2nd Century - Within a few decades of the death of the apostles, schisms were already evident among the Christians. Will Durant states: "Celsus [second-century opponent of Christianity] himself had sarcastically observed that Christians were 'split up into ever so many factions, each individual desiring to have his own party.' About 187 [C.E.] Irenaeus listed twenty varieties of Christianity; about 384 [C.E.] Epiphanius counted eighty."-The Story of Civilization: Part III- Caesar and Christ. Marcion (second century) differentiated between an imperfect "Old Testament" God inferior to Jesus and Jesus' Father, the unknown "New Testament" God of love. The idea of an "unknown god is a fundamental theme of gnosticism," explains The Encyclopedia of Religion. This unknown god is identified as "the supreme Intellect, inaccessible to the human intellect." The creator of the material world, on the other hand, is inferior and not absolutely intelligent and is known as the Demiurge. Montanus (second century) preached the imminent return of Christ and the setting up of the New Jerusalem in what is today Turkey. More concerned about conduct than doctrine, he evidently tried to restore the original values of Christianity, but given to extremes, the movement finally fell victim to the very situation of laxity it condemned. Valentinus (second century), a Greek poet and the most prominent Gnostic of all time, claimed that although Jesus' ethereal body passed through Mary, it was not actually born of her. This was because Gnostics viewed all matter as evil. Thus, Jesus could not have had a material body or it too would have been evil. Gnostics known as Docetists taught that everything about Jesus' humanity was mere appearance and illusion. This included his death and resurrection.

3rd Century - Pope Zephyrinus (198-217) , whom Saint Hippolytus of Rome, charged with laxity in enforcing discipline. Hippolytus also opposed Callistus, the archdeacon who became pope in 217, for his laxity in readmitting to communion those guilty of adultery and fornification. Saint Hippolytus of Rome, (circa 170-c. 235), the most important 3rd-century theologian of the Roman church and the first antipope. Hippolytus, a Roman priest, then set himself up as an antipope. In 235, during the persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor Maximin, Hippolytus was exiled to the Sardinian mines, Novatian (circa 200-c. 258), Roman theologian, who became the second antipope (from 251). A leader among the Roman clergy, Novatian espoused the doctrine of Montanism. His acceptance of that belief developed into the Novatian Schism. Saint Cornelius, who favored a lenient attitude toward those Christians who lapsed into idolatry, was elected pope in 251, and Novatian established himself as antipope. The Novatianists became heretical when they sought to deny penance to all persons who had sinned, and in 251 they were excommunicated by Cornelius.

4th Century - When Constantine I, emperor of Rome, accepted the new religion for himself (313) and his empire, Christian antagonism against and, later, persecution of Jews became widespread. Simony, the buying or selling of spiritual things. The word is derived from the biblical sorcerer Simon Magus, who attempted to buy spiritual powers from the apostle Peter (see Acts 8:18-24). Simony was a problem in the Christian church from the time of the Edict of Milan (313), when the church began to accumulate wealth and power, until modern times. This is evident from the frequent legislation against it. After he was ordained a priest in Alexandria in (319), Arius became involved in a controversy with his bishop concerning the divinity of Christ. Arius was finally exiled to Illyria (325) because of his beliefs, but debate over his doctrine soon engulfed the whole church and agitated it for more than half a century. In 328 Athanasius became bishop of Alexandria, During the Arian controversy, politics mingled with theology, and each side labored to win the favor of the Roman emperor Constantine. Donatism, heretical Christian movement of the 4th and 5th centuries, which claimed that the validity of the sacraments depends on the moral character of the minister. In 334 Emperor Constantine I recalled Arius from exile. Soon after, two influential people came to the support of Arianism: The next emperor, Constantius II, was attracted to the Arian doctrine; the bishop and theologian Eusebius of Nicomedia, later patriarch of Constantinople, become an Arian leader. After the banishment of Pope Liberius in 355, the deacon Felix was chosen to replace him and he had adherents even after the return of the legitimate pope. The schism, quenched for a time by the death of Felix, was revived at the death of Libenius and the rivalry brought about bloody encounters. In 359 Arianism had prevailed and was the official faith of the empire. Quarreling among themselves, however, the Arians divided into two parties. With the death of Constantius II in 361, and the reign of Valens, who persecuted the semi-Arians, the way was opened for the final victory of Nicene orthodoxy, The same period witnessed the schism of the Luciferians. Lucifer, Bishop of Calaris, or Cagliari, was displeased with Athanasius and his friends who at the Synod of Alexandria (362) had pardoned the repentant Semi-Arians. He himself had been blamed by Eusebius of Vercelli because of his haste in ordaining Paulinus, Bishop of the Eustathians, at Antioch. For these two reasons he separated from the communion of the Catholic bishops. For some time the schism won adherents in Sardinia, where it had originated, and in Spain, where Gregory, Bishop of Elvira, was its chief abettor. In 364 Athanasius fifth and final exile lasted only four months, He was exiled five times; more than one-third of his episcopate was spent away from his see. In 377 Apollinarianism, heretical doctrine taught by Apollinaris the Younger (circa 310-c. 390), bishop of Laodicea in Syria. A controversial theologian, he maintained that the Logos, or divine nature in Christ, took the place of the rational human soul or mind of Christ and that the body of Christ was a spiritualized and glorified form of humanity. This doctrine was condemned as a heresy by Roman councils (377 and 381) and also by the Council of Constantinople (381). In spite of its repeated condemnation, Apollinarianism persisted into the 5th century. At that time its remaining adherents merged with the Monophysites, who held that Christ had a divine will but no human will.

