Fourth set-back_______________________________________________________________________________

  Asia Minor 1050-1350, by Turks.
 

THE CATHAR MENACE:

There have been many heresies along the history of Christianity, but the most threatening by far in de Middle Ages was that of the Paulicians. The Paulicians had their roots in Armenia, were they mixed Christianity with the dualist religion of Mani, which was deeply rooted in the Gnosis. The final result was a cosmogony where the "Good God" created the spiritual world and two master angels: Satanael and Jesus; Satanael rebelled, and he created the material world and the human beings, where the souls of the rebelled or deceived angels live with subtleties as the carnal passions or the worldly delights (demiurg). In fact all matter was created so by this demiurg. The condemn for these angels was the eternal reincarnation in human or animal bodies until they unveiled that (gnosis) and joined the sect. The Paulicians identified this demiurg with the Christian God and rejected the equity of the biblical patriarchs (Moses, Jacob, David, John the Baptist...) along with the Old Testament and its Law, preferring the enemies of Yahweh (the Sodomites, Pharaoh, Philistines, Herodes...). They also rejected the birth of Christ, its death and its resurrection because he was an ethereal angel, as Mary, and these facts were only appearances; moreover, they rejected the ideas of a future Judgment, or the existence of a Hell or Purgatory. Finally, they rejected the divinity of Christ. The base of these beliefs were in the four Gospels and some more of their own (apocryphals). As consequence of their cosmogony, they developed different customs, morals and beliefs than those of the current orthodox Christians:

The diversification of their beliefs, each community developed its own system: from here the fact of the existence of many branches of this sect, expressed also by its different names (Bogomils, Cathars, Bulgars, Waldesians, Selicians...). Per example, in most of the Western branches, there was an extreme dualism: two gods, one as benevolent (Christ or Lucifer), and a second as malevolent, Yahweh. The Bogomil calendar had a week of six days (60 weeks a year), and each month had 6 weeks (or 36 days), conforming thus a year of 10 months; to arrive to 365 days, at the end of the year five days were added up to rest (as the "Death Days" of the Egyptians or the Mayans). There weren't holidays. Marriage was sin because it leads to sexual intercourse and it leads to bear children, attaching with the material world, condemning another soul, and creating more matter. As alternative, other various forms of sexual activity were encouraged in its place; the vulgar English expression 'bugger' is a corruption of 'Bulgar', the name often given to the Bogomils in the West because of their Balkan origin. The children can't be saved until they reached reason and joined the sect... the reader can think what it would have driven. The Messalian branch was the most radical about that, and they were the best "gourmets". The most ascetic currents called for the strictest avoidance of meat and other animal foods, wine, milk and sexual activity to don't be subject to the material world. But in general, the moral was lowered, due to an indifference placed on performance in the material world with the belief that all bodily sins would be erased by the rite of consolamentum before death; from that moment on, strict chastity and a state of endura or total and suicidal fasting was required, and there was no escape, physically, though they were sure to save their souls, so they died "pure". The rejection of the cross and the icons, made with matter; on the other hand, they had a symbol that resembles that of the Turkish flag, but in horizontal position.

The inexistence of churches, they had only special rooms in their houses dedicated to pray: four times by the day turned towards the Sun, and four times by the night turned towards the Moon. The rejection of the Catholic or the Orthodox churches, its influences, and its hierarchies, seen as Satanics. What was better, they saved so the tithe. Recanting of the christening, the cross, and the faith in the Church of Rome for the new converts. The rite is reported by Petrus Vallecernensis, in his Historia Albigensium ( Story of the Albigensians ) referring to the Provenzal Cathars. The possession of goods were seen as sin: the properties were given to the Cathar church. The rejection of the worldly authorities: against the kings or rulers, a nationalist or revolutionary instrument, as can be read after. They claimed that man should abstain from labour too, because "labour multiples the domain of the Devil". Finally, they claimed that riches are far to be saved; it would have been music for the ears of the poor. They maintained that it was lawful to conceal or even deny their ideas for fear of persecution; thus, many of them lived externaly as Catholics or Orthodoxs.

