Christianization (orChristianisation) is the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire groups at once. Various strategies and techniques were employed in Christianization campaigns from Late Antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages. Often the conversion of the ruler was followed by the compulsory baptism of his subjects, often resulting in genocide and ethnic cleansing of whole nations such as the Old Prussians.
Some were evangelization by monks or priests, organic growth within an
already partly Christianized society, or by campaigns against paganism
such as the conversion of pagan temples into Christian churches or the condemnation of pagan gods and practices. There is a long history of connecting Christianization and colonialism. A strategy for Christianization was Interpretatio Christiana – the practice of converting native pagan practices and culture, pagan religious imagery, pagan sites and the pagan calendar to Christian uses, due to the Christian efforts at proselytism (evangelism) based on the Great Commission.
Interpretatio Christiana
Reformatting native religious and cultural activities and beliefs
into a Christianized form was officially sanctioned; preserved in the Venerable Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum is a letter from Pope Gregory I to Mellitus,
arguing that conversions were easier if people were allowed to retain
the outward forms of their traditions, while claiming that the
traditions were in honor of the Christian God, "to the end that, whilst
some gratifications are outwardly permitted them, they may the more
easily consent to the inward consolations of the grace of God".
In essence, it was intended that the traditions and practices still
existed, but that the reasoning behind them was altered. The existence
of syncretism
in Christian tradition has long been recognized by scholars. Since the
16th century and till modern days, significant scholarship was devoted
to deconstruction of interpretatio christiana, i.e., tracing the
roots of some Christian practices and traditions to paganism. Early
works of this type have tended to be downplayed and even dismissed as a
form of Protestant apologetics aimed at "purification" of Christianity.
Early Christianity (Ante-Nicaean)
James the Just, whose judgment was adopted in the Apostolic Decree of Acts 15:19–29, c. 50 AD: "...we should write to them [Gentiles] to abstain only from things polluted by idols and from fornication and from whatever has been strangled and from blood..." (NRSV)
The Council of Jerusalem (around 50 AD), according to Acts 15, agreed that lack of circumcision could not be a basis for excluding Gentile
believers from membership in the Jesus community. Rather, they
instructed new believers to avoid "pollution of idols, fornication,
things strangled, and blood" (KJV,
Acts 15:20–21), expecting them to hear Moses read on the Sabbath days.
These clarifications were put into writing, distributed (KJV,
Acts 16:4–5) by messengers present at the Council, and were received as
an encouragement to the growth of these gentiles' trust in the God of
Israel as revealed in the Gospel. The Apostolic Decree thus helped to
establish nascent Christianity as a unique alternative among the forms
of Judaism for prospective Proselytes. The Twelve Apostles and the Apostolic Fathers initiated the process of transforming the originally Jewish sect into a diaspora of communities composed of both Jews and gentiles, united by their trust in Jesus.
The Armenian, Georgian and Ethiopian churches are the only instances of imposition of Christianity by sovereign rulers predating the council of Nicaea. The initial conversion of the Roman Empire
occurred mostly in urban areas of Europe, where the first conversions
were sometimes among members of the Jewish population. Later conversions
happened among other populations over centuries, often initially among
its urban population, with rural conversions taking place some time
later. The term "pagan" is from Latin and means "villager, rustic, civilian." It is derived from this historical transition. The root of that word is present in today's word "paisan" or "paisano".
The Christianization of the Roman Empire
is typically divided into two phases, before and after the year 312,
which marked the momentous conversion (sincere or not debated for
centuries) of Constantine.
By this date, Christianity had already converted a significant but
unknown proportion of at least the urban population of the empire
including a small number of the elite classes. Constantine ended the
intermittent persecution of Christianity with the Edict of Milan,
in fact a quote from a letter of the emperor Licinius by Eusebius,
which granted tolerance to all religions, but specifically mentions
Christianity. Under Constantine's successors, Christianization of Roman
society proceeded by fits and starts, as John Curran documented in
detail.
Statue depicting the baptism of Clovis by Saint Remigius.
Constantine's sons banned pagan state religious sacrifices in 341,
but did not close the temples. Although all state temples in all cities
were ordered shut in 356, there is evidence that traditional sacrifices
continued. Under Julian, the temples were reopened and state religious sacrifices performed once more. When Gratian, emperor 376–383, declined the office and title of Pontifex Maximus,
his act effectively brought an end to the state religion due to the
position's authority and ties within the Imperial administration. Again,
however, this process ended state official practices but not private
religious devotion. As Christianity spread, many of the ancient pagan
temples were defiled, sacked, destroyed, or converted into Christian
sites by such figures as Martin of Tours, and in the East often by militant monks. However, many temples remained open until Theodosius I's edict of Thessalonica
in 381 banned haruspices and other pagan religious practices. From 389
to 393 he issued a series of decrees which led to the banning of pagan
religious rites, and the confiscation of their property and endowments.
The Olympic Games were banned in 392 because of their association with
the old religion. Further laws were passed against remaining pagan
practices over the course of the following years. The effectiveness of
these laws empire-wide is debatable. Christianization of the central Balkans is documented at the end of the 4th century, where Nicetas the Bishop of Remesiana brought the gospel to "those mountain wolves", the Bessi. Reportedly his mission was successful, and the worship of Dionysus and other Thracian gods was eventually replaced by Christianity.
Representation of Saint Clement fighting the Graoully dragon in the Roman amphitheater of Metz. Authors tend to present such legend as a symbol of Christianity's victory over paganism, represented by a harmful dragon.
A turning point came after the Battle of the Frigidus of 395, ending the last serious attempt at a pagan revival in the now Christianized Roman Empire. After the defeat of Eugenius,
the conservative pagan families of Rome gave up their resistance to
Christianity and began to re-invent themselves to maintain their social
leadership. By this time the Christian hierarchy had adopted classical
education and culture as the marks of the civilized person, thus
bringing the two social groups into alliance. Under the regency of Stilicho
(395–408), some paganism was still tolerated, but later in the 5th
century, legislation against pagan possessions, and other pagan
practices, became increasingly strict. There appear to have been later attempts at a pagan revival, in 456 in circles surrounding the general Marcellinus and under Anthemius (r. 467–472), but these came to nothing. Marcian in 451 put the death penalty on the practice on pagan rites, and Leo I in 472 reinforced this by penalizing anyone who was aware that pagan rites were performed on his property.
The early Christianization of the Germanic peoples was achieved by various means, and was partly facilitated by the prestige of the Christian Roman Empire
amongst European pagans. The early rise of Germanic Christianity was,
thus, mainly due to voluntary conversion on a small scale. In the 4th
century some Eastern Germanic tribes, notably the Goths, an East Germanic tribe, adopted Arianism. From the 6th century, Germanic tribes were converted (and re-converted) by missionaries, firstly among the Franks, after Clovis I's
conversion to Christianity in 496. Christianity at this time then
constituted of a mix of Arian Christianity, Nicene Christianity, and
Christianized Germanic paganism. The Lombards
adopted Christianity as they entered Italy, also during the 6th
century. Conversion of the West and East Germanic tribes sometimes took
place "top to bottom", in the sense that missionaries sometimes aimed at
converting Germanic nobility first, after which time their societies
would begin a gradual process of Christianization that would generally
take a matter of centuries, with some traces of earlier beliefs
remaining. The Franks were converted in the 5th century, after Clovis I's conversion to Nicene Christianity. In 498 (497 or 499 are also possible) he let himself be baptized in Rheims.
With this act, the Frankish Kingdom became Christian, although it
would take until the 7th century for the population to abandon some of
their pagan customs. Christian beliefs and a remnant of pagan practices branded as superstitions existed side by side for many centuries.
Christianization of Europe (6th–18th centuries)
Great Britain and Ireland
In most of Britain, the native Britons were already partly Christianized by the time of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain; it is not clear how thorough this process had been. Ireland, and parts of Scotland, had been converted by the Romano-British Christians, led by Saint Patrick. However, ecclesiastics of the time such as the British Gildas and later Anglo-Saxon Bede, criticized them for generally refusing to work at all for the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons; in fact, many were absorbed into the religion and culture of the new settlers.
The conversion of the Anglo-Saxons was begun at about the same time at the far north and south of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in two unconnected initiatives. Irish missionaries led by Saint Columba based in Iona (from 563) and elsewhere, converted many Picts. The court of Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, and the Gregorian mission, who landed in 596, did the same to the Kingdom of Kent. They had been sent by Pope Gregory I and were led by Augustine of Canterbury
with a mission team from Italy. In both cases, and in other kingdoms,
the conversion was generally "top down", with the royal family and
nobility adopting the new religion first.
The Viking invasions of Britain and Ireland
destroyed many monasteries and new Viking settlers restored
paganism—though of a different variety to the Saxon or classical
religions—to areas such as Northumbria and Dublin for a time before their own conversion.
