2000 Year Christian Timeline

General Christianity & World		The Church
Augustus becomes first Roman Emperor.	27 B.C.
Possible birth of Jesus Christ.	7 B.C.-A.D. 7
Tiberius succeeds Augustus as Roman Emperor.	14
Pontius Pilate is made governor of Judea.	26
John the Baptist preaches in the Holy Land; Jesus is baptized.	27-28
	29-33	Jesus preaches, develops a following, is crucified under Pontius Pilate.
	c.35	Stephen, a follower of Jesus, is stoned to death for blasphemy, becoming the first Christian martyr.
	c.45	Paul begins to preach about Jesus.
The term "Christian" is in common use.	c.60
	c.60-80	Mark's Gospel, the nascent Church's first life , is written; the gospels of Matthew and Luke, using Mark as source material, follow
The Great Fire destroys much of Rome; the emperor Nero blames Christians, and persecution ensues. Paul and Peter are martyred in Rome.	64
	c.100	The Gospel according to John is written; "Babylon" represents corrupted Rome.
Persecution of Christians in Rome renewed by emperor Marcus Aurelius; a "martyr cult" develops within Christianity.	c.177
	c.250	Emperor Decius increases Christian persecution.

 

 

 

 

c.303

Emperor Diocletian responds to Christianity's growing popularity with more persecution, a final attempt to stem the tide and return to emperor worship.

312

Emperor Constantine, entering battle, sees a luminous cross and subsequently converts to Christianity.

313

Constantine makes Christianity legal throughout the empire.

324

Constantine relocates to the city of Byzantium, later renaming it Constantinople, seat of the New Roman Empire.

325

At Constantine's Council of Nicaea, God's relationship to Jesus is defined; Christianity begins to sweep the empire.

380

Emperor Theodosius outlaws paganism and makes heresy liable to punishment.

393

The Church sanctions the New Testament's 27 books, including the four Gospels; Christianity's addendum to the Bible is complete.

395

The Roman Empire divides into East and West.

396-430

Augustine, a North African bishop, becomes the most influential Christian theologian since Paul.

431

At the Council of Ephesus, the cult of the Virgin gains support as Mary is deemed Mother of God.

476

The last West Roman emperor falls from power; German chieftains carve up that region; the East Roman Empire will survive as the Byzantine Empire until 1453. During the Middle Ages, the gulf widens between Roman Church, headed by the pope, and Eastern Christianity, based in Constantinople and overseen by the Patriarch of Constantinople.

c.610

Muhammad starts a new religion, Islam, in Arabia.

630

Mecca falls to Mohammed's army.

632

Muhammad dies, but the word of the Koran, maintaining "There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger," spreads.

638

Jerusalem is overtaken by Islamic forces; at century's end, Islam has spread across all of North Africa and Egypt.

800

Showing political might, Pope Leo III crowns Frankish King Charlemagne "Emperor" of the Romans, a symbolic point in the split with the Eastern churches.

1054

A formal schism between the Eastern Orthodox churches and the Roman Church over papal authority culminates centuries of drift.

1073

The reformer Hildebrand is elected pope. As Gregory VII, he seeks to rejuvenate the morals and faith of the Roman Church.

1075

Gregory VII stresses Church's autonomy, says the pope will appoint clergy free of influence from kings and nobles.

1096

The Crusades begin with Pope Urban II's attempt to secure parts of the Holy Land held by Islam.

c.1225

St. Thomas Aquinas is born. As a Dominican friar teaching in Paris, he will bring Christian doctrine into harmony with Aristotelian philosophy, reconciling faith and reason.

1232

The first inquisition is brought by Gregory IX, whose papal inquisitors hold secret trials and tortures; burning at the stake is the capital punishment.

1291

Muslims seize Acre, the last Christian stronghold in Palestine.

1309

French Pope Clement V moves the papacy to Avignon from Rome.

1377

Papacy returns to Rome.

1378

Rift among Roman cardinals results in the election of rival popes; for eight years, three popes rule.

1417

The Council of Florence represents one of many short-lived attempts at reunion (ecumenism) between Roman and Eastern Churches.

1453

Turks capture Constantinople; Byzantine Empire falls.

