Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 02.djvu/563

LEFT CHRISTIAN CHURCH 489 CHRISTIAN CHURCH established the territorial boundaries of the Protestant and Catholic nations. The Huguenots of France were persecuted 1572, and 70,000 people were killed on St. Bartholomew's night. The Jesuits, organized by Ignatius Loyola, 1540, were established as an offset to the aggression of Protestantism. Deism prevailed to an alarming extent in England, its chief pro- moters being Hobbes, Herbert, Shaftes- bury, Tindal, Bolingbroke, Hume, and Gibbon. They had strong antagonists Rationalism arose in 1750, through the teachings of Wolfe, Semler, and the ex- ample of the Prussian coui't. It declined in the 19th century, through the labors of Tholuck, Neander, Hengstenberg, Ull- mann, and others. The Evangelical Alli- ance (1846) promoted the unity of ortho- dox Christians in all parts of the world, and, to a corresponding degree, the vic- tory over skepticism. The Old Catholics, a Roman Catholic reaction against the Vatican Council of 1869, were organized CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY, BETHLEHEM (Baxter, Cudworth, Taylor, Wateland, Leland, Butler, Paley), but the general condition of the people was irreligious. Methodism, which arose from John Wes- ley, born 1703, was a fervent religious movement. Charles Wesley, Whitefield, John Fletcher, Joseph Benson, and Adam Clarke were strong coadjutors. German into a Church in 1870; Dollinger, Ruber, and Friedrich were at their head. The American Church. — The coloniza- tion of North America sprang from reli- gious motives. The colonists sought free- dom here because of the oppressions at home. Periods of American Church His- tory: (1) From 1607-1660, revival and