| St Augustine (354-430 AD) was quoted as saying: “What is now called the Christian religion has existed among ancients and was not absent from the beginning of the human race, until Christ came in the flesh, from which time the true religion, which existed already, began to be called Christianity.” (86) Essentially, he is admitting Christianity was borrowing what it was as a religion from the religions of the past, and when Christ was supposed to have been born, the new form of that old religion was called Christianity. This appears to be an admission to me, that “paganism became Christianity.” If St. Augustine is admitting this in the 4th to 5th century, then we should assume most people at this point still knew the truth, but not everyone, obviously, or there would be no need to say this at all. It appears to me that this is precisely the era when knowledge of the origin of Christianity was becoming lost to time and ignorance. Rome was also in a constant state of war which is what happens when your whole country is based upon “empire building” because the native people with their customs and heritages don’t want to take authority from “foreigners.” Nobody believed invasion was good for anyone, except the invaders. Eventually Rome fell to bands of Eurasian nomads and barbarian kingdoms in the early 5th century AD. In 376 AD, Rome lost a vast area of land to the Goths, and after the death of Theodosius in 395 AD, other “barbarian” kingdoms, consisting of Germanic and Hunnic tribes would make their way through previously Roman held territory. Attila the Hun ruled the Huns from 434 to March 453 AD. He was also the leader of an empire consisting of Huns, Goths (Ostrogoths and Visigoths), and Alans (nomadic Iranians). He was one of the most feared warriors by the Eastern and Western Roman Empires and effectively brought down the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. (87) One more group the Vandals, an East Germanic tribe, poured through Spain to Africa. The Visigoths set up their kingdom around 410 AD. Britain, no longer protected by Rome, was invaded by the Jutes, Angles and Saxons and the Franks settled in Gaul, setting up early France. Rome fell prey to German officers and Flavius Odoacer, (Odovacer or Odovacar), was a soldier, who in 476 AD, became the first King of Italy. Kingship replaced that of emperors and this would remain the same for another 324 years until Charlemagne (Charles the Great, Charles I) became the Holy Roman Emperor in 800 AD. (88) P. Cornelius Tacitus (55-120 AD), the Roman Senator and Historian, wrote, in his Germania, about the life and religion of the Germanic tribes beyond the Danube and Rhine, who were a large problem for Rome at the time: “In the territory of the Naharvali one is shown a grove, hallowed from ancient times. The presiding priest dresses like a woman; the gods, translated into Latin, are Castor and Pollux.” (89) This description sounds very much like many of the previous descriptions of the veneration of the goddess and mushroom in sacred groves, presided over by eunuch priests, and attending to a hermaphroditic deity. (90) |
Commenting on the nature worship of the mother goddess and mushroom tribes, Tacitus writes: “None of these tribes have any noteworthy feature, except their common worship of Ertha, or mother-Earth, and their belief that she interposes in human affairs, and visits the nations in her car. In an island of the ocean there is a sacred grove, and within it a consecrated chariot, covered over with a garment. Only one priest is permitted to touch it. He can perceive the presence of the goddess in this sacred recess and walks by her side with the utmost reverence as she is drawn along by heifers. It is a season of rejoicing, and festivity reigns wherever she deigns to go and be received. They do not go to battle or wear arms; every weapon is under lock; peace and quiet are known and welcomed only at these times, till the goddess, weary of human intercourse, is at length restored by the same priest to her temple.” (91) On Human Sacrifice & Druids (Part 3) In Gallic Wars, Caesar reports the following concerning human sacrifice, which we can choose to believe or not, considering it came from a Roman imperialist source. However, we should closely observe this quote because it has led to many interpretations and opinions based on this exact paragraph through the last 2000 years: “The whole nation of the Gauls is greatly devoted to ritual observances, and for that reason those who are smitten with the more grievous maladies and who are engaged in the perils of battle either sacrifice human victims or vow to do so, employing the Druids as ministers for such sacrifices. They believe, in effect, that, unless for a man's life a man's life be paid, the majesty of the immortal gods may not be appeased; and in public, as in private, life they observe an ordinance of sacrifices of the same kind. Others use figures of immense size, whose limbs, woven out of twigs, they fill with living men and set on fire, and the men perish in a sheet of flame. They believe that the execution of those who have been caught in the act of theft or robbery or some crime is more pleasing to the immortal gods; but when the supply of such fails, they resort to the execution even of the innocent.” (92) (86) Fountainhead of Religion, p. 14 (87) Peterson, John Bertram (1907). "Attila". The Catholic Encyclopedia vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company (88) Occidental Mythology, p. 393-94 (89) ibid, p. 475; Tacitus, Germanicus, Trans. from H. Mattingly, Tacitus on Britain and Germany (Harmondsworth and Baltimore: The Penguin Classics, 1948), 43, op. cit. p. 136 (90) ibid, p. 476 (91) Language of the Goddess, p. 143; Tacitus, Germania, 40 (92) Gallic Wars, Chapter 6:16; http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/ Roman/Texts/Caesar/Gallic_War/6B*.html |