Because of this last fact, it is hard to track the real numbers of heretics, and even the archaeology cannot help us here. But there are written sources referring the Paulician sect that can guide us. Needless to say, the impression of that Luciferian sect on the men of the Middle Ages surely would have been much more than these of the Heaven's Gate or the God's Children of nowadays. Paulicianism was preached first in the VII C. by a Costantine of Manali in the Monophysite regions of Pontus, Cappadocia and Armenia with success, afterwards also was preached in Anatolia proper gaining many converts from Iconoclacism (Christians agaisnt images and icones). Another source for expansion of Paulicianism was Armenian inmigration towards western Anatolia in the VII-VIII centuries profiting from the mostly unpopulated and devastated lands that suffered Arab raids. Also it was eased since Armenian acted by then in Anatolia as Lingua Franca for commerce when Greek was the language of the power and of the administratition. The first Iconoclast emperors - Leo III, the "Isaurian" (717-741) and successors protected them; even Conybeare counts these emperors as practically Paulicians themselves (op.cit.). Constantine V (741-775) transferred large numbers of them to Thrace to defend it against the Slavs (yet Pagans, and perhaps from here it began the preach of the heresy over the balkanic Slavs... in the Balkan Peninsula their new converts received the name of Bogomils).  Nicephorus I (802-811) tolerated them in return for their service as soldiers in Phrygia and Lycaonia. Michael I (811-813) began to persecute them and his successor Leo V, though an Iconoclast, tried to refute the accusation that he was a Paulician by persecuting them furiously. A great number of them at this time rebelled and fled to the Saracens. Theodora, regent for her son Michael III (842-867), continued the persecution; hence a second rebellion under one Karbeas, who again led many of his followers across the frontiers. From the second half of the IX Century, the Orthodox Slav monks Cirilius and Methodius, started to preach to the Bulgarians - Macedonians, and some years after, the Bulgarian king made his reign officially Christian (865), but the masses of peasants remained Pagan for much time; and what was worst for Christian preaching, is that according to Petrus Siculus' writtings, the Paulicianists were sending missionaries to Bulgaria. The Basileus (Caesar) John I Tzimiskes (969-976) sent more Paulicians to Thrace to defend it, where they founded a center at Philippopolis (Plovdiv). In the 971, much of the Bulgarian kingdom was lost to the Orthodox Byzantine state, then, for many Bulgarians would have been better to deal with Bogomilism rather than with Christianity in a nationalist way (as the Irish - Ulsterian example). Moreover, the christianization in this short time would have not arrived to the mountainous regions: in fact, the Bogomil strongholds where the mountains: Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia and the Rodhopi Mountains (nowadays inhabited by the Pomaks, islamized Bulgarians), note how Bogomilism could be tracked taking in account the actual Balkan Muslims. In Bosnia it was the official religion. In the Cathar Synod of 1167, it was agreed decisions applicable to 'the seven churches of Asia", among which were "ecclesia Romanae (Greeks), Dragumetae (Macedonians), Meliguae, Bulgariae and Dalmatiae".

The impression among the clergymen wasn't lesser, in 1106, Theophylact of Ohrid wrote to the Basileus John Comnenus: "One of the monks and clergymen [a Bogomil leader called Vasiliy, Slav name], to my misfortune, scorned God and became a prey to shamelessness, rejecting the human feeling of shame, and assumed the figure of a harlot, rejected his own image and ate meat rather than fasting, [became] libertine rather than forbearing... That is why I ordered that this contagious and common disease be expelled from these territories [...]" What would have meant it, "contagious disease", in medieval times ?

To get some account of the presence of Bogomilism in the Balkans, there is that a papal legate stated that in Hercegovina bogomilism was general in 1180. By the synod of Turnovo (1211), the synod of Zicha (1221) and other iniciatives related to such heresy in the Balkans, we learn that this sect was still strong around Plovdiv [Thrace] and Ohrid [Albanese hinterland]. Note that these regions will become Muslim after the Otoman invasion: Bosnians in Hercegovina, Turks and Pomaks in Plovdiv, and Albanese In Orhid. In fact many of the Turks that inhabited Thrace (Bulgarian and Greek side), emigrated to actual Turkey after that Bulgaria and Greece gained their freedom in the XIX Century.

In that epoch (XI C.), the Bogomil heresy expanded with fortune on the cities of Lengadoc (Provence, their name Cathars) and of the Po Basin (Northern Italy, many names). Finally, in the XIII Century, the Paulician sect almost disappeared in the West through the preaching of Catholic orders firstly, its Inquisition and conquest after: French in Langedoc, Imperial in Italy. Its is said that in the West it almost disappeared, almost; yet today many sects claim to be descendants of this sect, but no much credit can be provided; where the sect really has survived secretly is inside of the Freemasonry, with its deep roots in the Middle Ages, otherwise, this fact is also unknown for the majority of masons. In the East, what finally swallowed the Bogomil sect was the islamization, as has been ascertained, by the Turkish (XIV -XVI Centuries).

Not a set-back but perhaps a great loose: the unity of the Church was broken officially in 1054, the East as Catholic, the West as Orthodox.

ANATOLY (TURKEY) -

Great proportion as Orthodox and Hellenic in the time of the Muslim conquer by Turkish tribes (XI c.). Above all in major cities, in the Pontus area, the Aegean seashores, and in Cappadocia. Other populations were Monophysite Armenians, Paulician Armenians and badly known old nations (Phrygians, Isaurians, etc.) that carried Paulicianism.

The Turkification might have been quick and absolute, at least for the rural and nomadic peoples of Anatolia: "The Emperor [Michel VI Stratioticus, 1056-1057], seeing that the Turks were moving up and had got as far as the sea of Pontus [Black Sea] taking captives, pillaging and burning [...]. As they were empty of inhabitants [the towns and villages of the Pontus region], this benefited the Turks who found there a place to live." (Michael the Syrian). Notwithstanding, Anatolia was sacked, depopulated and enpoverished since the VII Century by continuous Arab raids, so that it left a free way for future newcomers.

