Nuggets from Occult Invasion

Under Constantine, pagan practices were given a Christian veneer and adapted by the Church to satisfy the multitudes joining its ranks. Pope Leo I (440–461) boasted that St. Peter and St. Paul had “replaced Romulus and Remus as [Rome’s] protecting patrons.” Will Durant writes: 

“Paganism survived [within the church] … in the form of ancient rites and customs condoned, or accepted and transformed, by an often indulgent Church. An intimate and trustful worship of saints replaced the cult of pagan gods. … Statues of Isis and Horus were renamed Mary and Jesus; the Roman Lupercalia and the feast of purification of Isis became the Feast of the Nativity; the Saturnalia were replaced by Christmas celebration … an ancient festival of the dead by All Souls Day, rededicated to Christian heroes; incense, lights, flowers, processions, vestments, hymns which had pleased the people in older cults were … cleansed in the ritual of the Church … soon people and priests would use the sign of the cross as a magic incantation to expel or drive away demons. … [Paganism] passed like maternal blood into the new religion, and captive Rome captured her conqueror. …”