By Romain Sardou and Emanuele Scorcelletti for Le Figaro Magazine
The idea that Europe is no longer simply a geographical reference, but a community of peoples, no longer a space, but a destiny is much older than you imagine. Forget the founders of the post-war European community, forget even Victor Hugo, Europe was born in the footsteps of an Irish monk, in an insolence addressed to a pope, more than fourteen centuries ago.
Sometimes a new word appears, and it immediately becomes an idea in its own right. It happened with Cicero the day when, to better signify human sensitivities, he shaped the Latin word humanity. Since then, we have known what “demonstrating humanity” includes. When Barnabas in Antioch calls Jesus' disciples for the first time "Christians", when Tertullian invents the word "Trinity", Augustine that of "original sin", this type of word becomes from its appearance stronger than us; we can no longer think without it. It is the same with the one…