skopia
Gregory, bishop of Tours, is the reason sixth-century Gaul is visible at all. He records Clovis splitting a soldier's skull over a looted vase, queens ordering assassinations, and miracles at the saints' tombs.
Six centuries in which a persecuted Jewish sect became the Roman state's religion. Chadwick tracks the arguments that decided what Christians believe, from Gnostic rivals through Nicaea to Gregory the Great.
Christianity as a three-thousand-year argument, beginning with Greece and Israel long before Christ. MacCulloch refuses to tell it as a Western story: after eight centuries, Baghdad looked a likelier capital than Rome.