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SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY William Sierichs, Jr. Before 10 B.C.E. - Jesus born, reputedly native of Galilee (John 8:57) Before 4 B.C.E. - Jesus born (Matt. 2:1, Luke 1:5 - Herod died 5/4 B.C.E.) 3 B.C.E. - Jesus born (8th-century Syrian Christian history, found in Ehnesh, Turkey) 1 C.E. - Jesus born (traditional) 6 - Jesus born (Luke 2:2); Quirinius named governor of Roman province of Syria, ordered to conduct census in new province of Judea; Galilee not part of census (contrary to Luke 2:4) 30-35 - Jesus executed in this period (various traditions and guesses on date) 60s(?) - Paul executed under Emperor Nero; legal grounds unclear, possibly sedition; possibly first time Christians distinguished from Jews (who were protected under Roman law) 64 - Nero executes Christians in Rome (probable, not certain) 90s - Christians in Rome prosecuted under Emperor Domitian (probable, not certain) @110 - Pliny the Younger, a governor in western Turkey, investigates accused Christians; Emperor Trajan supports him but warns against actively hunting Christians; Pliny has to explain what Christians are, relying on information from prisoners 155, 177 - Christians prosecuted in Smyrna, Turkey; Lyons, France 250s - Christians persecuted (first raids ever on Christian meeting places in 257) 260 - Emperor Gallienus orders religious tolerance; Christians build public churches 303 - Emperor Diocletian orders universal sacrifices to pagan gods; Christian persecuted; pagan opposition to his persecution order leads to its failure 304 - Catholic Christians help pagans starve jailed Donatist Christian "schismatics" to death in Carthage, North Africa 311 - Pagan Emperor Galerius orders tolerance for Christians 312 - Constantine has vision of either Apollo or Jesus, wins battle of Milvian Bridge 313 - Co-Emperors Constantine, Licinius issue Edict of Milan protecting freedom of religion; coin minted to celebrate Constantine’s victory in 312 shows him with Apollo 324 - Constantine gains sole control of empire; Christianity official state religion under him 325 - Council of Nicaea on dispute between views of Bishops Alexander and Athanasius (Jesus same as god) and Presbyter Arius (Jesus is not god); Constantine opposes Arius, imprisons dissenters; some of Constantine’s successors are Arians, suppress Athanasians 4th century - Donatist, Catholic Christians battle violently for control of North Africa (Donatists rejected Catholic clergy who lapsed in persecutions; emperors backed Catholics) 335 - Christians estimated at 10 percent of Roman imperial population 379-395 - Emperor Theodosius I backs Athanasianism, suppresses Arianism; Athanasianism remains official Christian belief through today 385 - Bishop Priscillian, followers burned at stake as heretics in Spain 4th century - Bishops John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Ambrose give lectures explaining biblical flat-Earth cosmology, denounce pagan philosophers, who knew Earth was spherical; Ambrose, Arnobius of Sicca also ridicule philosophers’ theory matter is made up of atoms 4th-6th centuries - Christian laws, military campaigns progressively suppress pagans, heretics; Jews retain limited protection derived from pagan Roman law 451 - Council of Chalcedon rejects Monophysite concept of Jesus’ divinity, triggers occasional campaigns by pro-Chalcedonian Byzantine emperors to suppress Monophysitism 5th-6th centuries - Christian Ethiopians conquer southern Arabia, massacre Jews, pagans in Yemen; Ethiopian army attacks Mecca in 570 @530 - Emperor Justinian I closes last pagan institution, philosophers’ Academy in Athens 617 - Byzantine Emperor Heraclius orders all Jews forcibly converted; many flee empire 632-642 - Arabs conquer Mideast, Egypt, aided by hostility of Monophysite Christians (Jacobites) to anti-Monophysite Byzantine officials, followers in Syria (Melkites, Maronites) 686 - English Christian King Cadwalla massacres pagans on Isle of Wight 8th-9th centuries - Christian Franks war against pagan Germans to force conversions; Charlemagne slaughters 4,500-5,000 pagan Saxon prisoners in 782 10th century-1385 - Roman Catholic Germans war against pagan Slavs, Balts, Lithuanians to force conversions ("Slav" becomes synonymous with prisoner, i.e., slave); wars against Slavic, Baltic pagans officially become crusades in 12th