Before the Turks, Christianity was affected with similar Arab Maraboutism and Animism, no matter if practitioners were Orthodox or Paulicians (otherwise many Paulicians lived as nominal Orthodox by sure), and such customs also were keept by Muslims/Turks after the XI Century. Before that islamization took place, it is known that in Bidana (Isauria) there was a pilgrimage to honour St. Konon that included slaughtering of sheeps; near Kybistra an unknown St. Paul who dwelt in a spring healt by means of a palm tree; in the Asteles river (Frigia), an oak that grew up from the blood of a St. Therapon healt all diseases; in 753 we know of a Paphlagonian who went to offer a cow to St. Theodore to sacrifice; and St. Nicolas of Myra received offerings as blood of sheeps, wine, gold, etc. This type of "Christian Maraboutism" along many Animistic practices have been keept by many Georgians (see where Christianization of Georgia), and it is known here as "Anatolian-Caucasian Syncretism". This same Maraboutism was keept by the Anatolians that became Turkish and Muslim, but mainly changing names and religious afiliation: so today Saint George is worshipped under the fugure of the Prophet Elias and called Hidirellez or Hidir; similarly at Phrase, in Cappadocia, the Turks used to pay their respects to Saint Savvas and used to lit the candles; in the area of Akserai almost all the Christian saints were respected; in Tripolis (Pontus) the Turks worshipped together with Greeks the Virgin Mary, as in Cappadocia; or that Saint Mamas' corpse was worshipped by Moslems in his own church at Mamas (Cappadocia). A real proof of such transmission of the Maraboutism is that the same buildings were in common use both as Moslem sacred places, and Christian churches; also is proof that Muslims honour such saints slaughtering animals, and what ressembles more to maraboutism is that such converted Muslim saints punish those Muslims through corporal punishment and infliction of a sickness if is not goodly attended/worshipped. Of course, tree-worship is mantained all through Turkey also.

Another matter would be to know how much Christians found the Turks, or at least what types (Orthodox, Monophysite, Paulicianist, Syncretic). As it has been ascertained many times before, the ethnical compositions are crucial to know the religious proportions. The reader should license me to adjudicate Orthodoxy for the Greeks, Monophisism for the Armenians, and Syncretism or Paulicianism for Armenians latterly islamized and turkized. Why these adjudications ? Well, everybody knows: Greeks and Turks have had ever tense relations, and it would be rare to find an islamized Greek as to find today an islamized Jew, or a Palestinian embracing Judaism; and among the medieval people, whether Christians, Muslims, or Jews, they perceived ethnicity largely in terms of religious affiliation. Otherwise, it is easy to track the turkized Greeks (Karamanlis: with their own dialect, being Orthodox, and writing Turkish with Greek characters); or the islamized ones (in the area of Trabzon, but keeping their particular Greek and concealed Christianity). The traditional religion of the Armenians has been ever a Christian branch of monophysism, at least nowadays, but in the Byzantine period, all the sources were recording the relation among Armenians and Paulicians, even confusing all of them: "They increased [the Paulicians] in numbers until all the inhabitants around Philippopolis [actual Plovdiv] were heretics. Then another brackish stream of Armenians joined them." (The Alexiad XIV,VIII). In fact, where there were Armenians, there were Paulicians. Yet today, this relation can be seen: the areas most densely populated of Armenians in the XIX Century, are today the stronghold of the Alevism (an heterodox islamic sect). Moreover, the beliefs and practices commonly held by the Alevis are very related to the ancient Paulicianism...:

Pantheism, they don't see Allah as a god of justice, of punishment or of reward as in the Koran. Otherwise they recognize the Koran, but as an irrelevant book that should be read esoterically. They reject the existence of Heaven and Hell, and commonly they adhere to the reincarnationist belief. Almost no Alevi practices ritual prayer five times a day or goes to a mosque (cami) for the prayer service at noon on Fridays. Assemblies (cuma aksamlari, literally, "Friday nights") have been traditionally held on Thursday by night and are conducted with great secrecy in lodges (tekke) inside of particular houses. The assembly is leaded by a guru (dede), performing animal sacrifices (kurban), and leading the members - males and females - when dancing the "Semah", a dance characterized by turning and swirling, and symbolizing the putting off of one's self and union with God (ecstasy). Sins must be confessed at the guru. Avatars: the most important of them would be Ali (from there "Alevism"); he is seen as semi-divine, or even as a sort of Christian Logos. Existence of innumerable superstitions. The Sufi elitist variance of the Alevism, the Bektashi sect, is usually antinomian (ideological immoralism) at least in appearance: due to their most high knowledge, it allows them to don't follow the islamic mandates or laws (shariah). Also hermetism and initiations are maintained. The most radicals of them hold the belief that the orthodox Muslims are in fact devil-worshippers and get the figure of Ali, killed by the orthodox Muslims, as a flag against them. Also, they do not recognize Mohammed and do not view the Koran as a perfect book. Taking into account all these matters, and due to the absolute secrecy kept, joint to the obviously concealment of beliefs from the public, many critical non-Alevis agree on the rumor that during cem ceremonies held in the evenings, Alevis extinguish all lights and then commit incestuous and adulterous orgies (mum söndü). These rumors are fueled more if possible with the unions that dedescreate with two matrimonies for mutual aid...

