History of Christianity

The history of Christianity concerns the Christian re- 1.1

ligion, its followers and the Church with its various
denominations, from the 1st century to the present.
Christianity emerged in the Levant (now Palestine and
Israel) in the mid-1st century AD. Christianity spread
initially from Jerusalem throughout the Near East, into
places such as Syria, Assyria, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia,
Asia Minor, Jordan and Egypt. In the 4th century it
was successively adopted as the state religion by Armenia
in 301, Georgia in 319,[1][2] the Aksumite Empire in
325,[3][4] and the Roman Empire in 380. After the
Council of Ephesus in 431 the Nestorian Schism created
the Church of the East. The Council of Chalcedon in
451 further divided Christianity into Oriental Orthodoxy
and Chalcedonian Christianity. Chalcedonian Christianity divided into the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern
Orthodox Church in the Great Schism of 1054. The
Protestant Reformation created new Christian communities that separated from the Roman Catholic Church and
have evolved into many dierent denominations.

Main article: Apostolic Age

See also: Christianity in the 1st century
The Apostolic Church was the community led by the
apostles, and to some degree, Jesus relatives.[7] In his
"Great Commission", the resurrected Jesus commanded
that his teachings be spread to all the world. While the
historical reliability of the Acts of the Apostles is disputed by critics, the Acts of the Apostles is the major
primary source of information for this period. Acts gives
a history of the Church from this commission in 1:311
to the spread of the religion among the gentiles[8] and the
eastern Mediterranean by Paul and others.
The rst Christians were essentially all ethnically Jewish
or Jewish Proselytes. In other words, Jesus preached to
the Jewish people and called from them his rst disciples, see for example Matthew 10. However, the Great
Commission is specically directed at all nations, and
an early diculty arose concerning the matter of Gentile
(non-Jewish) converts as to whether they had to become
Jewish (usually referring to circumcision and adherence
to dietary law), as part of becoming Christian. Circumcision in particular was considered repulsive by Greeks
and Hellenists[9] while circumcision advocates were labelled Judaisers, see Jewish background to the circumcision controversy for details. The actions of Peter, at the
conversion of Cornelius the Centurion,[8] seemed to indicate that circumcision and food laws did not apply to
gentiles, and this was agreed to at the apostolic Council
of Jerusalem. Related issues are still debated today.

Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity

spread to all of Europe in the Middle Ages. Christianity expanded throughout the world during Europes Age
of Exploration from the Renaissance onwards, becoming
the worlds largest religion.[5] Today there are 2 billion
Christians, one third of humanity.[6]

Apostolic Church

Early Christianity (c.33325)

For early New Testament history, see Ministry of Jesus

and Canonical gospels.
For history between the Old and New Testaments, see
Intertestamental period.
The doctrines of the apostles brought the Early Church
Main article: History of early Christianity
into conict with some Jewish religious authorities. This
eventually led to their expulsion from the synagogues, acDuring its early history, Christianity grew from a 1st- cording to one theory of the Council of Jamnia. Acts
century Jewish following to a religion that existed across records the martyrdom of the Christian leaders, Stephen
the entire Greco-Roman world and beyond.
and James of Zebedee. Thus, Christianity acquired an
Early Christianity may be divided into 2 distinct phases: identity distinct from Rabbinic Judaism, but this distincthe apostolic period, when the rst apostles were alive and tion was not recognised all at once by the Roman Emled the Church, and the post-apostolic period, when an pire, see Split of early Christianity and Judaism for deearly episcopal structure developed, and persecution was tails. The name "Christian" (Greek ) was rst
periodically intense. The Roman persecution of Chris- applied to the disciples in Antioch, as recorded in Acts
tians ended in AD 313 when Constantine the Great de- 11:26.[10] Some contend that the term Christian was
creed tolerance for the religion. He then called the First rst coined as a derogatory term, meaning little Christs,
Council of Nicaea in AD 325, beginning of the period of and was meant as a mockery, a term of derision for those
the First seven Ecumenical Councils.
that followed the teachings of Jesus.
1

2
1.1.1

1 EARLY CHRISTIANITY (C.33325)

Early Christian beliefs and creeds

St. Lawrence (martyred 258) before Emperor Valerianus by Fra

Angelico
Christ Jesus,[11] the Good Shepherd, 3rd century.

even death for Christians such as Stephen (Acts 7:59) and

James, son of Zebedee (12:2). Larger-scale persecutions
followed at the hands of the authorities of the Roman Empire, beginning with the year 64, when, as reported by the
Roman historian Tacitus, the Emperor Nero blamed them
for that years great Fire of Rome.

The sources for the beliefs of the apostolic community include the Gospels and New Testament epistles. The very
earliest accounts of belief are contained in these texts,
such as early creeds and hymns, as well as accounts of the
Passion, the empty tomb, and Resurrection appearances;
some of these are dated to the 30s or 40s CE, originating According to Church tradition, it was under Neros persewithin the Jerusalem Church.[12]
cution that Peter and Paul were each martyred in Rome.
Similarly, several of the New Testament writings mention
persecutions and stress endurance through them.

1.2

Post-Apostolic Church

Early Christians suered sporadic persecution as the result of local pagan populations putting pressure on the imMain article: History of early Christianity
perial authorities to take action against the Christians in
See also: Christianity in the 2nd century and Christianity
their midst, who were thought to bring misfortune by their
in the 3rd century
refusal to honour the gods.[13][14] The last and most severe
The post-apostolic period concerns the time after the
persecution organised by the imperial authorities was the
death of the apostles (roughly 100 AD) until persecutions
Diocletianic Persecution, 303 - 311.[15]
ended with the legalisation of Christian worship under
Emperors Constantine the Great and Licinius.
1.2.2 Reasons for the spread of Christianity
1.2.1

Persecutions

Main article: Persecution of Christians in the Roman

Empire
See also: Persecution of Christians in the New Testament
According to the New Testament, Christians were subject
to various persecutions from the beginning. This involved

In spite of these at-times intense persecutions, the

Christian religion continued its spread throughout the
Mediterranean Basin.[16] There is no agreement on an explanation of how Christianity managed to spread so successfully prior to the Edict of Milan and the establishment
of Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire. For some Christians, the success was simply the
natural consequence of the truth of the religion and the

1.2

Post-Apostolic Church

hand of Providence. However, similar explanations can

be claimed for the spread of Islam and Buddhism. In The
Rise of Christianity, Rodney Stark argues that Christianity triumphed over paganism chiey because it improved
the lives of its adherents in various ways.[17]

and sick. In the 2nd century, an episcopal structure becomes more visible, and in that century this structure was
supported by teaching on apostolic succession, where a
bishop becomes the spiritual successor of the previous
bishop in a line tracing back to the apostles themselves.

Another factor was the way in which Christianity combined its promise of a general resurrection of the dead
with the traditional Greek belief that true immortality
depended on the survival of the body, with Christianity
adding practical explanations of how this was going to
actually happen at the end of the world.[18] For Mosheim
the rapid progression of Christianity was explained by
two factors: translations of the New Testament and the
Apologies composed in defence of Christianity.[19]

The diversity of early Christianity can be documented

from the New Testament record itself. The Book of Acts
admits conicts between Hebrews and Hellenists, and
Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, and Aramaic
speakers and Greek speakers. The letters of Paul, Peter,
John, and Jude all testify to intra-Church conicts over
both leadership and theology. In a response to the Gnostic
teaching, Irenaeus created the rst document describing
what is now called apostolic succession.[22]

Edward Gibbon, in his classic The History of the Decline

and Fall of the Roman Empire, discusses the topic in considerable detail in his famous Chapter Fifteen, summarizing the historical causes of the early success of Christianity as follows: "(1) The inexible, and, if we may use the
expression, the intolerant zeal of the Christians, derived,
it is true, from the Jewish religion, but puried from the
narrow and unsocial spirit which, instead of inviting, had
deterred the Gentiles from embracing the law of Moses.
(2) The doctrine of a future life, improved by every additional circumstance which could give weight and ecacy
to that important truth. (3) The miraculous powers ascribed to the primitive church. (4) The pure and austere
morals of the Christians. (5) The union and discipline of
the Christian republic, which gradually formed an independent and increasing state in the heart of the Roman
empire.[20]

1.2.4 Early Christian writings

Main article: Ante-Nicene Fathers
As Christianity spread, it acquired certain members from
well-educated circles of the Hellenistic world; they sometimes became bishops, but not always. They produced
two sorts of works: theological and "apologetic", the latter being works aimed at defending the faith by using
reason to refute arguments against the veracity of Christianity. These authors are known as the Church Fathers,
and study of them is called patristics. Notable early Fathers include Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen of Alexandria.
1.2.5 Early art

1.2.3

Structure and the episcopacy

In the post-Apostolic church, bishops emerged as overseers of urban Christian populations, and a hierarchy of
clergy gradually took on the form of episkopos (overseers;
and the origin of the term bishop) and presbyters (elders;
and the origin of the term priest), and then deacons (servants). But this emerged slowly and at dierent times
for dierent locations. Clement, a 1st-century bishop
of Rome, refers to the leaders of the Corinthian church
in his epistle to Corinthians as bishops and presbyters
interchangeably. The New Testament writers also use
the terms overseer and elders interchangeably and as
synonyms.[21]
Post-apostolic bishops of importance include Polycarp of
Smyrna, Clement of Rome, and Irenaeus of Lyons. These
men reportedly knew and studied under the apostles personally and are therefore called Apostolic Fathers. Each
Christian community also had presbyters, as was the case
with Jewish communities, who were also ordained and
assisted the bishop. As Christianity spread, especially in
rural areas, the presbyters exercised more responsibilities and took distinctive shape as priests. Lastly, deacons
also performed certain duties, such as tending to the poor

Virgin and Child. Wall painting from the early catacombs, Rome,
4th century.

Main article: Early Christian art

Christian art only emerged relatively late, and the rst
known Christian images emerge from about 200 AD,[23]
though there is some literary evidence that small domestic images were used earlier. The oldest known Christian
paintings are from the Roman Catacombs, dated to about

1 EARLY CHRISTIANITY (C.33325)

AD 200, and the oldest Christian sculptures are from

sarcophagi, dating to the beginning of the 3rd century.[24]
Although many Hellenised Jews seem, as at the DuraEuropos synagogue, to have had images of religious gures, the traditional Mosaic prohibition of graven images no doubt retained some eect, although never proclaimed by theologians. This early rejection of images,
and the necessity to hide Christian practise from persecution, leaves us with few archaeological records regarding
early Christianity and its evolution.[24]

1.2.6

Early heresies

Main article: Christian heresy Early Christian heresies

The New Testament itself speaks of the importance
of maintaining correct (orthodox) doctrine and refuting
heresies, showing the antiquity of the concern.[25] Because of the biblical proscription against false prophets,
Christianity has always been occupied with the orthodox
interpretation of the faith. Indeed one of the main roles of
the bishops in the early Church was to determine and re- A folio from P46, an early-3rd-century collection of Pauline
tain important correct beliefs, and refute contrarian opin- epistles.
ions, known as heresies. As there were sometimes diering opinions among the bishops on new questions, dening orthodoxy would occupy the Church for some time. 1.2.7 Biblical canon
The earliest controversies were often Christological in nature; that is, they were related to Jesus divinity or humanity. Docetism held that Jesus humanity was merely an illusion, thus denying the incarnation (Deity becoming human). Arianism held that Jesus, while not merely mortal,
was not eternally divine and was, therefore, of lesser status than the Father.[26] Trinitarianism held that the Father,
Son, and the Holy Spirit were all strictly one being with
three hypostases or persons. Many groups held dualistic
beliefs, maintaining that reality was composed into two
radically opposing parts: matter, seen as evil, and spirit,
seen as good. Such views gave rise to some theology of
the incarnation that were declared heresies. Most scholars agree that the Bible teaches that both the material and
the spiritual worlds were created by God and were therefore both good.[27]
The development of doctrine, the position of orthodoxy,
and the relationship between the various opinions is a
matter of continuing academic debate. Since most Christians today subscribe to the doctrines established by the
Nicene Creed, modern Christian theologians tend to regard the early debates as a unied orthodox position
against a minority of heretics. Other scholars, drawing upon distinctions between Jewish Christians, Pauline
Christianity, and other groups such as and Marcionites,
argue that early Christianity was always fragmented, with
contemporaneous competing beliefs.[28]

Main article: Biblical canon (Christian)

See also: Development of the New Testament canon
The Biblical canon is the set of books Christians regard
as divinely inspired and thus constituting the Christian
Bible. Though the Early Church used the Old Testament according to the canon of the Septuagint (LXX),
the apostles did not otherwise leave a dened set of new
scriptures; instead the New Testament developed over
time.
The writings attributed to the apostles circulated amongst
the earliest Christian communities. The Pauline epistles were circulating in collected form by the end of the
1st century AD. Justin Martyr, in the early 2nd century,
mentions the memoirs of the apostles, which Christians called gospels and which were regarded as on par
with the Old Testament,[29] which was written in narrative
form where in the biblical story God is the protagonist,
Satan (or evil people/powers) are the antagonists, and
Gods people are the agonists".[30][31]
A four gospel canon (the Tetramorph) was in place by
the time of Irenaeus, c. 160, who refers to it directly.[32]
By the early 3rd century, Origen of Alexandria may have
been using the same 27 books as in the modern New Testament, though there were still disputes over the canonicity of Hebrews, James, II Peter, II and III John, and

2.1

Establishment of Roman orthodoxy

Revelation[33] Such works that were sometimes spoken

against were called Antilegomena. In contrast, the major
writings and most of what is now the New Testament were
Homologoumena, or universally acknowledged for a long
time, since the middle of the 2nd century or before.[34]
Likewise the Muratorian fragment shows that by 200
there existed a set of Christian writings similar to the current New Testament.[35]
In his Easter letter of 367, Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, gave the earliest preserved list of exactly the books
that would become the New Testament canon.[36] The
African Synod of Hippo, in 393, approved the New
Testament, as it stands today, together with the Septuagint books, a decision that was repeated by Councils of
Carthage in 397 and 419.[37] These councils were under
the authority of St. Augustine, who regarded the canon
as already closed.[38] Likewise, Damasus' commissioning
of the Latin Vulgate edition of the Bible, c. 383, was instrumental in the xation of the canon in the West.[39] In
405, Pope Innocent I sent a list of the sacred books to
Exuperius, a Gallic bishop.
When these bishops and councils spoke on the matter,
however, they were not dening something new, but instead were ratifying what had already become the mind
of the Church.[40] Thus, by the 4th century, there existed unanimity in the West concerning the New Testament canon,[41] and by the 5th century the East, with a
few exceptions, had come to accept the Book of Revelation and thus had come into harmony on the matter of
the canon.[42] Nonetheless, a full dogmatic articulation of
the canon was not made until the 1546 Council of Trent
for Roman Catholicism,[43] the 1563 Thirty-Nine Articles for the Church of England, the 1647 Westminster
Confession of Faith for Calvinism, and the 1672 Synod
of Jerusalem for Greek Orthodoxy.

