Religion

By aldiede
  • 492 BCE

    Pope Gelasius

    Gelasius became pope in 492 and was the first to assume the
    title “Vicar of Christ.” He is one of the great architects of papal
    primacy: “There are two powers by which this world is chiefly ruled. Of these, that of the priests is the more weighty.”
  • 475 BCE

    Fall of the West

    In the West, the empire, ruled from Ravenna, was racked by constant revolutions and imperial intrigues. In 475 the young Romulus Augustus was put in place as a puppet emperor. In 476, taking advantage of the disarray, the Germanic mercenary general Odoacer launched a mutiny and was proclaimed king of Italy. This event marked the end of the Western Roman Empire.
  • 475 BCE

    Germanic Peoples

    The Gothic tribes were divided into Ostrogoths (Eastern Goths)
    and Visigoths (Western Goths). Other tribes included the Vandals,
    Lombards, Alans, and Burgundians. Many of these tribes followed
    Arian Christianity, a source of further conflict as the Germanic peoples gained a foothold in the Catholic empire.
  • 440 BCE

    Armenian Literature

    Mesrob Mashtots invented the Armenian alphabet and continued the mission work of Gregory the Illuminator. Translations of liturgical books, theological texts, and the full Bible soon followed, as well as original native works.
  • Period: 412 BCE to 426 BCE

    Invention of the Secular

    Occasioned by Alaric’s occupation of Rome, Augustine wrote
    The City of God in defense of Christianity against paganism on the one hand and Christian triumphalism on the other.
  • Period: 383 BCE to 439 BCE

    Melania the Younger

    Due to Visigoth excursions in Italy, Melania fled Rome in 408
    and lived the monastic life in a number of locations before finally
    settling in Jerusalem. In c. 431 she founded a convent for nuns on the Mount of Olives. A friend of Augustine and Jerome and influential in the conflict against Nestorianism, Melania was venerated early by the Greek Church but was relatively unknown in the West until the twentieth century.
  • 373 BCE

    Athanasius

    He became bishop of Alexandria in 328. Because of its strong
    affirmation of the Incarnation and the Trinity, the fifth-century
    “Athanasian Creed” used by Anglicans, Catholics, and Protestants
    shares his name: “We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance.”
  • 354 BCE

    Aurelius Augustine

    Considered to be the greatest of the church doctors and the most influential thinker in the history of Western Christianity. Born into a North African Christian family, Augustine lived a dissolute life until joining the Manichaeists in 373.
  • 337 BCE

    St. John Chrysostom

    John was made patriarch of Constantinople in 398,
    but his zeal for church reform soon led him afoul of Empress Eudoxia and clergymen loyal to her. At the Synod of Oak in 403, John was condemned on trumped-up charges and banished. Even in exile, John remained enormously popular with the Eastern and Western Churches.
  • 316 BCE

    Council of Arles

    In 316 Constantine stood in opposition to the Donatists. A campaign of coercion against them lasted until 321, and thus for the first time in history, the church and the state collaborated in the suppression of heresy.
  • 313 BCE

    Edict of Milan

    Licinius and Constantine met at Milan and agreed upon
    a course of action that has since come to be called the Edict of Milan. The policy gave legal standing to Christian churches, granting toleration to all religions in the empire and bringing an end to the Great Persecution.
  • Period: 303 BCE to 312 BCE

    Era of the Martyrs

    Emperor Diocletian ordered that all churches be
    torn down, Bibles burnt, and clergy tortured. Diocletian abdicated in
    305, but the persecutions continued until 312.
  • 260 BCE

    Pope Dionysius

    One of the most important bishops of this era, Dionysius helped to restore the church order after the decimations of the Valerian persecution
  • 258 BCE

    Cyprian

    He had been a pagan philosopher before converting to
    Christianity in c. 246 and became bishop of Carthage two years later. He fled the Decian persecution in 249 and only returned to his post after Decius’s death in 251, a move that was seen with suspicion by his opponents, many of whom had stayed to face the persecution.
  • Period: 254 BCE to 260 BCE

    Problem of rebaptism

    In 255, Cyprian demanded that anyone baptised
    by a schismatic or heretic be rebaptized in order to enjoy full
    communion with the true church.
  • 252 BCE

    Plague in Carthage

    A severe plague struck the city of Carthage. The
    outbreak evoked a widespread anti-Christian feeling, prompting church leaders to argue publicly that Christianity does not cause natural catastrophes. At the same time, Cyprian wrote a series of pastoral letters exhorting his fellow Christians to continue to help the dying and provide relief for those affected by the disaster.
  • 216 BCE

    Teaching of Manes

    Was centered on belief in a primal conflict between Light and Darkness
  • Period: 200 BCE to 258 BCE

