Ecclesiastical history (Catholicism)
Encyclopedia
Ecclesiastical history, for the Roman Catholic Church
, is the history of the Roman Catholic Church
as an institution, written from a particular perspective. There is a traditional approach to such historiography
. The generally-identified starting point is Eusebius of Caesarea
, and his Church History
.
Since there is no assumption that contemporary historians of the Catholic Church who are also Catholics adopt this perspective, this “traditional approach” is a chapter of historiography, not yet closed, but applying to a definite area that is not central to the academic history of the 20th and 21st centuries.
of 1913,
Its branches therefore include:
, diplomatics
, and criticism
.
Apart from that, the approach is not that of a skeptic:
It is based in teleology
:
As well as taking the Church as its subject matter, it is Church-centered, and takes the Church’s teachings at their own estimation:
s have occurred in Christian history is subordinated to the claim to universality of the Catholic Church, which is not treated as one church among many:
On the other hand, the effect of churches outside the Catholic Church is factored into the discussion.
.
. Immense geographical expansion of the Church, with missionaries in South America, part of North America and numerous in Asia and Africa.
, or with Charlemagne
. For the West Kraus
regards the beginning of the 7th century as the close of the first period; for the East, the end of the same century.
Similarly, along the line of division between the second and the third periods are crowded events of great importance to ecclesiastical life: the Renaissance
with its influence upon all intellectual life, the conquest of Constantinople
by the Turks, the discovery of America and the new problems which the Church had to solve in consequence, the appearance of Luther
and the heresy of Protestantism
, the Council of Trent
with its decisive influence on the evolution of the interior life of the Church. Protestant historians have regarded the appearance of Luther as the beginning of the third period. A few Catholic authors (e.g. Kraus) closed the second period with the middle of the 15th century.
Nor do authors perfectly agree on the turning-points which are to be inserted within the chief periods. It is true that the conversion of Constantine the Great affected the life of the Church so profoundly that the reign of this first Christian emperor is generally accepted as marking a sub-division in the first period. In the second period, especially prominent personalities usually mark the limits of the several sub-divisions, e.g. Charlemagne
, Gregory VII
, Boniface VIII, though this leads to the undervaluation of other important factors e. g. the Greek Schism
, the Crusades
. Recent writers, therefore, assume other boundary lines which emphasize the forces active in the life of the Church rather than prominent personalities. In subdividing the third period the same difficulty presents itself. Many historians consider the French Revolution
at the end of the 18th century as an event of sufficient importance to demand a new epoch; others see a distinct epochal line in the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), with which the formation of great Protestant territories came to an end.
(e. g. epigraphy, palaeography, numismatics) deal with certain particular kinds of the above-mentioned sources.
and by Hippolytus of Rome, some fragments of which survive. It is only during the 4th century that ecclesiastical history, properly so called, makes its appearance.
, Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine (died 340) is styled the "Father of Church History", and wrote a "Chronicle" as well as a Church History
. The "Church History" was an outgrowth of the "Chronicle", and first appeared in nine books; it covered the time from the death of Christ to the victories of Constantine and Licinius (312 and 313). Eusebius afterwards added a tenth book, which carried the narrative to the victory of Constantine over Licinius (323). He sought to set forth in the most favourable light the Christian sentiments of the imperial convert Constantine and his services to the Christian Church, and has been criticised for his partiality towards Constantine and his palliation of the latter's faults. A brief historical treatise of Eusebius, "On the Martyrs of Palestine", has also been preserved.
This major Christian historian found several imitators in the first half of the 5th century, but their works survive partially if at all. The originals of the first two general narratives of ecclesiastical history after Eusebius have been lost, i.e. the "Christian History" of the presbyter Philip of Side
, and the "Church History" of the Arian
Philostorgius
. Three other early ecclesiastical histories written about this period are also lost, from the presbyter Hesychius of Jerusalem
(died 433), the Apollinarian Timotheus of Berytus, and Sabinus of Heraclea
.
About the middle of the 5th century the "Church History" of Eusebius was continued simultaneously by three writers. All three continuations have reached us. The first was written by Socrates Scholasticus
, an advocate (scholasticus) of Constantinople, who, in his "Church History", which he expressly (I, 1) calls a continuation of the work of Eusebius, describes in seven books the period from 305 (Abdication of Diocletian) to 439. The author is honest, exhibits critical acumen in the use of his sources, and has a clear and simple style. After him, and frequently making use of his history, comes Hermias Sozomenus (or Sozomen), also an advocate in Constantinople, whose "Church History" in nine books comprises the period from 324 to 425. Both these writers are surpassed by Theodoret
, Bishop of Cyrus (died about 458), who, in his "Church History", a continuation of the work of Eusebius, describes in five books the period from the beginning of Arianism
(320) to the beginning of the Nestorian
troubles (428). In addition to the writings of his predecessors, Socrates
and Sozomen, he also used those of the Latin scholar Rufinus
, and wove many documents into his narrative. Theodoret
wrote also a "History of the Monks", in which he sets forth the lives of thirty famous ascetics of the Orient. Like the "History of the Holy Fathers" or "Historia Lausiaca", so called from one Lausus to whom the book was dedicated by Palladius
, written about 420, this work of Theodoret is one of the principal sources for the history of Oriental monasticism. Theodoret also published a "Compendium of Heretical Falsehoods", i. e. a short history of heresies with a refutation of each. Together with the similar "Panarion
" of Epiphanius
, it offers material on the earliest heresies.
During the 6th century these historians found other continuators. Theodorus Lector
compiled a brief compendium from the works of the above-mentioned three continuators of Eusebius: Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret. He then wrote in two books an independent continuation of this summary as far as the reign of Emperor Justin I (518-27); only fragments of this work have reached us. Zacharias Rhetor
, at first an advocate at Berytus in Phoenicia
and then (at least from 536) Bishop of Mitylene in the Island of Lesbos, composed, while yet a layman, an ecclesiastical history, which describes the period from 450 to 491, but is mostly taken up with personal experiences of the author in Egypt and Palestine. A Syriac version of this work is extant as books III-VI of a Syriac universal history, while there are also extant some chapters in a Latin version. Apart from this history, his inclination towards Monophysitism
is also apparent from his biography of the Monophysite patriarch, Severus of Antioch
, and from his biography of the monk Isaias, two works extant in a Syriac version. More important still is the "Church History" of Evagrius Scholasticus
, who died about the end of the 6th century. His work is a continuation of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret, and treats in six books the period from 431 to 594. It is based on good sources, and borrows from profane historians but occasionally Evagrius is too credulous. For Nestorianism and Monophysitism, however, his work deserves careful attention.
Among the chronicles that belong to the close of Græco-Roman antiquity, special mention is due to the Chronicon Paschale
, so called because the Paschal or Easter canon forms the basis of its Christian chronology. About the year 700 the Monophysite bishop, John of Nikiu
(Egypt) compiled a universal chronicle; its notitiae are of great value for the 7th century. This chronicle has been preserved in an Ethiopic version ("Chronique de Jean, évêque de Nikiou", publ. par. H. Zotenberg
, Paris, 1883). Zotenberg believes that the work was originally written in Greek and then translated; Nöldeke
("Gottinger gelehrte Anzeigen", 1881, 587 sqq.) thinks it more probable that the original was Coptic. To the Alexandrian Cosmas, known as the "Indian Voyager" we owe a Christian "Topography" of great value for ecclesiastical geography (ed. Montfaucon, "Collectio nova Patrum et Scriptor. græc", II, Paris, 1706; translated into English by McCrindle, London, 1897). Of great value also for ecclesiastical geography are the "Notitiae episcopatuum
" (Taktika), or lists of the patriarchal, metropolitan, and episcopal sees of the Greek Church ("Hieroclis Synecdemus et Notitiae graecae episcopatuum", ed. Parthey, Berlin, 1866; "Georgii Cyprii Descriptio orbis Romani", ed. Geizer, Leipzig, 1890). A major collection of the early Greek historians of the Church is that of Henri de Valois in three folio volumes (Paris, 1659–73; improved by William Reading
, Cambridge, 1720); it contains Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, Evagrius, and the fragments of Philostorgius
and Theodorus Lector.
The ancient Syrian writings of ecclesiastico-historical interest are chiefly Acts of martyrs and hymns to the saints ("Acta martyrum et sanctorum", ed. Bedjan, Paris, 1890-). The "Chronicle of Edessa", based on ancient sources, was written in the 6th century (ed. Assemani
, "Bibliotheca orientalis", I, 394). In the same century the Monophysite bishop, John of Ephesus
, wrote a history of the Church, but only its third part (571 to 586) is preserved (ed. William Cureton
, Oxford, 1853; tr., Oxford, 1860). Lengthy extracts from the second part are found in the annals of Dionysius of Telmera. His work covers the years 583-843 (fragments in Assemani, "Bibliotheca orientalis", II, 72 sqq.). Among the Armenians we meet with versions of Greek and Syriac works. The most important native Armenian chronicle of an ecclesiastico-historical character is ascribed to Moses of Chorene, an historical personage of the 5th century. The author of the "History of Greater Armenia" calls himself Moses of Chorene, and claims to have lived in the 5th century and to have been a disciple of the famous St. Mesrop
(q. v.). The self-testimony of the compiler must be rejected, since the work makes use of sources of the 6th and 7th centuries, and there is no trace of it to be found in Armenian literature before the 9th century. Probably, therefore, it originated about the 8th century. In the known manuscripts the work contains three parts: the "Genealogy of Greater Armenia" extends to the dynasty of the Arsacides, the "Middle Period of our Ancestry" to the death of St. Gregory the Illuminator, and the "End of the History of our Country" to the downfall of the Armenian Arsacides (ed. Amsterdam, 1695; Venice, 1881; French translation in Langlois, "Collection des historiens anciens et modernes de l'Arménie", 2 vols., Paris, 1867-9). In the Middle Ages there was still extant a fourth part. The work seems to be on the whole reliable. The ancient history, down to the second or 3rd century after Christ, is based on popular legends. Another Armenian historian is Eliseus Vartaped (q. v.).
Comprehensive ecclesiastico-historical works appear in the Latin West later than in the Greek East. The first beginnings of historical science are confined to translations with additions. Thus St. Jerome translated the "Chronicle" of Eusebius and continued it down to 378. At the same time he opened up a special field, the history of Christian literature, in his "De viris illustribus
"; ("Chronicon", ed. Schoene, 2 vols., Berlin, 1866–75; "De vir. ill.", ed. Richardson, Leipzig, 1896). About 400 the "Church History" of Eusebius was translated by Rufinus who added the history of the Church from 318 to 395 in two new books (X and XI). Rufinus's continuation was itself soon translated into Greek. The latest edition is in the Berlin collection of Greek Christian writings mentioned above in connexion with Eusebius. St. Jerome's Latin recension of the "Chronicle" of Eusebius was followed later by many other chronicles, among which may be mentioned the works of Prosper
, Idacius, Marcellinus, Victor of Tununum
, Marius of Avenches, Isidore of Seville
, and Venerable Bede. In the West, the first independent history of revelation and of the Church was written by Sulpicius Severus
, who published in 403 his "Historia (Chronica) Sacra" in two books; it reaches from the beginning of the world to about 400 (P. L., XX; ed. Hahn, Vienna, 1866). It is a short treatise and contains little historical information. A little later, Orosius wrote his "Historia adversus paganos" in seven books—a universal history from the standpoint of the Christian apologist. It begins with the deluge and comes down to 416. The purpose of Orosius was to refute the pagan charge that the great misfortunes of the Roman Empire were due to the victory of Christianity (P. L., XXXI; ed. Zangemeister, Vienna, 1882). With the same end in view, but with a far grander and loftier conception, St. Augustine
wrote his famous "De civitate Dei", composed between 413 and 428, and issued in sections. It is an apologetic philosophy of history from the standpoint of Divine revelation. The work is important for church history on account of its numerous historical and archaeological digressions (ed. Dombart, 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1877). About the middle of the 6th century, Cassiodorus
caused the works of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret to be translated into Latin, and then amalgamated this version into one complete narrative under the title "Historia tripartita" (P. L., LXIX-LXX). Together with the works of Rufinus and Orosius, it was one of the principal sources from which through the Middle Ages the Western peoples drew their knowledge of early church history. Rich material for ecclesiastical history is also contained in the national histories of some Western peoples. Of the "History of the Goths", written by Cassiodorus, we possess only an extract in Jordanis, "De origine actibusque Getarum
" (ed. Mommsen in "Mon. Germ. Hist: Auct. antiquissimi", V., Berlin, 1882). Especially important is the "History of the Franks" in ten books by Gregory of Tours
, which reaches to 591 (ed. Arndt, "Mon. Germ. Hist: Scriptores rerum Meroving.", I, Hanover, 1884-5). Gregory wrote also a "Liber de vitâ Patrum", a work entitled "In gloriâ martyrum", and the book "De virtutibus (i.e. miracles) S. Juliani" and "De virtutibus S. Martini" (ed. cit., pt. II, ad. Krusch). In the beginning of the 7th century St. Isidore of Seville composed a "Chronicle of the West Goths" ("Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum
", ed. Mommsen, "Chronica Minora", II, 241-303). Several other similar chronicles, from the fourth to the 7th century, were edited by Mommsen in the "Monumenta Germaniae Historica
: Auctores Antiquissimi" under the title of "Chronica Minora".
