Corentinus addresses Ysan survivors:
"'The city you build must be a city that avows Christ.'" (p. 92)
There is no vocal dissent and even some agreement. Corentinus' statement is not as unreasonable as it might sound. We are used to the idea that a city is a secular institution that can have different places of worship within it. One meaning of "city" has been precisely that there was a cathedral there although obviously there were cities before there were cathedrals. But, in Corentinus' time, it was probably acknowledged that a community had to acknowledge some deity and Who was left but Christ? It would not mean that everyone who lived or worked in the city had to be Christian although we also know that there would be massive social pressure to convert. Gratillonius will. Tempora mutantur nos et mutamur in illis.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Not quite! Greek cities, and later the Roman Empire, made mandatory the worship of the Olympian gods. Greek city states treated their worship like a state religion that citizens had to at least formally take part in. You could be a skeptic or atheist but you had to burn your burn your pinch of incense to Zeus/Jupiter if you wanted to take part in public life.
Ad astra! Sean
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