- The History and Territorial Evolution of the Christianity -

3 / 8

SYNCRETISM AND EVOLUTION (350-600)

 

 EPOCH OF SYNCRETISM AND HERESIES:

 The nationalist discourse wasn't developed in the middle ages as it was in the XIX or XX centuries, so, one of the ways
 to permit clashes among rival nations, rival cultures in the intellectual level was through of the religious catalyst.

 Heresies: The Arianism (Jesus was human only) is the predominant belief among the bishops of the Oriental Part.
 Other principal heresies in the IV-V centuries: Donatism in North Africa, Copts in Egypt, Nestorianism in Syria (is evident
 the relation between heresy and "nationalist" movement). The official imposition of Arianism in the Roman Empire in
 the IV century or in the Barbarian Kingdoms in the Vth never was followed by the citizens: p.e. in the pursuit of the Catholic
 bishop Athanasius in 356, no Egyptian denounced him to the official policies. The only Arianized nations were the
 germanic conquerors, by Arian missionaries (Ulfila) sent by the Arian Emperors ( ! ).

 Nestorianism: these Christians believe that Jesus was a man, but in some way possessed by God (Christ), being two
 separate personalities. Their bishops were expelled from Byzantium, founding after a see in Nisibis (Iran), from there,
 they sent missions all over Asia: between the VII & XIV Centuries, some little communities were stablished in Central Asia,
 China and India, being finally absorved by the Islamic expansions, excepting the Malabar Indians, whom joined in the XVI
 Century to the Catholicism. A detailed chapitol about these comunities follows next.

 The Maghreb had a population of about 6.500.000 inhabitants in the imperial epoch, of these, 2.500.000 dwelt in Tunis,
 were around the 40% were urbanites (it could explain the high presence of Christianity here). It is calculated that the half
 of the Christians in the IV century were Donatists: In 411, the North Africa had 286 Catholic bishops and 279 Donatists,
 and after the Vandal - Arian persecutions, in 525 the Catholics bishops were 60... reaching only the Tunis - Constantine
 region, and nobody from Mauretania nor Tripolitania... How Punics were still speaking their tongue in the V Century and
 adhered Donatism can be seen in the letter CCIX of St. Augustin (written in 423) where accounts us that "Bordering on the
 district of Hippo [actual Annaba, Algeria], there is a small town, named Fussala: formerly there was no bishop there, but,
 along with the contiguous district, it was included in the parish of Hippo. That part of the country had few Catholics;
 the error of the Donatists held under its miserable influence all the other congregations located in the midst of a large
 population, so that in the town of Fussala itself there was not one Catholic. In the mercy of God, all these places were
 brought to attach themselves to the unity of the Church; [...] I arranged that a bishop should be ordained and appointed
 there. With a view to the carrying out of this, I sought for a person who might be suitable to the locality and people, and
 at the same time acquainted with the Punic language" If such bishop must speak Punic, it means surely that the population
 wasn't fluent in Latin, or even that they didn't understand it. Also it expresses that Punic was not usual among the Catholic
 clergy, and that the Punic population preferred the national heresy: we must not forget that the Catholic Church is the
 Catholic, Roman and Apostolic Church... More examples: in a letter addressed to the Donatist bishop Crispinus
 (LXVI, 402 AD), St. Augustin indicates us which was the linguistic situation in the outskirts of Calama/Guelma: "But why
 multiply words? If these Mappalians have passed of their own free will into your communion, let them hear both you and
 me on the question which divides us, -the words of each of us being written down, and translated into the Punic tongue
 after having been attested by our signatures-; and then, all pressure through fear of their superior being removed, let these
 vassals choose what they please." It tells us that the common peasants of Numidia did not understand the Latin
 language !. If not enough, to say that the peasants near Carthage when questioned answered that they were Canaaneans
 their Punic tongue: "Unde interrogati rustici nostri quid sint, punice respondentes Chanani." Latin in the fifth century was
 far to complete the eradication of Punic, in the letter LXXXIV (405 AD), addressed to the bishop of Sitifis, Augustin relates
 us that "But since he [deacon Lucillus] is conversant with the Latin language, through want of which the preaching of the
 gospel is greatly hindered in these parts [Augustin writes from Annaba - Hippo Regius], whereas the use of that language
 is general with you, do you think that we would be doing our duty in consulting for the welfare of the Lord's flocks, if we
 were to send this talent to a place where it is not specially needful, and remove it from this region, where we thirst for it
 with such parched spirits?" Sitifis, nowadays known as Setif, is placed in the way between Alger to Constantine, and had
 such "anomalous" presence of the Latin language surely because of this city was established as colony of veterans by
 Caesar Nerva in the III Century. And if Latin was "general with you" there, we should consider that in the city of Hippo
 was not so: Punic was prominent in African cities then.
 More testimonies on survival of the Berber and Punic nations are in the book "On Buildings" of Procopius of Caesarea:
 "Here are the boundaries of Tripolis [Gulf of Syrte], as it is called. It is inhabited by the barbarian Moors, a Phoenician race.
 Here too is a city, Cidamê [Gadames] by name; and in it live Moors who have been at peace with the Romans from ancient
 times. All these were won over by the Emperor Justinian [in 534] and voluntarily adopted the Christian doctrine." Also:
 "in Byzacium there is a city on the coast, Adramytus by name [Tunisian Susa], [...]. And it lay conveniently exposed to the
 Moors [Berbers] when they overran that region.  Nevertheless, the Libyans [Punics] who lived there tried to make provision,
 so far as they could, for their own safety, and so they made a barricade out of the ruins of the walls and joined their houses
 together; [no Romans then, as they received the name of "Africans"].

 So, taking into account all these statements, it is possible to arrange an statistic of religion and language for the Roman
 Maghreb in the time of Saint Augustin: 70% Pagan, rural and mostly Berber; 20% urban, Punic and mainly Donatist; and
 a 10% urban, Latin and Catholic (the reader can say that such statistic without more references is not reliable, I agree
 on that, but also it is preferable to have a blurred vision than to do not have any vision...). But... there are evidences that
 Christianity among the majority of the African Romans was syncretic: we've accounts that they performed non-Christian
 rites in the tombs that included dancing, drinking, offering of food to the deceased, etc.; and that the whole city of Cartage
 participated in traditional sacrifices in 439 in a desperate hope to ward off the advancing Vandals (!!).
 The Church condemned such practices, so that in the Council of Carthage (401), appear the next canons:
 "This also must be sought, that (since contrary to the divine precepts feasts are held in many places, which have been
 induced by the heathen error, so that now Christians are forced to celebrate these by heathens, from which state of things
 it happens that in the times of the Christian Emperors a new persecution seems to have secretly arisen:) they order such
 things to be forbidden and prohibit them from cities and possessions under pain of punishment; especially should this be
 done since they do not fear to commit such iniquities in some cities even upon the natal days of most blessed martyrs,
 and in the very sacred places themselves. For upon these days, shame to say, they perform the most wicked leapings
 throughout the fields and open places, so that matronal honour and the modesty of innumerable women who have come
 out of devotion for the most holy day are assaulted by lascivious injuries, so that all approach to holy religion itself is
 almost fled from." (canon LX). From canon LXXXIII it could be thought that some form of Christian maraboutism (syncretism)
 was practiced: "Item, it seemed good that the altars which have been set up here and there, in fields and by the wayside as
 Memories of Martyrs, in which no body nor reliques of martyrs can be proved to have been laid up, should be overturned
 by the bishops who rule over such places, if such a thing can be done. But should this be impossible on account of the
 popular tumult it would arouse, the people should none the less be admonished not to frequent such places, and that those
 who believe rightly should be held bound by no superstition of the place. [...] For altars which have been erected anywhere
 on account of dreams or inane quasi-revelations of certain people, should be in every way disapproved of.". Animism yet
 survived: "Item, it seemed good to petition the most glorious Emperors that the remains of idolatry not only in images, but
 in any places whatever or groves or trees, should altogether be taken away." (Canon LXXXIV).