5th Century - In 402 Alaric king of the Visigoths, was persuaded to join forces with the Western Roman emperor Honorius, who was planning war with the Eastern Empire. It was a period of political and theological unrest, for while the barbarians pressed in upon the empire, even sacking Rome itself in 410, schism and heresy also threatened the church. Augustine threw himself wholeheartedly into the theological battle. Nestorian Church, a communion of Eastern Christians, who follow the teachings of Nestorius, archbishop of Constantinople, condemned as a heretic by the Council of Ephesus in 431. In 451 the Council of Chalcedon proscribed ordination for money. The schism of Acacius belongs to the end of the fifth century. It is connected with the promulgation by the emperor Zeno of the edict known as the Henoticon. Issued with the intention of putting an end to the Christological disputes, this document did not satisfy either Catholics or Monophysites. Pope Felix II excommunicated its two real authors, Peter Mongus, Bishop of Alexandria, and Acacius of Constantinople. Disunity became more apparent when the western empire ended in 476 C.E., marking the start of the Dark Ages. As regards Christianity, the Dark Ages were indeed an era of intellectual darkness and ignorance. The gospel light of Christianity had been, for the time being, overwhelmed by the darkness of Christendom.

6th Century - By the sixth century, the Western Roman Empire was defunct. It had been replaced by its Eastern counterpart, the Byzantine Empire with Constantinople as its capital. But their respective churches, suffering the shakiest of relationships, soon saw themselves threatened by a mutual foe, the rapidly spreading Islamic domain. In the sixth century the schism of Aquilea was caused by the consent of Pope Vigilius to the condemnation of the Three Chapters (553). The ecclesiastical provinces of Milan and Aquilea refused to accept this condemnation as valid and separated for a time from the Apostolic See. The Lombard invasion of Italy (568) favoured the resistance, but from 570 the Milanese returned by degrees to the communion of Rome; the portion of Aquilea subject to the Byzantines returned in 607, after which date the schism had but a few churches. It died out completely under Sergius I, about the end of the eighth century.

7th Century - Honorius I (died 638), pope (625-638), who was posthumously declared a heretic. Martin I, Saint (died 655), pope (649-55), who convoked the synod that condemned the heresy of Monothelitism. Born in Todi, in Tuscany, Italy, he was elected to succeed Pope Theodore I. The chief concern of Martin's papacy was the promulgation in the Eastern church of Monothelitism, the doctrine that Christ has only one will. The Eastern emperor Constans II, attempting to keep the church united at a time when the empire was under attack by Muslims, had issued (648) the Typos, an order forbidding any further discussion of Christ's will. When Martin presided over the Lateran Synod (649) in Rome, which condemned the Typos and Monothelitism, the emperor ordered his arrest (653). Martin was taken to Constantinople in 654, where he was insulted by the populace, charged with treason, and sent to exile in the Crimea (now in Ukraine), where he died.

8th Century - In (717-41) The consequent feud between the two divisions of the church attained critical proportions during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Leo III, who sought to abolish the use of images in Christian ceremonies.

9th Century - At the start of the ninth century, Archbishop Agobard of Lyons condemned image worship and the invocation of "saints." Simony was rampant from the 9th to the 11th century. During that period simony pervaded church life on every level, from the lower clergy to the papacy. Formosus himself became the victim of political intrigues in 876, when he was exiled to France. The ninth century brought the schism of Photius, which, though it was transitory, prepared the way by nourishing a spirit of defiance towards Rome for the final defection of Constantinople. Stephen VI (VII) (died 897), pope (896-97). Born in Rome, he was bishop of Anagni before his election to the papacy. A member of the ruling family of Spoleto, Stephen supported its candidate for Holy Roman emperor and shared its hatred for his predecessor, Pope Formosus, who had crowned a rival emperor. In 897 Stephen had the corpse of Formosus exhumed, seated on a throne, and subjected to a mock trial, condemned for ecclesiastical errors, mutilated, stripped of its pontifical vestments, and thrown into the Tiber River. Stephen was subsequently deposed and put to death by strangulation.

