The first centuries of Christianity: the struggle of ideas and the formation of church organization
For the sake of justice, it should be said that another passage from this work (the famous “testimony of Flavius”) about Jesus says exactly what Christian philosophers of all times and peoples need and will need:
Everything seems just wonderful, but the quoted passage has one single flaw: it appeared in the text of "Jewish Antiquities" only in the IV century, and even in the III century, the religious philosopher Origen knew nothing about such a brilliant proof of the coming of the Messiah .
The first Roman testimonies of Christ and Christians belong to Tacitus: in the first quarter of the 2nd century, describing the fire of Rome (according to legend, arranged by Nero in 64), this historian says that Christians were accused of arson and many were executed. Tacitus also reports that a man bearing the name of Christ was executed during the reign of Emperor Tiberius and the procurator Pontius Pilate.
Guy Suetonius Tranquill, in the second quarter of the second century, wrote that Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome because they "organized a disturbance under the command of Christ," and under Nero many Christians who spread the "new harmful customs" were executed.
But back to the East. The traditionally troubled Judea was far away, but the Jews of Rome and other major cities of the Empire who were the first to suffer any anti-Roman appearance in Jerusalem were close. And therefore, the teachings of Christ, calling on believers not to actively fight the Romans, but to wait for the final judgment, which should destroy the power of the empire of the oppressors, were very favorably accepted in the Jewish diaspora (whose history dates back to the XNUMXth century BC). Some Jews of the Diaspora, who were not too strict about the precepts of Orthodox Judaism and were receptive to the religious movements of the surrounding pagan world, tried, thus, to distance themselves from the "violent" Jewish counterparts. But the idea of monotheism, which remained unchanged, did not allow them to become completely loyal and safe admirers of the next religious cult for Rome, of which there were so many on the territory of the empire. But the preaching of Christianity turned out to be especially successful among proselytes (people who accepted Judaism of non-Jewish origin).
In the early Christian communities there was no single concept of faith and there was no unequivocal opinion about the rites to be observed. But centralized management did not exist yet, there were no doctrines, based on which it would be possible to establish which particular views were wrong, and therefore various Christian communities did not consider each other to be heretics for a long time. The first contradictions arose when I had to look for the answer to the question that concerns everyone: for whom is the kingdom of God promised by Christ available? Only to the Jews? Or do people of other nationalities have hope? In many Christian communities in Judea and Jerusalem, circumcision was demanded of converts — that is, become a Jew before becoming a Christian. The Jews of the Diaspora were not so categorical. The final split between Christianity and Judaism occurred in 132-135, when the Jewish Christians did not support the Son of the Star uprising - Bar-Kochba.
So, Christianity was separated from the synagogue, but still retained numerous elements of Judaism, especially the Jewish Bible (Old Testament). At the same time, the Catholic and Orthodox churches recognize the “true” canon of Alexandria, which contains 72 books, and the Protestant churches returned to an earlier canon - the Palestinian, which contains only 66 books. The so-called Vtorokanonicheskie books of the Old Testament, which are not in the Palestinian canon, Protestants belong to the Apocrypha (another version of their name - pseudo-epigraphs).
The Jewish roots of the new faith explain the rejection of icons, characteristic of the Christians of the first centuries of the new era (the law of Moses forbade the image of the Divine). As early as the 6th century, Gregory the Great wrote to Bishop Massilin: “We praise you for banning the worship of icons; for the same thing that you broke them, we blame ... It’s one thing to worship the picture, what you need to worship. "
In the national veneration of icons, elements of pagan magic were indeed present (and, to be frank, are present today). Thus, there were widespread cases of scraping off paint icons and adding it to the Eucharistic bowl, the “participation” of the icon as a receptacle at baptism. Attaching to icons was also considered a pagan custom, so it was recommended to hang them up in churches higher - in order to make access to them more difficult. This view was also shared by the adherents of Islam. After the final victory of icon-worshipers (in the 8th century), Jews and Muslims even called Christians idolaters. A supporter of the veneration of icons, John of Damascus, trying to circumvent the Old Testament ban on idolatry, said that in ancient times God was incorporeal, but after he appeared in the flesh and lived among people, it became possible to depict the visible God.