 The Germanic invasions froze the process of Christianization in Europe, as will be seen in next chapters, but the invasion of
 the Vandals in the Roman Maghreb of 430 surely implied even a de-latinization (Roman landowners were expelled), and
 a de-christianization: the Church was seriously wounded in the reign of Huneric, who abolished the Catholic worship,
 transferred all churches and church property to the Arians, exiled bishops (some 150) and clerks, and deprived of civil rights
 all those who would not receive Arian baptism; no Catholic, in fact, was allowed to hold any office. Evidence for this perse-
 cution is offered by archeologists: most of the churches excavated there show signs of damage and neglect during the fifth
 century. Moreover, an excellent example of both de-latininization and de-christianization is the Life of St. Fulgentius, born
 in 462: Fulgentius's grandparents fled to Italy when the Vandals arrived, being their estates divided between king Geiseric
 and the Arian church. After, it came the Byzantine period (535 - 670), perhaps too short to reenact Christianization and
 Latinization (otherwise the Byzantine Empire was culturaly Hellenic). In fact what was thriving in Byzantine Africa was
 Donatism and Catholic desafection, so that the situation by 600 was similar at that of 400 with St. Augustine, even worse
 since it appears as if the Catholic Church was an artificial imperial establishment that could not win over the real native
 religiosity: Donatism. Again Gregory the Great gives us a good outline of Africa: "But, further, we have learnt through the
 information given us by the bearers of these presents that the heresy of the Donatists is for our sins spreading daily, and
 that very many, leave being given them through venality, are being baptized a second time by the Donatists." (Epistle XLVIII
 to Bishop Columbus); in the letter XXXIV to the Prefect Pantaleo he states that "Now in those parts, so far as we have learnt,
 the audacity of the Donatists has so increased that not only do they with pestiferous assumption of authority cast out of their
 churches priests of the catholic faith, but fear not even to rebaptize those whom the water of regeneration had cleansed on
 a true confession.", fact repeated in his XXXV Letter to Bishop Victor and Columbus: "For indeed we find that the stings of
 the Donatists have in your parts so disturbed the Lord's flock, as though it were guided by no shepherd's control. And there
 has been reported to us what we cant speak of without heavy sorrow, seeing that very many have already been torn by their
 poisoned teeth. Lastly, in order with most wicked audacity to drive catholic priests from their churches, they are said, in their
 most atrocious wickedness, even to have slain many besides, on whom the water of regeneration had conferred salvation,
 by rebaptizing them." In fact, all laws and dispositions to reenact the Catholic Church in Africa, which we need to remember
 was destroyed by the Vandals, did not succeed to prevail among the Punics: "But the most reverend bishops who have come
 from the African province assert that these [commands] have been so disregarded through ill-advised connivance that neither
 is the judgment of God held in fear there, nor are the imperial commands so far carried into effect; adding also this: that in the
 aforesaid province, through the bribes of the Donatists prevailing, the Catholic faith is publicly let to sale [Simonism, which
 was also heretic]". (Epistle LXV directed to Emperor Mauricius). Even he knew of such Simoniac acts "in the Church of
 Pudentiana constituted in the province of Numidia, Maximianus, prelate of the same Church, corrupted by a bribe from the
 Donatists, has by a new licence allowed a bishop to be made in the place where he lives". (Letter XLVIII). So it is interesting
 to know: from who came the money to bribe ? How were supported such Donatists bishops ? Why so many nominal
 Catholics left so easily for Donatism ? Why nobody but foreigners and African Romans defended Catholicism ?

 With such accounts, one can think that the Semitic Arab wasn't so alien when these lands were conquered in the VII Century.
 Moreover, Marçais accounts us how in a text of the Arab geographer Idrisi (1100 -c. 1165) "allows us to say that in his time,
 in the first half of the XlI Century, Latin was constantly used in Southern Tunisia. In Capsa, the erudite reports us, the majority
 of its people speak the African Latin tongue". So, Latin only was spoken in an isolated city then, that in fact was founded in
 the first century BC to establish Latin veterans of war... allowing us it to conclude that Latin didn't spread in the countryside
 never because  yet today there are some Berber villages around actual Gafsa. About the religious situation, paganism has
 continued even until today, but concealed under the form of Maraboutism: see the chapter "Animism among the Muslims".

 Pelasgianism popular in Sicily and South Italy. Strong Manichean presence in such territoires and in the Maghreb.

 PALESTINE: The north was inhabited by Samaritans, mainly of Jewish religion; the Jews / Hebrews were also (no surprise !)
 Jewish, but they were a minority living above all around Galilee. A big proportion was expelled due to the Jewish revolts of
 the first centuries of our era. There was another minority present, the Roman - Hellenic (or hellenized) immigrates, lately
 christianized.

 Since the end of the IV Century, the Prisciallianism gained ground in Gaellacia (region comprised by the actual Galicia and
 Northern Portugal) where it was to become deeply rooted until its eradication, in the close of the VI Century. This last date
 can be tracked taking into account that while the first council of Braga (561) had been concerned mainly with enacting laws
 against the Priscillianists in Galicia, sixteen years after, it was pointed out the fact that unity of faith reigned in Galicia (Martin)
 in the second council of Braga . (26) The height of the Priscillianism coincided with the Arianism as the state religion there
 from 464-550 (Sueves)... On the other hand, this heresy was a typical Manichean syncretism similar to the Catharism or the
 Paulicianism: dualism, rejection of the Trinitary concept, the material world was created by a demiurg and thus the human
 bodies formed in the wombs of the mothers were essentially bad, gnosis, astrology, aversion to the matrimonial institution,
 magical meetings at night, certain foods were unclean, etc. (see further explanations in next sections).

