The Creation
Genesis opens with God making the heavens and the earth in six days and resting on the seventh. It then tells how the first man and woman were made and placed in the garden of Eden.
The story of Christianity on one timeline
361 moments from Genesis to today. Each shows when and where it happened, how it connects to the rest, and the primary sources it rests on.
- Firm date
- Estimated date
- Traditional date
- Undated
- What these mean
Before recorded chronology
Primeval History
Genesis opens with creation, the first disobedience, the flood and the scattering of the nations. The text gives these events no datable setting.
undated undated The Fall
In Genesis the first man and woman eat from the tree God had forbidden and are sent out of the garden of Eden. Paul later reads the story as the entry of sin and death into the world, which Christ’s obedience reverses.
undated The Flood and the Covenant with Noah
Genesis tells how God sends a flood on a violent world and saves Noah, his family and the animals in an ark. Afterwards God makes a covenant with every living creature, with the rainbow as its sign.
undated The Tower of Babel
Genesis tells how people with one language set out to build a city and a tower reaching the sky in the land of Shinar. God confuses their speech and scatters them over the earth, and the city is named Babel.
c. 2100–1800 BC (traditional)
The Patriarchs
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph: one family receives a promise of land, descendants and blessing for all nations.
about 2091 BC, traditional date The Call of Abraham
Genesis tells how God calls Abram to leave his country and his father’s house for a land he will be shown, promising to make him a great nation through whom all the families of the earth will be blessed. Abram leaves Haran for Canaan.
about 2085 BC, traditional date Melchizedek Blesses Abram
Genesis tells how Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, meets Abram with bread and wine after a battle, blesses him and receives a tenth of everything. Psalm 110 names a priesthood after him, and Hebrews applies it to Jesus.
about 2080 BC to 2067 BC, traditional date God’s Covenant with Abraham
In Genesis God binds himself by covenant to give Abraham descendants and the land of Canaan. Abraham believes, and it is counted to him as righteousness. Years later God renames him and gives circumcision as the sign of the covenant.
about 2050 BC, traditional date The Binding of Isaac
In Genesis God tests Abraham by telling him to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering in the land of Moriah. Abraham obeys, an angel stops his hand, and a ram is offered in the boy’s place. The promise is confirmed with an oath.
about 1929 BC to 1909 BC, traditional date Jacob Becomes Israel
Jacob, fleeing his brother Esau, receives the promise of Abraham in a dream at Bethel. Twenty years later he wrestles through the night at the Jabbok and is given the name Israel, which his descendants will bear.
about 1898 BC to 1876 BC, traditional date Joseph and the Descent into Egypt
Joseph, sold by his brothers as a slave, rises to govern Egypt and stores grain against a seven-year famine. He is reconciled with his brothers, and Jacob’s whole family settles in the land of Goshen.
c. 1500–1200 BC
Exodus and Conquest
Israel leaves Egypt under Moses, receives the law at Sinai and enters Canaan under Joshua. The earliest mention of Israel outside the Bible falls at the end of this era.
c. 1447 or c. 1261 BC, traditional date The Call of Moses
In Exodus Moses, born under Pharaoh’s order to kill Hebrew boys and raised by Pharaoh’s daughter, flees to Midian. At Horeb a voice from a burning bush reveals the divine name and sends him back to bring Israel out of Egypt.
c. 1446 or c. 1260 BC, traditional date The Exodus from Egypt
Exodus tells how, after a series of plagues and the first Passover, Israel leaves Egypt under Moses and crosses the sea, in which Pharaoh’s pursuing army is drowned. The rest of the Bible looks back to this event constantly.
c. 1446 or c. 1260 BC, traditional date The Covenant at Sinai
In Exodus Israel hears the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai and accepts a covenant sealed with blood. While Moses is on the mountain the people make a golden calf; after his intercession the tablets of the law are written again.
c. 1445 or c. 1259 BC, traditional date The Tabernacle and the Priesthood
Following instructions given on Sinai, Israel builds a portable sanctuary to house the ark of the covenant. Aaron and his sons are ordained as its priests, and the yearly Day of Atonement is laid down.
c. 1445–1406 or c. 1259–1220 BC, traditional date Forty Years in the Wilderness
At Kadesh-barnea the Israelites refuse to enter Canaan after their scouts report on it, and are sentenced to wander until that generation has died. Forty years after leaving Egypt their children camp opposite Jericho.
c. 1406 or c. 1220 BC, traditional date The Farewell and Death of Moses
In the plains of Moab Moses renews the covenant with the generation born in the wilderness, writes down the law and hands the leadership to Joshua. He sees the promised land from Mount Nebo and dies there without entering it.
c. 1406 or c. 1220 BC, traditional date Crossing the Jordan and the Fall of Jericho
The book of Joshua tells how Israel crosses the Jordan on dry ground, camps at Gilgal and keeps its first Passover in Canaan. Jericho’s wall falls after a seven-day procession around the city, and Rahab, who had sheltered Joshua’s spies, is spared.
c. 1380 or c. 1195 BC, traditional date Covenant Renewal at Shechem
Near the end of his life Joshua gathers the tribes at Shechem, recounts their history from Abraham to the conquest and calls on them to choose whom they will serve. The people pledge themselves, and he sets up a stone as witness.
about 1208 BC, estimated date Israel Named on the Merneptah Stele
A granite stele set up at Thebes for Pharaoh Merneptah celebrates his victory over Libya. Its closing lines name Israel, beside Ashkelon, Gezer and Yanoam, among the defeated. It is the earliest known mention of Israel outside the Bible.
c. 1200–930 BC
Judges and the United Monarchy
From tribal leaders to kings: Samuel, Saul, David and Solomon, the capture of Jerusalem and the building of the first temple.
c. 1375 or c. 1200 – c. 1050 BC, traditional date The Age of the Judges
After Joshua, Israel lives in its tribes without a king. The book of Judges tells of a repeated turn to other gods, foreign oppression, and rescue by leaders called judges, among them Deborah, Gideon and Samson.
about 1100 BC, traditional date Ruth and Boaz
A Moabite widow follows her mother-in-law Naomi to Bethlehem, gleans in the fields of Boaz and marries him. Their son Obed is the grandfather of David, and Matthew names Ruth in the genealogy of Jesus.
about 1070 BC, traditional date Samuel and the Loss of the Ark
Samuel is called as a boy at the shrine of Shiloh. The Philistines defeat Israel, capture the ark of the covenant and kill the sons of the priest Eli, then send the ark back after seven months. Samuel leads Israel as prophet and judge.
about 1050 BC, traditional date Saul Becomes Israel’s First King
Israel’s elders ask the aged Samuel for a king “like all the nations”. Samuel warns them, then anoints Saul of Benjamin, who is chosen by lot at Mizpah and made king at Gilgal. Saul is later rejected for disobedience.
about 1025 BC, traditional date David and Goliath
Samuel anoints David, the youngest son of Jesse of Bethlehem. In the valley of Elah the young shepherd kills the Philistine champion Goliath with a sling and a stone, and his fame turns King Saul against him.
about 1010 BC to 1003 BC, estimated date David Becomes King
After Saul dies in battle on Mount Gilboa, the men of Judah anoint David king at Hebron. Seven and a half years later, when the war with Saul’s house is over, the elders of all Israel anoint him king over the whole nation.
about 1003 BC, estimated date David Takes Jerusalem and Brings the Ark
David captures the Jebusite stronghold of Zion, makes it his capital and brings the ark of the covenant there with music and dancing. Jerusalem becomes both the royal city and a centre of Israel’s worship.
about 1000 BC, traditional date God’s Covenant with David
David proposes to build a temple for the ark. Through the prophet Nathan he is told instead that God will build him a house, a dynasty whose throne will stand for ever. The promise becomes the root of the hope for a Messiah.
about 995 BC, traditional date David, Bathsheba and Nathan
Samuel tells how David takes Bathsheba, the wife of one of his warriors, and when she is pregnant has her husband Uriah killed in battle. The prophet Nathan confronts him. The child dies; a second son, Solomon, is born.
about 966 BC to 959 BC, estimated date Solomon Builds the Temple
In the fourth year of his reign Solomon begins a temple for the Lord in Jerusalem, with cedar and craftsmen from Hiram of Tyre. Seven years later the ark is carried into its inner room and the house is dedicated.
c. 930–597 BC
The Divided Kingdom and the Prophets
The kingdom splits into Israel and Judah. Prophets confront kings, Assyria destroys the north, and for the first time inscriptions name the Bible’s rulers.
about 930 BC, estimated date The Kingdom Divides
After Solomon’s death the northern tribes reject his son Rehoboam at Shechem and make Jeroboam their king. Israel in the north and Judah in the south become separate kingdoms, and Jeroboam sets up his own sanctuaries at Bethel and Dan.
about 925 BC, estimated date Shishak Invades Judah
In Rehoboam’s fifth year the Egyptian king Shishak marches on Jerusalem and carries off the treasures of the temple and the palace. Shoshenq I’s relief at Karnak lists towns he claimed in Judah, Israel and the Negev.
about 860 BC, traditional date Elijah on Mount Carmel
During a long drought the prophet Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal, whom King Ahab and Queen Jezebel support, to a contest on Mount Carmel. Kings tells of fire from heaven, the people’s return to the Lord, and Elijah’s flight to Horeb.
853 BC, firm date Ahab at the Battle of Qarqar
Shalmaneser III of Assyria meets a coalition of Syrian and Palestinian kings at Qarqar on the Orontes. His stela lists Ahab the Israelite among them. The Bible does not mention the battle, which gives the first fixed date in the history of Israel’s kings.
about 850 BC, traditional date Elisha Succeeds Elijah
Elijah and his disciple Elisha cross the Jordan near Jericho. Kings says that Elijah is carried up to heaven in a whirlwind and that Elisha, taking up his master’s cloak, returns as the prophet in his place.
841 BC, firm date Jehu’s Revolt and Tribute to Assyria
The army commander Jehu, anointed at Elisha’s word, kills the kings of Israel and Judah, Jezebel and the house of Ahab, and destroys the temple of Baal in Samaria. In the same year Assyrian records show him paying tribute to Shalmaneser III.
about 840 BC, estimated date Moab’s Revolt and the Mesha Stele
Mesha, king of Moab, throws off the rule of Israel after Ahab’s death. Kings tells of the campaign sent against him; Mesha’s own stele, found at Dibon, tells of the towns he took from Israel in the name of his god Chemosh.
about 840 BC, estimated date The House of David Inscription from Tel Dan
A king of Aram sets up a victory stele at Dan in which he claims to have killed a king of Israel and a king of the “House of David”. Found in 1993 and 1994, it is the earliest clear mention of David’s dynasty outside the Bible.
about 760 BC, traditional date Jonah Sent to Nineveh
The book of Jonah tells of a prophet of Israel who is sent to preach against Nineveh, flees by sea, is swallowed by a great fish and then sees the Assyrian city repent and be spared. Jesus later speaks of “the sign of Jonah”.
about 755 BC, estimated date Amos and Hosea Prophesy to Israel
In the prosperous years of Jeroboam II, Amos, a herdsman from Judah, denounces injustice and worship without righteousness at Bethel. Hosea makes his own marriage a picture of Israel’s unfaithfulness and of a love that will not give it up.
about 740 BC, estimated date The Call of Isaiah
In the year King Uzziah dies, Isaiah sees the Lord enthroned in the temple and is sent as a prophet to Judah. When Syria and Israel attack, he tells King Ahaz to trust God, gives the sign of Immanuel and speaks of a coming king from David’s line.
722/721 BC, estimated date The Fall of Samaria
After a siege of three years the Assyrians take Samaria, deport its people and settle others in their place. The northern kingdom of Israel comes to an end. Kings, a Babylonian chronicle and the inscriptions of Sargon II all record it.
701 BC, firm date Hezekiah Withstands Sennacherib
Sennacherib of Assyria overruns Judah, takes Lachish and shuts Hezekiah up in Jerusalem. Hezekiah pays tribute, Isaiah promises that the city will not fall, and it is not taken. Assyrian annals and reliefs record the campaign from the other side.
627 BC, estimated date The Call of Jeremiah
In the thirteenth year of King Josiah, Jeremiah, of a priestly family at Anathoth, is called to be a prophet to the nations. For some forty years he warns Judah of disaster from the north, and he promises a new covenant written on the heart.
622 BC, estimated date Josiah’s Reform and the Book of the Law
During repairs to the temple in Josiah’s eighteenth year the high priest Hilkiah finds a book of the law. The king consults the prophetess Huldah, renews the covenant, destroys the shrines of other gods throughout the land and keeps a great Passover.
