THE NEW SCHAFF-HiaiZOG
originates and grows, the Groat Schism occurs between the East and the AA'est. (2) The absolute papacy, Gregory VII. to Boniface VIII. (1050- 1294) — the period of the Crusades, the rise of the mendicant orders, scholasticism, the rise of the universities and Gothic architecture, the development of heretical sects, and the Inquisition. (3) The decline of the papacy and signs of the Reformation, Boniface VIII. to Luther's theses (1294-1517)— the "exile" of the popes at Avignon, the papal schism, the reforming councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basel, Wj-clif, Huss, Savonarola, Wessel, the German mystics, Eckhart and Tauler, the Renaissance, the discovery of printing and the New World.
(c) History of Modern Christianity, from the Reformation (1517) to the present time. Protestantism and Romanism; founding of the various Evangelical Chuiches (the Lutheran, Calvinistic, Anglican, etc.); restoration and revival of Romanism; the Council of Trent; Jesuitism; Jansenism; the Puritan conflict in England; the Westminster Assembly; the restoration of the Episcopal Church under Charles II.; the expulsion of the Stuarts; the Edict of Toleration; the organization of the dissenting denominations (Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Quakers); the settlement of North America; Pietism and the Moravians in Germany; the rise of rationalism in Germany, deism in England; the Methodist revival in England and the Colonies; the French Revolution and spread of infidelity; organization of philanthropic agencies, the Sunday-school, and modern missions; progress and triumph of ultramontane Romanism, culminating in the Vatican Council (1870); conflict of faith with rationalism and infidelity; growth of the churches in the United States on the basis of the voluntary principle; unionistic movement among English-speaking Protestants; the new criticism, based on the liistoric study of the Scriptures and early church history, shaking traditional views of the Old Testament and the person and mission of Christ. Subdivisions: (1) The age of the Protestant Reformation and the Roman Catholic Counterreformation or reaction (1517-1648). (2) The age of scholastic and polemic confessionalism, in confhct with non-conformity and subjective piety (1650-1750). (3) The age of rationalism and rehgious revival and church union (1750-1900).
VI. Value: The study of history enables one <;o understand the present, which is the fruit of the past and the germ of the future. It is the richest storehouse of wisdom and experience. It is the best commentary of Christianity. It is full of comfort and encouragement. It verifies on every page the promise of the Savior to be with his people always, and to biiild his Church on an indestructible rock. It exhibits his hfe in all its forns and phases, and the triumphant march of Ids kingdom from land to land and generation to generation. Earthly empires, systems of philosophy, have their day, human institutions decay, all things of this world bloom and fade away, like the grass of the field; but the Christian religion has the dew of perennial youth, survives all (changes, makes steady profjR'ss from age fo a.i^o, overcomes all persecution frcu without, and corruption from
within, is now stronger and more widely spread than ever before, directs the course of civiHzation, and bears the hopes of the human race. The history of the world is governed in the interest, and for the ultimate triumph, of Christianity. The experience of the past is a sure guaranty of the future.
VII. Literature: Only works on general church history will be mentioned here.
1. Ancient Historians: Eusebius (d. 340) — " Church History " from the birth of Christ to Constantine the Great, 324 — and his successors in the Greek Church, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret. The Latin Church (e.g., Rufinus) contented itself with translations and extracts from Eusebius and his continuators. The Middle Ages produced most valuable material for history (chronicles, papal bulls, theological treatises, etc.), but no great general church history; the Reformation first called forth the spirit of critical inquiry.
2. Historians from 1500 to 1800: Mattliias Flacius (d. 1575) and other Lutheran di\-ines of Germany wrote the " Magdeburg Centuries " (Latin, Basel, 1559-74), covering thirteen Christian centuries in as many volumes — the first history from a Protestant point of view, in opposition to the claims of Romanism (see Magdeburg Centuries). In defense of Romanism, and in refutation of Flacius, Caesar Baronius (d. 1607) wrote in Latin " Ecclesiastical Annals," in 12 folio vols. (Rome, 1588 sqq.; new ed., by A. Theiner, Bar-le-Duc, 1868 sqq.), continued by Raynaldus, Spondanus, Theiner, and others — a work of extraordinary learning and industry, but to be used with caution. Tillemont (d. 1698), in his invaluable Metnoires (16 vols., Paris, 1693-1712), wrote the liistory of the first six centuries from the sources, in bibliographical style and in the spirit of the more liberal Galilean Catholicism. Gottfried Arnold (d. 1714), of the Pietistic school of Spener, in liis Unparteiische Kirchen- und Ketzerhistorie (4 vols, folio, Frankfort, 1699 sqq.; to 1688 a.d.), advocated the interests of practical piety, and the claims of heretics and schismatics, and all those who suffered persecution from an intolerant hierarchy and orthodoxy. J. L. Mosheim (d. 1755) wrote his " Institutes of Ecclesiastical History " (in Latin, Helmstadt, 1755, and often since in several translations) in the spirit of a moderate Lutheran orthodoxy, with solid learning and impartiality, in clear style, after the centurial arrangement of Flacius, and furnished a convenient text-book, which (in the translation of Murdock, with valuable supplements) has continued in use in England and America much longer than in Germany. J. M. Schroeckh's Christliche Kirchengeschichte (35 vols., Leipsic, 1768-1803), continued by Kirchengeschichte sett der Reformation (10 vols., 1804—12), is far more extensive and far less readable, but invaluable for reference, and full of information from the sources. It forsakes the mechanical centurial division, and substitutes for it the periodic arrangement. H. P. K. Henke (d. 1809) followed with a thorovighly rationalistic work (6 vols., Brunswick, 1795-1806; continued by J. S. Vater, 3 vols.. 1818-20).