Frankish Empire
9th-century depiction of Christ as a heroic warrior (Stuttgart Psalter, fol. 23)
The Germanic peoples underwent gradual Christianization in the course of the Early Middle Ages, resulting in a unique form of Christianity known as Germanic Christianity
that was frequently some blend of Arian Christianity and Germanic
paganism. The Eastern and Western tribes were the first to convert
through various means. However, it would not be until the 12th century
that the North Germanic peoples had Christianized.
In the polytheistic Germanic tradition, it was possible to worship Jesus next to the native gods like Woden and Thor.
Before a battle, a pagan military leader might pray to Jesus for
victory, instead of Odin, if he expected more help from the Christian
God. According to legend, Clovis had prayed thus before a battle against
one of the kings of the Alemanni, and had consequently attributed his victory to Jesus. The Christianization of the Franks laid the foundation for the further Christianization of the Germanic peoples.
The next impulse came from the edge of Europe. Although Ireland
had never been part of the Roman Empire, Christianity had come there and
developed, largely independently, into Celtic Christianity. The Irish monks had developed a concept of peregrinatio.
This essentially meant that a monk would leave the monastery and his
Christian country to proselytize among the heathens. From 590 onwards,
Irish missionaries were active in Gaul, Scotland, Wales and England. During the Saxon Wars, Charlemagne, King of the Franks, Christianized the Saxons by way of warfare and law upon conquest.
The last pagan revolt in Francia occurred in the Duchy of Normandy during the 10th century. In a battle against the king Louis IV of France, the pagan Normans were defeated, and their two leaders Setric (Sigtrygg) and Turmod (Thormod) slain. According to Richer of Reims, 9,000 pagans were slain.
The Sachsenhain memorial in Verden, Germany
Czech lands
Great Moravia and its successor state Duchy of Bohemia were founded by West Slavs in Central Europe in 9th century. The territory of Great Moravia was originally evangelized by missionaries coming from the Frankish Empire or Byzantine enclaves in Italy and Dalmatia since the early 8th century and sporadically earlier. The first Christian church of the Western and Eastern Slavs known to the written sources was built in 828 by Pribina, the ruler and Prince of the Principality of Nitra, although probably still a pagan himself, in his possession called Nitrava (today Nitra, Slovakia). The first Moravian ruler known by name, Mojmír I, was baptized in 831 by Reginhar, Bishop of Passau.
Despite the formal endorsement by the elites, the Great Moravian
Christianity was described as containing many pagan elements as late as
in 852.
The Church organization in Great Moravia was supervised by the Bavarian clergy until the arrival of the Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius in 863, upon Prince Rastislav's request. Cyril developed the first Slavic alphabet and translated the Gospel into the Old Church Slavonic language. Foundation of the first Slavic bishopric (870), archbishopric (880),
and monastery was the politically relevant outcome of the Byzantine
mission. In 880, Pope John VIII issued the bull Industriae Tuae, by which he set up an independent ecclesiastical province in Great Moravia with Archbishop Methodius as its head. He also named the German cleric Wiching the Bishop of Nitra, and Old Church Slavonic was recognized as the fourth liturgical language, along with Latin, Greek and Hebrew.
Bulgaria
Baptism of the Preslav Court by Nikolai Pavlovich (date of completion unknown)
After its establishment under Khan Asparukh in 681, Bulgaria retained the traditional Bulgar religion Tengriism and the pagan beliefs of the local Slavic population. In the mid-9th century, Boris I decided to establish Christianity as a state religion in Bulgaria. In 864, he was baptized in the capital Pliska by Byzantine priests. After prolonged negotiations with both Rome and Constantinople, he managed to create an autocephalous Bulgarian Orthodox Church and used the newly created Cyrillic script to make the Bulgarian language the language of the Church.
Christianity was challenged during the rule of his first-born son, Vladimir-Rasate
(889–893), who decided to return to the old Bulgarian religion. Boris
I, who had previously retired to a monastery, led a rebellion against
his son and defeated him. At the counsel of Preslav in 893, his third son, Simeon I
who was born after the Christianization, was installed on the throne
and the capital was moved from Pliska to Preslav as a symbol of the
abolition of the old religion. Simeon I led a series of wars against the
Byzantines to gain official recognition of his Imperial title and the
full independence of the Bulgarian Church. As a result of his victories
in 927, the Byzantines finally recognized the Bulgarian Patriarchate.
Serbia
Seal of prince Strojimir of Serbia, from the late 9th century – one of the oldest artifacts on the Christianization of the Serbs
The Serbs were baptised during the reign of Heraclius (610–641) by "elders of Rome" according to Constantine Porphyrogenitus in his annals (r. 913–959).
The adherence is evident in the tradition of theophoric names in the next generation of Serbian monarchs and nobles; Petar Gojniković, Stefan Mutimirović, Pavle Branović. Mutimir maintained the communion with the Eastern Church (Constantinople) when Pope John VIII invited him to recognize the jurisdiction of the bishopric of Sirmium. The Serbs adopt the Old Slavonic liturgy instead of the Greek.
By the 870s, the Serbs were baptized and had established the Eparchy of Ras, on the order of Emperor Basil I.
Croatia
According to Constantine VII, christianization of Croats began in the 7th century. Viseslav
(r. 785–802), one of the first dukes of Croatia, left behind a special
baptismal font, which symbolizes the acceptance of the church, and
thereby Western culture, by the Croats. The conversion of Croatia is
said to have been completed by the time of Duke Trpimir's death in 864. In 879, under duke Branimir, Croatia received papal recognition as a state from Pope John VIII.
The Narentine pirates, based on the Croatian coast, remained pagans until the late ninth century.
The "Baptism of Poland" (Polish: Chrzest Polski) in 966, refers to the baptism of Mieszko I,
the first ruler of a future united Polish state. His baptism was
followed by the building of churches and the establishment of an
ecclesiastical hierarchy. Mieszko saw baptism as a way of strengthening
his hold on power, with the active support he could expect from the
bishops, as well as a unifying force for the Polish people. Mieszko's
action proved highly successful because by the 13th century, Roman Catholicism had become the dominant religion in Poland.
Hungary
Image of the King Saint Stephen I of Hungary, from the medieval codex Chronicon Pictum from the 14th century.
In the Middle Ages, the Kingdom of Hungary
(which was larger than modern day Hungary) was Christianized initially
by Greek monks sent from Constantinople to convert the pagan Hungarians.
In 950, the tribal chief, Gyula II
of Transylvania, visited Constantinople and was baptized. Gyula also
had his officers and family baptized under the Orthodox confession. The conversion of the Hungarian people was not completed until the reign of Gyula's grandson, King Stephen I of Hungary. Stephen was the son of Grand Prince Géza of Hungary and Sarolt, the daughter of Gyula II. His authority as leader of the Hungarian tribal federation was recognized with a crown from Pope Sylvester II.
King Stephen converted the nomadic barbarian tribes of the Hungarians
and induced them to sedentary culture. The conversion of Hungary is said
to have been completed by the time of Stephen's death in 1038.
Soon the Hungarian Kingdom counted with two archbishops and 8
bishops, a defined state structure with province governors that answered
to the King. In the other hand, Saint Stephen opened the frontiers of
his Kingdom in 1016 to the pilgrims that traveled by land to the Holy
Land, and soon this route became extremely popular, being used later in
the Crusades. Saint Stephen was the first Hungarian monarch that was
elevated to the sanctity for his Christian characteristics and not
because he suffered a martyr death.
Between the 8th and the 13th century, the area of what now is Ukraine, Belarus and a part of European Russia was settled by the Kievan Rus'. An attempt to Christianize them had already been made in the 9th century, with the Christianization of the Rus' Khaganate. In the 10th century, around 980, the efforts were finally successful when Vladimir the Great was baptized at Chersonesos. To commemorate the event, Vladimir built the first stone church of Kievan Rus', called the Church of the Tithes,
where his body and the body of his new wife were to repose. Another
church was built on top of the hill where pagan statues stood before.
The Christianization of Scandinavia started in the 8th century with the arrival of missionaries in Denmark and it was at least nominally complete by the 12th century, although the Samis
remained unconverted until the 18th century. In fact, although the
Scandinavians became nominally Christian, it would take considerably
longer for actual Christian beliefs to establish themselves among the
people.
The old indigenous traditions that had provided security and structure
since time immemorial were challenged by ideas that were unfamiliar,
such as original sin, the Immaculate Conception, the Trinity and so forth. Archaeological excavations of burial sites on the island of Lovön near modern-day Stockholm have shown that the actual Christianization of the people was very slow and took at least 150–200 years, and this was a very central location in the Swedish kingdom. Thirteenth-century runic inscriptions from the bustling merchant town of Bergen in Norway show little Christian influence, and one of them appeals to a Valkyrie. At this time, enough knowledge of Norse mythology remained to be preserved in sources such as the Eddas in Iceland.
By the late 6th century, certainly during the reign of Reccared I,
Spain can be said to be a Christian country, although paganism
persisted among segments of the population for some decades afterwards.