609 BC, firm date Josiah Falls at Megiddo
Pharaoh Necho marches north to the Euphrates in support of Assyria. King Josiah of Judah goes out against him at Megiddo and is killed. Three months later Necho deposes Josiah’s son Jehoahaz and makes Jehoiakim king as Egypt’s vassal.
605 BC, firm date Babylon Defeats Egypt at Carchemish
The Babylonian crown prince Nebuchadnezzar destroys the Egyptian army at Carchemish on the Euphrates and, within months, becomes king. Egypt loses Syria and Palestine, and Judah passes from Egyptian to Babylonian rule.
597–c. 400 BC
Exile and Return
Babylon deports Judah’s elite and burns the temple. Persia lets the exiles return, the temple is rebuilt, and Ezra and Nehemiah reshape the community around the law.
about 605 BC to 536 BC, traditional date Daniel at the Babylonian Court
The book of Daniel tells of a young Judean taken to Babylon who serves its kings and stays loyal to his God through the furnace and the lions’ den, and who sees “one like a son of man” receive an everlasting kingdom.
16 March 597 BC, firm date The First Deportation to Babylon
Nebuchadnezzar takes Jerusalem, deports the young king Jehoiachin with thousands of Judah’s leading people, and puts Zedekiah on the throne. Babylon’s own chronicle dates the capture to the day.
593 BC to 571 BC, estimated date Ezekiel’s Visions among the Exiles
Among the deported Judeans in Babylonia the priest Ezekiel sees the glory of God, announces the fall of Jerusalem and then its restoration, in the visions of the dry bones and of a new temple.
587/586 BC, estimated date The Fall of Jerusalem and the Destruction of the Temple
After a long siege the Babylonian army breaches Jerusalem, burns Solomon’s temple and the city, and deports most of the remaining people. The kingdom of Judah comes to an end.
about 550 BC to 539 BC, estimated date The Prophecy of Comfort and the Suffering Servant
Isaiah 40–55 tells the exiles that their punishment is over, names Cyrus as the Lord’s anointed who will send them home, and speaks of a servant who suffers for the sins of many.
12 October 539 BC, firm date Cyrus Takes Babylon
The army of Cyrus of Persia enters Babylon without a battle in October 539 BC, and the Babylonian empire passes to Persia. The Judean exiles come under a king who lets displaced peoples go home.
538 BC, estimated date The Edict of Cyrus and the First Return
Cyrus of Persia, having taken Babylon, allows the Judean exiles to go home and rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, and hands back the temple vessels. A first group returns.
March 515 BC, estimated date The Second Temple Is Completed
After years of delay the returned exiles, urged on by the prophets Haggai and Zechariah and backed by a decree of Darius, finish rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. It is dedicated in the spring of 515 BC.
483 BC to 473 BC, traditional date Esther and the Origin of Purim
The book of Esther tells how a Jewish queen of Persia and her cousin Mordecai turned back a decree to destroy the Jews of the empire. The feast of Purim keeps the memory of that deliverance.
458 BC, estimated date Ezra Brings the Law to Jerusalem
The priest and scribe Ezra comes from Babylon with a commission from the Persian king, confronts marriages with foreign wives, and reads the law of Moses aloud to the assembled people, who bind themselves to keep it.
445 BC, estimated date Nehemiah Rebuilds the Walls of Jerusalem
Nehemiah, cupbearer to the Persian king, is sent to Judah as governor and rebuilds the ruined walls of Jerusalem in fifty-two days against the opposition of Sanballat of Samaria. He then reforms the city’s debts, Sabbath and temple.
about 435 BC, estimated date Malachi and the Close of the Prophets
The last book of the Twelve Prophets rebukes the priests and people of rebuilt Jerusalem and promises a messenger who will prepare the Lord’s way, and the return of Elijah. The Gospels apply both to John the Baptist.
410 BC to 407 BC, firm date The Judean Temple at Elephantine
Papyri from an island on Egypt’s southern border show a garrison of Judeans with a temple of their own. Egyptian priests and the local commander destroy it in 410 BC, and in 407 BC the community asks the governor of Judah to back its rebuilding.
c. 400–4 BC
The Second Temple Period
Between the Testaments: Greek rule, the Maccabean revolt, the Hasmonean kingdom, Roman conquest and Herod. The Scriptures are translated into Greek.
332 BC, firm date Alexander the Great Conquers the Near East
Alexander of Macedon defeats the Persian king, takes Tyre and Gaza by siege and founds Alexandria in Egypt. Judea passes from Persian to Greek rule. Josephus, centuries later, tells of a visit to Jerusalem.
about 250 BC, estimated date The Hebrew Scriptures Are Translated into Greek
Jews in Egypt translate the law of Moses into Greek, by tradition at Alexandria under Ptolemy II, and the other books follow. This version, the Septuagint, is the form in which most early Christians read the Old Testament.
167 BC, estimated date Antiochus IV Desecrates the Temple
The Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes plunders the temple in Jerusalem, forbids the practice of the Jewish law on pain of death and has a pagan altar set up on the altar of burnt offering.
167 BC to 164 BC, estimated date The Maccabean Revolt and the Rededication of the Temple
The priest Mattathias and his sons take up arms against the decrees of Antiochus IV. Judas Maccabeus defeats the king’s generals, cleanses the temple and rededicates the altar, an event kept each year as the feast of Dedication, Hanukkah.
about 150 BC to AD 68, estimated date The Community of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Caves at Qumran, by the Dead Sea, preserve biblical scrolls and the writings of a Jewish movement that lived under a strict common rule. Most scholars identify it with the Essenes described by Josephus and Pliny; some dispute this.
142 BC, firm date Judea Gains Independence under the Hasmoneans
Simon, the last of the Maccabee brothers, wins freedom from Seleucid tribute and is made high priest and ruler by a national assembly. His son John Hyrcanus enlarges the state by conquest. Judea is ruled by its own priest-princes for some eighty years.
63 BC, firm date Pompey Takes Jerusalem
Called in by two Hasmonean brothers who are fighting for the throne, the Roman general Pompey storms the temple mount and enters the sanctuary. Judea loses its independence and becomes tributary to Rome.
40 BC to 37 BC, estimated date Herod the Great Becomes King of Judea
The Roman senate names Herod, son of the Idumean Antipater, king of the Jews. Three years later he takes Jerusalem with a Roman army, and the last Hasmonean king is executed. Herod rules as Rome’s client until his death.
27 BC, firm date Augustus Becomes Rome’s First Emperor
Octavian, victor in Rome’s civil wars, formally hands the state back to the senate and people and receives the name Augustus and command of the provinces that hold the armies. From now on one man rules the Roman world. Jesus is born in his reign.
20/19 BC, estimated date Herod Rebuilds the Temple
Herod replaces the temple built after the exile with a far larger sanctuary of white stone and gold on a greatly extended platform. This is the temple of the Gospels. Work on it continues for decades, almost until its destruction in AD 70.
c. 6 BC – AD 33
The Life of Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth is born under Herod, teaches and heals in Galilee and Judea, is crucified under Pontius Pilate, and is proclaimed risen by his followers.
c. 6–4 BC, estimated date The Birth of Jesus
Matthew and Luke each tell, in a story set in the days of Herod, that Jesus was born at Bethlehem to Mary, a virgin betrothed to Joseph of David’s line, and grew up at Nazareth in Galilee.
4 BC, estimated date The Death of Herod and the Division of His Kingdom
Herod the Great dies at Jericho. Augustus divides his kingdom among three sons: Archelaus in Judea, Antipas in Galilee and Perea, Philip in the north-east. Matthew sets the return of Jesus’ family from Egypt at this point.
AD 6, firm date Judea Comes under Direct Roman Rule
Augustus banishes Archelaus and puts Judea, Samaria and Idumea under a Roman governor. Quirinius, legate of Syria, registers property for taxation, and Judas the Galilean calls for resistance.
c. AD 28–29, estimated date John the Baptist Preaches at the Jordan
Luke dates to the fifteenth year of Tiberius the preaching of John, who calls Israel to repentance in the wilderness and baptises crowds in the Jordan. All four Gospels and the Jewish historian Josephus describe him.
c. AD 26–29, estimated date The Baptism and Temptation of Jesus
Jesus comes from Nazareth to the Jordan and is baptised by John. The Gospels tell of the Spirit descending on him and a voice from heaven naming him the beloved Son, and then of forty days of testing in the wilderness.
c. AD 28–29, estimated date Jesus Begins His Ministry in Galilee
Mark and Matthew tell how, after John’s arrest, Jesus returns to Galilee, announces that the kingdom of God is at hand, calls four fishermen and makes Capernaum, on the lake, the centre of his teaching and healing.
c. AD 28–29, estimated date Jesus Appoints the Twelve
From his wider following Jesus chooses twelve men to be with him and to be sent out to preach and heal. Mark, Matthew and Luke list their names from Simon Peter to Judas Iscariot; Acts lists the eleven who remained.
c. AD 28–29, estimated date The Sermon on the Mount
Matthew presents the teaching of Jesus as one long discourse on a hillside in Galilee. It includes the Beatitudes, the command to love enemies, the Lord’s Prayer and the Golden Rule. Luke has a shorter version.
c. AD 28–32, estimated date The Execution of John the Baptist
Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, has John the Baptist put to death. The Gospels tell of a beheading in prison and connect it with John’s rebuke of the tetrarch’s marriage to Herodias; Josephus places the death at Machaerus and gives a political motive.
c. AD 29 or 32, estimated date The Feeding of the Five Thousand
In a lonely place by the Sea of Galilee, all four Gospels relate, Jesus feeds a crowd of about five thousand with five loaves and two fish. John adds that the crowd wanted to make him king, and the discourse on the bread of life.
c. AD 29 or 32, estimated date Peter’s Confession at Caesarea Philippi
Mark and Matthew tell how, near Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asks his disciples who they say he is, and Peter answers: You are the Christ. Jesus then begins to speak of his coming suffering and death. Matthew adds the saying about the rock and the keys.
c. AD 29 or 32, estimated date The Transfiguration
Mark, Matthew and Luke tell how three disciples on a high mountain see Jesus changed in appearance, his clothes shining white, with Moses and Elijah beside him, and hear a voice from a cloud call him “my beloved Son”. The Gospels do not name the mountain.
AD 30 or 33, estimated date The Raising of Lazarus
John reports that Jesus called his friend Lazarus out of the tomb at Bethany four days after his death. Many believed, and the council in Jerusalem, on the advice of the high priest Caiaphas, resolved that Jesus must die.
AD 30 or 33, estimated date Jesus Enters Jerusalem
A few days before the Passover Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey from the Mount of Olives. Crowds spread cloaks and branches on the road and hail him with words from Psalm 118, as the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
AD 30 or 33, estimated date Jesus Drives the Traders from the Temple
Jesus overturns the tables of the money changers in the temple courts and drives out those buying and selling, calling the place a house of prayer made into a den of robbers. Three Gospels set this in his last week, John at the start of his ministry.
AD 30 or 33, estimated date The Last Supper
On the night before he dies Jesus eats with the twelve in Jerusalem, gives them bread and a cup, calling them his body and his blood of the covenant, and foretells his betrayal. John tells instead how he washed their feet. The Gospels differ on the day.
AD 30 or 33, estimated date Gethsemane and the Arrest
After the supper Jesus prays in distress at Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives while his disciples sleep. Judas arrives with an armed party and identifies him with a kiss. Jesus is seized and the disciples flee.
AD 30 or 33, estimated date The Trials before the Council and Pilate
The Gospels tell how Jesus is questioned before the high priest Caiaphas and the council, judged guilty of blasphemy, and handed in the morning to the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, who has him flogged and orders him crucified as “King of the Jews”.
AD 30 or 33, estimated date The Crucifixion
Jesus is crucified outside Jerusalem at a place called Golgotha, on the order of Pontius Pilate, under the charge “King of the Jews”, and dies the same afternoon. Tacitus mentions the execution, and so does a passage of disputed wording in Josephus.
AD 30 or 33, estimated date The Burial and Resurrection
The Gospels tell that Jesus was buried in a rock tomb on the evening of his death and that on the first day of the week women found the tomb open and empty and were told that he had risen. That God raised him from the dead is the central claim of Christian faith.
AD 30 or 33, estimated date The Appearances and the Great Commission
The Gospels and Paul report that the risen Jesus appeared to his followers, in Jerusalem, on the road to Emmaus and in Galilee, and sent them to make disciples of all nations. The accounts differ on where and in what order.
