title: Christianity and paganism

text: According to Rodney Stark, since Christians most likely formed only sixteen to seventeen percent of the empire's population at the time of Constantine's conversion, they did not have the numerical advantage to form a sufficient power–base to begin a systematic persecution of pagans. However, Brown reminds us "We should not underestimate the fierce mood of the Christians of the fourth century", nor should it be forgotten that repression, persecution and martyrdom do not generally breed tolerance of those same persecutors. Brown says Roman authorities had shown no hesitation in "taking out" the Christian church which they saw as a threat to the peace of the empire, and that Constantine and his successors did the same for the same reasons. Rome had been removing anything it saw as a challenge to Roman identity since Bacchic associations were dissolved in 186 BCE. That military action against a mystical religion became the pattern for the Roman state's response to anything it saw as a religious threat. That position of the state toward internal threats did not change once the emperors were Christian.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Within this environment, Christians of the fourth century also believed the conversion of Constantine (traditionally 312) showed that Christianity had triumphed over paganism (in Heaven) and little further action against pagans was necessary; everything was done but the sweeping up in the Christian view. As a result, the fourth century included a focus on heresy as a higher priority than paganism. According to Brown, "In most areas, polytheists were not molested, and apart from a few ugly incidents of local violence, Jewish communities also enjoyed a century of stable, even privileged, existence".


title: Christianity and paganism

text: After Constantine (and the brief period of Julian's rule), paganism never regained its previous status as a state religion. Yet despite its inferior status in the Christian Empire, paganism still existed and was practiced. Up to the time of Justin I and Justinian, there was some toleration for all religions; there were anti-pagan and anti-heretical laws, but they were not generally enforced. Thus, up through the sixth century, there still existed centers of paganism in Athens, Gaza, Alexandria, and elsewhere.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: The Edict of Milan of 313 finally legalized Christianity, and it gained governmental privileges, such as tax exemptions to Christian clergy, and a degree of official approval under Constantine. Constantine destroyed a few temples and plundered more, converted others to churches, and neglected the rest; he "confiscated temple funds to help finance his own building projects", and in an effort to establish a stable currency, so he was primarily interested in hoards of gold and silver, but he also confiscated temple land; he refused to support pagan beliefs and practices while also speaking out against them; he periodically forbade pagan sacrifices and closed temples, made laws that threatened and menaced pagans while other laws markedly favored Christianity, and he personally endowed Christians with gifts of money, land and government positions.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: As the emperor, he openly supported Christianity after 324, but there are indications he also remained tolerant of pagans. He never engaged in a purge. Opponents' supporters were not slaughtered when Constantine took the capital; their families and court were not killed. There were no pagan martyrs. Laws menaced death, but during Constantine's reign, no one suffered the death penalty for violating anti-pagan laws against sacrifice. There is no evidence of judicial killings for illegal sacrifices before Tiberius Constantine (574–582), and many temples remained open into the reign of Justinian I (527-565). Peter Leithart says of Constantine that, "He did not punish pagans for being pagans, or Jews for being Jews, and did not adopt a policy of forced conversion." Pagans remained in important positions at his court. Constantine ruled for 31 years and never outlawed paganism.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: All records of anti-pagan legislation by Constantine are found in the "Life of Constantine", written by Eusebius, as a kind of eulogy after Constantine's death. It is not a history so much as a panegyric praising Constantine. The laws as they are stated in the Life of Constantine often do not correspond, "closely, or at all", to the text of the Codes themselves. Eusebius gives these laws a "strongly Christian interpretation by selective quotation or other means". This has led many to question the veracity of the record, and whether, in his zeal to praise Constantine, Eusebius generously attributed actions to Constantine that were not actually his.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: In 382, Gratian was the first Roman emperor to formally, in law, divert into the crown's coffers those public financial subsidies that had previously supported Rome's cults; he appropriated the income of pagan priests and the Vestal Virgins, forbid their right to inherit land, confiscated the possessions of the priestly colleges, and was the first to refuse the title of Pontifex Maximus. The colleges of pagan priests lost privileges and immunities. He also ordered the Altar of Victory to be removed again.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Gratian and Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan, exchanged multiple letters and books on Christianity, and the sheer volume of these writings has often been seen as evidence that Gratian was dominated by Ambrose. Ambrose, therefore, was the 'true source' of Gratian's anti-pagan actions. McLynn finds this unlikely and unnecessary as an explanation: Gratian was, himself, devout, and "The many differences between Gratian's religious policies and his father's, and the shifts that occurred during his own reign, are to be explained by changed political circumstances [after the Battle of Adrianople], rather than capitulation to Ambrose".


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Modern scholars have noted that Sozomen is the only ancient source that shows Ambrose and Gratian having any personal interaction. In the last year of Gratian's reign, Ambrose crashed Gratian's private hunting party in order to appeal on behalf of a pagan senator sentenced to die. After years of acquaintance, this indicates Ambrose did not personally feel he had enough influence to take for granted that Gratian would grant a request to see him. Instead, Ambrose had to resort to such maneuverings to make his appeal. Gratian's brother, Valentinian II, and his mother disliked Ambrose, but Valentinian II also refused to grant requests from pagans to restore the Altar of Victory and the income of the temple priests and Vestal Virgins.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Between 382 and 384, there was yet another dispute over the Altar of Victory. According to the "Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity", Symmachus requested the restoration of the altar that Gratian had removed and the restoration of state support for the Vestals. Ambrose campaigned against any financial support for paganism throughout his entire career, and anything like the Altar that required participation in blood sacrifices was anathema. Ambrose responded to Symmachus' and his arguments prevailed; the requests were denied. Pagans became outspoken in their demands for respect, concessions and support from the state, voicing their resentment in historical works, such as the writings of Eunapius and Olympiodorus.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: After Gratian, the emperors Arcadius, Honorius and Theodosius continued to appropriate for the crown the tax revenue collected by the temple custodians, though this may have been more about the empire's ongoing financial difficulties than religion. Urban ritual procession and ceremony was gradually stripped of support and funding. Rather than being removed outright though, many festivals were secularized, and later, these were incorporated into a developing Christian calendar (often with little alteration). Some had already severely declined in popularity by the end of the 3rd century.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: In the Eastern Empire, up until the time of Justinian, the Byzantine emperors practiced a policy of tolerance toward all religions. This pertained to both devotions to the Greco-Roman gods and the religion of barbarians living within the empire. Although there were anti-pagan laws, there is no record of their harsh punishments ever being enforced. As the eastern emperor, Theodosius seems to have practiced this same type of cautious policy from the beginning of his reign. Theodosius declared Nicene Christianity the official religion of the empire, though this was aimed more at the local Arians in Constantinople than the pagans. For pagans, he reiterated his Christian predecessors' bans on animal sacrifice, divination, and apostasy, but allowed other pagan practices to be performed publicly and temples to remain open. He also turned pagan holidays into workdays, but the festivals associated with them continued.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: There is evidence that Theodosius took care to prevent the empire's still substantial pagan population from feeling ill-disposed toward his rule. Following the death in 388 of his praetorian prefect, Cynegius, who had, contrary to Theodosius' spoken policies, vandalized a number of pagan shrines and temples in the eastern provinces, Theodosius replaced him with a moderate pagan who subsequently moved to protect the temples. During his first official tour of Italy (389–391), the emperor won over the influential pagan lobby in the Roman Senate by appointing its foremost members to important administrative posts. Theodosius also nominated the last pair of pagan consuls in Roman history (Tatianus and Symmachus) in 391.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Classicist Ingomar Hamlet says that, contrary to popular myth, Theodosius did not ban the Olympic games. indicates there are several reasons to conclude the Olympic games continued after Theodosius and came to an end under Theodosius II instead. Two scholia on Lucian connect the end of the games with a fire that burned down the temple of the Olympian Zeus during his reign.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: A number of laws against pagan sacrifice, and against heresy, were issued towards the end of Theodosius' reign in 391 and 392.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Anti-pagan legislation reflects what Brown calls "the most potent social and religious drama" of the fourth-century Roman empire. From Constantine forward, the Christian intelligentsia wrote of Christianity as fully triumphant over paganism. It didn't matter that they were still a minority in the empire, this triumph had occurred in Heaven; it was evidenced by Constantine; but even after Constantine, they wrote that Christianity would defeat, and be seen to defeat, all of its enemies - not convert them. As Peter Brown says, "Conversion was not the principal aim of a social order that declared the God-given dominance of Christianity".


