2. If (as it generallj^ is for convenience), on the other hand, the term Church be restricted to the Christian Church, then the field of Church history is limited to the development of the kingdom of God among men through and hy means of the Chris- tian Church. "Its proper starting-point is the incar- nation of the eternal Word, who dwelt among us and revealed his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth ; and next to this the miracle of the first Pentecost, when the Church took her place as a Christian institution, filled with the spirit of the glorified Redeemer, and intrusted with the conversion of all nations. Jesus Christ, the God-man and Saviour of the world, is the author of the new creation, the soul and the head of the Church, which is his body and his bride. In his person and worlc lies all the fulness of the Godhead and of renew- ed humanity, the whole plan of redemption, and the key of all history from the creation of man in the im- age of God to the resurrection of the body unto ever- lasting life" (Schaff, Church Hist. vol. i, § 1). Mod- ern writers generally' adopt this second view, not only for its practical convenience, but also on the theoreti- cal ground that the sources of the 0. and N. T. history are inspired ; tliose of Church history, since the closing of the canon, are human. The former is therefore called Sacred History, constituting a depaitnieut ly itself. The relations of Chiistianity to Jud;iism iind heathenism are generally treated hy modern writers in an Introduction or in separate chapters, as the " Preparation for Christianity in the History of the World." The life of Jesus is so treated ly some writ- ers ; bv most others it is relegated to a separate work. Neander makes one work of "The life of Christ" as the ground of the existence of the Christian Church ; another work treats of the apostolical Church, or "The Planting and Training of Christianitj' by the ApoSr ties;" while his great Church Flistory continues the development after the apostolic age. Kevertheless, in treating of "Church Discipline and Constitution," he
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 36 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
is compelled to go back to the apostolic age. Dr. Sehaft" makes "the Church umler the Apostles" the lirst division of his Histor;/ of the Ch-istian Church, and gives the relations of Christianitj' to Judaism and hea- thenism in chap, i, as " Prei)arations for Christianity." Hinds (^//is/ort/ of the Christian. Church, 1st Division, Emycl. Mvtnqwlitana) treats in an Introduction of the religion of Jews, Gentiles, and Samaritans, and tlien makes part i the Ministry. of Christ ; part ii, the Apos- tolic Age ; part iii, Age of the Apostolical P'athers.
3. As to the relations of Clmrch historj' to general liistory, dean Stanley remarks: "To a great extent tlie two are inseparable ; they cannot be torn asunder witliout infinite loss to both. ... It is indeed true that, in common parlance, ecclesiastical liistory is of- ten confined within limits so restricted as to render such a distinction only too easy. . . . Gibbon's De- cline and Fall of the Roman Empire is, in great part, however reluctantly or unconsciously, the history of the 'rise and progress of tlie Christian Church.' . . . Kever let us think that we can understand the history of the Church apart from the liistory of the world, -Any more than we can separate the interests of the clergy from the interests of the laity, which are the interests of the Church at large. . . . IIow to adjust the rela- tions of the two spheres to each other is almost as in- definite a task in history as it is in practice and in philosophy. In no age are they precisely the same" (^Kastern Church, Introduction). A book written from this point of view, however, would be rather a histor}' of Christianitj' in its relations to the general develop- ment of man than a history of the Church. So Mil- man's Latin Christianity is, to great extent, a general history of the times rather than of the Christian Church, while, at the same time, the Cliurch is the prominent feature of it. It is well that such a bonk should be written, and the work has been well done by dean Milman.
II. Method cf Church Ilisfonj. — The order and ar- rangement of the material have varied greatl}' at dif- ferent periods. The earliest writers (e. g. Eusebius) wrote generalh' without scientilic method, and their arrangement was arbitrary and fortuitous. In the Church of the Middle Ages history was little studied, and what little was written was put in the form of simple chronicles. The lirst application of method was really made in the Magdeburg Centuries, project- ed by Matthias Flacius Illyricus (1559-1574). See Centuries. The history is divided into centuries, with a topical arrangement under each century of si.\- teen heads as rubrics, viz. : 1. (Jeneral view ; 2. Ex- tent of the Church ; 3. Its external condition ; 4. Doc- trines ; 5. Heresies ; G. Rites ; 7. Polity ; 8. Schisms ; 9. Councils ; 10. Bishops and doctors; 11. Heretics; 12. Martyrs; 13. Miracles; 14. Jews ; 15. Other relig- ions ; 10. Political changes affecting the condition of the Church. This centurial arrangement (combined with the rubrical subdivision) maintained its ground for two centuries : the last great woi'k which follows it is ^losheim's Institutes of Erclesiastical History. Mosheim divides the material under each century into external and internal history, and these again as fol- lows : External events into prosperous and adverse; internal historj' into, 1. State of literature and science ; 2. (iovernment of the Church ; .">. Theology ; 4. Rites and ceremonies; 5. Heresies and schisms. Tlie later historians divide the whole history into periods, deter- mined by great events, and then arrange the mate- rial under each period by topics or rubrics. Each writer, of course, frames his periods according to his own views of the great epochal events of histoiy, but most of them make three great periods — ancient, medi- (pral, and modem, the first beginning with the day of Pentecost; the second with Gregory the Great, A.I). 590 (ace. to others, with Constantine, 306 or 311, or the fall of the West Roman cni])ire, 47r>, or Charle- magne, 800); the third with the Reformation, 1517.