The Eternal City

Last Thursday Before Pentecost

Lectionary Texts:

Romans 8:18-27

John 15:25-27, 16:4b-16 

Thanks to Ed and Vicki Wike for pointing out a grievous oversight on my part. Of course Rome should be in the top ten, probably top five, but not number one unless your Catholic. The center of Rome is the part of Rome that's not in Italy, namely the Vatican--with St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. I've been to Rome twice. I had a couple of bad experiences there that may have colored my view of it. 

 

I am one of relatively few people who have seen the Sistine Chapel  both before and after the massive cleaning and restoration that began in 1980 and took 14 years. The before and after were dramatically different. Over 400 years of candle smoke had darkened Michelangelo's ceiling and rendered some of the figures completely obscure. My first impression of the cleaned ceiling was actually negative. I thought it pre-cleaned ceiling was dark, intense, dramatic. The cleaned ceiling was light, pastel looking, not so dramatic. 

About a year later Marianne and I went to a lecture on the subject at the N.C. Museum of Art. The Renaissance art historian who gave the lecture showed scores of side by side, before and after pictures of both large sections of the ceiling and small detailed pictures. I was amazed at how much more was visible it was after the cleaning and how much was missed when viewing the pre-cleaned ceiling. I wish the art historian (I don't remember her name or where she was from) had been with us on that visit. If you're interested, I suspect you can find before and after pictures on the internet. 

I have amazed my daughter April with my ability to name all the Roman Emperors and their dates. This is my period of specialization. Though the Empire colored all the events of Christian history through the first four centuries, relatively few of the couple of hundred Christian writers of this period came from Rome. The author of 1 Clement (which is in a few NT manuscripts) is said to be Clement, the third bishop of Rome. Hermas, author of The Shepherd of Hermas (also in some NT mss.) also lived in Rome. 

Peter and Paul died in Rome during the persecution of Christians under the emperor Nero in 64-65. Catholics considered Peter to have been the first bishop of Rome and thereby the first Pope. The pope does not become the powerful head of the Catholic Church until the fifth and sixth centuries, especially in the sixth century under Pope Gregory the Great. 

Rome has had its ups and downs. Founded in the eighth century BC,  it was ruled first by a series of seven Etruscan kings. Etruscans were indigenous peoples of Italy, as were Romans, but spoke a different language and had a different culture. In 509 BC, the Romans overthrew Etruscan rule and established a Republic ruled by a body of wealthy men, called the Senate. I've always loved the name of the last Etruscan king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus. He added that final name. 

The Senate ruled the Republic until 27 BC, when Caesar Augustus was declared emperor and the period of the Empire began (the first century BC is more actually complicated than that, but I'll save it for another blog sometime). The usual date given for the end of the Roman Empire is 476 BC, when the last Roman Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustulus died. Subsequent emperors were non-Romans from various invading tribes whom the Romans called barbarians. The city itself lost most of its power after Alaric and the Goths invaded and sacked the city in 410 AD. Not until the sixteenth century and the rule of powerful popes from the Medici and Borgia families did Rome again become a power. A lot happened over those 1000 years, but little of it happened in Rome. 

Again my apologies for my heinous error. 

Lord over all empires,

Help us to better understand the rise and fall of the mighty. Help us to lift up the meek, the lowly, the humble, the poor. In the name of Christ, the true king. Amen.

Cf. Mary's Magnificat in Luke 1:46-55 and the Prayer of Hannah in 1 Samuel 2:1-10.

Faithfully,

Christian