This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: For centuries, the Romans turned to amulets to protect themselves or their surroundings. Research by Ph.D. candidate Patricia Kret shows that this tradition continued into the early days of Christianity.
In the Roman Empire, between 100 B.C. and A.D. 600, amulets could be found everywhere. They were hung on houses, placed beside fields or carried by people. "Location is important when it comes to amulets," explains Kret.
"The object must be placed in the spot it is intended to protect, heal or bring supernatural benefits to. It is striking that this core aspect of their use hardly changed when Christianity entered the Roman Empire." Kret also discovered that the appearance of the amulets hardly changed. "Body amulets, for example, often remained pieces of text, written on a metal plate or a scrap of papyrus, which hung around the neck of the person to be protected." What did change was the text inscribed on the amulets.
"It gradually became more Christian in nature, just like the shape of the amulet," says Kret. "It takes the form of a cross, for instance, but people still wear it around their necks with the aim of being protected." This Christianization is striking within a religion that, in principle, rejects the use of amulets. "The upper echelons of the ecclesiastical institutions were strongly opposed to the use of amulets during this period," explains Kret.
"Bishops, for example, wrote in sermons that you would be excommunicated if you used amulets. At the same time, in those very same sermons, they said that priests must stop making amulets. We know they did so frequently, because the amulets often bore quotations from the Bible.
In those days, it was often only priests who had access to Bible manuscripts to copy them." In this way, the amulets not only protected their owners; they also brought Christianity closer to them. Kret says, "The world is becoming increasingly Christian. In that new, Christian context, amulets offer a new Christian experience.
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