Figures: before the abolition of the Bektashi Order in 1826, annual statistics were kept, and these figures showed the number of Bektashis to be 7.370.000: seven million being in Anatolia, and 120.000 in Stambul [it would have meant that almost all Turks were Alevis]; likewise "The  Perennial Dictionary of  World Religions" (Keith CRIM, 1989 - seen in ADHERENTS.COM) states that the number of Muslims affiliated with Sufi brotherhoods during the early Ottoman period (XVI c.) was certainly not less than half the population and may have been as high as 80 percent; In the WHITE's book (1913), he stated  that in "Asia Minor, about one-fourth of the population is Christian [25%, Orthodox as well as Monophysite], and of the remainder, perhaps a fourth is composed of Shiites or Alevis [19%]"; some years after, Besim Atalay, delegate of the Grand National Assembly, writing in 1924 estimated their numbers at 1,500,000; where Hasluck in "Christianity and Islam Under the Sultans" (1929) referred that Bektashis themselves claimed 3.000.000 as their total number [around 20%]. Actual estimations by Alevi writers and certain spokespersons claim that Turkey's population today is one-third Alevi-Bektashi, or more than 20 million [33%], lower estimates ranging from 10 to 12 million [20%]. The cipher most credible would be 17 - 20 millions of an amount of 64.500.000 inhabitants [around a 28%], according to the Summer International Linguistics, SIL.ORG. If we recognize that Alevism has its real roots in Paulicianism, we have a comment by Anna Comnena in her "Alexiad" (XV, VIII), written in the XII Century: "After this, in the course of the years of his reign, a very great cloud of heretics arose".

It has been demonstrated how quick the Bogomils - Paulicians were ready to accept Islam (In 1520, i.e., sixty years after Bosnia's conquest by the Turks, Sarajevo was 100% Moslem), and it could be stated that almost the majority of the new converts came from the Paulicist Armenians; remember that Paulicism was also a political or nationalist instrument, being anti-Byzantine, being anti-government. Also, it would mean that Armenians were surpassing the Greeks in Asia Minor, and some proofs can be adduced:

Strabo relates that Lydians retained many customs, but not so their language: in his time they were mainly hellenized. [Aegean Asia Minor] But Saint Jerome (he again !) stated around the year 400 of the persistence of a different language among the Galatians [Celtic surely, in the region of Ankara]. In the "Life of St. Theodore of Sykeon" we can read how the saint pronounced 'In truth children, we have eaten like Galatians'. Then, one can think that Galatians were yet a distinct ethnic group: Theodore was born in Galatia around 560, and it would be rare to hear "I've eaten as a French" by a French, isn't ? Around 500 AD, unruly Isaurians, mainly soldiers and masons, spoke their own language. Also Phrygian was probably still extant, since it appears in inscriptions as late as the third century AD (Mango). Council of Trullo (held in 661), canon XCV: "for there are many heretics here, especially those who come from the region of the Galatians" A great immigration of Armenians started in the sixth century, many settled in Cappadocia and other parts of eastern Anatolia close to their original homeland, others in Thrace, others in the region of Pergamon, and the last great migration, was towards Cilicia (SE Turkey) where they created an independent state: Little Armenia, or Nova Armenia. The Armenians, since the middle ages, have been in large measure a diaspora people. The linguists argue that Phrygian and Armenian are very close linguistically, and that it is probably fair to say that they were also close ethnically [brothers one could say; or even father one, son the other...]. Perhaps the Byzantines confused Armenians with Phrygians, or may be Byzantines called "Armenians" all the Phrygians,  who knows. In the Suda, a Byzantine Encyclopaedia of the IX Century, among some definitions we find statements for ancient peoples in present: "Mura, a place in the eparchy [province] of the Lycians."; "Lydian...: For the Lydians are a comic target because they satisfy their genital urges with their own hands." Bekeselene:  the children called out "bekos." The Phrygians call bread by this name." Due to the losses of Egypt, Syria, and the Balkans, joint the constant Arab plunderings, Byzantium entered into   a phase of general ruralization; it would have lead to a weakness of the hellenization, the resurgence of the local languages, or/and the colonization of expanding nations (Armenians...). It is attested a general depopulation of the Anatolian Plateau in the XI Century. Recently discovered sources of the 12th and 14th centuries mention a Christian community, which lived between Samsun and Ordu (Canik region), the members of which are referred to as Cans (=Chans, no Greeks).  According to one argument, the name of Canik is derived from the name of this Chan or Tzan tribe. After the effective conquest of the area by the Seljuks in the 13th century this region was subjected to intensive Turk colonization. Strange fact is that Greek was present in the XIX Century were it was also spoken around III BC: Greece, of course, Aegean coasts and islands, Cyprus, major Anatolian cities, Northern Anatolian coast (Pontus), Southern Anatolian coast (Panphilia and Cilicia), and in a small part of Cappadocia (famous region being the place of the subterranean cities and churches; and the only place where saints and martyrs came form Asia Minor, excepting the coastal zones ...). Indeed, this situation is how if Greek would not have made any real progress... More strange if possible, the survivence of the Greek tongue in the major cities, places where the weak languages are firstly eliminated, or the non-existence of Greek villages in isolate or mountainous areas, were a language that goes to extintion would be keept longuer. In the past century, out of the traditional Armenian homeland, the Armenians filled the merchant and manufacturer classes inside of the cities being serious rivals for the Greeks in wealth and importance. And now a question of logic: if Armenians in cities were so wealthy, how we can explain that they were before poor immigrants ? It is that the Turks are too lazy ? My hypothesis, is that Armenians were the majority in Asia Minor when the Selyuzids arrived; after, the Paulicianist Armenians converted easily to Islam (as the Bosnian case), along with many Monophysite Armenians (as the Syrian or Egyptian cases), being all of them turkized. The remaining of the Christian Armenians, would have been of two types: one urban and wealthy, as were the rich mozarabians in Spain; and the other as farmers that resisted more easily the conversion to Islam and the turkization by living in isolate and mountainous areas, less controlled. The orthodox Muslims call the Alevis "Türkmen". How can be understood that ? I think that the ethnic ascription for this religious group was because they were perceived by other nations as Turks, but we know that Turks arrived from Central Asia without Alevism but Muslim orthodoxy; indeed it would have occurred if Armenians would have changed of religion and nationality by one new... The Armenian genocide of 1915-1916 effectively wiped out the Armenian population of Turkey, claiming some  1.5 million victims [representing that a 14% of the total inhabitants of Turkey], the terrible gaps in the ranks of the sedentary Armenian populations were filled by nomadic Kurdish, shepherds from the south-east; but this Kurdish penetration of Armenia had begun already by the tenth century AD. About the Greek fate in Asia Minor, was somewhat less letal: they were exchanged for Turkish populations of  Greece. Before that and the W.W.I, they were approximately 1.750.000 (Greek Patriarchate statistics of 1912; the Turkish Official Statistics of 1910). It would have represented a 16% in Anatolia. The Greeks in Turkey were called "Rum", Romans.

