Last updated 26 February 2006

Part 1: AD 30-200 (February 2005)

by C. Graves

The starting point of Christianity is the resurrection of Jesus Christ in about AD 30. That is the event to which his 12 Apostles and disciples acted as witnesses. Their account of his life, crucifixion and resurrection from the dead, preceded the compilation of the gospels, and other Greek writings, which became the New Testament part of the Holy Bible.

The Apostles were the 12 men chosen by Jesus as his special disciples. After the ascension of Jesus to heaven (40 days after his resurrection), they had spent their time in prayer, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, and the other women followers. On this Pentecost day, the Apostles experienced the sound of a mighty rushing wind, and what looked like tongues of fire coming down upon them. This, Peter told the crowd immediately afterwards, was the coming of the Holy Spirit foretold in scripture.

Soon after Pentecost, Peter and John, having gone to the Temple to pray, heal a lame man in the name of Jesus. In a speech to the astonished crowd outside the Temple , Peter stresses that the miracle is not done by his own power, but by God in order to demonstrate the divinity of Jesus. This is the pattern for events in the first years of Christianity: preaching, miraculous healing, arguments with the religious establishment, imprisonment, and, sooner or later, martyrdom. Meanwhile the number of followers grows.

Stephen was the first Christian martyr in AD35. Stephen had been chosen by the Apostles as one of the ‘seven men of honest report’ given the job of distributing alms or food. Stephen certainly held, as Paul was to, that the teaching of Jesus went beyond the Jewish law. At his trial, his speech was found to be blasphemous against Jewish law, and he was stoned to death. Paul, still under the name Saul, makes his first appearance in the Bible at Stephen’s martyrdom.

The entry, like a whirlwind, of the energetic personality of Paul, transformed the shape of Christianity. It would be impossible to imagine Christianity without him. Yet, unlike the other Apostles, he never knew Jesus during his life in Palestine . His own conversion from a leading persecutor of the early followers of Jesus Christ, to an essential shaper of the Church is one of the most remarkable stories in history. Paul did not invent Christianity, but he was the first to give it a theology. Paul explains his understanding of Jesus, the Son of God, succinctly in his letter to the Church at Philippi (in northern Greece ).

Apart from thinking, Paul acted. He was convinced he had been sent to bring to the Gentiles the possibility of Christ living mystically in them. To build up a Church composed of people who accepted the new teaching, he undertook journeys totalling more than 8,000 miles. They were amazingly successful. When he told people about Jesus, hundreds became his followers. If these new communities got into difficulties, Paul stepped in with undoubted authority and sorted them out, in person or by letter.

Paul contrasted the freedom brought by Jesus with the slavery and futility of living under the old law of Judaic practice. But he was also challenging the pretensions of the Roman Imperial cult, where the Emperor was regarded as a god like figure.

Jerusalem was regarded as the centre for the followers of Jesus in the years after the first Pentecost. This was the ancient home of the Jewish religion. King David had made his capital here around the 10^th century BC. The Temple was a city within a city. It employed thousands of staff from priests and guards to scribes and dogsbodies, and every day, within its gigantic, smoky sacrificial enclosure, countless cattle were ritually slaughtered. The Temple and its fearsome God were concerned with none but the Jews. 

In AD49, Paul travelled to the holy city to meet Jesus’ remaining disciples and take part in what later became known as the Council of Jerusalem. The question was: did new Christians have to undergo circumcision and follow the Jewish law? The refusal of Gentile Christians to accept circumcision, and everything that went with it, inevitably meant separation. Gentiles were not allowed beyond their own court in the Temple compound, for example.

In AD66, a brave but hopeless revolt against Roman rule (Emperor Titus) began, which culminated in AD70 with the destruction of Jerusalem , the desecration of the Temple , and the massacre of thousands. Christianity would have to grow in new ground. The political centrality of Rome ensured that the city replaced Jerusalem as the focus of Christianity.

In AD64 a fire destroyed much of Rome . The Emperor Nero, who was suspected of contributing to the event, turned to the Christians as scapegoats. Accordingly, arrest was first made of those who confessed to being Christians; then, on their evidence, an immense multitude was convicted. The Roman historian Tacitus describes how the martyrs were made to serve as objects of amusement. They were clad in the hides of beasts and torn to death by lions; others were crucified, others set on fire to serve to illuminate the night when daylight failed. It is believed that both Peter and Paul were crucified in the Neronian persecution.

