Church History

Map of the First Four Centuries

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Map of the First Four Centuries *click lower right for large view*

The Reformation: 1500-1599

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1504 b. Heinrich Bullinger

1507 Luther is ordained as a preist at Erfurt
Henry VIII becomes King of England in 1509

1509 b. John Calvin

1510 Luther sent to Rome on monastic business. He saw the corruption of the church

1513 Leo X becomes Pope

1514 b. John Knox

1515 While teaching on Romans, Luther realizes faith and justification are the work of God

1517 Luther nails his 95 Theses to the door of the church in Wittenburg. It is the first public act of the Reformation Zwingli's reform is also underway

1519 Charles V becomes Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire

1521 Luther is excommunicated

1525 The Bondage of the Will. Many of the essays, discourses, treatises, conversations, etc. that Luther had over the years are collected in his Table Talk

1529 The Colloquy of Marburg

1531 d. Ulrich Zwingli c.

1532 or 1533 Calvin's conversion

1534 Henry VIII declares himself "The only supreme head in earth of the Church of England"

1535 Anabaptists take over Muenster

1536 d. Erasmus

1536 Menno Simons rejects Catholicism, becomes an Anabaptist, and helps restore that movement back to pacifism

1536 William Tyndale strangled and burned at the stake. He was the first to translate the Bible into English from the original languages

1536 First edition of Calvin's Institutes

1540 Jesuit order is founded. The Catholic Reformation is under way c.

1543 Knox converted

1545 The Council of Trent begins

Council of Trent

1546 d. Luther

1547 The young Edward VI becomes King of England. The Duke of Somerset acts as regent, and many reforms take place

1549 Consensus Tigurinus brings Zwinglians and Calvinists to agreement about communion

1553 Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary) begins her reign
Many protestants who flee Mary's reign are deeply impacted by exposure to a more true reformation on the continent. J
ohn Knox is among them

1558 Elizabeth is crowned, the Marian exiles return

1559 Last edition of the Institutes. The Act of Uniformity makes the 1559 Book of Common Prayer the standard in the Church of England and penalizes anyone who fails to use it. It is not reformed enough for the Puritans

1560 b. Jacobus Arminius
Parliament approves the Scot's Confession, penned by the six Johns (including Knox)

1561 d. pacifist Anabaptist leader Menno Simons

1563 The Council of Trent is finished

1564 d. John Calvin

1566 Bullinger writes The Second Helvetic Confession

1567-1568 The Vestments Controversy. Puritans did not want the ceremony and ritual symbolized by the robes of the Church of England

1571 Thirty Nine Articles are finalized

1572 d. John Knox

1572 b. John Donne, devout Anglican minister and poet

1572 Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, the worst persecution of Huguenots

1575 d. Bullinger

1582 The General Assembly in Scotland, with Andrew Melville as moderator, ratifies the "Second Book of Discipline." It has been called the Magna Carta of Presbyterianism

1593 b. George Herbert, Anglican country parson and poet

1596 b. Moses Amyrald, founder of Amyraldianism, which is basically Calvinism minus limited atonement. Amyraldianism became the theology of the School of Saumer in France

1596 b. Descartes, founder of rationalism

1598 Edict of Nantes grants Huguenots greater religious freedom

The Late Middle Ages: 1300-1500

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c.1300-c.1400 The Black Death. 1/3 of the population from India to Iceland is wiped out, including about 1/2 of Britain

1309 The beginning of the "Babylonian Captivity of the Church." For 70 years the papacy was in Avignon and under the thumb of the King of France. The papacy was pro-France, and Britain was at war with France

1316 Raymund Lull stoned to death

1330 b. John Wycliffe, the most important theologian in Oxford, the most important university in Europe. He taught that we must rely altogether on the sufferings of Christ. "Beware of seeking to be justified in any other way than by His righteousness"

1337 Beginning of the Hundred Years' War

1349 d. Thomas Bradwardine, who influenced Wycliffe to adopt Augustine's doctrine of grace and to reject the Semi-Pelagianism of the Roman Catholic church

1371 b. John Huss, Bohemian pre-reformer. He was greatly influenced by Wycliffe. He rejected indulgences and said Christ is the head of the Church, not the pope

