WEBVTT 00:02.167 --> 00:02.927 PAUL FREEDMAN: Today, we're going to talk 00:02.933 --> 00:08.273 about what is arguably the most important event of the 00:08.267 --> 00:11.397 first part of our course, the conversion of Constantine, the 00:11.400 --> 00:14.170 Roman emperor, to Christianity. 00:14.167 --> 00:17.167 Important not because of Constantine's 00:17.167 --> 00:19.267 own particular opinions. 00:19.267 --> 00:22.467 The fact that he embraced Christianity is, as we'll see, 00:22.467 --> 00:25.527 a little hard to explain on purely strategic grounds. 00:25.533 --> 00:29.603 But its importance is that it represents a permanent change. 00:29.600 --> 00:32.730 It represents the beginning of the Christianization of the 00:32.733 --> 00:36.633 Roman Empire, a very unexpected result. 00:36.633 --> 00:40.333 Because not only had Christianity been illegal in 00:40.333 --> 00:45.173 the prior history of the empire, that is to say, for 00:45.167 --> 00:52.197 over 250 years, but of course, the god-man Jesus had been put 00:52.200 --> 00:56.470 to death by the forces of the Roman Empire. 00:56.467 --> 01:01.497 And as we've discussed, Roman religion, with its emphasis on 01:01.500 --> 01:05.100 what we've called "civic polytheism" or the performance 01:05.100 --> 01:08.730 of ceremonies in public, ceremonies that have to do 01:08.733 --> 01:13.403 with local patriotism, emperor worship, the tradition of the 01:13.400 --> 01:17.630 Olympian gods, and, above all, polytheism, was very foreign 01:17.633 --> 01:19.673 to Christianity. 01:19.667 --> 01:24.827 The Christian religion thus seemed to be a kind of 01:24.833 --> 01:30.973 annoying epiphenomenon of Roman society when, in fact, 01:30.967 --> 01:38.097 with this event, Constantine's conversion, it becomes first a 01:38.100 --> 01:44.430 tolerated religion, then a favored religion, and very 01:44.433 --> 01:48.973 quickly, within the course of the fourth century AD, the 01:48.967 --> 01:53.867 official and almost the only religion of the Roman Empire. 01:53.867 --> 01:55.967 How can this be? 01:55.967 --> 02:00.427 We'll discuss both the specific events today, and 02:00.433 --> 02:04.603 their meaning, and how they play out. 02:04.600 --> 02:08.000 We recall then that what is called "paganism," a 02:08.000 --> 02:10.930 traditional religion of the Roman Empire, was 02:10.933 --> 02:17.073 polytheistic, was many gods, ceremonial, had a lot of local 02:17.067 --> 02:21.427 variation, and it was eclectic-- 02:21.433 --> 02:25.333 eclectic meaning that you could worship different gods 02:25.333 --> 02:29.233 in different places, different gods for different purposes, 02:29.233 --> 02:32.273 different gods for different times of your life. 02:39.567 --> 02:44.267 There was a certain emotional vacuum, or at least a 02:44.267 --> 02:47.627 perceived vacuum, in this religion because it seemed to 02:47.633 --> 02:53.333 deny individual longing and longing in general, that 02:53.333 --> 02:58.333 longing, that sense internally that there is more to life 02:58.333 --> 03:01.333 than there appears to be. 03:01.333 --> 03:04.273 So that many adherents of other religions, including, 03:04.267 --> 03:07.967 but not limited to, Christianity believed that 03:07.967 --> 03:13.827 some part of their body was immortal, or the soul was 03:13.833 --> 03:17.703 immortal, or that the immortal soul had to be healed by 03:17.700 --> 03:22.500 religion, and not that religion should simply be a 03:22.500 --> 03:26.700 pathway to good fortune or to easing the anxieties of the 03:26.700 --> 03:28.900 material world. 03:28.900 --> 03:34.470 So Christianity, we've said, is not so much otherworldly, 03:34.467 --> 03:36.427 focused on heaven. 03:36.433 --> 03:37.603 It is that. 03:37.600 --> 03:41.670 But even more important perhaps is its innerness, its 03:41.667 --> 03:47.467 inner worldliness, the sense that people have a interior 03:47.467 --> 03:52.627 soul that yearns for something eternal and more significant. 03:52.633 --> 03:56.333 And then Christianity was accompanied by other so-called 03:56.333 --> 04:00.833 "mystery religions," religions that also spoke to an 04:00.833 --> 04:08.703 immaterial, heroic, non-civic, non-urban type of piety, 04:08.700 --> 04:12.530 Mithraism, for example, the worship of the 04:12.533 --> 04:15.973 mother goddess Cybele. 04:15.967 --> 04:20.367 Christianity had certain advantages in terms of 04:20.367 --> 04:24.727 reaching a population, the promise of an afterlife, the 04:24.733 --> 04:28.873 commitment that it demanded of people, a religion that 04:28.867 --> 04:32.427 appealed both to the elite and to the common people, and a 04:32.433 --> 04:36.433 very strong local organization. 04:36.433 --> 04:40.533 But Christianity was alien to the Roman Empire. 04:40.533 --> 04:44.673 The Romans did not always persecute Christianity, as 04:44.667 --> 04:46.427 they did under Diocletian. 04:46.433 --> 04:50.403 But they found Christianity alien. 04:50.400 --> 04:53.530 They didn't like the fact that Christianity was intolerant. 04:53.533 --> 04:55.833 Every other religion of the Roman Empire, with one 04:55.833 --> 04:59.173 exception, accepted other gods. 04:59.167 --> 05:01.597 If you worshipped Isis, you had nothing against other 05:01.600 --> 05:03.200 people worshipping Jupiter. 05:03.200 --> 05:05.570 If you worshipped Cybele, you had nothing against other 05:05.567 --> 05:07.467 people worshipping Mithra. 05:07.467 --> 05:10.527 But Christianity, of course, ridiculed all of these gods. 05:10.533 --> 05:14.273 The only other religion that was like this was Judaism. 