PAGANISM and HERESY in the CHRISTIAN ERA
A paper by Frater Choronzon first presented on Monday 15th October 1990

I will begin by giving a broad definition of heresy:-

Any opinion that is, or is thought to be, at variance with official or established theory or belief.

BELIEF SYSTEMS - ANCIENT & MODERN

An understanding of the concept requires some examination of the nature of 'Belief'; in general that is some proposal or theory which is assumed by the believer to be factual and beyond dispute. Frequently a set of such 'Beliefs' is taken together as the basic framework for an 'Irrefutable Hypothesis', such as that which prevailed during mediaeval times throughout Christian Europe. For example: "The Bible is, by definition, the infallible word of God, and therefore good; while anything which contradicts the Bible must be inspired by forces opposed to God and therefore Evil; it says so in the Bible so it must be true." No further argument possible, only discussion about interpretation within a general acceptance of the Belief System.

The Axioms of Mathematics can be regarded as a similarly self-consistent belief system. They have an advantage over the Bible in that they are much shorter, easier to understand, and appear at first sight to be non-contradictory. In their classical form they were first presented by Euclid, who flourished around 300 BC, and who learned mathematics and geometry from pupils of Plato in Athens. For the most part Euclid's Definitions can be regarded as profound statements of the Bloody Obvious. For example:

1. A POINT is that which has no part.

2. A LINE is breadthless length.

3. The extremities of lines are points.

And so on through to Number 22. Cabbalists will doubtless be reassured by the correspondence.

Problems arise, however with Definition 23, the last and so-called Parallel Postulate:

PARALLEL straight lines are straight lines which, being in the same plane and being produced indefinitely in both directions, do not meet one another in either direction.

Not that Euclid appears to have seen any difficulty. It is blindingly obvious that "parallel" lines of finite length do not meet, so why should ones of infinite length be any different? Newton would probably have agreed - after all, his model of the Universe, and the mathematical system he devised to describe it and make predictions from it, were based entirely on the Axiomatic Definitions of Euclid; all 23 of them. The Calculus and Mechanics enabled accurate prediction of eclipses to be made, and ballistics trajectories to be worked out with relative ease - at long last everything in the universe could be explained.

Or so they thought, basking in the beauty of this nice compact little belief system, until the heretic Einstein came along.

The belief systems of Paganism are older and more diverse than either of the self-consistencies outlined above. The term has been applied (almost synonymously with Heathenism) to pretty well any metaphysical observance which is seen to lie outside the paradigms of the Christian Church, but, as Pagans themselves see it, the concept would not be as wide as that.

A definition might encompass any traditional belief system having its origins within the boundaries of the old Roman Empire, though with Judaism (of which Christianity was originally a heretical sect) excluded, principally because of its monotheistic basis. Thus the natural religions of Europe, whose longevity is attested by neolithic cave paintings at Altamira, Spain, and elsewhere, would be included. The popular belief systems of the ancient Greeks and the Roman empire itself are clearly pagan, as are, more loosely, the Egyptian, Phoenician and Babylonian systems which provided much of the source material.

The common principle between these diverse religious structures is their poly-theistic character. This automatically renders them more flexible to the introduction of new ideas. A new God imported from some newly conquered territory can be absorbed into the belief structure without causing any major upset; this can be seen in the way that worship of Isis became assimilated into Roman tradition after the empire's annexation of Egypt, and became quite widespread, to the extent that there was certainly at least one temple in her honour in Roman Londinium (London), on a site recently excavated in the City.

This diagram is a personal attempt at a classification of belief systems.

In the case of the predominantly rationalist belief systems on the left, the basic building blocks are the Axioms of Mathematics and, later in their development, the Laws of Physics. For long periods in history these have become dogmatised, with the result that rationalist orthodoxy has often come to resemble closely the orthodoxies set out on the right hand side of the diagram, at least in terms of attitude to new and heretical thinking.

Advances in rationalist models of "life, the universe and everything" (LUE) often follow in the wake of innovations in instrumentation. For example, Newtons development of classical mechanics as a means of modelling the movements of bodies in the solar system followed Galileo's first astronomical use of the telescope, and his discovery that some of the larger planets had extensive subsidiary moon systems. The evolution of Quantum Mechanics in the early decades of this century conforms to the same instrument led pattern. Einstein's work on Relativity by contrast, was theoretically driven for the most part, with observational confirmation in some cases not appearing until some decades after the initial propositions had been made.

