~shakes the rain out of his fur~
Hmmm...
This is interesting.
The first post changes periodicly, can she not post in the thread?
Also, just to clarify about Pagan...
Orosius from Histories 1
Ex locorum agrestium compitis et pagis pagani vocantur.
Which is loosely translated as Out of the way crossroads and rural persons.
Basically, it was used as a way of saying hick, or backwoods person, as opposed to urban dwellers.
Also, it was often taken as referring to civilians.
Early Christianity, especially as it rose to prominence in the Roman Empire, was a purely urban affair. When the switch over to Christianity as state religion was made, religion was just one more thing that was identified as different between city and country dwellers.
That use of paganism is the only one to survive today.
Mind you, this also saw use in Rome propper. The city was originally defined by a trench plowed by Romulus, called the pomerium. Land belonging to the city of Rome, but not within the pomerium, was referred to as pagus. This is an older use for it, separating those living in the city propper from those in the area outside the sacred circle as it were (that last part was a bit of a joke). It eventually got applied to non-city folks, or foreigners of all stripes.
Now, this pomerium demarcation is sorta important, as, best can be found, only officially recognized gods could have temples within the pomerium. Thus, any religion that was not allowed within could be called
Pagan.
For awhile, Christianity was a "pagan" religion in that sense. Keeping in mind the ancient Romans saw no evidence of Christianity as anything more than just an odd sect in Judaism. Christian persecutions in Rome would usually spike whenever Judea was acting up.
Now, this was not neccessarily a smooth transition, as per the paynim example, paynim: < Anglo-Norman paenisme, painisme, paienime, painnim, peinime, paenime, etc., and Old French paienime, paienisme heathen lands (c1150-74), heathen religion (1160) < post-classical Latin paganismus (see PAGANISM n.), probably influenced by Old French paien (see PAYEN n.).
However, the term Paganismus is used by Augustine of Hippo, especially in 410, with his publication of
De Civitate Dei contra Paganos, translated as city of God.
Which was a direct refutation of the rumours, after Alaric, a Christian, sacked Rome, that the old gods of Rome had taken better care of the city than the God of Christ. It's really sorta a cop out read tho. St Augie asserts that only the "City of Man" had fallen, and that all "True Christians" (see true Scottsman Fallacy, way to go early Saints!) were instead citizens of the "City of God" which would be eternal.
Now mind you, Europe went thru quite a restructuring of their histories during the Romantic movement, of about 1820-1900, where many of the defining elements what would be known as pagan were altered a bit (funny that, a movement seeking to capture the glory of, and exalt, ancient cultures sorta holds back on using references to them as insults). This sorta washed under the rug the habit of Protestants and Catholics to across the board accuse each other of being Pagan.
Short an skinny of it, I could write a book on the subject (not my knowledge, but rather, the wealth of opposing views and interesting occurrences around them). Heck, it may even be my thesis when I decide to finish up and go for my Post Grad studies in History and Language Theory.
Of note, unrelated other than that this touches on language theory, avoid any dictionary publication that traces it's lineage to Noah Webster.
b*****d saw language as a tool he could use to put out the eye of European control over American thought. His concern for scholarship played second fiddle to his desire to promote a political agenda, not unlike that @#$% @#$%% ^#!& Anthony Comstock. I call them the Life Partner Parents of New-Speak.
scream But don't take my word for it.
Look for yourself. I may be obfuscating to protect my precious secrets.
ninja 
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