Western Roots All Mixed Up

[IainH]

I believe just about every "ism" and what not, in the west, has been layered over the Christian religion. It was the SOP of the Roman Catholic Church to rename pagan gods as saints. One of the top head, Mars, generally thought of as the Roman god of war, originally he was the guardian of wheat fields. He became St Martin or St Martin of the fields. The shrines were kept but, now as places to pray to St Martin to intercede in granting a good harvest. Yep, they did the same thing with Germanic gods. Syncretism! That's the word I was pickin my sorry memory for. At one time, I read the writings of the Reformers and they excoriated the RC's for syncretism and a whole barnload of others. Curiously left out was the "Volkifying" of their religion, possibly because they were Fritzes themselves? There's mo but, I is tired so Gute nacht, bruder und schwestern.