The Renaissance Times

So let’s move on to Julian. Julian’s personal religion was both pagan and philosophical; he viewed the traditional myths as allegories, in which the ancient gods were aspects of a philosophical divinity. He was tutored by Eusebius of Nicomedia, the same guy who baptised Constantine on his death bed. He was apparently a vegetarian. The historian Ammianus Marcellinus tells us that he believed that Christian infighting was so bitter that the religion would simply destroy itself. He returned to the old gods. He was also prepared to write his own rebuttal of Christianity. During his short reign, he wrote Contra Galilaeos (‘Against the Galileans’), which Cyril, the Patriarch of Alexandria, claimed was one of the most important anti-Christian works that had been written, and that it was widely considered to be irrefutable, Julian used his considerable knowledge of the scriptures to highlight their contradictions. For example Why is there no recognition in the synoptic gospels of Jesus’ divinity? He thought the use of Old Testament prophecies as harbingers of Christ is arbitrary and unjustified. Why did God create Eve if he knew that she would thwart his plans for creation? Unfortunately the three-book volume didn’t survive, except for when it’s quoted by Christian apologists who tried to argue against it. He made a sophisticated plea for religious toleration, giving the view that each culture needed to define the supreme divinity in its own way. When he became Augustus, he started a religious reformation, restoring the traditional polytheism as the state religion. He didn’t try to destroy Christianity, but to drive them out of the governing classes of the empire. He restored the pagan temples and repealed the stipends that Constantine had awarded to Christian bishops. On 4 February 362, Julian promulgated an edict to guarantee freedom of religion. This edict proclaimed that all the religions were equal before the law, and that the Roman Empire had to return to its original religious eclecticism, according to which the Roman state did not impose any religion on its provinces. The edict also allowed the return from exile of dissident Christian bishops. He also issued an edict that declared that all public teachers had to be approved by himself. He wanted to stop Christian teachers from using pagan texts like the Iliad. He wrote: “If they want to learn literature, they have Luke and Mark: Let them go back to their churches and expound on them” This was an attempt to remove some of the power of the Christian schools which at that time and later used ancient Greek literature in their teachings in their effort to present the Christian religion as being superior to paganism. But after several generations of pro-Christian emperors, the pagans were reluctant to just pick up where they left off. On top of that, they didn’t have the funds to hold big public sacrifices and festivals, because the Constantines had stolen all of their treasuries and given them to the Christians. And of course there was no single pagan religion, there were tons of them, so it was all disorganised. So Julian tried to re-organise the pagan worship more in line with the Christian model. He tried to introduce new moral codes for pagan priests. Traditionally, there weren’t any – a priest was just an elite with social prestige and financial power to organise and pay for festivals. But Julian’s attempts to tighten it up went nowhere. He ended up making paganism a religion, where traditionally it had just been more of a tradition. He also tried to set up a system of charity resembling the Christian model. He wrote: “These impious Galileans not only feed their own poor, but ours also; welcoming them into their agapae, they attract them, as children are attracted, with cakes.” He also wanted to re-build the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Ammianus Marcellinus, wrote this about the effort: Julian thought to rebuild at an extravagant expense the proud Temple once at Jerusalem, and committed this task to Alypius of Antioch. Alypius set vigorously to work, and was seconded by the governor of the province; when fearful balls of fire, breaking out near the foundations, continued their attacks, till the workmen, after repeated scorchings, could approach no more: and he gave up the attempt. The failure to rebuild the Temple has been ascribed to the Galilee earthquake of 363. Sabotage by Christians is a possibility, as is an accidental fire. Unfortunately for the world, Julian’s reign didn’t last long. During a campaign in Persian, he was wounded with a spear that went through his liver and intestines. He died of a hemorrhage a few days later. Tradition has it that his dying words were “You have won, Galilean”. In 364, Libanius stated that Julian was assassinated by a Christian who was one of his own soldiers. Later Christian historians propagated the tradition that Julian was killed by the ghost of Saint Mercurius, a Christian