1483

During Spain's Torquemada Inquisition, 2,000 heretics are executed.

1517

Martin Luther, stressing biblical over papal authority, spurs the Reformation, which divides Western Christianity into the Roman Catholic Church and Protestantism.

1533-34

King Henry VIII denies the pope's authority over England so he can marry Anne Boleyn; the following year, he has Parliament declare him the head of the new, independent Church of England. Thus, Anglicanism is born.

1534

Ignatius Loyola founds the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, a zealous order within Catholicism that spreads the religion throughout the known world.

1545-1563

The Council of Trent, a Roman Catholic attempt at reform, becomes the Counter-Reformation as it issues decrees in opposition to Protestantism.

c.1600

Followers of the philosophy of French Protestant thinker John Calvin split from the English Puritans to form the Congregationalists.

1613

Galileo, in a letter, tries to show that Copernican theory can exist alongside Church doctrine regarding the biblical view of the world. In 1616 he is summoned to Rome but is cleared of heresy. In 1632, however, he publishes his scientific masterpiece, showing how Copernican system is superior to Ptolemaic. (The short of it: Galileo's evidence shows the earth revolves around the sun, rather than being the fixed center of the universe, as Scripture had it.) He is again called to Rome, and in 1633 the Inquisition finds him guilty of disobeying Church orders and forces him to publicly recant. Galileo, a Catholic, does so but is nonetheless sentenced to life imprisonment.

1620

Pilgrims land at Plymouth, Mass., in the New World; their ranks include many Protestant Separatists, who had hoped to adopt reforms to purify the Church of England. Having decided their efforts were futile from within, they form their own congregation and enter self-exile to pursue religion freely.

1648

The Thirty Years' War, between Catholics and Protestants, ends.

1729

John Wesley, an English clergyman influenced by the Pietists--who consider an intimate relationship with God more important than a particular form of worship--begins a reform movement within the Church of England; subsequently, the movement leads to Methodism.

1791

 First Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified; it forbids Congress to provide for an established religion. The idea of keeping Church and State separate is made law. The ironic result: A secular state becomes, over time, a vital incubator for many forms of Christianity and other faiths.

1859

Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species, which conflicts with the biblical version of creation.

1869-70

 Pius assembles Vatican Council I, which issues, among other doctrines, the declaration of papal infallibility--the pope is never in error when he speaks as head of the Church on matters of faith and morals.

1901

Charles Fox Parham revives the Pentecostal movement at his Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kans. By the end of the century, according to some estimates, one in four Christians will be a Pentecostal.

1925

 "The Scopes Monkey Trial" in Dayton, Tenn.: High School teacher John Thomas Scopes is charged with teaching evolution in a public school, thus violating Tennessee law. William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow spar over Creationism vs Darwinism; Scopes is found guilty and fined $100. Even in a secular society, Christianity has power.

1939-1945

In World War II Holocaust, six million Jews are put to death.

1962-1965

Pope John XXIII and his successor, Paul VI, oversee Vatican Council II, which seeks to bring the Roman Church into harmony with modernity and to promote ecumenism.

1963

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957 to expand the nonviolent struggle against racism and discrimination, gives his "I Have a Dream" speech to more than 200,000 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The scene is as much revival meeting as political protest.

1978

 In the year of three popes, the polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla becomes John Paul II, the first non-Italian leader of the Roman Church in 455 years.

1979

Pope John Paul II declares that the Church may have erred in its handling of Galileo more than centuries previous. In 1992 the pope will go further, confirming that the Church made a mistake.

c.1980-99

 The rise of Christian fundamentalism in the United States is fueled by television and the Internet.

1998

By this time one of the greatest Christian missionaries since Paul, John Paul II has traveled nearly 700,000 miles--more than the 263 previous popes combined, more than a round-trip to the moon.

1999

John Paul II again asks Catholics to prepare for the Holy Year, Jubilee 2000, by atoning for past transgressions, including anti-Jewish bias and persecution; the Jubilee in Rome will commence on Christmas Eve and extend to the feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 2001.

2000

Christianity is the world's largest religion, 
with more than two billion congregants belonging 
to more than 20,000 sects and denominations.