People in Error

Among his other works, Rufinus of Aquileia translated and continued Eusebius of Caesarea’s Church History. This article deals with this continuation, i.e., Rufinus’ Church History, covering the years 325–395. A lot of its content is devoted to pagans, specifically to confrontations between pagans and Christians, and to pagan conversions. This in­cludes both pagans within the borders of the Roman empire and those beyond the imperial frontiers in Aksum, Iberia, and the Saracen lands. The article shows how Rufinus presented these pagans in his Church History. A twofold picture emerges, with a clear distinction between “domestic” and foreign pagans. While writing of the latter (limited to presenting the conversion of the three mentioned foreign peoples), Rufinus in no way characterizes their paganism as something negative. They are presented as pagan but in a matter-of-fact way, as a sort of first step on their way to becoming Christian. Concerning the pagans dwelling within the Roman Empire, the audience is presented with a completely different picture. Their religion is consistently presented as an error, into which duplicitous daemons have driven them. Deception is seen as a crucial part of paganism according to Rufinus. On the one hand, it is the deception of the daemons who themselves know full well that they are powerless against Christ, and so they cannot help their followers when Christians confront them. On the other hand, deception in the form of cunning tricks is also one of the key tools used by pagan priests. This paper thus offers a detailed presentation of the majority of the pagan-Christian confrontations in the Church History.