Okay, good morning class. Um, so we have five more classes in the semester and the four last classes are the most important. So what what I will do this class is set up the uh background and context for the last four classes. So um what I want to do first is review what what we've learned so far. Okay, so we discussed the um Roman Republic.
the Roman Republic and it was essentially an oligarchy. Okay, so oligarchy just means rule by the few. So it's very much like Sparta. It is a war society. And at this point in history, the fact that the Roman Republic was an oligarchy, basically it had about 100 families that commanded it.
Okay? And these were called the Petricians. It was actually to the advantage of um Rome because at this time Rome was small um it was poor. It was at war. Okay.
So in other words, even though there was nobility, they were not that much better off than other people and everyone knew each other. So they were very um open, energetic and cohesive society. And so over time they became the most dominant society in the Mediterranean. They defeated um Carthage, they defeated the Greeks. But now that they're an empire, the fact that Rome is an oligarchy is a huge problem because now they are corrupt, um unequal and stagnant.
And one way that we know is um Roman women just start to refuse to have children. Okay, so they were dying as a society. And at this point in history, what should happen is that they should build an imperial bureaucracy, a centralized centralized um system in order to better manage the empire. Well, they couldn't really do that because the oligarchy, the families, which now are about 50, okay? They refused to give up power.
So rather than a centralized um bureaucracy, the Roman Empire was in many ways um a system in which different families have different territories. And what this led to was constant civil war. Okay, civil war. And remember um it started with Sula and then it went on to Julius Caesar and after Julius Caesar August of Caesar became the first among equals but he still failed to set up the bureaucracy. Okay.
And so it kept on leading to war. Eventually what happened was that Constantine decided this system doesn't work. So what what I need to do is I need to reinvent the Roman people. And you do that by moving the capital from Rome to a new place he calls Conanopole. Okay?
Which now becomes the Basantine Empire. Okay? And the Russian Empire now because it's a new culture, it can now become a bureaucracy. In fact, their official language becomes Greek. It's a Greek bureaucracy.
Okay? And this this is what we call the second Rome. At the same time, while this is happening, you have a massive migration of the steps people. Okay, they're coming into Europe from many different locations. Why is this happening?
Because in China, the Han dynasty is waging a war against the steps demonatic people. Okay, the people who call the Shongu then so they're forced westwards which forces the other steps people to migrate into Europe and into Central Asia. Okay. So these people are called the Goffs and this is a huge problem for Rome because their people are not having children and they have all these massive migration coming in from the steps. And so what the Romans decided to do is divide and rule.
And so what this means is that a lot of them are absorbed into the army as mercenaries and as soldiers in order to defend the border in order to fight these civil wars. Now remember last class we talked about the rise of the Catholic Church. Okay. And we discussed how the Catholic Church was in many ways being supported by these noble families. Not all of them supported the Catholic Church, but some of them did.
And those that did had a huge advantage because now what they can do is absorb these new migrants into the society where they're at the top and the uh migrants are at the bottom. Okay. Then the question then is why would the migrants agree to this? The reason why is in the society it is very egalitarian. And for war purposes they would they would elect a war leader.
Okay. But with this system with the Catholic church system there this war leader can now become a nobility. Okay. They can now join the 50 families to form a new nobility. Okay.
Does that make sense guys? All right. All right. So at this point in history when Constantine sets up the Bison Empire now the Roman Empire is going to divide into two a western part a western part [snorts] and an eastern part. And these two parts are going to have very different fates.
The eastern part is still part of the Middle East. Okay, the Lavant, Anatolia, Egypt and so it is the wealthiest part of um the empire and as such it engages in wars with the um Persian Empire. Okay. And this will define most of its history. Its capital Consenopol was designed to be invincible.
You could not lay siege to it. You could not conquer it. And as such, the Bison Empire was stable. In fact, it lasted for about a thousand years, which is very very impressive. Okay.
And as I said, it's very wealthy. And so therefore it's really able to dominate um the world through mainly trade and diplomacy. Okay. So it became an imperial bureaucracy. It fought wars but it usually used a lot of mercenaries because it had a lot of wealth.
All right. So that's the Eastern Empire. And guess what guys? This is very similar to China. Okay.
So, think about China. When you think about the Bison Empire, they're not the same, but they're very similar in how they organize the society. The Western Empire is very different because it's the poorest part of Europe. The other thing about this region is that there are lots of natural barriers. [snorts] And so, you have like these competing societies emerging, okay?
different cultures, different societies, and they're protected by mountains, by forests, by rivers. So, there's a lot of diversity. There's a lot of diversity within the western uh empire. And so, the power that emerges is actually the Catholic Church. And as Western Europe increases in power and Eastern Europe uh in decreases in power, the Catholic Church will increase in power as well.
Okay. How the Catholic Church come dominate Western Europe? Because the west because Catholic Church believes it is out of history. Okay. So you kings, you compete for who rules the earth.
But we, the Catholic Church, we decide who goes to heaven. Okay? So the Catholic Church becomes the dominant power in Western Europe. In fact, you can say that they are the empire now. But they are a spiritual empire, a divine empire that is out of history and which speaks for God.
And as such they become a very powerful empire as well. Okay. And this leads to tremendous conflicts throughout Western Europe. Okay. But there's a problem with the Catholic church and we discussed this last class with the Catholic Church.
It's trying to control the divine spark. Remember Jesus came 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 c the Catholic Church says, "No, no, no. This divine spark, it is that of the devil and we must imprison it." Okay?
And this works most of the time. But now and then you have religious leaders who arise and said, "No, no, no. The divine spark is within us." And so this leads to a lot of conflict. And ultimately the solution the Catholic Church proposes is the idea of crusades where warriors go and um kill those who believe in the divine spark. And then they set up a secret police called the acquisition in order to search for those who oppose the Catholic Church.
Okay. the inquisition. Um the the the major idea is if you 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 acquisition is to educate you in the truth which is divine spark is that of Satan, that of the devil and therefore you must obey the Catholic Church. But if you insist on defying the Catholic Church, then you are a heretic and therefore you must burn at the stake before you can pollute other people.
Okay? Now eventually what will happen is that as a conflict in Western Europe gets worse and worse certain states will break away from the control of the Catholic Church and they will embrace a new religion called Protest Protestantism. Okay. And this something we'll discuss next class. Okay.
So that's a history of Western Europe. Okay. So now I want to talk about Constantine and the rise of the Bentim Empire. So Constantine is what he does that's very important is that he makes Christianity the official religion of Rome. So before Constantine you had Christian emperors but they did not make Christian the official religion but he made Christian the official religion.
