The History of Christendom: From the French Revolution to ‘Pope’ Francis (1789 – Present)

Four video lectures on recent Church history…

The History of Christendom:
From the French Revolution to ‘Pope’ Francis (1789-Present)

The Most Rev. Donald J. Sanborn explains the history of the Catholic Church

Long-time readers of this blog may remember that years ago we presented, courtesy of True Restoration, a video lecture series on the history of Christendom with Bishop Donald Sanborn. Beginning with the Edict of Milan in the early 4th century, which legalized Christianity throughout the Roman Empire, Bp. Sanborn traced the history of the Catholic Church all the way up to, but not including, the French Revolution.

The videos had originally been produced and first published in 2013. For one reason or another, however, the History of Christendom series was not continued, and so the remaining episodes that were going to take us from the French Revolution to the Second Vatican Council and the subsequent ecclesial chaos were never recorded.

Until now, that is.

In 2022, Bishop Sanborn kindly agreed to sit down once again with Stephen Heiner of True Restoration to finish the History of Christendom series; and Novus Ordo Watch has once again sponsored the content so it could be made available to the public free of charge.

We are excited, therefore, to present to you the remaining Church history episodes that take us from 1789 all the way to the present day. The newly recorded lectures are divided as follows:

• Episode 4: 1789-1814 Revolution
• Episode 5: 1815-1914 Restoration
• Episode 6: 1914-2022 Secularism (Part I)
• Episode 7: 1914-2022 Secularism (Part II)

They can be watched in video format here:

Anyone looking for audio-only format can find that at the individual episode links above.

Our gratitude goes, first of all, to His Excellency Bishop Sanborn for sharing his vast knowledge with us; to Stephen Heiner of True Restoration, who conducted the interview; and to the entire True Restoration team for making these recordings possible. Finally, we also thank the supporters of Novus Ordo Watch, without whom we would not have been able to sponsor this program for the education and edification of the public.

Anyone who missed the original History of Christendom recordings — from 313 to 1788 — can find them at this link:

• How we got to this point: Bishop Sanborn explains the History of Christendom

One of the great benefits of listening to Bp. Sanborn relate the history of the Roman Catholic Church is that one will come to learn not merely what happened but why it did. Understanding how successive events are interconnected is immensely useful for grasping “the big picture”.

Bp. Sanborn is the rector of Most Holy Trinity Seminary in Reading, Pennsylvania. A sedevacantist since the 1970s, Bp. Sanborn holds to the “material-formal theory” of Bp. Guérard des Lauriers (1898-1988) to explain the state of the Catholic hierarchy since the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958.

Image source: YouTube (screenshot)
License: fair use