BOOK REVIEW
History of the Christian Church
(Volume 1 to 08)
Author
Philip Schaff
Union Theological Seminary, New York
About the
Author
Philip Schaff
(January 1, 1819 – October 20, 1893), was a Swiss-born, German-educated
Protestant theologian and a Church historian who spent most of his adult life
living and teaching in the United
States Chur ,
Switzerland and educated at
the gymnasium of Stuttgart Pennsylvania , then the only seminary of that church in America
Schaff's broad
views strongly influenced the German Reformed Church, through his teaching at
Mercersburg, through his championship of English in German Reformed churches
and schools in America Apostolic
Church
He lectured in Germany on America ,
and received the degree of D.D. from Berlin Stuttgart Andover New York City
Background
The history of
Christianity concerns the Christian religion, 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 Jerusalem
throughout the Near East, into places such as Syria ,
Assyria, Mesopotamia , Phoenicia ,
Asia Minor , Jordan
and Egypt Armenia in 301, Georgia
in 319, the Aksumite Empire in 325, and the Roman Empire
in 380.
Christianity
became common to all of Europe in the Middle Ages and expanded throughout the
world during Europe 's Age of Exploration from
the Renaissance onwards to become the world's largest religion. Today there are
2 billion Christians, one third of humanity. Christianity divided into the
Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church in the Great Schism of 1054.
The Protestant Reformation split the Roman Catholic Church into many different
denominations. HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH is an excellent book
written on Christian history covering in detail all the aspects of church
history. The book has seven volumes and following is the contents summary of
these volumes:
Volume
I
FIRST
PERIOD
APOSTLIC
CHRISTIANITY
A.D.
1–100.
Chapter II. Jesus Christ.
Chapter III. The Apostolic Age.
Chapter IV. St. Peter And The Conversion Of
The Jews.
Chapter V. St. Paul
Chapter VI. The Great Tribulation.
Chapter VII. St.
John
Chapter VIII. Christian Life In The
Apostolic Church.
Chapter IX. Worship In The Apostolic Age.
Chapter X. Organization Of The Apostolic
Church.
Chapter XII. Theology Of The Apostolic
Church.
Chapter XII. The New Testament.
Volume
II
SECOND
PERIOD
ANTE-NICENE
CHRISTIANITY
A.D.
100–311 (325).
CHAPTER I: Spread of Christianity.
CHAPTER II: Persecution of Christianity and
Christian Martyrdom.
CHAPTER III. Literary Contest of
Christianity with Judaism and Heathenism.
CHAPTER IV: Organization and Discipline of
the Church.
CHAPTER V: Christian Worship.
CHAPTER VI: Christian Art.
CHAPTER VII: The Church in the Catacombs.
CHAPTER VIII: The Christian Life in
Contrast with Pagan Corruption.
CHAPTER IX: Ascetic Tendencies.
CHAPTER X: Montanism.
CHAPTER XI: The Heresies of the Ante-Nicene
Age.
CHAPTER XII: The Development of Catholic
Theology.
CHAPTER XIII: Ecclesiastical Literature of
the Ante-Nicene Age, and Biographical Sketches of the Church Fathers.
Volume
III
THIRD
PERIOD
THE
CHURCH IN UNION WITH THE ROMAN EMPIRE
FROM
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT TO GREGORY THE GREAT.
A.D.
311–590.
Chapter II. The Literary Triumph Of
Christianity Over Greek And Roman Heathenism.
Chapter III. Alliance
Chapter IV. Monasticism.
Chapter V. The Hierarchy And Polity Of The
Church.
Chapter VI. Church Discipline And Schisms.
Chapter VII. Public Worship And Religious
Customs And Ceremonies.
Chapter VIII. Christian Art.
Chapter IX. Theology. Development Of The
Ecumenical Orthodoxy.
II. – The Origenistic Controversies.
III. – The Christological Controversies.
IV. – The Anthropological Controversies.
Chapter X. Church Fathers, And Theological
Literature.
II.—The Latin Fathers.
Volume
IV
FOURTH
PERIOD
MEDIAEVAL
CHRISTIANITY
THE
CHURCH AMONG THE BARBARIANS
From
Gregory I to Gregory VII
A.D.
590–1073
CHAPTER II. The Conversion of the Northern
and Western Barbarians.
I.
The Conversion of England , Ireland , and Scotland
II. The Conversion of France , Germany
III.
The Conversion of Scandanavis.
IV.
The Christianization of the Slavs.
CHAPTER III. Mohammedanism in its Relation
to Christianity.
CHAPTER IV. The Papal Hierarchy and the Holy Roman Empire .
CHAPTER V. The Conflict of the Eastern and
Western Churches and Their Separation.
CHAPTER VI. Morals and Religion.
CHAPTER VII. Monasticism.
CHAPTER VIII. Church Discipline.
CHAPTER IX. Church and State.
CHAPTER X. Worship and Ceremonies.
CHAPTER XI. Doctrinal Controversies.
CHAPTER XII. Heretical Sects.
CHAPTER XIII. The State of Learning
CHAPTER XIV. Biographical Sketches of
Ecclesiastical Writers.
Volume
V
FIFTH
PERIOD
FROM
GREGORY VII. TO BONIFACE VIII.
A.
D. 1049–1294.
Chapter I. The Hildebrandian Popes. A.D.
1049–1073.
Chapter II. Gregory Vii, 1073–1085.
Chapter III. The Papacy After Gregory VII
To The Concordat of Worms
Chapter IV. The Papacy From The Concordat
Of Worms
Chapter V. Innocent III. And His Age. A.D.
1198–1216.
Chapter VI. The Papacy From The Death Of
Innocent III. To Boniface VIII. 1216–1294.
Chapter VII. The Crusades.
Chapter VIII. The Monastic Orders.
Chapter X. Heresy And Its Suppression.
Chapter XI. Universities And Cathedrals.
Chapter XII. Scholastic And Mystic
Theology.
Chapter XIII. Scholasticism At Its Height.
Chapter XIV. The Sacramental System.
Chapter XV. Pope And Clergy.
Chapter XVI. Popular Worship And
Superstition.
Volume
VI
SIXTH
PERIOD
FROM
BONIFACE VIII. TO MARTIN LUTHER.
A.D.
1294–1517.
Chapter I. The Decline Of The Papacy And
The Avignon
Chapter II. The Papal Schism And The
Reformatory Councils. 1378–1449.
Chapter III. Leaders Of Catholic Thought.
Chapter IV. The German Mystics.
Chapter V. Reformers Before The
Reformation.
Chapter VI. The Last Popes Of The Middle
Ages. 1447–1521
Chapter VII. Heresy And Witchcraft.
Chapter VIII. The Renaissance.
Chapter IX. The Pulpit And Popular Piety.
Chapter X. The Close Of The Middle Ages.
Volume
VII
SEVENTH
PERIOD
HISTORY
OF THE REFORMATION.
A.D.
1517 – 1648.
First Book.
The German Reformation Till The Diet of Augsburg
Chapter II. Luther’s Training For The
Reformation, (L483–1517).
Chapter III. The German Reformation From
The Publication Of Luther’s Theses To The Diet Of Worms, (1517–1521).
Chapter IV. The German Reformation From The
Diet Of Worms
Chapter V. The Inner Development Of The
Reformation From The Peasants’ War To The Diet Of Augsburg
Chapter VI. Propagation And Persecution Of
Protestantism.
