2008年6月9日
Basketball star Yao Ming's injury dramas have helped shine the spotlight on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), an ancient practice used by more and more people around the globe. Yao says he will use TCM as well as Western medicine to help his recovery in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics. He is desperate to be fit for the biggest tournament of his life.
According to the President of the United Family Hospitals and Clinics, Anne Marie Moncure, the combination of Eastern and Western medical techniques is the best option for resuscitating Yao Ming's stress fracture.
"He should, first of all, re-build the body and ensure that the injury doesn't happen again, and then if he has to repair an injury I would say maybe that's where Western medicine comes in," Moncure says, drawing on her 35 years of medical experience.
While it's not her professional diagnosis, Moncure is certain that combining the two is the best option. "I wouldn't choose one over the other; if I were him I would incorporate both," the 52-year-old New Yorker says.
Fusing Western medical practices, which focus more on treating short-term injuries through medication, and TCM practices, which are all about building strength and developing a balance in the body, is what Moncure views as the best way to treat almost any injury.
"I call it integrative medicine, where you take the best of both worlds," she says.
Moncure began her medical career working alongside one of the most prominent doctors of her time, Denton Cooley. Cooley is known for his leading-edge medical techniques after he became the first man in the United States to successfully complete a heart transplant in 1968.
It was during her time working with Dr Cooley at the Texas Heart Center in 1982 that Moncure first witnessed the power of Eastern medicine.
After discovering that one of their patients had a strong negative reaction to anesthesia, Moncure and her fellow pioneers at the Texas Heart Center decided to take an unconventional approach. They flew in a TCM practitioner, who used acupuncture in place of anesthesia. The patient felt no pain and the operation proved to be a smashing success.
Witnessing first hand the power of Eastern medical practices opened Moncure's eyes and mind to TCM. Several years later, after feeling unnatural levels of fatigue, Moncure decided to use the technique on herself. Enlisting the help of two doctors scripted in Western medicine and TCM she recalls how well both methods seemed to mix and match.
"I watched the two of them work so well together, we blended both styles, and I am convinced that that's the only way to go," Moncure says.
The success of the treatment was so convincing that she recently began developing a branch in the United Family Hospitals and Clinics in Beijing devoted to the fusion of traditional Chinese and Western medicines. A branch she appropriately calls Integrative Medicine.
"We're in China, why not bring the two worlds together?" she says.
But medicine from the East has not always been viewed so openly in the United States. In 1989, while taking pictures of a hospital she was working at in Charlotte, North Carolina, Moncure remembers running into a patient being treated by Eastern medicine.
"There was this glistening up and down her back, it was acupuncture needles, and she looked almost like a peacock or something," says Moncure.
She says she did not use any of the photos of the procedure, because she feared that the unusual image would baffle the local community.
Such misunderstanding no longer exists in the US. "Now Eastern medicine is a multi-billion dollar industry in the US, people have embraced Eastern medicine through yoga, through herbal remedies and through other traditional Chinese methods," Moncure says.
She first arrived in China two years ago after spending several years in India helping develop the infrastructure for the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital as a manager for the Indraprastha Medical Co Ltd.
Under her direction, the hospital became the first Joint Commission International-accredited hospital in India.
With more than 20 years of managerial experience, Moncure has spent time working as a medical leader in the US, UK, India, France and Switzerland.
Recently, Moncure and an army of well-trained phlebotomists from the United Family Hospitals and Clinics network, in association with the Chaoyang blood administration, held a blood drive at the Expat Show that took place in the China World Trade Center exhibition hall.
Their goal, apart from building up pre-Olympic blood bank supplies, was to find RH negative donors. It is estimated that only 0.03 percent of Han Chinese are RH negative, compared to 15 percent of Western populations.
Attempts to stockpile valuable medical resources such as RH negative blood are being seen more and more as the medical community gears up for the rush of foreign crowds during the Olympic Games.
Moncure says the Chinese medical community is well prepared for the upcoming Games.
"For the Olympics, I think that the biggest challenge is going to be that we have communication. We should be able to communicate with the patients coming in," she says.