 Christianity became the state religion in the half of the fourth century, seven decades later it became the unique legal
 religion... then it is possible that for many pagans, the right way to deal with the Empire was the conversion (deceptive as
 well as many), and whereby the first popular Christian syncretism was born: It is very suspicious that many of the Catholic
 saints have almost the same characteristics and attributes than the former Roman gods, even where the same places of
 veneration have been changed by pagan worship to saints or Lady's sees... Equally suspicious is the coincidence of
 Christian dates with ancient pagan celebrations... It is reasonable link it with the semi forced inclusion of pagans when
 Christianity becomes official and the tendency of the Church to make things easy. Between 321 and 426 appeared no
 less than eight laws against apostasy to heathenism; showing that many nominal Christians were cached out worshiping
 other deities. P. e. under the reign of Julian (361-63), the bishop of Troy, apostatized because he had secretly prayed to
 the sun; many priests were scandalized in 452, when Attila, "The God's Scourge", was in the doors of Rome and many
 Christians, seeing it, apostatized and worshiped again their old gods for salvation. In the same time, the Pope Leo I (440-61)
 discouraged his flock from mixing their Christianity with sun worship. Many conversions surely went by wordly interests:
 in the city of Maiuma (near Gaza), underwent a mass conversion and were duly rewarded with city status... In addition, the
 chronicles by John of Ephesos, and by the Chalcedonian layman Evagrios relate how syncretism was in vogue: After the
 defeat of a revolt of Baalbek (Syria) in ca. 579, certain "heathens" revealed under torture the names of high-ranking officials
 involved in pagan cults, including Anatolios, the governor of Edessa. Anatolios was condemned to death after his trial,
 he was accused not only of celebrating the outlawed cults of the ancient gods, but also of commissioning a portrait of Christ
 that actually represented Apollo. In this way he would have maintained his devotion to the old gods while appearing to
 venerate a Christian icon.
 The proportion between Orthodox Christians and Syncretics is hard to evaluate. More if under Justinian ( VI C. ) all
 citizens must be Orthodox Christians, and those who strayed very far could lose their civil rights and to have their earthly
 goods withheld (= civil death); to serve the state one must have three witnesses declaring the one's Orthodoxy: this Caesar
 found in the medical and in the literary arts a great number of Pagans yet in his reign (546).
 It is conceivable to Christians and committed readers to set apart each religious group, resolution that can be seen also
 in the Bible: [new window].

 Another face of this subdued paganism could be the tendency in Egypt, Syria, Maghreb, etc. to take a heretical version of
 Christianity by the new converts as those former heathen thinking "well, I'm now Christian, but not in the way that you want,
 Caesar". The romanized or hellenized populations, minoritaries, would have been the orthodox Catholics in religion, and
 pro-Rome in the political affairs. In fact, the religion was so "nationalized" that in Syria the Orthodox Christians received
 (and receive) the nickname of "Melkites", meaning it "followers of the Caesar" (from the Semitic malik, king). Even the recent
 converted Anatolian peasants (see the case of Tralles), the Christianity becomes heretical: "[IV. 19.] Unfortunately the schism
 [Monophysism] was confined to no narrow limits, but spread from Syria into Cilicia, Isauria, Asia, Cappadocia, and Armenia;
 and especially to the capital, so that in this the 887th year of Alexander [ 576 AD ], grief upon grief, and blow upon blow fell
 upon the persecuted and lacerated church of the believers every where, by reason of the division, and quarrels, and schisms,
 and wrongs, and evil deeds which sprang up and multiplied between Jacob and Paul [...]".

 From 533 onwards, a Monophysite Syrian Bishop (Jacob Baradeus), traveled the Eastern Provinces founding parallel
 bishropics in competence with the Orthodox ones, it was de facto the official separation of the Monophysites (Syria, Egypt,
 Mesopotamia, Ethiopia, Armenia ) of the general branch Orthodox - Catholic, because till then, the Monophysites
 belongued to the universal church and tried to modify it according to their beliefs. Asia Minor, today Turkey, seems that
 was won for Monophysism; from "The Life of Jacob Baradaeus", wrote by the also Monophysist John of Ephesus, we
 learn that "extended his course over all the countries not only of Syria and the whole of Armenia and of Cappadocia - all of
 which, down to the little ones, were especially distinguished and strong in orthodoxy - no less than Syria. And besides these,
 James ministered in the lands also of Cilicia and then whole of Isauria and of Pamphylia and Lycaonia and Lycia and Phrygia
 and Caria and Asia, and in the islands of the sea Cyprus and Rhodes, and Chios and Mitylene, and as far as the royal city of
 Constantinople. In which also, besides all the countries, he displayed the course of heroism, and filled the ranks of the
 priesthood, and spread orthodoxy [Monophisism] abroad. And afterwards, the blessed James and his companions went out
 to the countries of Asia for the second time, and they ordained four bishops in Asia: one in Ephesus, a man whose name was
 John the Syrian, the converter of the pagans (and the author of this piece), and in Smyrna a man whose name was Peter, and
 another whose name was John in the city of Pergamum, and another whose name was Peter in the city of Tralles. And after
 these things, they crossed to the island of Chios and set up a bishop in it, a man whose name was Kashish from the monastery
 of John of Ephesus, both of whom were from the monastery of the house of Mar John at Amida. And again they went back
 and crossed to the regions of Caria, and there they set up two bishops, one whose name was Paul in a city the name of which
 is Aphrodisias, and another whose name was Julian in a city the name of which is Alabanda." So that when rural and pagan
 Anatolia started to become Christian as Lazica or Caria or Phrygia, it was in its Monophysist deviation; yet worse since
 Paulicianism and other heresies also were rooted in the area strongly. But the strength of this new Church was soon
 destroyed by the Islamization in the next century by the hands of the Arabs, otherwise welcomed by the Monophysite
 majorities of Egypt and Syria...

 But what became as the worst upheaval for Orthodox Christianity in Syria or Egypt was the temporal occupation by
 the Persian Empire of these regions that led to the forcible emigration of the Chalcedonians (mainly Greek speakers)
 so that according to Michael the Syrian, the Persian king ordered "all Chalcedonians to be expelled" and "the memory
 of the Chalcedonians disappeared from the Euphrates to the Orient". Such drastic action (ethnic cleansing) was taken
 as a mean to depopulate the conquered territoires of civilians attached to Rome (i.e., the Byzantine Empire), not worthless
 was the fact that the Chalcedonians were named "Melkites" ("followers of the king"). For the Monophysite, there is a
 good example in the comments of the monophisite patriarch Athanasius "The Camel  Driver" (595-631), who was glad
 of that, as he expressed: "The world rejoiced in peace and love," because "the Chalcedonian night" had vanished.

 In Charles J. Hefele's "A History of the Councils of the Church" it is estimated the religious panorama for the time of
 Heraclius (610-641): Egypt had some 300,000 Melkites and five to six million Monophysites; Syria had similar numbers.
 Again, these proportions can be attributed to national allegiances: Melkites being Greek-speakers with Greek origins or with
 origins among Hellenized Jews and natives, and the heretical population being the native: Coptic in Egypt, Jacobite or
 Nestorian in Syria.

 A valuable source about Syncretism, is a sermon written by  St. Martin of Braga in the mid VI Century ("De Correctione
 Rusticorum"), it was directed towards a Galician audience for whom such sermon  was intended against their idolatrous
 practices. His audience was quite evidently people living in the country districts; this is clear from the opening words, which
 are directed to the "peasants." Their stated religion was Christianity: it can be inferred by the title of the sermon (On the
 Correction of Peasants), meaning surely that their religion was not in the right way for Martin; also in writing: "Consider the
 nature of the covenant which you have made with God in baptism. You promised to renounce the devil and his angels [...]"
 one can conclude that these peasants were already Christians, but also syncretics. Moreover, the fact that they were
 christened being adults, can be interpreted by us as they were previously Pagan. The syncretic practices described by Martin
 of Braga were p.e.: that some Galicians continued the pagan practice of honoring Jupiter by not working on Thursday, the day
 set apart to honor this god --A provincial council held at Narbonne in the year 590 gives us the same insight into this ritual
 which was being practiced also in Septimania, because the bishops there censured this same practice--; the practice among
 some other people of casting stones in a heap and offering these to Mercury; also some women during their hours of weaving
 were wont to invoke Minerva, the patroness of weavers; and besides these gods and goddesses Martin also referred to the
 Lamias, nymphs, and Dianas who inhabited and ruled over the sea, fountains and forests, seeming that the the cult of the
 Dianas was very widespread; or the common veneration of mice and moths. Also he referred the prevalence of superstitions
 as the belief in lucky and unlucky days, astrology in order to find out the best days for building houses, planting the crops, or
 getting married, etc. joint other practices of augury and divination  (flight of birds and by means of sneezes); these peasants
 were accused by St. Martin to admit magicians into their houses for the purpose of performing ceremonies of  purification
 --surely the sacrifice of a fowl to sprinkle with its blood the walls, as it is performed in some parts of Asturias--. We must take
 into account that the rural population in the Roman Empire was near the 80-85%...

