Jehanne

The Church still wants to "have its cake and eat it, too!" They will "apologize" for the Inquisitions, Crusades, etc., but they have to do it in a way that blames the "failing" on "men" and not on doG. But, if the Holy Spirit really guides the Church, how could it be in "error" for so long???

hclincha

One torture method was to introduce a venomous snake into the stomach of a person, through the mouth, and then let it eat its way out. Now, THAT's a good way of leading someone towards a loving god.

Jehanne

These people believed in Hell, which was were those unrepentant heretics and unbelievers were all going. The medieval torturers believed that they were doing the "Lord's work" by giving sinners "a taste" of everlasting damnation.

RussianM3_dude

When the Crusades happened, Russia was already converted to Christianity (An arbitrary descision, "czar" Vladimir chose the one denomination that had the least restrictions on daily life.) and incidently that was the time when all the independent/freelance peasants were forced into cerfdom.

The point being, that Vatican tried to persecute fellow Christians for the simple fact that they did not recognise Pope's supreme authority and refused to bow and lick his calloussed feet.

It is kind of a forgotten war, and the Catholic Church gets a clear pass for it.

As for pagan traditions, they were pretty harmoniously integrated into Orthodox Russian tradition.

At the beginning of spring we have what is called "butter day" (loose translation). It is an old celebration that dates from time immemorial, where the Slavs would venerate the God of the Sun for coming back. The tradition is to make pankakes, big thin ones like the French ones, with plenty of butter.
It is still celebrated today. We had it at the beginning of March, and my Mom made a bunch, with black caviar or honey. And an extra chilled glass of Russian vodka.

For centuries after conversion to Christianity, people would leave milk outside their door at night to please little forrest trolls, that were harmless but could be quiet mischivous.

Prior to Christianity, the Slavs religion was basically that of the Scandinavs, since the first Russian Czar was a Swede.

ninewands

Well, while we are on the subject of the Roman Catholic Crutch maybe FINALLY apologizing for Crusades waged against other Christians, maybe they could apologize to the Cathars for the Albigensian Crusade ...

What's that? They can't apologize because ALL the Cathars were killed during the Crusade???

Never mind ...

ArchAngel

No apologies are necessary. God wouldn't let anything happen unless He wanted it to. It's all part of the plan. Our feeble human minds cannot comprehend the grand and perfect plan that He continues to unfold everyday. Why apologize for one minute fraction of something that we can't comprehend?

Philippe*

Maybe they thought it is better to butcher heretics, jews, heathens aso rather than let them breed and let the hell be filled with still more souls. Using this kind of logics, we can invoke acts of compassion. Some priests believed that burning alive at a stake under inquisition purified the soul and got a chance to get into heaven.

Philippe

Huon

One invasion of England by France ? If you speak of William the Conq, he was not a frenchman, did not obey the king of France. He was a Norseman (by descent), but he spoke french, yes.

The memory of the Albigensian Crusade is still vivid around Toulouse, and a lot of ruined castles can be visited. This "crusade" was immediately seen as a plundering expedition. The motto was "Kill them all, God will identify his true followers". And the church was set to fire, with all the refugees inside.

We had the same thing in 1944, with Nazis in the role of (fleeing) crusaders at the village Oradour-sur-Glane. (Oradour = oratory, sur = on, Glane is the name of a small river). Lidice in Czechoslovakia, same tragedy.

Boro Nut

Excepting Britain of course. We were merely claiming what was ours by right. I mean, who else should own Britain but the British? The Goidels had no business being here in the first place.

Boro Nut

Astreja

I know the snake-torture story, but aren't you confusing Christian Hell (bad place) with Hel's realm Niflheim in the Eddas?

Niflheim wasn't originally a place of punishment... It was a somewhat dull afterlife-world similar to Hades. It's where everyday people (non-heroes) went, and there was no torture. The nasty stuff got introduced to the mythos after the Christianization of the northern lands.

Olaf and his henchmen were sadistic, greedy bastards. Olaf's conversion to Christianity had more to do with a large payment of silver than with actual faith. He chose to line his own pockets rather than defend his people from the southern invaders.