Despite early Christian testimonies and institutional organization, Basque Christianization was slow. Muslim accounts from the period of the Umayyad conquest of Hispania and beginning of 9th century identify the Basques as magi or 'pagan wizards', they were not considered 'People of the Book' (Christians).
Colonies in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Pacific
The expansion of the Catholic Portuguese Empire and Spanish Empire
with a significant role played by Catholic missionaries led to the
Christianization of the indigenous populations of the Americas such as
the Aztecs and Incas. A large number of churches were built.
Later waves of colonial expansion such as the Scramble for Africa or the struggle for India,
by the Netherlands, Britain, France, Germany and Russia led to
Christianization of other native populations across the globe such as
the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Filipinos,
Indians and Africans led to the expansion of Christianity eclipsing
that of the Roman period and making it a truly global religion.
United States
The colonies which later became the United States were largely
colonized by England, and therefore their colonists were predominantly Protestant.
Even colonists with non-English backgrounds—Scots, Scotch Irish,
Germans, Dutch, French, and Swedes—were mostly from Protestant countries
in Northern Europe. Thus Protestantism as a religious force shaped the
mind of pre-independence colonial America.
By the 1790 Census,
the total immigration over the approximately 130-year span of colonial
existence of the U.S. colonies was summarized as: 3.9 million total,
comprising 2.56 million British, 0.76 million African, and 0.58 million
"other" who probably included a large proportion of people with poorly
recorded English ancestry.
It was not until the nineteenth century that Roman Catholics became a
numerically significant segment of American life, mainly due to
large-scale immigration from Ireland (driven by the Great Famine from 1845 onward) and countries in Southern Europe (partly due to farming improvements which created surplus labor), and absorption of territories originally colonized or influenced by Catholic countries such as Spain.
20th century
United States
In 1908 Pope Pius X
declared that the United States was no longer a missionary territory
for Roman Catholicism. By this time the Roman Catholic church was well
established enough to stake a place for itself in the U.S. religious
landscape. It was about 15 million strong by 1901. Thus, the church
adopted a mission to Christianize other cultures. On November 16, 1908,
a missionary conference was held in Chicago to mark the transition from
becoming a church that received missionary help to a church that sends it. Attendees included Boston's Archbishop William H. O'Connell and Chicago's Archbishop James Edward Quigley, who called attention to the "new era" into which the church in the U.S. now entered.
Sacred sites
Physical Christianization: the choir of San Salvatore, Spoleto, occupies the cella of a Roman temple.
Many Christian churches were built upon sites already consecrated as pagan temples or mithraea, the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva (literally Saint Mary above Minerva)
in Rome being simply the most obvious example, though a period of about
350 years of abandonment intervened between temple and church in this
case. Sulpicius Severus, in his Vita of Martin of Tours, a dedicated destroyer of temples and sacred trees, remarks "wherever he destroyed heathen temples, there he used immediately to build either churches or monasteries", and when Benedict took possession of the site at Monte Cassino, he began by smashing the sculpture of Apollo and the altar that crowned the height.
The British Isles and other areas of northern Europe that were formerly druidic are still densely punctuated by holy wells and holy springs that are now attributed to some saint,
often a highly local saint unknown elsewhere; in earlier times many of
these were seen as guarded by supernatural forces such as the melusina,
and many such pre-Christian holy wells appear to survive as
baptistries. Not all pre-Christian holy places were respected enough for
them to survive, however, as most ancient European sacred groves, such as the pillar Irminsul, were destroyed by Christianizing forces.
During the Reconquista and the Crusades, the cross served the symbolic function of possession that a flag would occupy today. At the siege of Lisbon
in 1147, when a mixed group of Christians took the city, "What great
joy and what a great abundance there was of pious tears when, to the
praise and honor of God and of the most Holy Virgin Mary the saving
cross was placed atop the highest tower to be seen by all as a symbol of
the city's subjection."
Myths and imagery
Ivory diptych of a priestess of Ceres, defaced and damaged by Christians
The historicity
of several saints has often been treated sceptically by most academics,
either because there is a paucity of historical evidence for them, or
due to striking resemblances that they have to pre-Christian deities. In
1969 the Roman Catholic Church removed some Christian Saints from its
universal calendar and pronounced the historicity of others to be
dubious.
Though highly popular in the Middle Ages, many of these saints have
since been largely forgotten, and their names may now seem quite
unfamiliar. The most prominent amongst these is Saint Eustace, who was extremely popular in earlier times, but whom Laura Hibberd sees as a chimera
composed from details of several other Saints. Many of these figures of
dubious historicity appear to be based on figures from pre-Christian
myth and legend, Saint Sarah, for example, also known as Sarah-la-Kali, is thought by Ronald Lee to be a Christianization of Kali, a Hindu deity.
The cross
is currently the most common symbol of Christianity, and has been for
many centuries, coming to prominence during the 4th century (301 to 400
AD).
The predecessor of the cross as the main Christian symbol was the labarum, a symbol formed by overlaying the first two letters of the Greek word for Christ in the Greek alphabet. Constantine I is widely considered to have introduced the symbol into Christianity, but the symbol itself predates this.
Although Christian tradition argues that Constantine chose the labarum because he had a vision that led him to convert to Christianity, Constantine's conversion is disputed by some historians, who see Constantine's motive for choosing the labarum
as political, with him deliberately making his banner one which could
be interpreted as supporting either of the two major religions of the
Roman Empire at the time.
Prior to the labarum, the main Christian symbol, and the earliest, was a fish-like symbol now known as Ichthys (the Greek word for fish); the Greek word ιχθυς is an acronym
for the phrase transliterated as "Iesou Christos Theou Yios Sotiras",
that is, "Jesus Christ, God's Son, the Savior". There are several other
connections with Christian tradition relating to this choice of symbol:
that it was a reference to the feeding of the multitude; that it referred to some of the apostles having previously been fishermen; or that the word Christ was pronounced by Jews in a similar way to the Hebrew word for fish (though Nuna is the normal Aramaic word for fish, making this seem unlikely).
Funerary stele of Licinia Amias on marble, in the National Roman Museum. One of the earliest Christian inscriptions found, it comes from the early 3rd century Vaticannecropolis area in Rome. It contains the text ΙΧΘΥϹ ΖΩΝΤΩΝ ("fish of the living"), a predecessor of the Ichthys symbol.
Christianity originated with the ministry of Jesus, a Jewish teacher and healer who proclaimed the imminent kingdom of God and was crucified c. AD 30–33 in Jerusalem in the Roman province of Judea. His followers believe that, according to the Gospels, he was the Son of God and that he died for the forgiveness of sins and was raised from the dead and exalted by God, and will return soon at the inception of God's kingdom.
The earliest followers of Jesus were apocalypticJewish Christians. The inclusion of gentiles in the developing early Christian Church caused a schism between Judaism and Jewish Christianity during the first two centuries of the Christian Era. In 313, Emperor Constantine I issued the Edict of Milan legalizing Christian worship. In 380, with the Edict of Thessalonica put forth under Theodosius I, the Roman Empire officially adopted Trinitarian Christianity as its state religion, and Christianity established itself as a predominantly Roman religion in the state church of the Roman Empire.
Christological debates about the human and divine nature of Jesus
consumed the Christian Church for two centuries, and seven ecumenical
councils were called to resolve these debates. Arianism was condemned at the First Council of Nicea (325), which supported the Trinitarian doctrine as expounded in the Nicene Creed.
In the early Middle Ages, missionary activities spread Christianity towards the west among German peoples. During the High Middle Ages, eastern and western Christianity grew apart, leading to the East–West Schism of 1054. Growing criticism of the Roman Catholicecclesiological structure and its behaviour led to the Protestant movement of the 16th century and the split of western Christianity. Since the Renaissance era, with colonialism inspired by the Church, Christianity has expanded throughout the world. Today there are more than two billion Christians worldwide, and Christianity has become the world's largest religion. Within the last century, as the influence of Christianity has waned in the West, it has rapidly grown in the East and the Global South; in China, South Korea and much of sub-Saharan Africa.
Origins
Jewish-Hellenistic background
The religious climate of 1st century Palestine was diverse, with numerous Judaic sects. The ancient historian Josephus describes four prominent sects: Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and an unnamed one. The 1st century BC and 1st century AD had numerous charismatic religious leaders, contributing to what would become the Mishnah of rabbinic Judaism, including Yohanan ben Zakkai and Hanina ben Dosa. Jewish messianism, and the Jewish messiah concept, has its roots in the apocalyptic literature of the 2nd century BC to 1st century BC, promising a future "anointed" leader (messiah or king) from the Davidic line to resurrect the Israelite Kingdom of God, in place of the foreign rulers of the time.
Ministry of Jesus
The main sources of information regarding Jesus' life and teachings are the four canonical gospels, and to a lesser extent the Acts of the Apostles and the Pauline epistles.
According to the Gospels, Jesus was a Jewish teacher and healer who was
crucified c.30–33 AD. His followers believed that he was raised from
the dead and exalted by God, heralding the coming Kingdom of God.