 More statements about syncretical religions, or at least paganism, can be known by facts as that Gregory of Tours, meeting
 two legates from Spain about the year 583, asked them about the condition of the "few" Catholics who remained there. One
 could ask if the non-Catholics for Gregory were Pagan, Syncretic or Arian --a process of voluntary arianization was done
 before, but it only affected some social strata--. At the third council of Toledo, held in 589, the bishops declared quite
 emphatically that "throughout almost the whole of Spain and Gaul the sacrilege of idolatry has become deeply rooted."
 By this statement I could suggest that idolatry was practiced there by Pagans and above all by Christians... "has become"
 only can be applied to Monotheists: it would be extremely rare to find pagans "becoming" polytheists. Specifically for
 Hispania, the bishops realized that the long period of time during which the Arians were in power had led to the spread of
 paganism, being it "deeply rooted throughout almost the whole of Spain."; they attributed it at the laxity of the Arian heretics,
 who not only permitted the laws of the Church to be violated, but even protected the offenders. If this paganism spread over
 the Hispanics, it only can be understood if we agree that it was spread over Christian Hispanics, because the anterior religion
 was precisely Paganism, and it would be unreasonable that paganism was spread over the yet pagans.

 Pegasius, bishop of Ilion (ancient Troy) continued being bishop under Julian (361), but in this occasion of the God Sun:
 being not it a problem for him due to that even when he was a Christian bishop he prayed at the Sun. From such case, I would
 like to give a definitive name for these situations of syncretism between Christianity and polytheism or animism: Pegasianism.

 There are more evidences for Christian-Pagan syncretism: John the Fuller, a Theban from Egypt and nominally Christian
 (at least his name leads us to this conclusion), wanted to immolate a black slave in the circus at midnight in order to achieve
 the love of a woman throughout the help of gods. Luckly (to the slave), John was caught before to commit the sacrifice.

 Even syncretism in Roma is noticed from a letter of pope Gelasius (492--496); here Gelasius critizices the nominal Christians
 that have keept uninterrupted Lupercalia (a rite to appease the gods as to prevent illness and bad crops: included animal
 sacrifice, to run naked, and floggings) and the cult to the Castors/Dioscures. Gelasius severes that: "Notwithstanding, this
 cult which is so meaningful for you and which you consider to be healthy, you have left it to common and vulgar peoples
 of humble and low condition." [In old times the Lupercalia was led by patricians]. "Choose !, you who are neither Christians
 nor pagans, ever perfid and never faithful, ever corrupt and never honest, you can't fit never goodly both roles because are
 contrary; come on ! choose !". The reference that was common people which practiced Lupercalia leads to think that maybe
 the Christo-pagans were the majority by then in Rome as was the most abundant social class; moreover, the description that
 Gelasius gives to common Christians in Rome also points that a majority was syncretist: "The Lupercalia caused that ?
 [wars, illness, infertility in not being attended], or, more logicaly, our customs, thiefts, homicides, adulteries, injustices,
 iniquities, ambitions, wishes, perjuries, false testimonies, opressions to the poor, atacks to the good causes and defence
 of the evil ones, an unheard corruption in everything, and that that is above all: a false belief with our God, sacrileges
 and magic arts which even horrorize the pagans ? Is that that produces that everything is adverse and hostile to us,
 no the possible suppression of the Lupercalia, which you use as a mean to survive."

 In the Hispanic Visigoth kingdom and in the Maghreb somewhat identical happened; the difference there was that the
 syncretical Christianty endured till the Muslim conquest (see the next section on the islamization for further details).

 In the other side, it is true that Christianity among Greeks had, and at certain point has, many pre-Christian elements.
 In the Synod of Trullo (691), are condemned those who consult diviners [or hecantontarchs], and mentions the existence
 among Greeks of "cloud chasers" (to foretell the future), wailers (foretold the future by reading the palms of the hands),
 providers of phylacteries (phylacteries included bear hairs, dyed cords, the skin of snakes and other items inscribed with
 invocations to demons to ward off from diseases and evil eye: "baskania"), and seers (invoked the demons as well the
 name of the Holy Trinity ans saints), who must be thrown out of the Church; and that means that such magicians were
 nominaly Christians; according to the statements of St. Chrysostom (IV Century) and Nikodemos the Hagiorite
 (XVIII Century), it seems that practicioners of such arts were mainly old women (=witches); and these magic practices
 were used also in the XII Century according to the canonists Zonaras and Balsamon. Balsamon provides even more
 concrete information about a variety of divinations that were practiced in the twelfth century: as the use of bonfires
 (identified with the ancient Greek "Kledona", and used to ward off bad luck and to foresee the future), omens, astrology
 and oracles. The Pagan customs [epitedeumata] that were practiced and condemned in the Synod of Trullo also
 were practiced in Balsamon's time: the Vota and the Brumalia, which were Greek festivals celebrated primarily by shepherds
 and peasants to honor the gods Pan and Dionysios. In such feasts men and women put on masks and danced esctatically
 as if demon-possessed, a custom that is even observed today. Zonaras and Balsamon write that all these Greek rites were
 observed by many in their own times, especially by the peasants, "who did not know the significance of what they were
 doing."; moreover this Balsamon when asked why such practices were not left, heared from the peasants: "that they have
 survived as a part of tradition."; the peasants did not involved such customs in a religious sphere. But in the fourteenth
 century Joseph Bryennios complains about local people associating with magicians, soothsayers and Atzinganoi
 (the Gypsies), while a hundred years later a nomocanon threatens with excommunication those who consult the
 Aiguptissa (the same Gypsies). For what it can be learnt here, it seems that Christianity did not erased among Greeks
 their ancient love for oracles.

 For rural Syria, Egypt and Mesopotmania, that were being christianized also from cities and monasteries, we might consider
 that the Persian and Arab invasions that got such countries almost all the VII century out of the Christian world, paralized
 much of the efforts to bring at the countryside's population the Christianity; so much part of the new Islam converts came
 directly from paganism by sure.

 In Italy, if christianization of the rural areas started de facto in the half of the VI Century as seems current, we have that the
 invasion of the yet pagan Lombards (starting in 578) stopped such process for a certain period: mainly in the North part
 of the peninsula because the southern parts were conquered by them around 650, and by then the countryside would have
 acquired Christianity (perhaps syncretic).  So it would be even logic to see that Christianization was accomplished along
 final latinization and the absortion-adaptation of the Lombard nation in North Italy: we might assume that Latin had some
 similar time process as seen in France because such region was conquered almost at the same time as Gaul by Rome.

