Timeline

Solon (c. 638-c. 539 BCE) Repeals strict Draconian laws and brings constitution to Athens, taxation of prostitutes.

Plato (427-347 BCE) teaches dualist philosophy (form/matter) in his academy in Athens.

Aristotle (384-322 BCE) modifies Platonic philosophy in his lycaeum in Athens

Zeno (340-265 BCE) founds Stoic school.

215 BCE Lex oppia: first Roman sumptuary legislation

123 BCE: Lex Sempronia:  Caius Graccus, beginning of Roman grain distribution to poor citizens. Frumentationes, Praefectus annonae.

Anchorites (Hermits): Anthony of Egypt (251-356) and Paul of Thebes (+ c. 345).
 
c. 325, Conversion of Constantine, first Christian Emperor, moves capital to Constantinople, beginning of Christian dominance in Roman Empire.

Augustine (354-430) Bishop of Hippo.

c. 400 Pammachius, Roman Senator, founds Christian Xenodochium (Hospice) in Ostia, outside Rome.

476 Fall of Roman Empire in the west.

Cenobites (Monks): Benedict of Nursia (c. 480-c.547), founder of the Benedictine Order, and his sister, Scholastica (+ c.543), founder of female branch of Benedictines.

532 Empress Theodora (wife of Justinian) establishes an institution or convent named Metanoia (Repentance) for reformed prostitutes.

Gregory the Great (c. 540-604), Pope: 590-604, expands papal power in temporal sphere; Diaconiae romanae (papal almoners) codified.

7th century, foundation of first Scholae peregrinorum (pilgrims' hospices) in Rome.

800 Dec. 25: Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor; beginning of Christendom, christianitas.

9th century, Carolingian Renaissance, John Scotus Eriugena translates Greek Fathers into Latin, Einhard writes Life of Charlemagne.

Foundations of feudal society: Oratores, bellatores, laboratores.

843 Treaty of Verdun, Charlemagne's Empire divided.

910 Foundation of Monastery of Cluny, first wave of Benedictine monastic reform.

c. 1000 Agricultural Revolution takes hold, new technologies become widespread, freeing more people from working the land.

11th century-12th century, beginnings of Commercial Revolution.

1054 Schism: Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox split.

Gregory VII (c.1020-1085), Pope: 1073-1085, begins Gregorian Reform; Investiture Conflict: Popes and Emperors vie for control of Bishops, conflict between church and state.

1095 Council of Clermont, Urban II preaches the first Crusade.

1096-99 First Crusade: Peter the Hermit, Walter the Penniless rally, then Knights take Jerusalem (1099); set up Crusader States

Knights Hospitallers, Knights Templar. Teutonic Knights. Knights of St. James.

Scholastic Method: Peter Abelard (1079-1142); Peter Lombard (c. 1100-c.1160).

1140 Gratian writes Decretum: Corpus of Canon Law.

1147-9 Second Crusade: Holy Roman Emperor Conrad III and King Louis VII of France lead knights to retake Edessa. Turned back at Damascus. (Also Wendish Crusade in the Baltic).

Vita apostolica;  Beguines and Beghards.

c. 1173 foundation of Waldensian movement by Waldes of Lyon.

12th century, "Renaissance of the Twelfth Century" beginnings of universities: Universitas studiorum. Bologna, Paris, Oxford.

Scholasticism; Trivium: grammar, logic, rhetoric; Quadrivium: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music.

1178 Order of the Holy Spirit founded by Guido of Montpelier.

1187 Saladin retakes Jerusalem for Muslims.

1189-92 Third Crusade: Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, King Richard I of England, and King Philip II of France take Acre and negotiate limited access to Jerusalem.

1198 Fulk of Neuilly and Peter of Roissy found Monastery of St. Anthony in Paris for converted prostitutes.

Innocent III (b. 1160, Pope 1198-1216) papacy at its peak of power and influence; founds Hospital of the Holy Spirit in 1201.

Dominic de Guzman, 1170-1221, founder of Dominican Order.

Francis of Assisi, 1182-1226, founder of Franciscan Order.