1377 The end of the "Babylonian Captivity"

1378 The Great Schism. Pope Gregory XI moves the papacy back to Rome. France declares Clement VII pope in Avignon. There are two competing popes for close to 40 years

1380 b. Thomas a Kempis, author of Imitation of Christ

1381 The Peasant's Revolt. 30,000 angry peasants descend on London

1381 Because of his sympathy for the peasants, Wycliffe is suspected of involvement with the revolt. He is banished from Oxford. During this period, he and his followers translate the Bible from the Vulgate into English

1384 d. Wycliffe, of natural causes

1415 Council of Constance condemns Wycliffe

Council of Constance

July 6, 1415 Council of Constance burns John Huss, in violation of the Emperor's promise of safe conduct. The Emperor is told "It is not necessary to keep one's word to a heretic."

1417 The Council of Constance deposes both popes and elects a new one. This ends the Great Schism. It is a high point for Conciliarism, the idea that the councils are superior to the papacy

1428 The Catholic Church burned the bones of Wycliffe and threw them in the Swift river

1452 b. Savonarola, the great preacher. He taught the authority of scripture and understood the shortcomings of the Church

1453 End of the Hundred Years' War

1483 b. Martin Luther

1492 Erasmus ordained. Erasmus's Humanist movement was beginning to stir some members of the church to moral reform

1492 Columbus sails. Repercussions ensue

1497 b. Philip Melanchthon

1498 d. Savonarola

The High Middle Ages: 1000-1300

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1014 Pope Benedict VIII officially added filioque to the Nicene Creed. It means that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. He did this to insist on the equality of the deity. But the Eastern Church insists that the Holy Spirit came from the Father through the Son. They are offended that the West altered the Creed without an ecumenical council

1033 b. Anselm, father of scholasticism. He proposed the ontological argument for the existence of God. He argued for the necessity of the Incarnation and Redemption of Christ

1054 Pope Leo IX's delegate, Cardinal Humbert, laid a sentence of anathema on the alter of St. Sophia, the most prestigous Eastern Orthodox church. The two churches are permanently separated

1073 Pope Gregory VII excommunicated Emporor Henry IV. The high point of papal supremacy

1079 b. Peter Abelard, the Refiner of Scholasticism. He came to some heretical conclusions. For example, he believed that the death of Christ was just a moral example for us to follow. His autobiography is called A History of Calamities, in part because he was emasculated for having an affair with his young neice

1079 Under the Seljuk Turks, the Muslims are more determined than previously to keep the Christians from making pilgrimages to the Holy Land

1093 b. Bernard of Clairvaux, the most influential person of his day. He helped reform the monastaries. He was a great preacher, in spite of his allegorical exegesis. And he was Augustinian in his doctrines of grace, which later gave Calvin and the other reformers an anchor in the High Middle Ages

1096-1099 The First Crusade fought for lofty ideals. The pope wanted to save Constantinople, save the Byzantine Empire, and thus heal the breech between the Eastern and Western Church. They were able to temporarily regain the Holy Land

1100 b. Peter Lombard, scholastic author of Four Books on the Sentences, the standard theological text for 200 years. It influenced Calvin's Institutes

1109 d. Anselm

1140 b. Peter Waldo in Lyons, France. He is the founder of an old, old protestant church (300 years before Luther). The Waldensian church still exists in some parts of the world today, but in most countries it merged with the Methodists and Presbyterians. Waldensians stress the authority of scripture and lay preaching. They also come to reject salvation by sacraments

1143 d. Peter Abelard

1147-1148 The Second Crusade. Bernard of Clairvaux was the chief motivator of this crusade, but somehow his reputation survives it. It was a disastrous failure. The failure was blamed by the Westerners on the lack of committment of the Eastern Church. The wedge is driven deeper

1153 d. Bernard of Clairvaux

1174 Peter Waldo converted

1179 Two of Waldo's followers (called Waldensians) are laughed out of the Third Lateran Council after being tricked into saying that Mary was the mother of Christ. They didn't know they were agreeing with Nestorius

