All this was very dazzling in a way. But the days of the great ascendency of the Roman Empire were gone. A new star had arisen in the West.
Charlemagne, a German, was in the year 800 crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire at Rome, and had displaced the Cæsars as the head of Christendom.
Besides that, the "Bishop of Rome," as he was once called, had now become the Pope, the Vicar of Christ on Earth; and as the power of the rival emperors declined, the power of the Pope increased; so that Rome, as the spiritual head of Christendom, was now superior to Constantinople.
While the Goths were breaking in pieces the Roman Empire, and while Constantinople was growing in splendor, important events were happening in far-off Asia.
In the year 569, there was born in Arabia a child who altered the whole course of history. His name was Mahomet.
As the Mahometan religion has always been a scourge and a curse, you would naturally suppose its founder was a bad man. But on the contrary he was a very good man, and had a great desire to make his people better.
The Arabians had a corrupt form of idolatry which came from the Persians, and worshipped not one, but a great many gods.
Mahomet sincerely believed that he was inspired by the one true and great God to overthrow this old religion and to establish a pure and true one.
Under this inspiration he wrote the Koran, which is the Mahometan Bible. This book told them of the sins they must not commit, and of the joys which hereafter awaited those who should be faithful to the teachings of the one God and his prophet Mahomet.