Chapter VII. The Sacramentarian
Controversies.
Chapter VIII. The Political Situation
Between 1526 And 1529.
Chapter IX. The Diet And Confession Of Augsburg
Volume
VIII
SECOND BOOK.
THE SWISS REFORMATION.
Chapter II. Zwingli's Training. A.D.
1484-1519.
Chapter III. The Reformation In Zürich.
1519–1526.
Chapter IV. Spread Of The Reformation In
German Switzerland
Chapter V. The Civil And Religious War
Between The Roman Catholic And Reformed Cantons.
Chapter VI. The Period Of Consolidation.
THIRD BOOK
THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND
Chapter VII. The Preparatory Work. From
1526 To 1536.
Chapter VIII. John Calvin And His Work.
Chapter IX. From France
To Switzerland
Chapter X. Calvin's First Sojourn And
Labors In Geneva
Chapter XI. Calvin In Germany
Chapter XII. Calvin's Second Sojourn And
Labors In Geneva
Chapter XIII. Constitution And Discipline
Of The Church Of Geneva
Chapter XIV. The Theology Of Calvin.
Chapter XV. Doctrinal Controversies.
Chapter XVI. Servetus: His Life, Trial, And
Execution.
Chapter XVII. Calvin Abroad.
Chapter XVIII. Closing Scenes In The Life
Of Calvin.
Chapter XIX. Theodore Beza.
BRIEF SUMMARY
History has two sides, a divine and a
human. On the part of God, it is his revelation in the order of time (as the
creation is his revelation in the order of space), and the successive unfolding
of a plan of infinite wisdom, justice, and mercy, looking to his glory and the
eternal happiness of mankind. On the part of man, history is the biography of
the human race, and the gradual development, both normal and abnormal, of all
its physical, intellectual, and moral forces to thefinal consummation at the
general judgment, with its eternal rewards and punishments. The idea of universal
history presupposes the Christian idea of the unity of God, and the unity and
common destiny of men, and was unknown to ancient Greece
and Rome .
A view of history which overlooks or
undervalues the divine factor starts from deism and consistently runs into
atheism; while the opposite view, which overlooks the free agency of man and
his moral responsibility and guilt, is essentially fatalistic and pantheistic.
From the human agency we may distinguish the Satanic, which enters as a third
power into the history of the race. In the temptation of Adam in Paradise, the
temptation of Christ in the wilderness, and at every great epoch, Satan appears
as the antagonist of God, endeavoring to defeat the plan of redemption and the
progress of Christ’s kingdom, and using weak and wicked men for his schemes,
but is always defeated in the end by the superior wisdom of God.
The central current and ultimate aim of
universal history is the Kingdom
of God kingdom of Christ
The Acts bear on the face all the
marks of an original, fresh, and trustworthy narrative of contemporaneous
events derived from the best sources of information, and in great part from
personal observation and experience. The authorship of Luke, the companion of
Paul, is conceded by a majority of the best modern scholars; and this fact
alone establishes the credibility. Renan (in his St. Paul Lake of Tiberias
The apostolic period extends from
the Day of Pentecost to the death of St.
John Palestine , and
gradually extends over Syria ,
Asia Minor , Greece ,
and Italy Jerusalem , Antioch , and Rome Ephesus
and Corinth Ephesus
The contemporary secular history
includes the reigns of the Roman Emperors from Tiberius to Nero and Domitian,
who either ignored or persecuted Christianity. We are brought directly into
contact with King Herod Agrippa
I.
The Acts and the Pauline Epistles
accompany us with reliable information down to the year 63. Peter and Paul are
lost out of sight in the lurid fires of the Neronian persecution which seemed
to consume Christianity itself. We know nothing certain of that satanic
spectacle from authentic sources beyond the information of heathen historians.
A few years afterwards followed the destruction of Jerusalem
The remaining thirty years of the
first century are involved in mysterious darkness, illuminated only by the
writings of John. This is a period of church history about which we know least
and would like to know most. This period is the favorite field for
ecclesiastical fables and critical conjectures. How thankfully would the
historian hail the discovery of any new authentic documents between the
martyrdom of Peter and Paul and the death of John, and again between the death
of John and the age of Justin Martyr and Irenaeus.
As to the numerical strength of
Christianity at the close of the first century, we have no information
whatever. Statistical reports were unknown in those days. The estimate of half
a million among the one hundred millions or more inhabitants of the Roman empire is probably exaggerated. The pentecostal
conversion of three thousand in one day at Jerusalem Antioch
also, Ephesus , and Corinth Constantine
The Christian converts belonged
mostly to the middle and lower classes of society, such as fishermen, peasants,
mechanics, traders, freedmen, slaves. St. Paul says: “Not many wise after the
flesh, not many mighty, not many noble were called, but God chose the foolish
things of the world, that he might put to shame them that are wise; and God
chose the weak things of the world that he might put to shame the things that
are strong; and the base things of the world, and the things that are despised,
did God choose, yea, and the things that are not, that he might bring to naught
the things that are: that no flesh should glory before God.” (1 Cor.
1:26-29) And yet these poor, illiterate
churches were the recipients of the noblest gifts, and alive to the deepest
problems and highest thoughts which can challenge the attention of an immortal
mind. Christianity built from the foundation upward. From the lower ranks come
the rising men of the future, who constantly reinforce the higher ranks and
prevent their decay.
From the
beginning, Christians were subject to various persecutions. This involved 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 year's great Fire of Rome.
According to
Church tradition, it was under Nero's persecution that Peter and Paul were each
martyred in Rome
The history of
Christianity concerns the Christian religion, 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 Jerusalem
throughout the Near East, into places such as Syria ,
Assyria, Mesopotamia , Phoenicia ,
Asia Minor , Jordan
and Egypt Armenia in 301, Georgia
in 319, the Aksumite Empire in 325, and the Roman Empire
in 380.
Christianity
became common to all of Europe in the Middle Ages and expanded throughout the
world during Europe 's Age of Exploration from
the Renaissance onwards to become the world's largest religion. Today there are
2 billion Christians, one third of humanity. Christianity divided into the
Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church in the Great Schism of 1054.
The Protestant Reformation split the Roman Catholic Church into many different
denominations.
The Apostolic Church Mediterranean by Paul and others.
The first
Christians were essentially all ethnically Jewish or Jewish Proselytes. In
other words, Jesus preached to the Jewish people and called from them his first
disciples, see for example Matthew 10. However, the Great Commission is
specifically directed at "all nations," and an early difficulty 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 while circumcision advocates were
labelled Judaisers. The actions of Peter, at the conversion of Cornelius the
Centurion, 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.
PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANITY AND CHRISTIAN
MARTYRDOM
From the
beginning, Christians were subject to various persecutions. This involved 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 year's great Fire of Rome.
According to
Church tradition, it was under Nero's persecution that Peter and Paul were each
martyred in Rome
The persecutions of Christianity during the first three centuries appear
like a long tragedy: first, foreboding signs; then a succession of bloody
assaults of heathenism upon the religion of the cross; amidst the dark scenes
of fiendish hatred and cruelty the bright exhibitions of suffering virtue; now and
then a short pause; at last a fearful and desperate struggle of the old pagan
empire for life and death, ending in the abiding victory of the Christian
religion. Thus this bloody baptism of the church resulted in the birth of a
Christian world. It was a repetition and prolongation of the crucifixion, but
followed by a resurrection.