Despite the tendency to dogma, though, disputes in the rationalist interpretation of LUE can ultimately be resolved by reference back to the Axioms, and rational debate and analysis of these is acceptable, if sometimes unpopular, within the paradigm. Belief systems deriving from sources of 'divine' inspiration or revelation are much more difficult for their adherents to defend. This is particularly the case where advances in rationalist thinking or rival 'divine' revelations directly contradict the established orthodoxy. The concepts of blasphemy, heresy and diabolism have come into existence largely as a defence mechanism constructed by these predominantly monotheistic belief systems.

So amid this bewildering array of mutually contradicting belief systems, each purporting to provide the answer to the question of LUE, which is correct? Which can truly label its detractors as blasphemers, heretics and devil-worshippers?

THE QUESTION OF 'ULTIMATE TRUTH'

To help me in this attempt to determine the matter of Ultimate Truth I propose using Number Theory. Originally conceived by Pythagoras in a restricted form where only the natural counting numbers 1,2,3,4,... were permitted, it has proved itself to be an adaptable tool, demanding rigorous proofs derived from the Axioms, but flexible enough to admit meta-logical concepts such as those implicit in complex numbers like 'i', the square root of -1. Number Theory, moreover, would be accepted, at least in its simplest form by most of the belief systems in the diagram above (with the possible exception of Thelema which entertains its own axioms of numerology). Moreover, Number Theory has some track record as an arbiter in resolving tricky issues, such as that of Xeno's Paradox concerning a race between Achilles and a tortoise.

There have always been problems however which have seemed to elude resolution by number theory. For example, although there are natural number solutions to the equation:

x² + y² = z²

One solution would set x = 3, y = 4, and z = 5

so (3 x 3) + (4 x 4) = 5 x 5

that is 9 + 16 = 25, correct.

The equation x³ + y³ = z³ is more troublesome, if acceptable solutions have to be found within the set of natural counting numbers. This problem was first spotted by Diophantus of Alexandria, a mathematician working around 250 BC, who gave his name to all such mathematical nightmares - since called Diophantine Equations. The problem was restated in more general terms in the so-called "Last Theorem" of Fermat:

For n greater than or equal to 3, no natural numbers x, y, z, and n exist such that xⁿ + yⁿ = zⁿ

No solution has ever been found and it has been proved that any solution would have to involve extremely large numbers, but a finite proof that there are no solutions appears equally impossible. Mathematicians have died (not least Pierre de Fermat himself in 1665) while trying to come to grips with this problem which, at first sight, appears tantalisingly simple. [Footnote: In 1994 a proof of Fermat'sLast Theorem was published by Dr Jonathan Wiles which appears to have survived scrutiny by the academic establishment. This does not undermine the main thrust of my argument here]

The Austrian mathematician Kurt Godel took a different approach, and during the 1940s produced a series of theorems which revolutionised mathematical thinking. Although rigorous, much of Godel's reasoning is opaque in the extreme, and the reader will doubtless be relieved that I have resisted the temptation to reproduce the proof; as stated by Encyclopaedia Britannica (whose version is easier of comprehension than most) the result is as follows:

Within any rigidly logical mathematical system there are propositions (or questions) which cannot be proved or disproved on the basis of the axioms within that system and, therefore, it is uncertain that the basic axioms of arithmetic will not give rise to contradictions.

My own re-statement of this conclusion would be:

Even within a formal mathematical system there can be no ultimate truth.

The philosophical implications are profound, and, in my view, they have not been adequately taken on board by the majority of people outside the narrow confines of the mathematical disciplines; the exception would appear to be in the field of knowledge commonly termed Chaos Magic, where a general abhorrence of belief systems has led to the derivation of a single philosophical axiom:

"There can be no ultimate truth."

THOUGHT POLICE THROUGH THE AGES

Having established, at some length, a philosophical standpoint which can be supported by reference to the Axioms of Mathematics, which themselves are no more than statements of the obvious, I shall now attempt an objective view of the behaviour of the various orthodox belief systems towards those who have chosen to see things differently.

The Christians were originally a heretical sect of monotheistic Judaism. They upset the local clerical establishment by interpreting a clutch of ambiguous old prophecies to declare that their leader, who was executed in mysterious circumstances, was none other than the 'Messiah' whose arrival had been foretold by Hebrew tradition. It may well be that some of them were also engaged in revolutionary activities against the Roman occupation of their country. The result was a local persecution orchestrated by the Judaic establishment with the co-operation of the occupying power; there must have been Roman connivance, or Saul of Tarsus (a Roman citizen) could not have been on a mission of harassment to Damascus at the time of his sudden conversion. As the Apostle Paul he was subsequently equally energetic in disseminating his own rather authoritarian brand of Christianity through much of the territory along the northern coast of the Mediterranean, eventually carrying the message to Rome itself. There is evidence to suggest that the immediate family of the executed 'Messiah' took themselves off to Egypt fairly soon after the sorry event, possibly to escape Saul/Paul's persecutory intentions, and that they were active in founding Christian Gnostic churches there. Extensive contemporary documentation relating to those communities was discovered at Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt in 1945.

