1
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'Rome. Holy city.'

2
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'Blessed by Pagan gods.'

3
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'Earthly capital of a glorious empire

4
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'with a divine mission to conquer and rule.'

5
00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:21,600
But Rome was to cast aside its pantheon of idols

6
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to embrace a revolutionary new faith from the East

7
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that would change its classical skyline forever.

8
00:00:38,320 --> 00:00:41,560
'Personal salvation and the worship of one God

9
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'eclipsed the gods of old.'

10
00:00:44,920 --> 00:00:49,800
'Soon after the crucifixion of Jesus his message started to spread...

11
00:00:49,800 --> 00:00:53,560
'but there was nothing inevitable about its ultimate triumph.'

12
00:00:54,720 --> 00:00:58,320
'The followers of Christ were viciously persecuted.'

13
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'But the martyrdom of St Peter gave Rome a new founding story

14
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'and a divine mission for his successors, the Popes.'

15
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Rome became a vibrant centre of Christian devotion.

16
00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:21,920
But it was the necessities of power

17
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that really decided its sacred destiny.

18
00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:34,360
'I've come as both historian and tourist,

19
00:01:34,360 --> 00:01:37,840
'to examine how the decision of one emperor

20
00:01:37,840 --> 00:01:42,880
'changed the history of Western civilisation and Rome itself.'

21
00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:50,640
'Its impact on the fabric of the city

22
00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:54,160
'and on the lives of its citizens, nobles and high priests.'

23
00:01:57,880 --> 00:02:01,800
'Abandoning paganism risked everything that Rome stood for.'

24
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'Triggering confusion, violence, power struggles,

25
00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:09,760
'and setting Popes and Emperors on a collision course.'

26
00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:19,160
So what transformed the Holy City of Rome from the pagan heart

27
00:02:19,160 --> 00:02:22,960
of the Roman Empire to the capital of Christendom?

28
00:02:48,200 --> 00:02:51,440
'On the outskirts of Rome, a stadium once stood.

29
00:02:53,080 --> 00:02:56,960
'Horse-races were staged there to entertain Emperors and citizens.'

30
00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:05,360
But in 64 AD the imperial race-track became the site of a mass execution.

31
00:03:11,200 --> 00:03:13,520
'The centre of Rome had been devastated by fire.

32
00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:17,960
'Angry Romans wanted someone to blame.

33
00:03:17,960 --> 00:03:22,200
'So Emperor Nero offered them a new religious sect - the Christians.

34
00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:34,520
'Some were torn to pieces by wild dogs,

35
00:03:34,520 --> 00:03:37,440
'others set on fire as human torches,

36
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'and a few were crucified.'

37
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Amongst them was Peter, a leader of the Christian mission in Rome

38
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and one of the original 12 disciples.

39
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Tradition says that out of respect for Jesus,

40
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he asked to be crucified upside down.

41
00:04:01,880 --> 00:04:04,840
'In the centre of the race-track stood an obelisk.'

42
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This is that same obelisk, and 2,000 years later,

43
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it's still in roughly the same place.

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It was probably the last thing that Peter saw.

45
00:04:19,680 --> 00:04:23,480
And this is probably the last thing that he could have imagined.

46
00:04:23,480 --> 00:04:28,120
St Peter's, the magnificent basilica built in his honour

47
00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:30,920
and still towering over the city of Rome.

48
00:04:46,200 --> 00:04:49,720
'Ultimately, Peter's execution would transform Rome.

49
00:04:51,160 --> 00:04:55,320
'But when he died, Christianity was just one of many Eastern cults,

50
00:04:55,320 --> 00:05:00,640
'struggling to survive, in a city dominated by pagan gods.

51
00:05:08,840 --> 00:05:13,440
'For a thousand years, paganism had brought success and prosperity

52
00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:15,040
'to the Eternal City.

53
00:05:16,280 --> 00:05:19,840
'The will of the Gods decided every aspect of Roman society.

54
00:05:21,280 --> 00:05:23,560
'When it went to war. Who its rulers were.

55
00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:29,400
'Paganism had brought Rome domination of the ancient world.'

56
00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:34,000
The Roman Empire was flexible, embracing and co-opting

57
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foreign gods into its own state religion,

58
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but so far none had threatened the status quo.

59
00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:48,400
'But Christianity was radically different.'

60
00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:53,200
# Gloria

61
00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:55,000
# Gloria. #

62
00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:58,040
'Whereas paganism sought the goodwill and protection

63
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'of the Gods in this life,

64
00:06:00,760 --> 00:06:06,280
'Christianity held out the promise of eternal life in the next world.

65
00:06:06,280 --> 00:06:09,520
'But its rejection of pagan practice marked it out.'

66
00:06:14,520 --> 00:06:18,000
The Christian refusal to sacrifice to the ancestral Gods

67
00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:19,720
in honour of the Emperor

68
00:06:19,720 --> 00:06:23,400
made them a potential threat to the Roman state itself.

69
00:06:26,680 --> 00:06:30,360
'As Christianity took hold amongst Rome's under-classes,

70
00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:33,200
'the pagan establishment sought to discredit it.

71
00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:41,040
'The ritual of Holy Communion, the taking of Christ's body and blood,

72
00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:43,280
'was described as cannibalism.'

73
00:06:48,200 --> 00:06:52,280
'Yet, meeting in secret, the Christian community began to grow.

74
00:06:55,280 --> 00:06:57,640
'Historian Alexander Evers is taking me

75
00:06:57,640 --> 00:07:01,480
'to one of Rome's remaining house churches from the second century.

76
00:07:04,440 --> 00:07:06,880
'What took place in private dwellings like this

77
00:07:06,880 --> 00:07:10,200
'would sow the seeds of Rome's unique Christian future.'

78
00:07:13,400 --> 00:07:16,960
So what was the early church in Rome really like?

79
00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:21,720
Initially, you can safely say it was an unorganised heap of people.

80
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Hardly any structure there. A large group. A growing group within Rome.

81
00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:30,880
But not united. There are differences of opinion

82
00:07:30,880 --> 00:07:33,320
about how to worship, where to worship.

83
00:07:33,320 --> 00:07:38,360
And eventually, gradually, you have those single figures of authority

84
00:07:38,360 --> 00:07:40,400
rising to the fore.

85
00:07:40,400 --> 00:07:42,960
The Bishop, who can pull it all together.

86
00:07:42,960 --> 00:07:46,560
So where did the early Bishops of Rome get their authority from?

87
00:07:46,560 --> 00:07:48,640
From a fairly early point onwards,

88
00:07:48,640 --> 00:07:51,480
they're beginning to place themselves in one line

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with the apostle, Peter, who was the right hand of Christ,

90
00:07:54,720 --> 00:07:58,240
who supposedly was the first Bishop of Rome.

91
00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:01,760
Where that tradition comes from is not entirely clear,

92
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but that tradition, "I'm the successor to Peter",

93
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gives them an enormous source of authority.

94
00:08:09,440 --> 00:08:12,160
# Sanctus

95
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# Sanctus. #

96
00:08:14,200 --> 00:08:16,520
'The lineage of Bishops from St Peter

97
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'is known as the apostolic succession.

98
00:08:19,680 --> 00:08:22,760
'It's the bedrock of the Bishop of Rome's authority

99
00:08:22,760 --> 00:08:25,160
'and papal power to this day.

100
00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:28,960
'But in the third century, the Bishops were leaders

101
00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:30,600
'of a religion on the margins.

102
00:08:32,800 --> 00:08:35,520
'And that's why I'm heading to the outskirts of Rome,

103
00:08:35,520 --> 00:08:38,080
'and the catacombs of San Callisto.

