Don't Be Ignorant About Your Religion Christianity.
top 25 events in the History of Christianity,
events which shaped the Church itself,
Christian
civilization, and the modern
world. The Church transcends the
contingent facts of this world, yet at the
same time is deeply connected to historical
events, for its very foundation is rooted in
the centrality of the Incarnation of Jesus
Christ. The Christian view of history is a
vision and interpretation of time in terms of
eternity and of human events in the light of
divine revelation. Christianity is the
dynamic element in the history of our
Western culture. The life of Jesus Christ, the
birth of Christianity, and the Apostolic Age
(the first 100 years) speak for themselves,
for great historical movements do not
spring from non-events.
This capsule summary is offered as a study
guide of Church History. The links and
references provide a more in-depth
discussion of each topic.
THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF JESUS
CHRIST
The point of origin and central figure of the
Christian faith is our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ , Son of God. Jesus was born of the
Virgin Mary in Bethlehem (Luke 2), in
fulfillment of the Scriptures such as Isaiah
7:14 and Micah 5:2. St. Joseph took his wife
Mary and the infant Jesus on the Flight to
Egypt to avoid Herod and the Slaughter of
the Innocents (Matthew 2). Upon their
return, the Holy Family settled in Nazareth,
where Jesus grew and spent his childhood
and early years as an adult. Hardly
anything is known of his life at that time
except that he was called a Nazarene
(Matthew 2:23) and that at age 12 he was
found teaching in the Temple in Jerusalem
(Luke 2:46).
The life of Jesus is best described in the
Four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John, while his teachings are presented by
all the writers of the New Testament of the
Bible.
Jesus of Nazareth began his public ministry
when he was about thirty years old. In the
Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus
gave us the Eight Beatitudes, affirmed the
Ten Commandments of God, and taught us
the Lord's Prayer and the Golden Rule. He
spent much of his ministry by the Sea of
Galilee, preaching in such towns as
Capernaum (John 6:59), Bethsaida (Mark
8:22), and Magdala (Matthew 15:39), and
surrounding areas such as Cana (John
2:1-11) and Tyre (Mark 7:24-30). When his
hour came near, he headed toward
Jerusalem (Luke 9:51).
Jesus often taught in parables, an ancient
Eastern literary genre. A parable is a
narrative that presents comparisons to
teach an important moral lesson. The
Parables are recorded in the Synoptic
Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Some
parables are common to all three Synoptic
Gospels, such as the Parable of the Sower
(Matthew 13:3-23, Mark 4:2-20, and Luke
8:4-15). Examples of parables unique to
each Gospel are the Weeds Among the
Wheat (Matthew 13:24-30) and the
Laborers in the Vineyard (Matthew
20:1-16); the Growing Seed (Mark 4:26-29);
the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37); the
Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32); Lazarus and
the Rich Man (Luke 16:19-31); and the
Pharisee and the Publican (Luke 18:9-14).
Jesus performs many miracles ,
demonstrating his power over nature and
spirits, and thus confirming that the
Kingdom of God is at hand (Mark 1:15). In a
physical miracle, such as making the blind
see, or walking on water, or calming a
storm, the laws of the universe are
suspended through divine intervention. In a
moral miracle, such as forgiveness of sins or
driving out demons, the blessing of Jesus
purifies the spirit. In Mark 2:1-12, Jesus
performed a physical miracle, healing the
paralytic, to demonstrate a moral miracle,
the forgiveness of sins. Only three miracles
appear in all four Gospels - his own
Resurrection, the greatest miracle of them
all, the healing of the blind, and the feeding
of the 5000 through the multiplication of the
loaves.
His public ministry lasted about three years,
prior to his Passion, Crucifixion,
Resurrection, and Ascension. His mission
was one of love, mercy, and peace (John
15:12-13).
Christ Jesus is the fulfillment of salvation
history and the mediator and fullness of all
revelation. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the
Word made flesh. See our home page Jesus
Christ for further discussion.
THE APOSTOLIC AGE
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be
an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God
which he promised beforehand through his
prophets in the holy scriptures,
the gospel concerning his Son, who was
descended from David according to the flesh
and designated Son of God in power
according to the Spirit of holiness
by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus
Christ our Lord,
through whom we have received grace and
apostleship to bring about the obedience of
faith
for the sake of his name among all the
nations;
St. Paul to the Romans 1:1-5
Jesus named the Apostles, often called the
Twelve (John 6:67), to be with him and
carry on his ministry: Simon Peter and his
brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee,
and his brother John; Philip and Nathaniel
Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, James
the son of Alpheus, Jude Thaddeus, Simon
the Zealot; and Judas Iscariot, the one who
betrayed him (Mark 3:14-19). Following the
Resurrection, Matthias was chosen to
replace Judas Iscariot.
Prior to his Ascension, Jesus commissioned
his disciples to be his witnesses to the ends
of the earth, as noted in the Acts of the
Apostles 1:8. The Holy Spirit descended at
Pentecost on about 120 Apostles, Mary the
mother of Jesus, and disciples in the Upper
Room (Acts 1:15, 2:1-4). This strengthened
the Apostles to spread the word of Christ
Jesus. The Acts of the Apostles describes the
infancy period of the Church, a time
following the Pentecost when Christianity
spread like wildfire. The Apostles all
gathered in Jerusalem (Acts 15) to discuss
whether Gentiles who had been converted
to Christianity had to observe all the
ceremonial precepts of the Mosaic Law. This
gathering of the Apostles became known as
the Council of Jerusalem , and set the
pattern of future Councils to resolve issues
that arose within the Church.
To the question of Jesus, "Who do you say
that I am?" it was Peter the fisherman that
answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the
living God" (Matthew 16:15-16).
Whereupon Jesus responded, "You are
Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
Church, and the gates of the netherworld
shall not prevail against it. I will give you
the keys to the kingdom of heaven;
whatever you bind on earth shall be bound
in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth
shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew
16:18-19). Peter became the first Patriarch
of Antioch and ultimately Bishop of Rome.
The Conversion of Paul occurred on the
road to Damascus, Syria (Acts 9:1-9). Saul
persecuted the Church and consented to the
death of the first martyr Stephen. He had
men and women who lived the Way thrown
into prison. But while going to Damascus,
Saul was struck from his horse by a great
light and a voice asked "Why do you
persecute me?" Saul asked who spoke. Christ
identified himself with his Church: "I am
Jesus, whom you are persecuting." Saul
experienced the grace of conversion and
first preached in Damascus. He then
traveled to Arabia, and then returned to
Damascus, where he remained for three
years (Galatians 1:17-18). Paul, as Apostle to
the Gentiles, became just as passionate
spreading Christianity as he was in
persecuting Christians before his
conversion.
Saints Peter and Paul were both martyred in
Rome during the persecution of Christians
by Nero, Emperor of the Roman Empire. St.
Peter was crucified upside down and St.
Paul was beheaded, both probably in 64-68
AD. In fact, all of the Apostles were
martyred for having preached the Gospel,
except for St. John the Evangelist.
Heeding the message of Jesus Christ to Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations
(Matthew 28:19-20), the Apostles traveled
East and West to all parts of the known
world to spread Christianity. Andrew,
Peter's brother, was the first to be called to
follow Jesus, and is called by the Byzantine
Church the Protoclete, meaning the first
called. Andrew evangelized Byzantium,
appointed Stachys (Romans 16:9) the first
Bishop there, and was crucified in Patras,
Greece. James , the son of Zebedee and
brother of John, is believed to have
preached in Spain; he is the only Apostle to
have his martyrdom recorded in the Bible
(Acts 12:2). John , the son of Zebedee and
the brother of James, was the "one Jesus
loved." He is called the Theologian for his
mystical writings - the Gospel of John and
three Letters. Christ on the Cross entrusted
his mother Mary to John (19:26-27), who
took her with him to Ephesus; he was later
exiled to the island of Patmos, where he
wrote the Book of Revelation in his elderly
years. The other James , son of Alphaeus, is
sometimes called James the Less, to
distinguish him from James the Son of
Zebedee. He played an important role as
head of the Church of Jerusalem, and writer
of the Letter of James in the Bible.