1181/82 b. Francis of Assisi

1184 Waldensians are declared heretical

1187 Muslims retake Jerusalem

1189-1192 The Third Crusade is an ineffective attempt to recover Jerusalem

1200-1204 The Fourth Crusade. The Crusaders finished this crusade by looting Constantinople, the seat of the Eastern Orthodox church. So much for the lofty ideals of the First Crusade

1209 Innocent III proclaims a "crusade", a papal inquisition, against the Waldensians

1212 The Children's Crusade. The children felt they could take the Holy Land supernaturally because they were pure in heart. Most of them were drowned, murdered, or sold into slavery

1215 Fourth Lateran Council requires annual communion for salvation. Also condemns the Waldensians. They are persecuted for the next 600 years. They sought refuge in the Alps, and thus were not directly involved in the Reformation of Luther until later

1216 Papal approval for the Dominicans, the Order of Preachers. Their purpose was to oppose heresy with piety, learning and zeal

1219-1221 The Fifth Crusade. The crusaders temporarily held Damietta in Egypt. Francis of Assisi went with the crusaders. But where they stopped, Francis kept going. He went unarmed into the presence of the sultan and preached to him

1224 St. Francis's Stigmata, a mystical experience of the wounds of Christ

1224/25 b. Thomas Aquinas, the chief teacher of the Catholic Church. Author of Summa Contra Gentiles, an apologetic handbook for Dominican missionaries to Jews, Muslims, and heretics in Spain, and Summa Theologica, the theological textbook that supplanted Lombard's Sentences as the chief theological work of the Middle Ages

St. Thomas Aquinas

1225 Francis writes "The Canticle of the Sun", which we know as "All Creatures of Our God and King"

1226 d. Francis

1229 The Sixth Crusade. Frederick II temporarily gained Jerusalem by making a treaty with the sultan

1232 b. Raymund Lull, first missionary to the Muslims

1248 The Seventh Crusade. St. Louis IX of France is defeated in Egypt. This was the last crusade. The final result of the crusades is that the western Christians drove a wedge between the Church and the Jews, between the Church and the Muslims, and between the Western and Eastern Church.

The Early Middle Ages: 476-1000

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480 b. Boethius, a significant thinker who influences the Middle ages. In The Consolation of Philosophy he tries to find comfort in reason and philosophy. He doesn't quote scripture

480 b. Benedict of Nursia, who wrote the normal Rule for Western monks to the present

521 b. Columba, Irish missionary to Scotland working from the isle of Iona

540 b. Columban, Irish missionary to the continent when it was struggling with a resurgence of paganism

525 d. Boethius

529 The Council of Orange approves the Augustinian doctrine of sin and grace, but without absolute predestination

540 b. Gregory the Great

550 d. Benedict of Nursia

560 b. Isidore of Seville, whose Book of Sentences was the key book of theology until the twelfth century

575 Gregory the Great becomes a monk

Pope Gregory the Great

590 Gregory the Great becomes pope. He was a very effective and popular pope during a time when the government was weak. He fed the peasants and protected farms and villages from Lombard invasion. His development of the doctrine of purgatory was instrumental in establishing the medieval Roman Catholic sacramental system

596 Gregory sends Augustine of Canterbury to convert the pagans in England. He imposed the Roman liturgy on the old British Christians

597 d. Columba, missionary to Scotland

602 Through Gregory's influence and his baptism of a Lombard King's child, the Lombards begin converting from Arianism to Orthodoxy

604 d. Gregory the Great

613 d. Augustine of Canterbury

615 d. Columban, missionary to the continent

622 Mohammed's flight from Mecca to Medina, the beginning of Islam

635 The Nestorian church did not disappear after the council of Ephesus in 431. They evangelized east. By 635 Nestorian Christianity had reached the heart of China, but it disappeared after two hundred years

636 d. Isidore of Seville

637 b. Wilfrid, British missionary to Belgium

663 Synod of Whitby reconciles the old British liturgy and the Roman liturgy

675 b. John of Damascus, an important Eastern Orthodox mystic

680 b. Boniface, who brought Anglo-Saxon Christianity to the pagans in Germany. He cut down the pagan's sacred tree and built a church out of it 8th Century Composition of Be Thou My Vision

