Centuries before our time, Cicero derives religion this way: Those who carefully took in hand all things pertaining to the gods were called religiosi, from relegere [careful consideration]. Such reverence is in keeping with the Roman reverence for tradition followed by the…

The Church was attacked from within. By Heretics …

Origin: 1300–50; ME heretik < MF heretique < LL haereticus < Gk hairetikós able to choose (LGk: heretical)

In Against Heresies, Epiphanius quotes against these choosers …

There are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines,…

The word Secular …

c.1290, “living in the world, not belonging to a religious order,” also “belonging to the state,” from O.Fr. seculer, from L.L. sæcularis “worldly, secular” … Used in ecclesiastical writing like Gk. aion “of this world” (see cosmos).

came from…

“In the beginning was the Logos”, wrote a philosophical follower of Jesus. “Logos”. The reason, the wisdom, the word of God. Since the earliest times, a favorite word of the philosophers. The world was fashioned by reason from chaos. And…

The word “Pagan”. It seems innocuous.

L.L. paganus “pagan,” in classical L. “villager, rustic, civilian,” from pagus “rural district,” originally “district limited by markers,” thus related to pangere “to fix, fasten”.

But it is “Rural” as in backward, not of the cultural…