Recent content by mrmandias

  1. Gregory X lives longer?

    Fascinating
  2. WI: Ivy League bans southern students?

    This would be an own goal. The civil rights movement had significant quiet elite cooperation in the South partly because these elites had been educated at relatively progressive prestigious Ivy League institutions and had hobnobbed with northern elites with whom they were ashamed to appear...
  3. What If Judas Iscariot is made/canonized as a holy saint in Christianity, especially by catholicism and/or other denominations?

    The main base of support for Christianity was not "the poors." Historical sociology of religion is a well-established field and the rise of Christianity has attracted a great deal of scholarship. My argument, which I believe is supported by the historical record, is that Christianity's rise to...
  4. What If Judas Iscariot is made/canonized as a holy saint in Christianity, especially by catholicism and/or other denominations?

    Most recent comments are just arguing religion, not discussing alternate history. Take it to chats, friends.
  5. What If Judas Iscariot is made/canonized as a holy saint in Christianity, especially by catholicism and/or other denominations?

    Roman Empire cultural and intellectual elites pretty much all believed in some kind of infinite and perfect supreme being (or force or whatever). They saw the Greek and Roman gods as either fairy tales or else as manifestations or avatars or aspects of the supreme ground of being. Christianity...
  6. What If Judas Iscariot is made/canonized as a holy saint in Christianity, especially by catholicism and/or other denominations?

    A flawed supreme being would be extremely difficult (i.e., impossible) to square with dominant philosophical positions held in late antiquity which means Christianity probably never achieves the position it held OTL.
  7. WI Napoléon II: Bourbon Hostage?

    It's not about sympathy. It's about what Napoleon's expectations are and what he's going to do when he can't meet them. He either knocks over the weak and tottering Bourbon monarchy as OTL or accepts a *radically* reduced lifestyle (which is already radically reduced from when he was the...
  8. WI Napoléon II: Bourbon Hostage?

    The main problem is financial. Napoleon is acting as a ruler on Elba, albeit in a scaled down way, but Elba cannot support it financially. It requires the subsidies that the Bourbon kings promised to pay being paid, which they weren't OTL. Something is still likely to happen unless somehow...
  9. WI Napoléon II: Bourbon Hostage?

    Engrossing.
  10. Best Non-England Location for Industrialization?

    the low countries is by far the most likely location absent big PODs.
  11. What if Anglo-saxons migrated to Scandinavia instead of england?

    Figuring out the why would be the tricky part here. It probably involves PODs that have other knock-on effects other than just having the angles and saxons migrate to Scandinavia.
  12. Plausibility Check-Llamas introduced to Mesoamerica

    to introduce llamas into mexico during the colonial period and then have them become widespread as a domestic, you need them to do something as a domestic animal that cattle and sheep don't. What's the thing llamas offer that is obviously superior in the eyes of the Mexican Spanish?
  13. WI: Clerical marriage in medieval England

    I think it would be possible to have England/Normandy more recalcitrant about married priests and lagging behind the rest of Europe, but eventually the papacy would bring them to heel.
  14. WI: Edward VI had an illegitimate son in early 1553?

    "Legally" -- as was clear from OTL, very few actually believed it
  15. WI: Edward VI had an illegitimate son in early 1553?

    Is there any precedent for an illegitimate son succeeding? England's protestantism is a problem here, because under Catholicism there is an actual process you have to go through to legitimate your heirs at the dynastic level, whereas if the King-in-Parliament can just declare someone to be the...
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