For the next thirty years the Church enjoyed comparative peace until the reign of the Emperor Domitian (AD81-96), who demanded he should be worshipped as both ‘ lord and god’. After Domitian’s death the Empire was in the hands of a number of good and able rulers, who treated Christians fairly. The first known use of the term ‘Christianity’ comes from the works of Ignatius (died AD112), the bishop of Antioch in Syria . He was once a disciple of the Apostle John, and held office for about forty years. He alone was arrested, taken to Rome , and cruelly killed. Towards the end of the first century the apostle John encouraged the church at Ephesus . During the persecution, he was banished to the island of Patmos , where he wrote the book of Revelation to the seven churches in Asia Minor .

By the second century Christianity had spread to the outer limits of the Roman Empire, but one of the strongest bastions of the faith was in Asia Minor (present day Turkey ). During the reign of Antoninus there occurred the best known of all martyrdoms, that of the aged Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna (AD69-156). He was the last link with the Apostles, having been a pupil of John. Polycarp was recognised as one who adhered to the Scriptures and preserved the apostolic tradition. His end came when he was taken to a stadium in Rome , and the crowd demanded he be burned alive. When the onlookers saw that the body was not being consumed in the fire, a gladiator was sent to despatch the bishop with a dagger thrust through the heart.

One of the most remarkable Christians who defended the Faith during the second century was Irenaeus (AD130-200), bishop of Lyons (present day France ). He was a gifted author and contributed much towards the development of Christian doctrine. As a teenager he studied under Polycarp, later moved to Rome where he was a pupil of Justin Martyr, then moved to Gaul during the persecutions.

At the end of the century, the Church though shaken remained strong and resolute. 

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Part 2: AD 200-400 (April 2005)
by C. Graves

The early Church continued to be oppressed during this time, but rather than destroying the Church, the death of the martyrs actually increased admiration and respect for the believers and numbers were won to Christ. Pagans were amazed at the courage of men, women and children who faced death in the arena.

One of the great writers of the Early Church was Tertullian (150-212), who was born in Carthage , modern Tunis in North Africa , which had a strong and vigorous church. He became a Christian in about 195, and afterwards gave himself to the study of Christianity and its literature, then began to use his legal and writing skills to champion his newfound faith. He was the most prolific Christian writer of the second century and a major theologian of the west. Tertullian will be best remembered for his vigorous defence of Christianity, when the might of the Roman State was pitched against the young Church. ‘The more you mow us down,’ he thundered against Rome , ‘the fuller is the harvest. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church’.

Other thinkers of this period included Clement of Alexandria (150-215), a true philosopher, who ran a college in Alexandria . He excelled in fusing the teaching of the Gospel with Greek culture, using grammar and logic to unravel the meaning of scripture. The Roman province of North Africa extended from Egypt to present day Morocco . Roman religion, however, had not taken a firm hold, and Christianity made in-roads throughout the province and into the country districts. Cyprian (200-258) was bishop of Carthage , and exerted tremendous influence on the Church throughout the region. He will be remembered for his insistence on the bishop as a God-appointed ruler in the Church, for his concepts of the clergy as sacrificing priests, and the bishop’s rights to reach his own decisions. But most importantly, the pastoral welfare of his flock was his greatest concern. 

The greatest onslaught the Church ever endured took place during the closing years of the reign of the Emperor Diocletion (284-305), which was a final attempt to wipe out Christianity. As before, there were countless martyrs; but many gave up their faith as church buildings and books were burned, believers tortured and drowned, men despatched to the mines and women condemned to a life of prostitution.

 

In a remote outpost of the Roman Empire , a young man was at that time rising to prominence, who was to become one of the greatest Emperors Rome had ever known. His reign proved to be a turning point in the history of both Church and Empire, beginning a period of peace and stability, together with an abundance of mixed blessings. Constantine the Great (274-337) was the son of a nobleman, Constantius Chlorus. As a junior Emperor, Constantius ruled Spain , Gaul and Britain , and was regarded as a successful general. He died at York in 306 with his son at his side. The Roman troops immediately proclaimed Constantine as the new Emperor, much to the consternation of the court at Rome . While much of his 30-year reign was taken up with eliminating his rivals first in the West, then in the East, at some point he opted for Christianity as the new state religion – with momentous consequences.

