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The great Protestant chronicle, the Magdeburg Centuries, scanned the Middle Ages for a few faithful forerunners of reform. The radical Reformers embraced this approach as well, but pressed it to its extreme conclusion: the Chronicle of Caspar Braitmichel (1542) placed the fall of the church at A.D. 150. In this view, the entire church, including the first three centuries after the apostles, fared very ill, and the promise of Christ that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church was conveniently ignored.