Examples to Support the Church History Sub-Strand – Years 7 - 10
YEAR 7
YEAR 8
Establishment / order / spread (c. 6BCE – c. 100CE)
Decline / dissent / attack(c. 650CE - )
 The Dark Ages in Europe has been defined as being from the
death of Augustine in 430 CE to the time of Thomas Aquinas (
d.1274)
 By 652, the entire Arab world is Muslim.
 The great centres of Christian learning- Jerusalem, Alexandria,
Carthage and Antioch fall to Islam. Only Constantinople and
Rome are left.
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 the great libraries of Europe are destroyed by invaders; end of
much scholarship and learning
 The monks in Ireland preserve knowledge through the copying of
sacred texts
 The rise in power of the pope of Rome as both religious and
secular leader
 Chair of Peter and symbol of unity to all Europe, the Papacy
became a coveted prize for the noble families of Rome.
 Popes were made and unmade, arrested, tortured and murdered
in an unholy scramble for power and riches.
 Charles, who drove back the Muslim advance on the West and
became known as Charles the Great (Charlemagne), marched on
Rome and had Leo restored as Pope.
 On Dec 25th 800, Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman
Emperor by the Pope, and thus began his campaign to unite
Europe under Christ.
The life and teachings of Jesus
 The Jesus Movement as a sect of Judaism
 Refer to Year 7 Sacred Texts: Old Testament and New Testament
Foundations of the Church established by male and female disciples:
Examples of male disciples:
 In Acts: Stephen , Timothy, Philip, Barnabas, Cornelius, Aquila, JohnMark, Peter, John, James, Andrew, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew,
Paul, Silas
Examples of female disciples:
 In Romans: Phoebe, Prisca, Junia, Tryphaena, Tryphosa, Persis, Mary,
Julia, Rufus’ mother, Nereus’ sister
 In Philippians: Chloe, Euodia, Syntyche,
 In Philemon: Apphia
 In Acts: Mary Mother of Jesus, Sapphira, Tabbitha, Mary, Roda, Timothy’s
mother, Lydia, Damaris, Priscilla, four daughters of Philip
 In Colossians: Nympha
 In 2 Letter to Timothy: Lois, Unice, Prisca, Claudia
 In Gospels: Mary of Magdala, female supporters of Jesus
(Source: Women in Early Church)
Why and where did the earliest Church communities develop?
 The five major centres of Christianity:
Rome; ; Antioch, Jerusalem; Constantinople ; Alexandria
 The roads of the Roman empire were both well-constructed and safe to
travel (the Pax Romana)
Significant Developments and Events
 Oral accounts, and then later written accounts, of the sayings and deeds
of Jesus begin to circulate
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Following Pentecost, house churches are the main meeting places for
followers of Jesus; house churches were led by both men and women
c. 35CE - martyrdom of Stephen
after 35CE - conversion of Saul of Tarsus
c. 45 CE – 60 CE Paul’s journeys throughout the ancient Mediterranean
world
c. 52CE – 67CE Paul writes letters to communities he visited and
established
c. 49CE ‘Council of Jerusalem’ resolves issue of Gentiles being admitted
into Christianity
c. 62CE – death of James; seat of spiritual authority for Christians moves
from Jerusalem to Rome when Paul and Peter move to Rome
c. 70CE – destruction of Jerusalem by Titus
c. 70CE – c. 95CE Final versions of the four canonical Gospels written
c. 90CE the Jewish synod at Jamnia expels the Christian sect from
Judaism
 Ecumenical councils continued (- 787CE) in response to ongoing
dissent and debates (e.g. the Monophysite debate and the
Iconoclast debate)
Establishment / order / spread
 Carolingian Renaissance:
o In 20 years, Charles, sometimes using a scorched earth
policy, forcibly took and converted the pagan forces of
Europe.
o Having conquered Europe, Charles decided to improve the
widespread ignorance of the faith- even among the clergy.
o He established a centre for learning for bishops, then set
up schools.
o Charlemagne began his own renaissance- the Carolingian
Renaissance and recovered the Irish literature preserved
by the monks in Ireland.
o 90% of all scripts we have today come from Charles’
scriptorium.
