The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Thirteenth Lecture

[ 1 ] Much is present and will be evident in the forms that events of the present and the near future will take, which can be understood in essence if one considers in a reasonable and spiritual manner the continuing effects of those events that took place through the initial spread of Christianity. This may still sound paradoxical to some today. And yet: the fact that it cannot be made more generally understandable how certain forces, which at that time were imprinted and instilled in human development and in the development of the earth in general during the spread of Christianity, are still at work today, is only due to the fact that today, according to the often-characterized opinions that prevail in our time, people do not look at the deeper impulses, the deeper forces at work in the events of the times, and want to view everything only from the perspective of what is happening on the surface. The deeper spiritual forces are not accessible to people today because they do not really love to contemplate them. But anyone who is willing to engage even a little with what lies beneath the surface events of our time will become aware of the effective forces at work in many of the documents that are coming to the surface in our time — even in many things that happen here and there among people who are not aware of the impulses that drive their actions. will become aware of impulses that are often a continuation, even a reappearance, of certain impulses that occurred especially in the first centuries of the spread of Christianity. It is not even possible to characterize the most significant, one might say, revivals of old impulses in our time today, because people cannot tolerate such a characterization. But those who, from a certain point of view, look at the first Christian centuries in Europe will be able to discern which forces are at work and reappearing. That is why I was and am endeavoring to bring certain phenomena connected with the spread of Christianity in the first centuries of the Christian era to your soul right now, because through the appropriate use of the mental images that can be gained from them, you will be able to understand much in the present by yourself through your own soul.

[ 2 ] Today I would like to contribute something that builds on our last considerations, which will then be subject to further elaboration, but which we want to look at first so that this later consideration can be fruitful.

[ 3 ] You see, I have often spoken to you about this peculiar, remarkable fact that the first Roman Caesars, the Roman emperors, had in a certain way forced initiation upon themselves. And that some of the actions of the Roman emperors were influenced by the fact that they had forced initiation upon themselves and therefore knew certain things connected with world events, with the great impulses of world events, but that, as we saw last time, they exploited these initiation secrets in their own way.

[ 4 ] Now, when considering these things, it is important to realize first of all that the coming of the Christ impulse into the world-historical movement of humanity was not merely an external event on the physical plane, which one understands when looking at the facts that have been handed down historically, but that it was a truly spiritual event. I have already pointed out that there is something deeper behind the statements in the Gospels that the demons recognized Christ. It is said that Christ performed healings, which are described in the Gospels as exorcisms. And we are repeatedly reminded that, on the one hand, the demons who in this way came out of people, so to speak, had knowledge of who Christ was; and on the other hand, we are repeatedly reminded that Christ himself said to the demons that it was not yet time to speak of him, that they should not “betray” him, as it says in the common translation of the Gospels . So we can say that when Christ appeared, it was not only the judgments of human beings that were involved. It could have been that human beings initially had not the slightest idea what was behind Christ's appearance. But the demons, the spirits, who were thought to belong to a supernatural world, recognized him. We see, then, that it is an event in whose recognition the supernatural world plays a part. And it is this recognition above all that has been held fast with great intensity by the more knowledgeable leaders of the early Christians: that Christianity did not come merely as an earthly event, that something did not take place only in the earthly world, but something that concerns the spiritual world, something that has caused a kind of revolution in the spiritual world. This is what was held fast to with great intensity by these leaders and the spirits of early Christianity.

[ 5 ] Now it is a peculiar phenomenon that precisely the Roman Caesars, who knew certain things, certain secrets of the spiritual world, because they had forced their way into initiation, that these Roman Caesars, more or less, precisely because of their initiation, had an inkling of the whole, great, far-reaching significance of the Christ impulse. Of course, there were some among the Roman Caesars who, despite having forced their way into initiation, did not understand much about the mysteries; but there were also those who understood enough to be able to sense the effectiveness, the power of the Christ mystery. And it was precisely the more gifted and insightful of these initiated Caesars who began to pursue a certain policy toward the spreading Christianity. Even the first emperor after Augustus, Tiberius, began to do so. Although one might object that Christianity was not yet widespread at that time, this objection is not valid. For Tiberius, who was in a sense initiated into the ancient mysteries, knew exactly that it was something significant when he was told from Palestine what had entered the world as the Christ impulse. And so we must take a closer look at how, already under Tiberius, the policy began that the initiated Roman Caesars pursued toward Christianity. Tiberius had just announced his intention to accept Christ as one of the gods among the other Roman gods.

