The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-03-29

couraged MaZdak. Strange that one who hac
nothing to gain in latitude of morals and every
thing to loose in possessions, since he had an
immense seraglio of wives aud the riches
of a great despotism at his command,
should become a convert to such theory!
unexpectable manifestation of the unreadable
human soul! That the down trodden slaves or
oyermastered soldiery. who were every year
forced to battles, in which their condition was
unimproved, should have embraced such doc
trines and endeayored to practice them is NOT so
astonishing; nor is the case OF the lower magian
priesthood who followed him, their lives being
somewhat ascetic, so unexplainable. If the doc
trnes of Mazdak had been put into practice, the
King Of Persia would have been dethroned, and
the empire impossible. Hence his conversion
must have been sincere. Mazdak is said to have
given autheticity to his teaching by performing
miracles, among Others causing the flame of the
altar of fire in his temple to speak, convincing
all who heard it, that God-Ormazd
who was symbolled by the fire, never ex
tinguished on the altar, spoke in his own fire.
The support of the sovereign prevented all
prosecutions of this sect. 1t grew in numbers
rapidly, became intolera BILE in boldness and
proselytism, causing by its effrontery, re-
bellion even in Armenia, the governor of which
province. in attempting to force the new religion
upon the people, drove them to offer the country
to the Roman Emperor The chief magi and
mobiles, in consultation in Persia, after some
years, combined as the only remedy to depose
the King of Persia, and they elevated his broth
into prison the people-his followers, so numer
Gus were they-rose broke open the prison, and
released him, SO that he retired, increasing his
disciples, unmolested The new King Zamasp
reigned nearly three years, until kobad l,
by external assistance. compelled his submission
and abdicaton, and again occupied the throne OF
Persia. Kobad 1 is said to have still enter
tanned when again King, the views he held
when dethroned, but becoming more cautious
by his escape from death in prison after his de-
position, yet drawing a fine distinction between
his belief as man and his duty as a sovereign,
withdrew his especial encouragement from the
doctrines of MaZdak and although the King did
not prosecute or permit interference with the
teachings of his doctrines, yet the officers of the
government were permitted gradually to stop
theft and abduction of women from the seraglios,
and the practical part of the new doctrines being
not available, the Sect with much effervescence,
subsidized into a threatening element in
the religious conglomeration of the state.
His followers continued in peace, multiplying in
the empire for twenty years As kobad grew
old, and his life insecure, these Mazdakites be-
came uneasy as to their condition under his sue
cessor. They plotted to secure the sovereign
power, on the abdication of Kobad, to his son
Phthasuarsas, who was hostile to the magi and
would therefore have to conciliate their power
full section of the populace. kobad discovered
the plot, and as in all Eastern monarchieS it is
treason to consider the possible abdicaton of the
reigning monarch, he assembled the Mazkadltes
to witness his comforting the crown on their
choice, when, surrounding them with his army,
he had the entire multitude mastered. Mazdak
was not among them, and for several years, I'M
til after the death of Kobad, remained
with strong and active sect, until Chosroes,
after having put down in battle all pretenders
to his throne and 80 feeling himself strong
enough to attempt the repression OF the internal
disorders of Persia, hung ON gibbets throughout
his empire at once 100000 Mazdakites, and
left them hanging in backening corpses for
a long time, about A. D., 532. Mazdak shared
the fate of his followers. The sect practically
disappeared as such, under this stern reform.
Chosroes, after death, was considered by the
Persian people as their greatest military ruler,
and surnamed The just"
1t is a strange and instructive chapter in the
evolution of communistic principles, under the
guise of religious philosophy. The follow
ers of Mazdak, numbered by millions, were
scattered by wars and prosecutions into
the countries Of Palestine, Bulgaria, Italy,
Greece Egypt, Asia Minor, India, Afghanlstan,
Arabia and others They certainly communi-
Gated their belief to their children and neigh
bors and these latter again, possibly through
their followers and descendants, ultimately
after meanwhile imparting their tlnge to the
Arabians, and so, having their views thus modi-
fed carried over the entire eastern world by the
Mohammedan conquests, which extinguished the
Persian empire-nay even have transmitted a
tinge of lineally- descended Vandalism to local
tiles in the new world. The streams minge as
they approach the sea, and each impresses its
portion Of tint to the mass OF waters And they
are not lost, but being what they are make
the ocean what it is. Until true en-
lightenment by the teaching Of the
true, as far it is known, the recognition of the
unknown as such, and the Withholding of partial
and deformed views of imperfect and selfish
thinkers; until the generations to come cease to
prepare themselves for the future after-death by
fantasticisms and pantommic stage trickery, in
stead of by calm intellectual attitude, in harmony
with the majestic repose OF eternal truth, and
clear sanity of moral perception which can free
itself from timidity and impudence alike when
it attemps to penetrate the universe, reasoning
from the known to the undiscovered-ever and
as to-day, will grow like mushrooms, in gardens
that were supposed to have been made paradisia-
cal by culture L. D. w.