28 Cf. Augustine _Civit. Dei_, X, 28: "Confiteris tamen (sc. Porphyrius) etiam spiritalem animam sine theurgicis artibus et sine teletis quibus frustra discendis elaborasti, posse continentiae virtute purgari," cf. _ibid._, X, 23 and _infra_, ch. VIII, n. 24. 29 Here we can only touch upon a subject of very great interest. Porphyry's treatise _De abstinentia_ offers a fuller treatment than is often possible in this kind of studies.--See Farnell, _op. cit._, pp. 154 ff. 30 On [Greek: exomologesis] in the religions of Asia Minor, cf. Ramsay, _Cities_, I, p. 134, p. 152, and Chapot, _La province romaine d'Asie_, 1904, pp. 509 ff. See also Crusius, "Paroemiographica," _Sitzungsb. Bayr. Akad._, 1910, p. 111. 31 Menander in Porphyry _De abstin._, II, 15; cf. Plutarch, _De Superstit._, 7, p. 168 D.; Tertullian, _De Paenit._, c. 9.--Regarding the sacred fishes of Atargatis, see _infra_, ch. V.--In Apuleius (Met. VIII, 28) the _gallus_ of the goddess loudly accuses himself of his crime and punishes himself by flagellation. See Gruppe, _Griech. Myth._, p. 1545; Farnell, _Evol. of Religion_, p. 55.--As a matter of fact, the confession of sin is an old religious tradition dating back to the Babylonians; cf. Lagrange, _Religions semit._, p. 225 ff. Schrank, _Babylonische Suehnriten_, 1909, p. 46. 32 Juvenal, VI, 523 ff., 537 ff.; cf. Seneca, _Vit. beat._, XXVI, 8. 33 On liturgic feasts in the religion of Cybele: _infra_, ch. II; in the mysteries of Mithra: _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I. p. 320; in the Syrian cults: ch. V, n. 37. See in general, Hepding, _Attis_, pp. 185 ff. 34 We know according to Herbert Spencer that the {223} progressive differentiation of the ecclesiastic and lay functions is one of the characteristics of religious evolution. In this regard Rome was far behind the Orient. 35 An essential result of the researches of Otto (_op. cit._) is the proof of the opposition existing in Egypt since the Ptolemies between the hierarchic organization of the Egyptian clergy and the almost anarchical autonomy of the Greek priests. See our remarks on the clergy of Isis and the Galli. On the Mithraic hierarchy see our _Mysteries of Mithra_, Chicago, 1903, p. 165. 36 The development of the conceptions of "salvation" and "saviour" after the Hellenistic period has been studied by Wendland, [Greek: Soter] (_Zeitschrift fuer neutestam. Wissensch._, V, 1904, pp. 335 ff.). See also Lietzmann, _Der Weltheiland_, Bonn, 1909. W. Otto, "Augustus [Greek: Soter]," _Hermes_, XLV, 1910, pp. 448 ff. 37 Later on we shall expound the two principal doctrines, that of the Egyptian religions (identification with Osiris, god of the dead), and that of the Syrian and Persian religions (ascension into heaven).