[ 6 ] The Roman Empire had a very specific policy toward the worship of gods. Essentially, this policy consisted of the Romans, when they had defeated a people and conquered them, accepting that people's gods into their Olympus of gods. In other words, they said: These gods may also be worshipped, and our gods are now increased by the number of these gods. They had simply accepted a few others into their family of gods, and in this way the Roman gods themselves had gradually increased in number. This was, in a sense, the policy followed by the Roman rulers in order to truly take over everything they wanted to conquer, including the spiritual and the soul. And since such an initiated Caesar was far from seeing only the outer images in the gods, far from seeing only what the people saw in the gods, what the people saw, but knew that behind what was set up in the images of the gods, spiritual powers from the most diverse hierarchies were already present, this policy was entirely understandable, entirely comprehensible; for the power that was to lie in the acceptance of the gods, the appropriation of the gods, was consciously incorporated into the power of the Roman principle of rule. And as a rule, not only was the religion of the gods adopted exoterically, but the secrets of the foreign mysteries were also incorporated into the Roman initiation centers and connected with the mystery cult of the ancient Roman Empire. And since at that time it was generally believed that one should not and could not rule without spiritual powers such as those represented by the gods, this was, as I said, a completely understandable thing.

[ 7 ] Tiberius therefore wanted to achieve that the power of Christ, as he had a mental image of it, should simply be incorporated into the impulses emanating from the other divine powers recognized by him and his peoples. The Roman Senate thwarted Tiberius's request, and it did not come to fruition. But time and again, the initiated Caesars made this attempt. Hadrian, for example, made this attempt. But time and again, the dignitaries, those who could exert a certain influence, resisted this policy of the initiated Caesars. Now, if one examines what was actually put forward against this policy of the initiated Caesars, then this examination gives one a good mental image of what actually happened at this most significant turning point in human development on earth.

[ 8 ] It is a remarkable coincidence that we can see here. You see, countless times Roman writers, influential Roman personalities, and from there also within the larger Roman population, have repeatedly asserted against the Christians as they appeared at that time, as they spread: that these Christians consider unholy what others consider holy, and that they consider holy what others consider unholy. That is to say, the Romans repeatedly pointed out that these Christians differed radically in their thinking, in their feelings, in their sensibilities from the Romans and from all other peoples; because the other peoples had, in a sense, absorbed the Romans with their gods. You can see from this that it was already the case that the whole world regarded Christians as different people, as people with different, even opposite, perceptions and feelings. Now, one could simply dismiss this by saying that it was slander. Such things are easy to resort to when one wants to take a superficial view of history. But one cannot say that this is slander when one considers the following: Much has been transferred from the views of the pre-Christian and contemporary world regarding the mystery of Golgotha into Christian teaching, according to the wording — you know, we do not overestimate such wording, but precisely because we do not overestimate it, we can emphasize it. It would be better to say that Christians expressed in words feelings that were already present in some of their contemporaries. One of those who perhaps really had, in terms of wording, what reappeared in Christianity is Philo of Alexandria, whom I have already mentioned here several times, a contemporary of Christ. Philo of Alexandria has a remarkable sentence; which simply reads: According to what has been handed down to me, I must hate what others love love — and he means the Romans — and love what others hate — he means the Romans. And if you consider this sentence of Philo's and then look in the Gospels, you will find countless echoes of this sentence of Philo's, especially in the Gospel of Matthew. So that one can already say: Christianity grew out of a spiritual aura that conditioned people to say: We love what others hate. That is, Christians — and this sentence was often uttered in early Christian communities, it was even one of the main tenets of Christian teachings — Christians themselves expressed what others accused them of. So it was not mere slander, but it coincides with what the Romans said: Christians love what we hate and hate what we love. But Christians, on the other hand, said the same thing about the Romans.