Okay. The problem though we discussed this last class is that Christian it's a franchise model. So different churches teach different things and so Constantine was like no we can't have this debate if we if we'll make this the official religion what we need to do is have one orthodoxy a unified ideology. Okay. All right.
So at this time in history there are two major debates or two major source source of confusion. The first is what we call christologology. What this is is the question of like what's the nature of Jesus. Okay remember the story is that Jesus is in heaven then he comes to earth. Mary gives birth to Jesus.
Then Jesus preaches his message, the gospel. Then he is killed and he is resurrected and then he returns to heaven. Okay, that's the official story of Christianity. But there are lots of problems with the story as you can imagine. If Jesus is the vine, how did Mary give birth to Jesus?
Right? If you're a human woman and you give birth to a god, that means that you're God yourself. Okay? Right? So, who is Mary and what is her power?
Second question then is, is Jesus divine or is he human? Okay? Because if he's human, he dies. That's a sacrifice, right? But if you're divine, you can't die.
So, his death and his resurrection doesn't make any sense. Okay. So, so this is a problem Christologology. Is Jesus human or is he divine? And there are different interpretations.
Okay. 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 you cannot give birth to divine God. Okay?
And that's why his death makes sense because the because the Jesus who died was the human Jesus but once he died and he was resurrected then he went to heaven. Okay, that's that's one explanation that Jesus is really human. Another explanation is no Jesus is divine. So Mary the death doesn't really matter. Okay, he's just divine.
Okay, so both are possibilities. What the church says officially is Jesus is human and divine at the same time. Okay, this is the official ideology of the church. This makes no sense, guys. All right, but that's what um you're taught.
And so there are a lot of course people who are like this is a stupid idea. Okay. And these people are called the Neestorans. And they were persecuted by the Catholic Church. And so they went to Persia.
Okay? They went to the Middle East. They went to Persia. They went to Arabia where they spread the message of Jesus. They taught Jesus as a human as opposed to a God.
They taught that Jesus was a messenger. Okay? Which is what I taught you, right? that he's really a messenger of the monad. All right.
So, does that make sense? Okay. Now, now the second debate is actually more confusing than the first debate. Okay. And it has to do with the nature of the three powerful forces, right?
The three gods. You have God, the ultimate God, and you have Jesus and you have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God expressed in the world. Okay? So, when you have a when someone speaks to you, you think it's God.
It's actually not God. It's the Holy Spirit. All right. So now the question is what's the relationship between these three God, Jesus and Holy Spirit? And again there are different explanations and they kind of make sense.
Okay. So the first is the idea of modalism. Modalism is the is the idea that Jesus and God and Holy Spirit are just different modes of the same thing. They just change. So when Jesus is is in heaven, he's God.
When Jesus comes to earth as a human, he's just Jesus. And then when Jesus wants to communicate with us, he's the Holy Spirit. Okay? So remember, but Paul talked to Jesus, but Paul didn't really talk to Jesus. Paul talked to the Holy Spirit.
Okay? So it's the same force but expressed differently. Okay, that makes sense, right? Second is the idea of partialism. Partialism is just the idea that God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit all part of the same divine force.
Okay? something of an ocean, right? The Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Ocean is huge, but there are different parts to it, right? So that's the idea of partial that makes sense too, right?
Okay. The third idea is the idea of Arinism. Aryanism [snorts] and Aryanism is just the idea that God came first and therefore and then afterwards he created Jesus. So in other words, Jesus is God, but he's second to the real God. Okay, that makes sense as well, right?
Now, there are problems with all three. Okay, the first problem is if you read the Bible, Jesus talks to God. Jesus talks to the Holy Spirit. That's kind of confusing because why would Jesus talk to himself? Okay, so there's a lot of inconsistencies in the Bible.
Okay, so this doesn't really work. Partialism doesn't work either because if you think about it, if God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit are part of a divine aspect, then that divine aspect should be God, right? Not these three. Okay, that doesn't this doesn't really make sense. And arenism 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 that God's superior, why shouldn't we worship God instead of Jesus? Okay. So this is problemat problematic as well. So what Constantine did was he organized all the bishops of the different churches to come to Nikia.
It's called the council of Nikia. Okay. In order to come up with a solution to this problem. And their solution is actually even more problematic than these three. Okay?
And it's called the Holy Trinity. So, let's go over the Holy Trinity. What the Holy Trinity says is this. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, they are separate. Okay?
But they are equal. They are separate, but they're part of the same thing. Okay? They're both separate and they are equal to each other. Okay?
Now, if you think about it, it makes actually no sense whatsoever. The only solution this problem is that this holy trinity is both nothing and everything at the same time. It becomes reality on to itself. Okay. And the only way to understand this is to accept this as a reality.
All right? So I know there's confusion confusion but think of the idea of money. Right? Okay. So the idea of money is both nothing and everything.
Okay? Money is nothing but it can be everything at the same time as well because it symbolizes wealth. Okay? Does that make sense? Right?
So none of this actually makes any sense. And the only way that it makes sense is if you force it to make sense. If you just memorize it. So think of math class. Okay guys, I'm not sure if you appreciate this, but the entire point of math class is to make you stupid.
Okay? Why? Because it is impossible for you to reason using mathematics. Because mathematics doesn't really apply to the world. So only thing that you can do is just memorize the formulas and apply the formulas to each other.
Okay? And that just requires massive memorization and regurgitation. That's why if you think about it, the best ma ma mathematicians are always in their 20s or 30s because you because your brain has to be like really energetic in order to process this information. But the older you get, the less capable you are in mathematics. Okay?
Does it make sense? This is really important guys. The more math you learn, the stupid you become. Okay? But this goes against say um philosophy or teaching, right?
The older you get, the worse you become. Why? Because the information that you're learning, you can apply to reality and then figure out what information makes sense as you as you test this information against reality. Okay. All right.
Okay. So then the question then is why would they do this? And the answer is very simple. To make you stupid. Okay.
So, so let's let let's just use a an analogy. Let's do a thought experiment. The sky is blue, right? So, we know the sky is blue. And now we're like, okay, why is the sky blue?
And is it always blue? And why are certain things blue? Okay, from this I from this verb principle, the sky is blue. You can now start to ask more questions. You can based on this idea start to reason out more things.
Okay, does that make sense? But let's just say I change. I say the sky is red. You're like, "No, the sky is blue." I'm say, "No, no, the sky is red." If you do not say the sky is red, you are a heretic. I will burn you at the steak.
