Church History
How the Church developed
Ecumenical Councils: 1 Nicaea I (325) · 2 Constantinople I (381) · 3 Ephesus (431) · 4 Chalcedon (451) · 5 Constantinople II (553) · 6 Constantinople III (680–81) · 7 Nicaea II (787)
Gold bands: Iconoclasm (726–787, 815–843) · Dark bands: persecutions under Nero (64–68), Domitian (c. 95), Decius (250–51), Valerian (257–60) and Diocletian (303–313); outside these waves Christians were still persecuted and martyred, but locally and not systematically · Crusades (1095–1291) · Roman Catholic dogmas: Immaculate Conception (1854), Papal Infallibility (1870)
A simplified diagram: dates are approximate and only the main branches are shown. Swipe sideways to see the whole diagram.
Year / Era Event
c. 0 The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ in Bethlehem.
c. 33 The Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem, followed forty days later by His Ascension (Acts 1:3).
c. 33 Pentecost: fifty days after Pascha the Holy Spirit descends on the apostles (Acts 2), the birthday of the Church.
c. 49 Council at Jerusalem (Acts 15) establishes precedent for addressing Church disputes in Council. James presides as bishop.
mid-1st c. The Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God (Theotokos) in Jerusalem, with the apostles gathered around her.
64–68 Persecution under Emperor Nero after the great fire of Rome, the first persecution by the Roman state.
c. 64–67 The Apostles Peter and Paul are martyred in Rome: St Peter is crucified and St Paul beheaded.
c. 70 Ignatius becomes Bishop of Antioch, in the heart of the New Testament era. St Peter had been the first bishop there.
70 The Romans destroy Jerusalem and its Temple.
c. 95 Persecution under Emperor Domitian. St John the Theologian, exiled on Patmos, receives the Book of Revelation, probably the last of the New Testament books.
c. 100 Repose of St John the Theologian at Ephesus, the last of the Twelve Apostles.
c. 107 St Ignatius of Antioch is martyred in Rome under Emperor Trajan. On the way he writes seven letters to the churches.
c. 150 St Justin Martyr describes the liturgical worship of the Church, centred on the Eucharist. Liturgical worship is rooted in both the Old and New Testament.
c. 155 St Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna and disciple of St John, is martyred.
c. 180 St Irenaeus of Lyons writes Against Heresies, defending the apostolic faith against the Gnostics.
250–251 Emperor Decius orders everyone in the Empire to sacrifice to the gods: the first empire-wide persecution.
257–260 Persecution under Emperor Valerian. St Cyprian of Carthage and St Laurence of Rome are martyred (258).
c. 285 St Anthony the Great, our patron saint, withdraws into the Egyptian desert. He becomes the father of monasticism.
303–313 The Great Persecution under Diocletian and his successors, fiercest in the East (Egypt, Palestine and Asia Minor). Among its martyrs are St George and St Demetrios.
3rd or early 4th c. St Alban is martyred at Verulamium (St Albans), the first recorded martyr of Britain.
313 After his victory at the Milvian Bridge (312), St Constantine, with Licinius, issues the Edict of Milan, giving Christians freedom of worship.
314 Bishops from Britain, among them those of York and London, attend the Council of Arles.
325 The Council of Nicaea settles the major heretical challenge to the Christian faith when the heretic Arius asserts Christ was created by the Father. St Athanasius defends the eternity of the Son of God. The Arians continue their assault on true Christianity for years. Nicaea is the first of Seven Ecumenical (Church-wide) Councils.
330 St Constantine dedicates his new capital, Constantinople, the “New Rome”.
367 St Athanasius lists the 27 books of the New Testament in his Festal Letter.
380 Emperor Theodosius makes the Nicene Christian faith the religion of the Empire.
381 The Second Ecumenical Council, at Constantinople, completes the Creed.
c. 397 St Ninian preaches the Gospel among the Picts and builds his church at Whithorn (Candida Casa) in Galloway, in what is now Scotland.
