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405 JEROME COMPLETES THE VULGATE
Eusebius Hieronymus Sophronius, known to us as Jerome (345-420), was born in northeastern Italy in about 345. He was a disciplined scholar and an ascetic Christian. For several years he lived in the Syrian Desert mastering Hebrew. By 383, he became secretary to Damasus (304-384), the bishop of Rome, and probably was the greatest Christian scholar in the world. His lasting achievement was translating the Old and New Testaments into Latin. Today we know his translation as the Vulgate. In 1546, the Council of Trent declared it to be the only authentic Latin text of the Bible. Although he included the books of the Apocrypha since they had been part of the Septuagint, which was the Jewish translation of the Old Testament, he did not consider them to be part of the inspired Word of God.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
410 THE VISIGOTHS SACK ROME
The Goths were Germanic tribes that initially raided the northeastern frontiers of the Roman Empire during the third century. In the fourth century they split into two tribes, the Goths who lived in Dacia (now Romania and Hungary) and the Visigoths who lived north of the Black Sea. In 376, the Visigoths crossed the Danube and in 378 defeated the Roman army at Adrianople, killing the Emperor Valens. Under their king, Alaric (d. 410), the Visigoths attacked Rome in 408 and 409, in both cases accepting huge ransoms to lift their siege. On August 24, 410, Alaric captured Rome and looted everything except its churches. The sack of Rome was a great disillusionment to Christians and pagans alike, as both believed that personal piety guaranteed both political freedom and social security.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
414 CHRISTIANS ORGANIZE THEIR FIRST ATTACK ON JEWS IN ALEXANDRIA
Alexandria, Egypt, had been a cosmopolitan city since Alexander the Great founded it in 332 BC. From its beginning it had a sizable Jewish population. In the fourth century AD, relations between the Jews and Christians of Alexandria had become contentious. When Athanasius (295-373) was bishop of Alexandria, Jews joined the Arians, who denied Christ's deity, in rioting against him. Then in about 414, the Jews, threatened by Cyril the Patriarch (bishop) of Alexandria, rioted and killed many Christians. The next day in response, with Cyril's encouragement, Christians attacked the synagogues and killed as many Jews as they were able to find. The surviving Jews fled Alexandria, ending the Jewish colony there.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
THE RESULTS OF A LONG-AGO DECISION
September 30, 420
Why do Roman Catholic Bibles have more books than Protestant Bibles?
The answer comes from the work of a man who died on September 30, 420. His name was Sophronius Eusebius Hieronymus, but history knows him as Jerome. Born of Christian parents in northeastern Italy, at the age of twelve he went to Rome to study. He was baptized there at nineteen.
Jerome became attracted to monasticism and lived as a monk near the ancient Syrian town of Chalcis. During this time he began mastering Hebrew and perfecting his Greek. He was ordained in Antioch and became a bishop without pastoral responsibilities. He next studied under Gregory of Nazianzus, one of the Cappadocian Fathers who had a profound influence on Christian theology.
In 386, Jerome moved to Bethlehem, where he spent the rest of his life. He served as the overseer of a monastery and the spiritual advisor to a local convent.
Jerome spent most of his time writing. His linguistic ability and scholarship were unsurpassed in the early church. His greatest contribution to the Christian world was his translation of the Bible. In 382, Pope Damasus commissioned Jerome, then no more than thirty-five years old, to produce a uniform text of the Latin Bible. He was to standardize the texts then in circulation.
Between 390 and 404, Jerome translated the Old Testament into Latin. In addition to the thirty-nine books of the Hebrew Old Testament, Jerome also translated fourteen Jewish religious books that the translators of the Septuagint had included. These fourteen books were never part of the Jewish Bible and were called the Apocrypha, which came to mean "spurious" or "not genuine." Even though Jerome included the Apocrypha with the Old Testament because the Septuagint had done so, in speaking of the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, he wrote, "anything outside of these must be placed within the Apocrypha," the noncanonical books. In other words, Jerome saw a definite distinction between the thirty-nine inspired books and the Apocrypha.
Jerome's translation became known as the Vulgate. At the time of the Reformation, the Pope called the Council of Trent to attempt to stem the tide of Protestantism. There, in an attempt to differentiate the Roman Catholic Church from the Reformers, the council declared the Latin Vulgate, including the Apocrypha, to be the authoritative Bible, whereas the Reformers recognized only the original thirty-nine books of the Old Testament.
