Historical Writings

Empress Pulcheria marries General Marcian in Constantinople on the stipulation he keep her virginity inviolate.

Boabdil, the Unlucky, capitulates to Christian rulers Ferdinand and Isabella, yielding Granada and ending the last Moorish toehold in Spain.

The Order of Ursuline Nuns is founded for the education of girls and the care of the sick and needy.

Martin Chemnitz, who will be called "the Second Martin" because of his influence in the Lutheran church, is ordained by Johannes Bugenhagen at Wittenberg.

In New York, David Brainerd, 24, was approved as a missionary to the New England Indians by the Scottish Society for the Propagating of Christian Knowledge (SPCK). Brainerd worked heroically from Apr 1743 to Nov 1746, before advancing tuberculosis forced him to relinquish his work. (He died in October 1747.)

Death at Stoke Newington, England, of Isaac Watts, who wrote close to 600 hymns, including "At the Cross," "Come, We That Love the Lord, " "Jesus Shall Reign Where'er the Sun," "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," and "Joy to the World."

Anglican missionary Henry Martyn wrote in his journal: 'With thee, O my God, there is no disappointment; I shall never have to regret that I loved thee too well.'

English poet and Oxford Movement leader John Keble, 28, penned the words to the hymn, "Sun of My Soul" ("Sun of my soul, Thou Savior dear, It is not night if Thou be near....").

Death of John Kitto who raised standards for Bible encyclopedias by adding images and combining articles on relevant topics such as New Testament archeology. Although deaf, he had traveled and taught in the Middle East, laying the foundation for his biblical knowledge. He had also founded and edited the Journal of Sacred Literature.

British Jewish statesman Benjamin Disraeli declared in a speech: 'Man is a being born to believe, and if no church comes forward with all the title deeds of truth, he will find altars and idols in his own heart and his own imagination.'

Ahmed Fahm, an Egyptian Muslim, having converted to Christianity, is baptized. When he refuses to return to Islam, his relatives kidnap him and show him weapons intended to kill him. He will gain his release and travel to Scotland to obtain a theological education, returning to Egypt to work with a mission and found a clinic.

James Otis Sargent Huntington, who has been working among the poor and immigrants at Holy Cross Mission in New York City, takes a life vow consecrating himself to this vocation. Because of his insistence on the social witness of the Church, he will increase Episcopal Church commitment to social ministries.

Death of Robert Lowry, Baptist clergyman who wrote many beloved hymn tunes, including the music to "All the Way My Savior Leads Me," "I Need Thee Every Hour," "Nothing But the Blood of Jesus," and "Marching to Zion."

Death of Willibald Beyschlag, a German theologian and church leader, editor, and founder of the Protestant League. Although a pietist and an evangelical, he had rejected the formula developed by the Council of Chalcedon (which stated that Christ has two natures coming together to form one person) and the rationalism of David Strauss and Ernest Renan that denied the divinity of Christ. He was also a strong proponent of separation of church and state.

Meletius Metaxakis becomes ecumenical patriarch of the Orthodox Church as Meletius IV. In his extraordinary life, he will be the only man successively to lead three autocephalous (independent) Orthodox Churches. He will found metropolitan sees of the Greek Orthodox Church in America and as ecumenical patriarch will reach out to the Anglican Church.

Sun Chu Kil, who had been at the heart of Korean revival and resistance to Japanese occupation, collapses while preaching at a Bible conference. He dies the next day.

Death in Lakeville, Connecticut, of Presbyterian minister Henry Sloane Coffin, a leader in liberal evangelicalism in the United States, and for nineteen years president of Union Theological Seminary.