Contents -- Christian Histories:
     1. Christian Roots
     2. Christ and the Apostles
     3. Christianity up to the Fall of Rome
     4. The Dark Ages
     5. The Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation
     6. Christianity in America

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Christianity's roots can be traced back to the first of God's "chosen people,"  Adam and Eve.  Problems between God and humans also can be traced back to Adam and Eve.  The "original sin," which troubles humans even to this day, was first committed by Adam and Eve when they succumbed to temptation and disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit.^2a  They were punished for their disobedience by being cast out of the Garden of Eden and losing their immortality.^2b

The next generation also had its problems.  Adam and Eve's first two sons, Cain and Abel, had a falling out.  Both Cain Abel made sacrifices to God using the fruits of their labors.  However, because Cain's offerings were not as specified by God, Abel found greater favor in the eyes of the Lord.  Cain became jealous and slew Abel.^2c  God placed a curse on Cain and he was banished from the land.^2d

The descendents of Adam and Eve multiplied and spread for many generations.  By Noah's time there were great numbers.  However, so many were living in ways which grieved God that He sent a flood to cleanse the earth, sparing only Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives.^2e

After the flood, the descendents of Noah multiplied and spread for many generations.  One descendent was Terah, who lived in Ur of the Chaldeans, a city on the Euphrates River not far from where it joins the Tigris River.  He was the father of Abram.  Another son of Terah died in Ur leaving a son, Lot.  Terah took Abram and his wife, as well as Lot, to Haran of the Paddan-Aram, a city far to the northwest in the Euphrates watershed.^2f

Abram was told by God to go to a new land.  Taking his wife, his nephew, Lot, "all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran," Abram set out for the land of Canaan.  There the Lord said to Abram, "To your offspring I will give this land."  Because of a famine, Abram and his family went to live in Egypt for awhile, returning later to Canaan.  After they returned to Canaan they became wealthy in livestock as well as silver and gold.^2g

As their flocks and families grew, Abram and Lot parted, with Lot going to the plain along the River Jordan and Abram eventually to the west at Hebron.  God made a covenant with Abram which changed his name to Abraham, his wife's name to Sarah, and promised Abraham, "The whole land of Canaan."  Although both were aged with no children, the covenant also promised them a son and that Abraham, through his descendants, would be "a father of many nations."  The sign of the covenant was that every male in Abraham's household, as well as their descendants, were to be circumcised.  Abraham had two sons.  By Hagar he had Ishmael, who was to become the father of the Arab tribes.  By Sarah he had Isaac, from whom the Israelites ("Jews") were to be descended.^2h

The descendants of Abraham (through Isaac) included Jacob, whom God renamed Israel, and renewed with him the same covenant made with Abraham.²ⁱ  Jacob/Israel had 12 sons, including Joseph, who had the gift of interpreting dreams as well as a young man's penchant for boasting.  Joseph's brothers were jealous of him and sold him as a slave, telling their father that Joseph had been killed by a ferocious animal.  Joseph was taken to Egypt where he prospered.^2j

Then a great famine struck all the lands of the region.  Because Egypt had stored up against the famine in accordance with Joseph's interpretations of Pharaoh's dreams, Joseph's father and all his brothers eventually moved to Egypt where there was food.^2k  The Israelites stayed in Egypt even after Joseph and all his brothers died, a fruitful people who became exceedingly numerous.  In time the Egyptians became fearful of the Israelite numbers and began to enslave them.  Finally the Pharaoh even ordered that all male children were to be killed.^2l

When Moses was born, his mother hid him in a basket among the reeds along the Nile where he was discovered by Pharaoh's daughter.  Moses was raised by Pharaoh's daughter as her own son.^2m  When Moses was grown he became troubled by the way the Israelites were treated, even killing an abusive Egyptian overseer.  This angered Pharaoh and Moses fled to Midian.²ⁿ

After Moses had lived at Midian for many years, God appeared to him in a burning bush on the mountain Horeb (the mountain of God).^2o  God told Moses that he had been chosen to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and that He would send plagues to convince Pharaoh to let them go.  After sending plagues of blood, frogs, gnats, flies, death to the Egyptian livestock, boils, hail, locusts and darkness, God finally sent death to all the Egyptian firstborn.  Pharaoh was at last convinced and let the Israelites leave.^2p

During the Exodus and subsequent 40 years of wandering before reaching the promised land, God did many miracles for the Israelites, including parting the Red Sea, sending manna and giving them the Ten Commandments (as part of "The Testimony," which included additional laws given at the same time as the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai).^2q  After Moses died, Joshua took on his mantle of responsibility and led the Israelites across the River Jordan.^2r

After Joshua died the Israelites were plagued by various raiders and God raised up judges to lead them.^2s  Later the Israelites wanted a king like their neighbors and Samuel anointed Saul.^2t  In time Saul displeased God and David was anointed.  After Saul's death and years of fighting with one of Saul's sons, David became king of all Israel.^2u

Although Israel prospered under David and his son, Solomon, succeeding kings began to turn away from God and eventually angered Him so much that He used Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to punish Israel.  The Israelites were carried off to Babylon where they were held for 70 years.^2v  Even after the captivity, times were troubled for the descendents of Abraham. By the time Jesus was born, even though local kings still sat on their thrones, the whole region was under the control of the Roman Empire. Go Back to Contents List

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The Persian Empire succeeded the Babylonian Empire.  Persia was never able to conquer all of the Greek states.  Philip of Macedonia, a Hellenistic (classical Greek) state north of Greece proper, began subduing his Greek neighbors and pushing the Persians back.  His son, Alexander the Great (332-323 BC), continued the wars his father started and eventually conquered the Persians as well as the Babylonians, Egyptians and many other kingdoms of the eastern Mediterranean.  In the lands he conquered, Alexander put Greek monarchs on the local thrones.  Cleopatra of Egypt was actually Greek by heritage.  She was the descendent of the Hellenistic Pharaoh Alexander had put on the Egyptian throne.

The conquests of Alexander had the effect of exposing almost the entire Mediterranean basin (as well as the area east of it to the borders of India) to Greek culture and, more importantly, to the Greek language.  Thus most educated people in the region read Greek, regardless of their family tongue, and were at least partially familiar with Greek thought and customs.

The Roman Empire arose as the Hellenistic Greek sphere of influence was declining and was the heir to much of the Greek culture and learning.  Roman authority extended over most of the civilized western world, controlling all the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea and included even much of the British Isles.  The empire's influence gave the areas controlled by Rome greater political stability than previously known up to that time.

The Romans were great sailors, inheriting the skill from their predecessors, the Phoenicians and the Greeks.  The Romans were also famous for their road building abilities.  This greatly enhanced the ease of travel for the people of that time.  In addition, Hellenistic Greek was the most widely used language, especially in the eastern part of the empire.  Classical Greek was a very precise language which enabled writers to explicitly express themselves (English is a much less precise language, making translating Greek to English a somewhat subjective art).

The people of Israelite heritage ("Jews") shared in this general atmosphere.  Their Old Testament Scriptures were available in Greek centuries before the time of Jesus, and hence the earliest documents of the Christian movement were composed in that language.

In the "fullness of time"^2w Jesus, was born at Bethlehem in the kingdom of Judea (previously the kingdom of Judah).  Although there were several other provinces or kingdoms (at one time there were 12) inhabited by the descendents of Israel who reached the "promised land" after Moses led them out of Egypt, only those living in Judea and the Galilee were properly referred to as "Jews."  Those living in Samaria were called Samaritans; residents of Philistia were Philistines; etc.

Although the residents of Judea and the Galilee got along well with each other, the Jews, Samaritans and Philistines detested each other.  However, at the time Jesus was born, all of the area was part of the Roman Empire with King Herod the Great as the local monarch.  That arrangement didn't much please most of the local inhabitants and they longed for the day when their own particular section would again be independent.  It was not to happen for nearly 2000 years.

Jesus came on the scene during a unique time when there was relative political stability, ease of travel and a common language which was very precise.  This exceptional period met the criteria described by the phrase, "in the fullness of time."

In the 500's AD, the monk Dionysius Exiguus introduced the present custom of reckoning time by counting the years from the birth of Christ Jesus.  However, Dionysius miscalculated the birth year by four to six years later than the actual date.

