The unheard-of popularity of the book "The Da Vinci Code", distributed around the world in tens of millions of copies, has caused a sharp heightened interest in the history of Christianity. The material offered to the readers' attention is a tribute to this fashion. However, unlike Dan Brown's pseudo-historical, albeit extremely entertaining research, it is based not on speculation, but on well-known facts.
There are events in history that clearly smack of mystery, which are difficult to explain other than the action of some hidden factors. Among such inexplicable events, of course, can be attributed to the unheard-of success of the Protestant Reformation. Its beginning was announced in 1517 by the knocking of a hammer with which a German monk of the Order of St. Augustine Martin Luther nailed his famous "95 Theses" to the door of the church in Wittenberg, an angry philippic against the practice of the indulgence trade.
Undoubtedly Luther was a genius; undoubtedly, other, more earthly considerations were mingled with the religious fervor of many Protestants, and many German princes seized on the ideas of the Wittenberg monk, pursuing political gain; undoubtedly, King Henry VIII of England had good political, financial and amorous reasons to break with Rome; undoubtedly, the shameless trade in indulgences has left a dark stain on the reputation of the Catholic Church …
This is all true. But let's not forget that by the beginning of the 16th century, the Catholic Church had stood for fifteen hundred years, had gone through more than one crisis, and had accumulated vast experience in managing its flock. And do not exaggerate the significance of the indulgence scandal. There was nothing qualitatively new in this particular method of trading in heavenly entrance tickets. For centuries, the rich and noble have bought themselves deliverance from the hellfire with gifts for the church, both in their lifetime and by will.
And not only the rich: most believers could afford to pay for one or another number of prayers for the peace of the soul. What is this if not the same indulgence, although undoubtedly clothed in a more decent form? In addition, the practice of trading in indulgences had some justification: it was introduced to replenish the Vatican treasury, depleted by the exorbitant costs of building a new Cathedral of St. Peter is, after all, a godly deed.
In short, all of the above arguments, in my opinion, do not explain why the Protestant heresy so quickly captured the minds. No, something is wrong here. The ideas of Protestantism spread throughout Europe with some incomprehensible ease, practically meeting no resistance. What is the reason for such an omnipotence of the ideas of the German reformer? Why did the seemingly almighty church fight back so sluggishly? This question tormented me for many years, until finally, quite recently, I received an answer to it.
During the first centuries of Christianity, the church was not centralized. Each bishop enjoyed full autonomy; in theory, all dioceses were equal. However, the principle of equality runs counter to human nature: hierarchy is the natural principle of self-organization in any society. And over the years, some churches, the largest and most powerful, began to be promoted to the role of the first among equals.
The main missionary activity of the apostles was concentrated in the main cities of the Roman Empire, in its political, demographic, economic and cultural centers. By the IV century, the four main cities of the Christian world - Rome, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem - had emerged in a similar way, to which the center of Eastern Christianity, Constantinople, soon joined.
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These cities also owed their rise to the fact that the apostles were at the origin of their churches. How could it be possible not to recognize the special authority of the Roman high priest, if his powers, through the rite of ordination, went directly to the first bishop of Rome - the Apostle Peter, who, moreover, was always considered the main one of the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ by Catholics?
In the middle of the 5th century, the positions of the Roman bishop, who by this time began to be called the pope, were even more strengthened after the “miracle at Mincio”. In 451, one of the most important battles in the history of Western civilization took place in what is now France. Hordes of the "Scourge of God" - the leader of the Huns of Attila - clashed at Chalon on the Marne with the army of the Western Roman Empire, led by the outstanding commander Aetius, who, with his military prowess and civil virtues, earned the nickname "the last Roman".
The outcome of the battle that lasted all day is still unclear. However, historians agree that the Romans had the upper hand, and if they consolidated their success the next day, the Huns would have been utterly defeated. But for some reason, Aetius did not pursue the retreating enemy and himself gave the order to retreat - either because the main ally of the Romans, the Visigoth leader Theodoric, fell in battle, and his son and heir Forismond, contrary to his father's policy, broke with Aetius and took his squad or because, being a far-sighted politician, Aetius did not want to weaken the Huns too much in order to prevent the excessive strengthening of other barbarian tribes. In any case, one thing is indisputable: Attila's army was thoroughly battered.
In an attempt to restore his shaky reputation in the eyes of his fellow tribesmen, Attila moved to Rome. Pope Leo I set out to meet the formidable savage. Negotiations took place on the Mincio River near Mantua and ended with the generous consent of the leader of the Huns to spare the Eternal City. It is clear that this is not only a matter of the eloquence of the Chrysostom-pontiff. Attila was so weakened that it remains to be seen whether he would have had enough strength to storm Rome. And dad did not come to him empty-handed: the richest gifts reinforced the persuasiveness of the persuasion. Be that as it may, the Huns retreated, the tragedy was averted.
