Post by Paolo Emilio I of Trebia on Apr 22, 2015 5:40:06 GMT
Hi and welcome to my new post!
I would like to talk about an interesting topic, the History of Christendom, and how we can restore it to it's former glory!
First of all, we must take back at the History of Christendom:
For me, Christendom begins with Christianity itself. The moment Jesus died on the Cross, the 12 Apostles formed the first example of "Christendom". They preached the Gospel to all of Creation, as the Bible requests Christians to do. After the tormentous 300 (283 years to be more precise) years of persecution by the Roman Empire, ended by The Emperor Constantine in his Edict of Milan, in 313AD, and the Adoption of Nicene Christianity by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I, suppressing the Olympic Religion (Greco-Roman Paganism). The fact that the Roman citizens left their wrong ways and false gods for Christianity makes me think that there is a God out there, that is in our side.
The fall of Rome didn't directly affect the Papacy. In fact, we should be thankful the Barbarians converted to Christianity. A good example of Barbarian conversion is that, before the fall of Rome, the Frankish mythology included idols depicting golden bees, called cicadas, and it's roots in polytheistic Germanic mythology, but when the Merovingian Frankish king Clovis I married the Burgundian Christian Saint Clotilde, he converted to Christianity as well. Other reasons for his conversion to Christianity might be that it was the last Religion of the Roman Empire, and the Barbarians were fighting for the right over this Empire, even long after it had fallen. Charlemagne built his castles, cathedrals, cities, monasteries and palaces using architecture styles similar to those of the Byzantine Empire, Otto I, First Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, tried to get his son to marry a Byzantine princess. Ultimately, Otto failed, which was a disgrace. If the marriage of the Germanic prince with the Byzantine princess, the union between the Byzantine and the Holy Roman Empire would provide a powerful Christian empire. Same if the Franks and Anglo-Saxons allied the Sacro-Romans and Byzantines. However, it would be too good to be true
And to make things worse, the most useless thing ever that happened in Christendom East-West Schism, that separated the Catholic Church from the Eastern Orthodox Church, took place in 1054. Why I say useless?
"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
Well, now that we read the epic story of Christendom, let's move on:
For me, Christendom works as a coalition of nations. In antiquity the only nation that belonged to Christendom was the Roman Empire (there were other small nations, like Georgia and Armenia as well, that adopted Christendom). In the early Middle Ages, nations that belonged to Christendom were the Carolingian Empire, the Papal States and the Byzantine Empire. In the late Middle ages, new nations arose, such as the Kingdom of France, the Kingdom of England, the Holy Roman Empire, the Italian Kingdoms of Lombardy and Naples, the Republic of Venice, the Byzantine Empire, the Kingdom of Castille, the Kingdom of Aragón, the Polish Confederation, the Kingdom of Portugal, the Kievan Rus' and so on...
So, Christendom is the land where Christianity is not only the majority faith, but State religion as well. They don't necessarily have to be theocracies, maybe, I'm not sure. Trebia is a theocracy, but I don't think that is necessary for a 21st Century Christendom. However, I told Sir Benedict about the Trebian theocracy and it is actually innovative. I need to share that information later.
So, for me, the State that enters the coalition labeled Christendom:
I would like to talk about an interesting topic, the History of Christendom, and how we can restore it to it's former glory!
First of all, we must take back at the History of Christendom:
For me, Christendom begins with Christianity itself. The moment Jesus died on the Cross, the 12 Apostles formed the first example of "Christendom". They preached the Gospel to all of Creation, as the Bible requests Christians to do. After the tormentous 300 (283 years to be more precise) years of persecution by the Roman Empire, ended by The Emperor Constantine in his Edict of Milan, in 313AD, and the Adoption of Nicene Christianity by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I, suppressing the Olympic Religion (Greco-Roman Paganism). The fact that the Roman citizens left their wrong ways and false gods for Christianity makes me think that there is a God out there, that is in our side.
