr,
Lala Laj pat Ral, author of a book on the Arya Samaj, and
for a long time one of the leading members of this organiza
tion, stoutly maintains in his treatise that the Arya Samaj
is religious, and is not political, though numerous members
of the order have been prominent in political uprisings.
The fact, however, that these political moveraents emanate
from the order shifts the burden of proof upon those who
regard the political as only per accidens related to the reli
gious. One cannot examine all the facts without perceiving
that the Arya Samaj, like alraost all other religious orders,
is an easy door to political agitation. It paves the way to
agitation and beckons with its psychology, if not with its
logic. Sikhisra, also, like many others of these movements, started
as a religious reform and ended in political organization,
the submerged element coraing prorainently to the fore as its
development proceeded. Here, too, as has not uncommonly
happened, most or many of the reformers have come from
the lower ranks, and, especiaUy from one of the pppressed
castes.^ [Imperial Gazetter, I, 426-8. B. F, Sarkar, Sci-
1 Again, Mr. Rai insists (in conversations with the author) that Sikh-

The Mahdi: The Messiah of Mohammedanism 107
ence of History and Hope of Mankind, 61, London, 1912,
See the whole of section VII on The Relativity of Religiou,s
Movements and of Other Aspects of Human Life to the Con
junction of Circumstanees.]
The Wahhabee movement that spread from the Rebel Camp
of Sittana to Lower Bengal, the most simple and rigid form
that Islam has ever assumed, entertained the belief In the
Mahdi coupled with intense, if not vicious, political aspira
tions. Accordingly, in India, notably on the North-West
frontier, hope in the Mahdi and the sinister political aim
have been welded into a formidable weapon of attack to be
wielded against the comraon foe, the uncircumcised infidel
who governs them. [W, G, Palgrave, Essays on Eastern-
Questions, 125-6. London, 1872.]
Less than half a century ago a wretched creature by the
name of Hakim Singh, living in extreme filth and dirt, gave
himself out as a reincarnation of Jesus Christ, and, in keep
ing with that character, beneficently offered to baptise the
missionaries who attempted to argue with him. He prom
ised to his foUowers, among other things, the destruction
of the British Government, which, to him and to others, ap
peared responsible for their existing ills. He preached a
pure morality and professed to work miracles. This Hakim
Singh, or Ram Singh, the leader of a sect that caused a
serious outbreak in the Punjab in 1872, is described as a
man of considerable ability, the son of a carpenter. He
gradually acquired a reputation for extreme sanctity and
for the possession of miraculous powers. As his influence
and the number of his followers increased, the tendency of
his teaching became more political. [Punjab Administra
tion Report, 1871-2, p. 412. Sir Alfred LyaU, Asiatic
Studies, I, 143. London, 1907. J, G. Frazer, The Dying
God. Golden Bough Edition,]
About a quarter of a century before this, there appeared in
the remote eastern districts of the Central Provinces one
ism is only religious; but the fact that the aspiration of the individuals
composing it became political soon after becoming religious, and often
with proportionate zeal, would seem to speak for itself, and to proclaim
a real, if wholly unintended and unconscious, connection.

108 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Gh^si Das, an inspired prophet, who sojourned in the wil
derness for six months. He then reappeared and preached
to the poor and ignorant the creed of Satnam or the True
Name. His followers, when he died in 1850, numbered about
half a million. [LyaU, op. cit., I, 144; J. Morrison, New
Ideas in India. London, 1906.]
Mirza Ghulara Ahmad, bom in the Punjab in 1838, died
1908, made, of aU the Hindoo messiahs, the most extravagant
claims. The movement initiated by him may be attributed
largely to reaction against the striking success of a Chris
tian mission in the Central Punjab and against the impetus
of the religious order established by Dayananda. Mirza
Ghulara Ahmad was both Mohammedan Mahdi and Christian
Messiah; indeed his claims were triplex, for he held himself
out as also the Hindu Avatar, or " Expected One." He was
the fulfiUment of a prophecy concerning the Second Coming,
but he was in no wise subsidiary to Christ. On the con
trary, he proclairaed himself superior to him in both per
sonality and doctrine. This Mahdi-Messiah was not blind to
the parallel between the circumstances of his time and those
of the time of Christ. He pointed them out in some detail
and with considerable acumen. The political parallel noted
by him was, Indians under British rule in very much the
sarae subordinate position as Jews under Roman rule. As
a corollary: The corruptions of India are very similar to
the corruptions of Palestine in the First Century a. d.
The truth of his messiahship he proved by miracles, most
of which were in the nature of the fulfillment of prophecies —
and not wholly auspicious fulfillments. He is said to have
successfully predicted the death of no less than one hundred
and twenty-one people. Among this number was Pandit
Lekh Raul, his chief antagonist in the Arya Samaj, who was
assassinated. Another prediction referred to his Christian
antagonist. Deputy Abdullah Atham ; but he, being well pro
tected, survived the allotted fifteen months. His continued
prophecies proved so mischievous that on February 24, 1899,
the Government of the Punj ab ordered him to leave off such
prophecies, and this he promised to do.
He also predicted the birth of sons to certain friends, but

The Mahdi: The Messiah of Mohammedanism 109
not always successfully. More successful was his prediction
that the rival American of his day, John Alexander Prophet
Elijah Dowie, whom he called an impostor, would die before
he did; this prophecy, to the great satisfaction of the fol
lowers of Ahmad, was fulfilled. Indeed his followers found
some justification for his boast: " I shall be guilty of con
cealing the truth if I do not assert that the prophecies which
God Almighty has granted rae are of a far better quality in
clearness, force, and truth than the ambiguous predictions
of Jesus." [J. Morrison, New Ideas in India, 202—3. Lon
don, 1906. J. B. Pratt, India and Its Faiths, 311. H. P.
Beach, India and Christian Opportunity, 240. New York,
1908.] He prophesied and promised that his people would be free
from pestilence without plague inoculation, yet he himself
died from cholera. Such an inauspicious death afforded lit
tle encouragement to his disciples, [The best account of
this man and his doctrines is that given by Farquhar, Mod
ern Religious Movements in India, 137—48, MacmlUan, 1915.
I am indebted to Mr. Lajpat Rai, author of The Arya
Samaj, for this reference, and for confirmation of the above
description.] This and other instances tend to confirra Farquhar's ob
servation that the religious aspect of anarchisra (meaning
anti-Government manifestations) is merely the extension and
revival of Hinduism. [Ib., 358. See the chapter on Re
ligious Nationalism.]
The Afghan Mohammedans have entertained the belief that
once the Jehad, or Holy War, has been proclairaed, the
nuraerous battalions of the infidel becorae powerless against
a handful of the Ghazis, or soldiers of the faith. [S.
Wheeler, The Ameer Abdur Rahman, 216, London, 1895.]
This belief paved the way for the Mad Mullah who led the
attack against the British in Malakand in 1897, and who
was a bountiful worker of rairacles, " He sat at his house,
and all who came to visit him, brought him a small offering
of food or money, in retum for which he gave them a little
rice. As his stores were continually replenished, he raight
claim to have fed thousands. He asserted that he was in-

110 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
visible at night. Looking into his room they saw no one.
At these things they marvelled. Finally he declared he would
destroy the infidel. He wanted no help. No one should
share the honors. The heavens would open and an army
would descend. The more he protested he did not want
them, the more exceedingly they came. IncddentaUy he
mentioned that they would be invulnerable; other agents
added arguraents. I was shown a captured scroll, upon
which the torab of the Ghazi — he who has kflled an infidel —
is depicted in heaven, no fewer than seven degrees above the
Caaba itself. Even after the fighting — when the tribesmen
reeled back from the terrible army they had assailed, leaving
a quarter of their number on the field — the faith of the
survivors was unshaken. Only those who had doubted had
perished, said the Mullah, and displayed a bruise which was,
he informed them, tKe sole effect of a twelve-pound shrapnel
shell on his sacred person." [W. L. S. Churchill, The Story
of the Malakand Field Force, 41— 2. J
Though the emperor Akbar, of the Moghul dynasty
(1542—1605) never proclairaed himself the Messiah he went
far to make plain his similarity to the Messiah. His birth
day was on Sunday, which, said tradition, was the birthday
of the Messiah; his mother was called, with his approval,
MIriam-makani, i. e., " of the household of Mary." He
clairaed the power to perform many miracles: to heal dis
eases; cause rain to fall or to cease; and allowed' it to be said
of him that he had spoken when a babe in the cradle, which
same, said tradition, Jesus Christ had done. He made of
himself a priest-king.^ [Akbar, Hastings' E.R.E., I, 272.
J. P. Jones, India, Its Life and Thought, 311. New York,
1908. Sir W. W. Hunter, Brief History of the Indian Peo-
1 The only Life of .Tesus prior to the time of Reimarus, who wrote in
the first half of the eighteenth century, which possesses any interest for
the theologian, was composed by a Jesuit in the Persian language, and
was designed for the use of the Moghul Emperor, Akhbar. The au
thor, Hieronymus Xavier, was an Indian Missionary, and a nephew
of Francis Xavier. It was a skilful falsification of the life of Christ,
by omissions and additions from the Apocrypha, " inspired by the sole
purpose of presenting to the open-minded ruler a glorious Jesus, in
whom there should be nothing to oif end hira." [Schweitzer, The Quest
of the Sistorical Jesus, 13-4. English Translation. London, 1911.]

The Mahdi: The Messiah of Mohammedanism 111
pies, 137-8. Oxford, 1907.]
The Zikris, a ]\Iohammedan sect of Baluchistan, believe
that their founder. Dost Mohararaad, was the twelfth Mahdi.
His abode, Koh-i-Murad, near Turbat, takes the place of
Mecca as the object of their pilgrimages. [Baluchistan,
Hastings' E.R.E., II, 340.]
Some sects in India, to whom the name of " Ghair
Mahdi'm " (" not expecting a Mahdi ") is given, believe the
promised Mahdi has already appeared. In the District of
Kirman, Baluchistan, they still say that the Mahdi appeared
about the end of the fifteenth century in the person of ]Mu-
hammad of Jaunpur, who, expelled from India, died, after
many wanderings, in 1506, in the valley of Helmend. This
sect is known as the " Dhlkri." The Da'ire wale, a similar
sect living in the province of Mysore, declared the Mahdi ap
peared more than four hundred years ago. [Ghair Mahdi,
Hastings' E.R.E., VI, 189.]
The Mahdi in Persia and Syria
In 940 A. D. the Twelfth Iraam disappeared into a well.
He stiU lives in Jabulka, or Jabuka, whence he is expected
to reappear as the Mahdi or Kaim. In communication with
him were four persons, known as Bab or Gate, transmitters
of messages from the Imam to his faithful followers. Mirza
Ali Mohammed of Shiraz was one of these Bab who later
advanced in station claiming to be the Kaim or Mahdi. He
dared proclaira his manifestation in Mecca itself. After his
death many of his followers claimed to be the promised one.
There was a chaos of manifestations sorely puzzling the raost
faithful, not to raention the Turkish Government. It had
been prophesied that the Kaim would behead seventy thou
sand mullahs like dogs, and it was not so easy to lay the
ghost or allay the fears.
The Bab who appeared at Ispahan, Persia, about the mid
dle of the nineteenth century, and of whom raore wfll be
said in the discussion of the political significance of raessi
anic movements, was the embodiment of this long deferred
hope for a redeemer and savior. Many followed him. [An

112 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
extensive account of the Bab and of Babism will be found
in S. G. Wilson, Bahaism and Its Claims. Boston, 1915, See
the sarae author, Persian Life and Customs, 62, 146, 185,
221, E, C. Sykes, Persia and Its People, 36, 140-3. L.
Oliphant, Haifa or Life in Modern Palestine, 103-7. V. De
Bunsen, The Soul of a Turk, 206-7, 251-7. W. E. Curtis,
To-day in Syria and Palestine, 219. Journal Asiatic, 6th
series. Vol, VII, 329-84, C, M, Remey, The Bahai Move
ment. Washington, D, C, 1912. Isaac Adams, Persia by a
Persian, 453-90. H. C, Lukach, Fringe of the East, 264ff,
London, 1913, A, G, Browne, A Literary History of Persia.
London, 1902, Browne, The Babis of Persia, in Journal of
the Royal Asiatic Society, 1889, Vol. 21, p. 485ff,, 881ff,,
and articles by Browne on Bab, Babis, in Hastings' Ency.
of Religion and Ethics, and in the Ency. Britt., 11th edition.
In 1915 the New York Public Library published a long list
of works relating to Babism and Bahaism.]
Bahaisra, which developed out of Babisra, has a leader
whose messiahship is abundantly proclaimed. Some repre
sent Baha as Christ, while others declare Christ has returned
in the person of Abdul Baba Abbas. Baha, indeed, is rep
resented as embodying all the promises, rauch as Ghulam
Ahmad Quadiani embodied them in India. He is " the Mes
siah for the Jews, God the Father, the Word, and the Spirit
for the Christians, Aurora or Shah Bahran for the Zoroas-
trians, the fifth Buddha for the Buddhists, reincarnated
Krishna for the Brahmans, the Mahdi or the twelfth Imam
or Husain for the Moslems. All are realized in the coraing
of Baha UUah."
Bahaism is said to adapt its claims and doctrines to those
prevailing in the land where it seeks to gain a foothold, show
ing in America a different creed from that flaunted in Persia.
American Bahais are said to regard Baha as God the Father,
and Abdul Baha Abbas as the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
" The promises and prophecies given in the Holy Scriptures
have been fulfilled by the appearance of the Prince of the
Universe, the great Baba UUah and of Abdul Baha." [S. G.
Wilson, Bahaism, 92ff.] One writer declares the whole
Bahai movement " a counterfeit of the Messiahship of

The Mahdi: The Messiah of Mohammedanism 113
Christ." [G. W. Holmes, in Speer, Missions and Modern
History, I, 169, See also, W. A. Shedd in Missionary Re
view of the World, 1911.]
In 1866-7, Baha UUah (or Baha'u'Uah), who had been
graduaUy displacing Subhi-Ezel as leader of the Babi sect,
proclaimed liis messiahship as " He whom God shaU mani
fest," declaring the Bab had been but the herald of his
coming. Baha UUah and his followers were sent to Acre, for his
claims caused a division among the Babis and much fll-feeling.
The- strength of his opponents waned rapidly and that of
Baha UUah grew apace. Acre became the center of a living
force that spread abroad and attracted to the little Syrian
town pilgrims from all parts of the globe.
When Baha UUah died, In 1892, his son. Abbas, generally
known now as Abbas Effendl, or as Abdul Baha, became his
successor, and since then the sect has been known, after him,
as the Bahai. In 1913 the number of Bahaists was com
puted as more than two raiUion adherents — Persian and In
dian Shiahs, Sunis frora the Turkish Empire and North
Africa, Brahmans, Buddhists, Taoists, Shintoists, Jews, and
Christian converts in Europe and the United States.
One student of the sect has called it " a thing which may
revivify Islam, and make great changes on the face of the
Asiatic world." [Lukach, op. cit., 264-7.] So far it seems
to have exerted Uttle or no political power.
Many accounts have been written about Abbas Effendi,
the God incarnate, for whom, say his foUowers, the Bab was
only a forerunner. An American devotee writes, under date
of Washington, D, C, November 19, 1899, " regarding the
' Holy City ' and the Blessed Master, who dwells therein :
" Although my stay in Acca was very short, as I was there
only three days, yet I assure you these three days were the
most memorable days of my life, still I feel incapable of
describing them In the slightest degree.
" From a raaterial standpoint everything was very simple
and plain, but the spiritual atmosphere which pervaded the
place, and was manifested in the lives and actions among the
Believers, was truly wonderful, and something I had never

114 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
before experienced. One needs but to see them to know that
they are a Holy people.
" The Master I wiU not atterapt to describe ; I wiU only
state that I believe with all my heart that he is the Master,
and my greatest blessing in this world is that I have been
privileged to be in His presence and look upon His sanctified
face. His life Is tmly the Christ life and His whole being
radiates purity and Holiness !
" Without a doubt Abbas Effendi is the Messiah of this
day and generation, and we need not look for another,
"Hoping you will find the joy that has come into my
life, from accepting the truth as revealed in these great
days, . , ."
A similar message comes from Washington under date of
December 5, 1899,
" It seems to me," says this devotee, " a real Truth-seeker
would know at a glance that He is the Master! Withal I
must say He is the Most Wonderful Being I have ever met or
expect to meet in this world. Though He does not seek to
impress one at all, strength, power, purity, love, and holiness
are radiated from His raajestic, yet hurable, personality, and
the spiritual atmosphere which surrounds Him, and most
powerfully affects all those who are blessed by being near
Him, is Indescribable, His ideas and sentiments are of the
loftiest and most chaste character, whfle His great love and
devotion for humanity surpasses everything I have ever
before encountered, I believe in Him with all my heart and
soul, and I hope all who call themselves Believers will concede
to Him all the greatness, all the glory, and all the praise,
for surely he Is the Son of God — and ' the Spirit of the
Father abideth in Hira,'
" Regarding the Household, I found thera all quiet, holy
people, living only for the purpose of serving in the Cause
of God, They dress very plainly, but with a grace that
gives a sort of grandeur to their most humble abode. The
purity of their morals is evident from the calm, benign and
gufleless faces, which characterize them as a people. To
become spiritually more and more like them, and like the
Blessed Master, is ray daily supplication to God,"

The Mahdi: The Messiah of Mohammedanism 115
Another American writes that she was allowed to enter
" the special garden of the Manifestation, the one (accord
ing to Dr, Kheiralla) described in the prophecies thus: ' The
place of my throne is part on the water and part on the
land, under a green tent that has neither ropes nor a center
pole to sustain it,' , , , The spiritual atmosphere of this place
was overwhelming; our tears feU like rain over our faces, and
some of the Believers with us cried aloud. Indeed, to enter
this room is a great blessing. I have felt nearer to God since
that day ! On the chair was a wreath of flowers, and some
beautiful cut roses placed there by the Greatest Branch, who
commanded that they should be given to us ; also four large
oranges, which were on the table opposite, as we left that
most sacred place,
" From here we were taken to the tomb of the Manifesta
tion, and you must excuse me if I do not enter into details
about this ; I cannot find words to express myself ; suffice it
to say, that the Greatest Branch let me walk in His footsteps
and led me by the hand Into this sacred place, where I knelt
down and begged of God to cleanse my heart of all impurity
and kindle within it the fire of His love, I also remembered
there the Assembly in Chicago and begged God's blessing to
be showered upon you. After this visit we walked in the
garden and our Lord, with His own blessed hands, picked
flowers and leaves, which he gave us to take to the faithful
Believers in America.
" That night He sat us all by the table, and dismissed the
servants, saying He would serve us Himself, and He did so.
He did not sit at the table with us, but waited upon us ! At
the conclusion of the meal He said: 'I have served you
to-night that you may learn the lesson of ever serving your
fellow-creatures with love and kindness.' He bade us good
night and advised us all to rest early, so we went to bed
and this night I had a long delicious sleep and rest.
" The next morning he brought rae a most beautiful bunch
of white narcissus and allowed me to kiss His blessed hand
as He gave them to me. He sat down and drank tea with
us, then rose and bade us ' adieu,' as we were going back
to Haifa that day and He had been called away. As we

116 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
were quitting the city we saw Him standing by the gate, and
He smiled at us as we passed. Then we returned ' by the
road in the sea ' to Haifa, our hearts both happy and sorrow
ful, happy because we had seen Him and sorrowful because
we were leaving Him.
" Oh, dear people, make firm your faith and belief, for
truly He is our Lord. It seems to rae that no one could
doubt should He smfle upon them, and no one could turn
from Hira should he seek to confirm them I But this He will
not do, as God had declared that each must seek to confirm
himself and gave to each of us the power or wfll for that
purpose, I feel these words are very weak and inadequate,
but I assure you no one could describe this place and 'tis
foolish to try — to know each must see for himself — there
fore pray God earnestly that the blessing of coming here
raay soon be bestowed. There is no other place in the world
worth seeing, and surely no other King worthy of homage,"
" This Is He who quenches the thirst from the spring of
life," declares a " Declaration Addressed to Americans."
" This is He who heals the sick with the antidote of safety
and confirras with a flood of grace from His Kingdom. He
is of the greatest heirs to the apostles and saints, the Lord is
His God and He is His dearest Son (Abdul-Beha)." [For
these and similar accounts see Isaac Adams, Persia; By a
Persian, 468—90. Grand Rapids, Mich., no date,]
Such has been the Influence upon Western minds of the
Syrian Messiah, Abbas Effendi, whose doctrines are mystical
and symbolical, but kindly, sincere, and charged with pious
zeal, [The best account of his teachings is that given by
Myron H, Phelps, Life and TeachiTigs of Abbas Effendi: A
Study of the Religion of the Babis, or Beha'is Founded by
the Persian Bab and His Successors, Beha UUah and Abbas
Effendi. Putnam, 1912, Second edition. See also art., Bab
ism In New Inter. Ency., and article on Bahaism in America,
published in The American Journal of Theology, Jan., 1902,
p. 57-8.]
Though Bahaism best flourishes on Syrian and other for
eign sofl whence it has been transported, messianic hope has
not departed from Persia, In the royal stables of Persia,

The Mahdi: The Messiah of Mohammedanism 117
it is said, two horses are kept saddled in readiness for the
Mahdi and for his Ueutenant, Jesus the son of Mary. [E.
W. Latimer, op. cit., 76.]
One who travelled through Syria some thirty years ago
gives the foUowing description:
" In my time there were two Christs in Syria ; one of them
a second-sighted admirable person of the Persian religion,
had been laid by the Ottoman government in ' little-ease ' at
Gaza. The other was between ignorant block and mystical
hypocrite, a religious dreamer at large. Born in the Chris
tian reUgion, this man was by turns Jew and Mohammedan ;
' he had God's name,' he told me in a terrific voice,
' sculptured between his two eyebrows.' This divine hand
writing, be it understood, was in Arabic; that is he had
dimples, as a triglyph, or somewhat resembUng the trace
(in Arabic) Allah. Herein he would covertly convey,
among us Christians, was his mystical name, divine ! and he
was himself INIessias of the second appearing. He was bom
in Latakia, and in this also, through barbarous ignorance
of the Greek letters, he found a witness of the Scriptures
unto hiraself. He prophesied to them with a lofty confidence,
that the day was toward, when he should ride forth from
Damascus' horsemarket unto his eternal glory, and, aU things
being fulfiUed in himself, the chfldren of Adam should retum
unto their Lord Grod, to be manifested in the whole world.
He was a Moslem among the Moslemin. I heard their
ribalds deride this self-godded man upon a time as I walked
with him in their cathedral mosque, and he went on saying
(especiaUy where we met with any simple hareem, near the
gates) in an immense murmured voice, ' How great is Mo
hammed! yea, 0 ye people! he is the Apostle of AUah!'
They mocked him with ' Hafl, Neby ! ' Of the Christians
no man trusted him. Yet I have heard simple women, half
in awe of a man of so high pretense, beg of him to foresay
to them the event of these dangerous times, — ' whether the
Nasara would be massacred ? ' And he in mighty tones
prophesied to them comfortable things; he said they shoifld
have no hurt, these troubles should assuage shortly and
Christ's kingdom be established. Also he could show, unto

118 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
any faithful which resorted to him in certain hours, the
testimony of miracles; for with solemn gesture, the divine
man waved his hands over a little water, then he breathed
In mystic wise, and spread his hands, and behold it was made
wine : and such had been seen by a simple Christian person
of my farafliar acquaintance. Upon a time finding him in
the street I bade him wend with me of his charity, to the
house of fools, el-Moristan; by his holy power with God,
we might heal a mad body: he granted. There entering,
when we had passed bars and gates he received from the por
ter a cup of water in his hand, and led me confidently to
the poor men in durance. He had promised if we found
any raging one, with only the name of Allah to appease him :
but as all was still, he approached a poor man who sat in a
cage, and enquired his name and country and condition.
The sad prisoner answered to all things well and civilly ; and
the blatant raan of God, when he cried Allah! and breathed
with an awesoraeness upon the water, gave him through the
bars his bowl, bidding him drink measurably thereof, and if
the Lord would he should come to his health : the unhappy
raan received it very thankfully. ' Thou hast seen ! ' ( said
this doer of rairacles), ' now we raay return.' After a week
he sent me his divine word that the dangerous madcap had
mended, and was ' about to be sent home as a man in his
right mind ' ; — and / did not believe him! This wonder
worker, after walking through all Christian sects and Juda
ism, had gone over to the Mohammedan profession, in that
hoping, said his Christian neighbors, to come again to his
own : and this was, after he had put out his little patrimony
at an iniquitous usury, to insolvent Moslems : — they having
devoured the Nasrany's good, derided him; and a Christian
has little or no hope in the Mohammedan judgment seats.
The forlorn had fallen between the stools of his natural and
his adopted religions, and his slender living was passed from
his own into other shrews' hands ; and there was all his grief :
the apostate found no charity in either. The Christian peo
ple's whisper even imputed to him an atrocious guilt. In
better days a boy had served him, and he was known to beat
him more and more. Sorae while after, when the boy was

The Mahdi: The Messiah of Mohammedanism 119
not found, the neighbors said between their teeth, ' he has
murdered the lad and buried Jum ! ' When I last saw him
the religion-monger was become a sadder and a silent man;
the great sot had now a cross coaled upon his cottage door,
in the Christian quarter. He said then with a hoUow throat,
' he was but a sinner,' and denied to me, shaking out his
raiment with an affected horror, that ever such as I alleged
had been his former pretension. ' Nay ah ! and Ah nay ! '
The soothsayer would persuade me that ' all was but the
foolish people's saying.' I found him poring and half weep
ing over a written book, which he told me was ' marvellous
wise and healthful to the soul, and the copying it had cost
him much silver.' The arguraent was of God's creatures, the
beasts, and showing how every beast ( after that of the psalm,
' Praise the Lord from the earth, all beasts, creeping things,
and feathered fowl') yieldeth life-worship unto God. He
read rae aloud his last lesson ' Of the voices of the living crea
tures,' and coraing down to the carael, I said, ' Hold there!'
every carael-voice is like a blasphemy : it is very blasphemous.'
Said he : ' Thou art mistaken, that brutish bellowing in his
throat is the camel's making moan unto Allah. — See further
it is written here ! — his prayer for patience under oppres
sion, inasmuch as he is made a partner in man's affliction.'
Neighbors now told me the most sustenance of this sorrow
ful man, past the lining of his purse, to be of herbs, which
cooling diet he had large leave to gather for himself In the
wfld fields." [C. M. Doughty, Arabia Deserta, p. 171-3.
Cambridge, 1888,]

CHAPTER III
THE BUDDHIST MESSIAH
IT has been asserted that the conception of history as a
moving forward rather than a moving backward or a
see-saw, has arisen independently only among two peoples —
in Zoroastrianisra and in Hebraism, [See Soderblom's arti
cle on Ages of the World (Zoroastrian) in Hastings' E,R,E.,
I, 210,] Sorae of these older ideas have filtered into the
later Buddhist cult, but have not borne much fruit. The
reason is not far to seek. The messianic hope is fostered
in discontent, born of a desire to arise above one's surround
ings and impose a new impetus upon the controUing regirae.
Buddhism is a religion of submission rather th^in one of
active resistance. It looks for salvation through accepting
rather than rejecting the existing order of things. It conse
quently offers little incentive to any would-be Messiah.
Moreover, the people among whom Buddhism flourishes have
an easy-going, submissive character in keeping with their
religious doctrine. They furnish relatively few elements of
unrest to pave the way for a Messiah; they give out few
despairing or even plaintive notes to invite his advent and
assistance. There is little incentive to earthly salvation
for him who believes :
This body is a nest of loathly sores,
A dark and shiny skin doth wrap it round:
And from a thousand thousand oozing pores
It sendeth out its stenches like an open wound
Christian nations have been coramitted — and some sav the
New Testament justifies it — to a policy of aggressive de
fense, while, in the spirit of Buddhism, 120

The Buddhist Messiah 121
The East bowed low before the blast.
In patient, deep disdain;
She let the legions thunder past.
And plunged in thought again,
[S, K, Saunders, The Heart of Buddhism; and The Story
of Buddhism, 25, New York, 1916.]
The spirit of Hinduism and of Buddhism Is not one of
regeneration. — " It is only a vague postponement of the
moral issues of the soul. There is recognized no future in
tervention that can effect a change in the downward drift.
They emphasise the fact that according to the sowing shall
be the reaping, and that in no part of the universe can fll
desert escape its rewards. There is no hint that any pity
ing eye of God or devil looks upon the struggle, or any arm
is stretched forth to raise up the crippled and helpless soul.
Time is the only Savior — time so vague, so distant, that
the mind cannot follow its cycles or trace the relations of
cause and effect." [Ellinwood, Oriental Religions and
Christianity, 347. Cf. art., Jesus Christ, by W. D. Mac-
Kenzie, in Hastings' E.R.E., VII, 505, for comparison with
Christianity.] But neither messianic faith nor action in accordance with
it is entirely absent. Avalokita, the Buddhist " all-sided
one," whose face is turned in every direction in order to see
everything and save everybody, is a savior far superior to
the other great Bodhisattvas — as the future Buddhas are
called — to think of whom is better than to do honor to thou
sands of Buddhas. At the end of our age he will appear as
the thousandth and last Buddha of the age. [See the fol
lowing articles in Hastings' E.R.E. : AValokitesvara, II,
256-61. Bodhisattva, II, 739-53. Adibuddha, I, 93-100.
Lotus of the Tme Law, VIII, 146-6. (AU by L. De La
Vallee Poussin.) Arhat, I, 774-5 (by T. W. Rhys Davids).
Incarnation (Buddhist), VII, 187-8; (Indian), 193-7).
Moggalava, VIII, 768-70. Moksa, lb., 770-4.]
Manjusri, one of the Buddhistic " gods," declared in his
bodhisattva vow that he did not wish to become a Buddha
quickly, because he wished to remain to the last in this world

122 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
in order to save its beings. [Art., Manjusri, in Hastings'
E.R.E., VIII, 406, n. 2 (by Poussin).]
The Buddhist expectation of a King of Kings was partly
political, partly phflosophical or religious in origin, and has
many elements in comraon with the Jewish raessianic expec
tation. Gotama, the later accepted Buddha, was the fulfil
ment of these hopes only in the limited degree that Jesus
was the fulfilment of earlier Jewish hopes. Gotama exceeded
in spiritual loftiness the prediction of a King of Kings as
much as Jesus exceeded the prediction of the Messiah ; never
theless, he partially filled the earlier demand, and had not
Gotama risen to the occasion some other would have en
deavored to do so. [T. W. Rhys Davids, Lectures on the
Origin and Growth of Religion as Illustrated by Some Points
in the History of Indian Buddhism, 129—50. London, 1897.
Ch. XII, The Christ and the Buddha, in J. P. Jones, India,
Its Life and Thought. New York, 1908.]
The wa}' for the advent of a Messiah is paved by the belief
that Krishna will retum at the end of all time, when physical
and moral need have reached their acme upon earth. In the
clouds of heaven he will appear upon his white steed. With
a comet in his right hand, as a sword of flame, he wfll destroy
the old earth by fire, found a new earth and a new heaven,
and establish a golden age of purity and perfection in which
there will be nothing but pure joy and blessedness. [Arthur
Drews, The Christ Myth, 107.]
The tenth avatar of Hinduism is to come at a time of
great and universal wickedness and establish a kingdom of
righteousness on the earth. So similar is this expectation
to the Christian messianic hope that " some years ago the
Rev. John Newton, of Lahore, took advantage of this pre
diction and wrote a tract showing that the tme deliverer and
king of righteousness had already come in the person of
Jesus Christ. So striking seemed the fulfilment viewed from
the Hindu standpoint, that some hundreds in the city of
Rarapore were led to a faith in Christ as an avatar of
Vishnu." [EUinwood, 282-3. J. T. Sunderiand, The Bible,
Its Origin, Growth, etc. New York, 1898. J, P. Jones,
India, Its Life and Thought, New York, 1908.]

The Buddhist Messiah 123
Early Hindoo and Chinese traditions refer to Buddha's
return frora heaven in the flesh. His arrival is to be attested
by miracles. He will establish a kingdom of heavenly truth
and justice, will die and retum to heaven, " I ara about to
descend and be bom araong raen, simply to give peace and
rest to aU flesh, and to remove aU sorrow and grief from the
world." [Ernest De Bunsen, The Angel-Messiah of Bud
dhists, Essenes, and Christians. London, 1880.]
In generating messianic hope the Japanese seera tO' have
outstripped their slower Eastern neighbors. It is reported,
though confessedly not on the best of evidence, that about
A, D, 50, a Brahraanical sect was introduced into Japan, the
doctrine of which was the rederaption of the world by the
son of a virgin, who died to expiate the sins of raen, thus
ensuring to them a joyful resurrection, [Manners and
Customs of the Japanese in the Nineteenth Century, 247,
New York, 1841, John L. Atkinson, Prince Siddartha:
The Japanese Buddha. Boston, 1893,] Possessions and in
carnations are frequent phenomena among this people and do
much to pave the way to intense religious zeal, [Percival
Lowell, Occult Japan, 97-192.]
The most remarkable of Japanese Messiahs appeared but
a few years ago (1910) on the streets of Tokyo, wearing a
frock coat of foreign raake and a sleeveless haori over it.
This Buddha, or Christ, bore the name of Miyazaki, On the
haori were characters meaning Prophet, Buddha, and Mes
siah. He had been what the Japanese call a soshi, one of the
class of the politically discontented, or, as an unsympathetic
writer has defined it, " one of the turbulent class who suffer
from too much education and too little to eat, and who are
at the root of every disturbance." He had been a journalist.
He now pubUshed a book called My New Gospel, In which he
set forth his claims as the Messiah-Buddha, — " The consum
mation of all the prophecies since the beginning of the
world." In the year of his appearance and self-proclama
tion he claimed about fifty followers. [Lady Lawson, High
ways and Homes of Japan, 284. London, 1910. The subse
quent fate of this sect I have not been able to discover, and
my efforts to obtain a copy of Miyazaiki's work have, so far,

124 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
been fruitless.]
The Lamas place their " Coming Buddha," or Mes
siah, in the West and anticipate his arrival from that
point of the compass Some have urged that the Tsar
was the fulfiUraent of this wish. But the sect of
Lamaism known as Ge-lug, or YeUow Hats, derive their
divine inspiration from the living Buddhist Messiah,
Maitreya, " the next coming Buddha, as revealed through
the succession of Indian saints from Asanga down to Atisa,
and through the Tibetan saints from Atisa's disciple Brom-
ton downwards to Tsong-Kha-pa," [L, A, Waddell, Lhasa
and Its Mifsteries, 31, 369. London, 1906, Art,, Lamaism,
Hastings' E,R,E,, VII, 787 ; Maitreya, Vol, VIII,]
Nor have Buddhists in other lands given up the expecta
tion of the retum of a divine being in human form who will
save men's bodies as well as their souls. According to the
Theosophists there is in India at this time, in the person of
Alcyone, or J, Krishnaraurta, one of these messianic reincar
nations. [G, Herbert Whyte, The Great Teachers. Theo-
sophical Publishing House, London, 1913, Alcyone (J,
Krishnamurti) , At the Feet of the Master. Theosophical
Publishing House, Los Angeles, Cal, No date,] Gorakh-
nath, the patron saint of the Indian State Gorlcha, is ubiqui
tous and all powerful, the representative of the god Siva,
or even a form of that god. May not the living man be
equally the representative of some god — a true Messiah?
[Gorakhnath, in Hastings' E,R,E,, VI, 328-30,]
In the desire for the Buddha there is hope for one who
will bring personal salvation as well as universal good, for
a Buddha " Who from all ill and sorrow hast released
Me and so many, many stricken folk,"
This Buddha wiU retum when there are some who understand
the message of salvation. Not once only wfll this Buddha
come; he will appear from time to time, the conditions of
his advent being considered in the canonical books in the
light of a natural law.

The Buddhist Messiah 125
" As on a crag, on crest of mountain standing,
A man might watch the people far below.
E'en so do Thou, O' Wisdom fair, ascending,
O Seer of all, the terraced heights of truth.
Look down, from grief released, upon the nations
Sunken in Grief, oppressed with birth and age.
Arise, thou hero ! Conqueror in the battle !
Thou freed from debt ! Lord of the pilgrim-band,
Walk the world o'er, sublime and blessed Teacher!
Teach us the Truth — there are who'll understand,"
[Rhys Davids, in art,, Desire, Hastings' E,R,E,, IV, 667-8.
Pessimism (Indian), lb., IX, S'il— 14.]