Christianity during late antiquity (313476)

Spread of Christianity to AD 325

Spread of Christianity to AD 600

Constantine the Great.

The Emperor Constantine I was exposed to Christianity
by his mother, Helena.[45] At the Battle of Milvian Bridge
in 312, Constantine commanded his troops to adorn their
shields with the Christian symbol in accordance with a
vision that he had had the night before. After winning the
battle, Constantine was able to claim the emperorship in
the West[46] In 313, he issued the Edict of Milan, ocially
legalizing Christian worship.
How much Christianity Constantine adopted at this point
is dicult to discern. The Roman coins minted up to
eight years subsequent to the battle still bore the images of
Roman gods.[45] Nonetheless, the accession of Constantine was a turning point for the Christian Church. After
his victory, Constantine supported the Church nancially,
built various basilicas, granted privileges (e.g., exemption from certain taxes) to clergy, promoted Christians to
some high-ranking oces, and returned property conscated during the Great Persecution of Diocletian.[47]

Between 324 and 330, Constantine built, virtually from

scratch, a new imperial capital that came to be named for
him: Constantinople. It had overtly Christian architecture, contained churches within the city walls, and had no
Main article: History of late ancient Christianity
[48]
In accordance with a prevailing cusSee also: Christianity in the 4th century and Christianity pagan temples.
tom,
Constantine
was
baptised on his deathbed.
in the 5th century
Constantine also played an active role in the leadership of
the Church. In 316, he acted as a judge in a North African
dispute concerning the Donatist controversy. More sig2.1 Establishment of Roman orthodoxy
nicantly, in 325 he summoned the Council of Nicaea,
the rst Ecumenical Council. Constantine thus estabSee also: Constantine I and Christianity
lished a precedent for the emperor as responsible to God
for the spiritual health of their subjects, and thus with
Galerius, who had previously been one of the leading a duty to maintain orthodoxy. The emperor was to endoctrine, root out heresy, and uphold ecclesiastical
gures in persecution, in 311 issued an edict which force [49]
unity.
[44]
ended the Diocletian persecution of Christianity. After halting the persecutions of the Christians, Galerius Constantines sons successor, known as Julian the Aposreigned for another 2 years. He was then succeeded tate, was a philosopher who upon becoming emperor reby an emperor with distinctively pro Christian leanings, nounced Christianity and embraced a Neo-platonic and

CHRISTIANITY DURING LATE ANTIQUITY (313476)

ular underground for some time. In the late 4th century
Ullas, a Roman bishop and an Arian, was appointed as
the rst bishop to the Goths, the Germanic peoples in
much of Europe at the borders of and within the Empire. Ullas spread Arian Christianity among the Goths
rmly establishing the faith among many of the Germanic
tribes, thus helping to keep them culturally distinct.[50]
During this age, the rst Ecumenical Councils were convened. They were mostly concerned with Christological
disputes. The First Council of Nicaea (325) and the First
Council of Constantinople (381) resulted in condemning Arian teachings as heresy and producing the Nicene
Creed.

2.3 Christianity as Roman state religion

(380 AD)
Further information: State church of the Roman Empire
On 27 February 380, with the Edict of Thessalonica
put forth under Theodosius I, the Roman Empire ocially adopted Trinitarian Christianity as its state religion.
Prior to this date, Constantius II (337-361) and Valens
Icon depicting the Emperor Constantine (centre) and the bishops (364-378) had personally favored Arian or Semi-Arian
of the First Council of Nicaea (325) holding the Niceno forms of Christianity, but Valens successor Theodosius
Constantinopolitan Creed of 381.
I supported the Trinitarian doctrine as expounded in the
Nicene Creed.
mystical form of paganism shocking the Christian establishment. He began reopening pagan temples and, intent
on re-establishing the prestige of the old pagan beliefs,
he modied them to resemble Christian traditions such
as the episcopal structure and public charity (previously
unknown in Roman paganism). Julians short reign ended
when he died while campaigning in the East.

After its establishment, the Church adopted the same

organisational boundaries as the Empire: geographical
provinces, called dioceses, corresponding to imperial
governmental territorial division. The bishops, who were
located in major urban centres as per pre-legalisation
tradition, thus oversaw each diocese. The bishops location was his seat, or see. Among the sees, ve
came to hold special eminence: Rome, Constantinople,
Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. The prestige of
most of these sees depended in part on their apostolic
founders, from whom the bishops were therefore the spiritual successors. Though the bishop of Rome was still
held to be the First among equals, Constantinople was
second in precedence as the new capital of the empire.

Later Church Fathers wrote volumes of theological

texts, including Augustine, Gregory Nazianzus, Cyril
of Jerusalem, Ambrose of Milan, Jerome, and others.
Some of these fathers, such as John Chrysostom and
Athanasius, suered exile, persecution, or martyrdom
from Arian Byzantine Emperors. Many of their writings
are translated into English in the compilations of Nicene
Theodosius I decreed that others not believing in the preand Post-Nicene Fathers.
served faithful tradition, such as the Trinity, were to
be considered to be practicers of illegal heresy,[51] and in
of capital punishment
2.2 Arianism and the rst Ecumenical 385, this resulted in the rst case
[52][53]
Priscillian.
of
a
heretic,
namely
Councils
Main articles: Arianism and First seven Ecumenical
2.4 Nestorianism and the Sassanid Empire
Councils
Further information: Germanic Christianity
Further information: Nestorian schism, Syriac Christianity and Church of the East
A popular doctrine of the 4th century was Arianism, the During the early 5th century the School of Edessa had
denial of the divinity of Christ, as propounded by Arius. taught a christological perspective stating that Christs diThough this doctrine was condemned as heresy and even- vine and human nature were distinct persons. A particutually eliminated by the Roman Church it remained pop- lar consequence of this perspective was that Mary could

2.6

Monasticism

7
munion of churches, including the Armenian, Syrian, and
Egyptian churches.[55] Though eorts were made at reconciliation in the next few centuries the schism remained
permanent resulting in what is today known as Oriental
Orthodoxy.

2.6 Monasticism
Main article: Christian monasticism

Largely extinct Church of the East and its largest extent during
the Middle Ages.

Monasticism is a form of asceticism whereby one renounces worldly pursuits and goes o alone as a hermit
or joins a tightly organized community. It began early
in the Church as a family of similar traditions, modeled
upon Scriptural examples and ideals, and with roots in
certain strands of Judaism. John the Baptist is seen as an
archetypical monk, and monasticism was also inspired by
the organisation of the Apostolic community as recorded
in Acts 2.

not be properly called the mother of God, but could only

be considered the mother of Christ. The most widely
known proponent of this viewpoint was the Patriarch of
Constantinople Nestorius. Since referring to Mary as the
mother of God had become popular in many parts of the Eremetic monks, or hermits, live in solitude, whereas
cenobitics live in communities, generally in a monastery,
Church this became a divisive issue.
under a rule (or code of practice) and are governed by an
The Roman Emperor Theodosius II called for the Council
abbot. Originally, all Christian monks were hermits, folof Ephesus (431), with the intention of settling the issue.
lowing the example of Anthony the Great. However, the
The councils ultimately rejected Nestorius view. Many
need for some form of organised spiritual guidance lead
churches who followed the Nestorian viewpoint broke
Pachomius in 318 to organise his many followers in what
away from the Roman Church, causing a major schism.
was to become the rst monastery. Soon, similar instituThe Nestorian churches were persecuted and many foltions were established throughout the Egyptian desert as
lowers ed to the Sassanid Empire where they were acwell as the rest of the eastern half of the Roman Empire.
cepted.
Women were especially attracted to the movement.[56]
The Sassanid (Persian) Empire had many Christian conCentral gures in the development of monasticism were
verts early in its history tied closely to the Syriac branch
Basil the Great in the East and, in the West, Benedict, who
of Christianity. The Empire was ocially Zoroastrian
created the famous Rule of Saint Benedict, which would
and maintained a strict adherence to this faith in part to
become the most common rule throughout the Middle
distinguish itself from the religion of the Roman Empire
Ages, and starting point for other monastic rules.[57]
(originally the pagan Roman religion and then Christianity). Christianity became tolerated in the Sassanid Empire and as the Roman Empire increasingly exiled heretics
during the 4th and 6th centuries, the Sassanid Christian 3 Early Middle Ages (476799)
community grew rapidly.[54] By the end of the 5th century the Persian Church was rmly established and had Main article: History of Christianity of the Middle Ages
become independent of the Roman Church. This church See also: Christianity in the 6th century, Christianity in
evolved into what is today known as the Church of the the 7th century and Christianity in the 8th century
East.

2.5

Miaphysitism

Further information: Oriental Orthodoxy

In 451 the Council of Chalcedon was held to further clarify the christological issues surrounding Nestorianism.
The council ultimately stated that Christs divine and human nature were separate but both part of a single entity,
a viewpoint rejected by many churches who called themselves miaphysites. The resulting schism created a com-

The transition into the Middle Ages was a gradual and localised process. Rural areas rose as power centres whilst
urban areas declined. Although a greater number of
Christians remained in the East (Greek areas), important
developments were underway in the West (Latin areas)
and each took on distinctive shapes.
The Bishops of Rome, the Popes, were forced to adapt
to drastically changing circumstances. Maintaining only
nominal allegiance to the Emperor, they were forced to
negotiate balances with the barbarian rulers of the former Roman provinces. In the East the Church maintained
its structure and character and evolved more slowly.

EARLY MIDDLE AGES (476799)

increased the missionary activities, supported by the

Merovingian kingdom as a means to pacify troublesome
neighbor peoples. After the foundation of a church in
Utrecht by Willibrord, backlashes occurred when the pagan Frisian king Radbod destroyed many Christian centres between 716 and 719. In 717, the English missionary Boniface was sent to aid Willibrord, re-establishing
churches in Frisia continuing missions in Germany.[59]

3.2 Byzantine iconoclasms

A mosaic of Justinian I in the church of San Vitale, Ravenna,

Italy.

3.1

Western missionary expansion

The stepwise loss of Western Roman Empire dominance,

replaced with foederati and Germanic kingdoms, coincided with early missionary eorts into areas not controlled by the collapsing empire.[58] Already as early as in
the 5th century, missionary activities from Roman Britain
into the Celtic areas (current Scotland, Ireland and Wales)
produced competing early traditions of Celtic Christianity, that was later reintegrated under the Church in Rome.
Prominent missionaries were Saints Patrick, Columba
and Columbanus. The Anglo-Saxon tribes that invaded
southern Britain some time after the Roman abandonment, were initially pagan, but converted to Christianity by Augustine of Canterbury on the mission of Pope
Gregory the Great. Soon becoming a missionary center, missionaries such as Wilfrid, Willibrord, Lullus and
Boniface would begin converting their Saxon relatives in
Germania.

Andrei Rublev's Trinity.

Main article: Iconoclasm (Byzantine)

Following a series of heavy military reverses against the
Muslims, the Iconoclasm emerged in the early 8th century. In the 720s the Byzantine Emperor Leo III the
Isaurian banned the pictorial representation of Christ,
saints, and biblical scenes. In the West, Pope Gregory
III held two synods at Rome and condemned Leos actions. The Byzantine Iconoclast Council at Hieria in 754,
ruled that holy portraits were heretical.[60]

The largely Christian Gallo-Roman inhabitants of Gaul

(modern France) were overrun by the Franks in the early
5th century. The native inhabitants were persecuted until the Frankish king Clovis I converted from paganism
to Roman Catholicism in 496. Clovis insisted that his
fellow nobles follow suit, strengthening his newly estab- The movement destroyed much of the Christian churchs
lished kingdom by uniting the faith of the rulers with that early artistic history. The iconoclastic movement itself
of the ruled.[59]
was later dened as heretical in 787 under the Seventh
After the rise of the Frankish Kingdom and the stabiliz- Ecumenical council, but enjoyed a brief resurgence being political conditions, the Western part of the Church tween 815 and 842.

4.2

Monastic Reform

High Middle Ages (8001299)

Main article: Medieval history of Christianity High

Middle Ages (8001300)
See also: Christianity in the 9th century, Christianity
in the 10th century, Christianity in the 11th century,
Christianity in the 12th century and Christianity in the
13th century

9
abbey of Cluny became the acknowledged leader of western monasticism from the later 10th century. Cluny created a large, federated order in which the administrators
of subsidiary houses served as deputies of the abbot of
Cluny and answered to him. The Cluniac spirit was a revitalising inuence on the Norman church, at its height
from the second half of the 10th centuries through the
early 12th.
4.2.2 Cteaux

4.1

Carolingian Renaissance

The Carolingian Renaissance was a period of intellectual

and cultural revival of literature, arts, and scriptural studies during the late 8th and 9th centuries, mostly during
the reigns of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, Frankish
rulers. To address the problems of illiteracy among clergy
and court scribes, Charlemagne founded schools and attracted the most learned men from all of Europe to his
court.

4.2

Monastic Reform

Bernard of Clairvaux, in a medieval illuminated manuscript.