  Legend has it that he experienced a Paul-like conversion in 312 before the battle of the Milvian Bridge , near Rome , when he had a vision of a Latin Cross accompanied by the words ‘In hoc signo vinces’ Ie. ‘in this sign conquer’. There followed a second vision, which instructed him to emblazon his army’s shields with the Christian symbol. From 313, all Christians were given complete freedom of worship. The first Christian symbols appeared on the coinage in 315, and Sunday was recognised in 321. There was a boom in church building, and the spread of Christianity demanded an ever more complicated organisational structure. Constantine presided over opposition and division; one such meeting at Nicaea gave rise to Nicene Creed. Constantine changed the face of Christianity, in transforming a semi-outlawed cult to the established state religion, which gave the religion the peace it needed to grow.

However, the coming together of Church and Empire under one man was to greatly challenge the Church in the coming centuries.

Among other notable figures during this period included Eusebius (263-339) the Father of Church History. His monumental work ‘History of the Church’, gives us a written knowledge of the early Church, which otherwise would have been lost. Ambrose (340-397) was Bishop of Milan, and was the most prominent figure in western Christianity. He was, in his day, the supreme defender of the true Faith, and was distinguished as a ruler by his wisdom and common sense. His death marked the end of the fourth century, an age of martyrs and creeds, the fall of paganism and the rise of the Church. His life brought the era to a fitting end.

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Part 3: AD 400-600 (October  2005)
by C. Graves

 A terrible shock ran through the civilised Western world when in 410AD barbarian armies marched down from the north; to some it seemed like the advent of the Antichrist and the end of the world. In 410 the Roman army was defeated and Rome fell to its enemies; its glories were no more. King Alaric’s Goths were Arian by religion and they showed the utmost reverence towards the churches and Christian treasures. In the provinces the news about Rome was treated with gloom, but life went on as before.

By the end of the 2nd century the Church had virtually decided which books from the Old Testament, and which writings from after the time of Jesus, should make up the canonical text of the Bible. The trouble was that translations into Latin were so varied that no two seemed to agree. Jerome (331-420) who was born in Dalmatia (now in Croatia ) was the most learned man of his day, and was given the urgent task of producing a reliable, consistent version. His so-called Vulgate version set a standard for the King James version in English 1,200 years later.

One of several important figures in early Christianity was Augustine (354-431). Born in Thagaste (modern Algeria ), he became bishop of Hippo, next to Carthage , the most important town in North Africa . Augustine’s influence soon spread, and he was recognised as one of the ablest and saintliest bishop of his time. During his 35 years as a bishop, Augustine wrote over 100 treatises and opposed five different heretics. His teaching has been described as the highest attainment of religion since apostolic times, and the Church is indebted for his defence of the gospel. Protestants can rejoice in his stalwart defence of the doctrine of grace.

As time passed, those who had placed their faith in the second coming of Christ came to realise that this was not imminent. The sheer spread of churches demanded more complex structures to maintain discipline and doctrinal purity. By the time of Augustine’s death in 431 there was a hierarchy of bishops, and a full-scale diocesan framework had emerged. The Christian church modelled its structure on that of the Roman Empire . Bishops, based in the chief cities, met in synod in the provincial capitals. Rome , the see of St. Peter, was granted precedence in ‘honour’ but not in ‘authority’, and shared power with Antioch , Alexandria , Constantinople and Jerusalem . Clear expressions of papal primacy were not found until the late 4^th century. The ecumenical councils of Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451), amongst others, were theoretically the voice of the Church; but in practice were subjected to imperial constraint. Justinian 1(527-65), for example, ruled the Church with a heavy hand. This was the seed of conflict between Church and State, which underlay much of the later tension between Empire and Papacy. However, following the fall of Rome , it was the Church and its bishops, with their vast estates and pervasive influence, who emerged as guardians of the classical tradition, which guided Europe and Christendom into a new age.