CHAPTER IV
messianic movements AMONG THE NEGROES
THE messianic excitement carried to a high pitch by
the "Wilderness Worshipers" in 1889 and 1890
among the negroes along the Savannah river In Georgia and
South Carolina, when one man after another proclaimed
himself the Christ and proraised miracles, may have had its
impetus in the white man's domination. Part of the promise
held out to his followers by the first of these Christs, a mu
latto bearing the name of BeU, was that the world would
come to an end on August 16, 1890 ; on which date all ne
groes would fade into white raen, all white men become black.
The promise of the Messiah carried a " rider " to the effect
that all those who wished to ascend on the last day must pur
chase wings from him. [Mooney in Fourteenth Annual Re
port of the Bureau of Ethnology, Pt. 2.]
Under date of January 17, 1916, Prof, Howard W, Odum,
of the University of Georgia, writes rae :
" We had a negro preacher in South Georgia last year
who clairaed to be the Messiah and who got considerable fol
lowing from community to community by offering to heal the
sick and to save the wicked; however, he charged a fee and
was later arrested for obtaining money under false pre
tenses. " Another one near Atlanta claimed to be the Messiah ahd
organized a sort of membership of the blessed and set a cer
tain day when he should arise and fly into the skies. On that
day, however, when a considerable number of negroes had
gathered, he failed to appear, and was later arrested for
taking money under false pretenses. I have heard of a
number of such cases, but they are not genuine' cases of mes
sianic aspirations, in all probability."
At any rate they show a susceptibility on the part of
126

Messianic Movements Among the Negroes 127
those to whom the appeal is made, and this susceptibility is
probably soraewhat greater than among their white breth
ren. Many of the negro songs, as Prof. Odum calls to my
attention, show a genuine feeling of companionship with the
Messiah, whora they envisage realistically. [See the negro
songs coUected by Prof, Odum and published in The Journal
of Religious Psychology, 1910. Dr. J. J, Watson has shown
me many songs of similar import collected by him,]
To another correspondent I am indebted for the following
information :
" In two negro insurrections that occurred in this state
(Virginia), the leaders, if I remember correctly, claimed
supernatural powers and authorities,
" In the opening years of the last century — during Gov
ernor Monroe's administration (1798-1802) — the negroes
near Richmond forraed a plot, rose in large numbers and ad
vanced on Richmond, Timely heavy rains flooded the
creeks and retarded their advance, giving the whites time to
guard against their attack. The leader, it was said, claimed
supernatural guidance and power. Mention is made of this
attack in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography,
published in Richmond by the Virginia Historical Society,
" In August, 1831, a body of negroes (60 to 70) rose in
Southampton County and massacred 65 whites. Their
leader, Nat Turner, declared ' he had been commissioned by
Jesus Christ, and that he was acting under inspired direction
in what he was going to accomplish.'
" Howe, in his Virginia, Its History and Antiquities, pub
lished in 1845 by Babcock and Co., Charleston, South Caro
lina, gives a fairly fuU account of this insurrection In pages
471—474. In Nat's confession, given on page 472, he says :
" ' On the twelfth day of May, 1828, I heard a loud noise
in the heavens, and the spirit instantly appeared to me, and
said the serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down the
yoke he had borne for the sins of men ; and that I should
take It on and fight against the serpent, etc' " [This rising
is noticed by other Virginia histories, and accounts of it have
frequently appeared in the public prints. Howe, in the
sarae volume, refers (p. 126, 127) to the rising in Governor

128 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Monroe's first administration. Information furnished by
Mr, G, M. McBryde, of Blacksburg, Virginia, under date of
March 19, 1916, W, E, B. Du Bois, The Negro, 196. New
York, 1915.]
A Santo Domingo Messiah by the name of Olivero gained
prominence in that island in 1913 and continued to hold forth
in the mountainous section near the center of the island untfl
1917, when United States marines captured him and put an
end to his activities. He claimed supernatural power to
heal the sick and the ability to perform miracles.
Haiti also harbored a savior of his people. Like the Mes
siahs of the Plains Area, of the Sudan, and the " Mad Mul
lah " of India, he claimed to be proof against bullets. Faith
in this invulnerability enabled him to foment and lead several
revolutions; and other supernatural powers were attributed
to him. He was finally shot, [Information furnished by
Mr, Marian E, Beall, forraerly of the U, S, Customs Receiver
ship in Santo Domingo,]
In 1856-7, an outbreak among South African tribes
against the British is directly traceable to the misfortunes
which the white men had brought upon them, " An im
postor, named Umlanjeni, predicted that if the confederate
tribes slaughtered all their cattle, destroyed every peck of
corn, and left the ground unfilled in the spring, that at a
certain time their ancestors would rise and drive the English
into the sea whence they came. He further alleged that he
saw in his visions the cattle belonging to the ancestors com
ing in huge droves over the liills, and that after the expul
sion of the EngUsh, every raan could have as raany as he had
provided folds for the eventful day. The com pits also
were to be filled without tillage. This delusion took pos
session of their fevered imagination, and a number of tribes
destroyed every hoof and left their com lying in heaps to rot.
Feasting, dancing, and warlike demonstrations occupied their
whole tirae. In vain the Government tried to avert the im
pending ruin," [MacDonald, in Journal of the Anthropo
logical Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol, 19, p.
280-2, Du Bois, op. cit,, 91, The return of the dead he
roes was promised,]

Messiamc Movements Among the Negroes 129
The distraught negroes of Nigeria are said to expect, as
a result of Mohammedan teaching, that a foreign power will
come into the land and oppress thera for four years ; then
the Mahdi wiU arise and the intruders will be driven out.
[G. D. Hazzledine, The White Man in Nigeria, 31, 224,]
" The measures taken by the protectorate of Nigeria in
recent years to regulate taxation, emancipate slaves, and
introduce other reforms led to the rise of numerous Mahdis ;
between the years 1900 and 1905 there were a dozen in
Sokoto, and as many in the other provinces. In 1905
Mahdis arose simultaneously in Saturu, Banchi, and Konta-
gara. Most of these were caught, tried, and executed, the
government regarding such severity as necessary for the
preservation of order. In 1907 there was one Mahdi at
Banchi, ' but the situation was in general satisfactory.' "
[Mahdi (by MargoUouth), in Hastings' E.R.E,, VIII, 340,]
In the Sudan, as elsewhere, good and stable government
renders the appearance of Mahdis rarer and rarer and their
adherents fewer and fewer, " To the question whether there
were any relics of Mahdiism in the Sudan, the Cairene Jour
nal Muqtqtif as early as 1902 (XXVII, 1126) replied that
the introduction of security and justice in the place of the
long reign of terror which that systera had produced had
effectuaUy destroyed its traces." [Ib,]

CHAPTER V
MESSIAHS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN ABORIGINES
The Religious Experience of Primitive Peoples
THE religious life of primitive peoples is usually pic
tured as one hedged around with peculiar restrictions.
Nothing is so inveterate as religious practice, nothing so
thoroughly socially sanctified, no restrictions so difficult to
escape, as the injunctions of primitive religion. It is only
in the higher forms of society, we are insistently reminded,
that the individual can make his peace with God after his
own inclination, and follow his own plan of salvation.
Though there is much truth in this description there can
be no doubt that the formal aspects of primitive life have
been over-eraphasized. The compulsory aspect of primitive
religious life has been magnified into disproportion, the re
sultant picture becoming a caricature rather than a charac
terization. Primitive religion is, in fact, as rich in content as in form.
In the experiences of the Australian medicine-raan there is
a new stress of values, a new Interpretation of life and be
havior coraparable to the data .presented by WiUiam James
in his Varieties of Religious Experiences. The alleged uni
formity does not exist. Among the Maori there are, accord
ing to Treagear, " some widely different accounts given by
those who have returned from the Under World." ^
Among the Kafirs a person sometimes " Intiraates that he
has received revelations from the spirit world. He is really
a monomaniac," says Theal, " but if his statements are be
lieved his power at once becomes greater than that of the
highest chief and his coramands are implicitly obeyed," ^
1 E. Treagear, Maori Race, 419.
2 Theal, Kafir Folk-Lore, 31-2. 130

Messialis of the North American Aborigines 131
In North America there is frequently an achievement of
religious independence. Among the Gros Ventres, men went
out to fast in the hope of receiving supernatural aid, though
not all men tried to acquire such powers and sorae of those
who did fafled. As a result of his death experience and the
excursion of his soul into the realm of phantom shades,
Engawaen Jim, a Northern Shoshone, mistrusted the state
ments both of the medicine-men and of the missionaries about
the spirit world, since their accounts failed to taUy with his.
Even in the ritualistic phase individual innovation has
played an important role, as witness Hopi ceremonials,^
Among the Apache it appears that any man may acquire
supernatural power, " It is necessary to convince his
friends that ' he has the gift,' that Is, he must show that he
is a dreamer of dreams, given to long fasts and vigfls, able
to interpret omens in a satisfactory raanner, and do other
things of that general nature to demonstrate the possession
of an intense spirituaUty, Then he wiU begin to withdraw,
at least temporarily, from the society of his feUows and de
vote himself to long absences, especiaUy by night, in the
' high places.' Such sacred fanes, perched in dangerous
and hidden retreats, can be, or untfl lately could be, found
in many parts of our reraote western territory." In a word,
a man must hear the caU before he can foUow his caUIng, he
must show abflity before he can secure recognition. The in
dividual who " has it in him " wiU succeed, " Whfle it is
regarded as a surer mode of learning how to be a medicine
man to seek the tuition of some one who has already gained
power and influence as such, and pay him liberaUy in pres
ents of aU kinds for a course of instruction lasting a year or
longer, I could learn of nothing to prohibit a man from
assuming the role of a prophet or healer of the sick, if so dis-
1 Fewkes, 21, A. R. A. B. E. 113. In a letter dated April 17, 1913,
Dr. Fewkes tells me he was personally acquainted with no less than four
of these innovators. He adds, " You will find much individual inven
tion in the semi-secular acts, impromptu and otherwise, of the Hopi
clowns or Koyimsi, who carry on their pranks, varying each perfor
mance, while the Sacred Katcinas are being danced. One of these is
referred to in an article in the American Anthropologist, vol. 12, X. S.,
p. 59."

132 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
posed, beyond the dread of punishment for failure to cure or
alleviate sickness or infirmity. Neither is there such a thing
as settled dogma among these medicine-men. Each foUows
the dictates of his own inclinations, consulting such spirits
and powers as are most amenable to his supplications and
charms ; but no two seem to rely upon identically the same
influences." " Even in the spirit dance, which is possibly the most
solemn function in which the Apache medicine-raen can
engage, the head-dresses and kilts adhered closely enough
to the one pattern, but the symbolism employed by each
medicine-man was entirely different from that adopted by his
neighbor." The L'Annee Sociologique School have tried to resolve all
individual actions into mere phases of social activity, their
source being in the social milieu rather than in the individual.
For Durkheim, compulsory religion can have no origin in
individuals but only in the etats de I'ame collective, et elle
varie comme ces etats. Si elle etait fondee dans la consti
tution de I'indvvidu, elle ne se presenterait pas a lui sous cet
aspect coercitif, Gehlke has not done Durkheim an injustice
in alleging that in his later theory he has made of the indi
vidual only a body without a soul- of his own. " His soul
is the raind of society incarnated in his body. The social
mind is all the mind that exists ; and in this sense the social
is the only real." ^
We propose to submit examples of the introduction by in
dividuals of new religions and to show that in many of these
cases the individual presents to society the coercitive aspect
of the religion. These new religions seem to show that the
individual is a social system in himself, capable of taking
frora other cultures some new idea and giving this to his own
group. He, more completely than the group, embodies the
religious concepts and is the source of their' development.
To account for many of the phenomena of change and prog
ress in the social order we must admit the reality of the indi
vidual as a separable determining agent. Though often bor-
1 Charles E. Gehlke, Emile Durkheim's Contributions to Sociological
Theory, New York, 1915. See, especially, Durkheim, La Vie Religieuse.

Messiahs of the North American Aborigines ISS
rowed from another group, these concepts are reinterpreted
by the individual, infused with new meaning, and by him
imposed upon the group. In two senses of the word it may
be an imposition upon the part of the individual, for his
doctrines often bring the group to ruin. Though they later
see the extent to which their wiUs have been swayed by the
prophet, their idea^ submerged beneath his own, the tem
porary subordination may be complete and thoroughgoing.
These instances eloquently chaUenge the subordination of
individual to group; nay, more, they seem to demonstrate
successfuUy the larger reaUty of individual mind.
For example, as the result of the journeys of a certain
Southern Massim, one Tokeri, to Hiyoyoa, the chief over the
land of the dead, " he warned the people of Mflne Bay to
kfll their pigs and to bufld houses in the bush, for, said he,
a great wave would presently come from Hiyoyoa and, flood
ing the coast, would sweep their dwellings away. FoUowing
the wave Hiyoyoa (a mythical person, or god) would ap
pear at the head of Mflne Bay, beneath which it now ejdsts.
At Gabugabuna, his own hamlet, his words were believed,
and many pigs were killed and houses buflt in the bush. At
Wagawaga they were content to bufld houses in the bush
without slaughtering their pigs, whfle Maivara remained
sceptical and refused to act on his prophecies. As time
passed and there were no signs of the fulfillment of the
prophecy, the feeling of the Bay turned against the prophet.
Tokeri coifld not, however, be kflled out of hand, because
Samaral, the seat of government, was too near. He was
threatened with death so often on account of the pigs he had
caused to be kiUed and for the trouble he had caused in the
Bay, especiaUy to the old folk, that the Government rose to
the occasion, and interned the prophet for a short time upon
some technical plea of extortion connected with the pig-kUl-
ing, untfl the heat of resentment had abated." [C. G, Selig-
mann. The Melanesians of British Nezc Guinea, 656. Macmfl-
lan, 1908.] This, if not a case of genuine messianic mani
festation, shows at least the inception of messianism in
the nature of motives and of circumstances.

134 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Messiahs of the North American Aborigines
Among no primitive peoples known to us have messiahs
flourished so abundantly and vigorously as among the
aborigines of North America, One may suggest two reasons
for this frequency:
1, The early Christian influence, represented especiaUy
by the Spanish missions and the Jesuits, as well as, later, the
English, Christianity, thus, early sowed the seed of raessi
anic faith which later brought forth fmit abundantly, espe
ciaUy under conditions like those prevafling among the down
trodden Jews, Here the fruit of missionary endeavour has
had a longer period for full fruition than among any other
primitive people,
2, The energy and vigor of the American tribes. They
have resisted the disrupting forces of European civilization
more arduously than have other savages. Individual and
tribal strength, pride in their culture, and disdain of the
European, are the traits that have marked the Indian, Like
the Jews, though trampled upon, they have disdainfully
scoffed at their oppressors. They possessed none of those
servile and humble qualities which made of the Negro a
profitable and easy slave,-' A bluer blood coursed through
their veins ; servility was not to their mood. In many re
spects they counted honor above life.
It is of the American messiahs, also, that we have the
best and most complete accounts, thanks largely to the
work of the American ethnologist, Mr. Mooney. He first
brought the importance of these phenomena home to us and
gave both a vivid description and an incisive interpretation
of them. No fitter introduction to this topic could be given
than the following two paragraphs from Mr, Mooney's pen
(from whom, in the following account, we shall quote liber-
ally): " From time to time in every great tribe and every im-
1 In some instances they submitted to enslavement by other Indians ;
yet repeated attempts upon the part of Europeans to enslave them ended
in failure, and often disastrously. [See, for example, Almon Wheeler
Lauber, Indian Slavery in Colonial Times within the Present Limits of
the United States, New York, 1913.]

Messiahs of the North American Aborigines 135
portant crisis of Indian history we find certain raen rising
above the position of ordinary doctor, soothsayer, or ritual
priest to take upon themselves an apostleship of reform and
retum to the uncorrupted ancestral beliefs and custom as
the necessary means to save their people frora irapending
destruction by decay or conquest. In some cases the teach
ing takes the form of a new Indian gospel, the revolutionary
culmination of a long and silent development of the native
religious thought. As the faithful disciples were usually
promised the return of the earlier and happier conditions,
the restoration of the diminished game, the expulsion of the
alien intruder, and reunion in earthly existence with the
priests who had preceded thera to the spirit world — all to
be brought about by direct supernatural Interposition —
the teachers have been called prophets,
" While aU goes well with the tribe the religious feeling
finds sufficient expression in the ordinary ritual forms of
tribal usage, but when misfortune threatens the nation or
the race, the larger emergency brings out the prophet, who
strives to avert the disaster by moulding his people to a
common purpose through insistence upon the sacred charac
ter of his message, and thus furnishes support to the chiefs
in their plans for organized improvement or resistance.
Thus It is found that almost every great Indian warlike com
bination has had its prophet messenger in the outset, and if
all the facts could be known we should proba,bly find the
rule universal." [James Mooney, in Handbook of American
Indians, II, 309.]
/ Chief araong these prophets, or Messiahs, and the earliest
of whora we have record was Pope, " a celebrated Tewa raedi-
cine-raan, native of the pueblo of San Juan, who first appears
In New Mexican history in 1675, as a leader either of some
prisoners charged with witchcraft, and with killing several
missionaries, or of a party that visited the Spanish governor
at Sante Fe in that year demanding their release. Later
making Taos the seat of his efforts, he quietly preached the
doctrine of independence of Spanish authority and the res
toration of the old Pueblo life, which developed into a plot
to murder or drive from the country the 2400 Spanish colo-

136 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
nists and priests." He and his foUowers succeeded in oust
ing the Spaniards. " Having accomplished this much. Pope
set about to realize the rest of his dream. Those who had
been baptized as Christians were washed with yucca suds;
the Spanish language and aU baptismal names were prohib
ited; where not already consumed by the burning of the
churches, aU Christian objects were destroyed and every
thing done to restore the old order of things. This project
of obliterating everything Spanish from the life and thought
of the Indians met with the same enthusiasm as that with
which the plan of revolt had been received, and for a long
tirae Pope, dressed in cereraonial garb as he went from pueblo
to pueblo, was everywhere received with honor." [Art.,
Pope, in Handbook of American Indians.]
We have another interesting Messiah in the person of
" Teuskwatawa " (Teu-skwa-ta wa, skwa te, door, theuni,
" to be open," " The Open Door ") the famous " Shawnee
Prophet," twin brother of Tecumseh, prominent in Indian
and American history immediately before the War of 1812.
His original narae was Lalawethika, referring to a rattle or
similar instrument. According to one account he was noted
in his earlier years for stupidity and intoxication ; but one
day, while lighting his pipe in his cabin, he feU back appar
ently lifeless and remained in that condition until his friends
had assembled for the funeral, when he revived from his
trance, quieted their alarm and announced that he had been
conducted to the spirit world. In November, 1805, when
hardly more than thirty years of age, he called around him
his tribesraen and their allies at their ancient capital of
Wapakoneta, within the present limits of Ohio, and an
nounced himself as the bearer of a new revelation from the
Master of Life. " He declared that he had been taken up
to the spirit world and had been permitted to lift the vefl of
the past and the future — had seen the raisery of evil doers
and learned the happiness that awaited those who followed
the precepts of the Indian god. He then began an earnest
exhortation, denouncing the witchcraft practices and medi
cine juggleries of the tribe, and soleranly warning his hearers
that none who had part in such things would ever taste of

Messiahs of the North American Aborigines 137
the future happiness. The firewater of the whites was poison
and accursed ; and those who continued its use would be tor
mented after death with aU the pains of fire, while flames
would continually issue from their mouths. This idea may
have been derived from the white raan's teaching or from
the Indian practice of torture by fire. The young must
cherish and respect the aged and infirm. All property must
be in coraraon, according to the ancient law of their ancestors.
Indian women must cease to intermarry with white men ; the
two races were distinct and must remain so. The white
man's dress, with his fiint and steel, must be discarded for the
old-time buckskin and the fire-stick. More than this, every
tool and every custom derived from the whites must be put
away, and the Indians must retum to the methods the Master
of Life had taught them. When they should do all this, he
promised that they would be again taken into divine favor,
and find the happiness which their fathers had known before
the coraing of the whites. FinaUy, in proof of his divine mis
sion, he announced that he had received power to cure all
diseases and to arrest the hand of death in sickness or on the
battlefield. . . .
" Intense excitement f oUowed the prophet'sj announcement
of his mission, and a crusade commenced against all sus
pected of dealing in witchcraft. The prophet very cleverly
turned the crusade against any who opposed his supernatural
claims, but in this he soraetiraes overreached himself, and lost
much of his prestige in consequence.
" He now changed his name to Teuskwa'tawa, significant
of the new mode of life which he had corae to point out to
his people, and fixed his headquarters at Greenville, Ohio,
where representatives frora the various scattered tribes of the
North- West gathered about him to learn the new doctrines.
To establish his sacred character and to dispel the doubts
of the unbelievers he continued to dream dreams and an
nounce wonderful revelations from time to time. A miracle
which finally silenced all objections was the prediction of
an eclipse of the sun which took place in the summer of 1806;
this was followed by his enthusiastic acceptance as a true
prophet and the messenger of the Master of Life. The en-

138 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
thusiasm now spread rapidly and eraissaries traveled from
tribe to tribe as far as the Seminole and the Siksike, incul
cating the new doctrines."
Teuskwa'tawa's success is partly attributable to the fact
that he possessed a magnetic and powerful personality.
[James Mooney, lb., 729-30. He quotes in part from
Drake's Life of Tecumseh.]
In practically all of these instances the prophet or mes
siah has appeared at a time of great social need. Smohalla,
the Nez Perce prophet, and one of the most eminent of the
North American messiahs, insisted upon the helplessness of
his tribe before the encroachments of the whites. The tribe
would be exterminated, said he, unless they found assistance
in a higher power. Smohalla found this higher power and
obtained from it knowledge of the salvation of the Nez Perce
from the white man's deteriorating influence. Should his
tribesmen heed this sacred message they were promised strong
and sudden help as surely as spring follows winter.
WTien the Kickapoo prophet, Kanakiik, visited General
Clark to explain his mission, he began with a discourse on
the origin of his divine mission and the nature of his doctrine,
illustrating the subject by means of a peculiar diagram, and
closing with an earnest appeal that his people raight remain
undisturbed. The words in which he couched his message
show the nature of the circumstances that caUed forth the
divine revelation.
" My father," said Kanakiik, In addressing General Clark,
" the Great Spirit appeared to me ; he saw my heart was in
sorrow about our land; he told me not to give up the busi
ness, but go to my Great Father and he would listen to me.
My father, when I talked to the Great Spirit, I saw the chiefs
holding the land fast. He told me the life of our children
was short and that the earth would sink. My father, you
call all the Redskins your children. When we have chil
dren, we treat them well. That is the reason I make this
long talk to get you to take pity on us and let us remain
where we are. When I saw the Great Spirit, he told me to
throw all our bad acts away. We did so. Some of our
chiefs said the land belonged to us, the Kickapoos. But this

Messiahs of the North American Aborigines 139
is not what the Great Spirit told me — the lands belong to
him. The Great Spirit told me that no people owned the
lands — that all was his, and not to forget to tell the white
people that when we went into council. When I told the
Great Spirit, he told me. Mention all this to your Great
Father, He will take pity on your situation and let you re
main on the lands where you are for some years, when you
wfll be able to get through all the bad places . . . and where
you wiU get to a clear piece of land where you wiU aU live
happy. When I talked to the Great Spirit, he told rae to
make my warriors throw their tomahawks in the bad place.
I did so, and every night and morning I raise my hands to
the Great Spirit and pray to him to give us success. I ex
pect, my father, that God has put me in a good way — that
our chfldren shall see their sisters and brothers and our
woraen see their chfldren. They wfll grow up and travel and
see their totems. The Great Spirit told me, ' Our old raen
had totems. They were good and had many totems. Now
you have scarcely any. If you follow my advice, you wfll
soon have totems again.' " [Indian Office Document.]
A ballad composed by one W, H, Prather, a colored pri
vate in the regiment that helped quell the Siouan outbreak
accompanying the ghost dance religion introduced by the
Paiute messiah, Wovoka, teUs the story — though with more
directness than poetic imagery — of the intent of this reli
gion. The baUad, which is called The Indian Ghost Dance
and. War, and was very popular with the troops for a whfle,
starts :

" The Red Skins left their Agency, the Soldiers left their post
AU on the strength of an Indian tale about Messiah's ghost
Got up by savage chieftains to lead their tribes astray;
But Uncle Sam wouldn't have it so, for he ain't built that way.
They swore that this Messiah came to them in visions sleep.
And promised to restore their game and buffaloes a heap.
So they must start a big ghost dance, then all would join their
band,
And maybe so we lead the way into the Great Bad Land.

140 ¦ Messiahs : Christian and Pagan
Chorus :
They claimed the shirt Messiah gave, no bullet could go through.
But when the Soldiers fired at them they saw this was not true,
etc., etc.
" If we dance," said a Dakota convert, " our Good Spirit
wiU protect us, and when all dancers are sincere, the bullets
of the soldiers wfll harmlessly faU to the ground without
power to hurt. There is no army so powerful that it can
contend with Wakantanka (literaUy, the Most Holy),
therefore we are not afraid to remain here." The Great
Spirit had prepared a hole in the ground filled with hot water
and fire for the reception of all white men and non-believers,
and had informed a devotee that " the earth was now bad
and worn out; that the Dakota needed a new dwelling place
where the whites could not disturb them." [W. K. Moore-
head, Field Diary of an Archaeological Collector, 15—19,]
In the tribes strongly entrenched, flourishing in their
aboriginal vigor and feeling little need of redemption, so long
as the outside pressure of civilization scarcely discommoded
them, the messianic religion met with little or no success, for
the favorable conditions were not present. In vain did the
Paiute runners bring to the powerful Navaho the news of
the near advent of the messiah and of the resurrection of the
dead. To a tribe safely ensconced in the fastnesses of New
Mexico and Arizona, apart from deleterious white contact,
in numbers over 16,000 strong, having some 9,000 cattle,
119,000 horses, 1,600,000 sheep and goats, rich in herds
and silver, the raessage carae in vain, for they felt, in their
prosperity, no especial need of a redeemer. "The messengers
of good tidings " preached and prophesied for a consider
able tirae, but the Navaho were sceptical, laughed at the
prophets, and paid but little attention to the prophecies.
The doctrinal seed had faUen on barren ground." You
cannot save a people who will not have salvation, [Moonev
in Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology,
809^10,] In significant contrast with the attitude of the prosperous
Navaho toward the new ghost dance religion was that of the
hard-pressed Kiowa with their predisposition to accept the

Messiahs of the North American Aborigines 141
new messianic religion, proraising, a^ it did, satisfaction of
long and intensely felt needs, the fulfillment of a long-delayed
restoration of the more prosperous conditions which charac
terized this tribe prior to contact with civilization, " No
tribe had made more desperate resistance to the encroach
ments of the whites upon their hunting grounds, and even
after the failure of the last effort of the confederated tribes
in 1874-5, the Kiowa were slow to accept the verdict of
defeat. The result of this unsuccessful struggle was to put
an end to the boundless freedom of the prairie, where they
had roamed unquestioned from Dakota almost to central
Mexico, and henceforth the tribes were confined within the
narrow limits of reservations. Within five years the great
southern buffalo herd was extinct and the Indians found
themselves at once prisoners and paupers. The change was
so swift and terrible in its effects that they could not believe
it real and final. It seeraed to thera like a dreara of sorrow,
a supernatural cloud of darkness to punish their derelictions,
but which could be lifted from them by prayer and sacrifice.
Their old men told of years when the buffalo was scarce or
had gone a long way off, but never since the beginning of the
world of a time when there were no buffalo. The buffalo
still lived beyond their horizon or in caves under the earth,
and with its return would come back prosperity and free
dom." Hence, when in 1881, a young Kiowa, bearing the appella
tion of " Keeps-his-narae-always," began to raake medicine
that would bring back the buffalo, setting up for this pur
pose a sacred tipi, in front of which he erected a pole with
a buffalo skin at the top, then making for hiraself a priestly
robe of red color, trimmed' with rows of eagle feathers, his
efforts were not looked upon askance by his fellow tribesmen ;
on the contrary, being so much in sympathy with his object
and feeling so profoundly the necessity of its success, they
warmly welcomed the effort and readily acknowledged his
authority, " Standing in front of his tipi he called the
people around him and told them that he had been cora
raanded and empowered in a dream to bring back the buffalo,
and if they observed strictly the prayers and ceremonies

142 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
which he enjoined the great herds would once more cover the
prairie. His hearers believed his words, promised strict
obedience, and gave freely of their blankets and other prop
erty to reward his efforts in their behalf." After about a
year death terminated his prophecies and his buffalo medi
cine without the realization of his hopes.
But Kiowa hope was not dead. In 1887, less than a
decade after the death of " Keeps-hls-name-always," " In-
the-mlddle," another prophet, revived the prophecy, " claim
ing to be heir to all the supernatural powers of his prede
cessor. He amplified the doctrine by asserting, logically
enough, that as the whites were responsible for the disap
pearance of the buffalo, the whites theraselves would be de
stroyed by the gods when the time was at hand for the return
of the buffalo. He preached also his own invulnerability and
claimed the power to kfll with a look those who might offend
him, as far as his glance could reach. Finally he announced
that the time was at hand when the whites would be reraoved
and the buffalo would return. He ordered all the tribe to
assemble on Elk Creek, where after four days he would bring
down fire from heaven which would destroy the agency, the
schools, and the white race, with the Indian unbelievers all
together. The faithful need not fear pursuit by the troops,
for the soldiers who raight follow would wither before his
glance and the bullets would have no effect on the Indians.
The whole Kiowa tribe caught the infection of his words.
Every carap was abandoned, parents took their chfldren
from the schools, and all fled to the rendezvous on Elk Creek.
Here they waited patiently for their deliverance till the pre
dicted day came, and passed, without event, when they re
turned with sadness to their camp and their government
rations of white man's beef. Pa-ingya (In-the-middle) still
lives, but the halo of prophecy no longer surrounds him. To
account for the disappointment he claimed that his people
had violated some of the ordinances and thereby postponed
the destined happiness. In this way their minds were kept
dweUing on the subject, and when at last the rumor of a
messiah came frora the north he hafled it as the fulfiUment
of the prediction."

Messiahs of the North American Aborigines 143
In 1891, four years later, another prophet arose, a man
with visions of restored tribal life and a return of the
abundant supplies of buffalo. But a visit to Wovoko, the
Paiute messiah of whom they had just heard, convinced him
of the latter's false pretensions, a report which, with broken
heart, he both sent by letter in advance and delivered later
in person. An observer of the scene when the Kiowa and
other tribes asserabled to hear this sorrowful report de
scribes it as " dramatic in the highest degree." " Their
power, prosperity, and happiness had gone down, their race
was withering away before the white raan. The messiah doc
trine promised a restoration of the old conditions through
supernatural assistance. If this hope was without founda
tion, the Indian had no future and his day was forever past,"
[Ib„ 906.]
Tavibo, the Paiute prophet, " went up alone into the
mountain and there met the Great Spirit. He brought back
with him no tablets of stone, but he was a messenger of good
tidings to the effect that within a few raoons there was
to be a great upheaval or earthquake. AU the improveraents
of the whites — aU their houses, their goods, stores, etc. —
would reraain, but the whites would be swallowed up while the
Indians would be saved and permitted to enj oy the earth and
all the fullness thereof, including anything left by the wicked
whites. This revelation was duly proclaimed by the prophet,
and attracted a few believers, but the doubting skeptics were
too many, and they, ridiculed the idea that the white men
would fall Into holes and be swallowed up while the Indians
would not. As the prophet could not enforce his belief, he
went up into the raountain again and carae back with a second
revelation, which was that when the great disaster carae, all,
both the Indians and whites would be swallowed up or over
whelmed, but that at the end of three days (or a few days)
the Indians would be resurrected in the flesh, and would live
forever to enjoy the earth with plenty of game, fish, and pine
nuts, while their eneraies, the whites, would be destroyed for
ever. There would be a final and eternal separation between
the Indians and whites,
" This revelation, which seemed more reasonable, was

144 Messiahs: Christian and Paggn
rather popular for awhfle, but as time wore along faith
seemed to weaken and the prophet was without honor even
in his own country. After rauch fasting and prayer, he
made a third trip to the mountains, where he secured a final
revelation or raessage to the people. The divine spirit had
become so much Incensed at the lack of faith in the prophe
cies, that it was revealed to his chosen one that those Indians
who believed in the prophecy would be resurrected and be
happy, but those who did not believe in it would stay in the
ground and be damned forever with the whites," ^ [J, M,
Lee, quoted by Mooney, 14 A, R. A, B. E,, 701-2.] Here
again the theme is Indian Tfersus white raan. The Apache
medicine-man, Nak ai dokli ni, whose hey-day was in 1881,
southern Arizona the field of activity, early In his career
began to advertise his supernatural powers, claiming to be
able to raise the dead and comraune with spirits, and predict
ing that the whites would soon be driven from the land.
The Delaware prophet brought a sirailar vision of help frora
a higher power that would drive back the English who had
so extensively supplanted them on their own territory and
leave the Delaware once more in command of all their lands.
The Ojibway were misled by sirailar hopes and promises
only to be left in greater destitution than before, as were,
later, the Kiowa, who had been promised the retum of the
buffalo herds^^^Tlie motive back of the great Ghost Dance
.'Ireligiorrthat swept across the Plains a quarter of a century
ago and roused the Sioux to their last outbreak was, at bot
tom, an attempt to restore the old tribal life, and, In some
cases, by way of forwarding this restoration, to drive out the
disturbing whites.
- Frora the first of these messianic religions when the Tewa
expeUed the Spaniards, in the seventeenth century, untfl the
Sioux were inspired by the religious fervor of a new doc
trine, there has been throughout the driving force of an
outside pressure. These religions of salvation have arisen
1 Again the sad sequel: "It was not long after this that the prophet
died, and the poor miserable Indians worried along for nearly two de
cades, eating grasshoppers, lizards, and fish and trying to be civilized
untU the appearance of a new prophet Quoit-tsow, who is said to be the
son, either actual or spiritual of the first one."

Messiahs of the North American Aborigines 145
when the tribe was hard-pressed and facing subjugation if
not annihflation. The Messiah was responding to the higher
law that calls upon the individual to save his group. Most
of these attempts were unsuccessful. Nevertheless, if many
failed and few succeeded in the attainment of their object,
they at least effected that unification and solidification of
the tribe which was a prerequisite to success.
The Messiah who introduced the Shaker religion among
the Squaxin tribe of Puget Sound, Washington, when his
soul left his body and went to heaven, was told at the
threshold that he must either sojourn in hell or return to
his people and teach them to live the good life. It raay be
that some such alternative is presented, in one guise or an
other, to each of these prophets in tum. It may be clear
to them as to no other in the tribe that either they as mem
bers of the tribe must deteriorate with it, or there must be
a complete conversion, a new attitude and new morals em
bodied in a genuine rejuvenescence. The Messiah is, in al
most every case, a reformer, sowing the seeds of a higher
ethics. Dr. Clark Wissler has recently emphasised the fact that
this outburst of reUgious activity in the Plains area in 1890
came in a period of great economic readjustment. " The
buffalo went out by 1880 and the Indians were closely con
fined, supported by rations and urged to becorae agricul
turists. In raany cases these unfortunate people set dog
gedly at their difficult task, presenting one of the raost
pathetic spectacles of modem times. With this new life
their social ideals and machinery were decidedly out of joint.
According to the testimony of one who carae to manhood
during this period, raany young raen were so overwhelmed
by the vacuity of the new life that they took to suicide or
other less direct ways of throwing their lives away. In our
opinion this status afforded unusual conditions for the as
similation and diffusion of new traits, and the somewhat
abnormal character of the stimulus should be recognized
in all theoretical discussions based upon this phenomenon,"
[Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Nat
ural History, XI (1916), 869-70. For a not unsimflar

146 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
interpretation given by the present writer, see the American
Anthropologist, December, 1916,]
A woman of the Thompson River Indian tribe who had
been to the land of souls, depicted its wonders, " She ap
peared about 1891, and averred that by dreams and visions
she was destined to be the savior of the Indians, She also
claimed that she was invulnerable and could not be shot.
She preached against the whites, and wanted the Indians to
foUow her to battle against them." The tribe, however, was
not prepared for such action. " She raet with so much
opposition from the chiefs of the different bands, and other
leading Indians who favored the whites, that she turned back
on reaching Nicola Valley (British Columbia), deeming it
inadvisable to go further, abandoned her project, and went
home," Here the faflure Is a failure of the group to respond. An
other occasion might have found the group in different mood :
" had she come twenty years earlier it Is difficult to say what
might have been the result, as even now she has more than
one admirer among the upper division of the tribe," [Teit,
in Jesup Expedition Publications, I, 366, Anthropological
Publications of the American Museum of Natural History.]
Another remarkable messianic manifestation, and one ap
parently historically unrelated to the North American mani
festations, was reported some years ago frora South Araer
ica. The Messiah was a raediclne-man of Beckaranta, a
Guiana Indian who had spent some of his youth in George
town, had been an interpreter to Schomburgk, and had
learned a little English. " His horae was in Ibirimayeng at
the foot of Mt. Roraima. When about twenty-five years of
age he called the Indians together about hira in the valley
of Kukenan, and announced himself as the Messiah, Thou
sands of Indians of diverse and even hostile tribes gathered
there. Huts were built and presents of all sorts were
brought by every family to the ' prophet ' — knives, scissors,
rairrors, hooks, beads, needles, etc. He had a special hut
built for himself, to hide frora the people; and he had, it is
said, a harera consisting of the choicest girls from all the
Indian tribes. He rarely showed hiraself and then only be-

Messiahs of the North American Aborigines 147
hind a screen or masked so as to have only his eyes free.
For several weeks drinking festivals and sirailar perform
ances were kept up from sunset to sunrise, — the women
were busy making paiwari, which the raen drank in their
hammocks. One mid-night the ' prophet,' appearing sud
denly before the people, gave a long talk in which he declared
that the Great Spirit, Makunalma, had spoken to him and
told him that his brown children were not destined to be
driven out by the whites. He went on to say that the In
dians were to have firearms instead of bows and arrows, to
have white girls for wives, and also to have white skins
instead of brown. In order that this might be properly ac
complished, they were all to die within three nights, each
by the hand of another, and on the night of the next full
moon the bodies of the dead would arise and come down from
Mt, Roralraa in their white skins to enjoy the land,
" When the Indians hesitated to begin killing one another,
he clubbed some of them and broke their skulls so that they
fell into the troughs in which the paiwari was being made.
Of this liquor raixed with the blood of the dead he drank
himself and gave others to drink. Then the passion of the
Indians being fully aroused, intertribal hates made them
selves felt, and some four hundred people of both sexes and
all ages, fell victiras to a bloody massacre,"
The full moon and the night of resurrection came but
those four hundred did not retum to life. The people being
disillusioned, the prophet was knocked down with a club,
joined the ranks of the four hundred, and, like thera, did not
revive in proof of his prophecy.-'
[Mr, S, A, Barrett has recently described what he calls
" the Messiah Cult " among the Pomo Indians of California,
but his description is rather that of inspired medicine-men
1 Equally successful in leading the group captive was the Eskimo
" Great Sage " who, upon a cold night, induced his barefoot followers
to climb with him a mountain whence they would be taken up into
heaven. With the breaking of dawn their illusion was gone, and with
frostbitten feet they acknowledged their error. [See the article by the
late Prof. A. F. Chamberlain, New Religions Among the North Amer
ican Indians, etc. Journal of ReUgious Psychology, Jan., 1913, VI, 1-49.
Incarnation (American) in Hastings E.R.E., VII, 184i-6].

