61-618: In Christian history , the Collegiants ( Latin : Collegiani ; Dutch : Collegianten ), also called Collegians , were an association , founded in 1619 among the Arminians and Anabaptists in Holland . They were so called because of their colleges (meetings) held the first Sunday of each month, at which everyone had the same liberty of expounding the scripture and praying . Collegiants were an association, founded in 1619 among
122-526: A Christendom that influenced every aspect of medieval life. From the ninth-century into the twelfth, politicization and Christianization went hand-in-hand in developing East-Central Europe , influencing culture, language, literacy, and literature of Slavic countries and Russia . The Byzantine Empire was more prosperous than the Western Roman Empire , and Eastern Orthodoxy was influential, however, centuries of Islamic aggression and
183-636: A Christian, and in 313, just two years after the close of Diocletian's persecution, issued the Edict of Milan expressing tolerance for all religions. The Edict was a pluralist policy, and throughout the Roman Empire of the fourth to sixth centuries, people shifted between a variety of religious groups in a kind of "religious marketplace". Constantine also took important steps to support and protect Christianity. He gave bishops judicial power and established equal footing for Christian clergy by granting them
244-837: A Roman Emperor is under Nero , probably in 64 AD, in the city of Rome. Scholars conjecture that the Apostles Peter and Paul were killed then. The Hellenized Greek-speaking Jews of Alexandria had produced the Septuagint , a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, between the third and first centuries BC. This was the translation of the Hebrew Bible used by the apostles and early Christians. Christian writings in Koine Greek, including Gospels containing accounts of Jesus's ministry, letters of Paul, and letters attributed to other early Christian leaders, were written in
305-531: A freedom otherwise denied to them. The Pauline epistles in the New Testament provide some of the earliest documentary sources of women as true missionary partners in the early Jesus movement. Female figures in early Christian art are ubiquitous. In the church rolls from the second-century, there is conclusive evidence of groups of women "exercising the office of widow". Judith Lieu affirms that influential women were attracted to Christianity. Much of
366-804: A growing criticism of the Catholic Church in the 1300–1500s, led to the Protestant Reformation and its related reform movements . Reform, and the Catholic Counter-Reformation , were followed by the European wars of religion , the development of modern political concepts of tolerance, and the Age of Enlightenment . Christianity also influenced the New World through its connection to colonialism , its part in
427-595: A million. This provided enough adopters for its growth rate to be self-sustaining . In the first-century, it spread into Asia Minor ( Athens , Corinth , Ephesus , and Pergamum ). Egyptian Christianity probably began in the first-century in Alexandria. As it spread, Coptic Christianity , which survives into the modern era, developed. Christianity in Antioch is mentioned in Paul's epistles . Early Christianity
488-562: A presbyter/bishop whose primary role was economic. Any liturgical role would still have been linked to the substantial character of the eucharistic meal, the resources needed for it, and the charitable distributions connected to it. Accordingly, Christian bishops began forming an alternative elite. The first Christian communities were predominantly Jewish, although some also attracted God-fearers : Gentiles who visited Jewish synagogues. The religious, social, and political climate in Judea
549-512: A refuge from the bitterness of the Calvinist and Arminian controversies of the day. Their name is derived from the custom they had of calling their communities "Colleges", as did Spener and the Pietists of Germany. The Collegiants' first place of meeting was at the village of Warmond , at the residence of one of the brothers, but they shortly established their headquarters at Rijnsburg ,
610-659: A sage, a holy man, a prophet, a seer, or a visionary. Jesus saw his identity, mission, and that of his followers, in light of the coming kingdom of God and the prophetic tradition of Israel. His followers believed he was the Son of God, the Christ , a title in Greek for the Hebrew term mashiach (Messiah) meaning “the anointed one", who had been raised from the dead and exalted by God . As Frances Young has written, "The incarnation
671-502: A variety of hostile and discriminatory imperial laws aimed at suppressing sacrifice and magic and closing temples that continued their use. Blood sacrifice had been a central rite of virtually all religious groups in the pre-Christian Mediterranean, but it disappeared by the end of the fourth-century. This is "one of the most significant religious developments of late antiquity," writes Scott Bradbury, and "must be attributed to ...imperial and episcopal hostility". Christian emperors wanted
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#1732780391434732-636: A village 2.5 mi (4.0 km) northwest from Leiden , and were hence called the Rijnsburgers (Dutch: Rijnsburger Collegianten ). In Rijnsburg , the Collegiants had a guest-quarter in the present-day alleyway of Kwakelsteeg called the Grote Huis (Large House). There were also large communities of Collegiants in other places, for instance in Amsterdam and Hoorn . The Amsterdam college
