We all learn at school that the Roman Empire fell, and that we then had the Dark Ages, in which nothing much happened for 500 years. In truth, of course, the Eastern Empire (Byzantium) went on in wealth and vigour till the 15th century, and the Western Empire didn't fall like a tree, but declined and fragmented under a range of pressures and crises.

When the Dark Ages finish, we find a Europe dominated by the Catholic Church, or Church of Rome - a hegemony which lasts for another thousand years and more. How did the official religion of the late Roman Empire come to dominate post-Roman politics in the West?

Knight examines the developing role of the church infrastructure in the late Roman Empire, and traces how as the central imperial power loosens its grip, the church uses the pattern of Roman administration to spread across the former imperial territory, replacing the secular authority with a religious one. Thus a Roman empire based on power gives way to a Roman empire based on ideology. ( )