AD 30 or 33, estimated date The Ascension
Luke reports that the risen Jesus, after telling his apostles to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit, was taken up from the Mount of Olives and hidden by a cloud. Acts places this forty days after the resurrection.
c. AD 30–100
The Apostolic Age
From Pentecost to the death of the last apostles: the gospel spreads from Jerusalem to Rome, Gentiles are admitted, and the New Testament is written.
AD 30 or 33, estimated date Pentecost
At the feast of Pentecost in Jerusalem, Acts says, the Holy Spirit comes on the followers of Jesus, Peter preaches that God has raised Jesus and made him Lord and Christ, and about three thousand people are baptised.
about AD 34, estimated date The Martyrdom of Stephen
Acts tells how Stephen, one of seven men chosen to serve the Jerusalem church, is accused before the council of speaking against the temple and the law and is stoned to death. The persecution that follows scatters the believers beyond Jerusalem.
about AD 34, estimated date The Gospel Reaches Samaria and an Ethiopian Official
Acts tells how Philip, driven from Jerusalem by persecution, preaches in Samaria, where Peter and John follow him, and then baptises an official of the Ethiopian queen on the road to Gaza. In Acts the message here first passes beyond Judea.
c. AD 31–36, estimated date The Conversion of Paul
Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee who is persecuting the followers of Jesus, becomes one of them near Damascus. Acts tells the story three times, and Paul’s own letters speak of it as a revelation of God’s Son and a call to preach to the Gentiles.
about AD 40, estimated date The Baptism of the Gentile Cornelius
Acts tells how Peter, after a vision at Joppa, enters the house of the Roman centurion Cornelius at Caesarea, preaches there, and has him and his household baptised without circumcision, and how the church in Jerusalem accepts what he has done.
about AD 43, estimated date The Church at Antioch, Where Believers Were First Called Christians
Acts tells how believers scattered from Jerusalem begin to preach to non-Jews at Antioch in Syria. Barnabas is sent to them and brings Saul from Tarsus. Acts says that the disciples were first called Christians there and that the church sent famine relief to Judea.
AD 44, firm date Herod Agrippa Kills James and Dies at Caesarea
Acts says that King Herod Agrippa I had the apostle James, son of Zebedee, put to death and imprisoned Peter, who escaped. The king died suddenly at Caesarea. Acts and Josephus both describe his death, and the figures Josephus gives put it in AD 44.
about AD 46 to AD 48, estimated date Paul’s First Missionary Journey
Acts tells how Barnabas and Paul, sent out by the church at Antioch, preach in Cyprus and in the cities of southern Asia Minor, first in the synagogues and then to Gentiles, and found churches there before returning to Antioch.
about AD 49, estimated date The Council of Jerusalem
Acts tells how Paul and Barnabas go up from Antioch to Jerusalem to settle whether Gentile believers must be circumcised, and how the apostles and elders decide that they need not be. Whether the meeting Paul describes in Galatians is the same one is disputed.
about AD 49, estimated date Claudius Expels Jews from Rome
The emperor Claudius orders Jews to leave Rome after disturbances that Suetonius links to one “Chrestus”. Acts names Aquila and Priscilla, whom Paul meets at Corinth, among those who left. Whether “Chrestus” means Christ is disputed.
about AD 49, estimated date Paul Opposes Peter at Antioch
Paul tells the Galatians how Cephas, who had been eating with Gentile believers at Antioch, withdrew when people came from James, and how he rebuked him in front of everyone. Whether this came before or after the council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 is disputed.
about AD 49 to AD 52, estimated date Paul Carries the Gospel into Europe
With Silas and Timothy, Paul crosses from Asia Minor to Macedonia and founds churches at Philippi, Thessalonica and Corinth. Acts brings him before the proconsul Gallio at Corinth, whose year of office an inscription at Delphi puts at about AD 51–52.
about AD 50 to AD 60, estimated date The Letters of Paul
In the course of his missions Paul writes letters to the churches he has founded and to others. On the usual dating they are older than the Gospels. They came to be collected and read alongside the Scriptures.
AD 52, traditional date The Apostle Thomas and the Christians of India
Tradition holds that the apostle Thomas preached in India and died there. The oldest account cited, the Acts of Thomas, sets him at the court of a King Gundaphoros; the tradition of Kerala and Mylapore is attested later. Cosmas reports churches in India about AD 547.
about AD 53 to AD 57, estimated date Paul in Ephesus and the Collection for Jerusalem
Paul works for some three years at Ephesus, then travels through Macedonia and Greece gathering money from his Gentile churches for the poor of Jerusalem, and sets out to deliver it in spite of warnings.
about AD 57 to AD 59, estimated date Paul’s Arrest and Imprisonment at Caesarea
A riot in the temple puts Paul into Roman custody. He is held for two years at Caesarea under the governor Felix, defends himself before Festus and King Agrippa, and appeals to the emperor.
about AD 59 to AD 62, estimated date Paul’s Voyage to Rome
Sent to Italy as a prisoner, Paul is shipwrecked on Malta, winters there and reaches Rome, where he lives for two years under guard and teaches all who come to him. There the book of Acts ends.
AD 62, firm date The Death of James, the Brother of the Lord
While Judaea is between Roman governors, the high priest Ananus has James, the leader of the Jerusalem church, condemned and stoned. Josephus records it within a generation; Christian writers a century later tell a fuller story.
AD 64, firm date The Great Fire of Rome and Nero’s Persecution
Fire destroys much of Rome in July of AD 64. To turn suspicion from himself, the historian Tacitus says, Nero blames the Christians of the city and has them put to death with public cruelty.
c. AD 64–68, traditional date The Martyrdoms of Peter and Paul
The New Testament does not tell how Peter and Paul died. A letter from Rome, usually dated about AD 96, says that both suffered and died for their witness; writers from about AD 170 onwards place their deaths at Rome, and later ones under Nero.
about AD 65 to AD 100, estimated date The Four Gospels Are Written
Four accounts of the words, deeds, death and resurrection of Jesus are written, on the usual dating, in the later first century. None names its author; the names Matthew, Mark, Luke and John come from second-century testimony.
AD 66 to AD 70, firm date The Jewish Revolt and the Destruction of the Temple
Judaea rises against Rome in AD 66. After four years of war Titus takes Jerusalem; the temple is burned, the city is razed, and the daily sacrifice comes to an end.
AD 73 or 74, estimated date The Fall of Masada
Three or four years after Jerusalem fell, the Roman governor Flavius Silva besieges Masada, a rock fortress by the Dead Sea still held by rebels. Josephus says that the defenders killed their families and themselves, 960 dead in all, the night before the Romans entered.
c. AD 50–120, estimated date The Didache, an Early Church Manual
An anonymous handbook, “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles”, sets out for one early community how to live, how to baptize, fast and pray, what to say over the cup and the bread, and how to treat travelling prophets and local leaders.
about AD 95, estimated date John’s Revelation on Patmos
A Christian prophet named John, on the island of Patmos, writes down visions addressed to seven churches of Asia. They show Christ in glory, the fall of the city the book calls Babylon and a new Jerusalem, and become the last book of the New Testament.
about AD 96, estimated date The Roman Church Writes to Corinth (1 Clement)
The church of Rome sends a long letter to the church of Corinth, where presbyters have been removed from office, and tells those responsible to submit to them. It appeals to an order handed down from the apostles and is linked from the second century with the name of Clement.
AD 100–313
The Church under Rome
An illegal and growing minority. Martyrs, apologists and bishops; the rule of faith and the canon of Scripture take shape; the first monks go into the desert.
about AD 110, traditional date Ignatius of Antioch Writes on the Road to Martyrdom
Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, is taken under guard to Rome to be thrown to wild beasts. On the way he writes seven letters that urge unity around the bishop, insist that Christ truly suffered, and ask the Roman Christians not to save him.
about AD 112, estimated date Pliny Asks Trajan How to Treat Christians
The governor of Bithynia and Pontus reports to the emperor on his trials of Christians and on what they do when they meet. Trajan rules that they are not to be hunted out, but are to be punished if accused and convicted.
AD 132 to AD 135, estimated date The Bar Kokhba Revolt and Aelia Capitolina
The Jews of Judaea rise against Rome under Simon bar Kosiba, called Bar Kokhba. Hadrian’s armies crush the revolt at great cost, Jerusalem becomes the Roman colony Aelia Capitolina, and Jews are barred from the city.
about AD 144, traditional date Marcion Breaks with the Roman Church
Marcion of Pontus teaches at Rome that the God of the Jewish scriptures is not the Father of Jesus, and gives his followers one Gospel and ten letters of Paul. By his opponents’ account the Roman church expels him; his followers form churches of their own.
about AD 155 to AD 165, estimated date Justin Martyr Defends the Faith and Describes Its Worship
Justin, a philosopher turned Christian teacher at Rome, addresses a defence of the Christians to the emperor Antoninus Pius and describes their baptism and Sunday Eucharist. Some years later he is tried by the city prefect and beheaded.
c. AD 155–156, estimated date The Martyrdom of Polycarp
Polycarp, the aged bishop of Smyrna, is arrested, refuses before the proconsul to curse Christ, and is burned in the stadium. His church describes his death in a letter and keeps his bones and the anniversary of his death.
c. AD 157–172, estimated date The New Prophecy of Montanus
In Phrygia a convert named Montanus and two women, Priscilla and Maximilla, begin to prophesy in ecstasy and announce a new outpouring of the Spirit. The bishops of Asia reject the movement, which spreads none the less as far as Rome and Africa.
AD 177, estimated date The Martyrs of Lyon and Vienne
Mob violence against the Christians of Lyon and Vienne ends in trials before the governor. The aged bishop Pothinus dies in prison, and the slave Blandina and others are killed in the amphitheatre. The survivors describe it in a letter to Asia.
about AD 180, estimated date Irenaeus Sets Out the Rule of Faith
Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon, writes five books against the followers of Valentinus and Marcion. Against their claim to a secret tradition he sets three public tests: the faith the churches confess, the four Gospels, and the succession of bishops from the apostles.
c. AD 170–200, estimated date The Muratorian List of New Testament Books
A Latin fragment, copied in a manuscript now in Milan, lists the books received in the church as it knew it. It counts four Gospels, Acts and thirteen letters of Paul. If it dates from the late second century, it is the oldest such list to survive.
about AD 197 to AD 220, estimated date Tertullian Writes Christian Theology in Latin
At Carthage Tertullian writes a large body of Christian literature in Latin: a defence of the Christians before Roman governors, attacks on Marcion and other teachers, and a treatise on God as Trinity, three persons of one substance.
about AD 201, estimated date Christianity Takes Root in Edessa
A flood report of November 201, kept in the archives of Edessa, lists a church of the Christians among the buildings destroyed. It is dated evidence of a church in the Syriac-speaking East, where a later tradition traced the church back to a letter from Jesus.
7 March AD 203, estimated date The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity
A group of newly baptised Christians is put to death in the arena in Roman Africa, among them the young mother Perpetua and Felicity, who gave birth in prison. The account preserves Perpetua’s own prison diary and her visions.
about AD 203 to AD 254, estimated date Origen and the School of Alexandria
Origen takes charge of Christian teaching at Alexandria as a young man and spends fifty years on the text and meaning of Scripture, first there and then at Caesarea. He compiles the Hexapla, writes a systematic account of Christian teaching, and dies after torture under Decius.
AD 250, firm date The Decian Persecution
The emperor Decius orders the inhabitants of the empire to sacrifice to the gods and obtain a certificate. Bishops are executed or driven into hiding, many Christians comply, and the churches are left divided over how to receive them back.
AD 251 to AD 258, firm date Cyprian on the Unity of the Church
Faced with rival bishops at Rome and Carthage after the Decian persecution, Cyprian argues that there is one church, held together by one episcopate, outside which there is no salvation. He then defends his view of baptism against the bishop of Rome and dies a martyr in 258.
c. AD 270–285, estimated date Antony Withdraws to the Desert
A young Egyptian Christian hears the words of Jesus to the rich man read in church, gives away his property and withdraws by stages into the desert. Others follow, and the Life written by Athanasius makes him the model of the monk.
AD 301 (traditional) or c. 314, traditional date Armenia Adopts Christianity
King Tiridates of Armenia, by the account of the Armenian church, is converted by Gregory the Illuminator and brings his court and people to baptism. The Armenian church dates this to 301; the story was written down more than a century later.
AD 303 to AD 311, firm date The Great Persecution under Diocletian
In February 303 Diocletian orders churches demolished and Scriptures burned. Further edicts imprison the clergy and require everyone to sacrifice. The persecution is brief in the West and lasts eight years in the East.
30 April AD 311, firm date Galerius Grants Toleration
The emperor Galerius, mortally ill, issues an edict that ends the Great Persecution in his territories. It allows Christians to exist again and to rebuild their meeting places, and asks them to pray for the emperors and the state.
