Until the advent of materialism and 19th c. dogma, Western Civilisation was superior to anything Islam had developed. Islam has not aided in the development of the modern world; in fact civilisation has only been created in spite of Islam. Proof of this resides in the 'modern' world and the unending political-economic and spiritual poverty of Muslim states and regions. Squatting on richer civilisations is not 'progress'. Islam is pagan, totalitarian, and irrational.
Rape and Sex Jihad. One of the great drivers and enablers of the Mahometan War Jihad. Over 1400 years millions of White Christians taken, raped, enslaved and killed by the Muslim Jihad. So of course why not invite 15 million of them into the UK and see what happens.
Mr. Goodwin, in his analysis of UK demographic trends and the UK Rape Jihad occurring in the UK is optimistic. Rape Jihad Analysis
By 2040 most major inner cities in England will be dominated by the moon cult of Mecca and the carpet biting rapists and supremacists. See Lebanon, the Balkans, Nigeria, and North Africa for more information on how this will end up.
Muslims. Islam. Muhammadism. Always the same result. Before they destroy you, they rape your women.
(Was Bergoglio a Free Mason sympathiser, a St. Gallen-Mafia leader?)
Undoubtedly one of the worst Pope’s in history. Let us recount the error of the Globalist Frank’s ways.
1-An ardent, nescient and corrupt advocate for open borders and the destruction of once-White Christian nations. This is due to ‘liberal’ (i.e. illiberal, ignorant) theology and money. The CC is paid many millions in every state to support the invasion and provide succour for ‘refugees’ and ‘asylum seekers’, 80-90% of whom are young fighting age men from Muslim, Arab and African states.
2-Globaloneywarming apostle and Bishop of Climate-geddon. A non-science cult of abysmal and immoral corruption and fraud. Pope Frank was a proselytiser of the rabidly inane dogma that plant food causes ‘climate to change’. Humans might emit 4% of the total, which is 90% recycled. Gaia emits the rest. This is simply money laundering, fraud, corruption and power mongering. Nice morals Frank. As usual the CC is paid to play.
3-Pro-Muslim and pro-‘dialogue’ with the most Christophobic cult imaginable. 1400 years of Christianophobia and Frank et al can’t figure out that Muslims eradicate the Church wherever they are found. The pagan Arabian moon cult spread from Arabia to Europe, Asia and beyond by war and violence. Frank had nothing to say about the yearly Muslim slaughter of Christians, including, just in Nigeria, some 5.000 Catholics and Anglicans.
4-Frank was a high priest of the Corona plandemic and the non-science of virus-pandemics. If you believe that a bat emits a 0.3 nano sized ‘virus’ in Wuhan, which then infects patient 0 who then sneezes it around the world; congratulations, you are a moron. Further, the criminal industry of Pharma in alliance with their business partners called ‘government’ murdered people around the world with illegal injections. Some 30 million were killed and many more than that number injured or maimed.
Lockdowns and ‘protocols’ using midazolam, morphine and other ‘tools’ slaughtered millions more. Apparently, none of this happened. It was ‘the science’. This butchering, reminiscent of pagan Baal sacrifices in the OT, were fully supported by the corrupt Vatican and Frank. Not a single apology has ever been issued by the Vatican in their role in the greatest reduction of freedom and health in modern history.
5-Frank was also a condescending and illiterate preacher who denied the efficacy and necessity of the nation state. Without the nation state, the average person has no protection from powers who wish to control, war, kill, imprison or impose their totalitarianism. Frank had no problems with non-White, Muslim, Black or Asian states. He only had issue with majority-White states. So now anti-White racism is deemed ‘Catholic’.
6-The cult of queerity was also embraced by Frank. Frank was probably on the verge of eradicating the 2-gender basis of reality and imposing on the faithful female priests. This will render the CC as irrelevant as the Anglican Church of England. Embracing queer-trans fascism is not tolerant, it is just stupid. The queer-trans cult exists to annihilate the family and the Church. Given that 50% of priests and Bishops are queer, the CC in the near term will be faced with its own demise as the queer-cult within the Vatican accede to ever greater power and recognition. Once the CC accepts and endorses the main tenets of the queer-trans fascism it is over.
Frank was a Globalist puppet installed by the US Deep state in 2013 to further the ‘New World Order’. If the CC wants to remain a relevant counter poise to Globalist and governmental totalitarianism, it will need a revolution from the laity to install an orthodox and intelligent true Catholic to the Papacy – like the one we had in Pope Benedict XV before he was deposed by the anti-pope Bergoglio.
An in-depth analysis of Pope Leo XIV
“Overall he seems clearly orthodox on abortion, euthanasia, contraception, LGBT, the appointment of bishops and the ordination of women, while his stance on Communion for the divorced and remarried and priestly celibacy seem difficult to know with certainty. He also appears to hold to an orthodox understanding of the faith, being unchangeable and bishops being mere servants of it. His actual stance on migration appears somewhat moderate as well.”
Pope Francis was part of a criminal cabal intent on reshaping Global Economics and Politics and effacing the old Western traditions and installing the New World Order. There is no doubt that the Argentinian Pope was actively trying to destroy both the Church and European Christian cultural foundations. The Vatican and Churches in every country have almost without exception, accepted, promoted and distributed the false and pre-planned Corona pandemic narrative. Any Priest or Bishop who has not complied has been threatened with both re-education and defrocking.
We can conclude that Bergoglio was not really a Catholic or he was a Catholic who hated most of Catholic history and the institution of the Church as it was constructed just a short while ago under Benedict and John Paul II. But it is not just the support of the Corona Fascism which troubles and deranges. Bergoglio was a disaster on every subject including supporting non-existent climate change, the unfettered Muslim-African invasions of Europe, doing nothing to combat the Muslim Jihad against Christians raging in parts of Africa and Asia, appeasing the Chinese Communist Party by sacrificing Catholics and their rights and freedoms in China, reframing Catholic truths as options, stating that the Catholic Church is only one way to God and maybe not even the truest, emasculating the Catholic mass and getting rid of any who oppose his radicalisation. In short Bergoglio is an anti-Catholic, anti-civilisational Pope.
Bergoglio might well have supported Free Masonry, itself a bizarre anti-Christian Luciferian cult dedicated to ending nation states and Christianity. Whatever the real dynamics emanating from the Vatican, the facts are that the Catholic Church is criminally responsible for being a large and supportive partner in the Corona fascism and its attendant death, injury and destruction. It is likely that 30 million are now dead and injured from just the stabs.
Bergoglio and the Vatican were and are rotted with homosexuality and evil. We witnessed with Bergoglio the end of the Catholic Church as a moral force in the world. God is done and God is now denied. Bergoglio and the Corona cabal wanted a return to the age of Baal (moon deity, evil), or Luciferianism (sun worship, free masonry). An age of Darkness.