According to the historian Flavius Josephus,
he was stoned to death in 62 AD. Tradition
has it that Matthew preached among the
Hebrews and wrote his Gospel in Hebrew or
Aramaic. Philip preached the Gospel in
Phrygia, Asia Minor and was martyred in
Hierapolis. Nathaniel, Son of Talmay, or in
Aramaic Nathaniel Bartholomew, brought
the faith to Armenia. Jude Thaddeus , the
author of the Letter of Jude, spread the faith
to Edessa, Syria, beyond the Euphrates
River. Thomas Didymus, or Thomas the
Twin, is known as Doubting Thomas, for
questioning the Lord's Resurrection. But
when he put his hand in the Lord's side, he
reacted with a beautiful profession of faith:
"My Lord and My God" (John 20:28).
Thomas traveled through Chaldea and
Persia all the way to India! Little is known
about Simon the Zealot or Matthias .
THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH
The early Christian Church was faced with
spreading the teachings of Jesus Christ
throughout the world, often during a time of
martyrdom and intense persecution.
Traditions in the Early Christian Church
included the Memorial of the Last Supper -
the celebration of the Liturgy of the
Eucharist and reception of Communion, on
Sunday the Lord's Day (Revelation 1:10),
and Prayer , such as the Lord's Prayer and
the Apostles' Creed, a profession of faith
during Baptism .
The Apostolic Fathers were a group of early
Christian writers who knew one of the
Apostles and lived about 75-150 AD, and
sought to define, organize, and defend the
faith, such as Ignatius of Antioch, Clement
of Rome, Polycarp of Smyrna, and the
author(s) of the Didache . St. Ignatius of
Antioch was designated Bishop of Syria by
St. Peter on his trip to Antioch to meet St.
Paul. St. Ignatius was the first to use the
term Catholic Church in his Letter to the
Smyrnaeans.
The word catholic means universal and refers to
the universal Church of Jesus Christ.
Ignatius of Antioch would not worship the
Emperor Trajan, and thus was placed in
chains and martyred in Rome when thrown
to the lions in the Coliseum. He wrote seven
letters on his trip to Rome, which proved to
be a unifying event for all of the early
Churches. He established the Church
hierarchy of bishop, priest, and deacon for
the early Churches, the pattern which still
exists today.
St. Justin Martyr (110-165 AD) was the first
Apologist or Defender of the Faith. In his
First Apology written in 155, he described
the Memorial of the Last Supper on Sunday,
one that would be called the Divine Liturgy
in the East and the Mass in the West, an
event which has remained essentially the
same for nearly 2000 years. "And this food
is called among us eucharistia...For not as
common bread and common drink do we
receive these, but in like manner as Jesus
Christ our Savior, having been made flesh by
the Word of God...is the flesh and blood of
that Jesus who was made flesh." St. Justin
was martyred in Rome for preaching
Christianity to the Romans in 165 AD.
THE EASTERN CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Christianity spread throughout Asia, Europe,
and Africa. The Eastern Christian Churches
are characterized by a rich heritage with
Apostolic origin, and are treasured by the
universal Church, for the East was the home
of Jesus Christ our Redeemer!
Jerusalem is the birthplace to all of
Christianity throughout the world. The
Levant, the eastern shores of the
Mediterranean Sea, served as the cradle of
Christianity. Antioch, Syria became an early
center for Christianity, especially following
the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
Indeed, followers of Christ were first called
Christians in Antioch (Acts 11:26). They also
became known as Nazarenes (Acts 24:5),
particularly in the East. St. Mark the
Evangelist founded the Church of
Alexandria, Egypt. Philip the Deacon
introduced Christianity to a minister of
Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians, on the
road from Jerusalem to Gaza in Acts 8:27.
One of the earliest centers of Christianity
was Edessa in the Kingdom of Osroene,
located in Northern Syria and Mesopotamia
across the Euphrates River. Eusebius of
Caesarea in his Ecclesiastical History
reported that King Abgar of Edessa was
afflicted with illness and contacted Jesus in
the hope of a cure. Upon his healing by St.
Jude Thaddeus , King Abgar converted to
Christianity.
Edessa became home to such writers as St.
Ephrem of Syria (306-373 AD), a Father and
Doctor of the Church. St. Ephrem wrote his
beautiful hymns and religious poetry in the
Estrangela script of Syriac, a dialect of the
Semitic language of Aramaic, the language
of Jesus. Syriac became the biblical and
liturgical language of early Christian
Churches in the East. The theology of
Eastern Churches often developed
independently, outside the sway of Roman
and Byzantine thought. Syriac Christianity
would expand throughout Asia, extending to
Chaldea and Persia along the Silk Road all
the way to India and the Far East, reaching
China, Tibet, and Mongolia.
The first nation to adopt Christianity as its
state religion was Armenia under King
Tiridates III in 301. Those Eastern Churches
that are in communion with Rome are
known as the Eastern Catholic Churches.
CONSTANTINE AND THE EDICT OF
MILAN (313 AD)
Christians were severely persecuted through
three centuries of the Roman Empire,
especially at the hands of Nero (64 AD),
Trajan (98-117), right up to Diocletian
(284-305). But their powerful witness
through martyrdom only served to spread
Christianity!
Constantine became Emperor of the West
in 306. As he was in Gaul at the time, he still
had to capture Rome where Maxentius held
sway. Prior to battle, he had a dream or
vision of Christ on the Cross, a cross of light,
and was instructed to ornament the shields
of his soldiers with the Savior's monogram -
the Greek letters Χ (chi) and Ρ (rho). He
defeated Maxentius at the Battle at Milvian
Bridge over the River Tiber and became the
sole Roman Emperor in 312, attributing his
victory to the Christian God.
Welcome relief from Christian martyrdom
came with the Edict of Milan in 313,
through which Constantine and Licinius, the
Emperor of the East, granted Christianity
complete religious tolerance. His defeat of
Licinius in 324 made him sole Emperor of
the entire Roman Empire, and he moved the
seat of the Empire to Byzantium in 330 and
renamed it Constantinople.
Constantine considered himself Christian
and did much to protect and support
Christianity. Sunday as the Lord's Day was
made a day of rest, and December 25 was
celebrated as the birthday of Jesus. He
restored property that once belonged to
Christians. After his mother Helena
discovered the True Cross, Constantine built
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at the
site of the crucifixion, burial, and
Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ in
Jerusalem. He also built the Church of the
Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of St.
Peter in Rome.
Five centers of Christianity within the
Roman Empire - Jerusalem, Antioch,
Alexandria, Byzantium, and Rome - evolved
into Patriarchates after Constantine
recognized Christianity in the Edict of Milan
in 313.
Christianity remain undivided until
mankind sought to define the hidden nature
of God and the mystery of Christ. A dispute
concerning the relation of the Father and
the Son arose in Egypt known as the Arian
controversy. Constantine called the First
Ecumenical Council in 325, known as the
Council of Nicaea . The Council declared that
the Son was of the same substance -
ὁμοούσιος - homoousios - with the Father,
and formed the initial Nicene Creed. The
Nicene Creed was expanded and finalized
at the Council of Constantinople in 381 to
include homoousios for the Holy Spirit as
well, by quoting John 15:26, "the Holy Spirit
who proceeds from the Father," to form the
Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (still
called the Nicene Creed). The Apostles' and
Nicene Creeds are important to the
Tradition of the Church.
Constantine considered himself both head of
state and father of the Christian Churches.
The alliance of Church and State in the
Roman Empire first seen under Constantine
was the beginning of Christendom .
THE NEW TESTAMENT OF THE BIBLE
There were three stages in the formation of
the Gospels: the life and teachings of Jesus
Christ, the oral tradition of the Apostles, and
the written word. There were eight named
writers of the New Testament: Saints
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter,
James, and Jude.
The Canon of the New Testament was
formed within the early Christian
community, the Church. The Tradition of
the Fathers of the Church was important to
early Christianity, for they were the ones
who chose those inspired books which best
reflected the life and teachings of Jesus
Christ in the formation of the canon of the
New Testament, and were also involved in
the interpretation of Scripture. Irenaeus, the
Bishop of Lyons, first proposed a canon of
the New Testament in 180 AD. Three Fathers
of the Church - Athanasius of Alexandria in
his Letter of 367, Jerome in Bethlehem with
the completion of his Latin New Testament
in 384, and Augustine at the Council of
Hippo in 393 - agreed that 27 Books were
the inspired Word of God. The Canon of the
New Testament of the Bible was confirmed
at the Third Council of Carthage in 397 AD.
Our New Testament of the Bible in the West
was written in Greek. There are indications
in the writings of the Fathers of the Church
(Papias of Hierapolis, St. Irenaeus of Lyons,
Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea, and St.
