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SACRIFICE (from Lat. sacrificium; sac...
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See also:SACRIFICE (from See also:Lat. sacrificium; sacer, See also:holy, and facere, to make) , the See also:ritual destruction of an See also:object, or, more commonly, the slaughter of a victim by effusion of See also:blood, suffocation, See also:fire or other means. While the See also:Hebrew for sacrifice, nai, makes the killing of the victim the central feature of the ceremony, the ' Latin word brings out the fact that an See also:act of sacralization (see See also:TABOO) is an essential See also:element in many cases. The sacrifice of desacralization is, however, also found; hence MM. See also:Hubert and Mauss describe a sacrifice as " a religious act, which, by the See also:consecration of a victim, modifies the moral See also:state of the sacrificer or of certain material See also:objects which he has in view," i.e. it either confers sanctity or removes it and its analogue, impurity. It is, in fact, " a See also:procedure whereby communication is established between the sacred and profane See also:spheres by a victim, that is to, say by an object destroyed in the course of the ceremony." By this See also:definition the See also:term sacrifice is extended to See also:cover the inanimate offering which is consumed by fire, broken or otherwise rendered useless for the purpose of human See also:life.
Theories of Sacrifice.—Explanations of sacrifice, as of other See also:rites, are naturally not wanting among the peoples who have practised or still practise it; but they are often of the nature of aetiological myths and give no See also:clue to the See also:original meaning. Scientific theories date from the second See also:half of the last See also:century, and were originated in the first instance by the See also:English anthropological school.
(a) According to the view put forward by Dr See also:Tylor, the. sacrifice is originally a See also:gift, offered to supernatural beings by See also:man for the purpose of securing their favour or minimizing their hostility. By a natural See also:series of transitions the gift theory became transformed, in the minds of the sacrificers, into the See also:homage theory, which again passed by an easy transition into the renunciation theory. These were, in fact, simply the popular theories of sacrifice put on an evidential basis by facts See also:drawn from various stages of culture.
(b) .With W. See also:Robertson `See also: The first See also:form of his theory distinguishes (i.) honorific, (ii.) piacular and (iii.) mystical or sacramental sacrifices; but the latter type is traced back to the same See also:cycle of ideas as that in which the piacular sacrifice originated. (i.) The essential feature of this type was that the See also:god and his worshippers shared the sacrifice and might thus be regarded as commensals, or table companions. The human commensals were the totem-See also:kin, whom Robertson Smith conceived to have been in 'the See also:habit of sharing a See also:common See also:meal in daily life, or at least of not mixing with other kins. The object of sharing the meal with the god was to renew the blood See also:bond. The victim was the See also:animal of a hostile totem-kin or an animal commonly offered to the god. The god was originally a stranger, taken into the kin by a rite of blood brotherhood, and this constitutes the dark point of the theory; for Robertson Smith regards the blood bond as relatively See also:late; hence we do not see how the god became associated with the kin. (ii.) The piacular sacrifice arose from the need of atoning for bloodshed within the kinship See also:group; properly speaking, the See also:culprit himself should suffer: should he be unknown or beyond the reach of vengeance, a substitute had to be found. This was naturally found in the non-human member of the totem-kin--the totem animal; in a sense, therefore, the god died for his See also:people. (iii.) In the mystical sacrifice the god is himself slain and eaten by his worshippers. In the Religion of the Semites (and ed., 1894) the theory was remodelled so as to overcome the difficulty pointed out above. The god, the victim and the human group are regarded as of the same kin; the animal (totem) is the earlier form of the god; the deity was originally See also:female, for under matrilineal rules the See also:mother alone is of kin to her See also:children, but, with the rise of descent in the male See also:line, the god was transformed into a male. The sacrifice is in its origin a communion; god and worshippers have a bond of kinship between them; but it is liable to be interrupted or its blood. strength diminished. Ceremonies of See also:initiation are the means (e) Dr Westermarck takes the view that human sacrifice is as by which the affiance is established between the deity and a See also:rule an act of substitution, in that men offer a victim in the See also:young man, when the latter enters upon the rights of manhood; and the supposed bond of kinship is thus regarded as an artificial See also:union from the outset, so far as the individual is concerned, although Robertson Smith still maintains the theory of the fatherhood of the god, where it is a question of the origin of the totem-kin. From the communion sacrifice sprang the piaculum, which here becomes a subsidiary form and finds its full explanation in the ideas connected with the mystic union of god and worshippers. For the object of the piaculum is the re=See also:establishment of the broken See also:alliance, which was precisely that of the communion sacrifice. With the decline of totemism arose the need for human sacrifice—the only means of re-establishing the broken tie of kinship when the animal See also:species was no longer akin to man. This theory of Robertson Smith's has been attacked from two sides. In the first See also:place, L. Marillier (Rea. de l'hist. See also:des religions, See also:xxxvi. 243) argues that if there was an original bond of kinship between the god and the kin, there is no need to maintain it by sacrificial 'rites, and cites against Smith's view the practice of totemic See also:groups. To this it might be replied that the real significance of 'initiation ceremonies is still obscure; it is a plausible See also:argument 'that the See also:child does not form See also:part of the kin till. after initiation, but this argument seems inconclusive, for in See also:West See also:Australia there is solidarity, according to See also:Grey (See also:Journals, ii. 239), between the whole of the kinship group; whether adult or not; and, moreover, nowhere are rites found which are intended to strengthen the union between a man and his totem by means of the blood bond, unless we include the aberrant totemism of the Arunta (See also:Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, 167), who eat their totems in See also:order to gain magical See also:powers of increasing the stock of the totem animal. Marillier further argues that if, on the other hand, there was no bond between god and people but that of the common meal, it does not appear that the god is a totem god; there is no See also:reason why the animal should have been a totem; and in any See also:case this See also:idea of sacrifice can hardly have been anything but a slow growth and consequently not the origin of the practice. In the second place,