Decline / dissent / attack
 Viking invasions of England, Ireland, Scotland, France (late 700s –
mid 800s CE)
 Maygars invade Central Europe (late 800s CE)
 Maygars defeated by Otto, King of the Franks (late 900s CE)
Establishment / order / spread
 Papacy restored; Europe once again a Christian empire (by
1000CE)
 Tension between the Eastern and Western churches over the
Holy Roman Emperor leads to formal East-West schism between
the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Pope of Rome (1054CE);
Decline / dissent / attack
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Irreconcilable differences between Constantinople and Rome (e.g. the
proper form of the liturgy and other external matters; clerical marriage, the
bread used for the Eucharist, days of fasting)
ongoing struggle for supremacy between the Western Church and state
(from c. 1000CE – 1500s CE)
Establishment / order / spread
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Land ownership and the feudal system result in great wealth and power of
the Church which led to the building of huge cathedrals, convents and
monasteries.
The struggle for power between Princes and the church in their lands
continued as the Papacy in the West demanded more and more
concessions for the Church
In 1095, Pope Urban II called for a holy crusade to rescue Jerusalem and the
Holy Land against Muslim infidels
There were nine crusades in all, from 1095 to 1272.
The crusades generated an antagonism against Christianity that still
survives.
Decline / dissent / attack
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Outspoken reformers arose from within the Church calling for reform
against wealth and power and a return to true religious life.
Reformers included: (St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), St Dominic
(1170- 1221), Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), Clare of Assisi(1194-1253),
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), The
Albigensians (Cathars) (c. 1000s – 1200s CE), The Waldensians (late 1100s
CE), John Wycliffe (1329-1384), John Huss (1374-1415),
The church responds to challenges to its authority, rights or teachings by:
o Condemnation by Bishops or Rome
o Attempts at convincing a change of heart or reconciliation through
use of emissaries, preachers, or the influence of other secular
leaders
o Threats of interdict and excommunication of individuals and whole
countries
o Banishment from civilised society- e.g. Jews, Muslims
o Trial by persecution for individuals, or military offensives for groups
or countries
o Death by burning or decapitation or strangling
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The Church formalised this process with the institution of the Courts of the
Clergy- The Holy Inquisition – by Pope Gregory IX in 1231.
The Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1378 during which seven
Popes resided in Avignon, in modern-day France
In 1378 the seat was moved back to Rome, while a disputing party
continued to honour the bishop in Avignon as the head of the church.
From 1378 to 1414 was a time of difficulty which Catholic scholars refer to
as the "Papal or Western Schism“
A number of religious, social and environmental factors, positive and
negative, resulted in a great clamour all over the Christian world for reform
of the Church and society (14th century), e.g.
o Widespread corruption and ignorance of Scripture in the Church
o Superstitious and questionable practices such as extreme devotions
to saints, sale of indulgences and the trade in relics and pilgrimages.
o Un-Christian action by the Church- Crusades and Inquisitions
o The establishment of Universities and building of Cathedrals
o The Black Death devastates Europe and Asia
o The invention of the Printing Press
o The Renaissance of knowledge, the arts, science, medicine
o The rise of individualism- a new worldview
o The rise of the “middle class”
The Protestant Reformation is a general term that describes the general
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upheaval in the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century. Leaders of the
Protestant Reformation include: Martin Luther (1483-1546); King Henry VIII
(1491-1547), John Calvin (1509-1564), Desiderius Erasmus (1467-1536),
Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531), Michael Sattler (1490 - 1527), Thomas
Cranmer (1489-1556), Martin Bucer (1491-1551), Philip Melancthon (14971560), William Tyndale (1494-1536).
