Centuriators of Magdeburg

CENTURIATORS OF MAGDEBURG. - This name is derived from the title of the work Ecclesiastica historia secundum singulas centurias per aliquot studiosis et pios viros in urbe Magdeburgica. In fact it is the first general history of the Church compiled by Protestants, divided into periods of one hundred years or Centuries, written, at least for the most part, in the city of Magdeburg and to which scholarly men contributed, such as Flacius Illyricus (v.), the director and soul of the whole work, Johannes Wigand, Matthias Judex, Basilius Faber, Andreas Corvinus, Thomas Holthuter, etc. These "pious men" are profoundly anti-Catholic; suffice it to say that one of them, Judex, urged the political authorities to use the sword to extirpate the papists, ferocious assassins, butchers of souls. Flacius conceived the plan of that work as early as 1553 and the labor was diligently organized, collecting much material and entrusting it to five directors, who had under them several collaborators; everything, however, was under the high direction of Flacius, who was not scrupulous about the means, whether lawful or unlawful.

Each Century contains 16 parts: 1) General survey. 2) Spread of the Church. 3) Persecutions or peace of the Church. 4) Doctrine of the Church. 5) Heresies. 6) Worship and ceremonies. 7) Government. 8) Schisms and internal struggles. 9) Councils. 10) Illustrious men. 11) Heretics and sect leaders. 12) Martyrs. 13) Miracles. 14) Political condition of the Jews. 15) Non-Christian religions. 16) Political changes. The kings of Swabia and Denmark, the dukes of Saxony, the princes of Anhalt, the cities of Augsburg, Nuremberg, etc., contributed to the related expenses.

The first three Centuries were printed in Basel in 1559; the others, up to the 13th, in the same city between 1560 and 1574, and in that last year the 13th was printed, which Flacius was unable to finish, as he died the following year. Johannes Wigand wrote Centuries 14, 15 and 16, but they remained unpublished in the library of Wolfenbüttel. There were indeed authors, such as I. I. Hauke, I. I. Sember, who attempted to continue the work or to make another edition of it, but with little success owing to the discredit into which it had fallen. This discredit was due in part to the criticisms made of it by eminent Catholic authors, such as St. Peter Canisius, Cardinal Baronio with his Annales ecclesiastici and the Bollandists with their monumental work; in part to the character of the Centuries themselves. If some admire the grandiose plan that the authors proposed to develop or the purported scientific method of collecting and examining documents of every sort, others condemn its great and fatal defects. Among these is to be placed the purpose of the Centuries, which were to be "a kind of horn of plenty from which were to come the evident proofs of all the deceits and crimes of trickery and fraud of the Church." Serious and impartial criticism rejects such a one-sided history. Only the less erudite or more fanatical Protestants still find in this work a very rich arsenal of accusations, by now however superseded, against the Catholic Church and repeat them as if they had never been refuted. One is painfully struck to read, for example, that St. Boniface was the apostle of lies, that St. Gregory VII was the most abominable monster on earth, that Alexander III restored the worship of Baal, etc. Add to this the polemical tone of the whole work, which is of an extreme anti-papal virulence; the facts and documents are grouped with a partisan spirit; histories, legends and fables are heaped together in confusion; the lack of calm, of equanimity and of the deliberation necessary in a serious work of history is evident to everyone. It is therefore not surprising that serious and erudite Protestant writers have by now discarded this work.

Camillo Crivelli