You're like, "Okay, all right. So, what you're saying is this. You're saying that blue is red. Red is blue." And I'm and I'm like, "No, no, no. Blue is blue.
Red is red. the sky is is red and you're like that makes no sense and it's like okay well then I don't care because if you do not say the sky is red I will burn you to sick okay I will fail you in school okay you understand so another way of saying this is your brain uh the way it process information is by using logic right okay so think think about building think about building Okay, think of a building. Okay, well, this makes sense, right? You're just stacking build like blocks on top of each other to build a building, right? But let's just say I make you I say, "No, no, this is what the building looks like.
Okay, this is empty." You're like, "Well, that makes no sense." Okay. So, what I've done by forcing the idea of the holy trinity onto you is I've basically taken a part of your logical system of of your brain and emptied it out. So, it's impossible for you to connect things. Okay? Because from this, what you can do is say, well, now I can just keep on building more things, right?
But if the principle is there's a layer that's that is unseen or unobable, you can't build on top of it. Okay. So your brain ceases to be able to process and be creative. Okay. Does that make sense?
Yeah. And I saw like people who learn math well and also like they have strong ability in computer science. They all like work in Silicon Valley and they are wealthy. But I think that also aligns our concept that they are pursuing the materialistic and they are you know the world is ruled by Satan. Is that true?
Yeah. Okay. Um we'll talk about this later. Okay. But but yeah, if you work in Silicon Valley, uh you are a materialistic person who is incapable of of thinking spiritually.
Yes, that that is correct. Also like also remember like people who do computer computer engineering and do mathematics like they're at the best in their 20s and 30s by the time they reach over 40 they kind of burn out. Okay? Because you know for for your brain to process all this um eventually burns out. Okay?
Does that make sense? So again, I hate to say this, but math makes you stupid. All right. All right. Um, is is that clear, guys?
Any questions? Okay. But as you can see, what's happening is that because people are forced to learn this, they don't want to learn this. And this starts a series of wars within the Roman Empire because Constantine and the Bison Empire is going to enforce this orthodoxy onto every Christian church and it starts a series of wars. Okay.
At the same time the Bisantines they are fighting the Sassin Persia. Assassin Persia. Okay. Egypt, the Levant, and this is Arabia. Okay, so guys, this is really important.
This is a time in history, this this about 500 to 600 where there's a lot of conflict going on. Okay, remember the first major conflict is between Bisantine and Sassin Persians. Okay. The second major conflict is the church orthodoxy against um the independent church franchises. Okay.
So the B empire is trying to enforce the orthodoxy on all different churches who refuse to who refuse the Holy Trinity because it's such a silly idea. Okay. What this is going to do is it's going to force Christians over to the Sassin as well as Arabia, the desert. Okay? And these these are called Nestorians.
Now, and again, they believe that Jesus is a divine messenger as opposed to um God on earth. Okay? Also, we have the Jews as well. Okay? because the Jews keep on resisting against the Romans because the the Romans forced the Jews to obey Christianity 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, but Arabia is at this point in history the most energetic, open, and cohesive society um in the Middle East. Okay. So, first of all, it's open because Arabia has always been a point of trade between uh the Levant Egypt and uh the inner valley civilization.
Okay. India. Okay. So Arabia they uh do a lot of trading but they also uh great are great fighters because they're great mercenaries. Why?
Because as the Sassin and the Romans fight more and more the Arabians are recruited in as mercenaries for their armies and as such they learn the most innovative warfare and they're poor as well. So they're really good fighters. Okay. And now what's happening is that the Arabians, the Arabs are be are are being exposed to new religions, the netoring Christianity as well as Judaism. Okay.
And both preach the coming of the Messiah. Okay. So Arabia is rising in energy but the bison empire and the assassinated Persians are decreasing in energy. Okay. The bison are fighting too many wars and they're imposing too much orthodoxy which is turning people into slaves.
And because the sass are fighting the the bisonantines in war and as the bison become more orthodox and become more bureaucratic the sass are forced to become much more bureaucratic as well. Much more orthodox as well. And so the Neestorans are also being persecuted by the Sass the Sassin. So the Jews want Jerusalem to return and assassin says to the Jews, "Hey, if you fight for us, we'll return Jerusalem to you." Okay? And so the Bisantines, so the Jews went back to Jerusalem and that piss off the Bisantine.
So they come and they kill a lot of Jews. Now the thing about the Jewish tradition is they believe that when they're most persecuted, when all hope is lost, their Messiah will come to save them. Okay? So the Jews are like, "Oh my god, the Messiah is coming. The Messiah is coming." Okay.
The historians also believe the Messiah is coming as well. They believe that Jesus is going to return. And all it will take is for one charismatic leader to emerge in the Arabian desert to say, "I'm Messiah. Follow me. What I will promise you is this.
I promise you that you will have the right to believe in whatever religion you want because the divine spark is in you and you know how to best celebrate God by yourself. I promise religious tolerance for the Jews, for the Christians, for the Arabs, for everyone. Okay? And so what will happen is this leader will emerge and his name is Muhammad. And Muhammad will unite Arabia and then he will unite the Netorians.
He will unite the Jews and they will together fight to get Jerusalem back. They will fight to get to against Persia. And guess what happens? They basically win without much resistance because there's so much anger, so much opposition towards the Sassin Empire as well as the Bison Empire. Plus, both empires are exhausted.
And so this gives us the Islamic revolution, right? Okay. The Arabs are able to sweep through and conquer most of the world very very quickly. But when they do so, what happens is that Muhammad dies. And now what's going to happen is they have lots of different factions, right?
The Nisorans, the Jews, the Arabs as well. And they're going to fight a civil war amongst themselves as well. And then from the civil war will emerge a new religion that we call Islam. Okay, but remember this is really important. Mohamad 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 believers and followers in Jesus. But it doesn't matter if you're Jew. It doesn't matter if you're Christian.
It doesn't matter what type Christianity you are. You're free to believe whatever you want because that's what God wants. I think it work on the although like Muhammad said that you have the right to believe in your divine spark but I think they all walk on the same road as Paul because they all formed an religion because they follow Muhammad but not follow themselves. Okay. So this is really 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 a messenger of God." And the me message of God is, "You are divine children." That's divine spark is in you. You should not be slaves. I will free you from slavery. I will free you from tyranny.
I will free you from poverty. Okay? That's always the messenger. That that's always the message. What will happen later on after some time is you have a figure like polymer emerge who needs I can turn this into my own empire and then organiz religion becomes organized okay that's always the process so think of zor thusa when he first came he was preaching a message he was he was a poet prophet so was Jesus so is homer so was Muhammad but later on people will turn his words into to an empire.