Early Christianity (c. 31/33–324)
Early Christianity is generally reckoned by church historians to begin with the ministry of Jesus (c. 27–30) and end with the First Council of Nicaea (325). It is typically divided into two periods: the Apostolic Age (c. 30–100, when the first apostles were still alive) and the Ante-Nicene Period (c. 100–325).
Apostolic Age
The eastern Mediterranean region in the time of Paul the Apostle
The Apostolic Age is named after the Apostles
and their missionary activities. It holds special significance in
Christian tradition as the age of the direct apostles of Jesus. A primary source for the Apostolic Age is the Acts of the Apostles, but its historical accuracy is questionable and its coverage is partial, focusing especially from Acts 15 onwards on the ministry of Paul, and ending around 62 AD with Paul preaching in Rome under house arrest.
The earliest followers of Jesus were a sect of apocalypticJewish Christians within the realm of Second Temple Judaism. The early Christian groups were strictly Jewish, such as the Ebionites, and the early Christian community in Jerusalem, led by James the Just, brother of Jesus. According to Acts 9, they described themselves as "disciples of the Lord" and [followers] "of the Way", and according to Acts 11, a settled community of disciples at Antioch were the first to be called "Christians". Some of the early Christian communities attracted God-fearers,
i.e. Greco-Roman sympathizers which made an allegiance to Judaism but
refused to convert and therefore retained their Gentile (non-Jewish)
status, who already visited Jewish synagogues. The inclusion of gentiles posed a problem, as they could not fully observe the Halakha. Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle, persecuted the early Jewish Christians, then converted and started his mission among the gentiles. The main concern of Paul's letters is the inclusion of gentiles into God's New Covenant,
sending the message that faith in Christ is sufficient for salvation.
Because of this inclusion of gentiles, early Christianity changed its
character and gradually grew apart
from Judaism and Jewish Christianity during the first two centuries of
the Christian Era. The fourth-century church fathers Eusebius and
Epiphanius of Salamis cite a tradition that before the destruction of
Jerusalem in AD 70 the Jerusalem Christians had been miraculously warned
to flee to Pella in the region of the Decapolis across the Jordan River.
Christ Jesus, the Good Shepherd, 3rd century
The Gospels and New Testamentepistles contain early creeds and hymns, as well as accounts of the Passion, the empty tomb, and Resurrection appearances. Early Christianity slowly spread to pockets of believers among Aramaic-speaking peoples along the Mediterranean coast and also to the inland parts of the Roman Empire and beyond, into the Parthian Empire and the later Sasanian Empire, including Mesopotamia, which was dominated at different times and to varying extent by these empires.
The ante-Nicene period (literally meaning "before Nicaea") was the
period following the Apostolic Age down to the First Council of Nicaea
in 325. By the beginning of the Nicene period, the Christian faith had
spread throughout Western Europe and the Mediterranean Basin, and to North Africa
and the East. A more formal Church structure grew out of the early
communities, and variant Christian doctrines developed. Christianity
grew apart from Judaism, creating its own identity by an increasingly
harsh rejection of Judaism and of Jewish practices.
Developing church structure
The number of Christians grew by approximately 40% per decade during the first and second centuries.
In the post-Apostolic church a hierarchy of clergy gradually emerged as
overseers of urban Christian populations took on the form of episkopoi (overseers, the origin of the terms bishop and episcopal) and presbyters (elders; the origin of the term priest) and then deacons (servants). But this emerged slowly and at different times in different locations. Clement, a 1st-century bishop of Rome, refers to the leaders of the Corinthian church in his epistle to Corinthians
as bishops and presbyters interchangeably. The New Testament writers
also use the terms overseer and elders interchangeably and as synonyms.
Variant Christianities
The Ante-Nicene period saw the rise of a great number of Christian sects, cults and movements with strong unifying characteristics lacking in the apostolic period. They had different interpretations of Scripture, particularly the divinity of Jesus and the nature of the Trinity.
Many variations in this time defy neat categorizations, as various
forms of Christianity interacted in a complex fashion to form the
dynamic character of Christianity in this era. The Post-Apostolic period
was diverse both in terms of beliefs and practices. In addition to the
broad spectrum of general branches of Christianity, there was constant
change and diversity that variably resulted in both internecine
conflicts and syncretic adoption.
Development of the biblical canon
A folio from Papyrus 46, an early-3rd-century collection of Pauline epistles
The Pauline epistles were circulating in collected form by the end of the 1st century.
By the early 3rd century, there existed a set of Christian writings
similar to the current New Testament, though there were still disputes
over the canonicity of Hebrews, James, I Peter, I and II John, and
Revelation. By the 4th century, there existed unanimity in the West concerning the New Testament canon,
and by the 5th century the East, with a few exceptions, had come to
accept the Book of Revelation and thus had come into harmony on the
matter of the canon.
Early orthodox writings
As Christianity spread, it acquired certain members from
well-educated circles of the Hellenistic world; they sometimes became
bishops. They produced two sorts of works, theological and apologetic,
the latter being works aimed at defending the faith by using reason to
refute arguments against the veracity of Christianity. These authors are
known as the Church Fathers, and study of them is called patristics. Notable early fathers include Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen.
Early art
Virgin and Child. Wall painting from the early Roman catacombs, 4th century.
Christian art emerged relatively late and the first known Christian images emerge from about 200 AD, although there is some literary evidence that small domestic images were used earlier. The oldest known Christian paintings are from the Roman catacombs, dated to about 200, and the oldest Christian sculptures are from sarcophagi, dating to the beginning of the 3rd century.
Although many Hellenistic Jews seem to have had images of religious figures, as at the Dura-Europos synagogue, the traditional Mosaic prohibition of "graven images" no doubt retained some effect, although never proclaimed by theologians.[citation needed]
This early rejection of images, and the necessity to hide Christian
practice from persecution, leaves few archaeological records regarding
early Christianity and its evolution.
Persecutions and legalisation
There was no empire-wide persecution of Christians until the reign of Decius in the third century. The last and most severe persecution organised by the imperial authorities was the Diocletianic Persecution, 303–311. The Edict of Serdica was issued in 311 by the Roman Emperor Galerius, officially ending the persecution in the East. With the passage in 313 AD of the Edict of Milan, in which the Roman Emperors Constantine the Great and Licinius legalised the Christian religion, persecution of Christians by the Roman state ceased.
Armenia became the first country to establish Christianity as its
state religion when, in an event traditionally dated to 301 AD, St.
Gregory the Illuminator convinced Tiridates III, the king of Armenia, to
convert to Christianity.
Late antiquity (313–476)
Spread of Christianity to AD 325
Spread of Christianity to AD 600
Influence of Constantine
Icon
depicting Emperor Constantine (centre) and the bishops of the First
Council of Nicaea holding the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381
How much Christianity Constantine adopted at this point is difficult to discern, but his accession was a turning point for the Christian Church. He supported the Church financially, built various basilicas,
granted privileges (e.g., exemption from certain taxes) to clergy,
promoted Christians to some high offices, and returned confiscated
property.
Constantine played an active role in the leadership of the Church. In
316, he acted as a judge in a North African dispute concerning the Donatist controversy. More significantly, in 325 he summoned the Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical council. He thus established a precedent for the emperor as responsible to God for the spiritual health of his subjects, and thus with a duty to maintain orthodoxy. He was to enforce doctrine, root out heresy, and uphold ecclesiastical unity.
Constantine's son's successor, his nephew Julian, under the influence of his adviser Mardonius, renounced Christianity and embraced a Neo-platonic and mystical form of paganism, shocking the Christian establishment.
He began reopening pagan temples, modifying them to resemble Christian
traditions such as the episcopal structure and public charity
(previously unknown in Roman paganism). Julian's short reign ended when
he died in battle with the Persians.
Arianism and the first ecumenical councils
Spread of Arianism in Western Europe
A popular doctrine in the 4th century was Arianism, which taught that Christ is distinct from and subordinate to God the Father. Although this doctrine was condemned as heresy and eventually eliminated by the Roman Church, it remained popular underground for some time. In the late 4th century, Ulfilas, a Roman bishop and an Arian, was appointed as the first bishop to the Goths,
the Germanic peoples in much of Europe at the borders of and within the
Empire. Ulfilas spread Arian Christianity among the Goths, firmly
establishing the faith among many of the Germanic tribes, thus helping
to keep them culturally distinct.
During this age, the first ecumenical councils were convened. They were mostly concerned with Christological disputes. The First Council of Nicaea (325) and the First Council of Constantinople (381) resulted in condemnation of Arian teachings as heresy and produced the Nicene Creed.
On 27 February 380, with the Edict of Thessalonica put forth under Theodosius I, Gratian, and Valentinian II, the Roman Empire officially adopted Trinitarian Christianity as its state religion. Prior to this date, Constantius II and Valens had personally favoured Arian or Semi-Arian forms of Christianity, but Valens' successor Theodosius I supported the Trinitarian doctrine as expounded in the Nicene Creed.
