Church Takeovers
What church placement tells us about its roots.
There is a myth that other religious simply fizzled out in the wake of Christianity. If any churches were built on previous sites, it was simply efficient, smart use of space and stone that was no longer loved.
But the evidence shows us that early church placement exemplifies systematic spiritual colonization. This was not organic reuse.
If pagan sites truly held no value, Christians would have built elsewhere, not deliberately targeted the most sacred locations.
Timeline of Suppression
Repetition of laws proves systematic suppression:, over a deliberate, multi-generational campaign
431 AD: Augustine of Hippo (from Africa) uses religious arguments to justify suppression of other religious groups
Council of Ephesus (431 AD Augustine’s arguments are made into official doctrine. Interestingly, this city used to be home of a goddess, where her temple was one of the ancient 7 Wonders of the World
597 AD: Augustine of Cantebury arrived in England to convert the Germanic people (Anglo-Saxons), sent by the Pope, starting the systematic Christianization of Britain
Destroyed Celtic/Druidic sacred sites and replaced them with churches.
600 AD: First written laws appear suppressing other religious
601 AD: Pope Gregory's explicit temple conversion policy
627 AD: Coifi destroys active temple at Goodmanham
640 AD: First king actively eliminates pagan practices, for 24 years
695 AD: Law of Wihtred against "idol worship"
700 AD: Penitential of Theodore with specific anti-pagan penalties
800 AD: Charlemagne forces conversion of Germanic tribes
970 AD: King Edgar forbids well worship and tree practices
995 AD: King Cnut bans moon salutation and tree offerings
1009 AD: King Æthelred commands "Renounce all Pagan Customs", for 7 years
This 400-year paper trail of repeated laws, papal letters, and violent enforcement proves pagan worship was very much alive and required systematic suppression. Natural abandonment doesn't need four centuries of legal prohibition and violent enforcement.
The Christian church had centuries to burn libraries, destroy temples, and rewrite histories. This meant multiple generations grew up without access to suppressed wisdom. By the time people like Bartholdi (inspired by encountered Egyptian women and statues), the original context of their civnilization and impact on Christianity was lost
The evidence shows this was religious colonization with written policies, legal codes, and often violent implementation - exactly what you'd recognize as cultural genocide if it happened today.
The Evidence: Systematic Religious Suppression with Names, Dates, and Places
If pagan sites truly held no value, Christians would have built elsewhere, not deliberately targeted the most sacred locations. The evidence proves this was systematic spiritual colonization, not organic reuse.
Evidence of Christian Resistance
Pagan Royal Martyrs (per Christian Sources)
King Eorpwald of East Anglia (c. 633): killed by a heathen Ricberht; he kept Christianity out of the kingdom for three years until the kingdom was taken back by Eorpwald's brother Sigibert.
King Anna of East Anglia (c. 653): died in battle against pagan Penda of Mercia, the same king who slew Oswald of Bernicia and Deira. Bede talks about King Anna being very pious and the Addendum on Foillian calls him the "Divine Right Hand of God". The Addendum specifically talks about him defending monasteries from Penda's destruction, making him as much of a martyr as Oswald.
Arwald, king of the Jutish kingdom based on the Isle of Wight was the last pagan Anglo-Saxon ruler, and he was slain in 686 by Caedwalla, king of the West Saxons, who then forcibly converted to Christianity the Jutish people of that island.
Violent Suppression Evidence
King Olaf converted as a political move in the year 995, because by now most of Europe had gone over. Olaf was an asshole. He brutally forced his people to convert or die. It was Olaf who slaughtered the Volvas and Norse pagan priesthood or "wise people."
Bede's Evidence of Active Pagan Worship During Conversion
Pope Gregory's Urgent Commands (601 CE)
According to Bede, Eorcenberht of Kent, who ruled from 640 to 664, was the first king to begin trying to eliminate heathen cult activities.
Consistent with this, the early converts to Christianity Æthelburht, Edwin and Oswald appear to have allowed heathen rites to continue to be practised against the wishes of the clergymen, leading to Pope Gregory in 601 urging Æthelburht "hasten to extend the Christian faith among the people who are subject to you. Increase your righteous zeal for their conversion; suppress the worship of idols; overthrow their buildings and shrines".