God's Son was born between 8 and 4 BC to the Virgin Mary.^2x  He was crucified about 29 AD.  Soon after Jesus was born, Herod the Great died.  As a child and young man, Jesus lived in Nazareth and He followed the carpenter's trade.  His lifetime was a period of distress in the promised land, which was then under the rule of Herod's three worldly sons and oppressive Roman procurators.

Little is known about Jesus' life before the time of John the Baptist.  The birth of Jesus is implicitly correlated with the birth of John the Baptist , as well as several political figures, Herod the Great, king of Judea, Caesar Augustus and Quirinius, governor of Syria.  Herod's death (in 4 BC) may be a year or two after Jesus' birth if His public ministry began when He was "about thirty."^2y

After Jesus' birth, Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt to escape Herod's attempts to have Him killed.  They returned to Israel after Herod died.  There is no information about Jesus' youth except the story of Jesus in the Temple.^2z

At about age 30, when it was time for Jesus to start His ministry, He left Nazareth in the Galilee and traveled to the banks of the River Jordan in Judea.  There Jesus was baptized by his cousin, John the Baptist, at which time the "Spirit of God" descended on Jesus.  The Spirit led Jesus into the desert where He fasted for forty days and forty nights and was tempted in vain by Satan.  Jesus returned to Galilee and began calling those who were to become his apostles.^2aa

The beginnings of Jesus' public ministry are obscure.  The message of John the Baptist was a call to the people of God to repent.  John is understood as a forerunner to Jesus.  In his early ministry Jesus also called the people of God to repent, that is, to turn (return) from their erring ways to God.  While the message is addressed to the Jewish nation as a whole by both John and Jesus, those individuals who heeded the call remained at first a group within Judaism and no doubt continued to mix for some time with other Jews.^2ac

Christ's disciples were called by Him during his lifetime to share His teaching and healing ministry.  He chose 12 of His disciples to be apostles.  To the apostles He gave the power to cast out demons and to heal people.  Jesus, unlike the rabbis, had women disciples and women exercised leadership in many early Christian congregations.^2ad

Christ Jesus is the anointed king or Messiah of Jewish prophecy.^2ae  Some Jews of Biblical times believed that the Messiah would come as a military leader who would free them from their oppressors.  Others thought that the Messiah was to be a supernatural being, sent by God to destroy and recreate the earth, purging it of evil.  These concepts were ultimately used to help condemn Jesus before the Roman authorities.^2af

After Jesus gathered His twelve, He started preaching in Galilee.  He was received with enthusiasm by common people because of His charismatic personality, extraordinary healing powers, effective teaching by parables and authoritative presence.^2ag  He was strongly opposed by the Pharisees and the privileged classes because of His attacks on hypocrisy, as well as His interest in the poor and less fortunate.^2ah

As Jesus traveled and spread the word, He also did many miracles, including turning water into wine, healing the sick and raising the dead.  Doing miracles helped to establish that He was the Messiah, the Christ, and that His message came from God.  However, when confronted with the demand to work miracles as a sign or for selfish or frivolous reasons, Jesus refused, maintaining that God is to be worshiped, not used.^2ai

As the word of Christ's amazing acts, teachings and wisdom spread, great throngs gathered to hear Him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute as well as many others who were afflicted, and Jesus healed them.  However, Jesus did not want to acquire disciples simply because He did miracles or fed the multitudes with only a few loaves or a few fish.  He also made it clear that they had to repent and give their lives to God.  Not all who heard Jesus could make the commitment required of them to receive life in heaven.^2aj

Eventually Jesus returned to Judea and finally arrived at Jerusalem.  The fact that Jesus was regarded by some as a long-expected Messiah made the local rulers suspect revolutionary aims.  To the Jewish leaders, Christ's teaching represented a challenge to their established "Law," and the "messianic" elements, though hardly punishable (Jews did not persecute their errant religious teachers), were clearly dangerous to the established hierarchy in first-century Israel.  No doubt the political authorities misunderstood Jesus' teaching about the Kingdom and felt threatened by His popularity.  Shortly after He drove the money changers out of the Temple at Jerusalem, which aroused hostility from the priestly class, Jesus was seized by Roman soldiers.^2ak

After being sent to the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate, and then by him to Herod Antipas (the tetrarch of Galilee, who had ordered the beheading of John the Baptist), who sent Jesus back to Pilate, Jesus was subsequently turned over to the Jewish authorities, who had already decided to get rid of Him.  With charges based on exaggerated accusations and hearsay evidence, they were able to get Jesus condemned to death as a blasphemer.^2al

Jesus was crucified between two thieves on Golgotha (sometimes referred to as Calvary) and was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.  Remarkably, Matthew, Mark and Luke each recorded a simultaneous event which occurred some distance from Calvary.  They wrote that as Jesus died, "the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom" (Mark. 15:38). This miraculous event signaled the end of the Old Testament era of animal sacrifice and limited access to God.  It also verified Jesus' death, because it demonstrated that His complete sacrifice had satisfied God's demands.^2am

The veil had separated the "Holy of Holies" section of the temple, which could only be entered by designated priests, from the Main Hall or Holy Area, which could be entered by any Jewish man.  For centuries, God had required the death of an unblemished lamb as an atonement for sin.  Now Jesus, the sinless Lamb of God, had become the new sacrifice.  The veil was no longer needed, for access to God had been opened to all who would believe in Christ.^2an

On the third day Jesus arose from the grave.  Mary Magdalene had been standing outside the empty tomb crying because, as she said, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him."  However, when the resurrected Jesus called out, "Mary!" she rushed to Him in joy and relief.  Then she ran to tell the disciples that she had seen the Lord.^2ao  Christ's resurrection proves that His promises are true.^2ap

Although the apostles had heard and closely followed Jesus' teaching for three years, they just never fully understood that He was going to rise from the dead.  Sure, they missed Jesus and longed to see Him, but they did not expect that they ever would.^2aq  Yet see Him they did!  First at the tomb.  Then on the dusty Emmaus road.  Then in the upper room.  Over and over, in different settings, Jesus appeared to His friends and as many as 500 others.  For 40 days He made His presence known throughout the land.^2ar

It was during this time that Jesus emphasized that the apostles were to continue His work.  "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation," Jesus told then in Mark 16:15.  In Matthew 28:16-20, Jesus instructed, "(as you are going) make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."  Then in John 21:16 Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep."

The final appearance of Jesus to His disciples ended with His ascension to heaven.  As He stood talking with them about the command He had just given them to be His witnesses, "He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight" (Acts 1:9-12).  This turned out to be a commencement of sorts for the disciples.  Just a few weeks earlier, they had been a disheartened group whose leader was dead.  Now they were enthusiastic evangelists.  They "returned to Jerusalem with great joy" (Luke. 24:52), and "they went out and preached everywhere" (Mark. 16:20).

Jesus later appeared in visions to others.  He appeared to Paul (then called Saul) on the road to Damascus.  Paul, employed by the Jewish Sanhedrin, was zealously persecuting Christians, "even to death."  He was instrumental in the arrest and stoning of Stephen, the first recorded Christian martyr.  Paul was on his way to Damascus to further persecute Christians when the Lord appeared in a vision and struck him blind.  Jesus also appeared to the disciple Ananias in Damascus, who gave Paul the message that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit and see again.^2as

Paul's conversion is one of the most dramatic on record and he became one of the most ardent of the apostles.  After Paul became a follower of Christ, he suffered beatings, imprisonments and was ostracized by his former colleagues who sought to kill him.  Regardless, Paul never wavered from the path Jesus had set for him.  He traveled far and wide carrying the Word to many lands and writing at least 12 of the New Testament Books.

While He lived, Christ made many disciples who then spread His teachings by word of mouth.  At first the disciples shared the Word with other Jews, sometime speaking in the temple or synagogues.  When the Jewish religious leaders became uncomfortable with the message the disciples were bringing, the new Christians started meeting in their homes and establishing their own churches.

Disciples (followers of Christ) dispersed and converted additional disciples.  Small groups of disciples, who became known as "Christians," formed even outside the land of Israel.  At the time of his conversion, several years after Christ's crucifixion, Paul met with disciples in Damascus.^2at  The apostles and other disciples followed Christ's command, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation (Mark 16:15)."  Of the apostles, Peter and Paul (and possibly John) traveled as far as Rome.

