Chapter 20 5. The savior or the gravedigger

His Majesty the Emperor humbly knelt before the Bishop of Milan. It was a thrilling scene.Wearing a high crown, a first-class gown and a luxurious cloak, the bishop solemnly came before the plain-clothed emperor, and asked calmly: Are you guilty? The emperor replied: guilty. The bishop asked again: Are you willing to repent? The emperor replied again: I repent. After receiving a pious answer, the bishop led the emperor who had been waiting outside the door for a long time into the church, and gave him a small piece of bread in front of the altar. The whole process was witnessed by the subjects of the empire, for the king's confession was required to be made public.Of course, this made His Majesty the emperor lose his dignity, but it made the authority and prestige of the Christian Church soar to the sky.

This happened in AD 390, when China was in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and the repentant Roman emperor was called Theodosius.The king who was given the title of "Emperor" by the church can be called an epoch-making figure: after his death, Rome was divided into the Eastern Roman Empire and the Western Roman Empire; before his death, Christianity was established as the state religion. Both things are significant. Christianity was established as the state religion in 392 AD, two years after Theodosius had confessed.At this time, it was more than three hundred and sixty years since Jesus was crucified according to legend.Although this is just a flick of a finger in history, it is heaven and earth for Christianity.

The Christian church, which has become the "ruling party", quickly raised its sword.In the second year (AD 393), the Roman Senate controlled by the church condemned Jupiter, the god of heaven, and at the same time legislated to completely ban the Olympic Games, because it was dedicated to Zeus, the king of the gods, by the Greeks. Since then, a large number of libraries in the empire have been closed one after another, and books belonging to the so-called "pagan world" have been lost or burned.The civilizational achievements of ancient Greece and Rome were thrown into the cold palace until four or five hundred years later because of the Arabs, even though they believed in Islam.

Therefore, Western historians call 393 AD "the year when Greek and Roman civilization officially ended". More than eighty years later, the Western Roman Empire also perished. In fact, the empire should have died long ago.This point has been destined since the day when Constantine, who moved the capital to Byzantium, issued the Edict of Milan. On the surface, the "Edict of Milan" only upholds and reiterates the principle of freedom of belief, and recognizes that Christianity enjoys the same legal status as other religions.However, Constantine's inclination is obvious, that is, to establish the exclusive position of Christianity.For this reason, he did not hesitate to use the treasury to build large-scale construction projects for God, and his new capital only had the Christian Church and no Roman temple.

This is the capital of monotheism, not polytheism. Favoritism is obvious, but motives are rather questionable.Since Christians at that time accounted for only 5% of the total population, why did Constantine need to change himself from the emperor of the Romans to the emperor of Christians? Perhaps, the purpose is to change the authorization subject. As mentioned earlier, in Rome, regardless of the republic or the empire, power belongs to the Senate and the Roman people, and the consuls and emperors are only agents.Since power is granted by others, it can also be taken away by others.The Roman emperors took turns to go into battle like a revolving lantern, and many of them died unexpectedly. This is the reason.

Therefore, if one person wants to be dictatorial and have long-term peace and stability, the only way to change the subject of authorization is from a human to a god, that is, from "monarch power granted by man" to "monarch power granted by god".Moreover, the gods of polytheism are not enough, that will make many emperors.Neither does Judaism, their God belongs only to the Jews, but Rome is a multi-ethnic empire. Christianity is the only option. There is no doubt that the Christian Church would also welcome such an emperor.They knew very well that God's will can only be realized in the world through the Roman emperor, just as the emperor can only obtain God's authorization through the church.

The emperor and the church hit it off. However, it took about eighty years for this deal to be concluded from Constantine to Theodosius.The wishes and transactions between the two parties are very similar to Confucianism in the Chinese Han Dynasty: You allow me to be exclusive, and I allow you to be dictatorial. However, the results were different.Confucianism really gave allegiance to the empire, but the empire did not necessarily respect Confucianism alone, but used both Confucianism and Law.On the contrary, Theodosius really converted to Christianity, but Christianity did not allow him to be dictatorship, but asked him to repent.

Buying and selling is not always fair. The reason is supply and demand.You know, the Roman emperors couldn't talk directly to God.According to the canon at that time, the will of the gods could only be conveyed through the bishop.The emperor thought that he could get closer to God by winning over the bishop, but he didn't know that he had changed from a monarch to a slave?This is really losing my wife and losing my army. Confucianism is different.First of all, Confucianism has no organization (church), so there is no leader (bishop), and gurus are useless.Secondly, the emperor himself is the proud son of heaven, so how can Confucianism be used to authorize it?Third, Confucianism advocates that the emperor is the guide for the ministers, so how dare the emperor kneel down casually?

There is a big difference between Fengtian Chengyun and the divine right of the monarch. It should come as no surprise that Rome was divided into two halves, East and West. The division began with the transfer of the capital and partition, the latter because of Theodosius, and the former because of Constantine.Since there is no word left behind, no one can know the real reason for moving the capital.Perhaps, he wants to build a new Rome, which requires a new political system, a new religion, and a new capital. Rome was no longer fit to be a capital, as it seemed to Diocletian.It is conservative, decayed, a pool of stagnant water, lifeless.But for Constantine, there may be another reason: the city of Rome is the stronghold of traditional culture, and the power of polytheistic worship is too strong and stubborn.

The sun sets for polytheism, and the sun rises for monotheism, which one do you choose? Even fools can draw conclusions. However, there are gains and losses, advantages and disadvantages, and vice versa.The polytheism of Greece and Rome may be anachronistic, but it has a valuable spirit. This spirit is tolerance. Tolerance is not surprising, polytheism means pluralism and diversity.You believe in you, I believe in mine, everyone will live in peace if the well water does not violate the river water. Therefore, in polytheistic countries such as China and Rome, although there are wars, they are never fought because of religion; although there are incidents of extermination of Buddhism or persecution of Christians, they are all because of politics, not because of belief.

Even Judaism, because it firmly believes that it is the chosen people of God, will not impose its teachings on others.Only Christianity is not only egotistical, but also conquers the world, although the motive may be holy or good. Christianity will not learn tolerance until after the Renaissance. Tolerance is the essence of Roman civilization, and it also matches the republic and the rule of law.Without a republic and the rule of law, there would be no Rome; without tolerance and openness, there would be no Roman civilization.Therefore, Christianity can only change Rome, but cannot save Rome.It is not the savior of Rome, but the gravedigger of Rome. Undoubtedly, Christianity is not necessarily bad, but what is bad is using public power to make it the state religion.This is just like Confucianism is not necessarily wrong, what is wrong is that it is based on one statue.However, the Chinese Empire was obviously more tolerant than the later Rome. Taoism was never regarded as a heresy, and Buddhism also gained a firm foothold after several ups and downs. Only in this way, the Roman Empire fell, and the Chinese Empire survived. Westerners finally understood this truth later.The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution clearly stipulates that the federal Congress shall not legislate to establish a state religion or prohibit freedom of belief, even though most Americans at that time were Christians. Freedom of belief is more important than faith. If you must have faith, then believe in "freedom"!