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American Minute with Bill Federer
Connecting the Dots: Renaissance, Reformation, Revolution
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How did
Islam's expansion
lead to the
Dark Ages,
the
Age of Discovery,
the
Renaissance,
the
Reformation,
and the American
Revolution!
In 12 years after Mohammed's death, 632-644 AD, Muslim jihadists conquered the Eastern Roman Empire, Syria, Palestine, Eastern Anatolia, Armenia, Upper Egypt, Lower Egypt and North Africa.
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Muslim pirates then terrorized the Mediterranean, blockading trade routes.
This caused economic disaster in Roman Europe by diminishing products moving East to West.
An important item no longer shipped was papyrus -- reeds from the Nile delta which were used for paper in Europe.
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The sudden shortage of paper contributed to a decline in literacy, fewer books being written, and Europe entering the DARK AGES.
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Similar to present-day reports of ISIS destroying 100,000 ancient books in the Central Library of Mosul, Iraq, the 7th century account is related of Muslim warriors destroying Egypt's ancient library in Alexandria -- the largest and oldest library in the world.
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The incident, according to Abd-Al-Latif of Baghdad (1162-1231), Jamal Ad-din Al-Kufti (1169-1248), and Bar Hebraeus (1226-1286), was that when Caliph Omar was asked what to do with Alexandria's Library, he replied:
"If those books are in agreement with the Qur'an, we have no need of them; and if these are opposed to the Qur'an, destroy them."
It supposedly took 6 months to burn them all.
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Muslim Caliph Al-Ma'mun
of the
Abbasid Dynasty
ordered raiders to break into the
Great Pyramid of Giza
in 832 AD in search of treasure.
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An Islamic Hadiths is:
"Do not leave an image without obliterating it, or a high grave without leveling it. This hadith has been reported by Habib with the same chain of transmitters and he said: Do not leave a picture without obliterating it." (Hadith Bk 4, No. 2115)
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Six hundred years later,
Ottoman Muslims
sacked
Constantinople
in 1453.
Graves were desecrated and the largest Christian Church in the world,
the
Hagia Sophia,
was turned into a
mosque.
The O
ttoman
conquest
ended land trade routes
from
Europe to India and China.
This led explorer
Vasco de Gama
to sail from
Portugal
around
South Africa
to
India,
1497-1499, preceded five years earlier by
Christopher Columbus
attempting to sail west to
India
in 1492.
Convinced he had reached
India, Columbus
named the people he met
"Indians."
This began a period of exploration known as the AGE OF DISCOVERY.
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Ottoman Muslims
invaded further into the
Greece Byzantine Empire,
destroying churches, schools, museums art, and graves.
Greeks
hurriedly fled with their treasures, art and literature to
Florence, Italy.
This flood of ancient culture into Western Europe sparked a re-discovery of Greek culture called the RENAISSANCE.
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau
(1712-1778), considered one of the
Fathers of the French Revolution,
owned a dog he named "Sultan." He wrote a
Discourse on the Arts and Sciences,
1750 (translated by Ian Johnston), stating:
"Europe had fallen back into the barbarity ... A revolution was necessary to bring men back to common sense, and it finally came from a quarter where one would least expect it. It was the stupid Muslim, the eternal blight on learning, who brought about its rebirth among us.
The collapse of the throne of Constantine carried into Italy the debris of ancient Greece. France, in its turn, was enriched by these precious remnants. The sciences soon followed letters. To the art of writing was joined the art of thinking."
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As the
wealth
of the
Greek Byzantine Empire
flowed into
Florence, Italy,
many were made rich, most notably the families of
Medici
and
Borgia,
who financed artists
Michelangelo
and
Leonardo DaVinci.
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Condemning the rising materialism and sensualism in
Florence
was the religious preacher
Savonarola,
leading a notable Christian revival, inspiring crowds of thousands.
Political leaders succeeded in having him excommunicated, arrested, tortured and executed.
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Greek scholars
fleeing the Ottoman invasion also brought to Europe the
Greek Bible,
which was translated by
Erasmus.
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This interest in the original language of
New Testament of Greek
contributed to the REFORMATION, begun by
Martin Luther
in 1517.
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The King of France,
Francis I,
caused a scandal in Europe by making
an alliance with Muslim Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent
against Italy, Spain and England.
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Francis I
ordered the punishment of religious dissidents known as
Waldensians.
Over the next century, RELIGIOUS WARS resulted in tragic atrocities committed by both
Protestant
and
Catholic armies
against each other.
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Lorenzo de' Medici,
to whom
Niccolò Machiavelli
dedicated his notorious book,
The Prince,
1515, had his daughter,
Catherine de' Medici,
marry the next King of France,
Henry II.
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Henry II
suppressed
Protestant Huguenots
in France.
After his death,
Catherine de' Medici
was credited with the
St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre
in Paris in 1572, after which
Protestants fled France.