28 October AD 312, firm date Constantine’s Victory at the Milvian Bridge
Constantine defeats Maxentius outside Rome and becomes master of the western empire. Christian writers say that he fought under a sign of Christ shown to him beforehand, in a dream according to Lactantius, in the sky according to the later account of Eusebius.
AD 313–600
Councils and the Christian Empire
Toleration, then establishment. The great councils define the doctrines of the Trinity and of Christ, the canon is fixed, monasticism spreads, and the faith reaches Ethiopia, Persia and Ireland.
AD 313, firm date The Edict of Milan
Constantine and Licinius agree at Milan that Christians and everyone else may worship as they choose. The text that survives is a letter Licinius had posted at Nicomedia in June 313, which also orders confiscated church property returned.
AD 314, firm date The Donatist Schism and the Council of Arles
Two rival bishops claim Carthage after the persecution. One party appeals to Constantine, who refers the case to bishops at Rome and then to a council at Arles. Both find for Caecilian, but the African church is still divided ninety years later.
about AD 320, estimated date Pachomius Founds Communal Monasticism
At Tabennisi in Upper Egypt, Pachomius gathers monks into a walled community with a common rule, shared meals and work, and a single superior. By his death there are several houses of men and women, and his rule is later translated for the West.
May AD 325, firm date The First Council of Nicaea
Constantine gathers some three hundred bishops at Nicaea over the teaching of Arius. They confess the Son to be “of one substance with the Father”, agree a common date for Easter and issue twenty canons. Catholic, Orthodox and Reformation churches still appeal to the council.
c. AD 326–337, estimated date The Conversion of Georgia
Rufinus, about 402, tells how a captive Christian woman brought the king and queen of the Iberians to the faith and how they asked Constantine for clergy. Georgian tradition names her Nino and the king Mirian and sets the story at Mtskheta.
11 May AD 330, firm date Constantine Dedicates Constantinople
Constantine rebuilds Byzantium on the Bosphorus as a new imperial city, names it after himself and dedicates it on 11 May 330. He means it to equal Rome and calls it New Rome, and in 381 its bishop is ranked next after the bishop of Rome.
c. AD 330–356, estimated date King Ezana of Aksum Becomes Christian
Ezana, king of Aksum in the Ethiopian highlands, sets up an inscription that opens in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. A letter of the emperor Constantius II names Frumentius, ordained by Athanasius of Alexandria, as bishop of Aksum.
AD 335, firm date The Church of the Holy Sepulchre Is Dedicated
Constantine has a temple cleared from the site in Jerusalem where a rock tomb is uncovered, and builds a great basilica beside it. Bishops from across the East dedicate it in 335. Later writers add that his mother Helena found the cross there.
about AD 341, estimated date Ulfilas Translates the Bible for the Goths
Ulfilas, bishop of the Christian Goths for forty years, is credited by ancient historians with an alphabet for Gothic and a translation of the Scriptures. He held the Homoian creed, which Nicene writers called Arian. A sixth-century copy of the Gothic Gospels survives at Uppsala.
AD 359 to AD 360, firm date The Councils of Rimini and Seleucia
The emperor Constantius II summons the western bishops to Rimini and the eastern to Seleucia. Under imperial pressure the delegates of both accept a creed that calls the Son like the Father and forbids the Nicene language of substance.
AD 361 to AD 363, firm date Julian Tries to Restore the Old Religion
Julian, a nephew of Constantine, renounces the Christianity in which he was raised, reopens the temples and bars Christians from teaching the classics. He dies on campaign in Persia after less than two years as sole ruler.
AD 367, firm date Athanasius Lists the Twenty-seven Books of the New Testament
In his Easter letter for 367 the bishop of Alexandria sets out which books are Scripture. His New Testament names twenty-seven books, the same that the Council of Trent later listed. He adds a second group of books that are read but are not in the canon.
about AD 370 to AD 381, estimated date The Cappadocians and the Doctrine of the Trinity
Basil of Caesarea, his friend Gregory of Nazianzus and his brother Gregory of Nyssa speak of one divine essence in three persons and defend the deity of the Holy Spirit. The creed of 381 uses kindred language. Basil and his sister Macrina foster monastic life.
27 February AD 380, firm date The Edict of Thessalonica
By an edict issued at Thessalonica, the emperor Theodosius orders all his peoples to hold the faith of the bishops of Rome and Alexandria in the one deity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Christians who believe otherwise are declared heretics.
May AD 381, firm date The First Council of Constantinople
About 150 eastern bishops, summoned by Theodosius, confirm the faith of Nicaea, condemn those who deny the full deity of the Son or of the Spirit, and rank the bishop of Constantinople next after Rome. The creed now recited in most churches bears this council’s name.
c. 382–405, estimated date Jerome Translates the Latin Vulgate
At the request of Pope Damasus, Jerome revises the Latin Gospels against the Greek. At Bethlehem he then translates the Old Testament from Hebrew, book by book, over more than a decade. His version became the common Bible of the Latin West.
AD 386, firm date The Conversion of Augustine
In a garden at Milan the African teacher of rhetoric Augustine, after years of hesitation, reads a sentence of Paul and resolves to seek baptism. He tells the story himself in the Confessions. Ambrose baptises him the following Easter.
AD 390, estimated date Ambrose Calls an Emperor to Penance
After Theodosius orders a massacre at Thessalonica, Ambrose of Milan writes that he cannot celebrate the eucharist in the emperor’s presence until he repents. Theodosius does public penance. Later writers add a confrontation at the church door that is not in the letter.
AD 393 to AD 397, firm date African Councils List the Books of Scripture
The bishops of Roman Africa, meeting at Hippo in 393 and Carthage in 397, rule that only canonical Scripture may be read in church and list its books: a New Testament of twenty-seven books and an Old Testament that includes Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach and Maccabees.
AD 398 to AD 407, firm date John Chrysostom, Preacher and Exile
John, a presbyter of Antioch known for his preaching, is made bishop of Constantinople in 398. His reforms and his plain speaking make enemies among the clergy and at court. A synod deposes him, the emperor banishes him twice, and he dies in exile in 407.
1 February AD 410, firm date The Church of the East Organises at Seleucia-Ctesiphon
With the leave of the Persian king Yazdegerd I, forty bishops of his empire meet in the capital under Isaac, bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon. They accept the creed and canons of Nicaea and set their church in order under one head, the catholicos.
August AD 410, firm date The Sack of Rome and Augustine’s City of God
Alaric’s Goths take and plunder Rome in August 410. Pagans blame the disaster on the abandonment of the old gods. Augustine answers with the City of God, twenty-two books on the two cities, the earthly and the heavenly, written over a number of years.
AD 411 to AD 418, estimated date Augustine and Pelagius Dispute over Grace
The monk Pelagius teaches that God made human nature able to choose the good and commands nothing impossible. Augustine answers that fallen nature can do no good without the grace of Christ. African councils and the bishops of Rome condemn Pelagius’s teaching in 418.
June AD 431, firm date The Council of Ephesus
A council led by Cyril of Alexandria deposes Nestorius of Constantinople and upholds the title Theotokos, God-bearer, for Mary. The bishops of Antioch dissent until 433. The council long divides the Church of the East, beyond the Roman frontier, from the churches that receive it.
c. AD 432–461 or 493 (traditional), traditional date Patrick’s Mission to Ireland
Patrick, a Briton once enslaved in Ireland, returns there as a bishop and stays for life, baptising and ordaining clergy. Almost all that is known of him comes from his own two writings; his dates rest on annals compiled much later.
August AD 449, firm date The Second Council of Ephesus
A council under Dioscorus of Alexandria restores the monk Eutyches and deposes Flavian of Constantinople and other bishops as followers of Nestorius. The emperor confirms it; Leo of Rome rejects it as a meeting of robbers. Chalcedon overturns it two years later.
October AD 451, firm date The Council of Chalcedon
A council called by the emperor Marcian confesses Christ as one person in two natures, divine and human, and ranks Constantinople next after Rome. The Greek and Latin churches receive it; the Coptic, Syriac Orthodox, Armenian and Ethiopian churches do not.
AD 476, firm date The End of the Western Roman Empire
The general Odoacer deposes the boy emperor Romulus Augustulus at Ravenna and rules Italy as king. No Western emperor follows, and the bishops of Rome begin to deal with distant emperors and with kings of another confession.
AD 482 to AD 519, firm date The Henotikon and the Acacian Schism
The emperor Zeno tries to reunite the supporters and opponents of Chalcedon with a statement of faith that neither adopts nor expressly condemns the council. Rome answers by declaring Acacius of Constantinople deposed, and the two sees stay out of communion for thirty-five years.
c. AD 496–508, estimated date The Baptism of Clovis
Clovis, king of the Franks, is baptised a Catholic Christian by Bishop Remigius of Reims, with many of his warriors. Unlike the Burgundian and Visigothic kings, who were Arians, he shares the faith of his Gallo-Roman subjects and their bishops.
AD 523 (or 518), estimated date The Martyrs of Najran
Yusuf, the Jewish king of Himyar in south Arabia, makes war on the Christian town of Najran. Syriac writers report that he put its leading men, with their chief Harith (Arethas), and many women to death. Kaleb, king of Aksum, then crosses the sea and overthrows him.
c. AD 530–550, estimated date Benedict Writes His Rule
Benedict of Nursia, abbot of Monte Cassino, writes a rule for monks living in community under an abbot, with a day divided between common prayer, reading and manual work. It later becomes the standard rule of Western monasteries.
27 December AD 537, firm date Justinian Builds Hagia Sophia
After rioters burn the cathedral of Constantinople in 532, the emperor Justinian rebuilds it as a vast domed church, dedicated on 27 December 537. In the same years he sets out in law his view of priesthood and empire as two gifts of God.
about AD 542 to AD 578, estimated date Jacob Baradaeus and the Syriac Orthodox Church
When the opponents of Chalcedon are short of bishops, the empress Theodora has the monk Jacob consecrated. John of Ephesus, his admirer, tells how he travelled the East for over thirty years, hunted by the emperor’s agents, ordaining clergy and bishops for a separate church.
about AD 543 to AD 580, estimated date The Conversion of the Nubian Kingdoms
John of Ephesus tells how the empress Theodora sent the priest Julian to the Nobadae on the Nile south of Egypt ahead of her husband’s envoys, so that they were baptised into the church that rejected Chalcedon, and how the bishop Longinus later baptised the king of Alodia.
AD 553, firm date The Second Council of Constantinople
A council called by the emperor Justinian condemns the “Three Chapters”, writings of three theologians linked with Nestorius, and restates the faith of Chalcedon in fourteen anathemas. Pope Vigilius first refuses and then accepts; parts of the West resist for decades.
AD 563, estimated date Columba Founds Iona
The Irish priest and abbot Columba crosses to Britain and founds a monastery on the island of Iona. From it he preaches among the Picts, and it becomes the mother house of a family of monasteries in Ireland and Britain.
8 May AD 589, firm date The Visigoths Turn Catholic at Toledo
At Toledo in 589 King Reccared and the Gothic bishops and nobles renounce Arianism for the Nicene faith. The king’s profession says that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, and the council orders the creed recited at every mass.
AD 590 to AD 604, firm date Gregory the Great and the Mission to the English
Gregory I, a monk made pope against his will, governs the Roman church from 590 to 604, writes the Pastoral Rule, refuses the title of universal bishop and sends the monk Augustine to convert the English of Kent.
AD 600–1054
The Early Middle Ages
The Mediterranean world breaks apart. Islam rises, missionaries carry the faith to northern and eastern Europe and to China, and Greek East and Latin West drift toward schism.
AD 635, estimated date The Church of the East Reaches China
A monk named Aluoben (Alopen) brings Christian scriptures to the Tang capital Chang’an. In 638 the emperor Taizong licenses the teaching and has a monastery built. A stele of 781 tells the story.
AD 637/638, estimated date Jerusalem Surrenders to the Caliph Umar
Later Christian and Muslim historians tell how Jerusalem, after a siege, was yielded on terms to the caliph Umar; the Christian account names the patriarch Sophronius. One Muslim historian quotes the written guarantee given to its people and churches.
AD 664, firm date The Synod of Whitby
At Hilda’s monastery of Whitby, King Oswiu of Northumbria hears the Irish and the Roman parties argue over the date of Easter and decides for Rome, citing Peter’s keys. Bishop Colman and his followers leave for Iona and Ireland.
AD 680 to AD 681, firm date The Third Council of Constantinople
A council called by the emperor Constantine IV defines that Christ has two wills and two operations, divine and human, never opposed. It condemns the teaching of one will and those who had upheld it, among them four patriarchs of Constantinople and Pope Honorius.
