HKB
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Often appears with: women learning vice · theatre and performance · religious persecution and toleration · religious deception · moderation, luxury, and excess · caelestis mystery rites
Usually: argument (1) · temptation (1) · censure (1) · indignation (1)
Augustine argues that pagan mystery rites of Caelestis/Coelestis mix obscene theatre with religious worship, teaching women and men to tolerate vice while presenting “secret” lessons only as deceptive bait.
deceit? For the secret precepts are given as a sop to the virtuous, who are few in number; the wicked examples are exhibited to encourage the vicious, who are countless. Where and when those initiated in the mysteries of Cœlestis received any good instructions, we know not. What we do know is, that before her shrine, in which her image is set, and amidst a vast crowd gathering from all quarters, and standing closely…