The next wave of monastic reform came with the

Cistercian Movement. The rst Cistercian abbey was
founded in 1098, at Cteaux Abbey. The keynote of
Cistercian life was a return to a literal observance of
the Benedictine rule, rejecting the developments of the
Benedictines. The most striking feature in the reform was
the return to manual labour, and especially to eld-work.

A view of the Abbey of Cluny.

4.2.1

Cluny

Inspired by Bernard of Clairvaux, the primary builder of

the Cistercians, they became the main force of technological diusion in medieval Europe. By the end of the 12th
century the Cistercian houses numbered 500, and at its
height in the 15th century the order claimed to have close
to 750 houses. Most of these were built in wilderness
areas, and played a major part in bringing such isolated
parts of Europe into economic cultivation
4.2.3 Mendicant orders

From the 6th century onward most of the monasteries A third level of monastic reform was provided by the esin the West were of the Benedictine Order. Owing to tablishment of the Mendicant orders. Commonly known
the stricter adherence to a reformed Benedictine rule, the as friars, mendicants live under a monastic rule with tradi-

10
tional vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, but they
emphasise preaching, missionary activity, and education,
in a secluded monastery. Beginning in the 12th century,
the Franciscan order was instituted by the followers of
Francis of Assisi, and thereafter the Dominican order was
begun by St. Dominic.

4 HIGH MIDDLE AGES (8001299)

ops, or translate them to other sees. Henry IVs rejection
of the decree lead to his excommunication and a ducal revolt. Eventually Henry received absolution after dramatic
public penance barefoot in Alpine snow and cloaked in
a hairshirt (see Walk to Canossa), though the revolt and
conict of investiture continued.

Likewise, a similar controversy occurred in England between King Henry I and St. Anselm, Archbishop of Can4.3 Investiture Controversy
terbury, over investiture and ecclesiastical revenues collected by the king during an episcopal vacancy. The EnMain article: Investiture Controversy
glish dispute was resolved by the Concordat of London,
The Investiture Controversy, or Lay investiture contro1107, where the king renounced his claim to invest bishops but continued to require an oath of fealty from them
upon their election.
This was a partial model for the Concordat of Worms
(Pactum Calixtinum), which resolved the Imperial investiture controversy with a compromise that allowed secular
authorities some measure of control but granted the selection of bishops to their cathedral canons. As a symbol
of the compromise, lay authorities invested bishops with
their secular authority symbolised by the lance, and ecclesiastical authorities invested bishops with their spiritual
authority symbolised by the ring and the sta.
Henry IV at the gate of Canossa, by August von Heyden.

versy, was the most signicant conict between secular

and religious powers in medieval Europe. It began as a
dispute in the 11th century between the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, and Pope Gregory VII concerning who
would appoint bishops (investiture). The end of lay investiture threatened to undercut the power of the Empire
and the ambitions of noblemen for the benet of Church
reform.
Bishops collected revenues from estates attached to their
bishopric. Noblemen who held lands (efdoms) hereditarily passed those lands on within their family. However, because bishops had no legitimate children, when
a bishop died it was the kings right to appoint a successor. So, while a king had little recourse in preventing noblemen from acquiring powerful domains via inheritance
and dynastic marriages, a king could keep careful control
of lands under the domain of his bishops.
Kings would bestow bishoprics to members of noble families whose friendship he wished to secure. Furthermore,
if a king left a bishopric vacant, then he collected the estates revenues until a bishop was appointed, when in theory he was to repay the earnings. The infrequence of this
repayment was an obvious source of dispute. The Church
wanted to end this lay investiture because of the potential
corruption, not only from vacant sees but also from other
practices such as simony. Thus, the Investiture Contest
was part of the Churchs attempt to reform the episcopate and provide better pastoral care.

4.4 Medieval Inquisition

Main article: Medieval Inquisition
The Medieval Inquisition is a series of Inquisitions
(Roman Catholic Church bodies charged with suppressing heresy) from around 1184, including the Episcopal
Inquisition (11841230s) and later the Papal Inquisition
(1230s). It was in response to movements within Europe
considered apostate or heretical to Western Catholicism,
in particular the Cathars and the Waldensians in southern
France and northern Italy. These were the rst inquisition movements of many that would follow. The inquisitions in combination with the Albigensian Crusade were
fairly successful in ending heresy. Historian Thomas F.
Madden has written about popular myths regarding the
Inquisition.[61]

4.5 Conversion of the Scandinavians

Early evangelisation in Scandinavia was begun by Ansgar,
Archbishop of Bremen, Apostle of the North. Ansgar,
a native of Amiens, was sent with a group of monks to
Jutland Denmark in around 820 at the time of the proChristian Jutish king Harald Klak. The mission was only
partially successful, and Ansgar returned two years later
to Germany, after Harald had been driven out of his kingdom.

In 829 Ansgar went to Birka on Lake Mlaren, Sweden,

Pope Gregory VII issued the Dictatus Papae, which de- with his aide friar Witmar, and a small congregation was
clared that the pope alone could appoint or depose bish- formed in 831 which included the kings own steward

4.6

Conversion of the Slavs

Hergeir. Conversion was slow, however, and most Scandinavian lands were only completely Christianised at the
time of rulers such as Saint Canute IV of Denmark and
Olaf I of Norway in the years following AD 1000.

11
missionaries that could minister to the Moravians in their
own language.
The two brothers spoke the local Slavonic vernacular and
translated the Bible and many of the prayer books. As the
translations prepared by them were copied by speakers of
other dialects, the hybrid literary language Old Church
Slavonic was created.
Methodius later went on to convert the Serbs. Some of
the disciples returned to Bulgaria where they were welcomed by the Bulgarian Knyaz Boris I who viewed the
Slavonic liturgy as a way to counteract Byzantine inuence in the country. In a short time the disciples of Cyril
and Methodius managed to prepare and instruct the future Slavic clergy into the Glagolitic alphabet and the biblical texts.

Stavronikita monastery.

4.6

Conversion of the Slavs

Bulgaria was ocially recognised as a patriarchate by

Constantinople in 927, Serbia in 1346, and Russia in
1589. All these nations, however, had been converted
long before these dates.
The missionaries to the East and South Slavs had great
success in part because they used the peoples native language rather than Latin as the Roman priests did, or
Greek.

4.6.1 Mission to Great Moravia

When king Rastislav of Moravia asked Byzantium for
teachers who could minister to the Moravians in their
own language, Byzantine emperor Michael III chose two
brothers, Cyril and Methodius. As their mother was a
Slav from the hinterlands of Thessaloniki, the two brothers had been raised speaking the local Slavonic vernacular. Once commissioned, they immediately set about
creating an alphabet, the Glagolitic alphabet. They then
translated the Scripture and the liturgy into Slavonic.

St. Cyril and St. Methodius monument on Mt. Radho.

Though by 800 Western Europe was ruled entirely by

Christian kings, East and Central Europe remained an
area of missionary activity. For example, in the 9th century SS. Cyril and Methodius had extensive missionary
success in the region among the Slavic peoples, translating the Bible and liturgy into Slavonic. The Baptism of
Kiev in 988 spread Christianity throughout Kievan Rus,
establishing Christianity among the Ukraine, Belarus and
Russia.
In the 9th and 10th centuries, Christianity made great inroads into Eastern Europe, including Bulgaria and Kievan
Rus. The evangelisation, or Christianisation, of the Slavs
was initiated by one of Byzantiums most learned churchmen the Patriarch Photius. The Byzantine emperor
Michael III chose Cyril and Methodius in response to a
request from Rastislav, the king of Moravia who wanted

This Slavic dialect became the basis of Old Church

Slavonic which later evolved into Church Slavonic which
is the common liturgical language still used by the Russian Orthodox Church and other Slavic Orthodox Christians. The missionaries to the East and South Slavs had
great success in part because they used the peoples native
language rather than Latin or Greek. In Great Moravia,
Constantine and Methodius encountered Frankish missionaries from Germany, representing the western or
Latin branch of the Church, and more particularly representing the Holy Roman Empire as founded by Charlemagne, and committed to linguistic, and cultural uniformity. They insisted on the use of the Latin liturgy, and
they regarded Moravia and the Slavic peoples as part of
their rightful mission eld.
When friction developed, the brothers, unwilling to be a
cause of dissension among Christians, travelled to Rome
to see the Pope, seeking an agreement that would avoid
quarrelling between missionaries in the eld. Constantine
entered a monastery in Rome, taking the name Cyril, by

12

5 CONTROVERSY AND CRUSADES DIVIDING EAST AND WEST

which he is now remembered. However, he died only a

few weeks thereafter.
Pope Adrian II gave Methodius the title of Archbishop
of Sirmium (now Sremska Mitrovica in Serbia) and sent
him back in 869, with jurisdiction over all of Moravia and
Pannonia, and authorisation to use the Slavonic Liturgy.
Soon, however, Prince Ratislav, who had originally invited the brothers to Moravia, died, and his successor did
not support Methodius. In 870 the Frankish king Louis
and his bishops deposed Methodius at a synod at Ratisbon, and imprisoned him for a little over two years. Pope
John VIII secured his release, but instructed him to stop
using the Slavonic Liturgy.
In 878, Methodius was summoned to Rome on charges
of heresy and using Slavonic. This time Pope John was
convinced by the arguments that Methodius made in his
defence and sent him back cleared of all charges, and
with permission to use Slavonic. The Carolingian bishop
who succeeded him, Witching, suppressed the Slavonic
Liturgy and forced the followers of Methodius into exile.
Many found refuge with Knyaz Boris of Bulgaria, under
whom they reorganised a Slavic-speaking Church. Meanwhile, Pope Johns successors adopted a Latin-only policy The Baptism of Vladimir,
which lasted for centuries.
and Ukrainians, as well as Rusyns. By the beginning
of the 11th century most of the pagan Slavic world, in4.6.2 Conversion of Bulgaria
cluding Rus, Bulgaria and Serbia, had been converted to
Byzantine Christianity. The traditional event associated
Main article: Christianization of Bulgaria
with the conversion of Rus is the baptism of Vladimir
of Kiev in 989. However, Christianity is documented to
Bulgaria was a pagan country since its establishment in have predated this event in the city of Kiev and in Geor681 until 864 when Boris I (852889) converted to Chris- gia. Today the Russian Orthodox Church is the largest of
tianity. The reasons for that decision were complex; the the Orthodox Churches.
most important factors were that Bulgaria was situated
between two powerful Christian empires, Byzantium and
East Francia; Christian doctrine particularly favoured the 5 Controversy and Crusades dividposition of the monarch as Gods representative on Earth,
ing East and West
while Boris also saw it as a way to overcome the dier[62][63]
ences between Bulgars and Slavs.
In 885 some of the disciples of Cyril and Methodius, in- See also: Christianity in the 11th century, Christianity
cluding Clement of Ohrid, Naum of Preslav and Ange- in the 12th century, Christianity in the 13th century and
laruis, returned to Bulgaria where they were welcomed Christianity in the 14th century
by Boris I who viewed the Slavonic liturgy as a way to
counteract Byzantine inuence in the country. In a short
time they managed to prepare and instruct the future Bul- 5.1 Growing tensions between East and
garian clergy into the Glagolitic alphabet and the biblical
West
texts. As a result of the Council of Preslav in AD 893,
Bulgaria expelled its Greek clergy and proclaimed the Old
The cracks and ssures in Christian unity which led to the
Bulgarian language as the ocial language of the church
East-West Schism started to become evident as early as
and the state.
the 4th century. Cultural, political, and linguistic dierences were often mixed with the theological, leading to
schism.
4.6.3 Conversion of the Rus
The transfer of the Roman capital to Constantinople inThe success of the conversion of the Bulgarians facili- evitably brought mistrust, rivalry, and even jealousy to the
tated the conversion of other East Slavic peoples, most relations of the two great sees, Rome and Constantinonotably the Rus, predecessors of Belarusians, Russians, ple. It was easy for Rome to be jealous of Constantinople

5.2

Photian schism

at a time when it was rapidly losing its political prominence. Estrangement was also helped along by the German invasions in the West, which eectively weakened
contacts. The rise of Islam with its conquest of most
of the Mediterranean coastline (not to mention the arrival of the pagan Slavs in the Balkans at the same time)
further intensied this separation by driving a physical
wedge between the two worlds. The once homogenous
unied world of the Mediterranean was fast vanishing.
Communication between the Greek East and Latin West
by the 7th century had become dangerous and practically
ceased.[64]

13
which drew up the original Creed, had expressly forbidden any subtraction or addition to the text. In addition to this ecclesiological issue, the Eastern Church also
considered the lioque clause unacceptable on dogmatic
grounds. Theologically, the Latin interpolation was unacceptable since it implied that the Spirit now had two
sources of origin and procession, the Father and the Son,
rather than the Father alone.[67]