One incentive for the disciples to dispersed was to avoid persecution.  Christians did not respond to persecution like members of other groups or causes.  The persecutors of Christians had previously been able to suppress or stamp out dissident movements by capturing (and often executing) their leader(s), and forcing the members to disperse or disband out of fear.  However, when the Christians dispersed they took Christ's teachings with them and converted more believers to Christianity wherever they went.  Dispersing the Christians was like sowing ready-to-germinate-seed widely over fertile ground.

It was during this time that the disciples, primarily the apostles, wrote the New Testament Books.  One very important non-apostle writer was Luke.  An educated man, Luke was a physician who decided to "carefully investigate everything from the beginning," about the story of Christ.  Luke's Gospel is considered by many to be the most factually comprehensive.  There is some indication that Luke was not a believer when he first started his "investigations," but soon became convinced that Jesus was the Christ by the overwhelming evidence he found.

Many of the NT Books are letters written to new churches, in what is present day Turkey and Greece, instructing them on how to handle problems which had arisen.  Some of the NT Books were letters from one disciple to other disciples with instructions or encouragements, sometimes sharing their experiences as disciples.

At the time of Christ the Roman Empire was tolerant of many established religions.  At first the Christian movement was viewed as a sect of the Jewish religion.  However, the Jewish priests and elders were disturbed by the message of Jesus as the Messiah and commanded those speaking in Christ's name to cease.  But even when threatened, the apostles and other disciples continued to speak.^2au  When the apostles continued to do miracles, the Jewish leaders became jealous and ordered them arrested.  Eventually, even the Roman officials came to view Christians as a cult and actively persecuted them.

All but one of the apostles died violent deaths, mostly at the hands of Roman officials.  Only John survived to advanced years, living his last at Ephesus, around the year 100 AD.  Ironically, James, John's brother, was the first of the apostles to die.  Tradition says the Peter was hanged upside down on a cross outside of Rome.  Mark was dragged through the streets to his death.  James was beheaded.  Thomas was pierced with a lance.  History says that these men suffered horrible deaths, willing to die for the One who overcame death for all those who would accept Him as his or her Savior. Go Back to Contents List

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Following the example set by Jesus, as well as his command to spread the word, the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people.  More and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.  As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.  Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed. (Acts 5:12-16)  Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. (Acts 5:42)

Sometimes political pressure "encouraged" carrying the word to other regions: On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. (Acts 8:1)

The Book of Acts describes many journeys by the apostles and new disciples to dozens of cities in the regions of the eastern Mediterranean and as far west as Rome itself. (Acts 9:32 through 28:14)  Everywhere the apostles went, locals were converted to Christianity and new congregations were established.  Many important early churches were started in what is now Asia Minor and Greece.

Epistles or letters, which became books of the New Testament, were written to the Christian congregations at Rome, Corinth, Philippi, Colossae, Thessalonica, Ephesus (including the two letters to Timothy while he served there), collectively to several churches in the Roman province of Galatia, as well as Titus on Crete.  First Peter was an open letter written to the many congregations "scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia (a Roman province in what is now western Turkey) and Bithynia.  Seven prominent churches in cities of the Roman province of Asia get special mention in the Book of Revelations: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea (Revelations 1:9)

New Testament books from Acts to Jude, as well as selected verses from Revelations, tell a continuing story of the apostles establishing and nurturing widely scattered congregations.  The writings of the apostles, as well as the writings of those who took on the church responsibilities of the apostles when they passed from the scene, reveal an amazing explosion of congregations springing up throughout the Roman Empire and beyond.

Before he died, the apostle John ordained Polycarp (69 to 155 AD), a Greek disciple, as the bishop of Smyrna (today known as Izmir), a city on the west coast of present day Turkey (then a region strongly Greek culturally).  The letters to the "seven churches in Asia" at the beginning of the book of Revelation, include a letter to the church in Smyrna, identifying it as a church undergoing persecution.

In his time Polycarp was the mainstay of Christianity in Asia Minor and linked the apostles with such second century Christian expositors as Irenaeus, who later became Bishop of Lyons in what is now France.  As an early church leader, Polycarp was a very dedicated student of the Pauline Epistles and The Gospel of John.  Polycarp maintained that each church was independent of any outside human authority.  He never referred to the ministers as priests and had very little to say about sacraments or ritual.  He was a close friend of Ignatius of Antioch.  As an old man, Polycarp went to Rome to discuss the problem of dating Easter.

As a very old man he was arrested, tried, condemned and died a martyr in Smyrna.  When asked to renounce his faith in Christ, Polycarp replied, "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?"  According to Pionius, Polycarp was burned alive, and when the flames refused to consume him, a soldier stabbed Polycarp to death by order of the magistrate and his body was later burned.  His one surviving work is the Epistle to the Philippians.

Justin Martyr was born around 100 AD at Flavia Neapolis in Samaria of pagan Greek parents.  He studied various schools of philosophy in Alexandria and Ephesus, joining himself first to Stoicism, then Pythagoreanism, then Platonism, looking for answers to his questions.  While at Ephesus, he was impressed by the steadfastness of the Christian martyrs, and by the personality of an aged Christian man whom he met by chance while walking on the seashore.  This man spoke to him about Jesus as the fulfillment of the promises made through the Jewish prophets.  Justin was overwhelmed. "Straightway a flame was kindled in my "revealed his soul," Justin writes, "and a love of the prophets and those who are friends of Christ possessed me."

Justin became a Christian, but he continued to wear the cloak which was the characteristic uniform of the professional teacher of philosophy.  His position was that pagan philosophy, especially Platonism, is not simply wrong, but is a partial grasp of the truth, and serves as "a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ."  He engaged in debates and disputations with non-Christians of all varieties; pagans, Jews and heretics.  Justin opened a school of Christian philosophy and accepted students, first at Ephesus and then later at Rome.  There he engaged the Cynic philosopher Crescens in debate, and soon after was arrested on the charge of practicing an unauthorized religion.  It is suggested that Crescens lost the debate and denounced Justin to the authorities out of spite.  He was tried before the Roman prefect Rusticus, refused to renounce Christianity, and was put to death by beheading along with six of his students, one of them a woman.

Irenaeus, circa 125-202, was a Greek theologian and Bishop of Lyons.  Born in Asia Minor, he was a disciple of Polycarp.  Irenaeus went to Rome to plead for leniency toward the Montanists and for those Eastern Christians who were threatened with excommunication because they did not observe the Roman date for Easter.  He remained in the West and died in Gaul.  He was the earliest "Father of the Church" to systematize Christian doctrine and is cited frequently by later theologians.  Only two of his works survive, neither in the original Greek.  Against Heresies establishes Christian doctrine against the Gnostics and also supplies much information on Gnosticism.  Irenaeus claimed that "every church must agree" with the church of Rome because of its apostolic authority.

According to Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus, there are three orders to the organization and leadership of the Church (sometimes known as ecclesiastical order or hierarchy): episcopos or bishops, presbyteros or elders, commonly translated "priests," and diaconos or deacons.  Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, distinguishes the shepherding role of the episcopos or bishop.  Peter, as demonstrated in the biblical portrait of him, exercised a leadership role first among the other apostles and early Christians, and then later in Rome before his martyrdom there in 67 or 68 AD.

Although Polycarp held that each church was independent, the successors to the apostle Peter (as Bishop of Rome), established a hierarchy which evolved into the Roman Catholic Church.  Eventually both the Church at Rome and the Church at Constantinople began to extend their authority over other churches in their regions and managed to annex many of them.

Paul, in 1 Corinthians 4:15, wrote "I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel."  The faithful of the Church at Rome have always called their ordered leadership "father."  In Greek, the language of the early Church, the word for father was pappas; in Latin, the language of the later Church, the word for father was papa.  By the 300's, bishops were sometimes called "pope" a corruption of the Latin word for father.  By the 700's the title for affection and respect for the Bishop of Rome exclusively was Pope.

Linus succeeded the apostle Peter as Bishop of Rome.  Very little is known of this man, except that he was ordained by Peter and had helped give solace to the apostle Paul in his last lonely days.  He served as head of the Church at Rome for about ten years and was succeeded by Cletus.

