Chronography of Christianity
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modified 10 January 2023
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�Cherish
those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.� Voltaire
��He who
begins by loving Christianity better than Truth will proceed by loving his own
sect or church better than Christianity, and end by loving himself better than
all� Samuel Taylor
Coleridge
�Fanaticism
consists of redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.� George Santayana
�Nature does nothing without purpose, or
uselessly�. Aristotle, in Politics, Book 1
Map of Christian areas of Europe, 11th
Century.
Bible and
Prayerbook Developments � see appendix 1
Inquisition
� see appendix 2
Jehovahs Witnesses � see appendix
Jesuits � see appendix
Methodists � see appendix
Mormons� - see appendix
Quakers
� see appendix
Salvation
Army � see appendix
Templars � see appendix
Benedictines/Cistercians � see appendix a
Franciscans �
see appendix b
UK Church attendance 1987-2019
|
Year |
UK Sunday Church attendance, 1,000s |
% of adult population |
|
2019 |
679 |
|
|
2016 |
714 |
|
|
2000 |
3,790 |
8.2 |
|
1995 |
3,980 |
8.7 |
|
1990 |
4,380 |
9.6 |
|
1985 |
4,510 |
10.1 |
|
1980 |
4,770 |
10.9 |
However in London church attendance rose from 52,700
in 1987 to 53,600 in 2019
UK
religious affiliation 1964-2017, % of electorate
|
|
1964 |
1979 |
2017 |
|
All Christian |
96 |
|
43 |
|
Islam |
|
1 |
5 |
|
No religion |
3 |
|
48 |
Picketty,
Thomas (2018), Brahmin Left vs Merchant Right: Rising Inequality & the
Changing Structure of Political Conflict, WID.world WORKING PAPER SERIES N�
2018/7
http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/Piketty2018.pdf
French religious affiliation 1967-2017, % of
electorate
|
|
1967 |
2017 |
|
Catholic |
91 |
55 |
|
Catholic-attend church at least Once a month |
25 |
6 |
|
Catholic-non Church attending |
66 |
49 |
|
Other religions(all) |
3 |
10 |
|
Islam |
1 |
5 |
|
No religion |
6 |
35 |
Picketty,
Thomas (2018), Brahmin Left vs Merchant Right: Rising Inequality & the
Changing Structure of Political Conflict, WID.world WORKING PAPER SERIES N�
2018/7
http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/Piketty2018.pdf
US
church attendance
|
|
Attended weekly |
|
1965 |
45% |
|
1958 |
49% |
2016, In Britain,
acording to the Social Attitudes Survey, the number of people with no religion
reached 53%, up from 48% in 2015. In 1983 the figure was 31%. The number of
non-Christians was 6%, down from 8% in 2015. The 41% of Christians was
comprised of 15% Church of England (down from 37% in 1983), 9% Roman Catholic,
down from 10% in 1983, their numbers bolstered by immigration, and 17% �other
Christian�, up from 16% in 1983.
Acceptance of female clergy
26 January 2015, The Church of England appointed its first woman bishop.
The Reverend
Libby Lane became suffragan Bishop of Stockport at a ceremony in
York Cathedral.
12 March 1994, The Church of England ordained
its first women priests. 32 were ordained.
11 November 1992. The UK General Synod voted for
ordination of women. Several hundred male clergy left the Church in protest and
even in 2000 there were some 1,000 Church of England congregations that were
refusing to accept female priests. The first female priests were ordained in
1994 and by 2001 around 20% of the Church of England clergy was female. Some
saw this as progressive, others as blasphemous..
24 June 1990, The Anglican Church ordained its first
two women deacons, at St Anne�s Cathedral, Belfast. Kathleen Young, a
50-year-old physiotherapist from Carrickfergus, County Antrim, and Irene
Templeton, 49, from Belfast, were ordained.
25 September 1988, In the USA, Barbara Harris, a divorcee, was elected first
woman bishop in the Anglican Church, to serve as Bishop of Massachusetts
(inaugurated 11 February 1989).
5 July 1988, The Church of England voted for the ordination of
women.
2 July 1985, The General Synod of the Church of England approved
the ordination of women, despite
strong opposition within the Church.
5/12/1981. Elizabeth Canham, a British theology teacher,
was ordained priest in the USA. She was the first British woman to become a
priest.
17 June 1977. The feminist claim that God is a woman was supported by no less than
the Jesuit journal Civitta Cattolica,
published fortnightly in Rome.
16 September 1976, In the USA, the
Episcopalian Church approved the ordination of women.
1975, The Anglican Church in Canada approved of women being ordained as priests.
25 January 1944, In Macao the Reverend Florence Tim-Oi Lee became the first woman
Anglican Priest
16 September 2010, Pope Benedict XVI commenced the first Papal visit to Britain since King Henry VIII split with Rome.
2010, In
England, 800,000 went to a Church service every Sunday, down from 1,5 million
in 1970.
New
Saints
19/10/2003, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was beatified.
21 March 1993, Pope John Paul II declared Duns Scotus a saint.
14 September 1975, Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton was canonised by Pope Paul VI
to become the first American saint.
16 August 2005, Brother Roger (Roger Louis
Schutze-Marsauche), founder of the Christian Taize community, died
(born 12/5/1915)
6 August 2003, Gene Robinson became the first openly gay Anglican bishop.
7 July 2003, Canon Jeffrey John, first
would-be gay bishop in the Church of England, withdrew his acceptance of the
post of the Bishop of Reading, after discussions with church leaders.
14 August 2002, Pope John Paul II drew a crowd of two million at a papal Mass
in Krakow, on his 9th visit to his native Poland.
22 November 2001, Pope John Paul II sent the first Papal email from a laptop
in his office.
12 March 2000, Pope John Paul II at St Peters, Rome, prayed
for forgiveness of past sins of the Catholic Church, including the burning of
heretics during the Inquisition, the slaughter of Muslims during the Crusades,
being silent during the Nazi massacre of the Jews, and professing hatred for
groups such as the Travellers.
15 June 1994, Israel and The Vatican established full diplomatic
relations.
25/4/1993. Pope John Paul II made the first Papal visit to Albania, until then the world�s only
officially atheist state.
10 February 1993. The Pope, John Paul II, called for an end
to the persecution of Christians in Sudan.
26/4/1992, Worshippers celebrated Easter at the Russian
Orthodox Church in Moscow for the first time in 74 years.
6 March 1991. Dr George Carey was elected Archbishop of
Canterbury.
24/10/1989, Fake US TV preacher Jim Bakker was sentenced to 45
years in prison and fined US$ 500,000 for swindling millions of dollars out of
his followers.
8 March 1989, The Vatican dismissed Archbishop Paul Marcinkus from
his position as chief of the Vatican�s bank. which had made losses of� US$ 88 million.
4 March 1989, Pope John Paul II branded Salman
Rushdie�s novel The Satanic Verses blasphemous for suggesting
that part of the Koran was inspired by the
Devil.
28 February 1989, Hereford Cathedral dropped plans to sell the
Mediaeval Mappa Mundi to raise money.
30/10/1988, The head of the Unification Church, Reverend Sun
Myung Moon, presided over a mass wedding of 6,516 couples in Korea.
13/10/1988, The Turin
Shroud was declared to be a fake;
it was dated to between 1260 and 1390.
30/10/1988, The head of the Unification Church, Reverend Sun Myung Moon, presided over a mass wedding of 6,516 couples in Korea.
19 September 1987, The Pope
concluded his visit to the US.
10 March 1987. The Roman
Catholic Church banned contraception by artificial means.
13/4/1986, Pope John Paul II visited a synagogue
in Rome, the first time a modern Pope
had visited a synagogue.
3 June 1985. In Italy, compulsory Roman Catholic instruction in
schools ended and Catholicism was no
longer the state religion.
27/12/1983, Pope John Paul II met his would-be assassin, Mehmet Ali,
in a prison cell in Rome after conducting a Christmas service at the prison.� There were growing rumours that the Bulgarian
secret services were involved in the assassination attempt.� Ali had been imprisoned for life for the
crime.
9/5/1983, Pope John Paul II retracted the ban on Galileo Galilei.
21 July 1982. The Reverend Moon, of the Unification Church or Moonies, married 4,000 in a mass ceremony in
New York.
17 June 1982, The body of Roberto Calvi, a key figure in the Banco
Ambrosiano scandal, was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge, London. Archbishop
Marcinkus, President of the Vatican Bank, was also linked to the
affair.
29/5/1982. Pope John Paul II visited Canterbury Cathedral
with the Archbishop. On 30/5/1982 he visited Coventry Cathedral, and spoke of
his hope for an end to war.
28/5/1982, Pope John Paul II landed at Gatwick Airport,
becoming the first Pope to visit the United Kingdom for 450 years.
12/5/1982, A Spanish priest, Juan Hernandes, tried to stab Pope John Paul
II with a bayonet as he visited the Fatima shrine on a pilgrimage.
13/5/1981. Pope John Paul II, seriously injured in the
stomach, survived an assassination
attempt in St Peter�s Square in Rome, by a Turkish terrorist, Mehmet Ali Agca,
in front of 20,000 people. Agca had escaped from Turkey where he was being held
for murder; he shot the Pope �in protest at American and Russian imperialism�.
25 March 1980, Robert Runcie became the 102nd
Archbishop of Canterbury.
29 September 1979, Pope John Paul II arrived in Ireland, the first ever papal visit there.
2 June 1979. Pope John Paul II visited his native Poland. He
was the first Pope to visit a Communist
country.
25 January 1979, Pope John Paul II visited Latin America.
25 August 1978, The Shroud
of Turin went on public display for the first time in 45 years.
6 August 1978, Pope Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini) died,
aged 80.
15 January 1976. The Roman Catholic Church condemned sex outside marriage and said
homosexuality could not be condoned.
24 January 1975, Dr Donald Coggan was enthroned as the 101st
Archbishop of Canterbury, succeeding Michael Ramsey.
1974, In the US, Church
attendance stood at 40%. Amongst Roman Catholics it was 55%, down from 71% in
1963.
14/5/1974, Dr Donald Coggan was made Archbishop of Canterbury.
16/4/1973. The Church of
England said that practising homosexuals would not be
accepted for training as priests after a radio statement by the Archbishop of
York said that many clergymen were homosexuals.
5/10/1972. The Congregational Church and the Presbyterian Church of England combined
to form the United Reformed Church.
Doctrinal developments 1931-92
31/10/1992. The Vatican admitted that Galileo was right when he said the Earth
revolved around the Sun.
1982, The Roman
Catholic Church ceased automatically excommunicating Freemasons.
1972, Pope Paul VI abolished
the obligatory tonsure for new priests and monks.
1970, Pope Paul IV
declared that priestly celibacy was a fundamental principle of the Catholic Church.
1966, The Vatican rescinded
the rule that Catholics could eat no meat, only fish, on Fridays.
14
June 1966, Pope Paul VI abolished
the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the list of books that Catholics were
forbidden from reading.
25
January 1959, The Second Vatican Council began
work on reforming and modernising the Catholic Church..
1 November 1950, The Assumption, the belief that Mary
mother of Jesus bodily ascended to heaven when she died, was declared dogma for
Roman Catholics by Pope Pius XII.
This belief is not considered doctrine in the Eastern Orthodox Church and is
resisted by many Protestants.
13 January 1938, The Church of England accepted the Theory of Evolution.
21 March 1931, A Catholic church decree condemned modern sex education and eugenics.
27 November 1970. Pope Paul IV was unharmed after a
knife-wielding assailant dressed as a priest attempted to attack him at Manila
Airport.
1969, A Gallup Poll
in the US showed that 70% of people felt the influence of religion was
declining in the USA.
29 July 1968, The Pope
condemned all forms of birth control.
Initiatives towards unification of the Christian deonomiations, 1964-66
23 March 1966. In Rome the first official meeting for 400
years between the heads of the Catholic and Anglican Churches took place, Pope Paul VI met with Dr Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury.
7/4/1965, A new YMCA building was
dedicated in Nazareth, Israel. It was intended as a symbol of unity between the
various Christian denominations.
5 January 1964, Pope Paul VI met with the Primate of Eastern
Orthodoxy, Athenagoras I, Patriarch of
Constantinople, in Jerusalem.
4/10/1965, Pope Paul VI
visited New York
City; the first Papal visit to
America.
6 January 1964. Pope Paul VI finished a three-day tour of the Holy Land, the first Pope to visit there since Christianity began. He was also the
first Pope to leave Italy for over 150
years. On 5 January 1964 Pope Paul VI met the Ecumenical Patriarch of
Constantinople in Jerusalem, the first
meeting between the heads of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches for 500
years.
3 January 1962, Pope John XXIII excommunicated Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
27 June 1961, Dr Ramsey was enthroned as the 100th
Archbishop of Canterbury in Canterbury Cathedral.
19 January 1961, Michael Ramsey was appointed Archbishop of
Canterbury, following the retirement of Archbishop Fisher.
23/5/1957. The Church of England broke with tradition by allowing divorcees to take Communion.
The Bible taught that marriage was for life, but Britain�s legal system allowed
divorce.
8/12/1956, The Polish
government completed a process of reconciliation with the Catholic Church. Cardinal
Wyszynski had been released from prison on 26/10/1956, and on this
day the Church was now free to make its own ecclesiastical appointments.
Religious teaching in schools, and religious posts in hospitals and the army,
were restored. Criticism of government policies in church sermons was
permitted.
24 February 1954, The American evangelist Billy Graham arrived in London
on a three-month �crusade�.
10/1953, The first Scientology church was founded in
Camden, New Jersey, USA, by L. Ron Hubbard, his wife Mary Sue Hubbard, and John Galusha.
2 January 1952, Pope Pius XII declared that television
was a threat to family life.
11 March 1951, In Northern Ireland, the Reverend Ian Paisley founded the
Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster.
23 August 1948, The World Council of Churches was formed.
1947, In the UK, only 10% of the
population regularly attended church, two thirds never attended one. However
only 5% of the population were committed atheists; 80% of women and 67% of men
believed in some kind of deity.
6 November 1942. The Church of England relaxed its rule that women
must wear hats in church.
26 September 1942, Wilson Carlile, British clergyman who founded the Church Army in 1882, died
aged 95.
31/5/1939, Terry Waite, envoy of the Archbishop of
Canterbury, was born.
4/5/1938. The Vatican
recognised Franco as leader of Spain.
17/12/1936, Pope Francis I
was born.
21/4/1936, James
Dobson, Christian evangelist., was born.
13 November 1935, George Carey,
Archbishop of Canterbury 1991-2002, was born.
Pope Pius XI and contemporary politics
24/5/1935. Pope Pius XI condemned the German sterilisation of 56,244 �inferior� German
citizens.
8 July 1933, The Vatican signed a concordat with Nazi
Germany; this did not protect German Catholics from persecution.
2 September
1931, Mussolini made a pact with The Vatican.
31/5/1931. The
Pope denounced Mussolini�s Fascists
following attacks on priests and church property.
15/5/1931. Pope Pius XI condemned Communism.
31/12/1929, Pope Pius XI condemned co-education as harmful
to Christian training.
25 July 1929. Pope Pius XI became the first
Pope for 59 years to leave the Vatican. The creation of the Papal state under
the Lateran treaties had clarified the politico-legal position of the Pope, who
until then had been a virtual prisoner within the Vatican.
7 June 1929. The
Papal State, extinct since 1870, was revived as the Vatican City State in Rome under the Lateran Treaty.
11 February 1929. The 109
acres of the Vatican in Rome were made an independent state under the Lateran
Treaty, which was signed by Benito Mussolini and Pietro Gasparri, Pope Pius XI.
18/12/1924, Pope Pius XI denounced the USSR.
25 September 1933, 25,000 visited Turin Cathedral to gaze at
the Turin Shroud, revealed to the
public for the first time in 400 years, which purportedly showed the face of Jesus.
20 September 1933, Annie Besant,
co-founder of the Theosophical Society, died.
1928, Opus Dei was
founded in Spain. In 2020 it had around 99,000 members.
21/5/1928. In Italy, Catholics were
told to disassociate themselves from Fascism.
8/4/1926, Jurgen Moltmann, German theologian, was born.