For the United Family Hospitals, however, the ability to speak and communicate with patients should not pose a problem. The hospital's medical providers, in addition to English, Spanish, French, German, and Arabic, are well versed in most Chinese dialects. For the less common languages, the hospital employs the use of several interpretation services.
By: Todd Balazovic
Editor: Ding Yujie
posted @ 2008-06-09 16:54
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2008年6月6日
How to Grow Old
Bertrand Russell
In spite of the title, this article will really be on how not to grow old, which, at my time of life, is a much more important subject. My first advice would be to choose your ancestors carefully. Although both my parents died young, I have done well in this respect as regards my other ancestors. My maternal grandfather, it is true, was cut off in the flower of his youth at the age of sixty-seven, but my other three grandparents all lived to be over eighty. Of remote ancestors I can only discover one who did not live to a great age, and he died of a disease which is now rare, namely, having his head cut off. A great-grandmother of mine, who was a friend of Gibbon, lived to the age of ninety-two, and to her last day remained a terror to all her descendants. My maternal grandmother, after having nine children who survived, one who died in infancy, and many miscarriages, as soon as she became a widow devoted herself to women's higher education. She was one of the founders of Girton College, and worked hard at opening the medical profession to women. She used to relate how she met in Italy an elderly gentleman who was looking very sad. She inquired the cause of his melancholy and he said that he had just parted from his two grandchildren. "Good gracious," she exclaimed, "I have seventy-two grandchildren, and if I were sad each time I parted from one of them, I should have a dismal existence!" "Madre snaturale," he replied. But speaking as one of the seventy-two, I prefer her recipe. After the age of eighty she found she had some difficulty in getting to sleep, so she habitually spent the hours from midnight to 3 a.m. in reading popular science. I do not believe that she ever had time to notice that she was growing old. This, I think, is the proper recipe for remaining young. If you have wide and keen interests and activities in which you can still be effective, you will have no reason to think about the merely statistical fact of the number of years you have already lived, still less of the probable brevity of your future.
As regards health, I have nothing useful to say since I have little experience of illness. I eat and drink whatever I like, and sleep when I cannot keep awake. I never do anything whatever on the ground that it is good for health, though in actual fact the things I like doing are mostly wholesome.
Psychologically there are two dangers to be guarded against in old age. One of these is undue absorption in the past. It does not do to live in memories, in regrets for the good old days, or in sadness about friends who are dead. One's thoughts must be directed to the future, and to things about which there is something to be done. This is not always easy; one's own past is a gradually increasing weight. It is easy to think to oneself that one's emotions used to be more vivid than they are, and one's mind more keen. If this is true it should be forgotten, and if it is forgotten it will probably not be true.
The other thing to be avoided is clinging to youth in the hope of sucking vigor from its vitality. When your children are grown up they want to live their own lives, and if you continue to be as interested in them as you were when they were young, you are likely to become a burden to them, unless they are unusually callous. I do not mean that one should be without interest in them, but one's interest should be contemplative and, if possible, philanthropic, but not unduly emotional. Animals become indifferent to their young as soon as their young can look after themselves, but human beings, owing to the length of infancy, find this difficult.
I think that a successful old age is easier for those who have strong impersonal interests involving appropriate activities. It is in this sphere that long experience is really fruitful, and it is in this sphere that the wisdom born of experience can be exercised without being oppressive. It is no use telling grown-up children not to make mistakes, both because they will not believe you, and because mistakes are an essential part of education. But if you are one of those who are incapable of impersonal interests, you may find that your life will be empty unless you concern yourself with your children and grandchildren. In that case you must realize that while you can still render them material services, such as making them an allowance or knotting them jumpers, you must not expect that they will enjoy your company.