05:14.267 --> 05:16.797 But Judaism made some accommodations with the Roman 05:16.800 --> 05:20.200 Empire, recognized the authority of the Roman 05:20.200 --> 05:24.830 emperor, and did not defy the state in the way that 05:24.833 --> 05:28.573 Christianity at least appeared to. 05:28.567 --> 05:33.227 And Christianity was not a Roman religion in many of the 05:33.233 --> 05:37.833 ways that it rejected worldliness, rejected 05:37.833 --> 05:43.933 engagement in or enjoyment of the material world: the 05:43.933 --> 05:48.973 pleasures of the theater, the circus, the celebrations of 05:48.967 --> 05:53.927 civic paganism, emperor worship, law courts. 05:53.933 --> 05:56.073 Well, law courts may not be pleasurable. 05:56.067 --> 05:59.967 But this sort of civic involvement of the emperor and 05:59.967 --> 06:02.967 the Empire are rejected by Christianity. 06:02.967 --> 06:07.127 Christianity, when you see what Roman pagans write about 06:07.133 --> 06:09.473 it, is a kind of killjoy religion. 06:09.467 --> 06:13.667 It's a religion of people who seem to have their eyes 06:13.667 --> 06:17.727 focused on anything but the actual process of getting 06:17.733 --> 06:20.803 ahead in Roman society. 06:20.800 --> 06:23.900 All of this notwithstanding, it should be emphasized that 06:23.900 --> 06:28.030 Christianity was not persecuted constantly nor was 06:28.033 --> 06:31.333 the persecution very intense. 06:31.333 --> 06:36.073 We have Nero in the late 60s AD, the Decian persecution of 06:36.067 --> 06:39.997 the mid-third century, and of course, the great persecution 06:40.000 --> 06:41.270 under Diocletian. 06:43.700 --> 06:46.470 Christianity received just enough persecution, one might 06:46.467 --> 06:53.767 say, to fortify its spirit, to give it some backbone, but not 06:53.767 --> 06:55.027 enough to break it. 06:58.833 --> 07:03.703 Constantine emerged from the chaos following Diocletian's 07:03.700 --> 07:04.970 abdication. 07:04.967 --> 07:08.897 Diocletian, and as you'll recall, had created this four 07:08.900 --> 07:14.870 man rule, the Tetrarchy, in order to divide what was 07:14.867 --> 07:17.827 perceived as an excessively large empire with an 07:17.833 --> 07:20.603 excessively large administrative structure. 07:20.600 --> 07:25.270 The Tetrarchy was, at least we can say with hindsight, doomed 07:25.267 --> 07:26.327 to failure. 07:26.333 --> 07:29.473 These four emperors would not cooperate. 07:29.467 --> 07:32.397 They would tend to be rivals. 07:32.400 --> 07:36.070 Constantine was the son of one of the caesars, one of the 07:36.067 --> 07:36.997 subordinates. 07:37.000 --> 07:39.870 Remember there were two augusti, two caesars. 07:39.867 --> 07:43.497 His father was Constantius Chlorus who was appointed when 07:43.500 --> 07:47.500 the Tetrarchy began in the West in 293. 07:47.500 --> 07:50.370 So there was an Augustus of the West and a Caesar of the 07:50.367 --> 07:55.827 West. The Caesar of the West was Constantius Chlorus. 07:55.833 --> 08:00.773 The young Constantine was sent east to serve the eastern 08:00.767 --> 08:05.227 Augustus, who succeeded Diocletian, Galerius. 08:14.067 --> 08:17.927 Constantine was left out of the succession 08:17.933 --> 08:21.073 when Diocletian abdicated. 08:21.067 --> 08:23.827 Galerius appointed somebody else, 08:23.833 --> 08:25.933 and Constantine rebelled. 08:25.933 --> 08:33.773 Constantine, in 306, raised an army in faraway Britain, 08:33.767 --> 08:37.397 marched on Gaul, and eventually was grudgingly 08:37.400 --> 08:41.170 recognized by Galerius as caesar. 08:41.167 --> 08:44.327 At the same time, another disinherited son of an 08:44.333 --> 08:50.933 augustus, a man named Maxentius, rebelled in Rome. 08:55.900 --> 09:01.000 And I will not burden you with the whole working out of these 09:01.000 --> 09:04.400 intrigues, of the fightings of armies, of the quarrels of 09:04.400 --> 09:06.300 augusti and caesars. 09:06.300 --> 09:12.870 But basically, in 311, Galerius, who had been ill 09:12.867 --> 09:15.327 with cancer, died. 09:15.333 --> 09:19.333 And Galerius was succeeded by an emperor in 09:19.333 --> 09:23.373 the East named Licinius. 09:23.367 --> 09:27.467 And Licinius allowed Constantine to deal with the 09:27.467 --> 09:32.027 usurper Maxentius in the West. So we have Licinius in the 09:32.033 --> 09:35.373 east in 311, and then in the West, Constantine and 09:35.367 --> 09:37.367 Maxentius fighting it out. 09:37.367 --> 09:40.067 Galerius has died. 09:40.067 --> 09:45.727 Constantine defeated Maxentius at a battle not far from Rome, 09:45.733 --> 09:47.633 the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. 09:58.733 --> 10:01.773 The Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312. 10:01.767 --> 10:04.927 And Constantine was now Augustus in the West, 10:04.933 --> 10:08.533 Licinius, Augustus in the East. The Battle of the 10:08.533 --> 10:13.873 Milvian Bridge is the context for whatever had happened that 10:13.867 --> 10:16.927 changed Constantine's mind about his religious 10:16.933 --> 10:19.033 orientation. 10:19.033 --> 10:20.773 Just before the Battle of the Milvian 10:20.767 --> 10:23.227 Bridge, something happened. 10:23.233 --> 10:27.173 There are two stories that purport to explain the event. 10:27.167 --> 10:31.127 One is that Constantine had a dream. 10:31.133 --> 10:34.433 And in this dream, an angel spoke to him and ordered him 10:34.433 --> 10:41.273 to paint a symbol combining the Greek letter chi and the 10:41.267 --> 10:53.197 Greek letter rho on his soldiers' shields. 10:53.200 --> 10:57.830 The rho, the R in Greek, and the chi written as an X. The 10:57.833 --> 11:02.673 two letters symbolize, or at least were taken later to 11:02.667 --> 11:08.327 symbolize, Christ, the first letter being a chi, 11:08.333 --> 11:09.603 the second a rho. 11:12.333 --> 11:17.633 The second version, which is later, that is, later in 11:17.633 --> 11:21.603 circulation as a story, but seems perhaps to have been 11:21.600 --> 11:24.330 attested by the emperor himself to 11:24.333 --> 11:27.503 his biographer, Eusebius. 11:27.500 --> 11:32.000 According to Eusebius, Constantine was marching with 11:32.000 --> 11:34.800 his army before the battle. 