148 Messiahs: Chr^tian and Pagan
than of Messiahs. See Ceremonies of the Pomo Indians, 440.
University of California Publications in American Arche
ology and Ethnology, Vol. 12, No. 10, July 6, 1917. Prof.
A. L. Kroeber assures the writer, however, that tme messi
anic cults have flourished in California among the Pomo.]
From about 1870 to 1872, a ghost dance swept the north
ern part of California, coraing to these tribes from the north-
em Paiute of Nevada, and having its origin in the same
famfly as the later ghost dance already described. The
ideas of the two movements were essentially identical. Is it
not curious, then, that this first movement succeeded notably
in California and fafled conspicuously everywhere else,
whereas in the later movement of 1889 or 1890 there was
conspicuous success elsewhere and as notable failure in the
self-same California area? In answering this question Dr.
Kroeber suggests : " That the Calif ornlans remained im
passive toward the second wave, is intelligible on the ground
of imraunlty acquired by having passed through the first.
But that a religion which showed its inherent potentiality by
spreading to wholly foreign tribes, should in 1870 have been
unable to make any eastward progress and in 1890 sweep
like wild fire more than a thousand miles to the east, is re
raarkable. The only explanation seems to be that the bulk
of the Indian tribes in the United States in 1870 had not
been reduced to the necessary condition of cultural decay
for a revivalistic influence to impress them. In other words,
the native civilization of northern California appears to have
suffered as great a disintegration by 18*70', twenty or twen
ty-five years after its first serious contact with the whites,
as the average tribe of the central United States had under
gone by 1890, or frora fifty years to a century after similar
contact began. As regards the Plains tribes, among whom
the second ghost dance reached its culmination, the destruc
tion of the buffalo raay be ascribed the same influence in the
breaking up of their old life, as the sudden overwhelming
swamping of the natives by the California gold seekers. In
each case an interval of from ten to twenty years elapsed
from the dealing of the substantial death blow to the native
civilization, until the realization of the change was sufficiently

Messiahs of the North -American Aborigines 149
profound to provide a fruitful soil for a doctrine of restora
tion. " Individual tribes," continues Dr. Kroeber, " had of
course been subject to quite various fortunes at the hands
of the whites when either ghost dance reached them. But it
is also known that they accorded the movement many locally
diverse receptions. Sorae threw theraselves into it with an
alraost unlimited enthusiasm of hope ; others were only
slightly touched or remained aloof. This is very clear from
Mooney's classical account of the greater ghost dance, and
it can be conjectured that an Intensive study would reveal
the skeptical or negative tribes to have been so situated that
their old life did not yet appear to themselves as irrevocably
gone, or as so thoroughly subject to the influences of Cau
casian civilization that they had accepted the change as final.
Then, too, it must be remerabered that the wave, as it spread,
developed a certain psychological momentum of its own, so'
that tribes which, if left to themselves or restricted to direct
intercourse with the originators of the raovement, might
have remained passive, were infected by the frenzy of differ
ently circumstanced tribes with whom they were in affiliation,"
In view of the correlations pointed out in preceding ac
counts of messianic manifestations, especial interest attaches
to the further observation, that, " These phenomena can be
traced in the history of the California ghost dance, iraper
fect as our inforraation concerning it is. The Karok and
Tolowa seem to have thrown themselves into the cult with
greater abandonment than the Yurok, The Hupa, at least
to all intents, refused to participate. This is perhaps to be
ascribed to the fact that they were the only tribe in the region
leading a stable and regulated reservation life. But it is
not clear whether this circumstance had already led them to
a conscious though reluctant acceptance of the new order of
things, or whether sorae other specific cause must be sought."
[Information furnished by Prof. A. L. Kroeber from advance
pages of his Handbook of the California Indians, which will
soon be published by the American Bureau of Ethnology,
Washington, D. C]
About the middle of the nineteenth century, a Venezuelan

160 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Indian, by the name of Venancio, proclaimed himself the
Messiah, the second Christ and the messenger of the Cre
ator. " Venancio used to have his adherents beaten. The
people gathered about him to take part in the drinking, wfld
dances and other excesses, and gradually a large number of
the Indians became his disciples and joined him in his mad
actions. The disturbances increased until a young officer
with a number of soldiers was sent to the village. He drove
away the ' Messiah ' and his foUowers, not without cmelty
and the destruction of a number of the villages, where the
inhabitants had accepted the new doctrine," A little later
a deserter bearing the narae of Bazilio Melgueiro, proclaimed
himself a new Christ and imitated the deeds of Venancio.
[Chamberlain, op, cit,, 44.]
Among the Icana Indians dwelling on the Cubate, a sraall
tributary of the Rio Icana, lived in 1903, Anizetto, a Mes
siah who, a quarter of a century before, had proclairaed
hiraself a second Christ, and had secured a large following.
In 1880 a savior appeared in the person of a medicine
man of the Arapaso, a tribe of Betoyan stock, living on the
central Caiary-Uaupes. " He called himself Vicente Christo
and carried on dialogues with the spirits of the dead, and with
' Tupana,' the God of the Christians. He and his foUowers
danced around the cross. He asserted that he was the rep
resentative of Tupana and the father of the missionaries,
whom God, first at his request, had sent to the Caiary.
Through the power of his personality, he carried away the
rainds of the Indians all along the river and had a great
reputation. Soon, however, he misused his power. He bade
his followers drive away all the whites, since they deceived
the Indians. The people on the Rio Negro were alarmed
and feared a rising of the Indians. So a number of valiant
rubber-gatherers seized the ' Messiah,' gave hira a good beat
ing, and kept him in prison a few days at Barcellos. This
caused his authority and his power to dwindle, and his ad
herents fell away. But even to-day Christo has imitators
on the Caiary." [Koch-Griinberg, Zwei Yahre unter den
Indianem. Reisen in Nordwest-BrazUien, 1903—1905, I, 40.
Berlin, 1909-10.]

Messiahs of the North American Aborigines 161
Koch-Griinberg, from whom the above account is quoted,
marvels that this raessianic movement should break out again
in the same restricted region, the region occupied by the
Arawakan tribes. The raarvel, if there is one, is that it
should occur at all in this region. Once initiated, followers
wfll find it easy to imitate by treading the path of the origi
nator. By the criteria which we have applied, the criteria
of opression and of endeavor to' effect political or social re
demption, this area Is of the entire South American continent
the one most suited for the appearance of the messianic faith.
In view of the large number of favorable conditions with
which it is there correlated we can not view its presence or
its persistence in this area as merely fortuitous. It is in
some sense the outcome of those conditions where it finds
fertile soil. It rose in response to a need and it reappeared
in response to sirailar needs stfll unfulfilled. The entire situ
ation is too thoroughly consonant with conditions favorable
to the appearance of Messiahs in other portions of the world
to adrait of any other interpretation than that here, too, we
have an example of the law that calls upon the individual to
save his group.
Major Tarbell reports a Messiah among the Moros, of
the island of Mindanao, Philippines, who claimed to be Jesus
Christ. He was accompanied by an older man claiming to
be God himself. One of the miracles they performed for the
conversion of the Incredulous was the breaking of what ap
peared to be a solid Iron bar, but was found by Major Tar
bell to have been soldered. For a whfle they had the fol
lowing of almost the entire tribe. A Messiah is introduced
by C. E. Kllboume, in his book, An Army Boy in the Philip
pines, and there seems ample foundation in fact for this intro
duction. The Bontoc Igorot still look for the retum of the
culture hero, Lumawig, who wfll restore the old tribal order
of things. [Jeriks, The Bontoc Igorot. Manfla, 1895.]
Ratzel tells us that as an independent offshoot of Christi
anity, in Upolu, Siovedii a native of Savali, founded the
" gimblet-religion," Professing to converse with God and
to work miracles, he enjoined a mutual confession of sins in
cases of sickness ; and his divine service was rendered spe-

152 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
cially impressive by the discharge of firearms. Also in
Samoa, a native, who taught the invocation of the God of
the Heaven, brought with him on his retum from the whale-
fishery an old woman who used to " touch " for diseases from
behind a curtain, alleging that Christ resided within her,
[The History of Mankind, I, 190-1. London, 1896. Trans
lated by A. J. Butler.]
According to Mr. D. Jenness, a Messiah appeared among
the Hau Haus of New Zealand about 1880, and, in 1912
one among the Papuans of New Guinea, near the German
boundary, [Mr. Jenness wrote me this information Jan. 6,
1918, from a dug-out " Somewhere in France," and was not
able to cite the references.]
There are probably few other cases reported from Oceania ;
and there can be no doubt that nowhere in savagery have
Messiahs fiourished so abundantly as in the Americas.

CHAPTER VI
THE MESSIANIC IDEA IN CHRISTIANITY
WE have given an account of the life of the Messianic
idea in Judaism after the time of Christ. In the
foUowing pages we wish to point out something of its devel
opment in Christianity during these sarae centuries. The
movements to which we refer are almost exclusively extra-
theological but not entirely so. In some cases the ideas are
a blend of elements taken in part from Judaism and in part
from Christianity. This applies especially to the sect which
we shaU first describe, and which was one of the earliest of
them, namely. The Ebionites
This sect arose in Judaeo-Christian circles in the early cen
turies A. D. Its members regarded Christ as a revived Moses.
At basis it was an attempt to combine what was charac
teristic of Judaism with a faith in Jesus as the Messiah.
Cerinthus, one of the leading Ebionite scholars, rejected the
preexistence of Christ and taught the miUennial reign of the
Messiah in Jerusalem, [Ebionism, in Hastings' E.R.E., V,
139-46. Sec. on Ebionites, in lb., VII, 533. Eschatology,
lb., V, 388.] whither he would return to triumph over anti-
Christ. [Ebionites in Catholic Ency., V, 243, and in Ency.
Britt., VIII, 842; Clementine Literature, in Ency. Britt.,
VI, 492. Ebionism, Diet, of ApostoHc Church, I, 139-40.]
Simflarly, Justin (Dial., 80) believed that the seat of the
Messiah's kingdom would be a restored Jerusalem, where all
beUevers, together with the patriarchs and the prophets,
would enjoy happiness for over one thousand years. [Mil
lennium, Ency. Bibl., Ill, 3097.] 153

154 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Elkesaites
The Elkesaites, or Elchasaites, a branch of the Ebionites,
was a Jewish-Christian sect which arose In Palestine, or east
of the Jordan, about 100 a. d. In their later development
they promulgated the doctrine that Christ had appeared
often in the course of the world's history. He was fash
ioned in Paradise as Adam and since that time has appeared
often in the guise of various personalities, or as a phantom.
Although Jesus of Nazareth was one of the incamatlons of
the Christ, Elkesai, the founder of the sect, was as truly an
incarnation, the latest and most notable manifestation of the
great being. Though Elkesai himself made no such claims
¦ — ¦ they would have been inconsistent with his declaration
that the Son of God had appeared to him in a form of enor
mous proportions — his followers bestowed this doubtful
honor upon him. [They described Christ as an angel ninety-
six miles high, accompanied by a female angel of the same
stature. He was of huraan parentage and had appeared
after his incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth. Ebionites, in
Ency. Britt., VIII, 842. Elcesaltes, in Cath. Ency., V, 372.
Elkesaites, in Hastings' E.R.E., V, 262-9. Cerinthus,
Cerinthians, lb.. Ill, 318—20. Cerinthus (last quarter of
the first century a. d.) looked upon Jesus as a mere incarna
tion of the Christ. Cerinthus, Diet, of the Apostolic Church,
I, 172. J. F. Hurst, History of the Christian Church, I,
207-13, 320, 431. New York, 1897. W. Moeller, History of
the Christian Church a. d. 1-600, p. 99^103. London, 1912.]
Mandaeans
The Mandaeans, another early Judeo-Christian sect, re
garded Christ as the leader and chief of evil spirits who had
led mankind astray. They describe him as posing as a won
der-worker and as being defeated by one who performs still
greater miracles. They picture a restoration or millenniura
preceded by an anti-Christ. Two hundred and forty years
after the appearance of this false Messiah there came to the
world, say their holy books, sixty thousand saints out of
Pharaoh's world to take the place of the Mandaeans who

The Messianic Idea in Christianity 155
had been extirpated — though the anti-Christ had been
crucified. [Mandaeans, in Ency. Britt., XVII, 556. Hast
ings' E.R.E., VIII, 383-384. New Inter, Ency., XIV.]
Eux;hites
The Euchites, a sect sprung from Syrian Monachism,
which flourished from the middle of the fourth century until
the sixth century, believed In the liberal effulgence of the
divine spirit; so rauch so, that " if an angel, a patriarch, a
prophet, or Christ Himself is named to him, he will reply in
each case: 'That am I myself.'" [Euchites, in Hastings'
E.R.E., V, 571.] Thus, the Euchite claimed to be not only
a representative, but Christ himself. The intensity of his
prayer brought him into iraraediate community with the
Godhead, which then took up its residence within hira.
[Messalians, in Catholic Encyclopaedia.] This may be con
sidered a variation of the belief entertained by the Eucharists
to the effect that the leadership of the Messianic ecclesia in
Judaea was, after the death of Jesus, assigned to his brother
James, and, after hira, for several generations, to the oldest
living representative of his family. [Eucharist, in Ency.
Britt., IX, 876.] Marcionism
The founder of Marcionism came to Rome about 140 a. d.
He gave currency to the belief that there were two Christs.
The Christ referred to in the Old Testaraent prophecies
would appear later as the messenger of the Old Testament
God, and in the raanner therein depicted. [Marcionism, in
Hastings' E.R.E., VIII, 407.] Christ was not the Son of
the God of the Hebrews, but of the good God, not to be
identified with the God of the Covenant, They admitted
that the Jewish Messiah was yet to come and would found
a millennial kingdom on earth, [Marcionites, Cath, Ency.,
IX, 645—9. Marcion and the M'arcionite Churches, Ency.
Britt., XVII, 691-3.] Montanism
About the beginning of the second century a. d. Montanus
began in the Syrian village of Ardaban, probably not far

156 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
frora Philadelphia, his prophecies of the coming of Christ,
whose advent was placed at Pepuza, west of Eumenia, in the
near future. Here, in the place which he renamed Jerusa
lem, collected his adherents from all quarters. [Montanism
(by H. J. Lawlor), in Hastings' E.R.E., VIII, 823-31.
Eschatology, lb., V, 388 (by J. A. MacCulloch). Sec. on
Montanism and Monarchlanism, in art., Heresy (Christian),
lb., VI, 616. J. F. Hurst, I, 233-40, 290 et al.]
In the days of Julius Africanus, as still earlier in the time
of Irenaeus, the Messiah was expected in the seventh mil
lennium, that is, the sabbath millennium. Later it was ar
gued that the coming of the Messiah would be in the middle
of the sixth day, meaning, 5500' years after the creation,
[Irenaeus, V, 28, 3, Hastings' E.R.E., Ill, 605,]
The terrible social evils following upon the civil war,
brought on by the double election of Emperors in the four
teenth century, the dreadful signs of the Divine wrath ex
hibited by the " Black Death," made of the sect known as
" Friends of God," seers and prophets of the Second Cora
ing, or the End, [Friends of God, Hastings' E,R.E,, VI,
139,] Among the Taborltes, prophets appeared who foretold the
speedy end of the age, and incited to war in order to clear the
way for the reign of Christ, This intensified the resolve of
the authorities to nip all such movements in the bud, and
they burned Hans Bohm, who, in a, d, 1476 claimed a com
mission from the Virgin Mary, In 1616 appeared a work en
titled A Demonstration of the Coming of Christ, attributed,
falsely, to Basil, bishop of Seleucia in the fifth century.
Anabaptists
In 1531 Melchior Hoffmann suspended baptism for two
years, intimating that the Lord would then come to assurae
the reigns of govemment at Strassburg, and usher in an era
of peace and rest for all the oppressed. " The effect was
magical, the religious and social exciteraent intense. In or
der to be present in Strassburg when the Lord came, he
quietly retumed to Strassburg early in 1533." Though he

The Messianic Idea in Christianity 157
was thrown into prison and kept there until his death ten
years later, his doctrine bore bloody fruit in the country to
the north. Toward th^ end of 1533 a horde of excited Ana
baptists poured into the city of Miinster, in Westphalia, be
lieving that the hour for setting up Christ's kingdora at
Miinster as the New Jerusalera, had arrived, " Jan Mat-
thys, a baker of Haarlem, a disciple of Hoffman, inspired
with a fanatical hatred of the upper classes, now proclaimed
himself the promised prophet Enoch, and ordered the re
sumption of baptisra as a final preparation for the coming
King, In a short time thousands were baptised. In Janu
ary, 1534, two of his missionaries entered Miinster, where
they baptised Rothmann and other leaders, and announced
the setting up of the earthly kingdom, in which there should
be no magistracy, no law, no marriage, and no private prop
erty. Soon John of Leyden, a gifted young man of twenty-
five years, appeared and took over the leadership of the new
theocracy. Catholics and Lutherans fled, and the city fell
completely into the hands of these fanatical Anabaptists.
Matthys now declared Miinster to be the New Jerusalem, and
invited aU the oppressed Anabaptists thither. Thousands
of deluded and persecuted people sought to reach this place
of safety and happiness, only to be destroyed on the way or
ruined at last in the city. The city was soon beseiged by
the forces of the bishop, assisted by neighboring princes,
whfle within its walls murder, polygamy, and crirae ran riot.
After more than a year of ever increasing shame, the terrible
orgy ended in massacre and cruel torture in 1536."
According to another account this Matthys, or Matthie-
son, declared himself a second Gideon, and issued forth to
vanquish the enemy, he and all of his party being killed in
the affray. His place as leader was then taken by Bock-
hold, better known as John of Leiden, who declared himself
the true successor of David, claiming royal honors and ab
solute power in the new Zion. Visions from heaven conferred
upon him extraordinary powers. Under this sanction he
legalized polygamy and himself took four wives, one of whom
he brutally beheaded with his own hands in the market place.
Soon, however, perished by the sword he who had taken the

158 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
sword, " whose fatal doctrine was that the time of enduring
oppression had passed away, that the sword must be drawn,
and that the tme believers were summoned to subjugate the
kingdoms of the world, and especially Miinster," [Enthusi
asts (Religious), and Anabaptism, in Hastings' E,R,E., V,
and I, resp. Also Mennonites, lb,, VIII, Anabaptists, in
Ency, Britt.]
The early Anabaptists invariably regarded any religious
reform as Involving social amelioration, the socialism of
the sixteenth century being largely Anabaptist. Thomas
Miinzer had believed In the use of the sword, and his power
ful personality had given the whole movement in Germany
a fanatical and dangerous chiliastic bent, which brought
ruin upon his cause, " From the belief of Hoffmann that
Christ was soon to set up His Kingdom on earth and de
stroy the wicked, it was but a step to the effort to set up
the kingdom by destroying the wicked, and we have the
' fanatical ' Anabaptists and John of Leyden's horrible
' kingdom ' at Miinster as the outcome," [Hastings' E,R,E.,
I, 411,]
It was during the time of Luther that Thomas Miinzer, a
delegate from the founder of Protestantism sent to deter
mine the legitimacy of the claims of the prophet Nicholas
Storch, went to Prague and announced the dawn of the new
dispensation, with the redress of all social grievances, " Re
turning to Saxony, he initiated a communistic system, which
he declared to be Divinely ordered. Banished by Luther's
influence, he spread his views in Niiremberg and Switzerland,
and then returned to M.iihlhausen, through the districts where
the Peasants War was raging. Here he convinced them of
his mission so that their social program was backed by the
conviction that God was directing them through this
prophet," The raovement initiated by Miinzer bore further fruit in
the labors of Melchior Hoffmann, a leather-dresser from
Swabia who was teaching east of the Baltic. He calculated
the end of the age as coming in the year 1533, though he
seems to have hit upon this prior to the activity of Miinzer.
From Sweden he travelled through Denmark and Friesland

The Messianic Idea in Christianity 159
to Strassburg, where he arrived in 1529. He now devoted
himself to an exposition of the Apocalypse, expanding the
idea that the few years left were the period of the Two Wit
nesses. In Leonard and Ursula Jost he recognized inspired
prophets, he himself becoming Elijah, the inspired inter
preter. Driven out of Strassburg, he travelled through the
Netherlands and Westphalia, transforming the Anabaptist
movement tfll it was thoroughly impregnated with miUennial
views. He announced that Strassburg was the New Jerusa-
leraj whence the arraies of the Lord would destroy His ene
mies ; he accordingly repaired thither to prepare for the
fated day, A few weeks after his arrival in the New Jerusa
lem he was thrown into prison. Here he lingered several
years. Since the predicted day did not arrive as scheduled,
he revised his calculations from time to time, but never gave
up his fundaraental conviction, though he became aware of
the outbreak of civfl war consequent upon his teachings.
Fifth Monarchy Men
The Fifth Monarchy Men was a Puritan sect which arose
in England and at first supported the govemment of Oliver
Cromwell, in the belief that it was a preparation for the
" fifth monarchy." By this they meant, following the
prophecy in Daniel, the monarchy succeeding the Assyrian,
Persian, Greek, and Roman, the age when Christ should reign
on earth with his saints for a thousand years. They wished
to abolish aU existing laws and customs and substitute the
code of Moses,
The Fifth Monarchy Men did not long remain faithful to
Cromwell, Their revolt is described by Carlyle araong the
happenings of Thursday, April 9, 1657 :
" The Fifth-Monarchy, headed raainly by one Venner, a
Wine-Cooper, and other civic individuals of the old Feak-
and-Powel species whom we have transiently seen emitting
soot and fire before now, has for a long time been concocting
underground ; and Thurloe and his Highness [I, e., Crom
well] have had eye on it. The Fifth Monarchy has decided
that it will rise this Thursday, expel carnal sovereignties;

160 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
and call on the Christian population to introduce a Reign
of Christ, — which it is thought, if a beginning were once
made, they wfll be very forward to do. Let us rendezvous
on Mfle-End Green this day, with sword and musket, and
assured heart: perhaps General Harrison, Colonel Okey, one
knows not who, will join us, — perhaps a miracle will be
wrought, such as heaven might work in such a case, and the
reign of Christ actually take effect.
" Alas, Heaven wrought no miracle : Heaven and his High
ness sent a Troop of Horse into the Mile-End region, early
in the morning; seized Venner and some twenty ringleaders,
just coming for the rendezvous ; seized chests of arras, many
copies of a flaming Pamphlet or War-manifesto with title
A standard set up; seized also a War-flag with Lion
Couchant painted on it. Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and this
motto, ' Who shaU rouse him up ? ' . . . But in two days'
time, these ancient individuals and they are all lodged in the
Tower." [Thomas Carlyle, Oliver Cromwell's Letters and
Speeches with Elucidations, Vol. Ill, Pt. X, Speech IX.
Albany, N. Y,, 1889. The belief of the Fifth Monarchy
Men that neither bullets nor steel could injure them recalls
identical beliefs in North America, the Sudan, and India.]
Other Messianic Movements in England and Scotland
About 1633 Arise Evans gave warnings that the kingdom
of Charles was doomed. Two years later he renewed the
message, and was punished by imprisonment for his kindness.
When the Civfl War broke out he received a revelation to
uphold the Established Church, and attacked the General
Baptists. When his inspiration was challenged he offered
in confirraation of it a prediction which was to be fulfilled in
a week. Its success confirraed him and he was permitted to
continue his admonition of the ruling powers, though these
admonitions seeraed to be without success.
The political turmoil of the tirae of CromweU and of
Charles I gave rise to numerous prophets. Among these was
Anna Trapnel, who entered on her career about 1643. She
is known to have joined the AUhaUows church, of the Fifth-

The Messianic Idea in Christianity 161
Monarchy persuasion, in 1650. Soon after the dissolution
of the Nominated Parliament, three books of her prophecies
were published. Her activity was greatest during the year
preceding the death of Cromwell. She went into trances,
and spoke her prophecies in rude rhyme so rapidly that she
could, with difficulty, be reported. She referred to herself
as the poor Instrument, or the Voice. " The burden of the
new teaching was the immanent retum of Christ, as soon as
the three and one-half times were fulfilled."
In 1770, as Ann Lee, a leader of the Shaker sect, lay in
an English prison, she had a revelation in which the nature
of sin and the reality of the eternal life was unfolded to her.
She believed that Christ was incarnate in her. Members
of the order acknowledged this claim and called her " Mother
Ann." [Hastings' E.R,E,, III, 782,]
Joanna Southcott, born in Devonshire, England, about
1760, founder of the sect of the Southcottians, or South-
cotters, declared herself, when past sixty years of age, to be
pregnant with another Messiah, one whose name was to be
Shiloh, " Her foUowers made costly preparations for the
birth of their expected prince, and had a cradle constructed
at an expense of two hundred pounds (about a thousand
dollars). The disease by which she was deceived terminated
her death ; but her deluded disciples, after having been com-
peUed to inter her, persisted in the belief that she was to
bear the Shiloh, and gave out that she would rise again with
the chfld in her arms, Mr, Foley, rector of Old Swinford,
near Stourbridge, was said to be a firra believer in the resur
rection of the prophetess ; and another clergyman used to
go regularly to expound her writings at Bristol, The
Southcotters abound principally in the northern counties.
At Ashton-under-Lyne, they have a splendid temple, which
cost them nine thousand pounds ($45,000). Their worship
is described as awfully wild and tumultuous. The men are
known by their wearing long beards and brown hats. At
present [the account was written before 1880] it seems, both
warning and sealing have subsided ; they are waiting in awful
suspense for the commencement of the thousand years' reign
on the earth. Yet it is said that they do not mean that

162 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Christ wfll corae in person, but in spirit, and that the sealed
who are dead before that time will be raised from their graves
to partake of this happy state." To those who believed in
her raission and who subscribed to the things revealed to her
in her " Warning," Joanna gave a sealed written paper bear
ing her signature. This they obtained for half a crown
(about sixty cents). It sealed the possessor against the
day of judgraent, and assured signal honor from the Mes
siah when he should come again. [Cyclopedia of Bib.,
Theol,, and Eccl, Literature, IX, 896-7,]
John Barclay, the founder (in 1773) of the Bereans, a
sect which originated in Edinburgh, found strong messianic
leanings in the Psalms, believing that in this he was following
the apostles. He translated the Psalms into English verse,
bringing out, in each line, the Messianic aspiration that he
believed to be hidden in it in the original. For him prac-
ticaUy every verse was laden with a messianic raessage,
[Bereans, in Hastmgs' E.R.E., II, 523.]
Edward Irving, bom in Scotland in 1792, the founder of
a sect named after him, published a book on The Coming of
the Messiah in Glory and Majesty, in which he declared his
ardent belief in the personal rule of Christ on earth.
The appearance of " gifts " was to be the sign of the ap
proach of the Son of Man. The apostle was constituted
for the " ingathering of the nations." Evangelists were at
first sent out into the highways; apostolic journeys were
undertaken in Europe and elsewhere; their object was not to
propagate the gospel in the spirit and on the method of the
great missionary societies, but to bear final testimony before
nations and kings to the coming of the Day of the Lord.
" The witnesses had no zeal for the extension of the Church,
but for its preparation as a bride for her husband. If they
were in a peculiar sense God's people, it was only because
they were aroused, expectant, waiting for the final baptism.
Their testimony given, they were content to wait in spiritual
readiness for the rending of the heavens." [Irving and the
Catholic Apostolic Church, Hastings' E.R.E., VII, 426.]
This Catholic Apostolic Church, as it is soraetimes called,
has apostles who are channels of the Holy Ghost and of

The Messianic Idea in Christianity 163
the mysteries of God. The " prophets " explain scripture
and exhort to holiness. For ecclesiastical purposes the
church is in twelve tribes, placed under a central episcopacy
of forty-eight members, though this existed on paper, rather
than in fact, as an ideal plan. The last " apostle " died on
February 3, 1901. The liturgy dates from 1842 and Is
based on liturgies of the Anglican, Roman and Greek
churches. Lights, incense, vestments, holy water, and
chrism, are in constant use. The congregation is presided
over by its " angel " or bishop.
In 1864 a woman in England, by the name of Mary Ann
Girling, proclaimed herself the final revelation of God. Her
teachings were concerned primarily with conduct, inculcating
celibacy and communism. Part of her doctrine was her
own immortality. Her death in 1886 ruined the cause.
[Hastings' E.R.E., V, 319.]
About half a century ago James White organized The
New and Latter House of Israel in Kent County, England.
At Christ's reappearance 144,000 redeemed souls were to
greet him and reign with him. The chief relic of these Jez-
reeUtes is an enormous unfinished building near Gillingham.
The Camisards
The Camisards, who escaped from France early in the
eighteenth century and took refuge in England, where they
were known as the French Prophets, prophesied and worked
rairacles, preached coraraunism, and heralded the advent of
a Messiah who was about to establish his kingdom with terri
ble consequent doom for the wicked. Even among the Eng
lish they gained a considerable following, but a quietus finally
had to be put on their meetings and they were brought into
discredit in 1708 when they proclaimed that on May 25th
of that year, one of their number, Thomas Emes, would rise
from the dead. His failure to fulfil the prophecy of his co
religionists brought about the rapid decay of that sect,
[Camisards, Hastings' E.R.E. New Inter, Ency,, IV
(1914) ; Catholic Ency,, III,] and was largely responsible
for the disappearance of the belief in a Messiah who was to

164 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
restore them to their land and their religion. [Voltaire,
Siecle de Louis XIV, p. xxxvi. J. F. Hurst, II, 778-9.]
Adventists
In 1831 a certain WiUiam Mfller, an American, after
careful study of the Bible and especiaUy the prophecies re
lating to the Messiah, decided that Christ would appear at
the end of the world in clouds of glory and would rule in
Canaan, on the throne of David, for a period of one thou
sand years. The two thousand three hundred days men
tioned by the prophet Daniel he considered as meaning years.
Four hundred fifty-three b. c. was the commencement of the
seventy weeks preceding the first coming. Four hundred
fifty-three b. c. plus two thousand three hundred years
equals 1843, Hence, Christ would retum in 1843. He
had a number of followers.
When the prediction failed. Snow, a disciple, pointed out
that Miller had made a misculculation, the proper date being
October 22, 1844. As the day approached groups of fol
lowers put aside all earthly occupations and fen^ently
awaited the expected coraing. Though again doomed to
disappointment they met in conference at Albany, New
York, in 1845, and formulated their faith in the near com
ing, in the flesh, of the Son of God. Though they have
since divided into six independent denominations this has
remained a fundamental tenet of their creeds. [Adventists,
Second, in Ency. Britt., I; in New Intern. Ency., I, 168; in
Catholic Ency,, I, 166, A popular work has been C, T.
Russel, The Millennial Dawn. 2 vols, Allegheny, Pa., 1889,
It Is little more than a continuance of the confusion intro
duced by the early Christians when they mingled Biblical
accounts of the second advent of Christ with the ideas of
the Stoics as to a universal conflagration. See art, by
Troeltsch, Histography, Hastings' E,R,E,, VI, 717,]
Friends of the Temple
Simflar to the Adventists are the Friends of the Temple,
a sect which originated in Wiirtemberg in 1861, and soon

The Messianic Idea in Christianity 165
established its headquarters in Palestine. Its members ex
pect the retum of Christ in the near future. [Hastings'
E.R.E,, VI, 141-2,] The Overcomers
A sect known as the Overcomers, holding views similar to
the Adventists, originated in Chicago in 1881. Its mem
bers later emigrated to Jerusalem, where they prefer to be
known as the American Colony in Jerusalem. They hold
communistic views about property, accept the prophecies
literally, and await the speedy coraing of Christ. They
have acquired a few converts and live a life of siraple indus
try and charity. [See the accounts given in The New In
ternational Ency., and in The Americana, The writer had
an opportunity to visit this colony a few years ago,]
The Theosophists
The most ardent believers of the present day in the return
of Christ are the Theosophists, a pseudo-philosophical and
religious sect that seems to flourish most extravagantly in
India and, araong western countries, in the State of Cali
fornia. Their doctrines are a mixture of vague discourses
on matters passing beyond the realm of experience: of the
Infinite ; of mysticism ; effulgences ; emanations ; the cosmic ;
essences. They discourse wordfly in terms of Hindu phi
losophy, of rebirths, reincarnations, triumph of spirit over
raatter, the ascendancy of spirit. Christ, as well as all great
prophets, will be reborn — has been reborn often. [See
especiaUy, the numerous books of Mrs. Annie Besant; for
example. The Changing World. Chicago, 1910, Esoteric
Christianity. Los Angeles, 1913. Reincarnation. London,
1916.] Theosophy seems not altogether apart from political in
trigues. In September, 1917, Mrs. Besant was reported to
have been arrested by the British for inciting political trou
bles in India, where she was then travelling and lecturing.
A few years ago she was said to be regarded by the English-
speaking Hindus as the goddess Saraswati herself ; they were
ready to give her a place in their pantheon as one of the

166 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
defenders of their faith against the mighty influences of the
West. [J. P, Jones, India, Its Life and Thought, 404-11.
New York, 1908,] ^
About the middle of the last century George GflfiUan, a
Scotchman, gave expression to his hope and expectation of
the Second Coming, based on present disasters, " We expect
that our increasing dangers and raultiplying foes, that the
thousand-fold might that seems rushing upon us, is a token
that aid is coming, and that our Achilles shall ' no more be
silent but speak out,' shaU lift his ' bow, his thunder, and his
alraighty arm ' — shall take unto hira his great power and
reign." [Bards of the Bible, 336ff. Edinburg, 1852. Pa-
rusia, in Hastings' E,R,E., IX, 636-7,]
The European war has aroused hopes and expectations
of the near approach of the retum of the Messiah in other
hearts than the Adventists. At this time (1918) the
public, both lay and clerical, is more tolerant of some of
these expressions than it would be in ordinary times, Scott
Anderson, a lecturer and formerly a pastor in Los Angeles,
California, is heralded by those who advertise his coming as
one who " gives a Scriptural interpretation of the great war
and describes the glory that is to follow the early inaugura
tion of Messiah's kingdom," In an address made in Fresno,
California, on July 29, 1917, he is reported as saying:
" Messiah will not compromise with satan concerning the
rulership of the world, and this great tribulation (i, e,, the
war) is perraitted for the complete overthrow of the adver
sary and all the evil institutions instigated by him among
the children of men, and not one vestige of them wfll remain,
" The lease of power to the Gentfle nations expired in
1914; satan is moving out and Christ is moving in — hence
the great commotion incident to the transfer of world do
minion, ' The kingdoms of this world shall become the king
dom of our Lord and His Christ,' As Christians our al
legiance is to king Jesus,
", , , Babylon will be destroyed by the same mighty army
that will overthrow the kings of the earth. Following the

The Messianic Idea in Christianity 167
great tribulation Messiah's glorious kingdom wiU be fully
inaugurated in power and glory, the dead will be awakened
and the world of mankind wfll be blessed," [Reported in the
Fresno (California) Republican, July 30, 1917,]
A simflar doctrine was preached in Zeichen der Zeit, in
June, 1917, [A paper of the German Evangelical Lutheran
Church, published in Brookfield, Illinois,] An article en
titled " The Approaching End," points out how we know
that the end of all things approaches — yea, is already at
hand. There are quotations from the New Testaraent (espe
ciaUy Matth. 24: 33, 2 Peter 3: 3 and 4) showing that the
end is to be preceded by some great catastrophe ; there are
signs that the reappearance of Christ is near at hand; the
heavens have been witnesses (Joel 3:3-4; Luke 21:25-8),
sun, moon, and stars have proclaimed the advent : " Uberali,
HouT Man die Feierliche Warnungsbotschaft : " Der
Herr komrat ; das Gericht ist nahe herbeigekommen ; der Tag
seines Zomes Ist nahe."
These are not isolated tendencies nor are they heresies.
The churches have accepted this interpretation and have
fanned the flames. One writer estimates that " In probably
ninety per cent of the Bible summer schools, which assemble
this season [1917] in numbers larger than ever, this doc
trine will be openly or surreptitiously exploited. It is being
taught from hundreds of pulpits, and Bible classes all over
the country are led by de-vlous windings through the sacred
literature to this certain goal of the teachers' exegesis,"
[J, E, McAfee, in The New Republic, August 18, 1917, Vol.
12, No. 146, p. 72. For a discussion of the beUef in the
return of Christ see G. R. Noyes, A Collection of Theological
Essays, 393-402. Boston, 1891.]
Another example may be given frora the War Extra of the
Bible Students Monthly, Vol. IX, No. 6, published in Brook
lyn, N. Y., wherein we are assured that, " We are to-day in
the closing hours of the period allotted by God for the selec
tion of the Church, and ' The Kingdom of Heaven is at
hand,' — now in the full sense of its establishment in the
earth. The institutions of * this present evil world ' are
passing away in a great Time of Trouble, and soon the Lord

168 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
wiU establish His Kingdom of Righteousness, which wfll deal
out justice to aU humanity." Pastor RusseU, the founder
of this publication, it seeras, insistently pointed to the near
ness of Messiah's Kingdom. " Time and again, oraUy and
through the public press, he announced to the peoples of
earth that the Age was now closing and would pass away
with a great Time of Trouble, due to begin, according to
Bible chronology, in 1914, and that this trouble would
eventuate in the greatest revolution and most destructive
anarchy the earth has ever known, to be followed immedi
ately by the full setting up of Messiah's Kingdom of ever
lasting peace, which would bring blessings to all the peoples
of the world — the living and the dead," — and similar words
of inspiration to console the expectant.
Reincarnations of Christ
We have already referred to some of the alleged reincar
nations of Christ, and little reraains to be added except a few
more examples of this belief. One of these reincarnations
was Savely Kapustin. This man was a Prussian officer and
a Quaker, the leader of the Doukhobors, a Russian Sect of
Christians which originated early in the nineteenth century.
He gained such power over his fellows that he was able to
proclaim hiraself to thera as the reincarnated Christ, and to
allow thera to share divine honors with hira. His foUowers,
however, were forbidden to acknowledge allegiance to any
earthly leader. [Doukhobors, in Hastings' E.R.E., IV,
865-7. Ency. Britt., VII, 314.] In spite of this injunc
tion, however, they consider Christ as only a man of godlike
intellect whose soul has migrated into many mortals, araong
whom Kolesnikov, an early sponsor, is included, along with
Kapustin. [Dukhobortsy, New Inter. Ency., VII, 314.]
In Russia, beyond the Volga, Bashkin started a new faith
in which he denied that Christ was equal with the Father,
and that the bread and wine in the Eucharist were truly
the blood and flesh of Christ. This was put down in
the sixteenth century, soon after its promulgation, but was
soon revived under Kosoy, a Moscovite, who declared Jesus

The Messiamc Idea in Christianity 169
was not God but simply a man. He rejected the theory of
Redemption, the miracles performed by icons, and declared
it wrong to pray to the saints, whose relics should be buried
and not indecently exposed in the churches. The prayers,
fasts, and ceremonies of the Church had no higher sanction
than that of huraan tradition. Monasticism likewise he re
jected. Soon, however, Bashkin went the way of most here
tics and was condemned to confinement in a monastery, from
which he subsequently escaped and raade his way into Lithu
ania. These movements can not have fafled to influence the
early Doukhobors. It is possible, too, that the Anabaptist
and the Quaker movements paved the way to their doctrines.
Ilarion Pobirohin, a well-to-do wool dealer living in the
village of Goreloe, in Tambor, upon adopting the Doukhobor
faith, was not content with being a son of God, like the
others, but claimed to be Christ. He iraraediately estab
lished a theocratic despotism, choosing twelve apostles and
as many " Death-bearing Angels " appointed to punish those
who relapsed from the faith after once having given it their
adherence. Adrian Pushkin, a raerchant of Perm, became possessed
of a craze that he was a new incarnation of Christ, and sent
a paper to the Holy Synod to establish his claims. His
frankness was punished with strict solitary confinement for
fifteen years ^ he was released when a broken old man, only
to die a few raonths afterward.
To Kapustin the Doukhobor are said to have bowed " as
before the Deity." [A. Maude, A Peculiar People: The
Doukhobors, 20, 129, 146, 162, 164, 173, 178. London, no
date.] He, upon his part, " ruled like a king, or rather a
prophet. He expounded the tenets of the Doukhobors in a
raanner to tum them to his own peculiar profit and advan
tage. He attached peculiar importance to the doctrine of
the transmigration of souls, which was already known to
them; he also taught that Christ is bom again in every be
liever; that God is in every one, for when the Word becarae
flesh it became this (i. e., man in the world) for all time,
like everything divine. But each human soul, at least as
long as the created world exists, remains a distinct individual.