Christianity comes to Britain

The first hint of Christianity in Britain comes in the writings of Tertullian and Origen at the beginning of the 3^rd century. It is now widely assumed that ordinary people such as traders, who heard the Gospel in other parts of the Empire, came to our shores. Following the fall of Rome in 410, the Roman population of Britain remained, and Christianity continued to flourish, though not without its problems. Following invasions between 430-450, many Britons fled westwards settling in the mountains of Wales or in Cornwall , so weakening the Christian faith. Its place was taken by the heathen religions of the conquering Jutes, Angles and Saxons. This period of Church history produced the famous Welsh saint David (520-588), who founded a monastery at Glyn Rosyn, the site of the present-day St. David’s Cathedral. Scotland remained largely untouched by the gospel, except for a Christian enclave in Galloway, where Ninian (c360-c432) developed his ministry, following a period studying the scriptures with Martin, Bishop of Tours (present day France). The life of St. Patrick (390-461) has acquired a great deal of myth, and he has grown into the chief symbol of Irish Christianity. However he stands as a monumental figure even without the mythical embellishments. In 432 he began his missionary activity as an itinerant preacher, travelling throughout the wild and dangerous country. By 444 he had established his episcopal see at Armagh, the first Church in the west that was outside the Roman Empire . His mission also gave an impulse to the urgency of evangelism, and the Celtic Church sent out many monks to take the gospel to Western Europe . One of these Columba (c521-597), after founding monasteries in Derry and Durrow, was forced to flee Ireland following a petty dispute, which developed into a tribal conflict. With 12 companions he sailed northwards, finally landing on Iona , where he preached to the pagans. He not only evangelised the Picts, but also laid down the foundation of a consolidated Scotland and a united Scottish people.

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Part 4: AD 600-800 (November  2005)
by C. Graves

The decline of the Roman Empire, following the sacking of Rome in 410, had decisive effects on the history of the Church. The advance of Islam after 635 swamped three of the provincial Christian capitals ( Alexandria , Jerusalem and Antioch ) and threatened a fourth Constantinople . North Africa and (later) Spain were lost; whilst in the west most of the invaders, though Christian, were Arians and did not recognise papal authority. By the time of Pope Gregory 1 Christianity was everywhere on the defensive. Gregory in 596 sent a mission to England , led by Augustine (died 604), Prior of St. Andrew’s monastery in Rome , to lead a team of 40 monks. To his surprise, Augustine was well received by Ethelbert, the most powerful king in the south of England . The king laid down one condition, that Augustine should not use compulsion in making converts. The door was open for the missionaries to begin their work. Augustine and his monks marched in procession on the city of Canterbury , holding aloft a banner bearing the figure of the crucified Christ. Following a successful mission, on Gregory’s instructions, Augustine was recognised as Archbishop of England, becoming the first Archbishop of Canterbury.

However, the general situation for the Church continued to deteriorate, with disintegration and disruption apparent on every side. Disputes between Rome and Constantinople over primacy compromised the Church’s authority, and in the west the corrupt and secularised churches in Gaul (present day France ) and Spain were largely independent.

At this crucial turning point salvation came from outside, not from the official church, but from the Nestorians of Persia, the Copts of Egypt and the Celtic Christians of Ireland. These were the communities that initiated the expansion of Christianity at a time when, in its original Mediterranean homeland, it was under severe pressure. In the long term the work of the Irish missionaries proved to be the most enduring. From Columba’s Scottish foundation at Iona, Christianity was carried south to Northumbria (634), East Anglia (653) and Mercia (655), and from 644 the English church was united under the Roman obedience.  Columba’s missionary work was continued by the leading figures of the second generation such as Wilfrid of Ripon (634-709), who visited Frisia (modern Holland ) to begin sharing the gospel with pagan tribes and who stayed for two years.  This work was continued by his pupil Willibrord (658-739).  Boniface (680-784) was a modest monk from England , as a result of whose activities, thousands were converted to Christ in Germany and France , churches and monasteries built, and the foundations of an ecclesiastical organisation laid.  On 7^th June  754, he and 52 companions were massacred by a band of pagans while awaiting the arrival of Christian converts on the bank of a river.  Robbery rather than religion seems to have been the motive for the attack and, almost accidentally, Boniface became a martyr.

Bede (673-735) was known as ‘the father of English Church History’, and entered a monastery at Wearmouth at the age of seven. He transferred to Jarrow in 682, but soon after his arrival all the monks responsible for leading the worship were wiped out by plague, leaving only the abbot and the child Bede to maintain the services. His commitment to a highly disciplined life is said to date from that experience, and he spent the rest of his life, with the exception of occasional visits to York or Lindisfarne , at the monastery. At the time, he was probably the most learned man in England , and wrote numerous books on theology and Scripture. His most famous work was ‘The Ecclesiastical History of the English People’, which is our chief source of information regarding early Christianity in England . In the ninth century he was honoured with the title ‘Venerable’.