century 995-1000 - King Olav Trygvesson brutally forces Christianity on pagan Norway 1096-1099 - First Crusade; massacres of Jews, Muslims, some Orthodox Catholics 1169-1172 - English conquer Ireland under King Henry II; encouraged by Popes Adrian IV, Alexander III, who were angry at Irish resistance to Church rules, paying tithes 1208-1244 - Albigensian Crusade; southern France ravaged 1215 - Fourth Lateran Council orders Jews to wear identifying clothing (as Nazis did later) 1238 - First Inquisition set up in Spain, in Aragon (abolished nationwide in 1834) 1290 - King Edward I expels Jews from England 1306 - King Philip IV expels Jews from France 1348-1349 - Many Jews massacred across Europe, blamed for Black Death 1492 - Spanish Christians conquer last Muslim area; all Jews ordered to convert or leave (many local forced conversions had occurred before this); many fleeing Jews murdered en route; Portugal enslaved many Jewish refugees 1497 - King Manuel of Portugal orders Jews to convert or leave; all children under 14 were to be seized, baptized, reared as Christians; 20,000 Jews who gather in Lisbon to flee are forcibly baptized (Inquisition established in 1536; abolished 1821) Oct. 31, 1517 - Martin Luther posts 95 theses on church in Wittenberg, Germany 1519 - Swiss Protestant Ulrich Zwingli stirs revolt in Switzerland 1529-1532 - Chancellor Thomas More persecutes English Protestants 1534 - King Henry VIII creates the Church of England; he is its "pope" 1535 - Thomas More beheaded for supporting supremacy of pope over English church 1536 - William Tyndale executed for his Bible translation (basis of King James Version) 1536 - John Calvin publishes "Institutes of the Christian Religion" in response to persecutions of Protestants in France ("Huguenots") 1541 - Calvin establishes theocracy in Geneva, Switzerland 1546 - Master George Wishart burned for heresy in Scotland, inspires John Knox 1547 - Calvinistic Knox, founder of Presbyterianism, delivers fiery, anti-Catholic sermon at Easter 1547; arrested; made galley slave; freed in 1549, returns to Scotland 1555 - Peace of Augsburg halts violence in Germany, gives Protestants some rights 1553-1558 - "Bloody Mary" Tudor, Philip II of Spain reign as Catholics in England 1558-1603 - Elizabeth I reigns, restores Protestantism 1562-1598 - Eight Catholic/Protestant (Huguenot) wars in France 1570, 1571 - Inquisition established in Peru, Mexico 1572 - St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre; Roman Catholics slaughter French Protestants 1591 - Eufame Macalyane burned in Scotland for seeking pain relief during childbirth, violating god’s command in Gen. 3:16 1598 - Edict of Nantes gives French Protestants some rights 16th century - Portuguese try to suppress Hinduism in India colonies; temples smashed; natives enslaved for celebrating Hindu rites; 1559 decree orders baptism, Christian education of Hindu "orphans" (any child whose father had died; mother could still be living) 1600 - Giordano Bruno burned in Rome, partly for supporting Copernicus’ theory 1616 - Church condemns Copernicus’ "De Revolutionibus orbium coelestium," heliocentric theory 1618-1648 - Thirty Years War, triggered by attempts to suppress German Protestants 1628 - Armed Protestant forces in France crushed, under Cardinal Richelieu 1632 - Galileo accused of heresy for defending heliocentric theory, tortured, forced to recant 1634 - Church bans Galileo’s "Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo Tolemaico e Copernicano", Kepler’s "Epitome astronomiae Copernicae" for supporting heliocentric theory 1636 - Baptist minister Roger Williams flees Puritan persecution in Massachusetts 1637 - Presbyterian protest against Anglican liturgy in St. Giles church in Edinburgh, Scotland, leads to First Bishops War (1639), then English Civil War (1642-1646) 1638 - Puritans banish Anne Hutchinson for religious dissent; Indians kill her in her exile 1641 - Catholics massacre 30,000 Protestants in Ulster, Ireland 1645 - Scottish Protestants massacre Irish Catholic prisoners at Philiphaugh; English Protestants massacre women in Royalist camp at Naseby on suspicion of being Irish 1649 - English Puritan army massacres Catholics at Drogheda, Wexford in Ireland 1659 - Puritans hang Quakers William Robbinson, Marmaduke Stephenson for returning to Massachusetts from exile; Quaker Mary Dyer exiled after fake hanging 1660 - Quaker