Church history timeline
From Pentecost to today
Awaiting theological review
c. 30–33
Resurrection, Pentecost, the first Church →
ScriptureThe risen Jesus sends the apostles; at Pentecost the Spirit comes and the Church begins to preach in Jerusalem.
Acts of the Apostles 2:1–42c. 49–50
Council of Jerusalem →
ScriptureThe apostles decide that Gentile Christians need not be circumcised.
Acts of the Apostles 15:1–3564
Persecution under Nero
Historical contextAfter the great fire of Rome, the Roman historian Tacitus records that Nero blamed the Christians and had many executed (Annals 15.44).
Early Christian sourceEarly Christian writers place the martyrdom of Peter and Paul in Rome in these years (1 Clement 5).
70
Destruction of the Temple
Historical contextRoman armies destroy Jerusalem and the Temple; Judaism and Christianity increasingly go separate ways.
1st–3rd centuries
Early Christianity →
Historical contextThe Church spreads through the Roman world, with periods of persecution — notably under Decius (250) and Diocletian (from 303) — and martyrs honoured from the start.
313
Edict of Milan
Historical contextThe emperors Constantine and Licinius grant freedom of worship to Christians and others.
325
Council of Nicaea →
Historical contextThe first ecumenical council confesses the Son as true God.
380
Christianity and the Roman Empire
Historical contextThe Edict of Thessalonica of Theodosius I makes Nicene Christianity the religion of the Empire — a new closeness of Church and state that brought both protection and new dangers.
431
Council of Ephesus →
Historical contextMary is confessed as Theotokos, Mother of God.
451
Council of Chalcedon →
Historical contextChrist is confessed as one person in two natures.
529
The Benedictine tradition →
TraditionTraditional date of Benedict's foundation at Monte Cassino; his Rule will shape Western monasticism.
1054
East–West Schism
Historical contextMutual excommunications between the papal legate and the Patriarch of Constantinople mark a break that had grown over centuries of cultural, political and theological estrangement.
Historical contextIn 1965 Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras lifted the excommunications.
1095
The Crusades begin →
Historical contextAt Clermont, Urban II calls for an armed pilgrimage to help Eastern Christians and free Jerusalem. The crusades mixed real faith and sacrifice with grave violence — including massacres of Jews in 1096 and the sack of Christian Constantinople in 1204.
Historical contextIn 2000 John Paul II publicly asked forgiveness for violence committed by Christians in the service of truth.
13th century
Franciscans and Dominicans →
Historical contextNew mendicant orders bring poverty, preaching and study into the growing cities and universities.
1517
The Protestant Reformation
Historical contextMartin Luther, an Augustinian friar, publishes his theses on indulgences. Real abuses and deep theological disputes lead to a lasting division of Western Christianity.
Historical contextSince Vatican II Catholics and Protestants have pursued dialogue; in 1999 Catholics and Lutherans signed a Joint Declaration on justification.
1545–1563
Council of Trent →
Historical contextThe Catholic Church answers the Reformation and reforms itself.
16th century
A worldwide Church →
Historical contextMissionaries carry the Gospel to the Americas, Africa and Asia — often bound up with colonial power, which some missionaries, such as Bartolomé de las Casas, denounced.
1869–1870
First Vatican Council →
Historical contextFaith and reason; papal primacy and infallibility.
1891
Catholic social teaching →
Historical contextLeo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum defends workers' rights and a just wage.
1962–1965
Second Vatican Council →
Historical contextThe Church renews its liturgy and its relationship to Scripture, other Christians and the modern world.
1978 – today
The Church today →
Historical contextA world Church whose members now live mostly outside Europe. For the current pope and recent events, see vatican.va.