book III. The Christian Enigma

Two thousand years ago, peace reigned in Europe. A peace enforced by violence, brutality, massacres and State terror. It had been like that during the two former millenaries throughout the world, in America and Asia, and it was not going to change: some thought it should, as the Buddha and Zarathustra in Asia, but they did not prevent the further exploitation of man by man. In Europe, the Roman legions took promptly care of the rebels. There was a carpenter in Palestine named Jesus who preached to peasants that they would live a better life in another world, if they lived virtuously in this one. He was promptly crucified for that and things went their usual course during the next three centuries. No one would lend any attention to the divagations of a carpenter preaching in Aramean silly dreams to peasants in Galilea. And yet, the Roman version of Christianity, and this version alone, imprinted eventually on the Western civilization during a millenary an indelible character of decency in social relations and progress in technology that led to our present way of life, throughout the world. This book III is the story of the rise and fall of Christendom.