From the fifth century it has been customary to reckon ten great
persecutions: under Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus,
Maximinus, Decius, Valerian, Aurelian, and Diocletian. This number was
suggested by the ten plagues of Egypt taken as types (which, however, befell
the enemies of Israel, and present a contrast rather than a parallel), and by
the ten horns of the Roman beast making war with the Lamb, taken for so many
emperors But the number is too great for the general persecutions, and too
small for the provincial and local. Only two imperial persecutions—those, of
Decius and Diocletian—extended over the empire; but Christianity was always an
illegal religion from Trajan to Constantine ,
and subject to annoyance and violence everywhere. Some persecuting
emperors—Nero, Domitian, Galerius, were monstrous tyrants, but others—Trajan,
Marcus Aurelius, Decius, Diocletian—were among the best and most energetic emperors,
and were prompted not so much by hatred of Christianity as by zeal for the maintenance
of the laws and the power of the government.
On the other hand, some of the worthless emperors—Commodus, Caracalla,
and Heliogabalus—were rather favorable to the Christians from sheer caprice.
All were equally ignorant of the true character of the new religion. The
Church, after its triumph over paganism, forgot this lesson, and for many
centuries treated all Christian heretics, as well as Jews and Gentiles, just as
the old Romans had treated the Christians, without distinction of creed or sect.
The imperial persecutions before Trajan belong to the Apostolic age, and have
been already described in the first volume. We allude to them here only for the
sake of the connection. Christ was born under the first, and crucified under
the second Roman emperor. Tiberius (A.D. 14–37) is reported to have been
frightened by Pilate’s account of the crucifixion and resurrection and to have proposed
to the senate, without success, the enrollment of Christ among the Roman
deities; but this rests only on the questionable authority of Tertullian.
The edict of Claudius (42–54) in the year 53, which banished the Jews
from Rome , fell
also upon the Christians, but as Jews with whom they were confounded. Domitian
(81–96), a suspicious and blasphemous tyrant, accustomed to call himself and to
be called "Lord and God," treated the embracing of Christianity a
crime against the state, and condemned to death many Christians, even his own
cousin, the consul Flavius Clemens, on the charge of atheism; or confiscated
their property, and sent them, as in the case of Domitilia, the wife of the
Clemens just mentioned, into exile. His jealousy also led him to destroy the
surviving descendants of David; and he brought from Palestine to Rome two
kinsmen of Jesus, grandsons of Judas, the "brother of the Lord," but
seeing their poverty and rustic simplicity, and hearing their explanation of
the kingdom of Christ as not earthly, but heavenly, to be established by the
Lord at the end of the world, when He should come to judge the quick and the
dead, he let them go.
Polycarp steadfastly refused before the proconsul to deny his King and
Saviour, whom he had served six and eighty years, and from whom he had
experienced nothing but love and mercy. He joyfully went up to the stake, and
amidst the flames praised God for having deemed him worthy "to be numbered
among his martyrs, to drink the cup of Christ’s sufferings, unto the eternal resurrection
of the soul and the body in the incorruption of the Holy Spirit." The
slightly legendary account in the letter of the church of Smyrna states, that
the flames avoided the body of the saint, leaving it unharmed, like gold tried
in the fire; also the Christian bystanders
insisted, that they perceived a sweet odor, as of incense. Then the executioner
thrust his sword into the body, and the stream of blood at once extinguished
the flame. The corpse was burned after the Roman custom, but the bones were
preserved by the church, and held more precious than gold and diamonds.
The death of this last witness of the apostolic age checked the fury of
the populace, and the proconsul suspended the persecution. The most
distinguished victims of this Gallic persecution were the bishop Pothinus, who,
at the age of ninety years, and just recovered from a sickness, was subjected
to all sorts of abuse, and then thrown into a dismal dungeon, where he died in
two days; the virgin Blandina, a slave, who showed almost superhuman strength
and constancy under the most cruel tortures, and was at last thrown to a wild
beast in a net; Ponticus, a boy of fifteen years, who could be deterred by no sort
of cruelty from confessing his Saviour. The corpses of the martyrs, which
covered the streets, were shamefully mutilated, then burned, and the ashes cast
into the Rhone , lest any remnants of the
enemies of the gods might desecrate the soil. At last the people grew weary of
slaughter, and a considerable number of Christians survived. The martyrs of Lyons distinguished
themselves by true humility, disclaiming in their prison that title of honor,
as due only, they said, to the faithful and true witness, the Firstborn from
the dead, the Prince of life (Rev. 1:5), and to those of his followers who had
already sealed their fidelity to Christ with their blood.
The most distinguished martyrs of this persecution under Valerian are
the bishops Sixtus II. of Rome , and Cyprian of Carthage . Gallienus
(260–268) gave peace to the church once more, and even acknowledged
Christianity as a religio licita. And this calm continued forty years; for the
edict of persecution, issued by the energetic and warlike Aurelian (270–275),
was rendered void by his assassination; and the six emperors who rapidly
followed, from 275 to 284, let the Christians alone. During this long season of
peace the church rose rapidly in numbers and outward prosperity. Large and even
splendid houses of worship were erected in the chief cities, and provided with collections
of sacred books and vessels of gold and silver for the administration of the
sacraments.
But in the same proportion discipline relaxed, quarrels, intrigues, and
factions increased, and worldliness poured in like a flood. The persecution began
on the twenty-third day of February, 303, the feast of the Terminalia (as
if to make an end of the Christian sect), with the destruction of the
magnificent church in Nicomedia, and soon spread over the whole Roman empire,
except Gaul, Britain, and Spain, where the co-regent Constantius Chlorus, and
especially his son, Constantine the Great, were disposed, as far as possible,
to spare the Christians. But even here the churches were destroyed, and many
martyrs of Spain (St.
Vincentius, Eulalia, and others celebrated by Prudentins), and of Britain (St.
Alban) are assigned by later tradition to this age.
For the first three centuries Christianity was placed
in the most unfavorable circumstances, that it might display its moral power,
and gain its victory over the world by spiritual weapons alone. Until the reign
of Constantine it had not even a legal existence
in the Roman empire , but was first ignored as
a Jewish sect, then slandered, proscribed, and persecuted, as a treasonable
innovation, and the adoption of it made punishable with confiscation and death.
Persecution led to martyrdom, and martyrdom had not terrors alone, but also attractions,
and stimulated the noblest and most unselfish form of ambition. Every genuine
martyr was a living proof of the truth and holiness of the Christian religion.
Tertullian could exclaim to the heathen: "All your ingenious cruelties can
accomplish nothing; they are only a lure to this sect. Our number increases the
more you destroy us. The blood of the Christians is their seed."
Early
Christian Beliefs
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 within the Jerusalem Church. The post-apostolic period concerns
the time after the death of the apostles (roughly 100 AD) until persecutions
ended with the legalisation of Christian worship under Constantine the Great.
