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XIII. Avignon (1309-1517, in the west)

Shortly after the western Catholic church achieved the height of its authority and influence in the 1200s, it experienced a sudden decline particularly during the 1300s.  The tumultuous 1300s saw the spread of the Plague and other natural disasters. During this time, the Papacy underwent two major crises, namely the Babylonian Captivity of the Church and the Great Western Schism. At the Council of 1215, Pope Innocent III had asserted the absolute power of the Pope, conceptualised as the Vicar of Christ on earth. However, the King of France then asserted his power and the Pope became his subordinate. The King of France even went to the lengths of relocating the Papacy from Rome to Avignon. This lasted from 1309 until 1377. However, no sooner had this crisis been overcome, than a second crisis followed on: the Great Schism of the western church which lasted from 1378 to 1417. During this second crisis, two and at times three different people claimed to be Pope, mobilising finance and eve
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XVI. Leyden (1564-1689)

The Protestant Reformation of the 1500s began in Germany and Switzerland, and soon spread to many countries across Europe, particularly northern Europe. The German Reformation of Luther took root in parts of Germany and the Scandinavian countries. The Swiss Reformation of Zwingli and Calvin took root in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Scotland, as well as having a minority presence in France, Poland and Hungary. (England was a special case; the Church of England was in some ways like the Lutheran churches and in other ways more like the Swiss Reformed Churches.) The Radical Reformation or Anabaptists, a third arm of the Reformation, mainly thrived in Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands, and later Poland.  By the 1560s, the initial "fire" of the early years had cooled down and for the next 100 years or so, the various iterations of Protestant Christianity solidified into a new "orthodoxy" (rigid beliefs and practices).   The Reformation began with Luther in the
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XX. To the Ends of the Earth

Since the earliest days, the church has worked to fulfil the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations. The work of mission continued throughout the centuries. The Eastern Orthodox church centred at Constantinople missionised its neighbours over many centuries, including Goths, Arabs, Persians, Bulgars, Slavs, Mongols and Lithuanians. The western Catholic church was even more prolific, converting the Franks, Irish, Angles and Saxons, continental Germanic peoples, Norsemen, Slavs and eventually the peoples of the Baltic. The last pagans in Europe were the Lithuanians who converted in 1386. Even during the 1300s when the Western Catholic church was in disarray, there were bold missions in Central Asia, to the Mongols and Chinese, and across the Mediterranean to Muslim places in North Africa. The missionary work of the Church of the East and the West Syrian Jacobites (Monophysites) was likewise huge, although many gains waned by the 1300s.   Nevertheless, the Age of Discovery whic
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Sunday school movement

Many will be familiar with the famous Monty Python sketch, in which a first century Judean crowd is asked, "What have the Romans ever done for us?" The crowd then lists off benefit after benefit of Roman rule until the speaker tells them to be quiet. If someone were to ask, "What has Christianity ever done for us?" one of the answers to that question is the Sunday school movement, the precursor to today's universal schooling.  In the mid-1700s, it was only boys from wealthy families who enjoyed education. Many were educated at home by tutors, while others were sent to grammar schools. The children of workers had no education.  The person credited with founding the Sunday School movement was a newspaper editor called Robert Raikes (1736-1811) from Gloucester (although before him, there were Sunday schools before that at High Wycombe and Nottingham). Raikes took an interest in the inmates at Gloucester Prison, and discovered many of them came from very disadvantag
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Luther & the German Reformation - timeline

1483     Luther born 1510     Luther's trip to Rome 1513     Luther begins his work as a lecturer at Wittenberg university  1517     95 Theses 1518     Heidelberg disputation 1519     Leipzig disputation (Eck)  1520     Luther writes three key pamphlets  1521     Luther's excommunication by the Pope enters into force.                Luther stands trial before Diet of Worms               Luther whisked away to hiding place in Wartburg Castle In Luther's absence, others undertook the reform of the church locally, including radical elements such as the Zwickau prophets (Carlstadt, Zwilling and others)      1522     Luther completes translation of the New Testament into German in Wartburg Castle                 Luther returns to Wittenberg and restores order, preaching on eight consecutive days.    1524     Luther's followers go to different places bringing the new teaching, e.g. Latvia (1524), Denmark (1525)  1524-5  Peasants' uprising led by Thomas Muntzer; Luther sid
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XIV. Wittenberg - History of the Protestant Reformation (approx. 1517-1560s)

The Protestant Reformation began in the German university town of Wittenberg with a young Christian academic and monk by the name of Martin Luther.  Martin Luther's journey to faith had not been easy; it can be described as "search for a merciful God". Originally training to be a lawyer, he was caught in a thunderstorm and, fearing for his life, vowed to become a monk. In due course he took the vows to become a monk, was ordained as a priest, and from 1508 worked as a lecturer in Holy Scripture at the recently founded Wittenberg university. Despite Luther's intense commitment, he felt he could never do enough and was left without assurance of God's mercy. However, as Luther taught his way through Psalms and then Romans, his search for assurance of forgiveness led him to rediscover the truth of salvation in Christ as a gift given by God and received by mere faith. This new evangelical faith was at odds with his experience of church, which offered an endless cycle o
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History of the French language

The indigenous population of what we call France were the Gauls, a Celtic people with their own Celtic language, Gaulish (of which there are approx. 800 extant written texts). Gaulish would have sounded something like modern-day Welsh.  When Roman rule expanded to include Gaul in 50 BC, it brought with it the Latin language, which co-existed with Gaulish for several centuries until Vulgar Latin finally prevailed; Gaulish died out by the 500s.  Vulgar Latin was Latin as spoken by the people. The Latin spoken in France evolved over time and due to exposure to the influence of other languages.  Around the year 500, tribes who had previously settled lands to the north of Gaul, the Franks, took control of what had been Roman Gaul. Their ruler was Clovis (466-511), who converted to Christianity and was crowned King of the Franks by the Christian church. The language of the Franks was Frankish, a Germanic language.  Under Frankish rule, in areas with existing Gallo-Roman populations, for seve
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