Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 38
Church offers a good example. A proposal made by the Roman Caesar Constantine to
his co-emperor Licinius Augustus in AD 313 culminated in a pact that recognized
Christianity as an official state religion. From that start the Christian hierarchy proved
itself very adept at consolidating its power by controlling public money.
The bishops of the time, starting under the leadership of Pope Sylvester I, were a heavy
influence in convincing the then co-emperor (but future sole emperor) that their new
religion would be the source of his uncontested power. The successful outcome of his
struggles, first with Maxentius and later with Licinius, his main rivals for the overlordship
of the empire, were attributed to the bishops’ close contact with the one and only true
God. The bishops tried to convince him that he should also accept their God as his own.
After he defeated Maxentius at the battle of Milvian Bridge, just north of Rome,
Constantine took the high-level connection of his Christian friends with their God very
seriously. It is said he fought that battle under the Christian cross and became a convert
thereafter.
No sooner had Constantine consolidated a firm grip on power, than the bishops began
taking control of the treasure of the pagan Roman temples and the wealth that they
controlled. The first round of great church building started right away but it didn’t last
very long. The Western Empire continued its decline and Constantine moved its new
capital to the east. At that time the center of power of the empire shifted to
Constantinople, where great Christian churches were built. Thus Christian temples did
not outnumber pagan temples in the ancient City of Rome. But the Christian’s takeover
of Roman temples throughout other cities of the empire continued. This was confirmed
after World War II when foundations of old cathedrals destroyed by bombardment were
dug to rebuild them. This work, as learned by tourists traveling through Europe,
uncovered remnants of the underlying ancient temples to pagan gods.
The rise to power of the Christian hierarchy unleashed an internal struggle for
domination within the church. The winners ultimately decided what dogma everyone
should believe and what material should go into the Bible that they labeled the word of
God. The Emperor’s blessing of these decisions gave them the human authority they
needed to become divine.
As the western world begun to emerge from the dark ages that prevailed between the
demise of Rome and the European renaissance, the Christian church, Catholic
(universal) at that time, was the only institutionalized custodian of knowledge in the non-
Islamic part of the continent. The Christian clergy also discovered what at the time was
the most effective way to raise revenue – to sell insurance, they called it indulgences,
for an eternal place in heaven. The revenues from the sale of these indulgences were
used not just to support the often-expensive life style of the prelates but also to build
great monuments where they could fulfill their dreams and display their power. The
justification was, of course, that they were for the glory of God. They were more
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