11:34.800 --> 11:39.770 And he, along with the army, saw a cross in the sky. 11:39.767 --> 11:44.497 And superimposed on the sun, against which background the 11:44.500 --> 11:48.500 cross appeared, were the words, "In this sign, you will 11:48.500 --> 11:58.630 conquer." Hard to say which version, if either, is what 11:58.633 --> 12:02.103 Constantine thought happened to him. 12:02.100 --> 12:05.330 The argument for the second one is partly Eusebius's 12:05.333 --> 12:08.633 description, partly the fact that angels in a dream are a 12:08.633 --> 12:13.433 standard kind of story. 12:13.433 --> 12:16.603 On the other hand, the Chi Rho symbol is not previously a 12:16.600 --> 12:17.870 sign of Christianity. 12:20.300 --> 12:26.430 So the very fact that there isn't a background to that, 12:26.433 --> 12:30.933 that this is something that we hear of now for the first 12:30.933 --> 12:33.973 time, might indicate that that's the true story. 12:33.967 --> 12:39.097 But more important than what actually happened is that 12:39.100 --> 12:45.130 there's no reason to doubt Constantine's sincerity. 12:45.133 --> 12:48.973 There is no reason to believe that this was a calculating, 12:48.967 --> 12:54.227 cynical, or politically astute move. 12:54.233 --> 12:57.073 This is not because Constantine wasn't devious. 12:57.067 --> 12:58.867 He was. 12:58.867 --> 13:03.027 But because it's hard to imagine any emperor thinking 13:03.033 --> 13:04.773 that Christianity was a good idea. 13:07.667 --> 13:11.767 Because Christianity was subversive of Roman values. 13:11.767 --> 13:15.027 And it was particularly subversive of the values of 13:15.033 --> 13:21.233 the Roman army, whose crucial aid Constantine depended on 13:21.233 --> 13:25.333 and of which Constantine had to be the leader not only in 13:25.333 --> 13:30.773 order to defeat Maxentius, but simply to survive in power. 13:30.767 --> 13:34.697 Christianity was pacifist. At this time, it took more 13:34.700 --> 13:39.770 literally than it would later the admonitions of Christ in 13:39.767 --> 13:48.227 the Gospels not to fight, not to hit back, not to engage 13:48.233 --> 13:51.403 oneself in the pursuit of worldly 13:51.400 --> 13:54.670 gain by means of violence. 13:54.667 --> 14:00.327 So it's hard to imagine anything more unlikely than an 14:00.333 --> 14:02.633 emperor becoming Christian and gaining the 14:02.633 --> 14:07.573 support of his followers. 14:07.567 --> 14:11.227 Now that doesn't mean that Constantine became some sort 14:11.233 --> 14:15.173 of monk, interpreted the Gospels literally, told his 14:15.167 --> 14:17.127 soldiers to put down their weapons. 14:17.133 --> 14:20.973 It's clear that Constantine regarded the Christian god 14:20.967 --> 14:24.427 much as other emperors had regarded, say, the Invincible 14:24.433 --> 14:28.573 Sun, or the genius of the divine emperor, or any other 14:28.567 --> 14:32.467 pagan deity that brought victory in war. 14:32.467 --> 14:35.927 Constantine, like all emperors, saw himself as a 14:35.933 --> 14:40.273 child a fortune, as someone who was favored by fortune, 14:40.267 --> 14:47.427 depended on fortune, and who needed to placate, to mollify, 14:47.433 --> 14:52.873 to please whatever god it was that controlled fortune. 14:52.867 --> 14:55.897 What's unusual is that he would deem the Christian god 14:55.900 --> 15:01.000 to be this sort of god, a leader of war, a giver of 15:01.000 --> 15:08.400 victory in battle, a companion to the emperor. 15:08.400 --> 15:11.130 None of this would seem, at first glance, to be likely in 15:11.133 --> 15:13.103 Christianity. 15:13.100 --> 15:16.130 The fact that not only does it work, but that it would work 15:16.133 --> 15:21.303 for centuries later is just part of the cataclysmic nature 15:21.300 --> 15:24.830 of this event, or if not cataclysmic, at least 15:24.833 --> 15:26.103 unexpected. 15:28.233 --> 15:29.703 Constantine was not ignorant. 15:29.700 --> 15:34.230 He's someone who had studied philosophy, who was quite 15:34.233 --> 15:38.233 literate, knew Greek pretty well, familiar with Latin 15:38.233 --> 15:40.533 literature. 15:40.533 --> 15:43.333 But nevertheless, he was obviously a man of affairs. 15:43.333 --> 15:47.603 He's not an intellectual, contemplative person, poring 15:47.600 --> 15:48.830 over philosophy books. 15:48.833 --> 15:53.403 He's a man of power, decisiveness, strategy, and 15:53.400 --> 15:58.070 not a little cruelty and brutality. 15:58.067 --> 16:01.797 And we can see that after his conversion experience-- 16:01.800 --> 16:05.730 and indeed, I should point out he did beat Maxentius--he 16:05.733 --> 16:11.703 accepted the Christian god, he went to battle with the 16:11.700 --> 16:15.230 usurper, and he defeated him. 16:15.233 --> 16:20.003 But even after his victory, he doesn't become, in every 16:20.000 --> 16:24.870 respect, a totally committed Christian at least in terms of 16:24.867 --> 16:28.067 the symbols of power of his office. 16:28.067 --> 16:32.197 His coins, for example, which are a very good mark of 16:32.200 --> 16:39.200 propaganda and self-regard, his coins kept the imagery of 16:39.200 --> 16:42.630 the earlier pagan deity associated with the emperor, 16:42.633 --> 16:45.273 the Invincible Sun. 16:45.267 --> 16:47.627 After a little while, you start to see the Invincible 16:47.633 --> 16:50.933 Sun on one side of the coin and the cross on the other. 16:50.933 --> 16:54.973 And only later in his reign do we have just the cross. 16:57.767 --> 17:04.567 Constantine's first substantive act as a Christian 17:04.567 --> 17:09.367 or as someone who favored the Christian church was the Edict 17:09.367 --> 17:10.327 of Tolerance. 17:10.333 --> 17:14.333 The Edict of Tolerance or Edict of Toleration issued at 17:14.333 --> 17:19.603 Milan in 313 was jointly the product of Constantine and 17:19.600 --> 17:23.570 Libanius, now the two last guys standing. 