[ 9 ] From this you can see that something truly different from what had gone before had entered into the world development of humanity — otherwise it could not have been expressed so strongly. Of course, if one wants to assess this whole situation, one must be clear that what has come about has really descended from spiritual worlds, and that some who were contemporaries of the Mystery of Golgotha, such as Philo, saw it in broken rays and then expressed it in their own way. So that sometimes words from the Gospels, which are now often interpreted in the way I mentioned to you at the end of the last lecture, which are now adapted to the opportunities of human beings, will only be seen in the right light if one does not take the position of interpreting them in any way one likes, but if one really shapes the interpretation out of the whole spirit of the time. There are some remarkable sentences in the Gospels. They are indeed sometimes interpreted in a rather remarkable way today. But some of Philo's writings strongly echo the Gospels. I would like to share with you a sentence from Philo, from which you will see that Philo, simply because he was not as inspired as the later evangelists, wrote in a slightly different way than they did; because he was more literate in a worldly sense, he expressed some things in such a way that one does not need as much to understand him as one needs to understand the evangelists in order to understand the Gospels. You will find a strange sentence in Philo, but it expresses some of what has entered the hearts and minds of people. Philo says: Let the inheritance registers and the documents of the despots be discarded, let everything physical be discarded; do not attribute civil rights and privileges of freedom to the so-called citizen, nor attribute bondage to the low-born or purchased slave, but look only to the descent of the soul! If you read the Gospel with understanding, you will not fail to recognize that, although elevated to a special spiritual sphere, something of this attitude permeates the Gospels, and that therefore a modern opportunist can say what I read to you last time, and which is certainly worth committing to memory, so I want to read it again:

[ 10 ] "It is a futile effort to seek the hereafter. It may not even exist, and no matter how we approach it, we cannot learn anything about it. Let us leave all occultism to the enlightened and the charlatans; whatever form mysticism may take, it contradicts reason. But let us nevertheless devote ourselves to the Church... because, with the authority of centuries and great practical experience, it formulates the rules of ethics that must be taught to peoples and children. And finally, because, far from delivering us to mysticism, it defends us directly against it, silencing the voices of the mysterious groves, interpreting the Gospels, and sacrificing the magnanimous anarchism of the Savior to the needs of society."

[ 11 ] It is precisely in a sentence such as the one I have just quoted to you from Philo that you can see, as it echoes again and again in the Bible, in the New Testament, what actually lies behind this whole movement. And when Philo speaks of the descent of the soul, he means a lot, but he certainly means something that rebels against all the views that were dominant in the Roman Empire. For in the Roman Empire, only the descent of the body, in its various forms, was considered valid, of course; and the entire social order was based on the descent of the body. And suddenly the word was thrown in: “Let all physical descent go and look only at the descent of the soul!” One cannot imagine any mental image that is more radically different from all the principles of the Roman Empire. There is no greater contrast that could be imagined. And this contrast was raised to a higher level by the appearance of Christ Jesus — the world was waiting for him, after all — it was raised to a higher level and opposed with all the impulsiveness of the external world order of that time.