The ’Enlightenment’ which informed Bergoglio’s beliefs and materialism leading to ‘humanism’ (or communistic theologies) led us here. The ‘Enlightenment’ demanded only ‘one truth’, ‘one way’, ‘one system’, it screams ‘follow the science’ never asking what does that mean? It rejects free will, free speech, inquiry and reason. In this vein it sets up people to reject truth and reality and view ourselves as Gods. No natural law, no God given rights, no moral purpose, no repercussions. A Godless age is a Rona age. Murdering means saving, stabbing poisons into people against an IFR of 0.15% means health, data fraud is truth, individuality is immoral, freedom is selfish, intolerance is compassion and a ‘pass’ is about health and safety.
Bergoglio desecrated the Catholic Church and sided with evil. He went without God and rejected God and his Church. He demanded we submit to a New World Order premised on flu Fascism and intolerance and evil. This makes him and the Vatican criminal murderers and usurpers.
“When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing – they believe in anything.” – G.K. Chesterton
Genesis 6:5: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
Jeremiah 7:24: “But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.”
Ecclesiastes 1:2: "Vanities of vanities, all is vanity."
Nothing has changed over 2500 years.
And the vanity of being your own God leads to the chaos and evil of this age.
Western Civilisation was not built on tolerance. Christianity is not built on tolerance. Nothing worthwhile is built on tolerance. Only through intolerance, standards, absolutes, confidence and certainty do you build a civilisation.
The Fascist:
The Sinful:
The Government:
Gay/Tranny Fascism:
Fake Science:
Climate Fascism:
Freedom and Thinking:
Muslim Fascism:
Jews:
Evil:
You don’t tolerate and embrace your own destruction. There is nothing in Christianity nor in Western civilisational development where we are obliged to tolerate everything including our own demise. Quite the opposite. We didn’t tolerate the heresies. We didn’t tolerate Islam. We shouldn’t tolerate Jews and their quest for global control. We don’t tolerate plandemics and the murders of people in the G20 over a fake virus. We don’t tolerate the endless wars and money laundering. We don’t tolerate governmental corruption. We don’t bend our knees to the Jew.
It is beyond time to be intolerant.
In the UK, Muslims have raped 1 million White girls over the past 40 years. No one cares.
There are >2000 mosques in the country, up from 3 in 1970.
Sharia Law is found in various parts of the country, better named Sharia barbarism.
In reality Muslims comprise some 10% of the (real) 80 million population, well over 2 million in the Greater London area alone.
Muslims dominate many areas of British life - local politics, institutions, the Police, education, the BBC and other domains of influence.
'Tommy Robinson' branded by the fake news and fake science as a 'fascist' was 'radicalised' when as a teenager his 14 year old cousin was gang raped by Muslims in Luton which is now close to majority Muslim (north of London).
The Muslim UK population will double by 2040 to at least 15 million, probably closer to 20 millions. Most large urban areas, in their 'core' or centers, will be dominated by Muslims.
The UK is committing suicide. As simple as that.
If you are seeking muscular Christianity you need look no further than Tim Dieppe. In his new book, The Challenge of Islam, the head of policy at Christian Concern pulls no punches in confronting probably the greatest problem facing the Church and the country today.
This well-resourced book opens with a stream of statistics forensically illustrating just how rapidly Islam is growing as a social, cultural and political influence in today’s UK.
The statistics tell an alarming tale for our future as a society. At just under 4million in 2021, the Muslim population has grown by 44 per cent in a decade and now constitutes 6.5 per cent of the population. For the past six years Muhammed in its various spellings has been the most popular boys’ name. The average age of the UK population is 40 years whilst the average age of Muslims is 27 and the average age of Christians is 51. It is clear which way the tide is flowing.
The failure of multiculturalism leading to a dangerous lack of integration with its erosion of social cohesion and the rise in cultural tensions is made clear. As well as being harmful to Muslims themselves, holding back as it does the weakest in Islamic communities, the women and children, the lack of Muslim integration poses a significant danger to the wider society.
Worryingly, 3 per cent of Muslims say they support ISIS-style efforts to establish a caliphate. This may seem a small proportion but 3 per cent of 4million equates to 120,000 individuals. At a time when it is not physically possible to monitor all 40,000 known terrorist suspects, 24 per cent of Muslims say they would approve of violence in support of Islam.
There are 85 Sharia courts operating in the UK today, with their bias against women and non-Muslims, and 32 per cent of Muslims support the introduction of Sharia into British law. Nearly a third (31 per cent) think that a man should be allowed to have more than one wife.
The threat to our cherished freedoms inherent in the growth of the Muslim population is a real one. We are losing free speech when it comes to criticism of Islam or even critical examination of its regressive religious practices. Seventy-eight per cent of Muslims say there should be no freedom to publish pictures of Muhammed, while 87 per cent would deny us the freedom to make fun of their prophet. We should not forget the Batley Grammar School teacher who is still in hiding under threat of death for using pictures of Muhammed in a lesson.
This threat to free speech will become more draconian with the governing Labour Party promoting the All Party Parliamentary Group’s (APPG) flawed definition of Islamophobia. This definition has been supported by political parties and councils throughout Britain in an unthinking fit of eagerness to appear compassionate and progressive.
Islam is a religion and not a race, yet the APPG describes critical examination of Islam as a form of racism. This is no slip of the pen. It is so defined to get around Section 29J of the Public Order Act 1986. The Act prohibits racist speech but Section 29J, known as the Waddington Amendment, protects open critical religious discussion, proselytising and even the ridiculing of religion. If Islamophobia is defined as a form of cultural racism, critics of Islam will have no protection in law. As Dieppe reminds us, ‘Striking a Muslim is a crime, debating her religion is a right.’ That right must be defended.
Islam should not be accorded a privileged position in British society. If included in future legislation the APPG’s definition will become in effect a new blasphemy law, one rejected by every other religion in the UK. Most religions such as Christianity welcome open discussion; Islam does not. The APPG definition would also have a serious effect on anti-terror efforts which protect the public.
The Challenge of Islam looks at other aspects of Islam such as Islamic finance. Dieppe questions the oft-spoken claim that ‘Islam is a religion of peace’. He does not argue that most Muslims are not peaceful people. He does, however, make clear that its founder was not a man of peace, its history and spread is marked by violence and its teachings advocate suppression of other religions. There is a chapter on the deep anti-Semitism of Islam in its history and present actions. An ADL survey in 2019 found that 11 per cent of the UK population had anti-Semitic attitudes. Amongst Muslims the figure was 54 per cent.