Clare of Assisi, 1194-1253, founder of Poor Clares.

1202-4 Fourth Crusade: French nobles help Venetians take Zara, then Constantinople, which brings discredit to Crusading ideal. Latins take over Byzantine state.

1208-13 Albigensian Crusade against Cathars and Waldensians (fighting continues until 1229).

1214 Approval of the first Rule of the Carmelite Order in the Holy Land, near Haifa.

1215 Fourth Lateran Council convenes.

1256 Confirmation and union of the Augustinian Order.

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), Professor of Theology at University of Paris, author of Summa theologiae.

Jacobus de Voragine (c. 1228-1298), Dominican Archbishop of Genoa, author of the Legenda aurea Golden Legend

1291 Acre (last Crusader city in the Holy Land) falls; Crusaders withdraw to Cyprus.

1309-1377 Avignon Papacy.

c. 1306-1321 Dante (1265-1321) writes the Divine Comedy

1348-1351 "The Black Death" Bubonic Plague wipes out two fifths of Europe's population

Devotio Moderna   Humanism.

Geert Groote, 1340-1384, founder of the Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life.

1378-1417 Great Schism.Two or three Popes simultaneously claim title, eroding respect for the institution.

1410 Battle of Tannenberg (Grunwald) fought by Poles and Lithuanians against Teutonic Knights. Halts German expansion in the Baltic.

1414-1418 Council of Constance ends Great Schism, restores papacy to Rome.

1419 Hospital of the Innocents founded in Florence.

1440's -1450's Gutenberg invents printing press in Mainz, Renaissance in full bloom in Italian cities.

1453 Fall of Constantinople to Ottoman Turks. End of Byzantium.

1484 Pope Innocent VIII writes Summis desiderantes. Teseo Pini writes Speculum cerretanorum.

1486 Heinrich Krämer and Jacob Sprenger write Malleus Maleficarum.

1492 Columbus' first voyage to the New World, defeat of Granada, Muslims and Jews out of Spain.

1495 An Act Against Vagbonds and Beggars (England).

1497 Company of Divine Love founded in Genoa by Ettore Vernazza.

1509 Liber vagatorum pictures the evil practices of sturdy beggars.

1517 Martin Luther (1483-1546) posts 95 theses at Wittenberg, beginning of Protestant Reformation.

1522-23 Lutheran reform of poor relief in Nuremburg and Leisnig.

1525 Poor Relief Reform in Ypres.

1526 Juan Luis Vives (1492-1540) publishes De subventione pauperum in Bruges.

1527 Sack of Rome by Imperial troops.

1531 Aumône général first general hospital for the infirm and poor founded in Lyon.

1531 and 1536 An Act for Punishment of Sturdy Vagabonds and Beggars (England).

1534 and 1536 Pietro Aretino publishes his Dialogues

1535 Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) founder of the Jesuit Order, organizes poor relief in Azpeitia (Spain).

1541 John Calvin (1509-64), Protestant Reformer, organizes the Church Ordinance in Geneva regarding poor relief.

1545-1563 Council of Trent, Catholic Reformation codified.

1553 Edward VI converts Bridewell Palace in London to institutional workhouse for Beggars and Vagabonds.

1575 Veronica Franco publishes her poetry in Venice

1580 Jean Bodin (1530-96) writes Démonomanie des Sorciers, which inaugurates a new crop of Demonological treatises.

1588 Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) writes The Tragedy of Doctor Faustus

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) Essayist and skeptic.

1596 Foundation of the Amsterdam House of Correction (rasphuis ).

1622 General Hospital in Lyon becomes the first French institution to experiment with the "Great Confinement".

1625 Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists) founded by Vincent de Paul, becomes largest private initiative for poor relief in world history.

1667 John Milton (1608-1674) dictates Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained

1662 Royal proclamation that a general hospital should be established in every French town.

1692 Salem Witch Trials.

1776 Publication of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations

1798 Publication of Thomas Malthus' famous work "Essay on the Principle of Population," which gives a demografic explanation to the causes of pauperism.

1773-1832 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) writes and revises Faust