Post 8. Edict of Constantine and Licinius, joint Augusti ( 313 A.D.)

Editto di Constantino e di Licinio Augusti. ( 313 A.D.)

ESSENDOCI INCONTRATI A MILANO
IO CONSTANTINO AUGUSTO
ED
IO LICINIO AUGUSTO
ABBIAMO GIUDICATO CHE
FRA TUTTI GLI ATTI GIOVEVOLI AGLI UOMINI
ED
OSSEQUIOSI VERSO LA DIVINITA’
QUESTO BISOGNASSE COMPIERE
PRIMA DI OGNI ALTRO---:
DARE AI CRISTIANI
E A TUTTI
PIENA LIBERTA’
DI SEGUIRE OGNUNO
LA RELIGIONE CHE VOGLIA
AFFINCHE’ QUANTO E’ DI DIVINO NELLA SEDE CELESTE
SI RIVOLGA PLACATO E PROPIZIO
A NOI
E
A TUTTI I NOSTRI SUDDITI.

( A translation from the italian document cast in bronze on one of the doors of the Duomo, the Cathedral at Milano, Lombardy, Italy ).

Proclamation by the Augusti, Costantine and Licinius,
joint Emperors ( 313 A.D.)

Upon our encounter at Milano

I, Constatine Augustus

and

I, Licinio Augustus

have come to the conclusion that

of all the determinations

which are beneficial to humanity

and

respectful of the divine

this should be reached-:

To give to chritians and to all

full discretion to the effect that

everyone may practice whichever religion

one may choose

so that the divine

that resides in the heavenly abode

may favourably and forgivingly

consider

us

and

all our subjects.

Comments-:

Please notice that I have not used the word freedom ( used by the Emperors since they were autocratic and absolute rulers ) but discretion in so far as one must be aware to-day of the fact that some religions may be obsessed in their unreformed status with theocratic aspirations which are incompatible with the freedom of other religions to exist and to be practiced. Also, discretion is required to-day in view of the phenomenon of terroristic minorities abusing religion in order to justify their violent and anti-social behaviour. In modern democracies, a separation has been legislated between Religion and States in order to guarantee to all the freedom and discretion everyone should mutually expect.

History shows how both Constantine and Licinius were either not honest in the promulgation of this Edict, or were forced to act as they did by its being perhaps an utopia, as they soon went to war one against the other. Licinius was a Roman Catholic at the time of the Edict while Constantine was either a pagan or, as Sir Laurence Gardner suggests belonged to the christian/jewish sect of the Desposinii ( i.e., followers of the families claiming to belong to the davidic, royal, bloodline of the SangReal. Constatine's mother was of a british/jewish descent from Jesus of Nazareth the Zadok Priest and Messiah ). Constantine felt that in order to defeat Licinius he had to also gain the support of Roman Catholic soldiers and adopted and enforced the Roman Creed as the State Religion over all other christian sects, religions and beliefs, for the sake of the security, strength and unity of the Roman Empire.

Constantine was succesful, and this is to me a sign of God's favour, the lesson I draw from this historical period being that God looks favourably to those who, although not being perfect human beings ( Remember Jesus of Nazareth's humble words-: " Who is without sin, let she/he cast the first stone " ) work for peace, law and order, progress, etc.

Let us consider for a moment that the West, albeit imperfect and in need of Reformation, is to-day, the continuation of all the good work that has been carried out good-willing human beings in Sumeria, Israel, Greece, China, India, Rome, etc. Moreover, if not antagonised and sabotaged by moronic fundamentalists, like Al-Qaeda & Companies, it is still the only system capable to lead the world through the coming times of Global Warming and the increasing number of natural disasters and catastrophes.

In short, Constantine made religion into a religious ideology ( a necessary evil ) at a time in history when there was no available alternative ( unlike to-day, when political evolution in the West has reached great hights with-: (1) Separation of State and Church, (2) Westminster-type Parliaments, (3) Constitutional Monarchies, (4) All founded on a reformable ( in virtue of the essence of democracy itself ) democratic matrix. History shows how the lack of understanding of the necessity to separate Church from Religion or Church, in addition to the biased interpretation of the Scriptures ( i.e., The lack of awareness, until relatively modern times, in relation to St. John's clear statement about the futility of human-attempted theocratic ventures, since God alone is able to achieve the Theocracy " at the last day" [ Islam please consider] ) opened up the centuries-long conflict between the Papacy and the Emperors aiming at deciding who would rule the Christian Theocracy.