5.2 Photian schism

Main article: Photian schism

Two basic problems were involved: the nature of the
primacy of the bishop of Rome and the theological implications of adding a clause to the Nicene Creed, known In the 9th century AD, a controversy arose between Eastas the lioque clause. These doctrinal issues were rst ern (Byzantine, later Orthodox) and Western (Latin, Roman Catholic) Christianity that was precipitated by the
openly discussed in Photiuss patriarchate.
opposition of the Roman Pope John VII to the appointBy the 5th century, Christendom was divided into a
ment by the Byzantine emperor Michael III of Photius
pentarchy of ve sees with Rome accorded a primacy.
I to the position of patriarch of Constantinople. Photios
The four Eastern sees of the pentarchy considered this
was refused an apology by the pope for previous points of
determined by canonical decision and not entailing hegedispute between the East and West. Photius refused to acmony of any one local church or patriarchate over the othcept the supremacy of the pope in Eastern matters or acers. However, Rome began to interpret her primacy in
cept the lioque clause. The Latin delegation at the counterms of sovereignty, as a God-given right involving unicil of his consecration pressed him to accept the clause in
versal jurisdiction in the Church. The collegial and conorder to secure their support.
ciliar nature of the Church, in eect, was gradually abandoned in favour of supremacy of unlimited papal power The controversy also involved Eastern and Western ecover the entire Church. These ideas were nally given clesiastical jurisdictional rights in the Bulgarian church,
systematic expression in the West during the Gregorian as well as a doctrinal dispute over the Filioque (and from
the Son) clause. That had been added to the Nicene
Reform movement of the 11th century.
Creed by the Latin church, which was later the theological
The Eastern churches viewed Romes understanding of
breaking point in the ultimate Great East-West Schism in
the nature of episcopal power as being in direct oppothe 11th century.
sition to the Churchs essentially conciliar structure and
thus saw the two ecclesiologies as mutually antithetical. Photius did provide concession on the issue of jurisdicFor them, specically, Simon Peters primacy could never tional rights concerning Bulgaria and the papal legates
be the exclusive prerogative of any one bishop. All bish- made do with his return of Bulgaria to Rome. This conops must, like St. Peter, confess Jesus as the Christ and, cession, however, was purely nominal, as Bulgarias reas such, all are Peters successors. The churches of the turn to the Byzantine rite in 870 had already secured for
East gave the Roman See primacy but not supremacy, the it an autocephalous church. Without the consent of Boris
Pope being the rst among equals but not infallible and I of Bulgaria, the papacy was unable to enforce any of its
claims.
not with absolute authority.[65]
The other major irritant to Eastern Christendom was the
Western use of the lioque clausemeaning and the
Sonin the Nicene Creed . This too developed gradually and entered the Creed over time. The issue was
the addition by the West of the Latin clause lioque to
the Creed, as in the Holy Spirit... who proceeds from
the Father and the Son, where the original Creed, sanctioned by the councils and still used today by the Eastern Orthodox simply states the Holy Spirit, the Lord and
Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father. The Eastern Church argued that the phrase had been added unilaterally, and therefore illegitimately, since the East had
never been consulted.[66]

5.3 East-West Schism (1054)

Main article: East-West Schism

The East-West Schism, or Great Schism, separated the

Church into Western (Latin) and Easter ca (Greek)
branches, i.e., Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. It was the rst major division since certain groups
in the East rejected the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon (see Oriental Orthodoxy), and was far more signicant. Though normally dated to 1054, the East-West
Schism was actually the result of an extended period
In the nal analysis, only another ecumenical council
of estrangement between Latin and Greek Christendom
could introduce such an alteration. Indeed the councils,
over the nature of papal primacy and certain doctrinal

14

5 CONTROVERSY AND CRUSADES DIVIDING EAST AND WEST

matters like the lioque, but intensied by cultural and tians and for the expansion of Christian domains. Genlinguistic dierences.
erally, the crusades refer to the campaigns in the Holy
The ocial schism in 1054 was the excommunica- Land against Muslim forces sponsored by the Papacy.
tion of Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantino- There were other crusades against Islamic forces in southple, followed by his excommunication of papal legates. ern Spain, southern Italy, and Sicily, as well as the camAttempts at reconciliation were made in 1274 (by the paigns of Teutonic knights against pagan strongholds in
Second Council of Lyon) and in 1439 (by the Council Northeastern Europe (see Northern Crusades). A few
of Basel), but in each case the eastern hierarchs who con- crusades such as the Fourth Crusade were waged within
Christendom against groups that were considered heretisented to the unions were repudiated by the Orthodox as
a whole, though reconciliation was achieved between the cal and schismatic (also see the Battle of the Ice and the
Albigensian Crusade).
West and what are now called the "Eastern Rite Catholic
Churches". More recently, in 1965 the mutual excommunications were rescinded by the Pope and the Patriarch of
Constantinople, though schism remains.
Both groups are descended from the Early Church, both
acknowledge the apostolic succession of each others
bishops, and the validity of each others sacraments.
Though both acknowledge the primacy of the Bishop of
Rome, Eastern Orthodoxy understands this as a primacy
of honour with limited or no ecclesiastical authority in Krak des Chevaliers was built in the County of Tripoli by the
Knights Hospitaller during the Crusades.
other dioceses.
The Orthodox East perceived the Papacy as taking on
monarchical characteristics that were not in line with the The Holy Land had been part of the Roman Empire, and
thus Byzantine Empire, until the Islamic conquests of the
churchs tradition.
7th and 8th centuries. Thereafter, Christians had generThe nal breach is often considered to have arisen after ally been permitted to visit the sacred places in the Holy
the capture and sacking of Constantinople by the Fourth Land until 1071, when the Seljuk Turks closed Christian
Crusade in 1204. Crusades against Christians in the East pilgrimages and assailed the Byzantines, defeating them
by Roman Catholic crusaders was not exclusive to the at the Battle of Manzikert.
Mediterranean though (see also the Northern Crusades
and the Battle of the Ice). The sacking of Constantinople Emperor Alexius I asked for aid from Pope Urban II
and the Church of Holy Wisdom and establishment of the (10881099) for help against Islamic aggression. He
Latin Empire as a seeming attempt to supplant the Or- probably expected money from the pope for the hiring of
thodox Byzantine Empire in 1204 is viewed with some mercenaries. Instead, Urban II called upon the knights
of Christendom in a speech made at the Council of Clerrancour to the present day.
mont on 27 November 1095, combining the idea of pilMany in the East saw the actions of the West as a prime grimage to the Holy Land with that of waging a holy war
determining factor in the weakening of Byzantium. This against indels.
led to the Empires eventual conquest and fall to Islam.
In 2004, Pope John Paul II extended a formal apology The First Crusade captured Antioch in 1099 and then
for the sacking of Constantinople in 1204; the apol- Jerusalem. The Second Crusade occurred in 1145 when
ogy was formally accepted by Patriarch Bartholomew of Edessa was retaken by Islamic forces. Jerusalem would
Constantinople. Many things that were stolen during be held until 1187 and the Third Crusade, famous for the
this time: holy relics, riches, and many other items, are battles between Richard the Lionheart and Saladin. The
still held in various Western European cities, particularly Fourth Crusade, begun by Innocent III in 1202, intended
to retake the Holy Land but was soon subverted by VeneVenice, Italy.
tians who used the forces to sack the Christian city of
Zara.[68]

5.4

Crusades

Eventually the crusaders arrived in Constantinople.

Rather than proceed to the Holy Land the crusaders inMain article: Crusades
stead sacked Constantinople and other parts of Asia Minor eectively establishing the Latin Empire of ConThe Crusades were a series of military conicts con- stantinople in Greece and Asia Minor. This was eecwith later
ducted by European Christian knights for control over the tively the last crusade sponsored by the papacy,
[68]
crusades
being
sponsored
by
individuals.
lucrative trade routes running through the Middle East,
and establishment of European, not necessarily Chris- Jerusalem was held by the crusaders for nearly a centian, inuence in the region. However, many histori- tury, and other strongholds in the Near East would reans write that its purpose was for the defence of Chris- main in Christian possession much longer. The crusades

15
in the Holy Land ultimately failed to establish permanent Christian kingdoms. Islamic expansion into Europe
would renew and remain a threat for centuries culminating in the campaigns of Suleiman the Magnicent in the
16th century.[68]

took one position or the other until in 1351 at a synod

under the presidency of the Emperor John VI Cantacuzenus, Hesychast doctrine was established as the
doctrine of the Orthodox Church. the theology was
especially attractive in the East because it validated the
icons as a vehicle for contemplation of divine
Crusades in southern Spain, southern Italy, and Sicily use of
[69]
light.
eventually lead to the demise of Islamic power in
Europe.[68] The Teutonic knights expanded Christian domains in Eastern Europe, and the much less frequent
crusades within Christendom, such as the Albigensian 6 Eastern
Orthodox captivity
Crusade, achieved their goal of maintaining doctrinal
(14531850)
unity.[68]

5.5

Hesychast Controversy

Main article: Hesychast controversy

In 1337 Hesychasma mystical teaching at Mount

See also: Christianity in the 15th century, Christianity

in the 16th century, Christianity in the 17th century,
Christianity in the 18th century and Christianity in the
19th century

6.1 Fall of Constantinople

In 1453, Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire. By
this time Egypt had been under Muslim control for some
seven centuries, but Orthodoxy was very strong in Russia
which had recently acquired an autocephalous status; and
thus Moscow called itself the Third Rome, as the cultural
heir of Constantinople.
Under Ottoman rule, the Greek Orthodox Church acquired substantial power as an autonomous millet. The
ecumenical patriarch was the religious and administrative
ruler of the entire Greek Orthodox nation (Ottoman administrative unit), which encompassed all the Eastern Orthodox subjects of the Empire.
Eastern Christians eeing Constantinople, and the Greek
manuscripts they carried with them, is one of the factors
that prompted the literary renaissance in the West at about
this time.

6.2 Isolation from the West

Gregory Palamas.

As a result of the Ottoman conquest of the Byzantine

Empire in 1453, and the Fall of Constantinople, the entire Orthodox communion of the Balkans and the Near
East became suddenly isolated from the West. For the
next four hundred years, it would be conned within a
hostile Islamic world, with which it had little in common
religiously or culturally. The Russian Orthodox Church
was the only part of the Orthodox communion which remained outside the control of the Ottoman Empire.

Athos came under attack from Barlaam of Calabria, an

abbot in Constantinople. Barlaam propounded a more
intellectual and propositional approach to the knowledge
of God than the Hesychasts taught. Hesychasm is a form
of constant purposeful prayer or experiential prayer, explicitly referred to as contemplation focusing on the idea It is, in part, due to this geographical and intellectual
of stillness and the characteristic mystical idea of light as connement that the voice of Eastern Orthodoxy was
the vehicle for knowing God.
not heard during the Reformation in 16th-century EuGregory Palamas,
afterwards Archbishop of rope. As a result, this important theological debate often
Thessalonica, defended Hesychasm. Several synods seems strange and distorted to the Orthodox. They never

16

7 LATE MIDDLE AGES AND THE EARLY RENAISSANCE (13001520)

took part in it and thus neither Reformation nor Counter- investiture was accompanied by heavy payment to the
Reformation is part of their theological framework.
government. In order to recoup their losses, patriarchs
and bishops taxed the local parishes and their clergy.

6.3

Few patriarchs between the 15th and the 19th centuries

Religious rights under the Ottoman died a natural death while in oce. The forced abdicaEmpire
tions, exiles, hangings, drownings, and poisonings of pa-

Further information: Christianity in the Ottoman

Empire, Persecution of Christians Ottoman Empire
and History of the Eastern Orthodox Church under the
Ottoman Empire
The new Ottoman government that conquered the Byzantine Empire followed Islamic law when dealing with the
conquered Christian population. Christians were ocially tolerated as People of the Book. As such, the
Churchs canonical and hierarchical organisation were
not signicantly disrupted and its administration continued to function. One of the rst things that Mehmet the
Conqueror did was to allow the Church to elect a new
patriarch, Gennadius Scholarius.
Because Islamic law makes no distinction between nationality and religion, all Christians, regardless of their
language or nationality, were considered a single millet,
or nation. The patriarch, as the highest-ranking hierarch, was thus invested with civil and religious authority
and made ethnarch, head of the entire Christian Orthodox population. This meant that all Orthodox Churches
within Ottoman territory were under the control of Constantinople. However, these rights and privileges, including freedom of worship and religious organisation,
were often established in principle but seldom corresponded to reality. Christians were viewed as secondclass citizens, and the legal protections they depended
upon were subject to the whims of the Sultan and the
Sublime Porte.[70][71]

triarchs are well documented. The hierarchys positions

were often dangerous as well. The hanging of patriarch
Gregory V from the gate of the patriarchate on Easter
Sunday 1821 was accompanied by the execution of two
metropolitans and twelve bishops.

7 Late Middle Ages and the early

Renaissance (13001520)
Main article: Medieval history of Christianity Late
Middle Ages (13001499)
See also: Christianity in the 14th century, Christianity in
the 15th century and Renaissance

7.1 Avignon Papacy (13091378)

The Avignon Papacy, sometimes referred to as the Babylonian Captivity, was a period from 1309 to 1378 during which seven Popes resided in Avignon, in modern-day
France.[72] The period was one of conict and controversy
during which French Kings held considerable sway over
the Papacy and rulers across Europe felt sidelined by the
new French-centric papacy.

Troubles reached their peak in 1378 when, Gregory XI

died while visiting Rome. A papal conclave met in Rome
and elected Urban VI, an Italian. Urban soon alienated
Under Ottoman occupation the Church could no longer the French cardinals, and they held a second conclave
bear witness to Christ. Christian missionary work among electing Robert of Geneva to succeed Gregory XI, beMuslims was illegal and dangerous, whereas conversion ginning the Western Schism.
to Islam was entirely legal and permissible. Converts to
Islam who returned to Orthodoxy were put to death as
apostates. No new churches could be built and even the 7.2 Western Schism (13781416)
ringing of church bells was prohibited. The Hagia Sophia
and the Parthenon, which had been Christian churches for The Western Schism, or Papal Schism, was a prolonged
nearly a millennium, were converted into mosques. Ed- period of crisis in Latin Christendom from 1378 to
ucation of the clergy and the Christian population either 1416, when there were two or more claimants to the See
ceased altogether or was reduced to the most rudimentary of Rome and there was conict concerning the rightful
elements. Violent persecutions of Christians were com- holder of the papacy. The conict was political, rather
mon, and reached their climax in the Armenian, Assyrian, than doctrinal, in nature.
and Greek genocides.
In 1309, Pope Clement V, due to political considerations,
moved to Avignon in southern France and exercised his
ponticate there. For sixty-nine years popes resided in
6.4 Corruption
Avignon rather than Rome. This was not only an obvious source of confusion but of political animosity as the
The Orthodox Church found itself subject to the Turk- prestige and inuence of city of Rome waned without a
ish system of corruption. The patriarchal throne was fre- resident ponti. Though Pope Gregory XI, a Frenchman,
quently sold to the highest bidder, while new patriarchal returned to Rome in 1378, the strife between Italian and

7.4

Italian Renaissance (c.13751520)

17

French factions intensied, especially following his sub- priests and bishops. His followers, called Lollards, faced
sequent death.
persecution by the Church of England. They went undera century and played a role in the English
In 1378 the conclave, elected an Italian from Naples, ground for over
[73][74]
Reformation.
Pope Urban VI; his intransigence in oce soon alienated the French cardinals, who withdrew to a conclave
of their own, asserting the previous election was invalid
since its decision had been made under the duress of a
riotous mob. They elected one of their own, Robert of
Geneva, who took the name Pope Clement VII. By 1379,
he was back in the palace of popes in Avignon, while Urban VI remained in Rome.