10 July 1925, The Scopes
trial began in Dayton Tennessee.� Mr Scopes,
a science teacher, was accused of teaching evolution and so breaching State
laws against teaching ideas contradicting the Bible.� The real issue was the role of the State in
determining the religious nature of school education.� The outcome was inconclusive.� Scopes was found guilty on 21 July 1925 but
the US$100 penalty was set aside on a technicality.
23 March 1925. US Tennessee law prohibited the teaching of evolution.
4 June 1923, In Spain, the Archbishop of Saragossa was
murdered.
2 March 1923, Cardinal Basil Hume, Roman Catholic Archbishop
of Westminster from 1976, was born.
2/10/1921, Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury
1980-1991, was born (died 2000).
18/5/1920. Pope John Paul II was born as Karolum Wojtyla in
the market town of Wadowice, near Krakow, Poland. He was the son of a junior
officer in the Polish Army.
16/5/1920, Joan of Arc was canonised.
7 November 1918. Billy Graham, US evangelist, was born in
Charlotte, North Carolina, the son of a diary farmer.
11/12/1917, Owen Snedden, Archbishop of the Roman Catholic
Archdiocese of Wellington from 1962 to 1981, was born in Auckland (died 1981).
13/5/1917, At Fatima,
a small town in north east Portugal, three shepherd girls aged 10 -� 13 saw a vision of a lady outside the town.� The vision reappeared at monthly intervals
and on 13/10/1917 declared itself to be �Our Lady of the Rosary�
1914, Bournemouth finally
permitted Sunday trains. Sunday steamers, however, remained forbidden until
1929.
13 January 1913, The Pope spoke out against films of a
religious nature.
16/5/1912, MPs backed a Bill that would disestablish the Church in Wales, despite opposition by church
leaders.
12 November 1911. Rev. Chad Varah, founder of The Samaritans, was born
3/12/1910. Mary Baker Eddy, American founder of the Christian Scientists, died.
26/5/1910, Pope Pius X issued the encyclical Editio Saepe. This angered many German
Protestants because of its derogatory comments about Luther and the Reformation. On
11 June 1910, after protests by Prussia, the Pope expressed regrets over the
encyclical and ordered bishops in Germany to stop circulating it.
18/4/1909, Joan of Arc was beatified by the Roman
Catholic Church; she was canonised in 1920.
25 November 1908, The Christian
Science Monitor began publication at Boston, USA.
16 November 1908, Soeur Emmanuelle, French nun who gave much aid
to the poor in Egypt and Turkey, was born (died 2008)
30/4/1907, King Edward VII of Britain visited Rome and
The Vatican.
Anti-clericalism,
France
2 January 1907. Anti-clerical laws in France
forbade the crucifix in schools.
2 February 1906.
530 injured in Paris in dispute over Church property.
9/12/1905,
In France, the Church and State were legally separated.
18 March 1903, An
anti-clerical French Government dissolved all religious orders.
3 June 1902, In France, Rene Waldbeck-Rousseau resigned,
despite having a majority on the Chamber, over disputes with extremists. He was
succeeded by Emile
Combes, who pursued a strongly anti-clerical
policy.
1 July 1901, France enacted its anti-clerical Association Law,
which outlawed all religious institutions not formally registered with the
State.
14 November 1904, Michael Ramsey, 100th Archbishop of
Canterbury, was born (died 1988)
12/10/1904, The
Polish Archbishop, Wincenty Popiel, condemned socialism as being
subversive of all institutions.
1901, The modern Pentecostalist movement began when Agnes Osman
started speaking in tongues at Topeka, Kansas, USA.
11/12/1901, The American
Federation of Catholic Societies was founded at a meeting in Cincinnati
after members amended the initial proposal to exclude women from a federation
of all the Roman Catholic societies in the United States.
2 January 1901, The first
municipal crematorium was opened in
Britain, by the Lord Mayor in Hull.
31/10/1900, In
Scotland, the Free and the United Presbyterian Churches merged.
8 January 1900, Marshal
O Waggoner, an attorney in Toledo, Ohio who had
recently converted to Christianity, destroyed his library of books �consisting
of the writings of infidels�. Many of the volumes were exceedingly rare. There
were a large number of manuscripts and first prints not to be found in any
other library in America.
1899,
The International Gideons Association
was founded. They are best known for their placing of Bibles in hotel rooms.
26 September 1897, Pope Paul V was born in Concessio, as Giovanni
Battista Montini.
31/12/1891, Samuel Adjai Crowther, African missionary
bishop, died.
15/5/1891, A Papal
Encyclical urged employers to fulfil their moral duty to improve conditions for
their workers.
21 November 1890, The Lincoln Judgment, concerning the
jurisdiction of the Archbishop of
Canterbury, was delivered.
11 August 1890, Cardinal Newman
(born 1801) died in Birmingham, UK. He was appointed as a Cardinal in 1879, and
believed in the romantic vision of the Mediaeval Church.
29/10/1885, James Hannington,
first Bishop of eastern Africa, died
10/10/1885, John McCloskey,
US Cardinal, died (born 20 March 1810).
2 June 1883, Rioting at Stromeferry, Scotland, to try to prevent fish being despatched to London as
so desecrating the Sabbath.
7 March 1882, The UK Parliament was presented with a Bill to
prevent atheists becoming MPs. The Bill failed.
1881, Pubs in Wales were
forbidden from opening on Sundays, contributing to the growth in illegal
drinking dens.
25 November 1881, Pope John XXIII was born in Sotto il Monte,
near Bergamo, Italy, as Angelo Guiseppe Roncali, the son of a peasant.
1880, In Britain, at least 25% and probably nearer
30% of the population regularly attended Sunday church services.
14 July 1880. Bismarck ended his Kulturkampf, or anti-Catholic policy.
11/5/1879, Samuel Gobat, Bishop of Jerusalem, died (born
26 January 1799)
1878, Pope Leo XIII banned castrati, males who had been subject to
castration in order to retain high clear voices for singing, from the papal
choir.
28/12/1878, Pope Leo XIII
issued an encyclical, Quod apolostici
muneris, condemning the rise of socialism, communism, the nihilists and
anarchists.
2 March 1876, Pope Pius X
was born in Rome, as Eugenio Pacelli.
30/10/1875. In the
USA, Mary Baker
Eddy published Science and Health with Key to the
Scriptures, arguing that illness is illusory and laying the basis for
Christian Science.
24 July 1875, Athanase Coquerel,
French theologian, died.
12 July 1871. In New York, 31 civilians and 2 policemen were dead
after fighting between Scots/Irish Presbyterians and Irish Catholics.
8 July 1871. Bismarck launched a cultural offensive
against the Catholic Church, abolishing the Catholic Department for Spiritual Affairs.
7 August 1870, Jozef Brems, Bishop of Roskilde, was born.
18 July 1870. Pope Pius IX,
78, obtained a declaration from the Vatican General Council that the papacy
was infallible in all its pronouncements, per se and not by virtue
of the assent of the Church. Papal nuncios persuaded the bishops to vote 533 to
2 in favour of Papal infallibility.� This move provoked much anti-Church
legislation in Germany.
2/10/1870 In a plebiscite, the Papal States voted to unite
with Italy. The capital of Italy was moved from Florence to Rome. This was under
the reign of Pope
Pius IX.
1869, Pope
Pius IX declared that abortion of any kind was an excommincatory sin.
1865, The Seventh Day Adventist Church was
founded by Ellen
G White (nee Harmon, born 1827) and her husband.
YMCA, YWCA
10 February 1870,
The YWCA (Young Women�s Christian Association) was founded.
6 November 1861, James A Naismyth, American
physical educator and director of the
International YMCA in Springfield Massachusetts, inventor of basketball, was born.
6 June 1844. George Williams founded the YMCA at 72 St Paul�s Churchyard, London.
11/10/1821. Sir George Williams, founder of the YMCA in 1844, was born in Dulverton,
Somerset.
9 July 1860, Massacre of Christians in Damascus.
11 November 1858, Alessandro Moreschi, last castrato singer,
died.
15 June 1858, Christians were massacred in Jeddah.
11 February 1858. At Lourdes, a 14 year
old peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed to have seen a
vision of a lady surrounded by light in a grotto.
31/5/1857, Pope Pius XI was born.
8/12/1854. Pope Pius IX settled an ancient controversy by
declaring
that Christ�s mother, Mary, was free of all sin the moment she was born.
This doctrine is known as the �Immaculate Conception�.
1853, Until this year only Roman
Catholicism, introduced by the Spanish, was the permitted religion in
Colombia. The Roman Catholic religion was disestablished from Colombian State
patronage in 1936.
30 March 1851, In Britain this day, 7.25 million out of a total
population of 17 million reportedly attended Church. This was thought to be a
disturbingly small proportion.
15 March 1849, Guiseppe Mezzofanti, Italian Cardinal, died
(born 17 September 1774)
1848, The Christadelphians were founded by John Thomas (1805-1871).
27 June 1848, Denis Affre, Archbishop of Paris
(born 27 September 1793) died.
1847, A Papal Bull again reiterated the need for Catholic Priests to be celibate.
3 September 1847, James Hannington, first Bishop of Equatorial Africa, was born.
14 January 1847, Wilson Carlile, English clergyman who founded
the Church Army, was born in Buxton,
Derbyshire.
14/12/1844. China
relaxed a ban on the Roman Catholic Church.
25/12/1843. The first Christmas card was designed by John Calcott
Horsley for Sir Henry Cole. The design was of three
generations of a Victorian family sitting round a festive table, toasting an
absent guest. Some objected that the illustration encouraged drunkenness. Sir
Cole said he was too busy at business to send letters to all his friends as was
his custom, so he had 1,000 cards printed up, selling the surplus for 1
shilling each. By 1862 cards featured �A Merry Christmas and a Happy new
Year�; then holly and robins appeared in the illustrations, and by 1871 a daily newspaper complained that
people were trying to outdo each other in how many cards they received, and
the consequent delay in other
post.� The GPO adopted the slogan �Post
Early For Christmas� for the first time in 1880. Christmas crackers
appeared in the 1840s. However Christmas trees date back to around 1605
where they were seen in Strasbourg.� In
Alsace fir trees, or maien, were set up on May Day as far back as 1521.
23 September 1840, Nathanael Emmons, US clergyman, died (born
20/4/1745)
5/4/1840, Lant Carpenter, English Unitarian Minister,
died (born 2 September 1780)
12 September 1839, John Keane,
US Roman catholic Archbishop, was born.
13 August 1839, Michael Corrigan, Archbishop of New York, was
born.
13/5/1839, Joseph Fesch, Cardinal, died (born 3 January 1763)
2 June 1835, Pope Pius X was born.
19 June 1834, C H Spurgeon,
Victorian preacher, was born.
4 September 1832, Antonio
Agliardi, Papal diplomatist, was born in Bergamo, Italy.
18 August 1831, William Magee,
Archbishop of Dublin, died
22 September 1827. Joseph Smith, son of an impoverished New
England farmer, announced that he had received golden plates from an angel.
From this he translated the Book of Mormon, leading to the founding of the Mormon
religion.
31/10/1825, Charles Lavigerie, Catholic Primate of all
Africa, was born (died 26 November 1892).
25 February 1825, Quote from Samuel Taylor Coleridge, �He who begins by loving Christianity better
than Truth will proceed by loving his own sect or church better than
Christianity, and end by loving himself better than all�
16 July 1821, Mary Baker Eddy, American religious leader who founded the Christian Scientists, was born in Bow,
New Hampshire.
3/12/1815, John Carroll, US Roman Catholic prelate, died
(born 8 January 1735)
20 March 1810, John McCloskey, US Cardinal, was born (died
10/10/1885).
2 March 1810, Pope Leo XIII was born, as Gioacchino Vincenzo
Pecci, in Carpineto, the son of a Count.
28 August 1805, Alexander Carlyle, Scottish religious leader,
died (born 26 January 1722)
2 August 1803, Nicolas Wiseman, first Archbishop of
Westminster, was born.
26 January 1799, Samuel Gobat, Bishop of Jerusalem, was born
(died 11/5/1879).
21 June 1792, Ferdinand Baur, theologian, was born in
Schmiden (died 1860).
13/5/1792, Pope Pius IX was born.
12 September 1788,
Alexander Campbell, US Christian religious leader (died 1866) was born.
8 September 1784, Ann Lee, religious leader and founder of the
US sect of the Shakers, died.
7 March 1782, Angelo Mai, Vatican librarian, was born (died
8 September 1854).
2 September 1780, Lant Carpenter, English Unitarian Minister,
was born (died 5/4/1840).
1779, The Religious Tract
Society was founded in London. Its aim was to distribute religious literature
in the British colonies and other lands.
5 February 1775, Eusebius Amort, German Catholic Theologian,
died in Pulling, Bavaria (born 15 November 1692 in Bibermuhle, Upper Bavaria).
17 September 1774, Guiseppe Mezzofanti, Italian Cardinal, was
born (died 15 March 1849).
18 September 1765, Pope Gregory XVI was born.
3 January 1763, Joseph Fesch, Cardinal, was born (died
13/5/1839).
20 November 1761, Pope Pius VIII was born.
22 August 1760, Pope Leo XII born.
20 August 1745, Francis Asbury, US clergyman, was born (died
31 March 1816)
20/4/1745, Nathanael Emmons, US clergyman, was born (died
23 September 1840).
14 August 1740, Pope Pius X was born
28/4/1738. Pope Clement XII condemned freemasonry.
8 January 1735, John Carroll, US Roman Catholic prelate, was
born (died 3/12/1815).
26 January 1722, Alexander Carlyle, Scottish religious leader,
was born (died 28 August 1805).
27/12/1717, Pope Pius VI was born.
1713,
Jansenism, the Christeian sect
originally led by Bishop Cornelius Jansen, Bishop of Ypres, was
finally eradicated by Pope Clement XI. Similar to Calvinism, it had
been condemned as heresy by Pope Innocent IV in 1654.
21 January 1710, Johann Gichtel, German preacher,
died (born 14 March 1638).
1698, In London the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (SPCK) was formed
by Dr Thomas
Bray (1656 � 1730).
27 September 1696, Alfonso Liguori, Roman Catholic saint, was
born.
15 November 1692, Eusebius Amort, German Catholic Theologian,
was born in Bibermuhle, Upper Bavaria (died 5 February 1775 in Pulling,
Bavaria).
25 February 1686, Abraham Calovius, German Lutheran theologian (born
16/4/1612) died.
1662, In Britain the Uniformity
Act stated that all Church Ministers must be ordained by the Anglican rite.
This aliented more Dissenters.
18 January 1664, Moses Amyraut, Protestant theologian (born
1596) died.
27 September 1660, Vincent de Paul, preacher, later beatified,
died.
13/5/1655, Pope Innocent XIII was born.
6/5/1638, Cornelius Jansen, Bishop of� Ypres, died (born 28/10/1585).
14 March 1638, Johann Gichtel, German preacher, was born
(died 21 January 1710).
5 August 1633, George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, died
(born 19/10/1562).
18 November 1626. St
Peter�s Church in Rome was consecrated.
8 September 1624, Marco Dominis, Italian theologian, died (born
1560).
28/12/1622, Death in Lyons, France, of St Francis of Sales, co-founder
of the female religious Order of the Visitation and author of the influential
Counter-Reformation book Introduction to
the Devout Life.
6 June 1622, Pope Gregory XV founded the Sacred
Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, or Propaganda Fidei, to promote
Catholicism and counteract Protestantism.
17 September 1621, Roberto Bellarmine, Italian Cardinal, died in
Rome (born in Tuscany 4 January 1542).
9 July 1618, Religious dispute in Holland between Jacobus
Arminius and Gomarus. Gomarus supported the doctrine of
predestination; Arminius
opposed it. The Arminians, or Remonstrants, were supported by the
local State-Princes; the Contra-Remonstrants
(Gomarus)
were supported by Maurice, who also had the Army on his side. Maurice
moved to eliminate the waard-gelders, the local militia possessed by the
State-Princes. Supporting the Remonstrants were Hugo de Groot (Grotius) and Hoogerbeets.
13 March 1615, Pope Innocent XII was born.
16/4/1612, Abraham Calovius, German Lutheran theologian
(died 25 February 1686) was born.
16/5/1611, Pope Innocent XI was born.