In the East church history is almost completely identified with the history of the imperial court owing to the close relations of State and Church. For the same reason the Byzantine chronicles from Justinian the Great to the destruction of the empire in the middle of the 15th century contain information about the history of the Greek Church. The major church historian of the Byzantine period is Nicephorus Callistus, who flourished in the beginning of the 14th century.
In Syriac we possess the aforesaid chronicle of Dionysius of Telmera. Towards the end of the 12th century Michael Kandis, Patriarch of the Jacobites (died 1199), wrote a chronicle from the creation to 1196. It is an important source for the history of the Syriac Church after the 6th century, particularly for the history of the Crusades
. Another patriarch of the Jacobites, Gregory Abulpharagius or Bar-Hebraeus, Maphrian (i. e. primate) of the Syro-Jacobite Church (1266–86), also wrote a universal chronicle in three parts. We must also mention the "Bibliotheca" (Myriobiblon) of Photios I of Constantinople (died 891), in which about 280 authors are described and passages quoted from them, and the work "On Heresies" of St. John Damascene.
Throughout this period the West was furnishing abundant material for ecclesiastical history, but few genuinely historical works. In the 9th century, Haymo, Bishop of Halberstadt (died 853), undertook to write an ecclesiastical history of the first four centuries, taking Rufinus
as his principal authority. Subsequently with the aid of Latin versions of Georgius Syncellus, Nicephorus, and especially of Theophanes, to which he added his own material, the Roman Abbot Anastasius Bibliothecarius
(the Librarian) wrote a "Church History" to the time of Leo the Armenian, who died in 829.
About the middle of the 12th century, Ordericus Vitalis, Abbot of St. Evroul in Normandy, wrote an "Historia ecclesiastica" in thirteen books; it reaches to 1142, and is of especial value for the history of Normandy, England, and the Crusades. The Dominican Bartholomew of Lucca
, called also Ptolemæus de Fiadonibus (died 1327), covered a longer period. His work in twenty-four books reaches to 1313, and was continued to 1361 by Henry of Diessenhofen. The "Flores chronicorum seu Catalogus Pontificum Romanorum" of Bernard Guidonis, Bishop of Lodève (died 1331), may be counted among the works on the general history of the Church. The most extensive, and relatively the best, historical work during this period is the "Summa Historialis" of St. Antoninus. It deals with secular and ecclesiastical history from the creation to 1457.
The national histories which appeared towards the end of the last period (of Cassiodorus
, Jordanis, Gregory of Tours
, were followed by similar works giving the history of other peoples. Venerable Bede wrote his admirable Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
, which describes in five books the history of England from the Roman conquest to 731, though treating principally of events after Augustine of Canterbury
's mission in 596. Paulus Warnefrid (Diaconus) wrote the history of his fellow-Lombards (Historia Langobardorum) from 568 to 733; it still remains the principal source for the history of his people. An unknown writer continued it to 774, and in the 9th century the monk Erchembert added the history of the Lombards of Beneventum to 889. Paulus wrote also a history of the bishops of Metz ("Gesta episcoporum Mettensium", ad. in "Mon. Germ. Hist: Script.", II) and other historical works. The Scandinavian North found its ecclesiastical historian in Adam of Bremen
; he covers the period between 788 and 1072, and his work is of special importance for the history of the Diocese of Hamburg-Bremen. Flodoard
(died 966) wrote the history of the Archdiocese of Reims (Historia ecclesiæ Remensis) to 948, a very important source for the history of the Church of France to that time.
The ecclesiastical history of Northern Germany was described by Albert Crantz, a canon of Hamburg (died 1517), in his "Metropolis" or "Historia de ecclesiis sub Carolo Magno in Saxoniâ instauratis" (i. e. from 780 to 1504; Frankfort, 1576 and often reprinted). Among the special historical works of this period of the Western Church we must mention the Liber Pontificalis
, an important collection of papal biographies that take on larger proportions after the 4th century, are occasionally very lengthy in the 8th and 9th centuries, and through various continuations reach to the death of Pope Martin V
in 1431. The German, Italian, French, and English chronicles, annals, and biographies of this epoch are very numerous.
The religious controversies that followed the rise of Protestantism were also an incentive to historical study. Printing made possible a rapid distribution of all kinds of writings, so that the sources of church history soon became known and studied in the widest circles, and new works on church history could be circulated in all directions.
. Mathias Flacius, called Illyricus (a native of Illyria), united with five other Lutherans (John Wigand, Mathias Judex, Basilius Faber, Andreas Corvinus, and Thomas Holzschuher), to produce an extensive work, that should exhibit the history of the Church as a convincing apology for strict Lutheranism. (See Centuriators of Magdeburg.) In the "Centuriæ", a partisan work, the institutions of the Roman Church appear as works of Satan and darkness. It called forth Catholic refutations, particularly that of Cæsar Baronius. Urged by Philip Neri
, he undertook in 1568 the task of producing an ecclesiastical history, which he brought down to the end of the 12th century and published under the title, "Annales ecclesiastici" (12 vols., Rome, 1588–1607). Numerous editions and continuations of it then appeared.
From the middle of the 17th century French writers were active in ecclesiastico-historical research. The writings of the Fathers of the Church and other ancient sources were published in better editions, and the auxiliary sciences of history were well cultivated. Antoine Godeau
, Bishop of Vence, wrote a "Histoire de l'église" reaching to the 9th century (5 vols., Paris, 1655–78; several other editions appeared and the work was translated into Italian and German), and to the Oratorian Cabassut for "Historia ecclesiastica" (Lyons, 1685). Although the Jesuit Louis Maimbourg
did not write a continuous ecclesiastical history, he published numerous treatises (Paris, 1673–83): on Arianism, Iconoclasm, the Greek Schism, struggle between the popes and the emperors, Western Schism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism.
Among the major ecclesiastical historians of this period are: Noël Alexandre
(Natalis Alexander) a Dominican; Claude Fleury
, who wrote a "Histoire ecclésiastique" in 20 volumes, reaching to 1414 (Paris, 1691–1720) as a moderate Gallican; and Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont
. To these must be added Bossuet
, who, in his "Discours sur l'histoire universelle" (Paris, 1681), treated the history of the Church as far as Charlemagne. His "Histoire des variations des églises protestantes" (2 vols., Paris, 1688) describes the changes which the Waldenses, Albigenses, Wyclifites, and Hussites, as well as Luther and Calvin, made to the fundamental doctrines of the Catholic Church.
Their successors in the eighteenth century compare unfavourably with their predecessors, in criticism of their sources and in scientific accuracy. The following are noteworthy: François Timoléon de Choisy, "Histoire de l'Eglise" (11 vols., Paris, 1706–23); Bonaventure Racine (Jansenist), "Abrégé de l'histoire ecclesiastique" (13 vols., Cologne, properly Paris, 1762-7); Gabriel Ducreu, "Les siècles chrétiens" (9 vols., Paris, 1775; 2nd ad. in 10 vols., Paris, 1783). The widest circulation was attained by the "Histoire de l'Eglise" of Bérault-Bercastel.
Italy during this period was productive mainly, however, in Christian archæology and special departments of history. The names of Cardinals Noris, Bona, and Pallavicini, Archbishop Mansi
of Lucca, the Vatican librarian Zacagni, Ferdinando Ughelli
, Roncaglia, Bianchini, Muratori, the brothers Pietro and Girolamo Ballerini, Gallandi, and Zaccaria, indicate the extent of historical research carried on in Italy during the 18th century. Among the general histories of the Church is the "Storia Ecclesiastica" of the Dominican Giuseppe Agostino Orsi
. A church history of similarly vast proportions was undertaken by the Oratorian Sacarelli. A third work, of an even more comprehensive nature and reaching to the beginning of the 18th century, was written by the French Dominican, Hyacinthe Graveson, resident in Italy, "Historia ecclesiastica variis colloquiia digesta" (12 vols., Rome, 1717-). Mansi continued it in two volumes to 1760. Compendia of general church history, widely read, were written by the Augustinian Lorenzo Berti ("Breviarium historiæ ecclesiasticæ", Pisa and Turin, 1761-8), who also wrote three volumes of "Dissertationes historicæ" (Florence, 1753-6); Carlo Sigonio, who treated the first three centuries (2 vols., Milan, 1758), and Giuseppe Zola
, who treats the same period in his "Commentarium de rebus ecclesiasticis" (3 vols., Pavia, 1780-), and who also wrote "Prolegomena comment. de rebus eccl." (3 vols., Pavia, 1779).
In Spain, the Augustinian Enrique Flórez
began at this period a monumental work on the ecclesiastical history of Spain, España sagrada, which at the death of the author in 1773 had reached its twenty-ninth volume. Manuel Risco
continued it to the forty-second volume, and, since his death, it has been carried still nearer to completion, the fifty-first volume appearing in 1886. Some special works appeared in Germany, monographs of particular dioceses and monasteries, but general church history was not cultivated until Joseph II had executed his reform of theological studies. Among them are Lumper's "Institutiones historiæ ecclesiasticæ" (Vienna, 1790); the "Institutiones historiæ eccl." of Dannenmeyer (2 vols., Vienna, 1788), relatively the best; the "Synopsis histor. relig. et eccles. christ." of Royko (Prague, 1785); the "Epitome hist. eccl." of Gmeiner (2 vols., Gratz, 1787–1803), and similar works by Wolf, Schmalzfuss, Stöger, Becker. The Netherlands produced compendia, e. g. those of Mutsaerts (2 vols., Antwerp, 1822), Rosweyde (2 vols., Antwerp, 1622), M. Chefneux ("Eccl. Cathol. speculum chronographicum", 3 vols., Liège, 1666–70).
Protestant Church historians
It was some time after the publication of the "Magdeburg Centuries" (see above) before Protestant scholars again undertook extensive independent work in the province of church history. Their division into Reformed and Lutherans on the one hand, and the domestic feuds among the Lutherans on the other, were distractions. When Protestant scholarship again arose, the Reformed Churches took the lead and retained it into the 18th century. This was true not only in the domain of special history, in which they issued important publications (e. g. Bingham's "Antiquitates ecclesiasticæ", 1722; the works of Grabe, Beveridge, Blondel, Daillé, Saumaise, Usher, Pearson, Dodwell, etc.), but also in that of general church history. Among these writers are: Johann Heinrich Hottinger
, whose "Historia ecclesiastica Novi Test." (9 vols., Hanover, 1655–67) is hostile to the Catholic Church; Jacques Basnage, the opponent of Bossuet ("Histoire de l'Eglise depuis Jésus-Christ jusqu'à présent", Rotterdam, 1699); Antoine Basnage, the opponent of Baronius ("Annales politico-eccles." 3 vols., Rotterdam, 1706), and Spanheim ("Introductio ad hist. et antiquit. sacr.", Leyden, 1687; "Historia ecclesiastica", ibid., 1701). The Reformed Churches produced moreover a number of manuals of church history, e. g. Turettini, "Hist. eccles. compendium" (Halle, 1750); Venema, "Institut. histor. eccl." (5 vols., Leyden, 1777); Jablonski, "Institut. hist. eccl." (2 vols., Frankfort, 1753). Similar Protestant manuals appeared in England, e. g. Milner, "History of the Church of Christ" (4 vols., London, 1794); Murray "History of Religion" (4 vols., London, 1794), and Priestley, "History of the Christian Church".