793-785: A work which he wrote against Bredenburg under the title Arcana Atheismi detecta ("The Secrets of Atheism Revealed"); he was also the publisher of the Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum seu Unitariorum . The two parties were reunited on the death of these two controversialists, and attracted many to their society from other sects during the 18th century. The last (open) meetings of the Collegiants were held in Rijnsburg om 27 May 1787, in Rotterdam on 9 September 1788, and in Amsterdam in 1791. The last baptism in Rijnsburg
854-555: Is what turns Jesus into the foundation of Christianity". The Christian church established these as its founding doctrines, with baptism and the celebration of the Eucharist meal (Jesus' Last Supper) as its two primary rituals. Christianity initially emerged in the Roman province of Judea during the first-century. It was impacted by - and impacted - the geographical, cultural and socio-economic context in which it first developed. In
915-535: The American Revolution , slavery in the west, and the long-term impact of Protestant missions. In the twenty-first century, traditional Christianity has declined in the West, while new forms have developed and expanded throughout the world. Today, there are more than two billion Christians worldwide and Christianity has become the world's largest , and most widespread religion. Within the last century,
976-814: The Crusades negatively impacted Eastern Christianity. During the High Middle Ages , Eastern and Western Christianity had grown far enough apart that differences led to the East–West Schism of 1054. Temporary reunion was not achieved until the year before the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The fall of the Byzantine Empire put an end to the institutional Christian Church in the East as established under Constantine, though it survived in altered form. Various catastrophic circumstances, combined with
1037-592: The Diocletianic Persecution , took place in 303–311. There was also periodic persecution of Christians by Persian Sassanian authorities, and popular opposition from Graeco-Roman society at large. Christian authors of the second and third centuries were on the defensive, and the term Hellene became equated with pagan during this period. The Edict of Serdica was issued in 311 by the Roman Emperor Galerius , officially ending
1098-537: The Edict of Milan expressing tolerance for all religions. He did not make Christianity the state religion, but he did provide crucial support. Constantine called the first of seven ecumenical councils . By the Early Middle Ages , Eastern and Western Christianity had already begun to diverge, while missionary activities spread Christianity across Europe. Monks and nuns played a prominent role in establishing
1159-731: The Epistle to the Hebrews , the Epistle of James , the First and Second Epistle of Peter , the First Epistle of John , and the Book of Revelation . Gnostic texts emerged in the early second century challenging the physical nature of Jesus. In 172, Montanism suggested that current prophecy could supersede the apostles, and Monarchianism emphasized the unity of God over the Trinity. In
1220-618: The Arminians and Anabaptists in Holland. The practice originated in 1619 when, after the Synod of Dort forced the States of Holland to dismiss clerics for encouraging refuge to individuals being persecuted for religious beliefs, three brothers of Warmond by the name of van der Kodde (or Codde)—Gijsbert, Jan Jacobsz, and Adriaen—decided to hold religious services of their own. The sect began as
1281-599: The Black Sea, in Ethiopia , India , Nubia , South Arabia , Soqotra , Central Asia and China . By the sixth-century, there is evidence of Christian communities in Sri Lanka and Tibet . Early Christianity was inclusively open to men and women, rich and poor, slave and free ( Galatians 3:28 ). Baptism was free, and there were no fees, which made Christianity a substantially cheaper form of worship compared with
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#17327803914341342-552: The Dutch writer Aagje Deken was raised. Their principle from the beginning had been to admit all individuals to their society who were willing to acknowledge their belief in the Bible as inspired scripture, and to take it as a guide for Christian life; but no confession of faith was used, and the widest diversity of opinion was permitted. Their form of worship consisted of prayer meetings held on Sundays and Wednesdays, at which any men of
1403-531: The King of Armenia, to convert to Christianity. Driven by a universalist logic, Christianity has been, from its beginnings, a missionary faith with global aspirations. It first spread through the Jewish diaspora along the trade and travel routes followed by merchants, soldiers, and migrating tribes. It achieved critical mass in the years between 150 and 250 when it moved from fewer than 50,000 adherents to over
1464-519: The Nicaean council. Clement , a first-century bishop of Rome, refers to the leaders of the Corinthian church in his epistle to Corinthians as bishops and presbyters interchangeably. The New Testament writers also use the terms overseer and elders interchangeably and as synonyms. It is unlikely that Christian offices were derived from the synagogue. The Second and Third centuries included both
