鉁濓笍 Bible and History
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Church history 路 Module 79

馃摐 Church History, Part A: Beginnings to the Reformation

The history of the church from the first century to the Reformation, told from the sources themselves: Jerusalem, Paul and the first churches, the Apostolic Fathers, the Gnostics, Marcion and the Montanists, persecution from Nero to Diocletian and the apologists, Constantine and the Council of Nicaea, the councils of Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon, Augustine and Pelagius, the desert fathers and the monasteries, the Great Schism of 1054 and Orthodoxy in plain terms, Gregory the Great, Charlemagne, the Crusades and the scholastics, the Waldensians, Wycliffe and Hus, Luther and the German Reformation, and Zwingli, Calvin, the Anabaptists, the English church and the Council of Trent. Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant readings are each given in their own words, then the record.

12 lessons 路 about 12 hours 路 about 168,500 words 路 Updated October 28, 2026 路

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How to read this module

This is a study of the record, not an argument for one church. Each person, council and movement is described first in its own words, from its own writings, creeds, decrees and confessions (quoted from public domain translations, named in the notes), then by the historical record (dates, documents and what happened), then by how named scholars read that record. Where a claim is disputed, the sides are given and the lesson says which one the evidence supports, or that it is still open.

Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant readings of disputed events (the papacy, 1054, the Crusades, indulgences, the Reformation and the Council of Trent) are each set out in that church's own words and best case. Groups condemned as heretics are described from their own surviving writings where any survive, and the lesson says when a group is known only from its opponents. Numbers name their source; legends are rated in each lesson's "Claims checked" section.

The site does not pick a theological winner; it reports what each body says and what the documents show.

Status: built and fact checked October 28, 2026. Every lesson was checked by an independent checker against primary sources; quotations were matched word for word against the translations named. Each lesson ends with a short "Still being checked" list of points not yet confirmed. Part B (the Protestant denominations) is the next module; Part C, American Movements, Calvary Chapel and Vineyard is live.