During the 17th century, the Lutherans produced a "Compendium histor. eccl." by Seckendorf and Bockler (Gotha, 1670-6). But a new era in Lutheran ecclesiastical historiography dates from Arnold's "Unparteiische Kirchen- und Ketzerhistorie" (2 vols., Frankfort am M., 1699). This pietist author is friendly to all the sects, but hostile to the Catholic Church and orthodox Lutheranism. Calmer is Eberhard Weissmann's "Introductio in memorabilia ecclesiastica historiæ sacræ Novi Test." (2 vols., Tübingen, 1718). The Latin historical writings of Joh. Lor. Mosheim, particularly his "De rebus christ. ante Constantinum Magnum" (Helmstadt, 1753), and "Institutiones histor. eccles. antiquioris et recentioris" (ibid., 1755), treat the Church as an institution of secular origin. His "Institutiones" were translated into German and continued by two of his pupils, J. von Einem and Rud. Schlegel (Leipzig, 1769-; Heilbronn, 1770-). Further progress was made in the works of Pfaff, chancellor of Tübingen ("Institutiones histor. eccl.", Tübingen, 1721), of Baumgarten ("Auszug der Kirchengeschichte", 3 vols., Halle, 1743-), Pertsch ("Versuch einer Kirchengeschichte", 5 vols, Leipzig, 1736-), Cotta ("Versuch einer ausführlichen Kirchenhistorie des neuen Testamentes", 3 vols., Tübingen, 1768–73). Specialised works were written by the two Walchs-Joh. Georg Walch issuing "Eine Geschichte der Reigionsstreitigkeiten innerhalb und ausserhalb der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche" in two parts, each comprising five volumes (Jena, 1733-9) while his son Christian Wilhelm published a lengthy "ketzergeschichte", whose eleventh volume reaches to the Iconoclasts (Leipzig, 1762–85). The latter also wrote a "Religionsgeschichte der neuesten Zeit", beginning with Clement XIV (to which Planck added three volumes) also a "Historie der Kirchenversammlungen" (Leipzig, 1759), and a "Historic der röm. Päpste" (Göttingen, 1758).
The major Lutheran work on general church history is that of J. Mathias Schröckh, a pupil of Mosheim and a professor at Wittenberg: "Christliche Kirchengeschichte bis zur Reformation" in thirty-five volumes (Leipzig, 1768–1803), continued as "Kirchengeschichte seit der Reformation" in eight volumes (Leipzig, 1803-8), to which Tzschirmer added two others (1810–12). The whole work includes forty-five volumes and closes with the beginning of the 19th century. The works of Johannes Salomon Semler were his "Historiæ eccles. selecta capita" (3 vols., Halle 1767-), "Versuch eines fruchtbaren Auszuges der kirchengeschichte" (3 parts, ibid., 1778), and "Versuch christlicher Jahrbücber" (2 parts, Halle, 1782). Most of his contemporaries wrote church history as a chronicle of scandals (Scandalchronik): superstition, fanaticism, and human passion. This spirit is particularly characteristic of Spittler, "Grundriss der Gesch. der christl. Kirche" and Henke, "Allgem. Geschichte der chr. K."
. This scholar, who later on abandoned the Catholic attitude and principles of his earlier days, excelled previous writers. Johann Adam Möhler
wrote several special historical works and dissertations of exceptional merit. His lectures on general church history were published after his death by his pupil, the Benedictine Pius Gams ("Kirchengeschichte", 3 vols., Ratisbon, 1867). To these larger and epoch-making works must be added several compendia, some of which like Klein ("Historia ecclesiastica", Gratz, 1827), Ruttenstock ("Institutiones hist. eccl.", 3 vols., Vienna, 1832-4), Cherrier ("Instit. hist. eccl.", 4 vols., Pestini, 1840-), were bare summaries of facts; others, like Ritter ("Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte", 3 vols., Bonn, 1830; 6th ed. by Ennen, 1861), and Alzog ("Universalgeschichte der christlichen Kirche", Mains, 1840; 10th ed. by F. X. Kraus, 1882), are lengthy narratives, critical and thorough. Particular periods or epochs of ecclesiastical history soon found careful cultivation, e. g. by Riffel, "Kirchengeschichte der neuen und neuesten Zeit, vom Anfang der Glaubensspaltung im 16. Jahrhundert" (3 vols., Mainz, 1841-6); Damberger, "Synchronistische Geschichte der Kirche und der Welt im Mittelalter" (in 15 volumes, Ratisbon, 1850–63; the last volume edited by Rattinger), which reaches to 1378. With Döllinger and Möhler we must rank Karl Joseph Hefele, the third of the great German Catholic historians, whose valuable "Konziliengeschichte" is really a comprehensive work on general church history;. the first seven volumes of the work (Freiburg, 1855–74) reach to 1448. A new edition was begun by the author (ibid., 1873-); it was carried on by Knöpfler (vole. V-VII), while Hergenröther (later cardinal) undertook to continue the work and published two more volumes (VIII-IX, 1887–90); which carry the history of the Councils to the opening of the Council of Trent. Hergenröther is the fourth great church historian of Catholic Germany. His "Handbuch der allgemeinen Kirchengeschichte" (3 vols., Freiburg im B., 1876–80; 3rd ed., 1884-6; 4th ed., revised by J. P. Kirsch, 1902 sqq.) exhibits vast erudition and won recognition, even from Protestants as the most independent and instructive Catholic Church history. In recent years smaller, but scholarly compendia have been written by Brück, Krause Funk, Knöpfler, Marx, and Weiss. Numerous periodicals of a scientific nature bear evidence to the vigorous activity at present displayed in the field of ecclesiastical history, e. g. the "Kirchengeschichtliche Studien" (Münster), the "Quellen und Forschungen aus dem Gebiet der Geschichte" (Paderborn), the "Forschungen zur christlichen Literatur- und Dogmengeschichte" (Mainz and Paderborn), the "Veröffentlichungen aus dem kirchenhistorischen Seminar München".
" edited by Cauchie and Ladeuze.
has a full bibliography, translated into English by Dom Hunter-Blair, "History of the Catholic Church in Scotland" (4 vols., London, 1887, sqq.). A non-Catholic work is Calderwood's "History of the Kirk" (8 vols., Edinburgh, 1842).
, "Ecclesiastical History of Ireland" (2nd edition, Dublin, 1864).
, "History of the Catholic Church in the United States" (4 vols., New York, 1886). O'Gorman's, "A History of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States" (New York, 1895), contains a useful bibliography.
Another Protestant school is more in sympathy with Semler's views. Its first leaders were the so-called "Neo-Tübingen School" under Johann Christian Baur, whose ecclesiastico-historical writings are directly anti-Christian: "Das Christentum und die Kirche der drei ersten Jahrhunderte" (Tübingen, 1853); "Die christliche Kirche vom 4. bis zum 6. Jahrhundert" (ibid., 1859); "Die christliche Kirche des Mittelalters" (ibid., 1860); "Die neuere Zeit" (ibid., 1861-3); "Das neunzehnte Jahrhundert" (ibid., 1863–73). Baur himself and his rationalistic adherents, Schwegler, Ritsçhl, Rothe, wrote also special works on the origins of the Church. The "Allgemeine Kirchengeschichte" of Gfrörer (7 parts, Stuttgart, 1841), written prior to his conversion, is a product of this spirit. Though constantly attacked, this school, whose chief representative was Adolf Harnack, predominated in German Protestantism. Moeller, in his "Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte" writes with moderation; similarly Müller in his "Kirchengeschichte" (Tübingen, 1892, sqq.).
In the 19th century also the Reformed (see above) produced less in the province of general church history than the Lutherans.
An important general ecclesiastical history produced by Anglican scholars was edited by W. Stephens and W. Hunt -- "A History of the English Church" by various writers (Hunt, Stephens, Capes, Gairdner, Hutton, Overton).
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
, is the history of the Roman Catholic Church
History of the Roman Catholic Church
As the oldest branch of Christianity, along with Eastern Orthodoxy, the history of the Catholic Church plays an integral part of the History of Christianity as a whole. This article covers a period of just under 2,000 years....
as an institution, written from a particular perspective. There is a traditional approach to such historiography
Historiography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
. The generally-identified starting point is Eusebius of Caesarea
Eusebius of Caesarea
Eusebius of Caesarea also called Eusebius Pamphili, was a Roman historian, exegete and Christian polemicist. He became the Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine about the year 314. Together with Pamphilus, he was a scholar of the Biblical canon...
, and his Church History
Church History (Eusebius)
The Church History of Eusebius, the bishop of Caesarea was a 4th-century pioneer work giving a chronological account of the development of Early Christianity from the 1st century to the 4th century. It was written in Koine Greek, and survives also in Latin, Syriac and Armenian manuscripts...
.
Since there is no assumption that contemporary historians of the Catholic Church who are also Catholics adopt this perspective, this “traditional approach” is a chapter of historiography, not yet closed, but applying to a definite area that is not central to the academic history of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Approach, traditional Catholic view
According to the Catholic EncyclopediaCatholic Encyclopedia
The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia and the Original Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and the last three volumes appeared in 1912, followed by a master index...
of 1913,
- Ecclesiastical history is the scientific investigation and the methodical description of the temporal development of the Church considered as an institution founded by Jesus Christ and guided by the Holy Ghost for the salvation of mankind.” Its scope consists “the life of the Church in all its manifestations from the beginning of its existence to our own day among the various divisions of mankind hitherto reached by Christianity. While the Church remains essentially the same despite the changes which she undergoes in time, these changes help to exhibit more fully her internal and external life.
Its branches therefore include:
- History of missions, in the widest sense
- History of ecclesiastical polity, of heresies and their opponents, and of the relations of the Church with non-Catholic religious associations
- History of dogma, of ecclesiastical theology, and ecclesiastical sciences in general
- History of liturgy
- History of ecclesiastical art
- History of the Catholic hierarchy, of the constitution and canon lawCanon lawCanon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...
of the Church, - History of religious orderReligious orderA religious order is a lineage of communities and organizations of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, usually characterized by the principles of its founder's religious practice. The order is composed of initiates and, in some...
s - History of discipline, religious life, Christian civilization.
Methods
Critical treatment of the sources requires palaeographyPalaeography
Palaeography, also spelt paleography is the study of ancient writing. Included in the discipline is the practice of deciphering, reading, and dating historical manuscripts, and the cultural context of writing, including the methods with which writing and books were produced, and the history of...
, diplomatics
Diplomatics
Diplomatics , or Diplomatic , is the study that revolves around documentation. It is a study that focuses on the analysis of document creation, its inner constitutions and form, the means of transmitting information, and the relationship documented facts have with their creator...
, and criticism
Textual criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification and removal of transcription errors in the texts of manuscripts...
.
Apart from that, the approach is not that of a skeptic:
- The ecclesiastical historian … can by no means exclude the possibility of supernatural factors. That God cannot intervene in the course of nature, and that miracles are therefore impossible is an assumption which has not been and cannot be proved, and which makes a correct appreciation of facts in their objective reality impossible. Herein appears the difference between the standpoint of the believing Christian historian, who bears in mind not only the existence of God but also the relations of creatures to Him, and that of the rationalistic and infidel historian, who rejects even the possibility of Divine intervention in the course of natural law.
It is based in teleology
Teleology
A teleology is any philosophical account which holds that final causes exist in nature, meaning that design and purpose analogous to that found in human actions are inherent also in the rest of nature. The word comes from the Greek τέλος, telos; root: τελε-, "end, purpose...
:
- …the Christian historian keeps in view the fact that the founder of the Church is the Son of God, and that the Church was instituted by Him in order to communicate to the whole human race, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, its salvation through Christ. It is from this standpoint that the Christian historian estimates all particular events in their relation to the end or purpose of the Church. The unbelieving historian on the other hand recognizing only natural forces both at the origin and throughout the development of Christianity, and rejecting the possibility of any supernatural intervention is incapable of appreciating the work of the Church in as far as it is the agent of Divine design.
As well as taking the Church as its subject matter, it is Church-centered, and takes the Church’s teachings at their own estimation:
- The Catholic historian insists on the supernatural character of the Church, its doctrines, institutions, and standards of life, in so far as they rest on Divine revelation, and acknowledge the continual guidance of the Church by the Holy Ghost. All this is for him objective reality, certain truth, and the only foundation for the true, scientific pragmatism of ecclesiastical history.
Universality
The fact that schismSchism (religion)
A schism , from Greek σχίσμα, skhísma , is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization or movement religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a break of communion between two sections of Christianity that were previously a single body, or to a division within...
s have occurred in Christian history is subordinated to the claim to universality of the Catholic Church, which is not treated as one church among many:
- The Catholic historian does not admit that the various forms of the Christian religion may be taken, roughly speaking, as a connected whole, nor does he consider them one and all as so many imperfect attempts to adapt the teachings and institutions of Christ to the changing needs of the times, nor as progressive steps towards a future higher unity wherein alone we must seek the perfect ideal of Christianity. There is but one Divine revelation given us by Christ, but one ecclesiastical tradition based on it; hence one only Church can be the true one, i. e. the Church in which the aforesaid revelation is found in its entirety, and whose institutions have developed on the basis of this revelation and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
On the other hand, the effect of churches outside the Catholic Church is factored into the discussion.
