The Seventh Sacrament

Author’s Note

Mithraism originated in Persia before the sixth century BC. From around AD 136 onwards, it was adopted as one of the most important cults among Roman and government officials. Subterranean Mithraic temples built by Imperial troops are common in all of the empire’s military frontiers, from the Middle East to England. Three have been identified along Hadrian’s Wall, in northern England; more than a dozen, out of a suspected hundred or more, have been discovered in Rome itself.

At the heart of Mithraism lay several features which seem to have appealed to the military and bureaucratic mind. The cult was highly organised, secretive, and confined to men. It demanded insistence on absolute hierarchical obedience, first to local, higher-ranking members of the cult, and ultimately to the emperor. It also used a series of different “sacraments” to mark the passage of followers from one of its seven ranks to the next. Indeed the very word “sacrament,” while religious in nature today, stems from the original Latin term used for the oath of allegiance sworn by soldiers on joining the army. What those sacraments were, we can only guess, but they appear to have involved a separate initiation ceremony, with a swearing of oaths and on occasion a sacrifice, for each of the specific ranks, from the most junior, Corax, to the leader, Pater.

Mithraism shared some similar ideas and features with early Christianity, though the idea that the Catholic Church copied deliberately from the cult is probably far-fetched. None of the Mithraic scriptures remain, however, since this was a religion fated to be wiped from the history books. On October 28, AD 312, at the conclusion of a civil war, Constantine won control of the empire at the battle of the Milvian Bridge, a strategic point at which the Flaminian Way crossed the Tiber River into Rome. Though a follower of pagan ways himself at the time, Constantine, probably for political reasons, decided to make Christianity the sole religion of the empire. As his troops sacked Rome, the repression of Mithraism began.

The most visible relic of Mithras in Rome today is the archaeological find uncovered by Irish Dominican monks excavating the basilica of San Clemente close to the Colosseum. Here, an entire underground temple has been revealed, with chambers for ceremonies, and the focal point of worship, the mithraeum itself, where the ceremonial altar, with its image of Mithras slaying the bull, would have stood. San Clemente is open to the public; many more underground sites, including other mithraeums, are open by appointment. The visits offered by the voluntary organisation Roma Sotterranea (www.underrome.com) offer the best way to explore the extensive hidden city that lies beneath modern Rome. Many sites are difficult, dangerous, and illegal to visit without expert assistance.

Since history is invariably written by the victors, we have no independent contemporary accounts of what happened on the day the victorious Constantine entered Rome. However, we do know that he “disbanded” the imperial elite troop of the Praetorian Guard, which had sided with his opponent, Maxentius, and destroyed entirely their headquarters, the Castra Praetoria, which possessed a mithraeum in the vicinity for their private worship. A glimpse into the events of that day can be found in a less well-known Roman mithraeum, on the Aventine hill, not far from the area where much of this book is set. Excavations beneath the small church of Santa Prisca in the 1950s revealed that the original Christian building had been built on the remains of a Mithraic temple. When the archaeologists made their way into the heart of the mithraeum, they discovered it had been desecrated, probably sometime shortly after Constantine’s victory, and statues and wall paintings had been destroyed with axes. What happened to the temple followers during this turbulent period is unknown.