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Fri 3 Jun, 2005 02:52 pm
Usual story - 12 years of Catholic school, 4 years of Latin, nuns out the ears.
I asked a Baptist the other day the historical origin of her relegion. She said she didn't know, had never thought about it.
I was just surprised, I said, even though I don't follow the Catholic faith anymore, I know when it started.
I said it was the original Christian relegion. So there.
I even looked up the origins of Baptists that night. You know, curious.
Got me thinking - When exactly WAS the origin of the Catholic Faith? How about the ROMAN Catholic Faith? Was that different?
When did people start to call themselves Catholic? doesn't the word just mean "broad, all encompassing"
A little history please?
Catholic means universal; as such, it was a propagandistic name applied to that form of christianity.
Rather than go into an exhaustive discursus on the primitive christians, how about if i give you some things to look for on the internet?
Syriac christians
Nestorian christians
Orthodox christians
Byzantine Catholics
Arian "heresy" (this was a biggy, and badly split the early church--most of the Goths and Vandals followed the Arian creed, and as they conquered North Africa and the Iberian penninsula, the threat to the authority of the Byzantine and Roman churchs was significant)
Waldensians
Albigensians
Hussites
Antinomianism
Arminianism
Although both antinomianism and arminianism were at the heart of the great Protestant debate after the reformation, the antinomian "heresy" was around long before Martin Luther. I mention arminianism, even though it is more significant in the Protestant Reformation, because it also represents a theological theme with which the Church was obliged to wrestle for long centuries.
These are clues to finding out about the history of christianity before the Protestant Reformation--even though there is really no clear point at which the divide can be pinpointed--Jan Hus opposed simony just as Martin Luther did. But Hus was executed and became a martyr, while many of the German Princes and Imperial Knights defended and protected Martin Luther.
The Great Schism in the papcy was also a crucial precursor to the Protestant Reformation, and gave rise to simony (look that up, too) which was the spark which ignited that particular barrel of gunpowder.
Have fun. I'm sure others will drop by to give you information. If you feel up to reading about those things, let me know and i'll give you some leads for the period after the Protestant Reformation.
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