20 MORE religions and faith practices 401

Robyn Lebron hen, with Constantine s emphasis on making his newfoundChristianity palatable to the heathen in the empire, the Christianization of these Pagan deities was facilitated For example, Pagan rituals and idols gradually took on Christian meanings and names and were incorporated into Christian worship (e.g., saints replaced the cult of Pagan gods in both worship and as patrons of cities; mother-son statues were renamed Mary and Jesus; etc.), and Pagan holidays were reclassified as Christian holy days (e.g., the Roman Lupercalia and the feast of purification of Isis became the feast of the Nativity; the Saturnalia celebrations were replaced by Christmas celebrations; an ancient festival of the dead was replaced by All Souls’ Day, rededicated to Christian heroes now Halloween, etc.) In fact, there are some Christian faith practices today that not celebrate many traditional holidays due to their belief that they have Pagan origins There are other Christian faiths that have accepted that Jesus wasn’t really born on December 25 but continue to celebrate it on that day due to traditions and the holiness of His birth in general A transition had occurred The old religion was virtually wiped out by the Church of Rome using a combination of (assimilation), propaganda, torture and genocide Some people held on to the old religion…The Church became impatient and began a purge beginning around 1484 involving the burning of witches and wholesale slaughter of thousands of people across Europe just on suspicion of being witches Not surprisingly, in the face of such oppression the old religion went “underground” and witches dedicated to preserving the religion formed themselves into secret groups called …‘˜‡• In Britain, the Reformation of the 1600s transformed England from a Catholic country to a Protestant one The religious conflict that went along with this change led to the persecution of those who didn’t fit the desired religious profile This led to some individuals again being described as “witches.” But these people were not part of any religious movement, merely victims of local feuds and quarrels A few of them were practitioners of herbal medicine, but most were ordinary, conventional citizens After the enormous political and intellectual upheavals of the 1600s died away, it became possible to explore ways of thought outside Christianity without fear of instant damnation, and the study of Greek 00