Appearance of Martin Luther as a reformer 276
EXPLANATION OF THE MAP.
(_To be read after Chapter XXII._)
The Map is meant to give the names of such places only as are mentioned
in the History.
The bounds of the patriarchates of Constantinople, Antioch, and
Jerusalem are marked as they were settled at the Council of Chalcedon,
in the year 451.
Only the northern part of the Alexandrian patriarchate is seen, as the
Map does not reach far enough to take in Abyssinia, which belonged to
it.
At the time of the Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325) the bishop of Rome's
patriarchate was confined to the middle and the south of Italy, with the
Islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. It afterwards grew by degrees,
until at length it took in all the countries of the west, although it
had lost Illyricum, which was once a part of it. But this was not until
long after the time to which our little book relates, and in the
meanwhile its extent varied very much. The reason why its bounds, at the
time of the Council of Chalcedon, or in the days of Gregory the Great,
cannot well be marked in a map is, that in some countries the bishops of
Rome had much _influence_, but had not _power_. They gave _advice_ to
the bishops of Gaul (or France), Spain, and Africa, and sometimes
ventured to give them _directions_. But they could not make the bishops
of those countries obey their directions, and had not _authority_ over
them in the same way as the patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria,
Antioch, or Jerusalem had over the bishops within their patriarchates.
To mark such countries as belonging to the Roman patriarchate would be
too much; to mark them as if they had no connexion with it would be too
little.
SKETCHES
OF
CHURCH HISTORY.
CHAPTER I.
THE AGE OF THE APOSTLES.
FROM A.D. 33 TO A.D. 100.
The beginning of the Christian Church is reckoned from the great day on
which the Holy Ghost came down, according as our Lord had promised to
His Apostles. At that time, "Jews, devout men, out of every nation under
heaven," were gathered together at Jerusalem, to keep the Feast of
Pentecost (or Feast of Weeks), which was one of the three holy seasons
at which God required His people to appear before Him in the place which
He had chosen (_Deuteronomy_ xvi. 16). Many of these devout men were
converted, by what they then saw and heard, to believe the Gospel; and,
when they returned to their own co
|