|
Heathen: A benighted creature who
has the folly to worship something he can see and feel.
|
|
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
|
Up until the time of Constantine, Christianity was a small
and inconsequential sect. During his reign Christians won positions
of prominence and power. Those who opposed Christianity, "enemies
of true religion", were stripped of their honours, and
those who had supported the previous, pagan, emperor were executed*.
Eusebius, a bishop, gloated over the fate of people who had
elected to worship other gods. They were accused of fraud, subjected
to "elaborate tortures" to confirm the charges, then
handed over to the executioner*.
By the end of Constantine's reign all pagan cults were
being discouraged, and temples were being destroyed. Toleration
was under threat. As Gibbon noted:
The edict of Milan, the great charter of toleration, had
confirmed to each individual of the Roman world the privilege
of choosing and professing his own religion. But this inestimable
privilege was soon violated; with the knowledge of truth the
emperor imbibed the maxims of persecution; and the sects which
dissented from the Catholic Church were afflicted and oppressed
by the triumph of Christianity*.
The Edict of Milan had been issued by the emperors Constantine
and Licinius in 313, and gave official support to the toleration
of Christianity. As soon as Christians became influential, the
issue of toleration was no longer so important to them. By 330
Constantine was prohibiting pagan rites in Constantinople, his
new capital. By around 350 the performance of a pagan sacrifice
had become a capital offence*.
A few years later, in 391, under Theodosius I, Christianity
became the only recognised religion of the Empire. In time the
Church, supported by pliant Christian emperors, would eliminate
its many rivals, although it would take centuries to achieve
a total monopoly. Already, by the middle of the fourth century
the Christians were being accused of cruelty exceeding that
of wild animals*. All religions
except Christianity were suppressed, sacred property was confiscated,
holy treasures were seized, temples and shrines were destroyed
or taken over as new churches. The ancient rights of sanctuary
that had been enjoyed by followers of all religions at their
burial grounds were abrogated.
Anyone who failed to display the required enthusiasm for the
Christian god was dealt with severely. Charges were laid by
informants. Perjured evidence was presented to, and accepted
by, partisan tribunals. Confessions were extracted with the
help of torture. Young and old alike were induced to implicate
their friends and families. Many were executed. The lucky ones
were merely imprisoned or exiled. In some provinces prisoners,
exiles and fugitives from Christian intolerance were said to
account for more than half of the population. Property was confiscated,
and the Church grew rich.
According to St Augustine and others, Jesus had clearly authorised
forcible conversions: "Go out into the highways and hedges,
and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled"
(Luke 14:23). Whole countries were won over in this way. The
Saxons were forcibly converted at sword point. Charlemagne offered
them the choice of adopting Christianity or instant death. In
a single day, according to Christian Chronicles, 4,500 Saxons
chose to die rather than forsake their own religion.
The pattern was similar in Franconia after the death of Clovis
in 511. First, Christians were favoured at court. Then non-Christian
public worship was prohibited. Soon, even private worship was
made illegal, and forcible conversions were enforced from 625
under Dagobert I.
The pattern was similar in England. Pope Gregory the Great
initially authorised the destruction of pagan temples, but later
reconsidered the benefits of a more practical approach. On reflection
he decided that the temples should be siezed and converted into
churches. Now only the pagan icons were to be destroyed and
replaced by Christian relics. To assure continuity he also authorised
the sacrifice of oxen even after the temples had been converted
into churches with Christian alters*.
Christian chroniclers did not always make records of the pagans
they executed for refusing to convert, but archaeologists can
sometimes reconstruct events. The Execution Cemetry at Sutton
Hoo contains the bones of hundreds of Saxons, which is difficult
to explain except as one of an unknown number of mass executions
of Saxons who refused to convert. There was more chance of a
written record when rival Christians were executed. Catholic
missionaries like King Ethelfrid killed not only pagans but
defenceless Christian monks who belonged to the original Christian
Church of the British Isles and so were regarded as rivals.
Bede records that some 1,200 unarmed Celtic monks were killed
by Ethelfrid's Catholic forces at the Battle of Chester
in 616*.
Late in the tenth century Russia was converted when Prince
Vladimir adopted Christianity. His subjects were given the choice
of Christian baptism in the river Dneiper or drowning in it.
Vladimir is now a saint. Soon afterwards Norway was converted
under King Olav, again largely at the point of the sword. He
too is now a saint. Other Scandinavians, Slavs, and many other
peoples were converted in the same way. The Christianisation
of Iceland was much less bloody than usual, although it shows
the technique. A Saxon missionary, Friedrich arrived in the
tenth century but was forced to leave when his assistant Thorvaldur
killed too many locals. In AD 1000 King Olav of Norway (Ólafur
Tryggvason) was possessed by one of his periodic bouts of Christian
zeal. As an Icelandic historian, Jón Hjálmarsson,
relates:
King Ólafur's first missionary to Iceland was
Stefnir Thorgilsson, a native of Iceland, who started by attacking
and breaking down heathen temples, and was promptly exiled.
Next, the King sent a Flemish priest named Thangbrandur, who
had reached Norway via England. He managed to baptise several
of the noble Icelandic chieftains, but as he could not tolerate
any opposition and killed several men who spoke against him,
he too had to leave the country*.
Further Christian missionaries so destabilised the country
that Thorgeir, the lawspeaker, was asked to decide what should
be done. A liberal and tolerant pagan himself, he decided that
the best way to keep the peace was that Christianity should
be adopted as the national religion, but that the people should
be allowed to keep many of their traditional practices, including
the right to worship in private whatever gods they chose. It
seemed to be more than fair. Hjálmarsson says of the
conversion:
The introduction of Christianity in Iceland was a peaceful
and almost unique historical event. It was quite different
from the prolonged conflicts, warfare and bloodshed which
customarily accompanied Christianization in most other countries.
This peaceful settlement arose probably more for political
than religious reasons.
Within 16 years the exemptions for traditional practices, including
the liberty to worship other gods, was abrogated. Christians
now denied the liberty of worship that they had previously advocated
for themselves. Within a century compulsory tithes were introduced.
Soon the Benedictines and Augustinians would introduce the abuses
and corruption common in mainland Europe.
Outside Europe non-Christian Peoples were persecuted and exterminated
for centuries. The options were conversion to Christianity or
either death or slavery.
Over many centuries Christians killed thousands, perhaps millions,
for the crime of not being Christian or sometimes for the crime
of not being sufficiently Christian. Some were killed by the
sword, some burned alive, some drowned, some buried alive, some
forced to face wild animals. Traditional Christian history books
rarely find room for this side of the story.
|