Jan Hus (or Huss) (1369?1415) a Czech theologian in

Prague, was inuenced by Wyclie and spoke out against
the corruptions he saw in the Church; his continued deance led to his excommunication and condemnation by
the Council of Constance, which also condemned John
Wycli. Hus was executed in 1415, but his followers organized a peasants war, 14191436, that was put down
For nearly forty years, there were two papal curias and by the Empire with great brutality. Hus was a forerunner
two sets of cardinals, each electing a new pope for Rome of the Protestant Reformation and his memory has be[75]
or Avignon when death created a vacancy. Each pope come a powerful symbol of Czech culture in Bohemia.
lobbied for support among kings and princes who played See also: Bohemian Reformation
them o against each other, changing allegiance according to political advantage. In 1409, a council was convened at Pisa to resolve the issue. The council declared
both existing popes to be schismatic (Gregory XII from 7.4 Italian Renaissance (c.13751520)
Rome, Benedict XIII from Avignon) and appointed a new
one, Alexander V. The existing popes refused to resign
and thus there were three papal claimants. Another council was convened in 1414, the Council of Constance.
In March 1415 the Pisan pope John XXIII ed from Constance in disguise. He was brought back a prisoner and
deposed in May. The Roman pope, Gregory XII, resigned voluntarily in July. The Avignon pope, Benedict
XIII, refused to come to Constance, nor would he consider resignation. The council deposed him in July 1417.
The council in Constance elected Pope Martin V as pope
in November, having nally cleared the eld of popes and
antipopes, .

7.3

John Wycli and Jan Hus

Michelangelos Piet in St. Peters Basilica, Vatican City

See also: Italian Renaissance

Painting of Jan Hus in Council of Constance by Vclav Brok.

The Renaissance was a period of great cultural change

and achievement, marked in Italy by a classical orientation and an increase of wealth through mercantile trade.
The City of Rome, the Papacy, and the Papal States were
all aected by the Renaissance. On the one hand, it
was a time of great artistic patronage and architectural
magnicence, where the Church pardoned such artists
as Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Bramante, Raphael, Fra
Angelico, Donatello, and da Vinci. On the other hand,
wealthy Italian families often secured episcopal oces,
including the papacy, for their own members, some of
whom were known for immorality, such as Alexander VI
and Sixtus IV.

John Wyclie (or Wyclif) (13301384) was an English

scholar and heretic best known for denouncing the corruptions of the Church, and his sponsoring the rst translation of the Bible from Latin into English. He was a
precursor of the Protestant Reformation. He emphasized
the supremacy of the Bible, and called for a direct relationship between man and God, without interference by In addition to being the head of the Church, the Pope

18

8 REFORMATION AND COUNTER-REFORMATION

became one of Italys most important secular rulers, and

pontis such as Julius II often waged campaigns to protect
and expand their temporal domains. Furthermore, the
popes, in a spirit of rened competition with other Italian lords, spent lavishly both on private luxuries but also
on public works, repairing or building churches, bridges,
and a magnicent system of aqueducts in Rome that still
function today.
From 1505 to 1626, St. Peters Basilica, perhaps the most
recognised Christian church, was built on the site of the
old Constantinian basilica. It was also a time of increased
contact with Greek culture, opening up new avenues of
learning, especially in the elds of philosophy, poetry,
classics, rhetoric, and political science, fostering a spirit
of humanismall of which would inuence the Church.

Reformation
Reformation

and

Counter-

See also: Christianity in the 16th century

8.1

Protestant Reformation (15211610)

Main articles: Protestant Reformation and Protestantism

In the early 16th century, movements were begun by two
theologians, Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli, that
aimed to reform the Church; these reformers are distinguished from previous ones in that they considered the
root of corruptions to be doctrinal (rather than simply a
matter of moral weakness or lack of ecclesiastical discipline) and thus they aimed to change contemporary
doctrines to accord with what they perceived to be the
true gospel. The word Protestant is derived from the
Latin protestatio meaning declaration which refers to the
letter of protestation by Lutheran princes against the decision of the Diet of Speyer in 1529, which rearmed the
edict of the Diet of Worms against the Reformation.[76]
Since that time, the term has been used in many dierent
senses, but most often as a general term refers to Western
Christianity that is not subject to papal authority.[76] The
term Protestant was not originally used by Reformation
era leaders; instead, they called themselves evangelical,
emphasising the return to the true gospel (Greek: euangelion).[77]
The beginning of the Protestant Reformation is generally identied with Martin Luther and the posting of the
95 Theses on the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany.
Early protest was against corruptions such as simony,
episcopal vacancies, and the sale of indulgences. The
Protestant position, however, would come to incorporate
doctrinal changes such as sola scriptura and sola de. The
three most important traditions to emerge directly from

the Protestant Reformation were the Lutheran, Reformed

(Calvinist, Presbyterian, etc.), and Anglican traditions,
though the latter group identies as both Reformed and
Catholic, and some subgroups reject the classication
as Protestant.
The Protestant Reformation may be divided into two
distinct but basically simultaneous movements, the
Magisterial Reformation and the Radical Reformation.
The Magisterial Reformation involved the alliance of certain theological teachers (Latin: magistri) such as Luther,
Zwingli, Calvin, Cranmer, etc. with secular magistrates
who cooperated in the reformation of Christendom. Radical Reformers, besides forming communities outside
state sanction, often employed more extreme doctrinal
change, such as the rejection of tenets of the Councils
of Nicaea and Chalcedon. Often the division between
magisterial and radical reformers was as or more violent
than the general Catholic and Protestant hostilities.
The Protestant Reformation spread almost entirely within
the connes of Northern Europe, but did not take hold in
certain northern areas such as Ireland and parts of Germany. By far the magisterial reformers were more successful and their changes more widespread than the radical reformers. The Catholic response to the Protestant
Reformation is known as the Counter Reformation, or
Catholic Reformation, which resulted in a reassertion of
traditional doctrines and the emergence of new religious
orders aimed at both moral reform and new missionary
activity. The Counter Reformation reconverted approximately 33% of Northern Europe to Catholicism and initiated missions in South and Central America, Africa, Asia,
and even China and Japan. Protestant expansion outside
of Europe occurred on a smaller scale through colonisation of North America and areas of Africa.
8.1.1 Martin Luther
Main article: Martin Luther
See also: Theology of Martin Luther
Martin Luther was an Augustinian friar and professor at
the University of Wittenberg. In 1517, he published a
list of 95 Theses, or points to be debated, concerning the
illicitness of selling indulgences. Luther had a particular disdain for Aristotelian philosophy, and as he began
developing his own theology, he increasingly came into
conict with Thomistic scholars, most notably Cardinal
Cajetan.[78] Soon, Luther had begun to develop his theology of justication, or process by which one is made
right (righteous) in the eyes of God. In Catholic theology, one is made righteous by a progressive infusion of
grace accepted through faith and cooperated with through
good works. Luthers doctrine of justication diered
from Catholic theology in that justication rather meant
the declaring of one to be righteous, where God imputes the merits of Christ upon one who remains without inherent merit.[79] In this process, good works are
more of an unessential byproduct that contribute noth-

8.1

Protestant Reformation (15211610)

19

Ulrich Zwingli, wearing the scholars cap.

Martin Luther, by Lucas Cranach the Elder

ing to ones own state of righteousness. Conict between

Luther and leading theologians lead to his gradual rejection of authority of the Church hierarchy. In 1520, he was
condemned for heresy by the papal bull Exsurge Domine,
which he burned at Wittenberg along with books of canon
law.[80]

of icons was actually idolatry and thus a violation of the

rst commandment, and the denial of the real presence
in the Eucharist.[82] Soon the city council had accepted
Zwinglis doctrines and Zurich became a focal point of
more radical reforming movements, and certain admirers
and followers of Zwingli pushed his message and reforms
far further than even he had intended, such as rejecting
infant baptism.[83] This split between Luther and Zwingli
formed the essence of the Protestant division between
Lutheran and Reformed theology. Meanwhile, political
tensions increased; Zwingli and the Zurich leadership imposed an economic blockade on the inner Catholic states
of Switzerland, which led to a battle in which Zwingli, in
full armor, was slain along with his troops.

8.1.3 John Calvin

8.1.2

Ulrich Zwingli

Main article: Huldrych Zwingli

Ulrich Zwingli was a Swiss scholar and parish priest who
was likewise inuential in the beginnings of the Protestant
Reformation. Zwingli claimed that his theology owed
nothing to Luther, and that he had developed it in 1516,
before Luthers famous protest, though his doctrine of
justication was remarkably similar to that of the German
friar.[81] In 1518, Zwingli was given a post at the wealthy
collegiate church of the Grossmnster in Zurich, where
he would remain until his death at a relatively young age.
Soon he had risen to prominence in the city, and when
political tension developed between most of Switzerland
and the Catholic Habsburg Emperor Charles V. In this
environment, Zwingli began preaching his version of reform, with certain points as the aforementioned doctrine of justication, but others (with which Luther vehemently disagreed) such as the position that veneration

Main article: John Calvin

See also: Calvinism
John Calvin was a French cleric and doctor of law turned
Protestant reformer. He belonged to the second generation of the Reformation, publishing his theological
tome, the Institutes of the Christian Religion, in 1536
(later revised), and establishing himself as a leader of
the Reformed church in Geneva, which became an unocial capital of Reformed Christianity in the second half of the 16th century. He exerted a remarkable
amount of authority in the city and over the city council, such that he has (rather ignominiously) been called
a Protestant pope. Calvin established an eldership together with a "consistory", where pastors and the elders established matters of religious discipline for the
Genevan population.[84] Calvins theology is best known
for his doctrine of (double) predestination, which held

20

8 REFORMATION AND COUNTER-REFORMATION

that God had, from all eternity, providentially foreor- tant), and other unocial more radical movements
dained who would be saved (the elect) and likewise who such as the Puritans.
would be damned (the reprobate). Predestination was not
the dominant idea in Calvins works, but it would seemingly become so for many of his Reformed successors.[85] 8.2 Counter-Reformation (15451610)
8.1.4

English Reformation

Main article: Counter-Reformation

The Counter-Reformation, or Catholic Reformation, was

See also: English Civil War
Unlike other reform movements, the English Reforma- the response of the Catholic Church to the Protestant Reformation. The essence of the Counter-Reformation was
a renewed conviction in traditional practices and the upholding of Catholic doctrine as the source of ecclesiastic and moral reform, and the answer to halt the spread
of Protestantism. Thus it experienced the founding of
new religious orders, such as the Jesuits, the establishment of seminaries for the proper training of priests, renewed worldwide missionary activity, and the development of new yet orthodox forms of spirituality, such as
that of the Spanish mystics and the French school of
spirituality. The entire process was spearheaded by the
Council of Trent, which claried and reasserted doctrine,
issued dogmatic denitions, and produced the Roman
Catechism.

Statue of Richard Hooker, whose emphases on reason, tolerance

and inclusiveness inuenced Anglicanism.

tion began by royal inuence. Henry VIII considered

himself a thoroughly Catholic King, and in 1521 he defended the papacy against Luther in a book he commissioned entitled, The Defence of the Seven Sacraments, for
which Pope Leo X awarded him the title Fidei Defensor (Defender of the Faith). However, the king came
into conict with the papacy when he wished to annul
his marriage with Catherine of Aragon, for which he
needed papal sanction. Catherine, among many other
noble relations, was the aunt of Emperor Charles V, the
papacys most signicant secular supporter. The ensuing dispute eventually lead to a break from Rome and
the declaration of the King of England as head of the
English Church. England would later experience periods of frenetic and eclectic reforms contrasted by periods
led by staunch conservatives. Monarchs such as Edward
VI, Mary I, Elizabeth I, and Archbishops of Canterbury
such as Thomas Cranmer and William Laud pushed the
Church of England in many directions over the course of
only a few generations. What emerged was a state church
that considered itself both Reformed and Catholic
but not Roman (and hesitated from the title Protes-

Though Ireland, Spain, France, and elsewhere featured

signicantly in the Counter-Reformation, its heart was
Italy and the various popes of the time, who established
the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (the list of prohibited
books) and the Roman Inquisition, a system of juridical tribunals that prosecuted heresy and related oences.
The Papacy of St. Pius V (15661572) was known not
only for its focus on halting heresy and worldly abuses
within the Church, but also for its focus on improving
popular piety in a determined eort to stem the appeal
of Protestantism. Pius began his ponticate by giving
large alms to the poor, charity, and hospitals, and the
ponti was known for consoling the poor and sick, and
supporting missionaries. The activities of these pontis
coincided with a rediscovery of the ancient Christian
catacombs in Rome. As Diarmaid MacCulloch stated,
Just as these ancient martyrs were revealed once more,
Catholics were beginning to be martyred afresh, both in
mission elds overseas and in the struggle to win back
Protestant northern Europe: the catacombs proved to be
an inspiration for many to action and to heroism.[86]
8.2.1 The Council of Trent
Main article: Council of Trent
The Council of Trent (15451563), initiated by Pope
Paul III (15341549) addressed issues of certain ecclesiastical corruptions such as simony, absenteeism,
nepotism, and other abuses, as well as the reassertion
of traditional practices and the dogmatic articulation of
the traditional doctrines of the Church, such as the episcopal structure, clerical celibacy, the seven Sacraments,
transubstantiation (the belief that during mass the conse-

9.1

Trial of Galileo

21

Galileo before the Holy Oce, a 19th-century painting by

Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury
The Council in Santa Maria Maggiore church; Museo Diocesiano
Tridentino, Trento

crated bread and wine truly become the body and blood
of Christ), the veneration of relics, icons, and saints (especially the Blessed Virgin Mary), the necessity of both
faith and good works for salvation, the existence of purgatory and the issuance (but not the sale) of indulgences, etc.
In other words, all Protestant doctrinal objections and
changes were uncompromisingly rejected. The Council
also fostered an interest in education for parish priests to
increase pastoral care. Milan's Archbishop Saint Charles
Borromeo (15381584) set an example by visiting the remotest parishes and instilling high standards.

