Christian Church

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

2026 Editor's Note: This page uses language about other peoples, religions, or nationalities that was commonplace when the book was published and is offensive by today's standards. The text has been left exactly as it was printed, rather than cut or softened, so that the historical record — including how ordinary such language once was — is preserved. (Ed: ET 2026-07-22) THE, consists of those who have been baptized in the name of Christ and who accept his doctrines and live in harmony with them. The Church, in its broadest sense, consists of true believers in all ages; but the Christian Church was established through the life and work of Christ himself, and consists only of his followers. Its first great increase was at Pentecost, where 3,000 souls were converted; shortly afterward 5,000 were added to the Church. Stephen was the first to suffer martyrdom. Paul made three great missionary tours, and the result was the organic unity of the Church in its first period. Ancient Period, A. D. 30-750.- The first part of this period was distinguished by great simplicity of doctrine and life, and zeal in extending the kingdom of Christ. Important centers were established, and the Gospel was largely confined to the middle and lower classes. Controversies arose between the Gentile and Jewish Christians, but not to such an extent as to arrest steady progress. This was the time of great persecutions. There were ten in all, the most serious being under the Emperors Nero, Maximinus, Decius, and Diocletian. The Scriptures were collected into a canon, and the Church made great advance in numbers and territory. The Council of Nice (A. D. 325) was a great triumph for orthodoxy. It declared the essential Trinity of the Godhead, and settled for all time the divinity of Christ as a fundamental doctrine of Christian faith. The heresy of Arius was condemned, Persecution ceased, through the sympathy of the Emperor Constantine, who, in 313, removed all disabilities from Christians, and in 323 made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire. Monasticism, a reaction against worldliness, increased rapidly. Leo the Great, Bishop of Rome, extended the authority of the Western Church in opposition to the claims of the patriarch of Constantinople. Mohammedanism paralyzed the Eastern Church for a time in the 7th and 8th centuries. Mohammedanism was arrested in western Europe by Charles Martel, by the victory ory of Tours, in 732. Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome, ruled from 590 to 604. He magnified the Romish pretensions, organized monkish orders, elaborated the church festivals, and established purgatory as a Roman Catholic doctrine. He organized a mission among the Anglo-Saxons. The Gospel spread rapidly through Britain and Germany. Christian art was pat-tempts at reform had been unsuccessful. ronized liberally by the Roman bishops. The close of the ancient period found the Latin or Western Church very vigorous and aggressive, but the Eastern Church in a stagnant condition. Mediæval Period, A. D. 750-1517.- This period falls into three great divisions: From Charlemagne agne to Gregory VII. (750-1073); from Gregory VII. to removal of Papal See to France (1073- 1305); from removal of Papal See to Reformation (1305-1517). The Middle Ages were the transition from the ancient to the modern period. The most important political events, all of which had a bearing on the Church, were the end of the Greek exarchate in Italy; the destruction of the Lombard kingdom, the organization of the Frank Empire under Pepin, rise of the new Germanic Church, division of the Mohammedan caliphate, decline of the Greek Empire, and develop ment of the new Roman Empire in the west. Charlemagne was the greatest mediæval ruler. He was victorious over many northern tribes, and increased the territory of the Church to vast proportions. He was a liberal patron of learning, and authorized a Latin version of the Scriptures. Alfred the Great of England reigned from 871 to 901, and was as distinguished for learning as for his power to rule. The Russian monarchy was founded by Ruric in the middle of the 9th century. At this time the evangelization of heathen nations progressed rapidly. The Hungarians, Bulgarians, Bohemians, Moravians, Wends, and Scandinavians accepted Christianity. Corruption increased rapidly in the Roman Church; the papacy was at the service of the highest bidder; and indulgences and transubstantiation were cardinal forces in the new Romanism. The violent rule of the Mohammedans over Palestine excited the wrath of western Europe, and crusades were organized for the rescue of the country from the Moslems. There were seven crusades, extending from 1096 to 1272. Christian Europe failed, finally, to hold the country, but the general effect of the crusades was beneficial in the development of commerce, introduction of Oriental thought, and the growth of popular liberty. Reformatory movements were inaugurated through the Waldenses (1170); Wyclif (1324); John Huss (1373); the Moravian Brethren (1417); the Myst Mystics (Tauler, Suso, Ruysbroek, Groot, Thomas à Kempis) and Savonarola (1480-1497). Mendicant orders were established. The Inquisition, established to arrest reform, was decreed in 1215. The Modern Period, 1517 to the Present. - The Church was in a corrupt and superstitious condition. All the at- Martin Luther, born 1483, began the Geneva reformation by publishing 95 theses against Rome. He translated the scriptures into German, gained the cooperation of the German princes, and published sermons and other works against the errors of Romanism. Melanchthon was the chief doctrinal writer of the Reformation. Erasmus labored in the department of New Testament criticism. The leading Swiss Reformers were Zwingli in eastern Switzerland, and the learned and pure Calvin in western. Farel stood next to Calvin in Geneva. The English Reformation had King Henry VIII. on its side, through no pious motives, but because the Pope would not sanction his frequent marriages. This was the great opportunity for which the Reformers of England had been waiting. Protestant sentiment grew rapidly, but in the next reign Ridley, Latimer, Cranmer, Hooper, Taylor fell victims to Queen Mary's Romanism. Under Elizabeth the Reformation was placed on a firm foundation. The Puritans were a reaction against Romanism and sympathy with it in the Church of England. Arminius, born 1560, in Holland, opposed the chief tenets of Calvinism. The Synod of Dort resulted in the political triumph triumph of the Calvinists, and the expulsion of the Remonstrants, until the death of Maurice (1630). The Thirty Years' War (1618- 1648) was confined to the Continent and established the territorial boundaries of the Protestant and Catholic nations. The Huguenots of France were persecuted 1572, and 70,000 people were killed on St. Bartholomew's night. The Jesuits, rganized by Ignatius Loyola, 1540, were established as an offset to the aggression of Protestantism. Deism prevailed to alarming extent in England, its chief promoters being Hobbes, Herbert, Shaftesbury, Tindal, Bolingbroke, Hume, and Gibbon. They had strong antagonists an Rationalism arose in 1750, through the teachings of Wolfe, Wolfe, Semler, and the example of the Prussian court. It declined in the 19th century, through the labors The Evangelical Alliof Tholuck, Neander, Hengstenberg, Ullmann, and others. The ance (1846) promoted the unity of orthodox Christians in all parts of the world, and, to a corresponding degree, the victory over skepticism. The Old Catholics, a Roman Catholic reaction against the Vatican Council of 1869, were organized الالاه