I'm often asked why our ancestors converted to Xtianity? How could they abandon the Gods for a fake, fictional foreign religion that was litterally made up as they went along? Here are some excerpts from old texts that will help explain, though the basic answer is GREED & VIOLENCE. Powerful war lords and kings converted because xtianity allowed them to hang on to more power and wealth for longer. Also with xtianity these war lords and kings could keep their wealth in their families when they died whereas in heathen times nobility was hard earned and constantly put to the test. Imagine being ruled by a class of nobles that you revear and respect, who have earned their place - rather than hate as most modern folk do.
Bede - Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731 AD) “For these Old Saxons have no king, but several lords who are set over the nation. Whenever war is imminent, these cast lots impartially, and the one on whom the lot falls is followed and obeyed by all for the duration of the war; but as soon as the war ends, the lords revert to equality of status.”
The Royal Frankish Annals state the following regarding the year 772 AD: “The most gracious lord king Charles (Charlemagne) then held an assembly at Worms. From Worms he marched into Saxony. Capturing the castle at Eresburg, he proceeded as far as the Irminsul, destroyed this idol and carried away the gold and silver he found. A great drought occurred so that there was no water in the place where the Irminsul stood. The glorious king wished to remain there two or three days in order to destroy the temple completely, but they had no water.”
The Annales Petaviani (circa 775 AD) states: "He ( Charlemagne ) conquered the Eresburg and found the place, which is called Irminsul, and set these places on fire."
The historical source for this passage is The Royal Frankish Annals, written in the 8th century about events in the eighth century: “While the king (Charlemagne) spent the winter at the villa of Quierzy, he decided to attack the treacherous and treaty-breaking tribe of the Saxons and to persist in this war until they were either defeated and forced to accept the Christian religion or be entirely exterminated." (See The Royal Frankish Annals published by Ann Arbor Paperbacks, translated by Bernhard Walter Scholz, p.51
Charlemagne beheaded 4,500 Saxons for returning to their Heathen ways after forced baptism and defeating a Frankish force in battle.
4,500 Saxon warriors were rounded up by the traitorous nobles. Charlemagne beheaded 4,500 Saxons for returning to their Heathen ways after forced baptism and defeating a Frankish force in battle. The Royal Frankish Annals: “When the king heard of this disaster he decided not to delay, but made haste to gather an army, and marched into Saxony. There he called to his presence the chiefs of the Saxons and inquired who had induced the people to rebel. They all declared that Widukind was the author of the treason but said that they could not produce him because after the deed was done he had fled to Nordmannia (Denmark.) But the others who had carried out his will and committed the crime they delivered up to the king to the number of four thousand and five hundred; and by the king's command they were all beheaded in one day upon the river Aller in the place called Verden.”
There were a total of four Saxon Capitularies, or law codes. In 782 AD, the Lex Saxonum (a law code) was forced on the Saxons. It said the following:
Lex Saxonum #18: On the Lord's Day (Sunday) no meetings and public judicial assemblages shall be held, unless perchance in a case of great necessity or when war compels it, but all shall go to the church to hear the word of God, and shall be free for prayers or good works. Likewise, also, on the christian holidays they shall devote themselves to God and to the services of the church, and shall refrain from secular assemblies.
Lex Saxonum #4: If anyone, out of contempt for Christianity, shall have despised the holy Lenten fast and shall have eaten meat, let him be punished by death.
Lex Saxonum #8: If any one of the race of the Saxons hereafter concealed among them shall have wished to hide himself unbaptized and shall have scorned to come to baptism and shall have wished to remain a Pagan, let him be punished by death.
Lex Saxonum #19: Likewise, it has been pleasing to insert in these decrees that all infants shall be baptized within a year.
Lex Saxonum #21: If anyone shall have made a vow at springs or trees or groves, or shall have made any offerings after the manner of the Heathen and shall have partaken of a repast in honor of the demons, if he shall be a noble 60 solidi, if a freeman 30, if a litus 15. If, indeed they have not the means of paying at once, they shall be given into the service of the church until the solidi are paid.
Lex Saxonum #22: We command that the bodies of Saxon Christians shall be carried to the church cemeteries and not to the mounds of the Pagans.
Lex Saxonum #1: It was pleasing to all that the churches of Christ, which are now being built in Saxony and consecrated to God, should not have less, but greater and more illustrious honor, than the fanes of the idols have had.
