I read the other day that the Roman Empire never fell. Its emperor is the Pope.

Which is an exaggeration, but makes you thinking. This institution still has a ton of power.

The pope does hold a title, "pontifex maximus", that is older than Christianity itself and goes back to the foundation of Rome. For a while it was unified with the emperor seat.

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accidentallfact 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It fell, (quite violently, in fact) in the third century. The rest was pretense.

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wonnage 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Eh, it’s more like they attached themselves to the Romans for marketing purposes. Same with the Holy Roman Empire

	▲	accidentallfact 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		There is no reason to doubt that Jesus lived in the Roman Empire, once you believe that he lived at all. And there is no reason whatsoever to doubt that the church formed in Rome. All known world was Rome at the time. From Britain to Morocco to the Middle East. (Islam only happened in the middle ages, it isn't that old.)