Next came Clement I. (Bishop of Rome 92-101 AD), the third successor to the apostle Peter as Bishop of Rome.  Clement knew and had worshipped with the apostles Peter and Paul.  Some think he is the Clement who collaborated with Paul and is mentioned in Paul's Epistle to the Philippians (Philippians 4:3).  According to Tertullian, it was apostle Peter who ordained Clement as presbyter and then bishop for the Church at Rome.  Clement wrote arguing that church leaders possess a divine authority inherited from Christ and his apostles.  He is said to have died a martyr's death in exile around the year 100 at the order of the Emperor Trajan.  His crimes allegedly related to his preaching and miracles which converted thousands, including hundreds of high rank.  Records indicate he was thrown into the Black Sea with an iron anchor.

Roman Emperors, beginning with Nero, were threatened by the rapid expansion of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire.  For this reason, Christians often became victims of urban riots and were made scapegoats for disasters and local troubles, as was the case of Nero's persecution of Christians and blaming them for the great fire of Rome in 64 AD.

Early persecution of Christians by Roman officials is explicit in the records of Pliny the Younger, governor of Pontus and Bithynia from 111-113 AD.  He wrote to the Emperor Trajan about suspected Christians.  "Those who confessed I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed.  For I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy surely deserve to be punished."

Gaius Messuis Quintus Decius (201-251) defeated and killed Emperor Philip near Verona in northern Italy during September of 249.  Soon after, the Senate named Decius emperor and granted him the title of Trajunus.

Because of the political instability, military and economic crisis, as well as in an effort to unite the Empire against the threat of invasions, Decius commanded that all citizens of the empire demonstrate their loyalty to the state gods and his divine reign through public sacrifice.  A citizen's refusal was regarded as a threat to the religious unity of the Roman Empire and a denial of the general goodwill to the sovereign.  Consequently, any citizen who refused to perform the sacrifices was subject to arrest, imprisonment and execution.

Decius' enforcement of the edict initiated the first general persecution of Christians in the empire's history.  Previous to Decius' time, Christian persecutions had been spontaneous and local.  By the time of Decius, the Christian community was no longer a small association of uneducated lower class citizens, but had become a cross-section of Roman society, including members on all levels of the social scale.  Because of this, Christianity posed a much greater threat than in earlier years.

Decius' persecutions had a devastating impact on the Christian community.  Many Christians recanted their faith and performed the sacrifices, others purchased false certificates to evade persecution, and many others fled.  Those who refused to perform the sacrifices were imprisoned, tortured and executed, including the bishops Fabian of Rome, Babylos of Antioch and Alexander of Jerusalem.

As Christian persecution increased, a crisis on the Danubian frontier (the border area along the Danube River) in 250 AD distracted Decius from his efforts to end the Christian religion.  In late AD 250, Decius followed his son Herennuis' campaign to the front and led an attack against the Goths and defeated Kniva, the king of the Goths, but Decius' army was severely checked.  Soon after, Decius suffered a major defeat at Beroea and was forced to flee for safety.  By early spring of 251, because of Decius' military diversion at the Danubian front, Christian persecution abated and had ended in Carthage as well as Rome.  The faithful Christians readmitted the apostates and restored steadfast faith and zeal to the entire Christian community.  In midsummer of AD 251, during an attack against the Goths, Decius was defeated and killed.  His successors, Trebonianus Gallus and Valerian, continued his persecution of Christians, but never reached the same level of general persecutions as under Decius.

In the nineteenth year of the reign of Diocletian, royal edicts were published everywhere, commanding: "the churches be leveled to the ground and the Scriptures be destroyed by fire, and ordering that those who held places of honor be degraded, and that the household servants, if they persisted in the profession of Christianity, be deprived of freedom."  Not long after, other decrees were issued, commanding: "that all the rulers of the churches in every place be first thrown into prison, and afterwards by every artifice be compelled to sacrifices."  A great many rulers of the churches readily endured terrible sufferings and furnished examples of noble conflicts.  But a multitude of others, benumbed in spirit by fear, were easily weakened at the first onset.

An early Christian thinker of the late second century and early third century AD was Clement of Alexandria (Flavius Clemens). He was believed to have been born in Athens around 150 AD and brought up on Platonic philosophy and then converted to Christianity.  The School of Alexandria had been founded in Egypt around 150 AD, and quickly became a major center for both Christian theology and Greek philosophy.  Theologians Clement and Origen (c. 185 - 254) were among its prominent teachers.

Clement traveled throughout the Roman Empire until he arrived in Alexandria and met his mentor-to-be, Pantaenus.  After Pantaenus died, Clement dedicated his life to defending and supporting Christian doctrine through a controversial combination of Scripture and philosophy.  He is regarded as the first person to bring theology and philosophy together.

In his works, Clement denounces the pagan religions and mystery religions as immoral and irrational.  His works also gave moral instruction to the pagans of Alexandria and he held that the true Christian combines faith and knowledge through belief in Jesus Christ and the study of Scripture.

Clement stressed dedication to training and education.  His works are clearly influenced by Greek philosophies such as Platonism and Stoicism.  Clement wrote in a time when religions had become mixed together as one and philosophies fought for supremacy.  His devotion to the Christian faith and his adherence to Greek philosophy made Clement one of the most respected and controversial thinkers of his day.  He was the first known major Christian writer to assert that the gods of other religions were really demons.  This teaching contradicted the general belief in the Roman Empire that the gods of all religions and nations were universal, that they differed only in their names and certain minor characteristics.

The New Testament and most Christian Beliefs weren't codified until after the conversion of Constantine.  Because of the confusing and conflicting variety of teachings, Constantine started the system of Church Councils which eventually lead to the "standardization" of Christianity.  It was during these Councils that decisions were made regarding which scripture was "Canon" and which beliefs were true (as well as which were false).  This process took several hundred years.

Constantine became the emperor of Rome in 306 AD.  His conversion to Christianity had far reaching effects on the common practice of the religion and on all the factions of Christianity.  His conversion happened during a war against his brother-in-law and co-emperor, Maxentius.  According to the historian Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, before the crucial battle of Milvian Bridge, Constantine was convinced that he needed divine assistance.  While he was praying for such assistance, God sent him a vision of a cross of light at midday, bearing the inscription "in hoc signo vinces" ("in this sign you will be victorious").

That night he had a dream which reaffirmed his earlier vision.  God told him to use the sign he had been given as a safeguard in all of his battles.  Constantine ordered the symbol of his Savior's name (the intersection of the Greek letter chi and rho) to represent his army.  Constantine was victorious in the battle of the Milvian Bridge, and he continued to wear the symbol for Christ against every hostile power he faced.

His conversion helped Christianity in many ways.  Followers were safe from persecution, and Christian leaders were given many gifts by the Emperor.  Constantine's adherence to Christianity ensured exposure of all his subjects to the religion.  He also made Sunday an official Roman holiday so that more people could attend church, and made churches tax-exempt.

However, many of the same factors which helped Christianity spread, detracted from its personal significance and promoted corruption as well as hypocrisy.  Many people were attracted to the Church because of the money and favored positions available to them from Constantine, rather than from piety.  It is believed that many Roman citizens converted to Christianity following the ancient notion of religion as a bargain you struck with the gods in order to preserve your health, wealth and personal security.  The growth of the Church and its new-found public aspect prompted the building of specialized places of worship where leaders were architecturally separated from the common attendees, which stood in sharp contrast to the earlier house churches which were small and informal.

Constantine believed that the Church and the State should be as close as possible.  From 312-320 AD, Constantine was tolerant of paganism, keeping pagan gods on coins and retaining his pagan high priest title, "Pontifex Maximus," in order to maintain popularity with his subjects, possibly indicating that he never fully understood the theology of Christianity.  From 320-330 he began to attack paganism through the government but in many cases persuaded people to follow the laws by combining pagan worship with Christianity.

Constantine declared Sunday to be a day of rest: "On the venerable day of the Sun, let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed.  In the country however, persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for grain-sowing nor vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost."  He made the 25th of December, then the birthday of the pagan Unconquered Sun god, the official holiday it is now; the birthday of Jesus.  It is likely that he also instituted celebrating Easter and Lent based on pagan holidays.

From 330-337 Constantine stepped up his destruction of paganism, and during this time his mother, Helen, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and began excavations to recover artifacts in the city.  This popularized the tradition of pilgrimages in Christianity.