During the spread of Christianity beyond Judea, his ideas were critically analyzed by pagan philosophers (from the Stoics to the Pythagoreans), including the Hellenized Jews of the Diaspora. The works of Philo of Alexandria (20 BC - 40 AD) had a significant influence on the author of the Gospel of John and the Apostle Paul. Philo's innovative contributions were the idea of an absolute God (while the Hebrews of the chosen people were discussed in the Hebrew Bible) and the doctrine of the Trinity: Absolute God, Logos (the high priest and firstborn son of God) and the World spirit (Holy Spirit). A modern researcher G. Getche, describing Philo's teachings, calls him "Christianity without Christ."
Various Gnostic teachings also had a great influence on Christianity. Gnosticism is a religious and philosophical concept designed for educated people brought up in Hellenistic traditions. Responsibility for all the injustices and misfortunes of the world Gnostic teachings laid on the demiurge ("craftsman"), not a very large demon, who created the world and created the first people as their toys. However, the wise Serpent enlightened them and helped to achieve freedom - for this the Demiurge torments the descendants of Adam and Eve. People who worshiped the Serpent, and God, who wanted to leave people in ignorance, was considered an evil demon, called Ophites. For the Gnostics, there is a desire to harmonize various pre-Christian ideas with the Christian idea of soul salvation. According to their ideas, Evil belonged to the material world, society and the state. Salvation for the Gnostics meant liberation from sinful matter, which was also expressed in the rejection of the existing order. This often made members of the Gnostic sects opponents of the authorities.
The creator of one of the Gnostic schools, Marcion (who was excommunicated by his father) and his followers denied the continuity of the Old and New Testaments, and Judaism was considered a worship of Satan. Apelles, a disciple of Marcion, believed that the One Principle, the Unborn God, created the two main angels. The first of them created the world, the second - the "fiery" - is hostile to God and the first angel. Valery Bryusov, who was brilliantly educated and famous for his erudition (whom M. Gorky called "the most cultural writer in Russia") knew about it. And that is why Andrei Bely, Bryusov’s rival in the love triangle, in the famous mystical novel is not just the angel Madiel — no, he is the “Fiery Angel”. And this is not a compliment at all, on the contrary: Bryusov directly tells everyone who is able to understand that his alter ego in the novel, Knight Ruprecht, fights with Satan - it is not surprising that he suffers a defeat in this unequal fight.
But let us return to the teachings of Apelles, who believed that the world as the creation of a good angel is blessed, but subject to the blows of an evil angel, whom Marcion identified with the Old Testament Yahweh. Even in the II. n er Marcion formulated more 10 differences between the god of the Old Testament and the gospel god:
God of the Old Testament:
Exhorts sex mixing and reproduction to the limits of the Ocumene.
He promises to reward the land.
Prescribes circumcision and murder of prisoners
Curses the earth
Repent that created man
Prescribes revenge
Allows usury
Appears in the form of a dark cloud and firestorm
Forbids to touch and even approach the ark of the covenant
(i.e., principles of religion are a mystery to believers)
Curse "hanging in a tree", that is, the executed
New Testament God:
Forbids even a sinful gaze on a woman
Promises to reward heaven
Prohibits both
Bless the earth
Does not change his sympathies to the person
Prescribes the forgiveness of the repentant
Prohibits misappropriation of unearned money
Appears in the form of unapproachable Light
Summons everybody
Godmother's death of god himself
Thus, Yahweh, the god of Moses, from the point of view of the Gnostics, is by no means Elohim, to whom the crucified Christ called. Christ, they pointed out, referring to the Jews, who called themselves "God's chosen people" and "children of the Lord," said bluntly:
Another evidence against the identity of Yahweh and Elohim is the fact that in the Old Testament Satan in the book of Job is in fact a trusted associate of God: by fulfilling the will of God, he puts the faith of unfortunate Job to the cruel test. According to the Apocrypha, Lucifer became Satan (Troublemaker), who, prior to indignation against God, carried out his instructions: by order of Savoaf, he settled in King Saul and made him "rage in his house," another time God sent him to "carry away the lies" of Israeli King Ahab to force him into battle. Lucifer (Satan) is named here among the "sons of God." But Christ in the Gospel refuses to communicate with Satan.
By the way, it is now considered a proven fact that Pyatniknikiy has four authors, one of whom is called Yakhvist (the text belonging to him is recorded in Southern Judea in the 9th century BC), the other is Elohist (its text is recorded later, in Northern Judea). According to the Old Testament, both good and evil, to the same extent, come from Yahweh: "He who creates light and creates darkness, makes peace and does evil - I, Yahweh, do this." (The Book of Isaiah; 45. 7; 44. 6-7).
