Philip Smith's History of the Christian Church during the First Ten Centuries (1879), and during the Middle Ages (1885), in 2 vols., is a skilful and useful manual for students. [40]
The most popular and successful modern church historians in the English or any other language are Dean Milman of St. Paul's, Dean Stanley of Westminster Abbey, and Archdeacon Farrar of Westminster. They belong to the broad church school of the Church of England, are familiar with Continental learning, and adorn their chosen themes with all the charms of elegant, eloquent, and picturesque diction. Henry Hart Milman (d. 1868) describes, with the stately march of Gibbon and as a counterpart of his decline and fall of Paganism, the rise and progress of Ancient and Latin Christianity, with special reference to its bearing on the progress of civilization. [41] Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (d. 1881) unrolls a picture gallery of great men and events in the Jewish theocracy, from Abraham to the Christian era, and in the Greek church, from Constantine the Great to Peter the Great. [42] Frederic W. Farrar (b. 1831) illuminates with classical and rabbinical learning, and with exuberant rhetoric the Life of Christ, and of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, and the Early Days of Christianity. [43]
(d) American works.
American literature is still in its early youth, but rapidly growing in every department of knowledge. Prescott, Washington Irving, Motley, and Bancroft have cultivated interesting portions of the history of Spain, Holland, and the United States, and have taken rank among the classical historians in the English language.
In ecclesiastical history the Americans have naturally so far been mostly in the attitude of learners and translators, but with every prospect of becoming producers. They have, as already noticed, furnished the best translations of Mosheim, Neander, and Gieseler.
Henry B. Smith (late Professor in the Union Theol. Seminary, New York, d. 1877) has prepared the best Chronological Tables of Church History, which present in parallel columns a synopsis of the external and internal history of Christianity, including that of America, down to 1858, with lists of Councils, Popes, Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops, and Moderators of General Assemblies. [44]
W. G. T. Shedd (Professor in the same institution, b. 1820) wrote from the standpoint of Calvinistic orthodoxy an eminently readable History of Christian Doctrine (N. York, 1863, 2 vols.), in clear, fresh, and vigorous English, dwelling chiefly on theology, anthropology, and soteriology, and briefly touching on eschatology, but entirely omitting the doctrine of the Church and the sacraments, with the connected controversies.
Philip Schaff is the author of a special History of the Apostolic Church, in English and German (N. York, 1853, etc., and Leipzig, 1854), of a History of the Creeds of Christendom (N. York, 4th ed., 1884, 3 vols., with documents original and translated), and of a generalHistory of the Christian Church (N. York and Edinb., 1859-'67, in 3 vols.; also in German, Leipzig, 1867; rewritten and enlarged, N. Y. and Edinb., 1882-'88; third revision, 1889, 5 vols.; to be continued).
George P. Fisher (Professor in New Haven, b. 1827) has written the best manual in the English language: History of the Christian Church with Maps. N. York, 1887. He has also published a History of the Reformation (1873); Beginnings of Christianity (1877), andOutlines of Universal History (1885),--all in a calm, amiable, and judicious spirit, and a clear, chaste style.
Contributions to interesting chapters in the history of Protestantism are numerous. Dr. E. H. Gillett (d. 1875) wrote a Monograph on John Hus (N. York, 1864, 2 vols.), aHistory of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (Philad. 1864, 2 vols.), and a History of Natural Theology (God in Human Thought, N. York, 1874, 2 vols.); Dr. Abel Stevens, a History of Methodism, viewed as the great religious revival of the eighteenth century, down to the centenary celebration of 1839 (N. York, 1858-'61, 3 vols.), and a History of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States (1864-'67, 4 vols.); Henry M. Baird, a History of the Rise and Progress of the Huguenots in France (N. York, 1879, 2 vols.), andThe Huguenots and Henry of Navarre (1886, 2 vols.).