AD 719–754, estimated date Boniface, Apostle to the Germans
The English monk Winfrid, renamed Boniface, is sent by Pope Gregory II to preach east of the Rhine. He fells the sacred oak at Geismar, founds bishoprics and the abbey of Fulda, reforms the Frankish church under Roman authority, and is killed in Frisia.
AD 726–730, estimated date The Iconoclast Controversy Begins
The emperor Leo III moves against religious images, and the patriarch Germanus resigns rather than consent. John of Damascus writes in their defence from outside the empire. In 754 a council under Leo’s son condemns images as contrary to the doctrine of Christ.
AD 731, firm date Bede Completes His Ecclesiastical History
At Wearmouth-Jarrow the monk Bede finishes a history of the English church in five books, dated by years from the birth of Christ and built on named sources. He lists his other works, mostly on Scripture, and dies four years later while translating John’s Gospel.
AD 754 to AD 756, firm date The Donation of Pepin and the Papal States
Threatened by the Lombards and unaided by the emperor, Pope Stephen II crosses the Alps to the Frankish king Pepin. Pepin defeats the Lombards and gives Ravenna and its cities not to the emperor but to St Peter, making the pope a ruler of territory.
AD 787, firm date The Second Council of Nicaea Restores Icons
A council called by the empress Irene and led by the patriarch Tarasius, with legates of Pope Hadrian I, overturns the iconoclast council of 754. It decrees that images are to be set up and honoured, and that worship in the full sense belongs to God alone.
AD 789, firm date Charlemagne’s Reform of Church and Learning
In the General Admonition of 789 Charlemagne orders the clergy of his kingdom to keep the canons, preach the faith, sing the Roman chant, open schools and copy books correctly. With Alcuin and other scholars he has the text of the Bible revised.
25 December AD 800, firm date Charlemagne Is Crowned Emperor
On Christmas Day 800, in St Peter’s at Rome, Pope Leo III sets a crown on the head of the Frankish king Charles and the Romans acclaim him emperor. The sources of the time disagree about who planned it and whether the king wished it.
AD 829 to AD 831, estimated date Ansgar’s Mission to Scandinavia
The monk Ansgar is sent from the Frankish court to the Danes and then to the Swedish trading town of Birka, and becomes the first archbishop of Hamburg. His churches are few and fragile, and depend on the leave of kings.
11 March AD 843, estimated date The Triumph of Orthodoxy
After the death of the iconoclast emperor Theophilus, his widow Theodora and the new patriarch Methodios restore the veneration of icons at Constantinople. The day is kept each year on the first Sunday of Lent.
AD 863 to AD 885, estimated date Cyril and Methodius among the Slavs
Two brothers from Thessalonica, sent from Constantinople to Moravia, give the Slavs an alphabet, the Scriptures and the liturgy in their own language. Rome’s attitude to the Slavonic liturgy shifts from approval to prohibition and back, and ends in a ban.
AD 863 to AD 867, estimated date The Photian Schism
Pope Nicholas I refuses to recognize Photius as patriarch of Constantinople and declares him deposed; Photius denounces Latin teaching in Bulgaria, the filioque above all, and his council condemns the pope. The breach is healed, but its arguments return.
AD 864–866, estimated date The Baptism of Boris and the Conversion of Bulgaria
Boris, ruler of the Bulgars, accepts baptism from Constantinople and takes the name Michael. He puts down a revolt of his nobles, then asks the pope for bishops, and his country becomes a prize in the quarrel between Rome and Constantinople.
November AD 879 – March 880, firm date The Council of Constantinople Restores Photius
A council at Constantinople, with legates of Pope John VIII, recognizes Photius as patriarch, rejects the council that had condemned him ten years earlier and forbids any change to the creed. Orthodox documents count it among the councils of universal authority.
11 September AD 910, estimated date The Founding of Cluny
Duke William of Aquitaine gives his estate at Cluny for a monastery under the Rule of Benedict and renounces every right over it, placing it under the apostles Peter and Paul and the protection of the pope.
February AD 962, firm date Otto I Is Crowned Emperor
Called into Italy by Pope John XII, the German king Otto I is crowned emperor at Rome and confirms the papal territories, while requiring each new pope to make a promise before the emperor’s envoys. Within two years he has the pope deposed.
AD 963 to AD 972, estimated date The Great Lavra and the Monastic Republic of Athos
With the backing of the general and emperor Nikephoros Phokas, the monk Athanasius builds the Great Lavra on Mount Athos as a self-governing monastery. A few years later an imperial charter gives all the monks of the Mountain a common rule.
AD 966, estimated date The Baptism of Mieszko I of Poland
Mieszko, duke of the Poles, marries the Bohemian princess Dobrawa and is baptized, and his people follow him. The annals of the Kraków chapter date the baptism to 966. In 1000 the emperor Otto III founds an archbishopric at Gniezno.
AD 988/989, estimated date The Baptism of Rus’
Vladimir, prince of Kyiv, accepts baptism from Constantinople and marries the emperor’s sister. The chronicle of Kyiv tells of a choice among faiths and of his people baptized in the Dnieper; Greek and Arabic writers tell of an alliance.
AD 999/1000, estimated date Iceland Adopts Christianity by Law
At the Althing the pagan lawspeaker Thorgeir, asked to settle the dispute between Christians and heathens, rules that all Icelanders shall be baptized and live under one law, with a few old customs allowed for a time.
AD 1000 or 1001, estimated date Stephen I and the Christian Kingdom of Hungary
Stephen, ruler of the Hungarians, defeats pagan rebels, founds bishoprics with Esztergom at their head, and is crowned king. A writer of his own day credits the emperor Otto III; a Life written a century later says that the pope sent the crown.
16 July 1054, firm date The Schism of 1054
Legates of the Roman see excommunicate the patriarch of Constantinople in Hagia Sophia, and his synod anathematizes them in return. The sentences name persons, not churches, but later ages take the day as the breach between East and West.
1054–1500
The High and Late Middle Ages
Papal reform, crusades, universities and friars; then schism, calls for reform, and the fall of Constantinople. Printing puts the Bible into new hands.
1075 to 1077, firm date The Investiture Controversy and Canossa
Pope Gregory VII and King Henry IV of Germany break over the appointment of bishops. Deposed and excommunicated in 1076, Henry comes as a barefoot penitent to the castle of Canossa in January 1077 and is absolved. The conflict goes on.
about 1078 to 1098, estimated date Anselm: Faith Seeking Understanding
Anselm, monk of Bec and later archbishop of Canterbury, sets out to understand by reason what he already believes. The Proslogion argues that God cannot be thought not to exist; Cur Deus Homo argues that only a God-man could make satisfaction for sin.
1095 to 1099, firm date The First Crusade
In 1095 Pope Urban II calls the knights of the West to go east in arms for the remission of their sins. Four years later the armies storm Jerusalem and massacre its defenders and inhabitants, as their own writers report.
1098 to 1115, estimated date The Cistercians and Bernard of Clairvaux
In 1098 monks from Molesme found a “New Monastery” at Cîteaux to keep the Rule of Benedict to the letter, in poverty and by their own labour. Bernard joins with some thirty companions and becomes abbot of Clairvaux, and daughter houses multiply.
23 September 1122, firm date The Concordat of Worms
Pope Callixtus II and Emperor Henry V end the dispute over investiture. The emperor gives up investing bishops with ring and staff and allows free election; the pope lets him be present at elections in Germany and confer the bishop’s worldly holdings by the sceptre.
about 1150 to 1215, estimated date The Schools Become Universities
The schools of twelfth-century Paris grow into a self-governing body of masters and students, and an emperor’s law protects travelling scholars. Abelard, Gratian and Peter Lombard supply a method and books; kings and popes grant privileges.
29 December 1170, firm date The Murder of Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, back from six years of exile for resisting Henry II’s claims over the church, is cut down by four knights in his own cathedral. He is venerated as a martyr, and the king does public penance at his tomb.
about 1173, estimated date Waldo and the Poor of Lyon
A rich citizen of Lyon gives away his wealth and begins to preach with his followers in voluntary poverty. The pope approves the poverty and restricts the preaching; when they preach on, they are condemned. The early accounts used here all come from critics of the movement.
March 1179, firm date The Third Lateran Council
Alexander III holds a general council at the Lateran at the end of a papal schism. It requires two thirds of the cardinals to elect a pope, orders a schoolmaster for every cathedral, and calls the faithful to arms against heretics and mercenary bands.
about 1200, traditional date The Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela
In the highlands of Ethiopia a group of churches is cut whole out of the living rock. Ethiopian tradition ascribes them to the saint-king Lalibela, about 1200; the written sources are late, and archaeologists still debate how long the work took.
April 1204, firm date The Fourth Crusade Sacks Constantinople
A crusading army, carried by a Venetian fleet it cannot pay for, turns on Constantinople, storms it and plunders its churches. Pope Innocent III condemns the sack, but a Latin emperor is installed and the conquest stands.
about 1209, estimated date Francis of Assisi and the Friars Minor
Francis of Assisi gives up his property to live by the Gospel in poverty, gathers brothers and wins the approval of Pope Innocent III. Clare founds a sister community, and in 1223 Honorius III confirms the Rule of the Friars Minor.
1209 to 1229, firm date The Albigensian Crusade
After a papal legate is murdered, Innocent III calls for arms against the count of Toulouse and the heretics of his lands. Crusaders sack Béziers in 1209, and twenty years of war end with the count’s heir submitting to the church and the French crown.
November 1215, firm date The Fourth Lateran Council
Innocent III gathers more than four hundred bishops in Rome. The council issues a creed that speaks of bread and wine “transubstantiated”, orders measures against heresy and yearly confession, and requires Jews and Muslims to wear distinguishing dress.
22 December 1216, firm date Dominic Founds the Order of Preachers
Dominic, a Spanish canon who had spent nearly ten years preaching against heresy in southern France, gathers a community at Toulouse. Pope Honorius III confirms it in December 1216, and within five years its friars are in Paris, Bologna and Spain.
1231, firm date The Papal Inquisition Is Established
Gregory IX issues statutes against heretics and commissions Dominican friars to seek them out, try them and hand the unrepentant to the secular power. Papal inquisitors begin work at Toulouse; in 1252 Innocent IV orders the cities of northern Italy to force confessions.
1245 to 1307, firm date Franciscan Envoys to the Mongols and the Church of Khanbaliq
Innocent IV sends Franciscans to the Mongol khan in 1245 and is told in reply to come and submit. William of Rubruck debates before the khan’s umpires at the Mongol court in 1254. By 1305 John of Montecorvino has a church and a choir in Khanbaliq.
about 1265 to 1273, estimated date Thomas Aquinas Writes the Summa Theologiae
The Dominican friar Thomas Aquinas, pupil of Albert the Great and master at Paris, sets out theology in three parts, in questions and articles, drawing on Scripture, church doctors and philosophers. He stops writing at Naples in December 1273 and dies three months later.
May 1274, firm date The Second Council of Lyon
Gregory X holds a general council at Lyon, where envoys of the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII accept the Roman faith and primacy. The council also fixes the rules of the papal conclave. After the emperor’s death the Greek church repudiates the union.
1287 to 1288, firm date Rabban Sauma, a Monk from Beijing, Visits Rome and Paris
Rabban Sauma, a monk of the Church of the East born in Khanbaliq, comes west as envoy of the Mongol king Arghun. He recites his creed to the cardinals in Rome, meets the kings of France and England, and in 1288 receives communion from Pope Nicholas IV.
18 November 1302, firm date Boniface VIII Issues Unam Sanctam
In his conflict with Philip IV of France, Pope Boniface VIII declares that the church has one head, that the temporal sword is subject to the spiritual, and that it is necessary for salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Roman pontiff.
1309 to 1377, estimated date The Popes at Avignon
After the election of a Gascon pope in 1305 the papal court settles at Avignon on the Rhône and stays for some seventy years. Petrarch calls it Babylon; Catherine of Siena urges Gregory XI to come home, and he returns to Rome in 1377.
c. 1337–1345, estimated date Sergius of Radonezh and the Trinity Monastery
A young man from a ruined Rostov family settles in the forest near Radonezh and builds a small church of the Trinity. The community that gathers round him adopts the common life and grows into the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
1341 to 1351, firm date Gregory Palamas and the Hesychast Councils
Councils at Constantinople in 1341 and 1351 uphold the monk Gregory Palamas against Barlaam. God’s essence is beyond reach, they teach, but his uncreated energies, seen as the light of Tabor, are shared by the saints. The Orthodox Church holds this teaching as its own.