Perhaps the most alarming aspect of this book is how it reveals the corrosive extent of fear amongst politicians and the media. There is a collective unwillingness to confront the problem and a readiness to cover up and apologise. Our establishment is even willing to sacrifice thousands of vulnerable young girls and women to Muslim rape gangs in order to preserve a non-existent community cohesion.
Dieppe not only criticises Islam, he gives ten pointers to a proper response. These include curbing the operation of Sharia courts, tightening up marriage visa rules, holding police accountable for treating all people equally under the law, robustly defending free speech and reducing overall levels of immigration.
This nation should be unashamedly identified as Christian. This does not mean a nation of Christians, rather accepting that our laws and culture are based on biblical teaching. Who we are as a people is bound up with Christianity; if we reject those ties we are no longer the people we once were and Britain is lost.
This book is important. As Dieppe says in his introduction, ‘At its root, this is a battle for the soul of the nation. It is a battle we cannot afford to lose.’ Christians cannot help but be anti-Islam, which is an utter negation of the Christian faith. That does not mean we should be anti-Muslim. As Dieppe says, ‘Muslims are redeemable, Islam is not.’ The only real antidote to radical Islam is radical Christianity.
One of the great military and medieval inventions was Greek fire. It remains a mystery.
Greek fire was a Byzantine incendiary weapon used from the 7th century onward.1 Greek fire saved Constantinople from Muslim navies many times from the 7th to 12th centuries. This complex technology was crucial in the Byzantine Empire's military successes, particularly in naval battles, where it was deployed to devastating effect against Mahometan ships.2
Key Features and History
Naval Weapon:
Greek fire was most famously used in naval warfare. It was projected from siphon-like tubes mounted on Byzantine warships, allowing them to spray a flammable liquid onto enemy vessels.
This weapon proved particularly effective in defending Constantinople against Arab sieges, notably in the 7th and 8th centuries.
Composition:
The exact composition of Greek fire remains a mystery, and this is why it cannot be replicated today.
Historical accounts suggest it contained a mixture of flammable substances, likely including:
Resin (from pine trees)
Sulfur
Quicklime
Possibly petroleum or naphtha
It is believed that the mixture ignited upon contact with water, making it especially dangerous at sea.
The use of Quicklime would explain the increase of heat when water was added.
Secrecy:
The Byzantines guarded the secret of Greek fire's composition very closely.
The formula was known only to a select few, and it was considered a state secret of the highest importance.
This secrecy contributed to the weapon's mystique and its effectiveness as a psychological deterrent.
Decline:
As the Byzantine Empire declined, the knowledge of Greek fire's composition was eventually lost.
By the later Middle Ages, the weapon was no longer in use.
Modern Attempts at Replication:
Despite numerous attempts by historians and scientists to recreate Greek fire, no one has been able to produce a mixture with the same properties as the original.
While various flammable mixtures have been created, none have matched the reported characteristics of Byzantine Greek fire, particularly its ability to burn on water and its intense heat.
The loss of the exact ratios of the ingredients, and perhaps even some of the ingredients themselves, is the reason it is impossible to recreate.
Sources:
1Wikipedia: Greek Fire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_fire
2Britannica: Greek Fire: https://www.britannica.com/technology/Greek-fire
Adrienne Mayor Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World, 2003
A short and certainly not an exhaustive list of Inventions and Technological Advancements during the medieval era (roughly 500 AD to 1500 AD, though the ‘Renaissance’ itself a Christian-medieval phenomenon, instigated by Byzantium’s decline and the Turkish Jihad, is sometimes and incorrectly considered a separate era from 1400-1550.
Inventions and Technological Advancements (Chronological Order)
Algebra (3rd Century): A powerful mathematical system using symbols to represent numbers and operations was developed (Dionysius, Greeks and Christians in Alexandria, has nothing to do with Muslims)
Bookbinding with Vellum (5th Century): Animal skins were treated to create a durable and smooth writing surface for books and manuscripts.
Astrolabe (Byzantine) (5th Century): This intricate instrument was used by sailors and astronomers to determine latitude and time.
Church Schools (7th Century): Formal institutions of learning were established by the Church to educate clergy and preserve knowledge.
Horse Collar (8th Century): This improved harness allowed horses to pull heavier loads more efficiently, revolutionizing agriculture and transportation.
Stirrup (8th Century): This simple invention provided riders with greater stability and control on horseback, transforming warfare and travel.
Mounted Knight (8th Century): Combining the stirrup and horse collar, the heavily armored mounted knight became a dominant force on the battlefield.
Watermills (Early Medieval): Harnessing the power of water, these mills were used to grind grain, power machinery, and perform other tasks.
3-Field Rotation Farming (Early Medieval, widespread by 9th century): This agricultural technique increased crop yields and improved soil fertility by rotating crops across three fields.
Improved Livestock Breeding (Throughout the period, with significant advancements by the High Middle Ages): Selective breeding practices led to larger, healthier, and more productive livestock.
Clearing of Marshes and Woodlands (Throughout the period, with regional variations): Land was cleared for agriculture and settlement, expanding the areas suitable for human use.
University (12th Century): Centers of higher learning emerged, offering formal education in a variety of subjects and fostering intellectual exchange.
Windmills (12th Century): These structures harnessed wind power to grind grain, pump water, and perform other tasks, particularly in areas with limited water resources.
Flying Buttresses (12th Century, Gothic architecture): These external supports allowed for taller, thinner walls and larger windows in Gothic cathedrals.
Pointed Arches (12th Century, Gothic architecture): This architectural element distributed weight more effectively, allowing for higher ceilings and more open spaces in Gothic buildings.
Stained Glass (Primarily 12th-13th Century, Gothic period): Vibrant colored glass windows were used to illuminate and decorate Gothic cathedrals, depicting religious scenes and stories.
Physics (at Chartres) (13th Century): The study of motion, forces, and energy advanced at the Cathedral School of Chartres, laying the groundwork for later scientific breakthroughs.
Euclid's Elements (translations) (13th Century): This foundational text on geometry was translated into Latin, making its knowledge accessible to European scholars.
Reclaiming the Sea using Windmills (Holland) (13th Century onwards): Windmills were used to pump water and drain land in the Netherlands, creating new agricultural areas and settlements.
Eyeglasses (13th Century): This invention improved vision and quality of life for many, particularly those with age-related vision decline.
Advances in Optics (13th/14th Century onwards): The study of light and vision progressed, leading to improved lenses and optical instruments.
Mechanical clocks (14th Century onwards): Priest Richard of Wallingford in St. Albans built the first mechanical clock in the world.