The fall of Rome didn't directly affect the Papacy. In fact, we should be thankful the Barbarians converted to Christianity. A good example of Barbarian conversion is that, before the fall of Rome, the Frankish mythology included idols depicting golden bees, called cicadas, and it's roots in polytheistic Germanic mythology, but when the Merovingian Frankish king Clovis I married the Burgundian Christian Saint Clotilde, he converted to Christianity as well. Other reasons for his conversion to Christianity might be that it was the last Religion of the Roman Empire, and the Barbarians were fighting for the right over this Empire, even long after it had fallen. Charlemagne built his castles, cathedrals, cities, monasteries and palaces using architecture styles similar to those of the Byzantine Empire, Otto I, First Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, tried to get his son to marry a Byzantine princess. Ultimately, Otto failed, which was a disgrace. If the marriage of the Germanic prince with the Byzantine princess, the union between the Byzantine and the Holy Roman Empire would provide a powerful Christian empire. Same if the Franks and Anglo-Saxons allied the Sacro-Romans and Byzantines. However, it would be too good to be true
And to make things worse, the most useless thing ever that happened in Christendom East-West Schism, that separated the Catholic Church from the Eastern Orthodox Church, took place in 1054. Why I say useless?
"There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
Galatians 3:28
The Schism was based at first, in that the Catholic interpretation of the Holy Spirit was different to that of the Orthodox. A silly difference that makes absolutely no effect. There were also political differences. The Catholic Church is managed by a single Pope, the Orthodox Church is managed in Patriarchates. Silly difference too. We could put a Patriarchate system in the Western World as well and put all these Patriarchates under a single Pope, in my opinion. However, more substantial differences appeared. For example, in our Catholic Church, we have celibacy, which isn't compulsory in the Orthodox Church. I have already proven that I don't think Celibacy is a good idea, which is a norm implemented by the Papacy in the 11th Century, not inspired in the Bible, and therefore -in my opinion- shouldn't be put in the Catechism and Canon of the Catholic Church. But to avoid changing the topic of Christendom, I do believe that the differences between Catholics and Orthodoxes are pretty stupid. The Fourth Crusade shows us what can that do.
Well, the thing is, as well as this division inside Christianity, the Islamic invasions took away lots of Christian lands from us. The land lost by the years before the First Crusade ranges from the Iberian Peninsula, Mauretania, Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, Egypt to Syria and the Levant. Important cities lost there are Cyrene, the city where Simon of Cyrene was born, Damascus, the City St. Paul had visited when he converted to Christianity, and the precious Jerusalem, where our Lord lived and died.
The Crusades sought to recover these lost land from the sons of Yihad. The most successful was the First Crusade, that gave the Byzantines back the control of Anatolia, and restored Christian Crusader States in Outremer, securing the position of Christendom. By this time we have epic battles such as Didgori, Dorylaeum, the Siege of Antioch, and the Siege of Jerusalem. It's a shame that the Second Crusade failed, the Fourth Crusade was corrupted, and all the Crusades after that resulted in defeat. Despite that, personally, I justify the Crusades, and I do think Jesus Christ would have supported it.
The video below shows most of my point:
This video shows the rest of my point:
It's true Christians are supposed to forgive. But Jesus gave us the right to self-defence and fight back. So FIGHT BACK!
After the Crusades, we have increased development of Europe. More inventions appear, the Scientific method is invented by the Philosopher and Franciscan Friar, Roger Bacon. Universities, alchemy (early Chemistry, I love science
), the Blast furnace, which allowed more efficient production of steel, the Caravel, which could sail further than previous ships like the Galley. And the printing press, made by Johannes Gutenberg. Other inventions came from outside as well. Gunpowder, the Compass and the Astrolabe. Most of these inventions led to the discovery of the Americas, and the Spanish Empire becoming the pioneer of missions converting natives in the Americas. Other nations who did the same include the British and Portuguese Empire. However, these missions were more successful in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas. The Ummah (Islamic version of Christendom, like Islamdom ) and India didn't give much conversions. In fact, Christians are still persecuted in those regions and we should do something about it.
Sadly, the Spanish crown made some mistakes as well. They put high taxes, commercial restrictions and enslaved the racial minorities in the Americas. This led to the Latin American wars of Independence, because when Napoleon invaded Spain, the Latin Americans saw their chance to declare Independence. For example, Panama, my native country, became independent from Spain in November 28, 1821. Sadly Panama joined the Gran Colombia soon after, which, upon it's disintegration, left Panama as a Departamento of Colombia. Luckily, Panama separated from Colombia in November 3, 1903. (Panama has many patriotic days in November, that's why we call it "Mes de la Patria" or Homeland's Month) it is the shortest laboral month because it is full of days off. I need to make sure we do crazy stuff in Trebia during November so people don't have to get used to working on November hehehe...
