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HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Literature
C. Sagittarius: Introductio in historiam
ecclesiasticam. Jen. 1694.
F. Walch: Grundsätze der zur K.
Gesch. nöthigen Vorbereitungslehren u. Bücherkenntnisse. 3d ed. Giessen,
1793.
Flügge: Einleitung in das Studium u.
die Liter. der K. G. Gött. 1801.
John G. Dowling: An Introduction to the Critical
Study of Ecclesiastical History, attempted in an account of the progress, and
a short notice of the sources of the history of the Church. London, 1838.
Möhler (R. C.): Einleitung in die K.
G. 1839 ("Verm. Schriften," ed. Döllinger, II. 261 sqq.).
Kliefoth: Einleitung in die
Dogmengeschichte. Parchim & Ludwigslust, 1839.
Philip Schaff: What is Church History? A
Vindication of the Idea of Historical Development. Philad. 1846.
H B. Smith: Nature and Worth of the Science of
Church History. Andover, 1851.
E. P. Humphrey: lnaugural Address, delivered at the
Danville Theol. Seminary. Cincinnati, 1854.
R. Turnbull: Christ in History; or, the Central
Power among Men. Bost. 1854, 2d ed. 1860.
W. G. T. Shedd: Lectures on the Philosophy of
History. Andover, Mass., 1856.
R. D. Hitchcock: The True Idea and Uses of Church
History. N. York, 1856.
C. Bunsen: Gott in der Geschichte
oder der Fortschritt des Glaubens an eine sittliche Weltordnung. Bd. I.
Leipz. 1857. (Erstes Buch. Allg. Einleit. p. 1–134.) Engl. Transl.: God in
History. By S. Winkworth. Lond. 1868. 3 vols.
A. P. Stanley: Three Introductory Lectures on the
Study of Eccles. History Lond. 1857. (Also incorporated in his History of the
Eastern Church 1861.)
Goldwin Smith: Lectures on the Study of History,
delivered in Oxford, 1859–’61. Oxf. and Lond. (republished in N. York) 1866.
J. Gust. Droysen: Grundriss der
Historik. Leipz. 1868; new ed. 1882.
C. de Smedt (R. C.): Introductio generalis ad
historiam ecclesiasticam critice tractandam. Gandavi (Ghent), 1876 (533 pp.).
E. A. Freeman: The Methods of Historical Study. Lond
1886.
O. Lorenz: Geschichtswissenschaft.
Berlin, 1886.
Jos. Nirschl (R. C.): Propädeutik
der Kirchengeschichte. Mainz, 1888 (352 pp.).
On the philosophy of history in general, see the
works of Herder (Ideen zur Philosophie der Gesch. der
Menschheit), Fred. Schlegel, Hegel (1840, transl. by Sibree, 1870),
Hermann (1870), Rocholl (1878), Flint (The Philosophy of History in Europe.
Edinb., 1874, etc.), Lotze (Mikrokosmus, bk. viith; 4th ed. 1884; Eng. transl.
by Elizabeth Hamilton and E. E. C. Jones, 1885, 3d ed. 1888). A philosophy of
church history is a desideratum. Herder and Lotze come nearest to it
A fuller introduction, see in Schaff: History of the
Apostolic Church; with a General Introduction to Ch. H. (N. York, 1853), pp.
1–134.
§ 1. Nature of Church History.
History has two sides, a divine and a human. On the
part of God, it is his revelation in the order of time (as the creation is his
revelation in the order of space), and the successive unfolding of a plan of
infinite wisdom, justice, and mercy, looking to his glory and the eternal
happiness of mankind. On the part of man, history is the biography of the
human race, and the gradual development, both normal and abnormal, of all its
physical, intellectual, and moral forces to the final consummation at the
general judgment, with its eternal rewards and punishments. The idea of
universal history presupposes the Christian idea of the unity of God, and the
unity and common destiny of men, and was unknown to ancient Greece and Rome. A
view of history which overlooks or undervalues the divine factor starts from
deism and consistently runs into atheism; while the opposite view, which
overlooks the free agency of man and his moral responsibility and guilt, is
essentially fatalistic and pantheistic.
From the human agency we may distinguish the
Satanic, which enters as a third power into the history of the race. In the
temptation of Adam in Paradise, the temptation of Christ in the wilderness,
and at every great epoch, Satan appears as the antagonist of God, endeavoring
to defeat the plan of redemption and the progress of Christ’s kingdom, and
using weak and wicked men for his schemes, but is always defeated in the end
by the superior wisdom of God.
The central current and ultimate aim of universal
history is the Kingdom of God established by Jesus Christ. This is the
grandest and most comprehensive institution in the world, as vast as humanity
and as enduring as eternity. All other institutions are made subservient to
it, and in its interest the whole world is governed. It is no after-thought of
God, no subsequent emendation of the plan of creation, but it is the eternal
forethought, the controlling idea, the beginning, the middle, and the end of
all his ways and works. The first Adam is a type of the second Adam; creation
looks to redemption as the solution of its problems. Secular history, far from
controlling sacred history, is controlled by it, must directly or indirectly
subserve its ends, and can only be fully understood in the central light of
Christian truth and the plan of salvation. The Father, who directs the history
of the world, "draws to the Son," who rules the history of the church, and the
Son leads back to the Father, that "God may be all in all." "All things," says
St. Paul, "were created through Christ and unto Christ: and He is before all
things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body,
the Church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all
things He may have the pre-eminence." Col. 1:16–18. "The Gospel," says John
von Müller, summing up the final result of his lifelong studies in history,
"is the fulfilment of all hopes, the perfection of all philosophy, the
interpreter of all revolutions, the key of all seeming contradictions of the
physical and moral worlds; it is life—it is immortality."
The history of the church is the rise and progress
of the kingdom of heaven upon earth, for the glory of God and the salvation of
the world. It begins with the creation of Adam, and with that promise of the
serpent-bruiser, which relieved the loss of the paradise of innocence by the
hope of future redemption from the curse of sin. It comes down through the
preparatory revelations under the patriarchs, Moses, and the prophets, to the
immediate forerunner of the Saviour, who pointed his followers to the Lamb of
God, which taketh away the sin of the world. But this part of its course was
only introduction. Its proper starting-point is the incarnation of the Eternal
Word, who dwelt among us and revealed his glory, the glory as of the
only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth; and next to this, the
miracle of the first Pentecost, when the Church took her place as a Christian
institution, filled with the Spirit of the glorified Redeemer and entrusted
with the conversion of all nations. Jesus Christ, the God-Man and Saviour of
the world, is the author of the new creation, the soul and the head of the
church, which is his body and his bride. In his person and work lies all the
fulness of the Godhead and of renewed humanity, the whole plan of redemption,
and the key of all history from the creation of man in the image of God to the
resurrection of the body unto everlasting life.
This is the objective conception of church history.
In the subjective sense of the word, considered as
theological science and art, church history is the faithful and life-like
description of the origin and progress of this heavenly kingdom. It aims to
reproduce in thought and to embody in language its outward and inward
development down to the present time. It is a continuous commentary on the
Lord’s twin parables of the mustard-seed and of the leaven. It shows at once
how Christianity spreads over the world, and how it penetrates, transforms,
and sanctifies the individual and all the departments and institutions of
social life. It thus embraces not only the external fortunes of Christendom,
but more especially her inward experience, her religious life, her mental and
moral activity, her conflicts with the ungodly world, her sorrows and
sufferings, her joys and her triumphs over sin and error. It records the deeds
of those heroes of faith "who subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness,
obtained promises, stopped the months of lions, quenched the violence of fire,
escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant
in fight, turned to flight the armies of aliens."
From Jesus Christ, since his manifestation in the
flesh, an unbroken stream of divine light and life has been and is still
flowing, and will continue to flow, in ever-growing volume through the waste
of our fallen race; and all that is truly great and good and holy in the
annals of church history is due, ultimately, to the impulse of his spirit. He
is the fly-wheel in the world’s progress. But he works upon the world through
sinful and fallible men, who, while as self-conscious and free agents they are
accountable for all their actions, must still, willing or unwilling, serve the
great purpose of God. As Christ, in the days of his flesh, was bated, mocked,
and crucified, his church likewise is assailed and persecuted by the powers of
darkness. The history of Christianity includes therefore a history of
Antichrist. With an unending succession of works of saving power and
manifestations of divine truth and holiness, it uncovers also a fearful mass
of corruption and error. The church militant must, from its very nature, be at
perpetual warfare with the world, the flesh, and the devil, both without and
within. For as Judas sat among the apostles, so "the man of sin" sits in the
temple of God; and as even a Peter denied the Lord, though he afterwards wept
bitterly and regained his holy office, so do many disciples in all ages deny
him in word and in deed.
But on the other hand, church history shows that God
is ever stronger than Satan, and that his kingdom of light puts the kingdom of
darkness to shame. The Lion of the tribe of Judah has bruised the head of the
serpent. With the crucifixion of Christ his resurrection also is repeated ever
anew in the history of his church on earth; and there has never yet been a day
without a witness of his presence and power ordering all things according to
his holy will. For he has received all power in heaven and in earth for the
good of his people, and from his heavenly throne he rules even his foes. The
infallible word of promise, confirmed by experience, assures us that all
corruptions, heresies, and schisms must, under the guidance of divine wisdom
and love, subserve the cause of truth, holiness, and peace; till, at the last
judgment, Christ shall make his enemies his footstool, and rule undisputed
with the sceptre of righteousness and peace, and his church shall realize her
idea and destiny as "the fullness of him that filleth all in all."
Then will history itself, in its present form, as a
struggling and changeful development, give place to perfection, and the stream
of time come to rest in the ocean of eternity, but this rest will be the
highest form of life and activity in God and for God.
§ 2. Branches of Church History.
The kingdom of Christ, in its principle and aim, is
as comprehensive as humanity. It is truly catholic or universal, designed and
adapted for all nations and ages, for all the powers of the soul, and all
classes of society. It breathes into the mind, the heart, and the will a
higher, supernatural life, and consecrates the family, the state, science,
literature, art, and commerce to holy ends, till finally God becomes all in
all. Even the body, and the whole visible creation, which groans for
redemption from its bondage to vanity and for the glorious liberty of the
children of God, shall share in this universal transformation; for we look for
the resurrection of the body, and for the new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness. But we must not identify the kingdom of God with the visible
church or churches, which are only its temporary organs and agencies, more or
less inadequate, while the kingdom itself is more comprehensive, and will last
for ever.
Accordingly, church history has various departments,
corresponding to the different branches of secular history and of natural
life. The principal divisions are:
I. The history of missions, or of the spread of
Christianity among unconverted nations, whether barbarous or civilized. This
work must continue, till "the fullness of the Gentiles shall come in," and
"Israel shall be saved." The law of the missionary progress is expressed in
the two parables of the grain of mustard-seed which grows into a tree, and of
the leaven which gradually pervades the whole lump. The first parable
illustrates the outward expansion, the second the all-penetrating and
transforming power of Christianity. It is difficult to convert a nation; it is
more difficult to train it to the high standard of the gospel; it is most
difficult to revive and reform a dead or apostate church.
