In recent conversation with an Eastern Patriarch, Leo called for equity among “all the Sees.” While this shows embarrassing cluelessness about Church history, nevertheless it suggests the next phase of plans for a One World Church. “Solve et coagula.”
The size of the Muslim Empire quadrupled in just 29 years after Mohammad’s death. By the 8th century the Umayyad dynasty had conquered all of the Byzantine Christian Middle East, North Africa, Spain, and Portugal. Slowly but surely, “holy” Byzantium frayed –its army and navy once second to none, and once so wealthy from silk and spice that it could bribe any Goth or Hun. Some Middle Eastern Christians simply preferred to switch to Islam to avoid higher taxes, get lucrative positions in a Sultanate court, enjoy legalized polygamy, and be “guaranteed heaven” without the chains of the Ten Commandments. Many justified defection by blaming their Christian government for lost wars, bankruptcies, earthquakes, and plagues.
The die was cast in the 11th century by the Byzantine Patriarchs in Constantinople. “The Great Schism” declared Greek Orthodoxy the one true religion, distinct from Roman Catholicism and independent from the pope. They altered the notion of the Trinity, proclaiming that the Holy Spirit proceeds from God the Father alone (not the Father and the Son). Each church solemnly and officially excommunicated the other, ultimately producing the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church as separate ecclesiastical entities.
Non-stop wars continued against the remnant Byzantine Empire, whose citizens were alternately labeled “infidels” by the conquering Muslim Turks or “heretics” by the sneering Roman Catholic West. The chaos led to more Byzantine disloyalty not simply to Rome but to Christianity itself. Well before the fall of Constantinople in 1453, many among the Eastern Orthodox believed that it was “much better to live under the Sultan’s turban than the Cardinal’s hat.”
In recent conversation with an Eastern Patriarch, Leo called for equity among “all the Sees.” While this shows embarrassing cluelessness about Church history, nevertheless it suggests the next phase of plans for a One World Church. “Solve et coagula.”
The size of the Muslim Empire quadrupled in just 29 years after Mohammad’s death. By the 8th century the Umayyad dynasty had conquered all of the Byzantine Christian Middle East, North Africa, Spain, and Portugal. Slowly but surely, “holy” Byzantium frayed –its army and navy once second to none, and once so wealthy from silk and spice that it could bribe any Goth or Hun. Some Middle Eastern Christians simply preferred to switch to Islam to avoid higher taxes, get lucrative positions in a Sultanate court, enjoy legalized polygamy, and be “guaranteed heaven” without the chains of the Ten Commandments. Many justified defection by blaming their Christian government for lost wars, bankruptcies, earthquakes, and plagues.
The die was cast in the 11th century by the Byzantine Patriarchs in Constantinople. “The Great Schism” declared Greek Orthodoxy the one true religion, distinct from Roman Catholicism and independent from the pope. They altered the notion of the Trinity, proclaiming that the Holy Spirit proceeds from God the Father alone (not the Father and the Son). Each church solemnly and officially excommunicated the other, ultimately producing the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church as separate ecclesiastical entities.
Non-stop wars continued against the remnant Byzantine Empire, whose citizens were alternately labeled “infidels” by the conquering Muslim Turks or “heretics” by the sneering Roman Catholic West. The chaos led to more Byzantine disloyalty not simply to Rome but to Christianity itself. Well before the fall of Constantinople in 1453, many among the Eastern Orthodox believed that it was “much better to live under the Sultan’s turban than the Cardinal’s hat.”