Civilization #34: The Useful Fiction of the Holy Roman Empire

okay good morning so um today we are doing the Holy Roman Empire now last class we did The bantin Empire which is considered the continuation of the Roman Empire in Eastern Europe the Holy Roman Empire is considered the continuation of the Roman Empire in Western Europe so the um when we think about the Holy Roman Empire in the west we think of the famous voler uh quotation about the Holy Roman Empire voler is um a very famous French Enlightenment thinker we will talk about voler when we get to the Enlightenment what he said was the Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy nor Roman nor an Empire and this sounds funny um and a lot of historians thought it was a joke but what I will show you this class is actually this is very true okay so um the Holy Roman Empire was started in the year 800 um when the Frankish King Charlamagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo theii in Rome okay and this marked a turning point in Western history because this was really the first time that the pope could anoint a monarch before it was the Emperor who anointed the pope now it's a bit reversed and this shows the supremacy of the Catholic Church historians have debated for a long time why shamain would agree to such an arrangement and so this is the topic we we will examine uh this class what motivates Shan to Agree to Agree to such a deal and what gave the Catholic Church sorry what gave the Catholic church so so much power and Prestige that they were allow that they had the power to anoint Emperors okay so that's a topic we are looking at today all right so let's first look at Mo charlamagne's motivations Charlamagne um his name means Charles the great and he is of the Frankish uh Empire and he was able to unite most of Europe um through major Innovations in the military um so he was the first to introduce the idea of armor knights which became the standard military Doctrine and practice in Europe for centuries and the idea of the night would also pave the way for feudalism in Europe and these are topics we'll discuss later on uh in the class okay in the semester um um what Charlamagne is most celebrated for um is the fact that he started something called the Carolian Renaissance Carolian is the name of his family and the Renaissance is this um period of peace and prosperity in Europe um and he's most famous for the building of cathedrals he built 14 of them this is the most famous it's called the Akin Cathedral in Aken Germany you can guys you can still go visit it okay it is beautiful um the cathedrals of medieval Europe are really the pyramids like the pyramids they are meant to give people a sense of awe and unity uh the cathedral was meant to bring Heaven onto uh Earth one really amazing aspect about the cathedral are the Acoustics the sounds within uh the buildings it is designed in a way that when the priest speaks his voice is projected all around the cathedral and the walls bounce the um voice back and so the parishioners the people who listen to the priest they feel they're surrounded by the voice of God okay the V the The Voice literally enters you and makes you feel Transcendent it makes you feel you are moving towards heaven that you're approaching God all right and these buildings are still around so you can actually go and uh visit them this is a picture of modern day uh AK in Germany where people go where tourists go and visit the cathedral okay so these buildings were designed to be Eternal Okay so so um before I talk about Charlamagne and why he chose to be Crown Holy Roman Emperor I need to give you a little bit background about the geography of Europe now if we if we look at the um four major civilization empires of early human history uh mainly Egypt Mesopotamia in this Valley in China we will discover that there are three major similarities among all four okay the first as you can see from this picture is Du latitudinally okay they are in the same place they all benefit from temperate climate which allows for year-long agriculture that's the first major similarity the second major similarity is these are all River civilizations meaning that at the center is a major river surrounded by flat lands that allows for the production of Agriculture all right so in Egypt there's a Nile Mesopotamia there are two rivers the Tigers and Euphrates in this Valley Civilization is obviously In this River and in China there are two rivers right there's the Yellow River and then there's the uh yangi okay the Chang Jang all right and the third major characteristic uh that's very important is they're surrounded by natural boundaries whether it's mountains or deserts or or oceans or Seas okay and from this map you can see very clearly uh these three three characteristics for Egypt right Egypt has the Nile surrounded by natural boundaries the desert the Sahara Desert to the West these mountains um then protect uh Egypt and that's what allows Unity to take hold very quickly in the civilizations and what allows uh this civilization to defend against outside Invaders okay the same is true in China obviously right okay um surrounded by mountains to the South to the west and to the North and then the sea okay so for most of of its history China was protected from outside Invaders this is all especially true in Humanity's greatest Empire called the United stat States all right so if you look at the United States it is a fortress basically it's protected by two oceans and then mountains but when within the United States it's serviced by the Mississippi River which