1609, The Catholic League was founded.
19/10/1609, Jacobus Arminius, Dutch religious reformer,
died in Leiden (born 10/10/1560 in Oudewater, south Holland).
1604, In Britain, the Hampton Court
Conference attempted to enforce religious practices that the Puritans would not
accept. They became the first of the Dissenters.
29 February 1604, John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, died.
27/12/1603, Thomas Cartwright, English Puritan reformer,
died.
26/5/1595, Philip Neri, Italian churchman, died (born
21/7?1515).
See also Great Britain;
religious conflict, 16th and 17th centuries
28/10/1585, Cornelius Jansen, Bishop of� Ypres, was born (died 6/5/1638).
1 January 1583, Simon Episcopius, Dutch theologian, was born
(died 1643)
5/10/1582. Pope Gregory XIII cancelled 10 days from the 5th
to the 15th October 1582 to
bring back the Spring Equinox to the 21st March and ensure that
Easter fell on the proper date. Under the old Julian calendar, established
in 46 BC, the calendar gained a whole day every 128 years. The new system cut
out three leap years every 400 years to maintain accuracy.
24 February 1582, Pope Gregory XIII announced a change from the
Julian calendar to the new Gregorian
calendar, entailing a forward move of 11 days, see 5/10/1582.
24/4/1581, St Vincent de Paul, founder of the
Congregation of the Mission, was born in France.
25 June 1580, Publication of the Lutheran Book of Concord. This
set out the essential foundations of the Lutheran faith.
2/5/1576, Bartolome Carranza, Spanish theologian, died
(born 1503).
17/5/1575, Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury,
died.
6/5/1574, Pope Innocent X was born.
14/4/1570, At the Concensus of Sandomierz in Poland,
Lutherans, Calvinists and Moravians agreed to unite against Catholic attempts
to stamp out religious toleration, and to hold joint Protestant Synods.
1/10/1567, Pietro Carnesecchi, religious reformer, was
executed (born 1508).
22 September 1566, Johannes Agricola, German Protestant reformer (born
20/4/1494) died.
14/5/1565, Nicolaus von Amsdorf, German Protestant
reformer, died in Eisenach (born 3/12/1483 in Torgau).
1564, The term �Puritan� was first used, according to Thomas Fuller.
It was a somewhat pejorative term, having a sense of both
�Protestant-extremist� (rather like the Cathars) and �pedantic�, as in stickler
for detail or tradition�. The Puritans were a group of Protestant Christians
who felt that the Reformation of the
Church had not gone far enough.
13 November 1564, The Tridentine Creed was promulgated.
27/5/1564, John Calvin, French theologian who helped spread the Protestant revolution, died.
25/5/1564, St Philip Neri, Florentine Church reformer,
founded the Congregation nof the Oratory in Rome.
26 January 1564, Pope Pius IV confirmed the declarations of the
Council of Trent.
1563, The Council of Trent reiterated the
celibacy rule for priests.
19 January 1563, The
Heidelberg Catechism of the Reformed Protestant Churches was published.
12 November 1562, Peter Vermigli, Swiss Church reformer, died in
Zurich.
19/10/1562, George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, was
born (died 5 August 1633).
1 March 1562, Hugenots massacred at Wassy.
18 January 1562, The Council
of Trent reconvened, after a suspension of ten years.
20/12/1560, The first assembly of the Church of Scotland.
12 November 1560, Caspar Aquila, German religious reformer, died
(born in Augsburg 7 August 1488).
10/10/1560, Jacobus Arminius, Dutch religious reformer,
was born in Oudewater, south Holland (died in Leiden 19/10/1609).
30 September 1560, Melchior Cano, Spanish theologian (born 1525)
died.
19/4/1560, Death of Philip Melancthon, German Church reformer.
16 February 1559, Pope Paul IV issued the Papal Bull Cum Ex Apostolatus, calling for all
heretical rulers to be deposed. This justified attempts by the Habsburgs to
threaten Protestant rulers.
6/12/1557, John
Macalpine, Protestant theologian, died.
25 September 1555, The Peace of Augsburg was signed between Holy Roman
Emperor Charles V and the Schmalkaldic
League, at the city of Augsburg. It cemented the division
within Christendom between Catholicism and Protestantism, and allowed German
states to choose either Roman Catholicism or Lutheranism as their State
Religion.
9 January 1554, Pope Gregory XV born.
27/10/1553, Michael Servetus, theologian, was burnt at the
stake.
17 September 1552,
Pope Paul V was born.
1/5/1551, The Council of Trent
reopened in Trent, Tirol (Trento, northern Italy). Protestant delegates were
barred from entry, and the doctrine of Trsnasubstantiation was upheld.
24 November 1548, The English
Parliament voted to allow clergymen to
marry.
11 February 1548, English churches were
ordered to remove all images of saints, as the Reformation proceeded.
13/12/1545, The Council of Trent began.
20/4/1545. The Waldensians were massacred in Provence.
10 February 1543, Johann Maier Eck, opponent of the reforms of
Martin Luther, died (born 13 November 1486).
4/10/1542, Roberto Bellarmine, Italian Cardinal, was born
in Tuscany (died in Rome 17 September 1621).
24/12/1541, Carlstadt, German religious reformer, died
(born 1480).
25 July 1539, Lorenzo Campeggio, Italian Cardinal, died
(born 1464).
2 June 1537, A Papal Bull issued by Pope Paul III prohibited enslavement of
American Indians, contrary to King Charles V�s policies. Paul
excommunicated Catholic slave traders.
6/10/1536, William Tyndale, English
religious reformer and translator of the Bible, was burned at the stake as a heretic in Vilvarde, Brussels, on the
orders of King
Henry VIII.
25 February 1536, Berthold Haller, Swiss religious reformer,
died (born 1492).
11 February 1535, Pope Gregory XIV was born.
See also Great Britain
for religious conflicts during 16th century and Dissolution of the Monasteries
15 January 1535, The Act
of Supremacy was passed in England. This made King Henry VIII head of the
Church.
1534, Pope Paul III acceded, and began
the process called the Counter-Reformation.
9 August 1534, Cardinal Cajetan (Tommaso de Vio) died (born
1470). He was a staunch defender of papal privilege, in the face of Protestant
reform.
25 January 1533. King Henry VIII
and Anne Boleyn were secretly married
by the Bishop
of Lichfield, and became the future parents of Queen Elizabeth I. Anne Boleyn was crowned at Westminster on 1 June 1533,
shortly after Thomas Cranmer (who was
appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury on 30 March 1533) had declared Henry
VIII�s marriage to Catherine of Aragon null and void. On 23/5/1533 Henry VIII actually divorced Catherine of Aragon, resulting in a break between England
and the Church of Rome.
18 January 1532, English Parliament banned payment by English
churches to Rome.
11/10/1531, Ulrich Zwingli, Swiss Church reformer, was killed
in a fight with soldiers from the Catholic-supporting Forest Cantons at Kappel,
near Zurich. Zwingli
was Chaplain to the Protestant troops from Zurich.
25 June 1530, The Confession of Augsburg was read to the Diet.
18/4/1530, Francis Lambert, Protestant reformer, died.
19/4/1529, At the Diet of Speyer, an alliance of German
principalities and city states protested against the reinstatement of the Diet
of Worms, so beginning the Protestant movement.
17 June 1527, The Protestant Reformation began in Sweden.
1525, The original Mennonite movement started in Switzerland. It later took the name of a
former Roman Catholic priest, Menno Simons, Later an offshoot developed, called
the Amish after its founder, Jacob
Amman. They subsequently migrated from Germany and Switzerland into
Pennsylvania in the early 1700s.
1525, The Capuchin order was founded.
19 January 1523, Huldreich Zwingli published his 67 Articles in
Zurich. They attacked the authority of the Pope, and the concept of
Transubstantiation.
11/10/1521. Pope Leo X (217th Pope) conferred
the title of Defender of the Faith
on King
Henry VIII.� Twelve years later Henry VIII broke with
Rome to marry Anne Boleyn.
Martin
Luther
18 February 1546. Martin Luther, Augustinian friar
and instigator of the Reformation, died (see 31/10/1517), at his birthplace of
Eisleben, Germany, at the age of 63, apparently of overwork.
8 November 1527, Jerome Emser, opponent of Martin Luther�s
reforms, died (born 20 March 1477)
25/5/1521, The Holy Roman Empire ordered the
destruction of all of Martin Luther�s writings within its territory.
16/5/1521, The Edict of Worms imposed the Ban of
Empire on Martin
Luther.
18/4/1521, Martin Luther ended his
defence at the Imperial Diet of Worms with the words �I cannot and will not
recant anything.� God help me.� Amen�.
16/4/1521, Martin Luther
arrived at the Diet of Worms.
28 January 1521, The Diet
of Worms began.
3 January 1521, Pope Leo X
again issued a Papal Bull, Decet Romanum,
Pontificem, �re-excommunicating Martin Luther, after a deadline by which Luther had
been ordered to recant his �heretical� views expired. Martin Luther had condemned the sale of Indulgences (Papal forgiveness
for sins) to raise funds for the Papacy, promoted by the Archbishop of Mainz as a� way of raising money for rebuilding St Peters
in Rome.
10/12/1520, Martin Luther
publicly burnt the papal Bull, Exsurge,
that had excommunicated him.
15 June 1520, Pope Leo X
excommunicated Martin Luther.
4 July 1519, Death of Johann Tetzel,
German Dominican whose sale of Indulgences was criticised by Martin Luther.
26 June 1519, Martin Luther
publicly debated with German Catholic theologian Johann Eck at Leipzig, Saxony.
Luther went further than before in contesting Papal authority.
12/10/1518, At the
Diet of Augsburg, Germany, Church reformer Martin Luther refused to withdraw his 95
theses against the Church.
31/10/1517. Martin Luther, born 10 November 1483
in Eisleben, Germany, nailed his 95 Theses to the church� door at Wittenburg, so starting
the Reformation. He died on 18 February 1546. These theses condemned
the sale of indulgences granting forgiveness of sin. On 15 June 1520 Pope Leo X
condemned Luther�s theses as
�heretical and scandalous�.
10 November 1483, Martin Luther, German religious
reformer, leader of the Protestant Reformation, was born in Eisleben, the son
of a miner.
20 March 1477, Jerome Emser, opponent of Martin Luther�s
reforms, was born (died 8 November 1527)
11 August 1519, Johann Tetzel died in Leipzig Priory, aged 54.
He defended the Church practice of
selling indulgences
16 March 1517, The Fifth Lateran Council ended. The
doctrine of �Immortality of the Soul� was made Church dogma.
1515, The Fifth Lateran Council forbade
the printing of any books without the permission of the Roman Catholic Church.
21 July 1515, Philip Neri, Italian churchman, was born (died
26/5/1595).
16/4/1515, Roman Catholic mass was banned in Zurich as the Lutheran Revolution spread across Europe.
28 March 1515, St Teresa of Avila was born. A Spanish
noblewoman, she joined the Carmelite
nuns in 1533, and reformed the
order.
11/4/1514, Italian architect Donate Bramante died whilst
still building St Peters in Rome, which he
had begun in 1506.
11/10/1513, The
Church reformer Huldrych
Zwingli died (born 1 January 1484). He was killed, as Army Chaplain
for the forces of Zurich, in battle during the War of Kappel, against the
Forest Cantons.
3/5/1512, The Fifth Lateran Council began. It
declared that the immortality of the soul was a dogma ofd the Church.
10 July 1509, John
Calvin, French priest who spread the Reformation, was born at Noyon, Picardy.
1506, The Vatican City Swiss Guard was formed. Pope Julius II mad a contract
with the Swiss Confederacy that no other country could recruit soldiers from Switzerland
or emply Swiss mercenaries without Papal permission. The original Guard was
6,000 strong but now has just 100 men.
6 August 1504. Matthew Parker,
Archbishop of Canterbury, was born.� He
had a very long nose, and was extremely inquisitive, hence the expression
�nosey parker�.
See also Great Britain;
religious conflict, 16th and 17th centuries
17 January 1504, Pope Pius V
was born.
7 January 1502, Pope Gregory XIII
born.
31 March 1499, Pope Pius IV was born.
19/12/1498, Andreas Osiander, religious reformer, was born.
23/5/1498, Italian religious reformer Girolamo Savonarola was executed
for heresy.
16 February 1495, Birth of Philip Melancthon, Protestant
reformer.
20/4/1494, Johannes Agricola, German Protestant reformer (died 22 September 1566)
was born.
5 June 1493, Justius Jonas, German Protestant Reformer, was born (died 1555).
28 June 1490, Albert, Archbishop of Mainz (died 24 September
1545) was born.
7 August 1488, Caspar Aquila, German religious reformer, was born in Augsburg
(died 12 November 1560).
10 September 1487, Pope Julius III was born.
29 January 1487, Richard Foxe became Bishop of Exeter.
13 November 1486, Johann Maier Eck, opponent of the reforms of Martin Luther, was born (died 10
February 1543).
1 January 1484, The
Church reformer Huldrych
Zwingli was born in Switzerland (died 11/10/1513).
3/12/1483, Nicolaus von Amsdorf, German Protestant reformer, was
born in Torgau (died 14/5/1565 in Eisenach).
9 August 1483. Pope Sixtus IV (212nd Pope) celebrated the first
mass in the Sistine Chapel, which was named after him.
28 July 1480, (1) An Ottoman Army landed near Otranto,
Italy.� Pope Sixtus IV called for a crusade to drive them out.
(2) Mohammed II failed in an attempt
to take Rhodes
from the Knights of Rhodes.
4/5/1493, Pope Alexander VI issued the Papal Bull Inter Cetera, dividing the Americas
between Portrugal and Spain,
28 June 1476, Pope Paul IV born.
11/12/1475, Pope Leo X was born.
28 February 1468, Pope Paul III was born.
23/10/1456, Giovanni di Capistrano, Italian theologian,
died (born 1386).
21 September 1452, Girolamo Savonarola, Church reformer, was born.
1447, Pope Nicholas V acceded (died
1455).
6 March 1447, St Colette, founder of the Colettine Poor
Clares, died at Ghent (born 13 January 1381). She founded 18 convents.
23 February 1447, Pope Eugene IV died.
1434, Insurrection in Rome; Pope Eugene IV
was forced to flee to Florence. Florence Cathedral
(begun 1420) was completed.
6 July 1439, Emperor John III of Constantinople (by then he
ruled very little outside Constantinople, Salonika and Morea, and was known in
western Europe as �Emperor of the Greeks�, not as he was officially, Roman Emperor)
travelled to an Ecumenical Council in Florence and accepted papal primacy and
union with Rome. The Decree of Union (Laetentur Caeli) formally uniting the Latin and Greek churches was issued. This was
a last-ditch attempt to save his dominions from the Ottoman Turkish advance. However the
Greek clergy rejected this union; there were too many fundamental differences
of doctrine between the two Churches. Those who had formally accepted the union
recanted upon return home. They preferred, in the words of a Byzantine
dignitary, �the power [in Constantinople]
of the Turkish turban rather than the Latin tiara.
29/5/1439, Pope Pius III was born.
26 January 1431, Richard Fleming, Bishop of Lincoln, died.
6 July 1415..
Jan Hus, preacher and religious reformer, arrested on 28
November 1414, was burnt at the stake in Constance, Germany
5/5/1415, The
Council of Constance opened in Germany. Its aim was to reform the Church of
abuses, promote unity and prosecute heresy.
12/12/1409, Pope Alexander V issued a Papal Bull ordering
all books written by English reformer John Wycliff to be handed in. Archbishop
Zbynek of Prague publicly burned his books.
18/10/1405, Pope Pius II was born.
27 September 1404, William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester,
died.
1398, Jan Hus, Church reformer, was
lecturing on theology at Prague university.
15 November 1397, Pope Nicholas V was born.
31/12/1384, John Wycliffe, religious reformer (born 1328),
died.
4/12/1383, Anti-Pope Felix V
(Amadeus, Duke of Savoy) was born (died 7 January 1451).
20/5/1381. A council was held in Paris to find a way of ending the scandal of two Popes existing at
once; After Pope
Gregory XI died (1378) two rival Popes had been elected, Pope Urban VI
at Rome and Pope
Clement VII at Avignon. This Great
Schism persisted until 1417.