These data leads me to give these final statistics: when the Turks arrived in Asia Minor, they would have found a 16% being Greek-speaking and Orthodox, a 14% Armenian and Monophysite, a 10% of nomad pagan Kurds, and a little portion as Assyrian Monphysites in the South-East (3%); the remainder (57%) was the effect of turkization. As we know today that Alevis were around two thirds among the Turkish-speaking population, we get a sure 40% of Armenian Paulicianists in the pre-Ottoman period. The not ascrived cluster would have been proportionately: a 4% Orthodox, a 4% Monophysite, and a 9% Paulician...; notwithstanding, I would suggest an overwhelming Armenian Monophysite origin for this group.

The map of the Turkish conquests in Anatolia over the Byzantines:
 

Sixth wave 1050-1250__________________________________________________________________________

South Spain (conquered to the Arabs and colonized by the Catholic Castillans); Romania (by the Vlach immigration from Macedonia and South Serbia). Mongol tribes are Christianized partially (see its main explanation under "Asia").

Dacia becomes Roman in the opening of the II Century. No evidence of Christianity in the Roman epoch has been found, neither in archeology, nor in documents. Time after, the Roman legions had to give up Dacia in 271 A.D. due to the relentless attacks of barbarians. It was robbed and plundered by the Goths, the Sarmatians and other peoples allied with each other. Emperor Aurelian"...Being convinced that the province with its diminished population could not be kept under control, gave it up and withdrew his troops under organized circumstances. In 271 the army's still remaining units were withdrawn and the population was transferred into Moesia". The withdrawn colonists, probably all or mostly Latin speaking, were settled just across the Danube in the Roman province of Moesia Superior (Upper Moesia). Then, Dacia falls over a dark age: abandoned cities, scarce population, no archeological evidence of Christianity, and any document referring to bishropics in the region. We must wait until the coming of the Vlachs ( Vallaquia ), from their homeland, in Macedonia and Greece,  - where even today Romanic speakers remain -, to find the first proofs about the effective christianization of these lands (for an exhaustive explanation see "Balkans").

Seventh wave 1250-1350_______________________________________________________________________

The Teutonic Order conquers the Baltic countries: Prussia, Latvia, Estonia and some parts of Lithuania. From Saxony the Roman German Holy Empire conquers pagan Elbe Slavs (Area of Berlin), and pagan Pomeranian Slavs that allows German colonization. Sweden conquers the Ugro-Finnic tribes of Finland: it carried Christianism there and Swedish colons. These political changes led the christianization of such regions.

In Pomerany evangelization began in 1122 as a preacher named "Bernard" went there firstly, but the Word was mainly rejected by the locals, but finaly Christianity succeed there; otherwise we may ask if it was by preaching or because such Baltic nation was progressively Germanized (and then Christianized) from the cities founded by German colons along the XII-XIV centuries. The Slav Kaishubs in Poland (some 300.000) are the descendants of the original Pomerians.

Similar account can be said for the Wends or Elbe Slavs (Abodrites and Lusitians which dwelt in East Germany), who were conquered by Germans in the X Century; but that after tribal revolt, these Slavs destroyed all bishropics which in fact were of German foundation. It was necessary to wait the second half of the XII Century to see how a crusading army led by Henry the Lion of Saxony, Waldimar I of Denmark, and Albert the Bear of Brandenburg set forth to convert the Wends by sword, allowing that German colinization along Christianization and Germanization: the Slav disappered there in the XVI Century, being the 80.000 Slav Sorbs the unique remaining descendants of the original inhabitants.

For Prussia, Latvia (Livonia and Curlandia), and part of Estonia, the German Teutonic Order succeded in its crusade against paganism and conquered such countries in the middle of the XIII Century; such conquer allowed the foundation of many Saxon cities, and even it allowed the complete germanization of Prussia (which was inhabited by the pagan Baltic Borussians). Prussian was almost extinct by the XVI Century.

