The high priest and the king were great friends, though they differed from each other on matters of politics and religion. Hilkiah was a follower of the religious practices and ideals of the prophet Isaiah, while Amon was inclined to follow the religious practices and ideals of his father, King Manasseh. A very strange thing happened in Jerusalem and Judah when both the good King Hezekiah and the great prophet Isaiah died and young Manasseh came to the throne. The many religious and social reforms that were instituted by Hezekiah under the guidance and inspiration of Isaiah, and which saved the country from the ravages of the Assyrian conqueror, were brought to a sudden halt by King Manasseh. It seems that the young king was entirely under the influence of the party at court. This party composed mostly of Manasseh's young friends differed with the opinions of the old men who stood by Hezekiah and Isaiah. It was the story of Rehoboam and of Ahaz all over again. The king listened to the advice of his boon companions instead of to the counsel of the sages. Manasseh had another reason which, in his own mind and in the minds of his advisers, justified the reaction he led against the teachings of "the remnant" founded by Isaiah, and later taken up by Hezekiah. Assyria, after the death of Sennacherib, had become the great world power at which all the Assyrian kings, from Tiglath-Pileser III down, had aimed. Sennacherib's successors actually conquered Egypt twice, thus extending the sway of Assyria, with its capital at Nineveh, over the whole of the then known world. During both wars in which Egypt was defeated, the little kingdom of Judah was, by its geographical location, the stamping ground for the Assyrian armies. Judah was called upon during these wars to do more than pay its regular tribute. It was forced to furnish food, supplies, horses, shelter and camps to the Assyrians. The suffering of the Jewish people at the hands of the Assyrians was greater than ever before, and the court party asked the king whether the nation was better off when following in the footsteps of Isaiah and Hezekiah and worshiping the God of Isaiah and Hezekiah, than it would be if it worshiped the gods of the Assyrians, the worshipers of which were always victorious over their enemies. While the Assyrian armies were coming and going through Judah, Manasseh was anxious not alone to show his loyalty to the Assyrian throne by the punctual payment of the tribute levied on Judah, but to show also his personal faithfulness to the kings of Assyria by paying homage to their gods. So Manasseh began a bloody campaign against "the remnant", who were now called the Prophetic Party in opposition to the Court Party. Jerusalem flowed with the blood of the martyrs, who were nowhere safe from the power of Manasseh and the princes.