MAGDEBURG CENTURIES: The first attempt to write the history of the Church from the Evangelical point of view. The plan of this work was conceived by Matthias Flacius (q.v.). He projected a church history from the original sources showing that the Church of Christ since the time of the apostles had deviated from the right course, a documentary history of anti-Christianity in the church of Christ from its beginnings to its highest development up to the restoration of true religion in its purity by Luther. From 1553 Flacius gave his efforts to the securing of patrons to aid the work financially, whom he found among German noblemen and wealthy citizens, in Augsburg, Nüremberg, and elsewhere, and in obtaining collaborators. The active interest and assistance manifested by the Imperial Councilor Niedbruck, curator of the Royal Library in Vienna, proved especially valuable. Libraries had to be searched for sources and documents; for this purpose Flacius himself undertook journeys in Germany, and his assistant Marcus Wagner of Friemar near Goths with great success traveled through Denmark, Scotland, Austria, Bavaria, and other territories, while many manuscripts and books were purchased or donated by patrons. In Magdeburg Flacius, Johann Wigand, and Matthiius Judex stood at the head of the project and worked out the details of the plan. The Councilor Ebeling Alemann, and the physician, Martin Copus, were treasurers; assistants were trained in furnishing the necessary excerpts, which two learned masters put into shape. From Jena Flacius directed the entire work. Thus there appeared in Basel, 1559-74, the Eccleaiasticd histtmia . secundum singulas certturicts . . . Per aliquot studiosos et pios viros in urbe Magdeburgica, hence called the Magdeburg Centuries. Centuries seven to thirteen were elaborated especially by Wigand in Wismar. Wigand and subsequently Stangewald afterward worked on the three following centuries without completing them (the sixteenth century, compiled by Wigand, is in Wolfenbüttel in manuscript form); attempts made by several persons in the eighteenth century to bring the work down to date were also without result. The "Centuries" mark immense progress in ecclesiastical historiography, not only by the tracing of the sources and the completeness with which the material was collected, but also because there is ap-

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plied in them the pragmatic method of historical development. The anti-Roman interest sharpened the vision and helped the authors of the work to critical achievements that marked a new epoch. While the division into centuries was an obstacle to a good grouping of the material, and the one sided polemical anti-Roman interest formed a bar rier to an unprejudiced appreciation of the development of church history; nevertheless, there was achieved the utmost that was possible within the limits of the sharply defined dogmatic standpoint, and the work furnished the weapons which Protes tantism needed in its struggle. The work, pestilenr tisaimum opus, as it was called by the Roman op ponents, made a very strong impression upon the Roman Church. Canisius urged the most learned theologians to attack it, and many pens were set in motion until in Caesar Baronius (q.v.) there was found an able opponent who drew his material from the Roman sources themselves.

(G. Kawerau.)

Bibliography: F. C. Baur, Die Epochcn der kirchtichen Geschichteachreibung, pp. 39 sqq., Tübingen, 1862; B. ter Haar, De Historiographie der Kerkpeschiedenia, pp 121 sqq., Utrecht, 1870-73; A. Jundt, Les Centuries de Mapde bourg, Paris, 1883; 9ehaumkell, Beitrag zur Entatehunpa geschichte der Mapd. Centuries, Ludwigsburg,1898; Schaff, Christian Church, i. 37-38.