709 d. Wilfrid

711 Islam has spread from India to North Africa. All of North Africa is under Islamic control

720 Muslims take Spain

726-787 The iconoclastic controversy. Emperor Leo III attacked the use of images. John of Damascus defended the use of icons in worship by differentiating between veneration and worship. He also argued that the use of images is an affirmation of Christ's humanity, because a real person can be depicted. The opposition responds that images of Christ are not valid depictions because they can only represent his humanity, but not his divinity

732 Europeans turn back the Muslims at the Battle of Tours

749 d. John of Damascus

754 d. Boniface

787 Council of Nicea supports the decision of John of Damascus concerning icons. This decision was not well recieved in the West because John's words for veneration and worship were difficult to translate

800 Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne head of the Holy Roman Empire (a.k.a. the Nominally Christian Germanic Kingdom). His dynasty is called the Carolingian Empire. His reign is the cultural high point of the Early Middle Ages

875-950 The Dark Ages. The Carolingian Empire was weakened and was assailed by new invaders. This period also marks the low point of the papacy

The Imperial Church: 305-476

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305 The end of the Diocletian persecution

310 b. Apollinaris, the heretic who said that Jesus had a human body but not a human mind; He had the divine mind. Gregory of Nazianzus' reply: "What has not been assumed cannot be restored"

311 b. Ulfilas

312 Constantine defeats Maxentius at the battle of Milvian Bridge and becomes Emperor of the West. Constantine had had a vision, and used the letters chi and rho (the first two letters in "Christ") as his symbol during the battle

312 Caecilian elected bishop of Carthage. He was lax toward the Traditores, who had saved themselves by handing over scriptures during the Diocletian persecution. And he seemed unenthusiastic about the martyrs. A group in Carthage rejected Caecilian's election on the grounds that he was ordained by a traditore. They elected a rival bishop named Majorinus

313 Edict of Milan gives Christians equal rights. It is issued by Constantine in the West and Licinius in the East, but Licinius soon withdraws his committment to it

314 By this date, there is a significant number of Christians in Britain

315 Majorinus dies, Donatus is his successor. This party becomes known as the Donatist party

316 The Donatists appeal to Constantine, but he rules against them. Then he outlaws them and banishes them in an effort to unite the church

324 Constantine defeats Licinius and becomes Emperor of both East and West. Constantine favored Christianity, which effects the face of the church even today

325 Council of Nicea condemns Arianism. Arius, in Alexandria, taught that Christ was the first created being, that there was a time when He was not. The council declared that Jesus was begotten, not made, and that He is Homoousios, of the same substance as the Father

328 Athanasius becomes bishop of Alexandria

328 Constantine revokes the sentence against Arius

329 b. Basil the Great of Cappadocia, the monk who created the basic Rule for the Eastern Orthodox monks that is still in use today. Basil taught communal monasticism that serves the poor, sick, and needy. One immediate effect of the disappearance of persecution is the rise of monasticism to replace the old martyr witness

335 b. Martin of Tours, a great monk who is famous for his compassion for the poor

337 d. Constantine

339 b. Ambrose the Churchman, who fought Arianism and the revival of paganism, and promoted the power of the Church.

340 d. Eusebius of Caesarea

340 Ulfilas converted to Arian Christianity. He takes it to the Germanic tribes, gives them an alphabet, and translates the Bible into their language. Most of the Germanic tribes became Arian Christians

345 b. John Chrysostom, "Golden Mouthed." He was a bold and reforming preacher, who used the Historical-grammatical method of exegesis. This was unusual, because exegetes had been looking at the allegorical interpretation ever since Clement of Alexandria and Origen

346 d. Pachomius

347 b. Jerome, the great Bible scholar and translator, author of the Vulgate

353 Emperor Constantius releases his pro-Arian campaign and drives Athanasius from Alexandria

354 b. Augustine

356 d. Anthony, at a very old age

361-363 Reign of Julian the Apostate, who converted from Christianity to paganism and restored paganism in Rome

361 Julian the Apostate removes the restrictions against the Donatists

369 b. Pelagius

367 A letter of Athanasius names the 66 books of the canon

373 d. Athanasius
379 d. Basil the Great of Cappadocia

379-395 The reign of Theodosius, who establishes Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire

381 Council of Constantinople. The Nicene position becomes dominant again, and the legal religion of the Empire. Jesus Christ is truly human, contrary to Apollinarianism, which held that Jesus had a human body but a divine mind. The Great Cappadocians are the inspiration behind the defeat of Arianism at this council. They are St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nazianzus, and St. Gregory of Nyssa

382 A council in Rome affirms the authority of the New Testament canon. It is important to remember that the content of the canon was not a conciliar decision. The church recognized, or discovered, the canon. The church did not determine the canon

383 d. Ulfilas

386 Augustine was converted in a garden in Milan after hearing a child saying "Take up and read!" He took up Romans 13: 13-14.