    Cornelius

    Was opposed by the presbyter and theologian Novation who held a much more rigorist stance
  • 144 BCE

    Alexandria

    Known as the center of religious ferment, and many cults fought for attention
  • 124 BCE

    Official persecutions increases

    Lead to the persecution of Telesphorus
  • 115 BCE

    Christianity reaches Edessa

    Organized under a network of deacons
  • Period: 100 BCE to 165 BCE

    Justin Martyr

    1st writer to combine claims of faith and reason
  • Period: 85 BCE to 160 BCE

    Marcion

    Declared a heretic and excommunicated from the church
  • Period: 53 BCE to 117 BCE

    Emperor Trajan

    Emperor of Rome for 2 years
  • 1003

    Pope Sylvester 2

    Sylvester is the first Frenchman to hold that office. An avid reformer, Sylvester assumed responsibility for a papacy that had been plagued by years of corruption. Sylvester encouraged the spread of Christianity in Poland and Hungary, and he led the revival of philosophical, scientific, and mathematical studies in Europe. He is credited with the introduction of Arabic numerals to the West, and with the invention of the pendulum clock.
  • 1034

    Iberian Christian Advances

    By 1034 the Christian Portuguese frontier was established at
    the river of Mondego. This, in turn, contributed to the creation of the Kingdom of Galicia and Portugal.
  • 1035

    King of Tides

    The Danish warlord Canute conquered England
    in 1016. After his conversion to Christianity, Canute earned a Holy Roman emperor, the German king Henry III convened a council
    in the Italian town of Sutri to settle the dispute between Benedict IX
  • Period: 1048 to 1118

    First Crusade

    The significant victory paved the way for Seljuk forces to
    control Asia Minor and Syria, regions that had previously served as
    recruiting grounds for the Byzantium army. Starved of resources and facing the increasing threat of Muslim forces, Emperor Alexius
    Comnenus requested help from the West. In spite of the breach that existed between Constantinople and Rome
  • Period: 1052 to 1198

    The Crusades

    The crusaders’ ostensible aim had been to defend the
    Byzantine Empire against the Muslim threat, yet conflicts between
    Western and Eastern Christendom continued in the Middle East. After a successful crusading campaign, the Norman prince took control of Antioch. Alexis and Bohemond warred over the territory between, with Bohemond even gaining papal blessing for his “Crusade” against the Christian emperor.
  • 1066

    Norman Expansion

    The Normans were a people largely from Viking and Frankish
    stock. Their outward expansion from the regions of northern France to Italy, England, and Sicily would have a comprehensive effect on the culture and Christian traditions of Western Europe.
  • 1086

    Canute the Holy

    Canute IV became king of Denmark in 1080. He was a fervent
    supporter of Christianity and passed laws for the care of the poor and sick. His aborted 1085 invasion of England marked one of the last times in history that a Viking army was assembled to invade another European country. Canute was killed by pagan rebels in 1086 and is considered a martyr and the patron saint of Denmark by the Roman Catholic Church.
  • Period: 1090 to 1154

    Northern Crusades

    The crusades against Islam were accompanied by military
    adventures against pagans of northern Europe and the Baltic states. The missionary Vicelin (c. 1090–1154) had already been preaching
    peacefully amongst the tribes of northern Germany, but his small
    successes were swept away by Saxon and Danish crusades against the Wends in 1147.
  • Period: 1090 to 1153

    Bernard of Clairvaux

    The French Cistercian monk stands as a towering figure in the
    twelfth century, and he was involved in most of the significant
    disputes of the day. As a theologian, Bernard is known primarily for developing the concept of the church as the Bride of Christ and for being a forerunner to the movement of the Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Unlike most of his contemporaries, Bernard opposed the persecution of the Jews.
  • Period: 1117 to 1170

    The Troublesome Priest

    Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162, Thomas Becket opposed the attempts of King Henry II to exert authority over the English Church. In 1170 he was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by four zealous knights, probably acting on an intemperate pronouncement from Henry. Thomas’s martyrdom sparked outrage throughout Europe, and Henry was forced to do public penance in 1172. Becket’s shrine remained a principal pilgrimage destination until dissolved by Henry VIII in 1538.
  • 1179

    Hildegard of Bingen

    A German Benedictine abbess, Hildegard was famous for her
    mystical theology, writing, and wide learning, which included natural history, musical compositions, and medicine. From 1141 Hildegard experienced a number of visions, or “showings,” which she wrote down in her principal work Scivias. The mystical homilies were closely scrutinised (and approved) by Pope Eugenius III and Bernard of Clairvaux in 1147 and again by the archbishop of Mainz c. 1150.
  • 1189

