The Christian Church

The information below is intended to give the reader some background information about the history and development of the Christian Church. It deals mainly with the Western Christian Church in Europe and later in America. Background on the Eastern Christian Church (Eastern Orthodox Church) will be posted in the near future.

The Christian Church consists of those who have been baptized in the name of Christ and who accept his doctrines and live in harmony with them. The Christian Church was established through the life and work of Christ himself, and consists only of his followers. Its first great increase was at Pentecost, where 3000 souls were converted; shortly afterward 5000 were added to the Church. Stephen was the first to suffer martyrdom. Paul made three great missionary tours, and the result was the organic unity of the Church in the first period.

Early Period (A.D. 30-750)

The first part of this period was distinguished by simplicity of doctrine and life, and zeal in extending the kingdom of Christ. Important centers were established, and the Gospel was largely confined to the middle and lower classes. Controversies arose between the Gentile and Jewish Christians, but not to such an extent as to arrest steady progress. The chief defenders of Christianity were Aristides, Justin Martyr, Melito, Tatian, and Hermas. This was the time of great persecutions. There were ten in all, the most serious being under the Emperors Nero, Decius, and Diocletian.

The Scriptures were collected into a canon, and the Church made great advance in numbers and in territory. The most important writers were Ignatius, Irenaeus, Origen, Tertullian, and Clement of Alexandria. The Council of Nice (A.D. 325) was a great triumph for orthodoxy. It declared the essential Trinity of the Godhead, and settled for all time the divinity of Christ as a fundamental doctrine of Christian faith. Persecution ceased under the Emperor Constantine, who in 313 removed all disabilities from Christians and in 323 made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire. Monasticism, a reaction against worldliness, increased rapidly. Julian the Apostate endeavored to revive paganism, but without avail. Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, extended the authority of the Western Church in opposition to the claims of the patriarch of Constantinople.

Islam paralyzed the Eastern Church for a time. The tendency toward Islam was arrested in western Europe by Charles Martel in the victory of Tours in 732. Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, ruled from 590 to 604. He magnified the Roman claims, organized monkish orders, elaborated the church festivals, and established purgatory as a Roman Catholic doctrine. He organized a mission among the Anglo-Saxons. The Gospel spread rapidly through Britain and Germany. Christian art was patronized liberally by the Roman bishops. The close of the ancient period found the Latin or Western Church very rigorous and aggressive, but the Eastern Church in a somewhat stagnant condition.

Middle Period (A.D. 750-1517)

This period falls into three great divisions: from Charlemagne to Gregory VII (750-1073); from Gregory VII to removal of Papal See to France (1073-1305); from removal of Papal See to the Reformation (1305-1517). The most important political events, all of which had a bearing on the Church, were the end of the Greek exarchate in Italy; the destruction of the Lombard kingdom, the organization of the Frank Empire under Pepin, rise of the new Germanic Church, division of the Islamic Caliphate, decline of the Greek Empire, and development of the new Roman Empire in the West. Charlemagne defeated many northern tribes and increased the territory of the Church to vast proportions. He was a liberal patron of learning, and authorized a Latin version of the Scriptures.

Alfred the Great of England reigned from 871 to 901, and was as distinguished for learning as for his power to rule. The Russian monarchy was founded by Ruric in the middle of the 9th century. At this time evangelization progressed rapidly. The Hungarians, Bulgarians, Bohemians, Moravians, Wends, and Scandinavians accepted Christianity. Corruption increased rapidly in the Roman Church; the papacy was at the service of the highest bidder; and indulgences and transubstantiation were cardinal forces in the new Romanism. The violent rule of the Moslems over Palestine excited the wrath of Western Europe, and crusades were organized for the rescue of the country from the Moslems. There were seven crusades, extending from 1096 to 1272. Christian Europe failed, in the end, to hold the country, but the general effect of the crusades was beneficial in the development of commerce, introduction of Oriental thought, and the growth of popular liberty.