ORGANIZATION AND DISCIPLINE OF THE CHURCH
In the external organization of the church, several important changes
appear in the period before us. The distinction of clergy and laity, and the
sacerdotal view of the ministry becomes prominent and fixed; subordinate church
offices are multiplied; the episcopate arises; the beginnings of the Roman
primacy appear; and the exclusive unity of the Catholic church develops itself
in opposition to heretics and schismatics. The apostolical organization of the
first century now gives place to the old Catholic episcopal system; and this,
in its turn, passes into the metropolitan, and after the fourth century into
the patriarchal.
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 different times for different locations. Clement, a 1st-century
bishop of Rome
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 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.
Germs of the Papacy
Among the great bishops of Antioch , Alexandria , and Rome ,
the Roman bishop combined all the conditions for a primacy, which, from a
purely honorary distinction, gradually became the basis of supremacy of
jurisdiction. The same propension to monarchical unity, which created out of the
episcopate a centre, first for each congregation, then for each diocese,
pressed on towards a visible centre for the whole church. Primacy and
episcopacy grew together. In the present period we already find the faint
beginnings of the papacy, in both its good and its evil features; and with them,
too, the first examples of earnest protest against the abuse of its power. In
the Nicene age the bishop of Jerusalem was made an honorary patriarch in view
of the antiquity of that church, though his diocese was limited; and from the
middle of the fourth century the new patriarch of Constantinople or New Rome,
arose to the primacy among the eastern patriarchs, and became a formidable
rival of the bishop of old Rome.
The Roman church claims not only human but divine right for the papacy,
and traces its institution directly to Christ, when he assigned to Peter an
eminent position in the work of founding his church, against which even the
gates of hades shall never prevail. The whole number of popes, from the Apostle
Peter to Leo XIII. (1878) is two hundred and sixty-three. This would allow
about seven years on an average to each papal reign. The traditional twenty-five
years of Peter were considered the maximum which none of his successors was
permitted to reach, except Pius IX., the first infallible pope, who reigned
twenty-seven years (1846-1878). The average term of office of the archbishops
of Canterbury
is fourteen years.
The diversity of
early Christianity can be documented from the New Testament record itself. The
Book of Acts admits conflicts 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 conflicts
over both leadership and theology. In a response to the Gnostic teaching,
Irenaeus created the first document describing what is now called apostolic
succession.
Early
Christian writings
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.
Early
Christian Art
Christian art
only emerged relatively late, and the first known Christian images emerge from
about 200 AD, though there is some literary evidence that small domestic images
were used earlier. The oldest Christian paintings we have are from the Roman
Catacombs, dated to about AD 200, and the oldest Christian sculptures are from
sarcophagi, dating to the beginning of the 3rd century. Although many Hellenised
Jews seem, as at the Dura-Europos synagogue, to have had images of religious
figures, the traditional Mosaic prohibition of "graven images" no
doubt retained some effect, 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.
Early
Heresies
The New
Testament itself speaks of the importance of maintaining correct (orthodox)
doctrine and refuting heresies, showing the antiquity of the concern. 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 retain
important correct beliefs, and refute contrarian opinions, known as heresies.
As there were sometimes differing opinions among the bishops on new questions,
defining orthodoxy would occupy the Church for some time.
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. 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.
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 unified
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.
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
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,
which was written in narrative form where "in the biblical story God is
the protagonist, Satan (or evil people/powers) are the antagonists, and God's people
are the agonists".
A four gospel
canon (the Tetramorph) was in place by the time of Irenaeus, c. 160, who refers
to it directly. 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
Revelation. 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. Likewise the Muratorian
fragment shows that by 200 there existed a set of Christian writings similar to
the current New Testament.
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. 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. These councils were under the authority of St. Augustine
When these
bishops and councils spoke on the matter, however, they were not defining
something new, but instead "were ratifying what had already become the
mind of the Church." Thus, by the 4th century, there existed unanimity in
the West concerning the New Testament canon, 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. Nonetheless, a full dogmatic
articulation of the canon was not made until the 1546 Council of Trent for
Roman Catholicism, 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.
History
of Late Ancient Christianity
Galerius, who
had previously been one of the leading figures in persecution, in 311 issued an
edict which ended the Diocletian persecution of Christianity. After halting the
persecutions of the Christians, Galerius reigned for another 2 years. He was
then succeeded by an emperor with distinctively pro Christian leanings,
Constantine the Great. The Emperor Constantine I was exposed to Christianity by
his mother, Helena. 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
How much
Christianity Constantine adopted at this point is difficult to discern. The
Roman coins minted up to eight years subsequent to the battle still bore the
images of Roman gods. Nonetheless, the accession of Constantine was a turning
point for the Christian Church. After his victory, Constantine supported the
Church financially, built various basilicas, granted privileges (e.g.,
exemption from certain taxes) to clergy, promoted Christians to some
high-ranking offices, and returned property confiscated during the Great
Persecution of Diocletian.
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 pagan temples. In accordance with a prevailing custom, Constantine
Constantine's
son's successor, known as Julian the Apostate, was a philosopher who upon
becoming emperor renounced Christianity and embraced a Neo-platonic and
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 modified them to resemble Christian traditions such as the
episcopal structure and public charity (previously unknown in Roman paganism).
Julian's short reign ended when he died while campaigning in the East.
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, suffered exile,
persecution, or martyrdom from Arian Byzantine Emperors. Many of their writings
are translated into English in the compilations of Nicene and Post-Nicene
Fathers.
Ecumenical
Councils
First
seven Ecumenical Councils
During this era,
several Ecumenical Councils were convened. These were mostly concerned with
Christological disputes. The First Council of Nicaea (325), and the First
Council of Constantinople (381) condemned Arian teachings as heresy and
produced the Nicene Creed. The Council of Ephesus condemned Nestorianism and
affirmed Mary to be Theotokos ("God-bearer" or "Mother of God").
The Council of
Chalcedon affirmed that Christ had two natures, fully God and fully man,
distinct yet always in perfect union. Thus, it condemned Monophysitism and
would be influential in refuting Monothelitism. However, not every group
accepted all the councils, for example Nestorianism and the Assyrian Church
Christianity
as Roman State
On 27 February
380, with the Edict of Thessalonica put forth under Theodosius I, the Roman Empire officially adopted Trinitarian Christianity
as its state religion. Prior to this date, Constantius II (337-361) and Valens
(364-378) had personally favored Arian or Semi-Arian forms of Christianity, but
Valens' successor Theodosius I supported the Trinitarian doctrine as expounded
in the Nicene Creed.
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
bishop's location was his "seat", or "see". Among the sees,
five came to hold special eminence: Rome ,
Constantinople, Jerusalem , Antioch ,
and Alexandria Rome was still held to be the First
among equals, Constantinople was second in
precedence as the new capital of the empire.
Theodosius I
decreed that others not believing in the preserved "faithful
tradition", such as the Trinity, were to be considered to be practicers of
illegal heresy, and in 385, this resulted in the first case of capital
punishment of a heretic, namely Priscillian.
Nestorianism
and the Sassanid Empire
During the early
5th century the School
of Edessa
The Roman
Emperor Theodosius II called two synods in Ephesus
The Sassanid
(Persian) Empire had many Christian converts early in its history tied closely
to the Syriac branch of Christianity. The Empire was officially Zoroastrian and
maintained a strict adherence to this faith in part to distinguish itself from
the religion of the Roman Empire (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 community grew rapidly. By the end of the 5th century the Persian Church
Miaphysitism
In 451 the
Council of Chalcedon was held to further clarify the christological issues
surrounding Nestorianism. The council ultimately stated that Christ's 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 communion of churches, including the Armenian, Syrian, and
Egyptian churches. Though efforts were made at reconciliation in the next few
centuries the schism remained permanent resulting in what is today known as
Oriental Orthodoxy.
