The greatest story in the world, period 2 (of 3)

by Horace G. Hutchinson

ROME.
View of St. Peter's.

After Constantine, the Emperor Julian tried to reverse this declaration of Constantine's and to bring back paganism. He was called Julian the Apostate, for so doing; and the chief interest of his attempt is that it shows how firm a hold Christianity already had taken, for the attempt failed utterly.

Certain circumstances seem to have combined to make the position of the Pope of Rome central and capital for all Christendom. For the good government of the Church there had been appointed by the early Christians five principal bishops, to each of whom was given the title of Patriarch. Patriarch means "arch," or chief (as in "archbishop" and "arch-angel") of a "patria," which is a family, or clan, from pater=father; and so Abraham and others were called patriarchs. This name, or title, was transferred to those who were chief among the bishops. The Patriarchates, or cities in which the Patriarchs had their headquarters, were these: Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria.

The third city, in size and importance, in the Roman Empire was Carthage; but Carthage, as you know, was taken by the Vandals, who were pagans; so the Bishop of Carthage could not be any rival of the Bishop of Rome. And just as the Vandals, who were heathens, removed one possible rival to the power of Rome in the Church, so did another, and very much more important, anti-Christian power remove some of the other rivals, the Patriarchs. This anti-Christian force was that wonderful Moslem or Mahommedan power which rose up with marvellous swiftness in Arabia in the middle of the seventh century. The Saracens came surging up out of Arabia, into Palestine, where was the Jerusalem patriarchate, on to Asia Minor and the patriarchate of Antioch, westward into Egypt and the Alexandrian patriarchate. There remained then the Patriarch at Constantinople and the Patriarch, or Pope, at Rome.

Thus these two anti-Christian powers unconsciously fought the battle for the supremacy of the Pope.

Now you have seen how Odoacer, the barbarian, became King of Italy in 475, but did not claim to be Emperor: that made the way of the Pope's power more easy. And all through the fourth century—that is from 300 to 400, to speak in "round figures," as we say—the Emperor of the West had his court, not at Rome, but at Milan, in the North of Italy. Just after 400 the Western Emperor moved his court to Ravenna, though it was actually within the bounds of the Eastern Empire. The power, however, that went with the high-sounding title of Western Emperor was not great, at this time, until the days of Charlemagne, when it became attached to the Franks' kingdom, and by that time the position of the Pope of Rome was so high and so firmly set that we find Charlemagne himself being consecrated and anointed as Emperor by the Pope.

But before this date another very extraordinary thing in the story of the Church had occurred. Christianity had been introduced into some of the northern parts of what is now Germany; and the way by which it had come was not, as you would expect, straight up from Rome, but it had come in from the west, from England, and into England it had been brought from the west again—from Ireland. How that came to pass I will try to tell you in the next chapter.