[Servant of the 9]

Heresy, note, is not the pursuit of pagans - they were generally left alone - but the pursuit of people who claim to follow the same religion, but have different ideas of how to do it.

How very convenient.
The Christians redefined the prior religions as 'Devil Worship' and thus heresy, and then started burning them.

So9

[agarrett]

The Christians redefined the prior religions as 'Devil Worship' and thus heresy, and then started burning them.

  Well, in my original quote, I was referring to heretics such as the Cathari, the subjects of the Albigensian Crusade. Among their heresies was the idea that Communion was invalid unless the Priest was himself pure - through confession and penance. This does not, to my mind, qualify as a "prior religion" - they were most certainly Catholic. Also, it was this Crusade that gave rise to the well known saying, "Kill 'em all and let God sort it out."

  But, if you have an example of some pagan religion being defined as Devil worship, I'm still open to hearing about it.

Drew Garrett

[stands2reason]

You don't know what the word "heretic" means. Besides if all the pagans were forcibly converted when Christianity first took hold, how could there possibly still be pagans around 1000 years later?