The early years of the reformation were mainly violence free, but rebellion
by protestant groups against Catholic kings and princes led inevitably to
war. Wars between Catholics and Protestants occurred in France, Spain),
Germany and England between 1562 and 1649.
In 1607 the separating Puritans, Calvin followers, fled England and
persecution, for the New World.
The control of knowledge has always been an issue for the Christian Church.
Across history, the church has alternately encouraged and sponsored the
preservation and search for knowledge and suppressed and destroyed it.
The emergence of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment
presented other challenges for the Christian Church (e.g. Copernicus,
Galileo, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnaz, Loch, Berkeley, David Hume, Voltaire
and Rousseau)
If it wasn’t before, the Church became irrelevant to the lives of the
increasingly literate society it sought to control.
Establishment / order / spread
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With secular as well as religious rebellion breaking out, “Protestants” no
longer feared the wrath of Rome.
Rome eventually realised that the reformation was much more than just a
few rebels and responded by calling the Council of Trent in 1545. It
represented a retreat of Catholicism into its own world for more than 400
years.
One of the great “weapons” used by Rome in response to the reformation
was the preaching of the newly formed religious Order, the Society of Jesus,
formed by Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) in 1540.
Catholic missionary activity to Africa, Asia, the Americas was to return vast
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Decline / dissent / attack: (c.30CE – c.100 CE)
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Persecutions: Stephen (c. 35CE); James (c. 62CE); Peter and Paul (c. 67/8
CE); Nero’s persecutions of Christians (c. 64CE); Domitian’s persecution of
Christians (c. 81CE – 96CE)
Suspicion: reactions to new Jewish sect included suspicion from ruling
Jewish classes, ridicule, disgust and horror from Romans (cf. Tacitus, the
historian); tensions between Jews and Christians about membership and
traditional beliefs and practices; Christians expelled from Rome under
suspicion of causing tumults with Jews (c. 49CE)
Heresies: Emergence of a gnostic segment of the new Christian
community claiming a special revelation of the divine apart from the
revelation of Jesus (e.g. reference made in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus,
Jude)
wealth to the Catholic church and a surge in membership.
European exploration and discovery, especially of Africa, Oceania and the
Americas was motivated by a thirst for new ideas, knowledge and wealth
and a genuine desire to bring (European) Christianity to these new worlds.
Operating out of a world view of cultural superiority, European explorers,
traders and missionaries converted and enslaved; colonised and destroyed
existing cultures and replaced them with a white, European, medieval
version of Christianity. Churchmen in Portugal, Spain, France, England,
Holland and the American colonies stood by and did little about slavery of
captured peoples.
Unable to reconcile previous Church doctrine and literal Scriptural teaching
with science, the Catholic Church retreated into Dogma and its old
techniques to silence new scientific discoveries.
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Dissent: Paul’s letters reveal the struggles for unity within some of the
early Christian communities (e.g. in 1 Corinthians – division of loyalties,
schisms, authority)
Paul’s dissent with the Jerusalem community led by Peter and James (c.