After its establishment, the Church adopted the same organisational boundaries as the Empire: geographical provinces, called dioceses,
corresponding to imperial government territorial divisions. The
bishops, who were located in major urban centres as in pre-legalisation
tradition, thus oversaw each diocese. The bishop's location was his
"seat", or "see". Among the sees, five came to hold special eminence: Rome, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria.
The prestige of most of these sees depended in part on their apostolic
founders, from whom the bishops were therefore the spiritual successors.
Though the bishop of Rome was still held to be the First among equals, Constantinople was second in precedence as the new capital of the empire.
Theodosius I decreed that others not believing in the preserved
"faithful tradition", such as the Trinity, were to be considered to be
practitioners of illegal heresy, and in 385, this resulted in the first case of the state, not Church, infliction of capital punishment on a heretic, namely Priscillian.
During the early 5th century, the School of Edessa
had taught a Christological perspective stating that Christ's divine
and human nature were distinct persons. A particular consequence of this
perspective was that Mary
could not be properly called the mother of God but could only be
considered the mother of Christ. The most widely known proponent of this
viewpoint was the Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius. Since referring to Mary as the mother of God had become popular in many parts of the Church this became a divisive issue.
The Roman Emperor Theodosius II called for the Council of Ephesus
(431), with the intention of settling the issue. The council ultimately
rejected Nestorius' view. Many churches who followed the Nestorian
viewpoint broke away from the Roman Church, causing a major schism. The
Nestorian churches were persecuted, and many followers fled to the Sasanian Empire where they were accepted. The Sasanian (Persian) Empire had many Christian converts early in its history tied closely to the Syriac branch of Christianity. The Empire was officially Zoroastrian
and maintained a strict adherence to this faith in part to distinguish
itself from the religion of the Roman Empire (originally the pagan Roman
religion and then Christianity). Christianity became tolerated in the
Sasanian Empire, and as the Roman Empire increasingly exiled heretics
during the 4th and 6th centuries, the Sasanian Christian community grew
rapidly.
By the end of the 5th century, the Persian Church was firmly
established and had become independent of the Roman Church. This church
evolved into what is today known as the Church of the East.
In 451, the Council of Chalcedon
was held to further clarify the Christological issues surrounding
Nestorianism. The council ultimately stated that Christ's divine and
human nature were separate but both part of a single entity, a viewpoint
rejected by many churches who called themselves miaphysites. The resulting schism created a communion of churches, including the Armenian, Syrian, and Egyptian churches.
Though efforts were made at reconciliation in the next few centuries,
the schism remained permanent, resulting in what is today known as Oriental Orthodoxy.
Monasticism
Monasticism is a form of asceticism whereby one renounces worldly pursuits and goes off alone as a hermit
or joins a tightly organized community. It began early in the Church as
a family of similar traditions, modelled upon Scriptural examples and
ideals, and with roots in certain strands of Judaism. John the Baptist is seen as an archetypical monk, and monasticism was inspired by the organisation of the Apostolic community as recorded in Acts 2:42–47.
Eremetic monks, or hermits, live in solitude, whereas cenobitics live in communities, generally in a monastery, under a rule (or code of practice) and are governed by an abbot. Originally, all Christian monks were hermits, following the example of Anthony the Great. However, the need for some form of organised spiritual guidance lead Pachomius
in 318 to organise his many followers in what was to become the first
monastery. Soon, similar institutions were established throughout the
Egyptian desert as well as the rest of the eastern half of the Roman
Empire. Women were especially attracted to the movement. Central figures in the development of monasticism were Basil the Great in the East and, in the West, Benedict, who created the famous Rule of Saint Benedict, which would become the most common rule throughout the Middle Ages and the starting point for other monastic rules.
The transition into the Middle Ages was a gradual and localised
process. Rural areas rose as power centres whilst urban areas declined.
Although a greater number of Christians remained in the East (Greek areas), important developments were underway in the West (Latin areas) and each took on distinctive shapes. The bishops of Rome,
the popes, were forced to adapt to drastically changing circumstances.
Maintaining only nominal allegiance to the emperor, they were forced to
negotiate balances with the "barbarian rulers" of the former Roman
provinces. In the East, the Church maintained its structure and
character and evolved more slowly.
Western missionary expansion
The stepwise loss of Western Roman Empire dominance, replaced with foederati and Germanic kingdoms, coincided with early missionary efforts into areas not controlled by the collapsing empire. As early as in the 5th century, missionary activities from Roman Britain into the Celtic areas (Scotland, Ireland and Wales) produced competing early traditions of Celtic Christianity, that was later reintegrated under the Church in Rome. Prominent missionaries were Saints Patrick, Columba and Columbanus. The Anglo-Saxon
tribes that invaded southern Britain some time after the Roman
abandonment were initially pagan but were converted to Christianity by Augustine of Canterbury on the mission of Pope Gregory the Great. Soon becoming a missionary centre, missionaries such as Wilfrid, Willibrord, Lullus and Boniface converted their Saxon relatives in Germania.
The largely Christian Gallo-Roman inhabitants of Gaul (modern France) were overrun by the Franks in the early 5th century. The native inhabitants were persecuted until the Frankish King Clovis I converted from paganism to Roman Catholicism
in 496. Clovis insisted that his fellow nobles follow suit,
strengthening his newly established kingdom by uniting the faith of the
rulers with that of the ruled. After the rise of the Frankish Kingdom and the stabilizing political conditions, the Western part of the Church increased the missionary activities, supported by the Merovingian kingdom as a means to pacify troublesome neighbour peoples. After the foundation of a church in Utrecht by Willibrord, backlashes occurred when the pagan Frisian King Radbod destroyed many Christian centres between 716 and 719. In 717, the English missionary Boniface was sent to aid Willibrord, re-establishing churches in Frisia and continuing missions in Germany. During the late 8th century, Charlemagne used mass killings to subjugate the pagan Saxons and compel them to accept Christianity
Following a series of heavy military reverses against the Muslims, Iconoclasm emerged in the early 8th century. In the 720s, the Byzantine Emperor Leo III the Isaurian banned the pictorial representation of Christ, saints, and biblical scenes. In the West, Pope Gregory III held two synods at Rome and condemned Leo's actions. The Byzantine Iconoclast Council, held at Hieria in 754, ruled that holy portraits were heretical.
The movement destroyed much of the Christian church's early artistic
history. The iconoclastic movement was later defined as heretical in 787
under the Second Council of Nicaea (the seventh ecumenical council) but had a brief resurgence between 815 and 842.
High Middle Ages (800–1299)
Carolingian Renaissance
The Carolingian Renaissance
was a period of intellectual and cultural revival of literature, arts,
and scriptural studies during the late 8th and 9th centuries, mostly
during the reigns of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, Frankish
rulers. To address the problems of illiteracy among clergy and court
scribes, Charlemagne founded schools and attracted the most learned men
from all of Europe to his court.
Growing tensions between East and West
Tensions in Christian unity started to become evident in the 4th century. Two basic problems were involved: the nature of the primacy of the bishop of Rome and the theological implications of adding a clause to the Nicene Creed, known as the filioque
clause. These doctrinal issues were first openly discussed in Photius's
patriarchate. The Eastern churches viewed Rome's understanding of the
nature of episcopal power as being in direct opposition to the Church's
essentially conciliar structure and thus saw the two ecclesiologies as
mutually antithetical.
Another issue developed into a major irritant to Eastern Christendom, the gradual introduction into the Nicene Creed in the West of the Filioque clause – meaning "and the Son" – as in "the Holy Spirit ... proceeds from the Father and the Son",
where the original Creed, sanctioned by the councils and still used
today by the Eastern Orthodox, simply states "the Holy Spirit, ...
proceeds from the Father." The Eastern Church argued that the phrase had
been added unilaterally and therefore illegitimately, since the East
had never been consulted. In addition to this ecclesiological issue, the Eastern Church also considered the Filioque clause unacceptable on dogmatic grounds.
Photian schism
In the 9th century, a controversy arose between Eastern (Byzantine,
Greek Orthodox) and Western (Latin, Roman Catholic) Christianity that
was precipitated by the opposition of the Roman Pope John VII to the appointment by the Byzantine Emperor Michael III of Photios I
to the position of patriarch of Constantinople. Photios was refused an
apology by the pope for previous points of dispute between the East and
West. Photios refused to accept the supremacy of the pope in Eastern
matters or accept the Filioque clause. The Latin delegation at
the council of his consecration pressed him to accept the clause in
order to secure their support. The controversy also involved Eastern and
Western ecclesiastical jurisdictional rights in the Bulgarian church.
Photios did provide concession on the issue of jurisdictional rights
concerning Bulgaria, and the papal legates made do with his return of
Bulgaria to Rome. This concession, however, was purely nominal, as
Bulgaria's return to the Byzantine rite in 870 had already secured for
it an autocephalous church. Without the consent of Boris I of Bulgaria, the papacy was unable to enforce any of its claims.
