nce on Christianity would be greater than that of any other man except the apostle Paul," remains the chief philosopher of Roman Catholicism. In his De civitate Dei (The City of God), he declared that the downfall of the Roman Empire, in which Christians were blamed for the sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410 CE, was due not to the adoption of its new faith but to the trappings of its old one, continuing sins--lascivious acts by the people at large, and corruption among the politicians. In actuality, Alaric and most of his Visigoths were "Arian Christians."
Augustine's philosophy of religion divided all creation into either civitate Dei or civitate terrena--the "earthly city" of self-will--and one's choice would determine how eternity would be spent.
Mankind (hominum) is divided into two sorts: such as live according to man, and such as live according to God. These we mystically call the "two cities" or societies, the one predestined to reign eternally with God, the other condemned to perpetual torment with Satan.
Because he had explicitly identified the Church with his civitate Dei, Augustine thus implied the need for a universal theocracy which, with its spiritual powers derived from God, would supersede the secular powers of kings, emperors, and governments. "The Church, drawing the inference, thereafter used Augustine's reasoning as an ideological tool and, ultimately, as a weapon in grappling with kings and emperors."
Pope Gregory I (590-604 CE), "Gregory the Great," ushered the Roman Catholic Church into the middle ages. A Roman of noble birth, he left public life to become a monk, and was the first monk to become pope. Indeed, monasticism, particularly Benedictine monasticism, rose in prominence during the period of Gregory's papacy and helped make the medieval church distinctive. Among the most significant accomplishments of his papacy were his claim of "universal" jurisdiction of the pope over Christe...