<A>
Roman Stoic (Emperor worship): *
With the Republic's collapse state religion was adapted to support the new political regime. Augustus justified the novelty of 1 man rule with religious reform. Public vows for the security of the republic were now were directed at the well-being of the emperor. Traditional Roman veneration of the ancestral dead & the Genius (the divine tutelary of every individual) was expanded into "emperor worship". The Imperial cult was a way Rome advertised its presence in empire while also cultivating shared identity & loyalty. Aurelian (270-75 AD) became emperor at a time of huge crisis. His victories in battle effectively saved the empire ending the 3rd century crisis. Earlier, in 220 AD, Elagabalus (emperor 218-222) replaced Jupiter with the Syrian cult of Sol invictus (the unconquered Sun) but this was hugely unpopular. Aurelian reformed the Roman cult of Sol, elevating it as a premier divinity in the empire. His aim was to give the Empire, civilians, soldiers, easterners, westerners, a single god they could believe in without betraying their own gods. Sol Invictus became the main divinity of the Roman pantheon & he built a new temple for the cult in 274 in Rome, financed by his victory of over the Palmyrene Empire. Aurelian followed the principle of "one faith, one empire". Sol Invictus further elevated the divine status of the emperor. It was politically expedient & reduced the likelihood of internal revolts which had plagued the Empire. Under Aurelian for the first time the title dominus et deus (master and god) is found in on official documents & on coins he appears with the title deus et dominus natus ("God and born ruler"). Both were later adopted by Diocletian (284-305). Diocletian worked towards absolutism & formally elaborated the imperial ceremony as a manifestation of the divine order of empire & elevated emperorship as the supreme instrument of the divine will. He reinforced this when he demanded the proskynesis and adopted the adjective sacrum for all things pertaining to the imperial person.
The solar cult, the unifying personality of the Emperor resonates with Roman Stoicism. It was Augustan, but is also expressed clearly in Stoic philosophy. A distinctive feature of Stoicism was its cosmopolitan nature; according to the Stoics (see Epictetus), all people are manifestations of the one universal spirit & should live in brotherly love & help one another. Since all men are same, there cannot be separate laws. It is a theory of concord. By abolishing all distinctions they wanted to set up a unified human society, a world city. Closely allied to the world city was the nature of its politics. At the head of the state is a king who possesses absolute power; he is the head of state, practically identical with it. He is the only cohesive force in the state; a true king is divine & he brings harmony in his kingdom. His authority is bestowed by God; as representative of God he represents morality, ethics & religion. Thus, a king is the spokesman of earthly and heavenly matters.
<B>
Freethinker: *
Spengler would have been most familiar with the German Freethinking movement which developed between 1815-48, as resistance to church dogma developed & as the influence of the rights of man, tolerance & humanism grew. In 1859 the Union of Free Religious Communities of Germany formed, an association for those who considered themselves religious without adhering to any established church.. In 1881 the more extreme German Freethinkers League emerged for atheists & agnostics. Several free thinking publications appeared between 1892 & 1906; youth consecration (a secular "confirmation") ceremonies & atheist funeral rites were practised. In 1905 the Union of Freethinkers for Cremation was founded followed by the Central Union of German Proletariat Freethinker (1908). The movement has older roots. In England the term “freethinker was appears in 1697 in a letter by William Molyneux to Locke, to describe those who opposed the C of E & the literal truth of the Bible; promoting the idea that people need to understand the world through nature. This trend became explicit in Discourse of Free-thinking by Anthony Collins (1713), an attack on all clergy & a plea for deism. In 1881 the British Freethinker magazine was first published. Free thinking in France is dated to 1765 & the Encyclopédie. The Enlightenment (Voltaire, Diderot) launched attacks against the intolerance & brutality of the Church. In the 19th century Libre-Pensée ("free thought") spread, Victor Hugo being a major proponent. It was associated with freedom of thought, political anti-clericalism & socialism. In 1890 the free thinking organization Fédération nationale de la libre pensée (National Federation for Free Thought) was born.