title: Christianity and paganism

text: The laws were not intended to convert; "the laws were intended to terrorize... Their language was uniformly vehement, and... frequently horrifying". Their intent was to reorder society along religious lines with the 'triumphant' Christian church in charge, and pagans and Jews at the outskirts of influence, so that laws could be made that were sufficiently intimidating to enable Christianity to put a stop to animal sacrifice. Blood sacrifice was the element of pagan culture most abhorrent to Christians. If they could not stop the private practice of sacrifice, they could "hope to determine what would be normative and socially acceptable in public spaces". Altars used for sacrifice were routinely smashed by Christians who were deeply offended by the blood of slaughtered victims as they were reminded of their own past sufferings associated with such altars.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Blood sacrifice was a central rite of virtually all religious groups in the pre-Christian Mediterranean, and its gradual disappearance is one of the most significant religious developments of late antiquity. ... Public sacrifices and communal feasting had declined as the result of a decline in the prestige of pagan priesthoods and a shift in patterns of [private donations] in civic life. That shift would have occurred on a lesser scale even without the conversion of Constantine... It is easy, nonetheless, to imagine a situation in which sacrifice could decline without disappearing. Why not retain, for example, a single animal victim in order to preserve the integrity of the ancient rite? The fact that public sacrifices appear to have disappeared completely in many towns and cities must be attributed to the atmosphere created by imperial and episcopal hostility.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: By the time the pro-pagan emperor Julian (r. 360–363) made his trip through Asia Minor to Antioch to assemble an army and resume war against Persia, opposing sacrifice had become the norm among the people. Julian reached Antioch on July 18 which coincided with a pagan festival that had already become secular: it did not include sacrifice. Julian's preference for blood sacrifice found little support, and the citizens of Antioch accused Julian of "turning the world upside down" by reinstituting it, calling him "slaughterer". "When Julian restored altars in Antioch, the Christian populace promptly threw them down again". Julian succeeded in marching to the Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon, but during the Battle of Samarra, he was mortally wounded. The facts of his death have become obscured by the "war of words between Christians and pagans" which followed. It was "principally over the source of the fatal spear... The thought that Julian might have died by the hand of one of his own side... was a godsend to a Christian tradition eager to have the apostate emperor accorded his just desserts. Yet such a rumor was not solely the product of religious polemic. It had its roots in the broader trail of disaffection Julian left in his wake".


title: Christianity and paganism

text: One of the first things that is important about this, in Malcolm Errington's view, is how much anti-pagan legislation was applied and used, which would show how dependable the laws are as a reflection of what actually happened to pagans in history. Brown says that, given the large numbers of non-Christians in every region at this time, local authorities were "notoriously lax" in imposing them. Christian bishops also frequently obstructed their application. The harsh imperial edicts had to face the vast following of paganism among the population, and the passive resistance of governors and magistrates, thereby limiting their impact. Limiting, but not eliminating impact altogether, as Anna Leone says, "Temple closures and the prohibition of sacrifices had an impact... After AD 375 the majority of [pagan] religious offices disappear completely from the epigraphic record".


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Secondly, the laws reveal the emergence of a language of intolerance. The legal language runs parallel to the writings of the apologists, such as Augustine of Hippo and Theodoret of Cyrrhus, and heresiologists such as Epiphanius of Salamis. Christian writers and imperial legislators both drew on a rhetoric of conquest. These writings were commonly hostile and often contemptuous toward a paganism Christianity saw as already defeated.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Lastly, on the one hand the laws, and these Christian sources with their violent rhetoric, have had great influence on modern perceptions of this period by creating an impression of continuous violent conflict that has been assumed on an empire-wide scale. Archaeological evidence, on the other hand, indicates that, outside of violent rhetoric, there were only isolated incidents of actual violence between Christians and pagans. Non-Christian, (non-heretical), groups such as pagans and Jews enjoyed a tolerance based on contempt through most of Late Antiquity.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: It has been common for much of scholarship to attribute rampant temple destruction to Theodosius through his prefect, Maternus Cynegius. Cynegius did commission the destruction of temples, using the army under his control and nearby monks, especially in the territory around Constantinople in the diocese of Oriens (the East). Peter Brown says that in 392, inspired by the mood created by Cynegius, Theophilus of Alexandria staged a procession ridiculing statues of pagan gods. Political complications contributed to turning it into a riot, and the Serapium in Alexandria, Egypt was destroyed. Some scholars think this is when the philosopher Hypatia was killed, (though there is evidence this happened in 415 instead). These examples were seen as the 'tip of the iceberg' by earlier scholars who saw these events as part of a tide of violent Christian iconoclasm that continued throughout the 390s and into the 400s.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Problems with this view have arisen in the twenty-first century. Archaeological evidence for the violent destruction of temples in the fourth century, from around the entire Mediterranean, is limited to a handful of sites. Temple destruction is attested to in 43 cases in the written sources, but only 4 of them have been confirmed by archaeological evidence.In Gaul, only 2.4% of over 500 known temples and religious sites were destroyed by violence, some of it barbarian. In Africa, the city of Cyrene has good evidence of the burning of several temples; Asia Minor has produced one weak possibility; in Greece the only strong candidate may relate to a barbarian raid instead of Christians. Egypt has produced no archaeologically confirmed temple destructions from this period except the Serapeum. In Italy there is one; Britain has the highest percentage with 2 out of 40 temples.Trombley and MacMullen say part of why discrepancies between literary sources and archaeological evidence exist is because it is common for details in the literary sources to be ambiguous and unclear. For example, Malalas claimed Constantine destroyed all the temples, then he said Theodisius destroyed them all, then he said Constantine converted them all to churches. "According to Procopius, in the 530s Justinian destroyed the temples of Philae widely identified as the last bastion of paganism in Egypt. But no priests are attested to after the 450s, Christianity was thriving there from the early fourth century, and the temples themselves are among the best preserved in the ancient world".


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Archaeology suggests that religious buildings were subject to three different directions of change during the imperial period: early abandonment, destruction and re-use. The financial struggles begun in the third century continued on into the fourth century to negatively impact available funding to maintain the large temple complexes and their festivals. Lower budgets, with less spent on statuary, monuments, and simple maintenance, meant the physical decline of urban structures of all types. Many Temples were left to fall into disrepair and in many instances, such as in Tripolitana, this happened before any Christian anti-pagan legislation could have been a factor.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Progressive early decay was accompanied by an increased trade in statuary and salvaged building materials, as the practice of recycling became common in Late Antiquity, resulting in their complete destruction and removal. "Even churches were reused in similar ways". Some temple restorations took place throughout the imperial period, but there is no evidence of state participation or support. Restorations were funded and accomplished privately.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Overall data indicates that a number of elements coincided to end the Temples, but none of them were strictly religious. The economy, necessity, and political expressions of power were the primary driving forces for the destruction and conversion of pagan religious monuments. Lavan says: "We must rule out most of the images of destruction created by the [written sources]. Archaeology shows the vast majority of temples were not treated this way".


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Some scholars have long asserted that not all temples were destroyed but were instead converted to churches throughout the empire. According to modern archaeology, 120 pagan temples were converted to churches in the whole empire, out of the thousands of temples that existed, and only about 40 of them are dated before the end of the fifth century. R. P. C. Hanson says the direct conversion of temples into churches did not begin until the mid fifth century in any but a few isolated incidents. In Rome the first recorded temple conversion was the Pantheon in 609. None of the churches attributed to Martin of Tours can be proven to have existed in the fourth century.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Some pagans blamed the Christian hegemony for the 410 Sack of Rome, while Christians in turn blamed the pagans, provoking Saint Augustine, a Christian bishop, to respond by writing "The City of God", a seminal Christian text. It is alleged that Christians destroyed almost all pagan political literature and threatened to cut off the hands of any copyist who dared to make new copies of the offending writings. Yet there is no evidence any Christian in authority ever "actually punished the expression of pagan sentiments" and there is no known prosecution of any pagan work. Many pagan poets and writers were popular among the still classically educated Christian elite, for example, Seneca was referenced 13 times in Augustine's "City of God".


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Mob violence was an occasional problem in all the independent cities of the empire. There were no police forces as such. Taxes, food and politics were common reasons for rioting. Religion was also a factor though it is difficult to separate from politics since they were intertwined in all aspects of life. In 361, the murder of the Arian bishop George of Cappadocia was committed by a mob of pagans, although there is evidence he had cruelly provoked them; the conflict over the Serapeum involved both a Christian and a pagan mob; the Jews and the Christians each gathered to fight in 415, although the sources indicate it was the upper levels of the Jewish community who decided to massacre the Christians after Cyril made serious threats to their leadership. A Christian mob threw objects at Orestes and, finally, Hypatia was killed by a Christian mob though politics and personal jealousy were probably the primary causes. Mobs were composed of lower-class urban dwellers, upper class educated pagans, Jews and Christians, and in Alexandria, monks from the monastery of Nitria.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: The early Christians adapted many elements of paganism. Ancient pagan funeral rituals often remained within Christian culture as aspects of custom and community with very little alteration. A type of song sung at death, the ritual lament, is one of the oldest of all art forms. As soon as death was imminent, the ritual began, then came the "struggle of the soul" and prayer for the dying. John Chrysostum gives a vivid account of the dying soul seeing angels and demons - "account books in hand" - struggling against each other in a contest for possession of the dying person's soul. Macarius of Egypt (fourth century) writes of such a contest which is only resolved by the intervention of the person's guardian angel - which is roughly parallel to Plato's "daimon".


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Spontaneous lamentation would break out among those present once the struggle of the soul was over. All evidence suggests this was a violent display of grief - the laceration of the cheeks, tearing one's hair, and the rending of garments along with the wailing of the lament song. The church saw this immoderate behavior as improper for people who believed death was not the end, so they attempted to moderate it by singing Psalms, with two groups of singers on opposite sides chanting an antiphonal lament, with rhythm, harmony and order instead. However, this too is similar to the pagan lament sung for Achilles and one suggested by Plato for his Examiners in the "Laws".