Okay, that's always the process. All right. Okay. Clear. All right.
Okay. So, let's do the PPT. Okay. So, so, so we can um better understand what happened. Okay.
So as we discussed before at this point at this point in history the Roman Empire it's huge but please remember that it's on a bureaucracy and therefore each re region is controlled by a certain noble family okay the patricians and as a result what happened is as okay and and these are like the 50 top families in Rome and there there aren't that many Okay. And then what will happen is there are certain families that will adapt well to the change in the Roman Empire mainly by by embracing ca Catholic religion. Okay. By being early investors in the Catholic Church and as such they will continue on to today. We call these people the black nobility.
Okay. All right. So as I mentioned the there are different migrants coming in from the steps. The Huns, the Germanics, the Slavs, they're basically all the steps people. Okay, but they will come into different regions and they will absorb and they will absorb into Europe differently.
Okay, in the north they're much more independent and this is where the Vikings are. Okay, these are where the Germans are. They're very independent independent people. But as they approach the Roman Empire, they are assimilated and absorbed by the Roman nobility using the Catholic religion. Okay?
And so the people at the very bottom here, they become uh Christians. Okay? But they become different types of Christians and eventually they'll fight fight the Bisantines because the Bisonines want to enforce an Orthodox Christianity onto them. Okay? And uh this is what Europe looks like when the Western Empire falls.
Okay, as you can see, there are different societies as well. And again, what makes this possible is the fact that Western Europe, it has a lot of mountains. So it's pretty easy to defend your territory. Okay, so this is Constantine and he is going to make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire when he becomes emperor. Okay.
So, so again even even though even even after Julius Caesar the Romans cannot stop cannot help but keep on fighting civil wars and Constantine wins one of them becomes emperor and he moves the capital from Rome all the way to Constantinople. Okay, this is really important because now he can establish a new culture called the Bisantine Empire. Okay, they call themselves Romans but they're not really Romans and more like Greeks. Another major difference is this. Rome is over in Western Europe.
Consenapole is off in Eastern Europe. And so now it's and now Rome is now able to defend its wealthy provinces of Anatolia and Egypt much more effectively. Okay. The other thing about Kipole that's really important is it's pretty easy to defend. Okay?
Because it's by the sea and if you build high walls, it's almost impossible for people to invade uh Kanole. This is the Hag Sophia which is the official church of the new religion. Okay. Today we call it Eastern Orthodox but back then it was just the Catholic church. Okay.
And this is the Haga Sophia. Um this is what Kimple looks like at its peak. And what's really important to understand is it's very wealthy but as you can see it's surrounded by these seaw walls which makes it impossible to defend. And that's why it was able to stand for about a thousand years. Okay.
Uh the council nikia is where they make the holy trinity the official doctrine of the Catholic church. Even today, guys, if you're a Christian, you still recite it. All right. It's called the Nasin Creed. So, can can you read it?
Um Alec, we believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages, light of light, true God of true God, forgotten not made, of one essence with the Father, by whom all things were made, whom for us men and for all salvation, come down from heaven, and was inc incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man, and he was crucified for us under Pontius Pate. died and suffered and was buried. And the third day he rose again according to the scriptures and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the father and he shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead whose kingdom shall have no end and in the holy spirit. Right?
So this what this does is establish the idea that Jesus, God, holy spirit are separate but they are one and the same. They are different but they are co-equal. Right? If you actually study this next scene creed, you'll find a lot of inconsistencies. Okay?
So Jesus Christ is a son of God, but um he is um one with God as well. Okay? So if you think about it, um it doesn't really make much sense. Okay? But again, the nin creed is something that you don't argue over because you argue over it, you're a heretic.
You'll be burned at the stake. is something that you just you must memorize. It's like a math formula basically. Okay. In in math class, you're not allowed to question a formula.
You're just forced to memorize the formula. Okay. [clears throat] Okay. So, as you can see, what's happening is that the migrants are being settled throughout Europe. Okay.
But uh but but once they're being settled through Europe, the conflict between these noble families in in in Rome then become a conflict amongst these different groups. Okay. All right. So after the council of Nikia announced the holy trinity, there's still a lot of resistance to it. In fact, you know, even by the year 500, which which is about 180 years after the council of Nikia, most of Europe is actually they don't really believe in the Holy Trinity.
Okay? So, Iran just means you don't believe in the Holy Trinity. Catholic means you do. And as you can see, this part which is controlled by the Bison Empire, it's it is it's able to enforce the Holy Trinity, but most other parts are not able to enforce the Holy Trinity. Okay, this is really important idea to understand.
The idea of the Holy Trinity only takes force a few hundred years after it is announced. But in the beginning, there's a lot of resistance to the idea of the Holy Trinity. The Ban Empire must fight these wars to enforce it. Okay? And it will because as Banan Empire becomes stronger and stronger, you can see these [clears throat] green arrows.
It's going to fight all these wars in order to expand the idea of the Holy Trinity. Okay? And Kasambo can do this because it's very wealthy and it doesn't really fear any enemies because of high walls. Okay. Okay.
As you can see, it's almost impossible to attack Constanible from by sea. All right. And the Bing Empire under Justinian will expand and expand and enforce the Holy Trinity on all churches. Okay. And by 565 it is at the peak of its power.
But as we discussed when the empire become reaches its peak it's usually it's probably going to fall really quickly and that's what happens. All right. So because of resistance holy trinity Christians are forced into the Persian Empire and into the Arabian desert. Okay. At first they're welcome by the Persians because these tend to be very well educated Christians who contribute a lot to the empire.
[music] But over time uh the Zoroastrians see the Christians as a threat and conflict arises between Christians and the Zoroastrians. The Christians will also go into the uh Arabian desert as well to promote Christianity. Okay. As you can see how many how Christianity spreads the story in Christianity also spreads to China and Japan. Okay.
All right. Um one thing that you need to understand is that even though we don't we don't really discuss Arabia a lot, it's a very important part of the world throughout of history because it's a trade center. Okay. So if you're India and you want to bring goods into Egypt, the best thing to do is to uh sell into Muscat and then uh have Arabian nomads carry the goods all the way to Mecca and then go into Egypt. Okay.
So the Arabian desert, we don't talk much about it, but it is a crossroads of empire and it's a crossroads of culture as well. And there are Jews in the Arabian desert because um as the Romans persecute the Jews, the the Jews go escape into Arabia because the um Romans don't like sand. Okay, the Romans what they're really good at is besieging cities, but they hate fighting sand. That's why the Romans cannot can never conquer Persia. All right.