The foreign mission work has achieved three great
conquests: first, the conversion of the elect remnant of the Jews, and of
civilized Greeks and Romans, in the first three centuries; then the conversion
of the barbarians of Northern and Western Europe, in the middle ages; and
last, the combined efforts of various churches and societies for the
conversion of the savage races in America, Africa, and Australia, and the
semi-civilized nations of Eastern Asia, in our own time. The whole
non-Christian world is now open to missionary labor, except the Mohammedan,
which will likewise become accessible at no distant day.
The domestic or home mission work embraces the
revival of Christian life in corrupt or neglected portions of the church in
old countries, the supply of emigrants in new countries with the means of
grace, and the labors, among the semi-heathenism populations of large cities.
Here we may mention the planting of a purer Christianity among the petrified
sects in Bible Lands, the labors of the Gustavus Adolphus Society, and the
Inner mission of Germany, the American Home Missionary Societies for the
western states and territories, the City Mission Societies in London, New
York, and other fast-growing cities.
II. The history of Persecution by hostile powers; as
by Judaism and Heathenism in the first three centuries, and by Mohammedanism
in the middle age. This apparent repression of the church proves a purifying
process, brings out the moral heroism of martyrdom, and thus works in the end
for the spread and establishment of Christianity. "The blood of martyrs is the
seed of the church."2
There are cases, however, where systematic and persistent persecution has
crushed out the church or reduced it to a mere shadow, as in Palestine, Egypt,
and North Africa, under the despotism of the Moslems.
Persecution, like missions, is both foreign and
domestic. Besides being assailed from without by the followers of false
religions, the church suffers also from intestine wars and violence. Witness
the religious wars in France, Holland, and England, the Thirty Years’ War in
Germany, all of which grew out of the Protestant Reformation and the Papal
Reaction; the crusade against the Albigenses and Waldenses, the horrors of the
Spanish Inquisition, the massacre of the Huguenots, the dragonnades of Louis
XIV., the crushing out of the Reformation in Bohemia, Belgium, and Southern
Europe; but also, on the Protestant side, the persecution of Anabaptists, the
burning of Servetus in Geneva the penal laws of the reign of Elizabeth against
Catholic and Puritan Dissenters, the hanging of witches and Quakers in New
England. More Christian blood has been shed by Christians than by heathens and
Mohammedans.
The persecutions of Christians by Christians form
the satanic chapters, the fiendish midnight scenes, in the history of the
church. But they show also the gradual progress of the truly Christian spirit
of religious toleration and freedom. Persecution exhausted ends in toleration,
and toleration is a step to freedom. The blood of patriots is the price of
civil, the blood of martyrs the price of religious liberty. The conquest is
dear, the progress slow and often interrupted, but steady and irresistible.
The principle of intolerance is now almost universally disowned in the
Christian world, except by ultramontane Romanism (which indirectly reasserts
it in the Papal Syllabus of 1864); but a ruling church, allied to the state,
under the influence of selfish human nature, and, relying on the arm of flesh
rather than the power of truth, is always tempted to impose or retain unjust
restrictions on dissenting sects, however innocent and useful they may have
proved to be.
In the United States all Christian denominations and
sects are placed on a basis of equality before the law, and alike protected by
the government in their property and right of public worship, yet
self-supporting and self-governing; and, in turn, they strengthen the moral
foundations of society by training loyal and virtuous citizens. Freedom of
religion must be recognized as one of the inalienable rights of man, which
lies in the sacred domain of conscience, beyond the restraint and control of
politics, and which the government is bound to protect as much as any other
fundamental right. Freedom is liable to abuse, and abuse may be punished. But
Christianity is itself the parent of true freedom from the bondage of sin and
error, and is the best protector and regulator of freedom.
III. The history of Church Government and
Discipline. The church is not only an invisible communion of saints, but at
the same time a visible body, needing organs, laws, and forms, to regulate its
activity. Into this department of history fall the various forms of church
polity: the apostolic, the primitive episcopal, the patriarchal, the papal,
the consistorial, the presbyterial, the congregational, etc.; and the history
of the law and discipline of the church, and her relation to the state, under
all these forms.
IV. The history of Worship, or divine service, by
which the church celebrates, revives, and strengthens her fellowship with her
divine head. This falls into such subdivisions as the history of preaching, of
catechisms, of liturgy, of rites and ceremonies, and of religious art,
particularly sacred poetry and music.
The history of church government and the history of
worship are often put together under the title of Ecclesiastical Antiquities
or Archaeology, and commonly confined to the patristic age, whence most of
the, Catholic institutions and usages of the church date their origin. But
they may as well be extended to the formative period of Protestantism.
V. The history of Christian Life, or practical
morality and religion: the exhibition of the distinguishing virtues and vices
of different ages, of the development of Christian philanthropy, the
regeneration of domestic life, the gradual abatement and abolition of slavery
and other social evils, the mitigation and diminution of the horrors of war,
the reform of civil law and of government, the spread of civil and religious
liberty, and the whole progress of civilization, under the influence of
Christianity.
VI. The history of Theology, or of Christian
learning and literature. Each branch of theology—exegetical, doctrinal,
ethical, historical, and practical—has a history of its own.
The history of doctrines or dogmas is here the most
important, and is therefore frequently treated by itself. Its object is to
show how the mind of the, church has gradually apprehended and unfolded the
divine truths of revelation, how the teachings of scripture have been
formulated and shaped into dogmas, and grown into creeds and confessions of
faith, or systems of doctrine stamped with public authority. This growth of
the church in the knowledge of the infallible word of God is a constant
struggle against error, misbelief, and unbelief; and the history of heresies
is an essential part of the history of doctrines.
Every important dogma now professed by the Christian
church is the result of a severe conflict with error. The doctrine of the holy
Trinity, for instance, was believed from the beginning, but it required, in
addition to the preparatory labors of the ante-Nicene age, fifty years of
controversy, in which the strongest intellects were absorbed, until it was
brought to the clear expression of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. The
Christological conflict was equally long and intense, until it was brought to
a settlement by the council of Chalcedon. The Reformation of the sixteenth
century was a continual warfare with popery. The doctrinal symbols of the
various churches, from the Apostles’ Creed down to the confessions of Dort and
Westminster, and more recent standards, embody the results of the theological
battles of the militant church.
The various departments of church history have not a
merely external and mechanical, but an organic relation to each other, and
form one living whole, and this relation the historian must show. Each period
also is entitled to a peculiar arrangement, according to its character. The
number, order, and extent of the different divisions must be determined by
their actual importance at a given time.
§ 3. Sources of Church History.
The sources of church history, the data on which we
rely for our knowledge, are partly divine, partly human. For the history of
the kingdom of God from the creation to the close of the apostolic age, we
have the inspired writings of the Old and New Testaments. But after the death
of the apostles we have only human authorities, which of course cannot claim
to be infallible. These human sources are partly written, partly unwritten.
I. The written sources include:
(a) Official documents of ecclesiastical and civil
authorities: acts of councils and synods, confessions of faith, liturgies,
church laws, and the official letters of popes, patriarchs, bishops, and
representative bodies.
(b) Private writings of personal actors in the
history: the works of the church fathers, heretics, and heathen authors, for
the first six centuries; of the missionaries, scholastic and mystic divines,
for the middle age; and of the reformers and their opponents, for the
sixteenth century. These documents are the richest mines for the historian.
They give history in its birth and actual movement. But they must be carefully
sifted and weighed; especially the controversial writings, where fact is
generally more or less adulterated with party spirit, heretical and orthodox.
(c) Accounts of chroniclers and historians, whether
friends or enemies, who were eye-witnesses of what they relate. The value of
these depends, of course, on the capacity and credibility of the authors, to
be determined by careful criticism. Subsequent historians can be counted among
the direct or immediate sources only so far as they have drawn from reliable
and contemporary documents, which have either been wholly or partially lost,
like many of Eusebius authorities for the period before Constantine, or are
inaccessible to historians generally, as are the papal regesta and other
documents of the Vatican library.
(d) Inscriptions, especially those on tombs and
catacombs, revealing the faith and hope of Christians in times of persecution.
Among the ruins of Egypt and Babylonia whole libraries have been disentombed
and deciphered, containing mythological and religious records, royal
proclamations, historical, astronomical, and poetical compositions, revealing
an extinct civilization and shedding light on some parts of Old Testament
history.
II. The Unwritten sources are far less numerous:
church edifices, works of sculpture and painting, and other monuments,
religious customs and ceremonies, very important for the history of worship
and ecclesiastical art, and significant of the spirit of their age.3
The works of art are symbolical embodiments of the
various types of Christianity. The plain symbols and crude sculptures of the
catacombs correspond to the period of persecution; the basilicas to the Nicene
age; the Byzantine churches to the genius of the Byzantine state-churchism;
the Gothic cathedrals to the Romano-Germanic catholicism of the middle ages;
the renaissance style to the revival of letters.
To come down to more recent times, the spirit of
Romanism can be best appreciated amidst the dead and living monuments of Rome,
Italy, and Spain. Lutheranism must be studied in Wittenberg, Northern Germany,
and Scandinavia; Calvinism in Geneva, France, Holland, and Scotland;
Anglicanism at Oxford, Cambridge, and London; Presbyterianism in Scotland and
the United States; Congregationalism in England and New England. For in the
mother countries of these denominations we generally find not only the largest
printed and manuscript sources, but also the architectural, sculptural,
sepulchral, and other monumental remains, the natural associations, oral
traditions, and living representatives of the past, who, however they may have
departed from the faith of their ancestors, still exhibit their national
genius, social condition, habits, and customs—often in a far more instructive
manner than ponderous printed volumes.
§ 4. Periods of Church History.
The purely chronological or annalistic method,
though pursued by the learned Baronius and his continuators, is now generally
abandoned. It breaks the natural flow of events, separates things which belong
together, and degrades history to a mere chronicle.
The centurial plan, which prevailed from Flacius to
Mosheim, is an improvement. It allows a much better view of the progress and
connection of things. But it still imposes on the history a forced and
mechanical arrangement; for the salient points or epochs very seldom coincide
with the limits of our centuries. The rise of Constantine, for example,
together with the union of church and state, dates from the year 311; that of
the absolute papacy, in Hildebrand, from 1049; the Reformation from 1517; the
peace of Westphalia took place in 1648; the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers of
New England in 1620; the American emancipation in 1776; the French revolution
in 1789; the revival of religious life in Germany began in 1817.
The true division must grow out of the actual course
of the history itself, and present the different phases of its development or
stages of its life. These we call periods or ages. The beginning of a new
period is called an epoch, or a stopping and starting point.
In regard to the number and length of periods there
is, indeed, no unanimity; the less, on account of the various denominational
differences establishing different points of view, especially since the
sixteenth century. The Reformation, for instance, has less importance for the
Roman church than for the Protestant, and almost none for the Greek; and while
the edict of Nantes forms a resting-place in the history of French
Protestantism, and the treaty of Westphalia in that of German, neither of
these events had as much to do with English Protestantism as the accession of
Elizabeth, the rise of Cromwell, the restoration of the Stuarts, and the
revolution of 1688.
