Ravenna was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 402 until that empire collapsed in 476. It then served as the capital of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, Theodoric, who built many splendid buildings in and around Ravenna, including his palace church Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, an Arian cathedral (now Santo Spirito) and Baptistery, and his own Mausoleum just outside the wall until it was re-conquered in 540 by the Byzantine Empire. Both Odoacer and Theodoric, their followers were Arian Christians, but co-existed peacefully with the Latins, who were largely Catholic Orthodox.

Aftaerwards, the city formed the centre of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna until the invasion of the Lombards in 571, after which it became the seat of the Kingdom of the Lombards, thus ending Byzantine rule in northern Italy. 

Under the leadership of the Carolingian King Pippin the Short, Ravenna was given to the pope in 757; the local archbishops, however, retained almost princely powers.

In the 6th century Italy was controlled by the Ostragoths, France by the Franks and Burgundians, and Spain by the Visigoths. A century later, the Lombards controlled northern Italy, and the Franks were unchallenged in France, as the Anglos and Saxons were in Britannia.

We had the Church of Ravenna, the Church of Rome, the Church of Constantinople and the Celtic Church, all competing with each other and claiming to be the only true Christian faith.

Christianity was different then any proceeding religion known to men at that time. It taught people a whole different outlook on life and, in its essence changed society to a more forgiving nature instead of an eye for an eye mentally. This didn’t happen overnight ofcourse, apparently women played a big part in this new religion as promoters without any real rights.

Early Christianity was remarkably, almost unbelievable, diverse. There were different Christians all saying different things about GOD, Christ, the World, salvation, the Jews, in fact, just about everything. And all these Christians believed that they were right and that all the others were wrong. All of them had Sacred Books to prove their claims, books allegedly written by the disciples of Jesus himself. Only some of these books became the New Testament, and so only some of the beliefs survived down through the ages. All the others were eventually ruled out as heresies by the Roman Catholic Church. But this was a long process spanning many centuries, Austrasie was the state where the old beliefs and practices were kept for the longest time.

The pact between the Merovingian Royal House and the Roman Catholic Church played a major part in, and was the foundation of the future dominance of the Roman Catholic Christian faith, for centuries to come and the stagnation of science and society from 800 to approximately 1800.

The truth of the matter is that there was a vast interest by the Church to follow their own agenda of World Power beginning in Europe, and to eliminate the Sacred Merovingian Bloodline, to end there influence and the power they held over the Church by there heritage and intermarriage with the Bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. If it wasn’t for the Merovingian Kings, Europe would have probably had a Celtic Christian religion or an Arian Christian Church.

By understanding the Concept of Religion, the Origin of Religion, how it evolved and what place it has in our modern society will give us a Greater Understanding of the World we live in.