Although Jerome had included the Apocrypha in the Vulgate as uninspired books, the Council of Trent declared them to be inspired. Thus was born the difference between the Roman Catholic and the Protestant Bibles.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
423 SIMEON THE STYLITE LIVES ON A PILLAR
Perhaps the most well known of the early ascetics was Simeon the Stylite (390-459) who was born in Cilicia in modern southeastern Turkey. After being raised by his shepherd father, he moved to Antioch and became a hermit. For the next twenty years, he wandered through Northern Syria, living in several monasteries. In 423, Simeon ascended a pillar in Telanissus. He spent thirty-six years living a rigorously ascetic life on a small platform on the top of the pillar, which eventually reached sixty feet high after several additions. As Simeon's reputation spread through the surrounding areas, thousands came to see him and hear him preach. Simeon's followers multiplied, with Daniel the Stylite (409-493) being most famous among them. After Simeon died, a monastery was built on the site of his famous pillar.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
428 NESTORIUS BECOMES BISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE
In 428 Theodosius (401-450), the eastern Roman emperor, promoted Nestorius (d. 451) to the position of bishop of Constantinople, modern-day Istanbul, Turkey. Nestorius had been a monk and an elder in Antioch, and was very well known for his preaching. At his post in Constantinople, Nestorius began teaching and was asked to declare whether Theotokos ("God-bearing") was an appropriate term for Mary, the mother of Jesus. His response was that the best title for Mary was Christotokos (Christ-bearing). In the ensuing debate, Nestorius was denounced as a heretic by Cyril (d. 444), the bishop of Alexandria. Then in 431, the Council of Ephesus removed Nestorius from his office. A Nestorian church continued on in the Middle East with some remnants still remaining today.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
429 JEWISH PATRIARCHATE IS ABOLISHED
Shortly after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD, two central Jewish institutions known as the Patriarchate and the Sanhedrin came to the fore. The Sanhedrin functioned as the Supreme Court of Judaism, while the Patriarchate took precedence in the eyes of the general public. Both Romans and Jews acknowledged the patriarch as the official representative of Judaism, even though he had no political power. He came to be recognized by the Roman government as the authority over the Jews. As the Roman Empire adopted Christianity, it simultaneously began removing Jews from public office. The patriarch lost his official prerogatives and the office was abolished in about 429 when Emperor Theodosius refused to appoint a successor to Gamaliel VI. This left the Sanhedrin as the only recognized central authority in Judaism.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
431 THE COUNCIL OF EPHESUS MEETS
Concerned by the view of the Nestorians—who split Jesus Christ into two separate persons, one human and one divine—Emperor Theodosius II (401-450) called the Council of Ephesus to meet in 431. With sixty bishops present, the Council of Ephesus is considered to be the third General Council of the church. The council acted to excommunicate Nestorius (d. 451) and condemn his teaching. The Nestorians refused to accept the council's decision and proceeded to form a Nestorian church. The council also condemned Pelagianism, which had become popular in the West. This view taught that man has a free will and an innate ability to do good and rejected the concepts of original sin and predestination. Millennialism, the view that Christ will reign on earth for one thousand years, was condemned as well.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
432 PATRICK EMBARKS ON HIS MISSION TO IRELAND
Born near Dumbarton, Scotland, Patrick (390-461) was the son of a deacon and Roman magistrate. At the age of sixteen he was captured by Irish pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland. Escaping to Gaul (modern-day France), he became a monk under Martin of Tours (335-400). After returning to his family in Britain, he had a vision in which he was called to preach to the heathen Irish. He was consecrated as a bishop and returned to Ireland with a missionary party in about 432. For the next thirty years Patrick ministered throughout Ireland and witnessed thousands converted to Christ. The churches he founded were independent of Rome. As a result of Patrick's labor, Ireland became a center of Christian influence for the rest of Western Europe.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
440 LEO I BECOMES BISHOP OF ROME