Jerome) that "Matthew put together the
sayings of the Lord in the Hebrew language,
and each one interpreted them as best he
could" (Papias, in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical
History , III, 39, 16). The oldest manuscripts
available to us are the Curetonian and
Sinaiticus texts of the Old Syriac Gospels, the
Greek Codex Sinaiticus from St. Catherine's
Monastery on Mt. Sinai, Egypt, and the
Codex Vaticanus in Greek from the fourth
century AD.
St. Jerome (345-420) was commissioned by
Pope Damasus in 382 to produce a new
Latin translation of the Bible. Jerome
completed the translation of the Greek New
Testament into Latin in 384, and finished
his translation from both Greek and
Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament
by 405. In view of his work, St. Jerome was
named the Father of Biblical Scholars. The
Latin Vulgate Bible published by St. Jerome
served as the standard Bible for Western
Christian civilization for over 1000 years.
THE WRITINGS OF ST. AUGUSTINE
St. Augustine (354-430 AD) was the greatest
of the Latin Fathers of the Church and a
foundational figure to Western Christian
civilization. He was born in Tagaste, near
Hippo, in north Africa. His mother St.
Monica was a devout Christian and taught
him the faith. However, when he studied
rhetoric in Carthage, he began living a
worldly life.
He obtained a post as master of rhetoric in
Milan, accompanied by an unnamed
woman and child Adeodatus, born out of
wedlock in 372. The woman soon left him
and their son, and Monica joined them in
Milan. Under the incessant prayers of his
mother, and the influence of St. Ambrose of
Milan, he eventually converted at age 32 in
386 AD. Perhaps the most eloquent
examination of conscience is found in The
Confessions of St. Augustine, where he
describes his moment of conversion in the
garden reading St. Paul to the Romans
13:14, But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
make no provisions for the desires of the
flesh.
Both his mother and son died soon
afterwards and he returned in 388 to his
home in Tagaste. He was ordained a priest
in 391, and became Bishop of Hippo in 395.
Augustine was people-oriented and
preached every day. Many of his followers
lived an ascetic life. He had a great love for
Christ, and believed that our goal on earth
was God through Christ himself, "to see his
face evermore." Our goal in life should be to
please God, not man.
Augustine was one of the most prolific
writers in history, and his writings show an
evolution of thought and at times a reversal
of ideas, as seen in his Retractations . His
Scriptural essays on Genesis and Psalms
remain starting points for modern Biblical
scholars. His commentary on the Sermon on
the Mount is still read today. Perhaps most
debated are his views on predestination.
St. Augustine is the doctor of grace. In his
book Grace and Free Will, he explained
simply why he believed in free will. If there
was no free will, then why did God give us
the Ten Commandments, and why did he
tell us to love our neighbor? Augustine's
arguments against the Pelagian heresy set
the doctrine of grace for the Catholic Church
to the present day. Pelagius thought that
man could achieve virtue and salvation on
his own without the gift of grace, that Jesus
was simply a model of virtue. This of course
attacks the Redemption of man by Christ! If
man could make it on his own, then the
Cross of Christ becomes meaningless! But
Augustine saw man's utter sinfulness and
the blessing and efficacy of grace, disposing
man to accept his moment of grace, and
hopefully ultimate salvation. Grace raises us
to a life of virtue, and is the ground of
human freedom. "When I choose rightly I
am free." The Council of Orange enshrined
Augustine's teaching on grace and free will
in 529 AD.
Perhaps one of his greatest works was The
City of God, which took 13 years to
complete, from 413 to 426. History can only
be understood as a continued struggle
between two cities, the City of God,
comprised of those men who pursue God,
and the City of Man, composed of those who
pursue earthly goods and pleasures. He
refers to the two sons of Adam, Cain and
Abel, as the earliest examples of the two
types of man. The Roman empire was an
example of the city of man (which had just
been sacked by Alaric in 410 and was the
occasion of the book).
St. Augustine was a living example of God's
grace that transformed nature. He died
August 28, 430, during the sack of Hippo by
the Vandals. August 28 is celebrated as his
Feast Day in the liturgical calendar.
POPE LEO THE GREAT (440-461)
Pope Leo entered the Papacy at a difficult
time. Alaric had sacked Rome in 410, and
the Huns and the Visigoths were gaining
strength. However the Pope proved to be a
master statesman and history has
deservedly accorded him the title of Pope
Leo the Great.
One of his first actions in 441 was to bless
the missionary efforts of St. Patrick and to
ordain him as Bishop of Ireland.
A tension in Church authority between
papal leadership and collegiality of the
bishops was developing over theological
questions. Rome was the place of
martyrdom for Saints Peter and Paul.
Rome's position as the capital of the Roman
Empire was also supportive of a leadership
role for the Bishop of Rome. The Bishop of
Rome as successor to St. Peter was the
Pastor and Shepherd of the whole Church,
as seen with St. Clement of Rome in his First
Letter to the Corinthians in 96 AD, and with
Pope Leo the Great.
The Council of Ephesus , the Third
Ecumenical Council, in 431 recognized Mary
as the Mother of God, which was intrinsic to
the human nature (ϕύσις - physis = nature)
of Christ. The independent Church of the
East in Persia believed in two distinct
natures (dyophysite) in Christ and did not
accept the wording. Pope Leo synthesized
the thought of the differing Schools of
Antioch and Alexandria in a letter known
as the Tome . The Council of Chalcedon in
451 was the Fourth Ecumenical Council,
which supported Leo's stance that Christ
had two natures, Divine and human in
perfect harmony, in one Person or
hypostasis . This set the theology for Roman
and Byzantine theology and was important
for European unity. However, Eastern
Christians in Armenia, Syria, Egypt,
Ethiopia, and India who still believed that
Christ was one incarnate nature
(monophysite) of the Word of God objected
to Chalcedon and formed the Oriental
Orthodox Churches .
Just one year later (452), Attila and the
Huns were threatening outside the walls of
Rome. Pope Leo met Attila, who decided to
call off the invasion!
THE MONKS SAVE EUROPEAN
CIVILIZATION
The Monastic Orders have been a premium
influence on the formation of Christian
culture. For not only have they been islands
of asceticism and holiness that have served
as ideals to a secular world, but also they
have provided many if not most of the
religious leaders within each historic age,
especially during times of renewal and
reform. The word monos is the Greek word
for one or alone . Monasticism began in the
East and spread throughout Europe and
saved European civilization.
The practice of leaving the ambitions of
daily life and retreating to the solitude of
the desert was seen throughout Palestine,
Syria, and Egypt, St. John the Baptist
(Mark 1:4) an early example.
The father of Christian monasticism was St.
Antony of the Desert (251-356), the first of
the Desert Fathers. Antony of Egypt took to
heart the words of Christ to the rich young
man, " Go sell what you have and give to the
poor, and you will have treasure in
heaven" (Matthew 19:21). He headed across
the Nile to a mountain near Pispir to live a
life of solitude, prayer, and poverty . Soon
many gathered around him to imitate his
life, living as hermits in nearby caves in the
mountain, and in 305 he emerged from
solitude to teach his followers the way of the
ascetic. He then moved further into the
desert by Mount Kolzim near the Red Sea,
where a second group of hermits gathered
and later formed a monastery. He lived
there for 45 years until his death in 356.
St. Maron (350-410), a contemporary of St.
John Chrysostom, was a monk in the fourth
century who left Antioch for the Orontes
River to lead a life of holiness and prayer.
As he was given the gift of healing, his life of
solitude was short-lived, and soon he had
many followers that adopted his monastic
way. Following the death of St. Maron in
410, his disciples built a monastery in his
memory, which would form the nucleus of
the Eastern Catholic Maronite Church of
Lebanon.
The fall of the Roman Empire to the
barbarian invasions left European
civilization in disarray, for the social
structure under one ruler in Rome was
destroyed. The preservation of culture and
the conversion of the barbarians to
Christianity was left to an unlikely group:
the monastics of Europe. Their missionary
efforts converted one tribe after another, so
that eventually all of Europe was united in
the worship of the one Christian God.
St. Patrick as Apostle to Ireland founded
the monastery of Armagh in 444 and other
monasteries throughout Ireland. As the
social unit in Ireland and much of Europe at
the time was the tribe in the countryside,
the monastery was the center of Church life
and learning. The Irish monks that followed
him converted much of northern Europe.
The lasting legacy of the Irish monks has
been the present-day form of confession. In
early times, penance was in public and
severe, often lasting for years, such that
Baptism was generally postponed until
one's deathbed. The Irish monks began
private confession and allowed one to
repeat confession as necessary.
