Paganism Quotes
Arguing against the relationship between Christianity and the common law as had been asserted by some English Jurists (see Matthew Hale and James Mansfield)
Then, as now, there were some who claimed there should be a larger role for Christianity in American law and governance. One such view in the first half of the 19th century was that whatever was unspecified in the Constitution deferred to the common law. England had an official state Christian church and therefore Christianity must have been a part of English common law and hence should be a significant part of American law and governance. Jefferson was one of the many leaders who refuted the notion by pointing out that the common law in England predated Christianity.
We generally associate expansionism in Africa with the European powers, but under Menelik, Ethiopia expanded its empire greatly while the Europeans were carving up other parts of Africa. When the Italians who didn’t take Ethiopia seriously, tried to grab the territory that Menelik had already grabbed, Menelik’s forces repulsed then in a humiliating defeat for Italy at Adowa in 1896. As a Christian Empire, Menelik thought Ethiopia had a right to African expansionism along with the Christian European powers as bringing Christianity to the pagans was one of the major moral justifications of African expansionism.
Note that the learned men who wrote the Chronicle accepted the notion that “fiery dragons were seen flying in the sky”. In another 1000 years, who knows what we observe today that will be laughed at by our progeny. The quotation also demonstrates that historical primary sources are not necessarily reliable because they were sometimes written by men and women with primitive outlook who accepted certain things without critical analysis.
