Once again in this part of history we can see how much the religion and church influenced changes and conquest of empires. Charles was trying to impose Christianity all over west Europe. The rejection of Christianity by the Saxons was his reason to begin a war and destroy their culture. He forced them to convert to Christianity. Charles founded monasteries and villages and filled them with Franks. He destroyed their pagan temples, just like he did before in other cultures, and removed the Saxon peasants.
Then he wanted to conquer Spain because it was mostly Muslim at the time, and wanted to impose his Christianity as well.
All the different forms of government he structured had a representative from the church as well. All the important decisions taken in the empire were highly influenced by the church.
Religion at that time seemed to be the weapon used to conquer. It didn’t have a lot of the meaning it has nowadays. It wasn’t focused that much on spirituality or on the recognition of good and evil. Church was a political institution that ruled with fear and violence.
2 comments:
Great post Monica, you did not interject opinion about todays Christians based on early behaviors of Christians. I think it would be interesting to know how many using Christianity in the past did so as a weapon of choice and not because they were true believers. Also, back then what did it mean to the average Christian to be a Christian, was it being a part of a social club or was it personal like it is for many today? Anyway, thanks for a non-judgmental post.
Jamie.
I found this post to be very interesting also. It is interesting how much destruction can occur in the name of a god. Men will always use their own selfish desires, mask them as the will of God it seems, and make them happen by their unknowing people. Great post and thank you for the good discussion!
Post a Comment