Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin worked as an assistant to Charles Barry on the design of the New Palace of Westminster. Prior to the rebuilding of The Palace of Westminster, Britain had seen an unparalleled metamorphosis from a Roman Catholic Country to a Protestant. This affected many aspects of life in the following years including architecture. Pugin himself had already dissented from his Protestant upbringing and converted to Roman Catholicism in 1835. This internal dissent from tradition certainly affected Pugin’s view of what the true Christian style of architecture was.
During the late Roman Empire, Christianity linked the faithful of many religions and background together in one worship. The religious separation was due mainly to the language difference. The official language in the east became Greek, while the west continued to preserve Latin. The Byzantine Emperor Leo ordered all icons destroyed in the early to mid 700’s. The western popes did not acknowledge the emperors authority therefore straining the already tense relationship between the east and west.
A major turning point in history is the ‘conversion’ of the emperor Constantine to Christianity in, or about, 312 AD. Historians have wondered at this idea. This occurred when the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. The result was the end of harassment of Christians and the beginning of Christendom. Emperors were not at all glad and felt indifferent to Christianity.
Roman expansion into Germanic territories was essentially halted and the assimilation of the Germanic tribes was a failure. Later, barbarian tribes from this region will pressure the Roman authority along its boarders. Three hundred years later Emperor Diocletian creates political and economic reforms in an effort to strengthen the empire against growing external threats. He felt that the empire had grown to size that was too large for one to rule. He splits the empire into two halves and implements the rule of tetrarchy.
(See map 1) In the 4th and 5th Centuries AD, nomadic peoples from Central Asia began to migrate out from their homeland and cause considerable havoc all over the Eurasian Continent. One of these groups were the Huns, who arrived in Europe at about 370 AD. The arrival of the Huns in Europe immediately caused a great involuntary movement amongst the Germanic peoples who, centuries earlier, had moved down from Scandinavia and were settled on the northern fringes of the Roman Empire. These Germanic peoples were forced out of their homelands and penetrated into the Mediterranean World, sometimes settling peacefully, sometimes raiding Roman cities and sometimes offering their services as mercenaries to defend Roman cities against other barbarian invaders. The Visigoths were one of the first groups to arrive, sweeping through the Balkans, defeating a large Roman Army at the Battle of Adrianople in 378 AD and then migrating into Italy and sacking Rome itself in 410 AD, before finally establishing a Kingdom in the area of Aquitania.
This is around the same time of the second Germanic invasions of modern day Britain. Up until this point in history there had not been stability in Britain. The people went from paganism to Christianity during the Roman Empire in Britain, then back to paganism during their independence for a short period. Then the Anglo-Saxons invaded and the majority of people went back to Christianity. All the while the languages were changing, people were moving around and wars were being waged.
For centuries the Church enjoyed this supreme power. It would not be until late in the fourteenth century that the Church’s power would lessen. This was cause primarily by the Great Schism. The Great Schism was in effect a large cause of the decline and fall of the papal power during the middle ages. This is essentially because the Roman Catholic Church was split into two.
From the late fourth century, the Church had consciously set out to destroy all knowledge that could distract people from devotion to god, thus ushering in the dark ages. Thus most important philosophical, medical, mathematical and scientific knowledge built up by the ancient Greeks and Romans had been lost to Europe forever. Some of the ancient Europe text had been retained by the arabs, who valued knowledge and expanded greatly on what had been preserved. Although Europe had been exposednto Islamic culture for centuries through contacts in Spain and Siciliy, much more Islamic thought was transferred to the west during the crusades. The need to raise, transport and supply large armies led to growth in trade throughout Europe.
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Republic The disintegration of the Roman Republic is the first example in European history of the collapse of a constitutional system. The fall of the Republic, which occurred from 133 until 31 B.C.E., was more than a single man event. It was a result of several individual actions or achievements, coupled with social conditions that weighed heavily on Roman society. Additionally, massive and rapid expansion from Rome's foundation as a booming city 700 years earlier until the mid 1st century B.C., created monumental holes in the political and governing ability of the Senate. Periods of stability were mixed in with those of near collapse, while powerful generals or inciters of the Roman mob jockeyed for position.
There are many reasons for why the Roman Empire has fallen. One of the reasons is due to a new religion that had come about in the Roman Empire; Christianity. The beliefs of Christianity were so different from the Roman beliefs and values that people were being persecuted until Roman Emperor Constantine put a stop to it, and eventually legalized the religion in his empire. It caused many problems due to the drastic differences between Rome’s original religion, Paganism, which believed in many gods, and Christianity, which believed in only one god. Most Romans had considered their emperor to be a god, but the Romans who had converted to Christianity only believed in their own one god, and no longer respected, or even listened to their emperor.