Some old people are oppressed by the fear of death. In the young there is a justification for this feeling. Young men who have reason to fear that they will be killed in a battle may justifiably feel bitter in the thought that they have been cheated of the best things that life has to offer. But in an old man who has known human joys and sorrows, and has achieved whatever work it was in him to do, the fear of death is somewhat abject and ignoble. The best way to overcome it----so at least it seems to me----is to make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river----small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being. The man who, in old age, can see his life in this way, will not suffer form the fear of death, since the things he cares for will continue. And if, with the decay of vitality, weariness increases, the thought of rest will not be unwelcome. I should wish to die while still at work, knowing that others will carry on what I can no longer do, and content in the thought that what was possible has been done.
论老之将至
伯•罗素
虽然有这样一个标题，这篇文章真正要谈的却是怎样才能不老。在我这个年纪，这实在是一个至关重要的问题。我的第一个忠告是，要仔细选择你的祖先。尽管我的双亲皆属早逝，但是考虑到我的其他祖先，我的选择还是很不错的。是的，我的外祖父六十七岁时去世，正值盛年，可是另外三位祖父辈的亲人都活到八十岁以上。至于稍远些的亲戚，我只发现一位没能长寿的，他死于一种现已罕见的病症：被杀头。我的一位曾祖母是吉本的朋友，她活到九十二岁高龄，一直到死，她始终是让子孙们全都感到敬畏的人。我的外祖母，一辈子生了十个孩子，活了九个，还有一个早年夭折，此外还有过多次流产。可是守寡以后，她马上就致力于妇女的高等教育事业。她是格顿学院的创办人之一，力图使妇女进入医疗行业。她总好讲起她在意大利遇到过的一位面容悲哀的老年绅士。她询问他忧郁的缘故，他说他刚刚同两个孙儿女分手。“天哪！”她叫道，“我有七十二个孙儿孙女，如果我每次分手就要悲伤不已，那我早就没法活了！”“奇怪的母亲。”他回答说。但是，作为她的七十二个孙儿孙女的一员，我却要说我更喜欢她的见地。上了八十岁，她开始感到有些难以入睡，她便经常在午夜时分至凌晨三时这段时间里阅读科普方面的书籍。我想她根本就没有功夫去留意她在衰老。我认为，这就是保持年轻的最佳方法。如果你的兴趣和活动既广泛又浓烈，而且你又能从中感到自己仍然精力旺盛，那么你就不必去考虑你已经活了多少年这种纯粹的统计学情况，更不必去考虑你那也许不很长久的未来。
至于健康，由于我这一生几乎从未患过病，也就没有什么有益的忠告。我吃喝均随心所欲，醒不了的时候就睡觉。我做事情从不以它是否有益健康为依据，尽管实际上我喜欢做的事情通常都是有益健康的。
从心理角度讲，老年需防止两种危险。一是过分沉湎于往事。人不能生活在回忆当中，不能生活在对美好往昔的怀念或对去世的友人的哀念之中。一个人应当把心思放在未来，放到需要自己去做点什么的事情上。要做到这一点并非轻而易举，往事的影响总是在不断增加。人们总好认为自己过去的情感要比现在强烈得多，头脑也比现在敏锐。假如真的如此，就该忘掉它；而如果可以忘掉它，那你自以为是的情况就可能并不是真的。