Shipbuilding Improvements (Throughout the period, with advancements in various centuries): Innovations in ship design and construction led to larger, more seaworthy vessels, enabling longer voyages and increased trade.
Sails and Rigging Improvements (Throughout the period, with advancements in various centuries): More efficient sails and rigging systems improved ship maneuverability and speed.
Blast Furnaces (14th/15th Century): These furnaces produced higher temperatures, enabling the production of stronger and more versatile iron.
Printing Press (1440): Johannes Gutenberg's invention revolutionized communication and knowledge dissemination by enabling the mass production of books.
Astronomical Observatories (16th Century): Dedicated facilities for astronomical observation were established, leading to more accurate measurements and a better understanding of the universe.
Improved Steel (Throughout the period, with advancements in various centuries): Techniques for producing stronger and more durable steel were developed, improving tools, weapons, and construction materials.
Improvements in Medicine (Throughout the period, with advancements in various centuries, eg. The use of willow bark was a development that was used throughout the entire period): Medical knowledge and practices advanced, including the use of herbal remedies, surgical techniques, and the study of anatomy.
We can also add the Jesuits and their great contributions to maths and science.
An incomplete and short list of notable Medieval personalities, inventors, philosophers, scientists, creators and society-changers.
These individuals explored the natural world, pushing the boundaries of scientific knowledge.
Gerbert of Aurillac (Pope Sylvester II) (c. 946–1003): A scholar and pope who introduced Arabic numerals and mathematical knowledge to Europe.
Leonardo of Pisa (Fibonacci) (c. 1170–1250): An Italian mathematician who popularized the Hindu-Arabic numeral system and introduced the Fibonacci sequence.
Johannes de Sacrobosco (c. 1195–1256): A scholar who wrote influential works on astronomy and mathematics.
Robert Grosseteste (c. 1175–1253): A bishop and scholar who emphasized the importance of observation and experimentation in science.
Roger Bacon (c. 1214–1294): A Franciscan friar and scientist who advocated for the importance of empirical methods.
Jean Buridan (c. 1300–1358): A philosopher and scientist who developed the concept of impetus, a precursor to the modern concept of inertia.
Nicole Oresme (c. 1320–1382): A bishop and scholar who made contributions to mathematics, physics, and economics.
Members of the Oxford Merton School (14th-century scholars): A group of scholars at Merton College, Oxford, who made significant contributions to mechanics and mathematics.
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642): An Italian astronomer and physicist who made groundbreaking observations with his telescope and supported the heliocentric model of the universe.
Johannes Kepler (1571–1630): A German astronomer who discovered the laws of planetary motion.
Isaac Newton (1643–1727): An English physicist and mathematician who developed the laws of motion and universal gravitation.
These artists and architects created works of enduring beauty and innovation.
Those involved in the Cathedral School of Chartres: Masters and builders who contributed to the construction and design of Chartres Cathedral, a masterpiece of Gothic architecture.
Byzantine mosaicists and icon painters: Anonymous artists who created the stunning mosaics and icons that decorate Byzantine churches.
Cimabue (c. 1240–1302): An Italian painter who bridged the gap between Byzantine and early Renaissance styles.
Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267–1337): An Italian painter and architect who revolutionized painting with his naturalistic style.
James of St. George (Late 13th Century): A master mason and architect who designed several castles in Wales for Edward I.
Caravaggio (1571–1610): An Italian painter known for his dramatic use of light and shadow (tenebrism).
Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640): A Flemish painter known for his dynamic Baroque style and grand historical and mythological scenes.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598–1680): An Italian sculptor and architect who was a leading figure in the Baroque movement.
Diego Velázquez (1599–1660): A Spanish painter known for his masterful portraits and realistic depictions of court life.
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–c. 1656): An Italian Baroque painter known for her powerful depictions of women from history and mythology.
These figures played crucial roles in the development and preservation of Byzantine Christianity.
John Chrysostom (c. 349–407): Archbishop of Constantinople known for his eloquent sermons and his defense of the poor.
Justinian I (482–565): Byzantine emperor who codified Roman law and oversaw the construction of the Hagia Sophia.
Theodora (c. 500–548): Byzantine empress, wife of Justinian I, known for her influence and her support of women's rights.
Procopius (c. 500–562): A Byzantine historian who wrote about the reign of Justinian I.
John of Damascus (c. 675–749): A monk and theologian who defended the use of icons during the iconoclastic controversy.
Photios I of Constantinople (c. 810–893): Patriarch of Constantinople who played a key role in the Photian Schism.
Michael Psellos (1018–c. 1078): A Byzantine philosopher, historian, and writer.
Anna Comnena (1083–1153): A Byzantine princess and historian who wrote the Alexiad, a history of her father's reign.
Gregory Palamas (c. 1296–1359): A monk and theologian known for his defense of hesychasm, a mystical tradition of prayer.
These intrepid explorers ventured into the unknown, expanding geographical knowledge and establishing new trade routes.
Vikings (9th Century): Scandinavian seafarers who explored and raided across Europe and the North Atlantic.
Bartholomew Diaz (c. 1450–1500): A Portuguese explorer who was the first European to round the southern tip of Africa.
Christopher Columbus (1451–1506): An Italian explorer who sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492, reaching the Americas.
Vasco da Gama (c. 1460 or 1469–1524): A Portuguese explorer who discovered the sea route to India.
John Cabot (c. 1450–1499): An Italian explorer who explored the coast of North America for England.
Ferdinand Magellan (c. 1480–1521): A Portuguese explorer who led the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe.
Jacques Cartier (1491–1557): A French explorer who explored the St. Lawrence River and laid claim to Canada for France.
Martin Frobisher (c. 1535–1594): An English explorer who searched for the Northwest Passage.
Francis Drake (c. 1540–1596): An English explorer and privateer who circumnavigated the globe and challenged Spanish dominance at sea.
Henry Hudson (c. 1565–1611): An English explorer who explored parts of North America, including the Hudson River and Hudson Bay.
Samuel de Champlain (c. 1567–1635): A French explorer who founded Quebec City and explored the Great Lakes region.
A very short incomplete list of individuals who shaped philosophical and theological thought from the early Middle Ages through the Renaissance.
John Scotus Eriugena (c. 810–877): An Irish philosopher and theologian who integrated Neoplatonism with Christian theology.
Gerbert of Aurillac (Pope Sylvester II) (c. 946–1003): A scholar and pope who introduced Arabic numerals and mathematical knowledge to Europe.
William the Conqueror (William of Normandy) (c. 1028–1087): The Duke of Normandy who conquered England in 1066, transforming its political and social landscape.
Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1033–1109): A philosopher and theologian known for his ontological argument for the existence of God.