First Period
The foundation of the Church and the development of fixed standards of ecclesiastical life within the limits of Græco-Roman civilization.Second Period
The Church as a major force in the new Romanic, German, and Slavic states of Europe, the secession of Oriental Christendom from ecclesiastical unity and the final overthrow of the Byzantine empireByzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
.
Third Period
The collapse of religious unity among the Western European nations, and the reformation from within of Catholic Church faced with ProtestantismProtestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
. Immense geographical expansion of the Church, with missionaries in South America, part of North America and numerous in Asia and Africa.
Turning points
Some considered the pontificate of Gregory the Great in 590, or, more generally, the end of the sixth and the middle of the 7th century as the close of the first period; others, took the Sixth General Council in 680, or the Trullan synod of 692, or the end of the 7th century; others again close the first period with St. Boniface, or with the IconoclastsIconoclasm
Iconoclasm is the deliberate destruction of religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually with religious or political motives. It is a frequent component of major political or religious changes...
, or with Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
. For the West Kraus
Kraus
- People :* Adalbert Kraus , a German tenor* Adam Kraus , American footballer* Adolf Kraus , lawyer and Jewish leader* Adolph Robert Kraus , American sculptor* Alanna Kraus , Canadian speed skater...
regards the beginning of the 7th century as the close of the first period; for the East, the end of the same century.
Similarly, along the line of division between the second and the third periods are crowded events of great importance to ecclesiastical life: the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
with its influence upon all intellectual life, the conquest of Constantinople
Fall of Constantinople
The Fall of Constantinople was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire, which occurred after a siege by the Ottoman Empire, under the command of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, against the defending army commanded by Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI...
by the Turks, the discovery of America and the new problems which the Church had to solve in consequence, the appearance of Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
and the heresy of Protestantism
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
, the Council of Trent
Council of Trent
The Council of Trent was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important councils. It convened in Trent between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods...
with its decisive influence on the evolution of the interior life of the Church. Protestant historians have regarded the appearance of Luther as the beginning of the third period. A few Catholic authors (e.g. Kraus) closed the second period with the middle of the 15th century.
Nor do authors perfectly agree on the turning-points which are to be inserted within the chief periods. It is true that the conversion of Constantine the Great affected the life of the Church so profoundly that the reign of this first Christian emperor is generally accepted as marking a sub-division in the first period. In the second period, especially prominent personalities usually mark the limits of the several sub-divisions, e.g. Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
, Gregory VII
Pope Gregory VII
Pope St. Gregory VII , born Hildebrand of Sovana , was Pope from April 22, 1073, until his death. One of the great reforming popes, he is perhaps best known for the part he played in the Investiture Controversy, his dispute with Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor affirming the primacy of the papal...
, Boniface VIII, though this leads to the undervaluation of other important factors e. g. the Greek Schism
East-West Schism
The East–West Schism of 1054, sometimes known as the Great Schism, formally divided the State church of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western branches, which later became known as the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, respectively...
, the Crusades
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
. Recent writers, therefore, assume other boundary lines which emphasize the forces active in the life of the Church rather than prominent personalities. In subdividing the third period the same difficulty presents itself. Many historians consider the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
at the end of the 18th century as an event of sufficient importance to demand a new epoch; others see a distinct epochal line in the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), with which the formation of great Protestant territories came to an end.
Sources
Sources fall naturally into two classes:- (A) Remains (reliquiae, Ueberreste) or immediate sources, i. e. such as prove a fact directly, being themselves part or remnant of the fact. To this class belong e. g. liturgical customs, ecclesiastical institutions, acts of the popes and councils, art-products etc.; also monuments set up to commemorate events, e. g. inscriptions.
- (B) Tradition or mediate sources, i. e. such as rest upon the statements of witnesses who communicate an event to others. Tradition may be oral (narrative and legends), written (writings of particular authors), or pictorial (pictures, statues).
Remains
The remains of the Church's past, which give direct evidence of historical facts, are the following:- (1) Inscriptions, i.e. texts written on durable material, which were either meant to perpetuate the knowledge of certain acts, or which describe the character and purpose of a particular object. The Christian inscriptions of different epochs and countries are now accessible in numerous collections.
- (2) Monuments erected for Christian purposes, especially tombs, sacred edifices, monasteries, hospitals for the sick and pilgrims; objects used in the liturgy or private devotions.
- (3) Liturgies, rituals, particularly liturgical books of various kinds, which were once used in Divine service.
- (4) Necrologies and confraternity-books used at the prayers and public services for the living and the dead.
- (5) Papal acts, Bulls and Briefs to a great extent edited in the papal "Bullaria", "Regesta", and special ecclesiastico-national collections.
- (6) Acts and decrees of general councils and of particular synods.
- (7) Collections of official decrees of Roman congregations, bishops, and other ecclesiastical authorities.
- (8) Rules of faith (Symbola fldei) drawn up for the public use of the Church, various collections of which have been made.
- (9) Official collections of ecclesiastical laws juridically obligatory for the whole Church.
- (10) Rules and constitutions of orders and congregations.
- (11) Concordats between the ecclesiastical and the secular power.
- (12) Civil laws, since they often contain matters bearing on religion or of ecclesiastical interest.
Tradition
These comprise those sources which rest on tradition alone, and which, unlike the remains, are themselves no part of the fact. They are:- (1) Collections of acts of the martyrs, of legends and lives of the saints.
- (2) Collections of lives of the popes (Liber PontificalisLiber PontificalisThe Liber Pontificalis is a book of biographies of popes from Saint Peter until the 15th century. The original publication of the Liber Pontificalis stopped with Pope Adrian II or Pope Stephen V , but it was later supplemented in a different style until Pope Eugene IV and then Pope Pius II...
) and of bishops of particular Churches. - (3) Works of ecclesiastical writers, which contain information about historical events; to some extent all ecclesiastical literature belongs to this category.
- (4) Ecclesiastico-historical works, which take on more or less the character of sources, especially for the time in which their authors lived.
- (5) Pictorial representations (paintings, sculptures, etc.).
Auxiliary sciences
Special auxiliary sciencesAuxiliary sciences of history
Auxiliary sciences of history are scholarly disciplines which help evaluate and use historical sources and are seen as auxiliary for historical research...
(e. g. epigraphy, palaeography, numismatics) deal with certain particular kinds of the above-mentioned sources.
- (1) The study of the languages of the sources, which necessitates the use of lexicons, either general or special (i. e. for the language of particular authors).
- (2) PalaeographyPalaeographyPalaeography, also spelt paleography is the study of ancient writing. Included in the discipline is the practice of deciphering, reading, and dating historical manuscripts, and the cultural context of writing, including the methods with which writing and books were produced, and the history of...
, a methodical introduction to the reading and dating of all kinds of manuscript sources. It was first scientifically investigated and formulated by MabillonJean MabillonJean Mabillon was a French Benedictine monk and scholar, considered the founder of palaeography and diplomatics.-Early career:...
, "De re diplomaticâ" (Paris, 1681).
- (3) DiplomaticsDiplomaticsDiplomatics , or Diplomatic , is the study that revolves around documentation. It is a study that focuses on the analysis of document creation, its inner constitutions and form, the means of transmitting information, and the relationship documented facts have with their creator...
, which teaches how to examine critically the form and content of historical documents (e. g. charters, privileges), to pronounce on their genuineness, to understand them correctly, and to use them methodically. It is usually combined with paleography.
- (4) Historical MethodologyHistorical methodHistorical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians use primary sources and other evidence to research and then to write histories in the form of accounts of the past. The question of the nature, and even the possibility, of a sound historical method is raised in the...
, which enables the student to treat in a correct and critical way all the sources known to him and to combine the results of his researches in a methodical narrative.
- (5) BibliographyBibliographyBibliography , as a practice, is the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology...
, the practical science of finding quickly the literature bearing on a given ecclesiastico-historical subject.
- (6) ChronologyChronologyChronology is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time, such as the use of a timeline or sequence of events. It is also "the determination of the actual temporal sequence of past events".Chronology is part of periodization...
: how to recognize and fix with accuracy the dates found in the sources. The first important chronological investigations were undertaken by ScaligerScaligerThe noble family of the Scaliger were Lords of Verona. When Ezzelino III was elected podestà of the commune in 1226, he was able to convert the office into a permanent lordship...
("De emendatione temporum," Jena, 1629-), Petavius ("Rationarium temporum", Leyden, 1624; "De doctrinâ temporum", Antwerp, 1703), and the authors of "Art de vérifier les dates des faits historiques" (Paris, 1750-).
- (7) Ecclesiastical Geography and Statistics, the first teaches us to recognize the places in which historical events took place, the other represents the development of the Church and the actual condition of her institutions exhibited synoptically, in tables with corresponding figures, etc.
- (8) EpigraphyEpigraphyEpigraphy Epigraphy Epigraphy (from the , literally "on-writing", is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; that is, the science of identifying the graphemes and of classifying their use as to cultural context and date, elucidating their meaning and assessing what conclusions can be...
, a guide for the reading and methodical use of the Christian inscriptions on monuments.
- (9) Christian Archaeology and History of the Fine Arts, from which the student learns how to study scientifically and to use the monuments which owe their origin to Christian influences.
- (10) NumismaticsNumismaticsNumismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, and related objects. While numismatists are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, the discipline also includes the broader study of money and other payment media used to resolve debts and the...
, the science of the coins of various countries and ages. Since not only the popes but also the numerous bishops, who once possessed secular power, exercised the right of coinage, numismatics belongs, at least for certain epochs, to the auxiliary sciences of church history.
- (11) Sphragistics, or the science of seals (Gk. spragis, a seal). Its object is the study of the various seals and stamps used in sealing letters and documents as a guarantee of their authenticity.
- (12) HeraldryHeraldryHeraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
, which teaches the student how to read accurately the coats of arms etc., used by ecclesiastical and secular lords. It frequently throws light on the family of historical personages, the time or character of particular events, the history of religious monuments.
Historians
The peoples among which Christianity first spread, possessed a highly developed civilization and a literature rich in works of history. Chronicles were compiled in the 3rd century by Julius AfricanusJulius Africanus
Julius Africanus was a celebrated orator in the reign of Nero, and seems to have been the son of the Julius Africanus, of the Gallic state of the Santoni, who was condemned by Tiberius in 32 AD. Quintilian, who had heard Julius Africanus, spoke of him and Domitius Afer as the best orators of their...
and by Hippolytus of Rome, some fragments of which survive. It is only during the 4th century that ecclesiastical history, properly so called, makes its appearance.
Church historians during the First Period
EusebiusEusebius of Caesarea
Eusebius of Caesarea also called Eusebius Pamphili, was a Roman historian, exegete and Christian polemicist. He became the Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine about the year 314. Together with Pamphilus, he was a scholar of the Biblical canon...
, Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine (died 340) is styled the "Father of Church History", and wrote a "Chronicle" as well as a Church History
Church History (Eusebius)
The Church History of Eusebius, the bishop of Caesarea was a 4th-century pioneer work giving a chronological account of the development of Early Christianity from the 1st century to the 4th century. It was written in Koine Greek, and survives also in Latin, Syriac and Armenian manuscripts...
. The "Church History" was an outgrowth of the "Chronicle", and first appeared in nine books; it covered the time from the death of Christ to the victories of Constantine and Licinius (312 and 313). Eusebius afterwards added a tenth book, which carried the narrative to the victory of Constantine over Licinius (323). He sought to set forth in the most favourable light the Christian sentiments of the imperial convert Constantine and his services to the Christian Church, and has been criticised for his partiality towards Constantine and his palliation of the latter's faults. A brief historical treatise of Eusebius, "On the Martyrs of Palestine", has also been preserved.
This major Christian historian found several imitators in the first half of the 5th century, but their works survive partially if at all. The originals of the first two general narratives of ecclesiastical history after Eusebius have been lost, i.e. the "Christian History" of the presbyter Philip of Side
Philip of Side
Philip of Side or Philip Sidetes , a historian of the early Christian church, was born at Side, the ancient Greek Iconium, Pamphylia . He wrote a Christian history of which fragments survive...