MM. Hubert and Maus's point out that Robertson Smith is far from having establishedeither the See also:historical or the logical connexion between the common meal and the other types of sacrifice; the simplest Semitic forms known to us are the most recently recorded; further their simplicity may mean no more than documentary insufficiency, and in any case does not imply any priority; the piaculum is found See also:side by side with the communion at all times. Moreover, under piaculum are confused See also:purification, propitiations and expiations; Smith's contention that purifications, whose magical See also:character he recognizes but interprets as late, are not sacrificial, is far from conclusive.
(c) See also:Building in part on the See also:foundation laid by Robertson Smith, Dr J. G. Frazer has put forward the view that while the sacrifice of the god may have been piacular, it was also intended to preserve his divine life against the inroads of old 'See also:age. This theory he exemplifies by two orders of cases, (i.) the putting to See also:death of the man-god, who is often also the See also: (f) The' preceding theories are attempts, in the See also:main, to derive from one source all the forms of sacrifice. MM. Hubert and Maass, while admitting that in all sacrifices is found some idea of See also:purchase or. substitution, decline to admit that all have issued from one See also:primitive form. 'In their view, based on an See also:analysis of Hebrew and See also:Hindu forms of sacrifice, the unity of sacrifice consists in the immediate aim of the ritual, not in the ultimate end to be attained; for we rarely find a rite other than complex and by the same sacrifice more than one result may be sought. or attained. The unity of procedure consists in the fact that every sacrifice involves putting the divine in communication with the profane by an intermediary—the victim—which may' be piacular or honorific, a messenger or a means of See also:divination, a means of alimenting the eternal life of the species or a source of magical See also:energy which the rite diffuses over objects in its neighbourhood. (g) Our knowledge of primitive forms of sacrifice is meagre; even were it more extensive, it would probably be impossible to determine the origin or origins of sacrifice; for no ritual has necessarily survived unchanged in form and meaning since its inception, and even permanence of form cannot be taken' to imply a corresponding permanence of meaning for the worshippers. If, however, we turn to Australia, where sacrifice is 'unknown, we find more than 'one class of rites in which we can 'trace an idea akin to some forms of sacrifice. Just as the See also:German reaper leaves the last ears of corn as an offering to Wodan, so the Australian See also:black offers a portion of a find of See also:honey; in New See also:South See also:Wales a pebble is said to have been offered or a number of spears, in See also:Queensland' the skin removed in forming the See also:body-scars. Thus it appears that the gift theory may after all be primitive; the See also:worship of, or care for, the dead' may have supplied in other areas the See also:motive for the transition from offering to sacrifice or the See also:evolution may have been due to the spiritualization of the gods. In Australia, among the See also:Hottentots, in the See also:Malay See also:Peninsula and elsewhere, blood ceremonies are in use which are unconnected with the slaughter of a victim; in this blood ritual we may see another possible source of sacrifice. The Arunta hold that the See also:spirits of kangaroos are expelled by human blood from certain rocks. By parity of reasoning a blood ritual may have been adopted by peoples who practise the See also:expulsion of evils, conceiving them either animistically or as powers; catharsis, in the sense of removal of uncleanness, is not necessarily primitive. Principles of See also:Classification.—It is possible to classify sacrifices according to (a) the occasion of the rite, (b) the end to be achieved, (c) the material object to be affected or (d) the form of the rite. (a) The See also:division into periodical and occasional is important in Hindu and other higher religions, and the sutras constantly draw the distinction; the former class is obligatory, the latter facultative. In less See also:developed See also:creeds the difference tends to remain in the background; but where sacrifices are found, See also:solemn annual rites, communal, purificatory or expiatory, are celebrated, and these are held to be in like manner obligatory. (b) The end to be achieved is, as has been shown by Hubert and Mauss, sometimes sacralization, sometimes desacralization. In the former case the sacrificer is raised to a higher level; he enters into closer communion with the gods. In the latter either some material object, not necessarily animate, is deprived of a portion of its sanctity and made See also:fit for human use, or the sacrificer himself loses a portion of his sanctity or impurity. In the sacrifice of sacralization the sanctity passes from the victim to the object; in that of desacralization, from the object to the victim. (c) Sacrifices may be classified into (i.) subjective or See also:personal, where the sacrificer himself gains or loses sanctity or impurity; (ii.) See also:objective, where the current of mans (see TABOO) is directed upon some other See also:person or object, and only a secondary effect is produced on the sacrificer himself. (d) The form of the sacrifice is discussed in the next See also:section. Ritual.