This is the first episode of the premium series! October 28, 312. The Battle of Milvian Bridge. Conny wins and marches into Rome, with the head of Maxentius carried on a spike. Just like Jesus would have done. Arianism started in Alexandria. It’s named after Arius, a pretty popular and charismatic priest who believed that Jesus was secondary to God, not equal to God. He was not of the same nature (consubstantial) as God the Father nor was he of like nature (homoiousian), He didn’t invent this idea. It had been debated for a long time. Going right back to the first century, around the time the NT was being written, many of the church leaders took the view that Jesus was secondary to God. This view was argued by Origen of Alexandria, Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, the Epistle of Barnabas, Justin Martyr, the Didache, Tertullian, and Pope Dionysius. Which is something I find shocks modern Christians. I like to throw that into conversations. “You do realize, of course, that the earliest Christian leaders didn’t believe Jesus was God, right?” Anyway Arius became the focal point of the issue. Arius’ argument was pretty simple. The Father comes before the Son. Therefore there must have been a time when the Son did not exist. They argued that it was logical and the only conclusion you could arrive at using reason. The idea was actually supported by Jesus himself in the gospels, John 14:28: “the Father is greater than I”. And also Colossians 1:15: where Jesus is called “the firstborn of all creation.” But when has reason ever had much to do with Christianity? The other side tried to argue that God and Jesus were of the same essence, homoousious, “one in being” or “of single essence”. And that both had been around forever. Known as the Trinitarians. Arius wasn’t alone in arguing for Jesus being secondary. At the first Council of Nicaea, which Constantine himself supervised in 325, twenty-two bishops, led by Eusebius of Nicomedia in Bythinia, came as supporters of Arius. They argued about it for two months. Finally Constantine ruled in favour of the Trinitarian camp. But he thought the whole debate was silly. According to Eusebius, Constantine said the debate was “trivial and entirely unimportant”, “really silly” and “a quarrel over small and quite unimportant points”. This is where they came up with the original Nicene Creed. Which every Christian had to sign up to. It said We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father [the only-begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God,] Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; By whom all things were made [both in heaven and on earth]; Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man; He suffered, and the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven; From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. And in the Holy Ghost. [But those who say: ‘There was a time when he was not;’ and ‘He was not before he was made;’ and ‘He was made out of nothing,’ or ‘He is of another substance’ or ‘essence,’ or ‘The Son of God is created,’ or ‘changeable,’ or ‘alterable’— they are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic Church.] Con had Arius exiled to Palestine. BTW there’s a great story about Arius. Apparently he liked to take popular songs or poems of the day and re-write them so they framed his ideas about the nature of Jesus. He was the Weird Al Yankovic of his day. Constantine issued an edict against the Arians. “In addition, if any writing composed by Arius should be found, it should be handed over to the flames, so that not only will the wickedness of his teaching be obliterated, but nothing will be left even to remind anyone of him. And I hereby make a public order, that if someone should be discovered to have hidden a writing composed by Arius, and not to have immediately brought it forward and destroyed it by fire, his penalty shall be death. As soon as he is discovered in this offense, he shall be submitted for capital punishment…..” But Con himself didn’t really think it was important. As long as people believed in the same god and kept their private opinions about the nature of Jesus to themselves, who cared? But the Christians with the most influence thought differently. They didn’t like different ideas, even at this early stage. Of course, this view goes right back to the earliest days of Christianity. Paul and Peter seem to have had pretty different views about Jesus. And when you read Paul’s epistles, he talks about “super apostles” going around preaching about a “different Jesus”. This is as early as the 50s. Anyway, a couple of years later, in 327, Con changed his mind, brought Arius back from exile,