49CE)
Separation from Judaism: c. 90CE the Jewish synod at Jamnia expels the
Christian sect from Judaism
Re-establishment / reform/ order/ spread (c. 100CE– c. 410 CE)
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From c. 110CE: Under the influence of Ignatius of Antioch, the early
church is restructured: house churches were consolidated into public
structures based on Roman civil government with elders/bishops,
presbyters and deacons in authority; women lost their previous power
and authority
From c. 140CE – c. 165CE: Justin Martyr was the first of the apologists:
strongly defended Christianity against accusations of ignorance and
barbarism
From c. 196CE: Tertullian was influential in forming the theology of the
early western church (e.g. remarriage, fasting, martyrdom, suffering
persecution)
The writings of Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, were formative in the early
development of Christian theology, especially the episcopate, Scripture
and tradition. He also attacked Gnosticism (c. late 2nd Century – early 3rd
Century CE)
Clement of Alexandria attempted to unite Greek philosophical traditions
with Christian doctrine (c. 150CE – c.215 CE)
Emergence of hierarchical model of Church (from c110CE): The City of
God is modelled on the City of Rome; Christ and the Emperor were
‘pantocrators’; bishops and senators were secular and religious rulers
Emergence of the monastic model of Church (from c 250CE): red
martyrdom and white martyrdom; an alternative communal way of living
the way of Jesus as opposed to the imperial Church
Toleration and Religion of the state (c. 313CE – c. 410CE):
 Conversion of Constantine (312CE)
 Edict of Toleration (313CE)
 Council of Nicea (325CE)
 Council of Constantinople (381CE) – one Creed
 Conversion of Augustine (387CE)
 The Canon of Scripture fixed (c405CE)
At the beginning of the fifth century, the Roman Empire covered most of the
known world. This underpinned the strength and cohesion of the Christian
Church. For the Empire and Church, there was one Lord, one Faith, one
Baptism, one Creed and one Canon of Scripture. Conquest meant compulsory
conversion to Christianity.
Decline / Dissent/ attack: (c.319CE – c. 650 CE)
 Heresies: Seven ecumenical councils (from 325CE) to try to bring unity of
faith to disputing Christian groups
 Eastern and western empires and church:
 Monasteries, churches and libraries all over Europe were
destroyed; knowledge and learning lost (from c410CE)
 Rome is looted and burned (410CE)
 St Patrick brings Christianity to Ireland (432CE) and Ireland
becomes overwhelmingly Christian (by c 471CE)
 Monasteries in Ireland preserved learning and copied texts after
the destruction of European libraries (from c 450CE)
 Rome finally falls (c. 476CE)
 The Empire and the Church move to the East (from c 476CE)
 Emperor Justinian 1 (527 – 565CE) attempts to reunite the Church and
Empire, both spiritually and physically.
 Rise of Islam (from c 610CE) poses the greatest threat to the Eastern
Church
 The great centres of Christian learning (Jerusalem, Alexandria, Carthage
and Antioch) fall to Islam (652CE)
Year 9 (1750 – 1918)
Year 10 (1918 – present)
Decline / dissent / attack
Decline / dissent / attack
 The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th
century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining,
transportation and technology had a profound effect on the
socioeconomic and cultural conditions of the times.
 Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced, moving from village
life and farms to cities, from self-sufficiency and life around a village
church to squalor and disease and godlessness.
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The traditional authority of the church, the village, and the family were
being undermined by impersonal factory and city life.
Still locked in a medieval world view, most traditional church groups could
offer no answer to the hunger for meaning in the miserable lives of city
Unable to cope with religious and political revolutions, the Church was just
as unable to cope with the enormous social upheaval faced by ordinary
people.
The inability of the church to respond to the Industrial Revolution, except
with calls for increased piety and devotions, led Karl Marx (1818-1883) to
accuse religion as conspiring with capitalism because it did nothing for
people on earth, but consoled them with a promise of a better afterlife.
In the latter half of the 19th century, atheism rose to prominence under the
influence of rationalistic and freethinking philosophers. Many prominent
German philosophers of this era denied the existence of deities and were
critical of religion, including Ludwig Feuerbach, Arthur Schopenhauer, Max
Stirner, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Nietzsche. Scientific understandings were
shaken by the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of the Species in 1859.
These developments in philosophical and scientific thought posed the
greatest threat and challenge to the Christian Church since the Roman
persecutions.
The French Revolution (1793CE) represented the end of institutional
Christianity in France. It was seen as a repudiation of the excesses of the
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The Church continues to be challenged by scientific advances, philosophical and
rational world views, Modernism, secularism, materialism, capitalism and both
the loss of traditional belief and the rising interest in alternative belief systems
and its own abuse of power. Christianity faces the challenge of credibility.
