Note (return) — CHAP. I.

From Rome our Saxon forefathers received Christianity; and from the same source we have derived several words denoting Christian rites. Thus the words religion, sacrament, sacrifice, communion, and others are Latin, with the exception of the termination. The word ceremony also is Latin, and owes its origin to an interesting fact in ancient Roman history. When the Capitol was besieged by the Gauls (A.U. 365) most of the inhabitants of Rome provided for their own safety by flight: but the Flamen Quirinalis or priest of Romulus, and the Vestal virgins loaded themselves with the sacred things, that they might secure those hallowed treasures from profanation. "They were proceeding" (says Livy lib. V, c. XXII) "along the way which passes over the Sublician bridge, when they were met on the declivity by L. Albinus a plebeian, who was fleeing with his wife and children in a plaustrum or cart: he and his family immediately alighted: then placing in the cart the virgins and sacred things he accompanied them to Cære where they were received with hospitality and respect". Hence (says Valerius Maximus lib. I, c. 1.) "sacred things were called ceremonies, because the inhabitants of Cære revered them when the republic was broken, as readily as when it flourished". Thus is the word ceremony associated at once with the devotion of Albinus, with the Gaulish invasion of the Capitol, and with Cære, one of the twelve cities of Etruria, now called Cervetri or Cære vetus1. The Pagan Romans derived their religious rites from Etruria, and in particular from Cære on account of its proximity to Rome: this may be another reason for the adoption of the term ceremony, which was afterwards applied to the rites of all religions2.