Christians first came to prominence in Roman attention during Nero's time (around 64 AD) when they were blamed for starting the fire during which that Emperor is alleged to have played his fiddle. Gibbon suggests that they may have been "fitted up" for this by Poppeia, Nero's Jewish mistress, and there is certainly no evidence to suggest that they were responsible. A vicious pogrom was launched however, and, as Tacitus records in his Annals, "a multitude" of Christians perished in a variety of unpleasant ways.

The polytheism of Rome was, in general, quite tolerant of the numerous religious persuasions of the citizens of the empire. From Julius Caesar onwards, though, a Greek practice from the time of Alexander was borrowed, and Roman Emperors were lauded as deities during their lifetimes. This meant that there was a duty on the citizenry to demonstrate their loyalty and affection by occasional offering of sacrifices to the Emperor's divine personage. Individual Emperors attached varying importance to this, but the particularly vain or mad ones tended to be very keen. The Christians, quite understandably, refused to comply, and it is probable that more were persecuted for declining to offer sacrifices to the Emperor than for any other reason.

Christianity prospered in adversity, however, and when Diocletian assumed the purple in 284 AD many of his personal staff were of that persuasion. He seems to have been quite effective as an emperor, in that at least he was able to stay alive in the job for long enough to put down a miscellany of revolts, including one in Britain. On a campaign to Egypt in 296 he was particularly zealous in rooting out and destroying ancient texts on alchemy. Eventually one of his generals, Galerius, became concerned about the incidence of Christian inspired pacifism in the ranks, and persuaded Diocletian to embark on his notorious persecution. Harassment turned to viciousness after Christians among his staff were held responsible for burning down the Imperial Palace at Nicomedia in Asia Minor, and churches throughout the empire were levelled. Diocletian then abdicated to his palace in Split, Yugoslavia. Turmoil ensued.

One of the contenders for control of the empire in decline was Constantine, a young man living in York whose mother was a Christian. Although he was baptised only on his deathbed, political expediency led him to be more tolerant of other peoples beliefs than many of his contemporaries. Despite the abundance of material presenting him as a convert in early life, coinage throughout his reign bears the device of Sol Invictus - the sun cult derived from Mithraism. He played a prominent role in the Council of Nicaea in 325 at which the authoritarian Pauline dogma gained final ascendancy over the Gnostic Christianity which had flourished in Egypt. The so-called 'Donation of Constantine' under which secular control of the territories of the Western Empire was allegedly given to Sylvester, the Bishop of Rome (or Pope - as his successors were styled), purportedly dates from this period.

This document was produced by Pope Stephen III to Pepin, King of the Franks, and his son Charlemagne in 753 in an effort to raise military support against the Lombards who were creating mayhem in Italy. Pepin was persuaded by it and sent an army. Pope Leo III subsequenfly crowned Charlemagne in Rome in 800 and the Holy Roman Empire was instituted.

The Donation of Constantine is one of those documents whose echoes through history are still influential, even today. In 1171, a year after the murder of Thomas a Becket, Pope Adrian IV (the only Englishman ever to hold that job) issued a Bull 'Laudabiliter' in which, making reference to the Donation of Constantine, he gave Ireland to Henry II of England. This prompted Henry to launch an invasion whose consequences are still being played out on our television screens 800 years later. It may scarcely seem relevant, but it might be pointed out that since Ireland was never part of the Roman Empire, it could not have been included in the territories which were covered by the Donation, and that in that context Adrian IV was giving away something he had no rights to.

Besides, the original Donation of Constantine has been shown conclusively to have been a forgery, and not a particularly good one at that. The detective work was done by a papal aide, Lorenzo Valla, in 1440. It seems that the original generosity was ascribed to the wrong Pope, that the document referred to Constantinople when the original name of Byzantium should still have been in use, that the style of Latin was wrong, and that specious descriptions of Constantine's regalia were given. The church continued to assert the Donation's authenticity until the end of the eighteenth century; the embarrassment implicit in admitting what had been perpetrated was presumably too great at the time.