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Pagans and Jews decorated their burial chambers, so Christians did as well, thereby creating the first Christian art in the catacombs beneath Rome. This art is symbolic, rising out of a reinterpretation of Jewish and pagan symbolism. Christian piety infused the symbols with its own fresh interpretation.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Christian art had something fundamentally new to say as it gave visual expression to the conviction that the human soul can be delivered from death to an everlasting life. Neither Judaism nor any pagan religion had previously made such a claim. "The Jewish faith puts little emphasis on immortality, and pagan beliefs about the afterlife were vague, uncertain, and sometimes dismal".


title: Christianity and paganism

text: While many new subjects appear for the first time in the Christian catacombs - i.e. the Good Shepherd, Baptism, and the Eucharistic meal - the Orant figures (women praying with upraised hands) probably came directly from pagan art. Pagan symbolism in the form of Victories, cupids, and shepherd scenes are scattered throughout the catacombs. Jewish and pagan use of sheep and goats, birds in a tree or vine, or eating fruit, especially grapes, seven steps leading up to a tomb, a pair of peacocks, the Robe of sanctity, the reading of scrolls, are all found in pagan art and adapted in the Christian art to express the hope of immortality in Christian terms. Pagan sarcophagi had long carried shells, and portraits of the dead often had shells over the head of the dead, while some put a shell over a grave. Christians and Jews adapted the convention, identifying it with another symbol - the halo. For the Christians who made the catacombs, these symbols were necessary to convey their message.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Many previously pagan holy places were converted to Christian use. In 609 Pope Boniface IV obtained leave from the Byzantine Emperor Phocas to convert the Pantheon in Rome into a Christian church, a practice similar to that recommended eight years earlier by Pope Gregory I to Mellitus regarding Anglo-Saxon holy places, in order to ease the transition to Christianity. According to Willibald's "Life of Saint Boniface", about 723, the missioner cut down the sacred Donar's Oak and used the lumber to build a church dedicated to St. Peter. Around 744, Saint Sturm established the monastery of Fulda on the ruins of a 6th-century Merovingian royal camp, destroyed 50 years earlier by the Saxons, at a ford on the Fulda River.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Many names for months and days of the week - even the concept of a seven-day week - were borrowed from Roman paganism. From very early in the Christian era, the Feast of the Annunciation has been celebrated on March 25, commemorating both the belief that the spring equinox was not only the day of God's act of Creation but also the beginning of Christ's redemption of that same Creation.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: In its first three centuries, Christianity did not celebrate the birth of Christ. Birthdays were pagan, no one actually knew when Jesus was born, and many of the early church fathers objected to the whole idea. Once it finally was celebrated, it was on the sixth of January, not December 25. The earliest source stating December 25 as the date of birth of Jesus was Hippolytus of Rome (170–236), writing very early in the 3rd century, based on the assumption that the conception of Jesus took place at the Spring equinox which he placed on March 25, and then added nine months. By the year 354, December 25 as the birth date of Christ is found in a Roman calendar where it is not identified as a church feast, but is recorded as if December 25 had become the actual birth date as a historical fact. Theological themes and calculations may explain why the church eventually adopted a celebration of Jesus' birth, but not why December the 25th was chosen as the date. Historian Stephen Nissenbaum says this choice was a compromise. There is no avoiding "Roman midwinter parties and Christianity's conscious decision to place a Christmas celebration right in the middle of them" as part of that compromise.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: The Roman cult of Sol had existed since the early Republic, and it was celebrated on 25 December. In AD 274, the Roman emperor Aurelian made it an official cult alongside the other traditional Roman cults. Saturnalia was an ancient Roman festival in honour of the god Saturn, held on 17 December of the Julian calendar and later expanded to 23 December. The popularity of Saturnalia continued into the 3rd and 4th centuries, and as the Roman Empire came under Christian influence, many of its customs were recast into or at least influenced the seasonal celebrations surrounding Christmas and the New Year. Many observers schooled in the classical tradition have noted similarities between the Saturnalia and historical revelry during the Twelve Days of Christmas and the Feast of Fools William Warde Fowler notes: "[Saturnalia] has left its traces and found its parallels in great numbers of medieval and modern customs, occurring about the time of the winter solstice."Some way or another, Christmas was started to compete with rival Roman religions, or to co-opt the winter celebrations as a way to spread Christianity, or to baptize the winter festivals with Christian meaning in an effort to limit their [drunken] excesses. Most likely all three.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Accordingly, the Church celebrates the birth of John the Baptist by a festival of his "nativity", assigned exactly six months before the Nativity of Christ, since John was six months older than Jesus. By the late sixth century, the Nativity of John the Baptist (24 June) had become an important feast, counterbalancing at midsummer the midwinter feast of Christmas. With the spread of Christianity, some of the local Germanic solstice celebrations (Midsummer festivals) were incorporated into St. John's Day festivities, notably for the evening before.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Martin Luther King Jr. wrote about this connection while in late 1949 or early 1950, noting that the place at Bethlehem selected by early Christians as Jesus's birthplace was an early shrine of a pagan god, Adonis. After the Bar Kokhba revolt ( 132–136 CE) was crushed, the Roman emperor Hadrian converted the Christian site above the Grotto into a shrine dedicated to the Greek god Adonis, to honour his favourite, the Greek youth Antinous.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Justin Martyr was a pagan who became a Christian around 132. In his "First Apology", Justin used the concept of the "Logos" as a way of arguing for Christianity to non-Jews. These references demonstrate that Justin's knowledge of Stoicism was the knowledge of an ordinary man of his time in ordinary conversation, and that it is unlikely he ever studied Stoicism. However, he calls himself a Platonist, his references to Plato are much more detailed, and parallels to Plato's writings can be found in Justin's, though they do not suggest direct influence. Since a Greek audience would accept references to Greek philosophy, his argument could concentrate on identifying the Logos with Jesus. Scholars generally recognize that Clement went much farther, perhaps the farthest "any Orthodox Christian ever did in his appropriation and use of Hellenistic philosophical and ethical concepts for the expression of his Christian faith".


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Augustine of Hippo (354–430), who ultimately systematized Christian philosophy after converting to Christianity from Manichaeism, wrote in the late 4th and early 5th century: "But when I read those books of the Platonists I was taught by them to seek incorporeal truth, so I saw your 'invisible things, understood by the things that are made'." Until the 20th century, most of the Western world's concept of Manichaeism came through Augustine's negative polemics against it. According to his "Confessions", after eight or nine years of adhering to the Manichaean faith (as an "auditor", the lowest level in the sect's hierarchy), he became a Christian and a potent adversary of Manichaeism. When he turned from Manichaeism, he took up skepticism. In AD 386, he published "Contra Academicos" (Against the Skeptics).