, and the "Church History" of the Arian
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
Philostorgius
Philostorgius
Philostorgius was an Anomoean Church historian of the 4th and 5th centuries. Anomoeanism questioned the Trinitarian account of the relationship between God the Father and Christ and was considered a heresy by the Orthodox Church, which adopted the term "homoousia" in the Nicene Creed. Very little...
. Three other early ecclesiastical histories written about this period are also lost, from the presbyter Hesychius of Jerusalem
Hesychius of Jerusalem
Hesychius of Jerusalem was a Christian presbyter and exegete, probably of the fifth century. Nothing certain is known as to the dates of his birth and death , or, indeed concerning the events of his life...
(died 433), the Apollinarian Timotheus of Berytus, and Sabinus of Heraclea
Sabinus of Heraclea
Sabinus of Heraclea was bishop of Heraclea in Thrace, and a leader of the party and sect of Macedonius. He was the author of a collection of the Acts of the councils of the Catholic Church, from the council of Nicaea to his own time. William Cave fixes the date at which Sabinus flourished as c...
.
About the middle of the 5th century the "Church History" of Eusebius was continued simultaneously by three writers. All three continuations have reached us. The first was written by Socrates Scholasticus
Socrates Scholasticus
Socrates of Constantinople, also known as Socrates Scholasticus, not to be confused with the Greek philosopher Socrates, was a Greek Christian church historian, a contemporary of Sozomen and Theodoret, who used his work; he was born at Constantinople c. 380: the date of his death is unknown...
, an advocate (scholasticus) of Constantinople, who, in his "Church History", which he expressly (I, 1) calls a continuation of the work of Eusebius, describes in seven books the period from 305 (Abdication of Diocletian) to 439. The author is honest, exhibits critical acumen in the use of his sources, and has a clear and simple style. After him, and frequently making use of his history, comes Hermias Sozomenus (or Sozomen), also an advocate in Constantinople, whose "Church History" in nine books comprises the period from 324 to 425. Both these writers are surpassed by Theodoret
Theodoret
Theodoret of Cyrus or Cyrrhus was an influential author, theologian, and Christian bishop of Cyrrhus, Syria . He played a pivotal role in many early Byzantine church controversies that led to various ecumenical acts and schisms...
, Bishop of Cyrus (died about 458), who, in his "Church History", a continuation of the work of Eusebius, describes in five books the period from the beginning of Arianism
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
(320) to the beginning of the Nestorian
Nestorianism
Nestorianism is a Christological doctrine advanced by Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople from 428–431. The doctrine, which was informed by Nestorius's studies under Theodore of Mopsuestia at the School of Antioch, emphasizes the disunion between the human and divine natures of Jesus...
troubles (428). In addition to the writings of his predecessors, Socrates
Socrates Scholasticus
Socrates of Constantinople, also known as Socrates Scholasticus, not to be confused with the Greek philosopher Socrates, was a Greek Christian church historian, a contemporary of Sozomen and Theodoret, who used his work; he was born at Constantinople c. 380: the date of his death is unknown...
and Sozomen, he also used those of the Latin scholar Rufinus
Tyrannius Rufinus
Tyrannius Rufinus or Rufinus of Aquileia was a monk, historian, and theologian. He is most known as a translator of Greek patristic material into Latin—especially the work of Origen.-Life:...
, and wove many documents into his narrative. Theodoret
Theodoret
Theodoret of Cyrus or Cyrrhus was an influential author, theologian, and Christian bishop of Cyrrhus, Syria . He played a pivotal role in many early Byzantine church controversies that led to various ecumenical acts and schisms...
wrote also a "History of the Monks", in which he sets forth the lives of thirty famous ascetics of the Orient. Like the "History of the Holy Fathers" or "Historia Lausiaca", so called from one Lausus to whom the book was dedicated by Palladius
Palladius of Galatia
Palladius of Galatia was bishop of Helenopolis in Bithynia, and a devoted disciple of Saint John Chrysostom. He is best remembered for his work, the Lausiac History; he was also, in all probability, the author of the Dialogue on the Life of Chrysostom....
, written about 420, this work of Theodoret is one of the principal sources for the history of Oriental monasticism. Theodoret also published a "Compendium of Heretical Falsehoods", i. e. a short history of heresies with a refutation of each. Together with the similar "Panarion
Panarion
In early Christian heresiology, the Panarion , to which 16th-century Latin translations gave the name Adversus Haereses , is the most important of the works of Epiphanius of Salamis...
" of Epiphanius
Epiphanius of Salamis
Epiphanius of Salamis was bishop of Salamis at the end of the 4th century. He is considered a saint and a Church Father by both the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic Churches. He gained a reputation as a strong defender of orthodoxy...
, it offers material on the earliest heresies.
During the 6th century these historians found other continuators. Theodorus Lector
Theodorus Lector
Theodorus Lector was a lector, or reader, at the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople during the early sixth century. He wrote two works of history; one is a collection of sources which relates events beginning in 313, during Constantine's early reign, down to 439, in the reign Theodosius II...
compiled a brief compendium from the works of the above-mentioned three continuators of Eusebius: Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret. He then wrote in two books an independent continuation of this summary as far as the reign of Emperor Justin I (518-27); only fragments of this work have reached us. Zacharias Rhetor
Zacharias Rhetor
Zacharias of Mytilene , also known as Zacharias Scholasticus or Zacharias Rhetor, was a bishop and ecclesiastical historian....
, at first an advocate at Berytus in Phoenicia
Phoenicia
Phoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...
and then (at least from 536) Bishop of Mitylene in the Island of Lesbos, composed, while yet a layman, an ecclesiastical history, which describes the period from 450 to 491, but is mostly taken up with personal experiences of the author in Egypt and Palestine. A Syriac version of this work is extant as books III-VI of a Syriac universal history, while there are also extant some chapters in a Latin version. Apart from this history, his inclination towards Monophysitism
Monophysitism
Monophysitism , or Monophysiticism, is the Christological position that Jesus Christ has only one nature, his humanity being absorbed by his Deity...
is also apparent from his biography of the Monophysite patriarch, Severus of Antioch
Severus of Antioch
Severus, Patriarch of Antioch , born approximately 465 in Sozopolis in Pisidia, was by birth and education a pagan, who was baptized in the "precinct of the divine martyr Leontius" at Tripoli, Lebanon.- Life :...
, and from his biography of the monk Isaias, two works extant in a Syriac version. More important still is the "Church History" of Evagrius Scholasticus
Evagrius Scholasticus
Evagrius Scholasticus was a Syrian scholar and intellectual living in the 6th century AD, and an aide to the patriarch Gregory of Antioch. His surviving work, Ecclesiastical History, comprises a six-volume collection concerning the Church's history from the First Council of Ephesus to Maurice’s...
, who died about the end of the 6th century. His work is a continuation of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret, and treats in six books the period from 431 to 594. It is based on good sources, and borrows from profane historians but occasionally Evagrius is too credulous. For Nestorianism and Monophysitism, however, his work deserves careful attention.
Among the chronicles that belong to the close of Græco-Roman antiquity, special mention is due to the Chronicon Paschale
Chronicon Paschale
Chronicon Paschale is the conventional name of a 7th-century Greek Christian chronicle of the world...
, so called because the Paschal or Easter canon forms the basis of its Christian chronology. About the year 700 the Monophysite bishop, John of Nikiu
John of Nikiû
John of Nikiû was an Egyptian Coptic bishop of Nikiû/Pashati in the Nile Delta and appointed general administrator of the monasteries of Upper Egypt in 696...
(Egypt) compiled a universal chronicle; its notitiae are of great value for the 7th century. This chronicle has been preserved in an Ethiopic version ("Chronique de Jean, évêque de Nikiou", publ. par. H. Zotenberg
Hermann Zotenberg
Hermann Zotenberg was an orientalist and Arabist.He worked for the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. His most celebrated work is his edition of the Chronique de Tabari - Works :...
, Paris, 1883). Zotenberg believes that the work was originally written in Greek and then translated; Nöldeke
Theodor Nöldeke
Theodor Nöldeke was a German Semitic scholar, who was born in Harburg and studied in Göttingen, Vienna, Leiden and Berlin....
("Gottinger gelehrte Anzeigen", 1881, 587 sqq.) thinks it more probable that the original was Coptic. To the Alexandrian Cosmas, known as the "Indian Voyager" we owe a Christian "Topography" of great value for ecclesiastical geography (ed. Montfaucon, "Collectio nova Patrum et Scriptor. græc", II, Paris, 1706; translated into English by McCrindle, London, 1897). Of great value also for ecclesiastical geography are the "Notitiae episcopatuum
Notitiae Episcopatuum
The Notitiae Episcopatuum are official documents that furnish Eastern countries the list and hierarchical rank of the metropolitan and suffragan bishoprics of a church....
" (Taktika), or lists of the patriarchal, metropolitan, and episcopal sees of the Greek Church ("Hieroclis Synecdemus et Notitiae graecae episcopatuum", ed. Parthey, Berlin, 1866; "Georgii Cyprii Descriptio orbis Romani", ed. Geizer, Leipzig, 1890). A major collection of the early Greek historians of the Church is that of Henri de Valois in three folio volumes (Paris, 1659–73; improved by William Reading
William Reading
William Reading was an English clergyman and librarian of Sion College, known for his edition of early church historians.-Life:The son of a refiner of iron, he was born on 17 September 1674 at Swin in the parish of Wombourne, Staffordshire. He matriculated at University College, Oxford, on 1 June...
, Cambridge, 1720); it contains Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, Evagrius, and the fragments of Philostorgius
Philostorgius
Philostorgius was an Anomoean Church historian of the 4th and 5th centuries. Anomoeanism questioned the Trinitarian account of the relationship between God the Father and Christ and was considered a heresy by the Orthodox Church, which adopted the term "homoousia" in the Nicene Creed. Very little...
and Theodorus Lector.
The ancient Syrian writings of ecclesiastico-historical interest are chiefly Acts of martyrs and hymns to the saints ("Acta martyrum et sanctorum", ed. Bedjan, Paris, 1890-). The "Chronicle of Edessa", based on ancient sources, was written in the 6th century (ed. Assemani
Giuseppe Simone Assemani
Giuseppe Simone Assemani , 1687–1768, was a Lebanese Maronite orientalist.-Life:Giuseppe Simone Assemani was born on August 27, 1687 in Hasroun, Mount Lebanon. When very young he was sent to the Maronite College in Rome, and was transferred thence to the Vatican library. He was ordained priest on...
, "Bibliotheca orientalis", I, 394). In the same century the Monophysite bishop, John of Ephesus
John of Ephesus
John of Ephesus was a leader of the non-Chalcedonian Syriac-speaking Church in the sixth century, and one of the earliest and most important of historians who wrote in Syriac.-Life:...
, wrote a history of the Church, but only its third part (571 to 586) is preserved (ed. William Cureton
William Cureton
-Life:He was born in Westbury, Shropshire. After being educated at the Adams' Grammar School in Newport, Shropshire and at Christ Church, Oxford, he took orders in 1832, became chaplain of Christ Church, sublibrarian of the Bodleian, and, in 1837, assistant keeper of manuscripts in the British Museum...
, Oxford, 1853; tr., Oxford, 1860). Lengthy extracts from the second part are found in the annals of Dionysius of Telmera. His work covers the years 583-843 (fragments in Assemani, "Bibliotheca orientalis", II, 72 sqq.). Among the Armenians we meet with versions of Greek and Syriac works. The most important native Armenian chronicle of an ecclesiastico-historical character is ascribed to Moses of Chorene, an historical personage of the 5th century. The author of the "History of Greater Armenia" calls himself Moses of Chorene, and claims to have lived in the 5th century and to have been a disciple of the famous St. Mesrop
Saint Mesrob
Saint Mesrop Mashtots was an Armenian monk, theologian and linguist. He is best known for having invented the Armenian alphabet, which was a fundamental step in strengthening the Armenian Church, the government of the Armenian Kingdom, and ultimately the bond between the Armenian Kingdom and...
(q. v.). The self-testimony of the compiler must be rejected, since the work makes use of sources of the 6th and 7th centuries, and there is no trace of it to be found in Armenian literature before the 9th century. Probably, therefore, it originated about the 8th century. In the known manuscripts the work contains three parts: the "Genealogy of Greater Armenia" extends to the dynasty of the Arsacides, the "Middle Period of our Ancestry" to the death of St. Gregory the Illuminator, and the "End of the History of our Country" to the downfall of the Armenian Arsacides (ed. Amsterdam, 1695; Venice, 1881; French translation in Langlois, "Collection des historiens anciens et modernes de l'Arménie", 2 vols., Paris, 1867-9). In the Middle Ages there was still extant a fourth part. The work seems to be on the whole reliable. The ancient history, down to the second or 3rd century after Christ, is based on popular legends. Another Armenian historian is Eliseus Vartaped (q. v.).