170 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Now, when God descended into the individuality of Jesus as
Christ, He sought out the purest and most perfect man that
ever existed, and the soul of Jesus was the purest and most
perfect of all human souls. God, since the tirae when he first
revealed himself in Jesus, has always remained in the human
race, and dwells and reveals Hiraself in every believer. But
the individual soul of Jesus, where has it been? By virtue
of the law of the transraigration of souls It raust necessarfly
have aniraated another human body ! Jesus himself said, ' I
ara with you always, until the end of the world.' Thus the
soul of Jesus, favored by God above all human souls, has
from generation to generation continually animated new
bodies ; and by virtue of its higher qualities, and by the
peculiar and absolute command of God, it has invariably re
tained a remembrance of its previous condition. Every man,
therefore, in whom it resided knew that the soul of Jesus
was in him. In the first centuries after Christ this was so
universally acknowledged among believers, that every one
recognized the new Jesus, who was the guide and ruler of
Christendom, and decided all disputes respecting the faith.
The Jesus thus always bom again was called Pope. False
Popes, however, soon obtained possession of the throne of
Jesus; but the tme Jesus only retained a small band of
believers about him, as he predicted in the New Testaraent,
' Many are called, but few are chosen.' These believers are
the Doukhobors, among whom Jesus constantly dwells, his
soul animating one of them. ' Thus Sylvan Kolesnikof, of
Nilolsk,' said Kapustin, ' whom the older among you knew,
was Jesus ; but now, as tmly as the heaven is above me and
earth under my feet, I am the true Jesus Christ your
Lord ! ' " [Baron A. von Haxthausen, Studien uber die
inneren Zustdnde, das Volkleben, und insbesondere die
Idndlichen Einrichtungen Russlands. 3 vols. 1847—62.]
Even Leo Tolstoy referred to the religion of the Doukho
bors as " the germinating of that seed sown by Christ eight
een hundred years ago : the resurrection of Christ himself,"
finding the realization of the Christian life in " the existence
and gathering together of people who even now realize that
toward which we are all striving. And behold, these people

The Messianic Idea in Christianity 171
exist ! " [Vladimir Tchertkoff, Christian Martyrdom in
Rv,ssia. London, 1897. J, W, Bienstock, Tolstoi et les
Doukhobors, Faits historiques reunis. Paris, 1902,]
Verigin, one of the " Fasting " Doukhobors, was regarded
by some of this sect as Christ, the Saviour, the " Door to the
Kingdom of Heaven " ; by some as a God-raan or earthly
Deity; by some as a Prophet; while others considered him
no raore than an ordinary raan. A document dated July 28,
1901, declares:
" ' Great is the Lord above all the nations, for his good
ness and mercy endureth for ever,' And His goodness is
that He has been born by the Spirit of the Most-Holy Vir
gin Mother of God the Queen of Heaven, one of the blessed
race of Loukeriya Verigin. This Lord is our Leader,
Peter Vasilyevitch Verigin, His beauty is in his Wisdom;
in flesh he is pure,
"We strive towards hira, esteem him God and Tsar, and
with full desire yield ourselves to his power,"
It has been suggested, with plausibility, that he was the
Messiah whom the Canadian Pilgrims expected to meet in
Winnipeg. His mother they hold in the greatest reverence,
even as is befitting the mother of God, On this pilgrimage
from northwest Canada to Winnipeg they had a leader who
posed as a John the Baptist. Said an observer: " In front
stalks the new ' John the Baptist,' his jet-black beard and
long hair floating in the autumn wind. Suddenly he will
stop, with eyes glaring before hira, then leap forward, clutch
ing at the air with extended, groping hands, crying, ' I see
Hira, I see Jesus. He is coraing. He is here,' The dementia
can be seen to run through the procession like a wave at these
words. The chant rises higher, stronger and militant, and
many of the Spirit-Wrestlers show similar symptoras of see
ing Hiin who is invisible. All who have seen it say it is like
a dreadful dream, that It is incredible, unrealizable — hun
dreds of raen, with the light of insanity in their eyes, roara-
ing whither and for what they know not, and aniraated by a
belief that brings the dark ages into the dawn of the twen
tieth century,
" They are eating, to supplement the gifts of bread made

172 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
by the villages en route, dried rosebuds, herbs, leaves, grasses,
in fact, alraost anything vegetable in its origin. They be
lieve there will be no winter and no cold weather, that there
wifl be two summers this year. Mr. Speers asked ' John the
Baptist,' who was one of the earliest to discard his rubbers :
' Where are your boots ? '
" ' Jesus had no boots,' was the answer.
" ' But your feet will get cold? ' protested the kindly
agent. " ' Jesus keeps my feet warm,' replied the forerunner.
" Many of them walk the entire night, their bodies seem
ing insensible to fatigue that would kill many men. When
they raarched into Yorktown they bore from a dozen to
twenty stretchers, improvised of poplar poles and gray
blankets, on which they bore their sick and feeble folk. By
the hand they led a man past fifty years of age, born blind.
He is now in the Immigration HaU. I saw him an hour ago,
his sightless eyes uplifted in an ecstacy of beatific vision."
Peter Verigin, the leader of the Saskatchewan Doukho
bors, has merited the title of a remarkable man. " He has
altered the character of the comraunlty, has changed their
mode of agriculture, gradually introducing modem methods,
and has built up an organization out of chaos. Several thou
sand acres have been broken, and the area under cultivation
this year (1903) will be much greater than that sown last
year. Whfle no doubt there are in so large a body a few
who look with jealousy upon Peter Verigin, the great bulk
of the Doukhobors undoubtedly have irnplicit faith in him.
From early raorning, when the village is roused by the sing
ing by a chorus which patrols the street, until evening, when
the same choir sings them to sleep, the villagers find their
work in comraon very agreeable to them." [Maude, 227—8,
236, 237, 264.]
The Khlysti (Flagellants), or Men of God
The Russian sect of the Khlysti, or Flagellants, follow a
man who proclairaed in 1646 : " I am the God announced
by the prophets, come down on earth the second time for the

The Messianic Idea in Christianity 173
salvation of the human race, and there is no God but rae."
The tenet of this sect is that a succession of Christs has
foUowed the founder of their order, elevation to this rank
being attained by perfect surrender to the influence of the
Spirit, who subdues the flesh. Their ecstatic methods of
worship result in much prophecying, but they are forbidden
to commit these to writing, and, consequently have developed
no dogma. [Enthusiasts (Religious), E.R.E., V, 319,]
According to the tradition of the Khlysti, there descended
in the days of Czar Alexis, in the year 1645, upon Mount
Gorodin, in the district of Vladimir, in great power, on a
wagon of fire surrounded by a cloud, " God the Father, ac
companied by the hosts of heaven," The wagon returned to
heaven but the Lord hiraself remained on earth and became
raanifest in the person of Daniel Philoppitch (spelled also,
Phflippon, Phflipovitch, or Danelo Filopovitch), Among
the twelve commandments given out by this " God the
Father " the first declared : " I am the God of whom the
prophets spoke, I came for the second time into the world
(the first coming being at Jerusalem) to redeera the souls
of raen. There is no God besides me." [H, W, Williams,
Russia of the Russians, 165 ff. New York, 1914. Khlysti,
in New Inter. Ency., Vol. 13, p. 208.]
Danelo Filopovitch proclairaed hiraself God and delegated
Ivan Souslof to be Christ, his son. He lived with a woman
whom he called the Mother-of-God, or the Daughter-of-God.
From among his adherents he chose twelve apostles. He
coUected his followers in a decrepit and empty church in the
vUlage of Rabotniki, on the Volga, and was there worshipped
by them. Souslof, after handing on his authority to Loup-
kin, died in Moscow In 1716. Loupkin acknowledged his wife
to be a Mother-of-God. With the assistance of twenty
apostles he taught in Nizhni-Novgorod, Vladimir, and Yaro-
slaf. The govemment tried hard to put down the raove
ment. Docifius, Bishop of Rostof, one of the converts, after
being deprived of his bishopric, was tortured and executed
in the presence of Peter the Great, by having his stomach
tom to pieces with pincers in the Red Place in Moscow.
[Many of the Khlists, or Hlists, are Finns. They have

174 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
adopted many of the old communistic practices. A, Maude,
op. cit., 99-103. Stepniak, The Russian Peasantry, 268-9.
New York, 1888.]
The first accounts of this order were written in the latter
part of the seventeenth century. In a trial held at Moscow
between 1733—9 Prpkofi Lupkin, a soldier of the body-guard
appears as " Christ," his wife and several nuns, as " Moth
ers of God," Moscow was the center of operations of the
Christs Serge Osipov, Vasali Stepanov, and raore famous
than these, Andreyan Petrov, who, known as the " Happy
Idiot," had the entree to the houses of the aristocracy, and
carries on his propaganda there for the sect, not entirely
without success. Other communities, also, possessed
" Christs " and " Mothers-of-God " at an early date,
" Lupkin and Petrov belong to the seven ' Christs ' named by
the legend which describes the origin of the Men of God,
Since the reports of the trial prove the correctness of the
assertions of their tradition regarding the seven ' Christs '
and the ' Mothers-of-God,' Akulina and Nastasya, the tradi
tion may be trusted as to what It relates concerning the
earlier ' Christs,' Danila Philipov and Ivan Suslov, Of
these the first is said to have also ranked as ' God Zebaoth,'
and to have founded the sect about the raiddle of the seven
teenth century in the governraent district of Kostroma, while
the second, as his disciple spread it in the Oka and Volga dis
tricts and introduced it into Moscow, Ancient songs of the
Khlysti speak of one ' Christ,' Averyan, who lived in the
fourteenth century, and of another, Yemelyan, who labored
in Moscow in the tirae of Ivan the Terrible. The majority
of Russian Scholars consider the sect rauch older than his
torical inforraation reaches." [Men of God, Hastings'
E.R.E,, VIII, 544-6,]
The pretensions of the founder of the Khlysti sect were
supported by the tradition that his coraraandments were
issued by a son born to hira fifteen years before his appear
ance in the world, of a woman one hundred years old. This
son, Ivan Tiraofejen, ascended with Daniel, his father, into
the heavens. Here they tarried a whfle; then descended
Jesus the Christ, in the person of Ivan, who at once com-

The Messianic Idea in Christianity 175
menced to preach, assisted by his twelve disciples, the twelve
comraandments given by his father. He entered into holy
matrimony with a maiden known as the Mother of God,
After crucifixion and burial on a Friday, Ivan rose from the
dead the foUowing Sunday and appeared araong his follow
ers. Again he was seized by the authorities, tried, and cruci
fied a second time, this tirae his skin being removed. One of
his female followers then wrapped the body in a sheet, out
of which a new skin formed. He again resurrected and went
about preaching, later taking up his residence in Moscow,
in the house later known as the New Jerusalera. [Cyclo
pedia of Bibl,, Theol., and Eccl. Literature, V, 71.]
The Khlysti repudiate this title, which is given them by
the outside world, and caU themselves Lyudi bozhii, raeaning,
" Men of God," They believe that God is to be found only
among themselves, ordinary Christian church goers being,
in their view, mere worldlings. Formerly they called them
selves " Christu," those who have Christ in their midst, that is,
in their leaders. Among them are many Christs. They
draw down the spirit by dances, by songs, and by fasts, but
principally by dancing. One who succeeds In receiving the
spirit in full becomes a Christ, or even a God of the highest
rank, that is, a Christ of the highest rank, or, a Mother-of-
God, Those who receive the Spirit in a less degree are in
vested with the title of one of the apostles, or of one of the
ecclesiastical saints, and honored as prophets or prophet
esses. For, say they, even Jesus of Nazareth becarae a
Christ only after receiving the spirit as the sequel to bap
tisra. These individuals have received the spirit as a per
manent possession, but, by the same means, others may re
ceive it as a temporary possession.
It must be confessed, however, that these Christs are
seldom actuated by a messianic ideal. The holy spirit is
regarded as a power which shuns observation, revealing him
self in secret, and being averse to publicity. Consequently,
if a man talks about the Spirit he loses it. Yet, sometimes
the Christs, Mothers-of-God, prophets, and prophetesses es
pecially, and also ordinary raerabers of the coraraunity, when
in the ecstatic state, break into iraprovised doggerel, and

176 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
prophesy the " comraon fate " of individual members of their
sect and the " private fate " of individuals not members.
Always the Spirit operates unfettered and chooses for Him
self whatsoever form he cares to create. During the summer
solstice they dance around a tub of water over which they
see the " golden Christ " appearing in the steam that rises
above the vessel.
About 1770 arose the Skoptsi, or Castrators, as a reac
tion to the Flagellants. It was founded by a man who de
clared himself God incarnate. They look ardently for the
millennium. Christ will retum when their nurabers reach
144,000. Those who wish to enter the order must submit
to castration.
There are Messiahs of every type. Not all of them are
blatant in their claims, not all of them arise in a society that
is hard-pressed and despondently hopeful, nor do they all
seera disposed to press their clairas. To illustrate this let
me quote the description of a Messiah of the Pacific Coast
given by Miss Janet May Bingham.
" About 1910 or 1911, a raan living in Seattle, Washing
ton, clairaed to be the reincarnation of Christ. He was tall
and fair with long curly hair, and did look astonishingly like
pictures of Christ. As far as I know he raade no particular
atterapt to preach a gospel or enforce recognition — he said
he was Christ and let It go at that. He wandered around on
crutches. He seemed to be a little lame. He had the ap
pearance of a raan just recovered from a severe fllness and
seemed very frafl. When he met a little child he would stop,
place his hand on its head and speak to it. All the children
appeared to like him though they appeared to be somewhat
abashed in his presence. He paid no particular attention
to older children or to grown-ups. I do not think he was
insane. He seemed honestly to believe he was Christ, and
to try to live and act accordingly. I rather admired him —
not that I ever so much as spoke to hira — but he had a most
beautifuUy serene expression that was irresistible."
Similar reincarnations strolled the streets of Berkeley,
California, in the years 1915 and 1916, some as isolated

The Messianic Idea in Christianity 177
individuals, without subscribers to their claims, others with
a fluctuating body of foUowers and admirers. [Another
Messiah flourished in San Diego, CaUfomia, about 1908. I
have not been able to learn detafls about hira.]
None of these seem to be the product of any peculiar
social conditions — they seem rather an epiphenomenon, a
flitting light rather than a torch, a vagary whose existence
cannot be accounted for, or justified, by any plausible rea
soning. " Sports " are not confined to the biological realm,
but flourish equally weU in the social, the psychic, and the
reUgious. Such was the " Leatherwood God," a messiah who
played an iraportant role in the frontier portions of the
state of Oflio in the fifties, first claiming miraculous powers,
later claiming to be God Himself, and, to their woeful un
doing, leading many of this pioneer coraraunity across the
AUeghanies to the Promised Land — that is to Philadelphia,
— ^where they were to be transported to eternal bUss.
[He met his fate by drowning in the river there — whether
accidentally or deliberately is not known. A literary de
scription, which elaborates but does not otherwise depart
from the facts, is given by Wflliam Dean HoweUs, The
Leatherwood God.]
The closest analogue in America to this Leatherwood
God was probably John Alexander Dowie, who regarded
hiraself as Elijah the Restorer, foretold by Malachi, by St.
Peter, and by Christ himself — such were his pretensions.
The next step, says his apologist, would have been to declare
himself a reincarnation of the Messiah, the Son of God,
which many who watched his development believed would
have been the next step had not unforeseen sectarian troubles
interrupted his career. He had established at Zion, near
Chicago, a settleraent for his followers and over it he was for
some time undisputed dictator. His adherents numbered
over twenty thousand, though eventually they broke away
from his influence and even ousted hira from the community
on charges of immoral practices. [For details see Rolvix
Harlan, John Alexander Dowie and the Christian Catholic
Apostolic Church in Zion. Evansvflle, Wis., 1906. A disser
tation at the University of Chicago. Dowie, Analyzed and

178 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Classified, Century Magazine, Vol. 64, (Oct., 1902), 928-44.]
The Book of Oahspe, published by an American dentist,
a spiritualist, about 1881, refers to Christ as a false God,
Loveamong, who brought on war and later changed his narae,
falsely calling himself Christ. He raised up tribes of mortal
warriors, who call themselves Christians, and remain war
riors to this day. [Oahspe, in Hastings' E.R.E., IX, 428.]
At a convention of his denoraination in 1893, the Reverend
Frank W. Sanford, a Free Baptist minister, announced that
he had received Divine revelations commanding him to preach
to the whole world before the " coming of the end." At
Shiloh, Maine, he founded the Holy Ghost and Us Society.
The views of this order are pronouncedly chiliastic, — and
Sanford himself is Elijah. He conducted a disastrous voy
age to Africa, during which a number of his followers died
from insufficient food and care, and was in consequence con
victed, on December 9, 1911, of causing the death of six
persons. He was sent to a govemment prison.
In the latter part of 1896 Williara S, Crowdy founded
the Church of God and Saints of Christ, Crowdy had been
a railway cook untfl he received a revelation as " a prophet
of God sent to the whole world," Crowdy is believed by his
foUowers to be in direct coraraunication with the Deity, to
utter prophecies by the will of God, and to perform miracles.
On his death the prophetic office lapses until a new vision
appears. [Hastings' E,R,E,, V, 320,]
About 1830' there appeared in an indefinite region de
scribed as " a state bordering on Kentucky," an impostor
who clairaed to be the Son of God, the Savior of mankind,
who had appeared on earth to call the impious and sinners
to their duty. He declared that if his hearers did not raend
their ways he would cause the earth to crumble beneath
them. Many people, including persons of wealth and posi
tion, received the message with attention and respect. At
last a German humbly besought the Messiah to explain his
message in German, since many of the man's auditors did
not understand English, and It was a shame that salvation
should be denied thera merely because of a weakness in
linguistic abflity. The Messiah, in reply, confessed that he

The Messianic Idea in Christianity 179
did not know German. " What," came the retort from the
German, " you the Son of God and don't speak aU languages,
and don't even know German? Come, come, you are a
knave, a hypocrite, and a madman. Bedlam is the place for
you." This brought a laugh from the spectators, who then
withdrew ashamed of their credulity. [J. G. Frazer, The
Magic Art, I, 409.] National Saviors
It has been said with much truth that when disaster is
most heavy the hope of deliverance is most lively ; but when
prosperity smfles it is forgotten. Suffering often breeds a
cheerful countenance whfle satisfaction makes a wry face.
In a more vituperative spirit the evil of the times was not
infrequently liberally wished on the evil doers. [Baring-
Gould, Origin and Development of Religious Belief, I, 77—8.
London, 1892.] The ideas in Western Europe which have,
in its earlier history, fostered this faith are, in large part,
common knowledge : the hope for deliverance from oppres
sion, the gleam of a beckoning future whose content is either
in the golden age of the past or in sorae long awaited age to
come. The substance and meaning of these ideas has never
been better expressed than by Baring-Gould, whose descrip
tion of thera we quote :
" A nation that suffers clings to the traditions of the past,
and hopes for the future. The present is to it one of the
bitterest sorrow and degradation ; but it had a glorious
past — at least it chooses to think so — and before it is a
glorious future, which it is determined to look forward to.
The Esthonian from the time of the German invasion lived
a life of bondage under a foreign yoke, and the iron of his
slavery entered into his soul. He sang : —
In the bosom of the forest
Where the bushes fling their shadows.
Where the alder boughs are dripping.
Where the birches sadly waver,
There of mossy cairns are seven.
Not adorned by loving fingers.

180 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Nor by watchful eyes attended.
One contains our tears of anguish.
One contains our chains of bondage ,
Qne is o'er our smitten heroes,
In the fourth wails gnawing famine.
In the fifth humiliations.
In the sixth the plague is lurking.
In the seventh utter ruin.
And he told how the ancient hero Kalewipoeg sits in the
realms of shadows with his fist in the rock waiting tfll his
country is In its extreraity of distress, when he will draw his
hand out of the living stone, and return to earth to avenge
the injuries of the Esths, and elevate the poor crushed people
into a mighty power.
" The suffering Kelt has his Brian Boroimhe, or Arthur,
who will come again, the first to inaugurate a Fenian Mil
lennium, the second to regenerate Wales. Olger Dansk, iron
mace in hand, waits tiU the time arrives when he is to start
from his sleep to the assistance of the Dane against the
hated Prussian, The Messiah is to come, and restore the
kingdom to the Jew, Charlemagne was the Messiah of
Mtediaeval Teutondora, He it was who founded the great
German empire, and shed over it the blaze of Christian truth
and now he sleeps in the KyffTiauserberg, seated at a stone
table, waiting till German heresy has reached its climax and
Gerraany Is wasted through internal conflicts, to rush to
earth once more and revive the great empire and restore the
Catholic faith. The expectation of a Messiah, and of a
golden age, is the child of hope, and hope is the child of
oppression. The most down-trodden peoples are those which
believe most intensely in a future age of triumph. What a
Savior is to a weary soul, and Heaven is to a forlorq spirit
that a Messiah and a future golden age are to an oppressed
and suffering people,
" Greece and Rome had neither. Why? Because Greece
and Rorae were not under bondage. If they fabled of a
golden age, that age was past; but there was none in the
future. Ovid sings of the change of the ages frora gold to
silver, frora sflver to brass, and from brass to iron; but he

The Messianic Idea in Christianity 181
holds out no hope of a future renovation. Horace, with
cruel acrimony, generalizes the same idea, and raakes of de
generation a law : ' The age of our fathers, worse than that
of our grandfathers, gave birth to us, and we, stfll further
depraved, shaU give birth to a race inferior to our own.'
TibuUus joins his voice to the concert of raalediction against
the present age, and regrets the happy age when barbarisra
reigned supreme. The most eminent phflosophers bowed to
the traditions of the past." [Baring-Gould, Origin and De
velopment of Religious Belief, I, 414-6, Ch. on The Human
Ideals,] Not until the tirae of Lucretius, who lived in the days of
Rorae's waning glory do we have a refutation of this doctrine
of the golden age and an insistence that the civilization of his
day had corae to its own but slowly and by building upon a
cruder past — in a word, by gradual evolution, [A view
weU expressed in Lucretius' De Rerum Natura.] If the
messianic idea is anywhere expressed by Latin writers it is
in Virgil, a poet of this age, [In his so-called Messianic
Eclogue,] The partition of Poland elicited many messianic ideals
and politico-messianic movements among the Poles, who pic
tured the coming salvation as threefold: social, political and
religious. All of them portray a time when the downtrodden
nations, and especiaUy Poland, wfll be free from the ag
gressor, [Lutoslawski, Le Messianisme Polonais. Published in Atti
del in Congresso Internationale di Filosofia, Bologna, 1911,
p. 186—92, Poland offers a favorable soil, Georg Brandes,
Poland: A Study of the Land, People, and Literature, 239 ff.
New York, 1904, Monica Gardner, Poland: A Study in Na
tional Idealism. New York, No date,]
Many a national hero is but biding the day when the
oppressor is driven forth from the land and he may return
in power. Every Greek of the Orthodox Church knows that
the priest of Hagia Sophia, or Saint Sophia, bides the day
when the Turk sliaU be ousted from Constantinople and na
tional ambition be fulfilled. Within its walls he reraains
sleeping untfl that happy consummation is realized. Simi-

182 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
larly, Boabdfl, the last of the Moorish kings of Spain, lies
spell-bound within the Alhambra in a slumber unbroken until
the eve of St. John — a story famiUar to lovers of Washing
ton Irving. [The Alhambra.]
" I will unto the veil of Avalon, to heal me of grievous
wound," were Arthur's words, neither he nor his foUowers
believing that he was dying. Fitting is the epitaph: Hic
jacet ArTHURUS, rex quondam REXaUE FUTURUS, for he
but sleeps in Avalon, waiting for the time when he shall wake
to free Britain once more. [Geo, W, Cox, The Mythol
ogy of the Aryan Nations, 225-^6, 139, London, 1903, John
Fiske, Myths and Myth-Makers; Old Tales and Superstitions
Interpreted by Comparative Mythology, 26, 201—2. New
York, 1893', S, Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Mid
dle Ages, 92-110, Boston, 1889. Thomas Bulfinch, King
Arthur and His Knights, Ch, 23, Morte D 'Arthur.]
In Switzerland, by the Vierwaldstattersee, three Tells are
awaiting the hour when their country shall again need
to be delivered from the oppressor. Charlemagne, says an
other tradition, is reposing in the Untersberg, sword in hand,
waiting for the coming of Anti-Christ. In a lofty mountain
in Thuringia the great Emperor Frederick Barbarossa slum
bers, his knights around him, until the time comes for him
to sally forth and raise Germany to the first rank among the
nations of the world. It would be interesting to know
whether recent events in that war-stricken land have re-vived
this faith among the peasantry. Do they think he has now
slept until his beard has grown thrice around the marble
table on which he leans — the sign that the time of reawak
ening is at hand — or that the ravens circling about the
Kyffhauserberg proclaim the time not yet at hand? [Yes,
says a writer in the Sunday edition of the San Francisco
Examiner, Feb., 1917.]
According to another version Barbarossa is lying in the
Untersberg near Salzburg. When the dead pear-tree which,
thrice cut down, plants itself afresh, shall bud forth and
blossom, the gaUant Rothbart wfll come out into the broad
daylight, hang his shield on the bright flowered bough, throw
down his gauntlet as a gage to evfl-doers and, aided by the

The Messianic Idea in Christianity 183
good and chivalrous few who will still be inhabitants of this
bad world, will vanquish cruelty and -wickedness, and realize
the dream of a golden age which they have so long antici
pated, [The story has been given popular expression by
Margarethe MuUer, Gluck Auf, 91-6, New York, 1901, P,
V, Bacon, German Composition, 64, New York, 1913, An
account of the expected return of Frederick Barbarossa is
given by Schindler, op, cit,, 21.]
The French peasantry still expect the retum of Napoleon
Bonaparte, Has that expectation been heightened during
these horrible years of the European War when France has
been fighting for her very existence ?
In the mountains along the Rhone, opposite the village of
Beauchastel, can be seen erabodied in the contour of the
granite, the features of a face, to which the narae of " the
lost Napoleon " has been given. [Cf, Albert Bigelow Paine,
in Saint Nicholas, Jan., 1918, Vol, L, 215—7,] Even in Rus
sia his advent was looked for and the belief prevailed that
Napoleon had retumed from St, Helena in the person of
Tchichikof, [Stephen Graham, Undiscovered Russia, 47.]
At the present time the sect known as the " Worshippers of
Napoleon," who revered him as a Christ, seems to have died
out. [Men of God, Hastings' E.R.E., VIII, 544-6.]
In Scotland, beneath the Eilden hills, sleeps Thomas of
Erceldorae. The French who were murdered in the Sicilian
Vespers at Palermo still slumber tfll the time coraes when
they shall awake and avenge themselves. Reluctant, indeed,
is human nature to give up hope for revenge or hope for
restoration. Ogier the Dane, a contemporary and ally of Charlemagne,
took ship one night from France and was not seen again for
a full hundred years. The interval was spent on a beautiful
isle in the company of a lovely fairy, under whose enchant
ments the time passed so quickly and happily that he thought
not once of his continental home. Not until the crown was
playfully snatched from his head did raeraory retum, and
with it a desire to regain his old home.
When he arrived in Paris he found everything changed;
Hugh Capet and not Charlemagne was on the throne. He

184 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
won fresh laurels in fighting the Moors and came back to
Paris with great honors. After the death of the king he
was to be wedded to the queen. On the eve of this happy
consummation the jealous fairy again carae to claim him for
her own and transported him to Avalon. " There," con
cludes the story, " in company with the great King Arthur
of Britain, he still lives, and when his fllustrious friend shall
retum to resume his ancient reign he will doubtless retum
with him, and share his triumph." [Ogier the Dane, in Bul
finch, Legends of CharlcToagne.]
For a long while the belief was current that Olaf Tryggves-
son, or Olaf I (969^1000), king of Norway, was stiU alive
and would retum to his kingdom. He had not been drowned
in the sea fight but had saved himself by diving under the
keels of the enemy vessels. Like Arthur he was stiU dream
ing away the time in Avalon waiting the day of retum.
" Much was hoped, supposed, spoken, but the truth was, Olaf
Tryggvesson was never seen in Norseland more," is the sad
plaint of an old mourning skald ; while the skald of Halfred
Vandreda is even raore pessiraistic, and declares :
" It never was the will of fate
That Olaf from such perilous strait
Should 'scape with life ! this truth may grieve —
What people wish they soon believe."
[Thomas Carlyle, The Early Kings of Norway. Olaf, Ency.
Britt., XX, 62. Anglo-Saxon Classics, VII, 248. New York,
1907. Another version is to the effect that Olaf made a
pilgrimage to Rome and lived long as a hermit in the Holy
Land. H. H. Boyeses, Norway, 171. New York, 1904.]
Balder, one of the sons of Woden, was to return to deliver
mankind frora sorrow and death. He was to retum amid
prodigies and the crash and decay of a wicked world, in
glory and joy and a glorious kingdom would be renewed.
In Norse belief darkness heralds the dawn, destruction
paves the way for reconstruction. Ragnarok is the Norse
word that describes both phases of the crisis. " The grow
ing depravity and strife in the world proclaim the approach
of this great event. First there is a winter caUed Fimbul-

The Messianic Idea in Christianity 185
winter, during which snow will fall from the four comers of
the world, the frosts will be very severe, the winds piercing,
the weather tempestuous, and the sun will impart no glad
ness. Three such -winters will pass away without being tem
pered by a single summer."
War and destruction will spread over the whole earth:
Brothers slay brothers;
Sisters chfldren
Shed each other's blood.
Hard is the world ;
Sensual sin grows huge.
There are sword-ages, ax-ages;
Shields are cleft in twain;
Storm-ages, murder-ages ;
TiU the world fall dead,
And men no longer spare
Or pity one another.
[Bulfinch, Stories of Gods and Heroes. Anglo-Saxon Clas
sics, V, 722-3; XI, 323-9. New York, 1911. R. B. Ander
son, Norse Mythology, 413-27. Chicago, 1891. The verse
is from the Elder Edda. A. and E. Keary, The Heroes of
Asgard: Tales from Scandinavian Mythology, Ch. IX. New
York, 1893. The idea is probably native to Scandinavia
and, in spite of the close paraUel, not borrowed from Chris
tianity.] Roderic, or Don Rodrigo as he was known to the Span
iards, the last Gothic king of Spain, his countrymen refused
to believe dead. To lend strength to their belief the manner
of his death had been enveloped in mystery. After the last
fatal fight with the Moors his sandals and his horse were
found along the river bank, but his body, probably carried
out to sea, was never found. The Goths of Spain, refusing
to believe him dead, declared he would corae from his resting
place in some ocean isle, healed of his wounds, once raore to
lead the Christians against the infidels. In Spanish legend
he is represented as spending the rest of his life In pious acts
of penance, raeanwhile being slowly devoured by snakes in
punishraent for the sins he had committed. At last the crime

186 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
was expiated and Don Rodrigo was perraitted to go to the
peaceful isle, whence his countrymen long awaited his tri
umphant return. [Stanley Lane-Poole, The Story of the
Moors in Spain, 21-2. New York, 1898. H. E. Watts, The
Christian Recovery of Spain, 19. New York, 1894.]
The story has been best told by Washington Irving in
his Legends of the Conquest of Spain (chapter XVIII) :
" A raystery has ever hung, and must ever continue to
hang, over the fate of King Roderic, in that dark and doleful
day of Spain. Whether he went down in the storm of battle,
and atoned for his sins and errors by a patriot grave, or
whether he survived to repent of them in herralt exile, must
reraain matter of conjecture and dispute. The learned Arch
bishop Rodrigo, who has recorded the events of this dis
astrous field, affirms that Roderick fell beneath the vengeful
blade of the traitor Julian, and thus expiated with his blood
his crime against the hapless Florinda, but the archbishop
stands alone In his record of the fact. It seems generaUy
admitted that Orelia, the favorite war-horse, was found en
tangled in a raarsh on the borders of the Gaudalete, with the
sandals and mantle and royal insignia of the king lying close
by him. The river at this place ran broad and deep, and
was encumbered with the dead bodies of warriors and steeds ;
it has been supposed, therefore, that he perished in the
stream ; but his body was not found within its waters.
" When several years had passed away, and men's rainds,
being restored to some degree of tranquillity, began to oc
cupy theraselves about the events of this dismal day, a rumor
arose that Roderic had escaped from the carnage on the
banks of the Guadalete, and was still alive. It was said,
that having from a rising ground caught a view of the whole
field of battle, and seen that the day was lost, and his army
flying in all directions, he likewise sought his safety in flight.
It is added, that the Arab horsemen, while scouring the
mountains in quest of fugitives, found a shepherd arrayed
in royal robes and brought hira before the conqueror, be
lieving him to be the king himself. Count Julian soon dis
pelled the error. On being questioned, the trembling rustic
declared that while tending the sheep in the folds of the

The Messianic Idea in Christianity 187
raountains, there came a cavalier on a horse wearied and
spent and ready to sink beneath the spur. That the cavalier
with an authoritative voice and menacing air coraraanded
him to exchange garments with him, and clad himself in his
rude garb of sheep-skin, and took his crook and his rude
scrip of provisions, and continued up the rugged defiles of
the raountains leading towards Castile, untfl he was lost to
¦view. " This tradition was fondly cherished by many, who clung
to the belief in the existence of their monarch as their main
hope for the redemption of Spain. It was even affirmed that
he had taken refuge, with many of his host, In an island of
the * Ocean sea,' from whence he might yet return once raore
to elevate his standard, and battle for the recovery of his
throne. " Year after year, however, elapsed, and nothing was
heard of Don Roderick ; yet, like Sebastian of Portugal, and
Arthur of England, his name continued to be a rallying point
for popular faith, and the raystery of his end to give rise
to roraantic fables."
In spite of the fact that Don Sebastian left the Portuguese
in worse plight than he found them, his campaigns in Africa,
disastrous as they were, raised hopes of great national do
minion and made of hira an undying hero. Consequently the
belief was current that he was not dead but raerely hidden
and resting for the day when he should restore and recreate
Portuguese prestige. So persistent was this belief and so
realistic the anticipation of his return in the flesh that several
pretenders clairaed the honor of being the returned Don Se
bastian. The raost prominent of these pretenders, after
a career of two years in Venice (1589—1600), fell into the
hands of the Spaniards, and his dreams of reinvigorating
the Portuguese nation were at an end, [See Sebastian, in
New Inter, Ency, (1916), Vol, 20, p, 654, Miguel Martins
D'Antas, Les faux Don Sebastien. Paris, 1866,]
" The lower classes of the Portuguese people refused to
believe that the young king was dead, and it was not long
before impostors arose, who tried to make profit out of this
credulity. The history of these impostors is as curious in

188 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
its way as those of the ' False Smerdis,' the ' False De-
raetrius,' and the pseudo-Louis XVII's, and proves how
strong a hold the raemory of Don Sebastian, in spite of his
being a rash and foolhardy tyrant, had taken upon the minds
of the Portuguese people. The first two of these impostors,
who were mockingly called the ' King of Ericeira ' and the
' King of Pennamacor ' from the headquarters of their oper
ations, were Portuguese of low birth, whose risings were
easfly put down. The original inventor of the idea was the
son of a tiler of Alcobaca, named Sebastiao Gonzales, who,
after leading a profligate life, had retired to a hermitage
near Pennamacor, From this retirement he emerged in
July, 1584, and declared he was King Sebastian ; that he had
escaped after the battle of Alcacer Quibir, and had since been
praying in the hermitage, but that the miseries of his people
had reached his ears, and he had determined to come forth to
reraedy them. He was accompanied by two men, who styled
themselves Dom Christovao de Tavora and the Bishop of
Guarda, and began to collect raoney in Pennamacor and the
neighborhood. The trio were speedily arrested and marched
through the streets of Lisbon to show that they were im
postors ; and the false Sebastian was then sent to the galleys
for life, and the pretended Bishop of Guarda was hanged.
In the following year, one Mattheus Alvares, son of a mason
at Ericeira, declared himself to be the lamented Dom Se
bastian, to whom he bore a considerable personal resem
blance, and solemnly promised to marry the daughter of
Pedro Affonso, a rich farmer, whom he created Count of
Torres Novas, His future father-in-law advanced the im
postor a large sum of money, and he had raised a small corps
of eight hundred fanatical followers, when the cardinal-
archduke thought it necessary to send royal troops against
him. The poor enthusiasts were defeated with great loss,
and both the pretender and Pedro Affonso were hanged and
quartered in Lisbon,
" This severe punishraent effectually checked the appear
ance of any fresh impostors in Portugal itself, and the popu
lace, though firmly convinced that Dom Sebastian would one
day appear again, were not to be deceived by any more pre-

The Messianic Idea in Christianity 189
tenders, " But these stories had spread far beyond the limits of
Portugal, and two more attempts to impersonate the mon
arch were made in Spain and Italy, The first of these im
postors was a handsome young man named Gabriel Espinosa,
who bore a striking resemblance to the King of Portugal,
and who was given out as Dom Sebastian by a Portuguese
Jesuit, named Maduj al, who introduced hira to Donna Anna,
a natural daughter of Don John of Austria, and induced her
to believe in him. The whole scheme partook rather of the
nature of a personal intrigue than of a political plot.
Donna Anna, who was very wealthy, showered favors on the
young man and his sponsor, and even advocated his clairas
to Philip II. The deception was, however, too' obviously ab
surd to gain many supporters, and Espinosa and his clerical
adviser were both executed in 1694, Far more curious is the
story of Marco Tullio, a poor Calabrian peasant, who could
not speak a word of Portuguese, but who nevertheless as
serted that he was Dom Sebastian in 1603, twenty-five years
after the disaster of Alcacer Quibir, His story was raost
carefully worked out, and his iraposture ranks among the
most extraordinary on record. He asserted that he was
the king, and had saved his life and liberty by remaining on
the battle-field araong the dead bodies ; that he had made his
way into Portugal, and had given notice of his existence to
the Cardinal-King Henry, who had sought his life; that he
then returned to Africa, because he was unwilling to disturb
the peace of the kingdom by a civil war, and travelled about
in the garb of a penitent; that he next became a herralt in
Sicily, and was on his way to Rome to declare himself to the
Pope, when he was robbed by his servants, and obliged to
find his way to Venice, When he told this elaborate tale
at Venice, he got a few Portuguese residents there to believe
in him, and was soon arrested in that city at the deraand of
the Spanish arabassador as an impostor and a criminal. He
was several times examined, but stuck to his story so cleverly,
and with such obstinacy, that the authorities, who were not
sorry to embarrass the Spanish Govemment, refused to pun
ish him as an impostor. The story of his claim spread so

190 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
widely abroad, that the enemies of Spain becarae anxious to
prove it true, and to set him up as a thorn in the side of
Philip III, The Prince of Orange went so far as to send
Dom Christovao, son of the Prior of Crato, to request the
Venetian authorities to make further inquiries; but those
prudent governors only held a solemn public examination,
when the Calabrian told his tale again, and then expeUed
him frora their dorainions without expressing any opinion
as to its truth. From Venice he went to Padua in the dis
guise of a monk, and thence to Florence, where the Grand
Duke of Tuscany had him arrested and given up to the
Spanish Viceroy at Naples, He was imprisoned in the Cas
tle del Ovo,' publicly exposed, and sent to the galleys ; and as
he raade adherents even there he was transferred to San
Lucar, and eventually executed. The singular boldness of
this imposture, and the tenacity with which the ignorant
Calabrian stuck to his story, in spite of its evident falsity,
raake it raeraorable in the history of pretenders."
It Is significant, too, that these pretenders appeared dur
ing " a tirae of unexarapled disaster for the country in every
quarter " when " the Portuguese, with their independence,
seemed to have lost all their old courage and heroism." [H.
Morse Stephens, The Story of Portugal, 286-90. New York,
1891.] The Greek erapire during the oppression of Islam pic
tured for itself an emperor of the future, who was to be one
of the emperors of the past rairaculously awakened frora his
sleep to overcorae Islara and obtain dorainion over the world.
Everywhere this legend of a sleeping eraperor and future
savior is closely interwoven with the tradition that anti-
Christ and oppression precedes the national triumph. In
fact, throughout Europe the belief in anti-Christ was inten
sified by the excitement incurred by the crusades. The time
came when the people saw Antichrist, or his forerunner, in
every ecclesiastical, political, national, or social opponent,
and " the catchword ' Anti-Christ ' sounded on all sides : in
the struggle between the Emperor and the Pope, the Guelfs
and Ghibellines, opposing Franciscans and the Papacy, be
tween heretics and the Church, reformative social movements

