The book by the Russian historian and spiritual writer of the Russian diaspora abroad, Nikolay Talberg (1886–1967), was written based on lectures given by the author after the Second World War at the spiritual seminary at the Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville (USA). The book has gone through several editions in Russia. Written in a vivid and accessible language, it is intended for a wide circle of readers.
A short course compiled from Evgraf Smirnov’s “History of the Christian Church.”
By the time of the coming of Christ the Savior into the world, almost all the peoples of the then political world were united into a single state—the Roman state. Rome was called the capital of the whole universe. A few years before the appearance of the Savior, the Roman state turned from a republic into an empire. The emperors possessed despotic power. The Western Church, which had already in the first centuries allowed certain deviations in worship, and thereafter continued along the same path of deviations from the common Church customs and order.