 How much time the syncretism prevailed in the ancient territories of the Roman Empire ? It is hard to answer since the
 idolatry was illegal; but if we take into account the legislations, one can see how in Western Europe the laws against idolatry
 disappear mainly from the VII Century onwards... (for further information see the section "the third wave"). It seems that the
 Church worked well to purify the Christianism by recycling the ancient pagan practices: per example, the ancient pagan custom
 to sacrifice animals in order to assure the strength of a building or a city, was substituted by the aspersion of blessed water
 by a priest.

 Around 404, the gladiators' combats were finally abolished. Those consisted on fights to the death, and joint the Circus,
 it was so seductive that many Christians found the monastery the only place where they could escape its influence
 completely; the games finally ended in the West after a monk named Almachius jumped into the arena to stop the carnage
 and was killed by a blood-crazed mob; the whole city of Rome felt so guilty afterwards that the games were outlawed.
 Otherwise, the Circus (with its chariot races, struggles between animals, and extremely immoral theater productions)
 continued for many years more. It would mean that the majority of Christians (many of them nominally) were according
 to St. Chrystostom immoral as the pagans; another matter would be to know how deep was that pagan immorality among
 Christians, if it included infanticide and/or bisexuality, as was current and normal among those pagans. In the East the
 games went on until they were abolished in 681; and slavery was usual yet in these years in Rome.

 Syncretism within Christianity can be tracked taking in account unique characteristics that in some way survive: shamanic
 priests (p.e. petros in Voodoo), mancies (astrology), animal or human sacrifices (some sects of Santeria practice the human,
 the candid Celts performed massive human slaughters), invocations (spirits, gods, angels, ancestries, demons, etc.),
 trance by musical rhythms or entheogens, idols, and different holy places. For Europe, the quantitative presence of an
 ancient syncretism is hard to find, many rural traditions, saint's venerations, and customs can be clearly ascribed to a pagan
 origin, latterly christianized. More clear is the witchcraft as a secret continuation of paganism; secret matters are difficult to
 measure, but the general impression is that there were three branches: One "popular", in each village with its "customers"
 (using herbal brews [drugs] to cause impotence, to sicken animals or persons, to be applied to husbands to make them
 dumb and to commit adultery without fear, to abort, etc.); other times gaining goods from their terrified and menaced neighbors
 (as the Russian kolduny); and a third jerarquized and elitist with secret books as base. The three branches are extinct today
 in the West: actual witches are no more than snobs. Otherwise, nowadays exist some traditional para-religious currents in rural
 Europe: one is the presence (at least in Catalonia and Belarus) of traditional healers that use magic superstitions to heal
 (with sacred waters, labels, rites, etc.) but ever within a Christian frame; the second, and perhaps the most traditional syncretic
 current of Europe is the "Anastenarides", a feast of Dionysian origin practiced in some Thracian villages : the Anastenarides,
 the modern Bacchus-Christians who live in small societies, create a special class, an "order" we could say, similar to the
 dionysian "ancient troops". These people hardly ever go to church but they own private temples called "Konaki" (lodging).
 Their top leader is "Saint's Anastenariko icon" and their top prelate is Archianastenaris, who is a diviner, exorcist, therapist,
 and founder of temples and houses. The ceremony starts on 20th May with animal sacrifices and the transfer of the icons
 from the village' s church to "Konaki", where sleeplessness and general preparation takes place. In the morning of the
 21st May, Anastenarides bring the bell-icons to Agiasma, a holy place in a small wood. These icons, which are called
 "Hares", portray the holy couple of St. Constantine and St. Eleni; according to Anastenarides, it's the "Hares" icons which
 give them the ability to walk on fire in the afternoon, when with rhythmical music it leads the mystics to ecstasy while dancing
 over the fire.
 What prevalence had witchcraft in medieval times ? Difficult to say because it was concealed, but some "surveys" can be
 tracked: The inquisitor Cirac Estopañán (XV Century) commented on the "diligent and astute Castilian Celestinas" [some
 sort of urban witches] and their loyal followers, being them "poor women passed over or mistreated or abandoned by their
 husbands; unhappy, lonely widows; betrayed maidens and unmarried women dishonored and fallen into prostitution."
 Also a Catalan saying serves as "survey": De Sant Hilari a Arbúcies; dotze cases, tretze bruixes [From St. Hilari until
 Arbúcies; twelve homes, thirteen witches]. These towns are at some 70 Km. NE of Barcelona; apart to indicate the general
 prevalence of the witchcraft in such region, it serves to contrast that outside that area such phenomena was rare: the saying
 inherently expresses that the situation wasn't common outside of that area. The situation in a Hellenic village of Galatia around
 600, can be seen in the Life of St. Theodore of Sykeon: "The community of the village of Apoukoumis slaughtered an ox [for
 a feast] and were eating its flesh. But it happened that all those who partook of it fell down like dead men and the meat that
 was over turned black and gave forth a horrible stench. Some of the villagers who had not eaten of the meat went to the Saint
 to report the disaster which had occurred in their village. [...] he blessed some water and sent it by one of the brothers for
 sprinkling the sick and giving it to them to drink. When this was done, they all arose as if from sleep and one only died.
 For the headman John had not waited for the Saint's prayer to help his brother, but ran to a woman who used enchantments
 and, taking an amulet from her, hung it on to his brother, who immediately died." Witchcraft in the Christian Iberian Peninsula
 was rare and scarce, at least in the XIII Century; it can be thought if we take the fact that in the inquisitorial processes of the
 XV-XVIII Centuries carried out in the territories conquered by the Christians in the "Reconquista", it show us how the witches
 expressed that many of them were instructed in such arts by "Muslim" witches... and even most of the witches processed were
 really "Moriscas" (the Muslim population that remained in the conquered Al-Andalus). Indeed, when there was some case of
 witchcraft in the reconquered territories, it coincides mainly with ancient Muslim-populated villages. So, we may conclude that
 when the Christian settlers or colons arrived there, they hadn't much idea about how to practice witchcraft and therefore,
 in the XIII Century Christian Hispanic kingdoms the sorcery wasn't common in the moment of the Reconquista (or at least
 popular).
 
 

 CHRISTIANITY OUT FROM ROME:

 Ireland became Christian in the course of the V century with St. Patrick (a Romanized Briton): after, there were some remnant
 heathen groups. It is estimated in a quarter of million the inhabitants of Ireland in such epoch.

 Many german tribes are Christianized but in the Arrian heresy in the IV-V Centuries in their homelands (Vandals, Goths,
 Ostrogoths, Gepides...).

 The Hermunduri were also a tribe of the Germans (later called Thuringians from 420 CE) and occupied large parts of
 central Germany. Arianism was introduced to this tribe by the Visigoths and Frisians. They were overthrown by the Franks
 in 531 and converted to Catholicism in 742 by Boniface.

 In Procopius' Wars (middle of the VI Century) it is related how the Heruls, or Heruli "After being defeated and plundered by
 the Gepids and flee from actual Romania [in 450] [...] But when Justinian took over the empire [527 AD], he bestowed upon
 them good lands [in north Serbia]and other possessions, and thus completely succeeded in winning their friendship and
 persuaded them all to become Christians. As a result of this they adopted a gentler manner of life [previosly slained elders,
 sicks, the widows were compelled to commit "suicide", commited human sacrifices] and decided to submit themselves wholly
 to the laws of the Christians, and in keeping with the terms of their alliance they are generally arrayed with the Romans
 against their enemies. They are still, however, faithless toward them [the Roman neighbours of Belgrad], and since they are
 given to avarice, they are eager to do violence to their neighbours, feeling no shame at such conduct. And they mate in an
 unholy manner, especially men with asses, and they are the basest of all men and utterly abandoned rascals."
 These Eruli or Heruli otherwise were extinct by the VII Century after the wars that decimated them of the Vand VI centuries.