Comprehensive ecclesiastico-historical works appear in the Latin West later than in the Greek East. The first beginnings of historical science are confined to translations with additions. Thus St. Jerome translated the "Chronicle" of Eusebius and continued it down to 378. At the same time he opened up a special field, the history of Christian literature, in his "De viris illustribus
De Viris Illustribus (Jerome)
De viris illustribus is a collection of short biographies of 135 authors, written in Latin, by the 4th century Latin Church Father Jerome. He completed this work at Bethlehem in 392-3 CE. The work consists of a prologue plus 135 chapters, each consisting of a brief biography. Jerome himself is...
"; ("Chronicon", ed. Schoene, 2 vols., Berlin, 1866–75; "De vir. ill.", ed. Richardson, Leipzig, 1896). About 400 the "Church History" of Eusebius was translated by Rufinus who added the history of the Church from 318 to 395 in two new books (X and XI). Rufinus's continuation was itself soon translated into Greek. The latest edition is in the Berlin collection of Greek Christian writings mentioned above in connexion with Eusebius. St. Jerome's Latin recension of the "Chronicle" of Eusebius was followed later by many other chronicles, among which may be mentioned the works of Prosper
Prosper of Aquitaine
Saint Prosper of Aquitaine , a Christian writer and disciple of Saint Augustine of Hippo, was the first continuator of Jerome's Universal Chronicle.- Life :...
, Idacius, Marcellinus, Victor of Tununum
Victor of Tunnuna
Victor of Tunnuna was bishop of the North African town of Tunnuna and a chronicler from Late Antiquity....
, Marius of Avenches, Isidore of Seville
Isidore of Seville
Saint Isidore of Seville served as Archbishop of Seville for more than three decades and is considered, as the historian Montalembert put it in an oft-quoted phrase, "le dernier savant du monde ancien"...
, and Venerable Bede. In the West, the first independent history of revelation and of the Church was written by Sulpicius Severus
Sulpicius Severus
Sulpicius Severus was a Christian writer and native of Aquitania. He is known for his chronicle of sacred history, as well as his biography of Saint Martin of Tours.-Life:...
, who published in 403 his "Historia (Chronica) Sacra" in two books; it reaches from the beginning of the world to about 400 (P. L., XX; ed. Hahn, Vienna, 1866). It is a short treatise and contains little historical information. A little later, Orosius wrote his "Historia adversus paganos" in seven books—a universal history from the standpoint of the Christian apologist. It begins with the deluge and comes down to 416. The purpose of Orosius was to refute the pagan charge that the great misfortunes of the Roman Empire were due to the victory of Christianity (P. L., XXXI; ed. Zangemeister, Vienna, 1882). With the same end in view, but with a far grander and loftier conception, St. Augustine
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
wrote his famous "De civitate Dei", composed between 413 and 428, and issued in sections. It is an apologetic philosophy of history from the standpoint of Divine revelation. The work is important for church history on account of its numerous historical and archaeological digressions (ed. Dombart, 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1877). About the middle of the 6th century, Cassiodorus
Cassiodorus
Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator , commonly known as Cassiodorus, was a Roman statesman and writer, serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. Senator was part of his surname, not his rank.- Life :Cassiodorus was born at Scylletium, near Catanzaro in...
caused the works of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret to be translated into Latin, and then amalgamated this version into one complete narrative under the title "Historia tripartita" (P. L., LXIX-LXX). Together with the works of Rufinus and Orosius, it was one of the principal sources from which through the Middle Ages the Western peoples drew their knowledge of early church history. Rich material for ecclesiastical history is also contained in the national histories of some Western peoples. Of the "History of the Goths", written by Cassiodorus, we possess only an extract in Jordanis, "De origine actibusque Getarum
Getica (Jordanes)
De origine actibusque Getarum , or the Getica, written in Late Latin by Jordanes in 551, claims to be a summary of a voluminous account by Cassiodorus of the origin and history of the Gothic people, which may have had the title "Origo Gothica" and which is now lost...
" (ed. Mommsen in "Mon. Germ. Hist: Auct. antiquissimi", V., Berlin, 1882). Especially important is the "History of the Franks" in ten books by Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours
Saint Gregory of Tours was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of Gaul. He was born Georgius Florentius, later adding the name Gregorius in honour of his maternal great-grandfather...
, which reaches to 591 (ed. Arndt, "Mon. Germ. Hist: Scriptores rerum Meroving.", I, Hanover, 1884-5). Gregory wrote also a "Liber de vitâ Patrum", a work entitled "In gloriâ martyrum", and the book "De virtutibus (i.e. miracles) S. Juliani" and "De virtutibus S. Martini" (ed. cit., pt. II, ad. Krusch). In the beginning of the 7th century St. Isidore of Seville composed a "Chronicle of the West Goths" ("Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum
Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum
The Historia ' Gothorum, is a Latin history of the Goths from 265 to 624, written by Isidore of Seville. It is a condensed account and, due to its diverse sources, somewhat inconsistent...
", ed. Mommsen, "Chronica Minora", II, 241-303). Several other similar chronicles, from the fourth to the 7th century, were edited by Mommsen in the "Monumenta Germaniae Historica
Monumenta Germaniae Historica
The Monumenta Germaniae Historica is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published sources for the study of German history from the end of the Roman Empire to 1500.The society sponsoring the series was established by the Prussian reformer Heinrich Friedrich Karl Freiherr vom...
: Auctores Antiquissimi" under the title of "Chronica Minora".
The Church Historians of the Second Period
The second period of church history produced a copious specialized historical literature. Its works deal more often with particular nations, dioceses, and abbeys; general histories are rare. Moreover, owing to the dominant position of the Church among the Western peoples, ecclesiastical and secular history are in this epoch closely interwoven.In the East church history is almost completely identified with the history of the imperial court owing to the close relations of State and Church. For the same reason the Byzantine chronicles from Justinian the Great to the destruction of the empire in the middle of the 15th century contain information about the history of the Greek Church. The major church historian of the Byzantine period is Nicephorus Callistus, who flourished in the beginning of the 14th century.
In Syriac we possess the aforesaid chronicle of Dionysius of Telmera. Towards the end of the 12th century Michael Kandis, Patriarch of the Jacobites (died 1199), wrote a chronicle from the creation to 1196. It is an important source for the history of the Syriac Church after the 6th century, particularly for the history of the Crusades
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
. Another patriarch of the Jacobites, Gregory Abulpharagius or Bar-Hebraeus, Maphrian (i. e. primate) of the Syro-Jacobite Church (1266–86), also wrote a universal chronicle in three parts. We must also mention the "Bibliotheca" (Myriobiblon) of Photios I of Constantinople (died 891), in which about 280 authors are described and passages quoted from them, and the work "On Heresies" of St. John Damascene.
Throughout this period the West was furnishing abundant material for ecclesiastical history, but few genuinely historical works. In the 9th century, Haymo, Bishop of Halberstadt (died 853), undertook to write an ecclesiastical history of the first four centuries, taking Rufinus
Tyrannius Rufinus
Tyrannius Rufinus or Rufinus of Aquileia was a monk, historian, and theologian. He is most known as a translator of Greek patristic material into Latin—especially the work of Origen.-Life:...
as his principal authority. Subsequently with the aid of Latin versions of Georgius Syncellus, Nicephorus, and especially of Theophanes, to which he added his own material, the Roman Abbot Anastasius Bibliothecarius
Anastasius Bibliothecarius
Anastasius Bibliothecarius was Head of archives and antipope of the Roman Catholic Church.- Family and education :...
(the Librarian) wrote a "Church History" to the time of Leo the Armenian, who died in 829.
About the middle of the 12th century, Ordericus Vitalis, Abbot of St. Evroul in Normandy, wrote an "Historia ecclesiastica" in thirteen books; it reaches to 1142, and is of especial value for the history of Normandy, England, and the Crusades. The Dominican Bartholomew of Lucca
Bartholomew of Lucca
Bartholomew of Lucca also known as Tolomeo da Lucca or Ptolemy da Lucca was a medieval Italian historian....
, called also Ptolemæus de Fiadonibus (died 1327), covered a longer period. His work in twenty-four books reaches to 1313, and was continued to 1361 by Henry of Diessenhofen. The "Flores chronicorum seu Catalogus Pontificum Romanorum" of Bernard Guidonis, Bishop of Lodève (died 1331), may be counted among the works on the general history of the Church. The most extensive, and relatively the best, historical work during this period is the "Summa Historialis" of St. Antoninus. It deals with secular and ecclesiastical history from the creation to 1457.
The national histories which appeared towards the end of the last period (of Cassiodorus
Cassiodorus
Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator , commonly known as Cassiodorus, was a Roman statesman and writer, serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. Senator was part of his surname, not his rank.- Life :Cassiodorus was born at Scylletium, near Catanzaro in...
, Jordanis, Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours
Saint Gregory of Tours was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of Gaul. He was born Georgius Florentius, later adding the name Gregorius in honour of his maternal great-grandfather...
, were followed by similar works giving the history of other peoples. Venerable Bede wrote his admirable Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
The Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum is a work in Latin by Bede on the history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between Roman and Celtic Christianity.It is considered to be one of the most important original references on...
, which describes in five books the history of England from the Roman conquest to 731, though treating principally of events after Augustine of Canterbury
Augustine of Canterbury
Augustine of Canterbury was a Benedictine monk who became the first Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597...
's mission in 596. Paulus Warnefrid (Diaconus) wrote the history of his fellow-Lombards (Historia Langobardorum) from 568 to 733; it still remains the principal source for the history of his people. An unknown writer continued it to 774, and in the 9th century the monk Erchembert added the history of the Lombards of Beneventum to 889. Paulus wrote also a history of the bishops of Metz ("Gesta episcoporum Mettensium", ad. in "Mon. Germ. Hist: Script.", II) and other historical works. The Scandinavian North found its ecclesiastical historian in Adam of Bremen
Adam of Bremen
Adam of Bremen was a German medieval chronicler. He lived and worked in the second half of the eleventh century. He is most famous for his chronicle Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum .-Background:Little is known of his life other than hints from his own chronicles...
; he covers the period between 788 and 1072, and his work is of special importance for the history of the Diocese of Hamburg-Bremen. Flodoard
Flodoard
-Biography:He was born at Épernay, and educated at Reims in the cathedral school which had been established by Archbishop Fulcon .As canon of Reims, and favourite of the archbishops Herivaeus and Seulfus -Biography:He was born at Épernay, and educated at Reims in the cathedral school which had...
(died 966) wrote the history of the Archdiocese of Reims (Historia ecclesiæ Remensis) to 948, a very important source for the history of the Church of France to that time.
The ecclesiastical history of Northern Germany was described by Albert Crantz, a canon of Hamburg (died 1517), in his "Metropolis" or "Historia de ecclesiis sub Carolo Magno in Saxoniâ instauratis" (i. e. from 780 to 1504; Frankfort, 1576 and often reprinted). Among the special historical works of this period of the Western Church we must mention the Liber Pontificalis
Liber Pontificalis
The Liber Pontificalis is a book of biographies of popes from Saint Peter until the 15th century. The original publication of the Liber Pontificalis stopped with Pope Adrian II or Pope Stephen V , but it was later supplemented in a different style until Pope Eugene IV and then Pope Pius II...
, an important collection of papal biographies that take on larger proportions after the 4th century, are occasionally very lengthy in the 8th and 9th centuries, and through various continuations reach to the death of Pope Martin V
Pope Martin V
Pope Martin V , born Odo Colonna, was Pope from 1417 to 1431. His election effectively ended the Western Schism .-Biography:...
in 1431. The German, Italian, French, and English chronicles, annals, and biographies of this epoch are very numerous.
The Church Historians of the Third Period
With the 16th century a new epoch dawned for ecclesiastical history: historical criticism went hand in hand with the growth of humanist education. The sources of historical events were examined as to their authenticity. IThe religious controversies that followed the rise of Protestantism were also an incentive to historical study. Printing made possible a rapid distribution of all kinds of writings, so that the sources of church history soon became known and studied in the widest circles, and new works on church history could be circulated in all directions.
