Natural Gnostics

There have always been Natural Gnostics. Their instinct is to check the facts before doing anything. Their vulnerability is hesitation. They can spend so long research and analysis that they lose the chance to make and execute the best decision. There have been Natural Gnostics in every population.   

Gnostic Christianity was a Good Will Religion. It was a Minority Religion. It spread from Palestine along the North African Coast to Spain and then, at about 250 A.D., it arrived in Ireland and Roman Britain.

Some of the Roman British received the Gnostic Christian Principles and developed a Practice Method. They were Practical Professionals. They knew the value of Practice Experiments. They had Governance Experience. They knew that Dictator Management had an Enforcement Overhead. They knew Co-operative Management was more efficient because it a Lower Enforcement Overhead. They had Good Will Intent. They wanted to see how far they could develop Good Will Practice for Relationship Efficiency. They took a Religious Aspiration and used it for Efficient Living. In modern language they were Engineering Professionals who applied their skills to Social Engineering. They did Liberty Experiments and Equality Experiments and Co-operative Management Experiments. 

The Roman British Gnostic Christians freed slaves and watched what happened. Some had no hope of competing in life alone. Some lost their freedom gambling in the Market Place that day. Some survived as free people until the winter. A few had the management skills to prepare for a winter. Some of them got part way through the winter and ran out of supplies. A few made it to the next spring. Very few slaves remained free for long. Those who did threatened the vested interests of Slave Owners and became Sabotage Targets. The Roman British Gnostic Christians realised that Liberty needs a Support System. They experimented by freeing Entire Villa Communities. All they had to do to keep their freedom was manage the villa. It needed Management Co-operation. There were more failures than successes or no successes at all. The Villa Communities could not cope with the change from Dictator Management to Co-operative Management.  

The Equity Decision Discipline

The Roman British Gnostic Christians conducted a Community Experiment with Volunteers who were committed to success. They developed the Equity Decision Discipline. It used reliable Objectivity for Truth Discovery and Just Reasoning. They discovered Obvious Right by identifying and eliminating what was Obvious Wrong. In the early stages the Decision Priority was the Greater Good for the Volunteer Community. It subordinated Personal Freedom to Community Security. When they had achieved Community Security the Decision Priority could include the Subjective Preferences.  It was Liberty for the Decision Maker. Efficient Production and Efficient Living enabled Liberty Choices for everyone. The Farmer Choices can be used for an example. The Farmer makes decisions about animals and land. In the early stages the Decision Priority was for Food Security. When that was achieved it Farmer had the Decision Priority Choice of More Food for everyone or Cash Crops for himself.  Some of them chose More Food because they valued Community Growth rather than Personal Profit. The Equity Decision Discipline might have been developed and lost many times before. The difference was Roman British Gnostic Christians developed Viable Conditions for Widespread Use of it.      

The Common Law

The Roman British Gnostic Christians applied the Equity Decision Discipline to developing a Good Will Relating System called the Common Law. It uses a Justice Priority Obligation for everyone with Common Obligation and Common Empowerment to service it. The Common Empowerment is Proportionate to the circumstances of the Citizens involved. The Proportionality Responsibility attaches to Talent, Experience, Wealth and Freedom. 

The Common Law simplifies the Justice Processes by identifying the Conflicted Interests and eliminating Irrelevant Conflicts. They made it God Neutral to eliminate God Conflicts and speed up the rate of acceptance by Pagans. They used Conflict Disqualifications from Justice Offices to make it Reliably Objective. They used Party Equality to prevent the use of Power Imbalances for Unfair Processes. The Biggest Power Imbalance was between the Literate and the Illiterate.   They made Case Facts the Deciding Factor to avoid the use of Inappropriate Precedents or Perverse Precedents to establish Bad Practice. They gave Evidential Status to Authoritative Knowledge and Expert Opinions. They used Relation Classifications to define Relevant Evidence. They used Admissibility and Inadmissibility of Relevant Evidence where the prejudicial Effect outweighed the probative Value. They used Due Process for Jurisdiction Controls to prevent Malicious Process. Mathematicians would classify Due Process as a Nested Function because a False Component can deliver a Massive Distortion of the End Result. The Roman British Gnostic Christians were using a Justice Process Nested Functions hundreds of years before the Known Use of Nested Functions by Arab Mathematicians.    

The Roman British Gnostic Christians who developed the Common Law were Well Educated and Well Connected. The Gnostic Christian Legend is that they had correspondence with the Educated Elite. They copies of everything because sometimes the replies came weeks or months later. There is no record that identifies who made what Intellectual Contributions to the Equity Decision Discipline and Common Law. Some of the ideas might have come from the Emperor’s Court. The Roman British Gnostic Christians provided the Community Experiment. They made Intellectual Contributions. They might have made them all. They developed the Practical Experience. The process of analysing a problem and writing about it might have resulted in them resolving it before the replied arrived. The Gnostic Christian Legend is that the Correspondence Records were buried in Dry Conditions for two reasons. One was Safe Keeping. It was a Writing Treasure. No one wanted to be responsible for destroying it. The other was to prevent use of System Development Papers as a Decision Precedent Sources that eventually replaced the Case Facts as the Deciding Factor. 