The monk St. Benedict (480-547) was born
in Nursia of nobility but chose a life of
solitude in Subiaco outside of Rome. Soon he
moved nearby to build a monastery at
Monte Cassino in 529 and there wrote the
Rule of Benedict . Monte Cassino placed all of
the monks in one monastery under an
abbot. The guiding principle for the
monastery was ora et labora , or pray and
work . The monastery provided adequate
food and a place to sleep and served as a
center of conversion and learning. Known
for its moderation, Monte Cassino and
Benedict's rule became the standard for
monasteries throughout Europe and the
pattern for Western civilization.
The first monk to become Pope was St.
Gregory the Great (540-604). Born to
Roman nobility, Gregory at first pursued a
political career and became Prefect of
Rome. However he gave up position and
wealth and retreated to his home to lead a
monastic life. He was recalled to Rome and
soon was elected Pope in 590 and served
until his death in 604. A man of great
energy, he is known for four historic
achievements. His theological and spiritual
writings shaped the thought of the Middle
Ages ; he made the Pope the de facto ruler of
central Italy; his charisma strengthened the
Papacy in the West; and he was dedicated to
the conversion of England to Christianity.
Gregory sent the monk Augustine to
England in 597. The conversion of King
Aethelbert of Kent led St. Augustine to be
named the first Archbishop of Canterbury.
Soon English Benedictine monks were being
sent to convert the rest of Europe, such as
the English monk Winfrid, better known as
St. Boniface , who evangelized Germany
from 723-739 AD and is known as the
Apostle to Germany.
CHRISTIANITY THRIVES UNDER THE
CAROLINGIAN EMPIRE (732-814)
The Carolingian Empire effectively began
with Charles Martel, the Mayor of the Palace
under the Merovingian Franks. He stopped
the Muslim invasion of Europe at the Battle
of Tours near Poitiers in 732, and supported
St. Boniface in his conversion of Germany.
His son Pepin and the Papacy formed an
historic alliance. Pepin needed the blessing
of the Pope in his seizure of leadership of
Gaul from the Merovingians. Pope Stephen
II, besieged by the Lombards in Italy, was
the first Pope to leave Italy and cross the
Alps in 754. He named King Pepin Patrician
of the Romans, and in turn Pepin swept into
Italy and conquered the Lombards, securing
the Papal states. Pepin died in 768 and
divided his realm between his two sons,
Carloman and Charles.
Charles, known as Charlemagne (742-814),
took over all of Gaul upon the death of his
brother in 771, and soon conquered most of
mainland Europe. He was a vigorous leader
and ruled until 814. Charlemagne was a
strong supporter of Christianity. During his
reign, Christianity became the guiding
principle of the Carolingian Empire, as the
Church established a powerful presence
throughout Europe. He instituted a school of
learning in his palace at Aachen. In the
Middle Ages there was in theory a division
between temporal power and spiritual
authority, but in practice one saw a strong
Emperor take control of some spiritual
affairs and a strong Pope take control of
some affairs of state. Charlemagne, as
Constantine, considered himself the leader
of Christendom as political head of state
and protector of the Church. Pope Leo III
crowned Charlemagne Emperor of the
Romans on Christmas Day 800, and this
marked the formal alliance of the
Carolingian Empire and the Papacy. The
historian Christopher Dawson called this the
beginning of medieval Christendom .
THE CONVERSION OF RUSSIA TO
BYZANTINE CHRISTIANITY (988)
The Byzantine Empire of the East, with its
capital in Constantinople, flourished for a
thousand years. The Emperor Theodosius
the Great proclaimed Christianity as the
official state religion of the Roman Empire
in 380. The Empire reached its zenith under
Emperor Justinian, the author of the
Justinian Code of Law, who ruled from 527
to 565. Justinian built the beautiful Church
of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople in 539,
which became a center of religious thought.
The writings of the Greek Fathers of the
Church such as Saints Basil, John
Chrysostom, and Maximus the Confessor
influenced the spiritual formation of early
Christianity. The Byzantine or Greek liturgy
is based on the tradition of St. Basil and the
subsequent reform of St. John Chrysostom.
The Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and
Methodius brought Christianity to Moravia
and Cyril created the Cyrillic alphabet for
their liturgy, which became the basis of the
Slavic languages, including Russian.
Kiev was once the capital of the country of
Kievan Rus, which comprised the modern
nations of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.
Influenced by his grandmother Olga, Prince
Vladimir of Kiev adopted Byzantine
Christianity in 988, converting Russia to the
Byzantine Orthodox faith. In the sixteenth
century, a Russian mystic Philotheus of
Pskof noted that Rome and Constantinople,
the second Rome, had fallen, but "Moscow,
the third Rome," stands. The Russian
Orthodox Church today is the largest
Eastern Orthodox faith with over 110
million members.
THE SCHISM OF 1054
One of the most tragic events in Church
history has been the Schism of 1054
between what is now the Catholic Church in
Rome and the Byzantine or Eastern
Orthodox Church in Constantinople.
The actual event occurred on July 16, 1054.
What began as a diplomatic effort between
Pope Leo IX of Rome and the Byzantine
Patriarch Michael Cerularius of
Constantinople ended in disaster. The
abrasive Cardinal Humbert laid a papal bull
of excommunication (after Pope Leo had
died) on the altar right during the Liturgy at
the Church of Hagia Sophia, which led the
Eastern Church to excommunicate the
envoy. While the event did not end the
relationship between the Eastern and
Western Churches, it became symbolic for
the distrust and strain between the East and
the West that developed through the
centuries. The break was sealed in 1204
with the sacking of Constantinople during
the Fourth Crusade.
Rome and Constantinople had been able to
agree through three more Councils. The fifth
ecumenical council at Constantinople II in
553 was called by the Emperor Justinian
and reaffirmed that there is only one
person or hypostasis in our Lord Jesus
Christ. In response to the Monothelites, that
Christ had only one will, the sixth
ecumenical council affirmed the efforts of
St. Maximus the Confessor at Constantinople
III in 681 and confessed that Christ had two
wills and two natural operations (John
6:38), divine and human in harmony. The
seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea II in
787 resolved the iconoclast controversy
thanks to the writings of St. John of
Damascus: since Jesus had a true humanity
and his body was finite, it was only proper
to venerate holy images of the human face
of Jesus, as well as Mary and the saints.
However, the language of Rome was Latin,
and that of Constantinople Greek.
There was a difference in perception of
Church authority between the East and
West. Latin Rome believed the Pontiff, as
the representative of Peter, was Pastor and
Shepherd to the whole Church, whereas the
Greek East saw the Pope, the Bishop of
Rome and representative of Peter, as
presiding with love in the sense of
collegiality, as a first among equals.
This difference in perception of Church
authority produced the conflict over the
addition of the word filioque - and the Son -
to the Nicene Creed by the Roman Catholic
Church. Theological thought on the Trinity
had progressed with time, particularly with
St. Augustine, who saw the Holy Spirit as an
expression of love between the Father and
the Son. King Recared and his Visigothic
bishops converted from Arianism to
Catholicism at the Third Council of Toledo,
Spain in 587 and were required to add the
word filioque to the Creed. Charlemagne in
794 insisted on its addition, so that the
phrase read "the Holy Spirit who proceeds
from the Father and the Son" . Pope Leo III at
the time refused to allow the change and
supported the original Creed; however the
Papacy finally accepted the addition of
filioque at the coronation of King Henry II of
the Holy Roman Empire in 1014. The
Eastern Orthodox Churches claim that the
Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed is the
common possession of the whole church
and that any change must be made by an
ecumenical Council.
Many of the Christian Churches of Eastern
Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean,
except the Maronites and the Italo-
Albanians, joined the Byzantine or Greek
Orthodox Church of Constantinople.
THE RECONQUEST OF SPAIN
Catholic Spain was the first European
territory to suffer Islamic invasion in 711
when the Berber general Ibn Tariq
conquered nearly all of Spain except the
northern rim. The Visigoth Pelayo held off
the Muslims at Covadonga at Asturias in the
Cantabrian mountains in 722. Spain, named
Al-Andalus by Muslim leaders, prospered
under the Umayyad Abd al-Rahman family
of Córdoba, where Muslims, Jews, and
Christians for a while lived side by side in a
spirit of religious toleration.
The discovery of the relics of St. James in a
Field of Light in Galicia supported the
Catholic heritage of Spain, and a church was
built at the pilgrimage site of Santiago de
Compostela by Asturian King Alfonso II
(791-842). As recorded in the late ninth-
century Chronicle of Alfonso III, Pelayo
became the inspiration for the rightful
recovery of Spanish territory lost to Muslim
invasion.