    Lalibela

    In 1189 the ruling member of the Ethiopian Zagwe dynasty ordered the construction of the stone monolithic churches at Roha (now known as Lalibela). The eleven churches were hewn from the rock, with their construction probably not completed for the next two centuries.
  • 1212

    The Final Crusades

    The abortive Fourth Crusade gave rise to further popular
    movements, not all of them welcomed or sanctioned by the church.
    The spontaneous Children’s Crusade of 1212 involved thousands of poor children and peasants marching to Jerusalem. The ragged group dissolved at Genoa, with many participants returning home at the urging of the pope. From 1219 three more military crusades were raised in the attempt to win Egypt, retake Jerusalem, and defend Christian territories in Syria.
  • 1226

    Francis of Assisi

    Francis of Assisi renounced worldly possessions after a pilgrimage to Rome in 1205, after which he founded a society for preaching, poverty, and penance in 1209. From 1245 onwards, adherents to the original ideal of poverty clashed with moderates who allowed corporate ownership of property. Today the Franciscans are composed of three orders—the Conventuals, the Observants, and the Capuchins.
  • 1231

    Elizabeth of Hungary

    The daughter of King Andrew of Hungary, Elizabeth gained a
    reputation from an early age as an extreme ascetic and holy woman. When her husband Louis IV of Thuringia died on crusade in 1227, Elizabeth became a Franciscan nun. She served the poor in Marburg, Germany, and was responsible for building one of Europe’s first orphanages. The Gothic cathedral Elisabethkirche was built in her honor, and her remains were interned there in 1236.
  • 1238

    The Golden Horde

    By 1223 Mongol invaders had begun raids on Russian territory.
    By 1237 the invasion was fully underway. In 1238 the invaders sacked and burnt Moscow. In 1240 the principal city of Kiev was conquered, and Russia came under the rule of the Mongolian “Golden Horde” led by Batu, grandson of Genghis Khan.
  • 1253

    Clare of Assisi

    Francis founded the second order in partnership with Clare of
    Assisi. Established in 1213, the Poor Clare
    communities spread rapidly through Italy, France, and Spain. The Poor Clares’ strict rule included perpetual fasting, sleeping on boards, and complete silence.
  • Period: 1302 to 1303

    Warning of the Papacy

    Boniface persisted in making claims for the papacy that was
    resisted by secular rulers. The struggle with Philip of France continued when Boniface issued the bull Unam Sanctam in 1302, proclaiming: “It is altogether necessary to salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Roman pontiff.” Philip responded by sending a force to arrest the pope. Boniface was briefly taken prisoner in 1303 and died a few weeks later.
  • 1325

    Mother Moscow

    Although Russia was under Mongol rule, the Orthodox Church
    enjoyed a favoured position and was allowed to operate relatively
    freely.
  • Period: 1347 to 1351

    Black Death

    This name was given to the bubonic plague that swept through
    China, India, and Europe between 1347 and 1351. The plague may
    have originated amongst the Kirgiz in central Asia.
  • Period: 1373 to 1415

    Jan Hus

    Jan Hus had been teaching at the University of Prague for five years before he encountered the radical theology of the English Reformer John Wycliffe in 1401. Wycliffe’s ideas inspired a Czech reforming party, encouraging a more rigorous obedience to Scripture and opposing German political and religious dominance in
    their country.
  • 1374

    Brethren of the Common Life

    Elsewhere in Europe, dissatisfaction with the opulence and
    power of the church led to the growth of movements emphasising the Christian values of simplicity, charity, and learning. In 1374 the Dutch theologian Geert Groote was converted under the influence of a Carthusian monk who preached strict contemplation.
  • 1377

    The Great Western Schism

    In an effort to restore order amongst the populace in Italy, Pope
    Gregory returned the papacy to Rome in 1377. His death a year later and the events surrounding the appointment of his successor led to considerable division within the Western Church: a time known as the Great (or Western) Schism.
  • 1409

    Three Popes

    The Great Schism lasted for decades, with successions of popes
    and anti-popes along both lines claiming their legitimacy over the
    other. In 1409 attempts to resolve the conflict led to the creation of the third line of popes based in the city of Pisa, beginning with Alexander V
  • Period: 1412 to 1431

    Joan of Ark

    This peasant “Maid of Orléans” was born into the context of
    the Hundred Years’ War with England and the ongoing civil strife
    between the great houses of France. In 1425 she had the first of many visions, claiming from these experiences a supernatural mission to fight for France. In 1429 she convinced King Charles VII and his court theologians and was allowed to lead a successful military campaign to liberate the city of Orléans.
  • 1413

    Julian of Norwich

    A mystic and anchoress, Julian lived in a cell built into the wall
    of her church. In 1373 she experienced a series of “showings,” or
    mystical visions, which were then written up as Revelations of Divine Love. In 1393 Julian produced a major theological reflection on her experiences, drawing parallels between divine action in the world and human motherhood.
  • Period: 1440 to 1505

