Roland Menou

Sir Leigh Teabing: The Bible, as we know it, was finally presided over by one man: the pagan emperor Constantine.

Sophie Neveu: I thought Constantine was a Christian.

Sir Leigh Teabing: Oh, hardly, no. He was a lifelong pagan, who was baptized on his deathbed. Constantine was Rome's supreme holy man. From time immemorial, his people had worshipped a balance between nature's male deities and the goddess or sacred feminine. But a growing religious turmoil was gripping Rome. Three centuries earlier, a young Jew named Jesus had come along, preaching love and a single God. Centuries after his crucifixion, Christ's followers had grown exponentially and had started a religious war against the pagans.

Robert Langdon: Or did the pagans commence war against the Christians? Leigh, we can't be sure who began the atrocities in that period.

Sir Leigh Teabing: But we can at least agree that the conflict grew to such proportions that it threatened to tear Rome in two.

[Langdon shrugs an agreement]

Sir Leigh Teabing: So Constantine may have been a, uh, lifelong pagan, but he was also a pragmatist. And in 325 anno Domini, he decided to unify Rome under a single religion: Christianity.

Robert Langdon: Christianity was on the rise. He didn't want his empire torn apart.

Sir Leigh Teabing: And to strengthen this new Christian tradition, Constantine held a famous ecumenical gathering known as the Council of Nicaea. And at this council, the many sects of Christianity debated and, uh, voted on, well, everything from the acceptance and rejection of specific gospels to the date for Easter to the administering of the sacraments, and, of course... the immortality of Jesus.

Sophie Neveu: I don't follow.

Sir Leigh Teabing: Well, ma chere, until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by many of his followers as a mighty prophet, as a great and powerful man, but a man nevertheless. A mortal man.

Sophie Neveu: Not the son of God?

Sir Leigh Teabing: Not even his nephew twice removed.

Robert Langdon: Constantine did not create Jesus' divinity. He simply sanctioned an already widely-held idea.

Sir Leigh Teabing: Semantics.

Robert Langdon: No, it's not semantics. You're... you're interpreting facts to support your own conclusions.

Sir Leigh Teabing: Fact: for many Christians, Jesus was mortal one day and divine the next.

Robert Langdon: For some Christians, his divinity was enhanced.

Sir Leigh Teabing: Oh, absurd. There was even a formal announcement of his promotion.

Robert Langdon: They couldn't even agree on the Nicene Creed!