[ 12 ] One could say that it might have been acceptable to the Roman Caesars to include what had appeared, but which negated the fundamental nerve of their sociality, in the pantheon of their gods as a new god in the circle of their many other gods; so that he, the Christ God, behind whom lies so much more, would, to put it trivially, have become one of their own. But these initiated Caesars should have realized that they would not have an easy time with what had come to them from spiritual heights. When the forces of initiation are as strongly effective externally as they must be, when it has simply become a law of compulsion that the Caesars must be initiated, as was the case in Rome after Augustus, then, of course, significant forces are at work in everything the Caesars do externally. They work, so to speak, in the measures, in the impulses through which sociality is shaped. And there the intentions show themselves more strongly than they do for the ordinary initiated person. For let us suppose that one of the Caesars who had been touched by initiation had said: Well, yes — I mean, let us assume this hypothetically — then the Baptist appeared with water baptism. Through this water baptism, the etheric bodies were loosened — of course, the initiated Caesars knew this — and through this, those who were baptized gained insight into the inner structure of the spiritual world; above all, they knew that this was a turning point in the world. — For those who had been baptized by immersion in water knew this; because their etheric bodies had been loosened, they knew precisely the secret of the turning point in the world. And imagine if such an initiated Caesar had said: I will take up the fight — this happened within the mysteries — I will take up the fight against what has entered into the turning point of the world! — One must only form a sufficiently strong mental image of the will to power of these Caesars. They did not fall into the trap of thinking that they might be powerless against the will of the gods, but they decided — and they allowed themselves to be initiated for this purpose — they decided to take on the spiritual impulses of the world, to oppose the course of the world, so to speak. This has also happened at other times. It is also happening today. Only today people do not notice it, do not know it.

[ 13 ] Now, in contrast to this hypothesis that I have just put forward, the following happened: Licinius, who had co-ruled the other part of the empire at the time of Constantine, had something like the feeling of opposing the gods. He wanted to perform a sign, because such signs, cult signs, express, in a sense, the struggle against spiritual powers. He wanted to perform a cult sign that would manifest in the outer physical world: I take up this struggle! In other words, he wanted baptism, through which it had become clear to the whole world: “The turning point of the world has come!” and thus combat Christianity, blunting the strength of its impulse. For this purpose, a special festival was organized, a spectacle at Heliopolis. A mime, Gelasinus, was made to be immersed in warm water in a white baptismal robe. This was to be performed as a spectacle, and it was to be a mockery of Christian baptism. What happened? Gelasinus was wrapped in the priestly white robe, immersed in warm water, pulled out, and now he was to be there for ridicule. And what happened? Well, he said: “Now I am a Christian and will remain so with all the strength of my soul!” That is to say, Licinius had received the answer from the spiritual world: instead of mocking baptism, the effect of baptism had taken place. He recognized the turning point in the world. — Such an initiated Caesar as Licinius was took it upon himself to question the gods, to fight with the gods, and received a negative answer.

[ 14 ] Certainly, in our time it is impossible to form a true mental image of the significance of such an answer. At that time, it was a fully valid answer for all people, including the pagans, an answer that was already expected. From another source, something had also entered the consciousness of the people of that time who were familiar with the mysteries of world events, which familiarized them with the ideas that arose through the spread of Christianity. From ancient times, a wide variety of customs had been passed down, all of which had an occult meaning. In the Antonine period, the Sibyls spoke; or people listened to and sought advice from them, the Sibylline Oracles. And a significant oracle from the Antonine period had explicitly stated: Rome is doomed; ancient Rome will not be able to continue! Well, oracles speak in such a way that they can be understood ambiguously, but also correctly. This oracle spoke strangely. It said: Rome will fall, and in the place where ancient Rome once stood, foxes and wolves will dwell and wield their power. That was also something to be expected. Of course, people sought a deeper meaning behind all this, but they sensed that a turning point in history had been reached. What had reigned in Rome would fade away. Foxes and wolves would be there, and they would spread their rule from there. Of course, oracles speak ambiguously; and sometimes, even back then, the aura of initiation passed through an ordinary, uninitiated sage, so that he sometimes spoke strange things that can only be understood in the complete context of the time of the turning point in world history.