But, in spite of all confusion and difficulty in
regard to details, it is generally agreed to divide the history of
Christianity into three principal parts—ancient, mediaeval, and modern; though
there is not a like agreement as to the dividing epochs, or points of
departure and points of termination.
I. The history of Ancient Christianity, from the
birth of Christ to Gregory the Great. a.d. 1–590.
This is the age of the Graeco-Latin church, or of
the Christian Fathers. Its field is the countries around the
Mediterranean—Western Asia, Northern Africa, and Southern Europe—just the
theatre of the old Roman empire and of classic heathendom. This age lays the
foundation, in doctrine, government, and worship, for all the subsequent
history. It is the common progenitor of all the various confessions.
The Life of Christ and the Apostolic Church are by
far the most important sections, and require separate treatment. They form the
divine-human groundwork of the church, and inspire, regulate, and correct all
subsequent periods.
Then, at the beginning of the fourth century, the
accession of Constantine, the first Christian emperor, marks a decisive turn;
Christianity rising from a persecuted sect to the prevailing religion of the
Graeco-Roman empire. In the history of doctrines, the first oecumenical
council of Nicaea, falling in the midst of Constantine’s reign, a.d. 325, has
the prominence of an epoch.
Here, then, are three periods within the first or
patristic era, which we may severally designate as the period of the Apostles,
the period of the Martyrs, and the period of the Christian Emperors and
Patriarchs.
II. Medieval Christianity, from Gregory I to the
Reformation. a.d. 590–1517.
The middle age is variously reckoned—from
Constantine, 306 or 311; from the fall of the West Roman empire, 476; from
Gregory the Great, 590; from Charlemagne, 800. But it is very generally
regarded as closing at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and more
precisely, at the outbreak of the Reformation in 1517. Gregory the Great seems
to us to form the most proper ecclesiastical point of division. With him, the
author of the Anglo-Saxon mission, the last of the church fathers, and the
first of the proper popes, begins in earnest, and with decisive success, the
conversion of the barbarian tribes, and, at the same time, the development of
the absolute papacy, and the alienation of the eastern and western churches.
This suggests the distinctive character of the
middle age: the transition of the church from Asia and Africa to Middle and
Western Europe, from the Graeco-Roman nationality to that of the Germanic,
Celtic, and Slavonic races, and from the culture of the ancient classic world
to the modern civilization. The great work of the church then was the
conversion and education of the heathen barbarians, who conquered and
demolished the Roman empire, indeed, but were themselves conquered and
transformed by its Christianity. This work was performed mainly by the Latin
church, under a firm hierarchical constitution, culminating in the bishop of
Rome. The Greek church though she made some conquests among the Slavic tribes
of Eastern Europe, particularly in the Russian empire, since grown so
important, was in turn sorely pressed and reduced by Mohammedanism in Asia and
Africa, the very seat of primitive Christianity, and at last in Constantinople
itself; and in doctrine, worship, and organization, she stopped at the
position of the oecumenical councils and the patriarchal constitution of the
fifth century.
In the middle age the development of the hierarchy
occupies the foreground, so that it may be called the church of the Popes, as
distinct from the ancient church of the Fathers, and the modern church of the
Reformers.
In the growth and decay of the Roman hierarchy three
popes stand out as representatives of as many epochs: Gregory I., or the Great
(590), marks the rise of absolute papacy; Gregory VII., or Hildebrand (1049),
its summit; and Boniface VIII. (1294), its decline. We thus have again three
periods in mediaeval church history. We may briefly distinguish them as the
Missionary, the Papal, and the pre- or ante-Reformatory4
ages of Catholicism.
III. Modern Christianity, from the Reformation of
the sixteenth century to the present time. a.d. 1517–1880.
Modern history moves chiefly among the nations of
Europe, and from the seventeenth century finds a vast new theatre in North
America. Western Christendom now splits into two hostile parts—one remaining
on the old path, the other striking out a new one; while the eastern church
withdraws still further from the stage of history, and presents a scene of
almost undisturbed stagnation, except in modern Russia and Greece. Modern
church history is the age of Protestantism in conflict with Romanism, of
religious liberty and independence in conflict with the principle of authority
and tutelage, of individual and personal Christianity against an objective and
traditional church system.
Here again three different periods appear, which may
be denoted briefly by the terms, Reformation, Revolution, and Revival.
The sixteenth century, next to the apostolic age the
most fruitful and interesting period of church history, is the century of the
evangelical renovation of the Church, and the papal counter-reform. It is the
cradle of all Protestant denominations and sects, and of modern Romanism.
The seventeenth century is the period of scholastic
orthodoxy, polemic confessionalism, and comparative stagnation. The
reformatory motion ceases on the continent, but goes on in the mighty
Puritanic struggle in England, and extends even into the primitive forests of
the American colonies. The seventeenth century is the most fruitful in the
church history of England, and gave rise to the various nonconformist or
dissenting denominations which were transplanted to North America, and have
out-grown some of the older historic churches. Then comes, in the eighteenth
century, the Pietistic and Methodistic revival of practical religion in
opposition to dead orthodoxy and stiff formalism. In the Roman church
Jesuitism prevails but opposed by the half-evangelical Jansenism, and the
quasiliberal Gallicanism.
In the second half of the eighteenth century begins
the vast overturning of traditional ideas and institutions, leading to
revolution in state, and infidelity in church, especially in Roman Catholic
France and Protestant Germany. Deism in England, atheism in France,
rationalism in Germany, represent the various degrees of the great modern
apostasy from the orthodox creeds.
The nineteenth century presents, in part, the
further development of these negative and destructive tendencies, but with it
also the revival of Christian faith and church life, and the beginnings of a
new creation by the everlasting gospel. The revival may be dated from the
third centenary of the Reformation, in 1817.
In the same period North America, English and
Protestant in its prevailing character, but presenting an asylum for all the
nations, churches, and sects of the old world, with a peaceful separation of
the temporal and the spiritual power, comes upon the stage like a young giant
full of vigor and promise.
Thus we have, in all, nine periods of church
history, as follows:
First Period:
The Life of Christ, and the Apostolic church.
From the Incarnation to the death of St. John. a.d. 1–100.
Second Period:
Christianity under persecution in the Roman empire.
From the death of St. John to Constantine, the first Christian emperor. a.d.
100–311.
Third Period:
Christianity in union with the Graeco-Roman empire, and amidst the storms of
the great migration of nations.
From Constantine the Great to Pope Gregory I. a.d. 311–590.
Fourth Period:
Christianity planted among the Teutonic, Celtic, and Slavonic nations.
From Gregory I. to Hildebrand, or Gregory VII. a.d. 590–1049.
Fifth Period:
The Church under the papal hierarchy, and the scholastic theology.
From Gregory VII. to Boniface VIII. a.d. 1049–1294.
Sixth Period:
The decay of mediaeval Catholicism, and the preparatory movements for the
Reformation.
From Boniface VIII. to Luther. a.d. 1294–1517.
Seventh Period:
The evangelical Reformation, and the Roman Catholic Reaction.
From Luther to the Treaty of Westphalia. a.d. 1517–1648.
Eighth Period:
The age of polemic orthodoxy and exclusive confessionalism, with reactionary
and progressive movements.
From the Treaty of Westphalia to the French Revolution. a.d. 1648–1790.
Ninth Period:
The spread of infidelity, and the revival of Christianity in Europe and
America, with missionary efforts encircling the globe.
From the French Revolution to the present time. a.d. 1790–1880.
Christianity has thus passed through many stages of
its earthly life, and yet has hardly reached the period of full manhood in
Christ Jesus. During this long succession of centuries it has outlived the
destruction of Jerusalem, the dissolution of the Roman empire, fierce
persecutions from without, and heretical corruptions from within, the
barbarian invasion, the confusion of the dark ages, the papal tyranny, the
shock of infidelity, the ravages of revolution, the attacks of enemies and the
errors of friends, the rise and fall of proud kingdoms, empires, and
republics, philosophical systems, and social organizations without number.
And, behold, it still lives, and lives in greater strength and wider extent
than ever; controlling the progress of civilization, and the destinies of the
world; marching over the ruins of human wisdom and folly, ever forward and
onward; spreading silently its heavenly blessings from generation to
generation, and from country to country, to the ends of the earth. It can
never die; it will never see the decrepitude of old age; but, like its divine
founder, it will live in the unfading freshness of self-renewing youth and the
unbroken vigor of manhood to the end of time, and will outlive time itself.
Single denominations and sects, human forms of doctrine, government, and
worship, after having served their purpose, may disappear and go the way of
all flesh; but the Church Universal of Christ, in her divine life and
substance, is too strong for the gates of hell. She will only exchange her
earthly garments for the festal dress of the Lamb’s Bride, and rise from the
state of humiliation to the state of exaltation and glory. Then at the coming
of Christ she will reap the final harvest of history, and as the church
triumphant in heaven celebrate and enjoy the eternal sabbath of holiness and
peace. This will be the endless end of history, as it was foreshadowed already
at the beginning of its course in the holy rest of God after the completion of
his work of creation.
§ 5. Uses of Church History.
Church history is the most extensive, and, including
the sacred history of the Old and New Testaments, the most important branch of
theology. It is the backbone of theology or which it rests, and the storehouse
from which it derives its supplies. It is the best commentary of Christianity
itself, under all its aspects and in all its bearings. The fulness of the
stream is the glory of the fountain from which it flows.
Church history has, in the first place, a general
interest for every cultivated mind, as showing the moral and religious
development of our race, and the gradual execution of the divine plan of
redemption.
It has special value for the theologian and minister
of the gospel, as the key to the present condition of Christendom and the
guide to successful labor in her cause. The present is the fruit of the past,
and the germ of the future. No work can stand unless it grow out of the real
wants of the age and strike firm root in the soil of history. No one who
tramples on the rights of a past generation can claim the regard of its
posterity. Church history is no mere curiosity shop. Its facts are not dry
bones, but embody living realities, the general principles and laws for our
own guidance and action. Who studies church history studies Christianity
itself in all its phases, and human nature under the influence of Christianity
as it now is, and will be to the end of time.
Finally, the history of the church has practical
value for every Christian, as a storehouse of warning and encouragement, of
consolation and counsel. It is the philosophy of facts, Christianity in living
examples. If history in general be, as Cicero describes it, "testis temporum,
lux veritatis, et magistra vitae," or, as Diodorus calls it, "the handmaid of
providence, the priestess of truth, and the mother of wisdom," the history of
the kingdom of heaven is all these in the highest degree. Next to the holy
scriptures, which are themselves a history and depository of divine
revelation, there is no stronger proof of the continual presence of Christ
with his people, no more thorough vindication of Christianity, no richer
source of spiritual wisdom and experience, no deeper incentive to virtue and
piety, than the history of Christ’s kingdom. Every age has a message from God
to man, which it is of the greatest importance for man to understand.
