BushAChurchHistory

Peter and Paul are executed

65

Peter and Paul are executed; martyrdom of the church's two greatest apostles forces church leadership into a new era.

The Earliest Known Public Churches

230

The earliest known public churches are built, signaling a shift in Christians' life and practice.

The Edict of Milan

313

The Edict of Milan; made by Constantine 1 the Roman Emperor, Christianity no longer persecuted.

Augustine

386

Augustine Converts to Christianity; greatest early church father;fights Pelagianism; emphasizes authority of Scripture; his thought foundation of the Reformers; wrote City of God.

Gregory The Great

590

Gregory the Great becomes pope; The "first of the medieval popes" takes on civil power and lays the foundations for the papal state. He also commissions, in 597, Augustine's mission to England, which converts the pagan Angels.

Synod of Whitby

663

Synod of Whitby decisively aligns the English church with Rome for the next nine centuries.

The Monastery at Cluny is founded

910

The Monastery at Cluny is founded, the genesis of a reform movement that spreads to over 1,000 communities and revitalizes monastic life for hundreds of years.

Francis of Assisi

1208

Francis of Assisi renounces wealth in order to preach a simple, passionate gospel, and later founds the Franciscan Order.

Preachers

1220

Dominic establishes Order of Preachers, who travel barefoot, teach, and convert heretics.

Constantinople

1453

Constantinople falls to the Turks, ending millennium of Christianity in the Eastern Roman Empire.