Born in Tuscany, Leo (400-461) became a prominent deacon and then an imperial diplomat. His wide-ranging abilities made him an obvious choice for bishop of Rome in 440. Leo was faced with heresies that threatened the integrity of the church. In response, he codified what he considered to be orthodox doctrine and made the papacy sovereign within the church. To adjust to the rapidly disintegrating Roman Empire, he attempted to achieve peace by negotiating with the enemies of the empire such as Attila the Hun (d. 453). Leo's efforts greatly stabilized the Western church in troubled times and set its course for future centuries. At the same time, his sermons revealed a genuine concern for the lives of individual believers. For his accomplishments, he is known as Leo the Great.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
445 VALENTINIAN GIVES HIS EDICT
Valentinian III (419-455) became the emperor of the Western Roman Empire in 425, although for the first twenty-five of his thirty-year reign, he was co-regent with his mother. With the encouragement of Bishop Leo I of Rome (400— 461), Valentinian issued an edict in 445 giving the bishop of Rome authority over all the provincial churches in the Western empire. This gave the Roman bishop important advantage in his struggle for power with the other patriarchs of the church.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
451 THE COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON OPENS
The Council of Chalcedon was called by Emperor Marcian (396-457) to deal with the heresy of Eutyches (378-454), an elderly monk who blurred the distinction between Jesus' human and divine natures. More than five hundred bishops were present at the first session on October 8, 451. The council dealt not only with the heresy of Eutyches, but three others as well. The statement of faith issued by the council, called the Definition of Chalcedon, affirmed against Eutyches that the deity and humanity of Christ are distinct. Against Arius (250-336) they accepted the full deity of Christ, and against Apollinarius they maintained Christ's full humanity. Against Nestorius (d. 451) they declared that Christ is one person. Although the emperor intended the Definition to unite the empire, many churches in the Eastern Empire, especially those in Egypt and Ethiopia, rejected it.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
452 ATTILA THE HUN INVADES ITALY
Known to Christian authors as the "Scourge of God," Attila was a powerful king who united the Huns, a Mongolian tribe that first invaded the Roman Empire in the 300s. In 440, Attila invaded the Balkans. He headed west in 450 when the sister of the Western emperor asked him to rescue her from a forced marriage. When he invaded France in 451, Attila finally was defeated by the armies of the Romans, Visigoths, and Franks. Attila next turned his attention to Italy, invading in 452. However, with famine and disease taking a high toll on his troops, he was persuaded to heed the pleas of Leo I, bishop of Rome, and returned to territory north of the Danube. One year later Attila died, leaving the Christian presence in central Europe severely eroded as a result of his invasions.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
476 THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE FALLS
The fifth century witnessed the decline of the Western Roman Empire. After the death of Emperor Valentinian III in 455, the Western Empire came under the influence of Germanic chiefs who held real power over puppet emperors. Finally in 476, the Germanic chief Odoacer (434-493) deposed the last Roman emperor, a youth named Romulus Augustulus, whose name recalled Rome's first king and first emperor. Odoacer proclaimed himself king according to the customs of the barbarians. Although the event was not regarded as of great importance at that time, in reality the center of world power had now shifted to Constantinople. In the West the power of the church was about to replace the power of the state.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
496 CLOVIS, KING OF THE FRANKS, IS BAPTIZED
Clovis, king of the Franks from 481 to 511, first learned of Christianity when he married Clothilda of Burgundy who was a Christian. She continually attempted to convert Clovis, but he would have none of it until 496, when the prospect of losing a battle caused him to seek the aid of his wife's God. After winning the battle, he consented to be baptized on Christmas Day that year. Clovis then used his new religion as an excuse for expanding his territory, expelling the heretic Arian Visigoths out of southern France. However, his newly professed faith did not deter him from using brutality and treachery against his political opponents. With the support of the church he appointed clergy as envoys and governors in further successful attempts to extend his kingdom.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
499 THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD IS COMPLETED
The Palestinian Talmud—a commentary on the Mishnah, the oral laws of Judaism added to those of Scripture—was completed about 380 in Tiberias. But the Babylonian Talmud was not finished until approximately 499. Just as there were academies for study of the Mishnah in Palestine, so there were similar academies in Babylonia (modern-day Iraq). The enrollments often numbered in the thousands. Students went from one academy to another, sometimes even between Palestine and Babylonia. It is likely that Rabina bar Huma who died in 499 was the final editor of the Babylonian Talmud. The Babylonian Talmud was regarded as authoritative in the Middle Ages.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