397 Synod of Carthage ratifies biblical canon.
432 St Patrick begins his mission in Ireland, following Palladius, who had been sent there in 431.
451 Council of Chalcedon affirms apostolic doctrine of two natures in Christ.
563 St Columba (Colmcille) founds the monastery of Iona, from which the Gospel spreads through Scotland and into Northumbria.
589 In a synod in Toledo, Spain, the filioque, asserting that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, is added to the Nicene Creed. This error is later adopted by Rome.
597 St Augustine, sent by Pope St Gregory the Great (the Dialogist), lands in Kent and baptises King Ethelbert; he becomes the first Archbishop of Canterbury.
635 St Aidan comes from Iona to Lindisfarne at the invitation of St Oswald, King of Northumbria, and brings the Gospel to the North East of England.
726 Emperor Leo III begins the first period of Iconoclasm (726–787), ordering icons to be removed and destroyed.
c. 730 St John of Damascus writes his defence of the holy icons: because God became man, He can be depicted.
754 A council at Hieria, called by Emperor Constantine V, condemns icons, and monks who defend them are persecuted. The Church later rejects this council.
787 The era of Ecumenical Councils ends at Nicaea, with the Seventh Council bringing the centuries-old use of icons back into the Church.
815 Emperor Leo V begins the second period of Iconoclasm (815–843). St Theodore the Studite leads the defence of the icons.
843 The Triumph of Orthodoxy: Empress Theodora and Patriarch Methodios restore the icons for good. It is still celebrated on the first Sunday of Great Lent, the Sunday of Orthodoxy.
863–880 The “Photian schism”: a dispute between St Photios the Great, Patriarch of Constantinople, and Pope Nicholas I. It concerned Rome’s claim to judge Photios’s election, the missions to Bulgaria, and the Western addition of the filioque. A council in Constantinople in 879–880 restored communion between Rome and Constantinople. The Orthodox Church honours St Photios as a saint.
988 Baptism of Rus’: St Vladimir, Grand Prince of Kyiv, is baptised and his people are baptised in the river Dnieper. Kievan Rus’ was the medieval East Slavic state centred on Kyiv, from which Ukraine, Belarus and Russia all trace their Christian roots.
1054 The Great Schism occurs. Two major issues were Rome’s claim to a universal papal supremacy and her addition of the filioque clause to the Nicene Creed.
1095–1291 The Crusades begun by the Roman Church.
1204 The Sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade adds to the estrangement between East and West.
1333 St Gregory Palamas defends the Orthodox practice of hesychast spirituality and the use of the Jesus prayer.
1453 Turks overrun Constantinople; Byzantine Empire ends.
1517 Martin Luther publishes his 95 Theses in Wittenberg, starting the Protestant Reformation.
1529 Church of England begins pulling away from Rome.
1854 Rome establishes the Immaculate Conception dogma.
1870 Papal Infallibility becomes Roman dogma.
1922 The Ecumenical Patriarchate founds the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, to which our parish belongs.
The Seven Ecumenical Councils (325 – 787)
The era of the Seven Ecumenical Councils was a defining period for the early Christian faith. These church-wide assemblies were convened to resolve theological disputes, establish orthodox doctrine, and address heretical teachings.
1. First Council of Nicaea (325)
The Issue: The council was called to settle a major heretical challenge from Arius, who asserted that Christ was a created being and not co-eternal with the Father.
The Outcome: St. Athanasius strongly defended the eternality of the Son of God. The council condemned Arianism, affirmed Christ's full divinity, and drafted the original Nicene Creed. This marked the very first of the Seven Ecumenical Councils.
Key facts: Called by St Constantine and remembered as the council of the 318 holy Fathers, among them, by tradition, St Nicholas of Myra and St Spyridon. It taught that the Son is “of one essence” (homoousios) with the Father, and agreed that all the churches should keep Pascha on the same Sunday.
2. First Council of Constantinople (381)
The Issue: Continued debates over Arianism, as well as new disputes regarding the divinity of the Holy Spirit and the nature of Christ's humanity (Apollinarianism).
The Outcome: The council condemned Apollinarianism, affirmed the full divinity of the Holy Spirit, and expanded the creed from Nicaea into the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, which is still recited in churches today.