13 January 1381, Birth of St Colette, founded of the
Coletttine Poor Clares, in Corbie, France. See 6 March 1447.
29/4/1380, Death of Catherine of Siena, who became the patron
saint of Italy.
She was born in 1347 in Siena as Caterina Beninasca and became an ascetic. She
campaigned against the Papal split (Avignon) and corruption, and was canonised
by Pope Pius
II in 1471, and was a noted Mediaeval female writer.
31/12/1378, Pope Callixtus III was born.
17 January 1377, The
Papal See was transferred back to Rome from Avignon.
20/10/1349, Pope Clement VI outlawed the flagellants. They had become more numerous
since the Black Death began., and encouraged persecution of the Jews.
1322, Pope John XXII forbade the use of counterpoint in Church music.
1317, The Papacy outlawed alchemy.
5/5/1313, Pope Celestine V was canonised.
15 August 1309, The city of Rhodes surrendered to the forces
of the Knights
of St. John, completing their
conquest of Rhodes. The knights established their headquarters on the
island, and renamed themselves as the Knights of Rhodes.
9 March 1309. Pope Clement V (French) arrived at Avignon to
set up court there. Rome was no longer
the Papal Seat.
5 September 1307, Pope Clement V confirmed the Knights
Hospitaller possession of Rhodes, although only Feracle had fallen to
their attacks.
5 August 1305. Bertrand de Got, Archbishop of Bordeaux, was
elected Pope and took the name Clement V.
12 September 1303, A popular uprising in Anagni forced the
release of Pope
Boniface VIII.
7 September 1303, Italian forces loyal to King Philip IV
of France arrested Pope Boniface VIII after he released the
French people from allegiance to the King.
24 June 1303, King Philip IV of France summoned all European
rulers to a council to hear acusations against Pope Boniface VIII.
18 November 1302, Pope Boniface VIII issued a Bull , Unam Sanctam, asserting the superiority
of Papal authority over secular rulers.
11 August 1297, Pope Boniface VIII canonised French King Louis
IX, who died in 1270.
29 February 1296, Pope Boniface VIII issued a Papal Bull forbidding
kings from taxing the clergy.
31 July 1291, The Mamluks took Beirut, completing their conquest of the
Kingdom of Jerusalem.
18/5/1291, Al-Ashraf Khalil of Egypt captured Acre, the last
Christian stronghold in the Holy Land. Christians in Acre, who had broken a truce by massacring all Muslims in the town, scrambled for places on boats
to Cyprus. Most Christians in Acre were captured, and sent to the slave market
in Damascus.
6/4/1291, Mamluks under Sultan
al-Ashraf of Egypt began a siege of the Crusaders at Acre.
27/4/1289, Fall of Tripoli: Mamluk Sultan Qalawun captured the County of
Tripoli (in present-day Lebanon) after a month-long siege, thus extinguishing the Crusader state.
8 August 1288, Pope Nicholas IV (died 1292) proclaimed a Crusade against Ladislaus IV of Hungary. who had lost credibility by favouring his semi-pagan Cuman subjects
and in general refusing to conform to the social standards of western Europe.
31/5/1287, The Genoese defeated the Venetian fleet off Acre,
Crusader Kingdon of Jerusalem.
25/4/1285, Mamluk Sultan Qalawun began a siege of the Crusader fortress of Margat (in present-day Syria), a major stronghold of
the Knights
Hospitaller thought to be impregnable; he captured the fortress a
month later.
6 January 1285, Archbishop Jakub Swinka ordered all priests
subject to his bishopry in Poland to deliver sermons in Polish rather than
German, thus further unifying the Catholic Church in Poland and fostering a
national identity.
3 July 1281, By the Treaty of Orvieto, the Venetians promised
to help Charles
of Anjou, King of Sicily, restore the Latin Kinhgdom of Jerusalem.
17 July 1274, The Second Council of Lyons ended. It had
commenced 7/5/1274, to 1) end the Greek Schsim, 2) call a new Crusade, and 3)
counter moral corruption within the clergy.
7 March 1274. Thomas Aquinas
died. He was born into a Lombard-Norman family in 1225. A controversial figure,
he became a notable philosopher and theologian of the Catholic Church. He died
at Fossanuova Abbey in the Roman Campagna whilst on the way to the Council of
Lyons.
22/5/1272, A peace treaty was agreed between Babyars I
and the Crusader Kingdom of Acre.
9/5/1271, Edward, heir of King Henry III of England,
arrived in Acre, where the Crusaders were under siege by Mamluk forces under
Babyars I.
8/4/1271, Mamluk Sultan Baibars continued his
territorial expansion, capturing the strategically important castle Krak des
Chevaliers from the Knights Hospitaller in present-day Syria.
23 November 1270, A storm destroyed the Crusader fleet at
Trapani, Sicily, preventing Charles of Anjou from setting out for the Holy
Land.
25 July 1270, King Louis IX of France took Tunis (8th
Crusade).
18 July 1270, King Louis IX of France landed at Carthage on
his way to the Eight Crusade.
1 July 1270, King Louis IX of France set sail on the Eight
Crusade.
18/5/1268, The Principality of Antioch, a crusader state, fell to the Mamluk
Sultan Baibars in the Battle of Antioch;
7 March 1268, Egyptian Sultan Babyars I seized the Crusader
city of Jaffa.
24 March 1267,
�Saint� Louis
of France called his knights to Paris in preparation for his Crusade.
23 July 1266, Babyars I, Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, seized the
Templar fortress of Safed and overran the Galilee region.
4/4/1263, Egyptian Sultan Babyars I attacked Acre, ina� major effort to eliminate the Crusader
Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Tripoli and the Principality of Antioch.
1260, A nunnery was established at
Longchamps, Bois de Boulogne, near Paris. It was suppressed in 1790, and te
site became a racecourse and pleasure park.
1260, The first Flagellants appeared in southern Germany and
northern Italy.
1256, The Order of Augustine Hermits was
founded.
9/10/1253, Robert Grosseteste, theologian, died.
Seventh
Crusade, see also Egypt
11 July 1254, Louis IX returned to France from
the Seventh Crusade.
24/4/1254, French King Louis IX left Palestine.
Civil War broke in the Outremer (Crusader States).
11 February 1250, The Muslims counterattacked
the exhausted Crusaders, who only just hung on by their use of Greek Fire.
6/4/1250, Battle of Fariskur. Louis IX surrendered to the Mamluks, after a
failed breakout and thwarted retreat to Damietta. The Crusaders were weakened
by scurvy. Louis
IX and his forces were allowed to depart on payment of a ransom of
800,000 gold livres.Louis� surviving soldiers returned to France. Louis
himself sailed for Acre, but his further negotiations, including an attempted
alliance with the Mongols,came to nothing.
8 February 1250, Louis IX�s invading forces
dosvovered a ford across the Ashmoun Canal 4 miles from the main battlefield
and surprised the Muslim forces with an attack on Damietta on the way to Cairo.
However Louis
IX�s brother, Robert of Artois, disobeyed orders, he was
supposed to hold the opposite bank of the Canal until further French
reinforcements joined him, but he rashly attacked into the town of Mansura
prematurely. In the streets, Robert�s cavalry were of limited
effectiveness; the Miuslims rallied and halted his advance.
1/1250, Crusader
forces tried to build a causeway across the Ashmoun Canal, but the Muslims
harassed them with war engines, also widened the canal by excavating on the
side they held.
22 November 1249, Sultan Al-Salih died, leaving
his inexperienced son Turanshah as ruler. This was good news for the
invading King
Louis IX of France. However initially hois death was kept secret and
one of his wives, Shajah ud Durr, ruled in his name.
20 November 1249, The Seventh Crudaders in Egypt had only advanced 50 miles in 4
weeks as they moved towards Cairo. They were halted at Mansura, where the Fifth
Crusade had been stopped, as Muslim forces under Emir Fakr ed Din, held tham at the Ashmoun Canal.
6 June 1249, In the Seventh Crusade, King Louis IX of France landed at
Damietta, Egypt. Opposaition was light, as the garrison defending the city fled
in panic. Mindful of the issues faced by the Fifth Crusade in advancing on
Cairo in the midsummer heat, Louis IX delayed until Autumn. However this
gave the Egyptian Sultan Malik al Salih, then seriously
ill,� time to restore morale in his
forces.
25 August 1248, The Seventh Crusade left Aigues
Mortes, France, under King Louis IX.
1245, The
Seventh Crusade was mobilised under
King Louis
IX of France. It left for Egypt in 8/1248, and invaded
Damietta, Egypt in Spring 1249. It then marched on Cairo, but was halted at
Mansura. See 6/4/1250, Egypt.
16 March 1244, Following their successful siege of Monts�gur,
French royal forces burned about 210 Cathars.
1241, Jerusalem was finally captured by the
Muslims. It remained in Egyptian hands until 1517, and in Muslim hands until
World War One. A further seventh
Crusade was planned to recapture it but this did not happen. See 1245.
22 September 1236, Battle of Saule. In the Northern Crusades,
Livonian Kights had fought against Baltic pagan peoples such as the Samogitians
of Lithuania. The Pope had previously criticised the Livonian Knights for their
rather more materialistic acquisitive as opposed to spiritual agenda. Having
taken much loot from the Samogitians in an expedition in 1236, they found
themselves blocked at a river crossing this day on the way home. They did not
wish to dismount and fight, nor to ride through marshy ground and attempt a
breakthrough. The Livonians footsoldiers, perhaps forcibly recruited, deserted,
and the light Livonian cavalry cut down the heavily-armoured Livonians. The
remnant of the Livonian Order was forced to join with the Teutonic Knights,by
Papal order.
3 June 1232, St Anthony of Padua was canonised.
13 June 1231, St Anthony of Padua died.
17 March 1230, The Archbishop of Bremen, Gerhard II, convened a
Great Church Gathering at Bremen. There he organised the excommunication of the Stedinger for such crimes as worshipping wax
images of the Devil and consulting evil spirits. In reality the Stedinger had
been granted permission, in 1106 by an earlier Archbishop of Bremen, to reclaim
the marshlands at the estuary of the River Weser for agriculture. The work was
hard, digging drainage ditches and building�
dikes but the inhabitants of this land, called Stedingen, were at least
free from Feudalism. They paid a nominal tax to the Archbishop but owned no
feudal duties to any Lord. Over time the feudal Lords of the region and the
Archbishops of Bremen came to see the freedom of the Stedinger as a threat.
Relations deteriorated as the Counts of Oldenburg built two fortresses in
Stedingen, at Lechtenburg and Luneberg, kidnapping local people from the area, and
in turn the Stedinger formed local militias for their own protection. Gerhard II
went to Rome to secure Pope Gregory II�s agreement for a Crusade against the Stedinger, which
began in Spring 1233. By the end of 1234 the Stedinger society had been eradicated,
although some families claiming descent from the Stedinger remain today in
Germany and the USA.
12/4/1229, The Treaty
of Paris brought the Albigensian
Crusade to an end.
Sixth
Crusade
18 March 1229, King Frderick II of Germany had himself
crowned King of Jerusalem.
12 March 1229. Frederick II of Germany finally arrived in Jerusalem, having been twice excommunicated by the
Pope for delaying his Crusade. He had intended to depart in 1215 but was
delayed by domestic problems including the Mongol invasion. He reached Acre,
with only a small army, but he had been (2/1229) in clandestine negotiations
with the Sultan of Egypt, Al-Kamil, who had been shaken by the fifth
Crusader�s advance into Egypt. The Sultan was happy to surrender Bethlehem and
Nazareth, and a corridor of territory from Jerusalem to the coast as well as
much of Jerusalem itself. The Vatican,
however, disapproved of Frederick�s
negotiating with a non-Christian.
19 July 1228, St Francis of Assissi was canonised.
9 July 1228, Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury,
died.
28 June 1228, Frederick II finally embarked on the Crusade;
however Pope
Gregory IX did not revoke his excommunication.
29 September 1227, Pope Gregory IX excommunicated King Frederick
of Germany a second time, for delaying his Crusade.
8 September 1227, Frederick II, King of Germany, departed from
Brindisi on a Crusade. However an epidemic in his fleet caused him to abandon
the project 3 days later. This was his second abandonment; the first intended
departure, in 1215, was delayed by Frederick having to deal with disorder in
Sicily.
Fifth Crusade
31 August 1221, Under a peace deal, the Franks
left Egypt.
6 November 1219. The Egyptian port of
Damietta fell to the Crusaders (Franks)
after a siege.
24/5/1218, The Fifth
Crusade left Acre for Egypt.
1215, Pope Innocent III called for a
Fifth Crusade, to go by way of Egypt.
1217, Death of Peter Waldo,
or Valdez,
born ca. 1140, founder of the Waldensians.
6 August 1221, Saint Dominic, Spanish priest and founder of
the Dominicans, born ca. 1170, died in
Bologna, Italy. He was canonised in 1234. In England, from their black robes they were also
known as Black Friars. By 1221 there were 60 Dominican Houses.
22/12/1216, The Dominican
Order of monks was founded.
11
November 1215, Pope Innocent III opened the
Fourth Lateran Council in Rome. This
officially ended the Albigensian Crusadem and authgorised a Fifth Crusade in
Palestine. Simon de Montfort was granted the County of Toulouse. The first
Papal tithe on the clergy was imposed. The Jews were pordered to wear
distinctive clothes.
24 August 1215, Pope Innocent III declared the Magna Carta (forcibly signed by King John
at Runnymede) invalid.
1 July 1215, The
number of monks in England had grown considerably, from about 1,000 in 1066, on
the eve of the Norman Conquest, to around 13,000 by 1215.
4 March 1215, King John of England made an oath to Pope Innocent
III as a crusader to gain his support. John also technically passed
authority of his kingdom over to the Pope, thereby making anyone who tried to
depose him an enemy of the Pope and liable to excommunication. This move was a
precaution by John
who was facing rebellion by his barons. This healed the rift between King John
and Pope
Innocent III, see 15 July 1207.
8 January 1215, Simon de Montfort the Elder was elected Lord
of Languedoc at a Council in Montpellier, after his campaign against the
Cathars.
12 September 1213, Battle
of Muret: The Toulousain and Aragonese forces of Raymond VI of Toulouse and
Peter II of Aragon were defeated by the Albigensian
Crusade under Simon de Montfort.
4 November 1212, Felix of Valois, founder of the monastic order
of Trinitarians (Redemptionists) died (born 19/4/1127).
22 July 1209. The Crusade against the Cathars, The Cathars, also known as Albigensians
after the French town of Albi, held beliefs heretical to the Catholic Church.
They also denied the divinity of Jesus, and the Pope. The Papacy declared them
heretics in 1176, and Pope Innocent sent preachers to convert them.
However in January 1208 his legate, Pierre of Castelnau, was killed by the
Albigensians; the Pope then declared a Crusade against them. Many joined this
Crusade, attracted by promises that they could keep any land seized from the
Albigensians. In 1209 the 10,000 strong Crusader army gathered in Lyon and
marched south under the command of another Papal legate, Arnauld Amalric, Abbot of Citeaux..
The Cathars were massacred in Beziers, but remained active elsewhere for
another 20 years.
17 November 1208, Pope Innocent III asked the nobility of
northern France to start the Albibegnsian Crusade against the Cathars in
southern France.
12 March 1208, St Peter of Castelnau was canonised, see 15 January 1208.
15 January 1208, St Peter of Castelnau died, see 12 March 1208.
15 July 1207, King John expelled the monks at Canterbury who
were supporters of Stephen Langton. The dispute between John
and Pope Innocent led to King John being excommunicated in 1008; an
interdict was placed upon England, meaning Church services could not officially
be held there. In 1213 Pope Innocent III authorised King Philip II of France to
invade England and depose King John. However see 4 March 1215.
17 June 1207, Pope Innocent III consecrated Stephen Langton
as Archbishop of Canterbury,
following the death of the previous incumbent, Hubert Walter, in 2105. However King John of
England preferred John de Grey, Bishop of Norwich, to succeed to
the post.