So, uh this is another map that shows the extent of the trade as well. Okay. Um so, as you can see the Arabian desert, it's connecting the world, right? Because like you look at India and and India is now able to connect the world through the Arabian desert. Okay?
Okay. It backs as Europe, the Mediterranean and Egypt through the Arabian desert. Okay. [snorts] Okay. So, what's going to happen is that once Muhammad comes into place and he unites the Arabian desert into a new community of followers, okay, they they will spread really quickly throughout the world.
And as you can see, there are now um over a billion Muslims in the world. And you can see how many Muslims there are in the world. Okay. Um so there's a lot of conflict between the Roman Empire, the Bisantines and the Assassin as well. Okay.
There are lots of lots of major battles. These wars are exhausting both empires. And this is this is going to enable the Arabs to um rise in power because as these two empires fight and their energy decreases, this energy is being transferred to to the Arabs. Okay? Because a lot of wealth is being transferred to the Arabs.
But also a lot of mercenaries are learning how to fight uh from the Bantine from the Bison as well as the Persians. Okay. All right. So um the major event that sparks the uh Arab revolution is the persecution of the Jews. Okay.
So um Alan, can you read please? The Persian army reinforced by Jewish force led by Nihama Ben Hasher and Benjamin of Turbaris would capture Jerusalem without resistance. Okay. So the Jews want to return to Jerusalem. Remember the Romans kicked the Jews out of Jerusalem.
So they make a deal with the Persians, okay? They basically say to the Persians, if you support us, we'll support you in the fight against the Romans. And that's what happened. But once that happens, there are lots of Christians within Jerusalem and they call the Bisantines for help. And um so the Bisonines come and they take they went back to the city because the Christians help them.
and they start masking masking a lot of Jews. Okay. The capture of Jerusalem was interpreted by Jewish writer in the Masonic context. Sacrifices may even have been renewed on the temple mount. Control of the city was handled to Nihama Ben Hashiel and Benjaming of Turbus.
Nahama was then appointed the ruler of Jerus Jerus Jerusalem. She began making arrangement for the building of the third temple and sorting out genealologies of established new high priesthood. Okay. So this is almost the Bible where the Jews were kicked out of Jerusalem by the Babylonians um and the temple was burned down. And so what so what the Jews believe is like now the new Messiah will return.
We have to rebuild the third temple because in their religion the Messiah will return all Jews to Jerusalem and build the third temple. Okay. All right. Keep on going. Yeah.
After only a few months, a Christian revolt occurred. Nahama Ben Hash and his council of 16 righteous were killed along with many other Jews. Some throwing themselves off the city walls. Following the outburst of violence in Jerus Jerusalem, the surviving Jews fled to Shambara's encampment encampment at Cesyia. Ciceria Christians were able to briefly retake the city before the walls were breached by Sahabas forces who lay siege to the city.
Sources vary on how long the siege lasted. Depending on the source, it lasted 19, 20 or 21 days. Okay. Right. So the Jews take reach take over Jerusalem and they want to build rebuild their temple and the Christians are angry because they think this is my city.
The Christians rebel and the Protestants help them and the Jews are massacred and a lot and a lot escape. Where they go? They go to the Arabian desert. Why do they go to the Arabian desert? Because they they believe the Messiah is going to come.
And so they preach that hey the Messiah is coming. Okay? And in the Arabian desert, there's a man who believes he's the Messiah. His name is Muhammad. Okay.
All right. Keep on reading. Jews were expelled from Jer Jerusalem and were not allowed to settle within the three mile radius. A general mass massacre of the Jewish population ensued. The massacre devastated the Jewish communities of the Gal Galilea and Jer Jer Jerusalem.
Only those Jews who could flee to the mountains of Egypt are said to have been spared. Okay. So this is Wikipedia. Okay. All right.
So the first thing that Muhammad's going to do is announce the constitution of Medina, which is say that I'm the prophet. I am the Messiah. But what I promise you is religious openness and tolerance. It doesn't matter if you're Jew. It doesn't matter if you're Christian.
It doesn't matter if you're Arab. You can practice whatever religion you want. It's and it's called the constitution of Medina. Okay? That's a promise that Muhammad makes to all his followers.
Okay? And we know this from the Quran. So, we're going to read the Quran together, which the holy book of the Muslims. And what we'll see is that Muhammad is clearly promising tolerance for all religious uh factions. Doesn't matter what religion you are, you're you're allowed to practice whatever you want.
Okay. So, Alan, can you read please? Oh, people of the book, why do you argue about Abraham when the Torah and the Gospel were not revealed until after him? Why you not reason? Here you are.
You argue about things you know. But why do you argue about things you know, do you do not know? A knows, Allah knows, and you do not know. Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian but he was a monotheist a Muslim and he was not of the polytheist. The people mo most deserving of Abraham are those who follow him and these prophet and those who believe Allah is the guardian of the believers.
Okay. So the legend is that Muhammad when he was 40 he went into the desert and in the desert he was meditating and he had a revelation an angel Gabriel visited him and spoke the truth of the universe. The Quran is just a writing down of all these revelations. Okay. And one major revelation is Gabriel Gabriel tells to tells Muhammad you're all children of God.
You're all descendants of Abraham. Therefore, why are you guys fighting? You guys should be working together. Okay? All these differences don't matter.
What's important is for you all to remember that you all believe in the one true God. That's what matters. And um these differences don't really matter. Okay. Okay.
Keep on reading. Yeah. They dis disbelieve with who those who say Allah is the Messiah, the son of Mary. But the Messiah himself said, "Oh children of Israel, worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord. Whoever has as sides others with Allah.
Allah has forbidden him paradise and his dwelling is the fire. The rondors have no saviors." Okay, so this is really important. What the Quran is saying is this Jesus is not God. God is God. God is Allah.
Jesus is a messenger. Okay. And the messenger himself Jesus himself said worship God. Don't worship me. Okay.
So this is a netorian decision, right? Okay. Jesus is human. In heaven he's divine but on earth he's human. Okay.
Keep on going. They disbelieve those who say Allah is a third of three. But there is no dainty act except the one God. If they do not refrain from what they say, a painful torment will be before those among them who disbelieve. Okay, so this is saying that the Holy Trinity is sacrilege.
It's blessing. It makes no sense, man. God is God. God isn't one of three. Okay.
God is just God. Keep on going. Why they not repent to Allah as ask forgiveness? Allah is forgiving and merciful. The Messiah son of Mary was only a m messenger before whom other messengers had passed away and his mother was a woman of truth.