East–West Schism (1054)
The East–West Schism
The East–West Schism,
or Great Schism, separated the Church into Western (Latin) and Eastern
(Greek) branches, i.e., Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. It
was the first major division since certain groups in the East rejected
the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon (see Oriental Orthodoxy)
and was far more significant. Though normally dated to 1054, the
East–West Schism was actually the result of an extended period of
estrangement between Latin and Greek Christendom over the nature of papal primacy and certain doctrinal matters like the Filioque, but intensified from cultural and linguistic differences.
Monastic reform
From the 6th century onward, most of the monasteries in the West were of the Benedictine Order. Owing to the stricter adherence to a reformed Benedictine rule, the abbey of Cluny
became the acknowledged leader of western monasticism from the later
10th century. Cluny created a large, federated order in which the
administrators of subsidiary houses served as deputies of the abbot of
Cluny and answered to him. The Cluniac spirit was a revitalising
influence on the Norman church, at its height from the second half of
the 10th century through the early 12th century.
The spread of the Cistercians from their original sites during the Middle Ages
The next wave of monastic reform came with the Cistercian Movement. The first Cistercian abbey was founded in 1098, at Cîteaux Abbey.
The keynote of Cistercian life was a return to a literal observance of
the Benedictine rule, rejecting the developments of the Benedictines.
The most striking feature in the reform was the return to manual labour,
and especially to field-work. Inspired by Bernard of Clairvaux,
the primary builder of the Cistercians, they became the main force of
technological diffusion in medieval Europe. By the end of the 12th
century, the Cistercian houses numbered 500, and at its height in the
15th century the order claimed to have close to 750 houses. Most of
these were built in wilderness areas, and played a major part in
bringing such isolated parts of Europe into economic cultivation.
A third level of monastic reform was provided by the establishment of the Mendicant orders. Commonly known as friars, mendicants live under a monastic rule with traditional vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience but they emphasise preaching, missionary activity, and education, in a secluded monastery. Beginning in the 12th century, the Franciscan order was instituted by the followers of Francis of Assisi, and thereafter the Dominican order was begun by St. Dominic.
Investiture Controversy
Henry IV at the gate of Canossa, by August von Heyden
The Investiture Controversy, or Lay Investiture Controversy, was the most significant conflict between secular and religious powers in medieval Europe. It began as a dispute in the 11th century between the Holy Roman EmperorHenry IV and Pope Gregory VII concerning who would appoint bishops (investiture).
The end of lay investiture threatened to undercut the power of the
Empire and the ambitions of noblemen. Bishoprics being merely lifetime
appointments, a king could better control their powers and revenues than
those of hereditary noblemen. Even better, he could leave the post
vacant and collect the revenues, theoretically in trust for the new
bishop, or give a bishopric to pay a helpful noble. The Church wanted to
end lay investiture to end this and other abuses, to reform the
episcopate and provide better pastoral care. Pope Gregory VII issued the Dictatus Papae,
which declared that the pope alone could appoint bishops. Henry IV's
rejection of the decree led to his excommunication and a ducal revolt.
Eventually Henry received absolution after dramatic public penance, though the Great Saxon Revolt and conflict of investiture continued.
A similar controversy occurred in England between King Henry I and St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury,
over investiture and episcopal vacancy. The English dispute was
resolved by the Concordat of London, 1107, where the king renounced his
claim to invest bishops but continued to require an oath of fealty. This
was a partial model for the Concordat of Worms (Pactum Calixtinum),
which resolved the Imperial investiture controversy with a compromise
that allowed secular authorities some measure of control but granted the
selection of bishops to their cathedral canons. As a symbol of the compromise, both ecclesiastical and lay authorities invested bishops with respectively, the staff and the ring.
Crusades
The Crusader states of Jerusalem
Generally, the Crusades refer to the campaigns in the Holy Land
sponsored by the papacy against Muslim forces. There were other crusades
against Islamic forces in southern Spain, southern Italy, and Sicily.
The Papacy also sponsored numerous Crusades to subjugate and convert the
pagan peoples of north-eastern Europe, against its political enemies in
Western Europe, and against heretical or schismatic religious
minorities within Christendom.
The Holy Land had been part of the Roman Empire, and thus
Byzantine Empire, until the Islamic conquests of the 7th and 8th
centuries. Thereafter, Christians had generally been permitted to visit
the sacred places in the Holy Land until 1071, when the Seljuk Turks closed Christian pilgrimages and assailed the Byzantines, defeating them at the Battle of Manzikert. Emperor Alexius I asked for aid from Pope Urban II
against Islamic aggression. He probably expected money from the pope
for the hiring of mercenaries. Instead, Urban II called upon the knights
of Christendom in a speech made at the Council of Clermont on 27 November 1095, combining the idea of pilgrimage to the Holy Land with that of waging a holy war against infidels.
The First Crusade captured Antioch in 1099 and then Jerusalem. The Second Crusade occurred in 1145 when Edessa was retaken by Islamic forces. Jerusalem was held until 1187 and the Third Crusade, famous for the battles between Richard the Lionheart and Saladin. The Fourth Crusade, begun by Innocent III
in 1202, intended to retake the Holy Land but was soon subverted by
Venetians who used the forces to sack the Christian city of Zara. When the crusaders arrived in Constantinople, they sacked the city and other parts of Asia Minor and established the Latin Empire
of Constantinople in Greece and Asia Minor. This was effectively the
last crusade sponsored by the papacy, with later crusades being
sponsored by individuals.
Jerusalem was held by the crusaders for nearly a century, while
other strongholds in the Near East remained in Christian possession much
longer. The crusades in the Holy Land ultimately failed to establish
permanent Christian kingdoms. Islamic expansion into Europe remained a
threat for centuries, culminating in the campaigns of Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th century. Crusades in southern Spain, southern Italy, and Sicily eventually lead to the demise of Islamic power in Europe. The Albigensian Crusade targeted the heretical Cathars of southern France; in combination with the Inquisition set up in its aftermath, it succeeded in exterminating them (Jonathan Sumption, The Albigensian Crusade (London: Bloomsbury, 2010), 320 - 360). The Wendish Crusade succeeded in subjugating and forcibly converting the pagan Slavs of modern eastern Germany. The Livonian Crusade, carried out by the Teutonic Knights and other orders of warrior-monks, similarly conquered and forcibly converted the pagan Balts of Livonia and Old Prussia. However, the pagan Grand Duchy of Lithuania successfully resisted the Knights and converted only voluntarily in the 14th century (Norman Davies, God's Playground: A History of Poland, vol. 1, The Origins to 1795 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 74, 93 - 95).
Medieval Inquisition
The Medieval Inquisition was a series of inquisitions (Roman Catholic
Church bodies charged with suppressing heresy) from around 1184,
including the Episcopal Inquisition (1184–1230s) and later the Papal
Inquisition (1230s). It was in response to movements within Europe
considered apostate or heretical to Western Catholicism, in particular the Cathars and the Waldensians
in southern France and northern Italy. These were the first inquisition
movements of many that would follow. The inquisitions in combination
with the Albigensian Crusade were fairly successful in ending heresy.
Spread of Christianity
Early evangelisation in Scandinavia was begun by Ansgar, Archbishop of Bremen, "Apostle of the North". Ansgar, a native of Amiens, was sent with a group of monks to Jutland
in around 820 at the time of the pro-Christian King Harald Klak. The
mission was only partially successful, and Ansgar returned two years
later to Germany, after Harald had been driven out of his kingdom. In
829, Ansgar went to Birka on Lake Mälaren,
Sweden, with his aide friar Witmar, and a small congregation was formed
in 831 which included the king's steward Hergeir. Conversion was slow,
however, and most Scandinavian lands were only completely Christianised
at the time of rulers such as Saint Canute IV of Denmark and Olaf I of Norway in the years following AD 1000.
Conversion of the Kievan Rus', the unified Rus' empire
The Christianisation of the Slavs was initiated by one of Byzantium's most learned churchmen – the patriarch Photios I of Constantinople. The Byzantine Emperor Michael III chose Cyril and Methodius in response to a request from King Rastislav of Moravia, who wanted missionaries that could minister to the Moravians in their own language. The two brothers spoke the local Slavonic vernacular and translated the Bible and many of the prayer books. As the translations prepared by them were copied by speakers of other dialects, the hybrid literary language Old Church Slavonic was created, which later evolved into Church Slavonic
and is the common liturgical language still used by the Russian
Orthodox Church and other Slavic Orthodox Christians. Methodius went on
to convert the Serbs.
Conversion of Moravia under Ratislav
Bulgaria was a pagan country since its establishment in 681 until 864 when Boris I
converted to Christianity. The reasons for that decision were complex;
the most important factors were that Bulgaria was situated between two
powerful Christian empires, Byzantium and East Francia;
Christian doctrine particularly favoured the position of the monarch as
God's representative on Earth, while Boris also saw it as a way to
overcome the differences between Bulgars and Slavs. Bulgaria was officially recognised
as a patriarchate by Constantinople in 927, Serbia in 1346, and Russia
in 1589. All of these nations had been converted long before these
dates.
