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In Constantine's eyes, Christ was a god of war. The nearly
illiterate emperor had the cross emblazoned on his soldiers' shields and
banners.13 The real Jesus, a country preacher of peace, would have
been horrified. But that scarcely mattered now. Christianity took over
the Roman armies, administration and wealth. In coming years, it
would go farther still, absorbing one barbarian tribe after another.
And, indeed, the church's glory would outlive the Roman Empire. As
the Christian congregation grew to engulf Europe, its key figures
would prosper with it. Christianity's Pope would become one of the
wealthiest and most powerful men on the Continent--a figure capable
of overawing kings and humiliating emperors (as Pope Hildebrand did
to Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV). Its cardinals and bishops would
bedeck themselves in a splendor so regal that earls and barons would
turn green with envy. And Christians by the millions would take upon
themselves the privilege of killing, torturing and raping those who
weren't members of their triumphant creed.
Christ may have failed to arrive with a band of angels to
transform the ravaged lands of Israel into a paradise. But the belief
preached in His name had lifted the humble and given them glory. It
had elevated believers from their lowly status as contemptible cultists,
placing some in thrones and palaces, and making them the lords and
masters of nearly all they surveyed. For the Christian elite, life did
indeed become a bit of heaven on earth.
Meanwhile, the growth of the Mohammedan superorganism in
the East brought a similar shower of heavenly rewards. As the Empire
of Islam grew in the seventh, eighth and ninth centuries, so did the
wealth and power of its adherents. Every time the soldiers of the faith
conquered a new city, the treasures of the defeated metropolis poured
into the coffers back at the center of the Empire. Former small-time
merchants from a dusty desert town moved into the palaces of the
conquered cities as the new overlords. And these nouveau riche
religionists showered their wealth and good fortune on their families
back home. Descendants of the backward traders of Mecca and
Medina, along with great grandchildren of desert chieftains who had
thrown their lot in with the new religion, became as gods on earth.
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