[MR] new vs. old

[Marybeth Lavrakas]

> d) Did medieval Christians build their shrines and
> churches on the ruins of
> their foes' temples as a kind of dominance display?
> e) How did medieval Christians convert or adapt
> pagan sites when an area
> converted?

I had to pass up reading a lot of the messages on this
thread, so my apologies if this info has already been
posted.

Pope Gregory the Great specifically instructed St.
Augustine and his merry band of missionaries to
England to make use of former pagan worship space
("former" only after conversion succeeded, of course)
as a way to  ease people into the new religion. This
was at the end of the 6th C. A lot of Gregory's
letters are published in English translations, and I'm
fairly certain there is more info about this in Bede's
Historia Ecclesiastica (History of the English Church
and People).

There's a book on my shelf at home about Elf Charms in
Anglo-Saxon England. I haven't read it yet, and am
blanking on the correct name, but it was published by
the UNC Press around 1996. I can bring it along to the
"Atlantian Library" this weekend at KASF if anyone's interested.

=====
Lady Kateryn Rous, CP
KMoAS

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