But the Christian doctrine of Satan is still based on sources that are not canonical. The most important of them was the apocrypha "The Revelation of Enoch" (dated approximately 165 BC). A small quote:
They took wives, each of them of their choice, they came to them and lived with them and taught them magic, spells and the use of roots and herbs ... In addition, Azazel taught people how to make swords, knives, shields and armors; he also taught them to make mirrors, bracelets and jewelry, as well as to use blush, tint eyebrows, use precious stones of elegant appearance and color ... Amazarak taught all kinds of magic and use of roots. Armers taught how to stop the spell; Barcayal taught to observe the heavenly bodies; Akibiel taught signs and omens; Tamiel - astronomy and Asaradel - the movement of the moon. "
In the church dogma introduced the devil Irineus of Lyons (II century AD). The devil, according to Iriney, was created by God, as a bright angel who possesses free will, but rebelled against the Creator by virtue of his pride. His assistants, the demons of the lower rank, according to Irenaeus, evolved from the coexistence of fallen angels with mortal women. The first of the demons' mothers was Lilith: they were born from the cohabitation of Adam and Lilith, when he was separated from Eve after the fall into 130 years.
By the way, do you know why the Orthodox tradition requires women to cover their heads when entering the temple? The Apostle Paul (in 1-Corinthians) says:
That is, cover your head with a handkerchief, woman, and do not seduce angels in the church that look at you from heaven.
Tatian, a theologian of the second century, wrote that "the body of the devil and demons consists of air or fire. Being almost physical, the devil and his helpers need food."
Origen claimed that the demons "eagerly swallow" the sacrificial smoke. On the basis of the location and movement of the stars, they foresee the future, possess hidden knowledge that they readily discover ... Well, of course, for women, who else. According to Origen, demons are not subject to the sin of homosexuality.
But why did Christian theologians need the teaching of the Devil? Without his presence it is difficult to explain the existence of evil on earth. However, having recognized the existence of Satan, theologians faced another, perhaps the main contradiction of Christianity: if God, who created the world, is good, where did the evil come from? If Satan was created by a pure angel, but rebelled against God, then God is not omniscient? If God is omnipresent, is he present in the Devil, and therefore responsible for the activities of Satan? If God is omnipotent - why does he allow the evil activities of Satan? In general, it turned out that the Christian theory of good and evil has many paradoxes and contradictions that can make any philosopher and theologian crazy. One of the teachers of the church, the "angelic doctor" Thomas Aquinas, decided that a person, by virtue of his original sinfulness, cannot do good, worthy of eternal life, but can receive the gift of grace dwelling in him if he is disposed to accept this gift from God. But at the end of his life, he admitted that all his labors are straw, and any illiterate grandmother knows more, because he believes that the soul is immortal.
Pelagius, a British monk who lived in the 5th century, preached that the sinfulness of a person is the result of his bad deeds, and that means a good pagan is better than an evil Christian. But St. Augustine (the founder of Christian philosophy, 354-430) advanced the concept of original sin, thus declaring all pagans incomplete and justifying religious intolerance.
He also put forward the concept of predestination, according to which people are doomed to salvation or death, regardless of their actions, and according to God's prediction - because of his omniscience. (Later, Geneva Protestants, led by Calvin, recalled this theory). Gothshalk, a medieval theologian, did not stop at what he had achieved: having creatively developed the teachings of Augustine, he declared that divine providence was the source of evil. Johann Scot Erigen finally confused everyone, proclaiming that there was no evil in the world, offering to take even the most obvious evil for good.
The Christian theory of good and evil finally came to a standstill, and the Catholic Church returned to the teachings of Pelagius about the salvation of the soul by doing good deeds.
The doctrine of Satan, as it was said, was borrowed by Christian theologians from a non-canonical source - apocrypha, but the thesis on the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary was borrowed from the Quran, and relatively recently: as early as the XII century, St. Bernard of Clairvaux denounced the doctrine of the immaculate conception, considering it an unreasonable innovation.
This dogma was also condemned by Alexander of Gael and the "seraphic doctor" Bonaventure (the general of the monastic Order of the Franciscans).
The debate continued for many centuries, only in 1617, the Pope Paul V forbade publicly refute the thesis of the Immaculate Conception. It was only in 1854 that Pope Pius IX finally confirmed this dogma with the bull Ineffabius Deus.