—For See also:Hinduism and later Judaism we possess a See also:wealth of material on which to See also:base a See also:comparative study of the forms of sacrifice; a form of this—animal sacrifice in the Vedas—has been analysed by MM. Hubert and Mauss. For See also:Greece and See also:Rome, where the instructions as to ritual were not embodied in the elaborate codes handed down in Hinduism or Judaism, our material is far less See also:complete. For other areas we have often no description of the procedure at all, but merely the briefest outline of the actual See also:process of slaughter, and we are ignorant whether the form of the rite is in reality See also:simple (either from a loss of primitive elements or from never having advanced beyond the See also:stage at which we find it), or whether the See also:absence of detail Is due to the inattention or lack of See also:interest of the observer. It must therefore be understood that the following analysis of ritual, based on the most elaborate codes known to us, is by no means conclusive as to the primitive form or forms of sacrifice. The necessary elements of a Hindu sacrifice are: (r) the sacrificer, who provides the victim, and is affected, directly or indirectly, by the sacrifice; he may or may - not be identical with (2) the officiant, who performs the rite; we have further (3) the place, (4) the See also:instruments of sacrifice and (5) the victim; where the sacrificer enjoys only the secondary results, the See also:direct influence of the sacrifice is directed towards (6) the object; finally, we may distinguish (7) three moments of the rite—(a) the entry, (b) the slaughter, (c) the exit. The sacrifices of sacralization and desacralization mentioned above find their analogues in the Hindu See also:scheme of the rite; sacralization and desacralization, sometimes performed by means of subsidiary sacrifices, are the essential elements of the preparation for sacrifice and the subsequent See also:lustration. In the most developed forms, such as the offering of See also:soma, they assumed a See also:great importance; (r) the sacrificer had to pass from the world of man into a world of the gods; consequently he was separated from the common See also:herd of mankind and purified; he underwent ceremonies emblematic of rebirth and was then subject to number-less taboos imposed for the purpose of maintaining his ceremonial purity. In like manner (2) the officiant prepared himself for his task; but in his case the natural sanctity of the See also:priest relievedhim of the See also:necessity of undergoing all that the common man had to pass through; in fact, this was one of the causes which brought him into existence,' the other being the need of a functionary See also:familiar with the ritual, who would avoid disastrous errors of procedure, destructive of the efficacy of the sacrifice. (3) Where there was an appointed place of sacrifice—the See also:Temple at See also:Jerusalem, according to later Jewish See also:prescription—there was no need of preparation of a place of sacrifice; but the Hindu See also:chose, each for himself, the site of his altar. (4) The necessary rites included (a) the establishment of the fires, See also:friction being the only permitted method of kindling it, (b) the tracing on the ground of the vedi, or magical circle, to destroy impurities, (c) the digging of the hole which constituted the real altar, (d) the preparation of the See also:post which represented the sacrificer and to which the victim was tied, and other See also:minor details. (5) The victim might be naturally sacred or might have to undergo sanctification. In the former case (a) individual animals might be distinguished by certain marks, or (b) the whole species might be allied to the god; in the latter case the victim had to be without blemish; (c) the age, See also:colour or See also:sex of the victim might differ according to the purpose of the sacrifice. It was first cleansed; then plied with laudatory epithets; and, thirdly, soothed, so that it might be more acceptable to the gods and less likely to do an injury after its death, when its spirit was set See also:free. It had now reached a degree of sanctity and only the priest might See also:touch it; it was sprinkled with See also:water, and anointed with See also:butter; finally, the priest made three turns See also:round it with a lighted See also:torch in his hand, which finally separated it from the world and fitted it for its high purpose. The object of the sacrifice being to See also:bridge the gulf between the sacred and profane worlds, the sacrificer had to remain in contact with the victim, either personally, or, to avoid ritual perils, by the intermediary of the priest. After excuses made to the animal or to the species in See also:general, the victim was placed in position, and silence observed by all who were See also:present. The See also:cord was drawn tight and the victim ceased to breathe; its spirit passed into the world of the gods. But this did not conclude the ceremony, even as far as the victim was concerned; it remained to dispose of the See also:corpse. After a rite intended to secure its perfect ceremonial purity, a part of the victim, the vapa, was removed, held over the fire and finally See also:cast into it. The See also:remainder, divided into eighteen portions, was cooked; seven See also:fell to the sacrificer, after an invocation, which made them sacred by calling the deity to descend into the offering and thus sanctify the sacrificer. (6) Then followed the rites of desacralization, including burning of certain of the instruments, lustration of the post, destruction of the butter, &c. Finally the priest, the sacrificer and his wife performed a lustration, found in an exaggerated form in the " See also:bath " which concluded the soma sacrifice, and the ceremonies were at an end. How far this scheme of sacrifice holds See also:good for other areas, and in particular for more primitive peoples, is an open question. Our data are nowhere so full as for See also:India; where they are comparatively abundant they refer either to a civilized or semi-civilized people, or to an See also:area, like West See also:Africa, where the influence of See also:Islam has introduced a disturbing element. Though the moralization of gods has only proceeded pari passu with the moralization of mankind, the deities of the more advanced nations are perhaps See also:felt by them to be more terrible and more difficult of See also:access than the divinities of See also:lower races; herein lies one explanation of the See also:power of the priesthood. Even if the conception of the relative sanctity of gods and men remained unaltered, it by no means follows that in primitive times the same precautions were necessary in approaching the former as were demanded by the consciousness of later generations. With our present knowledge