Late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance (1300–1520)
Avignon Papacy and Western Schism
The Avignon Papacy, sometimes referred to as the Babylonian Captivity, was a period from 1309 to 1378 during which seven popes resided in Avignon, in modern-day France. In 1309, Pope Clement V
moved to Avignon in southern France. Confusion and political animosity
waxed, as the prestige and influence of Rome waned without a resident
pontiff. Troubles reached their peak in 1378 when Gregory XI died while visiting Rome. A papal conclave met in Rome and elected Urban VI, an Italian. Urban soon alienated the French cardinals, and they held a second conclave electing Robert of Geneva to succeed Gregory XI, beginning the Western Schism.
John Wycliffe,
an English scholar and alleged heretic best known for denouncing the
corruptions of the Church, was a precursor of the Protestant
Reformation. He emphasized the supremacy of the Bible and called for a
direct relationship between God and the human person, without
interference by priests and bishops. His followers played a role in the
English Reformation. Jan Hus,
a Czech theologian in Prague, was influenced by Wycliffe and spoke out
against the corruptions he saw in the Church. He was a forerunner of the
Protestant Reformation, and his legacy has become a powerful symbol of
Czech culture in Bohemia.
The Renaissance
was a period of great cultural change and achievement, marked in Italy
by a classical orientation and an increase of wealth through mercantile
trade. The city of Rome, the papacy, and the papal states were all
affected by the Renaissance. On the one hand, it was a time of great
artistic patronage and architectural magnificence, where the Church
commissioned such artists as Michelangelo, Brunelleschi, Bramante, Raphael, Fra Angelico, Donatello, and da Vinci.
On the other hand, wealthy Italian families often secured episcopal
offices, including the papacy, for their own members, some of whom were
known for immorality, such as Alexander VI and Sixtus IV.
In addition to being the head of the Church, the pope became one of Italy's most important secular rulers, and pontiffs such as Julius II
often waged campaigns to protect and expand their temporal domains.
Furthermore, the popes, in a spirit of refined competition with other
Italian lords, spent lavishly both on private luxuries but also on
public works, repairing or building churches, bridges, and a magnificent
system of aqueducts in Rome that still function today.
Fall of Constantinople
In 1453, Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire.
Eastern Christians fleeing Constantinople, and the Greek manuscripts
they carried with them, is one of the factors that prompted the literary
renaissance in the West at about this time. The Ottoman government
followed Islamic law when dealing with the conquered Christian
population. Christians were officially tolerated as people of the Book.
As such, the Church's canonical and hierarchical organisation were not
significantly disrupted, and its administration continued to function.
One of the first things that Mehmet the Conqueror did was to allow the Church to elect a new patriarch, Gennadius Scholarius.
However, these rights and privileges, including freedom of worship and
religious organisation, were often established in principle but seldom
corresponded to reality. Christians were viewed as second-class citizens, and the legal protections they depended upon were subject to the whims of the sultan and the sublime porte. The Hagia Sophia and the Parthenon,
which had been Christian churches for nearly a millennium, were
converted into mosques. Violent persecutions of Christians were common
and reached their climax in the Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek genocides.
In the early 16th century, attempts were made by the theologians Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli, along with many others,
to reform the Church. They considered the root of corruptions to be
doctrinal, rather than simply a matter of moral weakness or lack of
ecclesiastical discipline, and thus advocated for God's autonomy in redemption, and against voluntaristic
notions that salvation could be earned by people. The Reformation is
usually considered to have started with the publication of the Ninety-five Theses by Luther in 1517, although there was no schism until the 1521 Diet of Worms. The edicts of the Diet condemned Luther and officially banned citizens of the Holy Roman Empire from defending or propagating his ideas.
The word Protestant is derived from the Latin protestatio, meaning declaration, which refers to the letter of protestation by Lutheran princes against the decision of the Diet of Speyer
in 1529, which reaffirmed the edict of the Diet of Worms ordering the
seizure of all property owned by persons guilty of advocating
Lutheranism.
The term "Protestant" was not originally used by Reformation era
leaders; instead, they called themselves "evangelical", emphasising the
"return to the true gospel (Greek: euangelion)."
Early protest was against corruptions such as simony, the holding of multiple church offices by one person at the same time, episcopal vacancies, and the sale of indulgences. The Protestant position also included sola scriptura, sola fide, the priesthood of all believers, Law and Gospel, and the two kingdoms doctrine. The three most important traditions to emerge directly from the Reformation were the Lutheran, Reformed, and Anglican
traditions, though the latter group identifies as both "Reformed" and
"Catholic", and some subgroups reject the classification as
"Protestant".
Unlike other reform movements, the English Reformation began by royal influence. Henry VIII
considered himself a thoroughly Catholic king, and in 1521 he defended
the papacy against Luther in a book he commissioned entitled, The Defence of the Seven Sacraments, for which Pope Leo X awarded him the title Fidei Defensor (Defender of the Faith). However, the king came into conflict with the papacy when he wished to annul his marriage with Catherine of Aragon, for which he needed papal sanction. Catherine, among many other noble relations, was the aunt of Emperor Charles V,
the papacy's most significant secular supporter. The ensuing dispute
eventually lead to a break from Rome and the declaration of the King of
England as head of the English Church, which saw itself as a Protestant Church navigating a middle way between Lutheranism and Reformed Christianity, but leaning more towards the latter. Consequently, England experienced periods of reform and also Counter-Reformation. Monarchs such as Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey, Mary I, Elizabeth I, and Archbishops of Canterbury such as Thomas Cranmer and William Laud pushed the Church of England in different directions over the course of only a few generations. What emerged was the Elizabethan Religious Settlement
and a state church that considered itself both "Reformed" and
"Catholic" but not "Roman", and other unofficial more radical movements
such as the Puritans.
In terms of politics, the English Reformation included heresy trials,
the exiling of Roman Catholic populations to Spain and other Roman
Catholic lands, and censorship and prohibition of books.
Although Protestants were excommunicated in an attempt to reduce
their influence within the Catholic Church, at the same time they were
persecuted during the Counter-Reformation, prompting some to live as crypto-Protestants (also termed Nicodemites, against the urging of John Calvin who urged them to live their faith openly. Crypto-Protestants were documented as late as the 19th century in Latin America.
The Council of Trent (1545–1563) initiated by Pope Paul III addressed issues of certain ecclesiastical corruptions such as simony, absenteeism, nepotism,
the holding of multiple church offices by one person, and other abuses.
It also reasserted traditional practices and doctrines of the Church,
such as the episcopal structure, clerical celibacy, the seven Sacraments, transubstantiation
(the belief that during mass the consecrated bread and wine truly
become the body and blood of Christ), the veneration of relics, icons,
and saints (especially the Blessed Virgin Mary), the necessity of both faith and good works for salvation, the existence of purgatory
and the issuance (but not the sale) of indulgences. In other words, all
Protestant doctrinal objections and changes were uncompromisingly
rejected. The Council also fostered an interest in education for parish
priests to increase pastoral care. Milan's Archbishop Saint Charles Borromeo set an example by visiting the remotest parishes and instilling high standards.
Catholic Reformation
Simultaneous to the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Reformation consisted of improvements in art and culture, anti-corruption measures, the founding of the Jesuits, the establishment of seminaries,
a reassertion of traditional doctrines and the emergence of new
religious orders aimed at both moral reform and new missionary activity.
Also part of this was the development of new yet orthodox forms of
spirituality, such as that of the Spanish mystics and the French school of spirituality.
The papacy of St. Pius V
was known not only for its focus on halting heresy and worldly abuses
within the Church, but also for its focus on improving popular piety in a
determined effort to stem the appeal of Protestantism. Pius began his
pontificate by giving large alms to the poor, charity, and hospitals,
and the pontiff was known for consoling the poor and sick as well as
supporting missionaries. These activities coincided with a rediscovery
of the ancient Christian catacombs in Rome. As Diarmaid MacCulloch
states, "Just as these ancient martyrs were revealed once more,
Catholics were beginning to be martyred afresh, both in mission fields
overseas and in the struggle to win back Protestant northern Europe: the
catacombs proved to be an inspiration for many to action and to
heroism."
Catholic missions were carried to new places beginning with the new Age of Discovery, and the Roman Catholic Church established missions in the Americas.
The Galileo affair, in which Galileo Galilei came into conflict with the Roman Catholic Church over his support of Copernican astronomy, is often considered a defining moment in the history of the relationship between religion and science. In 1610, Galileo published his Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger), describing the surprising observations that he had made with the new telescope. These and other discoveries exposed major difficulties with the understanding of the heavens that had been held since antiquity, and raised new interest in radical teachings such as the heliocentric theory of Copernicus.
In reaction, many scholars maintained that the motion of the earth and
immobility of the sun were heretical, as they contradicted some accounts
given in the Bible as understood at that time. Galileo's part in the
controversies over theology, astronomy and philosophy culminated in his
trial and sentencing in 1633, on a grave suspicion of heresy.
