271-272

Recognized as the first Christian monk, Anthony of Coma (known today as St. Anthony) converts to Christianity and moves to the Egyptian Desert to live as a hermit. Most people consider Anthony to be the father of Christian monasticism.

313

Emperor Constantine legalizes Christianity in the Roman Empire, officially ending Christian persecution that’s happened off-and-on since the first century.

324

Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea writes the first Church history book, called The History of the Church.

325

A council of all bishops in the Church meet at Nicaea and develop the Nicean Creed (often referred to as the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed by Orthodox Christians) as a statement against Arianism (a heretical teaching that rejected the belief that Jesus is God).

374-430

Augustine (see Chapter 18) becomes a Christian in A.D. 374 and later becomes the bishop in the town of Hippo in North Africa. Augustine also writes many influential books during this timeframe, including Confessions and City of God.

380

Emperor Theodosius declares Christianity to be supreme and names himself the chief enforcer of Christian truth. Thus Christianity becomes the official state religion of the Roman Empire.

393-397

In A.D. 393, a council of bishops that meets in Hippo officially recognizes the New Testament canon. In A.D. 397, another council in Carthage does likewise.

403-461

In A.D. 403, Irish slave traders enslave a boy named Patrick, who is around 16 years old at the time. While a slave, Patrick becomes a Christian, and after he escapes from Ireland, he travels to Britain to study in a monastery. He eventually returns to Ireland in A.D. 432 as a missionary bishop and has an extremely fruitful ministry converting Irish people from Druidism to Christianity. Now known as “St. Patrick,” according to tradition he died on March 17, 461.

429

A visiting monk to Rome, Telemachus witnesses a gladiator fight in the Roman Coliseum and goes into the arena to stop the fighting. Gladiators kill him when he tries to break up the match, and his martyrdom has a profound influence on the public’s and emperor’s opinions regarding gladiator fights. Emperor Honorius bans gladiator fights altogether that same day.

451

Although the Nicean Creed addresses the divine nature of Jesus, the issue of his humanness was never completely settled at the council of Nicaea. To deal with this issue, a council of bishops meets in Chalcedon and declares, in what is known today as the Chalcedonian Creed, that Jesus is one person with two natures: He’s fully God and fully man.

1054

Centuries of tension between the Western and Eastern Churches come to a boil when the Bishop of Rome (or the pope) excommunicates the Patriarch of Constantinople (the leader of the Eastern Church) after the patriarch closes the Western-oriented churches in his area. The event is later known as The Great Schism, discussed more in Chapter 10.