另一件应当避免的事是依恋年轻人，期望从他们的勃勃生气中获取力量。子女们长大成人以后，都想按照自己的意愿生活。如果你还想象她们年幼时那样关心他们，你就会成为他们的包袱，除非她们是异常迟钝的人。我不是说不应该关心子女，而是说这种关心应该是含蓄的，假如可能的话，还应是宽厚的，而不应该过分地感情用事。动物的幼子一旦自立，大动物就不再关心它们了。人类则因其幼年时期较长而难于做到这一点。
我认为，对于那些具有强烈的爱好，其活动又都恰当适宜、并且不受个人情感影响的人们，成功地度过老年决非难事。只有在这个范围里，长寿才真正有益；只有在这个范围里，源于经验的智慧才能得到运用而不令人感到压抑。告诫已经成人的孩子别犯错误是没有用处的，因为一来他们不会相信你，二来错误原本就是教育所必不可少的要素之一。但是，如果你是那种受个人情感支配的人，你就会感到，不把心思都放在子女和孙儿女身上，你就会觉得生活很空虚。假如事实确是如此，那么你必须明白，虽然你还能为他们提供物质上的帮助，比如支援他们一笔钱或者为他们编织毛线外套的时候，决不要期望他们会因为你的陪伴而感到快乐。
有些老人因害怕死亡而苦恼。年轻人害怕死亡是可以理解的。有些年轻人担心他们会在战斗中丧身。一想到会失去生活能够给予他们的种种美好事务，他们就感到痛苦。这种担心并不是无缘无故的，也是情有可原的。但是，对于一位经历了人世的悲欢、履行了个人职责的老人，害怕死亡就有些可怜且可耻了。克服这种恐惧的最好办法是----至少我是这样看的----逐渐扩大你的兴趣范围并使其不受个人情感的影响，直至包围自我的围墙一点一点地离开你，而你的生活则越来越融合于大家的生活之中。每一个人的生活都应该象河水一样----开始是细小的，被限制在狭窄的两岸之间，然后热烈地冲过巨石，滑下瀑布。渐渐地，河道变宽了，河岸扩展了，河水流得更平稳了。最后，河水流入了海洋，不再有明显的间断和停顿，而后便毫无痛苦地摆脱了自身的存在。能够这样理解自己一生的老人，将不会因害怕死亡而痛苦，因为他所珍爱的一切都将继续存在下去。而且，如果随着精力的衰退，疲倦之感日渐增加，长眠并非是不受欢迎的念头。我渴望死于尚能劳作之时，同时知道他人将继续我所未竟的事业，我大可因为已经尽了自己之所能而感到安慰。
posted @ 2008-06-06 10:55
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2008年6月1日
小笨霖英語筆記本四: 校園生活
先考各位一個腦筋急轉彎, 要如何讓美國人心甘情願地讓美國人叫你爸爸 (或媽媽) ? 答案見最後....
許多人來到美國的目的就是為了求學, 攻讀一個洋碩士或洋博士好回家去光宗耀祖, 或是圖將來能夠留在美國找個好工作賺美金. 也就是這樣的背景, 每年不知道從台灣吸引了多少的留學生來到美國求學. 通常開始上課第一天, 學校裏形形色色的新鮮事物就讓人有如劉姥姥逛大觀園一般好奇. 這篇筆記就是當時我的一些所見所聞喔.
1. He is a fraternity brother.
他是兄弟會的一員.
在學校內有很多寫著希臘字母的宿舍, 這些可不是數學系的系館喔. 那是兄弟會的家. 兄弟會其實算是宿舍的一種, 住在這裏不見得會比較便宜, 但是可以認識很多人還有參加不完的活動和 party, 還有喝不完的酒. 兄弟會全是男生, 可是每個兄弟會可以選一個女生當作 sweetheart. 這可是一種榮譽. 有空去看看他們的網頁, 你就可以看到萬叢綠中一點紅.
2. She is a sorority sister.
她是姐妹會的成員
男生是兄弟會, 女生就是姐妹會了. 在我們男生多的學校裏, sorority 大概就跟台大的女生宿舍一樣地吸引眾人的目光吧.. 尤其是每年秋天, 他們都會招收新會員 (Fall rush), 所有的人都會站在門口迎接新生, 場面好不壯觀!
3. I am returning this book.
我想要還這本書.
借書叫 borrow a book, 還書是 return a book, 不過有趣的是, 他們不會說 "I return the book.", 而會說 "I am returning this book." 因為事實上現在進行式有未來的意思在裏面, 所以這句話就等於 "I will return this book."
4. I want to renew this book
我想續借我的書
Renew 就是'續借' 的意思. 比如說你去圖書館借了一本書, 書到期了但是你還想繼續借這本書, 你就可以說 "I want to renew this book." 任何固定時間一到要去換約我們都叫 renew, 例如你的汽車牌照過期了, 或是你的保單到期了要去更新或是中文裏講的續約, 也是用 renew. 比如說, "I want to renew my car insurance for this coming year. "
5. I just bought a brand new car.
我買了一輛新車.