Crusader
assault on Constantinople
16/5/1204, Baldwin, Count of Flanders, was crowned Latin
Emperor of Constantinople. In October 1204, Venice and Baldwin partitioned the
Byzantine Empire. Venice gained the Adriatic coast,� Rhodes and the Aegean Islands. Other
Crusaders held their territories as fiefs of Baldwin. The Fourth Crusade had
ended, never having reached the Holy Land, diverted from the aims of Pope Innocent
III by Venetian and Byzantine politics.
13/4/1204, The Crusaders captured Constantinople.� Venice had
provided the shipping to carry the Fourth Crusade eastwards, but in order to repay Venice the Crusaders
were obliged to seize, on behalf of Venice, the port of Zara on tye Adriatic
from Christian Hungary. Meanwhile the exiled Byzantine Prince Alexius Angelus
, son of the deposed King Isaac II, also offered to pay the
Crusaders if they would restore him to the Byzantine throne. In June 1203
therefore, the Crusaders arrived in Cinstantinople and set up Alexius
as Emperor. However in February 1204 Emperor Alexius was murdered, and replaced
by courtier Alexius
Doucas, who told the Crusaders to leave. Moreover the promised
200,000 Marks fee for installing Alexius Angelus was never paid. The Crusaders
responded by besieging and attacking Constantinople. The Crusader nobleman Baldwin
of Flanders was installed as Byzantine ruler, but most of Byzantium refused to
recognise him, and the Empire fragmented into four disunited States.
See
also Roman Empire for more on
Constantinople
1/1204, Increasing resentment by
the Byzantine nobility against the Crusaders and thrir puppet rulers, Isaac II
and Alexius IV. Alexius
Ducas Mourtzouphlous, son in law of Alexius III, mounted an
insurrection. Isaac
II was imprisoned and Alexius IV executed. Alexius Ducas now seized the
throne as Alexius
V. The Crusaders now planned an all-out assault on Constantinople.
17 July 1203, The Crusader assault on Constantinople began. The Crusader
Army attacked by land from the west whilst the venetian fleet assaulted the sea
wall. Alexius
III fled the city by night. The Byzantine nobles released Isaac II
from prison and restored him as Emperor. Alexius IV became co-emperor.
23 June 1203, The Crusader force arrived at Chalcedon, on the Asiatic
shore opposite Byzantium, then, despite efforts by Byzantium, established a
fortified camp at Galata. The Venetian fleet then forced its way into the
Bosphorus and then into the Golden Horn, the water between Galata and Constantinople.
Venice was seeking to recover lands lost in the Balkans; Pope Innocent III objected that
Christian Venetians were now killing other (Balkan) Christians.
15 November 1202, The Crusdaers took Zara (now in Croatia) from
Hungary and transferred it to Venice. The Crusaders agreed to help deposed
Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angelus, an ally of Venice, regain
the throne.
2/4/1195, Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI proclaimed a Crusade at Bari.
1202, The Pope� issued the Decretal Venerabiliem, asserting the superiority of the Papacy
over secular Emperors. See 4 March 1075. See also 754.
End of
Third Crusade, 1189-92
2 November 1192. Peace was concluded between Richard I
(Lionheart) of England
and Saladdin of Jerusalem (see
2/12/1187). The Crusades never achieved their objective of liberating the Holy
Land from the Muslims
but because they caused the death of so many noblemen the system of serfdom
and landholding in Europe was gradually dismantled. Feudalism gradually ended
over the period from 1300 to the Thirty Years War, 1618-48.
5
August 1192, Final battle of the Third
Crusade, at Jaffa. After victory at Arsuf, Richard
I had spent months capturing castles and winning minor fights, but
never managed to attain his ultimate objective of gaining Jerusalem. In late
July 1192 he was in Acre, planning his return trip to England when Saladin unexpectedly attacked Jaffa. Saladin took the town but not the citadel, Richard I arrived at Jaffa by sea and managed
to drive the Muslims away from Jaffa. Saladin
and Richard I then opened peace
negotiations. The end result was a deal that left the Christians with just a
narrow coastal strip in the Holy Land, but did at least ensure their presence
there for another century.
28/4/1192, Conrad of Montferrat,
Crusader King of Jerusalem, died.
5/4/1192, Easter Sunday. Guy
de Lusignan, King of Jerusalem, was deposed and succeeded by Conrad, Marquis of Montferrat. Guy received Cyprus as compensation.
6 September 1191. Richard I
defeated the Saracens
at the Battle of Arsouf. Richard I then
marched on Jaffa.
4 July 1191. The Crusaders under Richard I captured Acre
from Saladdin,
during the Third Crusade.
21 June 1190, The
German Crusaders arrived in Antioch.
10 June 1190. Holy Roman
Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa) drowned in the River Saleph (now,
Goksu) on his way to the Holy Land in the Third Crusade. He was succeeded by
his son Henry
IV.
18/5/1190, Holy
Roman Emperor Frederick
I advanced into Konya, capital of Rum, western Turkey.
12/12/1189, King Richard I
of England left on the Crusade.
4/10/1189, Saladin
returned to Acre with a larger army tio relieve the Crusader siege. Both sides
lost heavily, and the siege continued.
15 September 1189, Saladin
attempted to relieve the siege of Acre, which was wanted by Guy of Jerusalem so
he could use the port as a base for the expected Third Crusade. However the Muslim forces were driven off.
11/5/1189, Holy
Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa departed from Regensburg on the Third
Crusade, with 100,000 troops.
21 January 1189. Henry II of England, with Philip Augustus and Frederick
Barbraossa, assembled troops for a third Crusade.
Start of
Third Crusade
Loss of
Jerusalem to Saladdin 1187
2/12/1187. Jerusalem
surrendered to Saladdin (see 2 November 1192). Saladdin was born in 1138, in Tikrit (Saddam
Hussein�s native town) of Kurdish parents and�
was educated in Syria. In 1164 he accompanies his uncle on a military
campaign in Egypt. The aim was to substitute Sunni for Shia Islam there, and also to drive the Crusader Franks
out of the Levant. The local Syrian leader died in 1174 and Saladdin defeated
his 11 year old successor and seized power. The Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad gave
Saladdin power over all the lands from Morocco to Syria; Saladdin later
extended his rule into Mesopotamia. Saladdin also subdued the Assassins, a
Muslim sect that had twice tried to kill him. He now attacked the Crusaders,
and on 1 July 1187 captured Tiberias after a six day siege.
After the capture of
Jerusalem by Saladdin, the Franks were almost evicted from the
region, holding on only at Antioch, Tripoli, and Tyre. European states set
aside their differences in panic and three rulers; Richard I of England,
Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, and Philip Augustus of France, set
out on a third Crusade. The Crusaders marched on
Muslim-held Acre, Saladdin arrived, and there ensued a long battle, control
swinging back and forth. After two years, Acre fell to the Crusaders. Peace
negotiations began, (see 2 November 1192), the end result being a marriage of
his daughter with Saladdin�s brother, Al-Malik, who was knighted by Richard.
The peace gave the coast to the Europeans and the interior to the Muslims. In
February 1188 Saladdin fell ill with a fever and died 12 days later aged 55.
4 July 1187, The Battle of the Horns of Hattin (an extinct volcano crowned with
two rocky outcrops). Saladin�s 20,000 strong army defeated Guy of Lusignan,
King of Jerusalem. Guy de Lusignan had made a tactical error in
attempting to relieve Saladin�s siege of Tiberias. Thirst drove Lusignan�s
troops to drink at a nearby lake, where Saladin then attacked them.
1/5/1187, Battle of Cresson: Saladin defeated the Crusaders.
29/12/1177, The Order of Alcantara (founded 1156 as the Order of
Saint Julian) received Papal approval. It was a military order of crusading
knights, and played a part in the Reconquista of Spain from the Muslims.
25 November 1177, King Baldwin
of Jerusalem defeated Saladin at Montgisard.
17 September 1176, Emperor
Manuel of Byzantium was defeated by
the Muslims,
in the Crusades.�
5 September 1174, Fire gutted the Choir of Canterbury Cathedral. It was
rebuilt using the pointed arch, the first known use of this type of arch in
England.
1173, The Waldensian Movement began in Lyons,
France.
1170, Dominic de
Guzman, founded of the
Dominican Order, was born at Calahorra, Spain.
1170, Pope Alexander
III established rules for the canonisation of Saints.
29/12/1170. The murder of Thomas
Becket, 40th Archbishop of Canterbury, by four knights in
his own Cathedral. The knights (Reginald Fitzurse, William de Tracy, Hugh de
Merville, and Richard de Breton) believed they were acting
on King
Henry II�s orders. Becket, far from being the docile cleric Henry
believed him to be on appointing him as Archbishop of Canterbury, was a firm
upholder of ecclesiastical privileges. Henry,
furious at Becket�s excommunication of the six bishops who had assisted the Archbishop
of York at the crowning of Henry II�s son in
Westminster Abbey, uttered the fatal cry. �Who will rid me of this turbulent
priest�. The four knights gave Henry his answer.
2/12/1170, Thomas Beckett returned to Canterbury from his
voluntary exile. He had left England on 2 November 1164.
14 June 1170, King Henry II�s son was crowned, not as was
custom by the Archbishop of Canterbury but by the Archbishop of York. This was
a major snub to Thomas Beckett, and against Papal instructions. Henry then made
verbal reconciliation with Beckett, who, impatient to return to England, did so
without proper guarantees of safety.
1167, The Council of Tours
forbade the clergy from practising surgery, so this skill was taken over by the
barber-surgeons.
1161, Pope Innocent
III was born.
1 September 1159. Death of Pope Adrian
IV, elected Pope on 4/12/1154. He was formerly Nicholas Breakspear,
and was the only English Pope. In 1155 he authorised King Henry II of England to invade Ireland
and hold it as a hereditary fief of the Papacy. Breakspear was born at Bedmond
Farm in Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire, around 1100. His father became a monk of
St Albans abbey, presumably after the death of his wife. Nicholas Breakspear
also applied to join the Abbey at age 18 but was refused admission because of
too little schooling. He went abroad as a wandering scholar and finally became
a monk in the Augustinian Abbey of St Rufus in Avignon in 1130. He was elected
Abbot in 1137 and came to the notice of the Pope, Eugenius III. The Pope
recognised his qualities and made him a bishop and a cardinal; Breakspear was
sent on a trip to war-torn Scandinavia where he restored peace. After 4 years
Breakspear returned to Rome to find that Eugenius III had died and was succeeded by
Anastasius IV, a man of 90. Within the year Anastasius IV was dead and
Nicholas Breakspear was unanimously elected Pope, taking the name Adrian IV.
1155, The Carmelite Order was founded.
18 June 1155, Rioting in
Rome as English born Pope Adrian crowned Frederick Barbarossa as Holy
Roman Emperor; 1,000 died.
2 November 1148, �Saint� Malachy, Church reformer, died.
Second Crusade. Christians fail to captiure Damascus
29 June 1149, Raymond of
Poitiers, Prince of Antioch, was defeated and killed by Nur ad Din,
son of Imad
ad Din Zangi. The Second Crusade ended.
28 July 1148, The
Crusaders failed to capture Damascus.
The troops of Louis
II of France and Conrad III of Germany suffered considerable
losses at the hands of the Turks on the way to the Holy Land, even before they
arrived to join with Baldwin III of Jerusalem. They arrived at
Damascus on 23 July 1148 and occupied the large orchards and fields west of
Damascus, suffering further losses at the hands of the skilled Damascene
archers. Failing to take Damascus from this angle, on 27 July 1148 they moved
to the more open ground east of Damascus. The army leaders then began to argue
over the best plan of attack, and who should rule Damascus once captured; news
also broke of a large Muslim army now in Homs under the command of skilled
General Nur-ad-Din.
Local Christian lords deserted, taking their men away, and on 28 July 1144 Louis,
Conrad
and Baldwin
began their own retreat back to Jerusalem, having accomplished nothing.
25/10/1147, Battle of
Dorylaeum, the Seljuq Turks
defeated German crusaders under Conrad III.
24/12/1144, The
city of Edessa fell to the Muslims, sparking the
Second Crusade. Zengi
had been informed that Count Joscelin of Edessa had argued with Prince Raymond
of Antioch, and had then taken most of his army to Diyarbakir to
interfere in a local dispute there. Therefore Zengi moved to capture Edessa at
ths time. Arriving on 28 November 1144, Zengi began undermining the city walls and
battering them with trebuchets. Queen Melisende of Jerusalem sent a relief
force, but Prince
Raymond of Antioch refused to help. On 24/12/1144 a section of
Edessa�s walls fell. Zengi separated local Christians from the
foreign ones, then executed the latter. Edessa�s citadel held out until
26/12/1144, surrendering on condition that their lives would be spared, just
before Joscelin
and Melisende�s
troops arrived. These relief troops did hold onto lands west of the Euphrates
River. When Pope
Eugene III heard of the fall of Edessa, he called for the Second Crusade to begin.
1140, The Trappists were founded.
6 February 1140, Thurstan, Archbishop of York, died.
1139, The Second
Lateran Council abolished the practice of Agapetae.
This was a practice of monks cohabiting with virgins, both professing celibacy and �bonded by spiritual love�.
This, and the First Lateran Council (1123) enforced more strongly a rule of celibacy on the clergy as a means of protecting
the Chirch�s power and wealth.
20/4/1139, The Second Lateran Council
denounced the religious reformer, Arnold of Brescia.
25/12/1130. The Norman King Roger
II was crowned King of Sicily by the anti-Pope Anacletus II (died 1138), who
thereby gained a powerful supporter for his claim on the Papacy against Pope Innocent
II (died 1143). Anacletus II in fact had the better claim on
the Papacy but lost secular support because he was the son of a wealthy Jew,
founder of the Pierleani
family.
19/4/1127, Felix of Valois, founder of the monastic order
of Trinitarians (Redemptionists) was born (died 4 November 1212).
18 March 1123, The First Lateran Council began. It condemned
simony and the marriage of priests.
23
September 1122. The Diet of Worms. A council is held at the German
town of Worms, to settle a dispute between Church and State that went back to
1076, when Pope
Gregory VII excommunicated
King Henry
IV of Germany, seeking to
impose papal power over the king. Both Henry IV and his son, the present
King Henry V set up anti-Popes and
forced the Pope to flee to refuge in a monastery. Pope Calixtus� II and King Henry V agreed at this Diet
that the King would not force the
election of Bishops but allow their free election by the Church; in return the
King will be present at the election of Bishops and have some influence over
disputes within the church.
21/12/1118, Thomas Beckett
was born in Cheapside, London.
First Crusade,
21 August 1131, Baldwin II,
King of Jerusalem, died and wsas succeeded by Fulk of Anjou.
1128, Zengi of Mosul captured Aleppo from
the Crusaders..
7 July 1124,
Tyre fell to the Crusaders.
29/5/1123, The Crusaders defeated the Fatimids at Ibelin, Palestine.
18/4/1123, Danishmend Turkish Emir Balak of Khanzit captured King Baldwin of Jerusalem,and destroyed his army. In June Balak occupied
Aleppo (Syria). Baldwin was released in June 1124 on payment
of a ransom.
28
June 1119, The Dashmend Turks under Ghazi defeated a Crusader army at Antioch. Roger of Salerno,
Prince of Antioch, was killed.
2/4/1118, Baldwin
I, Crusader King of Jerusalem, died and
was succeeded by Baldwin II, Count of Edessa in Syria.
7
July 1115, Peter the Hermit, a
leader of the First Crusade, died.
4/12/1110, First Crusade, the Crusaders
conquered Sidon.
12 July 1109, Tripoli, in modern-day
Lebanon, surrendered to Baldwin I, King of Jerusalem.
27 August 1105, Baldwin I, French Crusader King
of Jerusalem, decisively defeated the Fatimids at the Third Battle of Ramleh.
28 February 1105, Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse,
died whilst besieging Tripoli in Palestine.
7/5/1104, Battle of Harran. The Crusaders were about
to lay siege to Harran to distract
the Seljuk forces of Sokman of Mardin and Jikirmish of Mosul, who wree
themselves besieging Edessa. At this
point the forces of Sokman and Jikirmish appeared, and drew the
Crusaders under Count
Baldwin and Prince Bohemond of Antioch. Jikirmish�s
cavalry charged and inflicted heavy casualties; Baldwin was taken prisoner. He
was freed after paying a ransom, in 1108 and later became King of Jerusalem.