CRUSADES, INQUISITIONS AND WITCH-HUNTS

While the Lombards, the Goths, the Visi-Goths and the Vandals were making their presence felt in the declining Western Empire, a potentially more disruptive force came into being in the East. In the years leading up to 570 AD, Mecca had become established as an independent Arab trading town, at an intersection of important North South and East-West routes. At the time of Muhammad's birth into a well placed merchant family, the Ka'bah was already a pilgrimage site. The sacred Black Stone associated with the familiar cubic structure was held by tradition to have been given to Adam at the time of his expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Rational sources suggest that it may be of meteroic origin. The Haj, in those distant times, was primarily an annual trade fair, and Allah, although one deity within a polytheistic system, had supra-tribal qualities and was revered throughout that region of Arabia.

There was a local tradition of inspired recitation, and Muhammad had a talent for this as well as good business sense and remarkable qualities of leadership. There is little doubt that he must have been an unusually charismatic personality.

On a retreat into the desert Muhammad had a visionary experience involving an entity identified as the archangel Gabriel and was told:

"Recite: In the name of God, the merciful and compassionate ..."

Thus began the sequence of inspired recitations which comprise the Qur'an, the sacred text of Islam, the new monotheistic religion which he founded.

Exiled from Mecca, Muhammad settled in Medina and became involved in military endeavours. Eventually he occupied Mecca with his followers, and by his death in 632 he was the ruler of all Arabia. His successors waged war on everyone around.

The list of conquests is impressive:

TERRITORY	DATE
Damascus	636
Jerusalem	638
Egypt	642 - 646
Persepolis	651
Gibraltar	710
Spain	732

Within a century of Muhammad's death the whole of the southern flank of the old Roman Empire had been assimilated by the Islamic Empire, as well as the Iberian Peninsula. A period of feud, schism and consolidation followed.

One Islamic faction who acquired a fearsome reputation were the Nizari Ismailis. Their leader Hasan-e-Sabbah seized the fortress at Alamut in 1090, and founded an Order known as the Hashishim or Assassins. Aside from the myths of an innovative approach to drug abuse and of the existence of a so-called Garden of Earthly Delights, this Order may have become more influential in the affairs of history than is generally appreciated. This matter will be treated more fully in the next paper in this series, which examines the History of Secret Societies.

The remnants of the old Empire in Rome and Byzantium do not seem to have become unduly concerned about the expansion of Islamic influence until Byzantium itself was threatened. In 1095 Pope Urban II in Rome received an appeal from the Emperor in the East for troops to be sent, and the First Crusade was launched the following year. There were some initial successes, and Jerusalem was captured in 1099, but was held for less than a century, falling to Saladin in 1187. By 1250 the Crusaders had been driven from the mainland of the Middle East.

With the reverses in the Holy Land, the crusading zeal of the Papacy appears to have turned on the 'enemy within', and a series of brutal pogroms and inquisitions was launched against Christian Heretics and intellectual dissenters in those lands over which the Roman Church claimed sovereign rights deriving from the Donation of Constantine.

One of the most persistent heresies was Manichaeism. This dualistic faith started as a religion in its own right, having been founded in the third century by Mani in Southern Babylonia, now part of modern Iraq. Mani was styled the Supreme Illuminator, and preached for some years throughout the Persian Empire. He eventually fell foul of the king and was imprisoned, tried and condemned; he died sometime between the years 274 and 277. The basic teaching was that spirit is good and matter is evil, and that those who persist in indulgence of the flesh - possessions, drinking, fornication, etc. - will endure a sequence of re-incarnations from which the only release was to live a life of unassailable purity.

These teachings surfaced among the Paulicians (Armenia 7th Century), the Bogomils (Bulgaria 10th Century) and among the Cathars or Albigensians in Southern France in the 12th Century; the latter being perhaps the most committed adherents. They particularly upset Roman orthodoxy by asserting that Jesus was an angel and that his suffering and death had been an illusion. In 1208 a papal legate was sent to investigate by Innocent III and was killed, though probably not by the Cathars. The Albigensian Crusade was launched in response, and an army led by barons from the north of France ravaged Toulouse and Provence massacring the inhabitants, Cathar and Catholic alike. At Beziers, for example, in 1209 the Catholic population refused to hand over some 200 Cathars. The Pope's Commander-in-Chief, a Cistercian, Arnald Amalric, gave the order "Kill them all; The Lord will look after his own". In a self- satisfied letter to his superior this 'warrior' monk reported "Today, Your Holiness, Twenty thousand citizens were put to the sword, regardless of age or sex". It has been estimated that on that single day the Pope's legions killed ten times more Christians than had perished during the whole course of Emperor Diocletian's persecution, which itself was the most vicious of the Pagan Era.