 Out of the Roman territories there were the Chaldeans and the Eastern Assyrians, all of whom spook the Aramaic language
 and were under the Persian Empire, inhabiting where nowadays is placed Iraq. Contrary at the slow Christianization of the
 Assyrians under Roman power, it seems that the fact that the Zoroastrian Persians were the masters of Iraq fueled to many
 to adapt a contrary - contestative religion. In 451, the Assyrians and the Chaldeans set up a separated church instead to
 remain as Catholics since they prefered the heresy of Nestorius (he used to believe that Jesus was not Christ, and that they
 were not the same entity; it is as to say in "modern" words that Jesus, the man, was possessed by Christ, the God, giving them
 then different personalities). Also it has been suggested that such separation was pushed as a mean to stablish differences
 among Roman Catholics and Assyrians as to forecome suspicacies from their Persian rulers. Otherwise, instead of Catholicism
 or Nestorianism, their Christianity was by sure (as is nowadays according to reverend Wigram) mixed with non-canonical
 practices, as the use of  the ancient magical arts: "All over the land inhabited by the Assyrians nearly every village would
 produce an old man or old woman who was knowledgeable in the matter of spells", the practice of many techniques to foretell
 the future, as per example "the Numbers of the name.", the use of magical medicine along with its charms, the belief in the
 "Evil Eye", or the rituals to sacrifice animals in churches dedicated to the Lord.

 Mesopotamia (nowadays Iraq) was divided in North and South (as is today in fact): before the Arab conquest, the North
 was inhabited by Assyrians, who were Christians (Nestorian sect) and Pagans, but it is diffucult to ascertain proportions.
 In the south there were the Chaldeans, that according to St. Ephrem (378), there was no country more infected with
 Manichaeism than Mesopotamia in his day. This comment seems highly real if we take into account that in the Caliphal
 epoch, though not numerous in Bagdad, Manicheans were scattered in the villages and hamlets of Irak. Perhaps actual
 differences among Irakians come from the fact that being Chaldeans Manicheans, and Assyrians Nestorians, after their
 conversion to Islam the North got mainstream Islam where the south got Shiite Islam (60% in today's Irak). If Manichaeism
 was present also in hamlets it means that this religion (a blend of Mazdeism, Christianity, Buddhism and Gnostic ideas)
 affected also the rural inhabitants before the Muslim invasion.

 Outer from the Roman Empire and Mesopotamia the Christianity reaches the nomad tribe of the Lakhmids (between the
 Euphrates and the Persian Gulf). Ethnically Arabics, Nestorians in religion. Other Arabian tribe were the Ghassanids (in the
 dessertical zones of Syria and Jordania), followers of the Monophysite heresy. The Arab's first monotheist religion was
 then Christianity. Even under the Roman Empire there were the Nabateans, whom were sedentary Arabs that inhabited what
 is nowadays the Negev and Jordany (the dwellers of the famous city of Petra), and that around the V Century, as seen in the
 writen testimonies that speak us about their bishops and the archeological remains of churches of the area, were being
 Christianized to a certain point. Also there where the aforesaid Arab nomadic tribes that encamped between the Jordan river
 and the Euphrates river, whom acted as "Foederati" or allies of the Romans and took an heretical Christianity. In the South
 of the Arabian Peninsula, contrarily, the religion prefered was Judaism, but there was also some success of the Christianity
 in the city of Najran (on the border Yemen - Arabia Saudi), as we know that there the Himyarite Jewish kings persecuted its
 Chistians in the V Century, as for the traditions related to the preaching of Christianity there by a native named Hannan
 who came from the Lakhmid capital, Hirah. Yet there were more Arab buffer-kingdoms Christianized, as that of Queen Mawuia,
 who was converted and that in her kingdom was consacrated a bishop named Moses by 374 (Rufinus); or the account of Cyril
 of Scythopolis that tells how the Saracen sheik Aspebet after his conversion became the itinerant bishop  for his native land
 in 427. There were Nestorian bishops in Qatar, Socotra, Najran and Sanna; and there was Christian presence (traders ?) in trade
 posts as were Mirbat (South Oman) and Adan (Yemen). What to say more ? Even the Arab scripture was developed in Syria
 before the Quran, and served to translate the Gospel in Arab.

 Georgia enters definitively in the Christendom with the king Miriam III (284 - 361), with him, Christianity became the official
 religion. In the other side, it seems that the Georgians mixed Christianity with Animism similarly at the ancient Anatolians,
 in fact such "Anatolian-Caucasian" syncretism has been keept in the most high degree by the Pshavs and Khevsurs:
 there are "xebisberi/xucesi", or pagan priests who keep the shrines of the gods known as "jvari", where sacrificies are enacted
 by the local brotherhoods [sadzmo] to request health, good harvests, etc. to their gods (Samdzimari, Giorgiash/St. Georges,
 and other minor divinities named Xvtisshvilni). Even there are special mediators among the divinities and believers who act
 as possessed mediums known as "mk'adre" or "kadag" which have been choosen previously by the gods by means of illness
 or personal tragedies, and serve for the people as oracles. They also keep cult to sacred oak trees [bermuxa] standing in the
 precincts of the chief shrines. Another aspect, is the cult of the dead, who became semidivinized as it is perfomed a banquet
 in their honour that includes sacrifice, till the point that some of the death receive cult in their tombs, where the "mesultane",
 or medium, takes contact with them. For those who have died in evil conditions, the mountainards perform the rite of "qsna" as
 to free the soul of the dead which includes sacrifice of a black goat, since they believe that such souls are captured by
 demoniacal gods, by that they offer the goat, to exchange it with the soul of the person. This rite amazingly is similar and
 has the same purpose as the rites of exorcism among the syncretic Obeah Jaimaicans. Similarly, the "dev" and the
 "gamits’rivleba" which are evil divinities have their own sacred places where the locals offer to them food or slaughtered
 animals to appease them.
 In fact all along the Caucasian ranges of Georgia has been mantained much or less the old paganism blended till some degree
 with Chistianity. Starting from the west, the Abkhazians worship spirits like Afe, the god of the thunder, Shasta, the god of the
 artisans, or Aitar, the god of the flocks and fertility, etc. They also mantain sacred trees and perform animal sacrifices. In Svania
 there are the cult to Dael, goddess of the wild animals, who receives worship and animal sacrifices; to Jgëræg, to Lamaria, and
 to Barbol who is the goddess of the flocks and health; such gods receive offerings in small shrines known as "witin". The
 Mingrelians offer cult to the femenine spirit Galenishi-Orta who presides over health, the protection of livestock, and the
 recently death; her masculine double is invoked as Zhinishi-Orta. These spirits are the object of a cult performed in mountains
 or forests, and receive offerings of cheese or sacrificed goat.
 So once stablished that in the beginning the Georgians mingled their old beliefs with Christianity, when some of them might
 have splitted from such syncretism as to be fully "Orthodox" ?  Did carry "Kartvelization", or the expansion of the oficial
 Georgian dialect over other Georgian tribes, orthodoxy ? According to an Italian Catholic missionaire of the XVII Century:
 "neither of the Devil, nor of the angels, nor of God itself, the Georgians have not so much fear as for the moon. They take it
 as their emblem of devotion. The luck, the bad luck, and the sickness depend of her. The monday inspires a great respect in
 them, as it is the day consecrated to her. They name her Toutachka and they feast her day as the Jews feast the Sabbat ".