The Epistle to the Hebrews describes, in stirring
eloquence, the cloud of witnesses from the old dispensation for the
encouragement of the Christians. Why should not the greater cloud of apostles,
evangelists, martyrs, confessors, fathers, reformers, and saints of every age
and tongue, since the coming of Christ, be held up for the same purpose? They
were the heroes of Christian faith and love, the living epistles of Christ,
the salt of the earth, the benefactors and glory of our race; and it is
impossible rightly to study their thoughts and deeds, their lives and deaths,
without being elevated, edified, comforted, and encouraged to follow their
holy example, that we at last, by the grace of God, be received into their
fellowship, to spend with them a blessed eternity in the praise and enjoyment
of the same God and Saviour.
§ 6. Duty of the Historian.
The first duty of the historian, which comprehends
all others, is fidelity and justice. He must reproduce the history itself,
making it live again in his representation. His highest and only aim should
be, like a witness, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth, and, like a judge, to do full justice to every person and event which
comes under his review.
To be thus faithful and just he needs a threefold
qualification—scientific, artistic, and religious.
1. He must master the sources. For this purpose he
must be acquainted with such auxiliary sciences as ecclesiastical philology
(especially the Greek and Latin languages, in which most of the earliest
documents are written), secular history, geography, and chronology. Then, in
making use of the sources, he must thoroughly and impartially examine their
genuineness and integrity, and the credibility and capacity of the witnesses.
Thus only can he duly separate fact from fiction, truth from error.
The number of sources for general history is so
large and increasing so rapidly, that it is, of course, impossible to read and
digest them all in a short lifetime. Every historian rests on the shoulders of
his predecessors. He must take some things on trust even after the most
conscientious search, and avail himself of the invaluable aid of documentary
collections and digests, ample indexes, and exhaustive monographs, where he
cannot examine all the primary sources in detail. Only he should always
carefully indicate his authorities and verify facts, dates, and quotations. A
want of accuracy is fatal to the reputation of an historical work.
2. Then comes the composition. This is an art. It
must not simply recount events, but reproduce the development of the church in
living process. History is not a heap of skeletons, but an organism filled and
ruled by a reasonable soul.
One of the greatest difficulties here lies in
arranging the material. The best method is to combine judiciously the
chronological and topical principles of division; presenting at once the
succession of events and the several parallel (and, indeed, interwoven)
departments of the history in due proportion. Accordingly, we first divide the
whole history into periods, not arbitrary, but determined by the actual course
of events; and then we present each of these periods in as many parallel
sections or chapters as the material itself requires. As to the number of the
periods and chapters, and as to the arrangement of the chapters, there are
indeed conflicting opinions, and in the application of our principle, as in
our whole representation, we can only make approaches to perfection. But the
principle itself is, nevertheless, the only true one.
The ancient classical historians, and most of the
English and French, generally present their subject in one homogeneous
composition of successive books or chapters, without rubrical division. This
method might seem to bring out better the living unity and variety of the
history at every point. Yet it really does not. Language, unlike the pencil
and the chisel, can exhibit only the succession in time, not the local
concomitance. And then this method, rigidly pursued, never gives a complete
view of any one subject, of doctrine, worship, or practical life. It
constantly mixes the various topics, breaking off from one to bring up
another, even by the most sudden transitions, till the alternation is
exhausted. The German method of periodical and rubrical arrangement has great
practical advantages for the student, in bringing to view the order of
subjects as well as the order of time. But it should not be made a uniform and
monotonous mechanism, as is done in the Magdeburg Centuries and many
subsequent works. For, while history has its order, both of subject and of
time, it is yet, like all life, full of variety. The period of the Reformation
requires a very different arrangement from the middle age; and in modern
history the rubrical division must be combined with and made subject to a
division by confessions and countries, as the Roman Catholic, Lutheran,
Reformed churches in Germany, France, England, and America.
The historian should aim then to reproduce both the
unity and the variety of history, presenting the different topics in their
separate completeness, without overlooking their organic connection. The
scheme must not be arbitrarily made, and then pedantically applied, as a
Procrustean framework, to the history; but it must be deduced from the history
itself, and varied as the facts require.
Another difficulty even greater than the arrangement
of the material consists in the combination of brevity and fulness. A general
church history should give a complete view of the progress of Christ’s kingdom
in all its departments. But the material is so vast and constantly increasing,
that the utmost condensation should be studied by a judicious selection of the
salient points, which really make up the main body of history. There is no use
in writing books unless they are read. But who has time in this busy age to
weary through the forty folios of Baronius and his continuators, or the
thirteen folios of Flacius, or the forty-five octaves of Schroeckh? The
student of ecclesiastical history, it is true, wants not miniature pictures
only (as in Hase’s admirable compend), but full-length portraits. Yet much
space may be gained by omitting the processes and unessential details, which
may be left to monographs and special treatises. Brevity is a virtue in the
historian, unless it makes him obscure and enigmatic.5
The historian, moreover, must make his work readable
and interesting, without violating truth. Some parts of history are dull and
wearisome; but, upon the whole, the truth of history is "stranger than
fiction." It is God’s own epos. It needs no embellishment. It speaks for
itself if told with earnestness, vivacity, and freshness. Unfortunately,
church historians, with very few exceptions, are behind the great secular
historians in point of style, and represent the past as a dead corpse rather
than as a living and working power of abiding interest. Hence church histories
are so little read outside of professional circles.
3. Both scientific research and artistic
representation must be guided by a sound moral and religious, that is, a truly
Christian spirit. The secular historian should be filled with universal human
sympathy, the church historian with universal Christian sympathy. The motto of
the former is: "Homo sum, nihil humani a me alienum puto;" the motto of the
latter: "Christianus sum, nihil Christiani a me alienum puto."
The historian must first lay aside all prejudice and
party zeal, and proceed in the pure love of truth. Not that he must become a
tabula rasa. No man is able, or should attempt, to cast off the educational
influences which have made him what he is. But the historian of the church of
Christ must in every thing be as true as possible to the objective fact, "sine
ira et studio;" do justice to every person and event; and stand in the centre
of Christianity, whence he may see all points in the circumference, all
individual persons and events, all confessions, denominations, and sects, in
their true relations to each other and to the glorious whole. The famous
threefold test of catholic truth—universality of time (semper), place (ubique),
and number (ab omnibus)—in its literal sense, is indeed untrue and
inapplicable. Nevertheless, there is a common Christianity in the Church, as
well as a common humanity in the world, which no Christian can disregard with
impunity. Christ is the divine harmony of all the discordant human creeds and
sects. It is the duty and the privilege of the historian to trace the image of
Christ in the various physiognomies of his disciples, and to act as a mediator
between the different sections of his kingdom.
Then he must be in thorough sympathy with his
subject, and enthusiastically devoted thereto. As no one can interpret a poet
without poetic feeling and taste, or a philosopher without speculative talent,
so no one can rightly comprehend and exhibit the history of Christianity
without a Christian spirit. An unbeliever could produce only a repulsive
caricature, or at best a lifeless statue. The higher the historian stands on
Christian ground, the larger is his horizon, and the more full and clear his
view of single regions below, and of their mutual bearings. Even error can be
fairly seen only from the position of truth. "Verum est index sui et falsi."
Christianity is the absolute truth, which, like the sun, both reveals itself
and enlightens all that is dark. Church history, like the Bible, is its own
best interpreter.
So far as the historian combines these three
qualifications, he fulfils his office. In this life we can, of course, only
distantly approach perfection in this or in any other branch of study.
Absolute success would require infallibility; and this is denied to mortal
man. It is the exclusive privilege of the Divine mind to see the end from the
beginning, and to view events from all sides and in all their bearings; while
the human mind can only take up things consecutively and view them partially
or in fragments.
The full solution of the mysteries of history is
reserved for that heavenly state, when we shall see no longer through a gloss
darkly, but face to face, and shall survey the developments of time from the
heights of eternity. What St. Augustine so aptly says of the mutual relation
of the Old and New Testament, "Novum Testamentum in Vetere latet, Vetus in
Novo patet," may be applied also to the relation of this world and the world
to come. The history of the church militant is but a type and a prophecy of
the triumphant kingdom of God in heaven—a prophecy which will be perfectly
understood only in the light of its fulfilment.
§ 7. Literature of Church History.
Stäudlin: Geschichte u. Literatur
der K. Geschichte. Hann. 1827.
J. G. Dowling: An Introduction to the Critical Study
of Eccles. History. London, 1838. Quoted p. 1. The work is chiefly an account
of the ecclesiastical historians. pp. 1–212.
F. C. Baur: Die Epochen der
kirchlichen Geschichtschreibung. Tüb. 1852.
Philip Schaff: Introduction to History of the Apost.
Church (N. York, 1853), pp. 51–134.
Engelhardt: Uebersicht der
kirchengeschichtlichen Literatur vom Jahre 1825–1850. In Niedner’s "Zeitschrift
für historische Theologie," 1851.
G. Uhlhorn: Die kirchenhist.
Arbeiten von 1851–1860. In Niedner’s "Zeitschrift für histor. Theologie," for
1866, Gotha, pp. 3–160. The same: Die ältere Kirchengesch. in ihren neueren
Darstellungen. In "Jahrbücher für deutsche Theol." Vol. II. 648 sqq.
Brieger’s "Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte" (begun
in 1877 and published in Gotha) contains bibliographical articles of Ad.
Harnack, Möller, and others, on the latest literature.
Ch. K. Adams: A Manual of Historical Literature. N.
York, 3d ed. 1888.
Like every other science and art, church
historiography has a history of development toward its true perfection. This
history exhibits not only a continual growth of material, but also a gradual,
though sometimes long interrupted, improvement of method, from the mere
collection of names and dates in a Christian chronicle, to critical research
and discrimination, pragmatic reference to causes and motives, scientific
command of material, philosophical generalization, and artistic reproduction
of the actual history itself. In this progress also are marked the various
confessional and denominational phases of Christianity, giving different
points of view, and consequently different conceptions and representations of
the several periods and divisions of Christendom; so that the development of
the Church itself is mirrored in the development of church historiography.
We can here do no more than mention the leading
works which mark the successive epochs in the growth of our science.
I. The Apostolic Church.
The first works on church history are the canonical
Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the inspired biographical memoirs of
Jesus Christ, who is the theanthropic head of the Church universal.
These are followed by Luke’s Acts of the Apostles,
which describes the planting of Christianity among Jews and Gentiles from
Jerusalem to Rome, by the labors of the apostles, especially Peter and Paul.
II. The Greek Church historians.
The first post-apostolic works on church history, as
indeed all branches of theological literature, take their rise in the Greek
Church.
Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea, in Palestine, and
contemporary with Constantine the Great, composed a church history in ten
books (ejkklhsiastikh; iJstoriva, from the incarnation
of the Logos to the year 324), by which he has won the title of the Father of
church history, or the Christian Herodotus. Though by no means very critical
and discerning, and far inferior in literary talent and execution to the works
of the great classical historians, this ante-Nicene church history is
invaluable for its learning, moderation, and love of truth; for its use of so
since totally or partially lost; and for its interesting position of personal
observation between the last persecutions of the church and her establishment
in the Byzantine empire.