Whether or not his conversion was "genuine," Constantine's reign was extremely important to the Christian church.  After his vision, he immediately declared Christianity legal with the Edict of Milan.  He completely abandoned paganism and put his full force of favor towards advancing the cause of the Church of Christ.  He provided Christianizing legislation on such matters as the observance of Sunday, the confiscation of the temple treasures, and the exemption of some clergy from taxes.  He funded Christian leaders and the construction of churches, some of which he dedicated to his mother.  Most Christian leaders greatly admired Constantine for the works he did for the church and Christian cause.

Constantine called together and presided over the Council of Nicaea in 324 AD, which 300 bishops attended, and again dealt with the Arian controversy about the nature of the divinity of Jesus.  The Council issued an official statement of creed affirming Jesus' complete divinity, and the decision was enforced politically by Constantine.  They drafted the Creed of Nicaea, the predecessor to the Nicene Creed, a proclamation of faith still used by many Christian denominations today.

The Roman Empire at the time of Constantine was in considerable turmoil and had been previously divided between the East and the West by Diocletian in 293.  With the defeat of Maxentius, Constantine had become emperor of the West. In 324 he defeated Licinius, Emperor of the East and became sole ruler of the Roman Empire.

With the continued threat of invasion by Vandals, Goths, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks and Lombards, Constantine moved his capitol to Byzantium (currently Istanbul, Turkey), which had been founded in the seventh century BC.  It is located on a major trade route at the straits connecting the Black Sea with the Mediterranean Sea.  He renamed the city Constantinople.

As the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople became a great cultural, economic, religious, and administrative center.  During the fourth and fifth centuries, Visigoths, Huns and Ostrogoths unsuccessfully threatened the city.  In the seventh, eighth and ninth centuries, the Persians, Arabs and Bulgarians attacked, but failed to take over Constantinople.  Up until 1453, the city withstood all attacks with the exception of the Fourth Crusade's treachery.

The Roman Empire was divided again between East and West in 395, setting the stage for the eventual division of the Christian Church.  Latin Christianity evolved in Rome under the leadership of the popes, while Eastern Orthodoxy developed in the east at Constantinople under the leadership of patriarchs.  In 401 AD, Innocent I became Pope in Rome and claimed universal jurisdiction over all Christian churches.

In 410 AD, the city of Rome, with all its glories, was taken by barbarians under the leadership of the Visigoth Alaric.  Shock waves ran throughout the Roman world at this event.  A fair number of wealthy Romans fled the city to country estates in Campania, Sicily and north Africa.  Roman forces recaptured and lost Rome many times over the next several decades.

Constantine and his successors struggled to renew the empire from Constantinople.  The western Roman Empire collapsed under the pressure of the Germanic invaders in 476.  Thanks to its greater military and economic strength, Constantinople (capitol of the eastern Roman Empire, later the Byzantium Empire) survived for nearly a thousand years, despite revolutions, wars and religious controversy.

An important leader of the church during the time that the Western Roman Empire collapsed, was Augustine, born in November of 354, at Tagaste, north Africa.  He was baptized by Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, in 387.  Augustine became the bishop at the north African coastal city of Hippo Regius, in 395.  By 430, a band of barbarians had found its way even to Africa.  The Vandals, like the Saxons later in the same century, proved to be deadly allies.  In the summer of 430 they were besieging the city of Hippo as the aged bishop lay dying within.  Shortly after his death they captured the city.

In Augustine's days the church had just recovered from the last bitter wave of persecution begun in 303 by the emperors Galerius and Diocletian.  When fear subsided, Christians could breathe again and indulge in recriminations over the lapses of some of their number in time of trial.

Christianity was not, Augustine claimed, something external and visible; it was not to be found in obedience to certain clearly-defined laws.  Christianity was a matter of spirit rather than law, something inside a person rather than outside.  Most important, the church had room within itself for sinners as well as saints, for the imperfections of those in whom God's grace was still working as well as for the holiness of the blessed.  Augustine drew the boundary of the church, not between one group of people and another, but rather straight through the middle of the hearts of all those who belonged to it.  The visible church contained the visible Christians, sins and all; the invisible church, whose true home lay in heaven, held only those who were redeemed.

Augustine's writings also gave greater credence to the concept of "Original Sin."  Supporters of the concept usually quote Paul (Romans5:12), "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man (Adam), and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned..."  Some interpret Original Sin as sexual, stemming from Adam and Eve's sudden sexual awareness (Genesis 3:7), "Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked..."  However, the first recorded sin was that of disobedience to God when Eve, and subsequently Adam, succumbed to Satan's temptation and ate of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which God had expressly forbidden (Genesis 2:17).  If Original Sin is an applicable concept, then the "Original Sin" was disobedience.

Three important milestones of Augustine's time included: the formal end of public worship of the pagan gods, which was commanded by the Emperor Theodosius in 391; the City of Rome fell for the first time to Germanic invaders in 410; and Theodosius declared Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire about 450.

Also about 450, St. Patrick, the "Apostle of Ireland," introduced Christianity to that pagan island.  A Roman Briton, he was born Maewyn Succat and adopted Patrick or Patricius upon becoming a priest.  Earlier, Anglo-Saxon pagan invaders had almost eliminated Christianity in England.

Attempting to solidify the authority of the Papacy, Pope Leo I (460-467) declared papal primacy, arguing that the Pope alone has the responsibility and authority to care for the entire church.

In 494, St. Valentine's Day is set as February 14th by Pope Gelasius I. Go Back to Contents List

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In 532, The Church of Hagia Sofia (Divine Wisdom), the largest Christian church in the world, was built in Constantinople by emperor Justinian (483 - 565) as the focal point of Byzantine Christianity.

At about the same time, the Italian monk Benedict established a monastery on Monte Cassino, in Italy.  His Benedictine order eventually established the Western monastic tradition which spread rapidly throughout Europe.

In 550 Saint David took Christianity to Wales.  In the late 580's, many of the invaders of the Roman Empire, including the Visigoths of Spain and the Lombards of Italy, converted to Christianity.

Pope Gregory the Great (c. 540 - 604) began liturgical reforms and changes in church administration, enhancing both the power and prestige of the papacy.  Originally a Benedictine, Gregory created a religious policy for western Europe by fusing the Roman papacy with Benedictine monasticism.  He established the Latin church, which served to counteract the subordination of the Roman popes to Eastern emperors.

As the fourth great "church father" for the Catholic Church, Gregory drew his theology from Ambrose of Milan, as well as Jerome and Augustine of Hippo.  His concepts of purgatory and penance served to widen the growing theological gulf between the Eastern and Western Churches.

Augustine of Canterbury was the one of the most important missionaries sent to the Germanic tribes after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West.  He was at St. Andrew's monastery in Rome around 596 when he was asked by Pope Gregory the Great to lead missionary work at Kent in England.  This was an opportunity for Augustine to evangelize the Anglo-Saxon people who lived there.  Britain had been Christian under the later Roman Empire, but with the withdrawal of Roman authority and the subsequent invasion of the pagan Anglo-Saxons around 450, Gregory saw the need to restore Christianity to England.

Canterbury was the headquarters of the Saxon king Ethelbert.  The Saxon people had a reputation of being barbaric and fierce.  Upon arrival in Canterbury, Ethelbert and his wife Bertha, the daughter of the Frankish king, who was also a Christian, treated Augustine with hospitality.  After Augustine proclaimed the word of Christ, Ethelbert invited him into his capital and gave him land, housing, and the freedom to preach to the people of Canterbury.

Augustine showed great success in Canterbury as he worked with the people.  After only a year, several thousand of the Saxon people asked to be baptized and converted to Christianity, including King Ethelbert.  With his success in Canterbury, Augustine was consecrated as bishop, so that he could consecrate priests in England.  In 601, Pope Gregory appointed him archbishop of Canterbury

Mohammed rose to religious eminence in the Arabic world in the early 600's AD.  He was born in Mecca and also lived in Medina.  While meditating in a cave on Mount Hira, a vision appeared to him, believed to be the angel Gabriel, who called Mohammed to be a prophet and proclaim God's message to his countrymen.  He began preaching in Mecca around 610.  Political and religious pressure in Mecca forced Mohammed to flee to Medina in 622 where he established the religion of Islam.  His flight is called the Hegira and the Islamic calendar starts from that date.  After consolidating his religious and political movement in Medina, Mohammed and his followers defeated the forces of Mecca in 630.  He died in 632.  Mohammed's writings were collected as the Qur'an (Koran), the Moslem (or Muslim, "one who submits") holy book for those of Islamic faith.

