Take religion, politics, empire building, Popes, Kings, Despots, and throw in occasional marauding bands of knights,Vikings, and assorted pillagers, and you have yourself a great mini-series on the history of the world Part III, or as Strayer calls it, "The Worlds of European Christendom", Connected and Divided. It is fascinating to me that peoples, cultures, and civilizations had many different reasons why they ended up following certain religions versus others, and it seems that these reasons were more worldly than celestial.  Strayer talks about a unified identity that Orthodox Christianity brought to the emerging RUS civilization. To me it seems that there is always this interesting intersection of religious beliefs in the form of cultural identity passed down from the ruling elite to the masses for unified political expediency and control, versus the masses acquiescing to the wealth and protection afforded by the powerful rulers in society by adopting their religious beliefs. It seems that faith in a power greater than self starts with the present strata in your society and from there, over time, may lead to a belief in a power greater than man. During this period of European Christendom some leaders were viewed as demi-gods, or God appointed rulers as in the case of the Byzantine emperors.  There was no such thing as a separation of church and state, the church was government and vice versa. A few weeks ago I happened to find this eight part mini-series on netflix called, 'Arn: the Night Templar', which is set in Sweden and Norway during the Crusades.  One of the things that stood out to me was the fact that the Kings of these early, splintered, small republics, deferred to the church as the final say over matters of faith and state.  Now that I have read about this period from 500-1300 of European Christendom I have come to understand that the Church held great sway over every aspect of society, including governing the flock as well as spiritually guiding them.