As seen, the Germans were able to conquer and to colonize East Germany, Pomerania, Prussia and the Baltic states. They were the founders of cities in such territories, bringing then there civilization along Christianity. They were successful in carrying Christianity to such peoples, but many of them even were Germanized. Such Germanization which was centered and "irradiated" in/from the cities and was strengthened by means of intermarriages, was effective since the XVI Century, and it leads to think that along definitive Germanization, it was imposed Lutheranization over a mild syncretical Catholicism like that that had Borussians or Estonians. The situation was like that of Chile in America, where Spaniards founded cities, carried Catholicism and civilization, and after intermarriages the old native pagan population became Latino except some Mapuches in the south.

For Estonia we have that in the 13th century, Christianity caused burning burials to cease and corpse burial becomes dominant. But true Christianity was not accepted but since the XVIII-XIX, when the Moravian movement succeeded to convince at the countrymen (nominaly Lutheran) to forsook their heathen practices (but not many of their superstitions). Previously, in "The Chronicle of Livonia" by Balthasar Russow (1584), the Estonians were criticised along with the rest of Baltic societies for their sacrilegious ways: continued superstition and idolatry among the Estonian peasants was particularly irksome to Russow. But it comes to have some logic that Estonians were in such state, since all Church affairs and books were only in German or Latin, it was not since the XVI Century that there appeared the first Estonian translations (Lutheran and Catholic). The worship of Saint George, a forest spirit which guards the flocks, received animal sacrifices as late as 1680. Pre-Christian sacrificial meal at the grave used to be characteristic of the burial customs of the whole of Estonia up to the 17th Century, which included the sacrifice of a rooster to propitiate the deceased. When J. G. Herder became parson in Riga at the end of the 18th century (1764-1769), after examining the folklore of the locals saw that the ancient religious customs were very common among local peasants and were openly followed yet. The religion by then might have been similar at the popular Christianity of the Votians (living between Estonia and St. Petersburg).

Russian expanison (and then spread of Christianity) to the Moskow area: from the line St. Petersburg - Kursk towards the east til the Volga River (or Ladoga Lake - Niznij Novgorod - Voronez line as easternmost points). Foundations of Moscow, Tver, Tula, Riazan, Kostroma in the XII Century. The russification of these lands, which apport there cities and civilization, is over ancient Uralo-Altaic and pagan Slav tribes.

The Karelians received Christianity since 1227, after a crusade led by the prince of the Russian city of Novogorod. But it seems that the forced evangelization keept Karelians afar of true Christianity as it is documented that in the XVI Century it was necessary to send again misionaires by Makari, the archbishop of Novgorod, in order to bring those "astray from the real Christian belief" back to the bosom of the church. The archbishop criticised the Karelians for holding on to their ancestral beliefs, or following the superstition, worshipping groves, stones, rivers, springs, mountains, lakes, the Sun, the Moon and the stars, and sacrificing oxen, sheep and other animals to them, with no regard to their conversion to Christianity. In such epoch the Karelians took for themselves Christian names and Christian Russian loanwords. In the next centuries the Finnish and Swedish governments tried also to force Karelians to Lutheranism with some success, but notwithstanding the Karelians kept their syncretism as they revere thunder spirits as Ilia, guardian spirits of the flocks as St. Shpuashu 'the Saviour', etc. which received animal sacrifices until the thirties of the past century.

 Eighth wave 1500-1600_________________________________________________________________________

 Spain conquers Central and South America, and the Philippines also, imposing the Catholicism. Portugal colonizes Brazil.

 Although there aren't statistics on religion showing the evolution of Christianity in America, it is possible to get an idea about how was the evolution there through available census and racial statistics. It is due that the racial variant determines in such case almost every time the practiced religion; so, the black slaves arrived from an Animist Africa continued being animists also after their nominal christianization, otherwise it wouldn't be comprehensible the great acceptance among them of the Umbanda or the Santeria yet nowadays. For the indigenous part, we've the witnesses Antonio Zúñiga, in a letter sent to the king Philip II in 1579: "they simulate their Catholic beliefs and they are not more Christians than before of the conquest"; and Garci Díez Chucuito, who expressed: "the majority of the Indians aren't Christians" (also in lasting the
 XVI Century); but being true that there are not professional surveys about the magnitude of the Indigenous syncretism, it is known that the anthropologists that are studying these ethnicities point out that the majority of them continue with their animist-fetichist practices, having not importance if they have been christianized or not.

The concept "castas" in census comprises those races non-white and non indigenous: mulattoes, mestizos, and blacks.
The percentage of the races with a traditional concealed animism-politheism have been highlighted. // Information and table
compiled with: America Latina, Época Colonial, de Gonzalo Zaragoza, Anaya Ed. 1987 / História de Amèrica Latina, Leslie
Bethell, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1984 / Engerman,Stanley L., and Kenneth L. Sokoloff: Factor Endowments, Institutions, and
Differential Paths of Growth Among New World Economies in How Latin America Fell Behind, edited by Stephen Haber
(Stanford University Press), 1997. / Site

Breakage among Catholic Christians by Luther, Calvin, Enrich VIII, etc. Founders of Protestant Churches. Disgraceful wars of religion among Christians: France, Nederlands, Germany and Czech Republic; fueled also by economical and national causes and wills of power. After this belic period, Catholics are cohertioned in Ireland and Nederlands, while the Protestants are cohertioned in France.
 