Eventually, in 1244, Montsegur, the stronghold of the Cathar 'Perfects' was captured. That fortress is traditionally held to have been the Grail Castle of von Eschenbach's romance 'Parsival' (ca 1200), and some further consideration of that issue will emerge in my paper examining the History of Secret Societies.

The Albigensian Crusade, spanning three papacies, was a messy business, and the church decided that small groups of zealous clerics would be more effective in rooting out heresy than a large army. Therefore in 1232, before the fall of Montsegur, Gregory IX published the Bull setting up the Inquisition. Heretics were defined to include anyone opposed to any papal pronouncement, and all such were to be handed over to the civil authorities for burning. The Dominicans were given the job, and this was doubtless made easier 20 years later when Innocent IV published the Bull 'Ad Extirpanda' which allowed the Inquisition to use torture. Kafka-esque scenes of quite unspeakable brutality ensued for the next 400 years - even the dead were put on trial - their corpses were exhumed, and when guilt was pronounced the remains were burnt, their former possessions forfeit, and their heirs deprived of any inheritance.

A significant target group, perhaps surprisingly in view of their service in the Crusades against Islam, were the Knights Templar. It is likely that they were 'fingered' by King Phillippe IV (Phillippe le Bel) of France, who wished to confiscate their lands and wealth. Pope Clement V sanctioned their arrest and on Friday 13th October 1307 they were seized in simultaneous dawn raids and their possessions sequestered. There is some consistency in the Knights 'confessions' extracted under torture and it seems likely that a deity or entity named Baphomet was an object of reverence during some of the Temple's rituals. They were burnt at the stake in hundreds, and, in March 1314 near Notre Dame Cathedral, the Order's Grandmaster, Jaques du Molay, was roasted over a slow fire; as he died in agony he is said to have pronounced a curse on the Royal House of France.

Paganism and sorcery were always favourite targets of the Inquisition, particularly in France, where Joan of Arc was burnt as a witch in 1431, but wholesale persecution of adherents of the old religion did not take hold until Innocent VIII became concerned about the spread of Witchcraft in Germany. In 1484 he published a Bull 'Summis Desiderantes Affectibus' (approx: 'The highest desire for the beloved'), inspired by a one-liner in Exodus Ch 22, V 18: "You shall not permit a sorceress to live". To mastermind the ensuing massacre he commissioned two Dominican academics, Johann Sprenger, Dean of the University of Cologne, and Heinrich Kraemer, Professor of Theology at the University of Salzburg. Their book, 'Malleus Maleficarum' (Hammer of Evil-doers) is a detailed theological and legal document, which was the standard handbook for the persecution and extermination of alleged witches until the 18th Century. It was widely used by both Roman and Protestant branches of the church.

The book is divided into three parts. The first emphasises the depravity of witches; it declares disbelief in demonology to be a heresy; and it affirms that any witness, regardless of credentials, may testify against an accused. The second part consists of grotesque stories about the activities of witches: sexual relations with devils, transvection (or broom-stick riding), metamorphosis (turning people into frogs etc.). Part three discusses legal procedures for witch trials; it sanctions torture as a means of obtaining evidence, and calls on secular authorities to assist inquisitors in exterminating these 'Servants of Satan'. In my view it is itself one of the most evil documents ever to have been issued by supposedly reputable academic sources. No fewer than 28 editions were published between 1486 and 1600. It appears to have been the means by which the church invented and then persecuted the previously non existent concept of Satanism.

The provisions of this grotesque work provided the basis for the Witchcraft Laws which remained on the statute books of this country until after the Second World War, and they have been a major contributory factor in vulgar attitudes to and misconceptions about the 'Occult' which persist to this day, not least in the editorial offices of certain wide circulation newspapers.

The story of Paganism and Heresy in the Christian Era, at least since the early 13th Century, is one of a holocaust every bit as obscene as any which has been perpetrated in modern times. There is no hint of apology or remorse from the Roman Church; papal infallibility is as intact as it was when Innocent III sanctified the massacre of 20000 men, women and children at Beziers; and the Inquisition still exists. Like that of the Soviet Secret Police, its name has been changed a couple of times, and it is now called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The present Chief Executive, and direct successor to the first Grand Inquisitor, Bernardo Gui (recently portrayed in Umberto Eco's book/film "The Name of the Rose"), is the Bavarian Cardinal Ratzinger.

In this context, present day clerical posturings about the sanctity of human life start to sound a little hollow.

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