1347 to 1351, estimated date The Black Death
Plague spreads through Europe, reaching Florence, Avignon and Paris in 1348. Priests and friars die with the rest or flee. Jews are accused of poisoning the wells and burned, though Pope Clement VI calls the charge false. In 1349 he bans the flagellants.
1378 to 1417, firm date The Great Western Schism
The cardinals who elect Urban VI at Rome in 1378 declare the election forced and set up Clement VII. For nearly forty years two and then three lines of popes divide Latin Christendom, until at Constance two are deposed, one resigns and Martin V is elected.
about 1382, estimated date Wycliffe and the First English Bible
The teaching of the Oxford theologian John Wycliffe is condemned at London in 1382. A hostile chronicler says that he put the Gospel into English; the whole Bible is translated in those decades, and a constitution of 1409 forbids such versions without a bishop’s approval.
1384 to 1441, firm date The Devotio Moderna and the Imitation of Christ
Geert Groote of Deventer gives up his benefices and preaches repentance. After his death in 1384 his followers form houses that live in common by copying books, and a monastery at Windesheim. In 1441 Thomas à Kempis, one of them, writes out the Imitation of Christ.
1414 to 1418, firm date The Council of Constance and the Burning of Jan Hus
A general council ends the papal schism, declares that even a pope must obey it, and orders councils to meet at fixed intervals. It also tries the Czech preacher Jan Hus, who had come under the king’s safe-conduct, and hands him over to be burned on 6 July 1415.
1419 to 1436, firm date The Hussites and the Compacts of Basel
After the burning of Jan Hus, Praguers and Taborites defend the lay chalice in arms. A crusade proclaimed by Martin V fails before Prague in 1420, the city states its demands in Four Articles, and in 1436 legates of the Council of Basel concede the chalice at Jihlava.
30 May 1431, firm date The Trial of Joan of Arc
A church court at Rouen under Bishop Pierre Cauchon tries Joan of Arc for heresy, and on 30 May 1431 she is burned as relapsed. In 1456 judges appointed by Pope Callixtus III declare that trial and its sentences null. Both verdicts are known from the courts’ own records.
6 July 1439, firm date The Council of Florence Proclaims Reunion
Pope Eugene IV and the Byzantine emperor John VIII proclaim the reunion of the Latin and Greek churches at Florence on 6 July 1439, in a decree affirming the Filioque and papal primacy. Mark of Ephesus refuses to sign, and the union finds little acceptance in Constantinople.
29 May 1453, firm date The Fall of Constantinople
After a siege of some eight weeks the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II takes Constantinople on 29 May 1453. The last emperor, Constantine XI, dies in the fighting, Hagia Sophia becomes a mosque, and the sultan makes the anti-unionist monk Gennadius patriarch.
c. 1454–1455, estimated date Gutenberg Prints the Bible
At Mainz in the mid-1450s the Latin Bible is printed from movable metal type in an edition of well over a hundred copies, the first large book so made in Europe. A visitor who saw sheets of it in 1454 reported that every copy was sold before the work was finished.
1478 to 1492, firm date The Spanish Inquisition and the Expulsion of the Jews
In 1478 Sixtus IV lets Ferdinand and Isabella appoint inquisitors against baptised Jews said to keep Jewish rites. Burnings begin at Seville in 1481; in 1482 the pope writes of complaints against the inquisitors. In 1492 the monarchs order all Jews to leave their kingdoms.
3 May 1491, firm date The King of Kongo Is Baptised
On 3 May 1491 the king of Kongo is baptised at his court by Portuguese friars and takes the name João. The account is Portuguese. A generation later his son Afonso I writes as a Christian king, asking Lisbon for priests and protesting against the trade in his people.
1493, firm date Christianity Crosses the Atlantic
In 1493 Pope Alexander VI grants the lands Columbus has found to the crown of Castile and charges it to convert their peoples. A second fleet carries priests to Hispaniola, where mass is said in January 1494 and a friar, Ramón Pané, records the first baptisms.
1500–1650
The Reformation
Western Christianity divides. Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, the Anabaptists and the English church break with Rome; Trent renews Catholicism; missions reach Asia and the Americas.
1516, firm date Erasmus Publishes the Greek New Testament
In 1516 the Basel printer Johann Froben issues Erasmus’s Novum Instrumentum, the New Testament in Greek with a revised Latin version and notes, dedicated to Pope Leo X. Its preface wishes Scripture translated into every language.
31 October 1517, firm date Luther’s Ninety-five Theses
On 31 October 1517 Martin Luther sends the archbishop of Mainz ninety-five theses questioning what indulgences can do. Whether he also posted them on the Castle Church at Wittenberg that day is disputed. The controversy that follows becomes the Reformation.
1520 to 1521, firm date Luther Is Excommunicated and Outlawed at Worms
Leo X condemns forty-one of Luther’s propositions in 1520 and excommunicates him in January 1521. Before Charles V at Worms that April, Luther refuses to retract unless convinced by Scripture or evident reason. An imperial edict outlaws him, and he is hidden in a Saxon castle.
1522 to 1534, firm date Luther Translates the Bible into German
In hiding over the winter of 1521–22, Luther translates the New Testament into German; it is printed at Wittenberg in September 1522. The Old Testament follows in parts, and the complete Bible appears in 1534.
29 January 1523, firm date Zwingli and the Reformation in Zurich
Zwingli, preacher at Zurich’s Great Minster, defends his teaching in sixty-seven articles before the city council on 29 January 1523. The council rules that he is to go on preaching, and by Easter 1525 it has abolished the mass in the city.
1524 to 1525, firm date The German Peasants’ War
In 1525 peasants in Swabia, Franconia and Thuringia rise, arguing their demands from the gospel in twelve printed articles. Luther first blames lords and peasants alike, then urges the rulers to strike the rebels down. Thomas Müntzer is taken at Frankenhausen in May.
21 January 1525, firm date The First Anabaptists
In January 1525 former followers of Zwingli at Zurich begin to baptise adults on confession of faith. The council answers with banishment and, from 1526, with death by drowning; Felix Manz is drowned in 1527. The Schleitheim articles of that year state what they believed.
1526, firm date Tyndale’s English New Testament
William Tyndale, unable to work in England, has his English New Testament printed at Worms in 1526. The bishop of London bans it and Thomas More writes against it. Tyndale is strangled and burned at Vilvoorde in 1536.
19 April 1529, firm date The Protestation at Speyer
At the diet of Speyer in April 1529 the majority revokes the latitude that the diet of 1526 had left to each ruler in religion. A group of princes and fourteen cities enter a formal protest, holding that in matters of salvation each must answer to God for himself.
1 October 1529, firm date Luther and Zwingli Meet at Marburg
In October 1529 Philip of Hesse brings Luther and Zwingli together at Marburg. They sign fourteen articles of agreement and a fifteenth recording that they could not agree whether Christ’s body and blood are bodily present in the bread and wine.
25 June 1530, firm date The Augsburg Confession
At the Diet of Augsburg seven princes and two cities present the emperor Charles V with a statement of their faith in twenty-eight articles, drawn up by Philip Melanchthon. Lutheran princes and cities bind themselves to it again in the Book of Concord of 1580.
1531, traditional date Our Lady of Guadalupe
A Nahuatl account printed in 1649 tells how the Virgin Mary appeared in December 1531 to Juan Diego on the hill of Tepeyac and left her image on his cloak. The Catholic Church has approved the devotion and in 2002 declared Juan Diego a saint.
1534, firm date England Breaks with Rome
Parliament forbids appeals to Rome and in 1534 declares Henry VIII the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England. John Fisher and Thomas More, who deny the title, are beheaded in 1535.
1536 to 1541, firm date Calvin’s Institutes and the Reform of Geneva
John Calvin, a French exile, publishes the Institutes of the Christian Religion at Basel in 1536 and is kept in Geneva by Guillaume Farel. Banished in 1538, he returns in 1541, and the city adopts the church ordinances he asked for.
2 June 1537, firm date Rome Declares the Peoples of the Americas Free
In the bull Sublimis Deus Pope Paul III declares that the peoples of the Americas are truly human, capable of the Christian faith, and not to be enslaved or deprived of their property. Las Casas and the Crown’s own laws show that enslavement went on.
27 September 1540, firm date The Society of Jesus Is Founded
Pope Paul III approves the Society of Jesus, a company of ten priests, masters of the University of Paris, led by Ignatius of Loyola. Its members vow poverty, chastity and obedience, with a special vow to go wherever the pope sends them.
1542 to 1552, firm date Francis Xavier in India and Japan
The Jesuit Francis Xavier lands at Goa in 1542, teaches and baptizes among the Christians of Cape Comorin, and in 1549 carries the Christian message to Japan with the Japanese convert Anjiro. He dies in 1552 on an island off China.
1545 to 1563, firm date The Council of Trent
In twenty-five sessions spread over eighteen years, the Catholic bishops assembled at Trent define their church’s teaching on Scripture and tradition, justification and the sacraments, and decree a reform of the clergy.
1549 to 1552, firm date The Book of Common Prayer
Parliament orders one English service book, drawn up under the archbishop of Canterbury, to be used in every church in England from Pentecost 1549. A revised book, which no longer calls the communion the Mass, follows in 1552.
25 September 1555, firm date The Peace of Augsburg
The imperial diet at Augsburg makes a lasting peace between the estates of the old religion and those of the Augsburg Confession. Each estate keeps its religion in its own lands; subjects who dissent may emigrate; all other confessions are excluded.
1555 to 1558, firm date The Burning of Protestants under Mary I
Under Mary I, Parliament returns England to obedience to Rome and revives the medieval heresy laws. From 1555 to 1558 Protestants who will not recant are burned, among them the bishops Latimer, Ridley and Cranmer. John Foxe’s book records them as martyrs.
1559, firm date The Elizabethan Settlement
Elizabeth I’s first Parliament ends the pope’s jurisdiction in England, makes the queen supreme governor of the church and restores the Prayer Book. In 1570 the pope excommunicates her, and new laws make Catholic priests and those reconciled to Rome traitors.
August 1560, firm date The Scottish Reformation
In August 1560 the Scottish Parliament, meeting while its Catholic queen is in France, ratifies a Protestant confession of faith written by John Knox and his colleagues, ends the pope’s jurisdiction and forbids the mass.
24 August 1562, firm date Teresa of Ávila Reforms Carmel
In 1562 the Carmelite nun Teresa founds the small, enclosed and unendowed convent of St Joseph at Ávila to keep her order’s rule in its early strictness. More houses follow, friars join the reform, among them John of the Cross, and both leave writings on prayer.
19 January 1563, firm date The Heidelberg Catechism
In January 1563 the elector Frederick III issues a catechism for the churches and schools of the Palatinate. Its 129 questions, beginning with the believer’s ‘only comfort in life and in death’, become a confession of Reformed churches.
25 February 1570, firm date Regnans in Excelsis and the Execution of Catholic Priests under Elizabeth I
In 1570 Pope Pius V declares Elizabeth I deposed. Parliament makes reconciliation with Rome treason, and priests such as the Jesuit Edmund Campion are executed: as traitors, says the government; for their religion, say Catholic writers.
24 August 1572, firm date The St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre
After the king’s Catholic sister marries the Protestant Henry of Navarre, the Huguenot leader Coligny is shot in Paris. From 24 August 1572 he and thousands of French Protestants are killed there and in other towns. Accounts of who decided it differed from the first.
25 June 1580, firm date The Book of Concord
After years of disputes among Lutherans following Luther’s death, six theologians sign the Formula of Concord in 1577. In 1580 Lutheran electors, princes and cities publish it with the Augsburg Confession, Luther’s catechisms and the ancient creeds as one Book of Concord.
26 January 1589, firm date Moscow Becomes a Patriarchate
In January 1589 Jeremias II of Constantinople, visiting Russia, installs Metropolitan Job as the first patriarch of Moscow. A council at Constantinople confirms it in 1590 and ranks Moscow fifth. The tsar’s charter calls the Russian realm the Third Rome.
October 1596, firm date The Union of Brest
In 1595 the metropolitan of Kiev and most of his bishops, Orthodox subjects of the Polish king, offer union with Rome on thirty-three conditions. Clement VIII receives them, and the union is proclaimed at Brest in 1596. Other bishops and Prince Ostrogski stay outside it.
1597 to 1614, firm date The Martyrs of Nagasaki and the Ban on Christianity in Japan
In 1597 the Japanese ruler Hideyoshi has twenty-six Christians, foreign friars and Japanese converts, crucified at Nagasaki. In 1614 the Tokugawa government orders Christianity suppressed throughout Japan as a threat to the country of the gods and of Buddha.