This is the first episode of the premium series! October 28, 312. The Battle of Milvian Bridge. Conny wins and marches into Rome, with the head of Maxentius carried on a spike. Just like Jesus would have done. Another thing Conny does to emulate his lord and saviour, is to have Maxentius’ family all killed. Including his wife and youngest son. Praise the lord. One of the first things he does after his victory is disband the Praetorian Guard. They had raised Maxentius to the throne when Galerius tried to disband them in 306. They are sent out to guard the frontiers of the empire, the Rhine and the Danube. Then in February 313 Conny and Licinius met in Milan where Licinius married Constantine’s sister. And they issued their famous Edict of Milan. “We have decided, therefore, to grant both to the Christians and to all others perfect freedom to practise the religion which each has thought best for himself, that so whatever Divinity resides in heaven may be placated, and rendered propitious to us and to all who have been placed under our authority. Consequently, we have thought this to be the policy demanded alike by healthy and sound reason — that no one, on any pretext whatever, should be denied freedom to choose his religion, whether he prefers the Christian religion or any other that seems most suited to him, in order that the Supreme Divinity, whose observance we obey with free minds, may in all things vouchsafe to us its usual favours and benevolences.” This wasn’t entirely new – they had both signed the edict of toleration issued by Galerius two years earlier. But now they are giving Christianity not only toleration but legal status. Constatine might have been a Christian at this point – although I’m not convinced – but Licinius certainly wasn’t. He was still a traditionalist. I think it’s likely that both them were just trying to make sure the Christian god wasn’t going to intervene against them, just like they tried to keep ALL of the Roman pantheon of gods happy. But also they wanted to keep the Christians happy. Persecution hadn’t really accomplished anything. On the contrary, it lead a bunch of Christians to demand torture and death. Con referred to it as a civil war that had torn the empire apart. Constantine and Licinius are trying to heal the empire. It’s been through the crisis of the third century, where there were 26 Emperors in 50 years. Then Diocletian brings stability but has to deal with the Christians. Remember, they were 10% of the empire. Roughly the same percentage as African American’s in the United States (12%). You don’t want 10% of the population causing trouble. He could have done what America does and just try to put all of them in prison, but he didn’t have the infrastructure. So the next best thing is just to bring them into the fold. But while the document provides amnesty for Christians, states they should have all of their property returned to them, along with other financial benefits, it isn’t making Christianity the state religion. That doesn’t happen for another year 70-odd years. But it’s a huge turning point for Christians. The document is found in Lactantius’ De Mortibus Persecutorum (OF THE MANNER IN WHICH THE PERSECUTORS DIED) and in Eusebius of Caesarea’s History of the Church. But there are pretty huge differences between the two versions. Whether or not there was a formal ‘Edict of Milan’ is debatable. It might have just consisted of letters Licinius and Conny wrote to their governors. That’s certainly the way it’s presented in Lactantius. BTW, Lactantius’ letter was itself a big discovery of the late Renaissance. It only exists in a single copy which was rediscovered in the early 17th century. But whatever the case, the Christians now have an open door to the heart of power in the Roman empire. They’ve come a long way in few short years. And it was a pretty rare situation in Greco-Roman history. Even Plato, who was pretty broad-minded, said there was no place in his idealized republic for those who disbelieved in the gods of their fatherland and of the city of their birth. Even if they kept their opinions to themselves and did not seek to disturb the faith of others, Plato insisted upon their being placed in a House of Correction — or what he calls a Sophronisterion, or House of Wisdom — for five years, where they were to listen to a sermon every day; and if they were zealous propagandists of their pernicious doctrines, he proposed to keep them all their lives in horrible dungeons and deny their bodies after death the right of sepulture. throughout antiquity, every lawgiver took the same view, that a good citizen must accept without question the gods of his native place who had been the gods of his fathers And What was the theory of the State religion in Rome? As I quoted in an earlier episode, Cicero tells us in his book On the Laws, the ancient formula, “Let no man have separate gods of his own: nor let people priv

