Magdeburg Centuries

The Magdeburg Centuries is an ecclesiastical history, divided into thirteen centuries, covering thirteen hundred years, ending in 1298; it was first published from 1559 to 1574. It was compiled by several Lutheran scholars in Magdeburg, known as the Centuriators of Magdeburg. The chief of the Centuriators was Matthias Flacius. Due to its revolutionary critical method of presenting history, it is the basis of all modern church history.

It is said that Baronius undertook his Annales Ecclesiastici purely to oppose the Magdeburg Centuriators.

The Magdeburg Centuries demonstrates the continuity of the Christian faith throughout the ages. As the Centuries put it, Church history shows a "perpetual agreement in the teaching of each article of faith in all ages". Instead of presenting a Restorationist platform, the writers held that "this very form of the teaching which we now have in our churches because of the great kindness of God is that very ancient one, not a new one; genuine, not adulterous; true, not fabricated." The view of the work is generally pessimistic after the fifth century, in keeping with the writers' objective of presenting "the origins and the increments of errors and their corrupting influences." Another characteristic of the work is the widespread use of primary sources rather than secondary or tertiary ones. In order to accomplish this, scholars traveled and borrowed manuscripts from all over Europe. With such diverse sources, one might expect a fractured or incoherent presentation of history. Instead, it provides a perspective that is completely independent from any of its sources, even though they are as wide ranging as Gregory of Nazianzus and Alcuin.

Not only are the volumes artificially divided by century rather than by historical eras, but each century is treated from a similar perspective, rather than from a fresh perspective for every era of history. Catholics have dissented from controversial historical arguments in the Centuries. Examples of controversial claims made in the Centuries, in their effort to discredit the papacy, include identifying the pope as the Anti-Christ, and the legend of Pope Joan.

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