 

Fifth set-back 1450 - 1600______________________________________________________________________

The Turks take the control in the Balkans, some nations as the Bosnians or the Albanians are converted to the Islam.

The Muslim Bosnians were converted by the Turks, but not from Christianity, but Bogomilism. Provably they never were real Christians, because when this "heresy" was preached during the reign of the Bulgarian emperor Peter (927-969) by a Bulgarian priest known by the name of Bogomil, the Slav neighbor tribes were mostly pagan yet ( Serbians ). Otherwise, it is true that they were converted to Catholicism under the Habsburg reign, by political reasons... and equally by political reasons they were islamized by the Turkish four decades after: one can suggest that to keep their identity they converted to Islam in an epoch where ethnicity was largely perceived in terms of religious affiliation.

In Albania, it is asserted that under the veneer of Christianity as well as Islam the primitive religious beliefs survived with the Albanians, especially in the highlands (adherence to ancient pagan beliefs also continued well into the twentieth century, particularly in the northern mountain villages, many of which were devoid of churches and mosques). It has been suspected that the real religion of the Albanians before the Turks was Bogomilism; a possible clue would be some statements that we can read in the "Life of Saint Romylos"; this Helleno-Slav saint fled from his monastery by fear of the Turks in 1371, he took refuge in Avlona (modern Valona / Vlorë, Albania) and he found that their inhabitants were "as sheep not having a shepherd. Most of them were crass in every way, ignorant and generally savage, accustomed to brigandage and murder. Others failed in the orthodox and true faith". Seeing this situation, the saint "invited them all into the community of the true faith and safe return to the flock of Christ".

After the Turkish conquest, Catholic Alban sources written around 1622 estimated that only one thirtieth of the Albanian population was Muslim. But conversion to Islam received a new impetus under the Bushatlis and Alî Pasha of Tepedelen. According to contemporary witnesses, the latter forced a number of villages to adopt Islam, and so by the end of the XVII Century, two-thirds of the people had converted to Islam.

Today the religious affiliation in this country is 2/3 Muslim, in the Center, 1/5 Orthodox, in the South, and 1/10 Catholic, in the North. We must take in account the groups of atheists, agnostics, deists and mixers... They can be more than the half, because this was a radical Communist country, where it was declared the official death of God, and to do the sign of the cross was punished with three years of imprisonment.

For the Macedonian and Bulgarian territories (including Northern Greece), the presence of Muslim populations was connected with the presence of Turkish or Pomak populations (Islamized Slavs). In fact the half of the inhabitants of these territories were Muslim on the eve of the independence of these regions from the Ottoman yoke: The Bulgarian Kenchov (1900) for the Macedonian territories: 1.037.000 Bulgarians, 214.000 Greeks, and 610.000 Turks and others; the Muslim population of the Great Bulgaria was 50% of the total population in 1876 according to the Ottoman census, which decreased to 12% in 1995 (Turks abandoning Bulgaria: 730.000 in 1878, 175.000 in 1925, 95.000 in 1940, 150.000 in 1951, 130.000 in 1978, and 180.000 in 1989). If we take the Muslim Turks as previous Bogomil Slavs, one can calculate that in the Balkan region formed by Bosnia, South Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Northern Greece; indeed the Slav Bogomils would have been around the half in the XV Century. How it is possible to carry out this cipher ? As it has been shown, the missionary campaigns among the Slavs started in the latter IX Century, but the persistence of the Paganism was strong:

In the Peloponnese (Southern Greece) the presence of pagan Slavs a short distance south of Sparta is attested in the latter part of the tenth century, that is nearly two hundred years after the first attempts to bring about their conversion. Equally telling is the case of the Slavs in Bithynia, at only fifthy kilometers from the Byzantine capital. The Byzantine name "Bulgarian" was applied to those Slavs already christianized, but in the half of the XII Century, Anna Comnene describing the Slav territories wrote: "On either side of its slopes dwell many very wealthy tribes, the Dacians and the Thracians on the northern side, and on the southern, more Thracians and   the Macedonians". With these statements, one can see that around the year 1020 (when the Byzantines took possession again of these lands), the Slav territories were mainly Pagan. If we know of the presence of Bogomilism in these lands before this year, and the anti-Byzantine, anti-Caesar, and anti-Greek Orthodox face of the Bogomilism, many Pagan Slavs would have preferred to deal with this "nationalist" sect. In fact, the success of this heresy was so great as to say "all the inhabitants of Philippopolis [with its surroundings] were Manichaeans" (The Alexiad).

After, with the Ottoman conquest, these amounts of Slav and Albanian Bogomils disappeared, conforming the new Turkish Muslims, and the islamized Albanians: the Slavs who converted to Islam lost their national consciousness and language almost entirely, being exceptions the Pomaks (members of the Bekhtashi sect and pastoralists) and the Torbeshs of Kosovo. But in this new "round", the contrary event also would have occurred: the new Ottoman yoke would have converted many Bogomils to the Orthodoxy, and maintained the already Orthodox Slavs within the Church. A real miracle if we take into account the economical taxes imposed to the Christians and the forced conversion that was particularly popular in the Ottoman epoch - that of devshirme or "blood tax" -: periodically boys of age ten or younger were taken from their families. They were raised as Muslims and later served in the military forces of the Empire as Janissaries. The female population was also subjected to this type of conversion, but there are much less data about the taking of young Christian girls for the harems of the Ottoman noble class.