allows for agricultural Surplus and which allows for trade and communication within the United States so very early on the United States could become very wealthy as well as unified and it didn't to fear external enemies and therefore it could Prosper without woring too much about um its National Defense okay this is very important because none of these three things are true for the European continent okay especially Western Europe um it's much too uh uh north um and it's surrounded by lots and lots of mountains it also has no major rivers okay so as you can see from this map in southern uh Western Europe it's mainly mountains and to the north there are um flat lands but they're usually covered by Forest okay so for most of its history Europe was divided and poor and um isolated from the rest of the world okay the other thing about Europe that made it distinct from the other civilizations is within Europe there are lots of natural boundaries and that's why Europe remained divided for such a long time it was extremely hard to unite Europe please remember the Rome was not a European Empire it was a Mediterranean Empire that's a huge difference okay so throughout most of its history Europe was divided into different Thoms and the prin the princess the Kings had complete authority over their Kingdom and it was very hard to compel them to um listen to your Authority Charlamagne had at at at that time the greatest army in Europe but even then he was still compelled to uh cooperate with the other kings okay so he achieved a lot of what he did through Conquest but he also achieved a lot of what he did through alliances and treaties and friendships and marriages okay so what this means is if you want to UniFi Europe you cannot do so through military conquest you have to do do so through the idea of legitimacy people have to believe you are the legitimate ruler you cannot compel them you must win their hearts and Minds okay and this explains why Charlamagne would want to be crowned by the pope because the pope did have legitimacy he did have authority because the pope was the leader of the Catholic church and at this time there were many kings not all of them but there were many kings in Europe who were off the Catholic faith okay um so this is a map of the major cities of the world at the time of the fall of the Roman Empire okay as you can see most of the cities are located at a certain latitude and to the north okay which is where Europe is there are not that many major cities right so at the fall of the Roman Empire Europe was a divided weak and poor place okay all right so again the please remember for the rest of semester these three factors right latitude you need a temporate climate you need um natural boundaries and you need a major river and this will this is what allowed civilizations to rise and prosper they great irony of the great irony here of course and we will learn about this um later on the semester is despite its disadvantages Europe was still able to conquer the world all right and it did so because of these disadvantages if you think about it these disadvantages compel you as a people as a culture to be Innovative to overcome these disadvantages all right and this is something that we will learn when we get to the enlightenment Renaissance and Sonic Revolution which we'll do very quickly all right um the other thing about Europe that's very important is um it was constantly being invaded look if you look at this map you will see that there are a lot of mountains protecting Egypt Mesopotamia um and in this Valley in China but there are almost none protecting Europe from the steps and as we discussed last semester the steps traditionally has been the most aggressive place um in human history people are always fighting each other for territory these are pastoral people who need land to raise their uh sheep and cattle and so they're always fighting each other and so what happens over time is these people are pushed further out into the uh Borderlands okay they often pushed into into Europe right so remember about the Y people how they migrated from the steps to Europe and basically conquered all of Europe well this process never really stops okay so um in the time of the Roman Empire towards the claps of the Western Roman Empire there's huge migrations of people from the steps into Europe and they're being pushed out by a new more aggressive people called the Huns okay you may have heard of Atilla the Hun well he's all that group and they are extremely violent and they have made M major military innovations that allow them to out compete others in the steps which forc these other tribes and groups into uh Europe okay which is the only place they can go all right um after the claps of the Roman Empire um these different groups start to form their own kingdoms around Germany are the Franks and then eventually over time um as these groups compete against each other the Franks will ultimately defeat them and expand okay but this is a process that will take centuries through multiple Kings and through multiple dynasties but eventually um the the Franks will expand out from Germany and Conquer most of Europe not all of Europe they will conquer uh most of Europe and in the process what's interesting for us is they will make contact with the once isolated um Scandinavian countries um the the the Norsemen okay they're called the Norse we we often refer them to as Vikings and we will study them next class okay but now they're bought brought into the OR bit of this new Frankish Empire okay but again and and this is the Frankish Empire