A Short History of Christianity / Second Edition, Revised, With Additions

by J. M. Robertson

Finlay’s History of Greece and Professor Bury’s History of the later Roman Empire and History of the Eastern Roman Empire, 802–867 (1912) are the main authorities in English apart from the ecclesiastical histories.

Part IV—MODERN CHRISTIANITY

Chapter I—The Reformation

In addition to Neander, Mosheim, Milman’s History of Latin Christianity, and Hardwick’s Church History: The Reformation (rep. 1886), consult Ullmann’s Reformers before the Reformation (Eng. tr. two vols. 1855), McCrie’s Histories of the Reformation in Spain and Italy, Ranke’s History of the Reformation (Eng. tr. one vol. ed. Routledge), and History of the Popes (Eng. tr. three vols. Bohn Lib.), Beard’s Hibbert Lectures on the Reformation, Felice’s Histoire des Protestants de France (trans. in Eng.), Krasinski’s History of the Reformation in Poland, Professor H. M. Baird’s History of the Rise of the Huguenots, two vols. 1880; also the current Lives of the leading reformers, and the special histories of the nations. Creighton’s History of the Papacy during the Reformation (six vols.) has special merit as a fresh and full research. As to the witch-burning mania consult Lecky’s Rise and Influence of Rationalism in Europe. On the Jesuits compare Nicollini’s History of the Jesuits, 1853, and Mr. McCabe’s A Candid History of the Jesuits (1913). On the medical work of Servetus and others see an interesting article by Dr. Austin Flint, in New York Medical Journal, June 29, 1901.

Chapter II—Progress of Anti-Christian Thought

As to the physical sciences, compare White, Baden Powell, Whewell, and Draper, as above cited; also Draper’s Conflict between Religion and Science (Internat. Lib. of Science); and the series of Histories of the Sciences published by the R. P. A. On the development of philosophy, cosmic and moral, and of Biblical Criticism, see the references in the author’s Short History of Freethought. A specially full and illuminating study of modern thought is made in Mr. A. W. Benn’s History of English Rationalism in the Nineteenth Century (two vols. Longmans, 1906).

Chapter III—Popular Acceptance

For the history of Catholicism since the seventeenth century consult Mosheim and Neander, also the History of the Fall of the Jesuits, by Count A. de Saint-Priest (Eng. tr. 1845), and Mr. Joseph McCabe’s The Decay of the Church of Rome (1909). There is an extensive literature on the controversy between Anglicanism and Catholicism in the middle of the nineteenth century, following on the Tractarian movement, as to the latest phases of which see the Secret History of the Oxford Movement, by Walter Walsh. For references as to recent developments in Protestant and other countries see again the author’s Short History of Freethought and Mr. Benn’s full record of the nineteenth century. The fortunes of Greek Christianity may be traced through Finlay. Compare Villemain, Essai sur l’état des Grecs depuis la conquête musulmane, in his Études d’histoire moderne (nouv. ed. 1846). Concerning the state of religion in modern Russia, see Wallace’s Russia. As to missions in general, see the able and comprehensive survey, Foreign Missions, by C. Cohen (Freethought Publishing Company), and A Chinese Appeal to Christendom Concerning Christian Missions (R.P.A., 1912). The existing situation as between Christianity and rationalism is well set forth in Philip Vivian’s The Churches and Modern Thought (R.P.A., 1911).