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Birth, life, death, and believed resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is perhaps the most important event in religion's history as it is the one on which Christianity is based and around which it revolves. Christianity does not exist without Christ.
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Pope Urban II authorizes the Crusades to recover the Holy Land from Muslims. The Crusades were a holy war promoted by the papacy to take back the Holy Land for Christ. Catholic indulgences were offered to soldiers who participated in any of the nine crusades, which ultimately failed at saving eastern Christendom from the Muslims.
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An indulgences is defined as "the remission before God of the temporal punishment due for sins already forgiven as far as their guilt is concerned." The first thing to note is that forgiveness of a sin is separate from punishment for the sin. The first known use of plenary indulgences was in 1095 when Pope Urban II remitted all penance of persons who participated in the crusades and who confessed their sins.
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There was an increase of indulgences when the Black death(plague) came about. Since people were scared of dying and burials were hasty affairs they bought indulgences thinking it would save them, or bring them to Heaven when they pass away.
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John Wycliffe creates the first complete English Translation of the Bible. Originally written in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, The Bible was translated into Latin in 405, but translations into common languages made it available to common people who could finally read it for themselves.
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Johann Gutenberg produces the first printed Bible, making it more widely accessible. Up until his press, the Bible was anything but the household commodity it is today. It became readily available not only to scholars, monks, and clerics, but the general population, spreading Christian teachings, according to the Christian History Institute.
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The Great Awakening, a widespread revival in North America, changes the religious landscape of the country by igniting a renewal of faith. Revivals that spread throughout the early colonies gave rise to new denominations, a break in strict religious practices, and a personalization of faith.
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The Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest set of Biblical manuscripts, are discovered. These scrolls predate others of their kind by centuries, offering scholars older manuscripts of the Scriptures. They date from the third century BC to the first century AD.
