A well known Gnostic. He was seen by John the Disciple at Ephesus in a bath, causing John to run out screaming. [tags]BlogRodent, Cerinthus, church-history, ChurchRodent, history[/tags]  

The Patriarch of Constantinople who, in 1054, humiliated a papal party sent by Pope Leo IX to work out an agreement with the Emperor, and succeeded in provoking them into bringing a Bull of Excommunication to the Church of Holy Wisdom. [tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, history, Michael-Cerularius, Constantinople[/tags]  

While the application of this term may actually be more broad than indicated here, our text uses it to refer to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, or the Catholic Pentecostalism. Leaders traced its beginnings to the spring of 1966 when two laymen on the faculty of Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, realized…

Charles the Great. He was preeminently a successful warrior-king, leading his armies on yearly campaign. Charlemagne also sought to provide an effective administration for his realm. Expansionist ambition drove him to intervene in Italian politics and invade the papal territories. Eventually he was coronated as Emperor, the pope needed protection.…

(1603-1642) King of England. Charles was determined to put into practice his father James’ theories about divine rights of kings. No law and no parliament would restrain him and to make matters worse in the eyes of the Puritans, his wife, Henrietta Maria, was a French Roman Catholic princess. Charles…

The young Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, successor to Ferdinand and Isabella. Heir to the wealth of the New World. The nephew of Catherine of Aragon. In 1521 summoned Luther to the Diet of Worms to give an account of his writings, and declared Luther an outlaw. Condemned…

During the Thirty Years’ war, when the Catholic Imperial forces crushed the Bohemians and gave control of the University of Prague over to the Jesuits, King Christian IV of Denmark was appalled by this Catholic victory. Also being eager to annex German territory, he entered the war against Ferdinand and…

A movement in the Anglican Church, consisting of F.D. Maurice (1805-1872), a theologian; Charles Kingsley (1819-1875), a novelist; and John Malcolm Ludlow (1821-1911), a lawyer, were churchmen who felt that the gospel had something to say to the working people of England. The leaders of Christian Socialism considered their movement…

An early apologist and great Christian leader who followed after Clement and Origen. [tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, history, John-Chrysostom, Origen[/tags]  

Church organization developed in two important ways: the authority of church councils and the authority of certain bishops over other bishops. Councils arose when churches in various areas began sending their pastors (or bishops) to meetings to discuss common problems. As the fourth century began, the catholic churches were establishing…

While other influences contributed to the break with Rome, succession to the throne was the primary constitutional factor in the transformation of the Church in England into the church of England. For centuries the Church in England had been moving toward independence from Rome. by Luther’s time, most patriotic Englishmen…

With the rising authority of the bishops, especially Leo, who provided the biblical and theological basis for the papal claims, and their growing links of power with the Roman Emperors, the Church in Rome gradually became the Church of Rome. Up until the time of Constantine, history provides no real…

A classical author and Roman statesman. He was quoted saying "Let the very name of the cross be far, not only from the body of a Roman citizen, but even from his thoughts, his eyes, his ears." [tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Cicero, history, Rome, Roman[/tags]  

Not really a sect, but a close knit family. It was started in a town near London called Clapham and consisted of a number of wealthy and ardent Evangelicals who knew what it was to practice "saintliness in daily life" and to live with eternity in view. John Venn became…

Roman emperor A.D. 41-59. Refused to have temples erected to him because he did not wish to be offensive to his fellow man. [tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Claudius, history[/tags]  

Pupil of the stoic philosopher Pantanaeus. Eventually surpassed his teacher as leader of the so called "catechetical school" at Alexandria with Origen. Among the first of a succession of Christian scholars thoroughly familiar with the wisdom of Greece and enthusiastic for its philosophy, yet loyal to the teaching of Christ.…

Bishop of Rome, about A.D. 96, he wrote a letter to the church at Corinth, and eighty years later it was still their custom to read Clement’s letter at public worship. [tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Clement-of-Rome, history[/tags]  

In 1305 the College of Cardinals elected a Frenchman, the Archbishop of Bordeaux, as Pope Clement V. This was during King Philip’s reign in France, and Clement never set foot in Rome, preferring to stay closer to home, where he was always accessible to royal bidding. [tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Clement-V,…

After his election to the papacy (1523-34), Clement moved the Papacy to Rome to begin the 72 year Babylonian Captivity of the papacy, it was moved to Avignon, France. When Clement VII was selected, he ruled from Avignon while Pope Urban VI ruled from Rome. This began the Great Schism…

(481-587) Among the Franks, the founder of the nation. Married a Burgundian princess who was a Christian, Clothilda. Was converted to Christianity in much the same manner as Constantine, in battle. With one accord, his people even renounced their German gods. Three thousand of his army followed him in baptism.…

After the atomic bomb drove Japan to the peace table and communist and allied forces toppled the Third Reich, the victors entered the "Cold War." As leader of the Western democracies, the United States took the initiative through the "containment" policy to counter "Soviet expansionist tendencies." (i.e. "Communist expansionist tendencies.")…

On Thursday, October 11, 1492, Christopher Columbus, "Admiral of the Ocean Sea, Viceroy and Governor of whatever territory he might discover," sighted the West Indies. In a vain attempt to find an opening to the Asian mainland, Columbus made three more trips to the New World. On his second trip,…

An ideology extremely difficult to define. Democratic ideological perspectives tend to clump anything that identifies itself at "communism" together in the same heap. But two camps of communism may be entirely inimical to each other, and have separate means and ends. Usually, one points to The Communist Manifesto, or Das…

(1801) An agreement Napoleon forged with Pope Pius VII which restored the Church of Rome to a special place in France. [tags]BlogRodent, church-history, Church-of-Rome, ChurchRodent, Concordat, history, Napoleon, Pope-Pius-VII, Pope[/tags]  

To counter the "German Christian" group, a group of ministers led by Martin Niemuller formed the Pastor’s Emergency League and set up an alternative church government known as the Confessing Church. In May 1934, the Confessing Church spelled out its theological convictions in the Barmen Declaration. It called the German…