Reformatory movements were inaugurated through the Waldenses (1170); Wyclif (1374); John Huss (1405); the Moravian Brethren (1417); the Mystics, and Savonarola (1482-1498). Various mendicant orders were established. The Inquisition, established to arrest reform, was decreed in 1215.

Modern Period (1517-20th century)

The Church was in a corrupt and superstitious condition. All the attempts at reform had been unsuccessful. Martin Luther, born in 1483, began the German Reformation by publishing 95 theses against Rome. He translated the Scriptures into German, gained the cooperation of the German princes, and published sermons and other works against Romanism. Melanchthon was the chief doctrinal writer of the Reformation. Erasmus labored in the department of the New Testament criticism.

The leading Swiss reformers were Zwingli in eastern Switzerland, and the learned Calvin in the western part of the country. Farel stood next to Calvin in Geneva. The English Reformation had King Henry VIII on its side, bringing the great opportunity for which the Reformers of England had been waiting. Protestant sentiment grew rapidly, but in the next reign Ridley, Latimer, Cranmer, Hooper, Taylor, fell victims to Queen Mary’s Romanism. Under Elizabeth the Reformation was placed on a firm foundation. The Puritans were a reaction against Romanism and sympathy with it in the Church of England. They preserved, under Cromwell, the liberties of the English nation.

Arminius, born in 1560 in Holland, opposed the chief tenets of Calvinism. The Synod of Dort resulted in the political triumph of the Calvinists, and the expulsion of the Remonstrants, until the death of Maurice (1630). The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) was confined to the Continent and established the territorial boundaries of the Protestant and Catholic nations. The Huguenots of France were persecuted in 1572, and 70,000 people were killed on St. Bartholomew’s Night. The Jesuits, organized by Ignatius Loyola, 1540, were established as an offset to the aggression of Protestantism. Deism prevailed to a great extent in England, its chief promoters being Hobbes, Herbert, Shaftesbury, Tindal, Bolingbroke, Hume, and Gibbon. They had strong antagonists, but the general condition of the people was irreligious. Methodism, which arose from John Wesley, born in 1703, was a fervent religious movement. Charles Wesley, Whitefield, John Fletcher, Joseph Benson, and Adam Clarke were strong coadjutors.

German Rationalism arose in 1750 through the teachings of Wolfe, Semler, and the example of the Prussian court. The Evangelical Alliance (1846) promoted the unity of orthodox Christians in all parts of the world. The old Catholics, a Roman Catholic reaction against the Vatican Council of 1869, were organized in certain parts of Germany and Switzerland into a Church in 1870; Dollinger, Huber, and Friedrich were at their head.

The American Church

The colonization of North America sprang from the religious motive of colonists seeking freedom from oppression at home. Periods of American Church History: 1) (1607-1660) revival and progress; 2) (1660-1720) trial, disputes with Great Britain, religious decline; 3) (1720-1750) great revivals; 4) (1750-1783) political agitation, freedom from British rule; 5) (after 1783) separation of Church and State, abolition of slavery, evangelization.

The protestant Episcopal Church was founded by the James River Colony (1607); its first General Convention was in 1785; it ratified the Thirty nine Articles in 1832. The Puritan Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620 and began the development of Congregationalism. The Cambridge Platform was established in 1648. The Reformed Dutch Church was established in 1628 in New Amsterdam (New York). The first independent organization was in 1771.

The Baptists began in Providence, R.I., in 1639 through Roger Williams. The Reformed German Church was organized in 1771. The Lutherans were established first in New York in 1669; the first Synod was held in 1748. The Presbyterians were organized at the close of the 17th century. The first Presbytery was established in Philadelphia in 1706, and the General Assembly in 1789.

The first Methodist Society in the United States was established in New York in 1766, and the first Conference was held in Philadelphia in 1771. The Reformed Episcopal Church was organized in New York in 1873 under Bishop Cummins. The Roman Catholic Church in the United States was first established in Maryland through immigration in 1632. The Episcopal See of Baltimore was established in 1789.