April 1598, firm date The Edict of Nantes
Henry IV of France issues an edict to settle the civil wars over religion. It restores Catholic worship throughout the kingdom and gives the Reformed freedom of conscience, worship in named places, access to offices and courts in which they are represented.
1599 to 1653, firm date The Synod of Diamper and the Coonan Cross Oath
In June 1599 the archbishop of Goa holds a synod at Diamper that binds the Thomas Christians of Malabar to Rome and cuts their tie to the patriarch of Babylon. In 1653 many of them swear to obey their Jesuit archbishop no longer, and the community divides.
24 January 1601, firm date Matteo Ricci at the Court of Beijing
The Jesuit Matteo Ricci reaches Beijing in January 1601 with gifts for the Wanli emperor and is allowed to stay. He writes a catechism that argues from reason and the Chinese classics, and scholars such as Xu Guangqi are baptized and work with him.
1609, estimated date The First Baptist Congregations
English Separatists in Amsterdam, led by John Smyth, reject infant baptism and found their church anew by baptizing believers on confession of faith. Thomas Helwys leads part of the group back to London and argues that no king has power over conscience.
1611, firm date The King James Bible
A new English translation of the Bible, asked for at the Hampton Court conference of 1604 and made by companies of scholars at Westminster, Oxford and Cambridge, is published in London in 1611 by command of James I and appointed to be read in churches.
1618 to 1648, firm date The Thirty Years’ War and the Peace of Westphalia
A revolt of Bohemian Protestants in 1618 grows into a war that draws in all Germany and its neighbours. The treaties of Osnabrück and Münster in 1648 fix the rights of Catholics, Lutherans and Reformed in the Empire by the year 1624; the pope declares those articles void.
1618 to 1619, firm date The Synod of Dort
A national synod of the Dutch Reformed churches, with delegates from Britain, Germany and Switzerland, judges the five articles of the Remonstrants, the followers of Arminius. Its Canons set out the Reformed teaching on predestination and grace in five heads.
1620, firm date The Pilgrims Land at Plymouth
Part of an English Separatist congregation that had lived in exile at Leiden sails to New England in 1620, forms itself into a civil body by a written covenant, and founds Plymouth. Half die in the first winter; a peace is made with the sachem Massasoit.
1622 to 1632, firm date Susenyos, the Jesuits and the Ethiopian Church
Emperor Susenyos of Ethiopia professes the Roman faith under Jesuit guidance and in 1626 swears obedience to the pope. After years of revolt he restores the faith of Alexandria in 1632, and under his son Fasilides the Jesuits are sent out of the country.
22 June 1633, firm date The Trial of Galileo
The Roman Inquisition judges Galileo vehemently suspected of heresy for holding that the earth moves round the sun, bans his Dialogue and makes him abjure. He is confined to his house near Florence, where he dies in 1642.
1643 to 1649, firm date The Westminster Confession
An assembly of divines called by the English Parliament in 1643, joined by commissioners from Scotland, draws up a confession of faith and catechisms. The Church of Scotland approves the Confession in 1647, and the Scottish Parliament ratifies it in 1690.
1650–1900
Enlightenment, Awakenings and Missions
Toleration and revolution change the place of the churches in society. Pietism, Methodism and the awakenings renew them, and missions carry Christianity to every continent.
1652, firm date George Fox and the Quakers
In 1652 George Fox preaches across the north of England that Christ has come to teach his people himself, without priest, tithe or consecrated building. Margaret Fell’s house at Swarthmoor becomes the meeting place of the people their opponents call Quakers.
1652 to 1667, firm date Nikon’s Reforms and the Old Believer Schism
Patriarch Nikon of Moscow brings Russian service books and rites into line with Greek usage. The archpriest Avvakum and others refuse the changes as a break with the faith of their fathers, a council of 1667 anathematises those who resist, and the Russian church divides.
1653 to 1713, firm date Jansenism and the Bull Unigenitus
In 1653 Rome condemns five propositions on grace. The defenders of Cornelius Jansen condemn them too but deny that they are in his book; Rome defines that they are, and in 1713 the bull Unigenitus condemns 101 propositions from Quesnel’s New Testament.
16 March 1672, firm date The Synod of Jerusalem and the Confession of Dositheus
Gathered for the dedication of the rebuilt church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, a synod under Patriarch Dositheus of Jerusalem rejects a confession with Reformed teaching printed under the name of Cyril Lucaris and sets out Orthodox doctrine in eighteen decrees.
1675, firm date Spener’s Pia Desideria and the Rise of Pietism
In 1675 the Frankfurt pastor Philipp Jakob Spener publishes six proposals for mending the Lutheran church, from Bible reading in small meetings to the training of pastors. From 1695 August Hermann Francke founds a school and an orphan house at Halle.
October 1685, firm date Louis XIV Revokes the Edict of Nantes
By an edict given at Fontainebleau in October 1685, Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes, orders the Reformed churches of France demolished, bans Reformed worship and forbids his Protestant subjects to leave. The Elector of Brandenburg offers those who flee a refuge.
24 May 1689, firm date The Toleration Act and Locke’s Letter
In May 1689 the English Parliament exempts Protestant dissenters who take the oaths from the penalties of the laws on worship, but not Catholics or those who deny the Trinity. In the same year John Locke’s Letter argues that the care of souls is no business of the magistrate.
1704 to 1742, firm date The Chinese Rites Controversy
Jesuit missionaries let Chinese converts honour Confucius and their ancestors as civil customs; others call the rites superstitious. Rome forbids them in 1704, 1715 and 1742, the Kangxi emperor says Westerners should no longer preach, and in 1939 Rome allows them as civil acts.
9 July 1706, firm date The Tranquebar Mission
Two German Lutherans trained at Halle, sent under the protection of the king of Denmark, land at Tranquebar in South India in July 1706. They learn Tamil and Portuguese, baptize converts, build a church, open schools and begin to translate and print the New Testament in Tamil.
25 January 1721 (Old Style), firm date Peter the Great Replaces the Patriarch with the Holy Synod
In January 1721 (Old Style) Tsar Peter I puts the Russian church under a board of clergy sworn to him as its supreme judge. It takes the patriarch’s place and the name of Most Holy Synod, and in 1723 the patriarch of Constantinople recognises it.
13 August 1727, firm date The Moravians at Herrnhut
Emigrants from Moravia settle on Count Zinzendorf’s estate at Herrnhut. In 1727 they pledge themselves to common statutes, and their church dates its renewal from a communion service on 13 August of that year. In 1732 Herrnhut sends two men to the slaves of St Thomas.
1734 to 1743, firm date The Great Awakening
A revival in Jonathan Edwards’s congregation at Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1734 and 1735 becomes known through his printed account. In 1740 George Whitefield preaches to great crowds in New England, and Charles Chauncy of Boston answers that much of the stir is disorder.
24 May 1738, firm date John Wesley and the Rise of Methodism
On 24 May 1738, at a meeting in Aldersgate Street in London, the clergyman John Wesley feels his heart “strangely warmed”. The next year he begins to preach in the open air at Bristol, and the societies he and his brother Charles organise come to be called Methodist.
21 July 1773, firm date The Suppression of the Jesuits
By the brief Dominus ac Redemptor of 21 July 1773 Pope Clement XIV abolishes the Society of Jesus, which the Catholic kings of France, Spain, Portugal and the Two Sicilies had already expelled. In 1814 Pius VII restores it in all countries.
1782, firm date The Philokalia Is Published
A Greek anthology of writers on watchfulness and the prayer of the heart, gathered from the libraries of Mount Athos, is printed at Venice in 1782. Its preface offers the prayer to laypeople as well as monks. A Slavonic version follows at Moscow in 1793.
1784, firm date Korean Scholars Found a Church
Korean scholars who had read Christian books from Beijing send one of their own with an embassy; Yi Seung-hun is baptized there in 1784, returns to Seoul and baptizes his friends. A church grows with no priest in the country, and meets persecution.
1786 to 1791, firm date Religious Freedom in the United States
In January 1786 Virginia enacts Jefferson’s statute that no one shall be compelled to support any worship or suffer for his religious opinions. The federal Constitution bars religious tests, and the First Amendment, ratified in 1791, forbids Congress to establish a religion.
1787 to 1816, estimated date Richard Allen and the African Methodist Episcopal Church
Black Methodists pulled from their knees at prayer in St George’s Church, Philadelphia, walk out with Richard Allen and Absalom Jones. Allen opens Bethel church in 1794, and in 1816 Black congregations unite as the African Methodist Episcopal Church with Allen as bishop.
1790 to 1801, firm date The French Revolution and the Church
The National Assembly takes the church’s lands and in 1790 remakes the French church by law, demanding an oath that Pius VI condemns. Priests who refuse it are killed in Paris in 1792 and outlawed in 1793. In 1801 Bonaparte and Pius VII restore Catholic worship by a concordat.
2 October 1792, firm date William Carey and the Modern Missionary Movement
The English Baptist minister William Carey argues in 1792 that Christ’s command to teach all nations still binds the churches. A missionary society is formed at Kettering that October, and in 1793 Carey sails for India. In 1805 the Serampore mission sets down its principles.
24 September 1794, firm date Orthodox Monks Reach Alaska
Ten missionaries, most of them monks of Valaam, cross Siberia and reach Kodiak Island in September 1794. Their letters report thousands of baptisms. The monk Herman stays for life, and the priest John Veniaminov, later Bishop Innocent, writes for the Aleuts in their own language.
1799, firm date Schleiermacher and Modern Theology
In 1799 Friedrich Schleiermacher, a hospital preacher in Berlin, publishes Speeches on Religion for its cultured despisers: religion is neither knowledge nor morals but feeling, a sense and taste for the Infinite. His later dogmatics builds Christian doctrine on that ground.
August 1801, firm date The Second Great Awakening
In August 1801 a great crowd camps for a week of preaching at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, the church of the Presbyterian minister Barton Stone, and carries the revival home. In the 1830s Charles Finney teaches that a revival is the result of the right use of means.
7 March 1804, firm date The British and Foreign Bible Society
Moved by the want of Bibles in Wales, Christians of several denominations meet in London on 7 March 1804 and found a society with one object, the wider circulation of the Scriptures without note or comment, at home and abroad.
25 March 1807, firm date Christians and the Abolition of the Slave Trade
After twenty years of campaigning by Quakers, Anglicans and a formerly enslaved writer, Parliament makes the British slave trade unlawful. Other Christians had defended the trade from the Bible, and a missionary society held slaves of its own.
6 April 1830, firm date Joseph Smith and the Latter-day Saints
On 6 April 1830, the year the Book of Mormon is printed, Joseph Smith and five others organize a church in western New York. Its leaders declare it to be Christ’s church restored. The Catholic Church and some other churches do not accept its baptism.
14 July 1833, firm date The Oxford Movement
John Keble’s sermon on national apostasy and the Tracts for the Times call the Church of England back to its claim to be a catholic church with bishops in succession from the apostles. After Tract 90 is censured, Newman becomes a Roman Catholic.
1844 to 1859, firm date Tischendorf and the Codex Sinaiticus
On three visits to St Catherine’s Monastery the German scholar Constantin von Tischendorf finds a Greek Bible of the fourth century and takes it away, first in part and then on loan. He and the monastery tell the story differently.
22 October 1844, firm date The Millerites and the Great Disappointment
William Miller reckons from the book of Daniel that Christ will return about 1843, and by his own estimate some fifty thousand people come to expect it. On 22 October 1844 the last date set passes. Seventh-day Adventists, who give the date another meaning, organize in 1863.
1851 to 1864, firm date The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
Hong Xiuquan, a village teacher who read Christian tracts in the light of his own visions, is proclaimed ruler of a new dynasty in 1851 and holds Nanjing from 1853. The missionary who once taught him later denounces his religion; Qing armies take the city in 1864.
8 December 1854, firm date The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception
On 8 December 1854 Pius IX defines that Mary was preserved from all stain of original sin from the first instant of her conception, a point long disputed among Latin theologians. Orthodox and Old Catholic statements reject the definition, and Anglicans record difficulty with it.
29 June 1864, firm date Samuel Ajayi Crowther, the First African Anglican Bishop
Samuel Ajayi Crowther, enslaved as a boy and freed at Sierra Leone, is consecrated at Canterbury as bishop for the Niger, to lead a mission planned as purely African. By the mission society’s own account, English missionaries sent in 1890 override him; he dies the next year.
25 June 1865, firm date Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission
Hudson Taylor, a missionary invalided home from China, resolves on Brighton beach to lead a new mission to the inland provinces. The China Inland Mission accepts workers without restriction as to denomination, guarantees no income and makes no personal appeals for money.