at the time of Charlamagne when he creates the Holy Roman Empire but again because this is not really an Empire it's more of a confederation it doesn't really last much longer after his death what's really interesting for us is to remember that these emperors they are not born as Emperor they are elected by other kings so again you should see this as an alliance as Confederacy where each King has voting power okay so this is not a her title this is something that you are elected to okay so after the death of Charlamagne um a couple decades later after his death the Empire splits into three okay and even though um on paper this Empire does last until the year 1806 it's a history uh that is extremely tumultuous and most and there are some times when the Empire completely disintegrates okay but they keep up the pretense of having an Empire because again in Egypt what matters is not territory or military or resources what matters the most is legitimacy and the idea of the Holy Roman Empire gives uh legitimacy confers legitimacy mainly through the Catholic Church okay does that make sense guys so we'll be discussing more of this as we go um into the history of Europe but before that are there any questions sorry uh are there any questions all right so now what I want to discuss is why the Catholic church is able to confer legitimacy what gives the Catholic Church the power and authority to confer legitimacy uh to Kings and Emperors okay but before I do that um are you guys clear about what I just presented mention that Pope Leo thei yes oh well sorry okay so I I'll explain okay but the pope is considered the leader of the church in Rome so so he's a bishop okay we call him Pope because historically Rome was most powerful of all the churches okay so so so so I'll explain who the pope is later on okay so but does that make sense good any more questions before I continue because right now what I'll do is explain how the Catholic Church became so powerful in Europe okay that's a good question okay so um who are who are these Kings well most of these kings are actually uh hereditary okay their fathers were Kings their grandfathers were Kings and they often related to each other okay but they were control of a certain Thom right and you couldn't really conquer them because they had castles and they had and they were like in mountains and they were a very aggressive people so you couldn't really coner them so you needed to um get them to to agree to make you King and so the way they did that was by having these elections where the Kings got together they call Prince electors and they p take the the king and this is also true for the Catholic Church where different Bishops would get together and they would elect the pope okay but but I'll explain this later on okay does that make sense all right okay all right so um let's go over the history of the Catholic church and explain understand why it became so powerful in Europe after the collapse of the Roman Empire okay first I want to present to you the official history of the Catholic Church as presented by the Catholic church so um there was a man named Jesus who was actually a God we we didn't know he was a God but he was a God who came down from heaven in order to sacrifice himself in order to free us of our sins to in order to redeem us okay now Jesus had disciples there were there were 12 major ones but there were others and after his death Jesus reappeared before them and told them to spread the gospel the good news that he has freed Humanity of their sins and that he will return to create a heaven on Earth okay so that's a good news the gospel so these disciples they're illiterate peasants they go all around the world and they set up churches in the honor of Jesus okay the these are the first fathers of the church and these people are called Bishops okay so the bishop is the head of the church in a certain area and the tradition is that the very first Bishop of all the major churches and they were like five um were Disciples of Jesus that's where their Authority and legitimacy comes from from Jesus himself um as the movement is spreading Rome sees them as a threat because Rome are pagans and Christianity is an anti-pagan religion so um there's a lot of persecution going on but the Christians are armored by their faith and their love of Jesus and the miracle that is God so they eventually Triumph and convert all of Rome into Christianity now Christianity is the official religion of Rome and now they have the power to spread the message to all people around the world but especially the barbarians of Europe and convert them okay so that's the official history of the church and there are lots and lots of issues with this story I mean the first uh issue the major issue is how is is it that a peasant religion was able to conquer the Roman Empire um there are certainly other belief systems that were much more compelling than the Christian faith there's a Greek system the philosophy of Plato um Pagan paganism itself has many traditions and as I keep on explain to you in this class culture is persistent people do not want to change their cultures so it's a complete mystery how Christianity was able to spread and Conquer Europe and the explanation if you talk to Christians especially the Catholic church is it's a miracle guys it's a power of Faith okay that's the explanation that's it um okay so there are lots of issues with this official story so I want to give you my understanding of the history I talked about this last semester and I want to review it okay and apply to the context of the Roman