Abu Bakr, the first elected Caliph after Mohammed's death (632-634), consolidated Muslim rule in Arabia and sent forces into the Byzantine provinces of Syria and Palestine, as well as the Persian province of Iraq.  Caliphs Omar (634-644), Othman (644-656) and Ali (656-661) continued these "holy wars" (jihad)and extended Muslim rule over Persia, Palestine, Egypt and parts of North Africa.

In 661 AD Muawiya, from the aristocratic Meccan family of Umayyah, became Caliph.  He and his successors up to 750, were known as the Omayyad caliphs.  During the Omayyad rule, Muslim control was extended to northern India, the borders of China, Central Asia, Cyprus, Rhodes, Sicily and the rest of North Africa.  They were unsuccessful in trying to conquer Constantinople, the Christian capitol of the eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire (the western Roman Empire had fallen to Germanic tribes about 500).  Constantinople, located on the Bosporus (the strait between the Black Sea and the waters of the Mediterranean), remained a barrier to Muslim forces intent on expanding into Europe until the 1400's.

Pepin of Heristal, a Merovingian ruler, united the Frankish territories in 687 and established the center of his kingdom in Belgium.  He was succeeded by his son, Charles Martel, who created an alliance with the Christian Church, allowing the Merovingian Dynasty (and Christianity) to expand into Germany.  Pepin the Short succeeded his father, Charles Martel, strengthening the convergence of Benedictine missionaries and Frankish expansion.

In 711 Muslims forces under the Omayyad caliphs invaded Spain.  They then crossed the Pyrenees Mountains and marched through southern France.  They were stopped by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732.  The Muslims, known locally as Moors, would continue to control most of Spain for more than 700 years.

Two branches of Mohammed's family, the Abbasids and the Shiites (or Alids) overthrew the Omayyad caliphate in 750.  Ensuing rivalries split the Moslem world.  A young Omayyad prince, Abd al-Rahman, established the Omayyad dynasty of Spain, which lasted until 1031.  The Abbasids established the Caliphate of Baghdad in Iraq and ruled until 1258.  The Shiite Muslims were driven underground and later emerged under Ubaydulla, who claimed to be a descendant of Mohammed's daughter, Fatima, to establish the Caliphate of Cairo.  The Fatimite dynasty ruled North Africa, Egypt, Syria and Palestine from 909 to 1171.

St. Boniface anointed Pepin the Short as a divinely sanctioned king in 751, and thus the Frankish monarchy became fused into the papal order.  With this, the Carolingian dyanasty was established.  This western European empire, based on the alliance between the Frankish monarchy and the Latin Church, provided an image of Western cultural unity lost to Europeans since the fall of the Roman Empire, though it did not last long.  Under Pepin the papal domains in Italy were created and established as territory under the sovereign control of popes.

In 768, Pepin's son, Carolus Magnus (Charlemagne), succeeded his father and became one of the most important rulers of medieval history.  His empire, known as the Carolingian dynasty, eventually included much of central Europe, as well as northern and central Italy, in addition to realms already conquered by earlier Frankish rulers.  Charlemagne's system of government divided the vast realm into different regions, ruled by local "counts" who are overseen by representatives of Charlemagne's own court.

In addition, to aid expansion and administration of the kingdom, Charlemagne promoted what is later called the "Carolingian Renaissance."  Prior to this revival of learning, nearly the entire kingdom (with the exception of Benedictine England) was illiterate due to the decay of the Roman Empire.  The director of the "renaissance" was Anglo-Saxon Benedictine Alcuin, who received his learning from a student of Bede.

Alcuin set up schools, saw to the copying of classical Latin texts and developed a new handwriting.  In 800, Charlemange was crowned emperor by Pope Leo III at Saint Peter's Basillica in Rome.  This coronation marked the beginning of a new relationship between the church and state, with the emperor's temporal authority depending upon the spiritual blessing of the pope.

By 950 Catholicism was finally the prevalent and dominant religion throughout most of Europe.  In 988, Vladimir I grand duke of Kiev, declared Eastern Orthodox Christianity to be the official state religion of Russia and the conversion of the Russian populace began.

Around 1000, Church leaders began building the massive cathedrals which would come to characterize European Christianity throughout the Middle Ages.  Technological innovations of the time included the use of the heavy plow, the three-field system of crop rotation, the use of mills for processing cloth, brewing beer, crushing pulp for paper manufacture, as well as the widespread use of iron and horses.  With an increase in agricultural advancements, towns and trade grew exponentially and Western Europe returned to a money economy.

Barbarian tribes of Turks from Central Asia, led by Seljuk, challenged the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad in the 1000's.  Under the leadership of Sultan Tughril, the Seljuk Turks eventually gained control of the Abbasid caliphs and became the Sunnite Muslims.

The schism between the Western Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, a long-standing split between the churches, was finalized in 1054 when Pope Leo IX and Patriarch Michael Cerularius, exchanged anathemas of excommunication.  In 1059, The College of Cardinals was established as the body responsible for electing popes.

In 1066, William the Conqueror invaded England and claimed the English throne at the Battle of Hastings.  Because William was both the King of England and the Duke of Normandy, the Norman Conquest fused French and English cultures.  The language of England evolved into Middle English, having an English syntax and grammar with a heavily French vocabulary.  William achieved political stability in England with the introduction of the feudal system.  The system progressed over the next two centuries into a national monarchy.

The Seljuk Turks captured Jerusalem in 1071 and began to interfere with Christian pilgrims trying to visit the holy places.  They also threatened what was left of the Byzantium Empire.  In the early 1090's, the Byzantium Emperor Alexius Commenus asked the Roman Catholic Pope Urban II for help.  Urban called for a great assembly of churchmen and nobles at Clermont, France (1095), and urged them to rescue the Holy Land from the Turks.  The First Crusade (1096-1099), out of a total of eight official crusades, captured Jerusalem in 1098 and founded four Christian kingdoms (The Latin States of the Crusaders) along the eastern Mediterranean Sea: Edessa, Antioch, Tripolis and Jerusalem.  In sacking Jerusalem, the Crusaders killed 40,000.

After about 50 years the Turks began to recapture the Crusader States, leading to an appeal by St. Bernard of Clarivaux, which initiated the Second Crusade (1147-1149) which was largely unsuccessful.  The Third Crusade (1189-1192), led by Frederick Barbarossa, Philip of France and Richard of England.  Frederick drowned the next year on the way to Palestine; German folklore grew that he is hidden in a mountain waiting to return and lead Germany to a new and brighter future.

Power of the medieval papacy reached its height with the reign of Innocent III (1161-1216), who managed to excommunicate both Holy Roman emperor Otto IV (1182-1218) and King John of England (c. 1167-1216) in 1209.

The Fourth Crusade was launched in 1202.  Venetians convinced the soldiers of the Crusade to attack Constantinople before moving on to the Holy Land.  The residents of the City suffered the worst devastation in Constantinople's history, and Venice reaped the spoils.  After Constantinople was sacked by Crusaders, Latin domination of the Eastern Church began.  Thomas Morosini of Venice was installed as patriarch of Constantinople, increasing the rivalry between Eastern and Western churches.

St. Francis of Assisi, at the age of twenty-five in 1206, began his twenty-year allegiance to Christ until his death in 1226.  He founded the Franciscan order, which seeks to imitate the life of Jesus by embracing poverty.  St. Francis won the support of Pope Innocent III.

The Crusade against the Albingensians (also known as Cathars) and Waldensians was launched from southern France in 1208 by Pope Innocent III.  In Beziers alone in 1209, at least 20,000 people were massacred.  The Childrens' Crusade was launched in 1212.  More than 50,000 children were sold into slavery.  The Fifth Crusade, departed under papal guidance in 1215, to conduct their war by sea.  The Sixth Crusade was launched in 1228.

The Inquisition, 1229, forbid the reading of the Bible by lay persons.  Pope Gregory IX issued the Excommunicamus in February 1231, which explicitly permitted the burning of heretics at the stake.  The Holy Inquisition was established by Gregory in 1233 to abolish heresy wherever it could be found.  Domincans were assigned responsibility to carry out the Inquisition.  The First person recorded to be hanged, drawn, and quartered in England, 1241, was William Marise, a pirate.