title: Christianity and paganism

text: J. Brachtendorf says Augustine used the Ciceronian Stoic concept of passions to interpret Paul's doctrine of universal sin and redemption.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: The influence of paganism can also be found in the development of many non-Orthodox theologies such as the Cathars of the Middle Ages. Cathars were dualists and felt that the world was the work of a demiurge of Satanic origin. Whether this was due to influence from Manichaeism or another strand of Gnosticism, and whether it was originally Zoroastrian has been impossible to determine. The Bogomils and Cathars, in particular, left few records of their rituals or doctrines, and the link between them and Manichaeans is unclear. Regardless of its historical veracity the charge of Manichaeism was leveled at them by contemporary orthodox opponents, who often tried to fit contemporary heresies with those combated by the church fathers. Not all Cathars held that The Evil God (or principle) was as powerful as The Good God (also called a principle) as Mani did, a belief also known as absolute dualism. In the case of the Cathars, it seems they adopted the Manichaean principles of church organization, but none of its religious cosmology. Similarly, Priscillian and his followers apparently tried to absorb what they thought was the valuable part of Manichaeaism into Christianity.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: The most likely date for Christianity getting its first foothold in Britain is sometime around 200. Recent archaeology indicates that it had become an established minority faith by the fourth century. It was largely mainstream, and in certain areas, had been continuous.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: In early Anglo-Saxon England, non-stop religious development meant paganism and Christianity were never completely separate. Arthur Weston wrote that, "When Gregory the Great was taking steps for the conversion of the heathen Saxons, he is said to have warned his missionaries not to interfere with any traditional belief or religious observance which could be harmonized with Christianity". Richard A. Fletcher suggests that holy wells developed out of a like adaptation.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: The word "Easter" is linked, by a single documentary source, to an Anglo-Saxon goddess, though the roots of the Easter celebration predate Christian contact with the Anglo-Saxons. In his eighth-century "The Reckoning of Time" the venerable Bede wrote that ""Ēosturmōnaþ" was Anglo-Saxon for 'Month of Ēostre', the month that corresponded to April, so-named "after a goddess of theirs named Ēostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month". The German cognate of the goddess Eostre is called "Ostara", and likewise the word for Easter in German is "Ostern". Richard Fletcher, however, speculated that the name Easter might come from the Anglo-Saxon "eastan", meaning east.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: The conversion of the Anglo-Saxons was begun at about the same time in both the north and south of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in two unconnected initiatives. Irish missionaries led by Saint Columba, based in Iona (from 563), converted many Picts. The court of Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, and the Gregorian mission, who landed in 596, did the same to the Kingdom of Kent. They had been sent by Pope Gregory I and were led by Augustine of Canterbury with a mission team from Italy. In both cases, as in other kingdoms of this period, conversion generally began with the royal family and the nobility adopting the new religion first.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: The conversion of Æthelberht, king of Kent is the first account of any Christian bretwalda conversion and is told by the Venerable Bede in his histories of the conversion of England. In 582 Pope Gregory sent Augustine and 40 companions from Rome to convert the Anglo-Saxons. "They had, by order of the blessed Pope Gregory, brought interpreters of the nation of the Franks, and sending to Æthelberht, signified that they were come from Rome, and brought a joyful message, which most undoubtedly assured to all that took advantage of it everlasting joys in heaven, and a kingdom that would never end with the living and true God." Æthelberht was not unfamiliar with Christianity because he had a Christian wife, and Bede says that there was even a church dedicated to St. Martin nearby. Æthelberht was converted eventually and Augustine remained in Canterbury.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: After his death, King Oswald of Northumbria came to be regarded as a saint, and the spot where he died was associated with miracles. Reginald of Durham mentions one, saying that Oswald's right arm was taken by a raven to an ash tree, which gave the tree ageless vigor; when the bird dropped the arm onto the ground, a spring emerged from the ground. Both the tree and the spring were, according to Reginald, subsequently associated with healing miracles. Aspects of the legend have been considered to have pagan overtones or influences and may represent a fusion of his status as a traditional Germanic warrior-king with Christianity. The cult surrounding him gained prominence in parts of continental Europe.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Some time prior to 655, Œthelwald of Deira gave Chad of Mercia land upon which to build a monastery. According to Bede, Chad felt it necessary to fast for forty days in order to cleanse the place. This ritual purification indicates that the new monastery was likely built on the site of a pre-Christian cult.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: The conversion of the northern Saxons began with their forced incorporation into the Frankish kingdom in 776 by Charlemagne (r. 768–814). Thereafter, the Saxon's Christian conversion slowly progressed into the eleventh century. The Saxon conversion was difficult for a number of reasons including that their pagan beliefs were so strongly tied to their culture that conversion necessarily meant massive cultural change that was hard to accept. Their sophisticated theology was also a bulwark against an immediate and complete conversion to Christianity.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Saxons had gone back and forth between rebellion and submission to the Franks for decades. Charlemagne placed missionaries and courts across Saxony in hopes of pacifying the region, but Saxons rebelled again in 782 with disastrous losses for the Franks. In response, the Frankish King "enacted a variety of draconian measures" beginning with the massacre at Verden in 782 when he ordered the decapitation of 4500 Saxon prisoners offering them baptism as an alternative to death. These events were followed by the severe legislation of the "Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae" in 785 which prescribes death to those that are disloyal to the king, harm Christian churches or its ministers, or practice pagan burial rites. His harsh methods of Christianization raised objections from his friends Alcuin and Paulinus of Aquileia. Charlemagne abolished the death penalty for paganism in 797.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: The first recorded attempts at spreading Christianity in Norway were made by King Haakon the Good in the tenth century, who was raised in England. His efforts were unpopular and were met with little success. In 995 Olaf Tryggvason became King Olaf I of Norway. Olaf I then made it his priority to convert the country to Christianity. By destroying temples and torturing and killing pagan resisters he succeeded in making every part of Norway at least nominally Christian. Expanding his efforts to the Norse settlements in the west the kings' sagas credit him with Christianizing the Faroes, Orkney, Shetland, Iceland, and Greenland. After Olaf's defeat at the Battle of Svolder in 1000 there was a partial relapse to paganism in Norway under the rule of the Jarls of Lade. In the following reign of Saint Olaf, pagan remnants were stamped out and Christianity entrenched.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Armed conflict between the Baltic Finns, Balts and Slavs who dwelt by the Baltic shores and their Saxon and Danish neighbors to the north and south had been common for several centuries. The Christianization of the pagan Balts, Slavs and Finns was undertaken primarily during the 12th and 13th centuries, in a series of uncoordinated military campaigns by various German and Scandinavian kingdoms, and later by the Teutonic Knights and other orders of warrior-monks. It was during these Northern Crusades that armed conversion of paganism first became a part of Christianity.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: Dragnea and Christiansen indicate the primary motive for these wars was the noble's desire for territorial expansion and material wealth in the form of land, furs, amber, slaves, and tribute. Medieval historian and political scientist Iben Fonnesberg-Schmidt says, the princes were motivated by their desire to extend their power and prestige, and conversion was not always an element of their plans. However, conversion was part of the language for all these invaders, and conversion was almost always by the direct use of force or the indirect force of a leader who had converted and required conversion of his followers as well. There were often severe consequences for populations that chose to resist. For example, the conquest and conversion of Old Prussia resulted in the death of much of the native population, whose language subsequently became extinct.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: "While the theologians maintained that conversion should be voluntary, there was a widespread pragmatic acceptance of conversion obtained through political pressure or military coercion." The church's acceptance of this led some commentators of the time to endorse and approve it, something Christian thought had never previously done. Dominican friars helped with this ideological justification. By portraying the pagans as possessed by evil spirits, they could assert the pagans were in need of conquest, persecution and force in order to free them; "then" they would become peacefully converted. Ideals of peaceful conversion were rarely realized in these crusades; monks and priests had to work with the secular rulers on their terms, and the military leaders seldom cared about allowing the time necessary for peaceful conversion.


title: Christianity and paganism

text: The practice of replacing pagan beliefs and motifs with Christian, and purposefully not recording the pagan history (such as the names of pagan gods, or details of pagan religious practices), has been compared to the practice of "damnatio memoriae".


title: Criminal record

text: A criminal record, police record, or colloquially RAP sheet (Record of Arrests and Prosecutions) is a record of a person's criminal history. The information included in a criminal record and the existence of a criminal record varies between countries and even between jurisdictions within a country. In most cases it lists all non-expunged criminal offences and may also include traffic offences such as speeding and drunk driving. In some countries the record is limited to actual convictions (where the individual has pled guilty or been found guilty by a qualified court, resulting in the entry of a conviction), while in others it also includes arrests, charges dismissed, charges pending and charges of which the individual has been acquitted.


title: Criminal record

text: A criminal history may be used by potential employers, lenders, and others to assess a person's trustworthiness. Criminal records may also be relevant for international travel, and for the charging and sentencing of persons who commit additional criminal offenses.


title: Criminal record

text: Individuals in Australia can obtain a national criminal history to check themselves, and certain organisations can apply for one on their behalf. A person may be required to undergo a criminal record check for a variety of reasons, including employment screening, volunteer work, preparing for a court appearance, visa applications, firearms licensing, or to satisfy a statutory requirement. Individuals can obtain a national criminal history through two ways:


title: Criminal record

text: The Working With Children Check, which is used to screen workers and volunteers in child-related work, is a specific check for those whose criminal records are deemed to pose a high risk to children.


title: Criminal record

text: In Austria, criminal records and "Strafregisterbescheinigung" (criminal record certificate) are maintained by the Register Division ("Strafregisteramt") of Federal Police Bureau Vienna ("Bundespolizeidirektion Wien").


title: Criminal record

text: In order to access a criminal record in Austria, a person must complete a form with relevant identification and pay a fee (in July 2014, currently 28.60 Euro, or 16.40 Euro if it is for the purposes of employment). Requests for a criminal record certificate can be taken to police stations and will be processed and provided to the applicant immediately, or a person can request for a hard-copy to be posted to an address within Austria.


title: Criminal record

text: In Austria, a request for a criminal record certificate can come in two forms – restricted and unrestricted disclosure. An application at the request of a future employer will be issued a restricted disclosure, which only contains unexpunged convictions and may not include less serious convictions. An unrestricted disclosure certificate is exclusively for specific state agencies (for example, firearms licensing bodies, military and law enforcement agencies), and, even then, is only issued in specific circumstances. This type of criminal record certificate contains details of all convictions.


title: Criminal record

text: All criminal offences are recorded on the Criminal Register. Convictions are removed from the Criminal Register upon expiry of the penalty, which generally occurs when the penalty ends, but can extend to up fifteen years after the penalty has been completed. The only exception is life sentences which are not removed from the Criminal Register.


title: Criminal record

text: Austria maintains a sex offender registry; however, this is for law enforcement and intelligence purposes only.


title: Criminal record

text: In Belgium, there is a national central criminal record system which records, keeps and modifies data related to penal decisions. The criminal record system is maintained by the Federal Public Service Justice.


title: Criminal record

text: The criminal records held within the central system contain the following data: criminal record number; name, surname and given name; date and place of birth; gender; residence; profession; nationality; court; number of judges; degree of jurisdiction; reference, number and date of judgement; date of transmission to central criminal record; sentence pronounced, place and date of the criminal acts.


title: Criminal record

text: To access their own criminal record, a person can seek it from their local police authority or send a written request to the Federal Public Service Justice. In terms of public access to criminal records, the following persons and judicial and administrative bodies may be able to gain access to records through the Federal Public Service Justice.