According to Willibald's 8th century Life of Saint Boniface, the felling Donar's Oak occurred in Fritzlar at a place called Gaesmere. "Now at that time many of the Chatti, brought under the Catholic faith and confirmed by the grace of the sevenfold spirit, received the laying on of hands; others indeed, not yet strengthened in soul, refused to accept in their entirety the lessons of the inviolate faith. Moreover some were wont secretly, some openly to sacrifice to trees and springs; some in secret, others openly practiced inspections of victims and divinations, legerdemain and incantations; some turned their attention to auguries and auspices and various sacrificial rites;With the advice and counsel of these last, the saint attempted, in the place called Gaesmer, while the servants of God stood by his side, to fell a certain oak of extraordinary size, which is called, by an old name of the pagans, the Oak of Jupiter (Donar/Thor). And when in the strength of his steadfast heart he had cut the lower notch, there was present a great multitude of pagans, who in their souls were earnestly cursing the enemy of their gods. But when the fore side of the tree was notched only a little, suddenly the oak's vast bulk, driven by a blast from above, crashed to the ground, shivering its crown of branches as it fell;
So, basically, Boniface with a detachment of Frankish soldiers cut down the Chatti Tribes sacred tree as a show of strength and disrespect against the Chatti tribe their Gods. This happened after conversion and defeat to help ensure the people knew who had power over them......
Here is Chapter 15 of the saga "Hakon the Good" King Hakon died in 961AD
HAKON SPREADS CHRISTIANITY. "King Hakon was a good Christian when he came to Norway; but as the whole country was heathen, with much heathenish sacrifice, and as many great people, as well as the favour of the common people, were to be conciliated, he resolved to practice his Christianity in private. But he kept Sundays, and the Friday fasts, and some token of the greatest holy-days. He made a law that the festival of Yule should begin at the same time as Christian people held christmas, and that every man, under penalty, should brew a meal of malt into ale, and therewith keep the Yule holy as long as it lasted. Before him, the first night of Yule was on hǫkunótt, that is midwinter night, and Yule was held for three nights. It was his intent, as soon as he had set himself fast in the land, and had subjected the whole to his power, to introduce Christianity. He went to work first by enticing to Christianity the men who were dearest to him; and many, out of friendship to him, allowed themselves to be baptized, and some laid aside performing blot."
A monk called Gotselin 1053 – 1099 who lived in Salisbury wrote of a visit to Dorset by ‘St’ Augustine who was chased and beaten out of a local village by heathens who refused his doctrine. At some point after this ‘St’ Augustine renamed a local pagan well (probably the Silver Well) in honour of a local Chapel that was built and also made it written that the river and village’s name was the same as a Hebrew name that signifies God. So, just like modern ISIS extremists the xtians used force upon the local people to keep them quiet and renamed everything and built a chapel and later an Abbey!
Sir Flinders Petrie a famous archaeologist wrote “It thus appears that this enclosure (Cerne in Dorset) was of a religious character, by the primitive pole worship being maintained there. Possibly, a further light may be gained from Walter of Coventry, who wrote, in the thirteenth century, that Cerne was “in Dorsetensi pago”, “in quo pago olim colebantur deus Helith.” There is a ‘well’ known as St Austin's Well which was previously called the Silver Well. Apparently, the well existed there before the abbey of Cerne came into being. A story tells about Edwold, a member of the royal family of the Mercians who died in 671 and was told in a vision to travel to Silver Well; when he came to Cerne, he gave silver pennies to a shepherd in return for bread and water, and the man showed him the well, which he recognized as fulfilling the vision.“ For centuries local women have prayed at the well for a husband to St Catherine. Indeed, there are many folk tales in relation to the well including its connection to the God Helith. The Silver Well is just over the hill from the Cerne Giant.
We should all note that an Abbey was built in such a quiet rural area with low population right next to The Silver Well known since pagan times and The River Cerne where pagan rites were performed. The later converted Anglo Saxons were famous for building churches in sacred places of pagan worship. King Alfred the great even went as far as transferring ownership of land next to rivers and bodies of water to the church to help in the fight against ‘paganism’. The name of the river and village ‘Cerne’ may be related to the Old-English / Anglo-Saxon term 'Cernan' which points to churning water or ‘living’ water.