The Messianic Idea in Christianity 191
and the ruling powers opposed to them; in sculpture and
painting, in lyric, epic, and dramatic poetry the motives
were supplied by the prophecy of anti-Christ." [Anti
christ, In Hastings' E,R,E, ; New Inter, Ency. ; Cath. Ency. ;
Ency. Britt,]
In the thirteenth century, to the spiritual Franciscans,
as well as to the short-lived sect known as Almericans, the
Church was regarded as Babylon and the Pope as Antichrist,
[Almericans, in Cyclopedia of Bibl,, Theol. and Eccl, Litera
ture, I, 169, Papacy, in Hastings' E,R.E., IX, 623, For
a curious defence of the pope against the Antichrist charges,
which the author takes as supporting his divinity, see the
article on the Papacy in the Catholic Encyclopaedia, Con
sult, in this connection, Mommsen, Provinces of the Roman
Empire, II, 214-5, New York, 1887 ; and art. Deification, in
Hastings' E.R.E., IV, The Mediaeval FlageUants allied
themselves -with chfliastic expectations. In the early part
of the fifteenth century, a certain Conrad Schmidt, one of
the order of the Flagellants known as the Brethren of the
Cross, gave himself out as an incarnation of Enoch, and
prophesied the approaching fall of the Church of Rome,
FlageUants, in Hastings' E,R,E,, VI, 50,]
In Russia when the church Councfl in 1666 pronounced an
anathema against the old faith, the Rascolniks, adherents of
the old orthodoxy, announced that the reign of Antichrist
had come. The date of the Councfl was itself confirraation
of this, for it combined the apocalyptic thousand years of
Satan's bondage with the " number of the beast," " The
popular theologians had no doubt whatever about it, and
announced, on the .authority of the same book, that as the
reign of Antichrist was to last over three years, the end of
the world would therefore come in 1669. They fixed even
the date of this portentous event. Some declared it would
come about on the eve of Whitsunday, others at the same
hour on the eve of Quinquagesima Sunday,
" The discovery was striking enough to stir the popular
imagination, and many took the bait. When, however, the
fatal nights had passed over, and the whole of 1669 with
them, and yet the world was left standing pretty rauch as

192 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
before, the over-bold prophets had to experience the usual
meed of jokes and abuses from the disappointed people.
Protopop Avvacum, the raost prorainent of the early Rascol
niks, explained, as most unsuccessful oracles are wont to do,
that his prophecy about the reign of Antichrist raust be
taken in a spiritual sense — that Antichrist had not yet come
in the fiesh, but that he reigned in the spirit in the contami
nated church.
" With the advent to power of Peter the Great the Rascol
substituted for the spiritual Antichrist a living and strik
ingly concrete one in the person of the Czar himself. A
sovereign who strove to deprive the men of their likeness to
God by taking off their beards ; who had numbered the peo
ple in defiance of a clear prohibition of the Lord; who
changed the tiraes of the years and the days of the saints
(introduction of the new calendar in place of the old one,
which had begun the year on the 1st of September) ; who
had married an unchristian heathen (a Protestant, Cather
ine I), and had had her crowned as empress in the church;
who daily coramit bed what was regarded by the people as
sacrflege — could not be other than Antichrist himself. A
certain Talizin, merchant by occupation and Rascolnik by
creed, was the first to formulate these views in writing. He
was arrested, tortured, and conderaned to be suffocated by
smoke. But the Idea struck root ; It generated spontane
ously in the minds of thousands,
" Panic-stricken by the dread of Antichrist, and driven on
by the hardships of their lives, scores of thousands of the
peasants and artisans of the towns fled to the Rascol set-
tleraents in search of bodily and spiritual safety," [Step
niak, The Russian Peasantry, 264-5, 279^81, 319,]
In 1811 the authorities discovered in the province of
Tambov a sect caUed Stranniky, or Begumy (Wanderers),
which they at once declared to be dangerous, knouting and
transporting them to the Siberian mines. They had given
full development to the doctrine of Antichrist, making this
doctrine the key-note of their teaching,
" The Czar is In their opinion the Prophet of the Beast ;
the officials are his ministers ; the two-headed Imperial eagle

The Messianic Idea in Christianity 193
is the seal of Antichrist, the sign of the dragon. Every one
who offers any kind of horaage to the agents of Antichrist,
or who pays taxes for their unholy purposes, or allows him
self to be numbered and registered, or accepts ^ passport
or any other document sealed with the Imperial erablera, ex
cludes himself from the book of the living, and is doomed
to perdition as Antichrist's servant and abettor,
" They look upon their coreligionists who came to terms
with the Beast with the same disgust and abhorrence as they
lavish on the NIconians.
" In describing ' the renewing of Antichrist,' as the ' Wan
derers ' caU the Emperor's coronation, their founder Efim
indulges in the following details : ' Then there come to wor
ship him, — i. e., to offer him the oath of allegiance — those
fierce fiends the bishops, then the mock-popes (Satan's horses,
who transport souls to hell, to their father the evil one) ;
next follow the various foul apostatic sects — the NIconians
first, then the Old Believers (P'opovzy), the accursed Ar
menians, and the Poraorzy, who are hateful to God.'
" The faithful are warned to resist anything emanating
from the Czar, and as they cannot do this successfully, that
their only safety lies in fUght. The most zealous of these
sectarians carry out this principle to the letter. They spend
their lives in wandering from place to place. They never
reraain for long together in the sarae locality, always living
concealed in the houses of their hosts without the knowledge
of the authorities. They pay no taxes, apply for no pass
ports, give no bribes, and avoid all contact with the agents
of Antichrist,"
The belief in Antichrist is not yet a thing of the past.
In a Russian village of the present day, if a baby is bom of
unusual appearance, it is liable to be taken for the Devil,
or for Antichrist ; and a stranger who can not give a satis
factory account of hiraself raay raeet with the sarae fate,
[Stephen Grahara, Undiscovered Russia, 47. New York,
1912.] A prophecy of the raonk Fratre Johannes, who lived about
1600, has been much quoted since our entrance into the Euro
pean War, This prophecy was discovered in an old parch-

194 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
raent in the Convent of the Holy Ghost, at Wiesmar, Ger
many. As a key to the prophecy it has been pointed out in
the press of this country that:
The Kaiser Is a German Lutheran, and has a withered arm.
Germany represents the Black Eagle,
Austria, her ally, has an eagle as her insignia.
Russia represents the white eagle.
France is the Cock.
The British Empire is the Leopard,
Thus equipped It is easy to see the ease with which some
Americans have applied the prophecy of Antichrist and his
times to the year 1918, The prophecy declares:
" The real Antichrist will be one of the monarchs of his
time, a Lutheran Protestant, He wfll invoke God and give
himself out as his messenger or apostle,
" This prince of lies will swear by the Bible, He will rep
resent hiraself as the arra of the Most High, sent to chastise
corrupt peoples,
" He will have only one arm, but his innumerable armies,
who will take for their device, ' God is with us,' will resemble
the infernal regions,
" For a long tirae he will act by craft and strategy. His
spies will overmn the earth, and he will be master of the
secrets of the nights. He will have learned men in his pay,
who will maintain and undertake to prove his celestial mis
sion, " A war will afford him the opportunity of throwing off
the mask. It will not be in the first instance a war which he
will wage against a French Monarch. But It will be one of
such nature that after two weeks all -will realize its universal
character. " Not only all Christians, but Mussulmans and even more
distant peoples will be involved. Armies will be involved
from the four quarters of the earth.
" For by the third week the angels will perceive that the
man is Antichrist and that all will become his slaves if they
do' not overcome this conqueror.
" Antichrist wiU be recognized by various tokens — in spe
cial he will massacre the priests, the monks, the women, the

The Messiamc Idea in Christianity 195
children and the aged. He will show no mercy, but will pass
torch in hand like the barbarians, but invoking Christ.
" His words of imposture ¦will resemble those of Christians
but his vows wfll be like those of all the human race.
" He will have an eagle in his arms, there wfll also be an
eagle in the arras of his Confederate. But the latter will be
a Christian and will die from the Malediction of Pope Bene
dict, who will be elected at the beginning of the reign of the
Antichrist. " In order to conquer Antichrist, it will be necessary to
kill raore men than Rome ever contained. It will need ¦the
energies of all the kingdoms because the cock, the leopard,
and the White Eagle will not be able to make an end of the
black eagle without the aid of the prayers and vows of the
huraan race,
" Never will humanity have been faced with such a peril,
because the triumph of the Antichrist would be that of the
deraon, who will have taken possession of his personality,
" For it has been said that twenty centuries after the in
carnation in work the beast will be incarnated in his turn
and will raenace the work with as raany evils as the divine in
carnation has brought it graces,
" Toward the year two thousand Antichrist will be made
manifest. His army will surpass in nurabers anything that
can be imagined. There will be Christians among his cohorts
and there will be Mohararaedans araong the defendants of the
lamb as well as some heathen soldiers.
" For the first time the lamb will be red — for blood will
flow in the domains of the four elephants at once.
" The black eagle will come from the land of Luther, and
will raake a surprise attack upon the cock,
" The white eagle will come from the north,
" The black eagle will find itself forced to let go the cock
In order to fight with the eagles, whereupon the cock will
have to pursue the black eagle into the land of the Antichrist
to aid the white eagle,
" The battles fought up to that time will be as nothing
compared to that which will take place in the Lutheran
country.

196 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
" When the beast finds himself lost he wiU becorae furious,
" Men will be able to cross the rivers over the bodies of
the dead,
" Antichrist will sue for peace many times, but the seven
angels who march before three animals of the land will have
proclaimed that victory will not be given except on condi
tions that Antichrist wfll be crushed like straw upon the
threshing floor,
" The three aniraals will not be perraitted to cease fight
ing so long as Antichrist has soldiers,
" It will be made manifest that the combat, which will be
fought out in that part of the country in which Antichrist
forges his arms is not a human conflict. The animal defend
ers of the lamb will exterminate the last array of Antichrist,
" Antichrist will lose his crown and will die in solitude and
madness. His empire will be divided into twenty-two states
but none will have any longer fortifications, armies, or ships
of war,
" The white eagle, by order of Michael, will drive the Cres
cent out of Europe, where there will be no longer any but
Christians, He will install himself at Constantinople,"
[The manuscript referred tO' is kept in a glass case in the
city of Wiesmar,]

CHAPTER VII
MESSIAHS AND MIRACLES
IAMBLICUS, it is true, indulged in laughter when asked
if it were true that he sometimes floated in the air when
saying his prayers ; but he was a plulosopher, not a messiah.
During the Sabbatalan craze a banker in Amsterdam who
had uttered sorae irreverent remarks about the Messiah sud
denly fell down dead. After this proof of supernatural In
tervention the belief of the credulous crowd in the miraculous
and far-reaching power of the Messiah could never be shaken,
[Schindler, 145—6.] Perhaps, as Relraarus insisted (in the
first part of the eighteenth century), in Jerusalem, when all
the people had been looking for a manifestation of the raes
siahship of Jesus, a miracle would have had a tremendous
effect upon popular credence : " If only a single miracle
had been publicly, convincingly, undeniably, performed by
Jesus before all the people on one of the great days of the
Feast, such is human nature that all the people would at
once have flocked to His standard." [Schweitzer, The Qiiest
of the Historical Jesus, 19. Consult this work for a de
tailed account of the importance assigned to miracles by
various writers on the life of Christ. See also, Miracles, In
Hastings' Ency. Rei. and Ethics, Vol. VIIL]
When the Hurons declared that nothing had gone right
with them since the coraing of the Jesuits into their midst
and attributed their misfortune to the visitation of the latter,
Brebeuf replied by " drawing the attention of the savages to
the absurdity of their principles." That nothing had turned
out weU for the Hurons he did not for a raoment deny.
" The reason," he said, " plainly is that God is angry with
your hardness of heart." At these words the malignant
Huron wizard at whose bidding the councfl had been called
and Brebeuf summoned before it, fell down dead at the feet
197

198 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
of the missionary. No longer was there any doubt of the
sanction of his mission by a supernatural being. [Charle
voix, Histoire de la France Nouvelle, I, 192.]
Simflarly, the Mandan chief who, thanks to the aid of
arsenic borrowed from the whites, was able successfully to
prophesy the exact time and suddenness of the death of his
opponents, rose in the estimation of his people, as a raan
possessing great supernatural power. [Catlin, Letters, II,
117,] Araong the messianic religions that have appeared in ab
original America the supernatural element has always been
prorainent. Pope, the first of these prophets, who flourished
in the Pueblo region In 1680, a medicine man of the Tewa,
" had corae back frora a pilgrimage to the far north, where
he claimed to have visited the magic lagoon of Shipapu,
whence his people traced their origin and to which the souls
of their dead returned after leaving this life. By these an
cestral spirits he had been endowed with occult powers and
commanded to go back and rouse the Pueblos to concerted
effort for the deliverance from the foreign yoke of the
strangers. Wonderful beings were these spirit messengers.
Swift as light and impalpable as thought they passed under
the earth from the magic lake to the secret subterranean
chamber of the oracle and stood before hira in shapes of fire,
and spoke, telling him to prepare the strings of yucca knots
and send them with the message to all of the Pueblos far and
near, so that in every vfllage the chiefs raight untie a knot
from the string each day and know when they came to the
last knot that then was the time to strike (their eneraies the
Spaniards)." The Delaware prophet of 1762 procured his raessage to
his people directly frora the " Master of Life," whom he
visited In a journey to the spirit world. " Ignorant of the
way and not knowing any person, who, ha^ving been there,
could direct him, he performed a mystic rite In the hope of
receiving some light as to the course he should pursue. He
fell into a deep sleep, in which he dreamed that it was only
necessary to begin his journey and that by continuing to
walk forward he would at last arrive at his destination.

Messiahs and Miracles 199
" Early next morning, taking his gun, ammunition and
kettle, he started off, firmly con^rinced that by pressing for
ward without discouragement he should accomplish his ob
ject. Day after day he proceeded without incident, until at
sunset of the eighth day, while preparing to encamp for the
night by the side of a small stream In a little opening in the
forest, he noticed running out from the edge of the prairie,
three wide well-trodden paths. Wondering somewhat that
they should be there, he finished his temporary lodging and,
lighting a fire, began to prepare his supper. While thus
engaged, he observed with astonishment that the paths grew
more distinct as the night grew darker. Alarmed at the
strange appearance, he was about to abandon his encarap
raent and seek another at a safer distance, when he remera
bered his dream and the purpose of his journey." The first
path and likewise the second, proved culs de sac, but the
third took hira into the presence of the Master of Life from
whom he derived the divine message that he carried to his
people. The Shawnee prophet, Teuskwatawa, i. e., " The Open
Door," reinforced his supernatural knowledge by the assist
ance of information derived from the white raan. " By sorae
means he had learned that an eclipse of the sun was to take
place in the sumraer of 1806. As the time drew near, he
called about hira the scoffers and boldly announced that on
a certain day he would prove to them his supernatural au
thority by causing the sun to become dark. When the day
and hour arrived and the earth at raid-day was enveloped in
the gloom of twilight Teuskwatawa, standing in the midst of
the terrified Indians pointed to the sky and cried, ' Did I not
speak truth? See, the sun is dark! ' There were no more
doubters now. All proclaimed hira a true prophet and the
raessenger of the Master of Life. His farae spread abroad
and apostles began to carry his revelations to the remotest
tribes." The prophet was held to be an incarnation of
Manabozho the great "first doer" (culture hero) of the
Algonquin, and his words were believed to be the direct
utterances of a deity.
Smohalla gave evidence of his divine incarnation by fall-

200 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
ing into trances and lying rigid for a considerable time.
" Unbelievers have experimented by sticking needles through
his flesh, cutting him with knives, and otherwise testing his
sensibility to pain, without provoking any responsive action.
It was asserted that he was surely dead, because blood did
not flow frora the wounds. These trances," says Murray,
who seeras to have witnessed thera, " always excite great in
terest and often alarra, as he threatens to abandon his earthly
body altogether because of the disobedience of his people,
and on each occasion they are in a state of suspense as to
whether the Saghalee Tyec will send his soul back to earth to
reoccupy his body, or will, on the contrary, abandon and
leave thera without his guidance. It is this going into long
trances, out of which he comes as from heavy sleep and almost
immediately relates his experiences in the spirit land, that
gave rise to the title of ' Dreamers,' or believers in dreams,
coraraonly given to his followers by the whites." This
prophet, like the one previously described, added to the re
spect entertained for hira by his followers, by predicting sev
eral eclipses and conveying the idea to his believers that he
was able to control the eleraents and the heavenly bodies.
He subraitted to Major MacMurray an almanac of a preced
ing year requesting him to readjust it for eclipses, since
" it did not work as it had formerly done." MacMurray's
Inability to repair the 1882 almanac so that it would prog
nosticate the eclipses for 1884 lost him much respect in the
eyes of the prophet as " a wise man of the east."
Wovoka, the Paiute prophet who originated the great
Ghost Dance religion of the Plains, received his principal
revelation when the sun " died," that is, during an eclipse
(in 1887?), when he feU asleep during the day, was trans
planted to the other world, and there corarauned ¦with God,
receiving the raessage that he brought back to his people.
" God gave hira control over the elements so that he could
make it rain or snow or be dry at wiU, and appointed him his
deputy to take charge of affairs in the west, whfle ' Gover
nor Harrison ' would attend to matters in the east, and he,
God, would look after the world above. He then returned
to earth and began to preach, as he was directed, convincing

Messiahs and Miracles 201
the people by exercising the wonderful powers that had been
given him."
The failure of certain things to happen according to the
prediction of the Messiah, Wovoka, in September, 1890,
caused a temporary loss of faith on the part of the Cheyenne,
but their faith was reinvigorated by the Shoshoni and Ara-
paho from Wyoming, who shortly thereafter visited thera,
bringing the report that " in their journey as they carae over
they had met a party of Indians who had been dead thirty
or forty years, but had been resurrected by the messiah, and
were now going about as if they had never died."
The delegates whom the Sioux sent to investigate the
claims of the Paiute Messiah retumed with an account of his
wonderful performances. " It was claimed that he could
make animals talk and distant objects appear close at hand,
and that he carae down from heaven in a cloud. He conjured
up before their eyes a vision of the spirit world, so that when
they looked they beheld an ocean, and beyond it a land upon
which they saw ' all the nations of Indians coming home,' but
as they looked the vision faded away, the messiah saying that
the time had not yet come. Should the soldiers attempt to
harm him, he said he need only stretch out his arms and his
enemies would become powerless, or the ground would open
and swaUow them. On their way home if they should kill
a buffalo they raust cut off its head and tail and feet and
leave them on the ground and the buffalo would come to life
again." This promise was confirraed by their experience on
the return trip.
Said one of these delegates : " When coraing we carae to
a herd of buffaloes. We kflled one and took everything
except the four feet, head, and tail, and when we carae a little
ways frora it there were the buffaloes corae to life again and
went off." Thus was the Messiah's proraise fulfilled. A
further promise of the Messiah had been, " I will shorten
your journey when you feel tired of the long ways, if you
call upon me." " This we did," said his followers, " when
we were tired. The night came upon us, we stopped at a
place and we called upon the Messiah to help us because we
were tired of the long journey. We went to sleep and in

202 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
the raorning we found ourselves at a great distance from the
place where we had stopped."
[The above account is based on Mooney's study in 14
A. R. B. E., see especiaUy pp. 659-60, 663, 674-5, 719,
771-2, 813, 819, 821, 907, 1-^62.]
The Mohammedan Mahdis reveled in miracles, scarcely one
of thera failing to make pretence at being adept in their per
formance. Their claims to such power have been frequently
mentioned in the accounts already given of them. Even Ibn
Tumart was not free from such pretensions. To restore the
faith of sorae who were about to desert him he bade a few
of his trusty followers subrait to burial with reeds provided
for breathing purposes. He then called the weary ones to
their graves and said he would prove to them the bliss of
those who had died in his cause. To Ibn Tumart's question
carae answers from these buried faithful followers which left
in the minds of those present no doubt of the bliss in store
for them. Then, when they had gone away convinced, this
heartless Mahdi, reflecting that the dead tell no tales —
although they had only finished doing so — filled up the
vents to the graves by lighting fires over them. Their re
ward was truly in the next world. [B. Meaken, Moorish
Empire, 69.] A similar trick and sirailar treachery is said
to have been employed by a Moorish pretender of the nine
teenth century.
The condemned Hallaj is described in the oldest historical
books that mention him, as a reckless and unprincipled agi^
tator who " dabbled in alchemy and magic, and imposed on
the vulgar by perforraing rairacles which were only the tricks
of a clever conjurer." [Hastings' Ency. of Religion and
Ethics, VI, 481.] Rashid ad-Din Sinan, a twelfth century
Mahdi, clairaed to be able to answer letters that he had not
read, and could hold conversations with a trunkless head.
[Assassins, Hastings' E.R.E., II, 141.]
Supernaturalism has been a frequent appeal among the
Jewish peoples. The prophets of the Old Testament repeat
edly appealed to natural disasters as heralds of the approach
of " the day of the Lord." Joel gave assurance that the
" great and dreadful day " would be announced by signs in

Messiahs and Miracles 203
heaven and on earth. Prophets would appear on every side ;
there would be rivers of blood, fire, smoke, a darkened sun, a
bloody moon. The writer of Acts refers to sirailar oraens,
[Acts II, 17-21 ; Joel ch, I and II. ] Did not Jesus also
predict earthquakes, famines, pestilence in divers places, as
the beginning of the birthpangs, while the immediate signs
of his coming were eclipses, a darkened moon, stars falling
from the sky, the air troubled, the sea roaring, the people
fleeing in terror, not knowing whither they raight tum to
escape the overwhelming disaster? [Matt,, Mark, Luke,
See Prodigies and Portents in Hastings' Ency, of Rei, and
Ethics, X,]
A supernatural character befits the divine ruler. Hence
to assure the divine nature of the ruler, and as a logical
result of his supposed divinity, his origin was attributed to
some other than natural birth, " It seems to me that a hero
totaUy unlike any other huraan being could not have been
born without the agency of the deity," said the biographer
Arrian when discussing the parentage of Alexander the
Great, " He to whora the gods theraselves reveal the future,
who iraposes their will even on kings and peoples, cannot be
fashioned by the sarae worab which bore us ignorant raen,"
said the Augustan writer Arellius Fuscus, in his discussion
of astrologers. The wise ApoUonius of Tyana, a contem
porary of Christ, was traditionally believed to be a descend
ant of Proteus, god of Egypt, His birth was accompanied
by an appropriate display of rairacles : " swans sported
about the raother in the meadow, and a thunderbolt descend
ing from heaven arose aloft again, thus presaging the won
derful accomplishments by which ApoUonius was to be dis
tinguished." Son of God was an appeUation frequently ap
plied to rulers in Egypt, Babylonia, and Assyria, and in
Greece and Rome to the serai-divine hero. Augustus was
given the title of Dei fUius, and many wonders preceded and
followed his supernatural birth, if we are to believe Suetonius.
[Articles on Incarnation, in Hastings' E.R.E., VII, 188-
200.] Theudas, who was beheaded by Cuspius Fadus in 46 a, d,,
and who, in the reign of Claudius, announced himself the

204 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Messiah, did not depend upon military strength or diplo
macy, but looked for a miraculous establishraent by God of
the Kingdom of Israel in place of the Roman empire, 'The
fifth century enthusiast, Moses of Crete, inspired such faith
in his power to divide the waters of the sea and lead the peo
ple dry-shod to the Promised Land, that his foUowers threw
themselves off a cliff into the Mediterranean, anticipating
the fulfillment of the proraise, [Greenstone, 109-11,]
Bar-Cochba, the Jewish Messiah who arose in Syria about
A, D, 130, puffed forth burning tow from his mouth in order
to give himself the appearance of spitting fire. With his
knees he cast back the huge stones thrown by the Roman
siege machines. [H. Graetz, History of the Jews, II, 410.]
The Messiah who was foretold by Moses de Leon, in the thir
teenth century, was to be heralded by signs and miracles,
resurrection of the dead and mutual extermination of Ma
hometans and Christians, [lb., IV, 18.] Lobele Prosnitz,
the Sabbatalan impostor who flourished in Berlin early in
the eighteenth century, gained divinity in the eyes of the
credulous through dazzling letters on which alcohol and tur
pentine burned. [Ib,, V, 219,]
The Christians, while not disputing these miracles were
disposed to give them another interpretation. Thus, the at
tempt raade by the Jews in 363, under the benignant Era
peror Julian, to rebuild the temple, was, according to the
Christian writers, connected with raost wonderful miracles
whose purpose was to warn the Jews and glorify Christ.
[II, 601,]
Miracle working has been an almost invariant accompani
ment of all the messianic claims and manifestations of which
we have record, giving confidence to the messiah and re
kindling the ardor and faith of his followers, converting the
dubious, and fortifying the confident, [Miracles, Hastings''
E,R.E,, VIII, and sec. on Miracles and Resurrection in art.,
Jesus Christ, lb., VII, 513-4, 523-4. Miracles, and Resur
rection, in Diet, of Christ and the Gospels,]
Simon Magus, so called because of his practise of sorcery,
or magic, who was bom in Saraaria, and attained farae in the
first half of the first century a. d., maintained his religious

Messiahs and Miracles 205
prestige by means of his magic art. His Samaritan follow
ers recognized hira as the incarnation of the Suprerae Deity,
and he, nothing loth to accept these honors announced him
self as supremely divine : " Ego sura Dei, ego sura Speciosus,
ego Paracletus, ego Omnipotens, ego omnia Dei," are words
attributed to him by St. Jerome.
A statue is said to' have been erected to him in Rome,
dedicated to " Semoni Deo Sancto." According to one
early authority, Hippolytus, he was buried alive at his own
request, confident that he would rise again on the third day.
Another account declares he met his death when he at
tempted, in proof of supernatural power, to fly, falling, in
answer to the prayers of Peter, and fracturing his thigh and
ankle bones ; then. In despair, committing suicide.
The church fathers, from Irenaeus on, declare he was re
garded by his followers as Messiah, a manifestation of the
supreme deity. Some suppose him to be the Antichrist so
frequently referred to In the Apocalyptic writings, [See
the accounts given in art, Messiahs, False, in the Ency. Bibl.,
and in the Cyclopaedia of Bibl., Theol. and Eccles. Litera
ture.] In 1167, the same year that Da-vid Alroy proclairaed his
messiahship in Fez, to' the great detriment of the Jews of
that place, an Arabian professed to be the Messiah, and to
work miracles. He declared he was a prophet sent from
God, and suggested that, to test his claims, they sever his
head, assuring them that he would retum to life afterward.
The king applied the test, nothing loth to take the clairaant
at his word ; resurrection did not follow.
Not long after this a Jew dwelling beyond the Euphrates
called himself Messiah and drew after him a large following.
As a proof of his raission he declared he had been cured of
leprosy in the course of a night. He, too, perished, with
consequent hard fate for his devotees.
In 1178 a false Messiah arose in Persia, seducing with
miracles many of the people. In 1176 David Almasser, in
Mora^via, a great cabbalist, pretended he could make himself
invisible. In 1199 David el-David, a man of learning, and a
magician, clairaed messiahship in Persia. [Ib.]

206 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Simflarly, the Antichrist is expected to perform miracles
nuraerous and wonderful. " The Man-fiend wiU heal the
sick, raise the dead, restore sight to the blind, hearing to the
deaf, speech to the dumb; he wiU raise storms and calm them,
will remove raountains, raake trees flourish or wither at a
word. He will rebufld the teraple at Jerusalem, raaking the
Holy City the capital of the world. Popular opinion added
that his vast wealth would be obtained frora hidden treasures,
which are now being concealed by the deraons for his use."
[Frora Rabanus Maurus' work on the life of Antichrist,
given by S. Baring-Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle
Ages, 168. Boston, 1889.]
Cagliostro, the God on earth heralded by Cardinal De
Rohan shortly before the French Revolution, was a worker
of prodigious rairacles. He raade diaraonds out of nothing
and had unbounded wealth. On one occasion he coUected his
followers about hira to witness the resurrection of the athe
ist, D'Alembert. The Encyclopedist appeared, a skeleton
wrapped in a winding sheet, and assured them that there was
no other world — presumably not even the one from which he
had come. In 1781 he was astonishing the people of Stras
burg by his cures. According to his own version he had been
a friend of Abraham as well as one of the guests at the wed
ding in Cana, and raeanwhile had discovered the art of living
forever. A cardinal of the church, De Rohan, erected to him
a marble bust bearing an inscription hafling him as God of
the earth. [Shailer Mathews, The French Revolution, 49-
50 New York, 1911. A short time before this, during the
reign of Louis XVI, owing to the prevalence of miracles at a
Jansenist's grave, the gates at the St. Meddard Cemetery
were closed. Next morning over the locked gates appeared
the foUowing inscription : " By order of the king. God is
hereby forbidden to work miracles in this place."]

CHAPTER VIII
THE MESSIAH AND POLITICS
Judaism
THE career of the Messiah anticipated by the Samaritan
colony at Shechem, in Syria, will be one of " victory
and tranqufl rule, primarily religious, but with some political
significance." [Open Court, May and Septeraber, 1907.]
The messianic ideal of Israel has never lost its political tinge.
It began -with political aspirations foremost and they have
never receded, save here and there and for a raoraent only,
into the background. This belief we have already discussed
in the chapter on the Jewish Messiah where we have sho-wn
the very large extent to which this Messiah was a savior
frora poUtical oppression.
There is good reason for the political affiliation. Sorae
kind of belief in a future of rewards and punishments seems
necessary to a nation groaning under oppression. Under
the most stinging wrongs they hope, and hope breeds belief
in salvation. Then is the future assured. So throughout
Judaism the raessianic ideal, though little raore than an
uneasy dream of an ideal future, has brightened the existing
present reality and made it tolerable. The political needs
have called forth a long succession of Messiahs who, in turn,
have fanned the flames and kept these needs allA'e. Only in
the dying coraraunity of isolated Jews in China has this ideal
faded frora sight. [Israel Abraharas, Jewish Life in the
Middle Ages, 5, 168. Philadelphia, 1911. G. Karpeles, A
Sketch of Jewish History, 34ff. Emfl Schiirer, History of
the Jewish People in the Time of Christ. Second Division, II,
128ff. New York. No date. Art., China (Jews in), Hast
ings' E.R.E.]
The conditions surrounding the inception of the messianic
207

208 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
hope have already been referred to. We may now make
brief reference to the political crises wluch at once gave
origin and impetus to this belief.
The great forward movement in the religion of Israel
dates from about the middle of the eighth century b. c, a
tirae of outward prosperity, the long Araraaen war being
over, and the frontiers, thanks to Jeroboam II, rectified to
the advantage of Israel. To Jahweh was given the credit
for Israel's victories and the resurgent commerce which came
in their train. He was duly repaid by offerings and sacri
fices, though the material for them was frequently the result
of extortion and robbery.
But Araos, the first of these prophets whose writings have
been given the honor of a separate book, saw the threat writ
ten in the expanding power of Assyria, that wolf which was
already prowling about the fold. It was this impending ca
lamity, unforeseen by the masses, which called forth the stir
ring eloquence of this prophet. He demanded a new con
ception of Jahweh and a new ethical attitude toward him.
As the day of national reckoning approached, Hosea
sought to continue the ethical reform of Amos and instil
even loftier ideas of Jahweh's demands upon Israel,
Next came Isaiah, who dared to state that Assyria had
been, in the hand of Jahweh, a scourge to punish Israel for
her wickedness ; this being accoraplished, Assyrian arabition
and cruelty raust be punished.
About the year 626 news of the havoc which the Scythians
were working in the districts north of Palestine, raenacing
Judah itself, caused the prophets to preach repentance in
order to avert the threatened blow. It was at this crisis
that Jereraiah spoke and wrought great influence in giving
trend to the religious development. The prophet's acti-vity
was again aroused by the defeat of Pharaoh at the battle of
Carchemish. " His earlier anticipation of Judah's ruin at
the hands of a foe frora the north had not been realized ; the
Scythians carae very near but there is no evidence that they
invaded Judah, Now, however, there was the prospect of
the domination of a raore powerful nation, namely, Chaldea,
Accordingly, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (about 604—

The Messiah and Politics 209
603 B. c), Jereraiah directed his disciple, Baruch, to write
down a number of prophecies which he had composed since
the beginning of his ministry in 626, with the object of
showing that the judgment then threatened had been raerely
postponed and not averted," The first reference to the raes
sianic age probably dates frora the period of the ruin of the
kingdom which was consequent upon the capture of Zede
kiah, It was in the later religious gathering at Shechem that
national sentiment was greatly stimulated. [Israel, Hast
ings' E.R.E., VII. See Zech., iii, 8 and vi, 12.]
The second century b, c, furnishes another excellent in
stance of the relation between politics and religion. The
Maccabaean war was, in its inception, purely a religious
affair. The Jews took up arras against the Syrians to de
fend the Law, which had been greatly endangered by the
persecutions of Antiochus IV Epiphanes. This explains the
participation in the revolt of that rigidly and exclusively
reUgious party, the Hasidaeans. When, in 166, Judas Mac
cabaeus purified the temple defiled by Antiochus Epiphanes,
and restored the Jewish religion, the aims which inspired the
war were accoraplished. The treaty of Lysias (162) en
sured the religious liberty of the Jews. The Hasidaeans,
having attained their object, refrained from further partici
pation in the war, the political aims being secured through
the continued prosecution of the war by the Maccabaeans.
[Hasidaeans, Hastings' E.R.E., VI, 526. Judaisra, lb.,
VII, 586-7. Israel, lb., 456,]
Had all the Jews in later Roraan days accepted one leader,
instead of dissipating their energies by following now this,
now that, Messiah, the poUtical consequences raight well
have been very forraldable, " Had the Jews under Vespasian
acted with the sarae united energy as in the revolt under
Hadrian, the struggle would have been a forraidable one;
and their Messiah raight perhaps have been for imperial
what Hannibal was for consular Rome," [J, H, Allen,
op, cit,, 421, As Israel Cohen (op, cit,) has conclusively
shown, disintegration of the faith, separation into ever-
widening sects and creeds, is breaking up the racial integrity
of the Jews and raaking the prospect of a revived Jewish na-

210 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
tion correspondingly more remote. " Since the dawn of
emancipation a change has come over Jewry."]
David el-David, the Persian Messiah who operated in the
last years of the twelfth century, raised an army against
the king, though he was defeated and beheaded, vast num
bers of Jews suffering a similar fate for the part they had
taken in the rebellion, [See art, Messiah, in Cyclopaedia of
Bibl,, Theol,, and Eccl. Lit,, Vol, VI,] As we have seen in
the account given of various Jewish Messiahs, many, if not
most of them, were iraplicated in political moveraents,
Mohammedanism. A: Africa and Arabia
As early as the seventh century a, d,, Abd el MeUk found
hiraself involved in a war with the followers of Solman,
These were under the command of a daring leader by narae
of Moktar who claimed to be a lieutenant of the Mahdi prora
ised by the Prophet, The Mahdi referred to was the son of
Ali by another wife than Fatima, and, at that time was living
in retirement at Mecca,
Ibn Tumart, of whora an account has already been given,
imbued the surrounding tribes with an Intense devotion to
his sanctity, while, by the compilation of several important
works in their own tongue — notably the Murslfldah, " Di
rectress " or " Guide," and the Tanhid or " Unity,"— he
impressed them with his learning and thus added to their
adrairation. At last his followers carae to blows ¦with the
imperial troops, and were defeated. Later, however, having
gained the support of the Masmuda tribes he carae into con
trol of affairs. He then devoted himself raore than ever
to the austerities of hermit Ufe, leaving political affairs in
the hands of his foUower, Abd el Mumin, [B, Meaken,
Moorish Empire, 66—70,]
The movement of revolt started among the Berber tribes
of Algeria in a, d, 902 was headed by a missionary who gave
hiraself out as forerunner of the Mahdi, proraised them
abundant goods of both worlds, and caUed thera to arms.
" Then there appeared among them Sa'id, the son of Ahmad,
the son of Abd Allah, the son of Mayraun the occulist ; but

The Messiah and Politics 211
it was not under that narae. He was now Ubayd Allah al-
Mahdi himself, a descendant of AU and of Muhammad ibn
Israa'il, for whom his ancestors were supposed to have
worked and built up this conspiracy. In a. h. 296 (a. d.
909) he was saluted as Commander of the Faithful, with the
title of al-Mahdi. So far the conspiracy had succeeded."
[MacDonald, Mu,slim Theology, 44-5,]
Not long since, the head of the Brotherhood of as-Sanusi,
founded in 1837 by Mohararaad ibn Ali as-Sanusi, established
a theocratic state at Jarabub, in the eastern Sahara, between
Egypt and Tripoli, It has been predicted that this order
is fomenting plans which will soon take a political turn,
" Sooner or later," says Mr, MacDonald, " Europe — in
the first instance, England in Egypt and France in Algeria
— will have to face the bursting of this storm. For this
Mahdi is different from him of Khartura and the southern
Sudan in that he knows how to rule and wait; for years he
has gathered arms and araraunitions, and trained raen for
the great Jehad, When his plans are ready and his tirae
is corae, a new chapter will be opened in the history of Islara,
a chapter which wfll cast into forgetfulness even the recent
volcanic outburst in China. It will then be for the Ottoman
Sultan of the time to show what he and his Khalifate are
worth. He wiU have to decide whether he will throw in his
lot with a Mahdi of the old Islam and the drearas of a
Muslim millenniura, or boldly turn to new things and carry
the Successorship and the People of Muhammad to join the
civflized world," [Op, cit,, 61-3, Written in 1903, E.
W. Latimer, Europe in Africa, 78. Africa, in Hastings'
E,R,E., I, 161,]
Though this prophecy has not yet been fulfilled, it was
no very rash one. Since the early centuries of Mohamme
danism Berber leaders have been wont to appear in the guise
and with the claims of prophets, men rairaculously gifted and
with a message from God. " These wild tribesraen, with all
their fanaticisra for their own tribal liberties, have always
been peculiarly accessible to the genius which clairas its mis
sion from heaven. So they had taken up the Fatimid cause
[in the fourth century a. h.] and worshipped Ubayd Allah,

212 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
the Mahdi, And so they continued thereafter, and stiU
continue to be swayed by saints, darwishes, and prophets
of all degrees of insanity and cunning. As time went on,
there came a change In these prophet-led risings and saint-
founded states. They graduaUy slipped over from being
frankly anti-Muhammadan, to being equaUy frankly Muslim,
The theology of Islam easily afforded them the necessary
point of connection. All that the prophet of the day need
do was to claira the position of the Mahdi, that Guided One,
who according to the tradition of Muhammad was to come
before the last day, when the earth shall be filled with vio
lence, and to fill It again with righteousness. It was easy
for each new Mahdi to select from the vast and contradic
tory mass of traditions in Muslim eschatology those which
best fitted his person and his time,"
The political danger in Algiers and Morocco of these
Mohammedan sects with their inspired and inspiring leaders
has been recognized by both French and English. The di
rect action of the Sanusiyah in the insurrections in Algiers
seems not yet proven, but " even though no overt acts can be
alleged, yet the widespread influence of their teaching and
their known dislike to all modern methods of civilization have
doubtless been very powerful factors in leading others on in
the way of raore active and pronounced opposition, and their
Zawiyahs have always been open to rebellion." This is not
surprising. The raotto of the order is : " The Turks and
the Christians are in the sarae category : we ¦will destroy them
both at the sarae tirae," The Sanusiyah is the most irrecon
cilable enemy of the French, and reflects the growing discon
tent in the MusUm world over the increasing occupation by
Christians of lands till lately open to the followers of Islara.
[SeU, Essays on Islam, Ch. on Religious Orders. Frisch, Le
Maroc, 190. Castries, L'Islam, 238. Meakin, The Moor
ish Empire, 198. Duveyrier, La Confrerie Mtistdmane, 14.
Silva White, From Sphinx to Oracle, 27, 124.]
In 1910 warning was again given of the danger to Euro
pean interests involved in the religio-polltical organization
of the Senoussi of North Africa. The Senoussi was a great
religious chief who held court in the Hinterland of Tunis.