    Ivan the Great

    Ivan III “the Great” ruled in Russia between 1462 and 1505. The 1472 marriage between Ivan and Sophia , niece of the last Byzantine emperor, helped strengthen Russia’s claim to be the natural successor to Byzantine Orthodoxy. When the Russians under the leadership of Ivan defeated their Mongolian rulers in 1480, these claims were further enhanced. This laid the foundation
    for the idea of Moscow as “third Rome,” which would rise to
    prominence in the following century.
  • 1441

    Ethiopian Church

    Although the Abyssinian Church operated largely
    independently of the main Catholic and Orthodox traditions, a small
    group of Ethiopian monks are recorded as attending the Council of
    Florence in 1441. The Ethiopian Church at this time was experiencing cultural revival and reform, especially under the influence of the Christian emperor Zar’a Ya’qob (Zara Jacob). The
    emperor wrote hymns and theological reflections on the creed of the Ethiopian Church.
  • 1453

    Fall of Constantinople

    The phrase alludes to the capture and deportation of the
    Hebrew people under the ruler Nebuchadnezzar as told in 2 Kings
    24–25. It was first coined by the poet Francesco Petrarch with
    reference to the situation of the church in Avignon. During the
    Protestant Reformation in 1520, Martin Luther would use the phrase to denounce various doctrines that he thought held the church in bondage.
  • Period: 1462 to 1516

    Johannes Trithemius

    Abbot of Sponheim in west Germany until 1506, Trithemius
    was a major figure for monastic reform and a precursor to the
    movements that would explode in the sixteenth century. His collection of manuscripts was one of the most famous libraries in the known world.
  • 1476

    Babylonian Cpativity

    The phrase alludes to the capture and deportation of the
    Hebrew people under the ruler Nebuchadnezzar as told in 2 Kings
    24–25. It was first coined by the poet Francesco Petrarch with
    reference to the situation of the church in Avignon. During the
    Protestant Reformation in 1520, Martin Luther would use the phrase to denounce various doctrines that he thought held the church in bondage.
  • Period: 1483 to 1546

    Martin Luther

    Luther was a German priest and theologian. Sometime between
    1512 and 1515 Luther’s reading of Augustine and the apostle Paul led to his conviction that “faith alone justifies without works.” The idea that God’s salvation could be received independently of obedience to religious demands and church hierarchy would become central to the political and spiritual aspects of the Protestant Reformation.
  • Period: 1512 to 1515

    Martin Luthor

    Luther was a German priest and theologian. Sometime between
    1512 and 1515 Luther’s reading of Augustine and the apostle Paul led to his conviction that “faith alone justifies without works.” The idea that God’s salvation could be received independently of obedience to religious demands and church hierarchy would become central to the political and spiritual aspects of the Protestant Reformation.
  • 1522

    1st Polyglot Bible

    In Alcalá in 1522 a team of compilers published the first full
    Bible to have parallel texts in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. The work
    paved the way for serious textual study of the Old and New Testament
    Scriptures.
  • Period: 1522 to 1546

    John of Ioannina

    Also known as John the Tailor, John was a craftsman living in
    Constantinople under Ottoman rule. Captured by angry apostates
    because he himself would not recant, he was burnt and beheaded in 1546. John is considered by the Orthodox Church to be a “New Martyr of the Great Captivity.”
  • Period: 1522 to

    Philothei of Athens

    During the Ottoman period in Greece, many women were
    forced into Turkish harems. The nun Philothei offered sanctuary to
    these women and was killed as a result. A “New Martyr,” Philothei is
    considered a patron saint of Athens.
  • 1530

    Protest in Europe

    Luther supported the close coalition of church and state, and he
    wrote to the German princes encouraging them to take reforms into
    their own hands. By the 1530s the rulers of Saxony, Hesse,
    Brandenburg, and Brunswick, along with a number of German “free
    cities,” had adopted Lutheran principles.
  • Period: 1542 to

    John of the Cross

    A Spanish mystic and doctor of the church, John worked
    closely with Teresa of Ávila in reforming the Carmelite order. He
    wrote on the self’s transformation in the presence of the Divine. John’s idea of the “dark night of the soul” has subsequently influenced much Christian life and thought.
  • 1582

    Calendars

    The original calendar was mandated by Julius Caesar c. 45 BC.
    The Julian calendar introduced an error of one day every 128 years. The Gregorian calendar shifts approximately one day every 3,300 years. It simplified the leap year process and attempted to provide uniformity for the calculation of Easter. The national Orthodox churches continue to use a revised form of the Julian calendar for religious purposes.