The Dark Side of Culture (5): Religion

In his excellent book Sapiens: A brief history of human kind , Yuval Noah Harari makes the stunning, but, upon further reflection, obvious observation that it is the ability of humans to create and believe in fictions that sets us apart from other living organisms.

Fictions play a critical role in maintaining order in human societies, because they are a great way to control large numbers – literally billions - of individuals. Unlike ants, which act like programmed robots human beings are somewhat more free-thinking, which makes coordinating our actions a far greater challenge; without fictitious system of control it would be difficult to maintain order.

Harari gives rule of law as an example of a fiction that helps to maintain control. Dating back as far as the Code of Hammurabi of 1754 BCE, human societies have invented rules to help regulate conduct (and punish breaches). We call these rules laws. However, there are no laws in nature. Our laws are meaningless to, say, lions or cows. They exist only in the books we ourselves have written and in our collective imaginations. They only impact our lives to the extent that we collectively believe in them and behave accordingly.

Other fictional systems of control, such as religion and cultural nationalism, are equally bereft of biological foundations and objectivity (see here for example). The human sperm and egg, which carry our DNA, do not care one iota about our caste or class or race, whether we are religious or not, what languages we speak, or our political views. As far as our DNA is concerned, the only things that matter are that the man and the woman are of reproductive age and that the man has an XY chromosome and the woman an XX chromosome.

Because they are fictional, we usually adorn our made-up systems of social control with solemn rituals and complex ceremonies to beef up their credibility. Thus, we only grant powers to change laws to a select few people we call parliamentarians, whom we choose in fiercely contested competitions called elections. We have somehow managed to convince ourselves that only people who can win elections are fit to create the laws that govern us (this assumption, in my view, is wrong - for more see here).

Similarly, when it comes to dispensing justice, we also make use of over-elaborate processes to increase credibility, such as requiring judges to wear robes and funny wigs and to pass difficult exams before they are given the right to sentence us. Nowhere is pomp and circumstance more elaborate than in religion and royalty, because of all systems of control these are the least credible, when viewed from a rational perspective.

Fictional control systems have a few other important traits in common.

Firstly, the greater the number of people who believe in them the greater their efficiency as instruments of social organisation. In rich countries, the vast majority of people believe in the rule of law, which is why rule of law is highly institutionalised and generally quite effective in rich countries. By contrast, most people are too poor to access the legal system in low-income countries, wherefore more spontaneous systems of justice, such as on-the-spot-lynching of thieves are more common.  

Secondly, despite the fact that they are invented, our fictional system of control are nevertheless highly impactful on our lives. Since faith in and willingness to comply with the prescriptions of, say, the rule of law we can land in very hot water indeed if we don't follow the rules. We have built prisons to lock up those who trespass against the law and some countries even execute so-called criminals.

Thirdly, our fictional systems of control differ wildly across countries and cultures. Take the attitude towards homosexuality. Nature passes no judgement on homosexuality. To nature, homosexuality simply is. But homosexuality is punishable by death in Uganda, while homosexuals are allowed to marry with equal status as heterosexuals in South Africa. The fact that our legal systems treat homosexuality so differently underlines the fundamental subjectivity of our control fictions. Each society invents its own laws, which it believes to be universal, even though they are not universal at all.

Finally, our fictional systems of control do not in any way guarantee ‘good’ or ‘fair’ outcomes. Indeed, most human societies throughout history have been extremely inegalitarian, typically drawing on the authority of an invented deity, whose design has been favourable to all-powerful rulers, who in turn have enforced the alleged deity's made-up rules with extreme violence. Our fictional control systems have therefore, unsurprisingly, been characterised by countless conflicts and continuous change along the way.

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Religion is one of the most pervasive and influential fictional control systems in human history. By most estimates, there are between 4,000 and 10,000 religions in the world today, but many more faiths, beliefs, and practices existed in the past (see here). The sheer abundance of religions is testament not only to their fictional nature, but also their recurring appeal to rulers throughout history. In the rest of this blog post, I will illustrate Harari's ideas about the role of fiction in controlling human society with reference to the period of Visigoth rule in Spain. The Catholic Church in Spain during the Visigoths worked tirelessly - and went to extraordinary lengths of immorality - in order to maintain a fundamentally exploitative social structure that exclusively served the interests of the powerful, including the Church itself.   

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Palaeolithic peoples first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula some 35,000–40,000 years ago. Little is known about these people, but they made extraordinary cave paintings (see here). Immediately prior to the Middle Ages, Celts, Phoenicians, and Greeks made Spain their home and introduced their own distinct systems of control. Then, starting around 240 BCE, the Carthaginians had a go until they were kicked out by the Romans in 218 BCE. Then followed some eight hundred years of Roman rule during which Spain's cultural life was thoroughly re-engineered to make sure the people lived accordingly to how the Romans saw fit. Indeed, so rigorous was the Roman cultural brainwashing of the Spanish people that many of Rome's most important fictions, including Catholicism and much of the Roman legal system remain central pillars of modern Spain.

