The Last Supper

Religion

A Victorian front cover of Lindisfarne Gospels.

The Lindisfarne Gospels

Tironensian communities such as that of Kelso Abbey were particularly popular in Scotland. (Heartland-Arts/Getty Images)

Where history happened: the monastic revolution.

Tragedy of the Templars: The Rise and Fall of the Crusader States

The call for the First Crusade was initially made by Pope Urban (pictured) in 1095. (Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

Britain and Islam: a matter of faith.

Effigy of Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, Canterbury Cathedral, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Canterbury, Kent, England, United Kingdom, Europe

Where history happened: the cult of Thomas Becket.

Our Lady of Sorrows, by unknown artist (20th century), photographic reproduction, 103x65 cm, inv 1602. Copyright Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosian. (Getty Images)

The day a Mexican farmer had a vision of the Virgin Mary.

"Pope Urban II’s address at the Council of Clermont, the moment that triggered the First Crusade, has gone down as perhaps the most influential speech in history," writes Sandbrook. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

A big day in history: The day Pope Urban II exhorted Christians to go on crusade.

A ceiling fresco depicting Christ. (DeAgostini/Getty Images)

Christianity under Roman rule: a new church is born.

A relief showing Emperor Constantine's over Maxentius at the battle of Milvian Bridge. (Prisma/UIG/Getty Images)

A big day in history: “A cross of light” leads Constantine to victory.

William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne and British prime minister from 1782–83, was instrumental in the Genevan exiles’ move to southern Ireland. (Getty Images)

The watchmakers of Waterford.

Procession portrait of Queen Elizabeth I. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

How Elizabeth I used parties as a weapon against the Catholic threat to her throne.

Major Roy Farran (seated, centre) at a press conference on his return from Palestine, 1947. (Bentley Archive/Popperfoto/Getty Images)

Trouble in Palestine.

The death of Aelfeah at the hands of the Danes, portrayed in a window of St Luke's church, Bath. (Photo by: MyLoupe/UIG via Getty Images)

St Ælfheah: Canterbury’s other martyr.

Painting depicting medieval nuns. (Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

17th-century nuns on the run.

Line engraving depicting the burning of Rawlins White, c1555. From a late 18th-century edition of John Foxe's 'The Book of Martyrs'. (Alamy)

The Making of Martyrs.

The Siege of Antioch during the First Crusade, c1200. (Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Why Islam crushed the crusaders.

A Saracen attack on Crusaders, from the French manuscript 'Chroniques de Saint Denis', c1200. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Traders and crusaders.

The ruined site of Clonmacnoise in County Offaly, Ireland. (Getty Images)

Where history happened: the Wars of the Three Kingdoms part 2.

The making of the King James Bible.

Jerusalem: blood and gold.

Illustration by Glen McBeth

When did the pope rule England?.

Dandy Gandhi to naked Fakir: the Indian leader's revolutionary dress code.

When was the first mosque in Britain built?

Evening light sweeps over the ruins of the Jesuit mission church at Trinidad de Paraná, Paraguay, where the bell tower of the site's first of two churches stands. Scores of Jesuit missions in the area where Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil meet were built in the 17th century and were abandoned when the Jesuits were expelled in the 18th century. (Photo by Kevin Moloney via Getty Images)

Jesuit missionaries: “a masterpiece of humanity”.

The Holy Face by Andrei Rublev. Tempera on wood, 14th century. Moscow, Russia. (Photo by VCG Wilson/Corbis via Getty Images)

The mutation of Christianity.

BBC History Magazine

Calvin