From the Middle of the Sixteenth to the Middle of the Seventeenth Century
The first large work on church history which appeared in this period was composed in the interests of LutheranismLutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
. Mathias Flacius, called Illyricus (a native of Illyria), united with five other Lutherans (John Wigand, Mathias Judex, Basilius Faber, Andreas Corvinus, and Thomas Holzschuher), to produce an extensive work, that should exhibit the history of the Church as a convincing apology for strict Lutheranism. (See Centuriators of Magdeburg.) In the "Centuriæ", a partisan work, the institutions of the Roman Church appear as works of Satan and darkness. It called forth Catholic refutations, particularly that of Cæsar Baronius. Urged by Philip Neri
Philip Neri
Saint Philip Romolo Neri , also known as Apostle of Rome, was an Italian priest, noted for founding a society of secular priests called the "Congregation of the Oratory".-Early life:...
, he undertook in 1568 the task of producing an ecclesiastical history, which he brought down to the end of the 12th century and published under the title, "Annales ecclesiastici" (12 vols., Rome, 1588–1607). Numerous editions and continuations of it then appeared.
From the Middle of the Seventeenth to the End of the Eighteenth Century
Catholic Church HistoriansFrom the middle of the 17th century French writers were active in ecclesiastico-historical research. The writings of the Fathers of the Church and other ancient sources were published in better editions, and the auxiliary sciences of history were well cultivated. Antoine Godeau
Antoine Godeau
Antoine Godeau was a French bishop, poet and exegete. He is now known for his work of criticism Discours de la poésie chrétienne from 1633.-Life:...
, Bishop of Vence, wrote a "Histoire de l'église" reaching to the 9th century (5 vols., Paris, 1655–78; several other editions appeared and the work was translated into Italian and German), and to the Oratorian Cabassut for "Historia ecclesiastica" (Lyons, 1685). Although the Jesuit Louis Maimbourg
Louis Maimbourg
Louis Maimbourg was a French Jesuit and historian.Born at Nancy, Maimbourg entered the Society of Jesus at the age of sixteen, and after studying at Rome became a classical master in the Jesuit college at Rouen. He afterwards devoted himself to preaching, but with only moderate success...
did not write a continuous ecclesiastical history, he published numerous treatises (Paris, 1673–83): on Arianism, Iconoclasm, the Greek Schism, struggle between the popes and the emperors, Western Schism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism.
Among the major ecclesiastical historians of this period are: Noël Alexandre
Noel Alexandre
Noël Alexandre, or Natalis Alexander was a French theologian and ecclesiastical historian.-Biography:In 1654, Alexandre joined the Dominicans in his hometown...
(Natalis Alexander) a Dominican; Claude Fleury
Claude Fleury
Claude Fleury , was a French ecclesiastical historian.Destined for the bar, he was educated at the aristocratic College of Clermont . In 1658 he was nominated an advocate to the parlement of Paris, and for nine years followed the legal profession...
, who wrote a "Histoire ecclésiastique" in 20 volumes, reaching to 1414 (Paris, 1691–1720) as a moderate Gallican; and Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont
Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont
Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont was a French ecclesiastical historian.He was born in Paris into a wealthy Jansenist family, and was educated at the Petites écoles of Port-Royal, where his historical interests were formed and encouraged...
. To these must be added Bossuet
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet was a French bishop and theologian, renowned for his sermons and other addresses. He has been considered by many to be one of the most brilliant orators of all time and a masterly French stylist....
, who, in his "Discours sur l'histoire universelle" (Paris, 1681), treated the history of the Church as far as Charlemagne. His "Histoire des variations des églises protestantes" (2 vols., Paris, 1688) describes the changes which the Waldenses, Albigenses, Wyclifites, and Hussites, as well as Luther and Calvin, made to the fundamental doctrines of the Catholic Church.
Their successors in the eighteenth century compare unfavourably with their predecessors, in criticism of their sources and in scientific accuracy. The following are noteworthy: François Timoléon de Choisy, "Histoire de l'Eglise" (11 vols., Paris, 1706–23); Bonaventure Racine (Jansenist), "Abrégé de l'histoire ecclesiastique" (13 vols., Cologne, properly Paris, 1762-7); Gabriel Ducreu, "Les siècles chrétiens" (9 vols., Paris, 1775; 2nd ad. in 10 vols., Paris, 1783). The widest circulation was attained by the "Histoire de l'Eglise" of Bérault-Bercastel.
Italy during this period was productive mainly, however, in Christian archæology and special departments of history. The names of Cardinals Noris, Bona, and Pallavicini, Archbishop Mansi
Giovanni Domenico Mansi
Gian Domenico Mansi was an Italian theologian, scholar and historian, known for his massive works on the Church councils....
of Lucca, the Vatican librarian Zacagni, Ferdinando Ughelli
Ferdinando Ughelli
Ferdinando Ughelli was an Italian Cistercian monk and church historian.-Biography:He was born in Florence. He entered the Cistercian Order and was sent to the Gregorian University in Rome, where he studied under the Jesuits Francesco Piccolomini and John de Lugo.He filled many important posts in...
, Roncaglia, Bianchini, Muratori, the brothers Pietro and Girolamo Ballerini, Gallandi, and Zaccaria, indicate the extent of historical research carried on in Italy during the 18th century. Among the general histories of the Church is the "Storia Ecclesiastica" of the Dominican Giuseppe Agostino Orsi
Giuseppe Agostino Orsi
Giuseppe Agostino Orsi was a cardinal, theologian, and ecclesiastical historian.Born as Agostino Francesco Orsi at Florence on 9 May 1692, of the aristocratic Florentine family Orsi, he studied grammar and rhetoric under the Jesuits, but entered the Dominican Order at Fiesole on 21 February 1708...
. A church history of similarly vast proportions was undertaken by the Oratorian Sacarelli. A third work, of an even more comprehensive nature and reaching to the beginning of the 18th century, was written by the French Dominican, Hyacinthe Graveson, resident in Italy, "Historia ecclesiastica variis colloquiia digesta" (12 vols., Rome, 1717-). Mansi continued it in two volumes to 1760. Compendia of general church history, widely read, were written by the Augustinian Lorenzo Berti ("Breviarium historiæ ecclesiasticæ", Pisa and Turin, 1761-8), who also wrote three volumes of "Dissertationes historicæ" (Florence, 1753-6); Carlo Sigonio, who treated the first three centuries (2 vols., Milan, 1758), and Giuseppe Zola
Giuseppe Zola
Giuseppe Zola was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, mainly active in Ferrara.He mainly painted landscapes with small figures. Born in Brescia, where he studied with Giuseppe Tortelli. His sister was also a painter.-References:...
, who treats the same period in his "Commentarium de rebus ecclesiasticis" (3 vols., Pavia, 1780-), and who also wrote "Prolegomena comment. de rebus eccl." (3 vols., Pavia, 1779).
In Spain, the Augustinian Enrique Flórez
Enrique Florez
Enrique Flórez de Setién y Huidobro was a Spanish historian.Florez was born in Valladolid. At 15 years old, he entered the order of St Augustine. He subsequently became professor of theology at the University of Alcala, where he published a Cursus theologiae in five volumes...
began at this period a monumental work on the ecclesiastical history of Spain, España sagrada, which at the death of the author in 1773 had reached its twenty-ninth volume. Manuel Risco
Manuel Risco
Juan Manuel Martínez Ugarte , known as Manuel Risco or Padre Risco, was a Spanish historian. Born at Haro, he took the Augustinian habit at the Convento de Nuestra Señora del Risco in the Diocese of Ávila...
continued it to the forty-second volume, and, since his death, it has been carried still nearer to completion, the fifty-first volume appearing in 1886. Some special works appeared in Germany, monographs of particular dioceses and monasteries, but general church history was not cultivated until Joseph II had executed his reform of theological studies. Among them are Lumper's "Institutiones historiæ ecclesiasticæ" (Vienna, 1790); the "Institutiones historiæ eccl." of Dannenmeyer (2 vols., Vienna, 1788), relatively the best; the "Synopsis histor. relig. et eccles. christ." of Royko (Prague, 1785); the "Epitome hist. eccl." of Gmeiner (2 vols., Gratz, 1787–1803), and similar works by Wolf, Schmalzfuss, Stöger, Becker. The Netherlands produced compendia, e. g. those of Mutsaerts (2 vols., Antwerp, 1822), Rosweyde (2 vols., Antwerp, 1622), M. Chefneux ("Eccl. Cathol. speculum chronographicum", 3 vols., Liège, 1666–70).
Protestant Church historians
It was some time after the publication of the "Magdeburg Centuries" (see above) before Protestant scholars again undertook extensive independent work in the province of church history. Their division into Reformed and Lutherans on the one hand, and the domestic feuds among the Lutherans on the other, were distractions. When Protestant scholarship again arose, the Reformed Churches took the lead and retained it into the 18th century. This was true not only in the domain of special history, in which they issued important publications (e. g. Bingham's "Antiquitates ecclesiasticæ", 1722; the works of Grabe, Beveridge, Blondel, Daillé, Saumaise, Usher, Pearson, Dodwell, etc.), but also in that of general church history. Among these writers are: Johann Heinrich Hottinger
Johann Heinrich Hottinger
Johann Heinrich Hottinger was a Swiss philologist and theologian.- Life and works :Hottinger studied at Geneva, Groningen and Leiden. After visiting France and England he was appointed professor of church history in his native town of Zürich in 1642...
, whose "Historia ecclesiastica Novi Test." (9 vols., Hanover, 1655–67) is hostile to the Catholic Church; Jacques Basnage, the opponent of Bossuet ("Histoire de l'Eglise depuis Jésus-Christ jusqu'à présent", Rotterdam, 1699); Antoine Basnage, the opponent of Baronius ("Annales politico-eccles." 3 vols., Rotterdam, 1706), and Spanheim ("Introductio ad hist. et antiquit. sacr.", Leyden, 1687; "Historia ecclesiastica", ibid., 1701). The Reformed Churches produced moreover a number of manuals of church history, e. g. Turettini, "Hist. eccles. compendium" (Halle, 1750); Venema, "Institut. histor. eccl." (5 vols., Leyden, 1777); Jablonski, "Institut. hist. eccl." (2 vols., Frankfort, 1753). Similar Protestant manuals appeared in England, e. g. Milner, "History of the Church of Christ" (4 vols., London, 1794); Murray "History of Religion" (4 vols., London, 1794), and Priestley, "History of the Christian Church".
During the 17th century, the Lutherans produced a "Compendium histor. eccl." by Seckendorf and Bockler (Gotha, 1670-6). But a new era in Lutheran ecclesiastical historiography dates from Arnold's "Unparteiische Kirchen- und Ketzerhistorie" (2 vols., Frankfort am M., 1699). This pietist author is friendly to all the sects, but hostile to the Catholic Church and orthodox Lutheranism. Calmer is Eberhard Weissmann's "Introductio in memorabilia ecclesiastica historiæ sacræ Novi Test." (2 vols., Tübingen, 1718). The Latin historical writings of Joh. Lor. Mosheim, particularly his "De rebus christ. ante Constantinum Magnum" (Helmstadt, 1753), and "Institutiones histor. eccles. antiquioris et recentioris" (ibid., 1755), treat the Church as an institution of secular origin. His "Institutiones" were translated into German and continued by two of his pupils, J. von Einem and Rud. Schlegel (Leipzig, 1769-; Heilbronn, 1770-). Further progress was made in the works of Pfaff, chancellor of Tübingen ("Institutiones histor. eccl.", Tübingen, 1721), of Baumgarten ("Auszug der Kirchengeschichte", 3 vols., Halle, 1743-), Pertsch ("Versuch einer Kirchengeschichte", 5 vols, Leipzig, 1736-), Cotta ("Versuch einer ausführlichen Kirchenhistorie des neuen Testamentes", 3 vols., Tübingen, 1768–73). Specialised works were written by the two Walchs-Joh. Georg Walch issuing "Eine Geschichte der Reigionsstreitigkeiten innerhalb und ausserhalb der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche" in two parts, each comprising five volumes (Jena, 1733-9) while his son Christian Wilhelm published a lengthy "ketzergeschichte", whose eleventh volume reaches to the Iconoclasts (Leipzig, 1762–85). The latter also wrote a "Religionsgeschichte der neuesten Zeit", beginning with Clement XIV (to which Planck added three volumes) also a "Historie der Kirchenversammlungen" (Leipzig, 1759), and a "Historic der röm. Päpste" (Göttingen, 1758).
