General Christianity
and the World

Year

The
Church

Augustus becomes first Roman Emperor.

Tiberius succeeds Augustus as Roman Emperor.

Pontius Pilate is made governor of Judea.

Stephen, a follower of Jesus, is stoned to death for blasphemy, becoming the first Christian martyr.

Paul begins to preach about Jesus.

Mark's Gospel, the nascent Church's first life, is written; the gospels of Matthew and Luke, using Mark as source material, follow

The Gospel according to John is written; "Babylon" represents corrupted Rome.

Persecution of Christians in Rome renewed by emperor Marcus Aurelius; a "martyr cult" develops within Christianity.

Emperor Constantine, entering battle, sees a luminous cross and subsequently converts to Christianity.

Constantine makes Christianity legal throughout the empire.

Constantine relocates to the city of Byzantium, later renaming it Constantinople, seat of the New Roman Empire.

At Constantine's Council of Nicaea, God's relationship to Jesus is defined; Christianity begins to sweep the empire.

Emperor Theodosius outlaws paganism and makes heresy liable to punishment.

The Church sanctions the New Testament's 27 books, including the four Gospels; Christianity's addendum to the Bible is complete.

1181-1226

St. Thomas Aquinas is born. As a Dominican friar teaching in Paris, he will bring Christian doctrine into harmony with Aristotelian philosophy, reconciling faith and reason.

The first inquisition is brought by Gregory IX, whose papal inquisitors hold secret trials and tortures; burning at the stake is the capital punishment.

Muslims seize Acre, the last Christian stronghold in Palestine.

French Pope Clement V moves the papacy to Avignon from Rome.

Papacy returns to Rome.

Rift among Roman cardinals results in the election of rival popes; for eight years, one true, and two false popes rule.

The Council of Florence represents one of many short-lived attempts at reunion (ecumenism) between Roman and Eastern Churches.

Turks capture Constantinople; Byzantine Empire falls.

During Spain's Torquemada Inquisition, 2,000 heretics are executed.

Martin Luther, stressing biblical over papal authority, spurs the Reformation, which divides Western Christianity into the Roman Catholic Church and Protestantism.

King Henry VIII denies the pope's authority over England so he can marry Anne Boleyn; the following year, he has Parliament declare him the head of the new, independent Church of England. Thus, ANGLICINISM is born.

Ignatius Loyola founds the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, a zealous order within Catholicism that spreads the religion throughout the known world.

The Council of Trent, a Roman Catholic attempt at reform, becomes the Counter-Reformation as it issues decrees in opposition to Protestantism.

Followers of the philosophy of French Protestant thinker John Calvin split from the English Puritans to form the Congregationalists.

Galileo, in a letter, tries to show that Copernican theory can exist alongside Church doctrine regarding the biblical view of the world. In 1616 he is summoned to Rome but is cleared of heresy. In 1632, however, he publishes his scientific masterpiece, showing how Copernican system is superior to Ptolemaic. (The short of it: Galileo's evidence shows the earth revolves around the sun, rather than being the fixed center of the universe, as Scripture had it.) He is again called to Rome, and in 1633 the Inquisition finds him guilty of disobeying Church orders and forces him to publicly recant. Galileo, a Catholic, does so but is nonetheless sentenced to life imprisonment.

Pilgrims land at Plymouth, Mass., in the New World; their ranks include many Protestant Separatists, who had hoped to adopt reforms to purify the Church of England. Having decided their efforts were futile from within, they form their own congregation and enter self-exile to pursue religion freely.

The Thirty Years' War, between Catholics and Protestants, ends.

John Wesley, an English clergyman influenced by the Pietists--who consider an intimate relationship with God more important than a particular form of worship--begins a reform movement within the Church of England; subsequently, the movement leads to METHODISM.

First Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified; it forbids Congress to provide for an established religion. The idea of keeping Church and State separate is made law. The ironic result: A secular state becomes, over time, a vital incubator for many forms of Christianity and other faiths.

Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species, which conflicts with the biblical version of creation.

1869-70

Pius assembles Vatican Council I, which issues, among other doctrines, the declaration of papal infallibility--the pope is never in error when he speaks as head of the Church on matters of faith and morals.

Charles Fox Parham revives the Pentecostal movement at his Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kans. By the end of the century, according to some estimates, one in four Christians will be a Pentecostal.

"The Scopes Monkey Trial" in Dayton, Tenn.: High School teacher John Thomas Scopes is charged with teaching evolution in a public school, thus violating Tennessee law. William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow spar over Creationism vs Darwinism; Scopes is found guilty and fined $100. Even in a secular society, Christianity has power.

1925

In World War II Holocaust, six million Jews are put to death.

1939-1945

Pope John XXIII and his successor, Paul VI, oversee Vatican Council II, which seeks to bring the Roman Church into harmony with modernity and to promote ecumenism.

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957 to expand the nonviolent struggle against racism and discrimination, gives his "I Have a Dream" speech to more than 200,000 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The scene is as much revival meeting as political protest.

1963

1978

1979

 The rise of Christian fundamentalism in the United States is fueled by television and the Internet.

By this time one of the greatest Christian missionaries since Paul, John Paul II has traveled nearly 700,000 miles--more than the 263 previous popes combined, more than a round-trip to the moon.

1999

John Paul II again asks Catholics to prepare for the Holy Year, Jubilee 2000, by atoning for past transgressions, including anti-Jewish bias and persecution; the Jubilee in Rome will commence on Christmas Eve and extend to the feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 2001.