104
00:08:44,240 --> 00:08:47,240
'Deep within its maze of underground corridors,

105
00:08:47,240 --> 00:08:51,120
'there is something hard to find, and yet very important.

106
00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:57,520
'Early evidence of how the Bishops of Rome got their unique title.'

107
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This reads PP, which stands for Papa or Pope,

108
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and it's the first example we have of an inscription

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that refers to the Bishops of Rome by that title.

110
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At the time, any charismatic bishop anywhere in Christendom

111
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might have been known as Pope, but gradually, the Bishops of Rome

112
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came to be known by that name, though, surprisingly,

113
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it wasn't for almost 800 years, until the 11th century,

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that it became official.

115
00:09:30,920 --> 00:09:34,480
'But there is something else down here that I really want to see.

116
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'Some of Rome's very first Popes

117
00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:44,320
'were buried in these subterranean tombs.'

118
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What an extraordinary room this is. This is the crypt of the Popes,

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and nine of the Bishops of Rome are buried here,

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dating all the way back to the early 3rd century.

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It's an extraordinary thought that these men

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were the leaders of Christianity, right at the very beginning,

123
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long before the Papacy became the office of power,

124
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magnificence and wealth that we know today.

125
00:10:25,240 --> 00:10:27,960
'But some of these Bishops, just like St Peter,

126
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'were to die for their faith.'

127
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Sixtus II was celebrating mass right here at the altar,

128
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when Roman soldiers burst in.

129
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When they drew their swords, the entire congregation competed

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to offer themselves for the honour of martyrdom,

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at which Sixtus pushed himself forwards, bared his neck,

132
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and begged them to take his head.

133
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The soldiers were happy to take him up on his offer.

134
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They beheaded him on the spot.

135
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'The persecution of the Christians wasn't constant.

136
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'When the Roman Empire prospered,

137
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'the church was reluctantly tolerated.

138
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'But in the mid 3rd century,

139
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'the empire tottered on the edge of catastrophe.'

140
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Rome faced 50 years of disaster.

141
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Civil wars, invasions, and a bewildering succession of emperors.

142
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The cracks in the imperial edifice seemed terminal.

143
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'Some emperors believed that Rome was being punished

144
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'for turning a blind eye to the Christians.

145
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'The unity of city and empire was at stake.

146
00:11:58,760 --> 00:12:00,440
'Something had to be done.'

147
00:12:04,320 --> 00:12:06,720
In 303, the Emperor Diocletian

148
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launched the bloodiest persecution to date.

149
00:12:13,440 --> 00:12:16,360
'Churches were destroyed, bishops decapitated.

150
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'The streets were awash with the blood of the faithful.

151
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But the killings failed.

152
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The persecutions merely served to promote and advertise

153
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the faith of the martyrs.

154
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The flame of Christianity could not be extinguished.

155
00:12:42,120 --> 00:12:45,920
'Diocletian's victims would forever leave their mark on Rome.

156
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'And remarkably, one has been preserved to this day.

157
00:12:52,720 --> 00:12:55,320
'This figure, one of the city's least known

158
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'but macabre sights, appears to be a statue.

159
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'But closer inspection reveals something far more spine-chilling.'

160
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When at first you look at this, you think it must be a waxwork.

161
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But when you look a little closer into the slightly open mouth,

162
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you see through the open lips of the skeleton.

163
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And if you look at the hands, on the outside, they appear to be wax,

164
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but look inside, you can see not just the skeletal bones

165
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of the real hand and the body,

166
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but actually the dried skin there, too.

167
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This is the body of Saint Vittoria.

168
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'The cruel deaths of the martyrs didn't destroy Christianity.

169
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'Their stories kept it alive.

170
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'But it was still just one of many religious sects

171
00:13:53,160 --> 00:13:54,960
'on the edges of Roman society.

172
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'Only the whim or faith of an emperor

173
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'could change the course of history.'

174
00:14:15,200 --> 00:14:18,120
'Emperor Constantine was a ruthless general

175
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'who slashed his way to power.'

176
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He was a harsh warlord, capable of terrifying violence.

177
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He even executed his own wife and son.

178
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But he was also a visionary, who in one decision

179
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changed the entire course of Western civilization.

180
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'No-one knows for sure

181
00:14:42,400 --> 00:14:45,400
'why Constantine chose to embrace Christianity.

182
00:14:46,800 --> 00:14:50,920
'But the decisive revelation took place here at Milvian Bridge

183
00:14:50,920 --> 00:14:52,480
'on the outskirts of Rome.'

184
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'The over-extended empire had been split in two - East and West.

185
00:15:03,840 --> 00:15:06,120
'Rome was no longer the imperial capital.

186
00:15:08,240 --> 00:15:11,280
'Each region was ruled by an Emperor and his deputy.'

187
00:15:13,720 --> 00:15:16,840
Constantine shared the West with Maxentius,

188
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but they soon became bitter rivals.

189
00:15:24,520 --> 00:15:28,800
'In 312, Constantine had cornered Maxentius' forces

190
00:15:28,800 --> 00:15:30,400
'on the banks of the Tiber.'

191
00:15:36,640 --> 00:15:40,480
Before battle commenced, Constantine had a vision.

192
00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:43,760
He saw the sign of the cross superimposed on the sun

193
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with the words "By this sign, thou shalt conquer".

194
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At the very last moment, he ordered his soldiers' shields

195
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to be emblazoned with the cross.

196
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Fighting under Christian banners,

197
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he won the greatest victory of his life.

198
00:16:04,200 --> 00:16:08,280
'Constantine now saw Christ not as the crucified lamb of God,

199
00:16:09,480 --> 00:16:11,280
'but as a potent God of victory.

200
00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:16,600
'He was about to turn his back on everything that had made Rome.'

201
00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:21,640
'Exchange the protection of many gods for just one.

202
00:16:22,920 --> 00:16:26,160
'Overturn a thousand years of Roman history,

203
00:16:26,160 --> 00:16:29,160
'and embrace the faith of persecuted radicals.

204
00:16:31,240 --> 00:16:34,720
'But could Rome withstand this revolution?

205
00:16:34,720 --> 00:16:37,080
'Constantine was willing to take that gamble.

206
00:16:41,400 --> 00:16:45,120
'But while an Emperor could change his religion overnight,

207
00:16:45,120 --> 00:16:47,640
'Rome's pagan citizens would take longer.

208
00:16:49,800 --> 00:16:52,520
'The arch built to mark Constantine's victory

209
00:16:52,520 --> 00:16:55,400
'shows how controversial this change of policy was.'

210
00:16:57,800 --> 00:17:00,000
This arch contains a surprise.

211
00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:04,960
If you look up here on line three, you'll see the divinity

212
00:17:04,960 --> 00:17:09,440
that Constantine thanks for his victory is subtly ambiguous.

213
00:17:09,440 --> 00:17:11,560
It could be either Christian or pagan.

214
00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:17,960
'Constantine doesn't give thanks to the pagan god of war,

215
00:17:17,960 --> 00:17:20,360
'but neither does he reveal his new faith.

216
00:17:21,440 --> 00:17:24,680
'He uses a general term for divinity - divinitas,

217
00:17:24,680 --> 00:17:27,840
'which was acceptable to both pagans and Christians.

218
00:17:30,880 --> 00:17:34,880
'Promoting Christianity in a world where the majority was still pagan

219
00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:40,240
'would need tact and diplomacy, even from an all-conquering emperor.

220
00:17:44,160 --> 00:17:48,160
'Constantine's cautious approach to conversion is reflected

221
00:17:48,160 --> 00:17:51,360
'in the 4th century church of Santa Pudenziana.'