1525-466: The Roman Empire , the faith spread as a grassroots movement that became established by the third-century both in and outside the empire. New Testament texts were written and church government was loosely organized in its first centuries, though the biblical canon did not become official until 382. Constantine the Great was the first Roman Emperor that converted to Christianity . In 313, he issued
1586-433: The Roman Empire around the ancient Mediterranean, elites (2 - 5 % of the population) controlled the means of economic production, had a virtual monopoly on literacy, and most of the political power. Life for peasants was not easy, and hunger was common. 'Religion' in this context did not exist separately from politics or the family household. The 'house church' was the earliest stage of development and organization in
1647-613: The Second Temple by Roman Emperor Titus in 70 contributed to the divergence of Judaism and Christianity as did disagreements about Jewish law, Jewish insurrections against Rome which Christians did not support, and the development of Rabbinic Judaism . What had begun as a Jewish messianic movement becomes a largely Gentile movement that is increasingly divorced from Judaism and its practices. However, Jewish Christianity remained influential in Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor into
1708-514: The centre of growth has shifted from West to East and from the North to the Global South becoming a global religion in the twenty-first century . Early Christianity begins with the ministry of Jesus ( c. 27–30 ) Virtually all scholars of antiquity accept that Jesus was a historical figure . His crucifixion is well attested. He was a complex figure, which many see as
1769-513: The community might pray and expound the scripture, but there was no regular organization of a ministry among them. They recognized the necessity of baptism , which they administered by immersion, and twice a year they had a sacramental meeting extending over several days, similar to those of the Scottish Presbyterians . Benedict Spinoza joined the study groups of the Collegiants while living near Leiden from 1660 to 1663. It
1830-410: The costly aristocratic models of patronage, temple building, and cult observances. Inclusivity extended to women who made up significant numbers of Christianity's earliest members. Traditional social expectations of women in the Roman Empire did not encourage them to engage in the same activities as men of the same social class. However, through religious activities, women were sometimes able to attain
1891-668: The early fifth-century, continuing in parts of the empire into the seventh-century, and into the ninth-century in Greece. Jews and Christians were both religious minorities, claiming the same inheritance, competing in a direct and sometimes violent clash. Augustine's ethic regarding the Jews rejected those who argued they should be killed or forcibly converted. Instead, he said Jews should be allowed to live in Christian societies and practice Judaism without interference because they preserved
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1952-583: The empire to become a Christian empire, and they used imperial law to make it easier to be Christian and harder to be pagan. However, there was no legislation forcing the conversion of pagans until the sixth-century, during the reign of the Eastern emperor Justinian I, when there was a shift from generalized legislation to actions that targeted individual centers of paganism. Despite threatening imperial laws, occasional mob violence, and imperial confiscations of temple treasures, paganism remained widespread into
2013-400: The face of such diversity, the scriptures commonly used in worship provided some unity. The early church fathers rejected the making of images. This rejection, along with the necessity to hide Christian practice from persecution, left behind few early records. What is most likely the oldest Christian art emerged on sarcophagi , and in burial chambers in frescoes and statues, sometime from
2074-626: The first-century and had considerable authority even in the formative period. The letters of the Apostle Paul sent to the early Christian communities were circulating in collected form by the end of the first-century. According to Gerd Theissen , institutionalization began very early when itinerant preaching transformed into resident leadership in the first-century. Edwin Judge argues that there must have been organization long before 325 since many bishops were established enough to participate in
2135-468: The fluidity and the consolidation of Christian identity. A more formal Church structure grew, and according to Carrington, that hierarchy developed at different times in different locations. Bishops began presiding over multiple churches and rose in power and influence. The Ante-Nicene period included increasing but sporadic persecution from Roman authorities, and the rise of Christian sects , cults , and movements . The destruction of Jerusalem and
2196-552: The government's action. Augustine's authority on coercion was undisputed for over a millennium in Western Christianity, and according to Peter Brown, "it provided the theological foundation for the justification of medieval persecution". Opponents of Gnosticism used it to develop better Christian theology. Montanism was mentioned at Nicea but not condemned, however, there were repeated and ongoing writings against it after 324. Traditionally, scholars have seen
2257-517: The greatest controversy as that between Arianism and trinitarianism . Exactly what occurred has long been a matter of intense debate. Sometime around 320, Arius wrote a letter to his bishop, Alexander, distinguishing three distinct "substances" of God with the Father alone as eternal and not having a beginning. In this metaphysic, the Son is not of the same substance as the Father. Alexander responded by taking formal action against Arius and advising
