Western Civilization is cumulative. The Greeks invented it with ideas like democracy, voting, juries, patronization of the arts, entertainment, sovereignty, etc. The Romans took and rebooted it, perfecting it even more with law, bicameralesque legislation, the need for a commander-in-chief, better technology, gvoernance, and fairness. The Catholic Church kept alive the great pagan and Judeo-Christian writings that are our heritage like Plutarch, Plato, Virgil, Homer, Aristotle, etc. Were it not for such preservation we’d be bereft of a wealth of literature and classics that have informed Western thinking for hundreds, thousands of years. The Catholic Church brought Christendom to all of Western Europe, civilized the barbarians, established peace and treaties, hospitals, colleges, encouraged the sciences, kept the rule of law, and heavily influenced the moral compass of the West. It was the Protestant Reformation also that continued the evolution. The Protestants brought the idea of the individual having his/her own choices, the idea of freedom of conscience and it broke loose much of the ecclesiastical ties that bound men of art, science, and industry to the Church for so long to explore other ideas, secular ones. The growth of nations came out of the Reformation and it encouraged free thinkers to move on to democracy, revolution, and great things like the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Western Civilization is not so easily bundled into authorship by one man, group, or Church. It is a cumulative masterpiece created by the Hellenics to this current era.
The Battle of Thermopylae in a sense saved Western Civilization. The great Charles Martel saved Western Christendom from Islam’s fist. These conflicts I’d put on as high a pedestal as the Catholic Church’s influences on the West. It’s all important.