title: Criminal record

text: Two kinds of erasure exist in the Belgian system: The real erasure is the disappearance of the conviction, and applies only to police sentences (small fines and 8 days of imprisonment or less). For all other sentences, a system of "no mention" applies, whereby the conviction remains recorded in the central system but is no longer available for access by several categories of people.


title: Criminal record

text: Disclosure of criminal records in Bulgaria is governed by Regulation No 8/26.02.2008 for the Functions and Organisation of the Activity of the Criminal Records Offices. The criminal record system for citizens of Bulgaria are kept in the Criminal Records Office located at every Regional Court in Bulgaria, and the Central Office of Criminal Records at the Ministry of Justice. There are two types of criminal records disclosed in Bulgaria; Conviction Status Certificate, and the Verification of Conviction Status. The Conviction Status Certificate contains personal information about the concerned individual (full name, personal identification number, date and place of birth, nationality, names of parents), details of all the convictions and the purpose of the Certificate. This Certificate is valid for 6 months from the date it was issued, and can only be applied for by the concerned individual, relative of individual, legal heir of the concerned individual, or a power of attorney. The Verification of Conviction Status contains personal information about the concerned individual (full name, personal identification number, date and place of birth, nationality, names of parents), details of all convictions, including whether rehabilitation was required, and information about all imposed administrative sanctions. There is no term of validity for this status; however, it can only be issued for an official purpose by governmental or law enforcement authorities. These records can be accessed through application to the Central Office of Criminal Records. The cost is approximately €2.60.


title: Criminal record

text: The Bulgarian Penal Code allows the removal of conviction data for individuals, known as the 'rehabilitation of individuals'. This can be awarded by a court of law given that the individual has demonstrated good conduct, and has compensated any damages. A second type of rehabilitation is known as rehabilitation de jure which enacts new legislation. This can occur if the individually has been sentenced conditionally, the individual has been sentenced to up to three years' imprisonment and has not committed any other crimes punishable by imprisonment, the individual was sentenced to a fine, public reprimand or deprivation of civil rights, and they have not committed another crime the year following. Additionally, judgments are removed from a criminal record after the sentence has been served and the following time has elapsed:


title: Criminal record

text: In Canada, criminal records are stored in Criminal Records Information Management Services, a centralized database operated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police under the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) since 1972. The database includes all convictions for which a pardon has not been granted, all charges regardless of disposition, outstanding warrants and charges, all judicial orders and other information that might be of interest to police investigations.


title: Criminal record

text: There are two types of criminal record checks: standard and vulnerable sector. Vulnerable sector is defined under the "Criminal Records Act" as minor (less than 18 years of age) andThere are 4 levels of standard criminal record checks—levels 1 to 4. Level 1 is the most basic check and level 4 being the most extensive. Criminal record checks can only be done with the consent of the individual. Due to the sensitive nature of CPIC, only police agencies are authorized to conduct a criminal record check, with the exception of BC Ministry of Justice.


title: Criminal record

text: In the event that the name and date of birth of the applicant matches any sexual offence record in the system, he/she is required to submit fingerprints to the RCMP for a physical confirmation. Criminal record check is an integral part of the process for obtaining security clearances regardless of level of access. Some provinces may require high-risk professions to be screened to ensure public safety. For example, the BC Ministry of Justice requires all healthcare professionals, practicum students in healthcare, childcare facilities staff and volunteers, school and hospital staff regardless of position to undergo a CRC via the Criminal Records Review Program.


title: Criminal record

text: Criminal offences can be pardoned either by the Governor General of Canada, Parole Board of Canada or through an Order in Council by the federal government, as determined by the crime involved under the "Criminal Records Act". Pardon has been renamed as record suspension under Bill C-10, otherwise known as the omnibus crime bill or by its formal name "Safe Streets and Communities Act", introduced by the Conservative government in 2011. The change officially came into force on March 13, 2012. In 2017, two provincial superior courts struck down the retroactive nature of these changes as unconstitutional. As a result, pardons are currently being granted to residents of BC and Ontario who were convicted prior to 2012.


title: Criminal record

text: In Chile, citizens can request their own criminal records at the Civil Registrations office or the Registro Civil. According to the Article 19 N°16 of the Constitution of Chile, an employer cannot discriminate based on anything else but personal capabilities to perform at the job offered. One can eliminate one's criminal records by a voluntary checkup, providing your signature two years for first offenses, or five years for more. A person must be complaint of the requisites provided by the law No. 409.


title: Criminal record

text: The Criminal Code of Croatia: The Official Gazette of the Republic of Croatia "Narodne novine" entered into force on January 1, 1998.


title: Criminal record

text: Under Article 86, criminal record data may be given only to courts and state attorney's offices when a criminal case is brought against the person. Governmental bodies can access this data upon a reasonable request and must be related to specific tasks in public service to be entrusted to the person for whom such information is requested. The police can also gain access with the intention of discovering the perpetrator of a criminal act. Other members of the general public do not have the right to demand that citizens submit records concerning their convictions. A citizen retains the right to access data from their own criminal record, only under the condition that the purpose is to exercise his rights in another state.


title: Criminal record

text: Certificates of criminal records are issued from the Department for Criminal Records. To be expunged of any conviction from one's criminal record, Article 19 of the Law on Legal Consequences of Conviction, Rehabilitation and Criminal Records (Official Gazette 143/12) needs to be referred to.


title: Criminal record

text: In Cyprus, criminal records are held by the Criminal Investigation Office of Cyprus Police which forms part of the Republic of Cyprus Minister of Justice and Public Order. A Clear Criminal Record Certificate or existing Criminal Record can be requested by individuals through application to the Criminal Investigation Office. Applications can be made in person at the Central Police Station in Nicosia. Criminal records in Cyprus are maintained for life.


title: Criminal record

text: Cyprus introduced legislation in 2014 allowing for the creation of a sex offenders register. The legislation also provides for inclusion of a greater European Union sex offender registry.


title: Criminal record

text: The Czech Republic took part in the Network of Judicial Registers pilot project, with 10 other countries, exchanging information on criminal records electronically.


title: Criminal record

text: Criminal record information is maintained at the Criminal Records Office in Prague—which is state-funded and can be found at the offices of the Ministry of Justice.


title: Criminal record

text: Individuals can request An Excerpt from the Penal Register for personal access only. Applications can be made from Czech Republic embassies, and also by prospective employers for people who have been a resident or citizen of the Czech Republic. Data on corporate criminal records are accessible by the general public.


title: Criminal record

text: Criminal convictions remain on record for an indefinite period. Under certain conditions, the Court will expunge convictions after 15 years in an exceptional sentence, 10 years if there conviction of the sentence does not exceed 5 years, 5 years if the sentence of imprisonment does not exceed one year.


title: Criminal record

text: The Danish criminal record certificate is titled "Privat Straffeattest" and is the responsibility of the National Police Authority (the Rigspolitiet). The Danish Data Protection Agency governs the legislation in relation to criminal records and provides certain restrictions. Criminal convictions on the certificate include all violations of the Denmark Criminal Code. There are varying time frames for which convictions remain on an individual's criminal record. For example, fines remain on the record for 2 years from the date of payment, unconditional convictions for 5 years from date of release from prison, and suspended sentences for 3 years from the conviction date. Any older convictions will be struck from the record.


title: Criminal record

text: In order to obtain a criminal record check in Denmark an individual or third party (with written consent) can apply in person at a local police station or by way of email to the National Police Authority. Available languages for the certificate include English, German, Danish, French and Spanish where there are no convictions. When there are convictions, the only available language for the certificate is Danish. The certificate is issue free of charge and the turnaround ranges from immediate access to 2 days.


title: Criminal record

text: Denmark does not allow the transfer of criminal records to foreign authorities or to the Europol database for storage.


title: Criminal record

text: In Denmark, child sex abuse information is contained in two registers, the National Patient Register and the Criminal Register. The National Patient Register contains all hospital contacts including inpatient, outpatient and emergency department contacts. The Danish National Criminal Register of child sex abuse contains data relating to cases reported to the Danish police. Any sexual relationship with an individual below the age of 15 is prohibited by law as the Danish age of sexual consent is 15. Cases involving child sexual abuse are classified into three different categories according to the type of the offence involved. These groups include incest, sexual offences (physical or attempted physical sexual assault) and indecent exposure.


title: Criminal record

text: The database that holds data about the criminal records of Estonian individuals is known as The Punishment Register, available for access through the Internet. It is owned and maintained by the Estonian Centre of Registers and Information Systems. Those records that are valid are made completely public. Some misdemeanour cases with the main punishment being less than 200 Euros, and cases involving minors are not published by The Punishment Register.


title: Criminal record

text: Since the beginning of 2012, the data providing for the criminal records of Estonian citizens is available online. Any individual with a criminal record can access the electronic version of the database to receive this information for free. In order to view information pertaining to a non-related individual, then a fixed fee must be paid to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic. The individual's name and identification in number is also required to view their criminal record. However, there still remain some restrictions on access to this register, including protecting access to information on the criminal records of minors.