Eusebius was followed in similar spirit and on the
same plan by Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret in the fifth century, and
Theodorus and Evagrius in the sixth, each taking up the thread of the
narrative where his predecessor had dropped it, and covering in part the same
ground, from Constantine the Great till toward the middle of the fifth
century.6
Of the later Greek historians, from the seventh
century, to the fifteenth, the "Scriptores Byzantini," as they are called,
Nicephorus Callisti (son of Callistus, about a.d. 1333) deserves special
regard. His Ecclesiastical History was written with the use of the large
library of the church of St. Sophia in Constantinople, and dedicated to the
emperor Andronicus Palaeologus (d. 1327). It extends in eighteen books (each
of which begins with a letter of his name) from the birth of Christ to the
death of Phocas, a.d. 610, and gives in the preface a summary of five books
more, which would have brought it down to 911. He was an industrious and
eloquent, but uncritical and superstitious writer.7
III. Latin Church historians of the middle ages.
The Latin Church, before the Reformation, was, in
church history, as in all other theological studies, at first wholly dependent
on the Greek, and long content with mere translations and extracts from
Eusebius and his continuators.
The most popular of these was the Historia
Tripartita, composed by Cassiodorus, prime minister of Theodoric, and
afterwards abbot of a convent in Calabria (d. about a.d. 562). It is a
compilation from the histories of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret, abridging
and harmonizing them, and supplied—together with the translation of Eusebius
by Rufinus—the West for several centuries with its knowledge of the fortunes
of the ancient church.
The middle age produced no general church history of
consequence, but a host of chronicles, and histories of particular nations,
monastic orders, eminent popes, bishops, missionaries, saints, etc. Though
rarely worth much as compositions, these are yet of great value as material,
after a careful sifting of truth from legendary fiction.
The principal mediaeval historians are Gregory of
Tours (d. 595), who wrote a church history of the Franks; the Venerable Bede,
(d. 735), the father of English church history; Paulus Diaconus (d. 799), the
historian of the Lombards; Adam of Bremen, the chief authority for
Scandinavian church history from a.d. 788–1072; Haimo (or Haymo, Aimo, a monk
of Fulda, afterwards bishop of Halberstadt, d. 853), who described in ten
books, mostly from Rufinus, the history of the first four centuries (Hist
oriae Sacrae Epitome); Anastasius (about 872), the author in part of the Liber
Pontificalis, i.e., biographies of the Popes till Stephen VI. (who died 891);
Bartholomaeus of Lucca. (about 1312), who composed a general church history
from Christ to a.d. 1312; St. Antoninus (Antonio Pierozzi), archbishop of
Florence (d. 1459), the author of the largest mediaeval work on secular and
sacred history (Summa Historialis), from the creation to a.d. 1457.
Historical criticism began with the revival of
letters, and revealed itself first in the doubts of Laurentius Valla (d. 1457)
and Nicolaus of Cusa (d. 1464) concerning the genuineness of the donation of
Constantine, the Isidorian Decretals, and other spurious documents, which are
now as universally rejected as they were once universally accepted.
IV. Roman Catholic historians.
The Roman Catholic Church was roused by the shock of
the Reformation, in the sixteenth century, to great activity in this and other
departments of theology, and produced some works of immense learning and
antiquarian research, but generally characterized rather by zeal for the
papacy, and against Protestantism, than by the purely historical spirit. Her
best historians are either Italians, and ultramontane in spirit, or Frenchmen,
mostly on the side of the more liberal but less consistent Gallicanism.
(a) Italians:
First stands the Cardinal Caesar Baronius (d. 1607),
with his Annales Ecclesiastici (Rom. 1588 sqq.), in 12 folio volumes, on which
he spent thirty years of unwearied study. They come down only to the year
1198, but are continued by Raynaldi (to 1565), Laderchi (to 1571), and Theiner
(to 1584).8
This truly colossal and monumental work is even to
this day an invaluable storehouse of information from the Vatican library and
other archives, and will always be consulted by professional scholars. It is
written in dry, ever broken, unreadable style, and contains many spurious
documents. It stands wholly on the ground of absolute papacy, and is designed
as a positive refutation of the Magdeburg Centuries, though it does not
condescend directly to notice them. It gave immense aid and comfort to the
cause of Romanism, and was often epitomized and popularized in several
languages. But it was also severely criticized, and in part refuted, not only
by such Protestants as Casaubon, Spanheim, and Samuel Basnage, but by Roman
Catholic scholars also, especially two French Franciscans, Antoine and
François Pagi, who corrected the chronology.
Far less known and used than the Annals of Baronius
is the Historia Ecclesiastica of Caspar Sacharelli, which comes down to a.d.
1185, and was published in Rome, 1771–1796, in 25 quarto volumes.
Invaluable contributions to historical collections
and special researches have been made by other Italian scholars, as Muratori,
Zaccagni, Zaccaria, Mansi, Gallandi, Paolo Sarpi, Pallavicini (the last two on
the Council of Trent), the three Assemani, and Angelo Mai.
(b) French Catholic historians.
Natalis (Noel) Alexander, Professor and Provincial
of the Dominican order (d. 1724), wrote his Historia Ecclesiastica Veteris et
Nova Testamenti to the year 1600 (Paris, 1676, 2d ed. 1699 sqq. 8 vols. fol.)
in the spirit of Gallicanism, with great learning, but in dry scholastic
style. Innocent XI. put it in the Index (1684). This gave rise to the
corrected editions.
The abbot Claude Fleury (d. 1723), in his Histoire
ecclésiastique (Par. 1691–1720, in 20 vols. quarto, down to a.d. 1414,
continued by Claude Fabre, a very decided Gallican, to a.d. 1595), furnished a
much more popular work, commended by mildness of spirit and fluency of style,
and as useful for edification as for instruction. It is a minute and, upon the
whole, accurate narrative of the course of events as they occurred, but
without system and philosophical generalization, and hence tedious and
wearisome. When Fleury was asked why he unnecessarily darkened his pages with
so many discreditable facts, he properly replied that the survival and
progress of Christianity, notwithstanding the vices and crimes of its
professors and preachers, was the best proof of its divine origin.9
Jacques Bénigne Bossuet, the distinguished bishop of
Meaux (d. 1704), an advocate of Romanism on the one hand against
Protestantism, but of Gallicanism on the other against Ultramontanism, wrote
with brilliant eloquence, and in the spirit of the Catholic church, a
universal history, in bold outlines for popular effect.10
This was continued in the German language by the Protestant Cramer, with less
elegance but more thoroughness, and with special reference to the doctrine
history of the middle age.
Sebastien le Nain de Tillemont (d. 1698), a French
nobleman and priest, without office and devoted exclusively to study and
prayer—a pupil and friend of the Jansenists and in partial sympathy with
Gallicanism—composed a most learned and useful history of the first six
centuries (till 513), in a series of minute biographies, with great skill and
conscientiousness, almost entirely in the words of the original authorities,
from which he carefully distinguishes his own additions. It is, as far as it
goes, the most valuable church history produced by Roman Catholic industry and
learning.11
Contemporaneously with Tillemont, the Gallican, L.
Ellies Dupin (d. 1719), furnished a biographical and bibliographical church
history down to the seventeenth century.12
Remi Ceillier (d. 1761) followed with a similar work, which has the advantage
of greater completeness and accuracy.13
The French Benedictines of the congregation of St. Maur, in the seventeenth
and eighteenth century, did immense service to historical theology by the best
critical editions of the fathers and extensive archaeological works. We can
only mention the names of Mabillon, Massuet, Montfaucon, D’achery, Ruinart,
Martène, Durand. Among the Jesuits, Sirmond and Petau occupy a prominent
place.
The Abbé Rohrbacher. (Professor of Church History at
Nancy, d. 1856) wrote an extensive Universal History of the Church, including
that of the Old Testament, down to 1848. It is less liberal than the great
Gallican writers of the seventeenth century, but shows familiarity with German
literature.14
(c) German Catholic historians.
The pioneer of modern German Catholic historians of
note is a poet and an ex-Protestant, Count Leopold Von Stolberg (d. 1819).
With the enthusiasm of an honest, noble, and devout, but credulous convert, he
began, in 1806, a very full Geschichte der Religion Jesu
Christi, and brought it down in 15 volumes to the year 430. It was
continued by F. Kerz (vols. 16–45, to a.d. 1192) and J. N. Brischar (vols.
45–53, to a.d. 1245).
Theod. Katerkamp (d. at Münster, 1834) wrote a
church history, in the same spirit and pleasing style, down to a.d. 1153.15
It remained unfinished, like the work of Locherer(d. 1837), which extends to
1073.16
Bishop Hefele’s History of the Councils (Conciliengeschichte,
1855–’86; revised edition and continuation, 1873 sqq.) is a most valuable
contribution to the history of doctrine and discipline down to the Council of
Trent.17
The best compendious histories from the pens of
German Romanists are produced by Jos. Ign. Ritter, Professor in Bonn and
afterward in Breslau (d. 1857);18
Joh. Adam Möhler, formerly Professor in Tübingen, and then in Munich, the
author of the famous Symbolik (d. 1838);19
Joh. Alzog (d. 1878);20
H. Brück (Mayence, 2d ed., 1877); F. X. Kraus (Treves, 1873; 3d ed., 1882);
Card. Hergenröther (Freiburg, 3d ed., 1886, 3 vols.); F. X. Funk (Tübingen,
1886; 2d ed., 1890).
A. F. Gfrörer (d. 1861) began his learned General
Church History as a Protestant, or rather as a Rationalist (1841–’46, 4 vols.,
till a.d. 1056), and continued it from Gregory VII. on as a Romanist
(1859–’61).
Dr. John Joseph Ignatius Döllinger (Professor in
Munich, born 1799), the most learned historian of the Roman Church in the
nineteenth century, represents the opposite course from popery to anti-popery.
He began, but never finished, a Handbook of Christian Church History (Landshut,
1833, 2 vols.) till a.d. 680, and a Manual of Church History (1836, 2d ed.,
1843, 2 vols.) to the fifteenth century, and in part to 1517.21
He wrote also learned works against the Reformation (Die
Reformation, 1846–’48, in 3 vols.), on Hippolytus and Callistus (1853),
on the preparation for Christianity (Heidenthum u Judenthum,
1857), Christianity and the Church in the time of its Founding (1860), The
Church and the Churches (1862), Papal Fables of the Middle Age (1865), The
Pope and the Council (under the assumed name of "Janus," 1869), etc.