222
00:17:56,480 --> 00:17:58,720
The facade of this church wouldn't have looked

223
00:17:58,720 --> 00:18:00,800
at all out of place in pagan Rome.

224
00:18:00,800 --> 00:18:03,160
It's a basilica, literally, a king's hall,

225
00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:07,160
and this was the typical rectangular building of Roman public life,

226
00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:09,960
where emperors and governors held court.

227
00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:18,000
'The need to fit in is further revealed when you step inside.

228
00:18:20,840 --> 00:18:25,840
'The image of a humble saviour has received a grand Roman makeover.

229
00:18:33,320 --> 00:18:36,600
'Jesus isn't nailed to the cross like a common criminal.

230
00:18:38,080 --> 00:18:42,200
'He's depicted ostentatiously on a throne, like a king or an emperor,

231
00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:46,960
'and his disciples are dressed in the togas of the aristocracy,

232
00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:50,320
'like senators holding court in a classical city.'

233
00:18:57,680 --> 00:19:00,480
Pagan Romans coming in here wouldn't have been shocked

234
00:19:00,480 --> 00:19:02,840
or put off by anything they saw.

235
00:19:02,840 --> 00:19:05,600
But this wasn't the lower-class, radical religion

236
00:19:05,600 --> 00:19:07,000
of the early church.

237
00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:11,840
This was imperial Christianity, designed to attract and impress

238
00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:13,360
Romans high and low.

239
00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:21,960
'Christianity was becoming Roman.

240
00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:24,600
'Rome was becoming Christian.

241
00:19:28,320 --> 00:19:31,640
'But Rome's rebirth as a sacred city of Christendom

242
00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:34,080
'required a transfer of holiness

243
00:19:34,080 --> 00:19:36,960
'from Christianity's first holy city.

244
00:19:38,800 --> 00:19:40,840
'Constantine dispatched his mother, Helena,

245
00:19:40,840 --> 00:19:43,400
'on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

246
00:19:46,440 --> 00:19:50,360
'Helena returned with a precious collection of Christian relics.

247
00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:52,920
'And I'm just about to witness

248
00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:55,960
'the most monumental treasure of them all.'

249
00:20:01,400 --> 00:20:04,920
This is one of Empress Helena's most extraordinary finds.

250
00:20:04,920 --> 00:20:06,720
The Scala Sancta.

251
00:20:06,720 --> 00:20:08,720
This staircase is believed to be

252
00:20:08,720 --> 00:20:13,080
from the palace of Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem.

253
00:20:13,080 --> 00:20:16,720
Jesus walked down these steps after he was sentenced to death.

254
00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:24,160
'Unlike the remote pagan Gods,

255
00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:29,240
'the Christian God had a son whom he had sacrificed for humanity.

256
00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:35,200
'And what Christ had touched, his followers also wanted to touch.'

257
00:20:37,360 --> 00:20:41,640
For centuries, pilgrims have climbed these steps on their knees

258
00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:46,640
as an act of piety, to get closer to Christ and honour his suffering.

259
00:20:52,120 --> 00:20:54,320
It's not often, in our secular age,

260
00:20:54,320 --> 00:21:00,040
that you see a place of such intense, passionate devotion,

261
00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:02,840
but this tells you something about Rome as a holy city.

262
00:21:02,840 --> 00:21:05,600
A holy city is a place where God meets man.

263
00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:08,840
And that is exactly what these pilgrims are doing.

264
00:21:20,160 --> 00:21:23,520
While Helena was importing holiness from Jerusalem,

265
00:21:23,520 --> 00:21:28,160
Constantine was keen to promote the city's home-grown Christian sites.

266
00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:29,800
But he had to be careful.

267
00:21:29,800 --> 00:21:32,280
Rome was still overwhelmingly pagan,

268
00:21:32,280 --> 00:21:36,000
and that's why he built his first churches away from the centre.

269
00:21:42,880 --> 00:21:45,440
'Constantine built seven churches in Rome.

270
00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:49,440
'But one took on supreme importance.

271
00:21:51,760 --> 00:21:55,840
'Nero's Circus had become a holy place for Rome's Christians,

272
00:21:55,840 --> 00:21:58,960
'as the location of Peter's crucifixion and burial.

273
00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:03,400
'A simple shrine had been erected over his grave.'

274
00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:09,040
Constantine recognised the importance of the site.

275
00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:13,200
A direct link between Rome and Jesus Christ himself,

276
00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:15,960
through his right-hand man, Peter.

277
00:22:15,960 --> 00:22:20,880
So Constantine decided to build his biggest basilica over Peter's tomb.

278
00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:35,480
'Constantine's basilica gave Rome's Christians

279
00:22:35,480 --> 00:22:37,200
'a new focus for devotion.

280
00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:44,560
'It stood for over a thousand years,

281
00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:47,440
'until it was rebuilt during the Renaissance.

282
00:22:53,600 --> 00:22:55,880
'Jesus said that Peter would be the rock

283
00:22:55,880 --> 00:22:57,960
'on which his church was built.

284
00:22:59,280 --> 00:23:03,080
'Constantine's basilica literally fulfilled that prophecy.

285
00:23:08,760 --> 00:23:12,720
'Over the centuries, St Peter's was to become the cornerstone

286
00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:14,120
'of the Catholic Church

287
00:23:14,120 --> 00:23:18,080
'and the headquarters for an empire of Christian souls.

288
00:23:20,080 --> 00:23:22,360
'But when Constantine commissioned it,

289
00:23:22,360 --> 00:23:24,800
'it was still an act of wishful thinking.'

290
00:23:33,320 --> 00:23:38,160
Constantine's St Peter's promoted Rome as a Christian centre.

291
00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:41,480
But he died leaving a hybrid holy city,

292
00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:43,520
part Christian, but part pagan.

293
00:23:47,600 --> 00:23:50,720
'The temples of the old Gods still dominated the skyline.

294
00:23:51,840 --> 00:23:53,960
'Pagans still dominated the city.

295
00:23:55,560 --> 00:23:58,680
'Constantine's divine gamble now lay in the hands

296
00:23:58,680 --> 00:24:00,520
'of Rome's new high priests.'

297
00:24:03,120 --> 00:24:06,200
It was now down to the Popes, Rome's Bishops,

298
00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:07,920
to really make Rome Christian.

299
00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:14,040
BELL TOLLS

300
00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:28,600
Before Constantine, Rome's Bishops had been persecuted leaders.

301
00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:33,160
Now they were important officials with real influence.

302
00:24:35,520 --> 00:24:39,600
One Pope, Damasus I, revelled in this new status.

303
00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:47,320
Nearly 70 when he came to power,

304
00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:51,080
Damasus didn't allow old age to dampen his pleasures.

305
00:24:51,080 --> 00:24:54,520
Corrupt and egotistical, his enemies described him

306
00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:57,800
as a smooth-talking adulterer, or as they put it,

307
00:24:57,800 --> 00:25:00,400
"A tickler of the ears of middle-aged women."

308
00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:07,240
'But Damasus was also a poet

309
00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:11,320
'who used his literary gifts to win Christian souls.

310
00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:13,920
'He took Rome's earliest sites of martyrdom

311
00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:16,080
'and celebrated them in poetry.

312
00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:22,880
'This poetical propaganda has been studied by Marianne Saghy,

313
00:25:22,880 --> 00:25:26,560
'an historian who I'm meeting at the Church of Sant' Agnese.'

314
00:25:29,440 --> 00:25:35,760
Pope Damasus went into every single catacomb, more than sixty catacombs,

315
00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:41,280
placing poetic inscriptions above the holy graves.