Empire all right what's important for us to understand is during the time of the Roman Empire the Romans had major conflicts with the provincials especially the Jews okay Romans and Jews did not get along in fact they were often in conflict with each other the Romans were Pagan and the Jews were monotheistic people who only worship Yahweh and they refused to worship the Roman Emperor which was demanded of them by the Romans sometimes the Romans were tolerance says well we'll make a special exception for you Jews but some they were extremely violent okay and this led to a series of Wars uh in Judea between the Jews and the Romans these were terrible terrible Wars that killed millions of people okay three major wars were fought another problem is that the Jews were spread all around the Roman Empire so this is not a problem isolated to one poor Province called Judea this was a problem throughout the Roman Empire okay so um historians estimate that Jews accounted for about 10% of the population of the Roman Empire that's a lot of people and certain cities like Alexandria um it was a third of the population and there were a couple riots in in alandria by the Jews against Roman rule also the Jews were at as a whole a pretty Cosmopolitan people who are well educated uh and who are very well established who look down upon the Romans the Jews had respect for the Greeks because the Greeks had a very uh Superior culture Jews and Persians got along really well because Persians are extremely tant people but Jews really didn't like Romans and the Romans really didn't like the Jews either okay there there's stories of how after the wars uh between the Romans and the Jews Jews were enslaved and sent to Rome and the Romans released the Jews from slavery because they didn't like Jews okay and Jews became traitors and set settle um in other parts of of of the Empire okay so the Romans and the Jews didn't get along and so there's this constant conflict going on but there are certain Jews Like Paul of Tarsus he was a Roman citizen he was very well established within the Empire and he got along very well with the Romans he really much want to be part of the Roman Empire and these wars were badly affecting him and his and his family and and their friends okay so there were a certain segment of the of the Jewish diaspora who very much wanted to assimilate into um Roman into the Roman Empire but their religion okay their religion which believ that eventually mesiah who is a prince from the House of David born of the House of David he will return and he will lead the Jews to Ultimate Victory against the Romans that's that's what the Jews believe as part of their religion and so this present a problem for Paul of Tarsus and other Jews want to assimilate okay when Jesus died he became like a rock star within the Jewish community and the fact that he died the way that the fact that he was crucified which is which is a horrible way to die um it basically captur the imagination of many Jews and after his death there were a lot of people who started to flock to uh they were very curious about him um so they flocked to uh his disciples and so um his brother James LED his movement called the poor of Jerusalem later on they'll be called the aites okay and these are the people who will influence the Islamic religion but there were other groups who started around Jes around the idea of Jesus as well okay so Jesus was a growing popularity um in the Jewish world after his death and in Jesus Paul saw an opportunity to resolve this conflict between Romans and Jews remember the problem for Jews is the religion believed that a messiah would return who would lead them to Victory against the Romans and this is a problem uh because Paul knew that if the Jews United against the Romans the Romans will probably win okay so to Jesus is a solution because Jesus is a prophet of peace right Jesus was a prophet who preached the importance of Peace mercy and forgiveness forgive the Romans for destroying our Temple forgive the Romans for persecuting us show Mercy because What mattered is not what happens here what happen what matters is what happens in Heaven All right so Paul of Tarsus backed by the Roman State start this religion as a way for Jews to practice their faith without incurring the Wrath of the Roman Empire without being a threat to the Roman Empire okay does that make sense do you guys now over time as the conflict between the Romans and Jews became worse and worse the Christian Movement spread okay and eventually to gain legitimacy they won the patronage of Roman uh Patriarchs okay so uh you had a certain segment of elite Jews and a certain segment of elite Romans who came together in the Christian church uh to build an alliance and okay does that make sense so in other words um the Catholic Church the beginning of Catholic Church it was basically basically an elite social club for Jews and Romans to get together and to work together okay does that make sense now what's important for us to understand is there are other Christian factions during this time but because the Catholic Church the beginning the protoc Catholic church it's backed by the Roman State and because of its organization its wealth it was able to ultimately win out over the other Christian sects okay does that make sense all right now over time what the Romans recognize is wow the Christian church is great at solving the Jewish problem and then they recognize that oh wouldn't be good for solving all our problems okay because because eventually um the Jews cease to be the major problem and Le Barbarian bar