the problem of the original form of sacrifice, if there be a single See also:primary form, is insoluble. No general survey of sacrificial ritual is possible here, but a few details as to the mode of slaying the victim and disposing of the body may be given. The See also:head of the animal or man may be cut off (and See also:custom often requires that a single See also:blow shall suffice), its spine broken or its See also:heart torn out; it may be stoned, beaten to death or shot, torn in pieces, drowned or buried, burned to death or hung, thrown down a precipice, strangled or squeezed to death. The sacrificer may aim at causing a speedy death or a slow one. The corpse may be burnt, in part or as a whole; portions may be assigned to the priest, the sacrificer and the gods; the See also:skull, bones, &c., may receive See also:special treatment; the See also:fat or blood may be set aside, and they or the ashes may be singled out as the See also:share of the god, to be offered upon the altar; the skin of the victim may be employed as a covering for the idol or material representative of the god, either permanently or till the next annual sacrifice. The blood of the victim may be drunk by the priest as a means of inducing See also:inspiration, its entrails may be employed in divination, its flesh consumed in a common meal, exposed to the birds and beasts of See also:prey or buried in the See also:earth. It is equally impossible to give a general survey of the purposes of sacrifice; not only are they too numerous but it is rare to find any but mixed forms; the scapegoat, for example, is also a messenger to the dead, and its flesh is eaten by the sacrificers. Certain main types may, however, be enumerated. Cathartic Sacrifice.—In primitive cults the distinction between sacred and unclean is far from complete or well defined (see TABOO); consequently we find two types of cathartic sacrifice —(i.) one to cleanse of impurity and make fit for common use, (ii.) the other to rid of sanctity and in like manner render suitable for human use or intercourse. (i.) The most conspicuous example of the first class is the scapegoat. Two goats were provided by the See also:ancient See also:Hebrews on the See also:Day of See also:Atonement; the high priest sent one into the See also:desert, after confessing on it the sins of See also:Israel; it was not permitted to run free but was probably cast over a precipice; the other was sacrificed as a See also:sin-offering. In like manner in the purification of lepers two birds were used; the See also:throat of one was cut, the living See also:bird dipped in the blood mingled with water and the leper sprinkled; then the bird was set free to carry away the leprosy. In both these rites we seem to have a duplication of ritual, and the See also:parallelism of sacrifice and liberation is clear. (ii.) As an example of the second class may be taken the sacrifice of the bull to See also:Rudra. MM. Hubert and Mauss interpret this to mean that the sanctity of the remainder of the herd was concentrated on a single animal; the god, incarnate in the herd, was eliminated by the sacrifice, and the See also:cattle saved from the dangers to which their association with the god exposed them. In the Feast of Firstfruits we have another example of the same sort; comparable with this concentration of holiness is the respect or veneration shown to a single animal as representative of its species (see ANIMAL WORSHIP). In both these cases the object of the rite is the elimination of impurity or of a source of danger. But the See also:Nazarite was equally See also:bound to See also:lay aside his holiness before mixing with common folk and returning to See also:ordinary life; this he did by a sacrifice, which, with the offering of his See also:hair upon the altar, freed him from his See also:vow and reduced him to the same level of sanctity as ordinary men. With regard to the scapegoat, it must be noted that we also meet with a more See also:concrete idea of expulsion of evil (see DEMONOLOGY, ExoactsM), which is present among the most primitive peoples, such as the Australians. This raises the problem of how far the catharsis dealt with above is in its original form an elimination of impurity, and how far something more definite—a spirit or other principle of evil—is held to be expelled by scapegoat and allied ceremonies. Communal Sacrifice.—In spite of the importance attached to the idea of the common meal by Robertson Smith, it is not a primitive rite of See also:adoption. The custom of eating the body of the victim does not necessarily See also:spring from any idea of communion with the god; it may also arise from a See also:desire to incorporate the sanctity which has been imparted to it—an idea on a level with many other See also:food customs (see See also:COUVADE), and based on the idea that eating anything causes its qualities to pass into the eater. Where the victim is an animal specially associated with a god (the most conspicuous case is perhaps that of the corn spirit), it may be granted that the god is eaten; but preciselyin these cases there is no custom of giving a portion of the victim to the god. Deificatory Sacrifice.—The object of certain sacrifices is to provide a tutelary deity of a See also:house, See also:town or frontier. (a) In See also:Burma, as in many other countries, those who See also:die a violent death are held to haunt the place where they met their See also:fate; consequently when a town is built living men are interred beneath the ramparts and the pillars of the See also:gates. (b) In parts of See also:North See also:America the nagual or manitu animal, of which the See also:Indian dreams during the initiation fast and which is to be his tutelary spirit, is killed with certain rites. (c) Human representatives of the corn or vegetation spirits are killed; in these, as in other cases of the sacrifice of the man-god cited by Dr Frazer, the killing of the old god is at the same See also:time the making of a new god. (d) See also:Suicide is treated as a means of raising a human being to the See also:rank of a god. (e) Gods may be sacrificed (in theriomorphic form) to themselves as a means of renewing the life of the god. (f) The method of creating a fetish (see See also:FETISHISM) on the See also:Congo resembles deificatory sacrifice; but here there is no actual slaughter of a human being; magical means are alone relied upon. Honorific Sacrifices.