Page:History of Zoroastrianism.djvu/378

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345
HERESIES

The prizes to those who were blessed with many children.[1] Zoroastrian works of all periods exhort the faithful to enter into matrimony Mar Shiman, the chief bishop of the Christian settlers in Iran, was accused by the Mobads before Shapur II to the effect that he and his clergy were teaching men to refrain from marriage and the procreation of children.[2] King Yazdagard II saw great danger to the State in the spread of such doctrines among the masses. If they caught the contagion, says his royal edict, the world would soon come to an end.[3] Such were the strong feelings against any form of celibacy that prevailed at all times in Persia; and even in Mani's system the stringency was generally relaxed in case of the masses. Marriage was tolerated as a source of relief to their unrestrained sexual appetites. It was a necessary evil in their case. But in the case of the clergy and of other righteous persons who aimed at higher life, it was obligatory that they should be celibates. Zoroastrianism legislates for the clergy and the laity alike. In Mani's system marriage was a vice for the priest, a reluctant concession to the layman. According to the religion of Zoroaster, it is neither the one nor the other, it is a positive virtue for both. Sacerdotal piety does not tend to celibacy in Iran It is disapproved for ali and under all circumstances. In no stage of the individual's moral and spiritual development is marriage ever considered as incompatible with saintliness.

Fasting recommended by Manichaeism, condemned by Zoroastrianism. Mani advocated the abstinence from food as a means of expiation for sin.[4] Nearly a quarter of the year was set apart by him as the period of fast. If there is one thing more than another which Zoroaster teaches, it is that man shall never serve Ormazd by fasting and austerities, but only by prayers and work. Far from recommending these ascetic practices as virtues, he prohibits them as sins. Fasting formed no part of the religion of ancient Iran at any period of her history. It is strongly reprobated in the works of all periods. Fasting is a sin, and the only fast that the faithful are exhorted to keep is the fast from sin.[5] The wilful abstinence from food is a deliberate

  1. ↑ 1. 136.
  2. ↑ Wigram, History of the Assyrian Church, p. 64, London, 1910.
  3. ↑ Elisaeus, History of Vartan, p. 13.
  4. ↑ Al-Biruni, p. 190.
  5. ↑ Sd. 83. 1–6.
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