Mary Dyer returns to Massachusetts, hanged (Many other Quakers whipped, had ears sliced off, fined heavily in Massachusetts in 17th century) 1677, 1694 - English courts rule Christians can lawfully enslave Africans as pagans 1685 - Edict of Nantes revoked in France; Protestantism outlawed 1690 - English King William III wins Battle of the Boyne in Ireland; treaty grants rights to Irish Catholics; Protestant Parliament enacts anti-Catholic legislation instead 1692 - Witch hunts in Massachusetts; 19 executed, 1 died under torture in Salem 1746 - Catholic officials kidnap 3 Jewish girls from Rome ghetto after alleged baptism 1787 - Christians try, fail to halt ratification of "godless" U.S. Constitution, making U.S. uniquely godless (i.e., atheist) nation, with ban on religious tests for public office 1814, 1817, 1844 - Church kidnaps Jewish children (ages 7, 5, 19 months) in Papal States after alleged baptisms by family servants; families never regain them September 1822 - Inquisition ends ban on teaching Copernicus’ heliocentric theory 1840s - English secularists fined, imprisoned for blasphemy, selling literature critical of Christianity; George Holyoake’s daughter dies from effects of poverty while he’s in prison June 1844 - Mormon leader Joseph Smith’s Nauvoo Legion destroys newspaper, Nauvoo Expositor, for criticizing him; Smith lynched June 27, 1844, in Carthage, Ill. 1848 - Residents of Papal States overthrow Church government; Pope Pius IX flees; French, Austrian armies reconquer Papal States in 1849, restore Pius to power. 1851-1866 - Christian "Pai Shang-ti Hui" movement triggers Taiping Rebellion in China; @20-30 million die 1853 - Protestants riot in Philadelphia when public schools allow Catholic students to skip mandatory (Protestant) religion classes; 13 die in 3 days of fighting 1858 - Inquisition under Pius IX kidnaps Jewish boy, Edgardo Mortara, 6; he becomes priest 1859 - Italians conquer Papal States with French aid; Inquisition abolished in former Papal States; French keep Rome for Pius IX 1864 - Jewish boy, Giuseppe Coen, 9, kidnapped in Rome under Pius IX, becomes priest. 1870 - French abandon Rome; Italians take control (Pius IX beatified in 1999) 1890 - Wisconsin Supreme Court rules mandatory public school religious rites illegal 1903 - Nebraska Supreme Court rules mandatory public school religious rites illegal 1910 - Illinois Supreme Court rules mandatory public school religious rites illegal 1915 - Louisiana Supreme Court rules mandatory public school religious rites illegal 19th-20th centuries - American Indian children in various parts of U.S., Canada forcibly removed from families, sent to church schools, reared as Christians - native religions suppressed; in Canada, government sends children ("Duplessis orphans") to Catholic schools 1912-1914 - Christianity/nationalism mix (particularly among Orthodox Serbs and Roman Catholic Croats, Austrians) leads to Balkan Wars, triggers World War I among Christian nations of Europe; @10 million dead, 20 million wounded 1938-1945 - Christians massacre 6 million-plus Jews in Europe, also atheists, homosexuals and pagan Gypsies; legally-godless U.S. helps end massacres 1940 - U.S. Supreme Court rules Jehovah’s Witnesses can be forced to recite Pledge of Allegiance; Witnesses brutally persecuted in many places in U.S. 1943 - U.S. Supreme Court effectively overturns 1940 ruling on Jehovah’s Witnesses 1941-1945 - European Protestants, Roman Catholics slaughter millions of Orthodox Catholic and atheist Slavs in war in Eastern Europe, Russia; as many as 30 million dead 1941-1945 - Roman Catholic Croats (Ustasha regime), Orthodox Catholic Serbs (Chetniks, Nedic regime) battle in Yugoslavia; 800,000-plus die in massacres, concentration camps 1962 - U.S. Supreme Court rules in "Engel v. Vitale" against mandatory school prayers 1960s-2000 - Northern Irish Catholics rebel against Protestant repression; @3,600 die 1970s - Roman Catholic clergy lead "Dirty War" in Argentina; @30,000 killed Sept. 16-18, 1982 - Maronite Christians (descendants of 6th-century anti-Monophysite, pro-Chalcedon party in Mideast) slaughter @2,000 Muslims in Lebanon 1990s - Catholic/Orthodox/Muslim war resumes in Yugoslavia; @200,000 die, many in massacres or concentration camps 1992 - Pope John Paul II grudgingly
admits Galileo was right, Church was wrong
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