17:23.567 --> 17:28.797 The Augustus of the East, Libanius, and Constantine, the 17:28.800 --> 17:30.470 Augustus of the West. 17:30.467 --> 17:32.967 Libanius was a pagan. 17:32.967 --> 17:36.427 He did not share Constantine's bizarre 17:36.433 --> 17:37.773 enthusiasm, but all right. 17:37.767 --> 17:41.227 If he wanted to tolerate Christianity, this was fine. 17:41.233 --> 17:42.973 This was part of their-- 17:42.967 --> 17:43.497 I'm sorry. 17:43.500 --> 17:46.000 It's not Libanius. 17:46.000 --> 17:48.530 Libanius is a philosopher. 17:48.533 --> 17:49.773 Licinius. 17:54.200 --> 17:54.670 Licinius. 17:54.667 --> 17:55.827 Constantine and Licinius. 17:55.833 --> 18:00.403 Licinius was a pagan, but he was willing to go along with 18:00.400 --> 18:02.200 toleration. 18:02.200 --> 18:07.930 At this point, Christianity was legalized. 18:07.933 --> 18:11.933 But in the west, Constantine came to favor the Church and 18:11.933 --> 18:14.933 do more than merely accept it as legal. 18:14.933 --> 18:18.833 For example, he returned property confiscated in the 18:18.833 --> 18:22.003 Diocletianic persecutions. 18:22.000 --> 18:27.130 He exempted the Church from state taxation, an incredible 18:27.133 --> 18:31.833 gift, and allowed church officials, bishops and others, 18:31.833 --> 18:34.903 to use the imperial communications system, the 18:34.900 --> 18:38.930 so-called post system whereby they could get fresh horses to 18:38.933 --> 18:43.403 go from one place to another, greatly speeding up their 18:43.400 --> 18:47.830 journeys and making the journeys, in effect, 18:47.833 --> 18:51.133 chargeable to the state. 18:51.133 --> 18:56.203 Constantine left the pagan and ceremonial center of Rome 18:56.200 --> 18:59.770 alone, for the time being at least, and built two great 18:59.767 --> 19:01.767 basilicas on its outskirts. 19:01.767 --> 19:04.327 One, Saint Peter's. 19:04.333 --> 19:07.103 The St. Peter's that stands today is, of course, a product 19:07.100 --> 19:09.530 of the Renaissance and the Baroque. 19:09.533 --> 19:14.573 But the old church that was destroyed in the sixteenth 19:14.567 --> 19:18.367 century was that of Constantine. 19:18.367 --> 19:20.897 And he also built the Lateran Basilica. 19:20.900 --> 19:26.200 Both of these outside the walls of Rome. 19:26.200 --> 19:30.030 As we'll discuss, he also attempted to mediate in 19:30.033 --> 19:31.773 disputes involving the church. 19:35.133 --> 19:36.873 He never, however, completely 19:36.867 --> 19:40.227 marginalized the old religions. 19:40.233 --> 19:43.373 He emphasized the diversity of religious practice. 19:43.367 --> 19:45.997 He didn't require a single form of worship. 19:46.000 --> 19:50.600 But by the time he died in 337, the pace of conversions 19:50.600 --> 19:56.100 was such that perhaps as much as half of the Empire had 19:56.100 --> 19:57.370 embraced Christianity. 20:01.833 --> 20:05.673 And this brings us to a crucial question, of course, 20:05.667 --> 20:07.827 that we'll be discussing really throughout the 20:07.833 --> 20:12.233 semester, and that is what was the effect of Constantine's 20:12.233 --> 20:14.273 conversion on the Church? 20:14.267 --> 20:19.767 Or beyond the mere event of 312, what did it mean for the 20:19.767 --> 20:22.567 Church to go from persecuted minority 20:22.567 --> 20:24.397 to established majority? 20:27.000 --> 20:32.330 What explains Constantine's ability not only to change the 20:32.333 --> 20:38.133 course of the Roman religious practice and tendencies, but 20:38.133 --> 20:41.203 to do so permanently? 20:41.200 --> 20:46.100 For the Church, was this turnaround a providential sign 20:46.100 --> 20:50.730 or a kind of Trojan horse gift in which the Church would now 20:50.733 --> 20:55.603 be so tied to the official culture that it would never be 20:55.600 --> 20:59.970 able to shake off Rome, administration, and 20:59.967 --> 21:04.727 bureaucracy to get back to its original, charismatic, 21:04.733 --> 21:07.233 individual, powerful foundations? 21:09.833 --> 21:13.473 The era of Constantine establishes the problem of the 21:13.467 --> 21:16.627 Church in the world for the Middle Ages 21:16.633 --> 21:17.773 and, indeed, beyond. 21:17.767 --> 21:23.227 This problem is is the church a collection of special people 21:23.233 --> 21:27.373 who have their eyes fixed on heaven or, is it a kind of 21:27.367 --> 21:32.927 universal society that is hard to distinguish from just 21:32.933 --> 21:36.733 worldliness and engagement with the world of business, 21:36.733 --> 21:42.033 life, death, and other banalities? 21:42.033 --> 21:45.303 It is Saint Augustine who is going to deal with this most 21:45.300 --> 21:49.370 forcibly in terms of theory, but that's a century later or 21:49.367 --> 21:52.867 so, well, 75 years later. 21:52.867 --> 21:59.897 Externally, the Church adapted very quickly to success. 21:59.900 --> 22:02.630 We can see this in terms of the pace of 22:02.633 --> 22:04.333 conversion, as I said. 22:04.333 --> 22:08.833 Not only were 50% of the people, perhaps, Christian by 22:08.833 --> 22:14.703 337 when Constantine died, but by 390, the time of the 22:14.700 --> 22:21.730 Emperor Theodosius and his death, 395, probably 90% of 22:21.733 --> 22:24.533 the population was at least nominally Christian. 22:27.600 --> 22:29.970 The reasons for this success. 22:29.967 --> 22:32.867 In other words, how could Constantine's particular 22:32.867 --> 22:36.127 gesture have such a decisive impact? 22:38.867 --> 22:41.797 Some of this has to do with Christianity's willingness to 22:41.800 --> 22:45.230 adopt to the customs of the Empire. 22:45.233 --> 22:48.333 Some of it may have to do with the weakness of the official 22:48.333 --> 22:51.673 religion of Rome and of the urban elites who were its 22:51.667 --> 22:52.927 chief support. 