Curiosities of Christian History Prior to the Reformation

Arsenius the Great was a famous monk, born about 354, and had been early in life made tutor to the sons of the Emperor Theodosius; but finding it an unsatisfactory post, retired...

The clergy, including the monks and friars, were one throughout Latin Christendom. Whatever antagonism, feud, hatred, and estrangement might rise between rival prelates, rival p...

St. Martial, the apostle of the Gauls, when a lad of fifteen, was taken by his father to see Christ, and became thenceforth a constant follower, and at a later date was a compan...

The Romish Church has from the beginning looked favourably on the practice of adorning churches with images and pictures of sacred persons. At Nola, in 460, the cathedral of St....

Though for the last sixteen centuries the name of Christian has been used throughout the whole world, this descriptive word was not much used in the first four centuries. The Ch...

As early as the second century men and women began to feel the charm of a peaceful, contemplative life, wholly severed from the selfish, sensual, and brutish ways of large commu...

The basilicas of Pagan Rome were long rectangular buildings, divided along their whole length sometimes by two, not seldom by four, lines of columns, and serving as halls or cou...

The Apostolic period, from A.D. 30 to 100, or rather 117, the death of John, may be subdivided into three: (1) the founding of the Christian Church among the Jews, chiefly the l...

The old chroniclers are elated with a fine enthusiasm when narrating the exploits of the first Crusaders. Orderic the monk, who died about 1141, thus describes the situation: "L...

In the ninth century the monks busied themselves with collecting, compiling, and reviving biographies and histories of saints and martyrs. Many of the records of monasteries had...

In the reign of the Christian Emperor Constantine, early in the fourth century, a Christian nun, called Nunia, was carried off captive by the Iberians, and was given as a slave...

According to an ancient legend, the Emperor Augustus Cæsar repaired to the sibyl Tiburtina to inquire whether he should consent to allow himself to be worshipped with Divine hon...

St. Matthew suffered martyrdom by being slain with a sword at a distant city of Ethiopia. St. Mark expired at Alexandria, after having been cruelly dragged through the streets o...

Gibbon observes that during the age of Christ, of His Apostles and their first disciples, the doctrine which they preached was confirmed by innumerable prodigies. The lame walke...

When a persecution was raging against the Christians about 206, Leonidas and his son Origen were among the suspected. Leonidas was beheaded. Origen, then aged seventeen, was als...

issuing out of a cavern at the village of Banias, which was once the town of Cæsarea Philippi, where Christ asked His disciples who they thought He was. Near this spot was suppo...

A Monk with a Genius for Monkery, 266; St. Ninian, the Scottish Saint, 267; St. Mungo, 267; Monk Absenting Himself from Prayers, 268; Death of St. Benedict, 269; St. Columba of...

Unity of the Clergy, 326; Supremacy of Pope, 326; Election of Popes, 328; Dress of Cardinals, 328; The Degraded Bishop, 329; Emperor and the First Abdication, 330; Bishop Buildi...

Martyr Valeria, 142; St. Thecla and Polycarp, 143; St. Felicitas, 144; The Martyrs of Lyons, 144; St. Cecilia, 145; Perpetua, 146; St. Ursula, 146; St. Barbara, 147; Potamiana,...

Origin of Monachism, 206; Miracles of Monks, 207; Philosophy of Monkery, 207; Motives for Monks, 208; Weak Side of, 208; St. Benedict, 209; The Reformers of Monkery, 209; Early...

The Name of Christian, 94; Early Pagan Riot, 94; Early Christians and Slavery, 95; The First Persecution, 96; How Christians Appeared to Pagans, 97; Shows of Wild Beasts, 97; Te...

Pictures in Churches, 472; Monk Painter, 472; Pictures in Monasteries, 473; Sacro Monte, 473; Images in Spain, 474; Cimabue, 475; Bishop's Ape Takes to Painting, 475; Painter's...

Church History Divided into Ages and Periods, 63; Apostolic Church, 64; The Millennium, 64; Community of Goods, 65; Emblems of Christians, 66; Christian Names, 66; Auricular Con...

Monk Historian on the Crusades, 408; Crusades Beneficial, 408; Practice of Pilgrimages, 409; Early Travels in Palestine, 410; Ways of Pilgrims, 410; Peter the Hermit, 411; Pope...

Lives of Saints, 385; Christian Legends, 385; How Legends Grow, 386; Thundering Legion, 387; The Theban Legion, 387; The Divining Rod, 387; St. George and the Dragon, 388; St. C...

Nun Converts the Iberians, 243; Fourth-century Missionary, 243; Sermon by St. Patrick, 244; Monk Warding Off Locusts, 244; First Planting the Cross in England, 245; Pope Gregory...

Early Church Architecture, 438; Coptic Church, 439; Spires, Towers, and Dimensions of Cathedrals, 440; Gothic Cathedrals, 440; Altar, 441; Incense and Holy Water, 442; St. Peter...

Heathen Knowledge about the Virgin, 1; Simeon's Great Age, 2; Portraits of the Virgin, 2; Marriage of Joseph and Virgin Mary, 3; Massacre of Innocents, 4; Flight to Egypt, 5; Ho...

Death of the Apostles, 23; Apostles who were Married, 23; St. Matthew and St. Mark, 24; St. Luke and St. Bartholomew, 25; St. Thomas and St. Simeon, 26; St. Timothy and St. Barn...

Sages of Greece and Rome on Christian Prodigies, 42; Zacharias and John the Baptist, 44; Pontius Pilate, 45; Herod the Great, 46; Mary Magdalene, 47; St. Martha, 48; St. Veronic...

Origen, 194; St. Ambrose, 194; St. Jerome, 197; St. Jerome's Reflections, 198; St. Jerome with Lion and Ass, 198; Deathbed of St. Jerome, 199; St. Jerome's Epistles, 199; St. Ch...