title: Criminal record

text: Estonia do not have a public register for sex offenders, as the Punishment Register which is available for public viewing is viewed to be sufficient by The Minister of Justice. The Minister, Hanno Pevkur, was quoted as saying:


title: Criminal record

text: Since 2009, the police in Estonia have the power to check up on sex offenders who have completed their punishment.


title: Criminal record

text: The European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS) is a computerised system that allows EU countries to access and exchange information regarding EU citizens' criminal convictions in an efficient way. It was implemented in April 2012.


title: Criminal record

text: The ECRIS was brought about in order to simplify the exchange of information relating to the criminal records of European citizens. Intended to counterbalance the relatively new ease with which individuals can move between States, it is a mechanism of ensuring that individuals are not able to escape their criminal records by merely travelling across a border. The underlying rationale is that technological advancements in transport services which have given individuals the ability to easily move between European States should not amount to an ability to expunge their own criminal records.


title: Criminal record

text: This is particularly important given that most domestic courts in European countries place significant weight on offenders' past convictions during criminal sentencing (for example, under s 151(1) of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 (UK)).


title: Criminal record

text: The EU State to which an offender is a citizen is the central repository of all criminal information relating to that offender. Accordingly, the ECRIS is not a general IT architecture that centralises all criminal information relating to all offenders. Rather, it acts as a platform that connects the central database of each State.


title: Criminal record

text: Developments allowing non-EU countries to utilise and contribute to the ECRIS are under current consideration.


title: Criminal record

text: On 24 January 2019, MEP's agreed to close a criminal records loophole, so that going forwards national authorities will be able to quickly establish whether another EU member state holds criminal records on a non-EU citizen.


title: Criminal record

text: In January 2020 it was revealed by The Guardian newspaper that the UK government had failed to inform other EU member states of 75,000 convictions of foreign criminals, it then concealed the scandal to avoid damaging Britain’s reputation. "“There is a nervousness from Home Office around sending the historical notifications out dating back to 2012 due to the reputational impact this could have.”" from the minutes of the ACRO criminal records meeting, May 2019. This disclosure followed deliberate abuse of the Schengen Information System, and GCHQ hacking into the Belgian telecoms provider Proximus.


title: Criminal record

text: The name of the certificate of criminal record in Finland is titled: "Extract from the Criminal Record and Security Clearances". In Finland there is a variety of legislation governing the use and access to criminal records, some of which include The Penal Code of Finland 1889, The Criminal Records Act 1993, Act on Background Checks 2002, and the Personal Data Act 1999 chapter 6.


title: Criminal record

text: Finnish criminal record checks can come in different forms by way of different types of certificates. An Extract from the Criminal Record can be applied for only by individuals. Commonly issued for those whom have regular contact with children, it contains information that is relevant to the specific type of employment. Another type of certificate which is issued for visa, work or permit applications is the Criminal Record Extract for a Visa Application. The final type of certificate is the Security Clearance Check whereby companies within the UK who have a branch office in Finland can apply for security clearance checks on prospective employees. Three levels of check are provided (limited, basic and extended). Individuals cannot apply for this certificate and certain conditions must first be met by employers before applying to the Finnish Police, including obtaining the written consent from the individual before application.


title: Criminal record

text: The categories of criminal conviction contained within the Extract from the Criminal Record includes those involving offences against children, sexual offences, violent offences and narcotics offences. Any other convictions not relating to these categories will not be included on the certificate. The Criminal Record Extract for a Visa Applications contains information pertaining to custodial or suspended sentences, community service, fines, juvenile punishments, and overseas decisions against Finnish citizens or permanent residents.


title: Criminal record

text: The length of time convictions are kept on the record varies according to type of conviction. Convictions will be removed from a criminal record after 5 years (suspended sentences, fines, and community service supplementary to a suspended sentence), 10 years (custodial sentences less than 2 years, community service) or 20 years (custodial sentences between 2–5 years). If no recent convictions have been added to an individual's records, judgments will be removed upon death or when the individual reaches 90 years old.


title: Criminal record

text: There are multiple avenues in which an individual can obtain a criminal record check in Finland including applying online, by fax, post or email. An individual can also apply in person to the Legal Register Centre (Oikeusrekisterikeskus), which is the department responsible for the criminal record. The certificate, issued in English, French, German, Spanish and Swedish costs approximately €12 to €15. The certificate can be expected to be received within approximately seven working days, taking into account postage time.


title: Criminal record

text: As proscribed by Finnish legislation, extracts from criminal records can be transmitted to police authorities of the International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO), to police authorities, or to non-ICPO states on the grounds that it is to uphold public law, investigate and prevent criminal activity or to serve justice and social order.


title: Criminal record

text: The criminal records of all French citizens are maintained through an electronic register manned by the Ministry of Justice. The register is a collection of all sanctions and convictions from all penal courts since 1966 and remains the source for all aspects of criminal record disclosure in the state.


title: Criminal record

text: Generally speaking, the disclosure of a criminal record is only released to the individual who committed the offense and only when that individual has handed power of attorney to another or they are declared legally incompetent may another successfully apply to receive the disclosure. Perspective employers are not allowed access to disclosure at any time. Applications must be made through the Casier Judiciare National (National Judicial Record, CJN) and are free of charge. Applications can be submitted online, via email, in person or by post of fax but are limited to the CJN. Criminal record certificates cannot be accessed through a French consulate or embassy at any time.


title: Criminal record

text: Judgements against an individual are not published on a Bulletin 3 certificate once the rehabilitation period has passed (depending on the severity of the conviction either three years for misdemeanours or five years for felony crimes, after the sentence was completed). The records of the convictions will remain on the system but will not show on the request of a record. In the case of minors, these are removed from the Bulletin 3 once the individual concerned has reached 18 years and/or three years from the date the crime was committed.


title: Criminal record

text: France has a sex offenders registry but unlike systems such as the United States, does not allow the public to access information regarding the information of cases and individuals who have been convicted of sex crimes, nor does France require the community to be notified of the presence of a sex offender in their neighbourhood as is obligatory in some other countries.


title: Criminal record

text: France in particular takes into account the need for rehabilitation as well as the need for public safety. Justice Minister Dominique Perben stated "On the one hand, we must improve medical-psychiatric follow-up for these individuals and on the other hand, we must put in place a system that allows us to know where they are so we can help investigators do their jobs" in response to the soaring number of convictions for sexual offences in 2002.


title: Criminal record

text: In Germany, a criminal record certificate ("Führungszeugnis") is issued by the ("Bundesamt für Justiz").


title: Criminal record

text: Germany has a criminal record system holding all the information regarding past offences and sentences. The information is maintained by the Federal Central Criminal Register ("Bundeszentralregister"), which is in turn subordinate to the Federal Ministry of Justice. The registry is updated daily and holds information on approximately 6.3 million individuals.


title: Criminal record

text: Once a person turns 14, they are able to request their own criminal record. One's criminal record can be viewed by any member of the public at request, as long as they provide ID and purpose of the disclosure.


title: Criminal record

text: The information in the criminal record certificate includes prior offences, court citations and convictions. According to the severity of the committed crime and, more importantly, the sentence received, most entries are deleted after 5, 10, 15 or 20 years. The only sentences exempt from this rule are life imprisonment, preventive detention and commitment in a mental hospital.


title: Criminal record

text: In Greece, criminal records are written certificates where entries are created according to the legal provisions provided for in Articles 573-580 of the Greek Code of Criminal Procedure (CCrP). An Independent Department of Criminal Records exists within the Ministry of Justice and operates as the central authority, able to supervise the criminal record system in Greece. According to provisions contained within Article 573.2 of the CCrP, records will be kept for all nationals, regardless of country of birth and even including foreigners.


title: Criminal record

text: Each criminal record certificate has two components: the first regarding the individuation of the person and the second consisting of the content of the person's prior criminal acts. Every certificate must contain: information concerning the person's identity including the paternal surname and if they are married, and the final judgement/s passed down by a court.


title: Criminal record

text: These certificates of criminal records will no longer be in effect, according to Article 578, under the following conditions:


title: Criminal record

text: In the aforementioned cases, the certificates are destroyed upon the validity of the reasons provided.


title: Criminal record

text: The full and detailed records of a one's criminal past can be available to a certain range of individuals and authorities, under the terms 'general use' and 'judicial use'. Under Article 575, general use dictates criminal records will and can be supplied for prospective members of the Bar, future notaries and chartered accountants as they are a prerequisite for registration.


title: Criminal record

text: In Hong Kong, criminal records are maintained by the Hong Kong Police Force. Unlike other countries listed on this article, Hong Kong authorities do not allow for access to criminal records by employers or school purposes. The Chief Executive of Hong Kong has the sole power to pardon offences committed in Hong Kong under section 12 of article 48 Basic Law of Hong Kong. "The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall exercise the following powers and functions... To pardon persons convicted of criminal offences or commute their penalties".


title: Criminal record

text: Criminal records are not purged regardless of time or seriousness of the case. However, under the "Rehabilitation of Offenders Ordinance" (HK Laws. Chap 297), a criminal record is considered 'spent' if it was the first criminal offence, sentenced to less than 3 months in jail or fined less than $10,000 and a period of 3 years has elapsed since conviction and no new conviction is registered against the said person. Spent records are recorded as such with the exception to:


title: Criminal record

text: All Hong Kong residents who plan to adopt children or travel/emigrate to another country can request for a Certificate of No Criminal Conviction—a document that is issued directly to the Consulate and/or government agencies and not to the requester. Spent records do appear on such certificates with annotations that such records are spent according to Hong Kong law.


