About this project
Editorial Charter — History for the Roman · Catholic
What this is
A teaching site covering the full history of Rome and the Catholic Church, and how both shaped Western government and architecture. It presents what the author has learned, written as lessons. It is not a diary of the learning process. The YouTube channel tells the same stories visually, using storyboards built from the site’s lessons.
Stance
Pro-Catholic, held to evidence. The site is written from a Catholic perspective by someone who has studied Church history deeply. It is open to any claim that is well documented, and it is not moved by claims that aren’t. In practice:
- The perspective is Catholic, openly. History is told as the Church understands it. The site doesn’t pretend to a neutrality it doesn’t have.
- A high bar for evidence, applied to everyone. Primary sources and serious scholarship count. Polemic doesn’t, whatever direction it comes from: conspiracy theories, sectarian apologetics (Protestant or Catholic), or hostility to the Church. Popular internet claims are checked against sources before they’re used.
- Tradition is respected and labeled. Where a teaching rests on tradition, the site says so, and it lays out the evidence that supports it. Example: Peter’s martyrdom in Rome: the tradition, the early written testimony (Clement, Ignatius, Irenaeus), and the archaeology of the Vatican necropolis.
- Documented hard facts are told honestly. When something difficult is well established, the site presents it with its sources and explains it from a Catholic perspective, rather than leaving it out.
- Serious critics get a fair hearing. Arguments such as Gibbon’s claim that Christianity caused the fall of Rome are stated accurately before they’re answered.
Voice
Lessons are written in the author’s own words. When the author teaches a point accurately, it goes in the lesson as the author said it. Edits fix errors, fill gaps, or smooth the wording only where that’s needed.
Scope
Everything Roman. The timeline runs from the founding of Rome (753 BC, traditional date) through:
- the Kingdom (753–509 BC),
- the Republic (509–27 BC),
- the Western Empire (27 BC – AD 476),
- the Eastern / Byzantine Empire (to 1453),
- the Holy Roman Empire (800–1806),
- and the Church, from the apostolic age to the present.
There are four tracks, and every entry belongs to at least one:
| Track | Covers |
|---|---|
| Rome | Kingdom, Republic, and Empire: rulers, wars, turning points, society and daily life |
| Government | institutions (Senate, magistrates, assemblies), law, provinces and administration, and their modern descendants: republics, constitutions, civil and canon law |
| Church | papacy, councils, saints, doctrine, liturgy, monasticism |
| Architecture | buildings, engineering, styles, and their modern descendants |
Evidence tiers
Tag every source with one of these:
| Tier | Meaning |
|---|---|
primary |
Ancient or medieval texts, inscriptions, coins, archaeology |
scholarship |
Modern academic work |
popular |
Reputable popular history (use, but don’t rest arguments on it alone) |
tradition |
Church or pious tradition not independently attested |
magisterium |
Official Church teaching documents |
The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia and Gibbon are valuable, but cite them as dated.
Lesson structure
Every entry follows the teaching shape in docs/templates/entry.md. Each section maps
to a storyboard beat.
AI-assisted video
- Disclose AI-generated visuals in every video description.
- Mark reconstructions as reconstructions (“artist’s/AI reconstruction”).
- Ground every visual claim in the lesson’s sources. If the lesson doesn’t support it, it doesn’t go in the storyboard.
- Use real photos of surviving buildings and artifacts where possible (Wikimedia Commons, with license credit).