Puritans in North America
The most famous colonisation by Protestants in the New World was that of English Puritans
in North America. Unlike the Spanish or French, the English colonists
made surprisingly little effort to evangelise the native peoples. The Puritans, or Pilgrims, left England so that they could live in an area with Puritanism established
as the exclusive civic religion. Though they had left England because
of the suppression of their religious practice, most Puritans had
thereafter originally settled in the Low Countries
but found the licentiousness there, where the state hesitated from
enforcing religious practice, as unacceptable, and thus they set out for
the New World and the hopes of a Puritan utopia.
The First Great Awakening was a wave of religious enthusiasm among
Protestants in the American colonies c. 1730–1740, emphasising the
traditional Reformed virtues of Godly preaching, rudimentary liturgy,
and a deep sense of personal guilt and redemption by Christ Jesus.
Historian Sydney E. Ahlstrom saw it as part of a "great international
Protestant upheaval" that also created pietism in Germany, the Evangelical Revival, and Methodism in England. It centred on reviving the spirituality of established congregations and mostly affected Congregational, Presbyterian, Dutch Reformed, German Reformed, Baptist,
and Methodist churches, while also spreading within the slave
population. The Second Great Awakening (1800–1830s), unlike the first,
focused on the unchurched and sought to instill in them a deep sense of
personal salvation as experienced in revival meetings. It also sparked
the beginnings of groups such as the Mormons, the Restoration Movement and the Holiness movement. The Third Great Awakening
began from 1857 and was most notable for taking the movement throughout
the world, especially in English speaking countries. The final group to
emerge from the "great awakenings" in North America was Pentecostalism, which had its roots in the Methodist, Wesleyan, and Holiness movements, and began in 1906 on Azusa Street in Los Angeles. Pentecostalism would later lead to the Charismatic movement.
Restorationism
Restorationism refers to the belief that a purer form of Christianity should be restored using the early church as a model.
In many cases, restorationist groups believed that contemporary
Christianity, in all its forms, had deviated from the true, original
Christianity, which they then attempted to "reconstruct", often using
the Book of Acts
as a "guidebook" of sorts. Restorationists do not usually describe
themselves as "reforming" a Christian church continuously existing from
the time of Jesus, but as restoring the Church that they believe was lost at some point. "Restorationism" is often used to describe the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement.
The Bolsheviks and other Russian revolutionaries saw the Church, like the tsarist state, as an enemy of the people. Criticism of atheism was strictly forbidden and sometimes lead to imprisonment. Some actions against Orthodox priests and believers included torture, being sent to prison camps, labour camps or mental hospitals, as well as execution.
Liberal Christianity,
sometimes called liberal theology, is an umbrella term covering
diverse, philosophically informed religious movements and moods within
late 18th, 19th and 20th-century Christianity. The word "liberal" in
liberal Christianity does not refer to a leftistpolitical agenda or set of beliefs, but rather to the freedom of dialectic process associated with continental philosophy and other philosophical and religious paradigms developed during the Age of Enlightenment.
Fundamentalist Christianity
is a movement that arose mainly within British and American
Protestantism in the late 19th century and early 20th century in
reaction to modernism
and certain liberal Protestant groups that denied doctrines considered
fundamental to Christianity yet still called themselves "Christian."
Thus, fundamentalism sought to re-establish tenets that could not be
denied without relinquishing a Christian identity, the "fundamentals": inerrancy of the Bible, Sola Scriptura, the Virgin Birth of Jesus, the doctrine of substitutionary atonement, the bodily Resurrection of Jesus, and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.
Under Communism and Nazism
Pope Pius XI
Under the state atheism of countries in the Eastern Bloc,
Christians of many denominations experienced persecution, with many
churches and monasteries being destroyed, as well as clergy being
executed.
The position of Christians affected by Nazism is highly complex. Pope Pius XI declared – Mit brennender Sorge – that Fascist governments had hidden "pagan intentions" and expressed the irreconcilability of the Catholic position and totalitarian fascist state worship, which placed the nation above God, fundamental human rights,
and dignity. His declaration that "Spiritually, [Christians] are all
Semites" prompted the Nazis to give him the title "Chief Rabbi of the
Christian World."
Catholic priests were executed in concentration camps alongside Jews; for example, 2,600 Catholic priests were imprisoned in Dachau, and 2,000 of them were executed (cf. Priesterblock).
A further 2,700 Polish priests were executed (a quarter of all Polish
priests), and 5,350 Polish nuns were either displaced, imprisoned, or
executed. Many Catholic laymen and clergy played notable roles in sheltering Jews during the Holocaust, including Pope Pius XII.
The head rabbi of Rome became a Catholic in 1945 and, in honour of the
actions the pope undertook to save Jewish lives, he took the name
Eugenio (the pope's first name).
A former Israeli consul in Italy claimed: "The Catholic Church saved
more Jewish lives during the war than all the other churches, religious
institutions, and rescue organisations put together."
The relationship between Nazism and Protestantism, especially the German Lutheran Church, was complex. Though many Protestant church leaders in Germany supported the Nazis' growing anti-Jewish activities, some such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer (a Lutheran pastor) of the Confessing Church,
a movement within Protestantism that strongly opposed Nazism, were
strongly opposed to the Third Reich. Bonhoeffer was later found guilty
in the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler and executed.
Contemporary Christianity
Second Vatican Council
On 11 October 1962, Pope John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Council, the 21st ecumenical council
of the Catholic Church. The council was "pastoral" in nature,
interpreting dogma in terms of its scriptural roots, revising liturgical
practices, and providing guidance for articulating traditional Church
teachings in contemporary times. The council is perhaps best known for
its instructions that the Mass may be celebrated in the vernacular as
well as in Latin.
Ecumenism
Ecumenism
broadly refers to movements between Christian groups to establish a
degree of unity through dialogue. Ecumenism is derived from Greek οἰκουμένη (oikoumene),
which means "the inhabited world", but more figuratively something like
"universal oneness." The movement can be distinguished into Catholic
and Protestant movements, with the latter characterised by a redefined
ecclesiology of "denominationalism" (which the Catholic Church, among
others, rejects).
Over the last century, moves have been made to reconcile the
schism between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox churches.
Although progress has been made, concerns over papal primacy and the
independence of the smaller Orthodox churches has blocked a final
resolution of the schism. On 30 November 1894, Pope Leo XIII published Orientalium Dignitas. On 7 December 1965, a Joint Catholic-Orthodox Declaration of Pope Paul VI and the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I was issued lifting the mutual excommunications of 1054.
Some of the most difficult questions in relations with the ancient Eastern Churches concern some doctrine (i.e. Filioque, scholasticism, functional purposes of asceticism, the essence of God, Hesychasm, Fourth Crusade, establishment of the Latin Empire, Uniatism
to note but a few) as well as practical matters such as the concrete
exercise of the claim to papal primacy and how to ensure that
ecclesiastical union would not mean mere absorption of the smaller
Churches by the Latin component of the much larger Catholic Church (the
most numerous single religious denomination in the world) and the
stifling or abandonment of their own rich theological, liturgical and
cultural heritage.
With respect to Catholic relations with Protestant communities,
certain commissions were established to foster dialogue and documents
have been produced aimed at identifying points of doctrinal unity, such
as the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification produced with the Lutheran World Federation in 1999.
Ecumenical movements within Protestantism have focused on
determining a list of doctrines and practices essential to being
Christian and thus extending to all groups which fulfill these basic
criteria a (more or less) co-equal status, with perhaps one's own group
still retaining a "first among equal" standing. This process involved a
redefinition of the idea of "the Church" from traditional theology. This
ecclesiology, known as denominationalism, contends that each group
(which fulfills the essential criteria of "being Christian") is a
sub-group of a greater "Christian Church", itself a purely abstract
concept with no direct representation, i.e., no group, or
"denomination", claims to be "the Church." This ecclesiology
is at variance with other groups that indeed consider themselves to be
"the Church." The "essential criteria" generally consist of belief in
the Trinity, belief that Jesus Christ is the only way to bring
forgiveness and eternal life, and that Jesus died and rose again bodily.
Pentecostal movement
Countries by percentage of Protestants in 1938 and 2010. Pentecostal and Evangelical Protestant denominations fueled much of the growth in Africa and Latin America.
In reaction to these developments, Christian fundamentalism
was a movement to reject the radical influences of philosophical
humanism as this was affecting the Christian religion. Especially
targeting critical approaches to the interpretation of the Bible, and
trying to blockade the inroads made into their churches by atheistic
scientific assumptions, the fundamentalists began to appear in various
denominations as numerous independent movements of resistance to the
drift away from historic Christianity. Over time, the Fundamentalist
Evangelical movement has divided into two main wings, with the label
Fundamentalist following one branch, while Evangelical
has become the preferred banner of the more moderate movement. Although
both movements primarily originated in the English-speaking world, the
majority of Evangelicals now live elsewhere in the world.
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