CAINISM.

The Cainites, a set of heretics who appeared in the second century, were so called because of their great respect for Cain. These people took their doctrine from the Gnostics, and were the spawn of Valentinus, Nicolas, and Carpocrates. They were so senseless as to assert, that the divinity which presides in the heavens and upon the earth, having resolved to punish Cain for the murder of Abel, could never catch him, possessing neither strength nor swiftness sufficient for the purpose. At length, some ætherial powers protected the fratricide from the pursuit and vengeance of God, and hid him in a place of safety, in “ supemo sæculo,” or the regions above.

The Cainites admitted a great number of genii whom they denominated “virtues,” and who, they said, were more powerful one than another. They pretended that the genius of Abel was inferior to that of Cain, which was the reason that Cain prevailed over Abel, and killed him. They professed to honour those whom the Scriptures brand with the most visible marks of reprobation, such as the inhabitants of Sodom, Esau, Corah, Dathan, and Abiram. They had, in particular, an extraordinary veneration for

the traitor Judas, under pretence that the death of Jesus Christ was the salvation of mankind; for they imagined I know not what powers, enemies to our salvation, which would have hindered Jesus Christ from suffering, had not Judas prevented the effects of their malice, by delivering his master up to the Jews, who condemned him to death, from whence sprung the salvation of mankind. They carried their presumption to such a height, as to condemn the law of Moses, and look upon the God of the Old Testament as a being who had sown discord in the world, and subjected our nature to a thousand calamities; so that in order to be revenged on him, they in every thing acted contrary to his commandments. They forged a pretended Holy Scripture, and had among other books a “ Gospel of Judas” and an “ Ascension of St. Paul.” In this last they pretended to record the unspeakable things seen and heard by that apostle, when he was taken up into the third heaven. There was no bodily uncleanness which they did not plunge themselves into, no sin they did not think they had a right to partake of; for, according to their abominable principles, die way to salvation was diametrically opposite to the precepts of Holy Scripture: they imagined every sensual pleasure had some genius presiding over it; and therefore they never failed, while they were preparing themselves for any unseemly action, to invoke by name, the genius presiding over the pleasures they were going to taste. When we read these things in the fathers of the Church, one can scarce forbear thinking that the case was the same with them in respect to heretics, as with the Heathens in respect to Christianity. The Heathens imputed to Christianity a hundred extravagances and abominations that had no foundation. The first who forged these calumnies, were undoubtedly guilty of the blackest malice; but the greatest part of those who vented them abroad, after they had been so maliciously sown, were only guilty of too much credulity; they believed common fame, and never troubled themselves to dive into the bottom it. Is it more reasonable to believe, that the fathers did not with all the patience requisite, thoroughly inform themselves of the real principles of a sect, than it is to believe, that those very men who held that Jesus Christ by his death was the Saviour of mankind, should at the same time hold, that the most sensual pleasures are the ready way to Paradise? Let those who will decide it: I am here no other than a bare relater. But it must be remembered that there is no absurdity of which the mind of man is not susceptible; and that, in particular, the doctrine of many genii, and those good or bad, superior one to the other, and appointed to divers offices, is agreeable enough to reason. A few remarks will explain my opinion.

The doctrine of the Cainites, in relation to the doctrine of the inequality of power between the genii, and of their influence upon the welfare and misfortunes of men, is very conformable to the opinion of the Pagans upon the tutelary genii. This sect of genii were principally called demons; and they believed that the good or evil fortune of every man depended on the comparative energy of his tutelary genius. Every genius laboured for the interest of his client; and whenever a man was defeated by another man, it was a certain proof that the genius of the conqueror was more powerful than that of the vanquished. The appropriation of the genii was an affair of chance; for as the souls sent into this road were drawn by lot, so also was the tutelar genius assigned to it.

There were some genii whose ascendancy over others was such, that their very presence confounded them. This effect had that of Augustus on Marc Antony’s. “Thy genius stands in awe of his: it is bold and lofty when alone, but at his approach becomes

humble and fearful. Astrologus Egyptins ad M. Antonium, apud Plutarch, in Antonio, pag. 930. ⁷⁰ And thus we see certain persons who in the absence of some others are witty, speak well, and rally finely: but when they are to enter the lists with them, seem much embarrassed. It was without doubt believed, that they who became emperors were attended by a genius of an eminent order; from whence proceeded those great honours which were paid to such genii. Nations and cities had likewise their particular genii. Now as they held that these tutelary demons presided over the birth of those who were to be under their direction, there wanted but a small remove to pass from this opinion into that of the Cainites. The latter only added, that every genius formed the body of him that he was to protect. The Platonists, I believe, would have been easily reconciled to this opinion, if it had been clearly represented to them that the formation of a human body requires the direction of a very excellent intelligence. If this hypothesis is not absolutely necessary for assigning the reason of an infinite number of historical phenomena (if I may so term human events) it is at least the most commodious and comprehensible.

