[Buddha-l] Inquisition and untouchability

[Richard Hayes]

On Sep 17, 2013, at 7:46, tccahill at loyno.edu wrote:

> One detail that has not been brought up is the incorporation by new or
> newer Catholics in the Middle Ages of rituals to support ancestors.  I
> think this is an area where indigenous practices flourished, and Church
> authorities were at a loss.

I used to spend time with a guy who specialized in medieval European, especially German, Christianity. The picture he painted was that converts to Catholicism routinely brought with them their "pagan" practices (which is what I would call practising a plurality of religions), which the church tried to discourage. Eventually, the church found ways to Catholicize these indigenous practices. Once they were taken on board as pukka Christianity, these practices ceased to be the practices of a second religion. As Dan has pointed out, Asian Buddhists had similar strategies. 

Richard