They both used to eat food. Note how we make clear the re revelation to them that note how delude they are. Okay. To say that Mary is divine. You say that Jesus is divine.
It's all superstitious. They're all just messengers of the one true God like Moses and like uh like Moses before him. Okay. And now like Muhammad today. Okay, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad are all messages of God.
Jesus was the penultimate and Muhammad is the last. Okay, the final messenger of God. All right, keep on keep with him are the keys of the unseen. None knows them except he and he knows everything on land and in the sea. Not a leaf falls, but he knows it.
And there is not a single grain in the darkness of earth, nor is there anything wet or dry, but is in a clear record. It is he who takes you by night, and he knows what you earn by day. Then he raises you up in it until a fixed them term is fulfilled. Then to him is your return. Then he will inform you of what you used to do.
He is a conqueror over his servant and he send guardians over you until when death overtakes one of you our envoys take him away and they never fail. Then they are brought back to Allah the true master. Unquestionably he is the judgment and he is the swift swift test of reck reckers. This is establishing the monad right as god. The monad is the universe.
The monad is everything. It's divine. Okay, stop saying Jesus is God. That makes no sense. All right.
Okay. So, as we discussed, now the Iranian desert, it's energized. People are energetic [clears throat] because people's thirst for religious liberation. Okay. The Christians, the Jews all unite behind Muhammad.
And very quickly, they're able to once he's able to unite the Arabs. Okay. They're now really quickly able to expand outwards. They retake Jerusalem. and they conquer the Persian Empire very very quickly because both of these empires the bisonines and the assassins are exhausted.
The main advantage of the bisines is they have still have console which is impossible to conquer. Okay. So consoles like um is safe but every falls to the Arabs. Okay. And as you can see how fast their conquest is and this is only about 100 years.
Okay. They're able to basically conquer most of the Roman Empire. 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?
And over time, but over time as Muhammad dies, the Muslims will fight amongst themselves and they will establish different um empires called caliphats and they will break up as well. Okay? And this will give time for the basicines to um reestablish themselves and then Western Europe will become more and more powerful. Now the Arabs will establish something called the Islamic Golden Age. And this marks a time of tremendous peace and prosperity for the world because the Muslims are able to establish trade networks throughout the world.
Okay? Why? Well, because when you do trade, the biggest problem is one of trust, right? How can I trust you to take my money to somewhere else? But if you're a Muslim, you are you must swear to Allah.
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 trust someone who is Muslim. Okay? So these Muslims go all around the world and including into China and as such um the Islamic Empire is able to establish trade throughout the world which brings tremendous prosperity to most of the world.
Okay. Um as and as you can I'm not sure you don't understand Islam but Islam is a beautiful simple religion that builds trust and community. Uh this is Mecca and this is the Haj where Muslims come from all the world and they circle around the kebab the the cube. Okay. Um so Islam consider itself as the ultimate religion because it improves on both Judaism and Christianity.
Okay. Christians believe they are improving on Judaism. Islams Muslims believe they're an improvement on Christians and Jews as well. Okay. Now let's talk about the Western Empire.
Okay. Because that's where our focus will be for the next um for for the rest of semester. 476 the GS destroy Rome. Why? Because because the power now is being shifted from the empire to Catholic Church.
Okay. So the empire doesn't really have have that much power. So what happens is that it recruits mercenaries to fight for them but it can't really pay the mercenaries. So the mercenaries in response go and sack Rome. Okay.
By this time in history Rome is no longer a power. It doesn't it doesn't really matter anymore. [snorts] Augustine who is the main architect of the Catholic Church. Okay. He takes Paul's ideas and systemize it.
He teaches us in the city of God that Catholic Church is out of history. It is beyond history. It is divine. Okay? So the kings can fight over the land, but it's the church who will decide who goes to heaven and who burns in hell.
And that's the power of the church. One thing to remember about um Europe is like there are lots of geographic barriers which allows for diversity within Europe. Okay, that's why Europe has so many countries because it historically it's been very hard to unify Europe because of the geography and this allows for tremendous diversity and it creates a lot of conflict as well which drives innovation. Okay, so this is when the when the Roman Empire falls in in the west uh there are lots of different groups fighting for remains. Now what's really important to understand about history is when we say the Roman Empire rises and it falls.
This is our understanding of them. Okay. But from their perspective, the empire never fell because these warlords think that I'm the empire now. Okay? And so what's going to happen is that they're going to be compete for the legacy of Rome.
And eventually this leads to the rise of a new power um the Franks. Okay, so the Franks are expanding throughout Europe and they see themselves as the here to the Roman Empire. But how do you prove that you are here to Roman Empire? How do you legitimize yourself? Well, you need to get the Catholic Church on your side.
Right? So in about 800 Charlemagne who is the king of Franks, he is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope. Okay. And from now on it is the Catholic Church, the Pope who decides who will be the Holy Roman Emperor. There's a negoti negotiating going on but on public for the public the Holy Roman Empire is always anointed by God.
Okay, this is Charlemagne and uh today he is buried in the Aken Cathedral. Okay, one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. His body is still there. Okay, the king cathedral and this this is what it looks like inside. Okay, now the Catholic Church because of this power is now able to anoint the Holy Roman Empire.
it becomes wealthy. Okay. Okay. So, can you read this Ellen from the Bible? Yeah.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Assuredly I said to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again, I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." So, as I keep on telling you, Jesus himself was very anti-rich. Okay? He believed that the rich people because they were too focused on material acquisitions could never go into heaven. Okay.
But the paradox is that the Catholic Church becomes extremely wealthy. Okay. If you go to the Vatican, you can still go go back and you visit St. Pet Basilica. It is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world.
It's extremely wealthy. Inside, guys, it's all gold. Okay. All right. Right.
So the Vatican is has been historically the wealthiest organization in the world and it was able to do this because um Western Europe started to become very wealthy over time. Okay. So from about a,000 to about 1300 the population of Europe doubles because of technology innovation because the climate is warming allowing for agriculture um because of the rise of cities and because Europe is trading with everyone. Okay. So at this time uh Europe is becoming more more wealthy which makes the Catholic Church really really wealthy.
Okay. These are different urban centers of um 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 in charge, right? But the emperor is still a human being and therefore he can change his mind and he doesn't really know what what he's doing. But in the church, the person in charge is God who is perfect, immunable, and eternal. Okay?
So, this is the ultimate authority, the church. Second is what is the mandate? Well, an empire demands that you work hard, your labor, but the church demands your soul, your obedience. Okay? Therefore, the church is able to extract more wealth from you.