The Coifi Account: Active Temple Destruction (627 CE)
The most detailed evidence comes from Bede's account of the pagan priest Coifi destroying his own temple at Goodmanham:
Coifi then speaks again asking to learn more of Christianity from Paulinus, which leads him expressing his lack of belief in the heathen gods. admitting that he has felt this way for a long time. The priest then advises the king that they ban and burn down the temples and altars that he had hallowed without receiving any benefit.
"So he formally renounced his empty superstitions and asked the king to give him arms and a stallion—for hitherto it had not been lawful for the Chief Priest to carry arms or to ride anything but a mare—and, thus equipped, he set out to destroy the idols.
The conversion of King Edwin of Northumbria to Christianity brought about the overthrow of the temple in 627 AD by the high priest Coifi. The event is related the Venerable Bede in his 'History of the English Church and People'
Legal Evidence: Laws Against Pagan Worship
600’s AD Century Laws
In the seventh century, the first laws against pagan sacrifices appeared, while in the Paenitentiale Theodori one to ten years' penance was allotted for making sacrifices or for eating sacrificed meat.
Active suppression of paganism in the wider population seems to only have begun in the late 7th century. From this point onwards, legal codes and penitentials often forbid practices considered heathen.
The Penitential of Theodore (c. 700 AD)
In its section entitled "Of the Worship of Idols", the late 7th- or early 8th-century Penitential of Theodore assigns penance to those qui immolant demonibus ("who sacrifice to demons"), lasting between 1 and 10 years depending on the deemed severity of the offence.
the Paenitentiale Theodori from ca. 700 AD and the Law of Wihtred from ca. 695 AD included penalties for "idol" and "demon" worship and other pre-Christian practices, for example the Paenitentiale Theodori mentions penances for "whoever causes grain to be burnt where there is a dead man for the wellbeing and living of the house" or placing a "daughter on the roof or in an oven to cure fever."
Royal Law Codes Banning Paganism
Between 1009 and 1016, King Æþelræd published his laws which included Renounce all Pagan Customs (Griffiths, 2006:84) demonstrating this was still a problem within an Anglo Saxon culture that had supposedly been converted to Christianity nearly four centuries previously
Wulfstan, ,Ælric and King Cnut (AD995) collectively ban animal guising, saluting the moon, making offerings at waterfalls and trees, making oaths to Heathen gods etc., in edicts years apart – which suggest these things were still continuing. King Edgar had already forbidden well worship, divination, and practices around trees and wells in about AD970 – only 25 years before Cnut.
Church Councils and Ecclesiastical Suppression
Pope Formosus's Letter (891-896 AD)
Pope Formosus, who was pope from 891 to 896, wrote the Anglo-Saxon bishops to urge them to fill the empty posts and remember their obligations to the Church, referering the new resurgence "of the abominable rites of the pagans" and "violation of the Christian faith".
The First Written Laws (c. 600 AD)
The first written Anglo-Saxon laws were issued around 600 by Æthelberht of Kent. Writing in the 8th century, the Venerable Bede comments that Æthelberht created his law code "after the examples of the Romans" (Latin: iuxta exempla Romanorum).
Evidence of Continued Resistance
Pagan Backlash: Eadbald's Reaction (616 CE)
Eadbald became king of Kent on the death of his father on 24 February 616, or possibly 618. Although Æthelberht had been Christian since around 600 and his wife Bertha was also Christian, Eadbald was a pagan and led a strong reaction against the Gregorian mission, refusing to be baptised and marrying his stepmother, Æthelberht's second wife.
The Persistence of Pagan Practices
It would seem unlikely that laws would be repeatedly passed against some action that no longer happened.
Archaeological Evidence of Violent Appropriation
Deliberate Temple Conversion Policy
"The idol temples of that race [the English] should by no means be destroyed, but only the idols in them. Take holy water and sprinkle it in these shrines, build altars and place relics in them. For if the shrines are well built, it is essential that they should be changed from the worship of devils to the service of the true God."
Destroyed Sacred Sites
Furthermore, there is evidence for hostility towards Christianity, with some baptismal fonts having been found intentionally damaged and destroyed, and a significant decline in Christianity is suggested to have taken place as a result of the Great Conspiracy of 367–369.
Why this Recovery is so Cool
Despite 1,000+ years of systematic suppression, evidence survived. Language, symbols, seasonal celebrations carry forward the ancient wisdom. Children still naturally recognize what empire tried to erase. And archaeological discoveries now revealing what was hidden.