9.1 Trial of Galileo

The Galileo aair, in which Galileo Galilei came into
conict with the Roman Catholic Church over his support
of Copernican astronomy, is often considered a dening
moment in the history of the relationship between religion and science.
In 1610, Galileo published his Sidereus Nuncius (Starry
Messenger), describing the surprising observations that he
had made with the new telescope. These and other discoveries exposed major diculties with the understanding of the Heavens that had been held since antiquity,
and raised new interest in radical teachings such as the
heliocentric theory of Copernicus.

In reaction, many scholars maintained that the motion of

the Earth and immobility of the Sun were heretical, as
they contradicted some accounts given in the Bible as un8.2.2 Catholic missions
derstood at that time. Galileos part in the controversies
Catholic missions were carried to new places beginning over theology, astronomy and philosophy culminated in
with the new Age of Discovery, and the Roman Catholic his trial and sentencing in 1633, on a grave suspicion of
Church established a number of Missions in the Americas heresy.
and other colonies in order to spread Christianity in the
New World and to convert the indigenous peoples. At the
same time, missionaries such as Francis Xavier as well as 9.2 Puritans in North America
other Jesuits, Augustinians, Franciscans and Dominicans
were moving into Asia and the Far East. The Portuguese Main article: Migration to New England (16201640)
sent missions into Africa. While some of these missions See also: History of the Puritans
were associated with imperialism and oppression, others
(notably Matteo Ricci's Jesuit mission to China) were rel- The most famous colonisation by Protestants in the New
atively peaceful and focused on integration rather than World was that of English Puritans in North Amercultural imperialism.
ica. Unlike the Spanish or French, the English colonists
made surprisingly little eort to evangelise the native
peoples.[87] The Puritans, or Pilgrims, left England so that
they could live in an area with Puritanism established as
9 Church and the Enlightenment the exclusive civic religion. Though they had left England because of the suppression of their religious prac(16101800)
tice, most Puritans had thereafter originally settled in the
Low Countries but found the licentiousness there, where
See also: Christianity in the 17th century and Christianity the state hesitated from enforcing religious practice, as
in the 18th century
unacceptable, and thus they set out for the New World
and the hopes of a Puritan utopia.

22

10

11 LATE MODERN ERA

Early Modern era

10.3 Restorationism

Main article: Restoration Movement

This is the period from the Industrial revolution and the See also: Restorationism (Christian primitivism)
French Revolution until the mid 19th century.
See the French Republican Calendar and anti-clerical Restorationism refers to the belief that a purer form of
measures. See also the Holy League, the Battle of Vi- Christianity should be restored using the early church
enna, Cardinal Richelieu, and Louis XIV of France.
as a model.[89]:635[90]:217 In many cases, restorationist
groups believed that contemporary Christianity, in all its
forms, had deviated from the true, original Christianity,
which they then attempted to Reconstruct, often using
the Book of Acts as a guidebook of sorts. Restora10.1 Revivalism (17201906)
tionists do not usually describe themselves as reforming
a Christian church continuously existing from the time of
Main article: Revivalism
Jesus, but as restoring the Church that they believe was
See also: Christianity in the 18th century and Christianity
lost at some point. Restorationism is often used to dein the 19th century
scribe the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement.
Revivalism refers to the Calvinist and Wesleyan revival,
called the Great Awakening, in North America which 10.3.1 Jehovahs Witnesses
saw the development of evangelical Congregationalist,
Presbyterian, Baptist, and new Methodist churches.
The term Restorationist is also used to describe the
Jehovahs Witness Movement, founded in the late 1870s
by Charles Taze Russell

10.2

Great Awakenings

10.3.2 Latter Day Saint movement

Main articles: First Great Awakening, Second Great The term Restorationist is also used to describe the
Awakening and Third Great Awakening
Latter Day Saint movement, including The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), the
The First Great Awakening was a wave of religious en- Community of Christ and numerous other Latter Day
thusiasm among Protestants in the American colonies Saints sects. Latter Day Saints believe that Joseph Smith
c. 17301740, emphasising the traditional Reformed was chosen to restore the original organization established
now in its fullness, rather than to reform the
virtues of Godly preaching, rudimentary liturgy, and a by Jesus,
[91][92]
church.
deep sense of personal guilt and redemption by Christ
Jesus. Historian Sydney E. Ahlstrom saw it as part of
a great international Protestant upheaval that also created Pietism in Germany, the Evangelical Revival, and
Methodism in England.[88] It centred on reviving the
spirituality of established congregations, and mostly affected Congregational, Presbyterian, Dutch Reformed,
German Reformed, Baptist, and Methodist churches,
while also spreading within the slave population. The
Second Great Awakening (18001830s), unlike the rst,
focused on the unchurched and sought to instil in them
a deep sense of personal salvation as experienced in revival meetings. It also sparked the beginnings of groups
such as the Mormons, the Restoration Movement and
the Holiness movement. The Third Great Awakening began from 1857 and was most notable for taking
the movement throughout the world, especially in English speaking countries. The nal group to emerge
from the great awakenings in North America was
Pentecostalism, which had its roots in the Methodist,
Wesleyan, and Holiness movements, and began in 1906
on Azusa Street, in Los Angeles. Pentecostalism would
later lead to the Charismatic movement.

11 Late Modern era

Main article: History of Christianity of the Late Modern
era
See also: Christianity in the 20th century
The history of the Church from the mid 19th century
around period of the revolutions of 1848 to today.

11.1 Modern Eastern Orthodoxy

11.1.1 Russian Orthodox Church in the Russian
Empire
The Russian Orthodox Church held a privileged position in the Russian Empire, expressed in the motto of
the late Empire from 1833: Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and
Populism. Nevertheless, the Church reform of Peter I

11.1

Modern Eastern Orthodoxy

Churches of the Moscow Kremlin, as seen from the Balchug

in the early 18th century had placed the Orthodox authorities under the control of the Tsar. An ocial (titled
Ober-Procurator) appointed by the Tsar himself ran the
committee which governed the Church between 1721 and
1918: the Most Holy Synod.
The Church became involved in the various campaigns of
russication,[93] and was accused of involvement in antiJewish pogroms.[94] In the case of anti-Semitism and the
anti-Jewish pogroms, no evidence is given of the direct
participation of the Church, and many Russian Orthodox
clerics, including senior hierarchs, openly defended persecuted Jews, at least from the second half of the 19th
century.[95] Also, the Church has no ocial position on
Judaism as such.[95][96]

23
gions were never outlawed. Some actions against Orthodox priests and believers along with execution included
torture being sent to prison camps, labour camps or
mental hospitals.[100][101] The result of state atheism was
to transform the Church into a persecuted and martyred
Church. In the rst ve years after the Bolshevik revolution, 28 bishops and 1,200 priests were executed.[102]
This included people like the Grand Duchess Elizabeth
Fyodorovna who was at this point a monastic. Along
with her murder was Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich
Romanov; the Princes Ioann Konstantinovich, Konstantin
Konstantinovich, Igor Konstantinovich and Vladimir
Pavlovich Paley; Grand Duke Sergeis secretary, Fyodor
Remez; and Varvara Yakovleva, a sister from the Grand
Duchess Elizabeths convent. They were herded into the
forest, pushed into an abandoned mineshaft and grenades
were then hurled into the mineshaft. Her remains were
buried in Jerusalem, in the Church of Maria Magdalene.

The Bolsheviks and other Russian revolutionaries saw the

Church, like the Tsarist state, as an enemy of the people.
11.1.2

Russian Orthodox Church in the Soviet

Union

Further information: Religion in the Soviet Union

The Russian Orthodox Church collaborated with the
White Army in the Russian Civil War (see White movement) after the October Revolution. This may have
further strengthened the Bolshevik animus against the
church.
After the October Revolution of 7 November 1917 (25
October Old Calendar) there was a movement within the
Soviet Union to unite all of the people of the world under
Communist rule (see Communist International). This included the Eastern European bloc countries as well as the
Balkan States. Since some of these Slavic states tied their
ethnic heritage to their ethnic churches, both the peoples
and their church where targeted by the Soviet.[97][98] Criticism of atheism was strictly forbidden and sometimes
lead to imprisonment.[99]

Christ the Saviour Cathedral Moscow after reconstruction

The main target of the anti-religious campaign in the

1920s and 1930s was the Russian Orthodox Church,
which had the largest number of faithful. Nearly its entire
clergy, and many of its believers, were shot or sent to labor camps. Theological schools were closed, and church
publications were prohibited. In the period between 1927
and 1940, the number of Orthodox Churches in the Russian Republic fell from 29,584 to fewer than 500. Between 1917 and 1940, 130,000 Orthodox priests were
arrested. Father Pavel Florensky was one of the Newmartyrs of this particular period.

The Soviet Union was the rst state to have as an ideological objective the elimination of religion. Toward
that end, the Communist regime conscated church property, ridiculed religion, harassed believers, and propagated anti-religious atheistic propaganda in the schools.
Actions toward particular religions, however, were de- After Nazi Germanys attack on the Soviet Union in 1941,
termined by State interests, and most organised reli- Joseph Stalin revived the Russian Orthodox Church to in-

24

11 LATE MODERN ERA

tensify patriotic support for the war eort. By 1957 about and other philosophical and religious paradigms devel22,000 Russian Orthodox churches had become active. oped during the Age of Enlightenment.
But in 1959 Nikita Khrushchev initiated his own campaign against the Russian Orthodox Church and forced
the closure of about 12,000 churches. By 1985 fewer than 11.2.2 Fundamentalism
7,000 churches remained active.[103]
Main article: Christian fundamentalism
In the Soviet Union, in addition to the methodical closing and destruction of churches, the charitable and social work formerly done by ecclesiastical authorities was Fundamentalist Christianity, is a movement that arose
taken over by the state. As with all private property, mainly within British and American Protestantism in the
Church owned property was conscated into public use. late 19th century and early 20th century in reaction to
The few places of worship left to the Church were legally modernism and certain liberal Protestant groups that deviewed as state property which the government permitted nied doctrines considered fundamental to Christianity yet
the church to use. After the advent of state funded uni- still called themselves Christian. Thus, fundamentalism
versal education, the Church was not permitted to carry sought to re-establish tenets that could not be denied withon educational, instructional activity for children. For out relinquishing a Christian identity, the "fundamentals":
adults, only training for church-related occupations was inerrancy of the Bible, Sola Scriptura, the Virgin Birth
allowed. Outside of sermons during the celebration of of Jesus, the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, the
the divine liturgy it could not instruct or evangelise to the bodily Resurrection of Jesus, and the imminent return of
faithful or its youth. Catechism classes, religious schools, Jesus Christ.
study groups, Sunday schools and religious publications
were all illegal and or banned. This persecution continued, even after the death of Stalin until the dissolution 11.2.3 Under/During Nazism
of the Soviet Union in 1991. This caused many religious
tracts to be circulated as illegal literature or samizdat.[100] The position of Christians aected by Nazism is highly
Since the fall of the Soviet Union there have been many complex.
New-martyrs added as Saints from the yoke.
Regarding the matter, historian Derek Holmes wrote,
11.1.3

Diaspora emigration to the West

One of the most striking developments in modern historical Orthodoxy is the dispersion of Orthodox Christians to the West. Emigration from Greece and the Near
East in the last hundred years has created a sizable Orthodox diaspora in Western Europe, North and South America, and Australia. In addition, the Bolshevik Revolution
forced thousands of Russian exiles westward. As a result,
Orthodoxys traditional frontiers have been profoundly
modied. Millions of Orthodox are no longer geographically eastern since they live permanently in their newly
adopted countries in the West. Nonetheless, they remain
Eastern Orthodox in their faith and practice.

There is no doubt that the Catholic districts, resisted

the lure of National Socialism [Nazism] far better than
the Protestant ones.[104] Pope Pius XI declared - Mit
brennender Sorge - that Fascist governments had hidden pagan intentions and expressed the irreconcilability of the Catholic position and Totalitarian Fascist State
Worship, which placed the nation above God and fundamental human rights and dignity. His declaration that
Spiritually, [Christians] are all Semites prompted the
Nazis to give him the title Chief Rabbi of the Christian
World.[105]

Catholic priests were executed in concentration camps

alongside Jews; for example, 2,600 Catholic Priests were
imprisoned in Dachau, and 2,000 of them were executed.
A further 2,700 Polish priests were executed (a quarter of
all Polish priests), and 5,350 Polish nuns were either displaced, imprisoned, or executed.[106] Many Catholic lay11.2 Modern trends in Christian theology men and clergy played notable roles in sheltering Jews
during the Holocaust, including Pope Pius XII (1876
11.2.1 Modernism and liberal Christianity
1958). The head rabbi of Rome became a Catholic in
1945 and, in honour of the actions the Pope undertook to
Main article: Liberal Christianity
save Jewish lives, he took the name Eugenio (the popes
rst name).[107] A former Israeli consul in Italy claimed:
Liberal Christianity, sometimes called liberal theology, The Catholic Church saved more Jewish lives during the
institutions, and
is an umbrella term covering diverse, philosophically in- war than all the other churches, religious
[108]
rescue
organisations
put
together.
formed religious movements and moods within late 18th,
19th and 20th-century Christianity. The word liberal The relationship between Nazism and Protestantism, esin liberal Christianity does not refer to a leftist political pecially the German Lutheran Church, was complex.
agenda or set of beliefs, but rather to the freedom of Though many Protestant church leaders in Germany supdialectic process associated with continental philosophy ported the Nazis growing anti-Jewish activities, some,

11.5

Pentecostal movement

such as Dietrich Bonhoeer (a Lutheran pastor) were

strongly opposed to the Nazis. Bonhoeer was later
found guilty in the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler and
executed.