By the way, the dogma of the ascension of the Virgin to heaven is officially recognized by the Catholic Church only in 1950.
The Gnostic trend in Judaism was the Kabbalah ("The teaching received according to tradition"), which emerged in the II-III centuries. AD According to Kabbalah, the purpose of God-created people is to improve to its level. God does not help his creatures, for “help is the infamous bread” (sop): people must achieve perfection on their own.
In contrast to the Gnostics who were trying to understand and logically resolve the rapidly accumulating contradictions, the Christian writer and theologian Tertullian (around 160 - after 222), argued the idea of powerlessness of reason before faith. That he owns the famous phrase: "I believe, for it is absurd." At the end of his life, he became close to the Montanists.
The followers of Montana (who created his teaching in the first century AD) led an ascetic life and preached martyrdom, wanting to "help" bring the end of the world closer - and, therefore, the kingdom of the Messiah. They have traditionally been in opposition to the secular authorities and the official church. Military service was declared incompatible with Christian dogma.
There were also followers of Mani (born at the beginning of the III century), whose teaching represented the synthesis of Christianity with Buddhism and the Zarathustra cult.
The Manichaeans recognized all religions, and believed that the Forces of Light through them periodically sent their apostles to Earth, including Zarathustra, Christ and Buddha. However, only Mani, the last in the series of apostles, was able to bring people real faith. Such "tolerance" to other religious teachings allowed the Manichaeans to disguise themselves as believers of any denomination, gradually taking away their flock from representatives of traditional religions - this was what caused such hatred for Manicheanism from both Christians and Muslims, and even from the "correct" Buddhists. In addition, the clear and open rejection of the material world brought cognitive dissonance into the minds of ordinary sane citizens. People, as a rule, were not against moderate asceticism and reasonable limitations of sensuality, but not to the same extent to strive to destroy this whole World, which was viewed in the Manifest, not just as an area of struggle between Light and Darkness, but was considered the Darkness, which captured particles Light (human souls). The elements of Manichaeism have long been preserved in Europe in such heretical teachings as Pavlikianism, Bogomilism, and the Cathar movement (the Albian heresy).
People tend to lead to a common denominator all religions. As a result, after several generations, Christians began to bless killings in war, and fans of the cruel and merciless Apollo appointed him the patron saint of virtue and fine arts. Of course, they don’t ask permission from their God to sell "tickets to heaven" and sell "tickets to heaven" from their God. And they are not interested in whether their patrons need saints whom they impose on their own will and understanding. And yet the ministers of all religions without exception with extraordinary piety and unconcealed servility belong to earthly rulers and state power. And in Christianity, it was gradually the directions that were inclined to adapt religion to the goals of the ruling classes. This is how the church appeared in the modern sense of the word, and an authoritarian church organization appeared in a number of countries instead of democratic communities. In the 4th century, Arius tried to oppose the rationalism of his doctrine with the mysticism of church dogmas (“Mad people who fight against me, take to interpret nonsense”) - began to assert that Christ was created by God the Father, and, therefore, is not equal to him. But times have already changed, and the dispute ended not with the adoption of a resolution condemning the apostate, but with the poisoning of a heresiarch in the palace of Emperor Constantine and cruel persecutions of his supporters.
The emergence of a single church allowed to unite the teachings of different communities. The basis was taken direction, headed by the Apostle Paul, which was characterized by a complete break with Judaism and the desire to compromise with the authorities. In the process of the formation of the Christian church, so-called canonical writings were created, which were included in the New Testament. The process of canonization began at the end of the II century AD. and ended by about IV century. At the Nicene Council (325), more than the 80 Gospels were considered for inclusion in the New Testament. The holy books of Christianity were the 4 Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), the Acts of the Holy Apostles, the 14 Epistles of the Apostle Paul, the 7 Collegiate Epistles and the Revelation of John the Theologian. A number of books did not fall into the canon, among them the so-called Gospels of Jacob, of Thomas the Blessed, of Philip, Mary Magdalene, etc. But the Protestants in the XVI century. denied the right to be considered "sacred" even by some of the canonical books.
