The Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans worshiped serpents, and regarded them as divine. They brought to Rome the serpent of Kpidaurus, to which they paid divine honors. The Egyptians considered vipers as divinities. The Israelites adored the brazen serpent elevated by Moses in the desert, and which was in after times broken in pieces by the holy king Hezekiah.

St. Augustine assures us that the Manicheans regarded the serpent as the Christ, and said that this animal had opened the eyes of Adam an...