The Seventh Crusade was launched in 1248.

In 1250 the papacy approved the use of torture for religious disobedience, following Innocent III's brutal "inquisitions" against heresy (namely the Waldensian and Albigensian heretics).  With the first recorded official use of torture in Spain, and, with his decree Ut Negotium, 1256, Pope Alexander IV allows inquisitors to absolve one another of any "irregularities" they commit while engaged in their work.

Michael Palaeologus finally drove the Latin rulers out of Constantinople in 1261, and reestablished local Eastern Orthodox Rule.

The Crusades against the Holy Lands came to an end in 1270.

A tribe of Turks newly converted to Islam, named after their leader Othman, came to power in the 1300's and seized Anatolia, establishing the Ottoman dynasty.  A succession of 36 sultans, from Othman in the 1300's to 1922, ruled a great Muslim empire.

Pope Boniface VIII issued the papal bull Unum Sanctum in 1302, which declared that the pope has supreme and final authority in all matters, both civic and spiritual.

Bad weather and crop failure in the early 1300's, resulted in famine across northwestern Europe.  Unsanitary conditions and malnutrition increased the death rate.  Even after the revival of agricultural conditions, weather disasters reappeared.  The Black Death (bubonic plague) reached Cyprus from eastern Asia in 1347, and a year later reached England.  A mixture of war, famine and plague in the Late Middle Ages reduced the population by half.

John Wycliffe, an Oxford don, wrote Civil Dominion in 1376, calling for reforms in the Church.  In 1382 he was expelled from Oxford University because of his opposition to traditional Church doctrines, two years after he began the first English translation of the Bible.  In 1400, Czech students of John Wycliffe take Wycliffism to the Bohemian capital of Prague.  Preacher John Hus (1373-1415 CE) adopted Wycliffe's theories to support his own claims against ecclesiastical extravagance.  In England, the death penalty became the punishment for heresy, and many Lollards, Wycliffe's lay followers, converted.

England introduced de Heretico Comburendo in 1401, giving the Church power over heresy.  In 1408, the Council of Oxford forbid translations of the Scriptures into the vernacular unless and until they were fully approved by Church authority.  This was sparked by the Wycliffe Bible.  Pope Alexander V publicly burned 200 of John Wycliffe's writings.  A 1409 Lollard uprising in England failed.  Some Lollards retreated underground and aided the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century.

John Hus traveled to the Council of Constance in 1415, to propose his reforms for the Church.  Upon his arrival at the Council, Hus was tried for heresy and burned.  His death encouraged further revolt by his followers.

Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc; 1412 - 1431), a peasant girl in France, sought out French leaders and related her divinely-inspired mission to drive the English out of France.  She took control of the French troops and liberated most of central France.  Joan of Arc was captured, 1430, and taken to England.  The English accused her of being a witch and condemned her for heresy.  Joan was publicly burned in the city of Rouen.

Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press, 1438, and pioneered the technology of movable type, creating the first Bible printed with movable type at Mainz, Germany.

In 1453 the Ottoman Turks seized Constantinople, opening the way to expand their Muslim empire into southeast Europe.  They occupied most of the Balkan nations until the early 1900's.

From the fall of the western Roman Empire in the late 400's, to the renaissance in the 1400's, the eastern Roman Empire (later the Byzantium Empire with capitol at Constantinople) and the Muslim caliphates were the primary keepers of knowledge and technology.  They had extensive libraries and sponsored technological developments.

The Spanish Inquisition was established by Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in1478, with the consent of Pope Sixtus IV.  Later the benefactors of Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand and Isabella ended Muslim rule in Spain, 1492.  With the help of Tourquemada, Grand Inquisitor, they also forced the conversion or expulsion of all Jews from Spain. Go Back to Contents List

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The renaissance of European culture was not an instantaneous happening.  Its roots stretched back to the Roman Empire.  Some skills, talents and technical information survived the fall of Rome.  Unfortunately the peoples who overran Rome were more interested in plunder than preservation.  Much of the fine art, documents, skills, technology, etc., of the Roman civilization were lost.  European culture sunk low after the fall of Rome and took nearly a millenium to rebound.

Historians generally mark the turning point for European culture, often referred to as "The Renaissance," with three events. The first was the invention of movable type by Johann Gutenberg, in the early 1400's, which resulted in creating the forerunner of the modern printing press.  This enabled books, pamphlets and other information to be more easily published and disseminated.  One of the most important of the books subsequently made more available to the population at large, was the Bible.

The next were the voyages of discovery.  These included the discovery of the Americas for Spain by Christopher Columbus in 1492, and the explorations of coastal Africa by Portuguese expeditions which resulted in Vasco DaGama rounding Cape Hope and sailing to India (1497-1498).

The third was the reformation.  A ground swell of discontent with the Roman Catholic Church was energized by Martin Luther when he nailed his 95 Theses to the door of All Saints Catholic Church in Wittenberg, Germany (1517).  His act, fostered by his Biblical insight and complemented by his teaching activities, was the push which gave momentum to the Protestant Movement in western Europe.

For years the Catholic Church had maintained that anyone who disagreed with church doctrine was a heretic.  Those who did so publicly were usually treated harshly.  The 1500's became a major turning point for many Christians in Europe.  Numerous important events occurred around the time of Luther.  In the early 1500's, Miles Coverdale, an Augustinian friar, left the Order, repudiated Catholicism and became the first Protestant Bishop of Exeter.  In 1501 the Catholic Church ordered books against papal authority burned.  Ignatius of Loyola, founded the Jesuit order in 1534.  Henry VIII became the King of England, 1509-1547.  John Calvin, 1509-1564, preached predetermination and that good conduct and success were signs of election.  Albrecht became archbishop of Mainz, 1514, and started selling indulgences in return for contributions for building the new St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

Protesting the sale of indulgences and other corrupt church practices, Luther posts his 95 Theses.  At the meeting of Augustinians in Heidelberg, 1518, Luther defended his theology.  That October, he also appeared before Cardinal Cajetan at Augsburg, but refused to recant.  In December, the German prince, Frederick the Wise, refused to hand Luther over to Rome.

The Swiss Reformation began independently in 1518, under the leadership of Ulrich Zwingle.  Martin Luther debated Catholic Professor John Eck at Leipzig in 1519, denying the supreme authority of popes and councils.  This became known as the Leipzig Disputation.  The 1520 Papal bull, Exsurge Domine, gave Luther 60 days to recant or be excommunicated.  Luther then wrote his three seminal treatises, To the Christian Nobility, On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, and The Freedom of a Christian.  He also burned the papal bull excommunicating him as well as books of canon law.

At about this time, the Anabaptist movement began to develop in Switzerland and Germany.  Anabaptists were harshly persecuted by both Catholics and other Protestants.  The Anabaptists denied any efficacy in infant baptism and renounced the use of violence.

In April of 1521, Martin Luther was condemned as a heretic and declared an outlaw at the Diet of Worms.  On trial before Emperor Charles V and other leaders of church and state, he refused to recant his writings.  After the Diet of Worms, Luther was "kidnapped" by Frederick the Wise and hidden at Wartburg Castle.  There he began translating the New Testament.  In early 1522 Luther came out of hiding and returned to Wittenberg, helping to reestablish order there.  By late summer he had finished his New Testament translation and it was published for the first time that September.

Also in 1522, priesthood celibacy was condemned by Zwingli.

Religious wars, spanning150 years, began in 1524 with a south German peasant uprising inspired by Luther's reform work.  The uprising was repressed with Luther's support.  During this time Tyndale completed his translation of the New Testament from the Greek text of Erasmus.  Used as a vehicle by Tyndale for bitter attacks on the Church, it reflected the influence of Luther's NT of 1522 in rejecting the use of the term "priest" for "elder" and "church" for "congregation."  The Swiss Brethren began teaching their radical vision of Protestantism, 1525.

The term "Protestant" was first used at the Diet of Speyer, 1529, when supporters of Luther formally protested the imperial efforts to limit the spread of Lutheranism.  A 1529 royal decree in Denmark made Lutheranism the sole religion of that country.  Luther, then considered an outlaw, was unable to attend the Diet of Augsburg, 1530, held in an attempt to end religious division in the Holy Roman Empire.

