The Religion of the Europeans

The Europeans main religion was the Christian faith. The church was headed by
the Pope.He was the Arabitor of political disputes particularly in discovering
new lands. Worshipping God was the main purpose the Europeans had believed
in and if you didn’t believe in God they regarded you as sinful and unholy. Most
people believed that Jerusalem was at the center of the earth and the earth was at
the center of the universe and the sun revolved around the earth. Christians
believed the devil was the source of all evil who waited to try and persuade the
non-believers that Christianity was not the way and if they fell into his trap they
would also be considered as unholy. In the mid 15th century The Ottoman
Turks captured the Constantinople {modern day Istanbul} in 1453 and became
the last non-european people before the 20th century. The Turks were muslims.
In 1492 Granada was captured it ended 700 years of Moorish rule and tradition.
The end of the struggle put a huge gapin the spanish peoples lives. For example
there were no more adventures or battles for the knights no more prizes and no
more non-believers to convert and thus giving them reason to come to the
Americas. In the same year a rule came out that said any Jew that didn’t convert
to Christianity would be expelled out of the Europeans. The jews that were
hiding in Portugal were followed 4 years later thus bringing Spain’s extended
association with Catholism. It played an extremely important part in the mission
to conquer the “New World”. The 2 Christian provinces Aragon {King
Ferdinand} and Castile {Queen Isabella} became one and pushed the Muslims
into hiding and became one country now known as Spain. The Islams one true
god/prophet was Muhammed They say their belief started in the 17th century.
Muslim states spread across noth into Asia in places like The Middle East,
North Africa and North India . The muslim invaders were known as the Moors.
The defeating of the Moors was seen as religous struggle. King Ferdinand and
Queen Isabella made it their duty to turn non-believers to the Christian faith. This
led to alot of cruelty. Therefore approximately 150,000 Jews were expelled from
Spain. The spanish knights named the Hidalgos made sure that all or most
muslims were expelled. As a result of the hidalgod being so “heroic” they were
free of tax and could wear their own coat of arms. There was an even greater
reward to get an “Encomienda” by the king or queen. The knight who recieved
the encomienda had almost all control over the land that had been reconquered
by the Moors. The church leaders believed that less violent methods should be
used, but most Europeans believed that it was God’s will to persuade
non-believers to become christians. Groups of holy men (friars) had oaths to
work in poverty as doctors and teachers that mainly became missionaries. The
Priests were given a privaliged postion. They were given free wine and oil, free
passages to the enpire and free land the Priests were the teachers in the schools,
colleges and universities. The “Inquisition” was the jurisdiction. The clergy was
the one who punished the criminals. They could be tried for doing
heresy(believing in other gods), blaphsemy( insulting a god), bigamy( adultry),
or witchcraft. If caught breaking any of these main laws there could be a chance
you could recieve penance( repentance), property confiscation, prison or even
sentenced to death by burning at the stake. The church showed and proved that is
the most fierce in keeping the people of Spain loyal.