Peter Lombard (c. 1100–1160): A theologian whose Sentences became a standard theological textbook.
Adelard of Bath (12th century): A scholar who translated Arabic scientific works, introducing important knowledge to Europe.
William of Conches (c. 1090–1154): A philosopher and theologian who emphasized the importance of natural philosophy.
Bernard of Chartres (12th century): A philosopher who emphasized the importance of studying the works of past thinkers.
Peter Abelard (1079–1142): A philosopher and theologian known for his dialectical method and controversial love affair with Heloise.
Innocent II (died 1143): A pope who asserted papal authority and dealt with various religious and political conflicts.
Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274): A Dominican friar and theologian who synthesized Aristotelian philosophy with Christian theology.
Bishop Siger (Siger of Brabant) (c. 1240–1284): A philosopher who championed Aristotelianism, leading to conflicts with traditional theological views.
William of Ockham (c. 1287–1347): A philosopher known for his principle of parsimony (Ockham's Razor) and his contributions to logic and political thought.
Vincent Ferrer (c. 1350–1419): A Dominican friar and preacher known for his fiery sermons and apocalyptic prophecies.
René Descartes (1596–1650): A philosopher, mathematician, and scientist who is considered the father of modern philosophy.
Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556): A Spanish nobleman who founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), an influential religious order.
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These writers and poets captured the imagination and chronicled the events of their times.
Gregory of Tours (c. 538–594): A bishop and historian who chronicled the history of the Franks.
Bede (c. 672–735): A monk and historian known as the "Father of English History."
Alcuin of York (c. 735–804): A scholar and advisor to Charlemagne who played a key role in the Carolingian Renaissance.
Beowulf Poet (Unknown, c. 8th–11th century): The anonymous author of the epic poem Beowulf.
Marie de France (c. 12th century): A poet known for her short narrative poems about love and adventure.
Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179): A Benedictine abbess, mystic, composer, and writer.
Dante Alighieri (c. 1265–1321): The author of the Divine Comedy, an epic poem about a journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.
Petrarch (1304–1374): An Italian poet and scholar who is considered one of the founders of humanism.
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343–1400): The author of the Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories told by pilgrims on a journey.
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Don Pelayo (c. 685–737): A Visigothic nobleman who initiated the Reconquista in Spain.
Charles Martel (c. 688–741): A Frankish leader who defeated the Muslims at the Battle of Tours, halting their advance into Europe.
Charlemagne (c. 742–814): King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor who united much of Western Europe.
Alfred the Great (849–899): King of Wessex who defended England against Viking invasions and promoted education and literacy.
Edward the Elder (c. 874–924): King of the Anglo-Saxons who continued his father Alfred's work of unifying England.
Athelstan (c. 894–939): King of the Anglo-Saxons who achieved the first unification of England.
El Cid (Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar) (c. 1043–1099): A Castilian nobleman and military leader who fought both for and against Christian and Muslim rulers.
William the Conqueror (William of Normandy) (c. 1028–1087): The Duke of Normandy who conquered England in 1066.
Godfrey de Bouillon (c. 1060–1100): A leader of the First Crusade and the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Baldwin IV of Jerusalem (Baldwin the Leper) (1161–1185): King of Jerusalem who, despite suffering from leprosy, successfully defended his kingdom.
Richard the Lionheart (1157–1199): King of England, known for his military exploits in the Third Crusade.
Saint Louis IX of France (1214–1270): King of France known for his piety and his leadership in the Seventh and Eighth Crusades.
Ferdinand III of Castile and León (1199–1252): King of Castile and León who played a major role in the Reconquista.
Alfonso X of Castile and León (1221–1284): King of Castile and León known for his patronage of learning and the arts.
Edward I of England (1239-1307): King of England who reformed English law and administration and conquered Wales.
Edward III of England (1312-1377): King of England who initiated the Hundred Years' War with France.
Henry V of England (1386-1422): King of England who achieved major victories in the Hundred Years' War.
Joan of Arc (c. 1412–1431): A French peasant girl who led French armies to victory in the Hundred Years' War.
Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452–1516): King of Aragon who, with his wife Isabella, unified Spain and sponsored Columbus's voyages.
Isabella I of Castile (1451–1504): Queen of Castile who, with her husband Ferdinand, unified Spain and sponsored Columbus's voyages.
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Benedictines (6th Century, founded by Saint Benedict): A monastic order known for its Rule, which emphasizes prayer, work, and community life.
Cistercians (11th Century, founded by Robert of Molesme): A monastic order that emphasized a simpler and stricter interpretation of the Benedictine Rule.
Carthusians (11th Century, founded by Saint Bruno): A monastic order known for its eremitical lifestyle, with monks living in individual cells.
Premonstratensians (12th Century, founded by Saint Norbert): A monastic order that combines elements of contemplative and active religious life.
Franciscans (13th Century, founded by Saint Francis of Assisi): A mendicant order known for its poverty, preaching, and service to the poor.
Dominicans (13th Century, founded by Saint Dominic): A mendicant order known for its intellectual tradition and its role in combating heresy.
Augustinians (13th Century, various groups unified under Augustinian Rule): A monastic order that follows the Rule of St. Augustine, emphasizing community life and apostolic work.
Jesuits (16th Century, founded by Ignatius of Loyola): A religious order known for its missionary work, education, and intellectual pursuits.
Christianity is the only worldview and only religion in history to propound and expand natural philosophy into the sciences. Christianity is the only true religion of course, and so it is no surprise that early Christians wanted to uncover the secret of God’s created world. The perfect design they found in nature and their own bodies, compelled investigations.
The Christian worldview was premised as much on reason as faith. Saint Augustine of Hippo in the 4th century advocated interpreting scripture with reality as he synthesised Platonic philosophy with Catholic teaching. In the 13th century Saint Thomas Acquinas aligned Aristotle’s philosophy and Greek science with Catholic beliefs, using physics, scientific concepts and reason, to support the existence of the Christian God. In between Augustine and Acquinas, stretching some 800 years, the objective historian can see the great progress made from paganism and mystical beliefs to concrete experimentation and investigation.
Boethius (480 to 525 AD)
Romano-Christian aristocrat who wrote ‘The Consolation of Philosophy’, which discusses aspects of Christian-stoicism and why free will is necessary. Composed texts on music and mathematics which were used for almost a millennia in schools. Completed some translations of Aristotle from Greek into Latin. Boethius’ works were copied and translated by Alfred the Great in England during the middle to late 9th century.
Saint Augustine (354-430 AD)
Bishop of Hippo, synthesised Platonic and neo-Platonic philosophy with Catholic teaching. Accepted pagan science as true even if it seemed to contradict scripture. Did not believe in a literal reading of every book in the Bible if it contradicted reason, common sense or observations. Ambivalent about free will.