The major Lutheran work on general church history is that of J. Mathias Schröckh, a pupil of Mosheim and a professor at Wittenberg: "Christliche Kirchengeschichte bis zur Reformation" in thirty-five volumes (Leipzig, 1768–1803), continued as "Kirchengeschichte seit der Reformation" in eight volumes (Leipzig, 1803-8), to which Tzschirmer added two others (1810–12). The whole work includes forty-five volumes and closes with the beginning of the 19th century. The works of Johannes Salomon Semler were his "Historiæ eccles. selecta capita" (3 vols., Halle 1767-), "Versuch eines fruchtbaren Auszuges der kirchengeschichte" (3 parts, ibid., 1778), and "Versuch christlicher Jahrbücber" (2 parts, Halle, 1782). Most of his contemporaries wrote church history as a chronicle of scandals (Scandalchronik): superstition, fanaticism, and human passion. This spirit is particularly characteristic of Spittler, "Grundriss der Gesch. der christl. Kirche" and Henke, "Allgem. Geschichte der chr. K."
The Nineteenth century
Romanticism led to an appreciation of the Catholic medieval world, while in all departments of learning there appeared a desire to be objective in judgment. The sources of ecclesiastical history were studied via historical criticism.Catholic ecclesiastical historians
It was in Catholic Germany that these changes were first noticeable, particularly in the work of the convert, Count Leopold von Stolberg. His "Geschichte der Religion Jesu Christi" was issued in fifteen volumes, the first four of which contain the history of the Old Testament and reach to 430. Similarly, the less important "Geschichte der christlichen Kirche" (9 vols., Ravensburg, 1824–34) by Locherer, rather uncritical and exhibiting the influence of Schröckh, remained unfinished, and reaches only to 1073. The excellent "Geschichte der christlichen Kirche" by J. Othmar von Rauschen is also incomplete. A useful compendium, serious and scientific in character, was begun by Hortig, professor at Landshut, the "Handbuch der christlichen Kirchengeschichte". He completed two volumes (Landshut, 1821-), and reached the Reformation; a third volume, that brought the work down to the French revolution, was added by his successor DöllingerDollinger
Dollinger may refer to:* Werner Dollinger German politician* Isidore Dollinger American politician* Matthias Dollinger Austrian footballer* Günther Dollinger German physicist and professor* Ignaz Döllinger German doctor...
. This scholar, who later on abandoned the Catholic attitude and principles of his earlier days, excelled previous writers. Johann Adam Möhler
Johann Adam Möhler
Johann Adam Möhler was a German Roman Catholic theologian.He was born at Igersheim in Württemberg, and after studying philosophy and theology in the lyceum at Ellwangen, entered the University of Tübingen in 1817. Ordained to the priesthood in 1819, he was appointed to a curacy...
wrote several special historical works and dissertations of exceptional merit. His lectures on general church history were published after his death by his pupil, the Benedictine Pius Gams ("Kirchengeschichte", 3 vols., Ratisbon, 1867). To these larger and epoch-making works must be added several compendia, some of which like Klein ("Historia ecclesiastica", Gratz, 1827), Ruttenstock ("Institutiones hist. eccl.", 3 vols., Vienna, 1832-4), Cherrier ("Instit. hist. eccl.", 4 vols., Pestini, 1840-), were bare summaries of facts; others, like Ritter ("Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte", 3 vols., Bonn, 1830; 6th ed. by Ennen, 1861), and Alzog ("Universalgeschichte der christlichen Kirche", Mains, 1840; 10th ed. by F. X. Kraus, 1882), are lengthy narratives, critical and thorough. Particular periods or epochs of ecclesiastical history soon found careful cultivation, e. g. by Riffel, "Kirchengeschichte der neuen und neuesten Zeit, vom Anfang der Glaubensspaltung im 16. Jahrhundert" (3 vols., Mainz, 1841-6); Damberger, "Synchronistische Geschichte der Kirche und der Welt im Mittelalter" (in 15 volumes, Ratisbon, 1850–63; the last volume edited by Rattinger), which reaches to 1378. With Döllinger and Möhler we must rank Karl Joseph Hefele, the third of the great German Catholic historians, whose valuable "Konziliengeschichte" is really a comprehensive work on general church history;. the first seven volumes of the work (Freiburg, 1855–74) reach to 1448. A new edition was begun by the author (ibid., 1873-); it was carried on by Knöpfler (vole. V-VII), while Hergenröther (later cardinal) undertook to continue the work and published two more volumes (VIII-IX, 1887–90); which carry the history of the Councils to the opening of the Council of Trent. Hergenröther is the fourth great church historian of Catholic Germany. His "Handbuch der allgemeinen Kirchengeschichte" (3 vols., Freiburg im B., 1876–80; 3rd ed., 1884-6; 4th ed., revised by J. P. Kirsch, 1902 sqq.) exhibits vast erudition and won recognition, even from Protestants as the most independent and instructive Catholic Church history. In recent years smaller, but scholarly compendia have been written by Brück, Krause Funk, Knöpfler, Marx, and Weiss. Numerous periodicals of a scientific nature bear evidence to the vigorous activity at present displayed in the field of ecclesiastical history, e. g. the "Kirchengeschichtliche Studien" (Münster), the "Quellen und Forschungen aus dem Gebiet der Geschichte" (Paderborn), the "Forschungen zur christlichen Literatur- und Dogmengeschichte" (Mainz and Paderborn), the "Veröffentlichungen aus dem kirchenhistorischen Seminar München".
France
In France the study of church history was long in attaining the high standard it reached in the 17th century. Two extensive narratives of general church history appeared. That of Rohrbacher is the better, "Histoire universelle de l'Eglise catholique" (Nancy, 1842-9). It exhibits little independent research, but is a diligently executed work, and the author made a generous and skilful use of the best and most recent literature (new ed. with continuation by Guillaume, Paris, 1877). The second work is by Darras (q. v.). In recent years the science of ecclesiastical history has made great progress in France, both as to genuine criticism and thorough scholarly narrative. The critical tendency, aroused and sustained principally by Louis Duchesne, continues to flourish and inspires very important works, particularly in special ecclesiastical history. Among the writings of Duchesne the "Histoire ancienne de l'Eglise" (2 vols., already issued, Paris, 1906-) deserves particular mention. Another important publication is the "Bibliothèque de l'enseignement de l'histoire ecclésiastique" a series of monographs by different authors, of which fourteen volumes have so far appeared (Paris, 1896-), and some have gone through several editions. A very useful manual is Marion's "Histoire de l'Eglise" (Paris, 1906).Belgium
The Bollandist de Smedt wrote an "Introductio generalis in Historiam ecclesiasticam critice tractandam" (Louvain, 1876). A manual of church history was published by Wouters ("Compendium hist. eccl.", 3 vols., Louvain, 1874), who also wrote "Dissertationes in selecta capita hist. eccl." (6 vols. Louvain, 1868–72). Jungmann dealt with general church history to the end of the 18th century in his "Dissertationes selectæ in historiam ecclesiasticam". The character of ecclesiastico-historical studies at Louvain is seen in the "Revue d'Histoire EcclésiastiqueRevue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique
Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique is a peer-reviewed academic journal in the field of Church history. Independent third-party sources have described it as "The best international church-historical journal"....
" edited by Cauchie and Ladeuze.
Italy
Some manuals appeared in Italy in church history, e. g. Delsignore, "Institutiones histor. eccles.", edited by Tissani (4 vols., Rome, 1837–46); Palma, "Prælectiones hist. eccl." (4 vols., Rome, 1838–46); Prezziner, Storia della Chiesa (9 vols., Florence, 1822-); Ign. Mozzoni, "Prolegomena alla storia universale della chiesa" (Florence, 1861), and "Tavole chronologiche critiche della storia universale della chiesa" (Venice 1856-). Balan published as a continuation of Rohrbacher's universal ecclesiastical history the "Storia della chiesa dall' anno 1846 sino ai giorni nostri" (3 vols., Turin, 1886). Special works of great value were produced in various departments, above all by Giovanni Battista de Rossi in Christian archæology. However, certain recent works on general church history—e. g. Amelli, "Storia della chiesa" (2 vols., Milan, 1877); Taglialatelá, "Lezioni di storia eccles. e di archeologia cristiana" (4 vols., Naples, 1897); Pighi, "Inst. hist. eccl.", I (Verona, 1901) -- do not come up to the present standard, at any rate, from the standpoint of methodical and critical treatment.Spain
The ecclesiastical history of Spain inspired two major works, one by Villanueva ("Viage literario a las iglesias de España", Madrid, 1803–21; 1850-2), the other by de la Fuente ("Historia ecclesiastica de España", 2nd ed., 2 vols., Madrid, 1873-5). In the field of general history, only Amat's "Historia ecclesiastica o tratado de la Iglesia de Jesu Christo" (12 vols., Madrid, 1793–1803, 2nd ed. 1807) appeared—not a very thorough work. Juan Manuel de Berriozobal wrote "Historia de la Iglesia en sus primos siglos" (4 vols., Madrid, 1867). The Dominican Francisco Rivaz y Madrazo published a manual ("Curso de historia ecclesiastica", 3 vols., 3rd ed., Madrid, 1905).Holland
The first scientific Catholic manual of church history in Dutch was written by Albers ("Handboek der algemeene Kerkgeschiedenis", 2 vols., Nijmegen, 1905-7; 2nd ed., 1908).Scotland
A brief Catholic general account of the history of the Church in Scotland is that of T. Walsh, "History of the Catholic Church in Scotland" (1876). That of Alphons BellesheimAlphons Bellesheim
Christian Peter "Alphons" Maria Joseph Bellesheim was a church historian. He also reviewed and collected books.-Family:...
has a full bibliography, translated into English by Dom Hunter-Blair, "History of the Catholic Church in Scotland" (4 vols., London, 1887, sqq.). A non-Catholic work is Calderwood's "History of the Kirk" (8 vols., Edinburgh, 1842).
Ireland
The first major Catholic work on the general ecclesiastical history of Ireland was that of Lanigan, "Ecclesiastical History of Ireland" (4 vols., 2nd ed., Dublin, 1829), reaching only to the beginning of the 13th century. A single volume work is that of the Franciscan Michael John BrenanMichael John Brenan
Michael John Brenan was a Roman Catholic priest and an ecclesiastical historian.-Life:Brenan was born in Kilkenny, Ireland, the son of a stonemason. After his ordination to the priesthood, he quickly obtained a reputation as a preacher, but, owing to his vanity and pride, came into collision with...
, "Ecclesiastical History of Ireland" (2nd edition, Dublin, 1864).
United States
A learned documentary work is that of John Gilmary SheaJohn Gilmary Shea
John Gilmary Shea was a writer, editor, and historian of both American history in general and American Catholic history specifically. Shea was born in New York City to James Shea, an Irish immigrant and school principal, and Mary Ann Shea. He studied at St...
, "History of the Catholic Church in the United States" (4 vols., New York, 1886). O'Gorman's, "A History of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States" (New York, 1895), contains a useful bibliography.
Australia
For Australia see Cardinal Moran's "History of the Catholic Church in Australasia" (Sydney, 1896).Protestant Church Historians
Among Protestants, Church history was cultivated chiefly by German Lutherans; their works came to be authoritative among non-Catholics.Another Protestant school is more in sympathy with Semler's views. Its first leaders were the so-called "Neo-Tübingen School" under Johann Christian Baur, whose ecclesiastico-historical writings are directly anti-Christian: "Das Christentum und die Kirche der drei ersten Jahrhunderte" (Tübingen, 1853); "Die christliche Kirche vom 4. bis zum 6. Jahrhundert" (ibid., 1859); "Die christliche Kirche des Mittelalters" (ibid., 1860); "Die neuere Zeit" (ibid., 1861-3); "Das neunzehnte Jahrhundert" (ibid., 1863–73). Baur himself and his rationalistic adherents, Schwegler, Ritsçhl, Rothe, wrote also special works on the origins of the Church. The "Allgemeine Kirchengeschichte" of Gfrörer (7 parts, Stuttgart, 1841), written prior to his conversion, is a product of this spirit. Though constantly attacked, this school, whose chief representative was Adolf Harnack, predominated in German Protestantism. Moeller, in his "Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte" writes with moderation; similarly Müller in his "Kirchengeschichte" (Tübingen, 1892, sqq.).
In the 19th century also the Reformed (see above) produced less in the province of general church history than the Lutherans.
An important general ecclesiastical history produced by Anglican scholars was edited by W. Stephens and W. Hunt -- "A History of the English Church" by various writers (Hunt, Stephens, Capes, Gairdner, Hutton, Overton).