We turn into ridicule the system of the ancient Heathens, their Naiads, their Oreads, their Hamadryads, &c. and we are much in the right, when we condemn the worship they paid to those beings; for we know from the Scripture, that God forbade all sort of religious worship which is not addressed directly and entirely to himself. But if were present to ourselves human reason abandoned to its own conduct, and void of the assistance of holy writ, I think it very easy to apprehend how it must conceive this vast universe as penetrated throughout by an active virtue, which knew what it was doing. Now, in order to give some account of so many effects in nature different from and even contrary to one

another, it was necessary to imagine either one single being, diversifying his operations according to the diversity of the subjects, or else an infinite number of souls and intelligences, assigned each to a certain employment; some appointed to overlook the sources of rivers, others to take care of mountains, woods, &c. There were some among the Heathens who, in the worship they paid to Ceres and Bacchus, intended no other than the honour of the Supreme Being, as him who produced corn and wine. Others pretended to worship that particular intelligence who, in the distribution of the intendencies of the universe, was to take care of the corn fields and vineyards. This foundation being once laid down, the number of deities must needs grow infinite: fear, fevers, winds,, and tempests, must need have their altars: an hierarchy, composed of innumerable degrees, must be raised; the combinations of interests extend to infinity amongst these intelligences never seen, but allowed as very active causes. If it be asked me what I mean by a reflection so far fetched, I answer, I am opening the way for those who will undertake to defend the fathers who stand accused of having imputed to the heretics an hundred absurdities which no body held. It is not so unlikely as one would imagine that men, who thought they reasoned well, should admit of many principles, some good, the others bad, and a perpetual contrast between beings of an unequal power and different inclinations. It is a great error, I must confess, but it presents itself several ways, and it is an easy matter to fall into it. I am apt to believe that the Gnostics and such like people, expressed themselves so confusedly, that it is very possible that some things may have been honestly charged on them, which they never allowed as part of their belief; and yet I am persuaded that they owned, in the main, those powers and principles which it is said they did. Then, by consequence of reasoning, after having established this variety of powers, they might suppose the Jewish nation governed by a mischievous being, and pass thence into all those impieties ascribed to them concerning the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

But further, the belief of Intelligences charged with different employments throughout the universe, is of as large extent as the belief of a deity; for I believe there never was a people who had any religion, but thought there were mediate Intelligences. The most subtle philosophers, he who is called the genius of nature, Aristotle. ⁷¹ the most sagacious Cartesians, have all acknowledged some. The Aristotelians do, even at this day, unawares imply them in every thing; for they place in each body a substantial form, to which belong a certain number of qualities, whereby it accomplishes its desires, repels the enemy, and preserves itself the best it can in its natural state. Is not this to admit in plants an intelligence appointed to make a part of the universe vegetate, and operating for that end under the direction of a Supreme Being? They who deny a creation, the Spinozists, are so far from being able to get clear of these intelligences, that there is no system whatever which more necessarily and unavoidably implies them than theirs. This might easily be proved upon them, but that it is not proper in a book of this nature. In the system of a creation it is very difficult to admit of intelligences prone to evil, and who, according to the whimsies of the Cainites, preside over the sensual pleasures, like the Venus of the Heathens, who, by the confession even of the Epicurean poet, presided over the pleasures of love. See Lucretius’s Invocation to Venus, at the beginning of his poem. ⁷² But from a system that denies any creation it necessarily follows, that evil may exist as well as good, and that there may be mischievous genii as well as beneficent ones.

Lest I should be thought to have advanced without grounds what I just now mentioned of the most able Cartesians, I desire the reader to observe, that the greatest sticklers among them for the simple and general will of God, insinuate that there is an infinite number of occasional causes which we are unacquainted withal. Now these occasional causes are no other than the wills and desires of certain intelligences: they must necessarily be admitted, where the laws of the communication of motion are not capable of producing such or such effects. This will carry us a great way; it is impossible to conceive how those laws should be sufficient for the building of a ship. Every body will allow that motion alone, without the direction of some particular intelligences, could never produce a clock: consequently those laws are unable to produce the least plant or smallest fruit; for there is more art in the construction of a tree, or a pomegranate, than in that of a ship. We must therefore have recourse to the particular direction of some intelligence for the formation of vegetables, and with much more reason surely for that of animals. Talk of the laws of motion, of figure, rest, the situation of the particles, as much as you please: as motion alone by its general laws has not caused, nor could cause, the parts of the clock to acquire the figure and position they now have, let it not be thought, that the parts of a tree have obtained their situation and figure by the mere laws of motion. This goes very far, and leads us to a genius presiding over animated machines. But are minerals and meteors easily made? Is there not a great artifice in their construction?—greater than can be imagined. The school-men, instead of a genius or intelligence, make use of these words,“ Forma substantialis & Virtus plastica, &c” But words alter nothing. It is obvious, from the whole tenor of the controversial history of Christianity, that, as Bayle evidently suspects, the imputations against the Cainites were grossly slanderous. Upon their doctrine in regard to tutelary genii, as here described, our author is exceedingly ingenious; and his reasoning supplies another step towards that generalization of the religious sentiment, which traces the primary associations of“ the saint, the savage, and the sage,” on the subject of divinity, to our grand original. What does it signify, whether we talk of Jehovah and of Satan, of Oromazes and Ahrimanes, of Allah and of Eblis, of inherent genii, or of plastic natures and substantial forms, of the strength of the said genii, or of grace bestowed and withheld. As Bayle observes, “ Words alter nothing the secret source is the same. It is in its progress merely, that the grand current of religious idea diversifies and wanders: trace each meandering to its fountain, and it is the. fountain of the whole. A new sect of French philosophers are striving hard to build a system of practical philosophy on this basis, we suspect with no very immediate chance of success, although undoubtedly a step backward from the dryness and negation of mere scepticism.—Ed. ⁷³