It should immediately be said that even those recognized as canonical Gospels could not have been written by the contemporaries of Christ (and, especially, by his apostles), since contain many factual errors that are recognized by Catholic and Protestant historians and theologians. For example, Mark the Evangelist indicates that a herd of pigs grazed in the land of Gadarinskaya on the shores of Lake Genisaret - however, Gadara is far from the lake of Gennesaret. The meeting of the Sanhedrin could hardly have been held in the house of Caiaffa, especially in the courtyard: there was a special room in the temple complex. Moreover, the Sanhedrin could not make a trial either on Easter Eve, or on a holiday, or throughout the next week: to condemn a man and crucify him at that time meant the whole world to commit a mortal sin. An outstanding Protestant biblical scholar, a professor at the University of Göttinging, E. Loze discovered violations of the Sanhedrin court procedure in the 27 Gospels.
By the way, in the New Testament there are books written before the Gospels - these are the early messages of the Apostle Paul.
The recognized canonical Gospels were written in Koine, a variant of the Greek language common in the Hellenistic states of the heirs of Alexander the Great (diadochi). Only with regard to the Gospel of Matthew, some researchers make assumptions (not supported by the majority of historians) that it could be written in Aramaic.
The canonical Gospels were written not only at different times, but also intended to be read in different audiences. The earliest of them (written between 70-80 AD) is the Gospel of Mark. Modern studies have proven that it was the source for the Gospels of Matthew (80-100 AD) and Luke (about 80 AD). These three gospels are usually called "synoptic".
Mark's Gospel is clearly written for non-Jewish Christians: the author constantly explains Jewish customs to the readers and translates certain expressions. For example: "they ate bread with unclean, that is, with unwashed hands"; "Ephphatha told him, that is, open up." The author does not call himself, the name "Mark" appears only in the texts of the III century.
The gospel of Luke (whose author, incidentally, admits that he did not witness the events described - 1: 1) is addressed to people brought up in the traditions of the Hellenistic culture. After analyzing the text of this Gospel, the researchers concluded that Luke was not a Palestinian or a Jew. In addition, judging by the language and style, Luke is the most educated of the evangelists, and may have been a doctor, or had something to do with medicine. Starting from the 6th century, they begin to consider him the artist who created the portrait of the Virgin Mary. The gospel of Luke is usually called social, since it retains a negative attitude towards wealth characteristic of early Christian communities. It is assumed that the author of this Gospel used a document that did not come down to our time, containing the preaching of Jesus.
But the Gospel of Matthew turned to the Jews and created either in Syria or in Palestine. The name of the author of this Gospel is known by the message of Pappius - the disciple of the Evangelist John.
The Gospel of John deserves special attention, since in form and content it is very different from synoptic. The author of this book (his name is called Iriney in his work Against Heresies - 180-185, he also reports that the Gospel was written in Ephesus) are not interested in the facts, and he dedicated his work exclusively to developing the fundamentals of Christian teaching. Using the concepts of the teachings of the Gnostics, he constantly enters into polemics with them. It is believed that this Gospel was addressed to the rich and educated Romans and Greeks, who were not sympathetic to the image of a poor Jew reading sermons to fishermen, poor and lepers. Much closer to them was the doctrine of the Logos - the mysterious power emanating from the inscrutable God. The time of writing the Gospel of John dates back to about 100 (no later than the second half of the 2nd century).
In a cruel and merciless world, the preaching of mercy and self-denial in the name of higher goals sounded more revolutionary than the calls of the most radical rebels, and the emergence of Christianity became one of the most important turning points in world history. But even the sincere followers of Christ were only human beings, and the attempts of high-ranking leaders of the Church to arrogate to themselves the monopoly right to the ultimate truth cost mankind a great deal. Having attained recognition from the authorities, the hierarchs, over time, with the most peace-loving and humane religion surpassed their former persecutors in cruelty. Church leaders forgot the words of John Chrysostom that the flock should be fed not with a fiery sword, but with paternal patience and fraternal caress, and Christians should not be persecutors, but persecuted, since Christ was crucified, but not crucified, was beaten, but not beat
The true Middle Ages did not come with the fall of Rome or Byzantium, but with the introduction of a ban on freedom of opinion and interpretation of the foundations of Christ’s teaching to everyone. Meanwhile, many religious disputes may seem baseless and absurd to a person living in the twenty-first century. It is hard to believe, but only in 325 by Christ at the Nicene Council Christ was recognized by God, and with a small margin of votes (at this Council, the unbaptized emperor Constantine was granted the rank of deacon so that he could attend the meetings).