The last thing is, okay, let's say you don't obey the empire. What's the wor worst thing that can happen to you? Well, the empire puts you to death. Okay, not a big deal. But the church, what it can do is send you in hell for all of eternity.
Okay, that's why the the Catholic Church becomes the most powerful organization ever in human history and it's still true today. [snorts] All right. So, what makes the um Catholic Church so powerful? What becomes a divine bureaucracy? Okay.
Um and what it does is establish a very strict hierarchy. So the idea of the church is that God is distant and God demands your obedience. Right? So remember Augustine, city of God, remember Paul, right? So um one thing is that when you go to church, the priest doesn't speak in your language, the vernacular, it speaks in Latin.
And you don't really understand the language. Okay? You're not allowed to read the Bible because at this time most people are illiterate. Um the Holy Trinity makes no sense. But again, you're not asked to debate it.
You're not asked to question it. You're just you just have to memorize it. Um there are lots of rituals to the Catholic Church. Some of these rituals are just really weird. So for the example of the Eucharist where you believe that you're actually eating the body and blood of Jesus through the idea of sub transubst trans substitation okay um the church is powerful because it can determine who goes to heaven and hell and for how how long and ultimately if you don't if you are a king you don't obey the church the pope can excommunicate you which which is say I remove I remove you from the Christian community and therefore any other king can come and kill you and it'll be good in the eyes of God.
Okay, does that make sense? So this is how why the church is so powerful but also explain helps us explain why the church is so corrupt as well. They have too much power and ultimately they will use this power in order to enrich themselves. Okay, remember the Catholic church people who control the Catholic Church are descendants of the Roman nobility. Okay.
They will use Catholic Church to en enrich themselves. They say something called indulgences. And the idea is let's say you're a rich person and you did a lot of bad things and now you're afraid you you'll burn in hell, right? Well, Jesus will say, "Too bad." But the Catholic Church says, "Give us a lot of money and we'll give you an indulgence." Okay? Basically, you know, a uh ticket to purgatory.
All right? And so, as you can see, there's a lot of corruption going on. something called simony where you can buy and sell positions in Catholic church very similar to the imperial bureaucracy of China right uh they're selling holy relics priests are not really divine they get married uh they sell their positions to nobles um and the kings are the ones who can appoint leaders of the church as well okay so there's this negotiation going on between the Catholic church and the kings as well um the parish the parishioners no matter how poor they are they're forced to pay a tax. They they pay a tax to the Catholic Church and not to the king. Okay?
As you can imagine, the king is not really happy about about this because a third of his land, most of his tax revenue, it's being taken over by the Catholic Church. So that's why a lot of kings will eventually start to rebel against the Catholic Church. Okay? Um the church controls one-third of all land in Europe tax-free. Okay?
And this leads to feudalism. All right. Um, so at the same time though, even though the Catholic Church is so powerful in Europe, it still has a legitimacy problem. Okay? Meaning like how does it prove that it is truly divine?
Well, you have some certain problems. The first problem is the Muslims occupy the Holy Land. Okay? If you are truly if you truly represent God, why is Jerusalem in the hands of the Muslims? Okay.
Also, Spain is part of Europe, but Muslim Spain is actually much more wealthy and innovative than the rest of Europe. Um, 1054, the Eastern Orthodox Church led by the Byzantines break with the Catholic Church. Okay? Because both want want to be the ultimate center of the world. But the Bison says that we're the center and the Romans say, "No, we're the center." Okay?
Um and there's corruption going on. Okay, everyone says corruption, but there's also lots of religious leaders who are rebelling against Catholic Church because they want to unleash a divine spark. Okay, so there's all this legitim legitimacy problems going on. And so there are different solutions. Okay, one solution the Catholic Church does is that it persecutes Jews.
Okay. So the Catholic Church allows Jews to exist just so that the Catholic Church can scapegoat the Jews. And throughout this time, as you can see, Jews are being persecuted mainly by being forced out of their homes where they lived for hundreds of years. Okay? And a lot of them are forced to go east into the Muslim Empire and to go to Spain.
Okay? But over time there's being expelled from these regions. Um this is another map that shows the persecution of the Jews. As as you can see they're forced to go uh east. Okay.
And often there are lots of massacres as well. Okay. So the black spots, okay, the skull spots are areas in which they were massacred. they were blamed for certain crimes. Okay.
All right. Um so this is a map that shows the pil the pilgrimages of Christians into the holy land. Okay. And again, it's a source of embarrassment for the Christians that their holy land is occupied by Muslims and they have to pay a tax with Muslims and they go into the holy land. Um, right now the Holy Land, Jerusalem is being controlled by the Sojic Turks, okay?
The Ottoman Empire. All right? And that's why Pope Orin the second will eventually call for the crusades to liberate the holy land from the Muslims. Okay. So can you read please?
All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against a penguins, shall have immediate remission of sins. Or what a disgrace if such a despise and base raised, which worship demons should conquer a people which has the face of only potent god and is made glorious with the name of Christ. Okay. Let those who have been accustomed unjustly to wage private warfare against the faithful now go against the infidels and end with victory this war which should have been begun long ago. Let those who for a long time have been robbers now become knights.
Let those who have been fighting against the brothers and relevates now fight in a proper way against the barbarians. that those who have been serving as mercenaries for small pay now obtain the eternal reward. Okay, so this is this is Pope Orb saying the crusades. It's to go and fight the demons. And if you fight a demon, it doesn't matter who you are.
You could be poor, you could be rich, you could be a sinful person, you could be a nobody, but now it's just your opportunity to go to heaven. Okay? The like when you go to fight the demons, you will all be guaranteed access to heaven. no matter who you are, no matter what you did. And so, uh, a lot of people go and join the crusades for lots of different reasons, especially those who've committed crimes before.
Okay? So, guess what? A lot of people join the crusades are criminals because here's your opportunity to uh get good with the church. Okay? That's why we see a lot of abuse during the crusades.
Okay? So, as you can see, lots of people are now joining the crusades in order to liberate the Holy Land and eventually they succeed. Okay? Even though a lot of criminals, um they're still very good fighters because they have religious devotion. Okay?
They're very energetic. And unfortunately, um they're too energetic. So they have tendency to massacre people when they succeed because they literally see the Muslims and the Jews as demons. That's what the pope taught them. Um one organization that developed during the crusades is called the Knights Templars.
Okay, this is very important. We'll be discussing Knights Templars later on. Okay, but the Knights Templars is really the first multinational bank because these pilgrims are going to holy land and they need to bring money with them to fund the journey. But if they take a lot of money with them, then they'll get robbed, right? So what they'll do is they'll give the money to nice templars and then when they get to Jerusalem, the nice templars will give the money back to them.
