Chapter Fifteen

Christianity and the formation of Europe

     No religion has had as much impact on the course of human history as Christianity.  In this chapter, we learn that the Roman Empire, which had dominated the Mediterranean region and Europe for centuries, began to decay, eventually dissolving by the late 5th century A.D.  Christianity was the force that took its place.  Already firmly entrenched in the Roman government since Constantine issued his Edict of Tolerance in 313, the Christian church, both the Roman branch and the Constantinople branch, quickly established itself as the political and religious authority in Europe after Rome's fall.  The Roman branch eventually became known as the Holy Roman Empire, and later as the Roman Catholic Church, while the Constantinople branch became known as the Byzantine Empire, and later as the Eastern Orthodox Church.  It was the Bishop of Rome, later known as the pope, who assumed the greatest power.  By the year 800, he was in total control of Europe. On Christmas day, 800 A.D., the pope crowned Charles the Great (Charlemagne) as Holy Roman Emperor.

     The real purpose of religion is to alter human behavior for the common good of mankind. Unfortunately, those in control of religion often succumb to the same failings that they profess to seek to prevent in others.  No-one has said it any better than British scholar Lord Acton (1832-1902), who stated,  "Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end...liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition...The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to to govern.   Every class is unfit to govern...Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."  And so it went with the Catholic Church. 

     Church leaders during the Middle Ages, from the monks all the way up to the pope, were known for their despotism and abuse of power.  Just as the evil Roman emperors had subjugated and abused the citizenry, so did the church leaders.  The masses were treated as slaves, as third-class human beings, while the clergy and their puppets, the land-holders, lived lives of ease and privilege. People were imprisoned, tortured, and killed by the church for the most trivial offenses.  The transition of power had come full-circle.  It happened as described by the pigs in George Orwell's book, Animal Farm, who said, "We are all equal.  But some of us are more equal than others."

     During the church's 1,000-year reign of terror, from the 4th century to the 14th century, art was crushed.  Liberty was non-existent.  The world would not see any innovation from artists until the budding of the Renaissance in the 14th century, fully blossoming toward the end of the15th century, when the 4 ninja turtles, Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo, and Michelangelo appeared.             -James Brantley