316
00:25:41,280 --> 00:25:46,320
Damasus' inscriptions were like huge billboards in the labyrinthine

317
00:25:46,320 --> 00:25:48,480
darkness of the catacombs.

318
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:55,440
And it attracted huge throngs, huge crowds to the graves of the martyrs.

319
00:25:55,440 --> 00:25:57,720
What was Damasus' impact on the church?

320
00:25:57,720 --> 00:26:03,480
Damasus understood and saw the power radiating from the holy ashes

321
00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:08,560
and holy relics, and therefore he wanted to put the stamp

322
00:26:08,560 --> 00:26:12,000
of the Church on the tombs of the martyrs.

323
00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:20,280
'Damasus had created a ring of holy sites around the city.

324
00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:25,600
'But Christianity faced a stiffer challenge in the centre of Rome.

325
00:26:30,640 --> 00:26:33,720
'Culturally, Romans were still attached to the rhythms

326
00:26:33,720 --> 00:26:35,920
'and festivals of the pagan calendar,

327
00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:37,880
'which promised feasting and fun.

328
00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:43,400
'Christianity had to compete on a social level, too.'

329
00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:48,320
By a mixture of accident and design,

330
00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:52,080
the Christian calendar began to overlap with the pagan.

331
00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:55,600
St Peter's birthday coincided with Caristia,

332
00:26:55,600 --> 00:26:58,480
a pagan festival of banqueting and gift giving.

333
00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:05,120
'By the end of the 4th century, Romans could have two parties,

334
00:27:05,120 --> 00:27:08,680
'one pagan, one Christian, on fourteen days of the year.'

335
00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:14,600
Some Christians even continued to participate in the shameless

336
00:27:14,600 --> 00:27:18,360
immodesty of the Lupercalia fertility festival,

337
00:27:18,360 --> 00:27:20,640
running half naked through the streets

338
00:27:20,640 --> 00:27:23,560
while whipping girls with strips of goat hide.

339
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:29,440
'To persuade Rome's citizens to fully embrace Christianity,

340
00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:32,160
'Damasus turned his gift for propaganda

341
00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:35,040
'to the city's greatest spiritual asset.'

342
00:27:38,040 --> 00:27:40,920
Damasus had claimed Rome for St Peter.

343
00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:45,080
Now, cleverly, he claimed St Peter for Rome.

344
00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:47,120
St Peter had been martyred in Rome,

345
00:27:47,120 --> 00:27:49,840
and therefore, he was a Roman citizen,

346
00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:55,160
and this gave his direct heirs, the Bishops of Rome, special authority.

347
00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:02,200
'By commandeering St Peter's legacy for the city,

348
00:28:02,200 --> 00:28:05,880
'Damasus asserted Rome's primacy in the wider church,

349
00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:08,600
'and enhanced the status of Christianity at home.'

350
00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:22,640
'Meanwhile, events beyond the reaches of the Empire

351
00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:25,400
'were to have a devastating effect on Rome,

352
00:28:25,400 --> 00:28:28,080
'changing the Holy City forever.

353
00:28:34,800 --> 00:28:38,960
'By the beginning of 5th century, barbarian tribes were on the move.

354
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:43,240
'The Huns migrated into central Europe,

355
00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:45,760
'displacing the Germanic Goths,

356
00:28:45,760 --> 00:28:49,040
'who became refugees on the borders of the Roman Empire.'

357
00:28:53,480 --> 00:28:56,600
Defenceless and hungry, the Goths were forced to trade

358
00:28:56,600 --> 00:29:00,800
their own children for food, but the Romans sold them dog meat.

359
00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:04,760
Tensions reached boiling point and the barbarians mobilised.

360
00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:11,760
'With the Western Empire weakened by dynastic infighting,

361
00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:15,760
'the Goths, under their King, Alaric, made a bold move.'

362
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:20,280
Rome was no longer the Imperial capital,

363
00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:23,280
but it was the symbol of Empire.

364
00:29:23,280 --> 00:29:25,120
Bewitched by its faded glories,

365
00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:27,680
Alaric wanted to share in its majesty.

366
00:29:27,680 --> 00:29:32,320
But what he really wanted, like every barbarian, was to be a Roman.

367
00:29:35,840 --> 00:29:39,000
'Alaric besieged Rome and tried to cut a deal.

368
00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:45,320
'He wanted land for the Goths to settle.

369
00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:50,200
'Rome's elite, inheritors of an illustrious past,

370
00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:53,880
'refused to meet the demands of impertinent barbarians.'

371
00:29:56,240 --> 00:29:58,240
Alaric's response was chilling.

372
00:29:58,240 --> 00:30:02,040
"The thicker the grass," he said, "the easier to scythe it down."

373
00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:05,280
His dagger was at the throat of the Western Empire,

374
00:30:05,280 --> 00:30:07,560
but still no compromise could be found.

375
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:17,520
'Starvation set in.

376
00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:21,680
'The Romans couldn't bury their dead inside the city walls

377
00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:24,480
'so putrefying bodies littered the streets.

378
00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:32,040
'Desperate to put the population out of its misery,

379
00:30:32,040 --> 00:30:34,240
'a noblewoman opened the city gates.

380
00:30:37,880 --> 00:30:40,520
'Alaric's 40,000 Goths burst in.

381
00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:46,760
'Mansions were plundered, the rich were tortured

382
00:30:46,760 --> 00:30:48,920
'to give up their treasure.

383
00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:52,680
'And those who couldn't flee were terrorized or killed.

384
00:30:52,680 --> 00:30:55,120
'Their women, raped.'

385
00:30:56,520 --> 00:30:59,960
The Goths were Arians, a sect of heretical Christians,

386
00:30:59,960 --> 00:31:02,240
so they showed some restraint.

387
00:31:02,240 --> 00:31:04,560
They respected the sanctity of the holy sites.

388
00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:06,600
St Peter's was left unscathed,

389
00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:09,440
and by the standards of barbarian sackings,

390
00:31:09,440 --> 00:31:12,040
this one was less barbaric than expected.

391
00:31:19,760 --> 00:31:22,240
'Nevertheless, the psychological effect

392
00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:24,040
'of the sacking was shattering.

393
00:31:25,320 --> 00:31:27,840
'The city that had conquered the whole world

394
00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:29,880
'was believed to have been murdered.

395
00:31:31,040 --> 00:31:33,920
'A sense of instability pervaded Rome.'

396
00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:39,680
The great theologian of the day, St Augustine, believed the reason

397
00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:43,240
Rome had fallen because it was still essentially pagan,

398
00:31:43,240 --> 00:31:45,600
and steeped in sin.

399
00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:48,880
The kingdom of heaven was the only salvation.

400
00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:50,800
The Imperial City was doomed.

401
00:31:57,920 --> 00:31:59,640
'Rome's mythological past -

402
00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:04,440
'its founding fathers, Romulus and Remus - couldn't be erased.

403
00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:06,960
'Paganism was still deeply ingrained.

404
00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:13,240
'But one Pope who witnessed the sacking, Leo the Great,

405
00:32:13,240 --> 00:32:17,640
'saw a way of channelling the prestige of the pagan world

406
00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:20,120
'into the magnificence of the Christian.

407
00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:29,080
'To find out how Leo shaped the Christian identity of Rome,

408
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:32,520
'I'm meeting historian Michele Renee Salzman.'

409
00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:38,760
Michele, how did pope Leo promote Christianity in a city that still

410
00:32:38,760 --> 00:32:41,720
had such a strong classical Roman tradition?