Rome's control began to weaken in the first half of the first century CE. Aside from the Roman Empire’s growing internal divisions, a major threat to Roman rule came from Germanic tribes, which had first begun to expand southwards, eastwards, and westwards from their northern European homelands around 500 BCE. An alliance of Germanic tribes defeated the Romans at the Battle of Teutoburg in 8 CE. The Romans suffered another major defeat at the Battle of Adrianople in 378 CE, this time at the hands of the Germanic Thervingi tribe, a precursor for the Goths. The Goths then sacked Rome in 410 CE. Germanic victory was complete in 800 CE, when Frankish leader Charlemagne conquered Rome and assumed the title of Holy Roman Emperor.

Rammstein makes specific reference to the Battle of Teutoburg in the opening scene of the band's awesome video ‘Deutschland’. To enjoy, click on the picture and turn up the volume! (Source: YouTube)

As far as Spain was concerned, the transition from Roman to Germanic domination began when Suebis from near the Elbe along with Vandals from Southern Poland and nomadic Alans from present-day Iran entered Spain between 407 CE and 409 CE, occupying large swathes of the country. They were soon followed by Germanic Goths (see here). Or to be more precise Visigoths. The term Visigoth refers to Goths from Western Europe as opposed to Ostrogoths, who hailed from Eastern Europe.

The Visigoths quickly increased their influence in the Iberian Peninsula, because unlike the Suebis, Vandals, and Alans they were highly Romanised and even had treaties in place with Rome, which greatly aided their expansion. When the Western Roman Empire fell in 476 CE, the Visigoths broke with the Romans. By the early 500s CE, the Visigoths had established full control of nearly all of Spain and moved their capital to Toledo from Toulouse. Visigoth hegemony was to last 300 years until the arrival of the Moors in 711 CE.

Europe circa 500 CE (Source: here)

Visigoth soon got very busy setting up their own fictional systems of control in Spain. Visigoth rule was characterised by dramatic centralisation of power and homogenisation of culture, particularly religion. The process was brutal and largely implemented by officials from the Catholic Church. We know this because, remarkably, the bishops of the Catholic Church in Spain kept minutes from eighteen synods - known as Councils of Toledo - which were held during Visigoth rule (see here).

There was widespread belief in a literal God in Spain during Visigoth rule, so the Catholic Church claimed a direct link to God. In turn, this enabled the bishops to act as de facto law-makers in Visigoth society. The Councils of Toledo were therefore similar to parliamentary sessions, whose edicts had the status of laws.

The First Council of Toledo was convened in 400 CE. Its primary aim was to root out competition to Catholicism from Priscillianism, a rival Christian sect. Followers of Princillianism held that angels and human souls emanated from God, but that human bodies were created by the devil. In their view, human souls were joined to the human body deliberately to remind and punish us for our sins (see here). By the time the First Council of Toledo was held, Priscillian himself, the sect's leader, had already been put to the sword, executed in 385 CE for "holding nocturnal meetings with shameful women and praying while naked" (see here).

With Priscillian no longer around, the First Council of Toledo sensed an opportunity to strike a hard blow at the remaining Priscillians. Armed with the synod's authority, the bishops went after remaining adherents of Priscillianism over the following two hundred years until all members of the sect had been annihilated. The main beneficiaries of this purge were the Jews, who made up about 3% of the Spanish population at the time. The Visigoths did not yet see the Jews as a threat, so they were allowed to occupy some high positions in society at this early stage of Visigoth rule in Spain.

Having dispensed with Priscillianism in the first synod, the Second Council of Toledo of 527 CE took it upon itself eradicate the Arianists, another Christian sect. In fact, the early Visigoth arrivals in Spain had been Arianists, who at the time frequently clashed with the Catholic Hispano-Roman population. Catholics regarded the Arianists as heretics and the Arianists in turn despised Catholics. Their disagreement boiled down to a single point of scripture: Arianists believed that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit were three separate entities, while Catholics insisted – and still do – that the Holy Trinity of Father (God), Son (Jesus) and Holy Spirit are aspects of same divine being. This rather ridiculous dispute – over a purely fictional concept – would ensure bloody conflict between Visigoths and Hispano-Romans for some sixty years.

A key year during the conflict was 587 CE, when Visigoth King Recared converted to Catholicism and immediately set out to make sure everyone else did the same. As I have noted elsewhere, authoritarian rulers often prefer monotheism, because it is easier to exercise control with just one deity (see here).