Eusebius Hieronymus Sophronius, known to us as Jerome (345-420), was born in northeastern Italy in about 345. He was a disciplined scholar and an ascetic Christian. For several years he lived in the Syrian Desert mastering Hebrew. By 383, he became secretary to Damasus (304-384), the bishop of Rome, and probably was the greatest Christian scholar in the world. His lasting achievement was translating the Old and New Testaments into Latin. Today we know his translation as the Vulgate. In 1546, the Council of Trent declared it to be the only authentic Latin text of the Bible. Although he included the books of the Apocrypha since they had been part of the Septuagint, which was the Jewish translation of the Old Testament, he did not consider them to be part of the inspired Word of God.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
410 THE VISIGOTHS SACK ROME
The Goths were Germanic tribes that initially raided the northeastern frontiers of the Roman Empire during the third century. In the fourth century they split into two tribes, the Goths who lived in Dacia (now Romania and Hungary) and the Visigoths who lived north of the Black Sea. In 376, the Visigoths crossed the Danube and in 378 defeated the Roman army at Adrianople, killing the Emperor Valens. Under their king, Alaric (d. 410), the Visigoths attacked Rome in 408 and 409, in both cases accepting huge ransoms to lift their siege. On August 24, 410, Alaric captured Rome and looted everything except its churches. The sack of Rome was a great disillusionment to Christians and pagans alike, as both believed that personal piety guaranteed both political freedom and social security.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
414 CHRISTIANS ORGANIZE THEIR FIRST ATTACK ON JEWS IN ALEXANDRIA
Alexandria, Egypt, had been a cosmopolitan city since Alexander the Great founded it in 332 BC. From its beginning it had a sizable Jewish population. In the fourth century AD, relations between the Jews and Christians of Alexandria had become contentious. When Athanasius (295-373) was bishop of Alexandria, Jews joined the Arians, who denied Christ's deity, in rioting against him. Then in about 414, the Jews, threatened by Cyril the Patriarch (bishop) of Alexandria, rioted and killed many Christians. The next day in response, with Cyril's encouragement, Christians attacked the synagogues and killed as many Jews as they were able to find. The surviving Jews fled Alexandria, ending the Jewish colony there.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
THE RESULTS OF A LONG-AGO DECISION
September 30, 420
Why do Roman Catholic Bibles have more books than Protestant Bibles?
The answer comes from the work of a man who died on September 30, 420. His name was Sophronius Eusebius Hieronymus, but history knows him as Jerome. Born of Christian parents in northeastern Italy, at the age of twelve he went to Rome to study. He was baptized there at nineteen.
Jerome became attracted to monasticism and lived as a monk near the ancient Syrian town of Chalcis. During this time he began mastering Hebrew and perfecting his Greek. He was ordained in Antioch and became a bishop without pastoral responsibilities. He next studied under Gregory of Nazianzus, one of the Cappadocian Fathers who had a profound influence on Christian theology.
In 386, Jerome moved to Bethlehem, where he spent the rest of his life. He served as the overseer of a monastery and the spiritual advisor to a local convent.
Jerome spent most of his time writing. His linguistic ability and scholarship were unsurpassed in the early church. His greatest contribution to the Christian world was his translation of the Bible. In 382, Pope Damasus commissioned Jerome, then no more than thirty-five years old, to produce a uniform text of the Latin Bible. He was to standardize the texts then in circulation.
Between 390 and 404, Jerome translated the Old Testament into Latin. In addition to the thirty-nine books of the Hebrew Old Testament, Jerome also translated fourteen Jewish religious books that the translators of the Septuagint had included. These fourteen books were never part of the Jewish Bible and were called the Apocrypha, which came to mean "spurious" or "not genuine." Even though Jerome included the Apocrypha with the Old Testament because the Septuagint had done so, in speaking of the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, he wrote, "anything outside of these must be placed within the Apocrypha," the noncanonical books. In other words, Jerome saw a definite distinction between the thirty-nine inspired books and the Apocrypha.
Jerome's translation became known as the Vulgate. At the time of the Reformation, the Pope called the Council of Trent to attempt to stem the tide of Protestantism. There, in an attempt to differentiate the Roman Catholic Church from the Reformers, the council declared the Latin Vulgate, including the Apocrypha, to be the authoritative Bible, whereas the Reformers recognized only the original thirty-nine books of the Old Testament.