411
00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:45,800
Leo was very proud of the

412
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:47,360
Roman tradition in the Pagan past,

413
00:32:47,360 --> 00:32:48,520
he is the first Pope to

414
00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:51,560
actually mention Romulus and Remus,

415
00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:55,240
and to take pride in the Roman Empire in one of his sermons,

416
00:32:55,240 --> 00:32:57,600
but a better empire, a stronger empire,

417
00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:00,880
a greater empire resides with Christ.

418
00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:06,200
So he is very involved in maintaining the physical fabric

419
00:33:06,200 --> 00:33:08,760
of the city, but as a Christian centre.

420
00:33:09,840 --> 00:33:13,120
So what was Leo's personal relationship with St Peter?

421
00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:18,800
Leo felt very intimately connected to St Peter.

422
00:33:18,800 --> 00:33:21,720
Of course, every bishop could claim that their authority

423
00:33:21,720 --> 00:33:24,880
comes from Peter, the very first Bishop of Rome,

424
00:33:24,880 --> 00:33:29,920
but Leo makes it a very intimate tie in his ordination sermons.

425
00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:32,880
He talks about Peter's spirit almost living through him,

426
00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:36,520
and I think it's very telling that when Leo is buried,

427
00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:39,520
he is the first Pope buried in St Peter's,

428
00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:42,320
so that tie, that intimate tie, lives on forever.

429
00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:51,320
'Leo had exploited the unique link between Rome and St Peter

430
00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:54,240
'to mobilize the Christian spirit of the city.

431
00:33:55,600 --> 00:33:58,520
'But it was also a reminder, to the wider church,

432
00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:02,440
'that Bishops of Rome were the ultimate authority in Christendom.

433
00:34:03,920 --> 00:34:06,280
'And this new confidence was reflected

434
00:34:06,280 --> 00:34:07,960
'in the centre of the city.'

435
00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:13,600
In just over a century since the time of Constantine,

436
00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:17,840
the pagan city was now infused with the spirit of St Peter.

437
00:34:19,040 --> 00:34:22,240
Pristine, lavishly-decorated churches overshadowed

438
00:34:22,240 --> 00:34:24,280
the temples to the old Gods.

439
00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:32,200
'Rome now had the skyline of a Christian capital.

440
00:34:32,200 --> 00:34:34,960
'One God, one credo, one Pope.

441
00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:41,080
'But with spiritual authority concentrated in one figure,

442
00:34:41,080 --> 00:34:43,720
'Rome's fate was now bound to one man.

443
00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:48,520
'A good Pope could lead the Holy City to further glory.

444
00:34:50,720 --> 00:34:53,320
'A bad Pope would spell disaster.

445
00:34:59,240 --> 00:35:03,360
'By 536, Rome and all of Italy was controlled

446
00:35:03,360 --> 00:35:05,400
'by barbarian Christian kings.

447
00:35:07,200 --> 00:35:12,240
'Emperor Justinian ruled the entire Eastern Empire from Constantinople.'

448
00:35:14,240 --> 00:35:17,400
He had a vision of reuniting the old Roman empire,

449
00:35:17,400 --> 00:35:20,560
with himself as Christ's sacred emperor.

450
00:35:23,520 --> 00:35:27,360
The jewel of Italy was, of course, the old imperial capital,

451
00:35:27,360 --> 00:35:31,080
but to control Rome, Justinian needed a puppet Pope.

452
00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:38,800
'So he cut a deal with Vigilius,

453
00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:41,200
'the greedy papal ambassador to the East.'

454
00:35:44,680 --> 00:35:48,120
Vigilius agreed to be Justinian's Pope

455
00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:52,840
in return for the sum of 700 pounds of gold.

456
00:36:00,720 --> 00:36:04,400
But first, Justinian had to take Italy from the Goths.

457
00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:05,760
He dispatched an expedition

458
00:36:05,760 --> 00:36:09,320
under his brilliant general, Count Belisarius.

459
00:36:09,320 --> 00:36:13,800
In a remarkable display of military virtuosity, Belisarius,

460
00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:17,240
with just a few thousand men, captured Rome.

461
00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:28,160
'Justinian ousted the old Pope and installed Vigilius.

462
00:36:28,160 --> 00:36:30,800
'Everything seemed to be going according to plan.'

463
00:36:32,360 --> 00:36:36,440
Vigilius now regarded himself as the direct heir of St Peter.

464
00:36:36,440 --> 00:36:39,680
Justinian, Christ's vice-regent on earth,

465
00:36:39,680 --> 00:36:42,440
had little time for self-promoting bishops.

466
00:36:42,440 --> 00:36:44,600
The two were on collision course.

467
00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:50,680
Vigilius tried to assert Rome's authority.

468
00:36:50,680 --> 00:36:53,680
But he was ineffectual, pleasing nobody.

469
00:36:53,680 --> 00:36:56,360
Eventually, Justinian's patience snapped.

470
00:36:57,880 --> 00:37:00,680
He kidnapped the Pope and sent him back to the East.

471
00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:05,280
As the Pope's boat left the Tiber wharf, his reputation

472
00:37:05,280 --> 00:37:09,240
was in tatters. The crowd threw stones and yelled insults.

473
00:37:12,240 --> 00:37:16,560
Vigilius was even more humiliated in Constantinople.

474
00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:19,840
He called a council of bishops, but it descended into a brawl.

475
00:37:22,040 --> 00:37:24,640
Vigilius sought refuge in the palace church.

476
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:28,280
He clung to the altar, but was dragged out by his beard

477
00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:32,600
and forced to sign a document recognising Justinian's supremacy.

478
00:37:37,560 --> 00:37:41,520
'Justinian's attempt to harness Rome's holy authority

479
00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:43,120
'had all but destroyed it.

480
00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:50,800
'The Papacy had hit it's lowest point, and the city would follow.'

481
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:03,320
The Eastern Empire struggled to hold Italy.

482
00:38:04,640 --> 00:38:06,680
Within less than a generation

483
00:38:06,680 --> 00:38:10,360
another Germanic tribe had its sights on Rome.

484
00:38:12,080 --> 00:38:17,120
The Lombards marched south. First plundering, then settling.

485
00:38:17,120 --> 00:38:19,880
By 590, Rome was desperate and battled-scarred.

486
00:38:24,280 --> 00:38:27,920
Rome's aqueducts, the embodiment of imperial might,

487
00:38:27,920 --> 00:38:33,160
were left to crumble, the city's vital water supplies seeping away.

488
00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:40,320
Impoverished and starving, its population reduced to 90,000,

489
00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:42,520
the once-glorious capital

490
00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:45,920
was now just a beleaguered outpost on the fringes of Empire.

491
00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:48,120
Rome needed a new hero,

492
00:38:48,120 --> 00:38:52,400
and the Pope was the only and last person who could save the city.

493
00:38:59,480 --> 00:39:01,600
Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

494
00:39:07,080 --> 00:39:09,160
Gregory was a super-rich aristocrat

495
00:39:09,160 --> 00:39:14,320
who had already served as city prefect - in effect, Mayor of Rome.

496
00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:17,040
But the messy business of politics disgusted him

497
00:39:17,040 --> 00:39:19,840
and he suffered an existential crisis.

498
00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:22,720
He craved a life of quiet contemplation.

499
00:39:28,680 --> 00:39:32,120
'Resigning his city post, he withdrew to the family mansion

500
00:39:32,120 --> 00:39:34,280
'here on the Caelian hill,

501
00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:36,920
'which he converted into a monastic community.'

502
00:39:38,120 --> 00:39:41,920
A church dedicated to Gregory, Gregorio Magno,

503
00:39:41,920 --> 00:39:44,360
now stands on the same site.

