SC - Maize not human food...

[Suzanne Berry]

In a message dated 5/8/00 9:57:40 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
ekoogler at chesapeake.net writes:

<< However, I do question your statements that Christianity did not pervade 
the
 whole population of the various European countries.  >>

Many folks do question me. Other than in rare cases, I usually just let folks 
believe whatever they will because they will anyway. 6 million tortured and 
murdered under the Inquisition and another 12 million burned later causes me 
to pause. Certainly those that were left alive may have been 'good' church 
members Here I have no disagreement but it is easy to get everyone on your 
band wagon if you destroy all those who oppose you. 

There were areas of Europe that did not labor under the yoke of the Church. 
IIRC, the first Christian priests did not enter the Isle of Man until 1650 
CE, well outside of SCA period. In early church contact with the Celtic 
tribes (especially Ireland) Druid and Priest stood side by side at the altar 
for many years. Some northern areas retained their original religions until 
well into the 1700s. And vestiges of pagan practices among the common folks 
remained deeply entrenched until early in the 20th century CE. Such a carry 
over does not indicate to me that Christianity was as 'pervasive' as is 
commonly thought or as widespread as the Church would have us believe. It is 
a fact that we have much art, books, architecture, etc., that shows an 
apparent large scale influence of the church in all areas of life but those 
works were created by the very class that was most influenced. Just because 
there is evidence of a fox in a hen house does mean that the chickens were 
friends with the fox. :-)

Be that as it may, I have no argument that the Church's stranglehold on the 
nobility and the wealthy class was very pervasive and complete at the very 
least with only a few notable exceptions. 

I still have seen no evidence that the preparation of specific feast foods or 
the abstention from certain foods was in anyway based on original thought. 
There are many instances where the exact opposite is true. Easter eggs 
(universal), coins hidden in cakes (Greek), the Yule log (Celtic), the boar's 
head (Celtic), decorating the hall with evergreens/wheat/fruit laden branches 
(universal), abstention from eggs and dairy on certain days (Roman), morality 
plays within the feast (Roman) , etc., are all plagiarized activities of the 
Church.

I am not closed to the idea that there could be examples that fall outside my 
perimeters. I just haven't found any yet. :-)

Ras