Spain was troubled in 997 when the Moor
Almanzor usurped the power of the
Caliphate and sacked the city and Cathedral
of Santiago de Compostela in the
northwest tip of Spain, but spared the tomb
of St. James (Santiago in Spanish). He took
the cathedral bells of the church as a
memento of his victory and placed them in
the great mosque of Córdoba. With the loss
of respect for the Caliphate, Al-Andalus
fractured into multiple petty states, known
as Taifas .
King Alfonso VI (1065-1109) of León-Castile
recaptured Toledo in 1085 . El Cid held off
the Muslims in Valencia until his death in
1099. King Alfonso I of Navarre and Aragon
recaptured Zaragoza in 1118. King Alfonso
VIII won a major battle against the Almohad
Muslims at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212.
King Fernando III recaptured Córdoba in
1236 and returned the cathedral bells to the
Church of Santiago de Compostela. The
Reconquista of Spain, or the unification of
Spain under Christian rule, was not
formally completed until the reign of
Ferdinand and Isabella, when Granada was
captured from the Moors on January 2,
1492.
POPE URBAN II AND THE FIRST
CRUSADE (1095)
Undertake this journey for the remission of your
sins,
with the assurance of the imperishable glory of
the Kingdom of Heaven!
Pope Urban II, in one of history's most
powerful speeches, launched 200 years of
the Crusades at the Council of Clermont,
France on November 27, 1095 with this
impassioned plea. In a rare public session in
an open field, he urged the knights and
noblemen to win back the Holy Land, to
face their sins, and called upon those
present to save their souls and become
Soldiers of Christ. Those who took the vow
for the pilgrimage were to wear the sign of
the cross (croix in French): and so evolved
the word croisade or Crusade . By the time
his speech ended, the captivated audience
began shouting Deus le volt! - God wills it!
The expression became the battle-cry of the
crusades.
Why did Pope Urban II call for the
recapture of the Holy Land? Three reasons
are primarily given for the beginning of the
Crusades: (1) to free Jerusalem and the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre; (2) to defend
the Christian East, hopefully healing the rift
between Roman and Orthodox Christianity;
and (3) to marshal the energy of the
constantly warring feudal lords and knights
into the one cause of penitential warfare.
Led by the papal legate Bishop Adhemar of
Le Puy, the First Crusade (of eight major
efforts) freed Jerusalem on July 15, 1099.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was once
again in Christian hands and restored. The
four Crusader states of Jerusalem, Tripoli,
Antioch, and Edessa were established. The
Kingdom of Jerusalem lasted 88 years, until
Saladin recaptured the city October 2, 1187.
King Richard the Lionheart of England
negotiated the Peace Treaty of Jaffa with
Saladin during the Third Crusade whereby
Christian pilgrims were given free access to
Jerusalem.
The four Crusader states eventually
collapsed; the surrender of Acre in 1291
ended 192 years of formal Christian rule in
the Holy Land.
THE MENDICANT ORDERS TO THE
RENAISSANCE
The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were
the peak of the Medieval Age. It was the
flowering of Christendom, a time of
extraordinary intellectual activity, with the
rise of the University and the introduction
of Arabian, Hebrew, and Greek works into
Christian schools. A new form of order
arose whose aim was to pursue the
monastic ideals of poverty, renunciation,
and self-sacrifice, but also to maintain a
presence and convert the world by example
and preaching. They were known as friars
and called the Mendicant Orders
(Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites,
Augustinians, and the Servites), because of
begging alms to support themselves.
St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226) was born
to wealth. He loved adventure, but
experienced conversion after joining the
military. He returned home, and heard a
voice saying to him, "Francis, go and
rebuild my house; it is falling down." He
adopted a life of poverty, and began to
preach the Kingdom of Heaven. Francis
loved creation and considered it good, for
Christ himself took on flesh in the
Incarnation. He loved all living creatures.
St. Francis originated the Christmas manger
scene. He founded the Franciscan order,
and received approval from Rome in 1209.
The Poor Clare Nuns began when St. Clare
joined the Franciscans in 1212 in Assisi. In
1219 St. Francis risked his life in the Fifth
Crusade by calling directly upon the Sultan
of Egypt in an effort to convert him and
bring peace. He received the stigmata of
Christ in 1224, 2 years before his death in
1226.
St. Dominic de Guzman (1170-1221) was
born in Calaruega, Spain. On a journey
through France he was confronted by the
Albigensian heresy (like Manichaeism and
the Cathari). As he came with a Bishop in
richly dressed clothes on horses, he realized
the people would not be impressed with his
message. This led him to a life of poverty.
He spent several years preaching in France
in an attempt to convert the Albigensians. In
1208 in Prouille, France, he received a
vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary and began
to spread devotion to the Rosary . Dominic
was a man of peace and converted many
through prayer, preaching, and his example
of poverty. He founded the Order of
Preachers in 1216 known as the Dominican
Friars.
The universities in Europe began as guilds
of scholars, which first attracted members
of the clergy and were supported
financially by the Church. The first
universities in Europe were founded in
Bologna and Paris; Oxford and Cambridge
soon followed. Theology, law, and medicine
were fields of advanced study. The
University of Paris was especially noted for
studies in Theology. The age was the time of
Scholasticism - of the schools, a method of
learning that placed emphasis on reasoning.
Important writers at the time were
Bonaventure, Duns Scotus, Albertus
Magnus, and his student Thomas Aquinas,
who became the greatest theologian and
philosopher of the age.
St. Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican
priest who lived from 1225 to 1274. Born in
Roccasecca, Italy to the Aquino family, he
joined the Dominicans at the age of 18. He
received his doctorate in theology and
taught at the University of Paris during the
height of Christendom.
One of the greatest contributions by Thomas
was his incorporation of the philosophy of
Aristotle into the theology of the Catholic
Church. Thomas saw reason and faith as
one and mutually supportive, and
combined the Bible and Church Fathers and
the reasoning of Aristotle into one unified
system of understanding Christian
revelation through faith enlightened by
reason.
His most noted work was the Summa
Theologica , a five-volume masterpiece. St.
Thomas Aquinas presented the classical
approach to Biblical Exegesis. Recalling the
words of Gregory that Scripture transcends
every science, " for in one and the same
sentence, while it describes a fact, it reveals
a mystery." In addition to the literal sense,
Thomas described the three spiritual senses
of Scripture, the allegorical, the truth
revealed, the moral, the life commended,
and the anagogical, the final goal to be
achieved. His exposition on the Seven
Sacraments remains a standard to our
present day.
The Renaissance, which means rebirth, was
the period of phenomenal growth in
Western culture in art, architecture,
literature, and sculpture. Christian
humanism, a rejoicing in man's
achievements and capabilities reflecting the
greater glory of God, had its beginning with
the Divine Comedy , published in 1320 by
Dante Alighieri in Italy. The Renaissance
continued through the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries until William
Shakespeare . Michelangelo, Raphael,
Leonardo da Vinci, and Botticelli led the
way in art. Brunelleschi revived the ancient
Roman style of architecture and introduced
linear perspective. The great sculptors were
Donatello and Michelangelo. St. Thomas
More and Erasmus were leading Christian
humanists in literature.
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION
The Protestant Reformation resulted from
the failure of the Catholic Church to reform
itself in time.
The dark side of the thirteenth through
fifteenth centuries witnessed the errant
Fourth Crusade to Constantinople in 1204,
the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathari
in 1209, and the beginning of the
Inquisition which became severely punitive.
The Papacy suffered a great loss of respect
during the Avignon Papacy (1305-1378) and
especially during the Papal Schism
(1378-1417), when two and at one point
three men declared themselves Pope and
opposed each other. The Papal Schism had
to be resolved by Emperor Sigismund of
Luxembourg and the Council of Constance
1414-1417, which finally deposed all three
Popes and chose Martin V to continue the
Papacy. However, the Council also
condemned John Hus , the Prague reformer
who believed in the priesthood of all
believers and the reception of Communion
through bread and wine; he was burned at
the stake on July 6, 1415. Another victim of
the Inquisition was St. Joan of Arc , who
saved France during the Hundred Years
War with England. She was burned at the
stake on May 30, 1431 in Rouen, France.
The Spanish Inquisition in the fifteenth
century was particularly ruthless.