During the Vatican Council in 1870 Döllinger broke
with Rome, became the theological leader of the Old Catholic recession, and
was excommunicated by the Archbishop of Munich (his former pupil), April 17,
1871, as being guilty of "the crime of open and formal heresy." He knows too
much of church history to believe in the infallibility of the pope. He
solemnly declared (March 28, 1871) that "as a Christian, as a theologian, as a
historian, and as a citizen," he could not accept the Vatican decrees, because
they contradict the spirit of the gospel and the genuine tradition of the
church, and, if carried out, must involve church and state, the clergy and the
laity, in irreconcilable conflict.22
V. The Protestant Church historians.
The Reformation of the sixteenth century is the
mother church history as a science and art in the proper sense of term. It
seemed at first to break off from the past and to depreciate church history,
by going back directly to the Bible as the only rule of faith and practice,
and especially to look most unfavorably on the Catholic middle age, as a
progressive corruption of the apostolic doctrine and discipline. But, on the
other hand, it exalted primitive Christianity, and awakened a new and
enthusiastic interest in all the documents of the apostolic church, with an
energetic effort to reproduce its spirit and institutions. It really
repudiated only the later tradition in favor of the older, taking its stand
upon the primitive historical basis of Christianity. Then again, in the course
of controversy with Rome, Protestantism found it desirable and necessary to
wrest from its opponent not only the scriptural argument, but also the
historical, and to turn it as far as possible to the side of the evangelical
cause. For the Protestants could never deny that the true Church of Christ is
built on a rock, and has the promise of indestructible permanence. Finally,
the Reformation, by, liberating the mind from the yoke of a despotic
ecclesiastical authority, gave an entirely new impulse, directly or indirectly
to free investigation in every department, and produced that historical
criticism which claims to clear fact from the accretions of fiction, and to
bring out the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, of history.
Of course this criticism may run to the extreme of rationalism and scepticism,
which oppose the authority of the apostles and of Christ himself; as it
actually did for a time, especially in Germany. But the abuse of free
investigation proves nothing against the right use of it; and is to be
regarded only as a temporary aberration, from which all sound minds will
return to a due appreciation of history, as a truly rational unfolding of the
plan of redemption, and a standing witness for the all-ruling providence of
God, and the divine character of the Christian religion.
(a) German, Swiss, and Dutch historians.
Protestant church historiography has thus far
flourished most on German soil. A patient and painstaking industry and
conscientious love of truth and justice qualify German scholars for the mining
operations of research which bring forth the raw material for the
manufacturer; while French and English historians know best how to utilize and
popularize the material for the general reader.
The following are the principal works:
Matthias Flacius (d 1575), surnamed Illyricus, a
zealous Lutheran, and an unsparing enemy of Papists, Calvinists, and
Melancthonians, heads the list of Protestant historians with his great
Eccelesiastica Historia Novi Testamenti, commonly called Centuriae
Magdeburgenses (Basle, 1560–’74), covering thirteen centuries of the Christian
era in as many folio volumes. He began the work in Magdeburg, in connection
with ten other, scholars of like Spirit and zeal, and in the face of
innumerable difficulties, for the purpose of exposing the corruptions and,
errors of the papacy, and of proving the doctrines of the Lutheran Reformation
orthodox by the "witnesses of the truth" in all ages. The tone is therefore
controversial throughout, and quite as partial as that of the Annals of
Baronius on the papal side. The style is tasteless and repulsive, but the
amount of persevering labor, the immense, though ill-digested and unwieldy
mass of material, and the boldness of the criticism, are imposing and
astonishing. The "Centuries" broke the path of free historical study, and are
the first general church history deserving of the name. They introduced also a
new method. They divide the material by centuries, and each century by a
uniform Procrustean scheme of not less than sixteen rubrics: "de loco et
propagatione ecclesiae; de persecutione et tranquillitate ecclesiae; de
doctrina; de haeresibus; de ceremoniis; de politia; de schismatibus; de
conciliis; de vitis episcoporum; de haereticis; de martyribus; de miraculis et
prodigiis; de rebus Judaicis; de aliis religionibus; de mutationibus politicis."
This plan destroys all symmetry, and occasions wearisome diffuseness and
repetition. Yet, in spite of its mechanical uniformity and stiffness, it is
more scientific than the annalistic or chronicle method, and, with material
improvements and considerable curtailment of rubrics, it has been followed to
this day.
The Swiss, J. H. Hottinger (d. 1667), in his
Historia Ecclesiastica N. Testamenti (Zurich, 1655–’67, 9 vols. fol.),
furnished a Reformed counterpart to the Magdeburg Centuries. It is less
original and vigorous, but more sober and moderate. It comes down to the
sixteenth century, to which alone five volumes are devoted.
From Fred. Spanheim of Holland (d. 1649) we have a
Summa Historia Ecclesiasticae (Lugd. Bat. 1689), coming down to the sixteenth
century. It is based on a thorough and critical knowledge of the sources, and
serves at the same time as a refutation of Baronius.
A new path was broken by Gottfried Arnold (d. 1714),
in his, Impartial History of the Church and Heretics to a.d. 1688.23
He is the historian of the pietistic and mystic school. He made subjective
piety the test of the true faith, and the persecuted sects the main channel of
true Christianity; while the reigning church from Constantine down, and indeed
not the Catholic church only, but the orthodox Lutheran with it, he
represented as a progressive apostasy, a Babylon full of corruption and
abomination. In this way he boldly and effectually broke down the walls of
ecclesiastical exclusiveness and bigotry; but at the same time, without
intending or suspecting it, he opened the way to a rationalistic and sceptical
treatment of history. While, in his zeal for impartiality and personal piety,
he endeavored to do justice to all possible heretics and sectaries, he did
great injustice to the supporters of orthodoxy and ecclesiastical order.
Arnold was also the first to use the German language instead of the Latin in
learned history; but his style is tasteless and insipid.
J. L. von Mosheim (Chancellor of the University at
Göttingen, d. 1755), a moderate and impartial Lutheran, is the father of
church historiography as an art, unless we prefer to concede this merit to
Bossuet. In skilful construction, clear, though mechanical and monotonous
arrangement, critical sagacity, pragmatic combination, freedom from passion,
almost bordering on cool indifferentism, and in easy elegance of Latin style,
he surpasses all his predecessors. His well-known Institutiones Historiae
Ecclesiasticae antiquae et recentioris (Helmstädt, 1755) follows the centurial
plan of Flacius, but in simpler form, and, as translated and supplemented by
Maclaine, and Murdock, is still used extensively as a text-book in England and
America.24
J. M. Schröckh (d. 1808), a pupil of Mosheim, but
already touched with the neological spirit which Semler (d. 1791) introduced
into the historical theology of Germany, wrote with unwearied industry the
largest Protestant church history after the Magdeburg Centuries. He very
properly forsook the centurial plan still followed by Mosheim, and adopted the
periodic. His Christian Church History comprises forty-five volumes, and
reaches to the end of the eighteenth century. It is written in diffuse but
clear and easy style, with reliable knowledge of sources, and in a mild and
candid spirit, and is still a rich storehouse of historical matter.25
The very learned Institutiones Historiae
Ecclesiasticae V. et N. Testamenti of the Dutch Reformed divine, H. Venema (d.
1787), contain the history of the Jewish and Christian Church down to the end
of the sixteenth century (Lugd. Bat. 1777–’83, in seven parts).
H. P. C. Henke (d. 1809) is the leading
representative of the rationalistic church historiography, which ignores
Christ in history. In his spirited and able Allgemeine
Geschichte der christlichen Kirche, continued by Vater (Braunschweig,
1788–1820, 9 vols.), the church appears not as the temple of God on earth, but
as a great infirmary and bedlam.
August Neander. (Professor of Church History in
Berlin, d. 1850), the "father of modern church history," a child in spirit, a
giant in learning, and a saint in piety, led back the study of history from
the dry heath of rationalism to the fresh fountain of divine life in Christ,
and made it a grand source of edification as well as instruction for readers
of every creed. His General History of the Christian Religion and Church
begins after the apostolic age (which he treated in a separate work), and
comes down to the Council of Basle in 1430, the continuation being interrupted
by his death.26
It is distinguished for thorough and conscientious use of the sources,
critical research, ingenious combination, tender love of truth and justice,
evangelical catholicity, hearty piety, and by masterly analysis of the
doctrinal systems and the subjective Christian life of men of God in past
ages. The edifying character is not introduced from without, but naturally
grows out of his conception of church history, viewed as a continuous
revelation of Christ’s presence and power in humanity, and as an illustration
of the parable of the leaven which gradually pervades and transforms the whole
lump. The political and artistic sections, and the outward machinery of
history, were not congenial to the humble, guileless simplicity of Neander.
His style is monotonous, involved, and diffuse, but unpretending, natural, and
warmed by a genial glow of sympathy and enthusiasm. It illustrates his motto:
Pectus est quod theologum facit.
Torrey’s excellent translation (Rose translated only
the first three centuries), published in Boston, Edinburgh, and London, in
multiplied editions, has given Neander’s immortal work even a much larger
circulation in England and America than it has in Germany itself.
Besides this general history, Neander’s
indefatigable industry produced also special works on the Life of Christ
(1837, 4th ed. 1845), the Apostolic Age (1832, 4th ed. 1842, translated by J.
E. Ryland, Edinburgh, 1842, and again by E. G. Robinson, N. York, 1865),
Memorials of Christian Life (1823, 3d ed. 1845, 3 vols.), the Gnostic Heresies
(1818), and biographies of representative characters, as Julian the Apostate
(1812), St. Bernard (1813, 2d ed. 1848), St. Chrysostom (1822, 3d ed. 1848),
and Tertullian (1825, 2d ed. 1849). His History a Christian Doctrines was
published after his death by Jacobi (1855), and translated by J. E. Ryland (Lond.,
1858).27
From J. C. L. Gieseler (Professor of Church History
in Göttingen, d. 1854), a profoundly learned, acute, calm, impartial,
conscientious, but cold and dry scholar, we have a Textbook of Church History
from the birth of Christ to 1854.28
He takes Tillemont’s method of giving the history in the very words of the
sources; only he does not form the text from them, but throws them into notes.
The chief excellence of this invaluable and indispensable work is in its very
carefully selected and critically elucidated extracts from the original
authorities down to the year 1648 (as far as he edited the work himself). The
skeleton-like text presents, indeed, the leading facts clearly and concisely,
but does not reach the inward life and spiritual marrow of the church of
Christ. The theological views of Gieseler hardly rise above the jejune
rationalism of Wegscheider, to whom he dedicated a portion of his history; and
with all his attempt at impartiality he cannot altogether conceal the negative
effect of a rationalistic conception of Christianity, which acts like a chill
upon the narrative of its history, and substitutes a skeleton of dry bones for
a living organism.
Neander and Gieseler matured their works in
respectful and friendly rivalry, during the same period of thirty years of
slow, but solid and steady growth. The former is perfectly subjective, and
reproduces the original sources in a continuous warm and sympathetic
composition, which reflects at the same time the author’s own mind and heart;
the latter is purely objective, and speaks with the indifference of an outside
spectator, through the ipsissima verba of the same sources, arranged as notes,
and strung together simply by a slender thread of narrative. The one gives the
history ready-made, and full of life and instruction; the other furnishes the
material and leaves the reader to animate and improve it for himself. With the
one, the text is everything; with the other, the notes. But both admirably
complete each other, and exhibit together the ripest fruit of German
scholarship in general church history in the first half of the nineteenth
century.