  1. 1The First Century: Jerusalem, Paul and the Spread of the ChurchFrom the crucifixion under Pontius Pilate (AD 30 or 33) to about AD 100: the first Jewish community in Jerusalem, Peter, James and Stephen, Paul's conversion, letters and journeys, the Jerusalem council and the Gentile question, Nero's punishment of Christians in 64 and the fall of Jerusalem in 70. The lesson reads Acts and Paul beside Josephus, Tacitus and Suetonius, shows how the first Christians baptized, met in houses and shared the Lord's Supper, and treats every number as what a named source or scholar said.55 min
  2. 2The Apostolic Fathers and the Early Heresies: Gnostics, Marcion and the MontanistsThe generation after the apostles left letters, a church manual and a martyr's story: 1 Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, the Didache, Barnabas, Hermas, Papias and Diognetus. In the same decades the Gnostic teachers, Marcion and the Montanists offered rival accounts of God, Christ, Scripture and prophecy. This lesson reads each side in its own surviving words, then Irenaeus, Tertullian and the record, and ends with the rule of faith, the Muratorian Fragment and Walter Bauer's thesis and its critics.55 min
  3. 3Persecution and the Apologists: Nero to Diocletian, Justin, Tertullian and the MartyrsFrom Nero's punishment of Christians at Rome in 64 to Galerius's edict of toleration in 311, the church lived under the threat of death for refusing the gods. This lesson reads the Roman evidence (Tacitus, Pliny and Trajan, the Decian sacrifice certificates on papyrus, Galerius's own edict) beside the Christian martyr accounts and the apologists from Aristides and Justin to Tertullian and Origen. It weighs the estimates of how many died, from Gibbon and Frend to Candida Moss and her critics, and rates claims about the Colosseum, the catacombs and the blood of the martyrs.50 min
  4. 4Constantine and Nicaea: The Trinity, Arius and AthanasiusHow Constantine's victory at the Milvian Bridge in 312 and the letter of 313 changed the church's place in the Roman world, and what did not change. The lesson reads Arius, Alexander and Athanasius in their own words, gives the creed of 325 and its anathemas word for word with all 20 canons, sorts out how many bishops came to Nicaea, and follows the fight over one Greek word from 325 to the eve of Constantinople in 381.65 min
  5. 5The Later Councils: Constantinople, Ephesus and ChalcedonHow the churches settled who the Holy Spirit is and how Christ is both God and man, from the Cappadocian Fathers and Theodosius's edict of 380 through the councils of Constantinople (381), Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451). Each side speaks in its own words, with the creed and the Chalcedonian definition word for word, the churches that rejected Chalcedon, and the modern agreements of 1973, 1990 and 1994.70 min
  6. 6Augustine and the Pelagian DisputeThe life of Augustine of Hippo (354 to 430) from his own Confessions and his biographer Possidius, from Thagaste and the Manichees to the garden in Milan, Hippo and the Vandal siege. Pelagius, Caelestius and Julian of Eclanum speak in their own surviving words, and the councils from Diospolis (415) and Carthage (418) to Ephesus (431) and Orange (529) are quoted from their canons. The lesson ends with how Catholics, Protestants and the Orthodox have read Augustine since.60 min
  7. 7Monks and the Desert Fathers: Antony, Pachomius, Benedict and the Rise of the MonasteriesHow Christian monasticism grew from consecrated virgins and widows into the desert movement of Antony and Pachomius, the community rules of Basil and Benedict, and the reforms of Cluny and Citeaux. The lesson quotes Athanasius's Life of Antony, the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Palladius, the Rule of Benedict, Gregory's Dialogues and the Cluny charter in named public domain translations, then weighs the scholarly debates and the claim that monks saved civilization.55 min
  8. 8Rome and the East: The Great Schism of 1054 and Orthodoxy in Plain TermsHow the Latin West and the Greek East drifted apart over language, empire, papal authority and the filioque, what actually happened in Hagia Sophia on July 16, 1054, and why historians call 1054 a symptom more than a clean break. The sack of Constantinople in 1204, the failed unions of Lyon and Florence, the fall of 1453 and the 1965 lifting of the excommunications follow, then a plain description of the Orthodox Church in its own words and a side-by-side look at where Catholic and Orthodox teaching agree and differ.60 min
  9. 9The Medieval Church: Gregory the Great, Charlemagne, the Crusades and the ScholasticsHow the Latin church grew from Gregory the Great's Rome (590 to 604) into the central institution of medieval Europe: the missions to England and the Franks, Charlemagne's coronation in 800, parish life and the sacraments, the fight between popes and emperors at Canossa and Worms, Innocent III and the Fourth Lateran Council, the Crusades, the first inquisitions, the scholars and universities, Unam Sanctam, Avignon and the Western Schism. Each subject is told from the church's own documents, then the record, then named historians, with popular claims such as the flat earth and the Dark Ages rated.75 min
  10. 10Reform Before Luther: The Waldensians, Wycliffe and HusFrom the Lyon merchant Valdes in the 1170s to Erasmus's Greek New Testament of 1516, movements inside and outside the medieval church called it back to the poverty and preaching of the Gospels. This lesson reads the Waldensians, Wycliffe and the Lollards, and Jan Hus and the Hussites in their own words, then sets out the record of their condemnation (Verona 1184, Blackfriars 1382, the statute of 1401, Constance 1415) and the Cathars, Spiritual Franciscans, Savonarola, the councils and the humanists around them. It weighs the Protestant reading of them as "forerunners of the Reformation" against Catholic and secular historians.50 min
  11. 11Luther and the Reformation: The 95 Theses, Worms and the German PrincesMartin Luther's protest against the preaching of indulgences in October 1517 grew within four years into a break with Rome over the authority of the pope, the councils and the Bible. This lesson follows Luther from the thunderstorm vow of 1505 through the 95 Theses, Leipzig, the treatises of 1520 and Worms to the Augsburg Confession and the Peace of Augsburg, quoting his own writings and the church documents. It rates the famous stories (the nailed theses, the coin in the coffer, "Here I stand") and states plainly what Luther wrote about the peasants in 1525 and the Jews in 1543, with the ELCA and LCMS responses and the 1999 Catholic and Lutheran Joint Declaration.55 min
  12. 12Zwingli, Calvin and the Wider Reformation: The Reformed Churches, the Radicals, the English Church and the Counter-ReformationZwingli's Zurich, the first Anabaptists and the Schleitheim Confession, Calvin's Geneva and the Servetus case, the Reformed churches of France, Scotland, the Netherlands and the Palatinate, the English Reformation from Henry VIII to the Thirty-Nine Articles, and the Catholic response in the new orders, the Jesuits and the Council of Trent, each told first in its own documents and then from the record. The last lesson of Part A ends with the wars of religion, the Edict of Nantes and a timeline of the whole module.60 min

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