11.3

Second Vatican Council

Main article: Second Vatican Council

On 11 October 1962, Pope John XXIII opened the
Second Vatican Council, the 21st ecumenical council of
the Catholic Church. The council was pastoral in nature, emphasising and clarifying already dened dogma,
revising liturgical practices, and providing guidance for
articulating traditional Church teachings in contemporary
times. The council is perhaps best known for its instructions that the Mass may be celebrated in the vernacular
as well as in Latin.

25
establishment of the Latin Empire, Uniatism to note but
a few) as well as practical matters such as the concrete
exercise of the claim to papal primacy and how to ensure
that ecclesiastical union would not mean mere absorption
of the smaller Churches by the Latin component of the
much larger Catholic Church (the most numerous single
religious denomination in the world), and the stiing or
abandonment of their own rich theological, liturgical and
cultural heritage.
With respect to Catholic relations with Protestant communities, certain commissions were established to foster dialogue and documents have been produced aimed
at identifying points of doctrinal unity, such as the Joint
Declaration on the Doctrine of Justication produced
with the Lutheran World Federation in 1999.

11.5 Pentecostal movement

Main article: Pentecostalism

11.4

Ecumenism

Main article: Ecumenism

The nal Great Awakening (1904 onwards) had its roots

in the Holiness movement which had developed in the
late 19th century. The Pentecostal revival movement began, out of a passion for more power and a greater outpouring of the Spirit. In 1902, the American evangelists Reuben Archer Torrey and Charles M. Alexander
conducted meetings in Melbourne, Australia, resulting in
more than 8,000 converts. News of this revival travelled
fast, igniting a passion for prayer and an expectation that
God would work in similar ways elsewhere.

Ecumenism broadly refers to movements between Christian groups to establish a degree of unity through dialogue. "Ecumenism" is derived from Greek
(oikoumene), which means the inhabited world, but
more guratively something like universal oneness. The
movement can be distinguished into Catholic and Protestant movements, with the latter characterised by a redened ecclesiology of denominationalism (which the Torrey and Alexander were involved in the beginnings
Catholic Church, among others, rejects).
of the great Welsh revival (1904) which led Jessie PennLewis to witness the working of Satan during times of
revival, and write her book War on the Saints. In 1906,
11.4.1 Catholic ecumenism
the modern Pentecostal Movement was born on Azusa
Street in Los Angeles.
Main article: Catholic Church and ecumenism
Another noteworthy development in 20th-century Christianity was the rise of the modern Pentecostal movement.
Over the last century, a number of moves have been made
Although its roots predate the year 1900, its actual birth
to reconcile the schism between the Catholic Church and is commonly attributed to the 20th century. Sprung from
the Eastern Orthodox churches. Although progress has
Methodist and Wesleyan roots, it arose out of the meetbeen made, concerns over papal primacy and the inde- ings at an urban mission on Azusa Street in Los Angependence of the smaller Orthodox churches has blocked les. From there it spread around the world, carried by
a nal resolution of the schism.
those who experienced what they believed to be miracOn 30 November 1894, Pope Leo XIII published the ulous moves of God there. These Pentecost-like maniApostolic Letter Orientalium Dignitas (On the Churches festations have steadily been in evidence throughout the
of the East) safeguarding the importance and continuance history of Christianitysuch as seen in the two Great
of the Eastern traditions for the whole Church. On 7 De- Awakenings that started in the United States. However,
cember 1965, a Joint Catholic-Orthodox Declaration of Azusa Street is widely accepted as the fount of the modPope Paul VI and the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I ern Pentecostal movement. Pentecostalism, which in turn
was issued lifting the mutual excommunications of 1054. birthed the Charismatic movement within already estabSome of the most dicult questions in relations with lished denominations, continues to be an important force
the ancient Eastern Churches concern some doctrine (i.e. in western Christianity.
Filioque, Scholasticism, functional purposes of asceti- In reaction to these developments, Christian fundamencism, the essence of God, Hesychasm, Fourth Crusade, talism was a movement to reject the radical inuences of

26

13

philosophical humanism, as this was aecting the Christian religion. Especially targeting critical approaches to
the interpretation of the Bible, and trying to blockade the
inroads made into their churches by atheistic scientic assumptions, the fundamentalists began to appear in various denominations as numerous independent movements
of resistance to the drift away from historic Christianity.
Over time, the Fundamentalist Evangelical movement
has divided into two main wings, with the label Fundamentalist following one branch, while Evangelical has become the preferred banner of the more moderate movement. Although both movements primarily originated in
the English-speaking world, the majority of Evangelicals
now live elsewhere in the world.
11.5.1

Ecumenism within Protestantism

REFERENCES

Protestantism
Rise of Christianity during the Fall of Rome
Role of the Christian Church in civilization
Timeline of the Roman Catholic Church
Restoration Movement
Timeline of Christian missions

13 References
[1] The Church Triumphant: A History of Christianity Up to
1300, E. Glenn Hinson, p 223
[2] Georgian Reader, George Hewitt, p. xii

Ecumenical movements within Protestantism have focused on determining a list of doctrines and practices essential to being Christian and thus extending to all groups
which full these basic criteria a (more or less) co-equal
status, with perhaps ones own group still retaining a rst
among equal standing. This process involved a redenition of the idea of the Church from traditional theology. This ecclesiology, known as denominationalism,
contends that each group (which fulls the essential criteria of being Christian) is a sub-group of a greater
Christian Church, itself a purely abstract concept with
no direct representation, i.e., no group, or denomination, claims to be the Church. This ecclesiology is at
variance with other groups that indeed consider themselves to be the Church. The essential criteria generally consist of belief in the Trinity, belief that Jesus Christ
is the only way to have forgiveness and eternal life, and
that He died and rose again bodily.

12

See also

Christianity and Paganism

Christ myth theory
History of Christian theology
History of the Roman Catholic Church
History of the Eastern Orthodox Church
History of Protestantism
History of Oriental Orthodoxy
Christianization
Timeline of Christianity
Roman Catholic Church
Eastern Orthodox Church

[3] Ethiopia, the Unknown Land: A Cultural and Historical

Guide, by Stuart Munro-Hay, p. 234
[4] Prayers from the East: Traditions of Eastern Christianity,
Richard Marsh, p. 3
[5] Adherents.com, Religions by Adherents
[6] BBC Documentary: A History of Christianity by Diarmaid MacCulloch, Oxford University
[7] R. Gerberding and J. H. Moran Cruz, Medieval Worlds
(New York: Houghton Miin Company, 2004) p. 51
[8] "Cornelius". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert
Appleton Company. 1913.: The baptism of Cornelius,
a gentile, is an important event in the history of the Early
Church. The newly formed Church, within which thus far
only those who were circumcised and observed the Law
of Moses had been admitted, was now thrown open to the
uncircumcised Gentiles without the obligation of submitting to the Jewish ceremonial laws.
[9] Jewish Encyclopedia: Circumcision: In Apocryphal and
Rabbinical Literature: Contact with Grecian life, especially at the games of the arena [which involved nudity],
made this distinction obnoxious to the Hellenists, or antinationalists; and the consequence was their attempt to appear like the Greeks by epispasm (making themselves
foreskins"; I Macc. i. 15; Josephus, Ant. xii. 5, 1;
Assumptio Mosis, viii.; I Cor. vii. 18; , Tosef., Shab.
xv. 9; Yeb. 72a, b; Yer. Peah i. 16b; Yeb. viii. 9a).
All the more did the law-observing Jews defy the edict of
Antiochus Epiphanes prohibiting circumcision (I Macc.
i. 48, 60; ii. 46); and the Jewish women showed their
loyalty to the Law, even at the risk of their lives, by themselves circumcising their sons."; Hodges, Frederick, M.
(2001). The Ideal Prepuce in Ancient Greece and Rome:
Male Genital Aesthetics and Their Relation to Lipodermos, Circumcision, Foreskin Restoration, and the Kynodesme (PDF). The Bulletin of the History of Medicine
75 (Fall 2001): 375405. doi:10.1353/bhm.2001.0119.
PMID 11568485. Retrieved 24 July 2007.
[10] E. Peterson, Christianus pp. 35372

27

[11] The gure () is an allegory of Christ as the shepherd

Andr Grabar, Christian iconography, a study of its origins, ISBN 0-691-01830-8
[12] On the Creeds, see Oscar Cullmann, The Earliest Christian
Confessions, trans. J. K. S. Reid (London: Lutterworth,
1949)
[13] As the existence of the Christians became more widely
known, it became increasingly clear that they were (a) antisocial, in that they did not participate in the normal social life of their communities; (b) sacrilegious, in that they
refused to worship the gods; and (c) dangerous, in that
the gods did not take kindly to communities that harbored
those who failed to oer them cult. By the end of the second century, the Christian apologist (literally, 'defender'
of the faith) Tertullian complained about the widespread
perception that Christians were the source of all disasters
brought against the human race by the gods. 'They think
the Christians the cause of every public disaster, of every
aiction with which the people are visited. If the Tiber
rises as high as the city walls, if the Nile does not send
its waters up over the elds, if the heavens give no rain,
if there is an earthquake, if there is famine or pestilence,
straightway the cry is, Away with the Christians to the
lion!"' (Apology 40)" - Bart D. Ehrman, A Brief Introduction to the New Testament (Oxford University Press 2004
ISBN 978-0-19-536934-2), pp. 313314
[14] de Ste. Croix, Georey Ernest Maurice. Why Were
Early Christians Persecuted?". Past & Present , No. 26
(Nov., 1963), pp. 105152.

[25] e.g., 11:1315; 2:117; 711; 413, and the Epistle of

James in general.
[26] John 14:28
[27] R. Gerberding and J. H. Moran Cruz, Medieval Worlds
(New York: Houghton Miin Company, 2004) p. 58
[28] e.g., Bauer, Walter (1971). Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity. ISBN 0-8006-1363-5.; Pagels, Elaine
(1979). The Gnostic Gospels. ISBN 0-679-72453-2.;
Ehrman, Bart D. (2003). Lost Christianities: The Battles
for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew. New York:
Oxford. ISBN 0-19-514183-0.
[29] Everett Ferguson, Factors leading to the Selection and
Closure of the New Testament Canon, in The Canon Debate. eds. L. M. McDonald & J. A. Sanders (Hendrickson, 2002) pp. 302303; cf. Justin Martyr, First Apology
67.3
[30] A View From Above The Bibles Big Picture - Greg
Chaney
[31] How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth - Gordon D. Fee
- Douglas Stuart - Harper Collins Publishing
[32] Everett Ferguson, Factors leading to the Selection and
Closure of the New Testament Canon, in The Canon
Debate. eds. L. M. McDonald & J. A. Sanders (Hendrickson, 2002) pp. 301; cf. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses
3.11.8
[33] Both points taken from Mark A. Nolls Turning Points,
(Baker Academic, 1997) pp. 3637

[15] Gaddis, Michael (2005). There Is No Crime for Those

Who Have Christ: Religious Violence in the Christian Roman Empire. University of California Press. ISBN 0-52024104-5.

[34] The Cambridge History of the Bible (volume 1) eds. P. R.

Ackroyd and C. F. Evans (Cambridge University Press,
1970) p. 308

[16] Michael Whitby, et al. eds. Christian Persecution, Martyrdom and Orthodoxy (2006) online edition

[35] H. J. De Jonge, The New Testament Canon, in The Biblical Canons. eds. de Jonge & J. M. Auwers (Leuven University Press, 2003) p. 315

[17] Rodney Stark. The Rise of Christianity.

Princeton University Press 1996.

Princeton:

[36] Lindberg, Carter (2006). A Brief History of Christianity.

Blackwell Publishing. p. 15. ISBN 1-4051-1078-3.

[18] Dag istein Endsj. Greek Resurrection Beliefs and the

Success of Christianity. New York: Palgrave Macmillan
2009.

[37] McDonald & Sanders The Canon Debate, 2002, Appendix D-2, note 19: "Revelation was added later in 419
at the subsequent synod of Carthage.

[19] Moishem, Johann Lorenz von, The Ecclesiastical History

of the Second and Third Centuries : Illustrated from the
Writings of Tertullian, F. & J. Rivington, London, 1845,
p. 106

[38] Everett Ferguson, Factors leading to the Selection and

Closure of the New Testament Canon, in The Canon Debate. eds. L. M. McDonald & J. A. Sanders (Hendrickson, 2002) p. 320; F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture
(Intervarsity Press, 1988) p. 230; cf. Augustine, De Civitate Dei 22.8

[20] Gibbon, Edward, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter Fifteen. in 6 volumes at the Internet
Archive.
[21] Philip Carrington, The Early Christian Church (2 vol.
1957) online edition vol 1; online edition vol 2
[22] Langan, The Catholic Tradition (1998), p. 107/
[23] The earliest Christian images appeared somewhere about
the year 200. Andre Grabar, p.7
[24] Andre Grabar, p7

[39] F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Intervarsity Press,

1988) p. 225
[40] Everett Ferguson, Factors leading to the Selection and
Closure of the New Testament Canon, in The Canon
Debate. eds. L. M. McDonald & J. A. Sanders (Hendrickson, 2002) p. 320; Bruce Metzger, The Canon of
the New Testament: Its Origins, Development, and Significance (Oxford: Clarendon, 1987) pp. 237238; F. F.
Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Intervarsity Press, 1988)
p. 97

28

[41] F. F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture (Intervarsity Press,

1988) p. 215

13

REFERENCES

[59] Janet L. Nelson, he Frankish world, 750-900 (1996)

[60] Epitome, Iconoclast Council at Hieria, 754

[42] The Cambridge History of the Bible (volume 1) eds. P. R.

Ackroyd and C. F. Evans (Cambridge University Press,
1970) p. 305

[61] http://old.nationalreview.com/comment/
madden200406181026.asp

[43] "Canon of the New Testament". Catholic Encyclopedia.

New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.

