The Church Becomes the Empire Outside History

The Roman Republic starts as rule by the few, and at first that is not a weakness. A small poor war society can be run by patrician families because everyone knows one another and the nobility is not very far above the rest. Oligarchy and cohesion travel together while the stakes are local Source trail 0:00 Okay, good morning class. So, we have five more classes in the semester and the four last classes are the most important. So, what I will do this class is set up the background and context for the last four classes. So,... .

Empire changes the meaning of the same structure. Once Rome dominates the Mediterranean, the family oligarchy becomes corrupt, unequal, stagnant, and civil-war prone Source trail 1:232:40 And everyone knew each other. So, they were very open, energetic, and cohesive society. And so, over time, they became the most dominant society. In the Mediterranean, they defeated Carthage, they defeated the Greeks. B...have different territories and what this led to was constant civil war okay civil war and remember it started with Sulla and then it went on to Julius Caesar and after Julius Caesar Augustus Caesar became the first amon... . The obvious solution would be an imperial bureaucracy, a centralized standardized system, but the remaining great families refuse to surrender power.

Constantine tries to solve the failure by moving the center away from Rome. Constantinople becomes the basis of a new Eastern Roman order: wealthy, Greek-inflected, defensible, and able to behave more like an imperial bureaucracy. The West receives the opposite fate. It is poorer, mountainous, fragmented, full of competing societies, and ready for a power that does not look like the old empire Source trail 7:298:46 Which is very, very impressive, okay? And as I said, it's very wealthy. And so, therefore, it's really able to dominate the world through mainly trade and diplomacy, okay? So, it became an imperial bureaucracy. It fough...And so, the power that emerges is actually the Catholic Church. Western Europe increases in power and Eastern Europe decreases in power, the Catholic Church will increase in power as well. How does the Catholic Church c... .

The Catholic Church wins by changing the field of competition. Kings fight over who rules the earth. The Church says it rules the question that matters more: who goes to heaven. It is therefore an empire, but a spiritual empire, a divine empire outside history Source trail 8:46 And so, the power that emerges is actually the Catholic Church. Western Europe increases in power and Eastern Europe decreases in power, the Catholic Church will increase in power as well. How does the Catholic Church c... , speaking for God while secular rulers exhaust themselves inside history.

That authority has one recurring enemy: the divine spark. The Church tells people there is a spark in them, but also says the spark must be imprisoned because it belongs to the devil Source trail 10:15 Remember? The Catholic Church is going to tell us that there's a divine spark in us. And as long as we try to glow this divine spark, we can be with God. And the Catholic Church says, no, no, no. This divine spark, it i... . Whenever religious leaders say the spark is within us and should be released, the conflict returns.

The Church answer has two hands. One hand educates: if you believe in the divine spark, you are not evil yet, only stupid Source trail 11:20 believe in the divine spark, you're not an evil person, you're a stupid person, because you don't know better. So the idea of the Inquisition is to educate you in the truth, which is the divine spark is that of Satan, t... . The other hand burns: if you refuse education and continue to defy the Church, you are a heretic who must be destroyed before you pollute others.

Christianity is treated as a franchise model Source trail 12:37 So before Constantine, you had Christian emperors, but they did not make Christianity the official religion. But he made Christianity the official religion, okay? The problem though, we discussed this last class, is tha... before Constantine: different churches teach different things. Official religion cannot operate that way. If Christianity is going to stabilize empire, it needs one orthodoxy, one unified ideology, and the first battlefield is Christology: is Jesus human, divine, or somehow both?

The Nestorian answer, in this reading, is the clean answer: Jesus is a messenger, human on earth rather than God himself. The Church answer is the impossible answer Source trail 14:4318:5520:10 The first interpretation is, Jesus is divine in heaven, but he's human in the world. Okay, does that make sense? So yes, Mary gave birth to Jesus, but she gave birth to the human Jesus and not the divine Jesus. Because...Not these three. Okay, this doesn't really make sense. And Arianism doesn't really make sense, because the entire point of Christianity is to say that Jesus is God, right? We worship Jesus, not God. So, if you're saying... : Jesus is human and divine at the same time. The same pattern repeats with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Modalism, partialism, and Arianism each make some sense, but Nicaea chooses the Holy Trinity, the doctrine that they are separate, equal, and one.