The Messiah and Politics 213
The slaves in particular accepted the new faith with avidity
for it promised them a new dignity as well as a doorway to
freedom. " If the Senoussi gave the signal, hundreds of
thousands of brave swordsraen and rifle-bearers would pre
cipitate themselves upon the Europeans and the Turks who,
between them, held North Africa." [The Spectator, March
10, 1910.] The Moorish Pretender has indeed been just
such a dangerous character as was prophesied. [He is de
scribed by A. J. Dawson, Things Seen in Morocco. New York,
1904.] After Italy joined the Entente nations in May, 1915, the
order assumed a raore and more unfriendly attitude toward
them and an increasingly friendly attitude toward their
enemy Turkey. [Senussi, in New Inter. Ency. (1916), XX,
708, and in Ency. Britt., XXIV, 649-51.]
A man by the name of Mokrani, claiming to be the Mahdi,
raised an insurrection in 1870. Many similar insurrections
directed against the invaders, followed the French occupation
of Tunisia in 1881. [Revue Tunisiemie, IX (1902), 205.]
At least one writer has recognized the political iraportance
of Mahdiism in Abyssinia and has sounded a note of warning.
[A. B. Wylde, Modern Abyssinia, 11, 71. London, 1901.]
The Alids inspired the people with the idea that the Mahdi
would corae from the house of Ali. His word was truth and
to hira explicit obedience was due. Further political raoves
linked them by still stronger bonds to the cause of the Mahdi,
without whose success they could never be recompensed for
the great sacrifices made to the cause. In A. H. 270, when
the government attempted to apprehend a raan whom they
considered dangerous, a certain AbdaUah Ibn Maimun al-
Qaddah, he escaped to Basra. There he lived for some time
in hiding. Later his grandson, UbaidaUah, went to northern
Syria and thence to Egypt and the far west of North Africa,
where he appeared in A. H. 297 at Kalrwan, as the Mahdi
and first Khalifate of the Fatimids. Some separated from
hira, refusing to acknowledge him as the Mahdi, his political
power being to that extent impaired. [Art. Carmations, In
Hastings' E.R.E., Ill, 222-5 ; see above, Ch. on The Mahdi.]
" Abu-Abdallah, the son of a lamplighter in the mosque of

214 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
his native village, was a man of exceptional ability as well
as of unusual training. He studied in the best schools of his
day — Cordova, Bagdad, and Cairo, where he displayed
great aptitude as well as great zeal. After the completion
of his education he retumed to his home araong the tribesmen
of Masmoudah in the country of Sus. His travels and his
studies, directed by a keen and vigorous intellect, had given
him a profound insight into human nature, while the supe
riority of his literary attainments obtained for him the great
est respect frora the simple and ignorant shepherds among
whora his lot was cast. From the day of his retum, he af
fected an air of mystery well calculated to impose upon a
credulous and highly imaginative people. He assumed the
title of Al-Mahdi, or The Leader, a word synonymous with
Messiah, a personage whose advent has been predicted by the
founders of alraost every sect of Oriental origin. He de-
clairaed with audacity and eloquence against the sins of the
degenerate Moslems. In common with all reformers whose
success demands a real or apparent exhibition of sanctity,
his life afforded an edifying example of self-denial and of the
practice of the raost austere virtue. His garments were
scanty and of the coarsest materials. His sole possessions
consisted of a staff and a leathern bottle. Subsisting upon
alms, and sleeping in the court-yards of the mosques, where,
during the day, with impassioned oratory, he exhorted the
wayward to repentance, he did not remain long in solitude.
Crowds gathered to participate in his devotions and to enjoy
the benefit of his prayers. The erratic genius of the Berber,
impressed with an exhibitiou so congenial with its nature and
actuated by the love of novelty, soon recognized in the holy
man a guide whose inspiration was directly derived from
heaven. Among the first of his disciples was a youth of dis
tinguished lineage and unusual personal attractions, naraed
Abd-al-Muraen, whora the Mahdi, as he was now universaUy
called, selected as his councillor, and whose talents for war
and executive abflity, as soon becarae evident, were superior
to those of any indi^ridual of his tirae. Accorapanied by a
sraaU band of followers, the Mahdi advanced by easy stages
to Morocco, the depravity of whose citizens he constantly

Tlie Messiah and Politics 215
represented as worthy of the severest punishment that could
be inflicted by the wrath of an outraged Deity.
" The first public act of the Mahdi after his arrival was
one whose unparalleled audacity was admirably calculated
to establish the sacredness of his pretended mission as far
as the raost distant frontiers of the empire. On one of the
Fridays of the festival of Ramadhan, a great concourse had
assembled in the principal mosque of the capital to await the
coming of the Sultan. Before the royal cortege appeared,
an emaciated figure, meanly clad and intoning In deep and
solemn accents verses from the Koran, strode through the
assemblage and seated hiraself, without cereraony, on the
throne. The reraonstrances of the attendants of the raosque
produced no effect on the intruder, and even at the approach
of Ali himself he retained his seat, while the entire congre
gation rose and stood reverently in the presence of their
monarch. In the raind of devout Moslems, mental eccen
tricity and insanity are nqt infrequently considered evi
dences of divine inspiration; the most outrageous denunci
ations are received with humility by the greatest potentates ;
and, encouraged by impunity, the dervish and the saint, sure
of the toleration of the sovereign and the applause of the
multitude, do not hesitate to violate every feeling of decency
and reverence in the prosecution of their schemes of irapos
ture. The existence of this superstitious prejudice pre
vented the raolestation of the Mahdi, whose reputation had
preceded him, but whose person was as yet unknown to the
inhabitants of Morocco. Not content with usurping his
place, the audacious reforraer even ventured, in scathing
terms, to reprove the Sultan in the presence of the asserably,
and warned hira that if he did not correct the faults of his
govemment and the vices of his subjects he would be speedily
called upon to render an account of his neglect to God. The
amazement and consternation of the Prince were only ex
ceeded by the apprehensions of the people, who awaited, with
equal anxiety, the accomplishment of a rairacle or the out
break of a revolution.
" From that day the religious authority of the Mahdi was
established throughout the African dorainions of Ali. His

216 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
audiences were nurabered by the thousands. Proselytes in
vast multitudes assented to his doctrines, and his movements
began to seriously occupy the attention of the govemment,
whose officials saw with unconcealed dread his fast-increas
ing popularity and the effect which his harangues and his
ostentatious asceticism were producing upon the capricious
and easily deluded masses. He was examined by the minis
ters, some of whom advised his immediate execution, but, as
he had hitherto confined himself to religious exhortations and
had asserted no pretensions to the exercise of temporal
sovereignty, the impolitic clemency of Ali, unmindful of the
simflar circumstances which had attended the elevation of his
own famfly to power, dismissed, unharmed, the most danger
ous enemy of his life and his throne. The lesson he had
just been taught was not lost on the wary impostor, who, of
all distinctions, coveted least the honors of martyrdom. He
left the capital and repaired to Fez, where for a considerable
period he kept himself in seclusion, but, through his devoted
emissaries, still retaining and indeed increasing his influence
over the ignorant populace, deeply Impressed with the mys
tery that surrounded his movements as well as with the oracu
lar messages with which he nourished the curiosity and stimu
lated the expectations of his foUowers. At length, without
warning, he reappeared in the streets of Morocco. The en
thusiastic welcome he received made it apparent that his
popularity had been in no respect diminished during his ab
sence. His insolence and his extravagance now became more
offensive than ever. He denounced, in epithets conveying the
greatest opprobrium, the public and private conduct of the
monarch and his court. Assisted by his disciples, he seized
the wine vessels in the bazaars and emptied their contents
into the streets. The sight of a rausical instrument roused
hira to fury and was the signal for its destruction, as well as
for the raaltreatment of its owner. His piety could not
tolerate even the songs of mirth, and those who presumed to
enjoy this harmless arausement in his hearing were speedily
sflenced with a shower of blows. The climax of impudence
and outrage was attained when the Mahdi, having one day
encountered in one of the public thoroughfares of the capi-

The Messiah and Politics 217
tal the sister of Ali, who, in corapliance with the prevalent
custom of the Moorish ladies of Africa and Spain, had dis
carded the veil, roundly abused her for this violation of the
injunctions of the Prophet and ended by precipitating her
from her saddle into the gutter, to the horror and consterna
tion of her nuraerous retinue. An offence of this flagrant
character coraraitted by one unprotected by the influence of
the grossest superstition would, under Oriental law, have been
instantly punishable with death. But the reverence enter
tained for the sacred profession of culprit, the general sus
picion of his want of responsibfllty, and a fatal indifference
to his rapidly increasing power suggested the Iraposltion of
an insignificant penalty, and the bold and reckless innovator
was banished from the city. In obedience to the letter, if not
to the spirit of his sentence, he betook himself to a neighbor
ing cemetery, erected there a miserable hovel, and surrounded
by the significant memorials of the dead, began anew his
prophecies of impending evil and his declamations against
the vice and corruption of the dignitaries of the empire.
The leniency with which his offences had been treated by the
authorities was distorted by fear and fanaticism into perse
cution and injustice, and the -violator of law was at once
exalted into a martyr. The passions of the ignorant were
then artfully aroused by the representations that the life
of their leader wa.s threatened, and a body-guard of fifteen
hundred well-armed soldiers was organized to watch con
stantly over the safety of the self-styled Messenger of God.
The Sultan now began to realize, when too late, the results
of his iU-timed indulgence. He sent a pereraptory order
for the Mahdi to leave the vicinity of the capital. The lat
ter, aUeging that he had already coraplied with the directions
of his sovereign as indicated by the sentence of his banish
ment, and feeling secure in the raidst of his devoted adherents,
at first declined to abandon his position ; but, on hearing that
measures were already taken for his assassination, he fled in
haste to the distant town of Tinaraal, where he had disclosed
his pretended mission.
" Of all the prophets and reforraers, the progenitors of
dynasties, the conquerors of kingdoms, the restorers of the

218 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Faith, which from its origin have appeared in the domain
of Islam, none possess a greater claim to' distinction than
Abu-AbdaUah, sumamed the Mahdi, the founder of the sect
of the Almohades. Without the comraanding genius and
originality of Moharamed, he equalled that remarkable per
sonage in keenness of perception and energy of character,
and far surpassed hira in education, in eloquence, in practical
acquaintance with the foibles and the prejudices of huraan-
Ity. The suggestive exaraples of his predecessors, who had
attained to supreme power through pretensions to inspira
tion and martial achievements, incited him to establish for
himself a political and religious empire. With more of the
charlatan and less of the soldier in his mental composition
than had characterized raany reformers, he retained to the
last his retiring asceticism, but in case of emergency he did
not hesitate to boldly risk his life on the field of battle. No
scholar was better versed than he in the literature and sci
ence of his age. His sagacity was proof against the insinu
ating arts of the most accomplished negotiator. In the
prosecution of his ambitious projects he never considered the
corafort or the safety of his foUowers ; in the exaction of his
vengeance every sentiraent of pity and Indulgence was ruth
lessly cast aside. His Influence over his disciples was raain
tained by appeals to superstition and by arts of imposture
congenial with the temperament of the ignorant and the
credulous. To conceal these frauds, the wretched instru
ments by whora they had been effected were promptly put to
death. Such persons as were sO' unfortunate as to incur the
enraity of the false Prophet were buried alive. Such was the
extent of his power over the raasses, that the criraes perpe
trated by his orders or with his sanction were regarded in
the light of virtues ; that his spurious clairas to divinity were
accepted by entire nations who revered hira even more than
his great prototype Mohamraed, and who demonstrated their
enduring faith in his mission by raising his friend and suc
cessor, to whora his authority had descended, to an equality
with the greatest potentates of the age." [S. P. Scott,
History of the Moorish Empire in Europe, II, 249-54, 259-
60. London, 1904.]

The Messiah and Politics 219
There, in the raosque, he [Abu-Abdallah] first openly an
nounced his claim to temporal power. A sympathetic audi
ence was excited to frenzy by his mysterious predictions and
his fervid eloquence ; his claim to universal dominion as the
Champion of the Faith and the restorer of the purity of
Islara was received with vociferous applause by the multi
tude, and in the midst of the turmofl Abd-al-Mumen and ten
of his companions, rising and drawing their swords, swore
eternal fealty to their leader. Their example was followed
by the entire congregation ; and thus, a second time, in the
centre of the Sahara was inaugurated a Mohararaedan refor
mation the precursor of a gigantic but unsubstantial and
impermanent empire. This decisive step had no sooner been
taken than the Mahdi proceeded to organize his govemment
by the appointraent of civil and military officials. Abd-al-
Mumen was made vizier; the ten proselytes who had sworn
aUegiance in the raosque were united In a Suprerae Council ;
and the subordinate bodies, composed respectively of fifty
and seventy disciples, were charged with the raanageraent of
affairs of Inferior moment ; the result of their deliberations
being subject to the approval or rejection of the Mahdi
himself. The revolutionists, whose numbers, daily recruited
by accessions from the martial tribes of the Desert had now
become formidable, assuraed the narae of Alraohades, or Uni
tarians, not only to distinguish thera from the Christians,
whose trinitarian dogma and adoration of images caused
them to be designated by all Moslems as idolaters, but to
indicate as well a retum to the original sirapllcity of Islam,
long corrupted by the heterodox practices and dissolute man
ners of their Almoravlde rivals. A strange and mysterious
fatality seemed to attach to the fortunes of the latter in
every field where they encountered the armies of the newly
arisen Prophet. In four successive engagements the soldiers
of Ali, seized with a panic in the presence of the enemy,
yielded to the attack of the Berber cavalry ; their standards
and baggage were taken, and thousands of fugitives, butch
ered in headlong flight, expiated with the loss of life and
honor their efferalnacy and their cowardice.
" The opinion generally prevalent in the rainds of the illit-

220 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
erate, that raflitary success is an infallible criterion of reli
gious tmth, began to produce its effect on the Almoravides.
The terror experienced by them at the sight of the enemy —
really due to relaxation of discipline and apprehension of
the miraculous powers of an audacious charlatan — was
universally attributed to supernatural influence. The mis
sion of the Mahdi required no further demonstration of its
divine origin. Henceforth his utterances were received by
both friend and enemy as the oracles of God. His credit
daily increased among the credulous and passionate inhabi
tants of the Desert. The Alraoravide soldiers shrank frora
an encounter with a foe whose white standards seeraed to be
invested with the raystic qualities of a talisraan. The Mahdi,
renouncing in a raeasure his character of affected huraility,
now assuraed the porap of a sovereign. He surrounded him
self with a splendidly appointed body-guard. His throne
was approached by suppliants for favor with the debasing
and complicated cereraonial of Oriental despotism. He de
manded, in arrogant and menacing language, subraission and
tribute from Ali, who, dejected from repeated misfortune,
began to share with his ignorant subjects the awe which en
veloped the person and the attributes of his triumphant and
forraidable adversary. The plans of the latter had hereto
fore been accoraplished without an established base of oper
ations, the caraps of the Alraohades being moved from place
to place over the drifting sands of the Desert ; but now, the
direction of an army of twenty thousand raen, the subsistence
and shelter of a vast multitude of non-combatants, and the
dignity and power of a new and growing political organiza
tion urgently demanded a settled habitation and a recognized
centre of authority. Among the lofty crags of a mountain
spur extending from the range of Tlemcen to the Atlantic
stood the village of Tinamal. Its retired situation, its natu
ral defences, its proximity to both the rich cities of the
coast and the fertile regions of the Interior, the character of
its people, who were to a man ardent believers in the raission
of the Mahdi, made it an admirable point either for the in
auguration of a conquest or the institution of an harassing
system of predatory warfare. It was approached by narrow

The Messiah and Politics 221
and tortuous paths which, -winding along the raountain side,
disclosed, on the one hand, an Inaccessible cliff, on the other,
an abyss whose depths were shrouded in perpetual gloom.
From its battlements, almost hidden in the clouds, the prog
ress of a hostile party could be watched for railes as, with
slow and uncertain steps, it pursued its hazardous way. In
this mountain fastness the Mahdi fixed his residence and es
tablished his capital. The natural impediments in the path
of an invader were greatly multiplied by the artificial re
sources of engineering skill. Towers and fortresses were
raised at points comraanding the various approaches to the
mountain stronghold. Drawbridges were thrown across
roaring torrents. Walls and gateways obstructed the pas
sage, where an insignificant force might with ease check the
progress of a nuraerous army. The village of Tinamal soon
becarae a city, whose inhabitants, subsisting by the plunder
of their neighbors, becarae the scourge and the terror of the
peaceable and defenceless subjects of Ali. After a long
sojourn in his seat of power, the Mahdi about to succurab
to a fatal disease, deterrained to signaUze his closing days
by an enterprise worthy of the pretensions he had assuraed
and of the success which had hitherto favored his undertak
ings. An army of forty thousand men was asserabled for the
capture of Morocco. In a desperate conflict under the wall
of that city, the Almoravides, who outnumbered their oppo
nents two to one, were put to fUght and pursued with terrible
carnage to its gates. But the fortunes of the Almohades,
heretofore invincible, were now destined to receive a serious
blow. Unaccustomed to the conduct of a siege, the soldiers
of Abd-al-Mumen habituaUy neglected the precautions which,
in the presence of an enemy, are Indispensable to the security
of a camp. Within the immense circuit of the capital were
marshalled for a final struggle the collected resources of the
empire. Thousands of fugitives from the recent disastrous
battle had found asylum behind its walls. Reinforcements
had been drawn from every African province as well as from
the diminished Andalusian armies, their own strength already
sorely taxed by repeated incursions of the Christian foe.
The constructing and handUng of raflitary engines were con-

222 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
fided to a body of Byzantine and Sicflian engineers enlisted
for that purpose. The soldiery was animated by the pres
ence and exaraple of the Sultan, who had for the time aban
doned the Koran for the sword, and stood ready to perform
the part of a valiant and resolute coraraander. The citizens,
moved to desperation by the approach of an enemy whose
relentless character had been established by the raassacre of
fugitives and prisoners, and frora whose ferocity, aggravated
by prolonged opposition, they could expect no indulgence,
co-operated manfully with the garrison in the defence of their
homes, their families, their property and their king. The
first sallies of the Almoravides, conducted by leaders trained
to partisan encounters in the wars of Spain, were signally
disastrous to the besiegers. The latter, suddenly checked in
an uninterrupted career of victory, were disconcerted and
disraayed, and their confidence was shaken in proportion as
the spirits of their adversaries rose. The attacks of the
latter became more vigorous and deterrained; a general
engageraent followed, the Alraohades were routed with terrific
slaughter, and it was only by the exertion of strenuous effort
that Abd-al-Muraen and a handful of sur-vivors were enabled
to escape the lances of the Alraoravide cavalry. The depres
sion caused by a single disaster was more potent in its effect
upon the minds of the disciples of the Mahdi than the pres
tige derived from a score of ¦victories. The influence which
had exercised its mysterious sway over the iraagination of
all who had presuraed to dispute the clairas of the irapostor
was perceptibly impaired. The fickle tribesmen deserted his
standard by thousands. But in the course of a few years
his eloquence and tact were able to repair the losses he had
sustained; another army coraraanded by Abd-al-Muraen
issued from the mountains, and a brilliant victory obtained
over the followers of Ali retrieved the honor and credit of
the Almohade cause. The Mahdi did not long survive his
triuraph. Overcome with the excitement occasioned by the
retum of his soldiers with their array of spofls and cap
tives, he died, after having committed to the faithful Abd-al-
Mumen the accomplishment of the task of conquest and refor
mation which he had so successfully begun." [S. P. Scott,

The Messiah and Politics
History of the Moorish Empire in Europe, II, 254—9. Lon
don, 1904.]
The Mahdist movement of the Egyptian Sudan was in
spired mainly by the political oppression under which the
people suffered. The followers of the Mahdi were first and
foreraost the Baggara who " perceived in this Mahdi one who
could be used to' shake off Egyptian rule." His followers
regarded hira as the only true coraraander of the faithful,
endued with divine power to conquer the whole world. He
did, in fact, liberate the Sudanese frora the extortions of the
Egyptians and, at the time of his death, was planning an
invasion of Egypt. [Sudan, in Ency. Britt., XXVI, 17.]
The Wahabis, a liberal sect of Mohamraedanism, not only
sought emancipation from the shams and ceremonials and
elaborate superstitions of Islara, but also revolted against
their political oppressors and sought to free themselves from
Turkish tyranny. [See The Bookman, Vol. XLV, 498.]
The first rebellion in Andalusia after the death of Abd-er-
Rahraan, came, not from Christians, nor frora any special
political sect of Arabs or Berbers, but from certain devout
sons of Islam, namely, the theological students of Cordova.
[Stanley Lane-Poole, The Moors in Spain, 73. New York,
1898.] The Moors of Almonacir, Spain, after the decree of expul
sion (1526), fortified theraselves in a castle near Saragossa
and placed their hopes in succor frora Africa in the prom
ised resurrection of the Moor Alfatimi, who was to return
mounted on his green horse. [H. C. Lea, The Moriscos of
Spain, 90. Philadelphia, 1901. The belief in a raounted
Mohararaedan warrior of great or raagic power, hidden away
in some recess of the country, to reappear later, was a com
mon element in the beliefs of the Spanish Moors. Cf. Wash
ington Irving, Legends of the Alhambra. Philadelphia, 1910 ;
and The Alhambra.]
In 1609 the Moriscos at Muela de Cortes, Spain, who had
taken refuge in the mountain fastnesses, at first demanded a
year in which to prepare for the expatriation ordered and
then, when these were carried out, they revolted, but gave
up when the hope that Alfatimi, whom tradition declared had

224 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
been concealed under the mountains since the days of King
Jayne, was dissipated.
" Araong all Mohammedans religious fanaticism is consid
ered as the best safeguard of national sentiment, the most
effective raeans of patriotic exultation, and the strongest
weapon of resistance to foreign aggression. That," writes
Araeen Rihani, " Is why the new kingdora of Arabia is based
foreraost on the clairas and sanctions of Islara." [The Revo
lution in Arabia, The Bookman, July, 1917, Vol. XLV.]
Rihani has characterized the Arabian revolution of 1917
as of purely religious nature in origin. The proclaraation
of the Grand Sherif and of the Uleraa of Mecca quote the
Koran in justification of the revolution and call upon the
Arabs to arise and re-establish a pure State of Islara in
accordance with the Sunnah and the Sacred Traditions of the
Prophet. " The new kingdom of Arabia," in the words of
the proclamation, " has the sanction in the book of Allah and
is destined to revive the glory and the pristine purity of the
Faith." " And so," remarks Rihani, " Sherif Hussein,
raainly by virtue of his religious office, was the chosen leader."
India
The fact that most of the Hindu efforts at reform have
originated during the past few years is taken by some as
indicative of the influence of Christianity. [For example,
by Ptatt, India and Its Faiths, 166. London, 1915.] But
the political aspirations have played such a dominant role
that Christianity can be given only partial credit for them,
and perhaps a minor credit. Though these politico-religious
movements in India have been largely inspired by Hindus,
Sir Valentine Chirol goes too far when he asks us to believe
that they have been confined to Hindus. The evidence abun
dantly disproves his statement that " not a single Mohamme
dan of any account is to be found in the ranks of disaffected
politicians." [Indian Unrest, 5. London, 1910.]
As a Hindu paper, the Dharma of Calcutta, said when
discussing Indian Unrest, " politics is part of religion, but
it has to be cultivated in an Aryan way in accordance with

The Messiah and Politics 225
the precepts of the Aryan religion." Kartiki, the god who
is the chief commander of the armies of the gods, has come
into the fray. " He is coming forward with his bow to as
sist you against the deraons of sin, who stand In the way of
your accoraplishing that great object, and as he is up in
arms, who can resist? "
The first attack of the Hindu against the British was
inspired by zeal to offset the teaching of the Christian mis
sionaries, beginning with a campaign, inaugurated in 1887
by the Hindu Tract Society of Madras, designed to influ
ence the loyal Hindus against the missionaries. With few
exceptions, " wherever political agitation assumes the most
virulent character, there the Hindu revival also assumes the
most extravagant shapes." Well raay the Brahraan exclaira :
" If Mother India, though reduced to a mere skeleton by the
oppression of alien rulers during hundreds of years, stiU pre
serves her vitality, it is because the Brahmans have never
relaxed In their devotion to her." In recent years
Brahmaps have figured prominently, not only in the social
and religious revivals of India, but also' in the political move
ments that have been their almost invariant accompanlraent.
[Ib., Ch. H to IV.]
These agitations have by no raeans been confined to the
Hindus. So strong has been the political power of the Mo
hammedan priests in the Punjab that one disgruntled Eng
lishman declared they have contributed nothing to the com
mon stock but inflammatory counsel and " a fanatical yell
in the rear of the battle." [H. B. Edwards, A Year on the
Punjab Frontier in 184.8-9, 1, 89-90. London, 1851.] The
great tribal upheaval that occurred In the Malakand in
1897 was due to the priesthood of the Afghan border, who
realized that the influence of civilization was detrimental to
the Mohammedan religion, " A great day for their race and
faith was at hand. Presently the moraent would arrive.
They must watch and be ready. The mountains became as
full of explosives as a magazine," and the Mad Mullah, whose
exploits we have depicted elsewhere, precipitated the conflict.
[W. L. S. Churchill, The Story of the Malakand Field Force,
Ch. III. London, 1898.]

226 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
In India the sixteenth century was a period of political
depression and of the decay of religious zeal. The wicked
ness which prevailed was attributed to the worldliness of the
Ulama. These Ularaa corabined the functions of judge,
magistrate, lawyer, and divine. When the cry had been
raised against these functionaries, " every man with a griev
ance, every man smarting under injustice, was ready to join
in the chorus. Meantime earnest men were preaching that
the Lord of the period was about to appear. They formed
brotherhoods holding property in comraon. They aban
doned their ordinary avocations, and lived on charity. They
met together every day to rant and pray. They devoted
themselves, heart and soul, to converting backsliders and
preparing the world for Mahdi. The natural result fol
lowed. False Mahdis appeared in all directions, surrounded
by crack-brained disciples. . . . The fanaticism was not
confined to the lower order. . . . Many men of distinguished
learning caught the infection." [J. Talboys Wheeler, His
tory of India under Mussulman Rule, Vol. IV, Pt. I,]
Perhaps nowhere in the world, unless it be in Arabia and
in Northern Africa, have political moveraents been so vitally
a part of religion as in India. The war of 1857 had its
inception in a religious offence given, or believed to have
been given, to the Hindu and Mohararaedan troops by doling
out to thera the greased bullets which their religion would
not allow thera to put into the mouth. (This was in the
days when the soldier had to bite his cartridges.) The
Wahabi movement, at one time threatening to involve India
in a severe frontier war, was outspokenly religious, a crusade
against the infidels. The recent convulsion in Bengal was
similarly stimulated, the bomb being carried in one hand,
and their bible, the Bhagavad Gita, in the other. In remote
tiraes It was by rousing the religious zeal of the people that
Sivaji succeeded in founding an empire.
It was a " Mad Mullah," an inspired religious zealot, who
led the attack against the British in the Malakand in ISDS.
This fanatic had been Inspired to preach a Jehad, or Holy
War, against the unbelievers. The derision with which he
was at first received by the people changed to awe and ad-

The Messiah and Politics 227
miration when they saw him boldly pushing forward with
his meagre retinue against a powerful enemy. He affected
independence of all earthly assistance, placing his sole reli
ance on the Heavenly Hosts who were fighting on his side.
The boldness of his advance fired the latent fanaticism of the
people and a wave of religious enthusiasm overcame every
prejudice. Young men and old women, and even children,
flocked to the standard of the leader under whose direction
they were to gain rich loot in this world or attain Paradise
in the next. The fanatics fought bravely for eight days,
fully entitling those that fell to any reward that such a
death raay bring. [Viscount FIncastle and P. C. Eliott-
Lockhardt, A Frontier Campaign, 28—9'. G. C. Narang,
Transition of Sikhism Into a Political Organization, 1—3.
Lahore, India, 1910. H. L. Nevill, Campaigns on the North-
West Frontier, 249-50.]
Gokul Chand Narang, in a study of " The Transition of
Sikhisra into a Political Organization," has shown, not only
that this transition is real, but that it had its beginnings
early in the history of that order and developed gradually
frora the time of Gum Nanak, at the beginning of the six
teenth century. Gurn Nanak saw in religious revival the
only remedy that could save the Hindu community of his day
from impending destruction. The condition of the Hindus in
the Punjab at that time was deplorable. Nearly every vest
ige of their greatness had disappeared. Centuries of inva
sion, foreign misrule, and persecution, had produced the
greatest depression. Spiritual subjection and stagnation
had greatly augmented the demoralization. Nanak was the
first among the Hindus to raise his voice against the tyranny
and oppression which were the climax of centuries of oppres
sion. He leavened Hindu thought throughout the Punjab
by pointing out the necessity of linking faith and hope with
works and daring. [See also W. Crooke, in art. HInduisra,
Hastings' E.R.E., VI, 707. J. P. Jones, India, Its Life and
Thought, 62-6. New York, 1908.] The Sikh comraunlty
graduaUy passed frora a group of reUgious raystics into an
array, and from a sect into a nation. [Pratt, op. cit., 247.]
And yet not untfl Sir W. W. Hunter wrote Our Indian

228 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Mussulmans, was the political danger accompanying reli
gious revivals recognized !
The evolution of the Arya Samaj recaUs very forcibly that
of Sikhism — at first merely organized reUgious and moral
reform, soon developing into a formidable political if not a
forraidable raflitary raovement. [Sir Valentine Chirol, op.
cit., 117. London, 1901. Jones, op. cit., Ch. XIII. Arya
Samaj In Hastings' E.R.E., II, 57-61. Brahma Samaj, lb.,
813-24.] There seems some foundation for the statement
credited to Wifliara II, the present Gerraan Emperor (1918),
that " all religious movements are in reality political move
raents." Hungry souls, like hungry storaachs, are prompt to vio
lence. It was when the ancient political fraraework of Indian
society was undergoing a fundaraental change that we find
the ideas regarding Gotaraa and his mission crystallizing
into new shape. Patriarchlal societies developed into auto
cratic kingship. Then arose the hope for the ideal monarch,
the Chakka-vattI, king of kings, irresistible and mighty,
who would rule in righteousness over a happy people.
[Rhys Davids, Lectures, etc., 129-30. Analogies might be
pointed out in Judaism.] Persia
The Bab which appeared at Ispahan during the last cen
tury, raay hiraself, as Sell believes, have had no political
aspirations, and perhaps until his death the Babis were inter
ested mainly in religious reform. Yet even before his death
his followers, in their despair and despondency, had turned
upon the Govemment — as has frequently occurred among
Mohararaedan sects in Africa and in India. However rauch
the political aspirations of the earlier sect may be minimized,
as, for example, by their greatest apologist. Prof. Browne,
the potentiality of political development is incisively present.
Although in recent years this religious order has fomented
no political troubles, " To the politician the matter is not
devoid of importance ; for what changes may not be effected

The Messiah amd Politics 229
in a country now reckoned almost as a cypher in the balance
of national forces by a religion capable of evoking so mighty
a spirit? Let those who know what Muhammed raade the
Arabs, consider weU what the Bab raay yet raake the Per
sians." [Browne, Episode of tlie Bab, lit. IX. Carabridge,
1891. SeU, Essays on Islam, 72. E. C. Sykes, Persia and
Its People, 36, 140-3. A, V, W, Jackson, Persia, Past and
Present, 48-50, 376, Art, (by Browne) on Bab, in Hast
ings' E,R.E., and in the Ency. Britt.]
Although Abbas Effendi recoraraended abstention frora
politics, his followers were accused of instigating the Consti
tutional Moveraent in Persia. [E. G. Browne, The Persian
Revolution of 1905-9. Cambridge, 1910.]
China and Tibet
Oriental wisdom frequently has a tum for practical af
fairs. Many years ago the Chinese government gave prac
tical recognition to the political force embodied in religious
movements by requiring that a register of all the incarnate
gods in the Chinese empire be kept in the Colonial Office at
Peking. " The number of gods who have thus far taken
out a license is one hundred and sixty. Tibet is blessed
-with thirty of them, northern Mongolia rejoices in nineteen,
and southern Mongolia basks in the sunshine of no less than
fifty-seven. The Chinese govemment, with a paternal solici
tude for the welfare of its subjects, forbids the gods on
the register to be re-bom anywhere but In Tibet. Tbey fear
lest the birth of a god in Mongolia should have serious politi
cal consequences by stirring the dormant patriotism and
warlike spirit of the Mongols, who raight rally around an ara-
bltious native deity of royal lineage and seek to win for
him at the point of the sword, a temporal as well as a spir
itual kingdom. But besides these public or licensed gods
there are a great many little private gods, or unlicensed
practitioners of divinity, who work miracles and bless their
people in holes and comers ; and of late years the Chinese
government has winked at the rebirth of these pettifogging
deities outside of Tibet. However, once they are bom, the

230 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
govemment keeps an eye on them as well as on the regular
practitioners, and if any of them misbehaves he is promptly
degraded, and banished to a distant monastery, and strictly
forbidden ever to be bom again in the flesh." [An account
of this peculiar union of " die weltllche Macht mit der
gelstlichen Autoritat," will be found in Globus, 1889, I
have here adopted the rendering given by J, G, Frazer in
The Dying God (Golden Bough edition),]
It was a Chinese statesman of the fourth century b, c.
(Ch'u Yuan, 332-296 b, c), who declared: "Heaven is
man's Origin ; and when oppressed with poverty he recalls his
Source. For when men are overwrought and worn out, who
is there that does not cry to heaven? " [God (Chinese),
Hastings' E.R.E., VI, 274.]
Inasrauch as the reincarnation of the Dalai Laraa opens
the way for political intrigue, the Chinese govemment has
taken a hand In the matter and has exercised a certain meas
ure of control over the god's reappearance in human form.
In 1793 China prescribed for the selection of the divine ruler
the so-called " oracle of the um." By this lottery scheme
the names of competing infants are written on a slip of paper
and put into a golden urn. Prayer and other rites are held
and the first name drawn proclaims the fortunate one. In
1808 an imperial edict gave official directions for the work
ing of the scheme. This edict has been engraved on stone
slabs at the door of the great temple of Lhasa, where it re
mains to this day.
In spiritual raatters, also, Chinese imperialism seemed to
have the upper hand of Dalai Lamaism and to use this su
premacy as a means of maintaining its political superiority ;
much as, in the Middle Ages, the temporal superiority of the
Pope was vindicated by his spiritual superiority and the de
structive power of his anathemas. On March 31, 1877, for
example, the Peking Gazette, after denouncing a recalcitrant
re-incarnating Lama who had insulted the Imperial Chinese
Resident at Lhasa and carried off the official seals, announced
that the Emperor, as Son of Heaven, had decreed that the
Lama's soul, in punishment for this offense, would not be
allowed to transmigrate when its earthly house was de-

The Messiah and Politics 231
stroyed. [Art., Incarnation (Tibetan), in Hastings'
E.R.E., VII, 200. By L. A. WaddeU.]
Europe
The Camisards, the Protestants of the Cevennes, whom
the Govemment of Louis XIV sought to convert by force
of arms, were greatly fortified in their resistance by prophe
cies of speedy deliverance, based on the Apocalypse. In
fectious ecstasy fell upon the people so that they heard
supernatural voices and spoke with strange tongues.
Thanks to this enthusiasm the little community was able for
ten years to hold out against the large armies sent to subdue
and destroy thera. [Camisards, in Hastings' E.R.E., Ill,
175—6. Some description of the times Is contained in Robert
Louis Stephenson's Travels Tmth a Donkey through the
Cevennes, in the section on The Country of the Canflsards.]
The relation in Europe between the organized Church and
politics is a much described topic and we do not propose
even to touch upon it here. Our concern is, rather, with
political crises and the accompanying or consequent reli
gious revival. Nor can we hope to do more than give a few
exaraples of this association. To develop the topic ade
quately would require a volurae in itself.
In England the middle of the seventeenth century was a
time of great religious as of great political upheaval. The
intimate connection between the political and religious con
ditions was pointed out by Mooney. " Hatreds were intense
and persecutions cruel and bitter, until men's rainds gave
way under the strain. ' The air was thick with reports of
prophecies and rairacles, and there were raen of all parties
who Uved on the borderland between sanity and insanity.'
This was due chiefly to the long continued mental tension
which bore on the whole population during this troublous pe
riod, and In particular cases to wholesale confiscations, by
which famiUes were ruined, and to confinement In wretched
prisons, suffering from insufficient food and brutal treat
raent. Individuals even in the established church began to
assert supernatural power, whfle nuraerous new sects sprang
up, with prophecy, rairacle working, hypnotism, and con-

232 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
vulsive ecstasy as part of their doctrine or ritual," such as
the Ranters, the Quakers, and the Fifth Monarchy Men.
[Fourteenth An. Rep. Bureau of Ethn., Pt. II, 936ff,]
If foes within the nation stimulate religious zeal, foes
without that threaten the whole nation are aU the more ef
fective. There is a turning anew to the God of the nations.
This has never been raore araply iUustrated than during the
great European war. Germany has its national God, so
has France, so has England. 'The layman, the theologian,
the churchman, all point Him out as the God of their nation.
He aids or Is asked to aid, and is thanked for aiding their
respective arraies. In vain do a few voices, crying in the
wilderness, reraonstrate against this reaction to the Jahweh-
isra of Old Testament times. [Such reraonstrances have been
voiced by Charles Osboume, Religion in Europe and the
World War (Dodd Mead and Co., 1916), and by H. G.
Wells, God the Invisible King. New York, 1917,]
Aside from the revival of the old Jehovistic God the war
has given tremendous and altogether unprecedented impetus
to religious faith. In some cases it has destroyed faith.
Thus it happened to that liberal and modernist, M, Loisy,
[See his Religion et la Guerre. Paris, 1915,] For the most
part, however, it has been a stimulant to the weary, a steady
ing influence to the wavering, a staff to the sceptical,
" As is natural in times of stress," says an American writ
ing from Paris In April, 1915, " a national religious revival
seems imraanent. In spite of the reduction of population,
every church in Paris was filled on Christmas eve, and at
St, Genevieve, near the Pantheon, where some special serv
ices were being held during the following week, the crowds
extended some distance out into the street. This is the
more remarkable when one reraembers the atheistic and anti-
religious tendencies in France of recent years," [Published
in The American Oxonian, II (1915), 95,] The increase in
religious zeal was not limited to France but occurred in both
England and Germany, and, we raay suppose, in the other
countries at war. In the early weeks of the war the churches
in Berlin and in London were filled to overflowing, although
there were many special services, [The literature is al-

The Messiah and Politics
ready voluminous. See, e, g.. The Independent, August 30,
1915. War, Religion, and the Man in the Street, Contem
porary Review, 1917, and The Living Age, July 27, 1917.
The Retum of Religion (by William Barry), The Nineteenth
Century and After, July, 1917, also. Living Age, October 6,
1917. Christianity and War (by M. D. Petre), Edinburgh
Review, Oct., 1915. Chapter on The German Religious Con
sciousness and the War, in A. D, McLaren, Germanism from
Within. New York, 1916. Chapter on The Religious Re-
¦vival, in H. G. Wells, Italy, France, and Britain at War.
New York, 1917. Vida D. Scudder, The Church and the
Hour. New York, 1917, Foakes-Jackson, Faith and the
War. London, 1915,]
As Jules Bois has said, " It is only in the course of grave
national crises , , , that there manifests itself a religious
spirit, free from aU internal sectarian dissensions and from
conflict between orthodox doctrines and free thought — a
spirit harmonious, integral, disdainful of petty details, and
welded together in the fire of a glowing and mystic enthusi
asm. Such is the case of France. . . . There has been and
there stfll is [1917] between all creeds a kind of rivalry of
devotion and concord. Every Sunday in Alsace, the Protes
tant parson helps the cure with the Mass, acting as organist.
Dying soldiers hear prayers read by the reglraental chaplain,
irrespective of the church to which he belongs. The authen
tic story of the rabbi of Lyon, who was slain on the battle
field at the raoment when he presented a crucifix to a wounded
Catholic officer is well known," [The France Who Prays,
The Bookman, July, 1917. See in this connection the chap
ter on Moral Evil and Racial Hope in Rev. Geo. A, Gor
don, Aspects of the Infinite Mystery. Boston, 1916.]
Thus, in the present European war God has shown himself
not merely " very plainly as a group figure, a rational per
sonage," but as an Individual Savior as well, [Elsie C.
Parsons, Social Rule, 147, New York, 1916.]
The story of the effect of national crises on religious faith
has been most dramatically portrayed by H, G. Wells in his
book, Mr. Britling Sees It Through. It will be worth our
while to consider for a moment,

234 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Mr. Britling and His God
We have all read, or wfll read, Mr. Britling Sees It
Through. We will read it because, as ex-President Taft has
said, it represents experiences through which we, too, as
the Great War progresses, ¦wifl pass.^ Part of these ex
periences are religious. When Mr. Britling sees the begin
ning of the conflict he is non-religious. We might expect
less religious reaction from him than if he were irreligious,
atheistic or evenly actively agnostic. These often prove
good soil if only they are cultivated properly. Yet without
any of these qualifications Mr, Britling emerges a religious
raan. What has been responsible for his conversion and to what
has he been converted?
He has found God, You will have to read the story of
this God the Invisible King In order to become acquainted
with his attributes. He is certainly not the jealous na
tional God of the Hebrews — the God so rampant araong
the warring European and Mohararaedan peoples. Neither,
Mr. Wells assures us, is he the God of Christendora. The
nature of this God and his attributes he describes very
vividly. This God is finite, liraited by fate or Necessity ; he
is kindly and helpful to the struggling soul. But only to
the struggling soul. He believes in progress and is ready
to help with sympathy, though never with miracle, the soul
that is endeavoring to find the light and is struggling to
wards it. More than this God is powerless to do — he would,
even as we huraan beings would, but cannot. He is reraark-
ably like the Greek's demi-urge, an Intermediary with liraited
powers seeking to intervene between the harsh decrees of Fate
and the sad lot of raortals. He can no more destroy this
stem outer Necessity than he can arbitrarily save humanity.
Mr. Wells drives home the fact that his God Is truth not
poetry. " God is no abstraction nor trick of words, no
Infinite. He is as real as a bayonet thrust or an embrace."
If others say, " Show us this person ; let us hear hira," the
reassurance is, " If they listen to the sflences within, pres-
iThe above was written in February, 1918.