Common Law as a Change Agent

The Common Law was developed to manage change and then make the best of change. It was the Complete Opposite to the Dictator Decision System that could not cope with change. The Trust Discovery Process asked for the circumstances of the case discovered change or the absence of change. The Just Reasoning Process decided whether to classify it as Good Change or Bad Change, and in either event, what to do with it.  

Common Law Distribution

The Roman British Gnostic Christians used Good Will Trading as a Defence Policy. They traded with the neighbours on Good Will Terms. If anything went wrong it increased the chances of Diplomatic Engagement and reduced the risk of Violent Engagement. There will have been neighbours who were Hostile Slave Owners. In time the Efficient Living Arguments would have converted some of them from Hostile to Friendly. Once the Good Will Trading was established the Roman Authorities were unlikely to interfere with it. 

The Roman British Gnostic Christians traded with Pagan Roman Citizens. Many of them were Tribal Chiefs. The Gnostic Christians offered them Neutral Adjudications using the Common Law. The Disputed Cases were likely to be between relatives of the Tribal Chief. The risk was a Decision Result would upset one group of relatives or another. A Neutral Adjudication by the Gnostic Christians was a Nuisance Control for the Tribal Chief. He would get the Arguing Relatives to agree a Neutral Adjudication. If the Adjudication Result aroused Decision Dissatisfaction it was likely to be directed at the Gnostic Christian and not at the Tribal Chief. The Adjudication Services made it easier for the Tribal Chiefs to govern.  The result was Pagan Communities adopting the Common Law before they converted to Gnostic Christianity. 

The Age of Reason had started many centuries earlier. In Layman Language the Roman British Gnostic Christians popularised Objective Reasoning.  In Layman Language the Age of Reason had legs. It was only a matter of time before it would take off and fly.

Roman Empire and Roman Catholicism

The Roman Empire had Dictator Governance. The Roman Emperor had God Status. There was a God Status Conflict between the Emperor God and the Gnostic Christian God.  The result was Systematic Persecution of the Gnostic Christians. There will have been an increasing number of Closet Christians. Some of the Imperial Family became Gnostic Christians it was Politically Safe to be a Gnostic Christian.  It is likely that the Roman British had Closet Gnostic Christians. They might have had a long time to think about Liberty Experiments and Equality Experiments before it was safe to conduct them. 

In the early 4thCentury there were two Roman Emperors. They were Military Dictators. One was in the west and the other in the east. The Monotheistic Religions had about 9% of the population. It was a movement. Emperor Constantine decided to make the best of it. The Gnostic Christians were probably the Biggest Monotheistic Group. 

The Gnostic Christianity used Personal Accountability between God and Man for Good Will Relations and Lasting Peace. It was no use to Emperor Constantine. He was a Military Dictator and needed the support of a Moral Dictator.  He made a Moral Dictator Plan. It needed a Protection Rights Declaration by Both Emperors for the Monotheistic Religions, the Assassination of the Other Emperor, the Misrepresentation Fraud that the Other Emperor planned Protection Breach Frauds against the Monotheistic Religions, and a Christian Assembly with Protector Status for Emperor Constantine. He was a Competent Ruler with an Efficient Plan. It worked. The Christian Assembly defined a Moral Dictator and called it Roman Catholicism. It vested God Access Rights and Soul Salvage Management in the Roman Catholic Hierarchy from Priest to Pope.

Dictators cannot cope with change. Moral Dictators are no exception. Emperor Constantine achieved Dictatorship Continuity. It was a Dictator Governance Success and an Intellectual Freedom Disaster. The Moral Dictatorship could not cope with Intellectual Progress. The Moral Dictator provided Justice Management Services. They used Trial by Combat and Trial by Ordeal to ensure that the Bishop did not offend the Baron. It crippled the Age of Reason for about one thousand years. European History is very much easier to understand as a Power Struggle between Dictator Governance with Power Possession and Equity Governance with Power Use Accountability. The Common Law provided everything needed for Power Use Accountability.                        

Roman Withdrawal

The Roman Empire lost the capacity to defend itself. Roman Britain was an Outlying Province. The Roman Legions were withdrawn. The Gnostic Christians had a Successful Culture. It was growing. They decided to make the best of the withdrawal. The Roman Empire had a Dominant Executive Jurisdiction that delivered Dictator Governance. They Gnostic Christians had a Cunning Plan to get a Dominant Adjudication Jurisdiction that controlled Executive Power and delivered Equity Governance. They recognised Tribal Chiefs as Local Kings and told them they had Dictator Powers. If the Tribal Chief believed them he they would have a Negotiation Handicap and would need a Business Negotiator. The Gnostic Christians would offer Negotiation Services. If the Tribal Chief did not believe them he had Negotiation Capacity and they could do business with him. The result was hundreds of Local Kingdoms and what in effect was Trade King Status for the Gnostic Christians. It was clever. They took the Common Law wherever they traded. Some of the Local Kingdoms lasted hundreds of years. 