 The Laz (in Lazica, which was western Georgia or Mingrelia) were Christianized since the sicth century according to Byzantine
 sources, in fact the king Tzathius I was rebaptized in 522. The Laz is a language related to Mingrelian.

 Armenia was declared Christian Nation around 314, but it joined the Monophysite heresy in the middle of the VI Century.
 Notwithstanding the doctrines, theology, and canons of the Armenian Church were guidelines rather than legal documents
 or dogmas; similiarly morals were teached, but it was in the hand of the faithful to decide what is wrong or good.
 This logicaly led to a lax morality (as per example that priets receive money to pray for the faithful: Simony), but even more,
 to a syncretic Christianity. Nowadays, the religious Armenians tie robes to sacred trees and fear the wrong acts of the "dew"
 or evil spirits (till the point to appease them with sacrifices ?). In the other side, the pagan survival most stricking is "madagh",
 or animal sacrifice commited with chickens, doves, lambs, etc. which are slaughtered after being blessed by the priest in a hut
 near the church. Such offerings are to honor Armenian saints [similar at Muslim Maraboutism], to acquire good luck, to honor
 deceased persons (as in cults of the dead), or usually to "honor" God, but in a way that seems sinful as the sacrifice comes to
 be a mean to "bribe" God when the parishioner wishes to have health, increase flocks, prosperity, rain, etc. Even madagh
 serves as a mean to be forgiven by past sins, so that Christ's passover comes to be inefectual, or allowing it to sin as much
 as one is capable to buy doves to slaught... Then the Armenian Christians have had from the beginning a very deviated
 Christianity.

 In the other hand, we have the perhaps too much triumphal Letter CVII (to Laeta) of St Jerome, where gives us a glimpse
 about the spread of Christianity outside of the Roman Empire: "From India, from Persia [perhaps mainly from Mesopotamia],
 from Ethiopia we daily welcome monks in crowds. The Armenian bowman has laid aside his quiver, the Huns learn the
 psalter, the chilly Scythians [some dwelling in Constantinoble were Christianized, but Scythia by then comprissed actual
 Romanian Dobrudja] are warmed with the glow of the faith. The Getae [in Wallachia, RO], ruddy and yellow-haired, carry
 tent-churches about with their armies: and perhaps their success in fighting against us may be due to the fact that they
 believe in the same religion."

 South of Egypt (and out of the Roman Empire then), Christianity advanced in different ways; from one side the kingdom
 of Axum, which covered much of Abyssinia, was ruled by a Jewish élite that was Christianized by bishop Frumentus in
 the mid of the IV Century: the King Ezana was the first Christian ruler of Axum. Otherwise it seems that Christianity there
 did not advanced much in the next two centuries. For actual Sudan, Christianity was introduced in the second half of
 the sixth century among the Nobodeans that dwelt between the 1rst and 3rth catharact of the Nile, the Makorians between
 the 3rth and 6th catharact, the Blemyes between the river and the Red Sea, and the Alwa/Alodaei who dwelt between
 the Blue Nile and the Black Nile and the region of Sennar (that near the skirts of the Ethiopian Highlands). These peoples
 were of Nubian stock and remanined Christian in the Monophisite belief till that Arab bedouins from Egypt invaded the
 area after the collapse of the Nubian kingdoms in the XIII Century; after some time passed and mix of races happened,
 arabization and islamization prevailed upon them.

 By the Dialogues of Sulpicius Severus, we can think that at least a part of the nomadic Lybian tribes that inhabited the
 Cyrenaica were Christian since the middle of the IV Century: "[the Cyrenians] all are free from the payment of taxes. [...]
 There I find an old man, in a garment made of skins [...] we discovered that that host of ours was a Presbyter -a fact which
 he had concealed from us with the greatest care.  We then went with him to the church, which was about two miles distant
 [from the coast], and was concealed from our view by an intervening mountain. We found that it was constructed of
 common and worthless trees, and was not much more imposing than the hut of our host, in which one could not stand
 without stooping. On enquiring into the customs of the men of the district, we found that they were not in the habit
 of either buying or selling anything." It is preferable to speak about a part of the Cyrenians since some people of the
 village was capable to speak in Latin with the narrator, something not usual among nomads by such epoch.

 In 569, the chronist John of Biclar anonces the conversion of the Garamantes (a Berber nation who inhabited the oasis
 of Lybia), but by 642 their lands were conquered by the Muslim Arabs.

 Then there where also many other regions reached by Christian missions or populations, but these will be treated in a
 special chapitol.
 

 

 First set-back 400-500________________________________________________________________________

 On 31 December 406, the Rhine froze and the German tribes crossed the river, not without many human losses: the Gaul
 and Hispania become their lands, and this cut of connection between Rome and Britannia was the decisive fact for the
 British Island's independence, but the Britons, seeing the Pict and Scot menace, convened the Saxons...

 German tribes occupy England (Britannia), Switzerland (Helvetia), Bavary, Austria (Rhaetia - Noricum) and Hungary
 (Pannonicum). The Christians there were mostly romanized and urban, but they fled away from these regions.

 Curiously, the Germanic invasion had a positive effect on the spread of Christianity in Hispania and Gaul: as much of the
 Latin urban elite fled to its more sure "villae", from here, the Christianity reached effectively the rural dwellers: they became
 a new "rural elite", ruling over a big number of no Latin peasants; otherwise, we would speak today of a germanized Hispania
 or France (Germanic Goths and Francs were the urban elites, in some regions). Notwithstanding, these German peoples
 left for the Romans the administrative and commercial affairs, the new rulers occupied only the militar chast; per example, in the
 Visigothic Hispania, each province had a Roman governor, who administered Roman law to the Hispano-Roman population.
 

 BRITANNIA ( ENGLAND WALES ) -

 The Roman power abandon its Britannic possessions in 383. In the British Islands, when all the Roman power comes down
 near 410, the Latin and the Christianity only affect the South of England (minority) being more reduced when the Roman
 troops, administration and its relatives fleed from here; the power passed to local, Celtic military leaders and Celtic aristocrats.
 These aristocrats supported a Celtic warrior named Vortigern (Pelagian), that in 442 was treasoned by the protecters of his
 reign, the Anglo-Saxons, attacking the Vortigern's army. The result was a terrible battle near London, and after this fight,
 the Anglo-Saxons continued a campaign of pillage and slaughter against the Celts. A witness of that, Gildas, reported
 "All the major towns were laid low by the repeated battering of enemy rams; laid low too the inhabitants (church leaders,
 priests and people alike), as the swords glinted all around and the flames crackled". By this time, the Christian Celts were
 heretics (Pelagianism: no baptism, no original sin, relativity of the divine grace for the salvation: the Man can reach salvation
 by his behaviour, then, faith and dogma were also relative). A later Briton king, Constantinus, stated that  it "had taken hold
 of the people over a great part of the country". Otherwise, it seems that the Britons more than heretics were syncretics,
 circa 472, Nennius accounts that "The king (Vortigern) invited his wizards to him, and asked them what was to be done.
 [ a fortress in Wales] [...] They answered 'Unless you find a child without a father, and he is killed, and the stronghold is
 sprinkled with his blood, it will never be built at all'."