Arianism
and Goths
A popular
doctrine of the 4th century was Arianism, the denial of the divinity of Christ,
as propounded by Arius. Though this doctrine was condemned as heresy and
eventually eliminated by the Roman Church it remained popular underground for
some time. In the late 4th century Ulfilas, a Roman bishop and an Arian, was
appointed as the first bishop to the Goths, the Germanic peoples in much of
Europe at the borders of and within the Empire. Ulfilas spread Arian
Christianity among the Goths firmly establishing the faith among many of the
Germanic tribes, thus helping to keep them culturally distinct.
Monasticism
Monasticism is a
form of asceticism whereby one renounces worldly pursuits and goes off 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.
Eremetic monks,
or hermits, live in solitude, whereas cenobitics live in communities, generally
in a monastery, under a rule (or code of practice) and are governed by an
abbot. Originally, all Christian monks were hermits, following the example of
Anthony the Great. However, the need for some form of organised spiritual
guidance lead Pachomius in 318 to organise his many followers in what was to
become the first monastery. Soon, similar institutions were established
throughout the Egyptian desert as well as the rest of the eastern half of the Roman Empire . Women were especially attracted to the movement.
Central figures
in the development of monasticism were Basil the Great in the East and, in the
West, Benedict, who created the famous Rule of Saint Benedict, which would
become the most common rule throughout the Middle Ages, and starting point for other
monastic rules.
Early
Middle Ages
The transition
into the Middle Ages (476–799) 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.
The stepwise
loss of Western Roman Empire dominance,
replaced with foederati and Germanic kingdoms, coincided with early missionary
efforts into areas not controlled by the collapsing empire. 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 Germania .
The largely
Christian Gallo-Roman inhabitants of Gaul (modern France Clovis Clovis
After the rise
of the Frankish Kingdom Utrecht
Byzantine
Iconoclasms
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
Medieval
Christianity
High
Middle Ages (800–1299)
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.
From the 6th
century onward most of the monasteries in the West were of the Benedictine
Order. Owing to the stricter adherence to a reformed Benedictine rule, the
abbey of Cluny Cluny created a large, federated order
in which the administrators of subsidiary houses served as deputies of the
abbot of Cluny
The next wave of
monastic reform came with the Cistercian Movement. The first Cistercian abbey
was founded in 1098, at Cîteaux 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 field-work.
Inspired by
Bernard of Clairvaux, the primary builder of the Cistercians, they became the
main force of technological diffusion 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
A third level of
monastic reform was provided by the establishment of the Mendicant orders.
Commonly known as friars, mendicants live under a monastic rule with
traditional 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.
Investiture
Controversy
The Investiture
Controversy, or Lay investiture controversy, was the most significant conflict
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 benefit of Church reform.
Bishops
collected revenues from estates attached to their bishopric. Noblemen who held
lands (fiefdoms) hereditarily passed those lands on within their family.
However, because bishops had no legitimate children, when a bishop died it was
the king's 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 Church's attempt to
reform the episcopate and provide better pastoral care.
Pope Gregory VII
issued the Dictatus Papae, which declared that the pope alone could appoint or
depose bishops, or translate them to other sees. Henry IV's 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, though the revolt and conflict of investiture
continued.
Likewise, a
similar controversy occurred in England
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 staff.
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
(1184–1230s) 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
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 Germany Denmark
and Olaf I of Norway
Conversion
of the Slavs
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 Byzantium Moravia
When Rastislav,
the king of Great Moravia and a known wizard, asked Byzantium Thessaloniki
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 people's 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 field.
When friction
developed, the brothers, unwilling to be a cause of dissension among
Christians, travelled to Rome Constantine entered a
monastery in Rome Serbia )
and sent him back in 869, with jurisdiction over all of Moravia
and Pannonia Moravia
In 878,
Methodius was summoned to Rome Bulgaria , under whom they reorganised a Slavic-speaking Church
The success of
the conversion of the Bulgarians facilitated the conversion of other East
Slavic peoples, most notably the Rus', predecessors of Belarusians, Russians,
and Ukrainians, as well as Rusyns. By the beginning of the 11th century most of
the pagan Slavic world, including Rus', Bulgaria
and Serbia Kiev and in Georgia
Controversy
and Crusades Dividing East and West
The cracks and
fissures in Christian unity which led to the East-West Schism started to become
evident as early as the 4th century. Cultural, political, and linguistic
differences were often mixed with the theological, leading to schism. The
transfer of the Roman capital to Constantinople inevitably brought mistrust,
rivalry, and even jealousy to the relations of the two great sees, Rome and Constantinople .
It was easy for Rome to be jealous of Constantinople at a time when it was rapidly losing its
political prominence. Estrangement was also helped along by the German
invasions in the West, which effectively 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 intensified
this separation by driving a physical wedge between the two worlds. The once
homogenous unified 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.
Two basic
problems were involved: the nature of the primacy of the bishop of Rome Rome Rome
The Eastern
churches viewed Rome
The other major
irritant to Eastern Christendom was the Western use of the filioque
clause—meaning "and the Son"—in 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 filioque 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.
In the final
analysis, only another ecumenical council could introduce such an alteration.
Indeed the councils, 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 filioque 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.
In the 9th
century AD, a controversy arose between Eastern (Byzantine, later Orthodox) and
Western (Latin, Roman Catholic) Christianity that was precipitated by the
opposition of the Roman Pope John VII to the appointment by the Byzantine
emperor Michael III of Photius I to the position of patriarch of Constantinople . Photios was refused an apology by the
pope for previous points of dispute between the East and West. Photius refused
to accept the supremacy of the pope in Eastern matters or accept the filioque
clause. The Latin delegation at the council of his consecration pressed him to
accept the clause in order to secure their support.
The controversy
also involved Eastern and Western ecclesiastical jurisdictional rights in the
Bulgarian church, as well as a doctrinal dispute over the Filioque ("and
from the Son") clause. That had been added to the Nicene Creed by the
Latin church, which was later the theological breaking point in the ultimate
Great East-West Schism in the 11th century. Photius did provide concession on
the issue of jurisdictional rights concerning Bulgaria
and the papal legates made do with his return of Bulgaria
to Rome Bulgaria Bulgaria
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 first major division since certain groups in the East rejected the decrees
of the Council of Chalcedon, and was far more significant. Though normally
dated to 1054, the East-West Schism was actually the result of an extended
period of estrangement between Latin and Greek Christendom over the nature of
papal primacy and certain doctrinal matters like the filioque, but intensified
by cultural and linguistic differences.