504
00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:48,040
And his spirit lives on in the custodians of the church,

505
00:39:48,040 --> 00:39:50,040
the monks of the Camaldolese order.

506
00:39:53,680 --> 00:39:57,560
Freed from the stresses of public office, the years spent in prayer

507
00:39:57,560 --> 00:40:01,400
and reflection here were the happiest of Gregory's life.

508
00:40:06,160 --> 00:40:09,840
This is said to be Gregory's monastic cell,

509
00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:13,680
but there's a feature of this room that a lot of visitors miss.

510
00:40:13,680 --> 00:40:15,160
That's behind this grille.

511
00:40:15,160 --> 00:40:20,960
If you open it and look inside, there's just room in there

512
00:40:20,960 --> 00:40:23,640
for a small man to sleep.

513
00:40:23,640 --> 00:40:27,200
This is a very serene place, and it must have seemed as if

514
00:40:27,200 --> 00:40:32,600
Gregory would never return to the dirty world of power and intrigue.

515
00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:40,240
But Gregory's seclusion was short lived.

516
00:40:45,560 --> 00:40:49,800
Rome was cut off from Constantinople by Lombard forces,

517
00:40:49,800 --> 00:40:52,520
and all but abandoned by imperial officials.

518
00:40:54,040 --> 00:40:56,120
In a city on the verge of collapse,

519
00:40:56,120 --> 00:41:00,800
only one organization was left standing - the Church.

520
00:41:00,800 --> 00:41:04,160
Reluctantly, Gregory was drawn back into civil affairs.

521
00:41:05,840 --> 00:41:09,240
Ordained against his will, he ran a section of the city,

522
00:41:09,240 --> 00:41:11,200
and when Pope Pelagius died of plague,

523
00:41:11,200 --> 00:41:13,560
he was elected his successor.

524
00:41:18,200 --> 00:41:20,800
Gregory took charge of the running of the city

525
00:41:20,800 --> 00:41:25,240
and he proved to be brilliant at finance, planning and diplomacy.

526
00:41:27,280 --> 00:41:31,000
He bought a truce with the Lombards and paid the wages of the military.

527
00:41:33,440 --> 00:41:37,920
He donated his estates in Southern Italy and Sicily to the Church

528
00:41:37,920 --> 00:41:40,640
and used them to feed the hungry Romans.

529
00:41:43,640 --> 00:41:46,480
Gregory set up welfare centres across the city,

530
00:41:46,480 --> 00:41:50,240
and he himself dined with 12 poor people every day.

531
00:41:56,240 --> 00:41:59,120
Gregory had expanded his religious power

532
00:41:59,120 --> 00:42:02,080
into the realm of political authority.

533
00:42:02,080 --> 00:42:04,400
But he had set his sights much further afield.

534
00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:11,240
'No pope before had seriously thought about taking Christianity

535
00:42:11,240 --> 00:42:13,360
'into faraway pagan lands.'

536
00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:19,320
When he was a young deacon, Gregory had seen some fair-haired

537
00:42:19,320 --> 00:42:22,600
Anglo-Saxon boys at a Roman slave market.

538
00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:24,600
When he was told they were Anglo-Saxon,

539
00:42:24,600 --> 00:42:28,320
he said, "They're not Angles, they're Angels."

540
00:42:28,320 --> 00:42:33,400
Now he was keen to expand papal powers and convert new peoples.

541
00:42:33,400 --> 00:42:37,840
He dispatched a mission to England that was remarkably successful.

542
00:42:37,840 --> 00:42:43,440
At Christmas 597, 10,000 Angles were baptised as Christians.

543
00:42:47,800 --> 00:42:52,200
'Gregory's missionary success made Rome the Holy City of the West.

544
00:42:53,640 --> 00:42:55,840
'Pilgrims from Europe's northern territories

545
00:42:55,840 --> 00:42:57,320
'came in their thousands.'

546
00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:04,120
The religious gold-rush was intensified by the ever-stronger

547
00:43:04,120 --> 00:43:08,040
belief in the sacred power of martyrs' tombs and relics.

548
00:43:11,920 --> 00:43:15,440
'Guidebooks from the period ignore Rome's classical monuments,

549
00:43:15,440 --> 00:43:18,280
'directing visitors instead to Christian sites

550
00:43:18,280 --> 00:43:20,760
'associated with lives of the martyrs.'

551
00:43:23,240 --> 00:43:27,800
At the church of St Lorenzo, pilgrims could see the actual grill

552
00:43:27,800 --> 00:43:30,520
on which St Lawrence was roasted.

553
00:43:30,520 --> 00:43:33,640
At the church of St Sebastiano, they could see the arrows

554
00:43:33,640 --> 00:43:36,320
that had pierced the side of the great martyr.

555
00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:42,480
'Gruesome stories of the sadistic torments suffered

556
00:43:42,480 --> 00:43:46,120
'by early Christians were complied and repeated,

557
00:43:46,120 --> 00:43:49,360
'stories that horrified and enthralled

558
00:43:49,360 --> 00:43:51,680
'Rome's new spiritual tourists.'

559
00:43:53,760 --> 00:43:56,800
But there was a darker side to the pilgrim boom.

560
00:43:56,800 --> 00:44:00,240
Everybody literally wanted a piece of the martyrs.

561
00:44:00,240 --> 00:44:04,480
Soon there was a macabre black market in the wizened body parts

562
00:44:04,480 --> 00:44:08,120
of the saints - sometimes they just snatched the entire body.

563
00:44:10,800 --> 00:44:15,000
'The trafficking in body parts appalled Pope Gregory, who believed

564
00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:18,760
'that contact with the supernaturally powerful bones

565
00:44:18,760 --> 00:44:20,040
'brought instant death.'

566
00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:25,240
But Gregory understood the value of relics.

567
00:44:25,240 --> 00:44:29,480
He had special boxes made, containing filings from the chains

568
00:44:29,480 --> 00:44:33,800
of St Peter, and by sending them to bishops in faraway territories,

569
00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:36,080
he strengthened their loyalty to the Pope.

570
00:44:39,320 --> 00:44:44,320
'Pilgrimage to the Holy City paid rich dividends for the papacy.'

571
00:44:44,320 --> 00:44:47,000
'Holy travellers returned home with relics

572
00:44:47,000 --> 00:44:51,080
'but also with Roman practices, which allowed Gregory to become

573
00:44:51,080 --> 00:44:54,200
'the arbiter and leader of Christianity across Europe.'

574
00:44:55,680 --> 00:44:59,440
'When Gregory died in 604 he was buried in St Peter's,

575
00:44:59,440 --> 00:45:03,520
'where his epitaph read, "God's consul".'

576
00:45:03,520 --> 00:45:06,080
He'd enriched and empowered the papacy,

577
00:45:06,080 --> 00:45:08,800
combining the old with the new.

578
00:45:08,800 --> 00:45:11,800
He was truly the high priest of city and church.

579
00:45:19,240 --> 00:45:22,440
'The Pope now headed the most influential organisation

580
00:45:22,440 --> 00:45:24,040
'in Western Europe.

581
00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:25,560
'And Rome was its power base.

582
00:45:27,920 --> 00:45:31,640
'The modern papacy, as we know it, was taking shape.'

583
00:45:39,160 --> 00:45:42,120
But Rome now faced a completely new threat.

584
00:45:43,880 --> 00:45:47,680
A new religious revelation was on the march.

585
00:45:47,680 --> 00:45:48,720
Islam.

586
00:45:51,440 --> 00:45:55,640
In a few decades, the Arabs had conquered a vast empire.

587
00:45:58,080 --> 00:45:59,720
They captured Jerusalem,

588
00:45:59,720 --> 00:46:04,080
leaving Rome the one and only Holy City of Christendom.