Ferdinand Christian Baur (Prof. of Church History in
Tübingen, d. 1860) must be named alongside with Neander and Gieseler in the
front rank of German church historians. He was equal to both in independent
and thorough scholarship, superior in constructive criticism and philosophical
generalization, but inferior in well-balanced judgment and solid merit. He
over-estimated theories and tendencies, and undervalued persons and facts. He
was an indefatigable investigator and bold innovator. He completely
revolutionized the history of apostolic and post-apostolic Christianity, and
resolved its rich spiritual life of faith and love into a purely speculative
process of conflicting tendencies, which started from an antagonism of
Petrinism and Paulinism, and were ultimately reconciled in the compromise of
ancient Catholicism. He fully brought to light, by a keen critical analysis,
the profound intellectual fermentation of the primitive church, but eliminated
from it the supernatural and miraculous element; yet as an honest and serious
sceptic he had to confess at last a psychological miracle in the conversion of
St. Paul, and to bow before the greater miracle of the resurrection of Christ,
without which the former is an inexplicable enigma. His critical researches
and speculations gave a powerful stimulus to a reconsideration and
modification of the traditional views on early Christianity.
We have from his fertile pen a general History of
the Christian Church, in five volumes (1853–1863), three of which were,
published after his death and lack the originality and careful finish of the
first and second, which cover the first six centuries; Lectures on Christian
Doctrine History (Dogmengeschichte), published by his son
(1865–’67, in 3 volumes), and a brief Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte,
edited by himself (1847, 2d ed. 1858). Even more valuable are his monographs:
on St. Paul, for whom he had a profound veneration, although he recognized
only four of his Epistles as genuine (1845, 2d ed. by E. Zeller, 1867, 2
vols., translated into English, 1875); on Gnosticism, with which he had a
strong spiritual affinity (Die christliche Gnosis oder die
christliche Religionsphilosophie, 1835); the history of the Doctrine of
the Atonement (1838, 1 vol.), and of the Trinity and Incarnation (1841–’43, in
3 vols.), and his masterly vindication of Protestantism against Möhler’s
Symbolik (2d ed. 1836).29
Karl Rudolph Hagenbach (Professor of Church History
at Basel, d. 1874) wrote, in the mild and impartial spirit of Neander, with
poetic taste and good judgment, and in pleasing popular style, a general
History of the Christian Church in seven volumes (4th ed. 1868–’72),30
and a History of Christian Doctrines, in two volumes (1841, 4th ed. 1857).31
Protestant Germany is richer than any other country
in, manuals and compends of church history for the use of students. We mention
Engelhardt (1834), Niedner (Geschichte der christl. Kirche,
1846, and Lehrbuch, 1866), Hase (11th ed. 1886), Guericke (9th ed.
1866, 3 vols.), Lindner (1848–’54), Jacobi (1850, unfinished), Fricke (1850),
Kurtz (Lehrbuch, 10th ed. 1887, in 2 vols., the larger
Handbuch, unfinished), Hasse (edited by Köhler, 1864, in 3 small
vols.), Köllner (1864), Ebrard (1866) 2 vols.), Rothe (lectures edited by
Weingarten, 1875, 2 vols.), Herzog (1876–’82, 3 vols.), H. Schmid (1881, 2
vols.). Niedner’s Lehrbuch (1866) stands first for
independent and thorough scholarship, but is heavy. Hase’s Compend is
unsurpassed for condensation, wit, point, and artistic taste, as a miniature
picture.32
Herzog’s Abriss keeps the medium between voluminous fulness and enigmatic
brevity, and is written in a candid Christian spirit. Kurtz is clear, concise,
and evangelical.33
A new manual was begun by Möller, 1889.
The best works on doctrine history (Dogmengeschichte)
are by Münscher, Geiseler, Neander, Baur, Hagenbach, Thomasius, H. Schmid,
Nitzsch, and Harnack (1887).
It is impossible to do justice here to the immense
service which Protestant Germany has done to special departments of church
history. Most of the fathers, popes, schoolmen and reformers, and the
principal doctrines of Christianity have been made the subject of minute and
exhaustive historical treatment. We have already mentioned the monographs of
Neander and Baur, and fully equal to them are such masterly and enduring works
as Rothe’s Beginnings of the Christian Church, Ullmann’s Reformers before the
Reformation, Hasse’s Anselm of Canterbury, and Dorner’s History of
Christology.
(b) French works.
Dr. Etienne L. Chastel (Professor of Church History
in the National Church at Geneva, d. 1886) wrote a complete
Histoire du Christianisme (Paris, 1881–’85, 5 vols.).
Dr. Merle D’aubigné (Professor of Church History in
the independent Reformed Seminary at Geneva, d. 1872) reproduced in elegant
and eloquent French an extensive history both of the Lutheran and Calvinistic
Reformation, with an evangelical enthusiasm and a dramatic vivacity which
secured it an extraordinary circulation in England and America (far greater,
than on the Continent), and made it the most popular work on that important
period. Its value as a history is somewhat diminished by polemical bias and
the occasional want of accuracy. Dr. Merle conceived the idea of the work
during the celebration of the third centenary of the German Reformation in
1817, in the Wartburg at Eisenach, where Luther translated, the New Testament
and threw his inkstand at the devil. He labored on it till the year of his
death.34
Dr. Edmund De Pressensé (pastor of a free church in
Paris, member of the National Assembly, then senator of France), and able
scholar, with evangelical Protestant convictions similar to those of Dr.
Merle, wrote a Life of Christ against Renan, and a History of Ancient
Christianity, both of which are translated into English.35
Ernest Renan, the celebrated Orientalist and member
of the French Academy, prepared from the opposite standpoint of sceptical
criticism, and mixing history with romance, but in brilliant, and fascinating
style, the Life of Christ, and the history of the Beginnings of Christianity
to the middle of the second century.36
(c) English works.
English literature is rich in works on Christian
antiquity, English church history, and other special departments, but poor in
general histories of Christianity.
The first place among English historians, perhaps,
is due to Edward Gibbon (d. 1794). In his monumental History of the Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire (finished after twenty years’ labor, at Lausanne,
June 27,1787), he notices throughout the chief events in ecclesiastical
history from the introduction of the Christian religion to the times of the
crusades and the capture of Constantinople (1453), with an accurate knowledge
of the chief sources and the consummate skill of a master in the art of
composition, with occasional admiration for heroic characters like Athanasius
and Chrysostom, but with a keener eye to the failings of Christians and the
imperfections of the visible church, and unfortunately without sympathy and
understanding of the spirit of Christianity which runs like a golden thread
even through the darkest centuries. He conceived the idea of his magnificent
work in papal Rome, among the ruins of the Capitol, and in tracing the gradual
decline and fall of imperial Rome, which he calls "the greatest, perhaps, and
most awful scene in the history of mankind," he has involuntarily become a
witness to the gradual growth and triumph of the religion of the cross, of
which no historian of the future will ever record a history of decline and
fall, though some "lonely traveller from New Zealand," taking his stand on "a
broken arch" of the bridge of St. Angelo, may sketch the ruins of St.
Peter’s.37
Joseph Milner (Vicar of Hull, d. 1797) wrote a
History of the Church of Christ for popular edification, selecting those
portions which best suited his standard of evangelical orthodoxy and piety.
"Nothing," he says in the preface, "but what appears to me to belong to
Christ’s kingdom shall be admitted; genuine piety is the only thing I intend
to celebrate. He may be called the English Arnold, less learned, but free from
polemics and far more readable and useful than the German pietist. His work
was corrected and continued by his brother, Isaac Milner (d. 1820), by Thomas
Grantham and Dr. Stebbing.38
Dr. Waddington (Dean of Durham) prepared three
volumes on the history of the Church before the Reformation (1835) and three
volumes on the Continental Reformation (1841). Evangelical.
Canon James C. Robertson of Canterbury (Prof. of
Church History in King’s College, d. 1882) brings his History of the Christian
Church from the Apostolic Age down to the Reformation (a.d. 64–1517). The work
was first published in four octavo volumes (1854 sqq.) and then in eight
duodecimo volumes (Lond. 1874), and is the best, as it is the latest, general
church history written by an Episcopalian. It deserves praise for its candor,
moderation, and careful indication of authorities.
From Charles Hardwick (Archdeacon of Ely, d. 1859)
we have a useful manual of the Church History of the Middle Age (1853, 3d ed.
by Prof. W. Stubbs, 1872), and another on the Reformation (1856, 3d ed. by W.
Stubbs, London, 1873). His History of the Anglican Articles of Religion (1859)
is a valuable contribution to English church history.
Dr. Trench, Archbishop of Dublin, has published his
Lectures on Mediaeval Church History (Lond. 1877), delivered before the girls
of Queen’s College, London. They are conceived in a spirit of devout churchly
piety and interspersed with judicious reflections.
Philip Smith’s History of the Christian Church
during the First Ten Centuries (1879), and during the Middle Ages (1885), in 2
vols., is a skilful and useful manual for students.39
The most popular and successful modern church
historians in the English or any other language are Dean Milman of St. Paul’s,
Dean Stanley of Westminster Abbey, and Archdeacon Farrar of Westminster. They
belong to the broad church school of the Church of England, are familiar with
Continental learning, and adorn their chosen themes with all the charms of
elegant, eloquent, and picturesque diction. Henry Hart Milman (d. 1868)
describes, with the stately march of Gibbon and as a counterpart of his
decline and fall of Paganism, the rise and progress of Ancient and Latin
Christianity, with special reference to its bearing on the progress of
civilization.40
Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (d. 1881) unrolls a picture gallery of great men and
events in the Jewish theocracy, from Abraham to the Christian era, and in the
Greek church, from Constantine the Great to Peter the Great.41
Frederic W. Farrar (b. 1831) illuminates with classical and rabbinical
learning, and with exuberant rhetoric the Life of Christ, and of the great
Apostle of the Gentiles, and the Early Days of Christianity.42
(d) American works.
American literature is still in its early youth, but
rapidly growing in every department of knowledge. Prescott, Washington Irving,
Motley, and Bancroft have cultivated interesting portions of the history of
Spain, Holland, and the United States, and have taken rank among the classical
historians in the English language.
In ecclesiastical history the Americans have
naturally so far been mostly in the attitude of learners and translators, but
with every prospect of becoming producers. They have, as already noticed,
furnished the best translations of Mosheim, Neander, and Gieseler.
Henry B. Smith (late Professor in the Union Theol.
Seminary, New York, d. 1877) has prepared the best Chronological Tables of
Church History, which present in parallel columns a synopsis of the external
and internal history of Christianity, including that of America, down to 1858,
with lists of Councils, Popes, Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops, and
Moderators of General Assemblies.43
W. G. T. Shedd (Professor in the same institution,
b. 1820) wrote from the standpoint of Calvinistic orthodoxy an eminently
readable History of Christian Doctrine (N. York, 1863, 2 vols.), in clear,
fresh, and vigorous English, dwelling chiefly on theology, anthropology, and
soteriology, and briefly touching on eschatology, but entirely omitting the
doctrine of the Church and the sacraments, with the connected controversies.