Although Jerome had included the Apocrypha in the Vulgate as uninspired books, the Council of Trent declared them to be inspired. Thus was born the difference between the Roman Catholic and the Protestant Bibles.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
423 SIMEON THE STYLITE LIVES ON A PILLAR
Perhaps the most well known of the early ascetics was Simeon the Stylite (390-459) who was born in Cilicia in modern southeastern Turkey. After being raised by his shepherd father, he moved to Antioch and became a hermit. For the next twenty years, he wandered through Northern Syria, living in several monasteries. In 423, Simeon ascended a pillar in Telanissus. He spent thirty-six years living a rigorously ascetic life on a small platform on the top of the pillar, which eventually reached sixty feet high after several additions. As Simeon's reputation spread through the surrounding areas, thousands came to see him and hear him preach. Simeon's followers multiplied, with Daniel the Stylite (409-493) being most famous among them. After Simeon died, a monastery was built on the site of his famous pillar.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
428 NESTORIUS BECOMES BISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE
In 428 Theodosius (401-450), the eastern Roman emperor, promoted Nestorius (d. 451) to the position of bishop of Constantinople, modern-day Istanbul, Turkey. Nestorius had been a monk and an elder in Antioch, and was very well known for his preaching. At his post in Constantinople, Nestorius began teaching and was asked to declare whether Theotokos ("God-bearing") was an appropriate term for Mary, the mother of Jesus. His response was that the best title for Mary was Christotokos (Christ-bearing). In the ensuing debate, Nestorius was denounced as a heretic by Cyril (d. 444), the bishop of Alexandria. Then in 431, the Council of Ephesus removed Nestorius from his office. A Nestorian church continued on in the Middle East with some remnants still remaining today.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
429 JEWISH PATRIARCHATE IS ABOLISHED
Shortly after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD, two central Jewish institutions known as the Patriarchate and the Sanhedrin came to the fore. The Sanhedrin functioned as the Supreme Court of Judaism, while the Patriarchate took precedence in the eyes of the general public. Both Romans and Jews acknowledged the patriarch as the official representative of Judaism, even though he had no political power. He came to be recognized by the Roman government as the authority over the Jews. As the Roman Empire adopted Christianity, it simultaneously began removing Jews from public office. The patriarch lost his official prerogatives and the office was abolished in about 429 when Emperor Theodosius refused to appoint a successor to Gamaliel VI. This left the Sanhedrin as the only recognized central authority in Judaism.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
431 THE COUNCIL OF EPHESUS MEETS
Concerned by the view of the Nestorians—who split Jesus Christ into two separate persons, one human and one divine—Emperor Theodosius II (401-450) called the Council of Ephesus to meet in 431. With sixty bishops present, the Council of Ephesus is considered to be the third General Council of the church. The council acted to excommunicate Nestorius (d. 451) and condemn his teaching. The Nestorians refused to accept the council's decision and proceeded to form a Nestorian church. The council also condemned Pelagianism, which had become popular in the West. This view taught that man has a free will and an innate ability to do good and rejected the concepts of original sin and predestination. Millennialism, the view that Christ will reign on earth for one thousand years, was condemned as well.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
432 PATRICK EMBARKS ON HIS MISSION TO IRELAND
Born near Dumbarton, Scotland, Patrick (390-461) was the son of a deacon and Roman magistrate. At the age of sixteen he was captured by Irish pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland. Escaping to Gaul (modern-day France), he became a monk under Martin of Tours (335-400). After returning to his family in Britain, he had a vision in which he was called to preach to the heathen Irish. He was consecrated as a bishop and returned to Ireland with a missionary party in about 432. For the next thirty years Patrick ministered throughout Ireland and witnessed thousands converted to Christ. The churches he founded were independent of Rome. As a result of Patrick's labor, Ireland became a center of Christian influence for the rest of Western Europe.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
440 LEO I BECOMES BISHOP OF ROME
Born in Tuscany, Leo (400-461) became a prominent deacon and then an imperial diplomat. His wide-ranging abilities made him an obvious choice for bishop of Rome in 440. Leo was faced with heresies that threatened the integrity of the church. In response, he codified what he considered to be orthodox doctrine and made the papacy sovereign within the church. To adjust to the rapidly disintegrating Roman Empire, he attempted to achieve peace by negotiating with the enemies of the empire such as Attila the Hun (d. 453). Leo's efforts greatly stabilized the Western church in troubled times and set its course for future centuries. At the same time, his sermons revealed a genuine concern for the lives of individual believers. For his accomplishments, he is known as Leo the Great.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
