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As the saying goes, "There is no two days in the sky, and the people have no two masters", during the great unification of the Chinese dynasties, the empire had only one emperor, and he was the only legitimate ruler under the whole world. In ancient Europe, it was also widely believed that there was only one empire (i.e., the Roman Empire) and one emperor (i.e., the Roman Emperor), who was the only legitimate ruler of all of Europe. How the title of emperor in Europe was born, and after the fall of the Roman Empire (referring to Western Rome), what was the problem of the two emperors, the captain explained to you in detail.
First, the origin of the Roman Emperor
Gaius Octavian Turinus
In the late 1st century BC, the power of the Roman Republic was completely in the hands of the consul Gaius Octavian Turinus, who not only ended the last civil war of the Roman Republic after the death of Gaius Julius Caesar, but also greatly expanded the territory of Rome, making it prosperous and prosperous, and winning the general support of the Roman people.
Roman
On January 16, 27 BC, the Roman Senate conferred on Octavian the title of "Augustus" (meaning sacred), and since then the Roman Republic has been transformed into the Roman Empire, and Octavian has become the first emperor of the Roman Empire and the first emperor of Europe (from which the title of Emperor of Europe and its legitimacy are derived).
The four emperors ruled together
In 293, the Roman Emperor Diocletian, in view of the fact that the empire was too large for an emperor to govern, created a four-emperor co-governance system, that is, the Roman Empire was divided into two parts, east and west, and was jointly governed by two emperors (Augustus) and two deputy emperors (Caesar). But the four-emperor system ignored the supreme and unique characteristics of imperial power, laying hidden dangers for the division of the Roman Empire.
The Roman Empire was divided
On January 17, 395, the Roman Empire split into the Eastern and Western Roman Empires. At the same time, with the southern invasion of the Germans and Huns, both The Eastern and Western Romes faced great threats, and almost both of them were doomed. Eventually the Eastern Roman Empire survived the Germanic invasion, but the Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476. Thus the Eastern Roman Emperor after 476 (who called himself the Roman Emperor, but was called the Eastern Roman Emperor by posterity for the sake of distinction) once again became the only emperor in Europe.
Justinian I
After the fall of Western Rome, the Eastern Roman Emperor had always dreamed of recovering the western part of the empire, so he actively sent troops to the west. In the 6th century, thanks to the efforts of Justinian I, Eastern Rome once recovered part of the Western Roman homeland. In addition, the Germanic tribes (Gothic and Frankish) that occupied the western Roman homeland chose to submit to the Eastern Roman Emperor in order to enhance the legitimacy of their rule. So the Eastern Roman Emperor was still the only legitimate and unquestionable heir of the Roman Empire in the eyes of Europeans at that time.
Second, the problem of the two emperors arose
Frankish Kingdom
In the 8th century, the Lombards, among the Germans, invaded the Italian peninsula and defeated the Eastern Roman army, occupying most of the Italian peninsula. Eastern Rome, on the other hand, was too busy dealing with the invasion of the Arab Empire to look west. The Catholic Patriarch of Rome, realizing that the Eastern Roman Emperor was no longer able to protect himself, decided to completely break away from his attachment to Eastern Rome and turned to the Frankish Kingdom for help. Eventually, the Frankish kings destroyed the Lombard kingdom and became the pope's new protector.
Empress Irina
In 797, the Eastern Roman Empress Irina deposed her son Constantine VI in order to compete for power, and crowned herself emperor, becoming the first empress in Europe. Irina was crowned to avoid controversy over legality by adopting the male title of "Basileus (i.e., Emperor)" instead of the title of "Brazilian Lisa (i.e., Empress)". But since there was no precedent for women to succeed to the throne, this gave the Catholic Church a powerful excuse to break away from Eastern Rome.
Charlemagne
In 800, Pope Lenny III declared that women had no right to inherit the throne in order to thank the Frankish king Charles for helping him quell the rebellion in Rome the previous year, so Irina was not the legal Roman Emperor, and then Liang III crowned Charles as "Roman Emperor" in Rome. Since then, Europe has had two more emperors, the legitimacy of the Eastern Roman Emperor has begun to be challenged, and western Europe has no longer recognized the Eastern Roman Emperor as the sole legitimate heir of the Roman Empire, and the problem of two emperors has arisen.
Third, the universal empire
Universal Empire
In the Middle Ages, Christianity grew rapidly in Europe, most Europeans had become Christians, and in the eyes of European Christians at this time, the Roman Empire already had the meaning of "Universal Empire" (Dominus Mundi: the master of the whole world), that is, there was only one empire in the world, the whole world was ruled by this empire, and all mankind was a subject of that empire. This is similar to the concept of the Zhou Dynasty that "under the whole world, there is no royal land, the coast of the land, and the king's subjects", so the Chinese dynasties also considered themselves to be a universal empire.
The universal emperors of the universal empire will prove the legitimacy of their rule through the "divine right of kings", that is, to claim to be God's agents on earth and to rule over mankind for God. (This is similar to the zhou king's use of the title of "son of heaven", that is, the king of Zhou is the son of heaven and rules over all the peoples for heaven.) This links religion to the Empire and its rulers, and obedience to the Empire is obedience to God.
Constantine I: Made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire
Christianity had a huge influence in Europe in the 4th century and had become the state religion of the Roman Empire and the link of European unity. Although God is the only God in the eyes of Christians, and the Roman Emperor is not a god, the Roman Emperor in fact succeeded in replacing God as the ruler of the Christian Church, the supreme authority of the secular and religious worlds. Although the Roman Empire soon split and the Western Roman Empire quickly collapsed, Christianity still connected the fragmented parts of Europe.
The Eastern Roman Empire continued the tradition that preceded the division of the Roman Empire, with emperors continuing to serve as the legitimate rulers of the empire and the leaders of the Christian church. The Eastern Romans thus always firmly believed that their emperor was God's ruler on earth, the ruler of the whole world. Therefore, the authority of the Eastern Roman Emperor was unquestionable in the Eastern Roman Empire until the fall of the Empire in the 15th century.
The Charles Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire
But with the rise of the Frankish kingdom and the liberation of the Roman Pope from the control of Eastern Rome, the secular (Frankish kings) and religious (Roman Pope) authority seen by Western Europeans was very different from that of Eastern Rome. Since the Eastern Roman Emperor was unable to maintain his supreme authority in Western Europe and the Catholic Patriarch had succeeded in freeing himself from his control, a new emperor would inevitably appear in Western Europe to replace the Eastern Roman Emperor as the legitimate ruler of Western Europe, leading to the inevitable emergence of the question of the two emperors.
In general, the division of the Roman Empire and the demise of Western Rome were the distant causes of the birth of the Two Emperors Problem, which was born as the Eastern Roman Emperor's efforts to maintain his authority in the Western Roman Homeland collapsed, and the Frankish kings competed with the Eastern Roman Empire as the heir of the Western Roman Empire for the title of Roman Emperor.