Mithra, A protestant form of Zoroastrianism, Had two gods, one good and one bad. It was a man’s religion and it died out because it didn’t permit women to join. Followers branded an “X” on their foreheads and NEVER told a lie or cheated anyone in a business deal. At one time it almost rivaled Christian Religion.
How was it a protestant form of Zoroastrianism? I don’t get the analogy.
Mithra(s) was known in the Roman Empire as the soldiers’ god, and other than that there’s been considerable disagreement about how and where it entered the Roman canon. If I had to make a wild guess, it arrived with the Sarmatians, who were integrated into the Roman imperial military auxiliary system as cavalry, and forcibly removed to parts of the Empire (such as Britain) which were remote from the area they’d been living for generations.
Mithraism died out because religions die out, and of course, the western part of the Roman Empire collapsed less than a century after one estimate of the end of Mithraism — it would not be surprising if its actual time of disappearance corresponded to that collapse.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithra
http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/mithras/display.php?page=main