The Early Medieval Missing Records

The use of Case Facts as the Deciding Factor eliminated the need for Case Records as Law Precedents. 

The Local Kingdoms were mostly Resident Kings. It limited the need for Official Records. Absentee Rulers create a need for Decision Records. The Managing Agents needed them more than the Absentee Rulers. The risk for Managing Agent was that trouble starts when the Absentee Ruler returns someone with Special Influence makes Decision Result Complaints. The Managing Agents needed Precedent Decision made by a Previous Ruler or the Absentee Ruler before the Absentee Period as a Complaint Defence. 

The result was that the Official Records were mostly Trading Records between Dealers and Farmers. No one would be interested in them after both of them died. 

The Missing Records resulted in the Early Medieval Period being called the Dark Ages. It is a misleading. The Missing Records and the Fine Art Legacy evidence a Sophisticated Culture that was Not Record Dependent.  

The Records Legacy is more likely to be the result of period in which Dictator Governance replaced Equity Governance. The result would have been Increased Absenteeism and Increased Records.   

Roman Catholicism as a Defence Plan

The Roman Catholic Ruler needed a War Approval from the Pope before invading another Roman Catholic State. Some of the English Rulers adopted Roman Catholicism for Defence Purposes. The result was use of the Common Law by the People in what the Pope classified as a Roman Catholic State.       

The Gnostic Christian Culture and English Kingdoms

Nothing stays the same for long. Power changes hands. There were times and places when the Gnostic Christian Culture was dominant and times and place when it was lost. It was never lost completely. There was a time when Northern England had Equity Governance and Mercia had Dictator Governance. The Equity Governance attracted Free Thinkers. The result was an Intellectual Legacy and Fine Arts Legacy from a Small Kingdom that exceeded that of Bigger Kingdoms.  

The biggest success was 250 years of Equity Governance by the south of England. A Kent King made a will that left his Royal Responsibilities to the Wessex King. It was a Defence Plan. It enabled Unified Defence of the Southern Coast. They had Elected Kings. It was a Civil War Defence. Land Owners were unlikely to go to war with a king who had Majority Approval from Big Land Owners.  In practice the Eligible Candidates were from the House of Wessex. It had the most land and the most governance experience. The Big Land Owners sat in the Wittan. They     

The Viking Threat and the Defence Response

The Vikings were Efficient Managers with Advanced Technology. They were Ruthless Predators. They were very successful. Charles the Great was a Dictator King and an Efficient Manager. He used Viking Raids and Religious Differences for a Defence Plan and Expansion Plan. He raised armies, told the Roman Catholic Land Owners they needed a United Defence Plan and gave the Jews the choice of converting to Roman Catholicism or losing their land. 

Charles the Great and the Pope classified the British Gnostic Christians as Jews. They made a Culture Defence Plan. It needed a United Kingdom and Competent King. The Mercian King was the Biggest King. Whatever his qualities as a man he was not fit for purpose and the Culture Defender. Offa was fit for that purpose. The Culture Defence Plan needed Assassination of the Unfit King, acceptance of Offa as the Mercian King, surrender of hundreds of Local King Titles to Offa, and acceptance of him as English King. The plan worked. He made a Western Defence Plan. It needed a Customs Deal and Customs Revenue Sharing with the Welsh Princes. Offa’s Dyke was the Customs Barrier.  Offa needed to maintain confidence everywhere. He used a Mobile Court to do it. 

Charles the Great recognised King Offa as English King. He demanded that King Offa provide a Son to marry a Daughter. Offa made an Equality Demand. It needed a son from each of them to marry a daughter of each of them.  Charles was affronted. He refused. Offa stopped Cross Channel Trade. The Boulogne Merchants demanded that Charles concede. He did. The result was Two Marriages. Charles the Great had a huge empire. He was the Most Powerful Ruler in Europe. For hundreds of years Aristocratic Status in Western European depended on Blood Relations with Charles the Great. The Two Marriages got Double Blood Relations for the English Royal Family. They got it because Offa had the competence and courage to demand Equal Status with the Most Powerful Ruler in Europe. 

The Two Marriages stopped the Invasion Threat and the Roman Catholic Conversion Threat. The Culture Threat created the need for Offa’s Reign and the conditions that sustained it. He was very successful as a Culture Defender. His kingdom did not survive as such for 25 years after his death. It demonstrated the flexibility of Equity Governance.  

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