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Then On 11 November 308, Gally called a council to put this nonsense to bed. He invited Maximian and Diocletian. Maximian was forced to abdicate again and Constantine was again demoted to Caesar. Licinius, one of Galerius’ old military companions, and a close childhood friend, was appointed Augustus in the western regions. But Conny wasn’t having it. He continued to call himself Augustus. Meanwhile Maximinus Daia, Galerius’ nephew, who was a Caesar, was frustrated that he had been passed over for promotion while the newcomer Licinius had been raised to the office of Augustus, and demanded that Galerius promote him. Galerius offered to call both Maximinus and Constantine “sons of the Augusti”, and they were like “fuck off, what is that?” By the spring of 310 AD, Galerius was referring to both men as Augusti. Then old Maximian was getting bored in retirement and he started a rumour that Constantine was dead and he was the new Augusutus. That didn’t go well. Conny heard about it, returned from fighting the Franks across the Rhine, and defeated Maximian in battle. Conny captured him and but gave him clemency. Although he strongly suggested he commit suicide. Which he did. He hung himself. Maxentius promised to avenge his fathers’ death. Conny then claimed that Maximian had actually tried to murder him in his sleep after his clemency, but Fausta had found out, so Conny told a eunuch to sleep in his place. “Hey ummm Johnny, listen… you’ve always said you thought my bed looked really comfy, right? Well how would you like to try it out? Oh suuuure, no problem, it’s my pleasure, I’m that kind of king.” The eunuch was murdered in his place. And then the jig was up and Maximian committed suicide. Conny then instituted a damnatio memoriae on Maximian. This is all obviously propaganda to ruin Maxentius’ family’s reputation. But it also had an impact on Conny’s legitimacy, because it was Maximian who first made him Augustus. So, miraculously, he now discovered that he was actually distantly related to Claudius II, a soldier emperor of barbarian birth from the 3rd century. So Conny was all like “well hold on a minute! I don’t need to be a tetrarch. I’m the real deal. Descended from an emperor. It’s mine! All mine!” This is in 310. BTW, there are some great stories about Claudius II. Also known as Claudius Gothicus because he defeated the Goths. He once knocked out a horse’s teeth with one punch. When he performed as a wrestler in the 250s, before he was emperor, he supposedly knocked out the teeth of his opponent when his genitalia had been grabbed in the match. Anyway, not Conny claims a divine vision of Apollo and Victory granting him laurel wreaths of health and a long reign. In the likeness of Apollo Constantine recognized himself as the saving figure to whom would be granted “rule of the whole world”. He basically declared himself the saviour and sole ruler. And his affiliation with the gods on his coinage changed too. In his early reign, the coinage of Constantine advertised Mars as his patron. From 310 AD on, Mars was replaced by Sol Invictus, the Unconquered sun, a god conventionally identified with Apollo. The date of 25 December was the date of the festival of Dies Natalis Solis Invicti Constantine decreed in 321 that the dies Solis—day of the sun, “Sunday”—as the Roman day of rest. “On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed.” Sol had been worshiped since the founding of Rome. So we see here that Conny was happy switching around his allegiance to the gods, depending on his agenda at the time. In 310 Galerius fell ill and died a year later in 311. According to the Origo, “he was attacked by a violent disease and wasted away so completely, that he died with the inner parts of his body exposed and in a state of corruption.” His last official proclamation was an edict ending the persecution of the Christians. Then the others went to war, just like Alexander’s successors. Maxentius strengthened his support in the Christian community by allowing it to elect a new Bishop of Rome, Eusebius. In the summer of 311 AD, Maxentius mobilized against Constantine while Licinius was occupied with affairs in the East. He declared war on Constantine, vowing to avenge his father’s “murder”. Constantine forged his own alliance with Licinius over the winter of 311–312 AD, and offered him his sister Constantia in marriage. This lead to Maximinus and Maxentius doing a deal as well. Early in 312, Conny went to Italy to battle Maxentius with 40,000 troops. The fought several battles that Conny won. Maxentius ended up in Rome, just preparing for a siege. He destroyed all of the bridges across the Tiber cut. but he eventually was worried that he wouldn’t survive a siege and ordered a temporary boat bridge across the Tiber in preparation for a field battle, that could be broken up i