title: Criminal record

text: A criminal database exists in Hungary which is allowed for under the 85th Act of 1999 on the criminal database and the official certificate of criminal record. There are 5 different databases, the database of offenders, the database of those under coercive measures, database of those under criminal procedures, the database of fingerprint, palm prints and photographs and the database of DNA profiles. Therefore, there is not only information recorded for those who have had a criminal sanction place against them, covered by the database of offenders, but also for those that are in pre-trial detention (database for those under coercive measures) and those who are suspected and accused of a crime (database for those under criminal procedures).


title: Criminal record

text: The Central Office for Administrative and Electronic Public Services (COAEPS) of the Ministry of the Interior operates, managers and maintains the databases. Investigative authorities, public prosecutors offices and criminal courts all contribute to the databases.


title: Criminal record

text: The amount of time a person's information is held on these databases varies. For people imprisoned for an intentional offence, data will be removed 15 years after their release. If the offence was committed recklessly, then the data will be removed 5 years after release


title: Criminal record

text: The data is not publicly accessible, but a person can obtain the data held about themselves upon request.


title: Criminal record

text: In Indonesia, criminal record certificate exist in the form of "Surat Keterangan Catatan Kepolisian (SKCK)" (English: Certificate of Police Records) Issued by Indonesian National Police. This certificate state the criminal records (or the lack of it) of an individual. An individual could request the issuance of their criminal record certificate on variety of reasons. For example, in Indonesia, employers often requires job applicants to submit their police record certificate to check whether said job applicant has any criminal history or not. The certificate cost Rp 30,000 for Indonesian citizens or Rp 60,000 for foreigners to be issued (it was previously Rp 10,000 for Indonesian citizens until 2016), and valid for 6 months. After expiration date, an individual must request for a new certificate if they still need the certificate . A certificate also could only be used for one specific purpose, as the purpose of the certificate's issuance is stated on the certificate, so individual must also request for a new one if they need a certificate for different purposes. A certificate will also be declared invalid if after the issuance, the individual in question is involved in any criminal activity.


title: Criminal record

text: In the past, the certificate was called "Surat Keterangan Kelakuan Baik (SKKB)" (English: Certificate of Good Conduct), and as the name suggest, this certificate certified the lack of criminal record of a person, thus, only a person without any criminal record could apply for an issue.


title: Criminal record

text: The criminal record system for Ireland exists in the form an information database system which is held by the Garda Criminal Records Office as part of the Garda Síochána (the national police force). The information is owned and maintained by the Gardaí as part of their main function in tackling crime and protecting civilians.


title: Criminal record

text: The data held by the Gardaí is not openly available to the public. However, section 4 of the Data Protection Act allows individuals to make a formal request in writing to the Garda Criminal Records Office to access personal data held about them. In making this formal request, individuals must provide sufficient information to establish their identity and ensure that the Gardaí is both able to locate their file and make certain that the personal data is being given to the right person. Sufficient information would include: full name, correct date of birth, any other names used, current address and previous addresses in Ireland, a copy of your passport, driving licence or birth certificate and a fee of €6.35.


title: Criminal record

text: Additionally, a third party may also be able to access your personal data on your behalf. However, this requires that the third party satisfy the Gardaí of their identity and that the individual provides written authorization to allow the third party to make this request.


title: Criminal record

text: In Ireland, criminal convictions remain on the criminal record system for life if the offence was committed after the individual turned 18, as there are currently no legislative provisions which provide for the expungement of criminal convictions. Ireland remains the only country in the EU and one of the only countries in the Council of Europe area to not have such legislation.


title: Criminal record

text: However, under Section 258 of the Children Act 2001, offences committed by those under eighteen years of age can be expunged from the record once certain conditions are met:


title: Criminal record

text: then that person will be treated as a person who has not committed or been charged with or prosecuted for or found guilty of or dealt with for that offence. In other words, your conviction will become spent.


title: Criminal record

text: However, under the Sex Offenders Act 2001 which came into force in June 2001, an unofficial registry exists and is held centrally by the Gardaí. The location of sex offenders in Ireland is provided by a certificate issued by the court, stating that the convicted person is subject to the requirements of the Sex Offenders Act 2001 and is now obliged to provide certain information including their name and address to the Gardaí. Therefore, this certificate system is commonly referred to as the Sex Offenders Register, as it allows the details of all sex offenders subject to the requirements of the Sex Offenders Act 2001 to be held centrally by the Gardaí.


title: Criminal record

text: Italy has a criminal record system held at the Criminal Records Bureau in Rome, governed by the department of Justice. It includes convicted criminals and those awaiting trials.


title: Criminal record

text: Anyone who is an Italian citizen or is a non-citizen but has resided in Italy for a significant period of time can apply to see the records at the criminal records bureau or at one of their offices located in Italy. One can also apply from the UK.


title: Criminal record

text: Civil Certificate – contains information regarding bankruptcy, mental competency, and information regarding expulsion from Italy.


title: Criminal record

text: General Certificate – Similar to Penal Certificate but also includes any information regarding expulsion from Italy.


title: Criminal record

text: Information that is included includes, full name, date of birth, place of birth, reason for request, type of request.


title: Criminal record

text: Yes, Generally speaking, the record of an individual is expunged once the individual reaches 80 years of age or death. As the Italian system hold information regarding pending trails, once the guilty verdict is confirmed, it can take 3–10 years for their record to be expunged.


title: Criminal record

text: Information relating to the criminal records of Latvians is held at the Information Centre of the Ministry of the Interior. The aim of this Centre – through the collection of information relating to crime – is to facilitate and investigate the most effective ways in which crime can be prevented to ensure public safety.


title: Criminal record

text: If a Latvian individual needs a certificate of their criminal history, they can electronically request this through www.latvija.lv. They may need this record of their criminal history to submit to employers, study overseas or enter into marriage. This record can only be obtained in person at the Ministry of Interior Information Centre or it can be received through registered mail. Therefore, information about an offender's criminal history is not accessible to all members of the public.


title: Criminal record

text: In accordance with Latvian law, most criminal records are terminated after several years. The amount of time for this to occur is dependent on the nature and scope of the legal sanction for that crime. These cancelled records are still held in Information Centre records, and are readily available if the individual involved authorises the disclosure of the entire record.


title: Criminal record

text: On 13 September 2004, the National Register of Convictions of the Republic of Lithuania was established. The Departmental Register of Suspected, Accused and Convicted Persons is a central repository of criminal record data and related information in Lithuania. It is administered by the IT and Communications Department of the Lithuanian Ministry of the Interior which was appointed as the processing body in charge of ensuring the proper functioning and data management of the Register.


title: Criminal record

text: The register maintains records provided by the courts, pre-trial investigation institutions, national and local prosecution services, the prison department and the police criminal investigations centre. The Department also collects and accumulates information received from foreign countries on the convictions of Lithuania in these countries.


title: Criminal record

text: With the consent of the individual, the Ministry of the Interior provides individuals and third parties with two types of disclosure: a Personal Certificate, containing information about unspent convictions only; and a Personal History Statement, comprising a full criminal record disclosure (both spent and unspent convictions).


title: Criminal record

text: In Lithuania, judgments will be removed from the Register immediately after the completion of the sentence, depending on the seriousness of the sentence. For high-risk recidivists (10 years from completion of sentence), very serious offences (8 years), serious offences (5 years), less serious offences (3 years), suspended sentences (immediately on completion of sentence). In cases of minors, convictions incurring custodial sentences remain unspent for half the period of time stated above.


title: Criminal record

text: The criminal record system in Luxembourg is maintained under the authority of the State Prosecutor General. It contains information about convictions from Luxembourg criminal courts and, under certain conditions, foreign courts.


title: Criminal record

text: Criminal records have two parts, Bulletin no 1 which contains the complete statement of convictions of a person living or working in Luxembourg, and Bulletin no 2 which contains all convictions with the exception of suspended criminal sentences to prison for less than six months.


title: Criminal record

text: For a person with a clear criminal record, access to it is free and they may access it by email or post. For those with convictions, a fee applies and should present personally to the City Criminal Court for their extract.


title: Criminal record

text: In Malta, criminal records are held by the Criminal Records Office which is maintained by the Malta Police. Individual criminal records can be obtained by requesting a Conduct Certificate from the Malta Police. Requests can be made in writing if outside the country or in person at the Malta Police Headquarters in Floriana. According to Conduct Certificate Ordinance, Chapter 77 of the Laws of Malta, a court order is required to issue a Conduct Certificate of someone other than the person which it refers to. Information contained in the Conduct certificate includes a declaration of whether the person is in good conduct or a declaration containing the convictions recorded against the person. In Malta there is provision under the Probation Act for conviction to be removed from the criminal record. Criminal records are kept for a maximum of 10 years.


