Monday 4 July 2011

Joseph Grzywaczewski - Religion of the Barbarians and of the Romans according to Salvian of Marseilles


Salvian divided the Barbarians in two groups: pagans and heretics. The Barbarians – pagans are cruel, perverse and inhuman; they are influenced by demons. They have a very bad image about the Christians and they persecute them. The Barbarians – heretics have some knowledge of the Christ teaching but very limited. They are not able to make studies, they do not know the God’s Law, they have no culture; they practice their religion by tradition. Their way of living is wrong, but they try to act according to their belief. The Romans have the true faith, they make studies on the Bible and on the Gold’s Law, but they do not live according to their faith and knowledge. One of the biggest faults of the Romans is a disorder in the sexual matter. Salvian noticed the ignorance (ignorantia) by the Barbarians and the transgression (praevaricatio) by the Romans. For this reason, he pointed out that the Romans are worse than the Barbarians. Surely, his opinion was simplified and nowadays it is not considered as completely correct.

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