* They were not only happy to be punished for their beliefs, some of them even welcomed it. * There’s a strong tradition of martyrdom in Christianity, which goes back, of course, to the idea that Jesus was the ultimate human sacrifice, and to follow in his footsteps was the ultimate show of devotion. * The historical sources tend to blame this persecution on Galerius. * He was very anti-Christian and his mother was a pagan priestess who hated the Christians for not attending her festivals. * But how much of his is just propaganda, it’s hard to say. * A few years later, in 302, Diocletian went after the Manicheans, followers of the prophet Mani. * It was a gnostic religion. * Mani declared himself to be an “apostle of Jesus Christ”, and his teaching was intended to succeed and surpass the teachings of Christianity, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism. * Diocletian took offense that the Manicheans were apparently criticizing the old religions. * He wrote: * “The gods,” he says, “have determined what is just and true; the wisest of mankind, by counsel and by deed, have proved and firmly established their principles. It is not, therefore, lawful to oppose their divine and human wisdom, or to pretend that a new religion can correct the old one. To wish to change the institutions of our ancestors is the greatest of crimes.” * Nothing could be clearer. * It is the old official defence of the State religion * Men are not wiser than their fathers, and innovation in worship going to bring down the wrath of the gods. * Moreover, as the edict points out, this Manichaeanism came from Persia, the traditional enemy of Rome, and threatened to corrupt the “modest and tranquil Roman people” with the detestable manners and infamous laws of the Orient. * Diocletian’s point is obvious. * Manichasanism was a device of the enemy; it must be poison, therefore, to the good Roman. * Diocletian ordered that the leading Manicheans be burnt alive along with their scriptures. * This was the first time the destruction of scriptures was ordered. * Low-status Manicheans were to be executed; high-status Manicheans were to be sent to work in the mines. * All Manichean property was to be seized and deposited in the imperial treasury. * While Diocletian was in Antioch in the autumn of 302, the Christian deacon Romanus visited a court while preliminary sacrifices were taking place and interrupted the ceremonies, denouncing the act in a loud voice. * He was arrested and sentenced to be set on fire, but Diocletian overruled the decision, and decided that Romanus should have his tongue removed instead. * Because he’s a nice guy. * According to the Christian historian Lactantius, while at Nicomedia in 302, Diocletian and Galerius then entered into an argument over what imperial policy towards Christians should be. * Diocletian argued that forbidding Christians from the bureaucracy and military would be sufficient to appease the gods, while Galerius pushed for their extermination. * The two men sought to resolve their dispute by sending a messenger to consult the oracle of Apollo at Didyma. * The oracle said Apollo couldn’t talk, because “just men” – aka the Christians – were preventing him from talking. * Not much of a god then. * But of course we only find this in Eusebius. * Anyway, that was that. * On February 23, 303, Diocletian ordered that the newly built Christian church at Nicomedia be razed, its scriptures burned, and its treasures seized. * The next day, Diocletian’s first “Edict against the Christians” was published. * The key targets of this piece of legislation were Christian property and senior clerics. * The edict prohibited Christians from assembling for worship, and ordered the destruction of their scriptures, liturgical books, and places of worship across the empire. * Christians were also deprived of the right to petition the courts, making them potential subjects for judicial torture; Christians could not respond to actions brought against them in court; Christian senators, equestrians, decurions, veterans, and soldiers were deprived of their ranks; and Christian imperial freedmen were re-enslaved. * But Diocletian requested that the edict be pursued “without bloodshed”, against Galerius’s demands that all those refusing to sacrifice be burned alive. * The edict was no sooner posted up than some bold, indignant Christian tore it down. * He was immediately arrested, tortured, racked, and burnt at the stake. * Diocletian had been right. * The Christians loved being martyrs. * Soon afterwards there was an outbreak of fire at the palace. * Lactantius accuses Galerius of having started it himself so that he might throw blame on the Christians, * false flag, burning of the reichstag * and he adds that Galerius convinced Diocletian to get every official in the palace to use the rack in the hope of getting at the truth. * Nothing was discovered, but fifteen days later there was another myste

