Early History of the Christian Church: From its Foundation to the End of the Fifth Century (Volume II) - Softcover

Duchesne, Louis

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9781983287220: Early History of the Christian Church: From its Foundation to the End of the Fifth Century (Volume II)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1983287229 ISBN 13: 9781983287220

Publisher: Independently published, 2018

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In the fourth century the history of world was dramatically altered.

In 312, just before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge that saw him crowned emperor, Constantine looked up to the sun and saw a cross of light above it, along with this were Greek words “in this sign, conquer”.

He subsequently commanded his troops to pain their shields with Christian symbols before marching to war and victory.

A year later and Christianity was granted a level of tolerance that hitherto had been unprecedented.

The rise of this three-hundred-year-old religion was further cemented in the year 380 when the Edict of Thessalonica declared Christianity the state religion.

Gone were Jupiter, Mars and Venus and the old roman gods that had survived for over a thousand years, their temples were now converted for the worship of the single, Christian God.

Duchesne’s history of the fourth century uncovers how Christianity changed from being the marginal, and often persecuted, religion of the third century to a religion that grew in confidence and power and eventually became the sole religion of the Roman Empire.

Louis Duchesne’s Early History of the Christian Church is a classic and seminal account covering the years from the founding of Christianity to the end of the fifth century.

This is the second volume of a three-piece work regarded as one of the most important records of the beginning of the Christian Church, serving as a standard introduction to the Church’s history for many years.

Condemned by the Church in 1912 for being too “Modernist”, Duchesne’s work was reinstalled into Church history by Pope Paul VI in 1966 and remains one of the preeminent sources for early Christian scholars.

Orthodox Catholic historian Warren H. Carroll, the late founder of Christendom College, lauded the work as “excellent and thorough".

Louis Duchesne (1843-1922) was a French church historian of first rank. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1887 and completed his theological studies at Rome. His interest in the history of the early church was intensified by his travels in Greece and Asia Minor. He became a professor of ecclesiastical history at the Institut Catholique in Paris in 1885. In 1895 he was nominated director of the French School at Rome, a position he held until his death. He was elected a member of the French Academy in 1910. He died in 1922, in Rome, and is buried in the cemetery of Saint-Servan.

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