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Catherine de' Medici's
teenage son,
King Francis II,
was married to
Mary-Queen of Scots,
as France had for centuries helped Scotland struggle for independence from England.
When
King Francis II
died
at age 16,
Mary-Queen of Scots, age 18, returned to Scotland
in 1561.
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She was immediately criticized by
Protestant Reformer John Knox
from the pulpit.
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Earlier, as a young man,
John Knox
had been arrested and sentenced in 1547 to be
a galley slave on a French ship.
Sailing away from
Scotland
,
John Knox
looked up as they passed
St. Andrews
and said:
"I see the steeple of that place where God first in public opened my mouth to glory; and I am fully persuaded ... I shall not depart this life till my tongue shall glorify his godly name in the same place."
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After two years,
John Knox
was released and exiled to
England.
John Knox
rose to be the
royal chaplain
to the young
King Edward VI
where he helped influence the writing of
the Book of Common Prayer.
When
King Edward died,
his sister
Queen Mary Tudor
took the throne and attempted to bring England back under the Catholic Church.
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John Knox
escaped England to
Geneva, Switzerland,
where he met
Reformer John Calvin.
Through
Knox,
John Calvin's
beliefs not only influenced
Scotland,
but also the millions of
Scots, Scots-Irish, Puritan and Presbyterian immigrants
who came to America.
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Secretary of the Navy
George Bancroft
published a ten-volume
History of the United States,
the first comprehensive history of America. He wrote:
"He who will not honor the memory and respect the influence of
Calvin
knows little of the
origin of American liberty."
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John Calvin
advised the Jeanne d'Albret Queen Regnant of Navarre:
"Now that the government is in your hands, God will test your zeal and fidelity. You now have an obligation to purge your lands of idolatry by taking into consideration the difficulties which can hold you back, the fears and doubts which can sap courage.
And I do not doubt that your advisors, if they look to this world, will try to stop you. I know the arguments advanced to prove that princes should not force their subjects to lead a Christian life, but all kingdoms which do not serve that of Jesus Christ are ruined. So judge for yourself. I do not say that all can be done in a day."
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John Calvin
told the Queen Regnant of Navarre, April 28, 1545:
"A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent."
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When
John Knox
returned to
Scotland,
he followed
Calvin's
example of confronting monarchs.
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John Knox,
who died NOVEMBER 24, 1572, had stated:
"A man with God is always in the majority."
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Knox
preached a sermon in
St. Andrews
which incited hearers to smash statues and loot Catholic churches.
Through the efforts of
John Knox,
the
Scottish Parliament
officially accepted the
Reformatio
n in 1560, beginning the
Presbyterian Church.
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Mary-Queen of Scots
had unfortunate events in her personal life.
She had married
Lord Darnley
in 1565, but he became jealous of Mary's private secretary,
David Rizzio,
and had him murdered.
Lord Darnley
was then suspiciously killed two years later in an explosion.
The chief suspect in his murder was the
Earl of Bothwell,
who manipulated Mary into marrying him a month later.
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This upheaval resulted in the
Scottish Parliament
forcing
Mary to abdicate her throne.
She was replaced by her and Lord Darnley's infant son,
James.
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James,
at the age of 13 months, was crowned
King James VI of Scotland.
John Knox
gave the
coronation sermon.
The
Earl of Bothwell
tried to raise forces to return
Mary-Queen of Scots
to her throne, but he was captured in Norway and died in prison.
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Mary-Queen of Scots
fled to
England
in 1568 to be protected by her cousin,
Queen Elizabeth I,
who turned this into her forced custody for 19 years.
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Elizabeth
was the daughter of
Henry VIII
by
Anne Boleyn.
Anne Boleyn
had refused to be another of
Henry's
mistresses, so
Henry
divorced his first wife, broke with the Roman Catholic Church and
began the Anglican Church.
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Henry VIII
later beheaded
Anne Boleyn.
The fate of
Henry VIII's six wives
were:
-Catherine of Aragon,
divorced;
-Anne Boleyn,
beheaded;
-Jane Seymour,
died;
-Anne of Cleves,
divorced;
-Catherine Howard,
beheaded;
-Catherine Parr,
survived.
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Elizabeth I
sent
Sir Francis Drake
to circumnavigate the globe, 1577-1580.
She sent
Sir Walter Raleigh
to found a colony in America in 1584, which he named
"Virginia"
after the
virgin Queen Elizabeth.
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Elizabeth
was made aware of a plot against her life, which questionably implicated her
captive Catholic cousin
Mary-Queen of Scots.
Elizabeth
tragically signed the order for
Mary's execution
in 1587.
Catholics in England went into hiding or fled. Large numbers of priests sent to England were captured and executed.
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In 1588,
Elizabeth
had
Sir Francis Drake
fight the
Spanish Armada.