387 Augustine baptized by Ambrose
c.

389 b. St. Patrick. He was a British Romanized Christian who established Christianity in Ireland

390 d. Apollinaris

390 b. Leo the Great, an outstanding pope. He was influential in Chalcedon. He also argued for papal supremacy and showed political leadership in his negotiations with Attila the Hun

391 Augustine ordained a priest in Hippo, North Africa

393 The Council of Hippo recognizes the canon. To be recognized as canonical, a book had to be Apostolic, fit in with the other scriptures, and have been of fruitful use throughout the church up to that time

395 Augustine becomes bishop of Hippo

397 d. Martin of Tours

397 The Council of Carthage agrees with the Council of Hippo

398 John Chrysostom becomes bishop of Constantinople

397-401 Augustine writes Confessions

400 d. Nestorius, the heretic who said that Mary was the bearer of Christ (christokos), but not the bearer of God (theotokos). He could not call a three month old Jesus God. So he said that Jesus Christ was two persons, whose only union was a moral one

407 d. Chrysostom

410 The Fall of Rome to Alaric and the Visigoths

411-430 Augustine's Anti-Pelagian writing. Pelagius rejected the idea that we all fell in Adam (Federal Headship), original sin, and the sin nature. We could earn our salvation by works, so grace is not necessary.Augustine insisted that we all sinned in Adam, and spiritual death, guilt, and our diseased nature is the result. God's grace is necessary not only to be able to choose to obey God's commands, but to be able to choose to turn to God initially for salvation.

413-426 Augustine writes The City of God. Some people blamed the fall of Rome on the Christians, saying it happened because Rome abandoned paganism. This is Augustine's response, along with many diversions.

418 The Council of Carthage anathematized the teachings of Pelagius.

420 d. Jerome

420 d. Pelagius

429 Arian Vandals cross into Africa. After this, Western Emperors became puppets of Germanic generals

430 d. Augustine

431 Council of Ephesus. Jesus Christ is one person, contrary to Nestorianism, which held that Christ was two persons, one divine and one human

448 Leo writes an epistle to Flavian, The Tome of Leo, to encourage him. It encapsulates the Christology of the church, drawing from Augustine and Tertullian

449 The Latrocinium (Robber's) Council. Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria, presided. This Council declared Eutychianism, which held that Christ had only one nature, to be orthodox. According to this heresy, His humanity was not like ours. This would make redemption impossible. The council deposed Flavian, the orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople

451 Council of Chalcedon. Eutychianism is condemned, Dioscorus is deposed, The Tome of Leo is confirmed. Jesus Christ is "two natures, the Divine of the same substance as the Father (against Arianism), the human of the same substance as us (against Eutychianism), which are united unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably(against Nestorianism)." The church remains divided over these issues for the next 200 years
c. 461 d. St. Patrick

461 d. Leo the Great

476 The last Emperor, Romulus Augustulus, is deposed by Odoacer, a German general

The Early Church in the Third Century: 220-305

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225 d. Tertullian

245 Conversion of Cyprian

247 Cyprian becomes Bishop of Carthage

249-251 The reign of Decius. He ordered everyone in the empire to burn incense to him. Those who complied were issued a certificate. Those who did not have a certificate were persecuted. Many Christians bought forged certificates, causing a great controversy in the church
Cyprian went into hiding during the persecution and ruled the church by letters

251 b. Anthony. One of the earliest monks. He sold all his posessions and moved to the desert. Athanasius later wrote his biography

254 d. Origen
The Novatian schism develops concerning the treatment of the lapsed. (The Novatians, or Cathari, last until about 600. Read the Catholic view of the schism.) Cyprian refuses to accept the validity of baptism by schismatic priests. The church in Rome is critical of Cyprian's view, and sends him scathing letters. Carthaginian Councils

258 Cyprian is martyred before the issue is settled

263 b. Eusebius of Caesarea. He was the first church historian. Many works of the early church survive only as fragments in Eusebius's writing

284 The beginning of the Diocletian persecution

Diocletian's Palace

286 b. Pachomius, Egyptian pioneer of cenobitic (communal rather than solitary) monasticism

297/300 b. Athanasius, the defender of Orthodoxy during the Arian controversy of the fourth century.