Recared's conversion to Catholicism massively increased his power by securing the support of the Church and aligning him with the majority of the Spanish population, which was already Catholic by then. Seeing the writing on the wall, the few remaining Arianists converted, but the Jews stubbornly clung on to their own fiction, Judaism. Suddenly the Jews began to stand out, a small, isolated, and conservative obstacle in an otherwise now almost uniformly Catholic Spanish religious landscape.

No prize, then, for guessing that the Third and Fourth Councils of Toledo of 589 CE and 633 CE turned their vitriol on the Jews. They forbade Jews from having Christian wives, concubines, or slaves. Jews were also disqualified from holding any office which involved punishment of Christians. Christian slaves that had been made to participate in Jewish rituals of any kind were to be freed. Children of unions between Jews and Christians were required to be baptised and stringent measures were put in place to prevent relapses to Judaism.

Due to their own fictional control systems, Jews found baptism to be particularly difficult. Jews believe Jewish babies are born members of the Jewish religion, because they see Jews as “a people”. Hence, when Spain's Catholics required Jews to be baptised it amounted to an abandonment not just of their religion, but also their 'tribe'. In reality, of course, there is no Jewish race and Judaism is just another made-up religion (see here). Still, these attitudes were to make life hell for the Jews in Visigoth Spain.

Meanwhile, when they were not busy persecuting Jews the Catholic bishops spent a great deal of time buttering up the king and shoring up the feudal system. Visigoth society was based on a rigid and highly exploitative hierarchy. Slaves were at the bottom and the king at the top. In between were farmers, nobles, and bishops, in rising order of importance. Kings always sought the blessing of the bishops in order to lend credence to their claims to hereditary power, which was important, because the nobles – led by five dukes – frequently tried to kill kings in order to usurp their power.

The Catholic bishops were also busy insuring that the great unwashed did not rise above their station. It blessed as inalienable rights the nobles’ ownership of land, which farmers were forced to cultivate in exchange for food and shelter. The bishops also blessed slavery and had powers to create new slaves. This made bishops extremely powerful, because slaves made up the bulk of the army, which was jointly owned by the nobles, but could be lent to the king in the event of war.

In the spirit of preserve the exploitative Visigoth social hierarchy, the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Councils of Toledo (638 CE to 653 CE) granted specific religious sanction to feudalism by decreeing special protections for the the king and higher nobles. Punishments, including excommunication, were introduced for anyone caught plotting against the king. The synod also formally approved mass executions of offenders.

In order to protect the Catholic Church’s own carefully constructed image of purity and sanctity in the eyes of ordinary people, without whose unwavering faith the Church would instantly implode, it was occasionally necessary to purge from within the church's own corrupt ranks, particularly among the horny bishops. With logic as clear as mud, the Ninth Council of Toledo of 655 CE thus stipulated that children sired of clerics be made slaves of the church.

It was also deemed important that once someone had been cajoled into joining the Catholic Church they should never be allowed to leave. To this end, the Ninth Council of Toledo decreed that converts to Catholicism were required to attend all religious ceremonies in person to demonstrate their faith, and failure to attend even a single ceremony would be punished with flogging or enforced starvation.

In 656 CE, the bishops finally - inevitably you might say - committed fully to the time-honoured tactic of detracting attention away from own weaknesses by scapegoating minorities, in this case the Jews. The Tenth Council of Toledo expelled from the Church all clerics, who were caught trading Christian slaves with Jews. Then, in 681 CE, the Twelfth Council of Toledo enacted no fewer than 28 laws against Jews and required that the new laws be read aloud in all churches in Spain. Converted Jews were also prohibited from returning to Judaism at pain of death. At the same synod, the bishops also suppressed laws against violence to slaves, probably to help nobles maintain control over the army.

By the late 600s CE, so many nobles were trying to kill kings that the nobles could no longer be ignored as a political force. The bishops, ever sensitive to even the tiniest shifts in the balance of power, thus began to align themselves with the nobles. In the Thirteenth Council of Toledo of 683CE, the bishops took a decisive step towards the nobles by formally offering immunity from prosecution for nobles who had acted against the king in the past. This shift benefitted the bishops by aligning them more closely with the increasingly powerful nobility. It did not serve Visigoth society as a whole very well, however, because by reducing the cost of rebellion the nobles were encouraged to undertake even more treasonous acts, making political instability even worse.

Even through they were moving closer to the nobles, the bishops never ignored the interests of the king. In the Fifteenth Council of Toledo of 688 CE, the bishops decreed that newly appointed kings would no longer be required to honour commitments they had made to previous kings, meaning the king they had usually just toppled. This measure was popular with newly appointed kings and put the bishops back in their good books.

The bishops never forgot to maintain the mystery of the Catholic Church, which was and remains key to maintaining the trust of the faithful. The bishops showed off their intellectual gravitas and general import to Visigoth society by dedicating no fewer than two synods – the Fourteenth and Fifteenth – to the riveting question of whether Jesus only had divine will or human will as well.