The Church immediately proclaimed that Rome owed its salvation to divine intervention. The Almighty, they say, heard the prayers of his beloved son, the governor of Jesus Christ on earth, stretched out his hand over Rome and averted the blow from the Eternal City. The sorcerer pope was glorified over the centuries as Leo the Great and canonized by the Catholic Church. This episode greatly strengthened the prestige of the Vatican.
But, as the old proverb says, trust in God, and do not make a mistake yourself. Not relying only on the intercession from above, the Vatican has worked hard for centuries, strengthening its authority and step by step pushing the boundaries of Roman influence. In the VIII-IX centuries, a series of decisive moves was made: the papal chancellery fabricated a number of documents that for many centuries formed the basis of the spiritual and secular power of the Roman high priests.
The first fake was the so-called "Gift of Constantine". This document stated that the Roman Emperor Constantine, baptized by Pope Sylvester in 324 AD, presented the Lateran Palace to the Pope as a token of gratitude, officially recognized the Bishop of Rome as vicar of Christ "and granted him imperial power over Rome and all Italy, which the pontiff generously returned it to the emperor.
The Lateran Palace in Rome, which belonged to the Empress Fausta, was indeed presented to Pope Constantine when the capital of the empire was transferred to Constantinople. And everything else in this document is pure fiction, designed to support the Vatican's power claims, allegedly confirmed personally by the first Roman emperor to be baptized. Relying on the "Gift of Constantine", the Vatican arrogated to itself the right to interfere in politics and endowed itself with not only spiritual, but also secular power.
The second forgery concerned another bogus "gift" - this time from the king of the Franks. In 751, Pope Stephen went to Gaul and crowned the Frankish leader Pepin, nicknamed the Short, who founded the new Carolingian dynasty. After a short time, pawnshops moved south and captured the Byzantine territory of Ravenna, an outpost of the East Roman Empire in Italy. A mortal threat looms over Rome.
The Roman high priest appealed for help to the newly minted king of the Franks, citing in support of his rights to the “Gift of the Constantines” and reminding him of the debt of gratitude. Pepin the Short, who made the "Donation of Constantine" authentic, made two trips to Italy, recaptured Ravenna from the pawnshops and in 756 handed it over to the Pope for everlasting possession, thereby freeing Rome from Byzantine control. This was the beginning of the papal state, which existed right up to 1929.
Soon after the death of Pepin the Short, a forged letter came to light - the testament of the Frankish king recognizing the prerogatives of the Roman high priest. In this document, it is especially important to confirm the right of the church to crown kings, which radically changed the essence of the ritual of chrismation. If earlier this ceremony meant only a simple recognition, ratification by the church of a new secular ruler, now the Pope actually arrogated to himself the right, on behalf of Christ, to enthrone and depose kings, acting as the supreme mediator between secular power and God.
In a forged letter, Pepin Korotkiy also allegedly transferred all of Italy to the Pope's secular administration. The Vatican finally consolidated its powers, in 800, having crowned the son of its benefactor, Charlemagne, as emperor, who recognized his father's will, although a mile away from him reeked of fake.
But the crown of the falsifying activity of the papal chancellery, of course, should be considered the so-called "False Decretals", drawn up on behalf of the Bishop Isidore of Seville, who lived in the 7th century. This collection of up to one hundred documents includes 60 letters and decrees from many generations of Roman bishops, of which 58 are completely fabricated, as well as original essays on the early church and other documents, including papal letters, mostly authentic. But even genuine documents contain many biased forged inserts.
“False Decretals”, judging by a number of signs worked out in the middle of the 9th century, were intended to further strengthen the power of the Pope and substantiate his claims to supremacy over the entire Christian world. This forgery paved the way for the epoch-making attempt of Pope Hildebrand (late 11th century) to crush the whole of Europe, turning it into a single theocracy with itself at its head.
However, forged documents, for all their effectiveness, remained only a collection of scattered sources. The Vatican knew how much more effective they would be if the ideas embedded in them were built into a coherent system. This task was taken over by a monk from Bologna, Gratian. In 1150, he compiled a code of canon law called the Decree, which provided the theoretical basis for the doctrine of papal absolutism and infallibility.