Ninth wave 1600 - 1800________________________________________________________________________

Colonization of South Africa by Dutch peasants, and the East Coast of North America by British and French colons. Some attempts of evangelization in Africa, China and Japan. The peasnats of Lithuania accept Christianity.

Lithuania did not embraced Catholicism but after the XVI-XVII Century with the Counter-refomation, previously some among the ruler class embraced Christianity since the midlle of the XIV Century. The Catholicism arrived to Lithuania was of Polish ascendent: moreover Lithuania and Poland joined their crowns and formed a huge empire since the XIV Century. Maciej Stryjkowski in 1582 yet was capable to list 16 Lithuanian gods and the type of animal sacrifice dedicated to each one in his "Kronika Polska Litewska Zmodzka i Wszystkiej Rusi"; Jan Lasycki listed numerous Lithuanian gods: 76  (Jan Lasicius, "De diis Samagitarum caeterorumque Sarmatarum et falsorum Christianorum") around 1580.

The Sami, or Lapps, were the last Europeans to receive Chirstianity as it was needed to wait till the XVII Century to find Danish and Swedish missionaries among them. Otherwise, the religious Sami have retained mainly much of their ancient shamanic lore (Noaidevuohta): extasi induced by trance dance [joik] and drumming, regard for their old deities as the horned god of fertility, fire and thunder called Horagales, as well as the Sun goddess Beive, or the Moon goddess Manno. This shamanism is neither exempt of animal sacrifices, nor divination, nor black magic.

A second Russian expansion takes place towards the east (Ural mountains and Siberia) and towards the south till to reach the Black Sea and the Caucasian mountains  (starts in the XV Century, accomplished in the XIX Century). The Russian colons (the Cossaks) apport with them Christianity in the new lands, previously occuped by uralo-altaic nations mainly. Otherwise there were nations that ressisted complete russification and by that their religious state is different: Tatars, Karachay, Balkarians, Bashkirians (Uralo-Altaic nations) keept their Islam; the Cherkessians, Kabardinians, Chechens and Daguestanians (Caucasian nations) keept their Islam also; the Kalmuks, Tuvans and Buriats keept their Buddhism; only Komis, Udmurtians, Marians, Mordvians anf the scattered Siberian tribes converted mainly, but keeping also their Shamanism-Animism. Other peoples were simply completely Russified.

Christianity arrived first in Japan by the hand of the Jessuit Francisco Xavier in 1556. It seems that he and his correligionaries had some succes in the south, so that by the early XVII Century the opposition of the feudal lords increased (as Christianism also introduces the equalitarianism of the persons, "menacing" the status). The government of Yeyasu edicted two laws to persecute Christians and to expel missionaries in 1614-1616, so in the next year two Christians were decapitated, by 1618 68, by 1619 90, by 1622 happened the "Martirium of Nagasaki" where were crucified 47 Christians; by 1623 50 Christians were boiled, by 1624 were 200 those slained. In the period 1627-1634 the amount reached to 1200. In 1634-35 the Shimabara Revolt, which comprissed peasants and Christians of the region who were complaining about overtaxation, was suffocated by the local lords: some 37000 persons lost their lives. The situation was so radicalized that the Japanese government forbade the naval transit from/to Japan, and the burning of any foreign book, so that by the period 1639-1854 Japan was in an almost absolute national ostracism. Were the Westerner powers that pushed to Japan to open its frontiers to the foregin commerce, and was obligated to issue humanist laws.

Tenth wave 1800 - 1900________________________________________________________________________

North America is completely reached and colonized. Australia and New Zealand start to be colonized. Missions in Indochina and Indonesia, with partial successes.

Eleventh wave 1900 - 2000_____________________________________________________________________

The sub-Saharan Africa are rather christianized by the missions, above all after the sixties. The islands on the Pacific Ocean also receive a missionary impetus. To point that Christianity in the newly reached areas, after examination, is perceived that is being blended with Animism mainly; many of the new converts in fact are arriving to Christianity due that the missionaries of the different branches have much competence between them, and in a race to gain as more converts as possible, they in some way "buy" conciously or inconciously these animists: facilitating pits, doctors, giving medicines for free, building schools, etc.

Sixth set-back 1917 -  ... _______________________________________________________________________

Secularization, unbelief, and new religions are challenging the Christianity in the wide world, but with more incidence in Europe. It really began with the Soviet Revolution and its Atheism. Revolutionary processes in Europe, many times followed of persecutions and cohertions against Christians, above all in Eastern Europe. You can see the state of this secularization nowadays in Real International Statistics on Religion where you can see what people believe in: as per example Atheism, number of Agnostics, reincarantion believers in Australia, New Age in Sweden, Catholic practicings in Italy, opinion about abortion, religious people in USA, etc.

  (*): The Ancient Ottoman regions of Erzurum, Van, Bitlis, Mamouret-al-Aziz (North), Diyarbakir (North) and parts of Sivas.