Brand new 感覺上比 new 還要來的更新一點. 凡是全新, 剛出廠的東西叫 brand new, 可能是說連商標(brand) 都還在上面的意思吧!
6. I want to be a pornstar.
我要化裝成 AV 女優.
Pornstar 中文翻成 AV 女優, 不知恰不恰當, 還是有人不知道AV 女優倒底是什麼意思?. 這是萬聖節時, 班上有一個老美說他要化裝成 pornstar 去參加化裝舞會, 真是有趣.
7. He is really a tough guy; he takes no prisoner.
他很嚴格, 手下絕不留情.
這是我聽老美形容他們教授的, 就是說他們教授很嚴格,而且絕不留活口(就像台灣說的大刀, 當人無數) 所謂takes no prisoner指的是戰爭時不收戰俘, 抓到全部殺死的意思, 也就是說夠狠. 老美常用 tough 來形容一件事情的困難或是一個人的強硬態度, 例如, "Today is a tough day for me." 就是說今天過得很不容易啦. 要是說 "The professor is tough." 則是說這個教授教課很嚴格, 很不好混的意思. 要是別人遇到這種 tough 的教授, 你就可以鼓勵他, "Tough it out!" 就是說把它撐過去.
同樣地, 這句話你也可以說成 "The professor goes for kill." 就是說這個教授支持殺戮. 下手絕不留情.
8. It's a cake course.
這是一門大補丸的課.
我們說一門課很好修, 就用 cake course 這個字, 或是只說 It's a cake, 別人也是會了解的. 還有我聽一個從柏克萊大學來的學生說, 他們把很補的課程叫 Micky Mouse, 很有趣吧? 大家參考參考.
9. Which department is she in?
她是哪一個系的?
我們都知道主修是用 major 這個字, 簡單地問法就是, "What's your major?" 但是你也可以用 which field 或是 which department 來代替. 比如說有人來演講, 你想知道他是什麼系的教授, 你就可以問 "Which department is she in?" 或是 "Which field is she in?" 還有一種最口語問主修的問法, 就是問人家 "What are you studying?" 就可以了.
10. Is there any way we can move it?
我們有沒有辦法改地方.
Way 就是辦法, 你可以說, "Is there some other way...?" 就是有沒有其它的辦法. move it 可以指很多事, 如換教室, 換地點, 都可以用 move. 不要再說 change place 了. 這是有一次老師宣佈在某間教室考試, 可是因為那間教室平時就很吵, 所以我的同學就舉手說, "Is there any way we can move it?"
答案是: 在美國結婚生小孩, 由於美國採出生地主義, 所以在美國出生的小孩都是美國人, 這麼一來, 美國人也只好心甘情願管你叫爸爸了..
小笨霖 Nov. 18 1999
posted @ 2008-06-01 12:26
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编辑 收藏 RISE OF THE CHURCH
HOW ROME BECAME THE CENTRE OF THE CHRISTIAN WORLD
THE average intelligent Roman who lived under the Empire had taken very little interest in the gods of his fathers. A few times a year he went to the temple, but merely as a matter of custom. He looked on patiently when the people celebrated a religious festival with a solemn procession. But he regarded the worship of Jupiter and Minerva and Neptune as something rather childish, a survival from the crude days of the early republic and not a fit subject of study for a man who had mastered the works of the Stoics and the Epicureans and the other great philosophers of Athens.
This attitude made the Roman a very tolerant man. The government insisted that all people, Romans, foreigners, Greeks, Babylonians, Jews, should pay a certain outward respect to the image of the Emperor which was supposed to stand in every temple, just as a picture of the President of the United States is apt to hang in an American Post Office. But this was a formality without any deeper meaning. Generally speaking everybody could honour, revere and adore whatever gods he pleased, and as a result, Rome was filled with all sorts of queer little temples and synagogues, dedicated to the worship of Egyptian and African and Asiatic divinities.