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Like Francis I earlier, the seriousness of
Spain's threat
led
Queen Elizabeth
to make a treaty with
Spain's enemies,
Moroccan ruler Mulai Ahmad al-Mansur
and the
Ottoman Sultan Murad III.
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When
Elizabeth
died in 1603, the son of
Mary-Queen of Scots
,
James I,
was made
King of England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland.
King James I
had been raised by
Scottish Presbyterian Protestant tutors.
He was responsible for arranging
Anglican, Puritan
and
Presbyterian scholars
to work together to produce the
King James Bible - the best-selling book of all time.
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King James I
is the namesake of
Jamestown, Virginia
- the
first permanent English settlement in America.
The
Pilgrims
were sailing on the
Mayflower
ship to join the
Jamestown Colony
when the got blown off course in a winter storm and landed at
Cape Cod.
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The
Pilgrims
had no charter from the
King
so they wrote their famous
Mayflower Compact.
When
Spanish and Italian Catholic troops
plotted to help
Ireland break from Anglican English control,
beginning in 1569, the
English crushed
the attempt and executed thousands of Irish Catholics.
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The
Irish
had their crops and farms destroyed, leading to famine and disease and thousands dying.
Over the next century, the
British
killed over a half-million
Irish Catholics
and sold the same number into slavery in the
West Indies, New England, Barbados
and
Virginia.
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In an effort to make Ireland more
Protestant, Britain
relocated
200,000 Presbyterians from Scotland to Ireland.
In the following years, crop failures, the collapsing linen trade, and increased rents caused over a million
Scots and Scots-Irish Protestant Presbyterian
descendants to
leave Ireland and immigrate to the American colonies.
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Between 1717 and 1775, over
200,000 Scots-Irish
migrated to America, becoming
a third of the country's population.
At the time of the REVOLUTION, the population of America was around 3 million, of which
Puritans comprised about 600,000.
Other settlers included:
900,000 Scots and Scots-Irish Presbyterians;
400,000 German or Dutch Reformed;
Protestant French Huguenots and Episcopalians.
Many of these held the basic
Calvinistic confession, which was comprised of 39 Articles.
Through this mass immigration,
the influence of John Calvin and John Knox was felt in America.
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TIME Magazine
published the article "Looking to Its Roots" (May 25, 1987):
"Ours is the only country deliberately founded on a good idea.
That good idea combines a commitment to
man's inalienable rights
with
the Calvinist belief
in an
ultimate moral right
and s
inful man's obligation to do good.
These articles of faith,
embodied in the
Declaration of Independence
and in the
Constitution,
literally govern our lives today."
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The
first Presbyterian Church in America
was founded by
Rev. Francis Makemie
in Maryland in 1684.
By the time of the American REVOLUTION, the
Presbyterian denomination
was one of the four largest denominations in the country, along with
Anglican, Congregational and Baptist.
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A descendant of
John Knox
was Presbyterian minister
John Witherspoon,
who
signed the Declaration of Independence
and was a primary proponent of separation of powers.
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John Witherspoon
circulated letters urging ministers to support independence, even publishing a sermon,
"Address to the Natives of Scotland residing in America,"
in which he beseeched those of
Scots and Scots-Irish
descent to insist on their
ancient rights against Britain.
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John Witherspoon
served as the
President of Princeton College,
where
he taught 9 of the 55 writers of the U.S. Constitution, including James Madison.
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Leaders of the
Presbyterian Churches
in the United States wrote to
President George Washington,
May 26, 1789:
"We ... esteem it a peculiar happiness to behold in our Chief Magistrate, a steady, avowed friend of the Christian religion ... who, in his private conduct, adorns the doctrines of the gospel of Christ."
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President George Washington
wrote back in May of 1789:
"Gentlemen: I receive with great sensibility the testimonial given by the
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church
in the United States of America ...
While I reiterate the professions of my dependence upon Heaven as the source of all public and private blessings;
I will observe that the general prevalence of piety, philanthropy, honesty, industry, and economy seems, in the ordinary course of human affairs, particularly necessary for advancing and conforming the happiness of our country ..."
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Washington
added:
"While all men within our territories are protected in worshiping the Deity according to the dictates of their consciences;
it is rationally to be expected from them in return, that they will be emulous of evincing the sanctity of their professions by the innocence of their lives and the beneficence of their actions;
for no man who is profligate in his morals, or a bad member of the civil community, can possibly be a true Christian, or a credit to his own religious society ..."
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Washington
concluded:
"I desire you to accept my acknowledgments for your laudable endeavors to render men sober, honest, and good citizens, and the obedient subjects of a lawful government,
as well as for your prayers to Almighty God for His blessings on our common country, and the humble instrument which He has been pleased to make use of in the administration of its government."
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American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.
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Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924
wjfederer@gmail.com
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