The
"official" schism in 1054 was the excommunication of Patriarch
Michael Cerularius of Constantinople , followed
by his excommunication of papal legates. Attempts at reconciliation were made
in 1274 (by the Second Council of Lyon) and in 1439 (by the Council of Basel),
but in each case the eastern hierarchs who consented to the unions were
repudiated by the Orthodox as a whole, though reconciliation was achieved
between the West and what are now called the "Eastern Rite Catholic
Churches". Both groups are descended from the Early Church
The Orthodox
East perceived the Papacy as taking on monarchical characteristics that were
not in line with the church's tradition. The final breach is often considered
to have arisen after the capture and sacking of Constantinople
by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Crusades against Christians in the East by Roman
Catholic crusaders were not exclusive to the Mediterranean
though. The sacking of Constantinople and the Church of Holy Wisdom Byzantium
Crusades
The Crusades
were a series of military conflicts conducted by European Christian knights for
control over the lucrative trade routes running through the Middle
East , and establishment of European, not necessarily Christian,
influence in the region. However, many historians write that its purpose was
for the defence of Christians and for the expansion of Christian domains.
Generally, the crusades refer to the campaigns in the Holy
Land against Muslim forces sponsored by the Papacy. There were
other crusades against Islamic forces in southern Spain ,
southern Italy , and Sicily , as well as the campaigns of Teutonic knights
against pagan strongholds in North-eastern Europe .
A few crusades such as the Fourth Crusade were waged within Christendom against
groups that were considered heretical and schismatic.
Krak des
Chevaliers was built in the County
of Tripoli Byzantine Empire , until the
Islamic conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries. Thereafter, Christians had
generally been permitted to visit the sacred places in the Holy
Land until 1071, when the Seljuk Turks closed Christian
pilgrimages and assailed the Byzantines, defeating them at the Battle of
Manzikert.
Emperor Alexius
I asked for aid from Pope Urban II (1088–1099) for help against Islamic aggression.
He probably expected money from the pope for the hiring of mercenaries.
Instead, Urban II called upon the knights of Christendom in a speech made at
the Council of Clermont on 27 November 1095, combining the idea of pilgrimage
to the Holy Land with that of waging a holy
war against infidels.
The First
Crusade captured Antioch in 1099 and then Jerusalem Edessa Jerusalem Zara
Eventually the
crusaders arrived in Constantinople . Rather
than proceed to the Holy Land the crusaders instead sacked Constantinople and
other parts of Asia Minor effectively establishing the Latin Empire of
Constantinople in Greece and
Asia Minor . This was effectively the last
crusade sponsored by the papacy, with later crusades being sponsored by
individuals.
Eastern
Orthodox captivity
(1453–1850)
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 autonomous
millet. The ecumenical patriarch was the religious and administrative ruler of
the entire "Greek Orthodox nation", which encompassed all the Eastern
Orthodox subjects of the Empire. Eastern Christians fleeing 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.
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 confined 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 .
It is, in part,
due to this geographical and intellectual confinement that the voice of Eastern
Orthodoxy was not heard during the Reformation in 16th-century Europe . As a result, this important theological debate
often seems strange and distorted to the Orthodox. They never took part in it
and thus neither Reformation nor Counter-Reformation is part of their
theological framework.
However, these
rights and privileges, including freedom of worship and religious organisation,
were often established in principle but seldom corresponded to reality. The
legal privileges of the patriarch and the Church depended, in fact, on the whim
and mercy of the Sultan and the Sublime Porte, while all Christians were viewed
as little more than second-class citizens. Moreover, Turkish corruption and
brutality were not a myth. That it was the "infidel" Christian who
experienced this more than anyone else is not in doubt. Nor were pogroms of
Christians in these centuries unknown.
Devastating,
too, for the Church was the fact that it could not bear witness to Christ.
Missionary work among Moslems was dangerous and indeed impossible, whereas
conversion 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 ringing of church bells was prohibited. Education of the
clergy and the Christian population either ceased altogether or was reduced to
the most rudimentary elements.
Late
Middle Ages and the Early Renaissance
(1300–1520)
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 Rome Rome
The Western
Schism, or Papal Schism, was a prolonged period of crisis in Latin Christendom
from 1378 to 1416, when there were two or more claimants to the See of Rome and
there was conflict concerning the rightful holder of the papacy. The conflict
was political, rather than doctrinal, in nature. In 1309, Pope Clement V, due
to political considerations, moved to Avignon in
southern France Avignon rather than Rome Rome Rome
In 1378 the
conclave, elected an Italian from Naples Avignon ,
while Urban VI remained in Rome
For nearly forty
years, there were two papal curias and two sets of cardinals, each electing a
new pope for Rome or Avignon Pisa Rome , Benedict XIII from Avignon
In March 1415
the Pisan pope John XXIII fled 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 finally cleared the field of popes and antipopes.
John
Wycliff and Jan Hus
John Wycliffe
(1330–1384) was an English scholar and heretic best known for denouncing the
corruptions of the Church, and his sponsoring the first 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 priests and bishops.
His followers, called Lollards, faced persecution by the Church of England.
They went underground for over a century and played a role in the English
Reformation.
Jan Hus
(1369–1415) a Czech theologian in Prague Bohemia
Italian
Renaissance
(c.1375–1520)
The Renaissance
was a period of great cultural change and achievement, marked in Italy Rome , the Papacy, and the Papal States were all affected by the Renaissance. On the
one hand, it was a time of great artistic patronage and architectural
magnificence, 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 offices, including
the papacy, for their own members, some of whom were known for immorality, such
as Alexander VI and Sixtus IV.
In addition to
being the head of the Church, the Pope became one of Italy
From 1505 to
1626, St. Peter's 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 fields of philosophy, poetry, classics, rhetoric, and
political science, fostering a spirit of humanism–all of which would influence
the Church.
Christianity
in the 16th Century
Protestant
Reformation
(1521–1610)
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 reaffirmed the edict of the Diet of Worms against the
Reformation. Since that time, the term has been used in many different senses,
but most often as a general term refers to Western Christianity that is not
subject to papal authority. 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)."
The beginning of
the Protestant Reformation is generally identified with Martin Luther and the
posting of the 95 Theses on the castle church in Wittenberg , Germany
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
The Protestant
Reformation spread almost entirely within the confines of Northern Europe, but
did not take hold in certain northern areas such as Ireland
and parts of Germany Africa .
The Turning Point of Modern History
The Reformation of the sixteenth century is, next to the introduction of
Christianity, the greatest event in history. It marks the end of the Middle
Ages and the beginning of modern times. Starting from religion, it gave,
directly or indirectly, a mighty impulse to every forward movement, and made
Protestantism the chief propelling force in the history of modern civilization.
The age of the Reformation bears a strong resemblance to the first century.
Both are rich beyond any other period in great and good men, important facts,
and permanent results. Both contain the ripe fruits of preceding, and the
fruitful germs of succeeding ages. They are turning points in the history of
mankind. They are felt in their effects to this day, and will be felt to the
end of time.
They refashioned the world from the innermost depths of the human soul
in its contact, with the infinite Being. They were ushered in by a providential
concurrence of events and tendencies of thought. The way for Christianity was
prepared by Moses and the Prophets, the dispersion of the Jews, the conquests
of Alexander the Great, the language and literature of Greece, the arms and laws
of Rome, the decay of idolatry, the spread of skepticism, the aspirations after
a new revelation, the hopes of a coming Messiah. The Reformation was preceded
and necessitated by the corruptions of the papacy, the decline of monasticism
and scholastic theology, the growth of mysticism, the revival of letters, the
resurrection of the Greek and Roman classics, the invention of the printing press,
the discovery of a new world, the publication of the Greek Testament, the
general spirit of enquiry, the striving after national independence and
personal freedom.