[ 15 ] Last time I told you about Nero, what this initiated Caesar actually thought. He wanted to set the world on fire in order to be there himself at the end of the world. So he wanted, in a sense, if the end of Rome was to come, at least to have this end of Rome, that is, the rule of the globe from Rome, in his own hands. Seneca warned him once, warned him in a strange saying. This saying can only be understood if one knows that the Roman Caesars, possessing the principle of initiation, believed themselves to be endowed with divine power, which the Christians in particular did not want to offer them the corresponding worship. Seneca said to Caesar Nero: You are capable of many things — he knew no other way to convey this to the violent man — you are capable of many things, you can do many things, including having those killed whom you believe can contribute something to the world order that will come after the fall of ancient Rome. But there is one thing that no despot can do, said Seneca, and that is to have his successor murdered. — It was a very significant, profound statement. Of course, this does not refer to a possible successor, but to the actual successor. Seneca wanted to imply that death sets a limit to his power. So it is precisely in Roman circles that this tradition plays a significant role, the tradition of the fall of Rome.

[ 16 ] And it is remarkable that it was precisely in this tradition that the Christians differed radically from the Romans. And now comes something very paradoxical: the Christians differed in that, when they were among themselves, they advocated the thesis that Rome would not fall, but that the rule of Rome would last until the end, whereby one always thought of the end of a cycle. So it was precisely the Christians who defended the thesis that Rome's rule would continue, that it would, so to speak, outlast the wolves and the foxes. Not that the Christians said, to put it a little like the oracle: wolves and foxes would not dwell or rule in Rome; they did not deny that, but they countered it with the assertion that Rome's rule would continue.

[ 17 ] All these sentiments must really be taken into account. Some of them have even come true. For example, the mother of Alexander Severus, who was a student of Origen—think of Origen, who, although considered a suspect, is nevertheless regarded as a kind of Church Father—so the mother of Alexander Severus, who was a student of Origen, had set up a kind of pantheon of worship for her own private use. For she worshipped Abraham, Orpheus, Apollonius of Tyana, and Christ simultaneously in her private chamber, and considered the worship of these four—Abraham, Christ, Orpheus, Apollonius of Tyana—to be necessary and right for her own salvation. So, after all, she, who was a good student of Origen, did not find it at all contrary to Origen's teaching to behave in this way.

[ 18 ] Now, if we take note of these sentiments, which I have tried to outline for you in a few strokes, we have in them the sentiments of the first centuries up to the fourth century. And we find again and again in this period Caesars who were endeavoring to incorporate Christianity into their religious systems, so to speak, to come to terms with Christianity. Despite the persecutions of Christians reported by history, this is nevertheless true; we find this continuing into the fourth century.

[ 19 ] In the fourth century, as you know, a remarkable personality appears in the form of Emperor Constantine, the contemporary of Licinius — a remarkable personality. Constantine was an extraordinarily important figure, also an intellectually significant figure; and I have pointed out on other occasions how intellectual influences came into play precisely in Constantine's personality, in a sense in the leadership of the West, which is indeed a complicated one. Today we want to look at him from a different perspective.

[ 20 ] You see, he was an important, even spiritual personality, but his spiritual nature was such that he could not find the right relationship to the old initiation. He could not find the right relationship to the old initiation. He shied away, as it were, from what his ancestors and contemporaries did not shy away from: forcing himself into the initiation into the ancient mysteries. He was, in a sense, afraid to force himself into the initiation into the ancient mysteries. At the same time, the Sibylline Oracle weighed heavily on his soul, as did all the other things that were known at that time about the decline of Rome, the Roman Empire, and so on. However, he also knew that the Christians had the tradition, the thesis, that Rome would survive until the end of the world. He knew about all these things. But he shied away from initiation into the ancient mysteries. He shied away from, in a sense, taking up the fight with Christianity in the mysteries. This is extremely significant.