10th Century - Dunstan, Saint (circa 909-88), English prelate, statesman, and reformer. Dunstan became virtual ruler of the kingdom and instituted religious reforms and policies for political unification and the establishment of royal authority. John XII (937?-64), pope (955-64), sometimes called the Boy Pope because he was elected to the papacy when he was only 18 years old. Originally named Octavian, John was born in Rome. During his pontificate, which was one of the papacy's darkest periods, he secured the aid of Otto I, king of Germany, against Berengar II, king of Italy, who had occupied the Papal States. John crowned Otto I Holy Roman emperor in 962 but later conspired against him for assuming papal prerogatives. Otto thereupon summoned a synod that deposed John in 963 and elected Leo VIII as pope. John fled, but after Otto's departure for Germany he returned and took vengeance on Leo's supporters. Leo then fled. Before Otto could return to reinstate Leo, John died suddenly of paralysis and was succeeded by Benedict V.

11th Century - Benedict IX (circa 1012-55), pope (1032-44, 1045, 1047-48), who twice reclaimed the papacy and once sold the office to his godfather. He was brought to the papal throne in 1032. His immoral character aroused much indignation. When the headstrong Michael Cerularius became patriarch in Constantinople in 1043, he began a bitter campaign against the Latin churches in his own city and eventually closed them. His attacks were directed against such matters as the Latins' use of unleavened bread. Only later did he discover the discrepancy in belief between the two churches on the procession of the Holy Spirit, a divisive issue that was destined to assume ever greater importance in subsequent centuries. In 1044 a Roman faction drove Benedict IX from office as unfit to rule. Benedict IX reinstated himself in 1045, then gave up the papacy in return for a money payment from his godfather. Archpriest John Gratian, known for his honesty and piety, had hoped to free the papacy of Benedict's improper conduct. He became Pope Gregory VI (reigned 1045-46). Benedict regained the papal throne in 1047 but, in 1048, was again driven from Rome. In 1054 The final break between Greek and Latin churches, when the pope's legates excommunicate Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople. The alienation between the Eastern and Western churches had deep cultural and political roots and evolved over the course of many centuries. In 1079 Vratislaus, who later became king of Bohemia, asked the permission of Pope Gregory VII to translate the Bible into the language of his subjects. The pope's answer was no. An 11th-century archdeacon, Berengar of Tours, was excommunicated for questioning transubstantiation, the claim that the bread and the wine used at Catholic Mass are turned into Christ's actual body and blood. The Crusades, military expeditions undertaken by Western European Christians between 1095 and 1270, usually at the request of the pope, to recover Jerusalem and the other Palestinian places of pilgrimage known to Christians as the Holy Land from Muslim control. The name crusade (from Latin, “cross,” the emblem of the Crusaders) was also applied, especially in the 13th century, to wars against pagan peoples, Christian heretics, and political foes of the papacy. When the crusaders at last stormed Jerusalem, July 15, 1099, they drove all the Jews into one of the synagogues and there burned them alive. . . . The religious zeal fomented by the Crusades burned as fiercely against the Jews as enemies of Christ as against the Moslems. Thus both economically and socially the Crusades were disastrous for European Jews."

12th Century - By the middle of the twelfth century the towns of Western Europe were honeycombed with heretical sects. The Second Crusade (1147-49) was initiated because of the loss of the County of Edessa to Syrian Muslims in 1144; it ended when the Muslims successfully turned back Christendom's "infidels." The Third Crusade (1189-92), undertaken after the Muslims retook Jerusalem, had as one of its leaders Richard I, "the Lionhearted," of England. It soon "disintegrated," says The Encyclopedia of Religion, "through attrition, quarreling, and lack of cooperation." In 1199 Pope Innocent III wrote such a strong letter about the Church's stand against vernacular Bibles to the archbishop of Metz, Germany, that the archbishop burned all the German-language Bibles he could find.

