has been the nature of theChristian men in power through the ages to, for fear, deny their people theknowledge of the un-Christianrichness in their ancestry, and so the traditions that were not masked asChristian are lost to studentsof Christian history and literature. But it seems this period had not seensuch extensive discrimination.The two ways of the world were not quite so separate then, and matters ofthe occult were not yetlabeled as evil. This again implies that perhaps the two forms of religiousthought do not have to becompletely separate. There are strong similarities for them to coincide andcomplement eachother, and for an entire people trying to make the Christian transition,maybe this complementing wasnecessary. However, the age of forceful patriarchy and witch-burning wouldnot come about for severalhundred years.Each new way of leading a "holy life" was thought to be progressivelymore acceptable to Godby its proponents than the ones that had gone before. Such 'new ways' werenormally inspired by adesire to break away from the corruption and worldliness which was percievedin the older or moreestablished forms of Godly living. These new ways often became corruptthemselves and over timebreakaways from them were hailed as a newer and more perfect way offollowing God. Thisroller-coaster ride of corruption and reform is basically the story ofpopular medieval religion as manbattled to define and discover what it really meant to be a Christian.In an effort to escape persecution, but to also flee the evil, prevalent inthe world and to seek Godfree from many ' worldly ' distractions, monks began to assemble ascommunities of Christians . Thesecommunities, although they had little organization, were regarded aspossessing the best Christian lifeby having a solitary, ascetic, celibate existence where the ' world ' hadbeen totally renounced and hadbeen entirely replaced with heavenly contemplation. These ' new ' martyrswere usually just c...