Ians coming in from the steps and from the north are the major problem and there's just too many of them okay so remember you have all these um barbarians coming in what's important to remember up these barbarians is this is not an invasion okay an invasion often historians will use the word barbarian Invasion they're not Invaders they're migrants it's a migration guys what's the difference well if if it's an invasion these people are looking to conquer the Roman Empire and instill upon the Empire their worldview their culture their religion if it's a migration these people are looking for better economic opportunities and therefore they are willing to conform to your worldview to your religion all right so think about the United States where on the southern border there are millions of people every year who are trying to get into United States they're not there to conquer the United States they're there to Mig the United States and seek a better life and they know that if they are to succeed in United States they must assimilate okay and the best way to assimilate United States of course is to go to university right because once you're part of the University you're now part of the social Elite okay that's the best thing to do but a lot of people don't have the wealth the education to go to university so what what they often do is join the church okay the church um if you look at these hundred of thousands these millions of Chinese students who have on United States the group that has assimilated the best are Chinese Christians right these are um Chinese who are either practicing Christians or they convert to Christianity when they go United States because when they when they're Christians there's an immediate social Community for them that welcomes them and supports them okay does not makes sense guys all right so um this United stes days but this was too during the late Roman Empire as well okay the you have all these barbarians they're called barbarians and they're coming in and they're trying to assimilate and the Roman Empire needs to assimilate them as well and what they discovered is the best way to do that is through the Catholic church right because remember these P these C these barbarians they are pagans they worship War they worship violence they're a problem in the long term but they convert to Christianity which is a religion that preaches peace Mercy forgiveness kindness right then they're better then they're easier to manage and what happens is that um a lot do convert okay now some of you may say well this sounds very cynical right these people are changing their religion and they're doing so for their own material benefit okay what's important for us to understand is that if you look at any religion if you go to any church you will find that the people who most believe in this religion who are the most fanatical about this religion are new converts does that make sense if you're bornn into this religion if your parents are Christians you take it for granted okay and you are often dubious and skeptical because children like to rebel against their parents but if you convert to Christianity if you do so out out of your own choice well then you are fully committed now okay and this is because of a psychological principle called the sunk cost fallacy to turn to a new religion means to give up your community your Traditions your history your sense of identity and because because of all this you are stuck with this new religion whether or not you truly believe it or not and as and because of that because of the sun Claus fallacy uh because you have you have lost so much in the process you are now fully committed to the religion you're are so fanatical that you not only convert but you want to convert others as well okay does that make sense so so with the Barbarian invasions the Catholic Church experiences tremendous growth because now they are letting in lots of converts who are fanatical about the new religion all right the church is also a mechanism of social nobility um for The Barbarians because uh Roman society it's very uh parochial uh it's very close-minded it doesn't like does not like does not like foreigners okay but traditionally in human history The Church and the military were the two major mechanisms of social Mobility if you're an outsider and you want to rise in society you either join the church or you join a military and this and this has been true for uh in Europe for hundreds of years okay the last thing about the church that's very important is um in trying to co-op new people it recognizes that it must first Co-op the elite okay now barbarians do not they do not have or most barbarians do not have a concept of a hereditary Elite their leaders are often people who are elect for the moment okay so it's possible to switch leaders if the leaders aren't performing a good job what the church does is in exchange for Jing the CH the the church the church can make these leaders who again are only temporary into a hereditary Elite meaning their advantages and social status will pass on to their children which is an extremely um appealing um deal for these Barbarian leaders okay does that make sense all right so as The Barbarians keep on migrating to Rome the Catholic church is the main mechanism that absorbs them okay also the military as well so it's a military in the Church of the Roman Empire that mainly absorbs them and this and because of this idea the church is a mechanism which allows you to join the Roman Empire the church acquires tremendous legitimacy and Prestige and Status okay does that make sense