22:56.767 --> 23:00.797 Those who held out against Christianity were, on the one 23:00.800 --> 23:06.830 hand, people in the rural areas, so peasants, whose 23:06.833 --> 23:10.173 fundamental beliefs tended to be directed to agriculture, 23:10.167 --> 23:13.897 local deities, deities that controlled the weather, and 23:13.900 --> 23:16.130 water, and things like that. 23:16.133 --> 23:20.103 The army, for reasons I've just said, that is, 23:20.100 --> 23:23.670 Christianity is not, at first glance, congenial to people 23:23.667 --> 23:25.997 who fight for a living. 23:26.000 --> 23:28.730 And then the third group that held out were the 23:28.733 --> 23:31.633 intelligentsia, particularly of Roman and Athens, the 23:31.633 --> 23:37.233 people who had a substantial cultural investment in Greek 23:37.233 --> 23:39.533 and Roman philosophy, the intellectual 23:39.533 --> 23:41.433 side of the old elite. 23:46.400 --> 23:49.430 Well, Constantine fell out with Licinius. 23:49.433 --> 23:52.633 And after some small skirmishes, Constantine 23:52.633 --> 23:55.103 managed to defeat him at a place called 23:55.100 --> 23:57.800 Chrysopolis in 324. 23:57.800 --> 24:00.730 Licinius fled from the battlefield, Constantine's 24:00.733 --> 24:04.403 forces caught up with him, and Licinius was executed. 24:07.967 --> 24:13.467 This event, this Battle of Chrysopolis, 24:13.467 --> 24:14.727 important in itself-- 24:20.167 --> 24:21.897 P-O-L-I-S-- 24:21.900 --> 24:26.800 important in itself was even more important because it 24:26.800 --> 24:30.970 showed Constantine the importance of the small 24:30.967 --> 24:35.297 fortress city of Byzantium, not far away. 24:35.300 --> 24:48.170 Byzantium who is the ancestor of the city that Constantine 24:48.167 --> 24:49.597 would found there, Constantinople. 24:53.533 --> 24:59.403 And of course, modern Istanbul in its 24:59.400 --> 25:03.330 twenty-first century incarnation. 25:03.333 --> 25:08.733 Byzantium commanded a strategic point of access 25:08.733 --> 25:11.103 east-west and north-south. 25:11.100 --> 25:17.430 It was the point of access between the Black Sea and the 25:17.433 --> 25:19.503 Mediterranean. 25:19.500 --> 25:21.730 The Bosphorus is a narrow strait that 25:21.733 --> 25:24.233 separates Europe from Asia. 25:24.233 --> 25:30.873 Byzantium, Constantinople, Istanbul stands on the west 25:30.867 --> 25:35.597 bank, the European side, but it commands and controls the 25:35.600 --> 25:39.200 channel by which anyone would go from the Mediterranean to 25:39.200 --> 25:40.230 the Black Sea. 25:40.233 --> 25:44.203 And since the Black Sea is the gateway to central Asia, it, 25:44.200 --> 25:48.500 in effect, controls communications between two 25:48.500 --> 25:52.730 commercial, strategic, and military zones. 25:52.733 --> 25:59.403 It also controls the route from the Balkans, southeastern 25:59.400 --> 26:03.470 Europe, into Asia, into, specifically in this case, 26:03.467 --> 26:09.697 Asia Minor or the Asian part of what's now Turkey. 26:09.700 --> 26:14.000 Byzantium is, therefore, strategically located in terms 26:14.000 --> 26:20.830 of communication and, at the same time, located so that an 26:20.833 --> 26:24.873 army can get to two of the most dangerous frontiers of 26:24.867 --> 26:27.967 the Roman empire in a reasonable amount of time 26:27.967 --> 26:30.097 without having to commit itself to one 26:30.100 --> 26:31.830 or the other totally. 26:31.833 --> 26:36.773 It is not far from the Danube frontier, which was, as we 26:36.767 --> 26:41.097 said, one of the points at which the empire met the 26:41.100 --> 26:45.170 Barbarian tribes and which the empire had sort of decided on 26:45.167 --> 26:47.427 as its natural frontier. 26:47.433 --> 26:51.373 And Constantinople was also not that far from the eastern 26:51.367 --> 26:54.567 frontier of the Roman Empire, the frontier with Persia, 26:54.567 --> 26:59.627 which ran along what's now eastern Turkey, Armenia, 26:59.633 --> 27:02.403 western Iran, and Iraq. 27:05.733 --> 27:09.403 It was the city, also, within the 27:09.400 --> 27:12.400 richest part of the empire. 27:12.400 --> 27:15.130 As we said, one of the problems of the Empire in its 27:15.133 --> 27:18.603 later years, its later centuries was that the east 27:18.600 --> 27:22.800 was becoming richer, more urban, more commercial. 27:22.800 --> 27:27.130 The west was lagging behind, more rural, less successful in 27:27.133 --> 27:29.373 its commerce. 27:29.367 --> 27:34.727 Constantine wanted an eastern capital for both strategic and 27:34.733 --> 27:36.303 for economic reasons. 27:36.300 --> 27:39.130 For strategic reasons having to do with the movement of the 27:39.133 --> 27:42.003 armies and the protection of the frontier. 27:42.000 --> 27:45.270 For economic reasons having to do with taxation and 27:45.267 --> 27:46.697 administration. 27:46.700 --> 27:51.700 The city of Rome itself was somewhat isolated, strangely 27:51.700 --> 27:54.100 enough since, of course, the whole empire had grown up 27:54.100 --> 27:55.400 around Rome. 27:55.400 --> 28:02.070 But Rome was the historical origin of the Empire, but not, 28:02.067 --> 28:08.727 in the fourth century AD, its actual living capital. 28:08.733 --> 28:12.203 It would be too much to compare it, say, to the 28:12.200 --> 28:14.970 relationship between Portugal and Brazil. 28:14.967 --> 28:17.327 It's not quite that lopsided. 28:17.333 --> 28:21.133 But Brazil is a former colony of Portugal. 28:21.133 --> 28:23.603 They speak the language of Portugal. 28:23.600 --> 28:28.130 Yet on the world stage, Brazil is larger than Portugal, more 28:28.133 --> 28:33.333 important than Portugal, richer now than Portugal. 28:33.333 --> 28:36.873 So whatever preeminence Portugal or its capital, 28:36.867 --> 28:41.327 Lisbon, has within the world of culture, no Brazilian would 28:41.333 --> 28:46.533 take Lisbon to be the be all and end all of the Portuguese 28:46.533 --> 28:48.033 cultural world. 