445 VALENTINIAN GIVES HIS EDICT
Valentinian III (419-455) became the emperor of the Western Roman Empire in 425, although for the first twenty-five of his thirty-year reign, he was co-regent with his mother. With the encouragement of Bishop Leo I of Rome (400— 461), Valentinian issued an edict in 445 giving the bishop of Rome authority over all the provincial churches in the Western empire. This gave the Roman bishop important advantage in his struggle for power with the other patriarchs of the church.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
451 THE COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON OPENS
The Council of Chalcedon was called by Emperor Marcian (396-457) to deal with the heresy of Eutyches (378-454), an elderly monk who blurred the distinction between Jesus' human and divine natures. More than five hundred bishops were present at the first session on October 8, 451. The council dealt not only with the heresy of Eutyches, but three others as well. The statement of faith issued by the council, called the Definition of Chalcedon, affirmed against Eutyches that the deity and humanity of Christ are distinct. Against Arius (250-336) they accepted the full deity of Christ, and against Apollinarius they maintained Christ's full humanity. Against Nestorius (d. 451) they declared that Christ is one person. Although the emperor intended the Definition to unite the empire, many churches in the Eastern Empire, especially those in Egypt and Ethiopia, rejected it.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
452 ATTILA THE HUN INVADES ITALY
Known to Christian authors as the "Scourge of God," Attila was a powerful king who united the Huns, a Mongolian tribe that first invaded the Roman Empire in the 300s. In 440, Attila invaded the Balkans. He headed west in 450 when the sister of the Western emperor asked him to rescue her from a forced marriage. When he invaded France in 451, Attila finally was defeated by the armies of the Romans, Visigoths, and Franks. Attila next turned his attention to Italy, invading in 452. However, with famine and disease taking a high toll on his troops, he was persuaded to heed the pleas of Leo I, bishop of Rome, and returned to territory north of the Danube. One year later Attila died, leaving the Christian presence in central Europe severely eroded as a result of his invasions.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
476 THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE FALLS
The fifth century witnessed the decline of the Western Roman Empire. After the death of Emperor Valentinian III in 455, the Western Empire came under the influence of Germanic chiefs who held real power over puppet emperors. Finally in 476, the Germanic chief Odoacer (434-493) deposed the last Roman emperor, a youth named Romulus Augustulus, whose name recalled Rome's first king and first emperor. Odoacer proclaimed himself king according to the customs of the barbarians. Although the event was not regarded as of great importance at that time, in reality the center of world power had now shifted to Constantinople. In the West the power of the church was about to replace the power of the state.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
496 CLOVIS, KING OF THE FRANKS, IS BAPTIZED
Clovis, king of the Franks from 481 to 511, first learned of Christianity when he married Clothilda of Burgundy who was a Christian. She continually attempted to convert Clovis, but he would have none of it until 496, when the prospect of losing a battle caused him to seek the aid of his wife's God. After winning the battle, he consented to be baptized on Christmas Day that year. Clovis then used his new religion as an excuse for expanding his territory, expelling the heretic Arian Visigoths out of southern France. However, his newly professed faith did not deter him from using brutality and treachery against his political opponents. With the support of the church he appointed clergy as envoys and governors in further successful attempts to extend his kingdom.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
499 THE BABYLONIAN TALMUD IS COMPLETED
The Palestinian Talmud—a commentary on the Mishnah, the oral laws of Judaism added to those of Scripture—was completed about 380 in Tiberias. But the Babylonian Talmud was not finished until approximately 499. Just as there were academies for study of the Mishnah in Palestine, so there were similar academies in Babylonia (modern-day Iraq). The enrollments often numbered in the thousands. Students went from one academy to another, sometimes even between Palestine and Babylonia. It is likely that Rabina bar Huma who died in 499 was the final editor of the Babylonian Talmud. The Babylonian Talmud was regarded as authoritative in the Middle Ages.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The