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At the beginning of the second millennium, the European, Asian, and African continents were undergoing a revolution. The Catholic Church underwent a severe separation in 1054 with the Great Schism, a rift that divided the Eastern and Western churches because of a one-word difference in doctrine, the Filioque. Roughly forty years later, under the banner of the papacy, a massive army was assembled to take back the Holy Land. This was to be the first crusade. While the Christian world was struggling with division and grasping to keep control of its lands, the Muslims were expanding and becoming stronger. Eventually, these two grand religions would have to collide and battle for their beliefs. There were certainly armies of Christians and Muslims that fought, tens of thousands of men dying by the sword. One of the most decisive battles, however, took place on the papers of and in the minds of two very different individuals who did not even live at the same time. The ideas of St. Thomas Aquinas and Averroës did indeed clash, in the hearts and minds of millions of Christians and Muslims. The philosophies of St. Thomas Aquinas and Averroës had the same origin, but very different interpretations, and the ideas of Thomas Aquinas would save the Church from what the Church surely believed to be an onslaught of heretical thought from Averroës. The major factor that set into motion the events that led to heavy studying of Aristotle was, ironically enough, the closure of the school that Aristotle established in the 4th Century B.C. The school that Aristotle established was the Academy, located in Athens, Greece. Justinian I closed the Academy because the Academy was not as Christian as Justinian I would have liked. This turn of events, however, did not deter those who ran the Academy. They decided to move the Academy to Gundeshapur, located in what is modern day Iraq. This move, in turn, led to the other intellectual center moving from Alexandria to Harra, in Syria.
Approximate Word count = 1323
Approximate Pages = 5.3
(250 words per page double spaced)
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