Photo, above: A bull's head bowl from the Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós.  The origin of the treasure is still controversial, it may be a product of the Eighth Century; or Avars art; or Ninth Century Bulgarian; or perhaps outstanding work of the Tenth Century Hungarian conquerors.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Sunday 30 November  2014  / Hour 1, Block A: The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century, by Paul Collins  (1 of 12) “The Birth of the West is a re-making of what we think we know about the end of the ‘Dark Ages.’ It is also the gate to the utterly unexpected cosmos of European forebears. In some ways, from waterlogged England by way of the folk beliefs of French peasants, to the ambitious consolidation of Germany, corruption and reform in the Papacy, the machinations of Constantinople, and the continuing presence of Moorish culture in Western Europe, the characters who people The Birth of the West are as familiar as relatives―as indeed they are―groping their way to a cohesive Western culture as yet dominant in the world. The Birth of the West is thus the tale of our birth, and Collins tells it with a narrative grace and elegance which will make readers cherish it.”  --Thomas Keneally

Sunday 30 November  2014  / Hour 1, Block B: The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century, by Paul Collins  (2 of 12)    [Caesaropapism is the idea of combining the power of secular government with the religious power, or making it superior to the spiritual authority of the Church; especially concerning the connection of the Church with government. The term caesaropapism {Cäseropapismus} may first have been coined by Justus Henning Böhmer, and was later defined by Max Weber as "a secular, caesaropapist ruler . . . exercises supreme authority in ecclesiastic matters by virtue of his autonomous legitimacy". According to Weber's political sociology, caesaropapism entails "the complete subordination of priests to secular power."

[In its extreme form, caesaropapism is a political theory in which the head of state, notably the Emperor {'Caesar', by extension an 'equal' King}, is also the supreme head of the church {'papa', pope or analogous religious leader}. In this form, it inverts theocracy {or hierocracy in Weber} in which institutions of the Church control the state. However, both Caesaropapism and Theocracy are systems in which there is no Separation of Church and State and the two form parts of a single power structure.]

Sunday 30 November  2014  / Hour 1, Block C: The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century, by Paul Collins  (3 of 12)

Sunday 30 November  2014  / Hour 1, Block D: The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century, by Paul Collins  (4 of 12)

Hour Two

Sunday 30 November  2014  / Hour 2, Block A: The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century, by Paul Collins  (5 of 12)   A lively, full-to-bursting history of the turbulent 10th century in Europe, when inner dissention and external marauding began to give way to cohesion and centrality.

Australian nonpracticing Catholic priest and historian Collins manages to enthrall readers in the vicissitudes of an early medieval era marked by random violence and unpronounceable Nordic names via his thorough knowledge of the epoch and ability to spin an engaging tale. While giving the brilliant learning of al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) its due, he agrees with Thomas Cahill that the Irish and specifically monks indeed “saved civilization” by their stewardship and dissemination of Latin and Greek learning. Collins presents chaotic upheaval across Europe in an organized and riveting fashion. He provides a rich depiction of the physical landscape, which was experiencing a medieval warm period, allowing the Vikings to settle Greenland in the 980s after the North Atlantic sea ice had retreated. He recaps the important democratic shifts and religious conversions thanks to the inroads of Charlemagne in northern Europe and the Muslims in the south; notes the destabilizing terror struck constantly by the marauding Vikings, Saracens and Magyars; delineates the messy and increasingly dangerous papacy; and one by one takes up the dramas of important galvanizing leaders who emerged to impose some sense of order and centrality of government, even if briefly—e.g., the Saxon king Otto I, King Alfred in England and Brian Boru in Ireland. Along with stories about the likes of Liutprand of Cremona, Otto’s diplomat, the remarkable regent queen Theophano and polymath Gerbert of Aurillac (aka Pope Sylvester II), Collins also explores the lives of ordinary people in a convulsive time.

Who knew the 10th century could be so compelling?  -- KIRKUS REVIEW

Sunday 30 November  2014  / Hour 2, Block B: The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century, by Paul Collins  (6 of 12)

Sunday 30 November  2014  / Hour 2, Block C: The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century, by Paul Collins  (7 of 12)

Sunday 30 November  2014  / Hour 2, Block D: The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century, by Paul Collins  (8 of 12)

Hour Three

Below - Early depiction: Hungarians pursue Bulgarians

Sunday 30 November  2014  / Hour 3, Block A: The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century, by Paul Collins  (9 of 12)

Sunday 30 November  2014  / Hour 3, Block B: The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century, by Paul Collins  (10 of 12)

Sunday 30 November  2014  / Hour 3, Block C: The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century, by Paul Collins  (11 of 12)

Sunday 30 November  2014  / Hour 3, Block D: The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century, by Paul Collins  (12 of 12)

Hour Four

Sunday 30 November  2014  / Hour 4, Block A: The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century, by Paul Collins  (1 of 12)

Sunday 30 November  2014  / Hour 4, Block B: The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century, by Paul Collins  (2 of 12)

Sunday 30 November  2014  / Hour 4, Block C: The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century, by Paul Collins  (3 of 12)

Sunday 30 November  2014  / Hour 4, Block D: The Birth of the West: Rome, Germany, France, and the Creation of Europe in the Tenth Century, by Paul Collins  (4 of 12)

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