The lack of Church funds led to even
further corruption, including simony and
the selling of indulgences. For example,
Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz had to pay
Rome ten thousand ducats for the right to
hold three dioceses at once, and agreed to a
three-way split with the Roman Curia and
the Fugger Banking firm from the proceeds
of the selling of indulgences.
These events led many to question the
compassion and integrity of the Church.
The unity of Tradition and Scripture went
unchallenged through the Patristic Age and
thirteenth century scholasticists such as St.
Bonaventure and St. Thomas Aquinas. But
the unity of Scripture and Tradition began
to be questioned with the decline of the
Church. The Belgian Henry of Ghent
believed that one should first have the duty
to follow Scripture rather than a Church
that became one in name only. The English
Franciscan William of Ockham (or Occam)
was known for the principle of Occam's
Razor , that one needs to reduce everything
to its simplest cause. Ockham (1288-1348)
theorized on three possibilities of the
relation of Scripture and the Church. First
there was Sola Scriptura , that one could
obtain salvation by following Scripture
alone; second, that God does reveal truths to
the universal Church, an ecclesiastical
revelation supplemental to apostolic
revelation; and third, the concept of orally
transmitted apostolic revelation parallel to
written Scripture. Ockham believed that one
could reach God only through faith and not
by reason. He wrote that universals, such as
truth, beauty, and goodness, were concepts
of the mind and did not exist, a philosophy
known as Nominalism . Thus began the
division of the realm of faith from the
secular world of reason.
The rise of Nationalism led to the end of
Christendom, for countries resented any
effort to support Rome, especially in its
dismal state. Dissemination of new ideas
followed the invention of the movable type
printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in
Mainz, Germany; his very first printing was
the Latin Vulgate Bible in 1456.
The stage was set for the reform-minded
Martin Luther (1483-1546), the Augustinian
monk of Wittenberg, Germany. He received
his doctorate in theology in 1512, and then
taught biblical studies at the University of
Wittenberg. His study of Scripture,
particularly St. Paul in his Letter to the
Romans, led him to believe that salvation
was obtained through justification by faith
alone. At first, his only interest was one of
reform when he posted his 95 theses on the
door of the Wittenberg Church October 31,
1517.
But the intransigence of the Church and
poor handling of the situation by the Pope
and Curia only worsened matters, such that
a break was inevitable. In a July 1519
debate with the Catholic theologian Johann
Eck, Luther stated that Sola Scriptura -
Scripture alone - was the supreme authority
in religion. He could no longer accept the
authority of the Pope or the Councils, such
as Constance. In 1520 Luther published
three documents which laid down the
fundamental principles of the Reformation.
In Address To the Christian Nobility of the
German Nation, Luther attacked the
corruptions of the Church and the abuses of
its authority, and asserted the right of the
layman to spiritual independence. In the
Babylonian Captivity of the Church , he
defended the sacraments of Baptism,
Eucharist, and Penance, but criticized the
sacramental system of Rome, and set up the
Scriptures as the supreme authority in
religion. In The Freedom of the Christian
Man , he expounded the doctrine of
salvation through justification by faith
alone. The Augsburg Confession of 1530,
written by Philip Melanchthon and
approved by Martin Luther, was the most
widely accepted Lutheran confession of
faith.
Once Sola Scriptura became the norm, it
became a matter of personal interpretation.
Huldrich Zwingli of Zurich, Switzerland was
next, and he broke with Luther over the
Eucharist, but his sect died out. The
Anabaptists separated from Zwingli as they
denied the validity of infant baptism; they
survived as the Mennonites. Jean Calvin
published his Institutes of the Christian
Religion in 1536, and influenced John Knox
and the Presbyterians of Scotland; the
Huguenots of France; the Dutch Reformed;
and the Pilgrims and Puritans . While he
agreed with Luther on the basic Protestant
tenets of sola scriptura, salvation by faith
alone, and the priesthood of all believers, he
went even further on such issues as
predestination and the sacraments. George
Fox, the son of Puritan parents, founded the
Quakers in England in 1647.
King Henry VIII wrote a defense of the
seven sacraments, but when refused an
annulment from Catherine of Aragon, he
had himself declared Supreme Head of the
Church of England in 1533. The new
Archbishop Thomas Cranmer married
Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn that same year.
St. Thomas More refused to attend the
wedding, and was imprisoned in the Tower
of London and later beheaded in 1535.
Henry VIII began the Dissolution of the
Monasteries in 1536, and then destroyed the
Shrine of the martyr St. Thomas Becket
(1118-1170) at Canterbury Cathedral in
1538. The Book of Common Prayer was
published in 1549 and the Anglican Church
of England was established. Two major sects
that split off from the Anglicans were the
Baptists , founded by John Smyth in 1607,
and later the Methodists , founded by John
Wesley and his brother Charles.
OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE
Then God's temple in heaven was opened,
and the ark of his covenant could be seen in
the temple.
There were flashes of lightning, rumblings,
and peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a
violent hailstorm.
A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman
clothed with the sun, with the moon under
her feet,
and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
Revelation 11:19-12:1
The five appearances of Our Lady of
Guadalupe to the Aztec Indian Juan Diego
and his uncle on December 9-12 of 1531
generated the conversion of Mexico and
Latin America to Catholicism.
On December 12, 1531, Juan Diego was
obedient to the Blessed Virgin Mary's
instruction to gather beautiful roses in his
tilma and take them to the Franciscan
Bishop Don Fray Juan de Zumarraga on his
third visit to appeal for the building of a
Church as requested by Our Lady. Juan
Diego explained to the Bishop all that had
passed. Then he put up both hands and
untied the corners of crude cloth behind his
neck. The looped-up fold of the tilma fell;
the flowers he thought were the precious
sign tumbled out on the floor.
The Bishop fell on his knees in adoration
before the tilma, as well as everyone else in
the room. For on the tilma was the image of
the Blessed Virgin Mary, just as described
by Juan Diego, and is still preserved today
in original condition in Tepeyac on the
outskirts of Mexico City.
Spanish conquistadors may have conquered
the Aztecs in 1521, but their ruthless
behavior antagonized the people and
conversions were few.
Our Lady of Guadalupe conveyed the
beautiful message of Christianity: the true
God sacrificed himself for mankind, instead
of the horrendous life they had endured
sacrificing thousands of humans to appease
the frightful gods! It is no wonder that over
the next seven years, from 1531 to 1538,
eight million natives of Mexico converted to
Catholicism!
Indeed, the Blessed Virgin Mary entered the
very soul of Central America and became
an inextricable part of Mexican life and a
central figure to the history of Mexico itself.
To this date a major religious celebration in
Mexico and Central America is December
12, the feast-day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
A harbinger of things to come, Christianity
would thrive in the Americas. Her
appearance in the center of the American
continents has contributed to the Virgin of
Guadalupe being given the title "Mother of
America."
THE CATHOLIC REFORMATION AND
MISSIONARY MOVEMENT
"You should know how to behave in the
household of God,
which is the church of the living God, the
pillar and foundation of truth."
First Timothy 3:15
The Catholic Church reformed itself both
through the positive work of renewal and
through the impetus of the Protestant
Reformation. Efforts at reform had already
begun with the Oratory of Divine Love in
Genoa in 1497. The strict order of the
Theatines was founded in 1524 and made
significant efforts at the reform of the
parish clergy. The Capuchins were founded
in Italy in 1528 to restore the Franciscan
Order to its original ideals. St. Ignatius of
Loyola began the Jesuit Order in 1534.
Spiritual enrichment was kindled through
the Spanish mystics St. Teresa of Avila and
St. John of the Cross.
The major thrust at reform was the Council
of Trent , begun by Pope Paul III in
December 1545. The Council of Trent
marked an important turning point for the
Catholic Church, for it provided clarity on
the beliefs of the Church, and ecclesiastical
discipline was restored. Pope Pius IV, co-
founder of the Theatines, confirmed the
Decrees of the Council of Trent in January
1564. The doctrines established at Trent
persist to this day.
The Council addressed three areas:
doctrine, discipline, and devotion. Seven
major areas were included in doctrine: that
our justification was not just by faith alone,
but also by hope and charity expressed in
good works in cooperation with God's grace.
Both Tradition and Scripture were essential
to the faith. The Latin Vulgate Bible was
promoted as the only canonical Scripture.
There was a clear definition of the seven
sacraments. The Mass as a Memorial of the
one Sacrifice of Christ was confirmed, and
the Council reaffirmed Transubstantiation.