At its peak, the Library of Alexandria was estimated to contain somewhere in the order of 500,000 books on philosophy, science, medicine, history, tragedy, comedy, rhetoric and politics. Across the Roman empire, private and public libraries contained copies of these books. They were read, studied and appreciated. Of course, literacy was a luxury that not all citizens of the empire received. It was contained mostly to the upper classes. But those upper classes had a high estimation of the value of learning and education. They also accepted the worship of many gods in many different ways and they accepted debate and discourse as an important part of being civilized. But as the Western Roman Empire decayed, partly as a result of corruption, partly by division, partly by Christian influence, and partly by a combination of famine, plague and invasion by illiterate Germanic tribes, most of these books were forgotten and lost. Today we have partial copies of perhaps a one or two percent of them – and many of those are pure luck, as they were written over by Christian scribes and modern scientific techniques has managed to resurrected the ink from two millennia ago. With the rise of Christianity, it became unfashionable and unprofitable even for the upper classes to read anything other than the books supported by the Christian church – the Christian bible, scriptures, analysis of the bible and scriptures and the miscellaneous writings of Christian scholars. Sure – there were some monks and scholars in some parts of the world, notably Ireland and the Eastern Roman Empire. who still appreciated the ancient works and they kept copies of some of them. And as the Eastern Roman Empire became the Islamic Caliphate, they too valued these ancient texts. But the majority of Christian monks – the only people left who copied books after the rise of the Christian empire – didn’t care to spend time or effort copying pagan texts. When each book needed to be hand-copied, a laborious process that might take a year to copy a single book – why would monastic superiors choose for their monks to spend that year copying a pagan book when they could be copying a Christian one? Gradually, people lost interest in the writings of the ancients, with a few exceptions. And with that loss of interest, the vast majority of the books themselves were lost to Western Europe. Some through tragedy, some through deliberate and wanton destruction of anything that didn’t fit neatly into the Christian worldview. But mostly just through neglect. Ancient texts were typically written on papyrus, made from the pith or centre tissue of the papyrus plant, which is delicate. As a rule of the thumb, we can assume that a scroll had to be copied every century. If parchment was used, replacement could take place less frequently. However, preparing a skin and making parchment was extremely expensive. Most texts were, therefore, written on papyrus and subject to decay and disappearance. If there were many copies of the same text, the chances of survival were greater, but professional writers were expensive and texts usually circulated in small numbers. A surprisingly great number of ancient texts has survived in only one copy, which shows how vulnerable the process of transmission was. Even they couldn’t withstand the ravages of time, especially when they were discarded and forgotten about in the musty depths of cold, damp monasteries, victims of bookworms and mould. Many survived for centuries in Eastern Europe and the new Islamic empire, but these too were lost eventually, destroyed by the wars between rulers or by invasions by people like Genghis Khan. Following the abdication of the 16 year old Romulus Augustus in 476, and the subsequent fall of the Western Roman Empire, the empire had no single ruler and new ones emerged from the local aristocracy, military leaders, the church and a new class of wealthy bankers. The unity of the old empire dissolved and they were the victims of invasions by illiterate Germanic tribes who had little interest in the teachings of the ancients. This was accompanied by a long period of economic difficulties caused in part by conflicts between the new rulers. Without the larger economy and administrative infrastructure of the Empire to sustain them, trade systems, large public works and educational systems all collapsed, contracted into local versions or died out in western Europe. And waves of invasions by various Germanic peoples, Avars, Moors, Magyars and Vikings made mere survival a higher priority than things like preserving books or maintaining road systems. And so the western Roman empire entered what the 17th century historian Cardinal Caesar Baronius called, in Latin, saeculum obscurum – “the dark ages”. Before him, in 1343, one of the individuals who himself played a major role in ending the dark ages, Petrarch, wrote that history had two periods: the classic period of Greeks and Rom