Okay? So they're a bank basically and then they can use this money to start investing throughout of Europe and so they become a very wealthy organization. The problem is that because in Jerusalem and away from the authority of Catholic Church, they start to embrace new ideas. They start to discover the true nature of Jesus from the Muslims and from other Christians in that area. And so the church thinks that they become more corrupt over time.
And that's why their leader Jack De Mole, he is burnt at the stake. And in 1307, the organization is banned by the Catholic Church. But a lot of the survivors they will go over to other places and they will and they will form the basis of a secret society we call the Freemasons. Okay. So we'll discuss the Freemasons later on.
Okay. There's also something called the albborene crusade. So there are still individuals who believe in the divine spark. Okay. And these people call are called cathars.
And the church sees him as a threat and that's why they launch a crusade against these caththers. Okay. So can you can you read Alan? Seaman and many of his soldiers made determined effort to convert the Cather perfect but failed. Okay.
So again the Catholic Church is if you disagree with us it doesn't mean you're a heretic. It just means you're stupid. So our so we first want to educate you in what is right. Okay. The Cathers believed that no, the divine spark is in me.
I know the truth for myself. You can never convince me. Okay, keep keep on going. Ultimately, only three women recented. The 140 who refused were burned at the stake.
Some entered the flames voluntarily, not awaiting their executioners. So if you believe in the divine spark, okay, you believe you've discovered truth. You're not afraid of death. So you so the the Catholics are saying like if you don't we can't we'll burn you at the stake. The Catholics are like good keep on going.
In August the crusade proceeded to besiege the stronghold of Teras despite sales sies from period rocker de decap decaparate. The siege wears solid. The occupants of Terminal suffered from a shortage of water and ro Roman Real Duris agreed to a temporary truce. The Cathers were briefly relieved by an intense rainstorm and so Reman refused to surrender. Ultimately, the defenders were not able to break the siege and on 22 November the Cathers managed to abandon the city and escape.
By the time operations resumes in uh 1002 1,211, the actions of honored armory and seaman de Montford had alignate alienated several important lords including Raymond D. Tollos who has been excommunicated again. Okay. So as you can see what's really important to understand is the crusade against cathars is not just a religious crusade. It's also one of geopolitics where the local lords resent the power of the Catholic church and so they support the caththers.
Okay. All right. So, and this is going to happen throughout Europe. So, um um the response of the church is to establish a new society led by Francis of Aisi called the Dominicans. Okay.
The Dominicans which goes which goes and and basically tries to figure out who the Caththers are. Okay. by interrogating everyone. All right? And this leads to of course the equition.
Okay? Um and so the idea is that if you disagree with church orthodoxy, they will figure it out. And if you refuse to recant, if you refuse to obey, they will burn you at the stake. Okay? So at this time in history because of the inquisition, because of the power of the Catholic Church, Western Europe is one of the least innovative places in the world.
Okay? All right. And at first this is fine, but eventually um bad things start to happen in Europe. Okay? So the little the little ice age begins, then you have the great famine, then you have more wars, then you have benetry.
Okay? And then of course you have the black death. So if the Catholic Church represents the will of God and all this is happening then is God really happy with the Catholic Church, right? So this is a black death which kills about a third of the European population. And people because they're religious, they think that this is the will of God.
It's because the Catholic Church, it's corrupt. It's evil. It's stagnant. That's why God is punishing us. Okay.
Um and this will lead to conflict within Europe where the Catholic Church is actually broken into different parts as well. Okay. So there are some who believe that uh Rome is the true center center of the Catholic Church and there are other people who believe that Ammon okay is the true center of the Catholic church and this creates even more legitimacy problems with the Catholic Church. All right and then you have individuals who will emerge to challenge the orthodoxy of the Catholic Church. Okay.
So this is this is Freight Dosina. We don't read [snorts] uh John White is a British person who was um he didn't he was not punished when he was alive but afterwards after he died they decided he was a heretic. So what they did was they dug up his body and then burned him up the stake to make sure he he burned in hell. Okay. Uh Jen Hus will lead a revolution.
Okay. And this is called the Husk wars. And none none succeed. But then another man will emerge called Martin Luther who will eventually lead a successful revolution against Catholic Church. And this is called Protestantism.
Protestatismism. Okay. And we'll discuss Martin Luther next class. Next class. Next class we will discuss the rise of capitalism.
All right. Any questions guys? Yes. Like there's a case of my mother friend telling me that she uh her her her husband has a uh severe cancer and they tr they try to pray to the Catholic church and like later the cancer just disappears and they said it is miracle by the c Catholic church and they all believe in the cath catholic church. Can it explain the miracle like is there really really miracle there?
Okay. Yeah. Okay, back to your question. Okay, so this is what we call the placebo effect. Okay, the placebo effect is basically um you feel really sick and you're like, "Doctor, doctor, I'm really sick.
I'm going to die. Is there any medicine that that can save me?" And I'm a doctor and I I don't want to say there is no medicine. Uh, so I say, "Okay, well here here's some here here's here's a medicine. Okay, it might help you, but this but this medicine does nothing. You take this medicine and then you feel better.
You you get better." And this happens a lot. Okay, it's called it's called the placebo effect. So why does this happen? It happens because if you if you understand that mind leads to matter then your reality is shaped by your perception your belief. Okay.
So if you believe that this medicine can improve your body then it will have effects. Okay. The question though is how much do you really believe in this medicine? Okay. So you can argue that cancer it's 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 yourself. You've stopped believing in the purpose of life.
You've stopped believing that you have relevance in the world. Okay. So, when you say, "I want to cure my cancer. I want to cure my cancer." What you're really saying is, "I want to find a new faith. I want to believe in myself again.
I want to reestablish my relevance in the world." Okay? Does that make sense? So, you have the desire. Once you have the desire, then the cure makes sense. Okay?
So, so, so, so another way of saying this is, okay, let's just say that you don't feel well, right? Well, if your parents make you go see a psychiatrist, you probably won't feel better. But if you yourself want to get better and you go see a psychiatrist, you'll probably get better. Okay? So why this person why he or she improved his or her cancer is because um of faith.
Okay? She won't get better. So if you're able to orientate your mind in a certain way, you're capable of tremendous miracles. Another another idea is that idea of meditation, right? If you're able to control your thoughts, if you're able to calm yourself down, your body will heal a lot faster.
Okay? Does that make sense? Right. Okay. Any more questions?
Okay. Great. So next class we will we'll discuss capitalism.