2318-493: The late second to the early third-century. This art is symbolic rather than representative. Much of it is a fusion of Graeco-Roman style and Christian symbolism. Jesus as the good shepherd is the most common image of this period. In 250, the emperor Decius made it a capital offense to refuse to make sacrifices to Roman gods , resulting in widespread persecution of Christians. Valerian pursued similar policies later that decade. The last and most severe official persecution,
2379-430: The new Jesus movement. Voluntary associations known as collegia served as a model. Some church members were of higher social and economic standing than others and used their means to provide what was needed. The owner of the house was patron and host. The typical setting for worship was the communal meal which was not yet formally distinguished from the eucharistic meal. These house churches would each have been overseen by
2440-534: The pagan world. Late Antiquity can be seen as an era of economic struggle with periods of stagnation and periods of tremendous activity. The Christian faith grew and spread through the Empire into Western Europe and around the Mediterranean basin . Different doctrines and practices emerged as schisms and heresies due to its multiple geographic and cultural contexts. Church organization began to mirror
2501-551: The persecution of Christians in the East. With the promulgation of the Edict of Milan in 313, in which co-emperors Constantine and Licinius legalized all religions, persecution of Christians by the Roman state ceased. The Kingdom of Armenia became the first country in the world to establish Christianity as its state religion when, in an event traditionally dated to 301, Gregory the Illuminator convinced Tiridates III ,
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2562-454: The powerful psychological attraction of elitism. Christian and non-Christian witnesses testify to the zealousness of Christian communities for almsgiving and charity. Christians showed the poor great generosity. Early Christianity redefined family by burying together church members not related by blood and extending funeral rites to include the Christian community. Christians had no sacrificial cult, and this set them apart from Judaism and
2623-468: The same immunities polytheistic priests had long enjoyed. By intervening in church disputes, he initiated a precedent for ecclesiastical councils. Constantine was the first emperor to order the restoration of properties to the churches. There was a burst of church building under Constantine, and Christian art and literature blossomed. By the late fourth-century, there were churches in essentially all Roman cities. Overt pagan-Christian religious conflict
2684-416: The second and third centuries. By the early third-century, there existed a set of early Christian writings similar to the current New Testament . Although a general acceptance of the four gospels and the letters of Paul as authoritative is found in the second and third centuries, it is significant that church leaders assigned different degrees of authority to different writings. There were disputes over
2745-424: The structure of the Roman Empire. The Theodosian Age embracing the last twenty years of the fourth century and the first twenty years of the fifth has been described as "the last renaissance of the Roman Empire". By the second half of the fifth-century, cities were in decline, streets were no longer being built, and fortifications were decaying. Constantine the Great became emperor in the West, declared himself
2806-658: The teachings of the Old Testament and were "living witnesses" of the New. According to Anna Sapir Abulafia , scholars agree that "with the marked exception of Visigothic Spain in the seventh-century, Jews in Latin Christendom lived relatively peacefully with their Christian neighbors" until the 1200s. Sometime before the fifth-century, the theology of supersessionism emerged, claiming that Christianity had displaced Judaism as God's chosen people. Supersessionism
2867-613: The texts they produced indicate Jesus' first followers saw him as that promised Messiah. Saul of Tarsus, a pharisee who became Paul the Apostle , persecuted the early Jewish Christians, then converted . Paul was influential in the early spread of Christianity making at least three missionary journeys and writing letters of instruction and admonishment to the churches he founded. Beginning with less than 1000 people, Christianity had grown to around one hundred small household churches consisting of an average of seventy members each, by
2928-410: The third-century had already produced a decline of urbanism and prosperity. Further economic disruption in the fourth and fifth-centuries occurred when various Germanic peoples sacked Rome, and invaded Britain, Gaul, and Iberia. Such disruption made fewer public funds and private donations available to support expensive pagan festivals and temples. Under Constantine, non-Christians became subject to
2989-592: The vociferous anti-Christian criticism of the early church was linked to "female initiative" which indicates women were playing a significant role. Monasticism was one area of antique life that gave women who practiced charismatic asceticism some control over their destinies. Ross Kraemer theorizes that the ascetic life was attractive to large numbers of women. It offered an escape from marriage and motherhood and offered an intellectual life with access to social and economic power that would otherwise have eluded them. A key characteristic of these inclusive communities