—Whatever their origin, sacrifices tend to be interpreted as gifts to the god. Man seeks to influence his See also:fellow men in various ways, by intimidation, by deceit, by See also:bribery; and it is quite natural to find the same ideas in the See also:sphere of religion. Food is often given to a god because he is believed to take See also:pleasure in eating; the germ of this idea may have been identical with that of some funerary sacrifices—to nourish the divine life. At a later See also:period, See also:parr passu with the spiritualization of the god, comes a refinement of the tastes attributed to him, and the finer parts of the sacrifice, finally it may be only its savour, are alone regarded as acceptable offerings. Just as attendants are provided for the dead, so the god receives sacrifices intended to put slaves at his disposal. This latter idea was the more likely to arise, as the gift theory of sacrifice is closely associated with that of the god as the ruler or king to whom man brings a See also:tribute, just as he had to appear before his earthly king bearing gifts in his hands. The honorific sacrifice is essentially a propitiation; it must be distinguished from the piaculum (see below), to which in some aspects it is allied. See also:Mortuary Sacrifice.—Sacrifices, especially of human beings, are offered immediately after a death or at a longer See also:interval. Their object may be (a) to provide a See also:guide to the other world; (b) to provide the dead with servants or a See also:retinue suitable to his rank; (c) to send messengers to keep the dead informed of the things of this world; (d) to strengthen the dead by the blood or life of a living being, in the same way that food is offered to them or blood rituals enjoined on mourners. Piacular Sacrifice.—Whereas the god receives a gift in the honorific sacrifice, he demands a life in the piacular. This, according to Westermarck, is the central idea of human sacrifice: the victim is substituted for the sacrificer, to deliver him from perils by disease, See also:famine or, more indefinitely, from the wrath of the god in general. The essential feature of the piaculum is that it is an expiation for wrong-doing, and the victim is often human. Human Sacrifice.—Many theories of the relation of human to animal sacrifice have been put forward, most of them on an insufficient basis of facts. It has been held that animal sacrifice is the primitive form and that the decay of totemism or lack of domestic animals has brought about the substitution of a human victim; but it has also been urged that in many cases animal victims are treated like human beings and must consequently have replaced them, that human beings are smeared with the blood of sacrifice, and must therefore have themselves been sacrificed before a milder regime allowed an animal to replace them. If tradition is any guide, human sacrifice seems in many important areas to be of secondary character; in spite of the great development of the rite among the See also:Aztecs, tradition says that it was unknown till two See also:hundred years before the See also:con-quest; in See also:Polynesia human sacrifices seem to be comparatively See also:modern; and in India they appear to have been rare among the Vedic peoples. On the whole, human sacrifice is far commoner among the semi-civilized and barbarous races than in still lower stages of culture. In Australia, however, where sacrifice of the ordinary type is unknown, the ritual killing of a child is practised in connexion with the initiation of a magician; it is therefore by no means axiomatic that animals were offered before human beings; the problem of priority is one to be solved for each area separately, but probably no See also:solution is possible; in the absence of Aztec traditions it would hardly have seemed probable that two centuries had seen so great a transformation. Among the forms of human sacrifice must be reckoned religious suicide. This is perhaps mainly found in India but is not unknown in Africa and other parts of the world. Human sacrifices were known in ancient India and survived till late in the 19th century (see below); both Greeks and See also:Romans practised them, no less than the wilder races of ancient See also:Europe. Semites and Egyptians, Peruvians and Aztecs, slew human victims; Africa, especially the West See also:Coast, till recently saw thousands of human victims perish annually; in Polynesia, See also:Tahiti and See also:Fiji were great centres of the rite—in fact, it is not easy to name an area where it has not been known. No general survey of sacrifice on See also:geographical lines is possible, but some of the more important features in each area may. be noticed. Sacrifice in Greece and Rome.—Both the mainland of Greece and the See also:Greek colonies practised human sacrifice, usually as a means towards expulsion of evil. Thus, the Athenians maintained a number of outcasts, from whom in times of See also:national calamity two were selected, one for the men, one for the See also:women, and stoned to death outside the See also:city; at the See also:Thargelia two victims were annually put to death in the same way. Many animal sacrifices were known; of especial importance is the annual sacrifice of a See also:goat on the See also:Acropolis, though at other times the animal was not permitted to enter the temple. Important features of Greek sacrifice, though not necessarily found in every rite, were the putting of wreaths and pieces of See also:wool on the victim, the See also:gilding of its horns, the lustration of the officiant and the sprinkling of those present.with holy water. It was held inauspicious if the animal were unwilling; if it nodded all was well. See also:Barley meal was strewn on its See also:neck, and a See also:lock of hair cut from its forehead and burned. The animal was then clubbed, its throat cut and the altar sprinkled with its blood. Finally the body was skinned and cut up and the god's. share burned on the altar. The important See also:Attic sacrifice of the Dipolia, known as TA $ovOov£a, demands some See also:notice. Cakes were laid on the altar of See also:Zeus Polieus and oxen driven round; the one which touched the cakes was the victim. An officiant at once struck it with his See also:axe and another cut its throat; then all See also:save the one who struck the first blow partook of its flesh. Then the hide was stuffed with grass and yoked to a plough; the participants were charged with ox See also:murder and each laid the blame on the other; finally the axe was thrown into the See also:sea. The See also:interpretation of the rite is uncertain; it may perhaps be connected 'with agrarian rites. At Rome the scapegoat did not suffer death; but in the Saturnalia a human victim seems to have been slain till the 4th century A.D. Many forms of animal sacrifice were found; the generalized See also:account given above for Greece is true also for the Romans. Sacrifice in See also:Egypt: Of See also:Egyptian ritual little is known; our knowledge rests mainly on the See also:evidence of pictures. At Deit el Bahri we see that the animal had its throat cut in See also:Mahommedan See also:fashion; it lay on its side, the legs tied together; the heart was taken out, then the See also:liver; the burnt sacrifice was hardly known. Sacrifice in India.