Gerbert of Aurillac (940 to 1003 AD)
Born in the lower class, rose to become Pope and a significant contributor to science and mathematics. Wrote an instruction manual for astrolabes which the Byzantine Christians had been using since the 5th century. Built spherical models of the Earth and universe. Promoted both astronomy and mathematics to describe natural phenomena.
As with most people of his time, did not believe that the Earth had to be in the centre of the universe, and that if it was immobile (telescopes were long in the future), it should be raised up to the stars (exalted), not found ‘lower down’.
Saint Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109)
Italian born, a student of Lanfranc, Anselm became Bishop of Canterbury and used reason to support the existence of God. In the Proslogion, Anselm utilises pure logic, or ‘ontology’, to prove that God must exist. This work was to provide logical support for those who believed in God. His arguments use aspects of Aristotle’s philosophy. He marks a departure within European philosopher and metaphysics, from Plato to Aristotle. Anselm felt the best way to know God was through prayer, meditation and fasting.
Peter Abelard (1079-1142 AD)
Catholic intellectual who criticised scripture and texts which seem to contradict each other. His commentaries Sic ou Non (Yes or No), were mandatory reading for medieval students at the University of Paris and beyond. Abelard believed in logical rationalism in all spheres of life including faith. All Catholic dogma, including the Trinity, should be analysed and scrutinised for logical, rational or factual errors or misrepresentations.
William of Conches (1085-1154)
Educated at the Cathedral school of Chartres, Conches attempted to align Platonic philosophy found in Timaeus, one of the first and for a time, only translated work of Greek philosophy, with the creation account in Genesis. It was a difficult if impossible task, given that Plato who believed in a creator, had God using existing material and was a passive God, more of Newton’s divine clock maker, than the interactive God of Christianity. Conches developed ideas about the first mover (God) and secondary movers (events, or processes after God’s activity), and natural laws emanating from God’s creation.
Adelard of Bath (1080-1160)
After extensive travel to Syria and beyond, Adelard translated the Greek copies of Euclid’s Elements, into Latin. Euclid’s work (~300 BC) was the basis of advanced mathematics. Adelard’s work is an exhaustive study of geometry based on Euclid’s textbook.
Translators
From at least the 12th century onwards Catholics were eager translators of ancient, pagan and even Muhammadan texts. Gerard of Cremona (1114-87) translated Ptolemy’s Almagest, or compendium of astronomical and geocentric observations and calculations. Gerard also translated Arab works by Avicenna on medicine and Averroes on Aristotle’s philosophies. Gerard and other translators were able to produce copies of Aristotle’s enormous (if usually uncompleted) output. This had a profound impact on medieval ‘scholasticism’ in natural philosophy, and theology.
Universities
Universities began to form as educational corporations, with their own charters and laws, funded by the Catholic Church in the 12th century. The first universities in Bologna (medicine), Paris (theology), Chartres (physics, natural philosophy), were exemplary illustrations of how innovative and forward thinking the medieval mind could be. These environments provided an opportunity to educate, debate and investigate theology, nature, physics and pagan philosophies including Platonism and Aristotelianism. This Catholic obsession with education and knowledge has no other parallel from any other worldview in history.
Sources:
James Hannam, God’s Philosophers, 2017.
Context
The medieval era from roughly 500 AD to 1550 AD, was a millennia of great change and progress. The attacks on this epoch which in effect built the modern world, are provided by various groups opposed to the Catholic Church: Protestants, ‘Humanists’ or Atheists, 17th century self-promoters, Enlighteners, and 19th century philosophers posing as scientists (Darwin, Marx etc).
Medieval history is rarely taught, and even rarer is to find someone who understands how medieval philosophers and natural scientists built the foundations for mathematics, physics, astronomy, cosmology chemistry, engineering and even the comprehension of electricity. As if the telescope just popped into existence by itself, or the university built itself, or the enormous complexity of Magellan’s circumnavigation, was without a long pedigree of innovations.
Constraints
The constraints against any civilisation developing at all were significant. It is a miracle that Western Europe survived in any form. It is incredible that any civilisation of any value was created in what had to be the most difficult if not impossible of circumstances. Consider the following.
Rome:
The end of the Roman military empire over a 200-year period, and its white-slavery premised economy, stopped the financing of public works across Europe and the mediterranean. Without the military-economy and its wars, plunder and white slavery, the economic basis for much of this region was destroyed. This economic fracture had to be replaced and improved. This takes time.
90% of the population of Rome, or roughly 90 million out of 100 million people were poor, mostly peasantry, and largely illiterate. This is hardly a promising starting point when the empire inevitably collapses.
Governance in Rome was controlled by the military and aristocratic elite. When local government was replaced by Germanic leaders, there were few who could read, write, comprehend the laws, or attract public confidence. In the main, it was the Church who provided the foundations for law-and-order post 500 A.D. One of their great challenges was to improve the literacy of society and to instil peace and legal procedures over force and violence. This transition period would necessarily take time – in fact generations.
In 500 A.D. the legacy of Rome was not what the books and movies describe. It was an empire largely built on white slaving and war. Literacy was low, the currency devalued, terms of trade short, the Roman numerals inured to advanced mathematics, Latin was fragmenting into vernaculars, no social or welfare system existed, there was no public education, and the economy ran on slavery which prevented innovation and technology being developed.
Yet we are constantly told that somehow, such a civilisation, which exalted the barbarity of gladiatorial contests, slavery and violence, was the apogee of mankind’s civilisation, because the slaves and military could construct roads, some coliseums, or public baths. What a bloody nonsense. The point to be made is that by 500 A.D. Europe and the western Mediterranean were in a deep depression, bankrupted financially and morally, and even the rather limited public infrastructure was in the context of some 800 years of empire building, remarkable thin and scant. The Romans created no innovations in art, literature or even basic social services.
Byzantium:
Constantine quite rightly moved the focus and locus of the Roman empire, away from the corrupt barbarism of Rome to the East to Constantinople. He established Christianity as the state religion in about 315 A.D. The pagan barbarism of Rome with its culture of war and slaving was reduced. Christianity flourished in the East and the Byzantine empire was one of history’s greatest and most splendid creations. It is never taught because it was profoundly Christian and Greek. It upsets the settled narrative that Christianity post Rome led to nothing but ‘darkness’.
