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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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.
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