Note 21 — Chapter I · THE DANCING MANIA IN GERMANY AND THE NETHERLANDS.

The Bishop Theodoret of Cyrus in Syria, states, that at the festival of St. John, large fires were annually kindled in several towns, through which men, women and children jumped; and that young children were carried through by their mothers. He considered this custom as an ancient Asiatic ceremony of purification, similar to that recorded of Ahaz, in 2 Kings, xvi. 3. (Quæstiones in IV. Libr. Regum. Interrogat. 47, p. 352. Beati Theodoreti, Episcop. Cyri Opera omnia, Ed. Jac. Sirmondi, Lùt. Paris. 1642. fol. T. I.) Zonaras, Balsamon and Photius speak of the St. John’s fires in Constantinople, and the first looks upon it as the remains of an old Grecian custom. See Reiske, loc. cit. p. 81. That such different nations should have had the same idea of fixing the purification by fire on St. John’s day, is a remarkable coincidence, which perhaps can be accounted for only by its analogy to baptism.