The Byzantines invented a wide variety of innovations in architecture, engineering, military technology, mathematics, astronomy and science, including the astrolabe, Greek fire, the translation of ancient Greek philosophers, and the creation of massive libraries and schools. Algebra for example, is an Arab word for maths which already existed in the 2nd century AD and can be found within Byzantine universities. The use of Hindu numerals was known to the Byzantines before the Muslims conquered, slaughtered and enslaved some 50 million Hindus and Buddhists starting in the 9th century. The narrative can’t handle this, so any Christian-Byzantine flowering in any domain must be allotted to a non-Christian group.
The main point here is that there was an early split between the ‘West’ and Latin, and the ‘East’ and Greek. This is rarely remarked upon. The ancient sources including early Bibles, were found in Greek. The language gap precluded an easy translation into Latin. This issue was compounded by the internal challenges faced by the ‘Western Roman empire’ after 500 AD. Much in the way of science and learning did not make its way into the West because of the language barrier. This was remediated in part, when Byzantine Christians fled the Muslim Jihad in the mid-15th century and brought back copies of Greek manuscripts and books. This helped stimulate the so-called Renaissance or rebirth, which was just an extension of what already existed – medieval civilisation, premised on Byzantium’s 1000 year history of learning.
Invasions:
The Muslim invasions destroyed Christianity. Staring in 632 AD the eastern, southern and Spanish western mediterranean basin, was conquered by the moon cult of Mecca and Christianity was pulled asunder. Trade routes, cultural exchanges, travel and information sharing in the once Christian empire was destroyed. Spain was largely conquered, except for Don Pelayo and the Asturias, by 720 A.D. France was invaded by huge Muslim armies (40 to 80.000 men) now called ‘raids’ by revisionist Christophobic historians and almost succumbed to the Muslim Jihad.
War is bad for just about everything. The Muslim desecration and destruction of Christianity was evidenced everywhere from the killing of its men and the rapes of its women, to the plunder and effacing of its cities, towns, libraries, aqueducts, irrigation systems, schools and ecclesiastical buildings which provided welfare and social support. Building ‘civilisation’ when it is being destroyed is rather difficult.
As written above, by 500 A.D. the Western rump of the Roman empire was in dire straits to begin with. The Musulman incursions against an unprepared population further retarded civilisation’s development. There is no factual basis to any of the claims for Muslim ‘civilisation’. The Muslim empires invented nothing of note. Any so called discoveries already existed, or in the case of their meagre philosophical and astronomical outputs, were rendered by non-Muslims with Muslimified names.
Having said that, based on Musulman sources, Visigothic Spain and indeed North Africa amazed the Muslims with its wealth, sophistication, glittering cities, libraries, learning and welfare. From the low point of 500 A.D. the Romano-Christian culture of Spain and North Africa had gone to great lengths to repair and expand civilisation.
This was eradicated by Muslims who took over these rich areas, which were later declared by Christophobic ‘intellectuals’ to have been built by Moslems. Absurd to say the least. In fact North Africa, once the granary of the Roman empire became a desert. Its irrigation systems annihilated by Muslims, the world’s biggest library in Alexandria set to fire by the Muslims. Wheeled carts once plentiful on the roads of North Africa largely disappeared for 300 years replaced by donkeys.
The Muslim irruption was just one. Huns or Avars had been plundering central and Western Europe since the 5th century (Attila the Hun for example). Magyars (Huns) fell upon Europe in waves starting in the 9th century. The Saxons, pagans before their forcible conversion by Charlemagne in the 9th century, emanated from Germany and plundered areas of Francia, Frisia and England. The Anglo-Saxon-Jute takeover of England was followed by the Viking plundering of the island, France, Ireland and other North Sea targets starting in the late 8th century and lasting until the reign of Canute in the early 11th century. We have here endless war stretching from the Musulman invasion of 710 AD (Spain) to William the Conqueror (1066). Almost every region in Western Europe was enveloped in war and subject to the dislocations caused by war, invasion, disease and social unrest.
Summary
A normal person, with a normal intellect, understands that ‘science’ or ‘mathematics’ in such a context would not be a priority. Creating a telescope (optics begin in the 12th century), is not really a priority when your land is ravaged, and your family threatened with death. It is only after the defeat of the Muslims in Spain, which becomes evident in 1200 AD, the end of the Viking invasions (roughly 1000 AD), and the defeat of the Magyars in central Europe (early 11th century); that Western Europe even has a chance at rebuilding the civilisation that was in repair and proceeding to greatly surpass that of Rome, in 700 A.D.
One of the greatest miracles in history is simply this: How did the Romano-German-Christian civilisations of Western Europe survive from 500 to 1000 AD? If there is a logical proof for God's existence, it is surely the fact that Western Europe somehow survived the pagan assaults of Muslims, Huns, Avars, Magyars, Saxons and Vikings from 500 AD to 1000 AD.
The founder and war leader of the Meccan moon-cult, or ‘Islam’ meaning submission to Al Lah (The Lord of Mecca or moon deity) and his ‘only messenger’ Muhammad, was born, lived, died and was real. The sex-slaving, brigand and corrupt was first mentioned by name in a Christian-Syriac fragment, written around 634.
This Syriac document references a Muhammadan raid on peaceful villages and farms. The year of the raid is uncertain. But this was the modus operandi of a cult of cut throats and thieves: “many villages [in Homs] were ravaged by the killing [of the followers] of Muhammad and many people were slain and [taken] prisoner from Galilee to Beth,” and “some ten thousand” other Christians were slaughtered in “the vicinity of Damascus.”
Another Christian monk and historian, Thomas the Presbyter, confirms the depradations of the cult formed by Muhammad. Writing circa 640, he states that “there was a battle [probably Ajnadayn] between the Romans and the Arabs of Muhammad in Palestine twelve miles east of Gaza. The Romans fled. . . . Some 4,000 poor villagers of Palestine were killed there. . . . The Arabs ravaged the whole region.” They even “climbed the mountain of Mardin and killed many monks there in the monasteries of Qedar and Bnata.” By Romans, Thomas means the Byzantine Christians or ‘Eastern Romans’.
The Christian Egyptian Copts also recorded the Muhammadan irruptions. A Coptic homily, dating from around the 640s, associate the Musulmans with a heretical and false piety. This homily advises Coptic Christians to fast, but not “like the Saracens who are oppressors, who give themselves up to prostitution, massacre and lead into captivity the sons of men, saying, ‘we both fast and pray.’” The activities of Muhammad’s followers were the exact opposite of Christian piety.
John of Nikiu, writing in 650 or thereabouts, said that the Musulman invaders and by then, conquerors of Egypt, were “enemies of God” and adherents of “the detestable doctrine of the beast, that is, Mohammed.” The Musulmans were justly described as Satanic. Any cursory reading of the Muslims handbook of hate, Mein Koran, makes this claim obvious and justifiable.