28/5/1102, Baldwin I defeated the Fatimids at Jaffa.
17/5/1102, The Fatimids defeated Baldwin I, French Crusader King,
at Jerusalem.
4 September 1101, Baldwin I, King of Jerusalem,
defeated the Fatimids at Ramleh.
23 June 1101, Raymond of Toulouse took Ankara
with a new Crusader army from Constantinople. However in 8/1101 his army was
destroyed by the Danishmend Turkish army at Mersivan, Anatolia.
25/12/1100, Baldwin was crowned King of the Latin Kingdom
of Jerusalem by Dagobert.
Rule of
Godfrey de Bouillon
18 July 1100, Godfrey de Bouillon, first Crusader
king of Jerusalem,
died, aged 39. He had led successful expeditions against the Seljuk
Turks as far as Damascus. He was succeeded by his older brother Baldwin, Count
of Flanders, who ruled until 1118 with the support of Tancred,
a Sicilian Norman who was now Prince of Galilee.
12 August 1099, Battle of Ascalon. Fatimid attack on the Crusaders was defeated by
Godfrey.
22 July 1099, Godfrey of Bouillon, a Crusader
leader from Boulogne, was elected Defender of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem,
and established the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
15 July 1099. Jerusalem fell to
the Crusaders, (see 27 November 1095). 40,000 people, both Jews and Muslims,
were slaughtered in two days, an event European scholar-monks acclaimed as �the
greatest event since the Crucifixition�. On 12 August 1099 the Crusaders
defeated Al-Afdal, the Fatimid Vizier of Egypt, at Ascalon. He was bringing an
army to recapture Jerusalem, which the Egyptians had earlier lost to the Turks.
7 June 1099, The Crusaders
arrived at Jerusalem.
1 August 1098, Adhemar de Monteil, Criusader,
Bishop of Puy en Velay from 1077, died during the plague in Antioch.
28 June 1098, Battle of Orontes. Supposed discovery within Amtioch of the �Holy
Lance� � the weapon used to pierce Jesus�s side at his death. Despite doubts
even amongst some Crusaders, they collectively believed that with possession of
this lance they were invincible, and they sallied out to attack the Muslims.
However with determination they prevailed over the Turks, who fled the battle.
5 June 1098, Emir Kerboga�s forces now arrived at Antioch
and besieged the Crusaders there.
3 June 1098, The Crusaders took Antioch.
9 February 1098, A second Syrian attempt to
relieve Antioch was also driven off by the Crusaders.
31/12/1097, A Syrian army attempting to relieve the
Crusader siege of Amtioch was driven off.
21/10/1097, The Crusaders arrived at Antioch.
1 July 1097, Battle of Dorylaeum. Bohemunds forces were losing to
a Turkish attack when Godfrey and Raymond�s forces attacked the
rear of the Turks, turning the result into a Crusader victory.
24 June 1097, The Crusaders took Nicea.
4/1097, The knightly Crusader force now assembled in Constantinope totalled
between 150,000 and 300,000 men.
23/12/1096, Crusader
leader Godfrey
of Bouillon, along with his brother�
Baldwin,
arrived in Constantinople.
15 August 1096, The forces of the First Crusade
departed from Europe, to rendez-vous at Constantinople.
5/1096, The zealous Peter the Hermit travelled throughout France
and the Rhine Valley, recruiting peasants to the First Crusade. As these forces gathered together in 8/1096,
they also began a persecution
of the Jews in the Rhine area, a Judenhetze.
By October 1096 this peasant army had perished in what is now Turkey, at the
hands of te Seljuk Turks.
3/1096, The European knights began to assemble for their Crusade.
27 November 1095. Pope Urban II called for a Crusade to the Holy Land, at
the Council of Clermont. He talked
of how, due to Turkish misrule, it was no longer safe for Christian pilgrims to
visit the holy sites of Jerusalem. The Crusaders defeated the Turks
at Dorylaeum on 30/6 1097, opening the way to Jerusalem. Jerusalem fell to
the Crusaders on 15 July 1099.
19 November 1095, The Council of Clermont began. The council was called by Pope Urban II to discuss sending the First Crusade to the Holy Land.
See year 1071, Jerusalem.
First
Crusade
1084, The Carthusian Order was formed.
24 March 1084, Palm Sunday. Henry IV of Germany, having captured Rome,
installed Pope
Clement III. In turn Clement III crowned Henry IV as Emperor on Easter
Sunday 1084.
5/1081, Henry IV of Germany marched
south across the Alps to confront Pope Gregory VII; no reconciliation was
possible, so Henry decided to occupy Rome.
15/10/1080, Rudolf of Swabia was killed in battle, leaving
Henry IV
as unchallenged ruler of Germany.
7 March 1080, King Henry IV of Germany
was excommunicated a second time by Pope Gregory VII, see 27 January 1080. In
response Henry
IV summoned an assembly of bishops to Brixen and declared Pope Gregory
VII deposed and appointed Wilbert, Archbishop of Ravenna, in his place.
However not everyone, even in Germany, accepted the right of Henry IV
to judge a Pope �appointed by God�.
27 January 1080, King Henry IV of Germany defeated Saxon rebels
at Flarchheim. Emboldened by this, he rejected the mediation efforts of Pope Gregory
VII to settle the rulership dispute between him and Rudolf of
Swabia, see 25/10/1077 and 7 March 1080.
25 January 1077, German King Henry IV, who was losing popular support
because of his excommunication by Pope Gregory VII, arrived at Canossa Castle,
northern Italy, to do penance in reconciliation. He knelt in the snow in a
monk�s hair shirt for three days before the Pope admitted him. �Going to
Canossa� became a saying for reluctant penance, especially in Germany. Henry IV had faced a rebellion by Saxons, and
had to reach Pope
Gregory by a roundabout route via Burgnndy and Provence. Pope Gregory
VII wanted, politically, to refuse forgiveness, but as head of the
Christian Church he had no choice but to dispense it. The rebels, feeling
betrayed by Gregory
VII, rejected the kingship of Henry IV anyway and elected Rudolf of
Swabia in his place. Germany faced effective civil war. Pope Gregory,
to restore his influence over Germany, sent a Papal Legate northwards in 1079
to settle who was the rightful ruler of Germany, decreeing that if either Rudolf
or Henry
rejected the findings of this legate they would be excommunicated. However see
27 January 1080.
24 January 1076, German King Henry IV called an assembly of German
Bishops to Worms to complain about the interference of� Pope Gregory VII (Hildebrand) in the rulership of Milan. Earlier, a revolutionary faction
called the Pataria had usurped Henry IV�s control over Milan, which included
the right to appoint the Archbishop of Milan. Milan was very strategically
important to Henry
IV as it controlled the Alpine passes between Italy and Germany. Pope
Gregory VII sided with the rebels against King Henry IV and insisted that he, Gregory,
had the right to appoint the Archbishop (see 4 March 1075, Dictatus Papae). The German Bishops signed a letter of protest from
Henry IV
calling for Hildebrand
�that false monk, who had forsaken the cloisters� (see 22/4/1073)� to resign as Pope and that Henry IV
did not recognise him as Pope. The message caused an uproar in Rome, in fact
the messenger was nearly killed, saved only by the intervention of Hildebrand
himself. Two days later Gregory VII (Hildebrand) excommunicated and
nominally deposed King Henry IV. See 25 January 1077.
1071, Jerusalem was
captured by the Seljuk Turks from the Egyptian Arabs. The Turks were less tolerant
of Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem than its previous rulers. Even before this
the schism between the Byzantine and Roman Churches had begun to make things
difficult for Western European pilgrims � excessive
�taxes� were levied on Roman Catholic pilgrims by the Byzantine Church.
See also years 671 and 807 below. These
developments were the primary cause of the Crusader Movement from Western
Europe. See year 1095.
23 August 1059, Pope Nicholas II (1059-61) met with Robert Guiscard,
leader of the Normans of southern
Italy, at Melfi, and accepted Robert�s vassalship. Robert pledged that if Pope Nicholas
died before him, he would assist the Cardinals in the elction of a new Pope. In
effect, Robert
was pledging to protect the Cardinals from political interference by the Roman nobility. In return Pope Nicholas
bestowed upon Robert
the title of Duke of Calbria and Apulia. This infuriated the (Byzantine) Roman Emperor,
who claimed all of Italy as part of his domain, and insisted that Nicholas
could not give away lands he had no title to.
1054, Schism between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox
Church.
1/10/1049, Pope
Leo IX (1048-54), noted for his attempts to eradicate simony,
arrived at Reims, France. In March 1049 he had begun a tour of
the Christian lands of Europe, to assert his authority over these regions. He
left Rome and travelled via Florence, Pavia and Cologne to Reims. Whilst still
Bishop of Toul, Pope
Leo IX had pledged to be present at the Consecration of the Cathedral of Reims,
built to honour St Remigius, who had baptised Clovis and played a large role
on converting the Franks to
Christianity. In fact due to opposition to Leo�s visit by the King of France,
only 20 bishops and 40 abbots attended at Reims, a clear sign of Leo�s
limited authority on France. After parading an effigy of the Saint around the
town, before setting in in its place in the Cathedral, Leo set it on the high altar as
a �witness� and asked all present to declare, individually one by one, that
they had not paid money for their office. Many of those present would not make
such a statement.
25/10/1046, At a Church Council in Pavia, Emperor Henry III denounced simony,
the practice of buying and selling ecclesiastical positions.
1046, Emperor Constantine Monomachos of
Constantinople sanctified the exclusion of women from Mount Athos.
19/4/1012. St Alpheage, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered by the Danes.
He had been captured by the Danes who sacked Canterbury in 1011 and kept
in prison for 7 months, and killed when a ransom was not paid.. Born in 954, St
Alphege was elected Abbot at Bath, and in 984 became the Bishop of Winchester.
In 1006 he succeeded Aelfric as Archbishop of Canterbury.
27 September 1009, Caliph Al Hakim ordered the destruction of the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem.
21 June 1002, Pope Leo IX was born.
25/12/1000, Stephen I became
King of Hungary,
which was established as a Christian kingdom.
29 February 992, Saint Oswald,
Archbishop of York, died.
13 February 990, Ethelgar,
Archbishop of Canterbury, died.
19/5/988, Saint Dunstan,
Archbishop of Canterbury (born near Glastonbury ca. 910) died in Canterbury. He
was appointed to Archbishop by King Edgar in 959.
2 June 959, Odo,
Archbishop of Canterbury, died.
910, The Cluniac order was founded.
906, The Church issued the Canon Episcopi, declaring that anyone
not following the Christian faith was a devil-worshipper.
23/10/877, St
Ignatius of Constantinople, Byzantine prelate who had
opposed Imperial interference in Church affairs, died.
30/10/869, The radical German theologian Gottschalk of Orbais
died.
862,
St Swithin (Swithun), Bishop of Winchester 852-62, died.
848,
Pope Leo IV
erected the Leonine Wall around the
Vatican, to protect it from attack.
845,
Arab pirates sacked the Vatican.
11 March 843, Icon veneration was officially restarted at the cathedral� of Hagia Sofia, Constantinople.
Churchyard Burials
813, The Council of Mainz stipulated that burials
within the church were to be only for bishops, abbots, or notable priests and
worthy laymen (see Council of
Braga, 563)
758, Death of Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury
from 741. He
introduced into England the custom of burying the deasd in the precincts around
the church, or church-yard. On the Continent, church-yards began to
be used as customary burial places for the dead from the 500s, although a few
cases of this occurred from the 300s. Early Christians, from the time when this
religion was still under persecution in the Roman Empire, usually met at the
tombs of martyrs, since Roman Law strictly protected these memorial grounds
from violation. Early churches grew up, therefore, adjacent to these memorial
grounds. However the dead would then have been buried in separate areas of
ground, away from the church. See 563.
807, Harun al Rashid, Arab ruler of
Jerusalem, acknowledged Charlemagne, Holy Roman Emperor, as spiritual
guardian of the Christian heritage of Jerusalem. He was tolerant towards
Christian pilgrims visiting the city. See also years 638 and 1071.
19/5/804. Death of Alcuin, a learned
churchman of the eight century. He was born at Eboracum (York) in 735 and
became head of the Episcopal school of York in 766. Between 781 and 790 Alcuin
helped Charlemagne teach
church and other knowledge to the Frankish nobility.
8 January 794, Vikings again
raided Lindisfarne.
8 June 793. Vikings raided the
monastery at Lindisfarne, killing many of the monks.
754,
The start of the Papal States as an
independent political entity, when Pepin le Bref presented the Exarchate of Ravenna
to Pope Stephen
II. Benevento was added in 1053, and in 1102 Matilda of Tuscany
left Parma, Modena and Tuscany to the Pope. In 1202 the Papal States were
formally constituted an independent monarchy.
25/5/709. Death of Aldhelm,
Bishop of Sherborne. Born around 640, Aldhelm was
educated by an Irish scholar and monk, Meldun (or Maildulf), who had settled in
the British
stronghold of Bladow, on the site of Malmesbury. Aldhelm succeeded Meldulf as
head of the Christian community at Malmesbury when Meldulf retired due to ill
health in 675. Under Aldhelm, the
community at Malmesbury increased and he founded two other centres of learning
at Frome and at Bradford on Avon.
20 March 687, Cuthbert died on
Farne Island.
8 August 676, Death of St Colman, Bishop of
Lindisfarne from 661. An Irish monk, he attended the Synod of Whitby in
664, where he supported the Celtic method of calculating Easter date against
the Roman, but was overruled by King
Oswy.
Jerusalem lost to Christendom
637, Jerusalem
was captured by the Arabs under Osman. For the history
of the city before this year see Jewish History. Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem
were still tolerated, but see years 807 and 1071 above.
5/5/614.
The Persians completed the conquest of
Syria by capturing Jerusalem. They seized the �true cross�, the most holy relic of Christendom.
However on 3/4/628 the Persian ruler Kavadh sued for peace with Byzantium. He
handed back Armenia, Byzantine Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, as
well as the �true cross�. This cross was
restored to Jerusalem by Heraclius
on 21 March 630.
12 March 604. Pope Gregory the Great
(64th
Pope) died in Rome. Aged 64, he had been Pope for 14
years. He was the son of a Senator, and wealthy, but at the age of 33 sold off
his property and gave the money to the poor. He founded several� monasteries, and entered one himself. Pope
Gregory had appointed Bishop
Augustine of Hippo to begin the work of introducing
Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons.
St Columba
563, St Columba
left Ireland
and landed on Iona (Hebrides) where
he founded a monastery.
563, The Council of Braga authorised burial not
only within the churchyard but within the church itself. See 758,
813.
563, The
Church in Europe forbade the free movement of lepers. A priests had to make any
leper in their congregation lie ion a coffin in front of the altar and have
some soil thrown on them. Now, legally dead, they were outlaws, obliged to beg
for support, to carry a bell to warn of their approach, and a stick to point
for items they wanted, to wear gloves and shoes to protect barefooted
travellers behind them. All this was unnecessary because in fact leprosy has
very low infectivity.
7/12/521,
St Columba
was born at Gartan, Donegal, Ireland.
507,
At the Battle of Vouille, near Tours, France, Clovis King of the Franks defeated Alaric II ruler of the Visigoths.
Clovis�s
victory ensured the supremacy of Catholicism over the Arianism of the
Visigoths,
500,
The first plans for the Vatican Palace
in Rome were drawn up. St
Romanos (Melodos) wrote hymns especially for Christmas,
Easter and the Passion.
25/12/496, Clovis I was baptized into the Catholic
faith at Rheims, by Saint Remigius. The conversion strengthened the bonds between his Gallo-Roman subjects,
led by their Catholic bishops.
3 January 492, Pope Felix III
died after a 9-year reign in which he excommunicated Patriarch Acacius of Constantinople,
thus dividing the Western Church and
Eastern Church (Acacian Schism). He was succeeded by Gelasius I
as the 49th pope.
325� - 1075, Key Church doctrines introduced, not Biblical, including Easter, Christmas, All Souls Day, monasticism, Papal Infallibility, use of Latin only, formal hymn singing and celibacy for priests.