Once this important debate was out of the way, the bishops quickly got back to social engineering in the Sixteenth Council of Toledo of 693 CE. They defrocked a bishop who had dared to rebel against the king. The rebel bishop had broken the sacred rule that bishops must at all times serve at least two masters. Next, they got onto approving punishments for homosexuality, including castration, whipping, and execution. They did not forget to scapegoat Jews either; they introduced a new requirement that converted Jews must prove their faith by eating non-kosher food and introduced punishments for Christians who traded with unconverted Jews.

This treatment of the Jews, however, soon proved far too lenient. Within a year, in 694 CE, the Seventeenth Council of Toledo, at the bidding of the king, decreed that all Jewish property be given to Christian slaves and that all Jews be made slaves. In a particularly clever move, the bishops gave power to the king to decide which nobles would get ownership of the newly minted Jewish slaves, thereby granting the king an important tool for currying favour with rebellious nobles. It was also decided that henceforth all Jewish children be removed from their parents at the age of seven and married off to Christians. Finally, slave owners had to sign contracts that they would never allow the Jewish religion to be practiced. Clearly, at this point the Catholic Church in Visigoth Spain was deliberately trying eradicate Judaism from Spain, a kind of final solution.

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Nearly every decree by the Councils of Toledo increased the power of the Catholic Church. Already by the 670s CE, the Church was becoming extraordinarily corrupt. In addition to fornication, Bishops engaged in simony, a method of immoral enrichment in which senior clergy offer positions within the church hierarchy to the highest bidder. In a rather superficial effort had been made to stamp out simony in the Eleventh Council of Toledo in 675 CE, which condemned simony, but harsh punishments were never imposed and simony continued on the sly. After all, simony was an incredibly efficient way for bishops to get very rich.  

By now, Visigoth society was crumbling. The very last Council of Toledo took place in 703 CE. It was deemed so controversial that no minutes were kept, but rumour has it that the synod proposed to legalise marriage for bishops. Due to the self-serving laws passed by the Councils of Toledo, Visigoth society never achieved stability. There were constant struggles for power. King after king was deposed and assassinated. The Catholic Church was extremely corrupt and its decrees deeply unfair, but the system was too rigid to change through constitutional means. There was no effective constitution nor a proper balance of powers. Exploitation of ordinary people was extreme and scapegoating of Jews in particular was horrific. Over time, the game of musical chairs in the Visigoth court became more and more frenetic. The best illustration of this is that the Bishops held more and more synods and passed ever more laws towards the end of Visigoth rule, almost as if not to appear so impotent (see chart below).

Source: Data from here)

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It is fortuitous that the minutes of the eighteen Councils of Toledo were preserved for posterity. They expose in its full glory the Catholic Church’s role in the oppression that accompanied Visigoth rule in Spain, particularly following Visigoth conversion to Catholicism.

The Visigoth kings sought to impose hardcore cultural homogeneity on Spain in a bid to hold on to power and the Catholic Church was the willing hand-maiden. As elsewhere, cultural homogenisation had hugely negative consequences for ordinary people and especially minority groups, including non-Catholic Visigoths and Jews.

The minutes of the Councils of Toledo disabuse us of any notion that the Catholic Church in Spain served a ‘higher’ moral purpose, or acted for 'the good of the people'. Rather, the Catholic Church was machiavellian and, on many occasions, acted with almost grotesque viciousness. The Church was serving its own interest, the interest of the king, and the interests of the nobles, in that order. At no point did the Catholic Church act in the interest of the meek.

The Catholic Church in Visigoth Spain was instrumental to maintaining a deeply exploitative and flawed feudal system, shoring up royal dictators, buttering up selfish and violent nobles, participating in and protecting the institution of slavery, approving of and in some cases decreeing mass-murder, and leading numerous campaigns to persecute members of other faiths, notably Jews. In short, the Catholic Church and the Catholic religion were heinous instruments of social control.

In the end, however, even the best efforts of the Catholic Church proved inadequate in preventing collapse. In 711 CE, Tariq ibn-Ziyad crossed the Strait of Gibraltar at the head of an army of 7,000 Arabs and Berbers, meeting very little resistance. Visigoth rule gave way almost overnight. The arrival of the Muslims in Spain was particularly welcomed by the Jews, who to this day refer to the first 200-300 years after Tariq ibn-Ziyad’s arrival as the 'Golden Age of Judaism' in Spain (see here).  

At the most fundamental level, Visigoth rule in Spain was a tragedy, because the Catholic Church’s power to exploit ordinary people emanated from the exploited themselves. It was the proclivity of ordinary people to believing in religious fiction – sustained through a combination of brainwashing, coercion, and ignorance – that underpinned their enslavement.  

The End