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Do not fill this in! === Other sacred sites === [[File:Spoleto SSalvatore Presbiterio1.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Physical Christianization: the choir of San Salvatore, [[Spoleto]], occupies the [[cella]] of a Roman temple|alt=part of a Roman temple that is now part of a church at San Salvatore]] The "Venerable Bede" was a Christian monk (672 - 735) who wrote what sociologist and anthropologist [[Hutton Webster]] describes as "the first truly historical work by an Englishman" describing the Christianization of Britain.{{sfn|Webster|1917|p=32}} [[Pope Gregory I]] had sent Augustine and several helpers as missionaries to Kent and its powerful King Ethelbert.{{sfn|Webster|1917|pp=33-34}} One of those helpers, Abbott Mellitus, received this letter from Gregory on the proper methods for converting the local people. <blockquote>I think that the temples of the idols in that nation ought not to be destroyed; but let the idols that are in them be destroyed; let holy water be made and sprinkled in the said temples, and let altars be erected and relics placed. For if those temples are well built, it is requisite that they be converted from the worship of devils to the service of the true God; that the people, seeing that their temples are not destroyed, may remove error from their hearts, and, knowing and adoring the true God, may the more familiarly resort to the places to which they have become accustomed.{{sfn|Bede|2008|pp= volume 1 chapter 30}}{{sfn|Webster|1917|p=36}}</blockquote> [[File:Monte Cassino - wide view.JPG|thumb|Monte Cassino Abbey now sits on top of the hill|alt=photo from a distance showing Monte Cassino Abbey on hill]] When [[Benedict of Nursia|Benedict]] moved to [[Monte Cassino]] about 530, a small temple with a sacred grove and a separate altar to Apollo stood on the hill. The population was still mostly pagan. The land was most likely granted as a gift to Benedict from one of his supporters. This would explain the authoritative way he immediately cut down the groves, removed the altar, and built an oratory before the locals were converted.{{sfn|Farmer|1995|p=26}} Christianization of the Irish landscape was a complex process that varied considerably depending on local conditions.{{sfn|Harney|2017|p=104}} Ancient sites were viewed with veneration, and were excluded or included for Christian use based largely on diverse local feeling about their nature, character, ethos and even location.{{sfn|Harney|2017|pp=120, 121}} [[File:The Parthenon in Athens.jpg|thumb|The Parthenon in Athens|alt=photo of Parthenon as it looks now]] In Greece, Byzantine scholar [[Alison Frantz]] has won consensus support of her view that, aside from a few rare instances such as the [[Parthenon]] which was converted to a church in the sixth century, temple conversions (including the [[Erechtheion]] and the [[Theseion]]) took place in and after the seventh century, after the displacements caused by the Slavic invasions.{{sfn|Gregory|1986|p=233}} In early [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon England]], non-stop religious development meant paganism and Christianity were never completely separate.{{sfn|Wood|Armstrong|2007|p=34}} Archaeologist Lorcan Harney has reported that Anglo-Saxon churches were built by pagan barrows after the 11th century.{{sfn|Harney|2017|p=107}} [[Richard A. Fletcher]] suggests that, within the British Isles and other areas of northern Europe that were formerly [[druid]]ic, there are a dense number of [[holy]] wells and holy springs that are now attributed to a [[saint]], often a highly local saint, unknown elsewhere.{{sfn|Fletcher|1999|p=254}}{{sfn|Weston|1942|p=26}} In earlier times many of these were seen as guarded by supernatural forces such as the [[melusina]], and many such pre-Christian holy wells appear to have survived as baptistries.{{sfn|Harney|2017|pp=119–121}} According to [[Willibald]]'s ''[[Saint Boniface|Life of Saint Boniface]]'', about 723, the missioner Boniface cut down the sacred [[Donar's Oak]] also called the 'Oak of Jupiter' and used the lumber to build a church dedicated to St. Peter.{{sfn|Willibald|1916|pp=63-64}}{{sfn|Hardt|2001|pp=219-232}} [[File:The Frankish kingdom under Charlemagne and his descendants, to 900.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|The Frankish kingdom under Charlemagne and his descendants to 900|alt=map of Charlemagne's kingdom]] By 771, [[Charlemagne]] had inherited the long established conflict with the [[Saxons]] who regularly specifically targeted churches and monasteries in brutal raids into Frankish territory.{{sfn|Dean|2015|pp=15–16}} In January 772, Charlemagne retaliated with an attack on the Saxon's most important holy site, a [[sacred groves|sacred grove]] in southern [[Engria]].{{sfn|Dean|2015|p=16}} "It was dominated by the [[Irminsul]] ('Great Pillar'), which was either a (wooden) pillar or an ancient tree and presumably symbolized Germanic religion's 'Universal Tree'. The Franks cut down the Irminsul, looted the accumulated sacrificial treasures (which the King distributed among his men), and torched the entire grove... Charlemagne ordered a Frankish fortress to be erected at the [[Eresburg]]".{{sfn|Dean|2015|pp=16–17}} Early historians of [[Scandinavia|Scandinavian]] Christianization wrote of dramatic events associated with Christianization in the manner of political propagandists according to {{ill|John Kousgärd Sørensen|Da}} who references the 1987 survey by the historian of medieval Scandinavia, Birgit Sawyer.{{sfn|Sørensen| 1990|p=394}} Sørensen focuses on the changes of names, both personal and place names, showing that cultic elements were not banned and are still in evidence today.{{sfn|Sørensen| 1990|pp=395–397}} Large numbers of pre-Christian names survive into the present day, and Sørensen says this demonstrates the process of Christianization in Denmark was peaceful and gradual and did not include the complete eradication of the old cultic associations.{{sfn|Sørensen| 1990|p=400}} However, there are local differences.{{sfn|Sørensen| 1990|pp=400, 402}} Outside of Scandinavia, old names did not fare as well.{{sfn|Sørensen|1990|pp=400–401}} <blockquote>The highest point in [[Paris]] was known in the pre-Christian period as the Hill of Mercury, Mons Mercuri. Evidence of the worship of this Roman god here was removed in the early Christian period and in the ninth century a sanctuary was built here, dedicated to the 10000 martyrs. The hill was then called [[Montmartre|Mons Martyrum]], the name by which it is still known (Mont Martres) (Longnon 1923, 377; Vincent 1937, 307). [[San Marino]] in northern Italy, the shrine of Saint Marino, replaced a pre-Christian cultic name for the place: [[Monte Titano]], where the Titans had been worshipped (Pfeiffer 1980, 79). [The] Monte Giove "Hill of Jupiter" came to be known as San Bernardo, in honour of St Bernhard (Pfeiffer 1980, 79). In Germany an old Wodanesberg "Hill of Ódin" was renamed Godesberg (Bach 1956, 553). Ä controversial but not unreasonable suggestion is that the locality named by Ädam of Bremen as Fosetisland "land of the god Foseti" is to be identified with Helgoland "the holy land", the island off the coast of northern Friesland which, according to Ädam, was treated with superstitious respect by all sailors, particularly pirates (Laur 1960, 360 with references).{{sfn|Sørensen| 1990|p=401}}</blockquote> The practice of replacing pagan beliefs and motifs with Christian, and purposefully not recording the pagan history (such as the names of pagan gods, or details of pagan religious practices), has been compared to the practice of ''[[damnatio memoriae]]''.{{sfn|Strzelczyk|1987|p=60}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. 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