for you guys all right all right but in this system okay local churches have local autonomy because you're trying to let in local Elites okay if you land in local Elites you have to give them autonomy and um towards the end of the uh Roman Empire there are five major churches that rule collectively uh the major church is in Rome okay again the leaders um all these churches are called Bishops there's Rome there's constant aole there is um Antioch there's Alexandria and these are the four major population centers of the Roman Empire and then of course there is Jerusalem and Jerusalem is is part of this five because of its uh Prestige right this is where Jesus uh died and this is the this is where the uh Jewish and Christian religions were born okay so um throughout most of of this history these are the five major churches and for most of this history they are independent of each other there are other churches in other places as well that are also extremely independent of each other meaning they were allowed to within the Christian framework develop their own Doctrine and practices okay but it was understood the uh primary church was Rome because Rome was a second Center the capital of the Roman Empire and because of this the bishop here is called the Pope in order to distinguish him from the other Bishops okay does that make sense all right the problem with the system is that the capital in 330 switches from Rome over to constant and over time the constant church because it is now the capital it wants to assert its authority over the other churches mainly through the idea of Orthodoxy right Orthodoxy or doctrine remember for most of this history each local church is free to um create its own ideology within the Christian framework mainly because um no one's in a position to enforce Doctrine on others now Conant Paul want because it's a capital of the Empire it wants to impose Orthodoxy on others and this is what leads to the idea of the nine creed remember the nine creed is the idea of the Holy Trinity and at this time when the nine creed is for formulated um most people most churches do not buy into the thean Creed they don't they do not buy into the Holy Trinity but Conant Paul sees the Power of the Catholic Church as a source of its legitimacy therefore it will over the decades embark on Military expeditions to enforce nine creed on all the centers eventually the nine creed will triumph over other Doctrine okay so uh the Catholic church is able to build legitimacy and Power by imposing Orthodoxy but over time as we know the B bis Empire will decline in power and Prestige mainly because the bantine Empire the militarily is not as strong as it used to be and at this point the Cal church is declining other churches especially in Rome they want now to assert their local autonomy okay so this created a major controversy called iconic clasm iconic clasm ionm just means that conapo believes that God should not be celebrated in images you cannot paint God you cannot uh paint Jesus okay and the church in Rome the pope saw this as an opportunity to push back because this was actually a very unpopular decree and this created a major conflict between Rome and constantinopole and what this ionm debate shows us is that Rome wants to maintain its independence not only does Rome want to maintain its independence it wants to regain its lost Authority okay and that's why when Charlamagne comes along the church sees Charlamagne as the perfect opportunity to reassert its dominance it's it's uh dominance over the idea of legitimacy okay right and so they work together to create the idea of the Holy Roman Empire as a competitor to the bantine Empire as and as a mechanism in order to ensure the legitimacy and The Prestige of the Catholic church in Rome against that of its competing churches mainly in conle but also in plac like alandre an in Jerusalem all right and this will eventually climax in something called the great schism the great schism we'll study this later on the idea of the great schism which happens around 1,000 all right is that that these two churches Rome and Conant pople permanently break off they refuse to acknowledge each other before they would have meetings and they would share Doctrine but now they absolutely refuse to talk to each other okay Rome will become the basis of the Catholic Church Catholic means Universal which still is still around today and which is believed by about one billion people okay heno becomes the basis of the Eastern Orthodox Church the Eastern Orthodox Church which is um believed by about 230 million people mainly in Eastern Europe okay so if you're Western Europe you're Catholic if sorry if you're East Eastern Europe you're Orthodox if you're Western Europe you're Catholic okay does that make sense guys and at first look there's only one major doct doctrinal difference between Rome and constant pop Rome asserts that the pope is the first among equals okay so the pope is has the ultimate Authority the pope is a two representative of God on Earth everyone else is lesser than the pope whereas uh the Orthodox Church asserts that all the churches are equal to each other there is no higher authority okay but later on because the um the church in Rome will experience the Protestant Reformation um then their Doctrine will radically um diverge over time okay does it make sense all right any questions about this okay so let's summarize okay let's go back to the year 800 when Charlamagne he's in St Peter's Basilica and he's been crowned holy woman Empire by Leo III why does this happen Okay and let's look at at it