Philipp Melanchthon, Luther's co-worker, presented the Augsburg Confession, a statement of Lutheran beliefs and thus founds the Lutheran church.  Luther and Swiss Protestant leader Zwingli agreed on 14 of the 15 articles of faith, but disagreed on the significance of the Lord's Supper.

After Henry VIII married Anne Boleyn in 1533, he was excommunicated by Pope Clement VII.  The following year, Henry separated England from the Catholic church, confiscating monastic property and declaring himself to be the head of the Church of England.  This was the beginning of the Anglican/Episcopal Church.

In 1536 John Calvin published the first edition of his work Institutes of the Christian Religion, destined to become one of the most influential works of Protestantism.  The book detailed his theology of humanity's depravity, the necessity of grace for salvation and predestination.  Later, Calvin headed a theocratic Protestant government in Geneva, Switzerland.

In 1544, Sweden made Lutheranism the official state religion and banned Catholic worship.  The next year Luther wrote Against the Papacy at Rome, an Institution of the Devil.  The Council of Trent, 1545-1563, marked the beginning of the Catholic Reformation, or counter-reformation.  It sought to meet the challenge of Protestantism and clearly define an official theology.  Martin Luther died in Eisleben, February 18, 1546.

After Henry VIII died, his son, Edward VI, instituted many "Protestant" changes in the Anglican Church during his six-year reign.  He was succeeded by his half sister, Mary, a Catholic.  Mary's reign in England, 1553-1558, was marked by Protestants persecutions and the restoration of Catholicism as the official religion.  The many executions of Protestants while Mary was on the English throne, earned her the name of "Bloody Mary."  She was succeeded by her half sister, Elizabeth, 1558-1603, who restored Protestantism as the official religion.  During her long reign, Elizabeth I had ample time to shape the Anglican Church into a Protestant institution.  The Puritan movement developed among those dissatisfied with her reforms of the church.

The Presbyterian Church of Scotland was founded by John Knox in 1560.  He was a disciple of Calvin and disagreed with Lutherans over sacraments and church government.  In 1562 the War of Religion began in France between Catholics and French Protestants (Huguenots).  The Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day in France, 1572, saw thousands of French Calvinists are murdered.  In 1598 the French King Henry IV issued the Edict of Nantes, ending the bloody Wars of Religion and granting religious freedom to Protestants.

The "King James" translation of the Bible was commissioned in 1604 by the King of England.  King James also banned the Jesuits.

The Baptist Church was established by John Smyth in 1608.  The 1618 Protestant uprising in Bohemia started the Thirty Years' War.  A colony in America was established in 1620, at Plymouth, Massachusetts, by English Puritans known as Pilgrims, to escape religious pluralism in England.

The Society of Friends (Quakers) was founded in 1647 by George Fox.  They repudiated the use of violence and oath swearing.  Quaker worship was also without ministers or liturgy, teaching the existence of an "inner light" of divine revelation.

The Thirty Years' War ended in 1648, with the Peace of Westphalia, leaving Germany divided between Catholic and Protestant states.

The First women in the New World were condemned as witches in 1664.

The Edict of Nantes was renounced by French King Louis XIV in 1685, and religious freedom was denied to French Protestants, resulting in a mass exodus of Huguenots from France.

The Methodist Church was founded by Rev. John Wesley in 1738

The First Vatican Council, 20th Ecumenical, 1869-1870, affirmed the doctrine of papal infallibility (i.e., when a pope speaks ex cathedra on faith or morals, he does so with the supreme apostolic authority, which no Catholic may question or reject).

The New International Version (NIV) translation of the Bible was published in 1978.  It used eclectic Greek text, Massoretic Hebrew text and current English style.  Soon after, the New King James Bible was also published, a complete revision of the 1611 KJV, updating archaisms while retaining style. Go Back to Contents List

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When the first European explorers reached the New World, the Spanish and the Portuguese brought Catholic priests with them to convert the heathen.  They also brought European diseases, including smallpox, which were often fatal to American Indians who had no hereditary immunity.

The Indians noticed that the Europeans who became ill recovered more often than their own peoples.  This led the surviving Indians to suspect that the God of the Europeans was greater than their gods, which made converting them to Catholicism much easier.  Even today, the peoples of nearly all of the countries south of the United States, are mostly Catholics.

Countries with Catholicism as their state religion, Spain, Portugal and France, founded only royal colonies in the Americas.  Royal colonies were controlled and directed by the government or reigning monarch of the founding country.  That control included setting up Catholic churches in those colonies.

With Spain and Portugal establishing early colonies in the Caribbean, southern North America (Mexico and Florida) and South America, the French, English and Dutch were forced to look farther north for colonial sites.  Originally, most of the colonies established in what is now Canada (then called New France), were founded by France.  Subsequently Quebec Province is mostly French speaking and strongly Catholic yet today.

Samuel de Champlain, often called the "Father of New France," along with Sieur de Monts, founded a colony in Acadia in 1604, near the mouth of the St. Croix River, currently the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick.  Champlain had previously explored up the St. Lawrence River to present day Montreal and also founded Quebec in 1608.

French explorers and missionaries traveled up the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.  This gave France the basis for claiming not only most of Canada, but the Mississippi River valley (including the Ohio and Missouri valleys) as well.  The western and southern Mississippi watershed became the Louisiana Territory.

England took control of New France following the French and Indian wars, which ended in the 1760s.  When the British moved in, many French colonists in Acadia (an area mostly in what is now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) migrated to what is now the State of Louisiana, previously a French colony.  The new "Cajun" French, as well as the previous French and Spanish settlers, established a strong Catholic presence there.

In addition to founding royal colonies, England also gave charters to individuals, groups and companies to establish colonies.  The royal colonies started out with primarily Anglican churches.  Jamestown colony was founded in 1607 by the Virginia Company of London.  In 1624 the English king revoked their charter and Virginia became a royal colony.

The New England colonies were founded mostly by non-Anglican groups seeking relief from religious persecution.  The pilgrims who landed at Plymouth in 1620 were Separatists, Puritans who had separated from the Anglican Church.  They had fled to the Netherlands, where they were unhappy, and soon returned to England.  They then decided to make a "pilgrimage" to America to escape persecution in England.

The Puritans who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1628, were quite intolerant of any other form of worship and many new arrivals left the colony to establish settlements in other areas.  Two of those new settlements later became Connecticut and Rhode Island.  Both Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colony were chartered to investment companies.  Plymouth colonists eventually bought out their investors and individually took control of their lands; Massachusetts Bay investors surrendered their charter to the king in the late 1600s, at which time the king combined the two colonies as Massachusetts.

Cecil Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, established Maryland with the hope his fellow Catholics, as well as persons of other faiths, could worship freely.  William Penn, a Quaker, founded Pennsylvania for similar reasons.  Both colonies were considered very tolerant religiously and even some Puritans, who considered the rules in New England too severe, migrated to the mid-Atlantic colonies.

The Presbyterian church was established in America in 1706 by Irish churchman Francis Makemie.

The "Great Awakening" in the American colonies, 1720-1760, was an experience that saw widespread conversions to charismatic Protestant churches which emphasized personal piety and individual interpretations of the Bible.

After the 13 American colonies won their independence from Great Britain, the Protestant Episcopal Church was established in the United States as independent of the Anglican, or Church of England.

The Mormon Church was founded by Joseph Smith as a result of reported visions of the Angel Moroni.  A colony was later established in Utah, by Mormon leader Brigham Young.

The American Restoration Movement was started by Thomas and Alexander Campbell, father and son, in 1809.  The Campbells, credited with fathering Christian Churches or Churches of Christ, were unhappy with the multitude of cultural traditions and sectarian doctrines which had began to influence worship by many Christian denominations.  The members of the movement were determined to restore Christian worship to the Bible-based principals as practiced by early Christians during the time of the apostles.  A guiding proposition of Christian Churches became, "Where the Bible speaks, we speak; where the Bible is silent, we are silent."

For a while the members of the movement were allied with the Baptists.  However, the Baptists clung to some of their denominational doctrines and Christian Churches were soon established.  Each Christian Church, or Church of Christ, was established as an independent, non-denomination church.  (Read more about the Restoration Movement by clicking on "Restoration Movement" in the gray column of the Homepage.) Go Back to Contents List

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Biblical References (NIV-New International Version)

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