Annales Ecclesiastici


Annales Ecclesiastici, consisting of twelve folio volumes, is a history of the first 12 centuries of the Christian Church, written by Caesar Baronius.

Significance

The Annales were first published between 1588 and 1607. This work functioned as an official response to the Lutheran Historia Ecclesiae Christi. In that work the Magdeburg theologians surveyed the history of the Christian church in order to demonstrate how the Catholic Church represented the Antichrist and had deviated from the beliefs and practices of the early church. In turn, the Annales fully supported the claims of the papacy to lead the unique true church.
Before Baronius was appointed Librarian of the Vatican in 1597, he had access to material and sources in its archives that were previously unpublished or unused. He used these in the development of his work. Accordingly, the documentation in Annales Ecclesiastici is considered by most as extremely useful and complete. Lord Acton called it "the greatest history of the Church ever written."

First edition

The details of the first edition are as follows:
The first volume dealt with Gentile prophets, among whom were Hermes Trismegistus, the supposed author of the Corpus Hermeticum, and the Sibylline Oracles of Rome. Some, it was claimed, had foreseen Christ's birth. This was disputed by post-Protestant Reformation scholars, including Isaac Casaubon in his De rebus sacris et ecclesiasticis exercitationes, XVI.

Continuations

Continuators of Baronius of the Early Modern period were Odorico Rainaldi, Giacomo Laderchi, Henri Spondanus, and Abraham Bzovius In the 19th century the Annales were continued by August Theiner.