Christianity

An editorial selection for comparing processes, events, and lives. The interval and counts describe selected records, not the historical boundaries or importance of the subject.

Canonical records: 44
Events: 31
People: 0
Processes and periods: 13

Compare in the atlas Selection criteria and limits

Topics represented

Christianity (34) · Religion (34) · Catholic Christianity (17) · Protestantism (12) · Early Church (11) · Councils (8) · Religious conflict (7) · Political history (7) · Religious law (6) · Ecumenism (6) · Law & constitutions (5) · Orthodox Christianity (4)

View distribution by region and period

Canonical records by regional label and start date. These are numerical analysis bins, not universal historical periods. A multi-region record appears in multiple rows; do not add rows as a unique-record total.
Region	1–1499	1500–1799	1900–1999	Since 2000
Africa	3	0	1	0
Americas	0	3	0	0
Asia	13	0	1	0
Europe	13	13	6	2
Oceania	0	0	0	0
Global / no specific region	0	1	5	1

Records and sources

Ordered by start date. Long lives and processes may begin before the period you want to study.

1555
Peace of Augsburg
The Holy Roman Empire’s settlement legally recognized Lutheranism alongside Catholicism under cuius regio, eius religio. It did not include other Protestant branches and left conflicts that resurfaced in the seventeenth century.
1562–1598
French Wars of Religion
A succession of wars pitted Catholic and Huguenot factions against each other, intertwined with dynastic and power struggles. It is shown as a plural political-confessional conflict.
1572
St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre
Killings of Huguenots began in Paris and spread to other French cities. It was mass violence against Protestants within a conflict of power and religion; victim totals remain debated.
1598
Edict of Nantes
Henry IV established limited worship guarantees and civil rights for French Protestants in an officially Catholic kingdom. It was conditional, revocable pacification, not universal religious liberty.
1618–1648
Thirty Years’ War and Peace of Westphalia
The conflict began in a confessional Holy Roman Empire context and became a European war involving multiple powers. Westphalia reordered jurisdictions and confessional recognitions; it was not a war only about religion.
1910
Edinburgh World Missionary Conference
The conference brought together Protestant and Anglican missionary societies and was a decisive precursor of the modern ecumenical movement. It did not represent every Christian tradition or every voice in missionized territories.
1915
John Chilembwe rises against forced labour and war
Pastor and educator John Chilembwe led a brief uprising in Nyasaland against plantation abuse, racism, and African recruitment for war. He was killed and his followers suppressed, but his Christian critique of colonial rule became a touchstone of Malawian nationalism
1948
Founding of the World Council of Churches
147 churches formally constituted the World Council of Churches in Amsterdam. It is a milestone in Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox ecumenism; the Catholic Church is not a member, though it collaborates.
1962–1965
Second Vatican Council
The Catholic council renewed liturgy, articulated a collegial ecclesiology, and addressed ecumenism, religious liberty, and the contemporary world. Its documents and subsequent reception should be distinguished.
1965
Mutual lifting of the 1054 excommunications
Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I declared the removal from memory and from the Church of the 1054 excommunications. It opened a dialogue phase but did not restore full sacramental communion.
1974
Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization
The International Congress at Lausanne produced a covenant linking evangelization and social responsibility and articulated global evangelical networks. It should be distinguished from WCC institutional ecumenism.
1999
Lutheran–Catholic Joint Declaration on Justification
The Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church expressed consensus on basic truths of justification and clarified limits of sixteenth-century condemnations. It did not remove all ecclesial differences.
2016
Ecumenical Reformation commemoration in Lund
Pope Francis and leaders of the Lutheran World Federation jointly opened the 500th-anniversary commemoration of the Reformation. It shows a move toward dialogue without denying continuing differences.
2021–2024
Synod on Synodality
The Catholic Church conducted a worldwide consultation and two assembly sessions on synodality; the 2024 final document was presented to the pope and authorized for publication. It is an ongoing process, not an ecumenical council.