AUTHORIT Y IN EUROPE AF TER THE COLL APSE OF ROME Observing the terminal decline of Rome from a distance, S.Augustine (354-430) – bishop of Hippo in Tunisia – contrasted the vitality of Christianity with the mortality of paganism in terms of two cities, temporal and spiritual, in his great treatise De civitate dei (The City of God, 413-26).1.2 He predicted that the order of Christ’s city would prevail over the most eminent of earthly ones.Rome fell within 40 years of Augustine’s death and the church found itself the sole instrument of supranational unity.