Five Cities that Ruled the World by Douglas Wilson

Author:Douglas Wilson
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2013-02-07T04:30:00+00:00

When Luther’s Theses reached Rome, the Curia warned that the fuss over the indulgences was just the smoke. But Leo’s interest in what was happening north of Rome stopped at Tuscany. Instead of curbing his feckless tax-and-spend habits, the pope ignored the growing protest. Although he could compose clever verses in Latin and Greek, he could not parse the message from Wittenberg Cathedral.23

THE LEGACY OF ROME

One major benefit of empire is the stability it provides. Mail is delivered, products are grown or manufactured, and laws are enforced more or less uniformly. This stability enables people to plan their lives and generally do much better for themselves than they otherwise could have done. Of course, when empires grow, there are corresponding temptations. A strong pressure exists to have the empire retain the forms of the republic while denying the reality of it. Another temptation is that of overweening pride.

During its prime, Rome administered a rough justice, but one that was recognizably justice. And even a critic like Augustine—after the conversion of the empire—thought that Rome was far more durable than it appeared from the sack of Rome.24 That durability came, in part, from the stability provided by the empire. The structure of economic interests made the extension of legal predictability a possibility.

Stability provides certain blessings, but perhaps the later Romans, including the Christians, came to love that stability too much. Consider this overdone language from Eusebius, the early church historian:

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