In both centuries we hear the creative voice of the Almighty calling
light out of darkness. The sixteenth century is the age of the renaissance in
religion, literature, and art. The air was stirred by the spirit of progress
and freedom. The snows of a long winter were fast, melting before the rays of
the vernal sun. The world seemed to be renewing its youth; old things were passing
away, all things were becoming new. Pessimists and timid conservatives took
alarm at the threatened overthrow of cherished notions and institutions, and
were complaining, fault-finding and desponding, a useless business.
Intelligent observers of the signs of the times looked hopefully and
cheerfully to the future. "O century!" exclaimed Ulrich von Hutten,
"the studies flourish, the spirits are awake, it is a luxury to
live." And Luther wrote in 1522: "If you read all the annals of the
past, you will find no century like this since the birth of Christ. Such
building and planting, such good living and dressing, such enterprise in
commerce, such a stir in all the arts, has not been since Christ came into the
world. And how numerous are the sharp and intelligent people who leave nothing
hidden and unturned: even a boy of twenty years knows more nowadays than was
known formerly by twenty doctors of divinity."
The same may be said with even greater force of the nineteenth century,
which is eminently an age of discovery and invention, of enquiry and progress.
And both then as now the enthusiasm for light and liberty takes two opposite
directions, either towards skepticism and infidelity, or towards a revival of
true religion from its primitive sources. But Christianity triumphed then, and will
again regenerate the world.
The Protestant Reformation assumed the helm of the liberal tendencies
and movements of the renaissance, directed them into the channel of Christian
life, and saved the world from a disastrous revolution. For the Reformation was
neither a revolution nor a restoration, though including elements of both. It
was negative and destructive towards error, positive and constructive towards
truth; it was conservative as well as progressive; it built up new institutions
in the place of those which it pulled down; and for this reason and to this
extent it has succeeded.
Martin
Luther
Of all the Reformers Luther is the first. He is so closely identified
with the German Reformation that the one would have no meaning without the
other. His own history is the formative history of the church which is justly
called by his name, and which is the incarnation and perpetuation of his
genius. No other Reformer has given his name to the church he reformed, and
exercised the same controlling influence over its history. We need not discuss
here the advantages and disadvantages of this characteristic difference; we are
only concerned with the fact.
Martin Luther was born Nov. 10, 1483, an hour before midnight, at
Eisleben in Prussian Saxony, where he died, Feb. 18, 1546. On the day following
he was baptized and received the name of the saint of the day. His parents had
recently removed to that town113 from their original home at Mahra near Eisenach in Thuringia ,
where Boniface had first preached the gospel to the Germans. Six months after
Luther’s birth they settled at Mansfield , the
capital of a rich mining district in the Harz mountains ,
which thus shares with the Thuringian forest the honor of being the home of the
Luther family. They were very poor, but honest, industrious and pious people
from the lower and uncultivated ranks.
Luther was never ashamed of his humble, rustic origin. "I am,"
he said with pride to Melanchthon, "a peasant’s son; my father,
grandfather, all my ancestors were genuine peasants." His mother had to
carry the wood from the forest, on her back, and father and mother, as he said,
"worked their flesh off their bones," to bring up seven children (he
had three younger brothers and three sisters). Afterward his father, as a
miner, acquired some property, and left at his death guilders, a guilder being
worth at that time about sixteen marks, or four dollars.
The hardships of Luther’s youth and the want of refined breeding show
their effects in his writings and actions. They limited his influence among the
higher and cultivated classes, but increased his power over the middle and
lower classes. He was a man of the people and for the people. He was of the
earth earthy, but with his bold face lifted to heaven. He was not a polished diamond,
but a rough block cut out from a granite mountain and well fitted for a solid
base of a mighty structure. He laid the foundation, and others finished the
upper stories. If there ever was a sincere, earnest, conscientious monk, it was
Martin Luther. His sole motive was concern for his salvation. To this supreme
object he sacrificed the fairest prospects of life.
He was dead to the world and was willing to be buried out of the sight
of men that he might win eternal life. His latter opponents who knew him in convent,
have no charge to bring against his moral character except a certain pride and
combativeness, and he himself complained of his temptations to anger and envy. He was an Augustinian friar and professor at the University of Wittenberg
Luther's
doctrine of justification differed from Catholic theology in that justification
rather meant "the declaring of one to be righteous", where God
imputes the merits of Christ upon one who remains without inherent merit. In
this process, good works are more of an unessential by-product that contributes
nothing to one's own state of righteousness. Conflict 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
THE
SWISS REFORMATION
Before the sixteenth century, Switzerland
exerted no influence in the affairs of Europe except
by the bravery of its inhabitants in self-defence of their liberty and in
foreign wars. But in the sixteenth century she stands next to Germany in that
great religious renovation which has affected all modern history. The
Christianization of Switzerland began in the fourth or third century under the
Roman rule, and proceeded from France
and Italy .
Geneva , on the border of France and Savoy , is the seat of the oldest church and bishopric
founded by two bishops of Vienne in Southern Gaul .
The bishopric of Coire, in the south-eastern extremity, appears first in the
acts of a Synod of Milan, 452. The northern and interior sections were
Christianized in the seventh century by Irish missionaries, Columban and
Gallus. The last founded the abbey of St. Gall ,
which became a famous centre of civilization for Alamannia. The first, and for
a long time the only, university of Switzerland was that of Basle
(1460), where one of the three reformatory Councils was held (1430).
During the Middle Ages the whole country, like the rest of Europe , was subject to the Roman see, and no religion was
tolerated but the Roman Catholic. It was divided into six episcopal dioceses,—Geneva , Coire, Constance, Basle, Lausanne , and Sion (Sitten). The Pope had
several legates in Switzerland
who acted as political and military agents, and treated the little republic
like a great power. The most influential bishop, Schinner of Sion, who did
substantial service to the warlike Julius II. and Leo X., attained even a
cardinal’s hat. Zwingli, who knew him well, might have acquired the same dignity
if he had followed his example.
The Lutheran family embraces the churches which bear the name of Luther
and accept the Augsburg Confession; the Reformed family (using the term
Reformed in its historic and general sense) comprehends the churches which
trace their origin directly or indirectly to the labors of Zwingli and Calvin.
In England
the second or Puritan Reformation gave birth to a number of New denominations,
which, after the Toleration Act of 1689, were organized into distinct Churches.
In the eighteenth century arose the Wesleyan revival movement, which grew into
one of the largest and most active churches in the English-speaking world.
Thus the Reformation of the sixteenth century is the mother or
grandmother of at least half a dozen families of evangelical denominations, not
counting the sub-divisions. Lutheranism has its strength in Germany and Scandinavia; the Reformed Church, in
Great Britain and North America . The Reformed Confession has developed
different types. Travelling westward with the course of Christianity and
civilization, it became more powerful in Holland, England, and Scotland than in
Switzerland; but the chief characteristics which distinguish it from the
Lutheran Confession were already developed by Zwingli and Calvin.