Gratian not only took the previous forgeries as a basis, but he himself worked fruitfully in the field of falsification. It has been established that of the 325 sayings of the church fathers and early saints quoted in the Gratian's Decree, only 13 are genuine, and all the rest are pure inventions. The work of the Bolognese monk, writes the historian Draper, "placed the entire Christian world under the rule of the Italian clergy … He substantiated the right of priests to keep their flock on the path of virtue by force, torture and execute heretics, alienate their property and deal with sinners excommunicated with impunity."
Gratian actually proclaimed that the Pope was immeasurably above the law, that he was absolutely infallible and in fact God-equal. A century later, St. Francis of Assisi, with his indisputable authority, supported the conclusions of Gratian and thereby sanctioned the principles on the basis of which the Holy Inquisition was created in the same XIII century.
The fact that the main documents referred to by the Roman bishops in support of their spiritual and secular claims were fabricated was talked about from the very beginning. There were too many historical and chronological absurdities in them. For example, the hierarchs of the early Christian church discuss in their "letters" the events of the later centuries; writers of the first three centuries quote the Bible from a translation made only at the end of the fourth century; Pope Victor, who lived in the second century, talks about the celebration of Easter with the Archbishop of Alexandria Theophilos, who was born two centuries later.
In a word, these were not just fakes, but fakes, worked out extremely roughly, which could not but catch the eye of any knowledgeable people. But there were only a few such people, and their voices were not heard. In the era of the early Middle Ages, when only monks were literate and rarely a king knew how to sign, when ideas spread at a snail's pace, the church had an absolute monopoly on information.
The position of the Vatican in Western Europe was not shaken even by the split of Rome with Constantinople in 1054, caused in large part by the attempt of the Pope to assert his supremacy throughout the Christian world. To substantiate his claims, the pope referred to false documents, primarily to the "False Dictatorship". But I ran into the wrong people.
Most of the church fathers and saints of the early Christian era, for historical reasons, came from the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, and in Constantinople their deeds and writings, of course, were known much better than in Rome. It was not difficult for the Patriarch of Constantinople to expose the groundlessness of Rome's claims. The Pontiff was offended, and between the two branches of Christianity lay a still unbridgeable abyss.
But then came the Renaissance, which gave rise to a tremendous craving for knowledge in society, and the Catholic monolith reeled. In 1440, the Florentine explorer Lorenzo Valla published a treatise called the Declamatio, in which he irrefutably proved that the "Donation of Constantine" was a fake. And 10 years later, in the German city of Mainz, an event took place that sounded the death knell for the prestige of the Vatican: Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press.
Like an aging coquette who relies on twilight to hide her wrinkles, in the darkness of the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church was in control. But in the light of the Enlightenment, it became impossible to hide the truth. After only a few decades, book printing became firmly established in European life, and Valla's treatise began to disperse in thousands of copies throughout the continent.
The idea of papal absolutism, the concept of the infallibility of the Roman pontiff, was fatally undermined. Have you ever seen it: when Pope Sixtus IV excommunicated Tuscany in 1478, the Tuscan clergy convened their own council and in response excommunicated the Pope himself! Moreover, it also printed and distributed its edict throughout Europe.
By the time Martin Luther appeared on the historical stage, everyone already knew that the reputation of the Vatican was sewn with white thread. The authority of the Catholic Church fell catastrophically, its building rotted through and through, and a slight push was enough to shake it to the ground, if not to destroy it at all. Luther gave this impetus.
Assessing the merit of the Florentine exposer, the English historian Hodgkin wrote at the beginning of the last century: “… But then Lorenzo Valla appeared. He uttered a few deadly words … and pierced the soap bubble that had been fooled by the whole world for seven centuries. Gene crawled back into his bottle and was forever buried in the depths of the sea”.
This suggests a parallel with the Soviet Union. By the time Gorbachev's reformers came to power, it was too late to save the Soviet system. She was so sick that no poultices could help her anymore. That is why the communist monolith collapsed with such incomprehensible ease - like an obsession, it simply melted into thin air. Another thing is that the equally discredited Catholic Church turned out to be stronger, smarter and more experienced than the communists. Sent to a deep knockdown, she still found the strength to rise from the platform and resist.
On the verge of death, the church rolled up its sleeves and vigorously set about self-cleaning. The Counter-Reformation began, the Jesuits rose up to defend Catholicism, the monks of the mendicant orders - Franciscan and Dominican - again carried religion to the people, inspiring believers with their personal example of selflessness and renunciation of earthly goods. And by the end of the 16th century, the Vatican managed to restore its authority and retreat from the edge of the abyss. But the lesson of this story is obvious: as the Holy Scriptures say, sooner or later the secret always becomes apparent.