The point is not that the Trinity convinces reason. The point is that it becomes reality by being memorized. Jiang compares it to money, both nothing and everything, and then to math class: a formula you are not allowed to question. Forced irrational doctrine empties a floor from the mind Source trail 24:05 Think about building. Okay? Well, this makes sense, right? You're just stacking blocks on top of each other to build a building, right? But let's just say, I say, no, no. This is what the building looks like. Okay? This... . If an unknowable layer is inserted into logic, you cannot build on top of it.

The enforcement of orthodoxy does not stay inside church councils. Byzantium fights to impose the Holy Trinity, dissenting Christians move toward Persia and Arabia, and the Sassanids become more orthodox in response to Byzantine pressure. Old empires begin burning energy Source trail 29:0744:26 that the Arabians, the Arabs, are being exposed to new religions, and that's during Christianity as well as Judaism. Okay? And both preach the coming of the Messiah. So, Arabia is rising in energy, but the Byzantine Emp...once Muhammad comes into place and he unites the Arabian desert into a new community of followers, okay, they'll spread really quickly throughout the world. And as you can see, there are now over 100,000 people in the A... while refugees and mercenaries carry skill, anger, and expectation into the desert.

Arabia is not empty in this model. It is open, poor, cohesive, trade-connected, and hard for city-besieging Romans to control. It links India, Muscat, Mecca, Egypt, the Mediterranean, and the Levant. Jews fleeing persecution and Nestorian Christians waiting for Jesus bring messianic expectation into a region already rising in energy. Source trail 27:5829:0742:1443:1347:0248:08 And so, the Jews escape into Arabia. Okay? And at the same time, the Jews want to return to Jerusalem. Right? Now, what's interesting is that most people don't know this. Okay? Because Arabia is, at this point in histor...that the Arabians, the Arabs, are being exposed to new religions, and that's during Christianity as well as Judaism. Okay? And both preach the coming of the Messiah. So, Arabia is rising in energy, but the Byzantine Emp...

Muhammad then appears as messenger rather than institution Source trail 32:1232:53 But remember, this is really important. Muhammad himself did not preach Islam. All he preached was, I'm Messiah, I'm the messenger of God, like Jesus, and I will promote religious tolerance. We'll have a community of be...Okay, so this is an important idea you guys need to understand. The messenger of God, okay? The leader, the Messiah. He's never like, I'm God, follow me. He's always like, I'm the messenger of God, and the message of Go... . Jiang stresses the original promise: religious openness, Jews and Christians and Arabs together Source trail 49:0950:45 Okay, so this is Wikipedia, okay? All right, so the first thing that Muhammad's going to do is announce the concentration of Medina, which is to say that I'm the prophet. I am the Messiah. But what I promise you is reli...Okay, so the legend is that Muhammad, when he was 40, he went into the desert. And in the desert, he was meditating and had a revelation. An angel, Gabriel, visited him and spoke the truth of the universe. The Quran is... , the divine spark in the believer, and one God behind Abrahamic conflict. Only later, after Muhammad dies and factions fight, does the community harden into the religion called Islam.

The rapid Arab conquests follow from that release. The Byzantines and Sassanids are exhausted; Christians and Jews thirst for liberation; Constantinople alone remains safe. Islam then becomes a trade technology as well as a religion Source trail 55:4957:06 They take Spain, they take Northern Africa, they conquer Persia, okay? It's a really rapid conquest. Because at this point in history, people are just sick of empires, and they're looking for religious liberation, okay?...So religion requires you to be trustworthy, and that allows Muslims to work together and establish trade routes throughout the world. But you can't really trust someone who's not Muslim, but you can trust someone who is... : if you swear to Allah, other Muslims can trust you with money across distance.

When the Western Empire falls, the people inside the story do not experience a clean ending. Warlords compete for the legacy of Rome Source trail 59:27 And that's the power of the church. One thing to remember about Europe is that there are lots of geopolitics. There are lots of geographic barriers, which allows for diversity within Europe, okay? That's why Europe has... . Augustine systematizes Paul into the City of God, where the Church is out of history, beyond history, divine. Kings fight over land, but the Church decides heaven and hell.

Charlemagne needs that authority to become Holy Roman Emperor. Publicly, the emperor is anointed by God because the Pope crowns him Source trail 1:00:36 And eventually, this leads to the rise of a new power. Um... So the Franks, okay? So the Franks are expanding throughout Europe, and they see themselves as the heir to the Roman Empire. But how do you prove that you are... . The Church then becomes wealthy on the back of the same Europe that is growing richer between about 1000 and 1300: warmer climate, more agriculture, cities, trade, and population growth.