This struggle opened in turn the way to the rise of competing european monarchies all having Desposinii Monarchs, most of which ended only with the WWs I & II.

This writer is in favour of Westminster-type constitutional monarchies of the Desposinii lines, provided these can be controlled from struggling and mutually competing for supremacy.

This is something our illustrious, mysterious Templar-in-hiding, Sir Laurence Gardner and his group of Scottish fanatics does not appear to have realised yet.

There cannot be only one Monarchy, a check must exist and be maintained between mutually acceptable and accepting monarchies in a United Europe, moreover the Desposinii-movement cannot be a purely scottish one.

No way it can be so, as there are plenty of Desposinii around ( the Gens Ferreria is a Desposinii Clan), provided the scottish fanatics care to look around!

While I commend Sir Laurence Gardner and the group of people he represents, for their valuable preservation, defence and popularisation of Desposinii-knowledge, I believe they are wrong in their insularity and desire for exclusivity.

Jehovah has always historically twarted and opposed sectarianism and racial or cultural exclusivism ( like stressing the supremacy of any language or culture over all others as the Hebrews, the Roman Church and the Arabs of Islam have done ), like for example, the jewish attitudes to the purity of a religiously and culturally isolated chosen few, which altered hebraic culture since the beginning of the Israeli's material successes in Canaan ( Just remember the Pentateuchal Prayer of thaksgiving to Yahweh which begins with :" We are Arameans, slaves from various parts of Mesopotamia oh Lord,...................":) .

We are to-day facing a new murky cycle of complex global power struggles, which are going to see the western side severely handicapped by the usual foolish, unwise, maudling divisions among the voting masses, resulting from the lack of historical awareness, education and vision of western leaders who are generally, genetically ( i.e., DNA can be informed by experience ), descendant from those whose anscestors have had limited contributions to and experiences from the making of western history. Unfortunately these leaders are elected through naive democratic processes by marginal majorities whose religion has become the Supermarket, utopian, impractical beliefs in taken-for-granted rights to eternal comforts and luxuries, etc. which they are not prepared or willing to defend anyway.

The West and the World are facing to-day the same dilemma Constantine and Licinius faced in their times, except that we have to-day a larger number of and more powerful communication-media, the information-distribution and popularisation from which, together with existing democratic systems of government, and hopefully common sense, self-preservation, and God-willing, ( Inshallah! ), should make people aware of the necessity to not let theological opinions overcome common sense and decency and act accordingly in the political arena with their votes.

However, although theological opinions may rise and fall, what is not ever negotiable is morality and ethical behaviour founded on love of fellow humans, compassion for the poor and oppressed of the world, peace, good-will, patience, co-operation between all, mutuality and reciprocity of expectations, tolerance and concessions.

The all-simplifying, foundational motivation in religious beliefs must be, that God can only be loved through the globally-extended love of fellow human beings, especially of the unpopular less likeable poor and oppressed ( as a natural test of the motivation).

The test of all other expressions of religiosity should be as to whether and in so far as these elicit and facilitate the above ethical expressions.

Trinitarian-Christians are tremendously facilitated in this by the adoption of a Christology from Below that accepts Jesus of Nazareth as the mediator between Humans and God through the Love of fellow human beings ( especially of the poor and the oppressed ).

Unitarian types of religious beliefs ( including and foremostly so, Islam ) are extremely naive since these cannot explain how their members can possibly cross the Infinite gap between the material in the human being and the Pure Spirit that God the Father is ).

Generally, in spite of the cruxifiction of anything or anyone causing desire and temptation, with the corollary attempt at freezing history and progress, as possible sources of new idolatries, the obsession with idolatrous sources and the rejection and proscription of these ( predominant traits of Judaism, early Catholicism and Orthodoxy and Mohammedanism ), the history of beliefs has shown that the way to a non-hidolatrous view of God can only be the Love of fellow human beings in accordance to the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

Other ways can only lead to hypocrisy, selfishness and self-delusion.

Those minorities of pseudo religious people transforming religion into a religious ideology bent into creating chaos and lawlessness, have better beware of Contingency-Ethics ( i.e., An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth ).

See an article on 'Confrontation Ethics', pulished at Post 11, page 5, on blog -: http://www.gensferreria.bigblog.com.au/index.do