Centuriators of Magdeburg

The collective name for the authors of Historia ecclesiae Christi/History of the Church of Christ (1559–74), a Protestant history of the church century by century until 1400. The book's main aim was to show that papal authority was groundless. A Catholic reply was written by Cesare Baronius.

Among the Centuriators were Matthias Flacius (Vlacic), Nicolaus von Amsdorf, Johann Wigand, Nicolaus Gallus (Hahn), and Matthäus Judex (Richter). The work was begun about 1550 at Magdeburg and continued from 1562 at Regensburg (Ratisbon); it was published in Basle. Broad in conception, but often inaccurate in detail, it was cogently attacked by Baronius.