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The Mystery of Christian Power

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The Mystery of Christian Power THE MYSTERY OF CHRISTIAN POWER The Christian Roman Empire and its Pre-Christian Origins to the Fall of Constantinople (1453) Vladimir Moss © Vladimir Moss, 2007 It is he that shall build the Temple of the Lord, and shall bear royal honour, and shall sit and rule upon his throne. And there shall be a priest by his throne, and peaceful understanding shall be between them both. Zechariah 6.13. From Him and through Him [the Word of God] the king who is dear to God receives an image of the Kingdom that is above and so in imitation of that greater King himself guides and directs the course of everything on earth…He looks up to see the archetypal pattern and guides those whom he rules in accordance with that pattern… The basic principle of kingly authority is the establishment of a single source of authority to which everything is subject. Monarchy is superior to every other constitution and form of government. For polyarchy, where everyone competes on equal terms, is really anarchy and discord. Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, Oration in Honour of Constantine, 1, 3. When by Divine decree I was elected to the empire, then amidst the many needs of the State I was occupied by none more than the need for the Orthodox and true faith of the Christians, which is holy and pure, to remain without doubts in the souls of all... Holy Emperor Marcian, Acts of the Fourth Ecumenical Council. If the Emperor forgets the fear of God, he will inevitably fall into sin and be changed into a despot, he will not be able to keep to the customs established by the Fathers, and by the intrigues of the devil he will do that which is unworthy and contrary to the commandments of God, he will become hateful to the people, the senate and the Church, he will become unworthy to be called a Christian, he will be deprived of his post, will be subject to anathema, and, finally, will be killed as the ‘common enemy’ of all Romans, both ‘those who command’ and ‘those who obey’. Emperor Constantine VII, On the Government of the Empire. FOREWORD ............................................................................................................6 PART 1: THE ORIGINS OF THE POWER (to 306) ............................................8 1. PRE-CHRISTIAN STATEHOOD ......................................................................9 Paradisial Statehood...............................................................................................9 The Mark of Cain.................................................................................................12 Nimrod’s Babylon................................................................................................16 The Egyptian Pharaohs ........................................................................................21 Israel: The Pilgrim State......................................................................................25 From Theocracy to Autocracy..............................................................................30 The Davidic Kingdom..........................................................................................34 Athenian Democracy ...........................................................................................40 Plato and Aristotle on the State...........................................................................46 Alexander, the Stoics and the Demise of Democracy ..........................................56 From Zerubbabel to the Maccabees......................................................................60 Herod the Great....................................................................................................65 Theocracy, Autocracy and the Jews .....................................................................68 The End of the State.............................................................................................73 2. PAGAN ROME .................................................................................................76 Christ and the Roman Empire .............................................................................76 Rome: Protector or Persecutor?...........................................................................82 Why Rome?..........................................................................................................89 Rome and China...................................................................................................94 Rome and the End of the World.........................................................................103 Сhurch and State in Old Rome..........................................................................106 PART II. THE TRIUMPH OF THE POWER (to 1000) ...................................109 3. CHRISTIAN ROME: THE EAST...................................................................110 The Triumph of the Cross ..................................................................................110 St. Constantine the Great ..................................................................................114 The Heretical and Pagan Reaction ....................................................................119 Kingship and Tyranny.......................................................................................124 Models of Kingship ............................................................................................128 The Symphony of Powers...................................................................................133 The Symphony of Nations .....................................................................................143 Byzantium and the Jews ....................................................................................147 The Dissonance of Powers: Monothelitism and Iconoclasm..............................156 Perso-Islamic Despotism....................................................................................160 St. Photius the Great..........................................................................................165 Church Canons vs. Imperial Laws.....................................................................172 The Question of Legitimacy ...............................................................................174 The First Bulgarian Empire...............................................................................177 St. Vladimir the Great .......................................................................................180 St. Vladimir and the Jews ..................................................................................184 4. CHRISTIAN ROME: THE WEST..................................................................186 The Fall of Old Rome .........................................................................................186 The Rise of the Popes..........................................................................................193 The Remnants of Romanity: (1) Italy and France.................................................196 The Remnants of Romanity: (2) Spain ..............................................................200 The Remnants of Romanity: (3) Britain............................................................203 Romanity Restored: Anglo-Saxon England ......................................................207 The Sacrament of Royal Anointing ...................................................................210 Romanity Threatened: (1) Charlemagne............................................................216 Romanity Threatened: (2) Pope Nicholas I........................................................223 The Growth of Feudalism...................................................................................227 The English Monarchy ......................................................................................232 The German Monarchy......................................................................................236 The Year 1000: The Apex of Monarchism .........................................................242 PART III: THE WANING OF THE POWER (to 1453)...................................245 5. THE RESURRECTION OF PAGAN ROME................................................246 The Germans and the Filioque...........................................................................246 The Reform Movement ......................................................................................251 The Schism of 1054............................................................................................254 The Fall of Orthodox England ...........................................................................260 The Gregorian Revolution .................................................................................267 The Crusades......................................................................................................274 The Apotheosis of Papism: Innocent III.............................................................278 The Medieval Revolutionaries: Jews, Albigensians and Templars ....................282 The Kabbala........................................................................................................287 The Resurrection of Roman Law .......................................................................292 Natural Law.......................................................................................................296 The Crisis of the Medieval Papacy: Boniface VIII .............................................302 Proto-Protestantism: Marsilius and Wycliff .....................................................307
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