—An account of animal sacrifice has been given above. Among human sacrifices may be mentioned the See also:suttee, or custom of immolating a widow on the funeral pyre of the See also:husband, and the Khond sacrifice of the Meriah, who was either See also:purchased or the son of a victim See also:father. Some days before 1 This sprinkling of the victims with sacrificial meal, (Lat. mota) is the origin of the word immolate, to sacrifice, slaughter; Eng. " immolate," " immolation."the sacrifice, the victim, who was often kept in captivity for See also:long periods, was devoted by the cutting of his hair, previously unshorn, and his sanctity was increased later by various ceremonies of See also:anointing. Finally he was taken in procession, stupefied or otherwise rendered incapable of resistance, and put to death by strangulation or pressure. The remains were dismembered and carried to the See also:fields, excepting the portion offered to the earth goddess, which was buried. Sacrifice in Africa.—Especially in West Africa many forms of sacrifice are found. In the annual "customs " of See also:Dahomey, now abolished, hundreds of human victims were offered. Three main forms of human sacrifice existed in this area: (r) the scapegoat; (2) the, messenger; and (3) the expiation, but combinations were not infrequent. The victim was often kept in captivity and well fed; to transfer their sins people laid their hands upon him as he was led in procession, his head covered with ashes; on the way to the place of sacrifice were three enclosures, the second open to chiefs and priest only, the third to the officiant and his helper alone; the blood of the victim was offered to the gods.. At the present day the animal victim may be burned or drowned, buried in the earth or simply exposed. Sometimes the sacrificer's hands are laid on the victim before it is slain, or he may be smeared with its blood; in other cases the blood is smeared on the See also:door posts, or the sacrificer is touched on every part of the body with the victim's body. On the Congo, if a man commits a murder, the community votes whether he shall die or be expelled; if the latter, a victim is killed, of which all must partake; but this is not, as might be imagined, a case of Robertson Smith's piaculum for the re-establishment of the tribal bond; for the criminal is driven out of the coinmunity. Sacrifice in America.—Sacrifice was relatively infrequent and undeveloped among the Red See also:Indians. The Pawnees, however, had an elaborate ritual, in which a human victim was sacrificed to the See also:Morning See also:Star; the blood of the victims was sprinkled on the fields, and the details of the rite are not unlike those of the Khond custom. The See also:Iroquois sacrifice of the See also: Among the Greeks the philosophers had come to use both argument and ridicule against the idea that the offering of material things could be needed by or acceptable to the Maker of them all. Among both Jews and Greeks the earlier forms of the idea had been rationalized into the belief that the most appropriate offering to God is that of a pure and penitent heart, and among them both was the idea that the vocal expression of contrition in See also:prayer or of gratitude in praise is also acceptable. The best instances of these ideas in the Old Testament are in See also:Psalms 1. and li., and in Greek literature the striking words which See also:Porphyry quotes from an earlier writer, " We ought, then, having been See also:united and made like to God, to offer our own conduct as a holy sacrifice to Him, the same being also a hymn and our salvation in passionless excellence of soul " (Euseb. Dem. ev. 3). The ideas are also found both in the New Testament and in early Christian literature: " Let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the See also:fruit of lips which make See also:confession to His name " (Heb. xiii. r5); " That prayers and thanksgivings, made by worthy persons, are the only perfect and acceptable sacrifices I also admit " (Just. Mart. Trypho, c. 117); " We See also:honour God in prayer, and offer this as the best and holiest sacrifice with righteousness to the righteous Word " (Clem. Alex. Strom. vii. 6). But among the Jews two other forms of the idea expressed themselves in usages which have been perpetuated in Christianity, and one of which has had a singular importance for the Christian world. The one form, which probably arose from the conception of Yahweh as in an especial sense the See also:protector of the poor, was that gifts to God may properly be bestowed on the needy, and that consequently See also:alms have the virtue of a sacrifice. Biblical instances of this idea are—" He who doeth alms is offering a sacrifice of praise " (Ecclus. xxxii. 2); "To do good and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased " (Heb: r6); so the offerings sent by the See also:Philippians to See also:Paul when a prisoner at Rome are " an odour of a sweet See also:smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God " (Phil. iv. 18). The other form, which was probably a relic of the conception of Yahweh as the author of natural fertility, was that part of the fruits of the earth should be offered to God in See also:acknowledgment of His See also:bounty, and that what was so offered was especially blessed and brought a blessing upon both those who offered it and those who afterwards partook of it. The persistence of this form of the idea of sacrifice constitutes so marked a feature of the See also:history of Christianity as to require a detailed account of it. In the first instance it is probable that among Christians, as among Jews, every meal, and especially every social meal, was regarded as being in some sense a thank-offering. Thanksgiving, blessing and offering were co-See also:ordinate terms. Hence the Talmudic rule, " A man shall not See also:taste anything before blessing it " (Tosephta Berachoth, c. 4), and hence St Paul's words, " He that eateth, eateth unto the See also:Lord, for he giveth God thanks " (Rom. xiv. 6; cp. r Tim. iv. 4). But the most important offering was the solemn See also:oblation in the See also:assembly on the Lord's day. A precedent for making such oblations elsewhere than in the temple had been afforded by the See also:Essenes, who had endeavoured in that way to avoid the contact with unclean persons and things which a resort to the temple might have involved (Jos. Antiq. xviii. x. 5), and a See also:justification for it was found in the prophecy of See also:Malachi, " In every place See also:incense is offered unto my name and a pure offering; for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts" (Mal. i. rx, repeatedly quoted in early Christian writings, e.g. Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, c. 14; Just. Mart. Trypho, c. 28, 41, 116; See also:Irenaeus iv. 17. 5). The points in relation to this offering: which are clearly demonstrable from the Christian writers of the first two centuries, but which subsequent theories have tended to confuse, are these. (r) It was regarded as a true offering or sacrifice; for in the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, in See also:Justin See also:Martyr and in Irenaeus it is designated by each of the terms which are usedto designate sacrifices in the Old Testament. (2) It wag primarily an offering of the fruits of the earth to the Creator; this is clear from both Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, the latter of whom not only explicitly states that such oblations are continued `among Christians, but also meets the current objection to them by arguing that they are offered to God not as though He needed anything but to show the gratitude of the offerer (Iren. iv. 17, 18). (3Y It was offered as a thanksgiving partly for creation and preservation and partly for redemption: the latter is the special purpose mentioned (e.g.) in the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles; the former is that upon which Irenaeus chiefly dwells; both See also:ate mentioned together in Justin Martyr (Trypho, c. 41). (4) Those who offered it were required to be not only baptized Christians but also " in love and charity one with another "; there is an indication of this latter requirement in the See also:Sermon on the See also:Mount (Matt. v. 23, 24, where the word translated " gift " is the usual LXX. word for a sacrificial offering, and is so used elsewhere in the same See also:Gospel, viz. Matt. viii. 4, See also:xxiii. 19), and still more explicitly in the Teaching, c. 14, "Let not any one who has a dispute with his fellow come together with you (i.e. on the Lord's day) until they have been reconciled, that your sacrifice be not defiled." This brotherly unity was symbolized by the See also:kiss of See also:peace. (5) It was offered in the assembly by the hands of the See also:president; this is stated by Justin Martyr (Apol. i. 65, 67), and implied by See also:Clement of Rome (Ep. i. 44. 4). Combined with this sacrifice of the fruits of the earth to the, Creator in memory of creation and redemption, and probably' always immediately following it, was the sacred meal at which part of the offerings was eaten. Such a sacred meal had always, or almost always, formed part of the rites of sacrifice. There was the idea that what had been solemnly offered to God was especially hallowed by Him, and that • the partaking of it united the partakers in a special bond both to Him and to one another. In the case of the See also:bread and 'See also:wine of the Christian sacrifice, it was believed that, after having been offered and blessed, they became to those who partook of them the body and blood of Christ. This " communion of the body and blood of Christ," which in early writings is clearly distinguished from the thank-offering which preceded it, and which furnished the materials for it, gradually came to supersede the thank-offering in importance, and to exercise a reflex influence upon it. In the time of See also:Cyprian, though not before, we begin to find the idea that the body and blood of Christ were not merely partaken of by the worshippers but also offered in sacrifice, and that the See also:Eucharist was not so much a thank-offering for creation and redemption as a repetition or a showing forth anew of the self-sacrifice of Christ. This idea is repeated in See also:Ambrose and See also:Augustine, and has since been a dominant idea of both Eastern and Western Christendom, But, though dominant, it has not been universal; nor did it become dominant until several centuries after its first promulgation. The history of it has yet to be written. For, in spite of the important controversies to which it has given See also:birth, no one has been at the pains to distinguish between (i.) the theories which have been from time to time put forth by eminent writers, and which, though they have in some cases ultimately won a general See also:acceptance, have for a long period remained as merely individual opinions, and (ii.) the current beliefs of the great body of Christians which are expressed in recognized formularies. A catena of opinions may be produced in favour of almost any theory; but formularies See also:express the collective or See also:average belief of any given. period; and changes in them are a sure indication that there has been a : general See also:change in ideas. It is clear from the evidence of the early Western liturgies that, for at least six centuries, the primitive conception of the nature of the Christian sacrifice remained. There is a clear distinction between the sacrifice and the communion which followed it, and that which is offered consists of the fruits of the earth and not of the body and blood of Christ. Other ideas no doubt attached themselves to the primitive conception, of which there is no certain evidence in primitive times, e.g. the idea of the propitiatory character of . the offering, but these ideas rather confirm than disprove the persistence of those primitive conceptions themselves. All Eastern liturgies, in their present form, are of later date than the surviving fragments of the earlier Western liturgies, and cannot form the basis of so sure an See also:induction; but they entirely confirm the conclusions to which the Western liturgies See also:lead. The main points in which the pre-See also:medieval formularies of both the Eastern and the Western Churches agree in relation to the Christian sacrifice are the following. (i) It was an offering of the fruits of the earth to the Creator, in the belief that a special blessing would descend upon the offerers, and sometimes also in the belief that God would be propitiated by the offerings. The bread and wine are designated by all the names by which sacrifices are