Ulrich
Zwingli
Huldreich or Ulrich
Zwingli16 was born January 1, 1484, seven weeks after
Luther, in a lowly Shepherd’s cottage at Wildhaus in the county of Toggenburg lake of Wallenstadt
The village of Wildhaus
is the highest in the valley, surrounded by Alpine meadows and the lofty
mountain scenery of Northeastern Switzerland ,
in full view of the seven Churfirsten and the snow-capped Sentis. The principal
industry of the inhabitants was raising flocks. They are described as a
cheerful, fresh and energetic people; and these traits we find in Zwingli. The Reformation was introduced there in 1523. Not very far distant are
the places where Zwingli spent his public life,—Glarus, Einsiedeln, and Zurich .
Zwingli was educated
in the Catholic religion by his God-fearing parents, and by his uncle, the dean
of Wesen, who favored the new humanistic learning. He grew up a healthy,
vigorous boy. He had at a very early age a tender sense of
veracity as "the mother of all virtues," and, like young Washington , he would
never tell a lie. When ten years of age he was sent from Wesen to a Latin
school at Basle , and soon excelled in the
three chief branches taught there,—Latin grammar, music and dialectics. In 1498
he entered a college at Berne under the charge of Heinrich Wölflin (Lupulus),
who was reputed to be the best classical scholar and Latin poet in Switzerland ,
and followed the reform movement in 1522.
From 1500 to 1502 he
studied in the University
of Vienna
In 1502 he returned
to Basle, taught Latin in the school
of St. Martin Zurich . Both attended
with much benefit the lectures of Thomas Wyttenbach, professor of theology
since 1505. Zwingli calls him his beloved and faithful teacher, who opened his
eyes to several abuses of the Church, especially the indulgences, and taught
him "not to rely on the keys of the Church, but to seek the remission of
sins alone in the death of Christ, and to open access to it by the key of
faith."
Zwingli himself
entered into the marriage relation in 1522, but from prudential reasons he did
not make it public till April 5, 1524 (more than a year before Luther’s
marriage, which took place June 13, 1525). Such cases of secret marriage were
not unfrequent; but it would have been better for his fame if, as a minister
and reformer, he had exercised self-restraint till public opinion was ripe for
the change. His wife, Anna Reinhart,81 was the widow of Hans Meyer von
Knonau,82 the mother of three children, and lived near Zwingli. She was two
years older than he. His enemies spread the report that he married for beauty
and wealth; but she possessed only four hundred guilders besides her wardrobe
and jewelry. She ceased to wear her jewelry after marrying the Reformer.
Ulrich Zwingli
was a scholar and parish priest who was likewise influential 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 Luther's famous
protest, though his doctrine of justification was remarkably similar to that of
the German friar. In 1518, Zwingli was given a post at the wealthy collegiate
church of the Grossmünster 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
In this
environment, Zwingli began preaching his version of reform, with certain points
as the aforementioned doctrine of justification, but others such as the
position that veneration of icons was actually idolatry and thus a violation of
the first commandment, and the denial of the real presence in the Eucharist.
Soon the city council had accepted Zwingli's doctrines and Zurich Zurich
leadership imposed an economic blockade on the inner Catholic states of Switzerland
John
Calvin
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, and establishing himself as a
leader of the Reformed church in Geneva
Calvin approached the subject with a strong sense of the mystery of the
vital union of Christ with the believer, which is celebrated in the eucharist.
"I exhort my readers," he says, in the last edition of his Institutes,
"to rise much higher than I am able to conduct them; for as to myself, whenever
I handle this subject, after having endeavored to say everything, I am
conscious of having said but very little in comparison with its excellence. And
though the conceptions of the mind can far exceed the expressions of the
tongue; yet, with the magnitude of the subject, the mind itself is oppressed
and overwhelmed. Nothing remains for me, therefore, but to break forth in
admiration of that mystery, which the mind is unable clearly to understand, or
the tongue to express."
He aimed to combine the spiritualism of Zwingli with the realism of
Luther, and to avoid the errors of both. And he succeeded as well as the case
will admit. He agreed with Zwingli in the figurative interpretation of the
words of institution, which is now approved by the best protestant exegetes,
and rejected the idea of a corporal presence and oral participation in the way
of transubstantiation or consubstantiation, which implies either a miracle or
an omnipresence of the body of Christ. But he was not satisfied with a purely
commemorative or symbolical theory, and laid the chief stress on the positive
side of an actual communion with the ever-living Christ. He expressed in
private letters the opinion that Zwingli had been so much absorbed with
overturning the superstition of a carnal presence that he denied or obscured
the true efficacy of the sacrament.
He acknowledged the mystery of the real presence and real participation,
but understood them spiritually and dynamically. He confined the participation
of the body and blood of Christ to believers, since faith is the only means of
communion with Christ; while Luther extended it to all communicants, only with
opposite effects. Calvin lays great stress on the supernatural agency of the
Holy Spirit in the communion. This was ignored by Luther and Zwingli. The Spirit
raises our hearts from earth to heaven, as he does in every act of devotion
(sursum corda), and he brings down the life-giving power of the exalted
Redeemer in heaven, and thus unites what is, according to our imperfect
notions, separated by local distance.867 The medium of communication is faith.
Calvin might have sustained his view by the old liturgies of the Oriental Church
Calvin was involved in several controversies, chiefly on account of his
doctrine of predestination. He displayed a decided superiority over all his
opponents, as a scholar and a reasoner. He was never at a loss for an argument.
He had also the dangerous gift of wit, irony, and sarcasm, but not the more
desirable gift of harmless humor, which sweetens the bitterness of controversy,
and lightens the burden of daily toil. Like David, in the imprecatory Psalms,
he looked upon the enemies of his doctrine as enemies of God. "Even a dog
barks," he wrote to the queen of Navarre , "when his master is
attacked; how could I be silent when the honor of my Lord is assailed?" He
treated his opponents—Pighius, Bolsec, Castellio, and Servetus—with sovereign
contempt, and called them "nebulones, nugatores, canes, porci, bestiae. Such
epithets are like weeds in the garden of his chaste and elegant style. But they
were freely used by the ancient fathers, with the exception of Chrysostom and
Augustin, in dealing with heretics, and occur even in the Scriptures, but impersonally.
His age saw nothing improper in them. Beza says that "no expression
unworthy of a good man ever fell from the lips of Calvin." The taste of
the sixteenth century differed widely from that of the nineteenth. Calvin spent
his last days in almost continual prayer, and in ejaculating comforting
sentences of Scripture, mostly from the Psalms. He suffered at times
excruciating pains. He was often heard to exclaim: "I mourn as a
dove" (Isa. 38:14); "I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst
it" (Ps. 39:9); "Thou bruisest me, O Lord, but it is enough for me
that it is thy hand." His voice
was broken by asthma, but his eyes remained bright, and his mind clear and
strong to the last. He admitted all who wished to see him, but requested that
they should rather pray for him than speak to him.
On the day of his death he spoke with less difficulty. He fell
peacefully asleep with the setting sun towards eight o’clock, and entered into
the rest of his Lord. "I had just left him," says Beza, "a
little before, and on receiving intimation from the servants, immediately
hastened to him with one of the brethren. We found that he had already died,
and so very calmly, without any convulsion of his feet or hands, that he did
not even fetch a deeper sigh. He had remained perfectly sensible, and was not
entirely deprived of utterance to his very last breath. Indeed, he looked much more
like one sleeping than dead." He had lived fifty-four years, ten months,
and seventeen days.
Jamshed Gill
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