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Now that the Empire and Church
were closer together, and Christianity was the favored, religion, problems began
to arise. People started to run from the church and, were known as monks and
hermits. The monks created communities known as monasteries.
People from the north started to invade the Roman Empire and
ended up dividing the
Empire. Constantinople was the Church center for the Eastern Roman Empire,
and Rome continued to be the center for the west. The western side, the Catholic Church, spoke Latin and the eastern side,
the Orthodox Church, spoke Greek
Both sides still believed that
they someday would be judged by God, and would either come to heaven, hell or
purgatory.
In 622 A.D. a new religion, Islam,
spread throughout Palestine, Egypt, Northern Africa, and Spain. Mohammed the
new leader taught his followers that there is only one God, Allah. The Muslims
were taught that Allah was the same God as the God of the Christians and the
Jews.
Muslims prayed five times a day,
with their face turned to the Mecca, their holy shrine. The Muslims were also
taught to fight for their God, Allah, who would someday reward them. They
actively fought for converts for their religion, winning much of the Holy Land
in battle.
In 1099 the first Crusade to
recapture the Holy land from the Muslims Turks occurred; in the next 250 years,
a series of crusades were undertaken, but ultimately, they were unsuccessful.
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