The Messiah and Politics 235
cntly they wiU hear him." [God the Invisible King, 56.]
But if those who insistently listen insist also that they do
not hear hira? Mr, Wells would, I presmnc, reply, " Then,
indeed you are to be pitied, for you are deficient in tlus
sensibility," Other comfort there seems none. It is as
though one listened faithfully to an opera and fafled to find
therein any rausic, any exaltation of the soul, God is a
music of exaltation tremulously pervading our souls, if only
we have ear for It,
In some ways Mr. Wells' proof of God reminds us of Des
cartes' famous ontological proof of God. I find in rae the
thought of an Infinite Being; only an Infinite Being could
supply a conception of the Infinite ; therefore the Infinite
Being exists. Here the existence of the conception is taken
as proof sufficient of the existence of the object conceived.
Is this also Mr, Wells' method or does he adduce other ob
jective proofs? If he does I have failed to discover them.
The assumption is clear ; the legitimacy of it is another mat
ter and apart. In nuraerous passages quoted frora other
writers he points out the irapUed or expressed belief in prog
ress and betterment and thus the belief in God. But what
has that to do with the existence of the hypothecated God?
Have not all men believed for centuries in a Ptolemaic sys
tem, in the justice of their cause, in a prolongation beyond
the grave of the mundane life? Why does Mr. Wells rule
one of these out of court and reserve another a^ the
exemplar of tmth? Has he discovered or has he created
God? The belief, he says, is " crystaUising out of the intellectual,
social, and spiritual confusions of this tirae." " People ha
bituaUy religious," he writes elsewhere, " have been stirred
to new depths of reality and sincerity, and people are think
ing of religion who never thought of religion before."
[Italy, France, and Britain at War, 200.] Needs call forth
faith and faith finds God. [God the Invisible King, 6.]
Mr. Wells realizes that in all of the warring countries re
Ugion is in the air and God is crystallizing out of it. Now
that we are in the war may we not anticipate sorae sirailar
stirring of spirit here? Already the prediction has been

236 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
made that " Religion in this stormful crisis is coming to its
own among the American people. . . . Before the war is over
the American people wfll have made their God. That is now
in the raaking. Perhaps It would be more exact to say that
God already exists, and that the people are engaged in find
ing hira. For in periods of peace and plenty, in the raidst
of ' the daily round and the coramon task,' a nation is liable
to forget that it has a God." [President Charles F. Thwing,
article on God in the Making, published by the National
Editorial Service in August, 1917. Also, Araerican Opinion,
in Hibbert Journal, Oct., 1917; Living Age, Dec, 1917,]
Surely it doth seem that, in this realm at least, " knowl
edge is but the servant of desire and hope and faith," Mr,
Britling found God because his desire, his hope, and his faith
deraanded one. His God, it is tme, does not satisfy all.
[E. g., his friend and neighbor the Countess of Warwick,
See her article on The God of Mr, Britling — And of Our
Fathers, The Bookman, Aprfl, 1917, Vol, 45, p, 145-7,]
But if he wishes to apply the name God to this particular
set of deraands and hopes, why should we say hira nay?
After all, his views depart scarcely at aU frora those of Vol
taire. " I had rather worship a liraited than a ¦wicked
God," writes Voltaire in Candide. " I cannot possibly of
fend him when I say : ' Thou hast done all that a powerful,
kind, and wise being could do. It is not thy fault if thy
works cannot be as good and perfect as thou art,' "
[Voltaire's ¦view came from an age of political foment and
personal persecution. Perhaps he was influenced in this for
mulation by the Monodology of Leibnitz who insisted that
God had chosen the best of all possible worlds, having been
limited in the opportunities, Francis Bradley facetiously
referred to it as the best of all possible worlds, everything
in it being a necessary evil. See Bradley, Appearance and
Reality.] To any one who can read the signs of the times the indi
cations of a religious revival are sufficiently ample. Na
tional calaraity brings our thoughts and emotions to a focus.
We become unitedly concerned about our salvation. There
is bound to be in it something of the mob psychology. We

The Messiah and Politics 237
think and act in masses ; the individual isolation is gone, and,
in its place, is the intenser but more unthinking ardor of
united action. The critical factor Is in abeyance. We are
more open to suggestion, less able to check extravagance of
thought and action. We wish to be saved. The wish is
father to the thought. We find a method of salvation not
raade with human hands and to it we entrust ourselves and
our fortunes. So it has 'been throughout all the centuries
of history and so it remains to-day the world over, among
the most cmlized as among the raost uncivilized of peoples.
Mr. Britling raay well regard his experience as typical
rather than exceptional. He has given expression to a
coramon need. He has found a God because he has deraanded
a God to make life rational and worth living. Whether his
God is identical with the God of his fellows who seek him
in like manner is a point we shall not take up at this time.
If this God is but an emphasised portion of Mr. Britling
hiraself, then there would seem to be as raany Gods as there
are Mr. Britlings, and as various in character. But this
need not detract from their efficacy nor from their reality.
For, as Robert Louis Stevenson once reraarked, every raan is,
in the last resort, his own doctor of divinity, and, whatever
his indebtedness to others, must work out his own salvation
in his own way.
While the effect of the War upon Mr. Wells represents
what has taken place again and again, there Is another type
of reaction directly in opposition. This type is exemplified
in its noblest form by M. Alfred Loisy, a French modernist,
whose faith has gone to pieces in the tumult of the fray.
Nor, should we, perhaps, say that his faith has gone to
pieces. Rather it has anchored itself anew to other im
pulses than the orthodox religious ones, if religious they
shoifld be called. He is insulted that the Germans should
flout their God as Teutonic, German in make-up as in sym
pathy, and pose self-righteously as the pets of this old
Jahweh-Woden. He is not a little chagrined that the Pope
has not limited himself to impartiality rather than to strict
neutrality In a struggle of causes where one should be im
partial but no one can with honor be neutral.

238 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
His arralgnraent is, however, much deeper than this. It
is not merely that the churches have failed; what is of tre
mendously raore iraport is that Christianity has failed. The
teachings of Christ have fafled egregiously because they have
found no place for patriotism, for loyalty to group or na
tion. They have thus fafled to meet one of the most search
ing problems of the tirae of the great teacher, and they offer
no solution to contemporary conflicts of interests and ideals
save such solution as no citizen can accept, no patriot har
bor for a single moment. Under no circumstance, it would
seera — here M. Loisy has raany interpreters to the con
trary, though he is not controversial — is war, from the
standpoint of the teachings of Christ, justifiable. We, of
the present day, can not shrink frora war as always inferior
to peace. If we are to sing, " Glory to God in the highest,"
let us have no lower aspiration than " Peace on earth to men
of good will." Let our peace be a peace designed to foster
righteousness, not one that passively paves the way to evil.
Uppermost always must be social obligation. " The faraous
rights of man are the obligations of society to the indi
vidual, the duties of aU to each. Not less obvious or neces
sary are the duties of the individual to society, of each to
all. The foundation of these duties, which is also the found
ation of society, of all huraan order, of the enduring reli
gion, is siraply that each Individual owes himself entirely to
the society which has reared him, because he owes to it every
thing he is." Thus M. Loisy stands out as first and fore
most a patriot and a Frenchraan.
If we raay add our sad sequel to these fine sentiraents of the
author just quoted, it is that what he has said ¦wfll prove
good dogma for the conquering Teuton as well as for the
resisting Frenchraan. If the Frenchman owes to France
everything, then, by parity of reasoning, the German owes
to Germany everything — unswerving allegiance, sacrifice to
the group. Must we not, then, transcend the patriotic loyal
ties and superirapose upon thera some inclusive ideal which
¦will reconcile their conflicting interests? Must we not keep
a self not national to ourselves if we are to speak of inter
national duties? [A. Loisy, Religion and the War. Eng-

The Messiah and Politics 239
lish translation. Oxford, 1915. See also, the chapter on
Pulpits of Hate, in D. Thomas Curtin, The Land of Deepen-
ing Shadow: Germany at War. New York, 1917. H. A.
Gibbons, Paris Reborn: A Study in CiTnc Psychology. New
York, 1915. The Present Truth, Vol. II, Series No. 26.
Published at Takoma Park, Washington, D. C, Jan. 1,
1918.] Mohamraedanisra, as we have seen, has a sirailar story.
The Mahdi, the Mohararaedan Messiah, has arisen again and
again araong the downtrodden and oppressed, promising de
liverance and freedora. The Mahdi raovement which resulted
in General Gordon's death in the Sudan, taught the English
the potency of this inspiration, and they have had other simi
lar lessons in India. The Ghost Dance religion which swept
across the Plains Area in our own country a little raore than
a quarter of a century ago, culminating in the massacre of
General Custer, was a movement inspired by a Messiah, a
politico-religious reformer who now lives a quiet and unob
trusive life among the Paiute Indians of the South-West._
There is nothing improbable in Prof. Shorey's suggestion
that the large space allotted by Herodotus to national and
local festivals, cults, shrines, oracles, the religion of the
dead, the worship of heroes. Indicates that the crisis of the
Persian wars temporarily stimulated the popular faith In
the supernatural. [Philosophy (Greek), in Hastings'
E.R.E., IX (1917), 860.]

CHAPTER IX
an INTERPRETATION OF MESSIANIC MOVEMENTS
" The worth and interest of the world consists not in its elements, be
these elements things, or be they the conjunctions of things; it exists
rather in the dramatic outcome of the whole process, and in the mean
ing of the successive stages which the elements work out." — William
James. The Conditions Which Foster Messianic Faith
' ' T) ARE souls in dark and stagnant tiraes have believed
Xvin progress and have inculcated a vagUe raessianic
hope." [Hayes, Introduction to Sociology, 483. Appleton,
1916. J Such rare souls to which we give the narae of mes
siahs have flourished in many parts of the earth's surface
and in many stages of civilization. They are not unknown
to the rudest savagery ; they have brought hope to our early
European forebears ; they have come with the dawn of Ori
ental history and they still rise, now and then, to cheer the
path of at least two races of Oriental peoples, the Hebrews
and their cousins, the Arabs.
Messianic faith can, In raany cases, be traced to an at
tempt to revive a decadent religion. But that this is only
part of the story, and perhaps the smaller part, the preced
ing chapters have shown. The counterpart of the decaying
religious or social life which makes up the complement of
raessianic faith, is an active resistance to this decadence, a
vigorous reaction by the given individual or group. Indeed,
if the individual or group is sufficiently anxious, the reUgion,
or the society, can always be shown to be in need of a savior
of some kind. To zealots, as some one has said, the decay of
religion is always obvious. " Fanatics are always ready to
denounce the wickedness of the times, to proclaim the advent
of a prophet, to herald the dawn of a miUennium." If, now,
" the multitude are always grateful to know that they are
240

An Interpretation of Messianic Movements 241
Hvlng at an important crisis ; on the eve of some portentous
catastrophe which is to aggrandize themselves and chastise
everybody else," we have the stage set for the appearance of
the messiah and the successful playing of his role. But if
the multitude is not pleased to have such information — and
it is, as a matter of fact, often in unreceptive mood — the
zealot wfll be zealous In vain. On the other hand, if it longs
to be saved, and there is no zealot at hand, a zealous people
will stir up one. Reason is helpless when matched with obsti
nate hope, for obstinate hope is always a refusal to apply
reason to the situation. So, when a people have once heart-
fly embraced a chimera and cheer one another with it, evi
dence does Uttle to dissipate the fllusion. Hope fosters faith,
and faith finds some agency of belief, even if this be only a
voice. Hope is a poor companion for a man in need, says
Hesiod. But it is reaUy the best of corapanlons, the most
inspiring and invigorating. The man without hope may be
Ukened to the Indian's hibernating bear — he gnaweth his
own foot within his fireiess house and cheerless home. [See
Greenvflle Klelser, How to Develop Self -Confidence. New
York, 1910. Naive but essentially true.]
With all our search for a rationale of the raessianic hope
we shaU never arrive at a coraplete understanding of it,
never so thoroughly know the conditions under which it
arises, as to be able safely to predict its occurrence at a
given tirae and place. But we can show, I beUeve, sorae of
the larger features common to its manifestations, and can
describe the types of mind and the social conditions which
foster it, as weU as those which are unfavorable to its genesis.
The Attitude That Fosters Messianic Faith
For purposes of interpretation we raay distinguish two
types of attitude, the active and the passive, the one favor
able to messianic hope, the other a damper upon It, though
the diff'erence is, of course, one of degree.
If we view human nature in the large, the struggle for sal
vation may be said to be wide-spread and persistent. No
human society survives unless it feels and responds to some

242 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
phase of this need. Man lives In a world of competing forces
and is strangled by them unless he struggles. He meets these
forces in variant manner. " He may think his enemies to be
natural phenomena, such as the cold of winter which threat
ens hira with starvation; or they may be human foes, who
constantly endanger his life and happiness. They may be
untoward social circumstances which lay heavy burdens upon
him In every hour of his existence, 'They raay be the ira-
personal forces of an inexorable destiny in whose meshes he
seeras hopelessly entangled, or destiny raay have becorae per
sonalized in the form of demoniac powers lurking in every
shadow ready to pounce upon him at any moraent. Or he
may regard his worst enemy to be gross materialistic exist
ence which chokes and tarnishes his soul shut up in the prison
house of the body. Again, he may laraent that he has
yielded to the wicked impulses of his heart and thus placed
his conscience under the burden of sin and guilt. These
hostile forces, acting singly or in combination, tend to make
man conscious, early in his experience, of the need of sal
vation. " His conception of the content of salvation naturally
varies with his notion of his foes. He longs for a land of
plenty with security from all invading and plundering armies ;
he pictures a Utopia where life for everybody, and for him
self in particular, will be free from distressing circumstances ;
he seeks to anticipate fate by providing himself with safe
guards against all the deraons ; he looks for sorae means to
release the soul from its prison chamber, purge it of its
irapuritles through contact with raatter, and enable it to soar
aloft to the ethereal regions whence it came ; or, finally, he
yearns for deliverance from sin and guflt, and the restoration
of a pure heart, that he may fiU his Ufe with noble ethical
attainments," The process of salvation is two-fold: he relies upon him
self or upon some extemal superhuman forces, " He makes
himself weapons of war and buflds fortresses to ward off the
attacks of his eneraies. He corrects social Uls by reorgan
izing society and establishing new form of government. He
protects himself from the demons of a fatalistic world by

An. Interpretation of Messianic Movements 243
prying into their secrets, learning their foibles, and forrau-
lating charms or other magical devices for thwarting their
designs. The soul enveloped in base matter struggles
through self-cultivation of its own Inherent divine character
to free itself frora its prison house. The wicked irapulses
of the heart are nullified through a volitional acti^vity of
man who establishes laws for the regulation of his conduct
and purges all evil out of his life. In all this raan is pri
marily his own savior and salvation is essentially a mat her
of his own attainment,"
The other process of salvation is one in which reliance is
placed primarily on external assistance, " He is under the
special care of a mighty savior-deity who is capable of
carrying him safely through the vicissitudes of life. His
soul is delivered from its thraldom in matter through the
help of a divine deliverer who descends to its rescue and his
success in the struggle against sin, guilt, and the power of
evfl-desire is assured through divine aid which frees hira frora
bondage of the past and fills his heart with new and holy
irapulses. This general type of faith raay be terraed redemp
tion-religion, in contrast with the former type which raight
be called attalnraent-rellglon. The two types, to be sure,
shade into one another. Most religions of attalnraent have
a place for the notion of the deity's help as a supplement to
human effort, while most redemption-religions require some
measure of activity on man's part. But the general dis
tinction is clear. In one case it is human endeavor which
stands in the foreground and conditions attainment; in the
other, human effort counts only as an accessory to the re
deeming work of the deity." The problem of salvation is a
story of individual peculiarities interwoven with a fluctuat
ing and inconstant world which is variously apprehended by
individual men. [S. J. Case, Evolution of Early Christian
ity, 284-6. Chicago, 1914. The two attitudes, passive and
actively resistant, are well described by MacDonald, Aspects
of Islam, Ch. VIIL]
So rauch for the psychological setting. Let us now con
sider two diverse raethods of interpretating our coUated
data, namely,

244 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Psychological versus Statistical Methods of Interpretation
Shall We Interpret Messianic Movements by Psychological
or by Statistical Methods?
It would be difficult to find two points of view that appear,
at first blush, to have less in common than the psychological
and the statistical. The one attempts to explain a social
state or action by the conscious raotives and desires that
precede or accorapany the social state or action ; the other
refuses to accept such states of raind at their face value,
treats raotives and intentions as only a portion of the whole
situation, and gives thera no unique subjective but only an
objective value. The psychologist is interested priraarily in
the nature and Intensity of the conscious states which are
parts of the respective situations ; while the statistician is
interested in their recurrence under sirailar situations and
in the uniformity of this recurrence. As we shall see, how
ever, these two points of view are, perhaps, not separate and
apart, but the one may play into the hands of the other.
To illustrate the apparent independence and virtual inter
dependence of these two methods of treatment, the psycho
logical and the statistical, we could scarcely find better exam
ple than the phenomena of messianic religions. Here we
bave the play of strong motives and an intensity of psycho
logical influences that can scarcely be out-paraUeled. Sta
tistics will apply to good purpose since these messianic mani
festations are both numerous and widespread. Moreover,
when we seek for causative Influences, we find that any psy
chological interpretation must take refuge in statistics to
support its case, while, conversely, no statistical investiga
tion that Is not guided by psychological analysis is, in the
least, trustworthy — perhaps not even possible.
Messianic manifestations in aboriginal America afford a
good illustration of the difficulties inherent in the problem
of interpretation. The first of these occurred in 1675 in
the pueblo of San Juan, among the Tewa, Here we find a
dozen conditions any one of which might, conceivably, be
the cause. How shall we know whether the real cause is the
genius and enthusiasm of the leader, the favorable social

An Interpretation of Messianic Movements 245
atmosphere, the attempt to withstand outside pressure, or
some other of the manifold forces at work? An intensive
study will bring out the details of the situation more clearly,
but will it identify efficient causes? While the psychologist
puzzles over this one instance the statistician will seek exara
ples of messianic manifestations in other areas. He will
bring other examples from the Plains area and from the
Eastern States,
Shall we suppose that a study of these manifestations in
the Eastern and Plains tribes can be of value in determining
the causes of a simflar raanifestation in the Pueblo region,
or shall we consider thera as incapable of throwing light on
these causes — inasrauch as the former are unique and geo
graphically separate from the Tewa instance?
It seems legitimate to extend the survey to these other
tribes. In thera we may find the rationale more prorainently
to the fore than in the Pueblo tribe. We raay consider the
Tewa as but one instance of raany and view all the American
messianic moveraents as a class to which the Tewa belong.
When we wish to Interpret messianic movements in Amer
ica should we liralt our consideration to thera or should we
include other similar movements in various parts of the
globe? This step we may be inclined to take with more
hesitation because of separation in tirae, in geography, and
in culture — differences which some consider a vital weakness
in any classification. ^-
Let us see, then, how the psychological and statistical
methods, respectively, apply. In the North American mani
festations there is a great diversity of psychological condi
tions ; an intensity of feeling is about the only psychological
phase common to all of thera. But one extraneous influence
is invariably present, naraely, a threatened or impending
break-down of the tribal life, due to outside pressure from
other groups. In some cases the Messiah and his followers
are aware of this condition ; in other cases they appear tO' be
unconscious of it. If this be the cause the recognition of it
is not essential to its efficacy. _^
In view of the prevalence throughout aboriginal America
of this common cause, for such we take it to be, the story of

246 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
messianic moveraents in other lands has an added interest.
They abound in Mohararaedan countries: in Algeria, Mo
rocco, Tunisia, the Sudan, Abyssinia, India. "They are
found araong African tribes, in Melanesia, the Philippines,
Thibet, China, and in the older Buddhistic Japan as weU as
in the Japan of to-day. In Judaism the messianic idea has
found place from the days of Jereraiah to the present hour
and raay be expected to reappear at any time. Historical
and geographical continuity, the contagion of culture, wfll
_explain much but not all, for the faith has flourished and
Messiahs have arisen most frequently, if not solely, among
the poor and down-trodden classes and at the moment when
the hand of the oppressor was heaviest. This is as true of
, the Mahdi of Mohammedanism and of the Messiah of Juda-
j Ism as of the Messiahs of North America.
^¦^ The investigator may easily enough describe these in
stances but how shall he interpret them? Shall we consider
thera as belonging to many different classes, or shall we' say
that all may be brought into one class, the class of messianic
religions? Shall we give them a psychological or shaU we
give them a statistical interpretation, that is, consider the
prevalence of some objective condition, whether or not that
condition is recognized by those who participate in these
movements ?
Why is it that rare souls who have lived in dark and stag
nant times have inculcated a messianic hope? Is it because
they were rare souls and believed in progress or is it because
the times were dark and stagnant? Only a rare soul is
capable of Instilling the idea and only dark and stagnant
times supply the need for it. There must be a savior to
proclaim salvation; there must be also a people wflUng to
be saved; and there must be some impending calamity from
which they wish to be saved. The whole phenomenon is an
example of a struggle for survival, of a struggle intensified
by the danger. Yet, the messianic faith can flourish with
out the favorable external conditions, for, as has been said,
" fanatics are always ready to denounce the wickedness of
the times, to proclaira the advent of a prophet, to herald the
dawn of a raillenniura," and a certain /portion of the multi-

An Interpretation of Messianic Movements 247
tude are always grateful to know that they are living at an
important crisis, " on the eve of some portentous catas
trophe which is to aggrandize themselves and chastise every
body else,"
Thus, our problem is part of a larger problem. How
shall we deterraine cause and effect in social life? and will
be answered only when that is answered. Let us then, for
a moment tum to this larger problem, and to illustrations
frora other phases of social life, [In the Deceraber, 1911,
number of The Educational Review (Vol, 42, p, 514-6), in
an article on The Significance of President LoweU's Statis
tics, the author discussed a sirailar problem in the field of
education, and suggested that " perhaps no mathematical
demonstration will ever be convincing proof of the efficacy
or failure of a given educational system."]
In a sense every phase of culture may be given a psycho
logical interpretation. Even stone impleraents and all ma
terial objects may be looked upon as the gratification of
some desire — else they would not be made or used. This
raay be said of every form of social life; any and all of it
may be viewed as the response to a demand, the creation of a
desire. Psychology, however, does not wholly deterraine cul
ture but is, on the contrary, largely determined by it. Peo
ple have a certain forra of social life and a certain material
culture because this is what they want, but it is also true
that they want it because they have it. Perhaps in the last
resort the one principle wiU explain as much as the other.
We are rational beings because we will to be so and we will it
because we are such.
If this interplay of psychology and sociology be adraitted
- — and it can be amply demonstrated — a psychological ex
planation of any portion of social life becomes hazardous.
The explanation may lie embedded in psychology or in the
social, material, or economic life. Suppose we wish to in
terpret some actual situation of social or psychic life, as the
anthropologist and historian atterapt to do : what weight
are we to give these respective clairaants, any one of which
may, conceivably, be a sufficient explanation?
Let us take, for illustration, some of the situations in

248 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
point; for example, the practice of killing or abandoning
the aged. There need be no dispute about the facts, for
hypothetical cases will serve equally well.
We find a number of tribes which kfll or abandon the
helpless aged. The practice is best exemplified in North
America among the Eskimo and the Dakota. These tribes
give quite different explanations for the practice. The Es
kimo, like the old Scandinavians, say that the spirit of the
deceased enters the next world in the condition in which, it
leaves this one. Hence, in order to save an aged parent
from an enfeebled and miserable condition In the next world.
It becomes a filial duty to dispatch him or her before age
has spoiled the chances of a vigorous postmortera existence.
There is reason to believe that the kiUing is done precisely
frora this raotive, and, in raany cases, reluctantly, though the
whole systera of religious belief sanctions it.
The Dakota abandon the aged because they are not able
to keep up with the tribe on the march, but they show affec
tion by leaving food and shelter ahd fuel for the abandoned.
Both of these peoples are noraadic. The aged are cared
for in camp and abandoned only when they are unable to
keep up on the march. Do the psychological motives ex
plain the practice or shall we say that they are secondary
rather than priraary, the effect rather than the cause, the
excuse but not the reason, and shall we look to nomadic life
and the harsh conditions of existence as more fundamental
and causative?
An aged Fijian will say that he cannot stand the taunts
of his fellows who liken his encroaching feebleness to the
weakness of women, and he wfll accept a voluntary death
cheerfully enough, A Hindoo widow ¦will immolate herself
because she prefers to do so. Are these the real reasons or
only the reflexes from more profound conditions which lie
beyond the individual's control and so only an effervescence
of deeper currents?
Again, consider the motives and the conditions associated
with infanticide. The newborn are killed from various mo
tives : it is unseemly for twins to appear, or for a child to be
born whfle another is not yet weaned, or to be born at a cer-

An Interpretation of Messianic Movements 249
tain season of the year. Suppose that this season is the
season of drought, or the one when game is scarce; suppose
that the tribes which practice infanticide raost are those
which find it most difficult to subsist where Nature is chary
of a food supply, or where the tribe is isolated and does not
need a surplus of warriors to recruit its ranks. Shall we
look to unrecognized economic motives as the deeper and
more compelling ones or shall we take the natives' own un
derstanding of the case at its face value and find in this
practice, not one deep-lying cause, but causes as various
as the motives which induce to infanticide and, at the same
tune, condone it?
So much for examples. Illustrations in two phases of
social psychic life present the issue as well as illustrations in
two hundred phases. But It is, perhaps, not so obvious that
two examples in a given phase carry as much weight as two
hundred. Some, no doubt, feel that if we have illustration
after fllustration of the correlation of abandonment of the
aged ¦with nomadic life, and case after case in which infanti
cide is associated with harsh economic life, then the thesis
that the economic social conditions and not the psychologi
cal occasioning motives are the determining factors is cor
respondingly strengthened. If, on the other hand, we find
certain psychological raotives associated with certain prac
tices, whether there is or is not the harsh economic demand,
then, conversely, the psychological stimulus is shown to be
sufficient and it raust be taken as the causative element ; the
others as auxfliary but superfluous. Or, should we say that
in some cases the two factors (social-economic and psycho
logical) are jointly causative, while in other cases one alone
is causative?
What the proffered solution of a given problem of this
kind would be is for us at this raoraent not so important as
the method by which one would proceed with the task; for,
after all, the value of the solution can never be conceived as
lying apart from the method by which that solution has been
reached. Assuredly, any serious inquirer into social or psychic
causes wiU welcome additions to the data. He will feel safer

260 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
with two hundred instances than with two. But why? If
it is merely because he likes to have more raaterial, to extend
his range of activity, then he has gi'ven greater amplitude
to the problem, but he Is not necessarily any nearer the heart
of it. He may romp in larger confines, but he Is still confined
to romping.
If, however, he insists that this increase of data does take
hira nearer to the heart of the problem, then he has a faith
in the solvent power of arithmetic which it would befit him
to justify ; for we may assume that he is catholic enough to
wish to save our inquiring souls as weU as his own. Yet if
he cannot get truth by counting noses, how can he get it by
counting tribes? Isn't there something paradoxical in say
ing that we cannot understand the efficient causes in tribe A
or In tribes A— F In North America If we are liraited to thera,
but that we can understand them in larger measure, that is
raore intensively, after an excursus araong tribes in other
parts of the world though these tribes do not have and never
did have any historical contact with the tribes in North
America? Isn't it like searching amid the careers of Alex
ander the Great, Napoleon the First, and Emma Goldman
for the biography of George Washington ? Can the alchemy
of arithmetic transpose such supposition into seeming?
The process may be above arithmetical alchemy. The
search for raore data raay be actuated, not by a desire for
raultipllcity, but by a desire for corapleteness and unity.
We strive, in a word, to include all the members of a class
or type, in order that we may understand the class, and so
the individual raerabers of it. That this class is real and not
figurative can be plausibly urged. We speak, for exaraple,
of the abandonment of the aged among the Eskimo. But
this resolves, after all, into abandonment by various indi
viduals — there is no tribal abandonment. We speak of
the custom, and properly enough, as an attribute of Eskimo
culture, and so treat the area as a unit rather than as a mul
tiplicity of individual behaviors. In much the sarae way
our Fijian, Australian, and other tribal units can be gath
ered into one class, a class and a unity as real as the Eskimo
class and unity; for both are syntheses, both are but the

An Interpretation of Messianic Movements 251
outcome of our system of classification. The justification
for finding this unity in multiplicity is its usefulness. The
microscopic survey of the microbe woifld, I suppose, justify
it in considering as complex, multiform, and incapable of
being reduced to any unity, the creature which we accept
as a single individual. If the voice of dissent insists that in
these various tribes we have a hiatus in culture, space, and
historical relations, not found in our acceptance of the
Eskimo as a unit of culture, we raight reply first, that the
difference is only a matter of degree, and, secondly, that it is
not material. If we can study geological formation in this
raanner, why not sociological formation? Cosmic history
has not been made by uniform causes any more than has hu
man history. Human nature is no more variant in its fun
damentals than is soil or rocks, and the atmosphere that
envelops the globe has had no more uniforra history than the
social atraosphere that envelops raan. But in this day only
a bold heart would draw the inference.
To retum to our problem : Is it any easier to explain the
causative influences that operate this centipede class than
it is if we chop it up IntO' so many monopede tribes each
supported by its own psychic and social crutches ? If Amer
ican and African society has had no influence upon Hebrew
society, how can these cultures help to explain Hebrew cul
ture? If we remeraber that the multiplicity consists in the
variety of times and places where social life is unfolding,
rather than in the nature of that life itself, some of the diffi
culty disappears. Social life is playing its role in many
places and under many guises ; but it is composed the world
over of much the same stuff and strives for surprisingly simi
lar things.
The relation between the psychology and the statistics of
social life is a bothersome one. We count the number of
correspondences and of lack of correspondences to see
whether our law holds good, and consider an overwhelming
majority of correspondences a good proof of the law. Thus
our logic of interpretation falls back for its ultimate con
firmation upon statistics, and it is difficult to see how we
could accept a law which was not demonstrated by an actual

252 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
count of cases in which it is put to the test.
Statistics, then, appear to be vital. But can they, in
themselves, give us any solution or must they always be sub
servient to some other program, a witness which we summon,
but only a witness and never a court of decision? Take the
abandonment of the aged or infanticide as cases in point.
It might tum out that these customs are correlated with ex
tremes of temperature, with amount of rainfall, or with a
belief that the sun passes around and over a stationary earth
in twenty-four hours. At least they are, as a raatter of fact,
correlated with dusky skins, and the absence of them with
white skins. Then, if statistics, as such, are to prove any
thing, they prove that the color of the skin has as much to
do with the custom as has economic conditions. In fact. It
proves the causative power of pigmentation more completely,
for the correlation is much higher.
But if statistics can only offer their evidence and we are
to judge of their value, what is to guide us? First, we might
say, no one would believe that a change of pigmentation
would produce any change in ethics. But unless we have
statistical proof of this, isn't our declaration a matter of
mere faith? Obscure things do affect our ethics: a shifting
of the wind to the rainy quarter may upset a raan's liver
and cause him to insult his wife. There is no reason why
it should do so, but it does. Why, then, may not a change
of complexion lead to infanticide and parenticide? Statis
tics, it seeras, wfll show us the correlation between two things
that we single out, but can never tell us whether we have
singled out the proper interacting factors. If, however, our
logic of causes has no weight without statistical proof, and,
moreover, is not proved even when the correlation is com
plete, how can we make inference with any confidence?
The answer to this question is, I am inclined to think,
that what one singles out as the cause of social events is
largely a matter of choice. In a sense, and for that matter
in a very real sense, the entire social complex must be viewed
as a cause, or, if you like, the whole universe. Yet various
phases of the universe and of the social complex may vary
without any apparent or corresponding degree of change

An Interpretation of Messianic Movements 253
in a given trait of social life, and we look for raore intimate
correlations. That phase of social or physical environment
which affects most the given trait is our main interest. The
answer is to be found in that phase which most consistently
involves a change In the given trait. If, for example, when
ever we have the favorable physical environment we find the
given trait, say infanticide or abandonment of the aged, ap
pearing, then it is preferable as an explanation. But if
changes of religion, ethics, or other motives can effect a dif
ferent practice when physical environment remains the sarae,
then this is preferable. If we have the same proportion of
correspondences in each case, there is no reason to prefer
one to the other. If, however, we extend the class by includ
ing raany raore instances, we have a new angle on the phe
nomena. It is not enough to discover that red hair is cor
related with moral disposition. We raust ask if change in
color of hair tends to be followed by change In character and
whether this is greater than the change that takes place
when there is no change in pigmentation. The correlation
of psychic state (motive) with practice is not enough. We
raust know whether the psychic state is present irrespective
of other psychic or physical conditions, or is only aroused
by others, and so is an occasioning cause but not a sufficient
one, that is, not the prime mover.
The results of any such statistical and psychological ex
amination will, of course, be highly tentative. But this is
of the essence of the case and casts no discredit upon the
raethod by which cause and effect in social life raust be de
terrained, [Acknowledgment is due the American Journal of Soci
ology fpr permission to use the above material, p, 247 to p,
263, which appeared originally in that Journal, March,
1917,] There appear to be, then, two points of view frora which
we may interpret messianic raanifestatlons : we raay include
aU of them in one class as so many diverse expressions of
the sarae fundamental desire finding outlet now in this, now
in that group at various indeterminate or, at best, only
partly determinate times. Our explanations follow the

254 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
event. We can not predict that a Messiah will appear at a
given time and place. Some sort of prediction we can make,
though never, of course, with complete assurance of its ful
fiUraent, [In this respect we are in soraewhat the sarae di
lemma as the life insurance company with regard to its pre
diction of raortality. It cannot determine what indl^vidual
will die at a given time or place. The Ufe insurance company
is infinitely better off in this regard than are we, but the prob
lems are, after all, much the same,] Our prediction must
be vague. We may, let us say, predict more Messiahs among
the Hebrews than araong ascetic Buddhists, more for a dis
contented and struggling Mohammedanism than for a philo
sophic and well-satisfied Taoism or Confucianism,^
As we become more intimately aware of the conditions
prevailing araong two given peoples we raay with raore as
surance predict a greater number of Messiahs from the one
group than from the other. We cannot go farther than this
and say that if we knew all of the conditions we could pre
dict with absolute confidence. In all social life there are
imponderables whose influence can never be predetermined.
In all group life as in all individual life there is an element
of freedom which takes indeterminate direction and upsets
the most careful calculation. It is not true that, given the
suitable conditions, the messiah will appear. The appear
ance of a messianic faith is itself one of the conditions.
Even a political revolution does not get under way until dis
content over-balances oppression. The spirit of resistance
may be fanned but is not created by injustice and persecu
tion. The group raay play the martyr and be led an un
willing but unresisting victim rather than turn in its might
upon the cause of its ills.
These two points of view, the search for uniform causes
1 The Moriscos of Spain offer a good example of our liability to go
astray in the matter of prediction. Here, if anywhere, the conditions
were such as might be expected to call forth a Mahdi. Yet none in the
long course of their oppression and struggle for political and religious
freedom seems to have appeared. At least I deem it safe to suppose that
so thorough and careful a historian as Lea would not have passed them
by, and there is no reference to them in his work. [The Moriscos of
Spam. Philadelphia, 1901.]