Anyways, speaking of 1821 and 1903, apart of being crucial years for my natal Panama, these years coincide with the period of time in which Christendom began to fall. The French Revolution had brought ideas of democracy. I do not really hate democracy. I don't see it as a perfect system because is not the government of the people, it is the government of the majority in society. However, some of the intentions of the French Revolution are good. In fact, the French people revolted because of the irresponsibility of the French Monarchy. They knew their people were starving and they did nothing about it. However, there were ideas in the French revolution that were out of place, such as Laïcité, the destruction of theocracy and separation of Church and State. The 99.9% of people believe that this is a good idea, but the spread of terrorism and chaos, Multiculturalism and it's consequences, Pride Parades, and celebration of homosexual immorality, the toleration and even promotion of Blaspemy (therefore abuse of the freedom of expression right as well), and many other examples. Secularization has destroyed Christendom, and there is irreparable damage, but even I understand we got some lessons from it. Before the French revolution Christians burned gays in the stake. Now that we are taken away from power we thought it better and now we understand that the correct thing to do is not to discriminate against them, but to show them the way, and simply don't accept homosexuality itself, but tolerate the gay person and (personally) ask them to be closeted. I think that the best way to actually destroy homosexuality is to make it every time less common by not presenting it to the general population. But going back to the topic, Christendom is dead, and most of us, and I am sure people outside our Order as well, envision this new Christendom, now that seems a challenge. Now that we finished the long story, let's get started on what we should do.
The Schism was based at first, in that the Catholic interpretation of the Holy Spirit was different to that of the Orthodox. A silly difference that makes absolutely no effect. There were also political differences. The Catholic Church is managed by a single Pope, the Orthodox Church is managed in Patriarchates. Silly difference too. We could put a Patriarchate system in the Western World as well and put all these Patriarchates under a single Pope, in my opinion. However, more substantial differences appeared. For example, in our Catholic Church, we have celibacy, which isn't compulsory in the Orthodox Church. I have already proven that I don't think Celibacy is a good idea, which is a norm implemented by the Papacy in the 11th Century, not inspired in the Bible, and therefore -in my opinion- shouldn't be put in the Catechism and Canon of the Catholic Church. But to avoid changing the topic of Christendom, I do believe that the differences between Catholics and Orthodoxes are pretty stupid. The Fourth Crusade shows us what can that do.
Well, the thing is, as well as this division inside Christianity, the Islamic invasions took away lots of Christian lands from us. The land lost by the years before the First Crusade ranges from the Iberian Peninsula, Mauretania, Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, Egypt to Syria and the Levant. Important cities lost there are Cyrene, the city where Simon of Cyrene was born, Damascus, the City St. Paul had visited when he converted to Christianity, and the precious Jerusalem, where our Lord lived and died.
The Crusades sought to recover these lost land from the sons of Yihad. The most successful was the First Crusade, that gave the Byzantines back the control of Anatolia, and restored Christian Crusader States in Outremer, securing the position of Christendom. By this time we have epic battles such as Didgori, Dorylaeum, the Siege of Antioch, and the Siege of Jerusalem. It's a shame that the Second Crusade failed, the Fourth Crusade was corrupted, and all the Crusades after that resulted in defeat. Despite that, personally, I justify the Crusades, and I do think Jesus Christ would have supported it.
The video below shows most of my point:
This video shows the rest of my point:
It's true Christians are supposed to forgive. But Jesus gave us the right to self-defence and fight back. So FIGHT BACK!
After the Crusades, we have increased development of Europe. More inventions appear, the Scientific method is invented by the Philosopher and Franciscan Friar, Roger Bacon. Universities, alchemy (early Chemistry, I love science
), the Blast furnace, which allowed more efficient production of steel, the Caravel, which could sail further than previous ships like the Galley. And the printing press, made by Johannes Gutenberg. Other inventions came from outside as well. Gunpowder, the Compass and the Astrolabe. Most of these inventions led to the discovery of the Americas, and the Spanish Empire becoming the pioneer of missions converting natives in the Americas. Other nations who did the same include the British and Portuguese Empire. However, these missions were more successful in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas. The Ummah (Islamic version of Christendom, like Islamdom ) and India didn't give much conversions. In fact, Christians are still persecuted in those regions and we should do something about it.Sadly, the Spanish crown made some mistakes as well. They put high taxes, commercial restrictions and enslaved the racial minorities in the Americas. This led to the Latin American wars of Independence, because when Napoleon invaded Spain, the Latin Americans saw their chance to declare Independence. For example, Panama, my native country, became independent from Spain in November 28, 1821. Sadly Panama joined the Gran Colombia soon after, which, upon it's disintegration, left Panama as a Departamento of Colombia. Luckily, Panama separated from Colombia in November 3, 1903. (Panama has many patriotic days in November, that's why we call it "Mes de la Patria" or Homeland's Month) it is the shortest laboral month because it is full of days off. I need to make sure we do crazy stuff in Trebia during November so people don't have to get used to working on November hehehe...
