THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
were prepared from its black berries (Vergil, Georgica, i. 106; Pliny, Hist, naturalis, xv. 35-38, xxiii. 44) • and its branches formed decorations of houses and rooms on festal occasions, as at the Feast of Tabernacles (Xeh., ut sup.). The classics also show that myrtle branches were strewn in the way, and garlands of myrtle were worn at feasts, especially at marriage feasts since the myrtle was sacred to Aphrodite and the symbol of conjugal love. The name Hadassah, '' Myrtle," was thus appropriate as the name of a beautiful girl, and was the original appellation of Esther (Esther ii. 7).
(R. Kittel.)
Bibliography: C. Hart, Fauna and Flora of Sinai, Petrae, etc., London, 1901-05; M. Callcott, Scripture Herbal, ib. 1842; H. S. Osborn, Plants of the Holy Land, Philadelphia, 1860; H. B. Tristram, Fauna and Flora of Palestine, London, 1SS4; G. E. Post, Flora of Syria, Palestine, and Syria, Beirut, 1896; C. Joret, in L'Orient classique, 1897, p. 355; G. Henslow, Plants of the Bible, ib. 1906; Vigouroux, Dictionnaire, fasc. xxvii., cols. 1363-67.
MYSTAGOGICAL THEOLOGY.
" Mystagogia." Cyril of Jerusalem (§ 1). Dionysius the Areopagite (§2). Works Antedating Theodore of Andida (§ 3). Theodore of Andida and Others (§ 4). Later Eastern and Western Treatises (§ 5).
A term "Mystagogical Theology" was used to denote a form of disciplinary theology that was cultivated principally in the Eastern Church in the early Byzantine age, but also in the Middle Ages, and later in Russia. It conveys the sense of the
church ceremonial not in the light of
i. " Mysta- historic science but as having a " secret
gogia." meaning." As used in ancient Greek,
Cyril of mystagogia signifies the sacred initia-
Jerusalem. tion into the " mysteries," either by
actual admission to the sacred solemnities or by theoretical admission through instruction. Whatever introduces to a mystery is a mystagogia; the priest who performs or conducts the process is a " mystagogue," as is the theologian who correctly expounds it and embodies its true sense (which is primarily a secret) in the form of " doctrine." The sacred process is itself a mystagogia, since it initiates into the region of divine wonders. Above every other ecclesiastical solemnity, the Eucharist is accounted a mystagogia, indeed it is termed expressly " the mystagogia." In general, however, mystagogical theology has examined everything pertaining to the divine offices, and has discovered a secret meaning in every part of them. The earliest mystagogical work known is the " Mystagogical Catechetics " by Cyril of Jerusalem (q.v.), dating from about the middle of the fourth century. This is in five sermons, wherein Cyril further explains to the neophytes, to whom he has already delivered the creed in the course of eighteen sermons, who have also been baptized accordingly, the additional sacred operations which they have undergone, together with the holy ceremonies in which they have now shared for the first time. It is presupposed that the catechumens were as yet not rightly aware of what was to come about in them when they received baptism, nor how the Eucharist, to which they were to be admitted for the first time after baptism, was celebrated, nor
what this celebration altogether signified. Cyril elucidates only a few details in a really mystagogical sense and in the simplest terms of statement. " Symbolic " and " dogmatic " explanations occur interchangeably. That is to say, Cyril felt no less obliged to set clearly before the newly baptized members the matter in question, the renewal they have undergone, especially to render them conscious of the fact that the bread and wine were the body and the blood of the Lord, than to exhibit the rites and the forms, which they have seen and shared, in their intrinsic significance; in other words, he aimed to present those rites on their objective side, yet as themselves conveying the sense of their process. The main outline of presentation is the idea that the " renewal " involved a gradual progress, and that this was discernible in the rites themselves.
The proper founder of mystagogical theology, broadly considered, was Dionysius the Areopagite (q.v.), a man of whom little is known, save that he probably belonged to the close of the fifth century
and was active in Syria. The work of
2. Dionysius special interest here is " Concerning
the the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy " (MPG,
Areopagite. iii. 369 sqq.; Eng. transl. by John
Parker, London, 1894). What in this is significant in respect to the expository feeling of the early Church is that the whole visible entity and activity of the " hierarchy," that is, the Church in its vital agency, is represented as being filled with mysteries and wonders; and if one be but correctly initiated, these, perchance, can be everywhere seen " shining through." Dionysius made it clear that " dogma ' is possessed of a mirrored counterpart in ceremonial worship. In later times, the ceremonial was not infrequently treated as a criterion f or a " new " doctrine; the same being discarded unless there appeared to be something congruent in the rites. Conversely, it is a special question just how far the rites and sacramentals became gradually adapted to the dogma already current, with symbols to fit the occasion. As Dionysius will have it, the terrestrial hierarchy is a copy of the celestial. Just as the angels, in graduated circles, throng round about the one only God, even so the clergy on earth encompass the one bishop. The latter is quite peculiarly " a divine and godly man.1 From him do the priestly persons receive their divine consecrations, whereby they become qualified to " divinify " men. Dio nysius treats of the principal ecclesiastical mysteries. A brief description of the given transaction is invariably followed by a survey of the emblematical character of its rites in detail. The object is to elucidate the intrinsic nature of the clergy, to explain its direct significance in connection with the transaction concerned; again, the same as touching the " faithful." For instance, in his " Priestly Ordinances " or acts of consecration for clerical offices, Dionysius shows that both the " unity " of the hierarchy is represented, and the gradation between bishop, priest, and liturgist (deacon). In the case of baptism one may discern illumination for its emblematic import, as one perceives how the candidate, first by turning westward and being dis-