designated (sacrificia, hostiae, libamina, and at least once sacrificium placationis), and the act of offering them by the ordinary term for offering a sacrifice (immolatio). (2) The offering of bread and wine was originally brought to the altar by the person who offered it, and placed by him in the hands of the presiding officer. In course of time there were two important changes in this respect: (a) the offerings of bread and wine were commuted for See also:money, with which bread and wine were purchased by the church-See also:officers; (b) the offerings were sometimes handed to the deacons and by them taken to the bishop at the altar, and sometimes, as at Rome, the bishop and deacons went round the church to collect them.' (3) In offering the bread and wine the offerer offered, as in the ancient sacrifices, primarily for himself, but inasmuch as the offering was regarded as having a general propitiatory value he mentioned also the names of others in whom he was interested, and especially the departed, that they might See also:rest in peace. Hence, after all the offerings had been collected, and before they were solemnly offered to God, it became a custom to recite the names both of the offerers and of those for whom they offered, the names being arranged in two lists, which were known as diptychs. Almost all the old rituals have prayers to be said " before the names," " after the names." It was a further and perhaps much later development of the same idea that the good See also:works of those who had previously enjoyed the favour of God were invoked to give additional See also:weight to the prayer of the offerer. In the later series of Western rituals, beginning with that which is known as the Leonine Sacramentary, this practice is almost universal. (4) The placing of the bread and wine upon the altar was followed by the kiss of peace. (5) Then followed the actual offering of the gifts to God (immolatio missae). It was an act of See also:adoration or thanksgiving, much longer in Eastern than in Western rituals, but in both classes of rituals beginning with the form " Lift up your See also:hearts," and ending with the Ter Sanctus or Trisagion? The early See also:MSS. of Western rituals indicate the importance which was attached to this part of the See also:liturgy by the fact of its being written in a much more ornate way than the other parts, e.g. in See also:gold uncial letters upon a See also:purple ground, as distinguished from the See also:vermilion cursive letters of the rest of the MS. With this the sacrifice proper was concluded. (6) But, since the divine See also:injunction had been " Do this in remembrance of me," the sacrifice was immediately followed by a See also:commemoration of the See also:passion of Christ, and that again by an invocation of the Holy Spirit (epiclesis) that He would make the bread and wine to become the body and blood of Christ. Of this invocation, which is constant in all Eastern rituals, there are few, though sufficient, surviving traces in Western rituals? Then after a prayer for sanctification, or for worthy reception, followed the Lord's Prayer, and after the Lord's Prayer the communion. In the course of the 8th and 9th centuries, by the operation ' Of this proceeding an elaborate account exists in the very interesting document printed by See also:Mabillon in his Museum Italicum as " Ordo See also:Romanus I." ; the small phials of wine which were brought were emptied into a large bowl, and the loaves of bread were collected in a bag. ' The elements of the form are preserved exactly in the liturgy of the Church of See also:England. 3 It is found, e.g., in the second of Mone's masses from the See also:Reichenau See also:palimpsest, and in Mabillon's Missale Gothicum, No. 12 ; it is expressly mentioned by Isidore of See also:Seville as the See also:sixth element in the Eucharistic service, De of c. eccks. i. 15.of causes which have not yet been fully investigated, the theory which is first found in Cyprian became the dominant belief of Western Christendom. The central point of the sacrificial idea was shifted from the offering of the fruits of the earth to the offering of the body and blood of Christ. The change is marked in the rituals by the duplication of the liturgical forms. The prayers of intercession and oblation, which in earlier times are found only in connexion with the former offering, are repeated in the course of the same service in connexion with the latter. The designations and epithets which are in earlier times applied to the fruits of the earth are applied to the body and blood. From that time until the See also:Reformation the Christian sacrifice was all but universally regarded as the offering of the body and blood of Christ. The innumerable theories which were framed as to the precise nature of the offering and as to the precise change in the elements all implied that conception of it. It still remains as the accepted See also:doctrine of the Church of Rome. For, although the See also:council of See also:Trent recognized fully the distinction which has been mentioned above between the Eucharist and the sacrifice of the See also:mass, and treated of them in See also:separate sessions (the former in Session xiii., the latter in Session xxii.), it continued the medieval theory of the nature of the latter. The reaction against the medieval theory at the time of the Reformation took the form of a return to what had no doubt been an early belief, —the idea that the Christian sacrifice consists in the offering of a pure heart and of vocal thanksgiving. See also:Luther at one period (in his See also:treatise De captivitate Babylonica) maintained, though not on historical grounds, that the offering of the oblations of the people was the real origin of the conception of the sacrifice of the mass; but he directed all the force of his vehement polemic against the idea that any other sacrifice could be efficacious besides the sacrifice of Christ. In the See also:majority of See also:Protestant communities the idea of a sacrifice has almost lapsed. That which among Catholics is most commonly regarded in its aspect as an offering and spoken of as the " mass " is usually regarded in its aspect as a participation in the symbols of Christ's death and spoken of as the " communion." But it may be inferred from the considerable progress of the Anglo-See also:Catholic revival in most English-speaking countries that the idea of sacrifice has not yet ceased to be an important element in the general conception of religion. (E. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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