(05-21-2014, 12:09 PM)xise Wrote: Sounds like Emperor Justinian, the Emperor who excised reincarnation from Christian doctrine, was a weaker ruler controlled by his wife consort Theodora. http://reincarnation.ws/reincarnation_in...anity.html :
Quote:"While Justinian is portrayed as soft and indecisive, his wife the empress Theodora, was an indomitable freight train of decisiveness and strength. It should be clearly understood that she was not merely his consort but was empress regnant which means she had the legal right to interfere and run the empire. Officials took an oath to her as well as to Justinian. In the great Nika insurrection of 532, her courage alone saved her husband from being overthrown....
According to Procopius as written in the Encyclopedia Britannica, "She surrounded herself with ceremonious pomp, and required all who approached to abase themselves in a manner new even to that half-Oriental court. She constituted herself the protectress of faithless wives against outraged husbands, yet professed great zeal for the moral reformation of the city, enforcing severely the laws against vice, and confining five hundred courtesans, whom she had swept out of the streets of the capital, in a "house of repentance" on the Asiatic side of the Bosphous strait. Procopius portrays her as acting with the greatest cruelties. The Encyclopedia Britannica goes on to state that we are able to gather from other writers that Theodora was indeed extremely harsh and tyrannical. "
Sounds like Ra was hinting that Theodora was the real player behind the removal of reincarnation from church doctrine.
That's an interesting theory. I've been interested in Theodora for years actually I find her to have been a fascinating historical figure, rising from the lowest position of Roman society (she was an actress and a prostitute, neither looked upon too kindly in the Eastern Roman Empire) to the position of Empress.
However, I think there are some problems with your theory. While it's true that Theodora had a strong influence over her husband, one place where they differed was religion. Junstinian was a key figure in the Chalcedonean Restoration, which sought to enforce doctrine decided upon during the Council of Chalcedon AD 451 as a way to solidify his hold on a crumbling empire, however Theodora was herself a Monophysite whose beliefs went against the Council of Chalcedon.
I think a better candidate for the Empress mentioned would be Pulcheria, who had a strong interest in church policy and under whom the Council of Chalcedon was convened.