Question:
What happened to Mithraism?
gourry_gabrief
2008-11-09 12:57:32 UTC
How did it disappear?

Please, objective facts (and references; optional).
Nine answers:
gelfling
2008-11-09 13:00:44 UTC
Christians stole their holiday and then slaughtered people who didn't convert when Theodosius I made Paganism illegal and forced Christianity as the official state religion.
Mike G
2008-11-09 21:27:34 UTC
Mithraism was particularly a male-only cult that proliferated amongst the legions of the Roman Empire. Riding into the Battle at Milvian Bridge in 312 BCE, Constantine had a vision where Jesus proclaimed he would win the battle...and he did. It was common practice after battles and wars to commemorate one's victory with a celebration to any deity that may have aided the victorious army. Constantine did just that, honoring the God of the Christians for blessing him with a victory. With this, soldiers then turned to their new celestial guide and commander, supplanting Mithras with the Christian God. With this, Constantine declared Christianity to be legal cult in Rome, thus it no longer could be lawfully attacked.



In time, Constantine and his successors made laws against various aspects of the Traditional Religion of Rome, what Cicero called the Cultus Deorum Romanorum.



Mithraists held their rites and feasts for Mithras in subterranean enclosures at night. Christians critisized the Mithraists for performing devious rites to demons; in the Roman Religion the only entities approached in ritual in the night are infernal deities and spirits of the Underworld. At some point, a ban was placed on the performance of nocturnal rites and sacrifices, practically halting the Mithraic liturgies from being performed. In time, statues, dedications, subterranean caverns and all the like that pertained to Mithraism were destroyed and Mithraism was effectively wiped out.



The Apologist Firmicus Maternus denounced Mithras by recognizing His origins in Persia, which the Persians were Rome's current enemy. In Rome, it was improper to support divine entities that had origin or were related to the enemy of Rome.



When Theodosius I came to power, he instituted the official ban on all rites, sacrifices, temples and so on that formally pertained to the Traditional Roman Religion. Theodosius ordered the Vestal Virgins to be disbanded, the fire of Vesta extinguished and the Altar of Victory was removed from the Senate House; all of these containing in them the core of Roman Religion.



Theodosius I is the Emperor responsible for eliminating all pre-Christian religions and for instituting Christianity as the State Religion of Rome and the Roman Empire.
?
2008-11-09 21:01:57 UTC
"Mithraism was the foremost religion of the Roman Empire. It ostensibly disappeared without a trace in the fourth century AD, supposedly because of the success of Christianity. Mithraism did not disappear: in the middle of the 4th century it accepted the feminine principal into its credo whereupon Emperor Theodosius the Great rebranded this feminised Mithraism as Christinity and made it the only legitimate religion in the Empire. He anathematised all others. Before this date there were no Christians, only Galileans and Nazarenes, who were the followers of the various forms of Christ."



from this site http://www.lochanpress.com/
morpheus8250
2008-11-09 21:05:12 UTC
It's already going downhill in the fourth century AD, and once Christianity becomes the religion of the Empire it gradually declines and fades away. It was an exclusive, men-only religion with a small congragational base, making it vulnerable to loss of worshippers. Attacks by aggressive Christians probably helped it along into oblivion



Have a look at this quote from Martin Henig on the Temple of Mithras in London.
2008-11-09 21:08:50 UTC
It didn't really 'go away', it was largely "subsumed" by Christianity, which stole all its best myths and replaced the Mithra character with the equally implausible Jesus character. About 1600 years before Jesus was supposedly born, Mithra was allegedly born in a cave to a virgin, and was visited by three 'wise men' bringing gifts of gold, frankincense & myrrh. Coincidence? Doesn't that seem just a little too unlikely?
grayure
2008-11-09 21:04:12 UTC
Theodosius I banned all other religions apart from Christianity in 394. Then again, it may have been forced underground. I have to say that Freemasonry is rather similar, though there seems to be a big gap between them.
Tricia R
2008-11-09 21:06:54 UTC
It has been altered to something called JC ism. The holy church fathers got rid of it and will try to get rid of anything or anyone that tries to disprove of its nonsense and lies.. Anyone that does not agree with it is insanity is considered lower than whale dung and will burn in hell for eternity.
2008-11-09 21:02:38 UTC
It was absorbed into Christianity.



http://www.vexen.co.uk/religion/mithraism.html
Nina, BaC
2008-11-09 21:00:20 UTC
It is not the truth


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