Constantinople

Constantinople

To understand the Constantinople era of the shroud’s history, it helps to know something about the Byzantine Empire. This political and religious entity that lasted for over one thousand years and its effects on western civilization is all too often viewed through the western lens clouded with misunderstanding, even bias. In modern usage the word byzantine has come to mean intricate, convoluted and sometime devious. Those definitions are justified. But there is so much more to the Byzantine era and we must be cautious not to let those meanings cloud our perception.

In its millennium it was not called the Byzantine Empire. That is a name that later historians gave it to distinguish it from the Roman Empire of antiquity. But, in fact, it was the old Roman Empire transplanted to a new capital where it would be shaped by culture and religion that in turn would shape the culture and religion of Western Europe.