When the first disciples of Jesus reached Rome and began to preach their new doctrine of a universal brotherhood of man, nobody objected. The man in the street stopped and listened Rome, the capital of the world, had always been full of wandering preachers, each proclaiming his own ``mystery.'' Most of the self-appointed priests appealed to the senses -- promised golden rewards and endless pleasure to the followers of their own particular god. Soon the crowd in the street noticed that the so-called Christians (the followers of the Christ or ``anointed'') spoke a very different language. They did not appear to be impressed by great riches or a noble position. They extolled the beauties of poverty and humility and meekness. These were not exactly the virtues which had made Rome the mistress of the world. It was rather interesting to listen to a ``mystery'' which told people in the hey-day of their glory that their worldly success could not possibly bring them lasting happiness.
Besides, the preachers of the Christian mystery told dreadful stories of the fate that awaited those who refused to listen to the words of the true God. It was never wise to take chances. Of course the old Roman gods still existed, but were they strong enough to protect their friends against the powers of this new deity who had been brought to Europe from distant Asia? People began to have doubts. They returned to listen to further explanations of the new creed. After a while they began to meet the men and women who preached the words of Jesus. They found them very different from the average Roman priests. They were all dreadfully poor. They were kind to slaves and to animals. They did not try to gain riches, but gave away whatever they had. The example of their unselfish lives forced many Romans to forsake the old religion. They joined the small communities of Christians who met in the back rooms of private houses or somewhere in an open field, and the temples were deserted.
This went on year after year and the number of Christians continued to increase. Presbyters or priests (the original Greek meant ``elder'') were elected to guard the interests of the small churches. A bishop was made the head of all the communities within a single province. Peter, who had followed Paul to Rome, was the first Bishop of Rome. In due time his successors (who were addressed as Father or Papa) came to be known as Popes.
The church became a powerful institution within the Empire. The Christian doctrines appealed to those who despaired of this world. They also attracted many strong men who found it impossible to make a career under the Imperial government,
but who could exercise their gifts of leadership among the humble followers of the Nazarene teacher. At last the state was obliged to take notice. The Roman Empire (I have said this before) was tolerant through indifference. It allowed everybody to seek salvation after his or her own fashion. But it insisted that the different sects keep the peace among themselves and obey the wise rule of ``live and let live.''
The Christian communities however, refused to practice any sort of tolerance. They publicly declared that their God, and their God alone, was the true ruler of Heaven and Earth, and that all other gods were imposters. This seemed unfair to the other sects and the police discouraged such utterances. The Christians persisted.
Soon there were further difficulties. The Christians refused to go through the formalities of paying homage to the emperor. They refused to appear when they were called upon to join the army. The Roman magistrates threatened to punish them. The Christians answered that this miserable world was only the ante-room to a very pleasant Heaven and that they were more than willing to suffer death for their principles. The Romans, puzzled by such conduct, sometimes killed the offenders, but more often they did not. There was a certain amount of lynching during the earliest years of the church, but this was the work of that part of the mob which accused their meek Christian neighbours of every conceivable crime, (such as slaughtering and eating babies, bringing about sickness and pestilence, betraying the country in times of danger) because it was a harmless sport and devoid of danger, as the Christians refused to fight back.
Meanwhile, Rome continued to be invaded by the Barbarians and when her armies failed, Christian missionaries went forth to preach their gospel of peace to the wild Teutons. They were strong men without fear of death. They spoke a language which left no doubt as to the future of unrepentant sinners. The Teutons were deeply impressed. They still had a deep respect for the wisdom of the ancient city of Rome. Those men were Romans. They probably spoke the truth. Soon the Christian missionary became a power in the savage regions of the Teutons and the Franks. Half a dozen missionaries were as valuable as a whole regiment of soldiers. The Emperors began to understand that the Christian might be of great use to them. In some of the provinces they were given equal rights with those who remained faithful to the old gods. The great change however came during the last half of the fourth century.
Constantine, sometimes (Heaven knows why) called Constantine the Great, was emperor. He was a terrible ruffian, but people of tender qualities could hardly hope to survive in that hard-fighting age. During a long and checkered career, Constantine had experienced many ups and downs. Once, when almost defeated by his enemies, he thought that he would try the power of this new Asiatic deity of whom everybody was talking. He promised that he too would become a Christian if he were successful in the coming battle. He won the victory and thereafter he was convinced of the power of the Christian God and allowed himself to be baptised.