By the end of the 20th century, Christianity could no longer claim to speak for the
world’s population: only 30% of the world nominate as Christian (circa 2 billion).
In Europe, churches lie empty and Church leaders are calling for a new
evangelisation of Europe. The majority of Christians now live south of the
Equator and belong to the third and fourth world economically.
The rise in interest and membership of other religions (e.g. Buddhism and Islam)
has challenged Christianity’s perceived dominant status in many societies.
The growth of atheism fuelled by scientific advances and rational world views
continues to attack the credibility of religious belief (e.g. cf. the Australian 2011
Census figures)
During WW11 (1939 – 1945), the Holocaust or Shoah (the systematic
annihilation of six million Jewish people by Germany's Nazi regime over the
period 30 January 1933 to 8 May 1945) challenged the Christian Church’s
understanding of its relationship with the Jewish people.
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Establishment / order / spread
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The Church responded either through an inward turning, conservative approach
(‘ghetto mentality’; attempts to silence the religion/science debate) or through
engagement with the culture using modern media (e.g. ‘tele-evangelists’ such as
Rev Billy Graham, Christian radio broadcasts, ‘Big Tent Crusades’, commercial
television channels provide free time for religious broadcasts such as in Australia
today, megachurch movement )
The search for relevant religion that gave meaning to the horrors of World Wars
and rampant capitalism led to the formation of new ways of worship and being
Christian led by lay persons (e.g. Pentecostalism, religious sects,
Another response to the challenges of the modern era, including sectarianism in
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Catholic Church and a declaration of the backwardness of religion.
In Australia, religious sectarianism played a part in the conscription debate.
However, the mateship that developed among Australians fighting together
helped break down this religious sectarianism.
The horror encountered by those in the trenches in World War 1 and the
loss to those at home (35 million died) had lifelong effects and attempts to
come to terms with ‘man’s inhumanity to man’ raised religious questions. If
Christianity was the superior religion, how could Christians explain the
devastation of the war. For many people, this meant a loss of faith and
rejection of church.
The Russian Revolution (1914 - 1921CE) raised the philosophical challenge of
communism and ‘the Godless (secular) state’ for Christianity, particularly the
Orthodox Church, and for all societies founded on Christian principles.
Establishment / order / spread
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In Ireland, devastated by the potato famine, a number of religious orders
arose to care for the poor- e.g. the Irish Christian Brothers, Sisters of Mercy;
Presentation Sisters.
The 18th and 19th century Catholic Church retained a Medieval, hierarchical
and monarchical world view, holding strict controls over its people in
matters of faith and morals (e.g. The Syllabus of Errors of Pope Pius IX in
1864, Papal Infallibility declared at First Vatican Council (1869 – 1870),
condemnation of Modernism, Pope Pius X, 1907)
The provision of education, and to a degree, health services to increase the
opportunities for the poor became the focus of Catholic endeavour in the
18th and 19th centuries. Membership of male and female Religious Orders
and Lay institutes which opened schools exploded (e.g. Jesuits, Franciscan,
Dominican, Augustinian, Catherine McAuley; Nano Nagle; Edmund Rice; Don
Bosco; Mary Ward, Elizabeth Seton and Mary MacKillop).
John Wesley (1703 – 1791), an Anglican clergyman, set out to bring the
Church of England into the modern age. His great contribution was to
appoint itinerant, un-ordained preachers who travelled widely to evangelize
and care for people wherever they were. Under the principles of the
Wesleyan Methodists, as they became, the Church would go where the
people were, rather than wait for them to come to it.
Some Protestant denominations responded with Evangelical Crusades, to
reach people not coming to church and to win back those alienated by
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Australia and in other parts of the world, was the desire for greater Christian
unity or cooperation (ecumenism, World Council of Churches (1948), Uniting
Church in Australia (1977), The Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches returned
to ‘close communion’ (1965)
The Catholic Church’s response to the challenges of the modern world was
dramatically transformed by The "Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican"
(called Vatican II), which was called by Pope John XXIII and was in session from
1962 to 1965. It dramatically modernized and transformed church policies, with
major changes to official theology and liturgy. The Pope himself called on all
Catholics to “fling open the windows of the Church and let the Holy Spirit in”.
