Christians complain a lot about the
"persecutions" they allegedly
suffered in ancient Rome. Given that they
were trying to destroy the
heathen spiritual values that had made Rome
great in the first place,
it is not surprising that the heathens tried to
defend themselves.
The Christian apologists also try to imply that
heathenism somehow
just melted away before the Christian religion, as if
the heathens
somehow saw "the error of their ways" and leapt to accept
the
Christian god as soon as he was offered to them.
What the
Christians don't like to remember is the very real
persecution they
inflicted, as soon as they could, on heathens who
chose to retain the faith
of their forebears.
Here is just a small sample of the atrocities that
led to the
Christian destruction of heathen Europe:
Roman Empire
315 CE.
Christianity becomes legal.
From now on Pagan temples are
increasingly destroyed by Christian
mobs. Some famous temples that are
ruined include the Sanctuary of
Ęsculapius, the Temple of Aphrodite in
Lebanon, the Heliopolis, the
Temple of Serapis in Egypt, and many others.
Christian priests such as
Cyril of Heliopolis and Mark of Arethusa become
renowned as "temple
destroyers" .
Pagan priests are increasingly
murdered, together with their
heathen congregations.
356 CE. Pagan
services are punishable by death. The Christian Emperor
Theodosius even
murders children caught playing with the remains of
heathen
statues.
Pagan philosophers are cruelly murdered. Perhaps the most
revered
heathen martyr is Hypatia of Alexandria, daughter of Theon
the
mathematician. Urged on by St Cyril of Alexandria, a mob of
Christian
fanatics dragged the world-famous philosopher from her
chariot,
stripped her naked, hauled her to the church, and there murdered
her
by scraping the flesh from her bones with sharp oyster shells.
Her
mortal remains were then burned before the screaming Christian
hordes.
The slaughter of the
Saxons
c. 550 CE. Germanic beliefs are outlawed in the Frankish
kingdom. All
heathen temples and symbols are ordered to be destroyed.
Heathen
songs, dances and holidays forbidden under pain of extreme
punishment.
719 CE. Frankish Christian missionaries ravage Frisia with
fire and
sword.
January 774 CE. Charlemagne vows to convert the
Saxons, or, failing
that, to wipe them out.
780 CE. Charlemagne
decrees the death penalty for all who fail to be
baptised, who fail to keep
Christian festivals, who cremate their
dead, who are hostile toward
Christians, etc etc.
782 CE. 4,500 Saxon nobles are beheaded in one day
at Verden on the
Aller for refusing to convert.
804 CE. The last
heathen resistance in Saxony is put down. In thirty
years of genocide, from
774 to 804, two thirds of the Saxons have been
killed.
The British Isles
597 CE. The Augustinian
mission arrives in Kent. Its aim is to convert
heathen kings, who will then
force the new religion on their
followers. The situation is confusing,
because kings seldom live to a
great age, and their successors often
repudiate the alien faith.
616 CE. Athelfrith, heathen king of
Northumbria, defeats a huge
Christian crusade at Chester.
617 CE.
Athelfrith slain at battle of River Idle. His neurotic rival
Edwin becomes
king, and is subsequently converted to Christianity,
forcing his subjects
to give up their old faith.
653 CE. King Sigibert foists Christianity
on heathen Essex.
654 CE. Penda of Mercia, the last great heathen
Anglo-Saxon king, is
slain by Christians at the battle of Winwęd. Only
Sussex and the Isle
of Wight hold out (for a short time) against
Christianity.
Late 8th century onwards. Heathen Scandinavians settle
all parts of
British Isles.
1066 CE onwards. William the Conquerer
is still passing laws against
paganism. Its last redoubt, in practice if
not in theory, is the
Border counties which form a buffer between England
and Scotland.
1603 CE. James VI of Scotland becomes also James I of
England. He
crushes the Borderers and destroys their separate
culture.
Scandinavia
994 CE.
Olaf Tryggvason adopts Christianity in exchange for accepting
a vast amount
of protection money from the English. Through a brutal
campaign that
tolerates no opposition he "converts" Norway to
Christianity. With Norway
fall Shetland, the Orkneys and the Faroes.
c.1000 CE. Olaf holds
prominent Icelandic pagans hostage and demands
that Iceland accept the new
religion. Iceland falls.
After 1000 CE. On the death of Olaf Norway
returns gladly to paganism.
1016 CE. Olaf the Stout, later called St
Olaf, seizes the throne of
Norway. He murders, blinds and maims heathens.
Heathen temples are
ruthlessly robbed and destroyed.
Twelfth century
CE. The great temple at Uppsala in Sweden is destroyed
by Christian
fanatics.
Elsewhere
It is
impossible to estimate the numbers of Eastern Europeans murdered
by
crusading Christians. The Teutonic Knights, for instance, conquered
heathen
Prussia in 1226. All Prussians who refused to convert to
Christianity were
murdered. The Lithuanians were a heathen tribe who
were attacked by the
Teutonic Knights throughout the 13th century.
They held out successfully,
with the help of religious refugees from
Prussia and Lettonia, until a
monarchy emerged. King Mindaugas
betrayed the ancestral religion of his
subjects in 1251, after which
Lithuania was forcibly converted to
Christianity.
It is equally impossible to estimate the numbers of
pagans
murdered in the New World by Christians. Columbus planted a
cross
wherever he went, vowing to "do all the mischief that we can"
to
natives who refused to convert. The Christians brought with
them
skills of torture that had been refined on their own people in
Europe
for hundreds of years.
One Indian chief, Hatuey, fled with his
people but was captured
and burned alive. As "they were tying him to the
stake a Franciscan
friar urged him to take Jesus to his heart so that his
soul might go
to heaven, rather than descend into hell. Hatuey replied that
if
heaven was where the Christians went, he would rather go to
hell."
(Source: D. Stannard, American Holocaust, Oxford University
Press
1992.)
That same sentiment must have been expressed time after
time in Europe
in the period when Odinists were offered a choice between
converting
to Christianity or being tortured, maimed and killed. The 4,500
Saxon
nobles callously slaughtered by the Christian fanatic Charlemagne
on
one day in 782 must have had similar thoughts. The Norse Sagas
record
occasions when Christians tortured entire Odinist families in the
hope
of forcing parents to convert, thereby sparing their children
further
pain. Sometimes the children were stronger than their parents,
urging
them not to yield and thereby bring disgrace on their
ancestors.
Conclusion
It is
clear that Christianity prevailed over European heathenism
solely because
Christians resorted to torture, murder, and other clear
breaches of the law
that applied in those times, while the heathens
upheld the prevailing
"rules of engagement" that they considered to
be
honourable.