589
00:46:06,920 --> 00:46:08,640
'Rome feared it would be next.

590
00:46:09,800 --> 00:46:11,040
'The city needed an ally.

591
00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:21,440
'Charlemagne, King of the Franks, was a gifted soldier-statesman

592
00:46:21,440 --> 00:46:24,320
'who had conquered much of western and central Europe.

593
00:46:25,720 --> 00:46:31,320
'But he aspired to the highest crown of all - Roman Emperor.

594
00:46:31,320 --> 00:46:35,200
'As a devout Christian, he craved Rome's stamp of approval.

595
00:46:36,720 --> 00:46:39,840
'But he didn't need to conquer Rome, Rome would come to him.'

596
00:46:41,840 --> 00:46:46,520
On 25th April 799, Pope Leo III was near here,

597
00:46:46,520 --> 00:46:49,240
on his way to the Church of San Lorenzo in Lucina,

598
00:46:49,240 --> 00:46:52,680
when he was ambushed by armed retainers of the previous Pope.

599
00:46:54,680 --> 00:46:57,920
They tried to gouge out his eyes and slice off his tongue.

600
00:47:02,560 --> 00:47:06,400
Pope Leo needed Charlemagne's protection from his rivals,

601
00:47:06,400 --> 00:47:09,280
and from the threat of Arab and Lombard invasion.

602
00:47:11,280 --> 00:47:13,120
'And Leo could offer Charlemagne

603
00:47:13,120 --> 00:47:15,400
'the one thing he didn't already have.'

604
00:47:19,000 --> 00:47:21,520
There was a story, told in this fresco,

605
00:47:21,520 --> 00:47:27,280
that Pope Sylvester had healed Constantine the Great of leprosy.

606
00:47:27,280 --> 00:47:31,240
Sylvester's reward was Constantine's conversion to Christianity.

607
00:47:34,280 --> 00:47:35,800
But that wasn't the only thing

608
00:47:35,800 --> 00:47:38,240
that Constantine was said to have given the Pope.

609
00:47:39,680 --> 00:47:42,520
Pope Sylvester is in firm control.

610
00:47:42,520 --> 00:47:46,680
He's sitting on his throne and there's the Emperor Constantine,

611
00:47:46,680 --> 00:47:50,560
kneeling and compliantly surrendering his crown

612
00:47:50,560 --> 00:47:51,800
to the dominant Pope.

613
00:47:54,440 --> 00:47:57,080
This account was a complete fabrication,

614
00:47:57,080 --> 00:48:00,680
but it allowed Leo to invent a new tradition.

615
00:48:00,680 --> 00:48:03,680
The power of Popes to anoint Emperors.

616
00:48:05,520 --> 00:48:07,520
On Christmas day 800,

617
00:48:07,520 --> 00:48:11,480
Charlemagne arrived to celebrate mass in St Peter's.

618
00:48:11,480 --> 00:48:13,520
He knelt down before the tomb.

619
00:48:23,360 --> 00:48:26,120
As he bent down, the Pope placed a crown on his head

620
00:48:26,120 --> 00:48:29,320
and anointed him Holy Roman Emperor.

621
00:48:36,960 --> 00:48:41,280
The new imperial alliance seemed to increase papal authority

622
00:48:41,280 --> 00:48:42,680
and protect Rome.

623
00:48:44,240 --> 00:48:46,800
But actually, it was flawed from the start.

624
00:48:49,040 --> 00:48:52,920
The Popes believed that they were the ultimate source of political

625
00:48:52,920 --> 00:48:56,760
and religious authority, so only a Pope could crown an Emperor.

626
00:48:57,880 --> 00:49:01,360
But the Emperors believed that they were the supreme power,

627
00:49:01,360 --> 00:49:05,640
so an Emperor could appoint the Pope whose job it was to crown him.

628
00:49:08,040 --> 00:49:10,480
'The deal didn't live up to its promise.'

629
00:49:16,360 --> 00:49:19,960
In 846, Arab forces attacked the city.

630
00:49:21,880 --> 00:49:24,440
For the first time, St Peter's Basilica,

631
00:49:24,440 --> 00:49:27,960
the essence of Rome's sanctity, was wrecked and looted.

632
00:49:32,840 --> 00:49:36,200
When the raiders had gone,

633
00:49:36,200 --> 00:49:38,840
Pope Leo IV put his faith in something more solid.

634
00:49:42,960 --> 00:49:47,600
It's easy to forget that St Peter's was still outside the city walls,

635
00:49:47,600 --> 00:49:50,080
and therefore vulnerable to attack.

636
00:49:50,080 --> 00:49:54,200
Now Pope Leo embarked on building these massive fortifications.

637
00:49:55,640 --> 00:50:00,520
The Leonine Walls were 40 feet high and 12 feet deep,

638
00:50:00,520 --> 00:50:03,280
and they forever changed the shape of Rome.

639
00:50:09,640 --> 00:50:13,920
The source of Rome's divine power was now not just sanctified,

640
00:50:13,920 --> 00:50:15,160
but fortified.

641
00:50:20,640 --> 00:50:22,440
Rome's holiness was protected.

642
00:50:24,920 --> 00:50:27,720
Only for it to be poisoned from the inside.

643
00:50:29,560 --> 00:50:32,200
As the political power of the Popes had grown,

644
00:50:32,200 --> 00:50:34,960
their position became highly sought-after.

645
00:50:42,720 --> 00:50:47,120
The papacy became the prize and plaything in the blood-splattered

646
00:50:47,120 --> 00:50:50,440
power struggle between competing Italian families.

647
00:50:50,440 --> 00:50:54,960
Several popes were murdered here at the Castel St Angelo.

648
00:50:54,960 --> 00:50:59,080
Once the mausoleum of the Emperor Hadrian, and now the fortress,

649
00:50:59,080 --> 00:51:02,360
prison and torture chamber of the papacy.

650
00:51:08,400 --> 00:51:10,960
'The Popes became power-hungry players

651
00:51:10,960 --> 00:51:14,040
'in the savage scheming of Italian politics.'

652
00:51:16,240 --> 00:51:20,760
'And their abuse of papal authority dragged the Holy City

653
00:51:20,760 --> 00:51:22,720
'into its darkest period yet.

654
00:51:35,240 --> 00:51:37,800
'In 897, Pope Stephen VI gave an order

655
00:51:37,800 --> 00:51:40,200
'of the most twisted and malicious kind.'

656
00:51:42,760 --> 00:51:46,600
'He ordered the digging up of the corpse of a former Pope

657
00:51:46,600 --> 00:51:47,920
'whom he hated.'

658
00:51:50,880 --> 00:51:54,960
Pope Formosus' mummified body was dressed up in papal robes,

659
00:51:54,960 --> 00:51:59,880
propped up on a mock throne and put on trial before the Holy Synod.

660
00:51:59,880 --> 00:52:02,440
His crime, violation of canon law.

661
00:52:04,600 --> 00:52:06,240
'The charges were read out,

662
00:52:06,240 --> 00:52:09,760
'and a deacon assigned to defend the accused Pope.'

663
00:52:11,840 --> 00:52:16,520
Found guilty as charged, Formosus was stripped and mutilated.

664
00:52:16,520 --> 00:52:20,400
The three fingers he'd used for papal blessings were chopped off.

665
00:52:23,120 --> 00:52:26,400
'He was dragged and tossed into the Tiber.'

666
00:52:28,880 --> 00:52:32,040
But this grisly masquerade was only the start.

667
00:52:32,040 --> 00:52:34,800
From now on, nothing was sacred.

