The Magdeburg Centuries demonstrates the continuity of the Christian faith throughout the ages. As the Centuries put it, Church history shows a "perpetual agreement in the teaching of each article of faith in all ages". Instead of presenting a Restorationist platform, the writers held that "this very form of the teaching which we now have in our churches because of the great kindness of God is that very ancient one, not a new one; genuine, not adulterous; true, not fabricated." The view of the work is generally pessimistic after the fifth century, in keeping with the writers' objective of presenting "the origins and the increments of errors and their corrupting influences." Another characteristic of the work is the widespread use of primary sources rather than secondary or tertiary ones. I