Saint John of Damascus (b. 676) performed a thorough analysis of Muhammad and his cult ‘Submission’. Taking Mein Koran at face value he concluded that the only “miracle” Muhammad performed was to invade, slaughter, and enslave those who refused to submit to him — a “miracle that even common robbers and highway bandits can perform.”
Saint John remarked that this Arab ‘prophet’ (profiteer is fitter) inserted into his own vapid mouth whatever words from his Al-Lah that served him best, “simulating revelation in order to justify his own sexual indulgence”. Saint John remarked that by equating himself with his ‘god’, the moon idol (Al Lah) of Mecca, Muhammad made his religion appealing and justified his own behaviour by easing the sexual and moral codes of the Arabs and fusing the notion of obedience to God with war to aggrandize oneself with booty and slaves.
In the eighth century, Nicetas Byzantinos, who studied the Koran, presented it as the “most pitiful and most inept little book of the Arab Muhammad … full of blasphemies against the Most High, with all its ugly and vulgar filth,” particularly its claim that heaven amounted to a “sexual brothel.” In his entry for the years 629–630, Theophanes the Confessor (b. 758) wrote:
“He [Muhammad] taught his subjects that he who kills an enemy or is killed by an enemy goes to Paradise [Koran 9:111]; and he said that this paradise was one of carnal eating and drinking and intercourse with women, and had a river of wine, honey and milk, and that the women were not like the ones down here, but different ones, and that the intercourse was long-lasting and the pleasure continuous; and other things full of profligacy and stupidity.”
Allah was denounced as an impostor deity, namely Satan: “I anathematize the God of Muhammad,” read one Eastern Roman canonical rite.
Regarding Christianity, Muhammad viewed it as his arch enemy. He and his cult deny the Trinity, reduce Christ to a prophet of Islam (some 600 years before Muhammad formed his cult) and regarded all Christian practices and idols including the cross, as blasphemy and sacrilegious. All of this certainly proves that Muhammad was Satanic. Thus, “the false prophet,” “the hypocrite,” “the liar,” “the adulterer,” “the forerunner of Antichrist,” and “the Beast” became mainstream epithets for Muhammad among Christians for centuries.
These names need to be restored to his cult and all its members.
“I have been commanded to wage war against the mankind until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah….If they do so, their blood and property are protected.” Muhammad bin Abdullah, ‘Prophet of Islam’
The conflict between the cult of Muhammad and the rest of the world, and with its most detested enemy namely Christianity (Mein Koran is more Christophobic, than anti-Semitic), is based on the ‘principles’ of its founder. As quoted above Muhammad the slave of Allah (Abdullah) was a warrior chieftain. He was no prophet of peace, but a profiteer of war, brigandage, sex slavery, destruction and violence. His mission, given to him apparently by the archangel Gabriel, was to spread the cult of Allah, or the worship of the moon deity of Mecca, around the globe with the sword and scimitar.
The message delivered to the mentally unstable Muhammad in his meditation cave in 610 A.D when he was 40 by the archangel Gabriel was simple – make sure all humans ‘submit’ to this Allah deity. Muhammad a former caravan leader for his wealthy older wife spent 12 years trying to spread this message in his hometown of Mecca, winning fewer than 100 converts. The Meccans allowed Muhammad to freely preach in the polytheistic, celestial worshipping city.
When Muhammad became more brazen and preached against the existing idols worshipped by the Meccans, including the Sun and Venus, he became a threat to the pilgrimage trade. This centred around the Kabah shrine which housed a black asteroid and 360 idols. Many surrounding tribes journeyed to the shrine as a votive of cult duty which brought economic benefits to Mecca. Muhammad’s ramblings about submission only to the Al-Lah or main deity of Mecca, and his demand that all other idols and cults be disbanded, was bad for business.
Muhammad and his small band were forced to flee to Medina. With his gang of ruffians, he inserted himself into Medinan politics, became an arbiter in disputes between city factions and eventually a sort of prince of Medina. With many men at his disposal, he began his career of violence, launching raids against other cities, villages and caravans.
Muhammad’s principle of ‘religiosity’ can be summed up in one of his earliest commands given to his men in Medina, “Fight them (non-Muslims) until they testify that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger; if they do so, then their blood (lives) and possessions are denied you.” Notice the conflation between the Arab celestial idol or Al Lah, meaning the Lord who was the moon, and Muhammad. Only Muhammad is the mediator between the moon deity and mankind. Only Muhammad can wield absolute power because only Muhammad has access and insight to the desires of the moon deity.
To convert to Muhammad’s cult and partake of the spoils of raiding and small-scale warfare, all one had to do was confirm that there is only one god named Al Lah, and that Muhammad is his only messenger. This is called the sha-ha-da and is the first pillar of the Muslim cult. The name Islam simply means submission to Al Lah and most importantly, to his only messenger, Muhammad.
The primary impetus to join Muhammad’s gang in Medina was the spoils of war and raiding. Arabs were famous even in the days of the Roman empire, for being raiders and thieves. It was a part of the culture. Now Muhammad was offering criminals, brigands, rapists, cut-throats, the violent and the mentally unstable, divine sanction, absolution, redemption and upon death in battle or after conversion to the cult, a paradise of virgins, wine, food and entertainment. It was a winning stratagem. As Edward Gibbon no friend of Christianity drily wrote, “(Muhammad) employ(ed) even the vices of mankind as the instruments of their salvation.”
On average Muhammad led 9 military expeditions each year between 622 and 630 A.D. The success of pilfering, sex slaving and wanton destruction had attracted some 10.000 men into a resolute and violent army. As Muslim historians of a later date admitted (such as Ibn Khaldun in the 14th century), these Arab tribesmen following Muhammad were illiterate, savage, brutal and atavistic. This was no religiously inspired crowd of devotionals and penitents. These were cruel and barbaric men, plundering, raping, stealing, murdering and converting people at the point of the sword. So it came to pass that in 630 A.D. Muhammad with 10.000 men attacked Mecca where he was previously rejected and forced the Meccans to submit to the Al Lah cult.
The Battle and the Miracle of Mont Gisard.
On November 11, 1177, Frankish King Baldwin IV, known as the "Leper King," faced the Musulman Jihadist Saladin, who marched with 26,000 Muslim soldiers to crush the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem. Baldwin, though severely ill and outnumbered, led a much smaller Christian force of 500 Christian knights and infantry.
At the Battle of Montgisard, Baldwin’s army carried the True Cross, a symbol of Christ’s victory. The Crusaders launched a daring ambush, routing Saladin’s forces and securing a miraculous triumph. Saladin barely escaped with his life, retreating to Egypt.
This incredible victory shows Baldwin's faith, courage, and reliance on God.
"If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31, KJV)