The Mass, known as the Tridentine Mass,
was given strict form and was celebrated
only in Latin. The Latin Tridentine Mass
provided unity for the universal Church, for
it was the same Mass in every place and
time.
What does it profit, my brethren, if a man
says he has faith but has not works? Can his
faith save him?
If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of
daily food,
and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be
warmed and filled,"
without giving them the things needed for
the body, what does it profit?
So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
James 2:14-17
Discipline involved strict reform and the
establishment of the seminary system for
the proper and uniform training of priests.
The office of indulgence seller was
abolished, and doctrine on indulgences was
clarified. A Bishop was allowed only one
diocese and residence was required, begun
by the reformer St. Charles Borromeo of
Milan.
The Catholic Reformation coincided with the
wave of exploration to the New World and
the Far East. Catholic Missionaries
accompanied the explorers on their
journeys, such as Christopher Columbus in
1492, the Portuguese Vasco da Gama to Goa,
India in 1498, and Ferdinand Magellan to
the Philippines in 1521.
St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552) exemplified
the missionary movement, and has been
recognized as second only to the Apostle
Paul in his evangelical efforts. The patron
saint of missionaries, Francis Xavier sailed
from Lisbon, Portugal and landed in Goa in
1542. His humble way had great impact on
the local people, and he trained the young
in the Ten Commandments and the Lord's
Prayer. He was soon reported to have
baptized 10,000 a month. He then headed to
Cape Comorin, the southern tip of India,
where he made many conversions of the
fishermen there. Further travels took
Francis Xavier to Malacca in Malaysia in
1545 and then to Japan in 1549.
Fr. Andres de Urdaneta and the
Augustinian monks sailed to Cebu,
Philippines in 1565. Upon discovery of
Santo Nino (the Image of the Infant Jesus
left by Magellan), they began the
conversion of the Philippines to Catholicism.
The Missionary Franciscan Toribio de
Benavente arrived in Mexico in 1524. He
was a self-sacrificing man dedicated to
protecting the natives, and received the
name Motolinia for his life of poverty. He
recorded in his book History of the Indians
of New Spain the dramatic conversions
following the appearances of Our Lady of
Guadalupe. The Dominican Bartholomew de
Las Casas first went to the West Indies in
1502 as a soldier, but on viewing the
horrendous enslavement of the native
Indians through the Spanish encomienda
system, was ordained as a Dominican priest
in 1523, the first ordination in America. In
his role as human rights advocate for the
Indians, he is considered an early pioneer
of social justice.
The Jesuits were also noted for early
missionary efforts to North America, such as
Father Andrew White, who accompanied
the Calverts to Maryland in 1634, Isaac
Jogues to Quebec in 1636, and Jacques
Marquette to Michigan in 1668. Missionary
efforts would continue to the New World for
years to come.
THE KING JAMES BIBLE OF 1611
The history of the English Bible is intimately
intertwined with the history of the
Reformation. Following the death of the
Tudor Queen Elizabeth, James VI of
Scotland became the Stuart King James I of
England in 1603. He served until his death
in 1625, when he was succeeded by his son,
Charles I. It was a time when the English
language reached its greatest expression in
the works of William Shakespeare
(1558-1616) and the King James Bible.
King James as head of the Church of
England commissioned a group of bishops
and scholars to establish an authoritative
translation of the Bible from the original
languages into English in 1604. There were
several English versions available, either as
translations of the Latin Vulgate or from the
1516 Greek-Latin parallel New Testament of
Erasmus; the ones that follow influenced
the King James scholars. John Wycliffe
produced a hand-written English
translation of the Latin Vulgate in 1384.
William Tyndale, an English Lutheran,
brought the first printed version of the New
Testament into England in 1526. His
colleague, Miles Coverdale, completed
Tyndale's work, which formed the basis for
the Great Bible (1539), the first authorized
Bible in English, which was placed in every
church in England. When the Catholic
Queen Mary came to the throne in 1553,
further work had to be done on the
European continent, and the Geneva Bible,
the first to have numbered verses, was
published in 1557. Beginning with the
Protestant Elizabethan era in 1558, the
English Catholic Douay-Rheims Bible, a
translation of the Vulgate, had to be
produced on the European continent as
well, the Old Testament completed at
Rheims, France in 1582, and the New
Testament completed at Douay, France in
1609.
The Authorized King James Version of the
Holy Bible was published in 1611. The King
James Bible originally included the
Apocrypha but in a separate section. A
literary masterpiece of the English
language, the King James Bible is still in use
today.
CHRISTIANITY TO NORTH AMERICA
Christopher Columbus reached America in
the Bahamas on October 12, 1492. Following
the discovery of Florida by Ponce de Leon
in 1513, St. Augustine, Florida became the
first permanent European settlement in
North America in 1565, from which
missionaries spread Catholicism to the
Native American Indians. The first Mass of
Thanksgiving on North American soil was
actually celebrated by the Spanish with the
Timucuan Indians from Seloy village in
attendance on September 8, 1565 in St.
Augustine, Florida. Spanish explorations
extended as far as Santa Fe, New Mexico,
established in 1609.
A wave of explorations to the New World
continued. Jamestown was founded by the
British in May of 1607, and the Anglican
Church of England was established in
Virginia. Samuel de Champlain explored the
St. Lawrence River and founded Quebec,
Canada for Catholic France in July of 1608.
Henry Hudson sailed for the Dutch East
India Company and explored the river that
bears his name in September of 1609; the
Dutch Reformed Church was established in
New Amsterdam after the Netherlands
purchased Manhattan in 1626.
Christianity continued to thrive in the New
World as our young Nation developed. Four
of the original 13 English colonies were
specifically chartered for religious freedom,
as a refuge from religious persecution in
England at the time. William Bradford and
the Pilgrim Congregationalists arrived on
the Mayflower at Cape Cod in 1620 and the
Calvinist John Winthrop and the Puritan
Protestants in 1629 in Massachusetts. Lord
Baltimore George Calvert and his son Cecil
Calvert received a charter for the Catholics
in 1632, and Cecil's younger brother
Leonard Calvert arrived on the Ark and
Dove in Maryland in 1634. The settlers soon
enacted the Toleration Act of Maryland and
founded St. Mary's Chapel in St. Mary's City,
Maryland. Roger Williams established a
Church for the Baptists in Providence,
Rhode Island in 1638. William Penn and
the Quakers settled in 1682 in
Pennsylvania . The Mennonites also moved
to Pennsylvania in 1683 at the invitation of
William Penn. The universal toleration
offered in Pennsylvania continued to attract
groups such as the Amish, Moravian Pietists,
and Presbyterians. Early American writings
reflect the Christian Heritage of our nation,
the United States of America.
SPIRITUAL REVIVAL DURING THE
ENLIGHTENMENT ERA
The period from 1650 through the
eighteenth century was known as the Age of
Enlightenment in Europe. The time had
come when men would set aside religious
views and look to reason and social
experience to guide society.
It was the loss of Christian unity that led to the
secularization of Western culture.
Whereas Christendom provided one
message to European society, the pluralism
of religions provided different answers to
questions about life and led to skepticism
and conflict rather than unanimous
thought.
Discoveries in science had much to do with
the Age of Enlightenment. Copernicus
(1473-1543) proposed the sun is the center
of the solar system and the earth revolved
around the sun. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642),
the first to use a telescope, confirmed that
Copernicus was right and was condemned
by the Catholic Church. Scientists such as
Isaac Newton (1642-1727) in physics and
Robert Boyle (1642-1727) in chemistry were
pioneers and gave birth to technology, the
application of science to practical problems,
which led to the Industrial Revolution.
Progress based on science and technology
became a major goal of Western Society.
Mankind was left without its mooring, and
philosophers set out in different directions
to provide meaning for humanity. The
critical Rationalism of Rene Descartes
(1596-1650) applied to philosophy the
mathematical method so effective in
science, that everything was questionable
until it could be proved beyond all doubt.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) took a different
stance and presented Pascal's Wager: it is
better to live a good life, for if there is a
God, you will end up with Him in Heaven;
but if you have lived a bad life and there is
a God, you are doomed! John Locke
(1632-1704) applied reason to confirm
revelation. The political philosopher Baron
de Montesquieu of France (1689-1755)
proposed that the best form of government
would incorporate a separation of powers
into executive, legislative, and judicial
branches and would be based on the
natural law. David Hume (1711- 1776)
proposed a science of man, and is
considered a pioneer in the social sciences.
But Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778),
considered the father of Romanticism, took
an opposite approach and spoke of the
noble savage, that man was happy only in
his original native state, before government,
laws, and politics chained mankind. It was
the German philosopher Immanuel Kant
(1724-1804) that defined the era: "Have
courage to use your own reason - that is the
motto of Enlightenment."
The Age of Enlightenment proposed that
reason and science would bring an
"enlightened" world. Unfortunately, the Age
of Enlightenment ignored love, emotion,
spirituality and concern for one's fellow
man. It forgot that man is wounded by
original and personal sin, and his reason is
colored by desire and selfishness. In fact,
the Age of Enlightenment brought the
French Revolution and the Reign of Terror
(1789), Naziism, Communism, and the
twentieth century, with its two World Wars,
the bloodiest century in history.
Intellectual dryness and doctrinal religions
prevalent during the Enlightenment Era led
to a spiritual revival throughout Western
Christian civilization, as seen with Pietism
in Germany, Methodism in England and
America, and the Great Awakening in the
United States.
Philipp Jakob Spener of Germany wrote Pia
Desideria in 1675 and spoke of a theology of
the heart , placing emphasis on inner
devotion and Christian living, and inspired
the Pietist movement. Pietism especially
influenced Nikolaus von Zinzendorf and the
Moravian Church.
John Wesley (1703-1791) and his brother
Charles (1707-1788) provided light for
Christianity during the Enlightenment. John
Wesley, noted for his moving sermons, and
his brother Charles, a poetic genius and
hymn writer, began the Methodist
movement in England, and set forth an
evangelical revival throughout the British
Isles, North America, and the world.
The two brothers were raised in the
Anglican Church. While at Oxford they
formed a group, joined by George Whitefield
and others, called the Holy Club in
November 1729 and read the Greek New
Testament. Because of their strict method of
living, they were soon called the Methodists.
John Wesley experienced a heartwarming
conversion experience at Aldersgate Street
in London in 1738. He preached in the
English countryside to the poor, and
sparked a religious revival throughout
England. He assured the people that all
could be saved by experiencing God and
opening their hearts to his grace.
George Whitefield made seven trips to
America beginning in 1738 and was one of
the most powerful evangelists ever. He,
along with others, kindled a spiritual revival
throughout the thirteen colonies known as
the Great Awakening . The Great
Awakening was the first national
experience in America and did much to
unite the American colonies.
Revival during the Enlightenment Era
fulfilled the human need for spiritual
experience through Jesus Christ.
IN GOD WE TRUST
The independence movement in the
American colonies sparked an outcry for
freedom of religion, such that Christianity
flourished in the newly-formed United
States of America.
Every taxable resident was required to
support the state established Church, no
matter what their faith! This caused
dissension in the Colonies such as in
Maryland and Virginia, where Catholics in
Maryland and Presbyterians and Baptists in
Virginia objected to the unfair Anglican
clergy tax. Of those states with established
Churches, Maryland became the first state
to disestablish church and state following
the Declaration of Independence . The Bill
of Rights allowed the free exercise of
religion and proliferation of Christian
denominations during rapid westward
expansion in America.
In 1789, John Carroll, brother of Daniel
Carroll who signed the U. S. Constitution
and cousin of Charles Carroll, the only
Catholic signer of the Declaration of
Independence, became the first Catholic
Bishop of Baltimore, a diocese which served
the entire United States.
Two days after Thomas Jefferson wrote his
highly quoted but out-of-context expression
"wall of separation between Church and
State" to the Danbury Baptists, he appeared
on January 3, 1802 in the House of
Representatives to hear the Baptist preacher
John Leland lead an evangelical service on
public property. Separation of Church and
State did not preclude a vibrant public
square. Recognizing the need to instill
morals and values in our children, Bible
reading and prayer continued in our public
schools for 300 years!
Conversions by Evangelical Protestants and
other Christian faiths provided the moral
fabric for the new American nation after
the Revolutionary War. The Methodist
movement proved most successful in North
America. In 1784 John Wesley appointed
one hundred preachers through the Deed of
Declaration, and appointed Francis Asbury
and Thomas Coke as superintendents of the
Methodist Church in America. Methodist
circuit-riders were effective missionaries in
spreading the Christian faith from the South
to settlers in the mid-West. Evangelism
became part of the Christian experience in
the USA, as seen in camp meetings , such as
Cane Ridge, Kentucky in 1801, and
subsequent revivals with Charles Finney in
the pre-Civil War era. By the beginning of
the American Civil War, Methodism was the
largest Christian denomination in North
America.
It was left to the unlikely figure of President
Abraham Lincoln to recognize the Christian
culture of our Nation. In his Second
Inaugural Address on March 4, 1865, he
remarked near the close of the Civil War:
"Both read the same Bible and pray to the
same God, and each invokes His aid against
the other." He saw the Civil War as a Divine
judgement upon our Nation for slavery, for
"every drop of blood drawn with the lash
shall be paid by another drawn with the
sword … 'for the judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether'" (Psalm 19:9).
He appealed for "malice toward none, with
charity for all … to bind the nation's
wounds." The phrase In God We Trust was
first engraved on the two-cent coin in 1864
during his administration.
An 1892 conservative Supreme Court that
respected the free exercise of religion and
our Christian heritage declared in Church of
the Holy Trinity v. United States that "This is
a Christian Nation."
Charismatic renewal in the Holy Spirit was
emphasized in the Holiness revival among
the Methodists and led to the Pentecostal
movement of Charles Fox Parham at Bethel
Bible College in Topeka, Kansas in 1901 and
William Seymour and the Azusa Street
Revival in Los Angeles in 1906.
THE RELIGIOUS CIVIL RIGHTS
MOVEMENT
We must obey God rather than men.
Acts 5:29The American Declaration of Independence
of July 4, 1776 read all men are created
equal, but slavery persisted. How could the
Revolutionary War be fought for freedom
without granting freedom to all? The
1861-1865 American Civil War reflected the
Christian heritage of our Nation, for the
moral issue of slavery troubled the hearts of
Americans from our very beginning. The
Civil War ended slavery, but left the USA
with segregation.
The non-violent religious movement of the
1950s and 1960s emerged as the civil rights
movement in the USA, which finally
afforded racial equality for African-
Americans, one hundred years after the
Emancipation Proclamation! The crusade
arose within Negro Churches, the center of
their life. African-Americans had begun to
receive recognition in the fields of art,
music, and sports. The arrest in
Montgomery, Alabama of Rosa Parks, who
was detained on December 1, 1955 for
refusing to move to the back of the bus for a
white person, sparked the drive for civil
rights. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. ,
the young and eloquent pastor of the Dexter
Avenue Baptist Church, was elected
President of the Montgomery Improvement
Association, which had begun the
Montgomery Bus boycott. The boycott lasted
381 days until a Supreme Court decision
ended segregation on city buses. Reverend
King then organized 60 pastors into the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
to foster civil rights.
St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas
distinguished between just and unjust laws.
Non-violent civil disobedience , advocated
by John Locke, Henry David Thoreau, and
Mahatma Gandhi, was employed by civil
rights leaders against oppressive and unjust
civil laws. In general, one is obligated to
obey civil laws that are just (Matthew 22:21,
Romans 13:1-7), but first one must obey
God rather than man (Acts 5:29) in the
event of unjust laws, such as Pharaoh's
daughter v. the Pharaoh (Exodus 1:15-2:10);
Rahab v. the King of Jericho (Joshua 2:1-21);
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abegnego v. King
Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 3:19-30); the Maji
v. King Herod (Matthew 2:1-23); and Peter
and the Apostles v. the Sanhedrin (Acts
4:5-22 and 5:17-42). Law itself is not meant
for the righteous (I Timothy 1:9). The early
Christians refused to obey the Romans and
suffered martyrdom rather than worship
the Emperor.
President John F. Kennedy announced on
nationwide television on June 11, 1963 that
he would submit Civil Rights legislation the
following week. In his powerful Letter from
a Birmingham Jail , Reverend King quoted
Scripture and emphasized the words of St.
Augustine that an unjust law is no law at all.
He urged non-violent protest to turn the tide
in favor of racial equality. The March on
Washington, D. C. on August 28, 1963
brought people from all over the nation.
Peter, Paul, and Mary sang If I Had A
Hammer and Blowin’ In The Wind from the
steps of the Lincoln Memorial prior to the
address, capturing the peaceful spirit of the
event. Martin Luther King Jr. then gave his
famous I Have A Dream speech to the
Washington National Mall, a speech that
crystallized the religious civil rights
movement.
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