title: Criminal record

text: Malta has recently introduced a sex offenders register. The legislation which enacted the introduction of the register is the Protection of Minors Registration Act 2012. Under the Act current and prospective employers can request information about employees contained in the register by application to the Attorney General. The application will then be heard in court. The Act states that it is a criminal offence to employ a registered person into an entity which deals with education, care, custody, welfare or upbringing of minors.


title: Criminal record

text: Technically spoken all Dutch people do have an empty criminal record. A criminal record (Dutch: "strafblad") is stored at "Justitiële Informatiedienst" in Almelo. By sending an e-mail with required data, scan of individual's passport or ID card, and paying €4.54 it is possible to have access to their own criminal record.


title: Criminal record

text: A criminal record will be created after sentencing because of a violation or crime. The record will exist for 5 years in case of violations or 20 years for crimes. If the sentence is three years of imprisonment or longer, 30 years will be added at the time the criminal record will be stored. A traffic violation (according to the Mulder law) will not be stored in a criminal record, unless there will be a trial. Normally the traffic fine is given by a police officer, and the payment is generally done by banking. There will not be a trial, nor an addition in a criminal record.


title: Criminal record

text: In case of sexual crimes (article 240b-250) the criminal record will be destroyed after 80 years. (article 4)


title: Criminal record

text: For a person to be eligible to join certain professions, it may required that the person not have a criminal record or to pass an ethics review based upon the nature and seriousness of any past convictions. Professions that may not be open to those with criminal records or serious convictions include legal practice, teaching, and law enforcement. A foreign national with a criminal record may be prevented from getting a visa to enter the country.


title: Criminal record

text: Close to the opposite of a criminal record is a Declaration about Behaviour (Dutch: "Verklaring omtrent het Gedrag" or "VOG"). This declaration is needed to apply for certain jobs, e.g. some government jobs, army positions, policing, or working as a security guard. The VOG will be given if the person:


title: Criminal record

text: There is a criminal register for the Netherlands. The Netherlands took part in the Network of Judicial Registers pilot project, with 10 other countries, exchanging information on criminal records electronically.


title: Criminal record

text: As of 2004, the criminal record system of the Netherlands takes the form of a computerized system. This was brought about in order to reduce the manual labour associated with the previous system.


title: Criminal record

text: Judicial Documentation Data can be requested firstly by the individual involved. Within four weeks, the individual can be told verbally of the information included in the Judicial Documentation. The law prohibits the provision of written information. If necessary for state security purposes, the information can be refused.


title: Criminal record

text: Judicial data can be given to: Court officials for use in court proceedings, staff members at the office of Public Prosecutor, the Board of Procurators General, individuals and agencies not involved with criminal procedure if they serve a public function and if it serves the public interest.


title: Criminal record

text: Conduct Certificate is a statement by the Minister of Justice, that there are no objections to the individual in question practicing a certain profession or occupying a certain position.


title: Criminal record

text: Judicial data on criminal offences are kept for 30 years after the criminal sentence has become irrevocable. Extensions can occur for non suspended prison sentences, mental hospital orders and youth detention. Data involving Minor offences are stored until five years after the irrevocable settlement of the case – extended to ten years if the individual was sentenced to prison or community service. Eighty years after the death of the individual, all data is removed.


title: Criminal record

text: A sex offenders register under the name of ViCLAS (Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System) allows for links to be made between national and international crimes and possible offenders.


title: Criminal record

text: In New Zealand, criminal records are administered by the Ministry of Justice. Under the Criminal Records (Clean Slate) Act 2004, records are automatically hidden from the public for less serious offences, if the individual has had no convictions for at least seven years and meets the other criteria of the act. An individual can request either their current (Clean Slate) or complete criminal record through the Ministry of Justice, or provide authorisation for a third party (e.g. employer) to view the current record. It is illegal, with some exceptions, for a third party to request a complete criminal record.


title: Criminal record

text: The Polish Ministry for Justice administers the National Criminal Register (), and it is regulated by the Act on the National Criminal Register 2000. The Act states that personal data is protected and can only be used for the public interest. Article 7(1) further states that data is only accessible to persons who fit certain criteria. Data can only be transferred to other entities, such as other law enforcement agencies, if their data protection meets the same standards, and if it is necessary for the public interest, or for the establishment of a legal claim (Article 47(4)).


title: Criminal record

text: As per the Act on the National Criminal Register 2000, the length of time an outcome remains on the National Criminal Register is as follows:


title: Criminal record

text: The exception to this is where an individual is convicted of a sexual offence against a minor under the age of 15 years; in these circumstances, the conviction remains on the National Criminal Register permanently.


title: Criminal record

text: The National Criminal Register also includes information on collective entities (or publicly registered organisations).


title: Criminal record

text: A person can obtain a copy of their criminal history from the National Criminal Register, by contacting the central information office of the KRK in Warsaw, or information points of the KRK located within Polish common courts. In order to receive a copy of your criminal record, you must complete a form, stating the reasons for your request, and pay a fee (in July 2018: 20PLN for a digital copy, or 30PLN for a paper copy). An employer may also apply directly for disclosure in relation to a prospective employee if this is permitted under Polish laws or regulations (for example, in relation to employment in the security industry or employment involving contact with children). The written consent of the individual is not required.


title: Criminal record

text: The National Criminal Register Information Office provides individuals and employers with disclosure in one of two formats: as an Inquiry about an Individual ("Zapytanie o udzielenie informacji o osobie") in the event that no disclosable convictions are found; or a National Criminal Register's Information about an Individual ("Informacja o osobie z Krajowego Rejestru Karnego") in the event that disclosable information exists.


title: Criminal record

text: Poland also participated in the pilot project for 'Network of Judicial Registers', along with ten other EU member states, for the electronic exchange of criminal records among member states.


title: Criminal record

text: Portugal's criminal record system is an electronic database manned and maintained by Portugal's Direcção Geral da Administração da Justiça (General Direction for the Administration of Justice, DGAJ).


title: Criminal record

text: The system contains the records of Portuguese citizens that reside in Portugal, Portuguese nationals that live abroad and any foreign citizens that reside within Portugal.


title: Criminal record

text: Disclosure of an individual's criminal record is allowed at the request of the individual; themselves, or a third party with written consent of the individual. For example, an employer may request to see their possible employee's criminal record with their consent. However, the application must be made in person. The certificate regarding criminal records in Portugal is called a "certificado do registo criminal" (certificate of criminal registration) which conveys whether an individual has a criminal record. An extension of this is a more detailed certificate regarding an individual's criminal activities which provides evidence for an individual to be employed in a job where they have access to large sums of cash, need high security clearance or supervise children. This particular certificate is granted in a similar way to Australia's Working With Children Check, which supplies an employer with information regarding any previous criminal activity and ensures that convicted criminals are not employed in the same areas where they may have previously committed crimes. Applications for the certificates can be made through several channels, there is a central repository for criminal records located in Lisbon, alongside a vast selection of regional courts and their administration services throughout Portugal that can provide individuals with certificates and for Portuguese nationals residing overseas, applications can be made through embassies and consulates. However, none of the channels through which the certificates are available provide translation services, and therefore the certificate produced is always written in Portuguese, even when produced by an embassy in a non-Portuguese-speaking state.


title: Criminal record

text: The types of criminal convictions that can be exposed through the publishing of the certificate are very similar to that of the United Kingdom and are presented below:


title: Criminal record

text: Portuguese legislation allows for all criminal convictions to be removed from an individual's record once the rehabilitation period has passed. It is determined as follows:


title: Criminal record

text: Essentially this legislation allows individuals to move on from their convictions and ensure that they are not socially and economically disadvantaged for the rest of their lives after serving their crimes. However, the governing legislation is only available in Portuguese.


title: Criminal record

text: A very contentious aspect of this legislation is that those that commit heinous, sexually based crimes have their records expunged on the same time frame as all other individuals convicted. This legislation issue was brought into the spotlight during the 2007 media coverage of the Madeleine McCann case.


title: Criminal record

text: Law No 290 governs the disclosure of criminal records in Romania. The criminal records of all Romanian citizens are kept in a Central Criminal Records database by the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police. Police stations gather and keep the records of conviction status of individuals born in Romania, and it is their responsibility to keep these records up-to-date. This type of criminal record disclosure is named the Criminal Records Certificate. These Certificates contain personal information including full name, unique identification number, date and place of birth, most recent address, name of parents, and the details of the committed offence, rehabilitation and extradition information.


title: Criminal record

text: To obtain access to a criminal record, an individual must apply directly to the local county police station in person. If the application is approved, results are issued in the form of a Criminal Records Certificate by the Central Inspectorate of the Romanian Police. Only the individual person is allowed to apply for their own record; however, a third-party individual may submit an application only if they have been authorised power of attorney. Judgements are able to be removed from an individual's criminal record if the legislation decriminalising the act for which the person has been sentenced is passed, in the event of amnesty or court rehabilitation, and for imprisonment of up to 3 years after 20 years from the date of the final decision.


title: Criminal record

text: Individuals in Russia can obtain a national criminal history to check themselves, and this certificate is required for individuals seeking education employment: certain offences ban individual from such job. The certificate is issued by Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for free within one month after application submitted via official Public Services Portal or in person. Certificate also can be in electronic form with digital signature or on paper.