Irenajus uses the term in a Gnostic sense. It stands for what he calls ' these portentous and profound mysteries,' against which he writes his famous work, c. Hmreses. Therefore little light is thrown by him on the word ' mystery ' as it was used in the early Church. However, from him is drawn nmch of the information which enables us to determine to some extent the Gnostic concep- tion of ' mystery.' Apparently he represents it as magical in character (see, e.g., Hmr. I. xiii. 2). The Gnostic conception is important, for it is regarded by some as introducing the change of the idea of mystery in the Christian Church. Carl Schmidt, Harnack, and others view the sacra- mentalism of Gnosticism as an anticipation of Christian sacramentalism. But to this Catholicism replies that the relationship was just the reverse, and, therefore, that Gnostic sacramentalism found its source in the sacramental ideas of the Church (Schmidt, TU viii. [1892] 525; A. Struckmann, Die Geqemmrt Christi, Vienna, 1905, p. 97 ; CQR xlii. [1896] 412). Neither position has thus far been sufficiently substantiated to carry conviction.
Two great writers at the end of the 2nd cent, did exercise a marked influence on the Christian conception of 'mystery.' One was Clement of Alexandria, who brought the Christian sacra- mental idea still nearer to that of the pagan cults. Von Soden affirms that ' with him an essential extension and a hellenizing change of the use of iivar-fipiov begins ' {ZNTW xii. 205), and E. Bratke in his article ' Die Stellung des Clem. Alex, zura antiken Mysterienwesen,' in SK Ix. [1887] i. 647) is an ardent advocate of the same belief. Anrieh takes a similar view but is more cautious in his support of it {Das antike Mysterien- wesen, p. 140). From the time of Clement the Christian sacraments began to be called the Christian mysteries ; and, while it is possible that they already bore this name, the influence of Clement's writings must have done much to estab- lish it. . He speaks of Christ as initiating us into the mysteries, and quotes from Euripides, Bacehce, 470—473 : ' Seeing those who see he bestows his mysteries. Of what fashion are these mysteries ? Secret except to the initiate ' {Strom, iv. 25). Christianity is the true Divine mystery, a mystical miracle ; consequently the Church is an institution of mysteries {Protrepit. 11). We, as perfected Christians, are permitted by Jesus to communicate ' those divine mysteries ' and ' that holy light ' to persons capable of receiving them {Strom, i. 1). In the same chapter Clement says that ' there are some mysteries before other mysteries.' He also draws a direct parallel between Christianity on one side and the Eleusinian and Dionysiac cults on the other (Protrept. 12). Clement had no inten-
tion, as liratke seems to imply {SK Ix. 662 ; cf. Anricli, Das antike Mysterienwesen, p. 140), of breaking down all demarcations between Christi- anity and heathenism, nor was he bent on an accommodation of one to the other. But his use of mystery terminology, which he probably drew from the philosophy of liis day rather than uirectly from the cults, must have ati'ccted the Christian concejitiou of mystery and given it the idea of a secrecy that could be uncovered only to the initiated. His doctrine of the sacraments is still a matter of dispute ; especially is his view of the Lord's Supper difficult to determine. Almost all the Protestant historians of dogma deny that he believes in a real presence of the body and blood of Christ within and under the consecrated elements. Catholic theologians confidently attri- bute to him this belief (C. Bigg, The Christian Platoniits of Alexandria, Oxford, 1913, p. 105 ; A. Harnack, History of Dogma, ii. [London, 1896] 145; Struckmann, Die Gegenwart Christi, \). 117; P. Batitiol, L'Eucharistie^, Paris, 1913, pp. 248- 261).
The other great writer who exercised a marked influence on the Christian conception of ' mystery ' was Tertullian. He accepted the term sacra- menttim as the Latin rendering of ixvsTifpwp. The earliest use of the Latin word in connexion with Christian life occurs in one of Pliny's letters {Ep. X. 96 [97]) wherein he speaks of the Christians as binding themselves by an oath ('seque sacramento . . . obstringere'). But Pliny's use of the term throws no light on its ecclesiastical meaning, for ecclesiastical Latin had not yet come into exist- ence (E. C. S. Gibson, The Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England, London, 1896-97, vol. ii. p. 594). The adherents of the mystery-religions were familiar with the word as designating their rites of initiation, particularly the oath of alle- giance taken at some point in them. It would be hazardous to state dogmatically how early the word took its place among their religious terms. But ' the votaries of Mithra likened the practice of their religion to military service. When the neo- phyte joined he was compelled to take an oath {sac- ramentum) similar to the one required of recruits in the army' (F. Cumont, Oriental Religions, p. xix). Livy records in his history of liome the recognition, on the part of the Romans, of the use of the sacramentuTii in the mysteries. In a speech of one of the consuls condemning the Bacchanalian rites, the consul asks, ' Can you think that youths, initiated under such oaths as theirs, are fit to be made soldiers?' (' hoc sacramento initiatos juvenes milites faciendos censetis?', xxxix. 15; cf. x. 38). As anelement in mystery terramtAogysairanicnlum would naturally assume a religious siuiiilicance, and we imderstand why its use in the cults awoke hostile suspicions of them among the Romans of the Republic and the early Empire. Even Ter- tullian occasionally applies the word to the rites of the mystery-religions {adv. Marc. i. 13, adv. Valent. 30, Scorp. 10). Tlius its association with the mysteries and its resulting religious character might easily suggest it as a rendering of ixvar-qpiov itself. Points of contact between the two terms would become apparent (F. Kattenbusch, art. 'Sakrament' in PRE^ xvii. 250). And this must have happened speedily, for sacramentum repre- sents fiiKTrrfpiof in the old Latin texts, with some of which Tertullian was evidently familiar. But he himself employed the term in a varied applica- tion. On the one hand, he applied it to types and prophecies in the OT {adv. Marc. iii. 18, iv. 40 ; adv. Jud. 9, 10, 11, and many other passages in these two works). In this use it is purely a trans- lation of the biblical fivar-npiof. On the other hand, he employed it very frequently in the sense