13th Century - As early as the 13th century the papacy had become vulnerable to attack because of the greed, immorality, and ignorance of many of its officials in all ranks of the hierarchy. The sack of Constantinople by Western Crusaders in 1204. Pope Innocent III proclaimed a Crusade against the Albigenses, a religious sect in southern France. The ensuing Crusade was the first to be fought in Western Europe. Lasting from 1209 to 1229, the Crusade caused much bloodshed and the Christians failed to bring the Albigenses under their control. In 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council of the Roman Catholic church, called by Pope Innocent III, proclaimed an official policy of restrictions, similar to the Code of Omar, and ordered all Jews to wear distinctive badges. Throughout Europe Jews were despised. In cities they were forced to live in special areas, called ghettos, and not permitted freedom of movement. The Fifth Crusade (1217-1221) began with the taking of the Egyptian seaport of Damietta in 1219. The strategy called for an attack on Egypt, the capture of Cairo, and then a campaign to secure control of the Sinai Peninsula. The pope had proclaimed a Crusade against Frederick, raised an army, and proceeded to attack the emperor's Italian possessions. Frederick returned to the West to cope with this threat in May 1229. In 1229 the synod of Toulouse, France, decreed that "lay people" could not possess any Bible books in the common tongue. The Inquisition properly so called did not come into existence until 1231, with the constitution Excommunicamus of Pope Gregory IX. By his action the pope lessened the bishops' responsibility for orthodoxy, placed inquisitors under the special jurisdiction of the papacy, and established severe penalties. In 1233 a provincial synod of Tarragona, Spain, commanded that all books of "the Old or New Testament" be handed over to be burned. In 1252 Pope Innocent IV, under the influence of the revival of Roman law, officially sanctioned the use of torture to extract the truth from suspects. Until then, this procedure was alien to the canonical tradition. Celestine V, Saint (circa 1215-96), pope (1294), who after five months resigned from the papacy because of incompetence.

14th Century - During the period of the so-called Black Death, massacres of Jews were common throughout Europe, on the charge that Jews had caused the plague by poisoning Christian wells. In Spain systematic persecution by the church resulted in mass conversions by Jews attempting to save their lives. In many cases, such conversions were merely outward; a class of converts called Marranos (Spanish, “swine”) arose, professing Roman Catholicism but adhering to Judaism in secret. The Great Schism in the Western church began with the contested election of Pope Urban VI in 1378. The cardinals who elected him, dismayed at his erratic behavior, withdrew their obedience, declared Urban's election invalid because it was made under the duress of rioting in Rome, and selected a new pope, Clement VII. Urban retaliated by excommunicating Clement and his followers and by creating a college of cardinals of his own.

15th Century - The subject matter of some of Huss's sermons was made grounds of complaint to the archbishop, and Huss was forbidden to exercise his priestly functions in the diocese. In 1407 the synod of clergy summoned in Oxford, England, by Archbishop Thomas Arundel expressly forbade the translating of the Bible into English or any other modern tongue. During the half-century that the Great schism lasted, a number of solutions were proposed, including the popes' resignations, but only the convocation of a council offered any real hope. Cardinals and bishops from both sides met at Pisa in 1409, but their efforts only resulted in adding a third pope to the other two. In 1410 Alexander V, one of the three rival popes then contending for authority in the church , issued a bull condemning the teachings of Wycliffe and ordering his books burned. Huss, who was teaching Wycliffe's doctrines, was excommunicated in 1410. The execution of Huss as a heretic in 1415 led directly to the Hussite Wars, a violent expression of Bohemian nationalism, suppressed with difficulty by the combined forces of the Holy Roman emperor and the pope. The wars were a precursor of religious civil war in Germany in Luther's time. In 1431, in England, Bishop Stafford of Wells forbade the translating of the Bible into English and the owning of such translations. The Orthodox church in Russia declared its independence from Constantinople in 1448. Also distinct from the medieval Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition was established with papal approval in 1478 at the request of King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella I. In 1492 Spain expelled the Jews during the Spanish Inquisition. Julius II became a Franciscan priest in 1468. After his uncle became Pope Sixtus IV, he was made a bishop and a cardinal. When his personal enemy Rodrigo Borgia became Pope Alexander VI in 1492, he fled in exile to France, where he stayed until Alexander died. The Jews expulsion from Portugal in 1497.

