It was shrewd to use Roman bathhouses as baptismal places, either adjacent to or converted to Churches because, for early Christianity, nudity & mixed bathing was shunned and so it was another reason to repurpose public baths. Having said that, hygienic culture became so bad over time that, by the Middle Ages, regular bathing was uncommon—along with the disappearance of civil infrastructure for bathing—and bacterial disease became commonplace once again after the Fall of Rome (e.g., Black Death); I suppose, when you destroy the Goddess who personified health & well-being, that'll happen. The Fall of Rome is so sad!
There was absolutely no “gradual transition” to Christianity; our ethnic-polytheistic “pagan” faith was, quite literally, replaced & destroyed; I will always push back hard on “gradual transition” because it logistically & evidently doesn't make sense.
One of the curious things about early churches in England is that those built within Roman fort were nearly always close to a bath house (or, at Vindolanda, a deep rainwater pool). I've often thought that they may have converted bath houses into baptisteries and built churches next door, and this shows it clearly!
It was shrewd to use Roman bathhouses as baptismal places, either adjacent to or converted to Churches because, for early Christianity, nudity & mixed bathing was shunned and so it was another reason to repurpose public baths. Having said that, hygienic culture became so bad over time that, by the Middle Ages, regular bathing was uncommon—along with the disappearance of civil infrastructure for bathing—and bacterial disease became commonplace once again after the Fall of Rome (e.g., Black Death); I suppose, when you destroy the Goddess who personified health & well-being, that'll happen. The Fall of Rome is so sad!
There was absolutely no “gradual transition” to Christianity; our ethnic-polytheistic “pagan” faith was, quite literally, replaced & destroyed; I will always push back hard on “gradual transition” because it logistically & evidently doesn't make sense.
One of the curious things about early churches in England is that those built within Roman fort were nearly always close to a bath house (or, at Vindolanda, a deep rainwater pool). I've often thought that they may have converted bath houses into baptisteries and built churches next door, and this shows it clearly!
…cult doesn’t need baths