from a perspective of charlot mean as well as Pope Leo III all right so for schler M it's p the three major reasons are legitimacy unity and differentiation and this has been true for Kings throughout human history okay why did King David sponsor the writing of the Bible for these three reasons why did Augustus Caesar sponsor the writing of the indiat for these three reasons okay legitimacy I'm the rightful King because God said so Unity where we're all part of the community of God okay and that's what differenes differenti we are Christians and everyone else is Pagan or Infidel or heretic differentiation we are not not the bantine Empire okay so Charlamagne is trying to create legitimacy unity and differentiation with the Holy Roman Empire okay so Pope Leo why does [Music] he um sponsor shamine why is he crying shamine the whole Roman Empire well um he's trying to Asser his authority right he's trying to establish the fact that the pope is a true representative of God on on Earth okay second is he's trying to um protect himself so you guys don't know this but in this world there's no Central Power and the pope is elected by other Bishops but in this process you always have a faction who refuses to accept the authority of the Pope and this will lead to civil conflict so before Pope Leo uh made charag Emperor he was Al almost assassinated by his enemies right so by making um uh charine the Holy Roman Emperor he's actually appealing to shamain for military protection against his enemies okay so there's a lot of um politics within the Catholic Church which still persists to uh today okay and of course um differentiation okay or competition sorry competition the idea is that the Catholic church is in constant compet the Catholic church in Rome is in constant comp conflict with that in bantine both the bisan Empire um and the Catholic church in Rome are trying to assert that they are the legitimate heers to the Roman Empire okay and obviously bising has a better case than Rome and that's why Pope Leo feels compelled to create the idea of the Holy Roman uh Empire all right what I want to show you also that the idea of the Holy Roman Empire comes from Augustine okay one thing that you will learn in this class that's very different from other um class his history class you will take it's a power of ideas you're taught usually that it's economics or power or kings that move history you're Tau in this class and this is very important it's it's ideas that move history okay let let me show you how Okay Augustine wrote a book called city of God which is what we read last semester or parts of it last semester we discussed it okay what a city of God well Augustine he's basically um a high leader of the church he's Bishop of Hippo okay which is in Northern Africa and he's a problem because in year 410 Rome is sacked okay there only a few couple a couple decades after Christianity is made the official religion of the Roman Empire now Rome is sacked by the gos by by barbarians who are pagans and so what a lot of people start to believe is that the pagan gods are um enacting Revenge vengeance against Rome for disbaling them in other words the Christian God is the false god the pagan gods are the true gods and this historical event where Rome is sacked um it's so traumatizing that people start to believe this so Augustine feels compelled to write the city of God to explain the sack and why Christianity is a true faith in the city of God Augustine says there are two there are two cities there's a city of man of Empire called Rome Rome is a place where people pursue power where Kings try to uh outdo each other then then there Jerusalem okay Jerusalem which is the city of God this is metaphorical Rome is temporal it is in time it is off Earth but Jerusalem is heaven itself and in heaven it's a spiritual place where people practice their faith their Devotion to God and that is what we should be pursuing okay so Rome is trying to create the end of History meaning that it is trying to create an eternal peace right what it's called the Pax Romana the Emperors are trying to be the ultimate emperor of humanity but Jerusalem means out of History you are taking yourself out of human Affairs because the human Affairs don't really matter what matters is spiritual Faith because only spiritual faith will will give you salvation and Redemption and that's what matters okay so our mission is to create Jerusalem and that's what the Catholic Church does the Catholic church is the city of God it's the New Jerusalem it's what allows Humanity to step out of history and to celebrate God on Earth okay and the City of God in other words becomes the basis of the Holy Roman Empire in other words Charlamagne and Leo work together work together to create the Holy Roman Empire in order to achieve Austin's vision of Heaven on Earth the city of God was it's intellectual blueprint for the Holy Roman Empire okay does that make sense guys in fact what's really interesting is Charlamagne who apparently was illiterate I'm not completely sure but apparently he was illiterate every day he had the city of God read to him that's how much he love city of God and he basically made city of God the official text of the Holy Roman Empire okay does it make sense and that's a power of ideas Charlemagne in the city of God had already created theal framework for the Holy Roman Empire that 4 4 400 years later Leo and Shan could take to in order to build the Holy Roman Empire but the city of God they could not have imagined the Holy Roman Empire okay does that make sense guys that's power of ideas you