28:48.033 --> 28:52.733 So similarly, by this time, Rome has become less important 28:52.733 --> 28:56.003 even within the western empire. 28:56.000 --> 29:01.400 And this relocation of the capital to Constantinople, the 29:01.400 --> 29:04.600 relocation of the capital to the east is significant 29:04.600 --> 29:08.800 because it shows us the permanent 29:08.800 --> 29:10.930 result of the Tetrarchy. 29:10.933 --> 29:14.673 As we've said, Diocletian's experiment was a failure in 29:14.667 --> 29:16.897 the sense that the emperors and 29:16.900 --> 29:19.600 caesars would not cooperate. 29:19.600 --> 29:21.630 And such a scheme was never tried again. 29:21.633 --> 29:27.273 But the division of the Empire between east and west would be 29:27.267 --> 29:31.697 something that would eventually become permanent. 29:31.700 --> 29:35.100 Its first traces are with Diocletian, and that's one 29:35.100 --> 29:37.530 reason why we begin the course with him. 29:37.533 --> 29:42.303 It is also something that continues under Constantine 29:42.300 --> 29:46.630 without the addition of the caesars. 29:46.633 --> 29:48.503 Constantine ruled over the whole empire. 29:48.500 --> 29:52.070 He did not divide it himself, but he facilitated its 29:52.067 --> 29:55.897 conceptual, and eventually real, political division by 29:55.900 --> 30:02.730 creating a new Rome, a new capital in the former fortress 30:02.733 --> 30:09.103 of Byzantium, a town that he modestly named after himself. 30:09.100 --> 30:12.970 Constantinople, as this town was called, was planned to be 30:12.967 --> 30:14.927 a new Rome. 30:14.933 --> 30:19.333 Like Rome, it would have a forum; it would have civic 30:19.333 --> 30:24.273 spaces; it would have races and sporting events. 30:24.267 --> 30:28.267 It would have imperial palaces and gardens; it would have 30:28.267 --> 30:33.967 victory columns, triumphal arches, aqueducts, the whole 30:33.967 --> 30:37.227 panoply of classical civilization. 30:37.233 --> 30:39.903 It wouldn't have a whole lot of temples. 30:39.900 --> 30:42.230 Churches would be more important than temples, not 30:42.233 --> 30:45.033 that Constantine totally banned temples from 30:45.033 --> 30:46.133 Constantinople. 30:46.133 --> 30:51.003 But these were not the highlights of the city. 30:51.000 --> 30:56.670 It is an ideological statement like other planned, great, 30:56.667 --> 30:58.897 imperial sites. 30:58.900 --> 31:02.770 So we could compare it to, in the modern world, Saint 31:02.767 --> 31:06.727 Petersburg, created by the czars as a certain kind of 31:06.733 --> 31:10.933 statement, with a certain kind of plan, and a certain kind of 31:10.933 --> 31:15.273 look evoking western Europe in particular. 31:15.267 --> 31:19.097 Or Versailles, not a town at all, but rather a kind of 31:19.100 --> 31:23.300 palace city fit for the king of France. 31:28.867 --> 31:35.327 At this point, Constantine becomes considerably more 31:35.333 --> 31:38.873 devout and somewhat more intolerant. 31:38.867 --> 31:45.667 We start to see him interact with the Christian Church in 31:45.667 --> 31:51.927 its most intimate way, that is to say, doctrine. 31:51.933 --> 31:59.003 Constantine is appealed to by the Donatists, schismatics-- 31:59.000 --> 32:00.600 well, we're calling them schismatics-- 32:00.600 --> 32:02.430 or heretics, as they were decided to 32:02.433 --> 32:03.933 be, from North Africa. 32:06.833 --> 32:18.133 The Donatists taught that the priests who had given over the 32:18.133 --> 32:21.933 scriptures under persecution at the time of Diocletian were 32:21.933 --> 32:23.533 not legitimate priests. 32:23.533 --> 32:26.773 And we'll talk later about the implications of this. 32:26.767 --> 32:32.127 The implications, briefly, are that the Church cannot cover 32:32.133 --> 32:36.473 for priests, that the office is not greater than the man. 32:36.467 --> 32:41.697 If the man has committed a sin, such as what was called 32:41.700 --> 32:44.370 treason, the handing over of the scriptures to the 32:44.367 --> 32:48.727 persecutors, he no longer can baptize validly, he no longer 32:48.733 --> 32:52.303 can perform the sacraments with validity. 32:52.300 --> 32:58.270 Donatism, then, implies that the Church itself is really 32:58.267 --> 33:04.397 just as good as the character of its officials. 33:04.400 --> 33:08.030 The Donatists were strong in North Africa, and they appeal 33:08.033 --> 33:12.803 to Constantine against decisions that had been made 33:12.800 --> 33:15.470 against them within the Church. 33:15.467 --> 33:19.327 The fact that Christians are appealing to the emperor 33:19.333 --> 33:25.073 already, as early as 317, shows the acceptance of the 33:25.067 --> 33:27.167 emperor as a Christian arbiter. 33:27.167 --> 33:32.267 But it also shows a kind of, in retrospect, dangerous 33:32.267 --> 33:34.697 intermingling of what we would consider to 33:34.700 --> 33:37.430 be church and state. 33:37.433 --> 33:41.903 Similarly, Constantine would get involved in controversies 33:41.900 --> 33:45.330 over the relationship between God, the Father, 33:45.333 --> 33:46.703 and Christ, the Son. 33:49.233 --> 33:52.233 This, too, we'll go into in more detail, but this is the 33:52.233 --> 33:53.403 Arian heresy-- 33:53.400 --> 33:56.730 Arian with an "i," not with a "y"-- 33:56.733 --> 34:03.833 named after a priest named Arius who taught that while 34:03.833 --> 34:07.573 Christ is God, he is, in some sense, 34:07.567 --> 34:10.797 subordinate to God the Father. 34:10.800 --> 34:16.830 This is a controversy over the nature of the Trinity in which 34:16.833 --> 34:22.503 Christ is seen as coming from God, as emanating from God. 34:22.500 --> 34:26.630 And as I think I warned at the beginning of the course, if 34:26.633 --> 34:31.473 you don't like doctrinal and theological controversy, I'll 34:31.467 --> 34:34.767 try to spare you all its ins and outs, but you can't teach 34:34.767 --> 34:37.167 this course without it. 34:37.167 --> 34:40.027 Again, what we're talking about now is not the content 34:40.033 --> 34:44.173 of Arianism, who embraced it, why, but the fact that the 34:44.167 --> 34:49.097 Emperor gets involved in these controversies. 