(1079-1142)

Eldest son of a minor noble of Brittany. Gave up inheritance rights to younger brothers, roamed France to sit at the feet of the great masters. Lectured in Paris. Wrote Sic et Non. A couple quotes:

"By doubting we come to inquiry, and by inquiry we arrive at the truth."

And...

"Faith has no merit with God when it is not the testimony of divine authority that leads us to it, but the evidence of human reason."

At the age of 36, Abelard was a leading intellectual in Paris when he began an illicit love affair with one of his students, 17-year-old Heloise. The affair produced a child, Astrolabe. Heloise refused to marry Peter because she knew how precious his genius was and she feared their marriage would hinder his career. Subsequently, Heloise entered a convent but her uncle accused Abelard of denying his responsiblity. Heloise's uncle hired men who attacked Abelard and castrated

One of the first "superintendents" of the newly formed Methodist Church in America. Appointed Superintendent with Dr. Thomas Coke at the Christmas Conference meeting at Baltimore in 1784.

[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Francis-Asbury, history, Methodist, Thomas[/tags]

In 1608, John Smyth baptized himself in Amsterdam. He had been a fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, but as a Separatist fled from the harsh rule of James I's England. After his death one of his associates, Thomas Helwys, led back to England a group that had split from Smyth's former congregation. They formed the first General or Arminian Baptist congregation in England at Spitalfields, London, in 1612.

By 1638 at the latest there were also congregations holding a Calvinistic theology in London who practiced believers' baptism ("Particular Baptists"). These Baptists grew out of the first congregation of English Independents; although it is not know exactly when they adopted full Baptist views. A radical look at church principles, in the Puritan manner, led first to the understanding of the church as a gathered community, and then to a realization that only the baptism of believers fitted such a view.

During King Edward VI's brief years England saw the Six Articles repealed, priests allowed to marry, and the old Latin service of worship replaced by Thomas Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer in English. Under King Charles I and with the assistance of the Anglican Archbishop William Laud, the King insisted that worship in England be conducted according to the Prayer Book and no other. When Charles tried to force his brand of high-church on the Scots, John Milton called The Book of Common Prayer "the skeleton of a Mass-book."

[tags]BlogRodent, Book-of-Common-Prayer, Charles-I, church-history, ChurchRodent, Edward-VI, history, Thomas, William-Laud[/tags]

On 4 July 1776, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson were appointed as a committee to prepare a Seal of the United States of America. Benjamin Franklin exemplified many virtues Americans have come to admire. People found him practical, earthy, affable, witty and, above all, tolerant. A few weeks before he died Ben responded to an inquiry by President Ezra Stiles of Yale concerning his religious faith. Said Franklin: "As to Jesus of Nazareth, … I have … some doubts as to his Divinity, tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence … of making his doctrines more respected and better observed."

[tags]Benjamin-Franklin, BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, history, Jesus,

A year after Tyndale's burning at the stake, the Matthew Bible appeared. It was the work of another English reformer named John Rogers, who thought it wise to send forth his translation without his name attached. The Matthew Bible was virtually a well-edited compilation of Tyndale and Coverdale's work. At Thomas Cranmer's request, Henry VIII authorized this Bible, revised by Coverdale, to be bought and read throughout the realm.

[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Henry-VIII, history, John-Rogers, Matthew-Bible, Thomas, Tyndale, Reformation[/tags]

It all began with John and Charles Wesley at Oxford sometime around 1728, when the two brothers, alarmed at the spread of deism on campus, organized meetings with students who were serious about their religion. In scorn the label "Methodists" stuck.

Wherever Wesley went, as he preached revival, little "societies" appeared all over England, Ireland, and Wales in his wake. These were not really congregations, most of them were members of the Anglican Church, and Wesley urged them to attend their parish churches for worship and Communion, but his converts found the center of their Christian experience in the Methodist societies where they confessed their sins to one another, submitted to the discipline of their leader, and joined in prayer and song.

John eventually began to divide his societies into smaller groups of twelve or so members called "classes" to encourage financial support, a penny a week for

A year after Tyndales's death, English reformer John Rogers edited a compilation of Tyndale and Coverdale's translation work and published the Matthew Bible. At Thomas Cranmer's request, Henry VIII authorized that this Bible, revised by Coverdale and called the "Great Bible," be bought and read throughout the realm.

[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Henry-VIII, history, John-Rogers, Matthew-Bible, Thomas, Tyndale, Reformation[/tags]

(1539)

After King Henry VIII's break with the Roman Catholic church, England's orthodoxy remained intact. Henry continued to insist upon Catholic doctrine within the realm. Apparently, his goal was an English Catholic Church instead of a Roman Catholic one. The Statute of Six Articles in 1539 upheld such Catholic articles as clerical celibacy, the private mass, and confessions to a priest. Under King Edward VI's reign the Six Articles were repealed and Thomas Cranmer produced the Forty-Two Articles which defined the faith of the Church along Protestant lines.

[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Edward-VI, Forty-Two-Articles, Henry-VIII, history, Statute-of-Six-Articles, Thomas[/tags]

Some in India believe that Thomas the Apostle traveled to south India in the first century and founded the first Christian church there.

[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, history, Thomas[/tags]

For centuries the Church in England had been moving toward independence from Rome. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (1474-1530) is probably the best symbol of the independence England had achieved even prior to Henry's break with Rome. Wolsey was the Archbishop of York, a Cardinal in the Church of Rome, and the chancellor of the English realm. So in his own person, he combined the Church in England, the Church of Rome and the Kingdom of England. Yet in all of these offices he was the king's henchman, subject to honor or disgrace at the royal whim.

[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, Church-of-Rome, ChurchRodent, history, Thomas, Thomas-Wolsey[/tags]