An Interpretation of Messianic Movements 255
and the search for unique causes in the respective groups
where the Messiahs appear, are not mutuaUy exclusive.
They are suppleraentary rather than contradictory ; each
is to be used for what it is severally worth, and each is a
contingent check upon the other.
To view our problem from these two angles rather than
from one is to get some conception of the two dimensions of
the phenomena — the universal and the particular, what is
common and what is unique. There are laws of history and
laws of society, else any study of either is fruitless ; but, as
William James has said, to speak of these laws as soraething
inevitable, which science has only to discover, and whose con
sequences any one can then foretell, since nothing can alter
or avert thera — to conceive of thera thus is idle folly. The
iraponderables forever play their part in social life and no
law is adequately forraulated which leaves thera out of ac
count. So far as these laws undervalue Individual differ
ences and the other imponderables they may justly be called
" the raost pernicious and immoral of fatalisms." [Willia^D"
James, The Will to Believe, 216-62. New York, 1898.]
The truth is, " we cannot do raore than conjecture, with
raore or less confidence, but never with certainty oi predic
tion, how any given man or any given community of men
wfll behave under any given set of conditions. . . . Each
indi^vidual has, when considered as a human being, some
thing peculiar to himself which is not and cannot be cora
pletely known or raeasured." [Lord Bryce, War and Hu
man Progress, Atlantic Monthly, September, 1916 (Vol.
118). A. L. Kroeber, The Superorganic, American
Anthropologist, April-June, 1917, Vol. 19, No. 2, esp. 194^-
206.] The Messiah's Initiative and the Group's Response
A survey of messianic movements and a correlation of the
Messiah's initiative with the prevailing social atmosphere,
seems to Indicate that the individual is member of a class and
the vehicle of a higher purpose which envelopes his individual
and unique efforts, Whether this purpose is imparted to

256 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
him by the group of which he is a part and for whose sal
vation he strives is another question. The individual is re
acting to his environment and that environment may be very
different from the environraent of the group. How, then,
shall we answer that rauch-asked question. Is this individual
initiative or social corapulsion?
We create an unreal difficulty when we consider individual
initiative and social law as mutually exclusive or as, when
referred to the same act, incompatible concepts. Both con
cepts are referable to the same act, just as the genius, in his
accomplishment, raay be both the most indebted man and the
greatest contributor of his age. In fact, one raight almost
say that he is the one because he is the other.
Individual Initiative may properly describe an act which
is, at the sarae time, the forwarding of a group purpose.
We may as well ask the question: Does the raan raove to
ward town in the morning because he wishes to get to his
office or is it because the train he boards Is moving in that
direction ? Is it any the less the fulfilment of his wish because
the environment happens to be favorable? Why do not all
the individuals of the group become Messiahs?
The same act may be designed to- save both the indi^vidual
and his group. Both aims raay be co-ordinated In the indi
vidual. The individual is not included in the group as a
particle of air is included in a foot-ball, so that every im
pulsion is but a propiflsion resulting from contact with other
particles of the same closed system. A better analogy is the
pack of wolves, in which there is concert between the indi
vidual members, but not a socially closed systera of influences.
Each individual wolf entertains relations with the outside
non-wolf world in rauch the sarae way that the whole pack
does. To him as an Indi^vidual may corae the influence frora
without which he imparts to the entire pack. Concerted
action may thus be prompted directly by his alarm of danger
or bis communication that game has been scented. Though
the reward be for the pack, it Is none the less the result of
individual stimulus.
To inquire what religion a man would have without the
social stimulus is perplexing enough, for coraplete independ-

An Interpretation of Messianic Movements 257
ence from social currents seems as difficult to perceive as
silly to desire. But it seems clear enough, also, that his life
would lose in effectiveness if the forces of gravity ceased to
apply to him, or if oxygen no longer revitalized his blood
corpuscles. Is the social dependence different in kind or
only in degree from the physical and the physiological?
Man is part of the gravitational, part of the biological, and
no less a part of the social systera.
But he not only is a part of thera; he has a part in thera.
No doubt the individual is often ignerant of the higher
social purposes within which many of his individual purposes
revolve. Society, too, may be held under the dominant pur
pose of an individual while convinced that this acceptance is
wholly self-willed. Groups are misled to their undoing, are
blinded to every rational and practical consideration, when
the Messiah has brought them under his spell. If we answer
that society obeys only when it chooses, we must admit the
counterpart, the individual is compelled by society only when
he chooses to coraply. At best it can only irapose alterna
tives, and he may, at tiraes, reject the alternatives and hira
self irapose an entirely new issue. The individual is a self-
complete system of purposes and capable of introducing into
the group elements not previously there.
Tide's answer to the allegation that Christ's originality
is revoked by the discovery that his doctrines are to be found
in the Greek and Jewish thought of the day. Is a complete
reply. " Even if the whole gospel had been compiled from
a great variety of Jewish and Greek writings," says Tiele,
" yet two incontestable facts, which are in reality one, still
remain. One is, that all the truths, which are said to have
been recognized already, are here reduced to one great prin
ciple ; and the other, that one person was the prime mover,
who realized that principle in hiraself and his life, and by so
doing aroused enthusiasm for it in his disciples." [Elements
of the Science of Religion, I, 253—4. See Art. Jesus Christ,
in Hastings' E.R.E. VIL] Thus, though " even the greatest
religious personality known to history influenced and was in
fluenced by tradition, alike in his work and his development,
this did not diminish his originality, for the old becomes new

258 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
when appropriated and applied by a deep and original
genius." [Harold Hoffding, The Philosophy of Religion.]
Mohammed may have used as his models, now Judaism, and
now Christianity; he may have woefuUy misunderstood the
historical basis as well as the spiritual essence of both sys
tems ; yet he tempered them with his own spirit and with the
peculiar mental standpoints of his people, giving to the prod
uct, by virtue of his creative personality, an indi^viduality all
its own.
This is why he, .who once through Arabia was driving
camels, was soon to drive half the world.
We must not, on the other hand, forget that instance after
instance has shown us, in the social or political conditions of
the tribe or nation, needs that caU forth the new religion, a
divinity that shapes the Messiah's ends, rough hew them how
he raay. Though the Messiah may initiate, he does so
profitably only when there is a certain predisposition on the
part of the group, a predisposition fostered by untoward
circumstances. In practically all of these messianic mani
festations we find the individual responding, as does also the
group, to the higher law of self-preservation, a law operative
under its own appropriate conditions, and expressive of how
society and the Indi^vidual behave under such compulsions.
In the words of William James, " Social evolution is the re
sultant of two whofly distinct factors, — the individual, de
riving his peculiar gifts from the play of physiological and
intra-social forces, but bearing all the power of initiative
and origination in his hands ; and, second, the social environ
ment, with its power of rejecting both him and his gifts.
Both factors are essential to change. The community stag
nates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse
dies away without the syrapathy of the coraraunity." [The
Will to Believe, 232. New York, 1898.]
There is that much truth and no more in the historian's as
surance that " a great king is the result of a great need " ;
that " When the nation is sore beset, when the times are full
of presage of disaster, and min hangs ominously on the
horizon ; then the great king comes to rescue his people from
danger, to restore order and well-being, and to reign over a

An Interpretation of Messianic Movements 259
realm once more raade happy and prosperous by his efforts."
[Stanley Lane-Poole, The Moors in Spain, 98. New York,
1898.] Does the Group Transcend the Messiah or tlie Messiah
the Group? ^
The messianic religions which we have seen at work fur
nish examples of genuinely individual initiative, efficient in
giving new trend to the social development. A school of
sociologists would assure us that this is, after all, but the
response of the individual to the call of the social, that the
individual is but the vehicle of society's purpose, and that he
initiates only when, because, and in so far as society wiUs
such initiative. It seems clear that society must be in some
such state of preparedness and wfllful seeking as adverse
circumstances indicate. The Messiah cannot save a people
which is so self-satisfied that it feels no need of salvation.
But, as our examples abundantly show, he can supply that
need by rousing the group to a new realization of their actual
or supposed needs. To do this is to raake the group re
ceptive. So far is this individual directive force frora being
always in accord with the group's weU-wishing, that it fre
quently works the group's undoing. Such was the case when
the Eskimo of South Greenland became so absorbed in the
new doctrine enunciated by their Messiah, Habakkuk, as to
discontinue hunting and live off the provisions of the previ
ous winter. The Guiana Indians were so obsessed by the
Messiah's words as to act upon his assurance that aU raust
die -within three nights, each to f aU by the hand of his fellow,
in order to secure resurrection in white skins wherein to re
possess the land that was fast being wrested frora them.
Some four hundred people feUed each other in a bloody
massacre which, even so, was not gory enough to entafl the
promised reward. Scarcely less misfortune came upon the
group of Cretan Jews who followed their false Messiah of
the fifth century, Moses, to their woefifl undoing.
1 The author has discussed a similar problem in an article, " Individual
Initiative and Social Compulsion," The American Anthropologist, Dec,
1915.

260 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
In these and similar instances the individual mind is, so
far at least as this religious life is concemed, the larger
mind, comprising within its purposes the social raind and
prescribing the program which the social is to adopt and
pursue. This adoption and adherence on the part of the
social Is often independent of the group welfare, or even
works against it. Yet so completely is the group held in the
grip of the individual that its impulse to respond sweeps
aside every consideration of welfare, every faculty of critical
judgraent, all taint of scepticism.
Is this Individual dorainence as real and ultimate as it is
specious? As happened in the Guiana tribe, we may find
an unfavorable reaction upon the part of society once its
delusion and deception is coraprehended by it. There is re
volt frora the indoctrinated faith and perhaps death for the
hypnotiser. Society Is once raore in the ascendant, having
recognized the error into which the individual has led it.
Thus the reality and the ultiraate triuraph of the social
dominance seems assured.
Is this recurrence of social authority merely the rebound
of the social to Its own, or but a temporary restoration,
only to become subject, again and again, to individual mind?
An Eskimo coraraunity furnishes an instructive example of
this interplay of social and individual forces. In the Eskimo
community it is not uncommon for sorae individual gradually
to acquire more and more wealth than his fellows and, pari
passu, to rise in influence. He may brutally dominate the
coraraunity until every meraber of it is in fear of his life,
none of them daring to gainsay him. But a time comes
when this man of wealth must give away to the coraraunity
all of his acquisitions — or suffer deatli for his failure to
coraply with the coraraunity's deraand. The man who domi
nates the coraraunity, killing, by caprice, this or that indi
vidual who is displeasing to hira, keeping every raeraber of it
in fear of his life, is eventually overthrown, for finally the
coraraunity summons up courage "to kill him and appoints
some one to carry out this punishraent. Society is again in
the ascendant and, although other indi'viduals wiU, from time
to time, repeat the aggression, the community will, in the

An Interpretation of Messianic Movements 261
case of each of them, e-ventuaUy brush them aside, persist in
its O'wn way, and triumph in its own strength. So it was
with the " tyrant " of Ancient Greece, [For the Eskimo see
especially Nelson's account in the IS'th Annual Report of
the Bureau of Ethnology,]
The sociologist, however, will not be warranted in drawing
over-much comfort from such instances. The only reason
that society seeras to revert to the ascendancy as one tera-
porarlly surrendered is because, in the recital of the circum
stances, we start with the Individual and stop with the group,
whereas we have, no right to start or to stop with one rather
than with the other. So far as the phenomena of recurrence
are available they afford not a permanent ascendancy marked
by periodic lapses of one authority rather than the other,
but an endless series, a cycle of individual and social
authority. This group seeras ultlraately to transcend this individual ;
but it is not the same group, neither in Its sociological nor
in its psychological make-up, as that which was previously
at the beck and caU of the individual. If, then, we retain
the sameness in individual and group, respectively, we at
once pass into the infinite series of which a cycle is the only
way of representing respective dominance.
Nor is it clear in what helpful sense we may allege that the
Messiah dominates only when society wills it. We find this
dominance when society wills otherwise. It is true in the
sense that an array surrenders only when it wills to do so.
Yet this wflUng occurs under such untoward circurastances,
when the act of surrender contravenes its more inclusive pur
poses and expresses the fulfilment of the broader purposes
of the eneray, that we may well speak of its surrender as com-
peUed by the foe rather than the result of its own choice.
How we explain or express it depends upon our point of
view in describing, since dominance involves always two fac
tors, and the phenomena can be described from the point of
view of the interests and activities of the dominating, or from
those of the dominated. Our interests usually hover about
the fulfilment of the larger systems of purposes rather than
of smaUer ones ; wherefore, we prefer to say. The raan feeds

Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
or beats the dog, rather than the equally tme and necessary
corollary. The dog permits itself to be fed or beaten. When
the dog procures food by self-initiated tricks familiar to
itself and to its master, we raay prefer to say. The dog
secures food from the master, rather than The master gives
the dog food; But our preference has not hit upon any
greater tmth. The student of aniraal psychology wfll pre
fer those expressions which describe the circurastances frora
the point of view of the interests and activities of the dog.
In a precisely siraflar manner the social psychologist raay
persist in his attitude with regard to the reality and per
manence of the social as contrasted ¦with the illusoriness of
the individual. In this case, the messiah, since he has chosen
the social point of view for the orientation of his phenomena,
and his descriptions come necessarily from the social angle.
The ultimate reality of society is no more a fact than the
ultimate reality of the individual. Each society is member
of a larger society from which raany influences and tenden
cies — if not all of thera ! — have come. Any given society
may — shall we say must ? — be considered the resultant of
continuous historical influences reaching back into the re
motest past and touching every form of previous social life.
The motives which lead the sociologist to resolve the Mes
siah into mere social and historical antecedents will logically
compel him to dissolve the social group into similar histori
cal antecedents. To do this is to give up the problem of
society versus the individual. The positing of such a prob
lem involves the treatment of society and individual as dis
tinct and self-complete. If reciprocal units.
Thus the social influences are — like the gravitational —
one of the dimensions in which the Messiah must realize hira
self. His developraent will be conditioned by many phases
of the social dimension whose deterrainations more intimately
concern individual psychology than does any physical dimen
sion which circumscribes individual action. Yet oxygen and
the gravitational forces are as necessary to the Messiah as
are favorable social atmosphere and impetus. Nor, for that
raatter, does wisdora flourish without physiological nourish
ment ; —

An Interpretation of Messianic Movements 263
The empty spit
Ne'er cherished wit;
Minerva loves the larder.
The Messiah craves the social nourishment as well. When,
however, all has been said, the social seems raerely a polarity
or a diraension in which his personality finds raeaning and by
which it is conditioned in its expression. How could it come
within the grasp of individual raind if individual mind were
not a self-sufficient reality? Though social influences are
largely responsible for the ability of the individual to grasp
their meaning, he creates thera as truly as they create him.
As Goethe says,
Der Mensch erkennt sich nur im Menchen, nur
Das Leben lehret jedem was er sei, —
but this is equally true of the group, for it, too, coraes to its
own only as raember of a larger group.
" All men's minds, they say," reraarks Pindar, " are stirred
by whatsoever wave at the instant roUeth nearest to the
mainsheet of the ship " ; but each Is wafted according as he
turns his safls, and the Messiah raay so trim them as to make
headway even against an adverse wind.
The Mission of Jesus
In his book on The Religious Life Emile Durkheira has
referred to the prejudice entertained by raaiiy people to
ward a comparative study of religion if that study includes
an account of their own religion. This fact, which probably
all of us have observed, has its explanation in human psy
chology. The prejudice Is no doubt in large part due to the fact
that the religious devotee looks upon such an objective study
as disregarding the essential eleraents In his religion and thus
giving it a distortion that is little short of raisrepresenta-
tion. At best it disregards the purport and inner raeaning
of the religion. It leaves hira with much the same feeling
he has when, in reply to his incisive arguments, he is told that
he has uttered six hundred monosyUabic and twice as many

264 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
polysyllabic words punctuated with fourteen commas and
sixteen periods. Here is truth but here also is a blatant
disregard of the meaning and purpose of the argument.
A classification of philosophers in terms of weight, com
plexion, and stature may be a raodel of truthfulness as well
as of inaptness, and may afford a miniraura of amuseraent
to the serious student of the history of thought. Such
classifications are, however, permissible If they serve a pur
pose. There are times when we wish to view phenomena
frora a new or unaccustomed angle in order to form an esti
mate frora that point of view. Nor can there be any valid
objection to this form of occupation. An objection is hot
in order until it be insisted that this is the only method of
estimation. If, therefore, we wish to view a messianic religion frora a
historical, a geographical, or a coraparative point of view,
is there a valid objection? This does not preclude other
methods of approach or diverse angles of interpretation.
Let all interpretations be taken for what they are
severally worth. Christianity like any other faith can be
viewed from various angles, as can also the career of Jesus,
the Messiah whose clairas are accepted by the devotees of
this faith.
The historian will at once ask for the historical back
ground of the life of Christ. [" The cultured man of to-day
is a person who thinks historically, and can construct his
future only by means of historical self-knowledge. This
holds good for every sphere of life, even for the religious
sphere."] That background has been given in preceding
pages. A raoraent's retrospect wiU show us that he
inherited the traditions of the prophets; that he lived
in a tirae when raessianic prophecies were rife; that the
tiraes caUed for national salvation ; that the gospels declare
his consciousness of these needs. Opinions raay differ and
do differ, as to the conditions under which Jesus discovered
his messiahship, interpreted the detafls of his task, and made
known his mission to his disciples ; but " it is now almost uni
versaUy admitted that Jesus knew himself as the Messiah,
that personal representative of Jahweh for whom Israel

An Interpretation of Messianic Movements 265
waited and for the signs of whose appearing they searched
heaven and earth."
The historian will remind us also, that " a prevalent be
lief among the Jews fixed the duration of the world at seven
thousand years, of which six were nearly expired, — the re
raaining thousand being the Messiah's triuraphant reign. In
the calamities of the tirae, it was felt that ' the whole crea
tion groaned and travailed in pain ' for the birth of the
coming One ; and the ' seventy weeks ' predicted in the Book
of Daniel were by the general interpretation just fulfilled.
' Through the whole East,' says Suetonius, ' an old and
constant opinion had spread that the destined rulers of
things should come about this time from Judaea.' ' When
you bury me,' said a dying Jew, ' put shoes on my feet and
a staff in my hand, that I may be ready when Messiah
cometh,' Many a man, 'just and devout was waiting (like
Simeon) for the consolation of Israel ' ; many a raother
hoped in her heart that her new-bom child should be the ex
pected one," [J. H. Allen, op. cit., 393-4.]
Little wonder, then, that Jesus was asked whether he were
the expected one or they should wait for another. For, " in
Judaea expectation was at its zenith. Holy persons — such
as old Simeon, who, legend tells, held Jesus in his arras (Luke
ii, 25-32), Anna, daughter of Phanuel, regarded as a
prophetess — passed their life about the temple, fasting and
praying that it might please God not to withdraw them frora
the world tiU he had shown them the fulfilment of the hopes
of Israel. We are conscious of a brooding life, the approach
of something unknown.
" This confused mixture of clear views and of dreams, this
alternation of deception and hopes, these aspirations cease
lessly driven back by an odious reality, found at last their
expression in the incoraparable man to whom the universal
conscience has decreed the title ' Son of God ' — most justly,
since he has given to religion a direction which no other is
or probably ever will be able to emulate." [E. Renan, The
Life of Jesus, 89-90. Boston, 1896.]
Sorae response to these demands was almost inevitable:
" The Sibylline mystics at Alexandria, the poets at Rome,

266 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
the peasants in Syria, were wound up to the expectation of
' some beginning of a new order of the ages,' some hero ' who
from Palestine should govem the habitable world,' some cause
in which ' the East should once more wax strong.' " [A. P.
Stanley, Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church, III,
415. New York, 1906.]
In the days of the prophets the word " Messiah," " the
anointed one," was used raost frequently when the prophet
had in mind the clash of nations, dynasty succeeding dynasty,
and empire overthrowing empire. The anointed of Israel
is a Son of David who will come to overthrow all of Israel's
foes. In the lifetime of Jesus and from the very province
in which he lived, Galflee, Messiahs had appeared raaking
claim to be national saviors. Of these events the Man of
Nazareth was surely aware, and to him the word Messiah
would inevitably suggest a powerful historical king, a war
rior, an army, a resistless revolution. [See on this point
Jesus Christ, Hastings' E.R.E., VII, 517.]
Certainly neither his followers nor his enemies dissociated
his raission from political aspirations. That they enter
tained a belief in the political character of his messiahship is
abundantly shown by the story of Herod's attempt to kill
the babe, and by the charges brought before Pilate that he
claimed to be king of the Jews. It is significant, too, that
this claim his accusers stressed raore than the claira that he
was the Son of Man or the Son of God, since the two latter
in their eyes constituted blaspheray, while it was not con
sidered blaspheray to claim to be the Messiah.
While there is no doubt that these were the claims of both
friends and enemies, there is as little doubt that they were
not the claims of Christ. He was the child of his age, to be
sure, but he was also the parent of a new doctrine. The
messianic hope was taken up by him but it was given out
as a new doctrine, transfused with a new meaning; with a
meaning so utterly different from the time-honored inter
pretations that neither friends nor eneraies could, at the time,
apprehend its meaning. He was a national sa^vior but not
a political savior. Other ills he saw and other remedies.
Israel was to be saved, but not by acquiring the coveted

An Interpretation of Messianic Movements 267
political domination. The kingdora was a reality but not
one raade with hands, not resplendent with political glory,
honor at horae, and dominion abroad. There were other
worlds to conquer and other weapons of warfare to forge.
Only gradually did his followers grasp a thought so far in
advance of their age, only gradually did they ascertain the
demands of the Messiah whose claims they had admitted.
When, therefore, we compare Jesus with the other
Messiahs, whether of his race or of another, we are struck
by two outstanding facts : a remarkable similarity and a
reraarkable difference. The conditions which called forth
the messianic claim are reraarkably like those which have
caUed forth messianic clairas in other times and other climes ;
the response to these demands was a unique response, a filling
of the old bottles with new wine, a quenching of the thirst
by a new draught. Moreover, this unexpected response to
the deraands brought about a transforraation in those de
mands theraselves. As his followers were given other than
they had asked, so they came to ask other things. The new
fulfillment in itself created a new deraand and a new attitude.
Thus the Christ who was the product of his age becarae the
creator of a new age.
[Ch. IX, Christianity, in C. H. Moore, The Religious
Thought of the Greeks from Homer to the Triumph of Chris
tianity. Cambridge, 1916. B. I. Bell, Goodness and Re
ligion, Atlantic Monthly, October, 1916, Vol. 118, p. 363,
Sect. IV, on Messiah, Diet, of Christ and the Gospels, II,
177. J. H. AUen, op. cit., 405ff. A. M. Fairbaim, The
Philosophy of the Christian Religion, 12, 314-5, 399-402.
New York, 1909. 0. Steams, The Aim and Hope of Jesus,
published in, Christianity and Modern Thought. Boston,
1891. R. H. Hutton, Theological Essays, 295ff. Theo
Parker, Views of Religion, 261. Boston, 1890. R. M. Wen-
ley, The Preparation for Christianity in the Ancient World,
131ff. New York, 1898. W. Sanday^ Outlines of the Life
of Christ, Ch. VI, The Messianic Crisis. New York, 1905.
Emest Renari, The Life of Jesus, esp. 252-93. Boston, 1896.
R. Rhees, The Life of Jesus of Nazareth, Pt. II, Ch. VI. The
Messianic CaU. New York, 1908. W. Whipple, The Story-

268 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
Life of the Son of Man. New York, 1913. A. Harnack,
What is Christianity? New York, 1901. E. A. Bosworth,
Studies in the Teaching of Jesus and His Apostles. Pt. I,
Jesus' conception of Himself and his Mission. New York,
1911. Shafler Mathews, The Gospel and the Modern Man,
lOff, 81-6. F. W. Farrar, Life and Works of St. Paul
37, 83-5. New York, 1893. C. Geikie, Life and Words of
Christ, 2 Vols. New York, 1890. A. Edersheira, Life and
Times of Jesus the Messiah, 2 Vols. New York, 1899, L, H.
MiUer, Our Knowledge of Christ. An Historical Approach.
New York, 1914, F, G. Peabody, Jesus Christ and tlie
Christian Character, 45ff, New York, 1906,]
Was this not the fulfiilraent of the prophecy of Isaiah:
" And there shall come forth a sprig out of the stem of
Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots ; and the spirit
of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdora and of
understanding, the spirit of counsel and raight, the spirit of
knowledge and of the fear of the Lord ; the deUght of whose
life shaU be the fear of the Lord, And he shaU not judge
after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing
of his ears. But with righteousness shall he judge the poor
and reprove with equity for the oppressed of the earth;
and he shall sraite the tyrant ¦with the rod of his mouth and
with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And
righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness
the girdle of his reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the
larab, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the
calf and the young lion and the f atling together ; and a little
child shaU lead them,"
There is some truth in Oesterley's Insistence that messian
ism, in its ¦widest sense, redemption from present ills by super
natural means erabodied in a personality, is eleraental, one of
the comraon characteristics of raan. It is deeply erabedded
in huraan nature and finds a responsive chord in alraost every
environment. There is sorae truth, too, in his further association of the
messianic Idea with a dualistic conception of life. When the
world is conceived of, as almost always it is conceived, as a

An Interpretation of Messianic Movements 269
world in which two masterful and opposing powers are oper
ative, the good and the evil, the messiah will be closely linked
with the forces of good. This is one reason why the pre
dominance of evfl is the harbinger of the messiah ; this is why
his coming is heralded by wars and calaraltles manifold.
The height of the evil power calls forth the greatest resist
ance from the good, and Anti-Christ will suraraon the messiah.
The Heilbringer, or culture-hero, is, however, a type of
phflosophy rather than a tme precurser of the messiah,
though Oesterley would imply that the culture-hero is the
messiah's distant prototype. Very vaguely can a relation
ship here be traced, for the messiah is almost always other
than the culture-hero. The latter may at raost be taken as
a sort of John the Baptist of raessianlsra, not its iraraediate
inspiration. [See W. O, E. Oesterley, The Evolution of the
Messianic Idea: A Study in Comparative Religion. London,
1908.] ^
So thoroughly did the tiraes foster the ambitions of the
Messiah that one scholar has ventured to declare none of
them a creative genius. " They never dominated their time,"
declares Schindler, " They never dominated their time : on
the contrary, they were carried away with the ciirrent.
They never moved the masses ; they rode on the crest of the
popular wave. They were merely the supply to a public de-
man. Their Messianic assumptions, sincere or hypocritical,
becarae possible only on account of a popular hope in the
appearance of such a person. None of thera appeared at a
tirae of national prosperity; they all without exception
stepped upon the stage In times of calamity. They could
grow only upon ground fertflized by misery. Whenever the
national wretchedness had become unbearable, whenever the
spirit of the people had become so depressed that they des
paired of themselves, the hope sprang up that help raust
come frora outside, from above : that a man raust appear who
would improve their, condition. But at such times of calam
ity the human judgment becoraes biassed, and the reasoning
powers lose their normal strength. A drowning man will
cling to a straw: so a nation in despair will cling
to the most childish hope." [Op. cit., 154-6.] But, in the

270 Messiahs: Christian and Pagan
fine phrase of Alfred Loisy, " To keep a firm hold on life
man has need of hope as an indispensable anchor. An il
lusion is not vain which gives one the courage to face un
avoidable deprivations." [The War and Religion, 38.
English translation by Arthur Galton. Oxford, 1915.]
' With assurance, then, we may declare that, " to under
stand the Christian moveraent one must see it as related to
the stream of Jewish life which shaped a new ethnic epoch
in the first quarter of the second century before Christ.
Palestine long before the tirae of Christ had been incapable
of supporting all the Jews, and the stress of economic need
had scattered enormous nurabers of Jews throughout the en
tire world. On the whole, these Jews of the Dispersion syra-
pathlsed with the less privileged classes of Palestine and
constituted a body of raen and women possessed of much the
same social mind and enriched with the same national ideals
as those of the coramon people and the Pharisees in Palestine.
The great hope of di^vIne deliverance which nourished them
sprang frora the econoraic and political situation into which
foreign nations had forced thera." But we raust not forget
that, though sprung from economic and political conditions,
its energies were directed to other ends, inasmuch as it trans
cended the conditions out of which it originated. " By the
time it becarae one of the world moveraents throughout the
Roraan Empire it was recognized by its adherents as neither
political nor econoraic, but that thing which so raany ' ma
terialist ' interpreters of history fail to estimate justly, a
supernatural religion. And it was as a religion avowedly
supernatural that Christianity raoved out into history and
wrought its changes. Here again it is possible to see a
spiritual tendency as a social raoveraent breaks away from
the conditions which gave it rise and becomes on its own ac
count an independent cause." [Shafler Mathews, The
Spiritual Interpretation of History, 53^7. Cambridge,
1916. In this connection see the account of the Messianic
Hope given in E. Schiirer, A History of the Jertdsh People in
the Time of Jesus Christ, 2nd Division, Vol. II, 126-87.
English translation. Edinburgh, 1890.]
As Shailer Mathews has well expressed it, Jesus

An Interpretation of Messianic Movements 271
tegrated in the social currents of his day. It would be in
deed difficult to think of him as developing his particular mes
sage of divine salvation in the midst of any other surround
ings than those of the Je'wlsh people. But after the hopes
and prayers of Pharisaism, the passions and beliefs of the
Jewish piety of his day, had passed through his own in
dividual experience, they becarae soraething new. Scattered
parallels, similarities in words between Jesus and the philoso
phers of Greece or the master rabbis of the Jews, are beside
the mark. They no more account for Christianity than
chemical elements out in the sunlight account for acorns.
Acorns are made of such elements after they have been
manipulated by sorae tree. Jesus contributed himself and
his individual experiences to history and historical forces
were recombined in him. He was indeed the Vine with
branches." [The Spiritual Interpretation of History,
115—6. See the concluding pages of Heinrich Paulus, Das
Leben Jesu, 2 vols, Heidelberg, 1828.]
While we remember the Vine, let us not forget the branches
of individual contribution and unique value, of a life which,
short as it was, changed the course of the ages.

INDEX

Abbas Effendi, 113
Abbasids, 94
Abn AbdaUah, 95, 213 ff.
Abdallah ibn Maimum, 100
Abraham, 22
of Granada, 49
ben Nissim, 48
Abulafia, Abraham, 48
Adventists, 164
Ahmad, Mirza Ghulam, 108
Akbar, 110
Alcyone, 124
Alexander the Great, 203
Alexandria, Jews of, 28-30, 36-7
Alfatimi, 223
Alids, 92
Almericans, 191
Al Mokama, 93 ff.
Alroy, David, 47 ff.
Anabaptists, 156 ff.
Anderson, Scott, 166
Anizetto, ISO
Antichrist, 39, 56, 58, 92, 206, 104,
191 ff.
Apache, 131-2
Apocalypse of Baruch, 19
Apocrypha, 27 ff., 36
ApoUonius of Tyana, 203
Arabs, Arabia, 91 ff.
Arabia FeUx, 45
Arthur, 180
Arya Samaj, 106, 228
Asmonian period, 41
Assjnfia, IS, 24, 32, 203
Asurnasipal, 16
Augustus, 32
Aushetar, 18
Aushetar-mah, 18
Avatar, 108
Awacum, Protopop, 192
Avolokita, 121
Bab, Babism, 111 ff., 228-9
Babylon, 56, 191
Babylonia, 15, 18, 24, 203
Baggara, 223

273

Baha, Bahaism, 112 ff.
Balder, 184
Barclay, John, 162
Bar-Kokebas, 34, 41 ff., 204
Bashkin, 168
Beckaranta, 146
Bee, Book of, 45
Bell, 126
Benjamin, Nathan, 60
of Toleda, 47
Berechiah, Berokia, 64
Besant, Mrs. Annie, 165
Besht, 72-3
Bhagavad Gita, 18, 226
Blanchefleure, 56
Boadbil, 183
Bodhisattvas, 121
Bontoc Igorot, 151
Boroimhe, Brian, 180
Botarel, Moses, 48-9
Brahmanism, 123
Cabbala, Cabbalists, 36, 52, 59, 68,
73
Caesar, 20-1
CagUostro, 206
Calabres, Hayim "Vital, 49
CaUfomia Indians, 149
Camisards, 163, 231
Cardosa, Miguel, 64
Castrators, 176
Charlemagne, 180
China, 229
China, Jews, in, 207
Chinese, 123
Church of God and Saints of
Christ, 178
CromweU, 57-8, 160
Crowdy, WiUiam S., 178
Crusades, 47
Da' ire wale. 111
Dakota, 140
Dansk, Olger, 180
David, Alroy, 205
Almaser, 205

274

Index

David, el-David, 205
Reubeni, 50-2
Delaware, 144
Demeter, 19
Dionysian rites, 19
Dongala, 100
Donmeh, 70
Dosithee, 33
Dost Mohammed, 111
Doukhobors, 168
Dowie, 109, 177
Druses, 95
Dunaan, 45
Durkheinii 132
Ebionites, 153
Egypt, ancient, 16-8, 32
modern, 203
Elkesaites, 154
Elijah, 85
Emes, Thomas, 163
Engawaen Jim, 131
En Sof, S8
Eskimo, 260
Esthonian, 179
Euchites, 155
Evans, Arise, 160
Eybeschiitz, Jonathan, 64
Falashas, 78
Fatima, 92
Fifth Monarchy Men, 159, 232
FlageUants, 191
Franciscans, 191
Frank, Jacob, 64, 71-3
Frederick Barbarossa, 182
Friends of God, 156
the Temple, 164 ff.
GaUlee, 58
Ge-lug, 124
Ghair Mahdi, 111
Ghdsi Dis, 108
Ghazi, 109-10
Ghetto, 83-4, 88
Ghost Dance, 139-40, 144, 239
GilfiUin, George, 166
Girling, Mary Ann, 163
Gordon, Gen., 103
Gorkhnath, 124
Gotama, 122, 228
Greeks, 19
Gros "Ventres, 131
Guiana Indians, 146

Hakim, 95, 98
ibn AUah, 93 ff.
Singh, 107
Hallaj, 97, 202
Hameem, 94
Hammurabi, 18
Hasdai, 46
Hasid, Isaiah, 64
Judah, 68-70
Herrs, 75
Hillelites, 35
Hindu, 224^7
Hiyoyoa, 133
Hoffman, Melchior, 156
Hopi, 131
Horace, 181
Hosea, 61
Hyrcanus, John, 31
Ibn Saba, 93
Initiative of messiah, 255 ff.
Ipuwer, 16-8
Irving, Edward, 162
Isaiah, 25, 82-3
ben Ishak, Obaiah Abu Isa, 45
Ishtar, 15-6
Ismaili, 95
Ispahan, 45
ben Israel, Rabbi Manasseh, 57
Japanese, 123
Jerahmeel, Chronicles of, 44
Jeremiah, 24-5, 44, 85
Jesus, 34, 37, 93, 110, 107, S
2S7-8, 263 ff.
Jews, 22 ff.
JezreeUtes, 163
Joel, 202
John of Leyden, 157
Josephus, 34, 41, 44-5
Josiah, 44
Jost, Leonard and Ursula, 159
Judas, of GaUlee, 33
Kafirs, 130
Kaim, 111
Kalewipoeg, 180
Kanakiik, 138-9
Kapustin, Savely, 168
Karmatians, 96, 99 ff.
Keeps-his-name-always, 141
Khidr, 98
Khlysti, 172, 174 ff.
Kickapoo, 138

Index

275

Kiowa, 140-4
Kolesnikof, Sylvan, 170
Kosoy, 168-9
Krishna, 18, 122
Krishnamurta, 124
Lamaism, 124, 230
Leatherwood God, 177
Lee, Ann, 161
Lembein, Ascher, 49
de Leon, Rabbi Mose ben Shem
Tob, 58
Loupkin, 173
Lucretius, 181
Luria, Isaac, 49
Luzzate, Moses, 50
Maccabees, 26, 30-1, 35
Magus, Simon, 204-5
Maimonides, 88
Maitreya, 124
Malakh, 68-9
Mandaeans, 154
Manjusri, 121
Maori, 130
Marcionism, 155
Massim, Southern, 133
Matthys, Jan, 157
Menahem, 35
Menakemists, 48
Men of God, 175
Merneptah, 16
Midrashim, Haggadic, 85
Millennium, 153 ff., 180
MiUer, WiUiam, 164
Miyazaki, 123
Mokiah, Mordecai, 64
Mokrani, 213
Moktar, 210
Mohammed, 91, 93, 258
Ahmed Ibn Seyyid AbduUah, 100
al Mahdi, 99
Ibn al Hanafiyah, 93
Hud, 94
Ismail, 96
Moktana, Baba ud-Din, 98
Molcho, Solomon, 51 ff.
Molokane, 74
Montanism, 155
Mordfecai, 74
Moriscos, 254
Moros, 151
Mothers of God, 174
Moses, 22

Moses, of Crete, 44, 204, 259
Mudhen of Tlemcen, 94
MuUah, Mad, 109-10, 226
Miinzer, Thomas, 158
Nagid, of Egypt, 46
Nak ai dokli ni, 144
Napoleon, 75-6, 183
Navaho, 140
Nebo, Mt., 44
Nero, 21, 38, 44
New Guinea, 152
New Zealand, 152
Nez Perc^, 138
Nigra, 45
Oahspe, Book of, 178
ObeidaUa, 95
Ogier, 183
Ojibway, 144
Olaf Tryggvesson, 184
Olivero, 128
Omar II, 45
OriginaUty of messiah, 257
Orpheus, 19
Osipov Srege, 174
Overcomers, 165
Paiute, 140, 148, 201
Papacy, 48-9
Passover, 85
Paul, 38
Pepys, Samuel, 63
Persephone, 19
Persia, 45-8, 116-7
Petrov, Andreyan, 171
Pharisees, 35
Philoppitch, Daniel, 173
Pobirohin, Ilarion, 169
Poland, 7, 61, 69-74
Pomo, 148
Pope, 191
Pop^, 135-6, 198
Prophets, Old Testament, 2
202, 208-9
Prossnitz, Lobele, 64, 204
Proteus, 203
Psychological interpretations,
244 ff.
Pushkin, Andrian, 169
Qaddish, 87
Quakers, 232
Querido, Jacob, 64

!ff.,

276

Index

Ram Singh, 107
Ranters, 232
Rascolnik, 192
Rashid-ad-Din Sinan, 98
Re, 17
de la Reina, Joseph, 58
Revival, religious, 232 ff.
Roderic, 185 ff.
Rome, 19-21, 32, 39 ff., 42-3, 203
RusseU, Pastor, 168
Sabbatai Sevi, 59 ff., 71
Sadducees, 26, 29
Sa'id, 210
Samaritans, 76-8
Sanusi, '211
Saoshyant, 18-19
Satndm, 108
Sebastian, Don, 187 ff.
Seminole, 138
Seneca, 32
Serene, of Syria, 45
Shaker, 145
Shalom, Abraham, 49
Shawnee, 136
Shebsen, 70-1
Shekhinah, 71
Shelemon, 45
Shem-Tob, 49
Shiites, 92, 99
Shocher, Ari, 76
Shoshone, Northern, 131
SibylUne oracles, 20-21, 29, 44
Sikli, 227-8
Siksike, 138
Sioux, 144, 201
Siovedi, 151
Siva, 124
Skoptsi, 176
SmohaUa, 138, 199
Snow, 164
Solomon of Armenia, 45
Souslof, Ivan, 173
South American Indians, 150
Southcott, Joanna, 161
Squaxin, 145
Statistical interpretation, 244 ff.
Stepanov, Vasali, 174
Syria, 36
Taborites, 156

Taheb, 19
Talmud, 44, 86
Targum, 78
Tchichikof, 183
Tell, 182
Testament, of the Twelve Patri
archs, 19
Teuskwatawa, 136 ff., 199
Tewa, 135, 244
Theodorus, 105
Theosophists, 124, 165 ff.
Theudas, 34, 203
Thomas of Erceldome, 183
Thompson River Indians, 146
TibuUus, 181
Titus, 26
Tokeri, 133
Trapnel, Anna, 160
Ibn Tumart, 96, 210
Turner, Nat, 127
Ukhshetara, 18
Ukshatnemah, 18
Umlanjeni, 128
Venancio, 150
Venner, 159
Verigin, 171 ff.
Vespasian, 21
Vicente Christo, 150
Virgil, 20-21, 40
Vishnu, 122
Voltaire, 236
Wahabi, 107, 223, 226
Wanderers, 193
Waraka, 91
WeUs, H. G., 233 ff.
White, James, 163
WUderness Worshippers, 126
WiUiam II (Germany), 194, 228
Wilhelmina of Bohemia, 48
Wovoka, 143, 200, 201
Yellow Hats, 124
Yemen, 47, 76
Zealots, 34, 36
Zikris, 111
Zohar, Second, 49, 58
Zoroastrianism, 18-19, 120

3 9002 00582 343^

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