668
00:52:34,800 --> 00:52:38,360
The Popes played a vicious game of power and pleasure.

669
00:52:38,360 --> 00:52:42,360
No crime was too diabolical for these heirs of St Peter.

670
00:52:52,240 --> 00:52:55,840
'In the early tenth century, the papacy became dominated

671
00:52:55,840 --> 00:52:58,720
'by one aristocratic family,

672
00:52:58,720 --> 00:53:02,440
'the debauched and merciless house of Theophylact.

673
00:53:04,880 --> 00:53:07,680
'The scurrilous chronicler of their rise to power

674
00:53:07,680 --> 00:53:09,760
'was bishop Liudprand of Cremona.'

675
00:53:11,560 --> 00:53:14,280
Liudprand doesn't exactly hold back,

676
00:53:14,280 --> 00:53:16,120
especially with the women of the family,

677
00:53:16,120 --> 00:53:18,760
who are described, without exception,

678
00:53:18,760 --> 00:53:21,920
as a tribe of sex-mad megalomaniacs.

679
00:53:21,920 --> 00:53:26,800
He says Count Theophylact's wife Theodora was a "shameless harlot",

680
00:53:26,800 --> 00:53:29,880
and that her two daughters were, if anything,

681
00:53:29,880 --> 00:53:33,160
"faster in the exercise of Venus".

682
00:53:35,280 --> 00:53:37,440
The most infamous was Marozia.

683
00:53:39,320 --> 00:53:43,840
A wily politician and murderous man-eater, Marozia must have been

684
00:53:43,840 --> 00:53:48,120
as gorgeously depraved as she was dynastically effective.

685
00:53:48,120 --> 00:53:51,880
She seduced or married an entire apostolic succession

686
00:53:51,880 --> 00:53:56,480
of popes and kings, and managed to dominate Rome for years.

687
00:54:00,400 --> 00:54:03,720
'Drawn deeper into the mire, Rome's once-mighty Popes

688
00:54:03,720 --> 00:54:07,040
'became pawns in the cesspit of local politics.'

689
00:54:09,040 --> 00:54:14,120
'At just 15, Marozia had a "wicked affair" with Pope Sergius III,

690
00:54:14,120 --> 00:54:15,400
'producing a son.'

691
00:54:18,720 --> 00:54:22,760
'Later, Marozia became mistress of another Pope, John X,

692
00:54:22,760 --> 00:54:27,000
'but she turned against him and married his enemy, Guy of Tuscany.'

693
00:54:29,680 --> 00:54:33,000
In 928, they successfully carried out a coup d'etat

694
00:54:33,000 --> 00:54:35,840
in the Lateran palace, the papal residence.

695
00:54:35,840 --> 00:54:40,200
Marozia had John X arrested, imprisoned and then strangled

696
00:54:40,200 --> 00:54:44,800
in the Castel St Angelo, leaving her as de facto ruler of the city.

697
00:54:48,200 --> 00:54:52,880
'The papacy and Rome sank to ever greater depths of moral depravity.

698
00:54:54,360 --> 00:54:59,960
'Marozia even raised her own bastard son to the throne of St Peter.'

699
00:55:02,600 --> 00:55:05,400
But things began to fall apart for Marozia.

700
00:55:05,400 --> 00:55:09,520
Her other son, Alberic, invaded Rome, arrested John XI

701
00:55:09,520 --> 00:55:13,840
and imprisoned his mother in the Castel St Angelo.

702
00:55:13,840 --> 00:55:18,200
Marozia died in there, probably murdered by her own son.

703
00:55:18,200 --> 00:55:23,480
As for Alberic, he ruled Rome for 20 years with the majestic title

704
00:55:23,480 --> 00:55:26,720
Prince and Senator of all the Romans.

705
00:55:30,560 --> 00:55:32,680
'The Holy City was on its knees.

706
00:55:36,040 --> 00:55:38,560
'The Emperors, once Rome's protectors,

707
00:55:38,560 --> 00:55:41,520
'were now in the ascendant, dominating Italy.'

708
00:55:44,880 --> 00:55:48,720
The Holy Roman Emperors, successors of Charlemagne and, in effect,

709
00:55:48,720 --> 00:55:50,080
Kings of Germany,

710
00:55:50,080 --> 00:55:54,720
repeatedly marched south to attack Rome and terrorise its Popes.

711
00:56:01,360 --> 00:56:05,280
'Only a few Popes had the strength to fight back by reinvigorating

712
00:56:05,280 --> 00:56:08,280
'papal authority and the sanctity of the city.'

713
00:56:11,680 --> 00:56:15,160
In 1075, Pope Gregory VII took a stand.

714
00:56:15,160 --> 00:56:18,040
He published the Dicatatus Papae,

715
00:56:18,040 --> 00:56:22,760
that declared the absolute supremacy of the papacy and Rome.

716
00:56:22,760 --> 00:56:25,480
From now on, Emperors would bow to Popes.

717
00:56:30,920 --> 00:56:35,600
Gregory's posturing infuriated the German Emperor, Henry IV.

718
00:56:35,600 --> 00:56:37,360
He deposed the Pope.

719
00:56:39,920 --> 00:56:43,480
But Gregory hit back, ex-communicating Henry -

720
00:56:43,480 --> 00:56:46,520
in effect, stripping him of all his powers.

721
00:56:52,360 --> 00:56:55,080
The toxic relationship between Pope and Emperor had ignited,

722
00:56:55,080 --> 00:56:56,600
and Rome was its victim.

723
00:57:06,480 --> 00:57:08,880
Gregory allied himself with the Normans,

724
00:57:08,880 --> 00:57:13,640
but when they occupied the city in 1084, things turned violent.

725
00:57:16,800 --> 00:57:18,720
Rome became a blazing inferno.

726
00:57:35,040 --> 00:57:40,040
A thousand years earlier, a pagan emperor had burnt Christians alive

727
00:57:40,040 --> 00:57:41,920
and crucified St Peter.

728
00:57:41,920 --> 00:57:43,960
But their martyrdom had helped keep

729
00:57:43,960 --> 00:57:47,080
the flame of Christianity alive in Rome.

730
00:57:53,400 --> 00:57:56,160
Constantine had taken an underground religion

731
00:57:56,160 --> 00:57:59,320
and staked all of Rome's glory on its success.

732
00:58:01,760 --> 00:58:05,600
Now the ambitions of a Pope had brought ruin on the Holy City.

733
00:58:09,920 --> 00:58:12,920
'The Popes were to abandon Rome altogether,

734
00:58:12,920 --> 00:58:16,000
'and seek the protection of the Kings of France.'

735
00:58:19,200 --> 00:58:20,840
It seemed like the end.

736
00:58:20,840 --> 00:58:24,000
After 2000 years as head of the world,

737
00:58:24,000 --> 00:58:26,440
the capital of Emperors and Popes,

738
00:58:26,440 --> 00:58:29,840
the very definition of sacred power,

739
00:58:29,840 --> 00:58:34,400
the city blessed by God was now cursed by invasion,

740
00:58:34,400 --> 00:58:36,160
intrigue and depravity.

741
00:58:38,800 --> 00:58:40,960
Its sanctity, debased.

742
00:58:40,960 --> 00:58:44,240
Holy no more, time had run out for the Eternal City.

743
00:58:55,400 --> 00:58:59,800
'Next time, Rome rises from the ashes.'

744
00:58:59,800 --> 00:59:02,800
'How the debauchery and avarice of the Renaissance

745
00:59:02,800 --> 00:59:06,120
'transformed Rome into the city we see today.'

746
00:59:22,560 --> 00:59:25,600
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