[ 21 ] What is now told you in history about Emperor Constantine is extremely interesting and shows you how Constantine tried to gain a relationship with Christianity in a different way, how he acted, as it were, as the great protector of Christianity, how he actually enforced Christianity, as he understood it, throughout the Roman Empire. But he was unable to properly connect this Christianity to the ancient principle of initiation. There was also a great difficulty here, for the Christians themselves and their leaders had resisted this, resisted it thoroughly, because they had a feeling, and many also had an insight, that through Christianity the ancient mystery, which was veiled in the mystery temples, would be carried out onto the stage of world history and thus presented before the whole world. They wanted to present the mystery truths before the whole world, not enclose them within the temples. And these initiated Caesars wanted, in essence, nothing more than to bring Christianity back from the world into the mystery temples. Then people would have been initiated into Christianity in a similar way to how they had been initiated into the secrets of the ancient teachings of the gods. But it was difficult for Constantine to penetrate what the Christians themselves were striving for, because at that time the Christians understood the impulse that, in their opinion, should go through the world at this turning point in history to be a thoroughly spiritual impulse. And from this point of view of a thoroughly spiritual impulse, one must also understand their thesis: “The Roman Empire will continue to exist.” This thesis becomes particularly clear when one considers, I would say, the secret teachings of the early Christians. With this continuation of the Roman Empire, they wanted to hint at what was already happening at that time, and what indeed did happen. I told you recently that the actual deeper impulse of the Roman Empire has not ceased, it lives on; and it is not only jurisprudence, as I told you, that contains the impulses of the Roman Empire. Yes, it is significant that in detail many things have occurred which those who do not see more deeply regard as something new; but in truth, nothing has actually been added to what was in the impulses of the Roman Empire in a certain area. There is a continuation of the Roman Empire; it has spread. Even though the old Roman Empire is no more, its spirit lives on, far and wide, and continues to have a profound impact.

[ 22 ] Certain people who know the secrets speak in the present about how what will continue to exist in our time is the ghost of the old Roman Empire, which lives everywhere among us. This is a constant formula for those who are initiated into such things, even today, and it always will be. This is what the Christians wanted to point out. But at the same time they wanted to say: in what Christianity is, there will always be something that this Imperium Romanum has to fight against. The supernatural aspect of Christianity will always be in conflict with the sensual aspect of the Imperium Romanum. So there was a prediction, a prophecy, in this thesis.

[ 23 ] And now you can better understand why the Roman senators and Caesars were afraid; for they had to relate the downfall to the external empire in their own way, and they saw it crumbling piece by piece under the influence of Christianity. And a man like Emperor Constantine was under this impression. Without being initiated, Emperor Constantine knew the following: there was a primordial wisdom of humanity. This primordial wisdom had once existed, it had existed in ancient times when people had atavistic clairvoyance; it had then been transferred to later times, had been preserved by the priests, had gradually been corrupted, but it was there, this primordial wisdom. We Romans, too, Constantine said to himself, actually have something in our social order that is connected with the institutions of this primordial wisdom, only we have buried it under the social order built on the external sensory realm. This was expressed in a significant symbol, which is an imagination, but not only an imagination, but also a world-historical cult act, as these imaginations were very often expressed in cult acts; this was expressed in the saying: Wisdom was not conceived by humans in the past, but was revealed from the spiritual world. This is how they also had our very first ancestral priests, not in Rome, but over in Ilion, in Troy, where our ancestral priests were. And this is expressed in the legend of the Palladium, the so-called image of Athena; the Palladium that had fallen from heaven in Troy, which was kept in a sanctuary, which then came to Rome and was buried under a porphyry column. The porphyry column rose above it. Feeling what was connected with this imaginative cult act, one felt: We also trace our culture back to the ancient primordial wisdom that came down from the spiritual worlds, but we cannot approach the form that this primordial wisdom had in ancient Troy.

