With the Halloween season upon us I know I'm going to see a lot of "Did you know that Halloween was originally a pagan holiday?" in the week or two leading up to the holiday. I'm going to do a lot of facepalming, because it's just silly; it's sort of like an atheist rite of passage to post something about Halloween and its pagan roots. Instead, let's look at it from a different perspective: It's one of the best examples of a swordless conversion in a time when a lot of conversions were by the sword.
Bear in mind that I'm not saying that there were no conversions by the sword. It wasn't until Pope Pius XXII that forced conversions were banned by the Catholic Church, stating that such conversions were of debatable worth; a convert had to do so willingly or the possibility of sliding back into his prior state was too high. From a more practical point, such a convert was likely to resent his forced state and would possibly betray those who converted him at a later date. And before I hear about the moral outrage of how the religious have been doing forced conversions, I'd quickly point out that China and Russia are infamous for their forced conversions to atheism, especially right after their respective revolutions.
However, while there were forced conversions in Europe, there are some situations where the Catholic Church went an entirely different route. By and large a lot of the conversions in Europe were by example, where the Church decided to show what they could do and what they could bring to the table compared to the pagan gods. As a rule these peaceful conversions were actually pretty successful; from the perspective of the local population this usually ended up being a winning situation as it made them part of something bigger and therefore better able to defend itself from outside threats. It also provided an alternative in some cases to the local method of justice as there was a gradual conversion from trial by combat to other methods. Even the tithe was a welcome change from the local tribute for some locations. Overall, for small villages tried of dealing with barbarian, pirate, and viking invasions, conversion was welcomed.
This does not mean that the situation went solely one direction. Like any other interaction, things tend to go both ways at some point. Besides picking up some arcane medical knowledge here and there, as well adding to the historical record, there were some other interesting trades as well. There was some cultural shifts as well; some of those local populations were able to infect the Church with the idea that celebrating the dead was a good idea. With a little persuasion, the Church was able to convert the locals to go for a hybrid holiday celebrating the Christian saints and, in some cases, a lot less human sacrifice. Again, a win-win; Catholics gained a great new holiday, and the locals were able to keep most of their holiday plans.
Admittedly there was some coercion, but overall this was more of a peaceful take-over. More to the point there was some flow both ways, making it one of the more interesting compromises in history.....
Bear in mind that I'm not saying that there were no conversions by the sword. It wasn't until Pope Pius XXII that forced conversions were banned by the Catholic Church, stating that such conversions were of debatable worth; a convert had to do so willingly or the possibility of sliding back into his prior state was too high. From a more practical point, such a convert was likely to resent his forced state and would possibly betray those who converted him at a later date. And before I hear about the moral outrage of how the religious have been doing forced conversions, I'd quickly point out that China and Russia are infamous for their forced conversions to atheism, especially right after their respective revolutions.
However, while there were forced conversions in Europe, there are some situations where the Catholic Church went an entirely different route. By and large a lot of the conversions in Europe were by example, where the Church decided to show what they could do and what they could bring to the table compared to the pagan gods. As a rule these peaceful conversions were actually pretty successful; from the perspective of the local population this usually ended up being a winning situation as it made them part of something bigger and therefore better able to defend itself from outside threats. It also provided an alternative in some cases to the local method of justice as there was a gradual conversion from trial by combat to other methods. Even the tithe was a welcome change from the local tribute for some locations. Overall, for small villages tried of dealing with barbarian, pirate, and viking invasions, conversion was welcomed.
This does not mean that the situation went solely one direction. Like any other interaction, things tend to go both ways at some point. Besides picking up some arcane medical knowledge here and there, as well adding to the historical record, there were some other interesting trades as well. There was some cultural shifts as well; some of those local populations were able to infect the Church with the idea that celebrating the dead was a good idea. With a little persuasion, the Church was able to convert the locals to go for a hybrid holiday celebrating the Christian saints and, in some cases, a lot less human sacrifice. Again, a win-win; Catholics gained a great new holiday, and the locals were able to keep most of their holiday plans.
Admittedly there was some coercion, but overall this was more of a peaceful take-over. More to the point there was some flow both ways, making it one of the more interesting compromises in history.....
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