The Early Church in the Period of the Apologists: 120-220

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130 d. Papias

130 Conversion of Justin Martyr. Justin loved philosophy, and had studied many philosophies and pagan religions in his search for truth. He was an apologist, and taught that the seeds of truth (logos) could be found in all religions, but that only Christianity taught the whole truth

144 Marcion excommunicated for rejecting the Old Testament, rejecting most of the New Testament, and teaching that Christ only appeared to be human (Docetism). His challenge helps the church realize the necessity of formally recognizing the canon

150 b. Clement of Alexandria. He was an apologist who used Plato to support Christianity, and tried to reach gnostics by showing that only the Christian had real "gnosis." He helped establish the allegorical method of interpreting scripture. His works make up a large proportion of The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. II

155 Polycarp was martyred in Smyrna by being burned to death. Polycarp declared, "Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?" The only known writings to survive are parts of letters he wrote to the Philippians

156 Possibly the beginning of the Montanist movement. They were an aescetic movement with apocalyptic visions. They claimed the Spirit spoke directly through their prophets and prophetesses

160 b. Tertullian. He objected to Justin's use of philosophy to defend Christianity, saying "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?." Late in life he became a Montanist and wrote Against Praxeas, which helped the church understand the Trinity

161 Marcus Aurelius becomes emperor. He abandoned Trajan's passive approach and actively sought Christians to persecute them throughout the empire

***Marcus Aurelius***
165 Justin is martyred

180 The end of Aurelius's reign

185 b. Origen. Pupil of Clement of Alexandria, he further develops the allegorical method. This and his desire to relate to the Neoplatonists in Alexandria led him away from orthodoxy in some matters. But he is still important to the church. On First Principles is the first systematic theology

202 Septimus Severus tries to unite the empire under one religion, the worship of the Unconquered Sun. Both Jews and Christians refuse and are vehemently persecuted

202 Irenaeus is martyred(?)

202 Clement of Alexandria flees to Syria until his death in 215

216 b. Mani, founder of Manichaeism. He fused Persian, Christian, and Buddhist elements into a major new heresy

The Early Church in the Apostolic Period: 35-120

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35 b. Ignatius. His letters to churches and to Polycarp are widely quoted in the early church

51 The Jewish persecution of Christians in Rome becomes so disruptive that the Jews are expelled from the city

60 b. Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor. "He was a man of long ago and the disciple of one 'John' and a companion of Polycarp," according to Irenaeus

64 Emperor Nero blames the fire that destroys much of Rome on the Christians. He persecutes the church ruthlessly, and uses Christians as candles to light his garden. It is likely that both Peter and Paul were executed during this persecution

68 The end of Nero's reign

69 b. Polycarp, in Smyrna. He was a strong defender of the faith in Asia Minor combating the Marcionites and the Valentinians. Irenaeus reported that Polycarp had communication with John the Apostle and 'others who had seen the Lord'

81 Domitian becomes Emperor. As Emperor, he persecuted both Jews and Christians

96 The end of Domitian's reign

96 d. Clement of Rome. He wrote influential epistles to Corinth

98 Trajan becomes Emperor. Trajan eventually instituted a policy toward Christians that staid in effect until the time of Aurelius. His policy was not to seek Christians out, but if they were brought before the authorities they were to be punished, usually executed, for being Christians
By the end of the first century it is possible to document congregations in almost every city that Paul visited on his three missionary journeys. There are also a few churches in Egypt and along the coast of Northern Africa

107 Ignatius led to Rome and martyred

115 b. Ireneaus, the first great Catholic theologian and author of Against Heresies, a treatise against the gnostics