[ 24 ] Constantine felt this. Therefore, he also felt that the later mysteries, even if he had been initiated into them, would not help him much; they would not lead him to the palladium, to the ancient primordial wisdom. And so Constantine decided, in his own way, to take up the fight with the world powers, so to speak; to do something in his own way to save the principle of the Roman Empire, so to speak. Of course, he was not so foolish as to believe that this did not have to happen in the sense of the current of certain world impulses. He knew that it would have to happen again in the sense of certain cult acts that are placed before the whole development of the world. So he first decided to move Rome back to Troy, to have the buried Palladium excavated and brought back to Troy. The plan was thwarted. From the plan to establish a new Rome in Troy arose another plan to found Constantinople and transfer to it the power to save the declining Rome for the future. He believed that in this way he could resist the world turning point. He wanted, in the spirit of the Sibylline Oracle, to let the foxes and wolves dwell in Rome, but to transplant the mysterious impulses of Rome to another place, to bring them back to their origin, so to speak. And so the great plan to found Constantinople arose in him. It was carried out in 326. That he thought of this founding in connection with the great events of the world's turning point can be easily deduced from the fact that, when he laid the foundation stone, so to speak, he chose the moment when the sun was in Sagittarius and Cancer ruled the hour of the day. So he probably followed the cosmic signs. And then he wanted to make something very significant out of this Constantinople. He wanted to transfer the eternal impulse of eternal Rome to Constantinople. That is why he had the porphyry column transported to Constantinople, which was only later destroyed by storms. And he had the palladium dug up and placed under this porphyry column. He had the remains of the cross of Golgotha, as well as the remains of the nails with which it was studded. He used the remains of the cross to make a kind of frame for a particularly valuable statue of Apollo, and the nails of the cross to place a crown of rays on Apollo's head. This was placed on the porphyry column, which was later destroyed. And there was an inscription that read something like this: That which works here shall work eternally like the sun, and shall carry the power of its founder Constantine into eternity! — All these things are, of course, to be taken more or less imaginatively; but with the proviso that they are to be taken imaginatively, they do indeed signify strictly historical events.

[ 25 ] And the legend — I only want to say the legend — has taken hold of this whole story. The whole story lives on, metamorphosed, in the legend, which says something like the following: The palladium, which is of course a symbol of a very specific place of ancient wisdom, was once kept in the mysterious places of the Trojan initiated priests; they had hidden it. Then it came into the sun for the first time, having been brought from Troy to Rome by various detours; it came into the sun a second time when it was brought from Rome to Constantinople by Constantine. And those who accept the legend add: it will come into the sun a third time when it is carried from Constantinople to a Slavic city. This legend lives on deeply and impulsively in many ways, in the most diverse ways. In our time, many things come to light in their, I would say, purely physical aspects, but behind these physical aspects, many things are hidden.

[ 26 ] Constantine therefore wanted to directly counteract the downfall of the Roman Empire, even though he firmly believed in the Sibylline Oracle. He wanted, so to speak, to snatch Rome from its own place of doom.

[ 27 ] Well, all you need to do is see effective soul impulses in this world-historical personality of Emperor Constantine in everything I have told you; then you will find important and essential connections, significant connections, in these soul impulses. And add to that what the first Christians and their leaders said: No, the Imperium Romanum will not perish, it will remain, and the impulse we have taken up will also be realized, will always be there — then you have something significant side by side, and then you have something significant in relation to various currents that have influenced Western cultural development. Above all, you have the opportunity to to get an idea of how people thought about Rome and the Roman Empire in the first centuries of Christianity and even in the time of Emperor Constantine, and how this was in radical contrast to the way they imagined the future. And you may find clues in your soul to see some of the events that came later in the right light. Many of the things that came later can only be properly assessed by answering the question: How does it fit in with what was intended, and what needs to happen to make it fit better?

[ 28 ] Now it will be our task to point out an even more important moment in the development of Christianity, which occurred when another initiated Roman Caesar confronted this developing Christianity, namely Julian, who is called the Apostate. And from this historical observation, we will then be able to conclude a consideration of the question: How can we come closer to Christ, who will bring his etheric presence into the world in this century — how can we come especially close to Christ through appropriate soul preparation? How can we find the way to come close to him, especially in our time?

[ 29 ] How things then developed under another initiated Caesar, Julian the Apostate, and the indications of the relationship of the present to Christ, as far as can be said today, I would like to discuss with you next time.