Is it possible at the Church Council to decide from whom the Holy Spirit comes - only from God the Father (Catholic point of view) or also from God the Son (Orthodox dogma)? Did God the Son exist forever (i.e., is he equal to God the Father?) Or, being created by God the Father, is Christ a creature of a lower order? (Arianism). Is God the Son "one-sided" God the Father, or is he only "Comparable" to him? In Greek, these words are distinguished by just one letter - “yot”, because of which the Arians argued with Christians, and which entered the sayings of all countries and peoples (“do not retreat one iota” - in Russian transcription these words sound like " homous "and" homius "). Does Christ have two natures (divine and human - orthodox Christianity), or only one (divine - monophysites)? The authorities had tried to solve some questions of faith with their sole decision. The Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, who dreamed of reuniting Monophysitism with Orthodoxy, proposed a compromise - the doctrine of Monothelitism, according to which the incarnate Word has two bodies (divine and human) and one will - divine. The system of "deadly sins" was developed by the learned monk Evagrius of Pontus, but the next "classifier" - John Cassian, excluded "envy" from this list.
But Pope Gregory the Great (who called these particularly highlighted sins "mortal") did not suit. He replaced “prodigal sin” with “voluptuousness”, combined the sins of “laziness” and “despondency”, added the “vanity” sin to the list, and again included “envy” in it.
And this is not counting the other less significant issues that Christian theologians have faced. It was in the process of understanding and trying to find a logically consistent solution to all these problems in the Christian environment that numerous heretical movements began to appear. The official church failed to find answers to the tricky questions of the heresiarchs, but with the help of the authorities she managed (for the sake of preserving the unity of the believers) to brutally crush the dissenters and approve canons and dogmas, a simple discussion of which soon became considered a terrible crime both in the West and in the East. Even the reading of the Gospels was forbidden to the laity both in the West and in the East. That's how things were in Russia. The first attempt to translate the New Testament into modern Russian, undertaken by the Polish order of Abraham Firsov, the Polish order in 1683, failed: on the orders of Patriarch Joachim, almost the entire print run was destroyed and only a few copies were saved with the note: "Do not read to anyone." Under Alexander I, the 4 Gospel (1818) and the New Testament (in 1821) were finally translated into Russian - much later than the Quran (1716, translated from French by Peter Postnikov). But the attempt to translate and print the Old Testament (they managed to translate 8 books) ended with the burning of the entire edition in 1825.
Yet the church could not maintain unity. Catholicism led by the Pope proclaimed the priority of spiritual power over secular, while Orthodox hierarchs put their authority at the service of the Byzantine emperors. The split between Western and Eastern Christians already in 1204 was so great that the conquerors of Constantinople, the Crusaders, declared the Orthodox to be such heretics, that "God himself is sick." And in Sweden in 1620, a certain serious research was conducted by Some Bothvid on the topic “Are Russians Christians?”. The Catholic West dominated over the centuries, with the blessing of the Pope, the young aggressive states of Western Europe pursued an active expansionist policy, organizing crusades against the Islamic world, now against the Orthodox "schismatics", then against the pagans of northern Europe. But the contradictions were tearing apart the Catholic world. In the 13th century, crusaders from northern and central France and Germany destroyed the heretic Cathars, the spiritual heirs of the Manichaeans. In the 15th century, the Czech Hussite heretics (who demanded only equality of the laity and priests) repelled five crusades, but split into parties that clasped among themselves: taborites and orphans were destroyed ready for an agreement with the pope Uraquists. In the XVI century, the Reformation movement split the Catholic world into two irreconcilable parts, which immediately entered into long and bitter religious wars, which resulted in the emergence of Protestant church organizations independent of Rome in a number of European countries. The hatred between Catholics and Protestants was such that once the Dominicans who paid one pirate for the liberation of three Frenchmen to one of the Algerian beys 3 000 piastres for the liberation of three Frenchmen were free because they were a protest in a burst of generosity.
The church (both Catholic, and Orthodox, and various Protestant trends) was by no means limited to control over the consciousness of people. The intervention of higher hierarchs in big politics and in the internal affairs of independent states, and numerous abuses contributed to discrediting the high ideas of Christianity. The payment for them was the fall of the authority of the Church and its leaders, who now surrender one position after another, cowardly refuse to accept the provisions and instructions of their sacred Books and do not dare to protect principled clergymen who in the modern Western world are persecuting the "politically correct and intolerant" quotes of biblical texts .
- Ryzhov V.A.
- Holy Inquisition (V.Ryzhov)
"I myself decide who is a witch in my land." Vedovskie processes in the Protestant world (V. Ryzhov)
Great split. Price standoff (V.Ryzhov)
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