ecclesiastical
{{Short pages monitor clearly visible order by single centuries: having been compiled with remarkable diligence and faith from the most ancient and best historians, patriarchs, and other writers: By some dedicated and pious men in the city of Magdeburg."
Origin and composition
The first three
folio
The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...
. It was the work of a group of Lutheran scholars who had gathered at Magdeburg, and who are now known to history as the ''Centuriators of Magdeburg'' because of the way in which they divided their work (century by century) and the place in which the first five volumes were written; most of the others were written at
Wismar
Wismar (; Low German: ''Wismer''), officially the Hanseatic City of Wismar (''Hansestadt Wismar'') is, with around 43,000 inhabitants, the sixth-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the fourth-largest cit ...
or elsewhere, but the subtitle ''in Urbe Magdeburgicâ'' was retained.
The originator of the idea and the moving spirit of the organization which produced the work was Matthias Vlacich (Latinized Flacius), also known as Francovich, and, from the country of his birth (
Istria
Istria ( ; Croatian and Slovene: ; ist, Eîstria; Istro-Romanian, Italian and Venetian: ; formerly in Latin and in Ancient Greek) is the largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea. The peninsula is located at the head of the Adriatic betwe ...
), Illyricus. Born in 1520, he went to university in 1539 in Switzerland and Germany, where, at
Augsburg
Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...
, Basle,
Tübingen
Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in three ...
, and
Wittenberg
Wittenberg ( , ; Low Saxon: ''Wittenbarg''; meaning ''White Mountain''; officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg (''Luther City Wittenberg'')), is the fourth largest town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Wittenberg is situated on the River Elbe, north of ...
, he converted to Lutheranism. The Augsburg Interim of 1548 led to the Adiaphoristic controversy, in the course of which he wrote numerous harsh criticisms of the Reformer
Philipp Melanchthon
Philip Melanchthon. (born Philipp Schwartzerdt; 16 February 1497 – 19 April 1560) was a German Lutheran reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the Lut ...
; the bitter feeling generated gave rise to the hostile parties of Philippists and Flacians. All attempts to restore peace failed, and the
University of Jena
The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany.
The ...
, where Flacius was appointed professor of theology in 1557, became a centre of rigid Lutheranism in strong opposition to Melachthon. His wanderings after 1562, and the numerous domestic controversies between the Reformers, in which Flacius took part until his death (11 March 1575), did not prevent him from becoming the most learned Lutheran theologian of his day, while, in addition to numerous minor controversial works, his untiring energy led him to devise the vast historical work known as "The Centuries".
After
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...
's death in 1546, anti-Catholic controversy tended to lose its dogmatic character and to become historical. Flacius critiqued the history of Catholicism, and in that spirit wrote his once famous and influential catalogue of anti-papal witnesses, ''Catalogus testium veritatis, qui ante nostram aetatem reclamarunt Papae'' (Basel, 1556; enlarged ed., Strasburg, 1562; ed. by Dietericus, Frankfort, 1672). Some four hundred anti-papal witnesses were cited,
Pope Gregory I
Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregoria ...
and
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, Dominican Order, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino, Italy, Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest who was an influential List of Catholic philo ...
being included in the number of those who had stood up for truth against "the Papal Antichrist". As early as 1553, Flacius was seeking patrons whose financial support should enable him to carry out his plan of a comprehensive church history which was "to reveal the beginnings, the development and the ruthless designs of the Antichrist." The German princes, and the burghers particularly of Augsburg and
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
, helped him generously, but no support was forthcoming from the followers of Melanchthon. He travelled through Germany in search of material while his co-worker, Marcus Wagner (from
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
near
Gotha
Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the Gotha (district), district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine House of Wet ...
), searched the libraries of
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
,
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...
, Scotland, and
Denmark
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, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark
, establish ...
for the same purpose.
Research has emphasized the importance of the assistance given by the crypto-Protestant, Caspar von Nydbruck, imperial counselor, and head of the Imperial Library of Vienna, whose influence was exerted throughout Europe on behalf of the work. The editorial board, Gubernatores et Inspectores institut historiæ Ecclesiasticæ, was composed of Flacius, John Wigand (1523–1587), superintendent at Magdeburg, Matthew Judex (1528–1576), preacher at Magdeburg, Basil Faber (1525–1576), humanist, who collaborated in the first four ''Centuries'', Martin Copus, a physician who acted as treasurer, and Eblinek Alman, a burgher of Magdeburg, each of whom had his own assistants. Seven junior assistants were appointed to compile extracts from early Christian writers and historians in accordance with a fixed plan; two more mature scholars acted as "architects", grouped the material, and submitted it to the editors. When approved, the materials were worked up into chapters and again submitted before the final form was fair-copied.
Contents
Even when at Jena, and during his subsequent wanderings, Flacius retained the direction of the work. Each century was systematically treated under sixteen headings bearing uniform titles in the various volumes.
An analysis of the ''Quarta Centuria'', which appeared in 1560, will give an idea of the contents:
*Title page
*dedication to Queen Elizabeth (co. 3–12)
*# brief statement of the chief events of the century (col.13)
*# spread of the Church: where and how (13–35)
*# persecution and peace of the Church under Diocletian and Maximian (35–159)
*# the Church's teaching and its history (160–312)
*# heresies (312–406)
*# rites and ceremonies (406 -483)
*# Church discipline and government (483–582)
*# schisms and controversies (583–609)
*# councils (609–880)
*# leading bishops and doctors (880–1337)
*# leading heretics (1338–1403)
*# the martyrs (1403–1432)
*# miracles and miraculous occurrences (1433–1456)
*# political relations of the Jews (1456–1462)
*# other non-Christian religions (1462–1560)
*# political changes (1560–1574)
*Scriptural index (8 cols.)
*general index (92 pages of four columns)
This method was applied only to the first thirteen centuries, which were published separately in folio volumes at Basel; I–III in 1559 (reprinted 1560, 1562, 1564); IV in 1560 (reprinted 1562); V and VI in 1562; VII and VIII in 1564; IX in 1565; X and XI in 1567; XII in 1569; and XIII in 1574. The three remaining centuries were completed in manuscript by Wigand (who was largely responsible for all the work done between 1564–74), but never published, and the various attempts made in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to continue the work came to naught. In 1624 a complete edition of the ''Centuries'' in six folio volumes was issued at Basel by Louis Lucius, who omitted the authors' names and dedications, and introduced various modifications of the text in a
Calvinistic
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John C ...
sense. A third edition appeared at Nuremberg 1757–1765, but did not get beyond the fifth ''century''.