4 March 1075, Hildebrand issued the
Dictatus Papae, 27 short propositions setting out the powers of the Roman Catholic
Church. These propositions, aimed at curbing the Greek Church and the temporal
power of European Kings, included, (I) that the Roman Catholic Church was
founded by God alone, i.e. it was more than �just� apostolic (III), only the
Pope can dismiss or reinstate Bishops, (XII), the Pope has the authority to
depose Emperors, (XVI), That only the Pope had the authority to call Councils
(i.e. the Greek Church didn�t), (XIX), The Pope can be judged by no-one except
God himself, (XXII), The Roman Church has never erred and is in fact
infallible, See 1202.
9 March 1074, Married priests were excommunicated by Pope Gregory VII. He
also decreed, at the Council of Rome, that all laymen who received Communion
from a married priest should be excommunicated. Nevertheless, instances of
married Catholic priests still occurred down into the 12th and 13th centuries.
22 February 1072, Pietro Damiani,
ecclesiastic, died. He was opposed to simony, but
reserved his main energies for attacking the marriage of clergy.
1022, The Synod of Pavia ordered that higher clergy must be celibate.
2 November 998, The Abbot of Cluny, France, instituted this day as All
Soul�s Day, when prayers are said for the dead. This way the Church co-opted the ancient pagan festival
of Samhain, at the beginning of November, when the souls of the dead were
said to return to roam the Earth.
6/4/885, Methodius of Moravia died; he had promoted the use of Slavonic, rather than Latin, in the
Liturgy. Pope
Stephen V banned this use of Slavonic and
after Methodius� death his followers were expelled from Moravia by Svatopulk.
840, Paschasius
Radbertus, Abbott of Corbie (France),
established the Doctrine of Transubstantiation
� that the Communion bread literally becomes the Body of Christ.
Images
debate
25/12/795. Death of Pope Adrian I, Pope from 772 to 795. He halted the
trend against the use of images in Church which was taking place in the
east of Christendom. In 726 Emperor Leo III of
Constantinople had banned the use of religious images in Christendom.
This trend was upheld by a meeting of churchmen in Constantinople in 730; all
visible symbols of Christ, other than the eucharist, were forbidden and anyone
using icons or statues would be accused of idolatry and paganism. Leo felt that
what were symbols of the divine have become divinities in themselves, and the
seemingly inexorable spread of Islam made Christians wonder about the power of
their images. Leo wanted to strengthen Christianity�s appeal against Islam,
which forbids any portrayal of the human form. Leo was also concerned about the
growing power of the monasteries, which threatened the divide between church
and state.
787, The Council of Nicea abandoned
iconoclasm and ordered resumption of
image-worship.
726, Pope
Gregory II attacked the iconoclasm prevailing in Constantinople, where icons
and images had been banned to discourage superstition and miracle-mongering,
and the spread of monasticism checked because the tax-exempt monasteries were
draining the economy of both money and productive labour. In 730 Byzantine
Emperor Leo III was excommunicated by Pope Gregory II for this iconoclasm.
700, Earliest recorded use of Easter
Eggs by Christians.
692, The Council of Constantinople adopted the Crucifix as the symbol of Christianity. At first this was a picture of Christ with arms outstretched, without
the Cross.
16 February 600, Pope Gregory I decreed
that a sneeze should be responded to by �God bless you�.
566, The Council of Tours decreed the suspension, for a year, of all secular
priests and deacons found to be married. Whilst several of the Apostles
themselves had been married, from the 4th century onwards, celibacy same to imposed on Church
officials, firstly the higher ones, then gradually spreading down the ranks.
500, Incense began to be used in
Church services.
459, Simeon Stylites died, aged 72.
He was the first of a number of Christian
ascetics who secluded themselves on top of pillars, from which they preached to
visiting pilgrims. In the Middle East such �stylites� coild be found
down to the 12th century.
8/10/451,
The Fourth General Council of the Church opened, at Chalcedon. The doctrine of
ther Trinity was reaffirmed; Christ as equal to God. The Nestorians and Monophysites
walked out in protest.
25/12/440, The Church officially decreed the birthday of Jesus to be 25 December, the pagan day of celebrating the winter
solstice.
This was the ancient Sol Invictis (Unconquered Sun)
festival, to mark the lengthening again of the winter days.
28
August 430, St
Augustine died in the town of Hippo,
then enduring its 3rd month of siege by the Vandals. His writings have had considerable
influence on Church doctrine.
431, Council of Ephesus.
30 September 420, Saint Jerome,
Church leader, died.
14 September 407, Saint John Chrysostom
died.
26 November 399, Pope Siricius died at Rome after a 15-year reign in which he commanded
celibacy for priests, asserted
papal authority over the entire Western Church, and threatened to impose sanctions who did not follow his dictates.
3/4/397. Death of Saint Ambrose, bishop of Milan. Born a Roman citizen around 337-340, Ambrose was appointed as bishop of Milan in 374 when the previous incumbent, Auxentius, died.
3 November 392. Emperor Theodosius passed a
decree prohibiting all pagan worship in
the Byzantine Empire.
390, First use of �Hallelujah�
(meaning �praise Jah, or Jehovah�)
hymns in the Church.
24/4/387, St Augustine of Hippo was baptised, along with his son, Adeodatus,
by Ambrose
at Milan.
17/12/384,� Pope Siricius
succeeded Damasus
I as the 38th Pope. He took
the title Pontifex Maximus, after it was
relinquished by late emperor Gratian.
2//5/373. Athanasius,
the patriarch who fiercely defended the Nicene
Creed against Arianism, died at Alexandria,
Egypt. He played an important role in the spread of monasticism.
368, Formalised hymn-singing was introduced by Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (died
397).
26 June 363. Julian the Apostate, Roman Emperor, was killed
fighting the Persians. The Emperor Julian was determined to reinstate the old Roman
gods and eliminate Christianity. A cousin of Constantius II, he declared
himself a pagan in November 361 when Constantius II died, leaving him as sole
emperor. On 17 June 362 Julian forbade�
Christians from teaching grammar or rhetoric. He was succeeded by
the captain of his bodyguard, Flavius Jovianus, who ruled for 7 months as the
Emperor Jovian.
19 February 356. Constantius
II ordered all
pagan temples in the Roman Empire to be closed.
354, Bishop Liberus of Rome finally
declared 25 December to be the official Church date for Christmas.
13 November 354, Aurelius Augustinus, or St Augustine, was born at
Tagaste, a town in Numidia.
25/12/350, The first officially-sanctioned Christmas
Day celebrations.
21/10/346. Under heavy imperial pressure, a split between the eastern and western
Churches was patched up at Alexandria, Egypt.
340, The first monastery in the
true sense was established by Pachominus at Tabennisi, an island in the Nile
(see 305).
The monks lived under a common roof and by an agreed set of rules.
336, The priest, Arius, was tortured to death for his beliefs
that Jesus Christ was not equal to God.
25/12/336, The first
recorded celebration of �Christ�s birth� on what is now Christmas Day.
325, The official date of Easter was settled at the Council of Nicea.
Previously, the Eastern Church had fixed it on the 14th day of the Jewish lunar
month of Nisan, that is, the old Jewish Passover date. The Western Church had
fixed Easter on the first Sunday after this day of Nisan 14th. At Nicea, the
Western date was favoured, and the Eastern date labelled the quartodeciman
heresy.
325� - 1075, Key Church doctrines
introduced, not Biblical, including Easter, Christmas, All Souls Day, monasticism, Papal Infallibility, use of Latin only, formal hymn singing and celibacy for priests.
Roman
adoption of Christianity
20/5/325. The Emperor
Constantine, dressed in purple to
mark the sacred nature of his power, opened
the Council of Nicea. He has
summoned bishops from all over the Empire to settle violent controversies
raging within the Church, especially over Arianism.
Arius, a priest in Alexandria, argued
in 318 that Christ was not equal to God; if Christ was the Son of
God, said Arius,
he had a beginning so could not be eternal and was inferior to his Father. Constantine
was acting as peacemaker and favoured
equality of Christ with God. In fact the creed was worded so as to be
ambiguous enough for most Arians to accept it. The Council also attempted,
unsuccessfully, to impose a celibacy rule on the clergy.
3/12/321. Sunday
was made a day of rest throughout the Roman
Empire. Under the Edict of
Milan, 3 February 313, Christianity
was now tolerated in the Empire. Persecution of Christians had begun
under Diocletian
in 303 and peaked under his successors Galerius and Maximian. Constantine, born in
Naissus in what is now Yugoslavia, was son of a Christian mother, Helena. When Constantine (born 274) became Emperor in 306
he followed the cult of Sol Invictis,
the Unconquered Sun. However in 312, whilst fighting Maxentius the son of Maximian, he
saw a cross of light superimposed on the sun. From then on Constantine
identified the sun with the God of the Christians. He ordered his men to fight
Maxentius with Christian symbols painted on their shields, and they won a famous victory at the Milvian Bridge
just outside Rome, on 28/10/312. Constantine became ruler of the western Roman
Empire.
315, Christians
now numbered about 10 million, one
quarter of the population of the Roman Empire.
313, The Edict of Milan restored Christian property and
freedom of worship.
28/10/312, Battle
of Milvian Bridge. Maxentius had been declared Emperor in Rome,
with the backing of the Senate. However Constantine was marching down from Gaul to
claim title as Emperor. Constantine�s army was smaller, and relied on cavalry,
performing best on open ground. Maxentius had dismantled the Milvian Bridge
over the Tiber to halt Constantine�s advance; Maxentius� troops had to ford the
Tiber to attack Constantine, this move put them in the open, favouring
Constantine�s cavalry. Maxentius fought in the name of Mars, the Roman God of
War; Constantine
saw a flaming cross in the sky and fought in the name of Christianity.
Constantine�s cavalry charged, disrupting Maxentius� ranks; Maxentius was
killed and his head paraded through Rome the next day on a spear.
305, St Anthony established the first
community of Christian monks at Fayum, Egypt. However this was not a �monastery� in the
established sense because the monks lived in separate huts, and lived their own
lives, meeting for prayers. See 340.
Roman
persecution of Christians
24 March 303, St George was executed
in Palestine. He was a Roman soldier from Cappadocia (now, Turkey) who refused to persecute
Christians.
4 March 303, St Adrian was martyred.
24 February 303, Emperor Diocletian ordered a
massive persecution
of the Christians.
301, Armenia became the first
country to make Christianity its official State religion.
300, The earliest Religious Plays.
249, Roman Emperor Decius
ordeed a massive persecution of Christians across the Empire.
14 September 258, Saint Cyprian (born ca. 200) was martyred.
5 February 251, Saint Agatha
was martyred
250, Christians
now numbered about 1 million, one fortieth of the population of the Roman
Empire.
200, The position of the �Bishop of Rome� as supreme Pope, head of the Church, became established. The various Churches
across the Roman world were organising themselves into a single �Catholic�
(Greek, Kata-Holos, �the entire
whole�) Church.
See
also Roman
Empire
177, The elderly Bishop
Ponthinus was martyred under the persecution of Christians
by Marcus
Aurelius.
155, The Bishop of Smyrna, Polycarp,
was martyred by the Romans.
64, Persecution of the Christians began.
Peter
and Paul
were martyred in Rome. Subsequently, Peter was counted as the first �Pope� � however he
himself would have rejected this title.
62, The Apostle James was stoned to
death at the orders of High Priest Ananias.
60, Paul was arrested in Jerusalem,
and taken to Rome.
45, Paul began the first of his
major missionary journeys to preach Christianity to the non-Jews. His last such
journey was in 57.
44, Peter was arrested by the
Romans.
38, Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was stoned to
death.
34, The Apostle Paul was converted to
Christianity from Judaism
on the road to Damascus.
3/4/33, Jesus was
put to death. This was to become the Church festival of Easter,
with chocolate bunnies and Easter Eggs. Not really much to do with Jesus� death, but everything to do with the
old Pagan festival of rebirth, as spring life returned to the land. Even the
name �Easter� derives from the old fertility goddess, Astarte, from which we derive fertility-related words like
Oestrogen and East, the direction the (lifegiving) sun rises from.
Ca. October 29, Jesus
baptised and commenced his ministry
28/12/1 (AD). Herod
ordered the slaughter of all the infants in Bethlehem to ensure the death of
Jesus Christ,
whom he saw as a possible future rival King. Earlier, a mysterious ***star***
had guided the Magi (wise men, or magicians) not directly to Jesus, but first to King Herod, then on to the baby Jesus. Herod ordered these Magi to report back to him
as to where Jesus was, so he could kill
him; however the Magi returned east by another route. It is this ***star***
that people put on their Xmas trees today.
Ca. October
2 BCE, Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The
climate in the Judean hills would have been too cold and snowy in late December
for �shepherds to be out tending their flocks� as the story goes; the idea of
celebrating Jesus� birthday on 25 December was that it would replace the old pagan festival of
Saturnalia, a drinking festival held to celebrate the passing of the
shortest day and the return of ��Sol Invictis, the �unconquered Sun�.
Pine trees, as life that had survived over winter, also came to symbolise Xmas
(that�s why you�re cleaning pine needles off the carpet on Boxing Day).
See also Judaism
Appendix 1 � Bible and Prayerbook Developments
1990,
In the US, the New Revised Standard
Version of the Bible was published.
16 March 1970, The New English Bible was released, and quickly sold out.
7 March 1970, In Britain, the New English Bible became the top best
seller, with one million copies sold in the first week of its publication.
14 March 1961, The New English Bible was published.
18 June 1960, Jehovah�s Witnesses released the New World Translation of the Bible.
19 March 1928, In Britain,
the Revised Book of Common Prayer
was published.
6 July 1927, The Church of England
approved revisions to the Book of
Common Prayer.
8 February 1927. The revised book of common prayer introduced sex equality
to the Church of England wedding service.
1925,
The London Bible Society distributed
worldwide 10,500,000 Bibles, in 566 languages.
1901,
Large demonstrations in Athens against the proposed publication of the Gospels
in modern Greek. This caused the resignation of both the Metropolitan and the
Government.
10 February 1889, The Church of England
approved the use of the revised Bible.
1735,
The Bible first translated into Lithuanian.
1671,
The first Bible printed in Arabic produced, in Rome.
Reformation
� Bible and prayer books now printed in current languages, rather than Latin
1666, First Armenian Bible printed.
2/5/1611, In Britain, the Authorised Version of the Bible
was published.
1632, The �Adulterer�s Bible� was published; the word �not� in the 7th
Commandment had been omitted, so it read �Thou shalt commit adultery�. London
printers Robert Barker and Martin Lucas were fined �300 for this error.
16 January 1604, The Hampton Court
Conference ended; at this conference, King James I had authorised preparations for a new
translation of the Bible.
16/10/1594, Death in Rome of William Allen, English Roman
Catholic Cardinal who oversaw the Douai-Reims translation of the Bible into
English.
22 June 1576, Queen Elizabeth�s Prayer
Book was issued.
4/12/1563, The
Council of Trent was dissolved. It reaffirmed all major Catholic doctrines and
declared the Apocrypha to be canonical along with the actual Bible.
1560, The Geneva Bible,
published by followers of John Calvin, was the
first to have numerical divisions for bith chapters and verses.
1550, King Christian III (1503-1559),
King of Denmark and Norway 1534-59, brought out a Danish translation of the German
Bible
8/4/1546, At the Council of Trent, the Roman Catholic
Church declared the Apocrypha to be
part of the Bible.
1541, The Gustav Vasa Bible was produced in complete form (New Testament
produced in 1526). This was the first Swedish translation of the Bible.
9 June 1549. The Church of
England adopted the Book of Common
Prayer, compiled by Thomas Cranmer. In
1550 all Latin prayer books in English churches were destroyed. In 1553 the
English Catholic monarch Mary Tudor attempted to reverse these changes.
20/5/1549, From this
date, only the new Book of Prayer
was allowed to be used in English churches.
4/10/1537,
The Matthew Bible, ptinted under the pseudonym Thpomas Matthew, was produced.
6/5/1536, King Henry VIII
ordered a copy of the Bible to be placed in every English church.
4/10/1535. The first English
Bible was printed, translated and published by Miles Coverdale.
845, The Vivian Bible, an early illustrated manuscript, was produced.
397, At the Council of Carthage,
the Bible Canon was finalised, with
controversial decisions being made as to what Books were included, and which
excluded. Inclusion, or not, of certain Books was crucial as it determined what
doctrines the Church would accept, or not.