3050-553: The year 100. The earliest date for the council is 47, but most likely it was held in 49 or 50. The issue concerned Gentiles joining the movement in increasing numbers and the Judaizers who wanted them to follow Jewish law. "The faith that was Jewish in form, and universal in content, had to be adjusted to non-Jewish people". In its first three centuries, some saw Christianity as a threat which led to localized persecution by mobs and governors. The first reference to persecution by
3111-473: Was crucified and died c. AD 30–33 in Jerusalem in the Roman province of Judea . Afterwards, his followers, a set of apocalyptic Jews , proclaimed him risen from the dead. Christianity began as a Jewish sect and remained so for centuries in some locations, diverging gradually from Judaism over doctrinal, social and historical differences. In spite of the persecution of Christians in
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#17327803914343172-457: Was a much higher priority than paganism for Christians of this period. In North Africa during the reign of Constantine, Donatism formed as a schism. Donatists refused - sometimes violently - to accept back into the Church those who had handed over sacred texts during Diocletian's persecution. After many appeals, the empire responded with force, and in 408 in his Letter 93, Augustine defended
3233-524: Was during this period that he began working on his major book, The Ethics . At the end of the 17th century, the opinions of Spinoza had obtained a strong hold upon the Collegiants, and caused a temporary division of their members into two parties, with separate places of meeting. The leader of the Spinozist party was John Bredenburg, a merchant of Rotterdam , and he was opposed by a bookseller from Amsterdam, named Francis Couper, who attained some eminence by
3294-598: Was extremely diverse and characterized by turmoil. Judaism itself included numerous religious and political movements. One was Jewish messianism with its roots in Jewish apocalyptic literature . Its prophecy and poetry promised a future anointed leader (messiah or king) from the Davidic line to resurrect the Israelite Kingdom of God and replace the foreign rulers. The nature of the earliest communities and
3355-428: Was founded in 1646 by Adam Boreel as a spiritualist cell, like those of Sebastian Franck and Kaspar Schwenkfeld , but Daniel De Breen, a Leiden-educated Remonstrant theologian, brought the college in line with Rijinsburger principles. A disaffected Mennonite, Galenus Abrahamsz (or Abrahamson), brought many other Mennonites to the Amsterdam college. In Amsterdam, the Collegiants ran an orphanage, 'De Oranjeappel', where
3416-800: Was in Gaul , North Africa, and the city of Rome. It spread (in its Arian form) in the Germanic world during the latter part of the third-century, and probably reached Roman Britain by the third-century at the latest. From the earliest days, there was a Christian presence in Edessa (modern Turkey). It developed in Adiabene in the Parthian Empire in Persia (modern Iran). It developed in Georgia by
3477-409: Was in 1801. The center in Rijnsburg was sold in 1828, after the last Collegiant had died. The orphanage of the Collegiants called 'De Oranjeappel' survives to this day as a foundation promoting youth work ("Stichting Weeshuis der Doopsgezinde Collegianten "De Oranjeappel"). Christian history The history of Christianity begins with the ministry of Jesus , a Jewish teacher and healer who
3538-489: Was never official or universally held, but replacement theology has been part of Christian thought through much of history. Many attribute the emergence of antisemitism to this doctrine, while others make a distinction between supersessionism and modern antisemitism. There has been a paradigm shift in modern scholarship that questions the existence of heresy and orthodoxy before the Council of Nicea (325) and differentiates heresy from schism. The Church of Late Antiquity
3599-490: Was once the dominant view of Late Antiquity. Twenty-first-century scholarship indicates that, while hostile Christian actions toward pagans and their monuments did occur, violence was not a general phenomenon. As Jan N. Bremmer writes, "religious violence in Late Antiquity is mostly restricted to violent rhetoric". Support for the polytheistic religions had been declining since the second-century B.C. and continued to decline throughout Late Antiquity. The economic crisis of
3660-426: Was seen by its supporters as a universal church. Membership was based on belief, and correct belief - defined by apostolic tradition - identified variations as heresies according to their degrees of difference from the "true church". Ancient authors labeled anyone with doctrinal variations and different practices as heretical. The sheer number of laws directed at heresy in the fourth and fifth centuries indicate it
3721-403: Was their unique type of exclusivity. Believing was the crucial and defining characteristic of membership. Correct belief identified and separated believers from the "unbeliever" creating a high social boundary. Such exclusivity formed an important part of Christianity's success by enabling independence in a society that syncretized religion. In Daniel Praet's view, exclusivity gave Christianity
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