July 1865, firm date William and Catherine Booth Found the Salvation Army
William Booth, a former Methodist minister, begins preaching in a tent in the East End of London in 1865. The mission he and his wife Catherine build takes the name Salvation Army in 1878 and adds to its preaching a scheme of work, food and shelter for the destitute.
1869 to 1870, firm date The First Vatican Council
A council of Catholic bishops at Rome defines that the pope has full jurisdiction over the whole church and is infallible when he defines a doctrine of faith or morals ex cathedra. A minority of bishops stays away from the final vote, and other churches reject the definition.
1885 to 1886, firm date The Martyrs of Uganda
In 1885 and 1886 King Mwanga of Buganda has Christian converts killed, Anglicans and Catholics alike, many of them burned together in 1886, and an Anglican bishop put to death. Both churches honour them as martyrs.
July 1888, firm date The Lambeth Quadrilateral
The Anglican bishops meeting at Lambeth in 1888 name four things as a basis for reunion with other churches (the Scriptures, the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds, the two sacraments and the historic episcopate), taking them from a declaration of the American bishops in 1886.
15 May 1891, firm date Rerum Novarum and Christian Social Teaching
Pope Leo XIII addresses the condition of industrial workers. His encyclical rejects socialism and class war, defends private property, and teaches that workers are owed a living wage, limits on their hours, the protection of the law and the right to form unions.
1900 to the present
Modern and Global Christianity
Pentecostalism, the ecumenical movement and the Second Vatican Council reshape the churches, while persecution, secularisation and growth in Africa, Asia and Latin America shift the faith’s centre of gravity.
9 April 1906, firm date The Azusa Street Revival
In April 1906 a prayer meeting in Los Angeles led by the Black preacher William Seymour begins to speak in tongues. The mission it opens at 312 Azusa Street meets daily, draws people of many races and sends the Pentecostal message abroad.
14 January 1907, firm date The Pyongyang Revival
At a winter Bible class in Pyongyang in January 1907, hundreds of Korean Presbyterian men pray aloud together and confess their sins in public through two nights. Those who were there carry the revival to churches across Korea.
14–23 June 1910, firm date The World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh
About 1,200 delegates of missionary societies, most of them from Britain, North America and continental Europe, meet at Edinburgh in June 1910 to consider the evangelisation of the non-Christian world, and appoint a Continuation Committee to carry the work on.
1910 to 1925, firm date The Fundamentals and the Modernist Controversy
Twelve volumes called The Fundamentals are sent free to Protestant ministers from about 1910. In the 1920s a dispute between Fundamentalists and liberals over the Bible, miracles and modern knowledge divides American churches and reaches a courtroom at Dayton.
1915 to 1916, firm date The Destruction of the Armenian and Assyrian Christians
From April 1915 the Ottoman government deports Armenians from across the empire toward the Syrian desert, and the American ambassador reports massacre, starvation and the destruction of a people. Assyrian Christians of Urmia and Hakkari are attacked in the same months.
1917 to 1918, firm date The Russian Church under the Bolsheviks
In November 1917 a council of the Russian Orthodox Church restores the patriarchate and Tikhon takes the patriarchal seat. Two months later the Soviet government separates church and state by decree and declares all church property to be the people’s.
1921, firm date Simon Kimbangu and the Kimbanguist Church
In 1921 Simon Kimbangu, a Baptist of the Lower Congo, begins to preach and to pray over the sick at Nkamba, and crowds come to him. A Belgian military court sentences him to death; reprieved, he dies in prison thirty years later, and a church grows from his followers.
11 February 1929, firm date The Lateran Treaty Creates Vatican City
On 11 February 1929 the Holy See and Italy sign a treaty and a concordat in the Lateran Palace. Italy recognises the pope’s sovereignty over Vatican City, and the Holy See recognises the Kingdom of Italy with Rome as its capital.
31 May 1934, firm date The Barmen Declaration
Meeting at Barmen in May 1934, a synod of Lutheran, Reformed and United Protestants declares against the German Christians that Jesus Christ is the one Word of God the church has to hear, and that the state may not become the total order of human life.
14 March 1937, firm date Mit brennender Sorge: Pius XI on the Church in the German Reich
In an encyclical to the German bishops dated 14 March 1937, Pius XI protests that the concordat of 1933 has been broken and rejects as contrary to faith in God the exalting of race, people or state to the highest value.
25 January 1944, firm date The First Woman Is Ordained an Anglican Priest
In unoccupied China the Anglican bishop of Hong Kong ordains the deaconess Li Tim Oi a priest, so that her wartime congregation in Macau may have the sacraments. The Lambeth Conference of 1948 advises against such ordinations; that of 1978 accepts churches that ordain women.
9 April 1945, firm date The Execution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, held for two years for his part in the German resistance, is condemned by an SS court-martial at Flossenbürg concentration camp and hanged the next morning. His letters from prison are published in 1951.
about December 1945, estimated date The Nag Hammadi Library Is Found
Papyrus books in Coptic, holding over fifty religious texts including the Gospel of Thomas, come to light near Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt. The first reaches the Coptic Museum in 1946; the story of the find was gathered from villagers thirty years later.
1947, estimated date The Dead Sea Scrolls Are Discovered
Bedouin bring seven ancient scrolls from a cave near Qumran to dealers in Bethlehem. A Syrian Orthodox archbishop and a Hebrew University professor buy them, and scholars find Hebrew manuscripts about a thousand years older than any biblical text then known.
27 September 1947, firm date The Church of South India Unites Four Traditions
Anglican dioceses, the Methodist Church and the South India United Church, itself a union of Presbyterians and Congregationalists, become one church with bishops in a service at Madras. Anglican bishops elsewhere are divided about its ministry.
23 August 1948, firm date The World Council of Churches Is Founded
Delegates of 147 churches from 44 countries, meeting in Amsterdam, constitute the World Council of Churches as a fellowship of churches that accept Jesus Christ as God and Saviour. The Roman Catholic Church takes no part.
25 September 1949, firm date Billy Graham and Postwar Evangelicalism
An eight-week tent campaign in Los Angeles in the autumn of 1949 makes the evangelist Billy Graham known across the United States. In 1956 he and the theologian Carl Henry launch the magazine Christianity Today as a voice for evangelical Christianity.
1950 to 1954, firm date The Chinese Church under the People’s Republic
Protestant leaders in the new People’s Republic sign a manifesto pledging loyalty to the state and an end to foreign ties, and the Three-Self Patriotic Movement is organised. Some pastors refuse to join, and Rome rejects a self-governing Catholic church.
1 November 1950, firm date The Dogma of the Assumption of Mary
Pope Pius XII defines as dogma that the Virgin Mary, at the end of her earthly life, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory. The Orthodox keep the feast of her Dormition; many Anglicans object that the definition lacks a basis in Scripture.
1960 to 1967, firm date The Charismatic Renewal
Speaking in tongues and other gifts associated with Pentecostalism appear in the older churches. An Episcopal rector in California tells his parish of his experience in 1960, and Catholics date their charismatic renewal from a retreat of students near Pittsburgh in 1967.
1962 to 1965, firm date The Second Vatican Council
From 1962 to 1965 the Catholic bishops of the world meet in St Peter’s. Called by John XXIII and concluded by Paul VI, the council issues texts on the liturgy, the church, revelation, religious freedom, other Christians and the Jewish people.
16 April 1963, firm date The Churches and the Civil Rights Movement
Jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, for leading a march against segregation, the minister Martin Luther King Jr answers eight white clergymen who had called the protests untimely. His letter defends breaking unjust laws openly and reproaches the white churches.
7 December 1965, firm date Rome and Constantinople Lift the Anathemas of 1054
On 7 December 1965 Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I declare together that they regret the excommunications exchanged in 1054 and remove them from the memory of the church. The act does not restore communion between the two churches.
24 August 1968, firm date Medellín and Liberation Theology
In 1968 the Catholic bishops of Latin America apply the Second Vatican Council to a continent of mass poverty and speak of liberation. Gustavo Gutiérrez builds a theology on that word, and Rome answers with a warning in 1984 and a positive statement in 1986.
25 July 1968, firm date Humanae Vitae
In an encyclical of 25 July 1968 Paul VI teaches that every marital act must keep its relation to procreation and excludes any act meant to prevent it. The Lambeth Conference disagrees; Canada’s Catholic bishops say some Catholics find parts of it hard or impossible to accept.
1973 to 1994, firm date Ancient Christological Divisions Are Addressed
Between 1973 and 1994 Rome signs common statements of faith in Christ with the Coptic pope and with the patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, and Eastern and Oriental Orthodox delegates agree two statements of their own. None of them restores communion.
16–25 July 1974, firm date The Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization
In July 1974 some 2,700 evangelical Christians from more than 150 nations meet at Lausanne. Their covenant, drafted under John Stott, commits them to world evangelization and affirms that evangelism and social responsibility are both Christian duties.
1978 to 1979, firm date John Paul II and the Churches under Communism
In October 1978 the cardinals elect the archbishop of Kraków as pope. He tells the world not to be afraid and to open the frontiers of states to Christ, and in June 1979 he preaches in Warsaw that Christ cannot be kept out of human history.
24 March 1980, firm date The Assassination of Óscar Romero
On 24 March 1980 the archbishop of San Salvador is shot dead while celebrating Mass, the day after he had called on soldiers to stop the repression. A UN truth commission later finds that former Major Roberto D’Aubuisson gave the order.
1982 to 1986, firm date The Churches and Apartheid
Between 1982 and 1986 the Reformed world alliance calls the theological defence of apartheid a heresy, the Dutch Reformed Mission Church adopts the Belhar Confession, and the Kairos Document appears. The Dutch Reformed Church, which had sanctioned apartheid, later confesses it.
9 October 1989, firm date Churches and the Fall of Communism
On 9 October 1989, after peace prayers in four Leipzig churches, tens of thousands march round the city and the East German state does not use force. A bishop, church groups and party officials had all appealed for calm that day.
11 October 1992, firm date The Catechism of the Catholic Church
On 11 October 1992 John Paul II orders the publication of a catechism for the whole Catholic Church, asked for by the bishops’ synod of 1985 and drafted over six years under Cardinal Ratzinger. It sets out Catholic teaching in four parts.
31 October 1999, firm date Lutherans and Catholics Agree on Justification
At Augsburg the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church confirm a joint declaration: they share a consensus in basic truths of the doctrine of justification, and the condemnations of the sixteenth century do not apply to the teaching it sets out. Differences remain.
6 January 2002, firm date The Clergy Sexual Abuse Crisis
From January 2002, reports from Boston and then official inquiries in the United States, Ireland and Australia document the sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy and its concealment by church authorities. Popes change church law. Reports on other churches follow.
11 February 2013, firm date Benedict XVI Resigns and Francis Is Elected
Benedict XVI tells the cardinals that his strength is no longer equal to the office and renounces it from 28 February 2013. On 13 March the conclave elects Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, a Jesuit, who takes the name Francis.
15 February 2015, firm date The Twenty-One Martyrs of Libya
In February 2015 twenty-one Christian workers, twenty Egyptian Copts and one man from Ghana, are beheaded on the coast of Libya. The Coptic Orthodox Church enters them in its Synaxarium within a week, and in 2023 Pope Francis announces their inclusion in the Roman Martyrology.
June 2016, firm date The Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church
After decades of preparation a council of the Orthodox churches meets on Crete under the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. Ten of the fourteen autocephalous churches take part; Antioch, Bulgaria, Georgia and Russia stay away, having asked for it to be postponed.
31 October 2016, firm date Catholics and Lutherans Mark 500 Years of the Reformation Together
Pope Francis and the leaders of the Lutheran World Federation open the five-hundredth anniversary year of the Reformation with a common prayer in Lund Cathedral, and sign a statement of thanks, repentance and commitment to common witness.
6 January 2019, firm date Constantinople Grants Autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine
The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew hands Metropolitan Epiphanius a tomos declaring the Orthodox Church in Ukraine autocephalous. The Moscow Patriarchate, which counts Ukraine as its own canonical territory, has already broken communion with Constantinople over the decision.
8 May 2025, firm date Leo XIV, the First Pope from the United States
After the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday 2025 the cardinals elect Robert Francis Prevost, an Augustinian friar born in Chicago who had been a missionary and bishop in Peru. He takes the name Leo XIV.
28 November 2025, firm date The Churches Mark 1,700 Years since Nicaea
Pope Leo XIV, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and leaders of other churches pray together at İznik, the ancient Nicaea, and profess the creed. The next day pope and patriarch sign a declaration naming the faith of Nicaea as what binds Christians together.
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