The denominational and sectarian divisions of American Christianity seem to be unfavorable to the study and cultivation of general church history, which requires a large-hearted catholic spirit. But, on the other hand, the social and national intermingling of ecclesiastical organizations of every variety of doctrine and discipline, on a basis of perfect freedom and equality before the law, widens the horizon, and facilitates comparison and appreciation of variety in unity and unity in variety; while the growth and prosperity of the churches on the principle of self-support and self-government encourages a hopeful view of the future. America falls heir to the whole wealth of European Christianity and civilization, and is in a favorable position to review and reproduce in due time the entire course of Christ's kingdom in the old world with the faith and freedom of the new. [45]
(e) Finally, we must mention biblical and ecclesiastical Encyclopaedias which contain a large number of valuable contributions to church history from leading scholars of the age, viz.:
1. The Bible Dictionariesof Winer. (Leipzig, 1820, 3d ed. 1847, 2 vols.); Schenkel (Leipzig, 1869-'75, 5 vols.); Riehm Kitto (Edinb., 1845, third revised ed. by W. L. Alexander, 1862-'65, 3 vols.); Wm. Smith (London, 1860-'64, in 3 vols., American edition much enlarged and improved by H. Hackett and E. Abbot, N. York, 1870, in 4 vols.); Ph. Schaff (Philadelphia, 1880, with maps and illustrations; 4th ed., revised, 1887).
2. The Biblical and Historical Dictionariesof Herzog (Real-Encyklopädie für Protestantische Theologie und Kirche, Gotha 1854 to 1868, in 22 vols., new ed. thoroughly revised by Herzog, Plitt and Hauck, Leipzig, 1877-'88, in 18 vols.), Schaff-Herzog (Religious Encyclopaedia, based on Herzog but condensed, supplemented, and adapted to English and American students, edited by Philip Schaff in connection with Samuel M. Jackson and D. S. Schaff, N. York and Edinburgh, revised ed., 1887, in 3 vols., with a supplementary vol. on Living Divines and Christian Workers, 1887); Wetzer and Welte (Roman Catholic Kirchenlexicon, Freiburg i. Breisgau, 1847-l860, in 12 vols.; second ed. newly elaborated by Cardinal Joseph Hergenröther and Dr. Franz Kaulen, 1880 sqq., promised in 10 vols.); Lichtenberger. (Encyclopédie des sciences religieuses, Paris, 1877-'82, in 13 vols., with supplement); Mcclintock and Strong (Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, New York, 1867-'81, 10 vols. and two supplementary volumes, 1885 and 1887, largely illustrated). The Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed., completed 1889 in 25 vols.) contains also many elaborate articles on biblical and ecclesiastical topics.
3. For ancient church history down to the age of Charlemagne: Smith and Cheetham, Dictionary of Christian Antiquities (London and Boston, 1875, 2 vols.); Smith and Wace, Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines during the first eight centuries (London and Boston, 1877-'87, 4 vols.). The articles in these two works are written mostly by scholars of the Church of England, and are very valuable for fulness and accuracy of information.
Note.--The study of church history is reviving in the Greek Church where it began. Philaret Bapheidos has issued a compendious church history under the title: Ekklesiastike istoria apo tou kuriou hemon Iesou Christou mechri ton kath' hemas chronon hupo Philaretou Bapseidou, archimandritou D. Ph. kai kathegetou tes Theologias en te en Chalke Theologike Schole. Tomos protos. Archaia ekkles; historia. a.d. 1-700. En Konstantinopolei , 1884 (Lorentz & Keil, libraries de S. M. I. le Sultan), 380 pp. The second vol. embraces the mediaeval church to the fall of Constantinople, 1453, and has 459 pp. The work is dedicated to Dr. Philotheos Bryennios, Metropolitan of Nicomedia, the discoverer of the famous Jerusalem Codex. Nearly all the literature quoted is German Protestant; no English, very few Latin, and still fewer Greek works are mentioned. Another compend of Church History in Greek by Diomedes Kyriakos appeared at Athens, 1881, in 2 vols.
[7] 6 These Greek historians have been best edited by Henri de Valois (Valesius), in Greek and Latin with notes, in 3 folios, Paris, 1659-73; also Amsterd., 1695, and, with additional notes by W. Reading, Cambridge, 1720. Eusebius has been often separately published in several languages.
[8] Nikephorou Kallistou tou Xanthopoulou Ekklesiastikes his torias Biblia ie. Edited by the Jesuit, Fronton le Duc (Fronto-Ducaeus), Par. 1630, 2 fol. This is the only Greek edition from the only extant MS., which belonged to the King of Hungary, then came into the possession of the Turks, and last into the imperial library of Vienna. But a Latin version by John Lang waspublished at Basle as early as 1561.