34:49.100 --> 34:54.170 On the one hand, this shows the quick adaptation of the 34:54.167 --> 34:56.527 Church to imperial rule. 34:56.533 --> 34:59.473 On the other hand, because Constantine was able to solve 34:59.467 --> 35:03.227 neither the Donatist nor the Arian division, at least not 35:03.233 --> 35:07.703 definitively, and at least not yet, it shows how difficult it 35:07.700 --> 35:10.630 was for an emperor who could conquer all of his secular 35:10.633 --> 35:16.373 rivals, who could control this vast realm from Gibraltar to 35:16.367 --> 35:20.467 the Tigris and Euphrates, but couldn't get a bunch of North 35:20.467 --> 35:24.927 African peasants to obey his orders about how to worship or 35:24.933 --> 35:26.433 Egyptian priests either. 35:29.100 --> 35:34.900 Constantine, we can see, is frustrated by this. 35:34.900 --> 35:38.830 You can see in the reading from Jones, his difficulties 35:38.833 --> 35:42.773 in dealing with this in the usual way. 35:42.767 --> 35:45.997 The usual way being the emperor is petitioned by 35:46.000 --> 35:50.070 people, he appoints some arbiters or judges, the judges 35:50.067 --> 35:52.927 make a decision, and then the emperor announces to these 35:52.933 --> 35:54.873 people that that's what it's going to be. 35:54.867 --> 35:57.727 The problem is that, of course, people like the 35:57.733 --> 36:00.133 Donatists were already used to martyrdom. 36:00.133 --> 36:02.903 Threatening them with imprisonment, threatening them 36:02.900 --> 36:09.130 with torture, denouncing them, trying to use the awesome, 36:09.133 --> 36:12.273 awe-inspiring power of the emperor against them was not 36:12.267 --> 36:13.497 going to be sufficient. 36:16.000 --> 36:19.970 Nevertheless, Constantine, far from abandoning Christianity 36:19.967 --> 36:26.067 in frustration, becomes more and more engaged in trying to, 36:26.067 --> 36:31.627 if not officially Christianize the Empire, at least legislate 36:31.633 --> 36:34.303 as a Christian emperor. 36:34.300 --> 36:39.170 By 330, he has come to see himself not merely as an 36:39.167 --> 36:43.627 emperor who has a kind of peculiar favor or a peculiar 36:43.633 --> 36:48.833 god that is following him, but as the implementer of the 36:48.833 --> 36:50.233 mission of the Church. 36:50.233 --> 36:54.273 So for example, he starts promulgating laws against 36:54.267 --> 36:56.567 married men having concubines-- 36:56.567 --> 36:57.897 ineffective-- 36:57.900 --> 37:04.270 or the seduction of wards by their guardians, or punishing 37:04.267 --> 37:08.827 rape by burning, all orientation towards sexual 37:08.833 --> 37:14.173 crimes that shows a more Christian horror of them than 37:14.167 --> 37:16.727 the more easygoing Roman attitude. 37:20.333 --> 37:25.873 Constantine favors the church, enacts legislation recommended 37:25.867 --> 37:33.497 by the church, favors the bishops, and even in the 320s, 37:33.500 --> 37:38.470 presides over the first ecumenical council of bishops 37:38.467 --> 37:43.797 of the Church called at Nicaea across the Bosporus from 37:43.800 --> 37:49.530 Constantinople, the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea called to 37:49.533 --> 37:52.173 deal with the Arian controversy. 37:52.167 --> 37:57.997 And here, we see Constantine as something different from an 37:58.000 --> 38:01.670 emperor merely the companion of Christ or the companion of 38:01.667 --> 38:05.027 God, but the emperor as, in some 38:05.033 --> 38:07.533 sense, head of the Church. 38:07.533 --> 38:13.133 Constantine appears at the council, he is deferred to by 38:13.133 --> 38:14.433 the bishops. 38:14.433 --> 38:19.203 Nevertheless, he is not himself a bishop. 38:19.200 --> 38:23.400 He is not himself, however imperial the Church may look, 38:23.400 --> 38:28.570 able to legislate by himself for the church. 38:28.567 --> 38:31.527 Because unlike many other religions-- 38:31.533 --> 38:33.073 and certainly when we come to Islam, 38:33.067 --> 38:34.367 you'll see the contrast-- 38:34.367 --> 38:38.567 the political leader of the Roman Empire is not the 38:38.567 --> 38:42.197 designated leader of the religious practice of the 38:42.200 --> 38:48.430 Church because he is not a priest. Now who is the 38:48.433 --> 38:51.373 designated leader of the church is not clear yet. 38:51.367 --> 38:56.367 Certainly, it's not yet the pope in the 320s. 38:56.367 --> 38:59.167 It is the collectivity of bishops, but in that case, 38:59.167 --> 39:02.927 then some bishops have more power than others. 39:02.933 --> 39:06.803 Nevertheless, this is the beginning of an era in which 39:06.800 --> 39:15.970 we have a blending, but not a total equivalency of secular 39:15.967 --> 39:20.197 rule, imperial rule, on the one hand, and spiritual or 39:20.200 --> 39:21.530 church rule on the other. 39:21.533 --> 39:24.133 And that's one of the things that, of course, characterizes 39:24.133 --> 39:27.733 our image of the Middle Ages, a period in which the church 39:27.733 --> 39:34.233 and the state were overlapping if not actually fused. 39:34.233 --> 39:37.003 Constantine in relation to Diocletian, to conclude. 39:39.567 --> 39:41.997 Differences and similarities. 39:42.000 --> 39:46.230 Obviously, their similarities are great. 39:46.233 --> 39:51.173 Both Diocletian and Constantine remade the Roman 39:51.167 --> 39:56.527 Empire as a much more tightly administered state, a more 39:56.533 --> 39:59.233 bureaucratically complicated state, and a 39:59.233 --> 40:02.433 more militarized state. 40:02.433 --> 40:07.633 Constantine continued Diocletian's military and 40:07.633 --> 40:09.233 administrative structure. 40:12.133 --> 40:15.433 Like Diocletian, in order to do this, he had to rely on 40:15.433 --> 40:18.303 very heavy taxation. 