[62] Andreev, J., The Bulgarian Khans and Tsars, Veliko

Tarnovo, 1996, pp. 73-74

[44] Lactantius, De Mortibus Persecutorum On the Deaths of

the Persecutors ch. 3534

[63] Fine, The Early Medieval Balkans. A Critical Survey from

the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century., 1983, p. 118

[45] R. Gerberding and J. H. Moran Cruz, Medieval Worlds

(New York: Houghton Miin Company, 2004) p. 55

[64] The Great Schism: The Estrangement of Eastern and

Western Christendom

[46] R. Gerberding and J. H. Moran Cruz, Medieval Worlds

(New York: Houghton Miin Company, 2004) p. 55; cf.
Eusebius, Life of Constantine

[65] Ware, Kallistos (1995). The Orthodox Church London.

St. Vladimirs Seminary Press. ISBN 978-0-913836-583.

[47] R. Gerberding and J. H. Moran Cruz, Medieval Worlds

(New York: Houghton Miin Company, 2004) pp. 55
56

[66] History of Russian Philosophy by Nikolai Lossky ISBN

978-0-8236-8074-0 Quoting Aleksey Khomyakov pg 87.

[48] R. Gerberding and J. H. Moran Cruz, Medieval Worlds

(New York: Houghton Miin Company, 2004) p. 56

[67] The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church by Vladimir

Lossky, SVS Press, 1997. (ISBN 0-913836-31-1) James
Clarke & Co Ltd, 1991. (ISBN 0-227-67919-9)

[49] Richards, Jerey. The Popes and the Papacy in the Early
Middle Ages 476752 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul,
1979) pp. 1415

[68] For such an analysis, see Brian Tierney and Sidney

Painter, Western Europe in the Middle Ages 3001475. 6th
ed. (McGraw-Hill 1998)

[50] Padberg 1998, 26

[69] Diarmaid MacCulloch, Christianity: The First Three

Thousand Years (2010) pp. 486-91

[51] It is our desire that all the various nations... should continue to profess that religion which... has been preserved
by faithful tradition, and which is now professed by the
Ponti Damasus and by Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, a
man of apostolic holiness. According to the apostolic
teaching... let us believe in the one deity of the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit, in equal majesty and in a
holy Trinity. ...others... shall be branded... heretics, and
shall not presume to give to their conventicles the name of
churches. --Henry Bettenson, ed., Documents of the Christian Church, (London: Oxford University Press, 1943), p.
31
[52] Halsall, Paul (June 1997). Theodosian Code XVI.i.2.
Medieval Sourcebook: Banning of Other Religions. Fordham University. Retrieved 23 November 2006.
[53] Lecture 27: Heretics, Heresies and the Church. 2009.
Retrieved 24 April 2010. Review of Church policies towards heresy, including capital punishment (see Synod at
Saragossa).
[54] Culture and customs of Iran, p. 61
[55] Bussell (1910), p. 346.
[56] Jerey F. Hamburger et al. Crown and Veil: Female
Monasticism from the Fifth to the Fifteenth Centuries
(2008)
[57] Marilyn Dunn, Emergence of Monasticism: From the
Desert Fathers to the Early Middle Ages (2003)
[58] Kenneth Scott Latourette, A history of the expansion of
Christianity: vol. 2, The thousand years of uncertainty:
A.D. 500-A.D. 1500

[70] The Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies The New York Times.
[71] http://www.helleniccomserve.com/pdf/
BlkBkPontusPrinceton.pdf
[72] Morris, Colin, The papal monarchy: the Western church
from 1050 to 1250 , (Oxford University Press, 2001), 271.
[73] G. R. Evans, John Wyclif: Myth & Reality (2006)
[74] Shannon McSherey, Lollards of Coventry, 1486-1522
(2003)
[75] Thomas A. Fudge, Jan Hus: Religious Reform and Social
Revolution in Bohemia (2010)
[76] Denition of Protestantism at the Episcopal Church website
[77] MacCulloch, Diarmaid, The Reformation: A History
(New York: Penguin Books, 2004) p. xx
[78] MacCulloch, Diarmaid, The Reformation: A History
(New York: Penguin Books, 2004) pp. 124125
[79] MacCulloch, Diarmaid, The Reformation: A History
(New York: Penguin Books, 2004) p. 119
[80] MacCulloch, Diarmaid, The Reformation: A History
(New York: Penguin Books, 2004) p. 128
[81] MacCulloch, Diarmaid, The Reformation: A History
(New York: Penguin Books, 2004) p. 137138
[82] MacCulloch, Diarmaid, The Reformation: A History
(New York: Penguin Books, 2004) pp. 14648

29

[83] MacCulloch, Diarmaid, The Reformation: A History

(New York: Penguin Books, 2004) pp. 148149
[84] MacCulloch, Diarmaid, The Reformation: A History
(New York: Penguin Books, 2004) p. 238
[85] MacCulloch, Diarmaid, The Reformation: A History
(New York: Penguin Books, 2004) p. 243
[86] MacCulloch, Diarmaid, The Reformation: A History
(New York: Penguin Books, 2004) p. 404
[87] MacCulloch, Diarmaid, The Reformation: A History
(New York: Penguin Books, 2004) p. 540
[88] Sydney E. Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American
People. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press,
1972) p. 263

the greens (we pack it to them), we will move only about

1020 versty and we will choke by hand the bourgeoisie,
the clergy and the landowners. There will be an award
of 100,000 rubles for each one hanged. He was speaking about the future actions in the countries neighboring
Russia.
[98] Christ Is Calling You : A Course in Catacomb Pastorship by Father George Calciu Published by Saint Hermans
Press April 1997 ISBN 978-1-887904-52-0
[99] Sermons to young people by Father George CalciuDumitreasa. Given at the Chapel of the Romanian
Orthodox Church Seminary, The Word online. Bucharest
http://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/resources/
sermons/calciu_christ_calling.htm

[100] Father Arseny 18931973 Priest, Prisoner, Spiritual Fa[89] Douglas Allen Foster and Anthony L. Dunnavant, The
ther. Introduction pg. vi 1. St Vladimirs Seminary
Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement: Christian
Press ISBN 0-88141-180-9
Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Churches/Churches
of Christ, Churches of Christ, Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub[101] The Washington Post Anti-Communist Priest Gheorghe
lishing, 2004, ISBN 0-8028-3898-7, ISBN 978-0-8028Calciu-Dumitreasa By Patricia Sullivan Washington
3898-8, 854 pages, entry on Restoration, Historical ModPost Sta Writer Sunday, 26 November 2006; Page
els of
C09 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2006/11/25/AR2006112500783.html
[90] Gerard Mannion and Lewis S. Mudge, The Routledge companion to the Christian church, Routledge, 2008, ISBN 0[102] Ostling, Richard.
Cross meets Kremlin TIME
415-37420-0, ISBN 978-0-415-37420-0, 684 pages
Magazine, 24 June 2001. http://www.time.com/time/
magazine/article/0,9171,150718,00.html
[91] Roberts, B.H, ed. (1904), History of the Church 3, Salt
Lake City, Utah: Deseret News, ISBN 1-152-94824-5
[103] Ostling, Richard.
Cross meets Kremlin TIME
[92] Doctrine and Covenants (LDS Church edition) 21:11
Magazine, 24 June 2001. http://www.time.com/time/
(Apr. 1830); 42:78 (Feb. 1831); 107:59 (Mar. 1835).
magazine/article/0,9171,150718,00.html
[93] Natalia Shlikhta (2004) "'Greek Catholic'-'Orthodox'- [104] Derek Holmes, History of the Papacy, p. 102.
'Soviet': a symbiosis or a conict of identities?" in Religion, State & Society, Volume 32, Number 3 (Routledge) [105] Derek Holmes, History of the Papacy, p. 116.
[94] Shlomo Lambroza, John D. Klier (2003) Pogroms: Anti[106] John Vidmar, The Catholic Church Through the Ages: A
Jewish Violence in Modern Russian History (Cambridge
History (New York: Paulist Press, 2005), p. 332 & n. 37.
University Press)
[95] Jewish-Christian Relations, by the International Council [107] John Vidmar, The Catholic Church Through the Ages: A
History (New York: Paulist Press, 2008), p. 332.
of Christians and Jews
[96] It is no coincidence that the entry on 'Orthodoxy' in the [108] Derek Holmes, History of the Papacy, p. 158.
seventh volume of the Kratkaya Evreiskaya Entsyklopedia [Concise Jewish Encyclopedia], devoted to the Russian Orthodox Church (pp. 73343), where numerous examples are given of persecution of the Jews in Russia, including religious persecution, oers no evidence of the direct participation of the Church, either in legislative terms
Bowden, John. Encyclopedia of Christianity (2005),
or in the conduct of policy. Although the authors of the
1406pp excerpt and text search
article label the active role of the Church in inciting the
government to conduct anti-Jewish acts (for example in
Cameron, Averil (1994). Christianity and the
the case of Ivan the Terribles policy in the defeated terRhetoric of Empire: The Development of Christian
ritories) as obvious, no facts are given in their article to
Discourse. Berkeley, CA: University of California
support this. http://www.jcrelations.net/en/?id=787

14 Further reading

Press. p. 275. ISBN 0-520-08923-5.

[97] President of Lithuania: Prisoner of the Gulag a Biography

of Aleksandras Stulginskis by Afonsas Eidintas Genocide
and Research Centre of Lithuania ISBN 9986-757-41-X
/ 9789986757412 / 998675741-X p. 23 As early as
August 1920 Lenin wrote to E. M. Skliansky, President
of the Revolutionary War Soviet: We are surrounded by

Carrington, Philip. The Early Christian Church (2

vol. 1957) vol 1; online edition vol 2
Endsj, Dag istein. Greek Resurrection Beliefs and
the Success of Christianity (2009).

30

15

Gonzlez, Justo L. (1984). The Story of Christianity: Vol. 1: The Early Church to the Reformation.
Harper. ISBN 0-06-063315-8.; The Story of Christianity, Vol. 2: The Reformation to the Present Day.
1985. ISBN 0-06-063316-6.
Grabar, Andr (1968). Christian iconography, a
study of its origins. Princeton University Press.
ISBN 0-691-01830-8.
Hastings, Adrian (1999). A World History of Christianity. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 0-8028-4875-3.
Holt, Bradley P. Thirsty for God: A Brief History of
Christian Spirituality (2nd ed. 2005)
Johnson, Paul. History of Christianity (1979)
excerpt and text search
Koschorke, Klaus et al. (2007). A History of Christianity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, 14501990: A Documentary Sourcebook. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. excerpt ansd text search and
highly detailed table of contents
Latourette, Kenneth Scott (1975). A History of
Christianity, Volume 1: Beginnings to 1500 (revised
ed.). Harper. ISBN 0-06-064952-6. excerpt and
text search; A History of Christianity, Volume 2:
1500 to 1975. 1975. ISBN 0-06-064953-4.
Livingstone, E. A., ed. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2nd ed. 2006) excerpt
and text search online at Oxford Reference
MacCulloch, Diarmaid. Christianity: The First
Three Thousand Years (2010)
McLeod, Hugh, and Werner Ustorf, eds. The Decline of Christendom in Western Europe, 1750-2000
(2003) 13 essays by scholars; online edition
McGuckin, John Anthony. The Orthodox Church:
An Introduction to its History, Doctrine, and Spiritual
Culture (2010), 480pp excerpt and text search
McGuckin, John Anthony. The Encyclopedia of
Eastern Orthodox Christianity (2011), 872pp
Shelley, Bruce L. (1996). Church History in Plain
Language (2nd ed.). ISBN 0-8499-3861-9.
Stark, Rodney. The Rise of Christianity (1996)
Tomkins, Stephen. A Short History of Christianity
(2006) excerpt and text search

15

External links

EXTERNAL LINKS

31

16
16.1

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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Tbc, MichaelTinkler, Derek Ross, Chuck Smith, Brion VIBBER, Wesley, Koyaanis Qatsi, Slrubenstein, Ffaker, RK, Amillar, Andre Engels,
Eclecticology, Eob, Hajhouse, SimonP, Panairjdde, Mkmcconn, Edward, Infrogmation, Michael Hardy, Kwertii, Llywrch, Ixfd64, JohnHoward, Looxix, RobinChacko, Darkwind, Irmgard, Ciphergoth, Big iron, Kaihsu, Evercat, Lancevortex, Nikola Smolenski, Technopilgrim, Dwo, Hashar, Feedmecereal, Charles Matthews, Adam Bishop, EALacey, Reddi, Rednblu, DJ Clayworth, Foodman, Dogface, Jose
Ramos, Joy, Bloodshedder, AnonMoos, Wetman, Guppy, Pollinator, Carbuncle, Phil Boswell, David Stapleton, AlexPlank, Robbot, Josh
Cherry, Moncrief, Goethean, Stephan Schulz, Mirv, Rursus, Hadal, UtherSRG, Nikodemos, Tom harrison, Ferkelparade, Bradeos Graphon,
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GoingBatty, Laurel Lodged, DiiCinta, Tommy2010, Zerilos, Wikipelli, AsceticRose, ZroBot, F, Traxs7, Search chp, Medeis, Wayne
Slam, RaptureBot, Rcsprinter123, MALLUS, Terri truth in print, Orange Suede Sofa, Srfprice, 28bot, ClueBot NG, Homeshow97, Jack
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Khazar2, EuroCarGT, Nathanielrst, Mario2707, All Worlds, Dexbot, Oh, Mogism, User332572385, Lugia2453, Graphium, Nguoibattudocco, Epicgenius, Quincayero,
, Tentinator, EvergreenFir, Shannonftu, Wikisliviayi, Keviniherd, Clr324, Ugog Nizdast, Ginsuloft,

32

16

TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Matsutonka, JaconaFrere, Monkbot, Poepkop, Radath, Silvia Amarachi Uzor, Kelmend antoni, Bhanley11, Piledhighandeep, Ethman1,
Esquivalience, Firenzedu and Anonymous: 933

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Images

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gallerix.ru Original artist: Lucas Cranach the Elder
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San_Vitale_in_Ravenna.jpg License: Public domain Contributors: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM,
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16.3

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File:Michelangelo{}s_Pieta_5450_cut_out_black.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Michelangelo%

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