 The Anglo-Saxons continued their forays westward, massacring and pillaging their way to the sea that separates Britain
 from Ireland, while the Celtic Britons fled into the hills (Wales, Cornwall), The Cornish were under such pressure that many
 of them crossed over to Brittany. Otherwise, Christians in Britannia surely were scarce in this emigration: Because of the
 Christianity in the West was almost all urban, because of the number of churches discovered (four), because of its poor
 urbanization, and because of only some cities had bishops in such epoch. Conclusion: The possible percent of
 Christian Britons was around the 3%, and they were governors, communicants, priests, and so on, the most hurt people
 at the arriving of the Germanic invaders (the Celtic peasants at least could survive exploiting their lands, but not so the
 urban elites, substituted by the Saxons, Angles and Jutes)... England was under Roman rule from 43-45 AD to 410, i.e.,
 365 years, but no Latin-speaking (Romance) population survived in England.

 Procopius, in the mid of the VI Century, gives us an insight on the situation of the Britons: "Three very populous nations
 occupy the island [Great Britany], each one with a king and a unique name: they are the Anglians, the Frisians, and those
 which the name is the same as that of the island, the Britons. It is so much the overpopulation that each year, in big
 quantities, they migrate with women and children towards the country of the Franks; and these asign for the newcomers
 the portion of their territory which seems most desertic [surely directed to the actual Brittany, which has keept a Celtic
 language till today]; and from there, they say, they get prerrogatives over the island." [source: "Histoires"]
 

 GERMANIA  ( W GERMANY NEDERLANDS ) -

 The constant attacks of the Germans made desolate the zones with actual German speech between the Rhine and the
 French - German isoglosse: " the communities near the Rhine were destroyed by war. Refugees fled south, to Roman territory,
 only to find themselves burdened by crippling taxation and administrative corruption." ( Encyclopedia Britannica ). As
 consequence, these lands were mostly populated by ethnic Germans. The colonization of these German newcomers started
 in epoch of Alexander Severus (III Century), when it was agreed to leave to the Germans to settle in the no man's lands
 between the Rhin and the Mosel; the same agreement was accorded under the reign of Julianus (around 360). Alsace and
 Northern Switzerland were conquered only half a century later (see further explanations in the next subchapter). Otherwise,
 the ethnical rupture was not so hard: when these lands were Roman, much of the substrate (it is, the indigenous original
 population) was Germanic.

 I donnot think that these population's withdrawals were massive, when this process occurred, the Romanized and somewhat
 Christianized citizens almost exclusively were urbanites. It could represent a fled of some 5 - 12 %. Also, the ethimology can
 answer many times historical processes, per example, the term Wallon, referred to the French speaking population in Belgium,
 and the term Allemand for the Germans leads to the conclusion that the linguistic (and religious once) boundaries are old:
 Wallon derives from "Walha", meaning in old German "foreigner", and the French word "Allemand" comes from the name
 of a German tribe, the Alemani. In fact, the actual Flanders in the Roman period wasn't urbanized at all: the unique towns
 of importance were precisely in the Wallon country (Tongres, Arlon, Tournai...), and the presence of villae in Flanders
 was very scarce; and without cities there wasn't latinization, and without latinization, there wasn't effective chistianization.
 Indeed, the actual linguistic frontier between romance and germanic in Belgium hasn't changed very much over the time
 according to Eliseé Legros: it follows the ancient Roman line of fortifications (castra) placed between St. Omer and Tongres,
 leaving the Flemish territories nominally controled... and it would be logic, who would like to dwell in front of ten milions of
 Germans ready to plunder, steal, burn, rape and kill ?

 In whichever case, when some Germanic peoples crossed the Rhin by 406, the native populations might have been Celtic
 (Belgian, or German even), and maybe also pagan since by then the Gaul was as seen deeply Celtic and deeply pagan
 just three decades before. It would be logic that the de-romanization would have led astray the possible converts to the
 Christianty among the native population, if in any case the process of christianization affected also the unstable regions
 in front of the Rhin. In the other side, the conquest of the region by un-romanized Germans would have carried there
 deeply heathen people.
 

 PANNONIA - NORTH ILLYRIA - RHAETICUM - NORICUM ( W HUNGARY AUSTRIA N CROATIA AND S BAVARY ) -

 The Latin population (much of it Christian) were under such pressure in these regions by successive invaders, that
 they left their cities around the mid of the V century for the most stable castles of the Alpine zones or the cities of
 the Dalmatian Coast.

 The relatively stable Roman power in Rethia ends around 400; in this time according to historical sources, the Rethian
 troops were ordered by their general Stilicho to abandon such province and to depart towards Italy.

 In the year 453 St. Severius starts to preach the Christianity in the region of Passau (Noricum).

 In the Danubian frontier, the ruler of Italy, Odoacrus, seeing that the frontiers will not stop the German pressures and
 infiltrations, ordained to the Roman populations that yet remained in the north of the Alps (Noricum) to take refuge in
 Italy (476)... nowadays, their descendants are the Friulians, in the East of Venice, and they speak Rhaeto-romanic.

 Around the V Century, the dead bodies of St. Severius and St. Florian in Noricum, and St. Quirinius in Pannonia were
 carried away towards Italy.  It was because the Christians of these provinces had fear that the barbarian hordes would
 steal these death bodies ? I'm convinced that it wasn't so. The main explanation could be that the Christians, seeing the
 withdrawal of the Roman cohorts, feared the imminent and sure devastation of their cities by the barbarians living just in
 the North Danube's bank, then, the most logical conclusion is that the majority fled towards Italy, carrying away their holy
 relics. Per example, the buried body of St. Quirinus, located firstly in the "Sopron gate" (Old Scarbantia, Hungary),  was
 carried to Rome in AD 395, when the Christians were fleeing from the Goth - barbarian invasions. Another evidence
 is that we have no trace on continuity of bishops or bishropics (Lauriacum - Lorch, Vinbodona - Wien, Emona - Ljubljana... ).
 Moreover: major cities as Emona (Ljubljana) were plundered by the Goths around 450, Aquincum/Budapest was abandoned
 by the Romans in 409, allowing its quick destruction, and Scarbantia/Sopron after the expulsion of the same Romans
 was occupied by the Avars.

 The situation in the  Noricum - Raethia - Pannonia after their immigration was surely as follows: Badly romanized Celts
 in the rural areas (majoritaries) that occupied the abandoned cities and basilicas only to wait just some months for the
 Alemani, Bavari, Gepidi and Langobardi. Worse, the north Alpine region of Raethicum hadn't any real process of
 colonization; and urbanization was undeveloped due to constant bleeds by wars.
 To support this theory, I report these facts: The unique Latin place names that have survived is for some of the ancient
 Roman cities / The Magyar language hasn't Latin traces and this is a fact not expected if the Magyars would have found
 Romanized population. / Epiphanios writes (70, 15, 4) about the Christian-Catholic persecutions in Pannonia by a Goth