40:18.300 --> 40:21.430 If anything, his taxation had to be greater because he had 40:21.433 --> 40:25.103 exempted the Church and its clergy, and someone was going 40:25.100 --> 40:26.970 to have to make up the difference. 40:30.233 --> 40:34.933 But Diocletian had persecuted the Catholic church, whereas 40:34.933 --> 40:37.933 Constantine would favor it. 40:37.933 --> 40:41.733 And that is, of course, a crucial difference. 40:41.733 --> 40:45.333 On the other hand, even here there are some connections. 40:45.333 --> 40:47.673 Under Diocletian, the emperor was a god. 40:47.667 --> 40:51.527 The emperor was a distantly glimpsed figure. 40:51.533 --> 40:55.703 He was no longer, even in pretense, first citizen, guy 40:55.700 --> 40:59.030 just like you and me, hand-shaker, baby-kisser, 40:59.033 --> 41:00.633 anything like that. 41:00.633 --> 41:04.503 But this was also true with Constantine. 41:04.500 --> 41:11.930 Constantine, too, had a ceremonial, distant, and-- 41:11.933 --> 41:15.433 because of his association with the Church-- 41:15.433 --> 41:18.573 semi-sacred status. 41:18.567 --> 41:22.997 He couldn't be worshipped as a god, to be sure, but he was 41:23.000 --> 41:29.530 something a bit more than merely a follower of 41:29.533 --> 41:30.773 Christianity. 41:32.667 --> 41:37.097 Constantine ended the Tetrarchy, but he really set 41:37.100 --> 41:40.230 the seal on the division of the Empire east and west, as 41:40.233 --> 41:42.203 we've just said, by the establishment of 41:42.200 --> 41:44.630 Constantinople. 41:44.633 --> 41:46.903 And finally, Constantine was a little more successful 41:46.900 --> 41:48.730 economically. 41:48.733 --> 41:54.003 Diocletian did not have the means available to Constantine 41:54.000 --> 41:58.870 who had a certain amount from the old pagan temple treasures 41:58.867 --> 42:01.567 that he was able to confiscate. 42:01.567 --> 42:07.367 And also, by virtue of his victory over Licinius, he was 42:07.367 --> 42:12.027 able to rule pretty tightly over the Empire. 42:12.033 --> 42:18.773 The fourth century often is seen as a period of decline 42:18.767 --> 42:21.527 because we're focused-- 42:21.533 --> 42:24.733 we-- historians are focused on the collapse of the Roman 42:24.733 --> 42:28.003 Empire in the late fifth century. 42:28.000 --> 42:30.870 But obviously, people in 337, the year that Constantine 42:30.867 --> 42:34.367 died, did not know that in 476 the Western 42:34.367 --> 42:35.797 Empire would collapse. 42:35.800 --> 42:39.030 They did not know that in 410 Visigoths would invade and 42:39.033 --> 42:42.703 plunder the city of Rome, no more than we have the faintest 42:42.700 --> 42:47.170 idea of what's going to happen 75 or 100 years from now. 42:47.167 --> 42:50.727 From their point of view, the Empire had been restored. 42:50.733 --> 42:53.403 The Empire, which had been endangered in the third 42:53.400 --> 42:58.770 century by invasions, inflation, armed forces out of 42:58.767 --> 43:03.767 control, chaotic imperial succession, was now stable. 43:03.767 --> 43:07.167 It was clear who the emperor was. 43:07.167 --> 43:10.827 The barbarians had been pushed back behind the frontiers. 43:10.833 --> 43:15.203 Trade, culture, civilization seemingly flourished. 43:15.200 --> 43:18.230 And if we trust the impressions we have of 43:18.233 --> 43:23.903 contemporaries, both formal, written work and informal, 43:23.900 --> 43:28.770 things like the slogans that people put in their dining 43:28.767 --> 43:32.697 room mosaics, for example, good times had been restored. 43:32.700 --> 43:35.100 This seems to be the constant theme. 43:35.100 --> 43:40.030 And I emphasize this because, again, it's a lesson in how 43:40.033 --> 43:44.133 history cannot be seen from the front backwards. 43:44.133 --> 43:48.273 You can't use hindsight to tell what 43:48.267 --> 43:50.827 people should have felt. 43:50.833 --> 43:53.273 People in the fourth century at the time of Constantine 43:53.267 --> 43:54.527 were optimistic. 43:54.533 --> 43:58.133 No more so those people who had embraced Christianity as 43:58.133 --> 44:02.703 the coming thing, as the religion of not only truth, 44:02.700 --> 44:04.600 but of success. 44:04.600 --> 44:08.030 What is odd is, of course, that thus far, Christianity 44:08.033 --> 44:10.773 would have seemed to be unlikely. 44:10.767 --> 44:14.227 Christianity would have seemed to be alien from the Empire. 44:14.233 --> 44:18.133 And even if some emperor embraced it for weird reasons 44:18.133 --> 44:21.733 of its own, his own, it wouldn't have seemed to have 44:21.733 --> 44:27.003 been the most favorable context for the preservation 44:27.000 --> 44:28.800 of the Empire. 44:28.800 --> 44:31.800 And indeed, of course, the Empire would fail in the west 44:31.800 --> 44:34.570 within a century and a half or so of the embrace of 44:34.567 --> 44:35.427 Christianity. 44:35.433 --> 44:39.533 And it's no surprise, then, that the English historian of 44:39.533 --> 44:42.203 the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon, whose Decline and Fall 44:42.200 --> 44:45.600 of the Roman Empire sort of sets the agenda for any course 44:45.600 --> 44:46.630 like this one. 44:46.633 --> 44:49.803 It's no accident that Gibbon blamed Christianity for the 44:49.800 --> 44:51.730 fall of the Empire. 44:51.733 --> 44:54.003 But indeed, in the fourth century, it seemed that 44:54.000 --> 44:55.900 Christianity was one of the forces that 44:55.900 --> 44:57.670 had saved the Empire. 44:57.667 --> 45:01.667 And not only that, as we will see as this course unfolds, 45:01.667 --> 45:06.227 much of what was preserved from the debacle of 476 and 45:06.233 --> 45:10.803 successive problems of the preservation of civilization 45:10.800 --> 45:15.430 would be preserved through the action of the Church. 45:15.433 --> 45:16.703 Thanks very much.