Yes, the collapse of the political power of the Western Roman Empire left the church as the only functioning institution. The same could not be said of the Eastern Empire which endured to a greater or lesser degree for another thousand years.
But, the early centers of xtianity were Alexandria, Antioch, Ephesus, and Rome (to some degree) and later Constantinople when they got around to building it. When Justinian issued his Pentarchy in 527 Ephesus was replaced by Jerusalem - more or less a ceremonial distinction as Jerusalem was little more than a provincial town whereas Ephesus was too close to the Eastern capitol of Constantinople to retain its place. The idea of the five equal centers did not go over well in Rome as obviously by this time the Peter bullshit story was spreading and they wanted primacy over all the others. Within a century the so-called muslim armies had captured Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria which rendered the whole structure somewhat pointless. It was left to Rome and Constantinople to argue it out which they did until 1054 when each side told the other to go fuck itself.
Anyway the video does a good job of trashing the Vatican's supposed finding of St Peter's "tomb" on the Vatican Hill. As shown by this diagram, archaeologists have determined that before the original basilica of "peter" was built by Constantine in the 4th century the site was occupied by Nero's circus - not to be confused with the Circus maximus which was next to the Palatine Hill.
![[Image: Circus-basilicas-plans.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=web.archive.org%2Fweb%2F20100305113143%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.saintpetersbasilica.org%2FPlans%2FCircus-basilicas-plans.jpg)
So there was nothing particularly "holy" about the site in the first century.... unless you consider chariots and horses and horseshit to be "holy."
But, the early centers of xtianity were Alexandria, Antioch, Ephesus, and Rome (to some degree) and later Constantinople when they got around to building it. When Justinian issued his Pentarchy in 527 Ephesus was replaced by Jerusalem - more or less a ceremonial distinction as Jerusalem was little more than a provincial town whereas Ephesus was too close to the Eastern capitol of Constantinople to retain its place. The idea of the five equal centers did not go over well in Rome as obviously by this time the Peter bullshit story was spreading and they wanted primacy over all the others. Within a century the so-called muslim armies had captured Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria which rendered the whole structure somewhat pointless. It was left to Rome and Constantinople to argue it out which they did until 1054 when each side told the other to go fuck itself.
Anyway the video does a good job of trashing the Vatican's supposed finding of St Peter's "tomb" on the Vatican Hill. As shown by this diagram, archaeologists have determined that before the original basilica of "peter" was built by Constantine in the 4th century the site was occupied by Nero's circus - not to be confused with the Circus maximus which was next to the Palatine Hill.
So there was nothing particularly "holy" about the site in the first century.... unless you consider chariots and horses and horseshit to be "holy."
