A World Lit Only by Fire Read Online Free Page A

grappling with kings and emperors.

    T HE H OLY S EE’S struggle with Europe’s increasingly powerful crowned heads became one of the most protracted in history. When Augustine finished
     his great work in 426, Celestine I was pope. In 1076—over a hundred pontiffs later—the issue was still unresolved. Holy
     Fathers in the Vatican, near Nero’s old Circus, were still fighting Holy Roman emperors, trying to end the prerogative of
     lay rulers to invest prelates with authority. An exasperated Gregory VII, resorting to his ultimate sanction, excommunicated
     Emperor Henry IV. That literally brought Henry to his knees. He begged for absolution and was granted it only after he had
     spent three days and nights prostrate in the snows of Canossa, outside the papal castle in northern Italy. Canossa became
     a symbol of secular submission, but improperly so; the emperor’s contrition was short-lived. Changing his mind, he renewed
     his attack, and, undeterred by a second excommunication, drove Gregory from Rome. Bitterly the pontiff wrote, “
Dilexi justitiam et odi iniquitatem; propterea morior in exilio
”—because he had “loved justice and hated iniquity” he would “die in exile.” Another century passed before the papacy wrested
     independence from the imperial courts in Germany. Even then conflicts remained, and they were not fully resolved until early
     in the thirteenth century, when Innocent III brought the Church to the height of its prestige and power.
    Nevertheless the entire medieval millennium took on the aspect of triumphant Christendom. As aristocracies arose from the
     barbaric mire, kings and princes owed their legitimacy to divine authority, and squires became knights by praying all night
     at Christian altars. Sovereigns courting popularity led crusades to the Holy Land. To eat meat during Lent became a capital
     offense, sacrilege meant imprisonment, the Church became the wealthiest landowner on the Continent, and the life of every
     European, from baptism through matrimony to burial, was governed by popes, cardinals, prelates, monsignors, archbishops, bishops,
     and village priests. The clergy, it was believed, would also cast decisive votes in determining where each soul would spend
     the afterlife.
    And yet …
    The crafty but benevolent pagan gods—whose caprice and intransigence existed only in the imagination of Christian theologians
     eager to discredit them—survived all this. Imperial Rome having yielded to barbarians, and then barbarism to Christianity,
     Christianity was in turn infiltrated, and to a considerable extent subverted, by the paganism it was supposed to destroy.
     Medieval men simply could not bear to part with Thor, Hermes, Zeus, Juno, Cronus, Saturn, and their peers. Idol worship addressed
     needs the Church could not meet. Its rituals, myths, legends, marvels, and miracles were peculiarly suited to people who,
     living in the trackless fen and impenetrable forest, were always vulnerable to random disaster. Moreover, its creeds had never
     held, as the Augustinians did, that procreation was evil; pagans celebrating Aphrodite, Eros, Hymen, Cupid, and Venus could
     rejoice in lust. Thus the allegiance of converts was divided. Few saw any inconsistency or double-dealing in it. Hedging bets
     seemed only sensible. After all, it was just possible that Rome
had
fallen because the pagan deities had turned away from the city whose emperors no longer recognized them. What harm could
     come from paying token tribute to their ancient dignity? If people went to Mass and followed the commandments, there would
     be no retaliation from new worshipers of the savior, with their commitments to humility, mercy, tenderness, and kindness.
     The old genies, on the other hand, had never forgiven anyone anything, and as the Greeks had noted, the dice of the gods were
     always loaded.
    So Christian churches were built on the foundations of pagan temples, and the names of biblical saints were given