need someone to imagine the idea before you can actually implement it on Earth all right so let me conclude by going back to Volt's quotation that we looked at at the beginning of class the Holy Roman Empire was in no way Holy Roman or an Empire and as I promise you um I will show you that this is true okay so let's look at this holy Roman Empire the idea of holy is that the Catholic church is really the power in charge but that's just pageantry that's a fiction okay the entire holy romanempire it's a useful fiction okay so the king and the pope uh are benefit from pretending the Catholic church is in charge in order to confer legitimacy onto the king okay and the king and the pop benefit from displaying um an alliance to the people of Europe okay to create a sense of unity but this fiction depends on the pope and the emperor getting along and after Charlemagne what we'll see is they don't get along because a pope insists on having power over the emperor the emperor insists on having power over the pope but not only that remember the pope and the emperor are all elected by local Lords okay so the pope is in is elected by the Bishops of Western Europe the emperor is is elected by the prince electors and these people are also extremely ambitious they want to be the pope they want to be the emperor okay so with the idea with the idea of the Holy Roman Empire there's still conflict going on there's still Wars and competition going on that will last for centuries and carry us into um basically 20th century but it all goes underground they all hide it pretend that Europe is at peace when really um It's At War okay and some of the most atrocious gruesome stories will come from this this medieval period it's a game of throne situation okay so it's not holy the church everyone pretends the church is in charge but it's not really okay Roman so the authority of the Catholic Church comes from the fact that it is the direct descendant of the Roman Empire in fact the Catholic Church uh goes out of its way to appear like the Roman Empire um Latin is the language that the Catholic Church uses for bureaucracy and a lot of um their practices cultural practices are like the Roman okay um remember that in the Roman Empire it's the Senate that confers legitimacy onto the emperor and in this world it's the Catholic church that confers legitimacy onto the emperor so the um Ro Catholic Church is trying to present itself as continuation of the Roman senate but as we discuss um in previous classes what matters is the culture and as I explained to you the culture of the Romans died with the Empire and and the death of this culture started in the year 212 when Roman CIP was given to everyone within the Empire okay so the Roman Empire died a long time ago the Catholic church is not Roman native Empire okay so the bises were an Empire because they had emperial bureaucracy and its own military that can enforce its will on the provinces the Holy Roman Empire was never truly an empire in the sense that the emperor's will was absolute he needed uh the support of his allies and there were many times throughout this history when the emperor tried to inforce his will on the prince electors of Germany and so they rebelled against him because they need to protect his autonomy and this idea that what matters um the real Powers is uh in these princes in the local areas this is what will give rise to the idea of feudalism uh in Europe okay okay before um the Kings decide to assert their authority over everyone okay all right so the Holy Roman Empire was a useful fiction for its time in order to um present the idea of legitimacy and unity um across a divided uh Europe at war with each other right okay so next class we will do the Vikings all right but before we end any questions yes yes um okay that's a really good question okay what what's relationship of the prince electors to the emperor okay um so this is a really interesting question okay so let's think about this if you are Prince elector you are a local Prince uh um in Europe okay how do you benefit from the Holy Roman Empire well you benefit because the Holy Roman Empire confers legitimacy to you as well does that make sense right because if you're local Prince you also have people who want your throne you also need to keep your people United and the Catholic Church the religion of Catholicism was an important mechanism for you to assert authority over your people and to keep you safe from your enemies in many ways the Catholic church it's trying to be the freelance Imperial bureaucracy of Europe right there's no Emperor the emperor has no power so the Catholic church is trying to be the Imperial bureaucracy where he trying to create the culture The Meta reality of all Europeans okay and and it does that through its local churches right the priests because if you think about it um the people are interacting with the local priests not with bureaucrats right so through the priest you can collect information on the people like how much money they're making so you can tax them better and you you can better control their thoughts okay so everyone's benefiting from this relationship but it's a delicate B because the local princes even even though they're benefiting from this relationship they still demand autonomy right and the Catholic church and the emperor they want to assert the central authority over the local areas so so it's a delicate balance right okay great question though doesn't make sense to you EO all right great any more questions okay great so um next class we will do the Vikings which will be a lot of fun