[9] We omit the inferior continuations of the Polish Dominican, Abr. Bzovius, from 1198 to 1565, in 8 vols., and of Henr. Spondé, bishop of Pamiers, from 1197 to 1647, 2 vols. The best of the older editions, including the continuation of Raynaldi (but not of Laderchi) and the learned criticisms of Pagi and his nephew, was arranged by Archbishop Mansi, in 88 folios, Lucca, 1738-57. A hundred years later, a German scholar in Rome, Augustin Theiner, prefect of the Vatican Archives, resumed the continuation in 3 vols., embracing the pontificate of Gregory XIII. (a.d. 1572-'84), Rome and Paris, 1856, 3 vols fol, and hoped to bring the history down to the pontificate of Pius VII., a.d. 1800, in 12 folios; but he interrupted the continuation, and began, in 1864, a new edition of the whole work (including Raynaldi and Laderchi), which is to be completed in 45 or 50 volumes, at Bar-le-Duc, France. Theiner was first a liberal Catholic, then an Ultramontanist, last an Old Catholic (in correspondence with Döllinger), excluded from the Vatican (1870), but pardoned by the pope, and died suddenly, 1874. His older brother, Johann Anton, became a Protestant.
[10] A portion of Fleury's History, from the second oecumenical Council to the end of the fourth century (a.d. 381-400), was published in English at Oxford, 1842, in three volumes, on the basis of Herbert's translation (London, 1728), carefully revised by John H Newman, who was at that time the theological leader of the Oxford Tractarian movement, and subsequently (1879) became a cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church.
[11] Discours sur l'histoire universelle depuis le commencement du monde jusgu'à l'empire de Charlemagne. Paris, 1681, and other editions.
[12] Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique des six premiers siècles, justifiés par les citations des auteurs originaux. Paris, 1693-1712, 16 vols. quarto. Reprinted at Venice, 1732 sqq. His Histoire des empereurs, Paris, 1690-1738, in 6 vols., gives the secular history down to emperor Anastasius.
[13] Under the title: Nouvelle Bibliothèque des auteurs ecclésastiques, contenant l'Histoire de leur vie, le catalogue, la critique et la chronologie de leurs ouvrages. Paris and Amsterdam, 1693-1715, 19 vols.; 9th ed., Par., 1698 aqq., with the continuations of Goujet, Petit-Didier, to the 18th cent., and the critique of R. Simon, 61 vols. The work was condemned by Rome for its free criticism of the fathers.
[14] Histoire générale des auteurs sacrés et ecclésaistiques. Paris, 1729-'63 in 23 vols. 4to. New ed. begun 1858.
[15] Histoire universelle de l'église catholique. Nancy and Paris, 1842-'49; 3d ed., 1856-'6l, in 29 vols. oct.; 4th ed. by Chantral, 1864 sqq. A German translation by Hülskamp, Rump and others appeared at Münster, 1860 sqq.
[16] Münster, 1819-'34, 5 vols 8vo.
[17] Ravensburg, 1824 sqq., 9 vols
[18] The first two volumes of the first ed. were translated by W. R. Clark and H. N. Oxenham, and published by T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871 and 1876.
[19] Handbuch der K G. Bonn, 3d ed., 1846; 6th ed., 1862, 2 vols.
[20] His Kirchengeschichte was published from his lectures by Pius Boniface Gams. Regensburg, 1867-'68, in 3 vols. It is very unequal and lacks the author's own finish. We have from Möhler also a monograph on Athanius (1827), and a Patrologie (covering the first three centuries, and published after his death, 1840).
[21] Handbuch der Universal-Kirchengeschichte. 9th ed., Mainz, 1872, 2 vols.; 10th ed., 1882. Alzog aims to be the Roman Catholic Hase as to brevity and condensation. A French translation from the 5th ed. was prepared by Goeschler and Audley, 1849 (4th ed. by Abbé Sabatier, 1874); an English translation by F. J. Pabisch and Thos. Byrne, Cincinnati, O., 1874 sqq., in 3 vols. The Am. translators censure the French translators for the liberties they have taken with Alzog, but they have taken similar liberties, and, by sundry additions, made the author more Romish than he was.