This period of church history saw a rapid rise in a gentler kind of monastery based on the teachings of Benedict (c480-c547) that enabled humanity to grow towards God, through prayer, work and learning. Although most of the great monasteries were uprooted between the Reformation and the French Revolution, today there are some 8,500 Benedictine monks around the world.

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Part 5: AD 600-800  (March 2006)
by C. Graves

   By the 9^th century England was a Christian country and many of the institutions and customs interwoven within its history are derived from the faith. However, in the ninth century Christianity was severely challenged by another wave of heathen invaders, the Vikings of Denmark, who were even more fierce and ruthless than their Saxon predecessors. Yet England was saved by the leadership of Alfred, King of Wessex (849-899), who during his reign of 28 years drove back the enemy, united the English peoples, and re-established Christianity.

Alfred was born at Wantage (Oxfordshire) in 849; being the youngest of four sons of Ethelwulf, King of Wessex , one of the four main kingdoms of England . His parents were Christians and gave their sons a religious training. At some point in his early life he visited Rome . After the death of his father in 858, tragedy struck the family and Alfred’s three brothers died, possibly from some congenital complaint. At the age of 22, Alfred inherited the throne of the kingdom of Wessex , coming to power at the darkest hour in his nation’s history. Following the pillaging of Lindisfarne in 793 by raiders, England had been increasingly subjected to Viking attacks. In 871 the Vikings mounted an offence against Wessex , and in his first year as king, Alfred fought nine battles against the enemy. He won a decisive victory and forced the Vikings to make peace. Subsequently, the Danish king Guthrum and 29 of his chieftains accepted the Christian religion. This peace enabled Alfred to set about re-building his kingdom and strengthening his defences. New fortifications were built, and a navy created, which proved more than a match for the Danish longboats.

It is not surprising that Alfred was accorded the title of ‘Great’ when the breadth of his achievements is considered. He not only stemmed the tide of barbarism, but also laid down the foundation for the Christian kingdom of England .

Dunstan (909-988) lived through the greater part of the 10^th century, was Archbishop of Canterbury for 28 years, and for much of this time the most influential figure in England in both Church and State. Regarded as a saint in his own lifetime, he combined the vision of a Christian leader with the wisdom of a statesman. In 940 he was made abbot at Glastonbury Abbey, and adopted the rule of St. Benedict. He saw this as the beginning of a movement that would enable reformed monastic foundations to spread throughout England . The following year he became Bishop of Worcester, then Archbishop of Canterbury, when Edgar became King of all England .

In Europe and Asia during this period and earlier there had been bitter religious controversy on the use of icons in religious worship. Reverence for images of the holy family and the saints, especially those icons reputed to have miracle working properties, had become a strong feature of Christian life in the East. But by the early 8^th century a movement had began which asserted that the use of icons was idolatrous.

At the Council of Constantinople in 843, the Empress Theodora reaffirmed the ruling given at Nicaea , and temporarily put an end to the controversy. The freedom to worship God with the help of icons was restored. Over the next two centuries, however, there was a progressive deterioration in relations between the Roman and Byzantine Churches , which eventually led to a split between the two halves of Christendom that has lasted to this day.

Another notable feature of these times was the conversion to Christianity of peoples in Eastern Europe and Russia . Two brothers, Cyril (826-829), inventor of the Cyrillic alphabet, and Methodius (815-885), earned their title ‘Apostles to the Slavs’, through their work in Eastern Europe, particularly Bulgaria. In 977 Prince Vladimir, decided that Russia needed a monotheistic religion and entry into the civilised world, preferably that of Europe, whilst the conversion of Hungary also owed everything to the decision of a ruler. King Stephen 1 (975-1038) worked energetically for the conversion of his subjects, and the close links he established with Rome have continued until present times.

The warriors of the north in Scandinavia were the last peoples in Europe to accept Christianity in the 10^th century. Earlier Anskar (801-865), known as the Apostle of the North had established a few Christian communities in Sweden during a brief flurry of missionary activity, whilst Norway first encountered Christianity through one of its people Olaf Tryggvason in about 990.

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Part 6: ??  (?? 2006)
by C. Graves

   

 

 

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Last updated on Sunday, 26 February 2006 by the Webmaster.

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