Historical Writings

Miltiades was elected 32nd pope of the Catholic Church. During his pontificate,Christianity was finally tolerated by Rome, following the Emperor Constantine's conversion to the Christian faith.

Death of St. Swithun. Hardly mentioned in his own day, his name will be invoked in church reform a century after his death, giving rise to many legends, as that he asked to be buried where "passersby might tread on his grave and where the rain from the eaves might fall upon it."

Birth of Thomas Cranmer, first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury and primary author of the 'Book of Common Prayer' and 'Thirty-Nine Articles' of the Anglican Church.

Terrified by a thunderstorm, Martin Luther vows to become a monk and soon afterward enters the order of Augustinian Hermits.

William Tyndale is created an MA. He will place the Bible above philosophy and make an English translation of God's word that will become the basis of the Authorized version.

Death of Antonio de Lebrija at Alcala, Spain. A student of languages, he had published a Latin-Spanish and Spanish-Latin lexicon, worked on the Complutensian polyglot, and labored to improve the text of the Vulgate as well as writing a history of Ferdinand and Isabella.

French Jesuit Isaac Jogues arrives in Quebec, where he will be martyred.

The first Bible in America printed in English was published in Boston.

Sarah Davis Comstock, her husband Grover, and other missionaries sail from Boston aboard the Cashmere for Burma. Sarah's death of dysentery nine years later will, because of her many acts of kindness, lead several Burmese to commit themselves to Christ.

William Booth preaches the first of nine sermons in a ragged tent pitched on an unused Quaker graveyard. The name of his organization is the East London Christian Mission, precursor of the Salvation Army.

Death of Washington Gladden, 82, a popular Congregational theologian of the Social Gospel. He also authored the hymn, 'O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee.'

At Zang Xien, China, Wang Ming-dao preaches his first public sermon, taking as his text, "Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand." He will become the "father" of China's house church movement, rejecting assimilation into the official Communist-controlled Three-Self Patriotic Church system.

Pioneer linguistic educator Frank C. Laubach wrote in a letter: '[God has said to me,] If I do not speak to you in words at times, it is because the reality all about you is greater than the imperfect symbols of things which you have in words.'

Execution by Communists in Tomsk province (Siberia) of Constantine Victorovich Korostelov and Nicholas Victorovich Korostelov, two brothers who are Orthodox priests.