The paradox is visible in gold. Jesus says the rich struggle to enter heaven, but the Vatican becomes one of the wealthiest organizations in the world. The Church is stronger than empire because it is not merely asking for work. It demands the soul. Empire can kill you. The Church can send you to hell for eternity Source trail 1:03:331:04:28 These are different urban centers of Europe at this time, and they engage mainly in trade. Okay. So the church becomes a much more powerful idea than the empire. Okay. Why? Well, with an empire, it's the emperor who's i...Well, the empire puts you to death, okay? Not a big deal. But the church, what it can do is send you to hell for all of eternity, okay? That's why the Catholic Church becomes the most powerful organization ever in human... .

That power produces a corrupt divine bureaucracy: Latin no one understands, the Holy Trinity no one debates, Eucharist and transubstantiation as ritual authority, excommunication as political license, indulgences as tickets to purgatory Source trail 1:06:35 And ultimately, they will use this power in order to enrich themselves, okay? Remember, the Catholic Church, the people who control the Catholic Church are descendants of the Roman nobility, okay? And they will use the... , simony, relic sales, noble church offices, tax-free land, and kings watching their revenue flow to the Church.

The same institution that claims divinity has legitimacy problems. Muslims hold the Holy Land. Muslim Spain looks wealthier and more innovative. Byzantium splits from Rome in 1054. Corruption is obvious. Divine-spark movements keep returning. One solution is scapegoating: Jews are allowed to exist so the Church can blame them Source trail 1:08:32 The first problem is the Muslims occupy the Holy Land. If you truly represent God, why should you lose some in the hands of the Muslims? Also, Spain is part of Europe, but Muslim Spain is actually much more wealthy and... .

Urban II turns humiliation into crusade. The Holy Land is in Muslim hands; pilgrims pay taxes to enter; a pope promises remission of sins to those who fight demons Source trail 1:11:201:12:18 All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins. Oh, what a disgrace if such a despised and base race which worship demons should conquer a peop...Okay, so this is Pope Urban II saying the crusades. It's to go and fight the demons. If you fight a demon, it doesn't matter who you are. You could be poor, you could be rich, you could be a simple person, you could be... . The crusader can be poor, criminal, mercenary, nobody, and still receive heaven. That is why the violence becomes so energetic, and why demonizing Muslims and Jews leads easily to massacre.

The crusades also produce institutions the Church cannot fully contain. The Knights Templar solve the pilgrim money problem and become a multinational bank Source trail 1:13:151:14:13 And eventually they succeed, okay? Even though a lot are criminals, they're still very good fighters because they have religious devotion, okay? They're very energetic. And unfortunately, they're too energetic, so they...So they're a bank, basically. And then they can use this money to start investing throughout Europe, and so they become a very wealthy organization. The problem is that because they're in Jerusalem and they're away from... . Away from Church authority in Jerusalem, they encounter other teachings about Jesus, become suspect, are banned in 1307, and are folded into Jiang’s later secret-society trail toward the Freemasons.

The Cathars are the inner-spark threat in pure form. If they believe the divine spark is in them, education cannot work. Some refuse recantation and enter fire. The Church answers with crusade, Dominicans, interrogation, and the Inquisition, making Western Europe stagnant at the very moment famine, war, and Black Death create a theological audit: if God backs the Church, why is Europe dying? Source trail 1:18:29 Okay? All right. And at first this is fine, but eventually bad things start to happen in Europe. Okay? So the Little Ice Age begins. Then you have the Great Famine. Then you have more wars. Then you have Benetri. Okay?...

The break comes in stages: rival church centers, Wycliffe punished after death, Jan Hus and the Hussite wars, then Martin Luther and Protestantism. The lecture ends by refusing to give the Church ownership over miracle. A student’s cancer story is answered through placebo, faith, mind leading matter, and meditation. The miracle, if it happens, belongs to orientation of mind Source trail 1:21:221:22:411:23:40 Okay. Yeah. Okay, back to your question. Okay. So this is what we call the placebo effect. Okay? The placebo effect is basically you feel really sick. And you're like, doctor, doctor, I'm really sick. I'm gonna die. Is...Okay? So you can argue that cancer is really a question of loss of faith. What is cancer? Cancer is a splitting of cells, right? So why is your body literally falling apart? It's because you've stopped believing in it.... , not to the institution that claims the soul.