(December 25, 2014 at 7:43 pm)abaris Wrote:(December 25, 2014 at 7:34 pm)Zen Badger Wrote: The Roman Empire quite successfully transformed itself into a religion.
Making the spiritual successors to the Roman emperors, the popes heir to a temporal empire the Casears could've only dreamed of.
Not at all. A million people lived in Rome at it's height. In the Middle Ages when the popes were at the height of their power, an estimated 20.000 people lived there and the popes were presiding over a city of ruins. The city itself saw an incredible decline within 500 years due to many factors. One of them being the loss of the provinces, another frequent raids.
Also the popes weren't the ones seeing themselves continuing the Roman Empire. It were the Holy Roman emperors. First the Franks, then the German emperors up until 1806.
How many Catholics are there in the world?
How much property does the church own?
How much wealth does it posses?
The pope is in charge of an empire Augustus could not have even conceived of.
If you're not supposed to ride faster than your guardian angel can fly then mine had better get a bloody SR-71.