Anyways, speaking of 1821 and 1903, apart of being crucial years for my natal Panama, these years coincide with the period of time in which Christendom began to fall. The French Revolution had brought ideas of democracy. I do not really hate democracy. I don't see it as a perfect system because is not the government of the people, it is the government of the majority in society. However, some of the intentions of the French Revolution are good. In fact, the French people revolted because of the irresponsibility of the French Monarchy. They knew their people were starving and they did nothing about it. However, there were ideas in the French revolution that were out of place, such as Laïcité, the destruction of theocracy and separation of Church and State. The 99.9% of people believe that this is a good idea, but the spread of terrorism and chaos, Multiculturalism and it's consequences, Pride Parades, and celebration of homosexual immorality, the toleration and even promotion of Blaspemy (therefore abuse of the freedom of expression right as well), and many other examples. Secularization has destroyed Christendom, and there is irreparable damage, but even I understand we got some lessons from it. Before the French revolution Christians burned gays in the stake. Now that we are taken away from power we thought it better and now we understand that the correct thing to do is not to discriminate against them, but to show them the way, and simply don't accept homosexuality itself, but tolerate the gay person and (personally) ask them to be closeted. I think that the best way to actually destroy homosexuality is to make it every time less common by not presenting it to the general population. But going back to the topic, Christendom is dead, and most of us, and I am sure people outside our Order as well, envision this new Christendom, now that seems a challenge. Now that we finished the long story, let's get started on what we should do.
Well, now that we read the epic story of Christendom, let's move on:
For me, Christendom works as a coalition of nations. In antiquity the only nation that belonged to Christendom was the Roman Empire (there were other small nations, like Georgia and Armenia as well, that adopted Christendom). In the early Middle Ages, nations that belonged to Christendom were the Carolingian Empire, the Papal States and the Byzantine Empire. In the late Middle ages, new nations arose, such as the Kingdom of France, the Kingdom of England, the Holy Roman Empire, the Italian Kingdoms of Lombardy and Naples, the Republic of Venice, the Byzantine Empire, the Kingdom of Castille, the Kingdom of Aragón, the Polish Confederation, the Kingdom of Portugal, the Kievan Rus' and so on...
So, Christendom is the land where Christianity is not only the majority faith, but State religion as well. They don't necessarily have to be theocracies, maybe, I'm not sure. Trebia is a theocracy, but I don't think that is necessary for a 21st Century Christendom. However, I told Sir Benedict about the Trebian theocracy and it is actually innovative. I need to share that information later.
So, for me, the State that enters the coalition labeled Christendom:
- Has Christianity as State religion or any branch of Christianity that we could have ecumenism with (no Westboro heretic scum)
- Has Law based on the Bible
- Is either a monarchy, or a republic
This are, in my opinion, basic requirements for an ambiguous Christendom. However, we should put more demands, for a better Christendom, these are ideas of mine, (make sure to comment your ideas, and I'll see if I can implement them in Trebia too):
- Promotes knowledge and scientific research, because science studies the Creation of God, and fosters development of Civilization, making us closer to God in some way
- Has a military, because quoting the book 'How to Start your Own Country' by Edwin Strauss, a secessionist state must be ready to defend it's own interests in a military way if necessary, and it may be necessary to provide armies if a Crusade starts
- Doesn't criminalize sin even if it is a theocracy, because we are all sinners, and therefore criminalizing sin isn't the solution to the problem
- Is Conservative and Traditionalist, because the precepts of Christianity are deeply tied with Tradition
These are my definitions for a State that fits in Christendom. Currently, there are no countries that fill in these 7 precepts. There are a few bunch of nations that fill in the first 3 precepts. The Vatican, Liechtenstein, Greece, Georgia and Malta are some examples.
Of course this lack of morality is unacceptable, and we must do something about it. Only a few people will hear us, and not that many countries would be affected by our ways. Maybe the rumors are true, and we are approaching the end of times. But the Lamb hasn't broken the first Seal yet, so we have the duty to do what we can, as Catholics, to restore the Glory of God here in Earth. Tell me your opinions and thank you for reading!
Some music to inspire you:
) are a good way to put a Christian civilization to work.