The Catholic Church in Australian took the opportunity provided by the reforms
of Vatican II to respond to the challenges faced at the local level (e.g.
sectarianism; migration, multi-faith and multicultural society, a divided
education system, loss of traditional faith practices, role of laity)
Vatican II asserted the Church's support for freedom of religion and declared
that the Jews were not responsible for the death of Jesus and recognized the
possibility of salvation for Jews, Muslims, and Protestants (Nostra Aetate, 1965)
Another response has been the rise of ‘religious spirituality’ as distinct from
religious doctrine and belief has already had impact on the way Christians pray
and celebrate Christian rituals and define their religious belief and church
membership.
In the 20th Century, the Church continued its staunch opposition to communism
(e.g. in Australia, the ALP split and emergence of the DLP (1950s); Pope John
Paul II’s involvement with Solidarity to free Poland from communism in the
1980s)
In response to the extent of conflict in the world, the Church continues to
contribute to the efforts to achieve lasting peace and security in the world (e.g.
there have been at least 15 Vatican and other religious statements on peace
http://omiusajpic.org/issues/integrity-of-creation/vatican-and-churchstatements/)
The Church is a strong advocate and prominent voice for the environment and
sustainability (e.g. Catholic Earthcare Australia by the Australian Bishops; Pope
Benedict’s Statement on World Day of Peace 2010; Let the Many Coastlands Be
Glad, 2004, Queensland Bishops; The Church in Oceania, Pope John Paul II, 2001;
Catechism of the Catholic Church n.2415, On Holy Ground, c. 2006; Climate
Change: Our Responsibility to Sustain God’s Earth, Australian Bishops, 2005; call
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Church theological bickering.
William Booth (1829-1912) a Methodist preacher, established the Salvation
Army to preach and do works of mercy on the streets as well as lighten
people’s burdens with music.
The Church response to the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment was
varied. It included: provision of schooling for the masses, especially the
poor; Bishops focused their energy on spiritual formation and education of
their flocks; some Christians led political movements for the abolition of
slavery, child labour and the emancipation of women (e.g. Puritans,
Christian Chartists). The publication of Rerum Novarum (Pope Leo X111,
1891) addressed the conditions of the working classes and advocated for the
rights and dignity of workers. This led to the formation of workers’ political
parties across the world, including the formation of the Australian Labor
Party (1891)
The social, political and religious upheavals in Europe led to the movements
of people to the British colonies, including America, Australia and New
Zealand. Clergy and religious orders followed, and established themselves in
those colonies, often bringing their old hostilities with them (e.g.
sectarianism, competition between missionaries for new converts)
The American War of Independence (1775-81) and the Writing of the
Constitution (1791) not only guaranteed the separation of Church and State,
but also went beyond tolerance to give all religion equal status- that is the
freedom to practise all religions.
By the end of the 18th century, voluntary Protestant missionaries (laity,
couples, families and entire communities) flowed into Africa, Asia and Latin
America. Their message was of an accessible God; of freedom of thought,
speech and religion.
In the 1820s in Utah, Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of the
Latter Day Saints .It was a response to the modern world, which they
believed was going to hell. They were convinced the Kingdom of God on
earth was imminent.
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for ‘ecological conversion’, John Paul II, 17 January 2001)
In response to the challenge of loss of cultural identity as a result of
globalisation, the Church continues to be an advocate for the rights and freedom
of indigenous peoples (e.g. in Australia, The Heart of Our Country: Dignity and
justice for our Indigenous sisters and brothers, Australian Catholic Bishops, 2006;
ADDRESS OF JOHN PAUL II TO THE ABORIGINES AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS,
Alice Springs, 1986)