16th Century - Julius II (1443-1513), pope (1503-13) He was elected Pope Julius II in 1503. Although bribery played a large part in his own election, the new pope promptly decreed all future elections influenced by simony invalid and subject to penalty. The Spanish established the Inquisition in Sicily in 1517. The Protestant revolution was initiated in Germany by Luther in 1517, when he published his 95 theses challenging the theory and practice of indulgences. During the Middle Ages, abuses surrounded the practice of granting indulgences. Their sale, with what appeared to be automatic spiritual benefits, even without personal repentance. When the Reformation had become a burning issue under the vehement leadership of Martin Luther, Erasmus's intellectual life took a new direction. He had always been admired and feared as a critic; now he became an apologist, not really trusted by either Roman Catholics or Reformers, always refusing to take sides, and his works were later listed in the Index of Forbidden Books by the Council of Trent. The Anabaptists In the early 1520s, several religious leaders began to preach against church and social practices in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V introduced the Inquisition into the Netherlands in 1522. In 1538, in a memorandum to Pope Paul III, they called his attention to parochial, financial, judicial, and moral abuses. But the papacy failed to make the obviously needed reforms. Alarmed by the spread of Protestantism and especially by its penetration into Italy, Pope Paul III in 1542 heeded reformers such as Cardinal Gian Pietro Carafa and established in Rome the Congregation of the Inquisition, also known as the Roman Inquisition and the Holy Office. When Carafa became Pope Paul IV in 1555, he urged a vigorous pursuit of suspects, not sparing bishops or even cardinals (such as the English prelate Reginald Pole). Pope Paul IV approved and published the first Index of Forbidden Books in 1559. Most of the Dutch embraced Calvinism, which served as a potent bond in their nationalistic struggle against their Spanish Roman Catholic overlords. They revolted in 1568 and warfare continued until 1648. The early history of Protestantism was marked by warfare in which political motives were entwined with religious ones. In Germany, the religious wars of the 16th century were bitter and devastating. In France the Calvinist Huguenots fought a bloody civil war with the Roman Catholics, culminating in the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew's Day in 1572, in which many Huguenot leaders were killed. In Germany during the reign (1576-1612) of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. Protestant churches in many parts of Germany were destroyed, restrictions were placed on the rights of Protestants to worship freely,

17th Century - John Smyth and Thomas Helwys, English separatists of Congregational persuasion, founded the first Baptist church on Dutch soil at Amsterdam in 1609. In 1618 The Protestants of Prague invaded the royal palace, seized two of the king's ministers, and threw them out a window. This act, known as the Defenestration of Prague, was the beginning of a national Protestant uprising. Thirty Years' War, series of European conflicts lasting from 1618 to 1648, involving most of the countries of western Europe, and fought mainly in Germany. At first the struggle was primarily based on the profound religious antagonism engendered among Germans by the events of the Protestant Reformation. Religious animosity, especially among non-German adherents of the contending Protestant and Roman Catholic factions, broadened the war and was a substantial factor in its later stages. For a brief period early in 1619 even Vienna, the Habsburg capital, was threatened by Evangelical Union armies. In 1620 A Catholic League army, commanded by the German soldier Johann Tserclaes, graf von Tilly, routed the Bohemians at Weisserberg (White Mountain), near Prague. Bloody reprisals were inflicted on the Protestants of Bohemia after this victory, and Protestantism was outlawed. The Protestants defeated Tilly's army at Wiesloch in April 1622 but thereafter met with successive disasters. By the end of 1624 the Palatinate, which was awarded to Maximilian I, duke of Bavaria, had been forcibly returned to the Roman Catholic fold. Supported by Lutheran and Calvinist German princes, Christian mobilized a large army in the spring of 1625 and invaded Saxony. On August 27, 1626, Tilly completely defeated the main body of Christian's army at Lutter am Barenberge, Germany. The combined imperial armies subsequently overran all of northern Germany, leaving numerous pillaged towns and villages in their wake. Tilly, who had been given command of Wallenstein's army, laid siege to Magdeburg, Germany, which was then in a state of insurrection against the Holy Roman Empire. The imperial armies captured and sacked the city on May 20, 1631, and massacred the Protestant inhabitants. Much of the city was destroyed by fires that spread during the fighting and pillaging. Roman Inquisition, tried and condemned Galileo in 1633.

19th Century - The Inquisition was finally suppressed in Spain in 1834. In 1844 The largest schism in American Methodism occurred when the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was formed by supporters of slavery after the General Conference became deadlocked over the issue. The Seventh-day Adventists, The church originated between 1844 and 1855 under the leadership of three American Millerites, Joseph Bates and James and Ellen White, but was not formally organized until 1863. In the 1860s The holiness controversy produced another schism, when a group of Methodist dissenters who believed in a reemphasis on Wesley's doctrine of personal holiness broke away to form the Free Methodist Church of North America. Old Catholics, Christian denomination organized in Munich in 1871 by Roman Catholics who protested the dogma, proclaimed the previous year by Vatican Council I, of the personal infallibility of the pope in all ex cathedra pronouncements

20th Century - The first schism occurred in 1917. In the years following, the Pentecostal movement split into several independent groups.