Philip Schaff is the author of a special History of
the Apostolic Church, in English and German (N. York, 1853, etc., and Leipzig,
1854), of a History of the Creeds of Christendom (N. York, 4th ed., 1884, 3
vols., with documents original and translated), and of a general History of
the Christian Church (N. York and Edinb., 1859–’67, in 3 vols.; also in
German, Leipzig, 1867; rewritten and enlarged, N. Y. and Edinb., 1882–’88;
third revision, 1889, 5 vols.; to be continued).
George P. Fisher (Professor in New Haven, b. 1827)
has written the best manual in the English language: History of the Christian
Church with Maps. N. York, 1887. He has also published a History of the
Reformation (1873); Beginnings of Christianity (1877), and Outlines of
Universal History (1885),—all in a calm, amiable, and judicious spirit, and a
clear, chaste style.
Contributions to interesting chapters in the history
of Protestantism are numerous. Dr. E. H. Gillett (d. 1875) wrote a Monograph
on John Hus (N. York, 1864, 2 vols.), a History of the Presbyterian Church in
the United States of America (Philad. 1864, 2 vols.), and a History of Natural
Theology (God in Human Thought, N. York, 1874, 2 vols.); Dr. Abel Stevens, a
History of Methodism, viewed as the great religious revival of the eighteenth
century, down to the centenary celebration of 1839 (N. York, 1858–’61, 3
vols.), and a History of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States
(1864–’67, 4 vols.); Henry M. Baird, a History of the Rise and Progress of the
Huguenots in France (N. York, 1879, 2 vols.), and The Huguenots and Henry of
Navarre (1886, 2 vols.).
The denominational and sectarian divisions of
American Christianity seem to be unfavorable to the study and cultivation of
general church history, which requires a large-hearted catholic spirit. But,
on the other hand, the social and national intermingling of ecclesiastical
organizations of every variety of doctrine and discipline, on a basis of
perfect freedom and equality before the law, widens the horizon, and
facilitates comparison and appreciation of variety in unity and unity in
variety; while the growth and prosperity of the churches on the principle of
self-support and self-government encourages a hopeful view of the future.
America falls heir to the whole wealth of European Christianity and
civilization, and is in a favorable position to review and reproduce in due
time the entire course of Christ’s kingdom in the old world with the faith and
freedom of the new.44
(e) Finally, we must mention biblical and
ecclesiastical Encyclopaedias which contain a large number of valuable
contributions to church history from leading scholars of the age, viz.:
1. The Bible Dictionaries of Winer. (Leipzig, 1820,
3d ed. 1847, 2 vols.); Schenkel (Leipzig, 1869–’75, 5 vols.); Riehm Kitto (Edinb.,
1845, third revised ed. by W. L. Alexander, 1862–’65, 3 vols.); Wm. Smith
(London, 1860–’64, in 3 vols., American edition much enlarged and improved by
H. Hackett and E. Abbot, N. York, 1870, in 4 vols.); Ph. Schaff (Philadelphia,
1880, with maps and illustrations; 4th ed., revised, 1887).
2. The Biblical and Historical Dictionaries of
Herzog (Real-Encyklopädie für Protestantische Theologie und
Kirche, Gotha 1854 to 1868, in 22 vols., new ed. thoroughly revised by
Herzog, Plitt and Hauck, Leipzig, 1877–’88, in 18 vols.), Schaff-Herzog
(Religious Encyclopaedia, based on Herzog but condensed, supplemented, and
adapted to English and American students, edited by Philip Schaff in
connection with Samuel M. Jackson and D. S. Schaff, N. York and Edinburgh,
revised ed., 1887, in 3 vols., with a supplementary vol. on Living Divines and
Christian Workers, 1887); Wetzer and Welte (Roman Catholic
Kirchenlexicon, Freiburg i. Breisgau, 1847-l860, in 12 vols.; second
ed. newly elaborated by Cardinal Joseph Hergenröther and Dr. Franz Kaulen,
1880 sqq., promised in 10 vols.); Lichtenberger. (Encyclopédie
des sciences religieuses, Paris, 1877–’82, in 13 vols., with
supplement); Mcclintock and Strong (Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and
Ecclesiastical Literature, New York, 1867–’81, 10 vols. and two supplementary
volumes, 1885 and 1887, largely illustrated). The Encyclopaedia Britannica
(9th ed., completed 1889 in 25 vols.) contains also many elaborate articles on
biblical and ecclesiastical topics.
3. For ancient church history down to the age of
Charlemagne: Smith and Cheetham, Dictionary of Christian Antiquities (London
and Boston, 1875, 2 vols.); Smith and Wace, Dictionary of Christian Biography,
Literature, Sects and Doctrines during the first eight centuries (London and
Boston, 1877–’87, 4 vols.). The articles in these two works are written mostly
by scholars of the Church of England, and are very valuable for fulness and
accuracy of information.
Note.—The study of church history is reviving in the
Greek Church where it began. Philaret Bapheidos has issued a compendious
church history under the title: jEkklhsiastikh; Jistoriva
ajpo; tou' kurivou hJmwn jIhsou' Cristou' mevcri tw'n kaq j hJma'" crovnwn
uJpo; Filaretou' Bayeivdou, ajrcimavndrivtou D. F. kai; kaqhghtou' th'"
Qeologiva" ejn th/' ejn Cavlkh/ Qeologikh/' Scolh/'. Tovmo" prw'to". jArcaiva
jekklh": iJstoriva. a.d. 1�700. jEn
Kwnstantinopovlei, 1884 (Lorentz & Keil, libraries de S. M. I. le
Sultan), 380 pp. The second vol. embraces the mediaeval church to the fall of
Constantinople, 1453, and has 459 pp. The work is dedicated to Dr. Philotheos
Bryennios, Metropolitan of Nicomedia, the discoverer of the famous Jerusalem
Codex. Nearly all the literature quoted is German Protestant; no English, very
few Latin, and still fewer Greek works are mentioned. Another compend of
Church History in Greek by Diomedes Kyriakos appeared at Athens, 1881, in 2
vols.
*
Schaff, Philip, History of the Christian Church, (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos
Research Systems, Inc.) 1997. This material has been carefully compared,
corrected¸ and emended (according to the 1910 edition of Charles Scribner's
Sons) by The Electronic Bible Society, Dallas, TX, 1998.
2
A well-known saying of Tertullian, who lived in the midst of persecution. A
very different estimate of martyrdom is suggested by the Arabic proverb "The
ink of the scholar is more precious than the blood of the martyr." The just
estimate depends on the quality of the scholar and the quality of the
martyr, and the cause for which the one lives and the other dies.
3
Comp. F. Piper: Einleitung in die monumentale Theologie.
Goths, 1867
4
This new word is coined after the analogy of ante-Nicene, and in imitation
of the German vor-reformatorisch. It is the age of
the forerunners of the Reformation, or reformers before the Reformation, as
Ullmann calls such men as Wicklyffe, Huss, Savonarola, Wessel, etc. The term
presents only one view of the period from Boniface VIII. to Luther. But this
is the case with every other single term we may choose.
5
The German poet, Friedrich Rückert, thus admirably enjoins the duty of
condensation:
Wie die Welt läuft immer weiter,
Wird stets die Geschicte breiter
Und uns wird je mehr je länger
Nöthig ein Zusammendränger:
Nicht der aus dem Schutt der
Zeiten
Wühle mehr Erbärmlichkeiten,
Sondern der den Plunder sichte
Und zum Bau die Steine schichte
Nicht das Einzle unterdrückend
Noch damit willkühlich schmückend,
Sondern in des Einzlen Hülle
Legend allgemeine Fülle;
Der gelesen Alles habe,
Und besitze Dichtergabe,
Klar zu schildern mir das Wesen,
Der ich nicht ein Wort gelesen.
Sagt mir nichts von Resultaten!
Denn die will ich selber ziehen.
Lasst Begebenheiten, Thaten,
Heiden, rasch vorüberziehen."
6 These Greek historians have been best edited by
Henri de Valois (Valesius), in Greek and Latin with notes, in 3 folios,
Paris, 1659-73; also Amsterd., 1695, and, with additional notes by W.
Reading, Cambridge, 1720. Eusebius has been often separately published in
several languages.
7
Nikhfovrou Kallivstou tou' Xanqopouvlou jEkklhsiastikh'"
iJ" toriva" Bibliva ihv. Edited by the Jesuit, Fronton le Duc (Fronto-Ducaeus),
Par. 1630, 2 fol. This is the only Greek edition from the only extant MS.,
which belonged to the King of Hungary, then came into the possession of the
Turks, and last into the imperial library of Vienna. But a Latin version by
John Lang waspublished at Basle as early as 1561.
8
We omit the inferior continuations of the Polish Dominican, Abr. Bzovius,
from 1198 to 1565, in 8 vols., and of Henr. Spondé, bishop of Pamiers, from
1197 to 1647, 2 vols. The best of the older editions, including the
continuation of Raynaldi (but not of Laderchi) and the learned criticisms of
Pagi and his nephew, was arranged by Archbishop Mansi, in 88 folios, Lucca,
1738-57. A hundred years later, a German scholar in Rome, Augustin Theiner,
prefect of the Vatican Archives, resumed the continuation in 3 vols.,
embracing the pontificate of Gregory XIII. (A.D. 1572-’84), Rome and Paris,
1856, 3 vols fol, and hoped to bring the history down to the pontificate of
Pius VII., A.D. 1800, in 12 folios; but he interrupted the continuation, and
began, in 1864, a new edition of the whole work (including Raynaldi and
Laderchi), which is to be completed in 45 or 50 volumes, at Bar-le-Duc,
France. Theiner was first a liberal Catholic, then an Ultramontanist, last
an Old Catholic (in correspondence with Döllinger), excluded from the
Vatican (1870), but pardoned by the pope, and died suddenly, 1874. His older
brother, Johann Anton, became a Protestant.
9
A portion of Fleury’s History, from the second oecumenical Council to the
end of the fourth century (A.D. 381-400), was published in English at
Oxford, 1842, in three volumes, on the basis of Herbert’s translation
(London, 1728), carefully revised by John H Newman, who was at that time the
theological leader of the Oxford Tractarian movement, and subsequently
(1879) became a cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church.
10
Discours sur l’histoire universelle
depuis le commencement du monde jusgu’à l’empire de Charlemagne.
Paris, 1681, and other editions.
11
Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire
ecclésiastique des six premiers siècles, justifiés par les citations des
auteurs originaux. Paris, 1693-1712, 16 vols. quarto. Reprinted at
Venice, 1732 sqq. His Histoire des empereurs, Paris,
1690-1738, in 6 vols., gives the secular history down to emperor Anastasius.
12
Under the title: Nouvelle
Bibliothèque des auteurs ecclésastiques, contenant l’Histoire de leur vie,
le catalogue, la critique et la chronologie de leurs ouvrages. Paris
and Amsterdam, 1693-1715, 19 vols.; 9th ed., Par., 1698 aqq., with the
continuations of |