From that moment on, the Christian church was officially recognised and this greatly strengthened the position of the new faith.
But the Christians still formed a very small minority of all the people, (not more than five or six percent,) and in order to win, they were forced to refuse all compromise. The old gods must be destroyed. For a short spell the emperor Julian, a lover of Greek wisdom, managed to save the pagan Gods from further destruction. But Julian died of his wounds during a campaign in Persia and his successor Jovian re-established the church in all its glory. One after the other the doors of the ancient temples were then closed. Then came the emperor Justinian (who built the church of Saint Sophia in Constantinople), who discontinued the school of philosophy at Athens which had been founded by Plato.
That was the end of the old Greek world, in which man had been allowed to think his own thoughts and dream his own dreams according to his desires. The somewhat vague rules of conduct of the philosophers had proved a poor compass by which to steer the ship of life after a deluge of savagery and ignorance had swept away the established order of things. There was need of something more positive and more definite. This the Church provided.
During an age when nothing was certain, the church stood like a rock and never receded from those principles which it held to be true and sacred. This steadfast courage gained the admiration of the multitudes and carried the church of Rome safely through the difficulties which destroyed the Roman state.
There was however, a certain element of luck in the final success of the Christian faith. After the disappearance of Theodoric's Roman-Gothic kingdom, in the fifth century, Italy was comparatively free from foreign invasion. The Lombards and Saxons and Slavs who succeeded the Goths were weak and backward tribes. Under those circumstances it was possible for the bishops of Rome to maintain the independence of their city. Soon the remnants of the empire, scattered throughout the peninsula, recognised the Dukes of Rome (or bishops) as their political and spiritual rulers.
The stage was set for the appearance of a strong man. He came in the year 590 and his name was Gregory. He belonged to the ruling classes of ancient Rome, and he had been ``prefect'' or mayor of the city. Then he had become a monk and a bishop and finally, and much against his will, (for he wanted to be a missionary and preach Christianity to the heathen of England,) he had been dragged to the Church of Saint Peter to be made Pope. He ruled only fourteen years but when he died the Christian world of western Europe had officially recognised the bishops of Rome, the Popes, as the head of the entire church.
This power, however, did not extend to the east. In Constantinople the Emperors continued the old custom which had recognised the successors of Augustus and Tiberius both as head of the government and as High Priest of the Established Religion. In the year 1453 the eastern Roman Empire was conquered by the Turks. Constantinople was taken, and Constantine Paleologue, the last Roman Emperor, was killed on the steps of the Church of the Holy Sophia.
A few years before, Zoë, the daughter of his brother Thomas, had married Ivan III of Russia. In this way did the grand-dukes of Moscow fall heir to the traditions of Constantinople. The double-eagle of old Byzantium (reminiscent of the days when Rome had been divided into an eastern and a western part) became the coat of arms of modern Russia. The Tsar who had been merely the first of the Russian nobles, assumed the aloofness and the dignity of a Roman emperor before whom all subjects, both high and low, were inconsiderable slaves.
The court was refashioned after the oriental pattern which the eastern Emperors had imported from Asia and from Egypt and which (so they flattered themselves) resembled the court of Alexander the Great. This strange inheritance which the dying Byzantine Empire bequeathed to an unsuspecting world continued to live with great vigour for six more centuries, amidst the vast plains of Russia. The last man to wear the crown with the double eagle of Constantinople, Tsar Nicholas, was murdered only the other day, so to speak. His body was thrown into a well. His son and his daughters were all killed. All his ancient rights and prerogatives were abolished, and the church was reduced to the position which it had held in Rome before the days of Constantine.
The eastern church however fared very differently, as we shall see in the next chapter when the whole Christian world is going to be threatened with destruction by the rival creed of an Arab camel-driver.
posted @ 2008-06-01 12:04
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