Key facts: Called by Emperor Theodosius I, with about 150 bishops; St Gregory the Theologian presided for a time. It condemned those who denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit and gave Constantinople, the “New Rome”, the second place of honour after Rome.
3. Council of Ephesus (431)
The Issue: A dispute arose involving Nestorius, who objected to calling the Virgin Mary Theotokos (God-bearer or Mother of God), arguing that she only bore Christ's human nature.
The Outcome: The council condemned Nestorianism, affirming that Jesus is one unified person, not two separate persons sharing one body. Consequently, it upheld the title of Theotokos for Mary.
Key facts: Called by Emperor Theodosius II, with about 200 bishops; St Cyril of Alexandria led the defence of the Theotokos. Nestorius was deposed, and the council forbade anyone to compose another creed in place of the Nicene Creed. The Church of the East, in the Persian Empire beyond the Roman frontier and already self-governing under its Catholicos at Seleucia-Ctesiphon, did not accept this council and grew apart. It later carried the Gospel along the Silk Road to India, Central Asia and China, and continues today mainly as the Assyrian Church of the East, with its patriarch in Erbil, Iraq.
4. Council of Chalcedon (451)
The Issue: A reaction to Nestorianism led to a new extreme (Monophysitism/Eutychianism), which argued that Christ's human nature was completely absorbed by his divine nature, leaving him with only one nature.
The Outcome: The council affirmed the apostolic doctrine of two natures in Christ. It defined the "hypostatic union," declaring that Christ is fully God and fully man, existing in two distinct natures without confusion, change, division, or separation.
Key facts: Called by Emperor Marcian and remembered as the council of the 630 holy Fathers, the largest of the seven. Its canon 28 gave Constantinople privileges equal to those of Old Rome, ranking second after it; Pope St Leo refused to accept this canon. The Tome of Pope St Leo of Rome was read and welcomed. The Oriental Orthodox (non-Chalcedonian) Churches did not accept its decisions. Holding to St Cyril’s phrase “one incarnate nature of God the Word”, they feared that “two natures” leaned towards Nestorius, and they separated. Today they are the Coptic, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Syriac, Armenian and Malankara (Indian) Orthodox Churches. In modern dialogue with the Orthodox Church (Chambésy, 1990) both sides declared that they confess the same faith in Christ in different words.
5. Second Council of Constantinople (553)
The Issue: The Church was still struggling to reconcile with the Monophysites. The Emperor Justinian attempted to bridge the gap by condemning the "Three Chapters"—writings by three theologians who were suspected of having Nestorian sympathies.
The Outcome: The council officially condemned the Three Chapters, reinforcing the theological decisions made at Ephesus and Chalcedon and emphasising the Church's stance against Nestorianism.
Key facts: Called by Emperor St Justinian, with about 165 bishops. Pope Vigilius was in Constantinople but refused to attend; he later accepted the council’s decisions.
6. Third Council of Constantinople (680–681)
The Issue: A new theological compromise called Monothelitism proposed that while Christ had two natures, he possessed only one divine will.
The Outcome: The council condemned Monothelitism, determining that because Christ has two complete natures, he must possess two corresponding wills (divine and human).
Key facts: Called by Emperor Constantine IV and held in the domed hall (the Trullo) of the imperial palace. It vindicated St Maximus the Confessor and Pope St Martin, who had suffered for confessing two wills in Christ, and condemned Pope Honorius among the Monothelites.
7. Second Council of Nicaea (787)
The Issue: The Iconoclastic controversy tore through the Eastern Church, with critics arguing that the veneration of religious images (icons) was tantamount to idolatry.
The Outcome: This council brought the centuries-old use of icons back into the Church. It drew a strict theological distinction between the worship (latria) owed exclusively to God, and the veneration (dulia) given to icons. This event officially ends the era of the early Ecumenical Councils.
Key facts: Called by Empress Irene with Patriarch St Tarasios, with about 350 bishops. Drawing on St John of Damascus and St Basil the Great, it taught that the honour given to an icon passes to the person it depicts.