382,
Pope Damasus
requested Jerome
to produce a �corrected� version of the Bible, a number of errors having crept
in over the centuries. His version, the Roman
Psalter, was completed in 383.
98,
The books of John (43), 1 John (62), 2 John (63), 3 John (64)
were completed about this time.
96,
The book of Revelation (66) was completed about this time/
65,
The books of Mark (41), 2 Timothy (55), 2 Peter (61), Jude (65)
were completed about this time.
61,
The books of Acts (44), Ephesians (49), Philippians (50), Colossians
(51), 1 Timothy (54), Titus (56), Philemon (57), Hebrews (58), James (59), 1
Peter (60) were completed about this time.
57,
The book of Luke (42) was completed about this time.
56,
The books of Romans (45), 1 Thessalonians (52), 2 Thessalonians (53)
were completed about this time.
55,
The books of I Corinthians (46), 2 Corinthians (47) were
completed about this time.
51
,The book of Galatians (48) was completed about this time.
41,
The book of Matthew (40) was completed about this time. For the first 39 Bible book dates
(Hebrew/Old testament) see Jewish history.
Appendix 2 � The Inquisition
15 July 1834, The Spanish Inquisition,
founded in 1478, was disbanded.
26 July 1826, Cayetano Ripoli,
a Deist teacher, became the last person to be executed by the Spanish Inquisition.
31/5/1820, The Inquisition
was finally suppressed in Mexico.
1814, Pope Pius VII returned to Rome,
after Napoleon
was vanquished, and restored the Inquisition.
1808, Napoleon abolished the Inquisition
in Spain and Italy.
1772, The Inquisition was abolished in France.
5/1751, In Portugal, the Marques
de Pombal limited the powers of the Inquisition, and decreed that no auto da fe (sentencing and execution of
heretics) could take place without State sanction.
16 February 1568. The death sentence was passed on an
entire country when the Spanish Inquisition condemned The Netherlands
for heresy. During the first week of the plan to kill 3 million people, 800
were hanged, burnt, or killed by other means.
1543, The first Protestants
burned at the stake by the Spanish Inquisition. The Pope issued a list of books that
it was forbidden for Roman Catholics to read.
21 July 1542, Pope Paul III established the Universal
Inquisition in order to halt the Reformation by repression.
30/4/1536, The Inquisition was implemented in Portugal.
1530, The Inquisition in Portugal stepped up its efforts, in
reaction to the spread of Protestantism, which damaged the Portuguese economy.
1513, The Inquisition was introduced into
Sicily.
16 September 1498, Tomas de Torquemada, Inquisitor-General, died.
5/12/1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued the Papal bull
Summis desiderantes affectibus giving
the Inquisition
a mission to hunt heretics and witches
in Germany, led by Heinrich
Kramer and Jacob Sprenger.
2 August 1483, Pope Sixtus IV appointed the Dominican priest Tomas de
Torquemada, known for his severe intolerance of Jews and Muslims, as
the first Grand Inquisitor of Spain.
15 June 1447, The Inquisition was revived in Spain.
25/5/1261. Death of Pope Alexander IV (181st Pope). Rinaldo Conti
was elected Pope
Alexander IV at Naples, after the death of Pope Innocent IV, (180th
Pope) on 12/12/1254. He
attempted to unite the Greek and Latin churches, and established the Inquisition
in northern France.
1252, The Inquisition
began to use instruments of torture. Pope Innocent IV sanctioned torture as a means
of forcing heretics to confess. The actual torture was carried out by local lay
thugs, but in 1256 Pope Innocent IV allowed priests to do the
torture themselves and absolve each other for the deed.
30 July 1233, Conrad of Marburg, German Inquisitor, was assassinated near
Marburg.
1229, The Inquisition inToulouse forbade the reading of the Bible by lay people.
4 November 1184,
Pope Lucius
III proclaimed the persecution of heretics. This
developed into the Inquisition.
Appendix � Jehovahs Witnesses
18 June 1960, Jehovah�s Witnesses released the New
World Translation of the Bible.
1931, The International Bible Students Association adopted the name Jehovah�s Witnesses. Ruthwerford
started the slogan �Millions now living
will never die�.
31/10/1916, Charles Taze Russell, who founded the modern-day Jehovah�s Witnesses, died.
11 January 1911, The Jehovah�s Witnesses released their
film, The Photodrama of Creation, in
New York. By the end of 1911 nine million people had seen it, mainly in N
America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
1884, The Watchtower
Bible and Tract Society was founded by Charles
Taze Russell, to publish his books, pamphlets and periodicals.
1872,
Pittsburgh evangelist Charles Taze Russell
announced that Christ would return, unseen by mankind, in Autumn 1874. He
founded the International Bible Students� Association.
1870, Charles Taze Russell and others
formed a Bible Study Group, which
later became the Jehovah�s Witnesses.
16 February 1852, Charles Taze
Russell, American
who organised the start of modern-day Jehovah�s Witnesses, was born in
Pittsburgh.
Appendix� �Jesuits
30 March 1984, Karl Rahner, German Jesuit priest, died aged 80.
1925, The Jesuits
had 18,718 members in 32 countries.
1884, The Jesuits were expelled from Costa Rica,
where they had previously been very influential.
30 March 1880. France expelled the Jesuits from its territory. Jules Ferry, the Minister of public
instruction, wished to create a public
education system free from Church domination.
30 January 1880, In
France, the Jesuits were disbanded.
1879, Anti-Jesuit
legislation enacted in France.
25 June 1872, Jesuits expelled from Germany, as part of the new Kultirkampf.
1848, The Jesuits were
suppressed in Italy.
1820, Jesuits expelled
from Rome. They were suppressed in Spain, 1820-25, and again from 1835-44 and
in 1868.
1817, The Jesuits were
severely restricted in Russia, and expelled from there in 1820.
1815, The Jesuits were
re-established in Naples, Sardinia and Spain.
7 August 1814, Pope Pius VII
re-established the Jesuits� ancient
college, the Collegio Romano, in Rome.
1804,
The Jesuits were reconstituted in
Sicily.
1801, Pope Pius VII permitted the reconstitution of
the Jesuits in Lithuania.
1799, The Duke of Parma allowed the reorganisation of
the Jesuits; the Pope allowed this
but did not approve.
8 February 1795, Pierre Beckx,
Jesuit, was born in Sichem, Belgium (died in Rome 4 March 1887).
21 July 1773, Pope Clement
XIV dissolved the Society of
Jesus (Jesuits). This was the result of pressure from Spain and France, where the Jesuits had been
found too unbending and zealous. They were also seen as a symbol of Papal
interference in national secular affairs.
1768, The Jesuits were
expelled from Parma and Paraguay.
1 March 1767, The Jesuits
were expelled by King Charles III from Spain, also the Spanish possessions
of Parma, and the Two Sicilies. They had established a university on Malta, but
this, and the rest of their property, was now confiscated.
26 November 1764, The Jesuits were suppressed in France.
3 September 1759, Jesuits expelled from Portugal and
Brazil by royal decree. Some refused to leave and were violently deported tp
the military, onto ships bound for the Papal States.
11 July 1742, A Papal
Bull condemned Jesuit tolerance of
Confucianism in China.
1685, French Jesuits established the first Jesuit mission in
Brazil.
29 January 1678, Jeronimo Lobo,
Jesuit missionary to India, died.
1632, The Jesuits were expelled from Ethiopia after a popular
uprising against them.
25 July 1587. The Japanese Emperor Hideyoshi banned Christianity, and ordered the Jesuits to leave within 20 days. The Jesuits were accused of selling the Japanese as slaves.
23 November 1584, The English
Parliament passed legislation to expel all Jesuits within 40 days.
1581, Claudius Acquaviva (1543-1681) became leader
of the Jesuits. He was a very able educator and organiser.
30 September 1572, St Francis Borgia,
Jesuit priest, died.
1556, Jesuit Order established in Prague.
31 July 1556, Ignatius Loyola,
Spanish soldier and priest, and founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits),
died.
1552,
The Jesuits founded the Collegium Germanicum, Rome.
1551,
The Jesuits founded the Collegio Romano in Rome, as the Papal
University.
21 November 1551, Papal Legate Francis
Xavier and fellow Jesuits returned from a two-year missionary trip to Japan. The Mikado was at first unimpressed
with Xavier�s humble dress, but when he returned in more suitable attire, with
gifts, he was even granted a disused Buddhist monastery for his work. Xavire
left behind a community of 2,000 Christians, and was impressed with Japanese
society.
21 July 1550, The
Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, was
approved by Pope
Julius III.
24 January 1540, Edmund
Campion, Jesuit, was born.
15 August 1534, The Jesuits (Society of Jesus) was founded
by Ignatius
Loyola. They became the main counter-Reformation movement in the
Catholic Church.
7/4/1507, Birth of
Spanish Jesuit St
Francis Xavier, in Sangesa, Navarre, Spain.
24/12/1491, Ignatius Loyola, Spanish priest who founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), was born in
Azpeitia.
Appendix �� Methodists
|
|
Methodists (UK) |
|
1830 |
248,592 |
|
1820 |
191,217 |
|
1810 |
137.997 |
|
1800 |
90,619 |
|
1789 |
60,000 |
22 June 1970, The Methodist
Church said it would ordain female ministers.
20 September 1932, At the Royal Albert Hall, London, UK,
the three Methodist Churches � Wesleyan, Primitive and United � agreed to
merge.
3/4/1910, While in Rome, former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt
announced that he would not meet with Pope Leo XIII because of the Vatican's request
that Roosevelt
not meet first with local Methodists. In March, former Vice-President Charles W. Fairbanks
declined an audience for the same reason.
31/5/1807, A open air meeting was helfd at Mow Cop, southern
Pennines, that is conse=idered to be the start of Primitive Methodism.
2 March 1791. John
Wesley, founder of Methodism, died in London aged 87.� He was born on 17 June 1703 at Epworth
Rectory.� His brother Charles Wesley, a hymn writer and
preacher, was born on 18/12/1707 and died in 1788.
29 March 1788. The
evangelist Charles
Wesley, younger brother of John Wesley, died. He wrote over 5,000 hymns.
28 February 1784. John Wesley
signed the Deed of Declaration of the Wesleyan faith.
10 July 1762, Alexander Kilham, Methodist minister, was born
in Epworth, Lincolnshire.
1744, The first general conference of the Methodists was held.
5 January 1743, Welsh Calvinistic
Methodists under George Whitefield�s leadership formed the first Methodist
Association.
24/5/1738, During a reading
of Martin
Luther�s preface to the Bible Book of Romans, John Wesley had a religious
inspiration that led him to found the Methodist
Church.
1729, Methodism had its beginnings at Oxford
University, where students called Charles Wesley, aged 22, a �methodist�because
of his methodical study habits. He studied the Bible, and fasted on Wednesdays
and Fridays.
18/12/1707, Charles Wesley, who along with
his brother founded Mathodism, was born.
17 June 1703. The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, was born at Epworth, Lincolnshire.
He was the 15th child of a rector who fathered 19 children.
Appendix�
Mormons
6/10/1890, The
Mormons in Utah renounced polygamy.
29 August 1877. Mormon leader Brigham Young died.
2/10/1871, Mormon leader Brigham Young was arrested for bigamy.
24 July 1847. A group of Mormons under Brigham Young
founded a settlement on the banks of the Great Salt Lake, Utah. The
Mormons had been driven by mobs from their former homes in Illinois.
8 August 1844. The Mormons chose Brigham Young
as leader to replace Joseph
Smith, see 27 June 1844.
27 June 1844. Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon
Church, died. He was killed, along with his brother Hyrum, by a 200-strong mob
in Carthage prison, Illinois,� where they
had been held on riot charges. The brothers had destroyed the offices of a
rival Mormon newspaper. This followed months of tension between the Mormon
settlers, who came to Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1839, and locals who resented Mormon
political and economic power. Mormon polygamy was also a contentious issue.
10/5/1840. Mormon
leader Joseph
Smith moved his followers to Illinois to escape hostility in Missouri.
6/4/1831, Mormon
leader, Brigham
Young, married his 27th and final wife.
6/4/1830. Joseph Smith, in Fayette, New York State,
founded the Church of Jesus Christ of
the Latter Day Saints, whose adherents are better known as Mormons.
23/12/1805, Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Latter
Day Saints (Mormons), was born in
Sharon, Vermont.
1 June 1801, Brigham Young, American Mormon leader, was born in Whittingham, Vermont.
Appendix �
Quakers,
1963, The Quakers had some
203,000 members worldwide, including 123,000 in the USA, 30,000 in Kenya and
21,000 in the UK
13 January 1691, George Fox, English religious leader who founded
the Society of Friends in 1648
(often known as the Quakers from
1650) died in London.
30/10/1650, �Quakers�, the more common name for the Religious Society of Friends, came into
being during a court case at which George Fox, the founder, told magistrates to
�quake and tremble at the word of the Lord�.
Appendix�
Salvation Army
1965, The Salvation Army, now 100 years old, had 27,000 members.
16 June 1929, Bramwell Booth, second General of the
Salvation Army, died.
19 August 1912. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army,
born on 10/4/1829, died aged 83. He was succeeded as leader of the Salvation
Army on 21 August 1912 by Mr Bramwell Booth.
1 August 1905, The founder of the Salvation Army, General William Booth, began a 2,000 mile
crusade round Britain.
21 September 1899, Frederick
Coutts, Salvation Army leader, was born on Kirkcaldy, Scotland.
2 July 1865. The Salvation Army
was founded, by William Booth, with a revival
meeting in Whitechapel, London.
10/4/1829, William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, was born in Nottingham,
the son of a builder.
Appendix�
Templars
18 March 1314, Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and the last Grand Master
of the Knights
Templar, was burned at the
stake.
22 March 1312, The Pope abolished the Order of the Templars.
11/5/1310, In France, 54 members of the Knights Templar were burned at
the stake for heresy.
2 November 1308, Castellar, last of the Templar�s strongholds, fell.
10 January 1308, The Templars
were suppressed in England.
13/10/1307, The Knights Templars in Paris were arrested. French King
Philip IV seized their assets in France. They had become wealthy and
were a major creditor to the King. Their extenbsive geographical presence, with
so9me 870 castles and houses spread across Europe, made them an ideal choice
for trsansferring money, rather like today�s banks. However King Philip I �of France, a debtor to the Templars, turned
public opinion against them with a major propaganda campaign.
1128, The Order of
the Knights Templar was officially recognised by Pope Honorius II.
1118, The Templars were
founded.
Appendix a �
Benedictines/Cistercians
25/10/1757, Antoine Calmet, French Benedictine monk and
teacher (born 26/2.1672) died.
26 February 1672, Antoine Calmet, French Benedictine monk and teacher
(died 25/10/1757) was born.
20 August 1153, St Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, died.
1128, The first Cistercian
monastery in Britain was founded, at Waverley, Surrey.
23/12/1119, Pope Calixtus I officialy approved the new Cistercian
order
21 March 1098, C�teaux Abbey became the origin of the Cistercian Order, founded by French
ecclesiastic Robert
de Molesmes, aged 69 and English ecclesiastic Stephen Harding, aged 50. The Benedictine
Abbott, Robert
de Champagne, wished to reform the secularised monastic life. His
first attempt at this was in the Forest of Molesme. In 1098 he founded, in the
Forest of Citeaux (Cistercium), an Abbey, at a small hamlet near Dijon, where the rules of St
Benedict would be strictly observed. The new Abbey had nearly became
extinct when in 1113 it was joined by St Benedict with thirty companions. In 1115 St Benedict
became the first Abbott of Clairvaux, which henceforth became the centre of the
revived Benedictine
Movement.
529,
The Benedictine
Order was formed at Monte Cassino, near Naples, by Benedict of Nursia, aged 49.
480,
Saint Benedict
was born, to a wealthy family in Nursia, near Spoleto.
Appendix b � Franciscans
2/4/1602, Maria Agreda, Spanish religious visionary and
Franciscan nun (died 1665) was born.
3/10/1226, Saint Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan Order, died
aged 44. He was canonised 19 July 1228.
10 September 1224, The first Franciscan
friars arrived in England
1209, The Franciscan Order of monks was founded. The Carmelites were founded.
