Lectionary Calendar
Tuesday, March 19th, 2024
the Fifth Week of Lent
the Fifth Week of Lent
There are 12 days til Easter!
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Historical Writings
Today in Christian History
Tuesday, July 6
1415
Martyrdom of Jan Hus, Czech reformer, who was condemned for heresy and burned at the stake because of his outspoken appeals for church reform and for political and religious rights for the common people.
1527
As friends arrive for dinner, Luther feels an intense buzzing in his left ear and goes to lie down, when suddenly he calls, "Water … or I'll die!" Afterward he experiences bouts of depression. To combat them, he will eventually write the famous hymn "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God."
1535
English Catholic theologian Thomas More was beheaded for refusing to recognize Henry VIII as supreme head of the Church of England, which had just broken with the Roman Catholic Church.
1553
Death of the Protestant king Edward VI of England, which results in the declaration of Lady Jane Grey as queen, a position she holds only a few days before the Catholic Mary Tudor ascends the throne.
1757
Birth of William McKendree, colonial American church leader. In 1808 he was ordained the first American-born bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
1768
Death of Pietist religious leader Conrad Beissel, who had emigrated to America from Germany, and founded Ephrata Community in Pennsylvania, where celibacy was encouraged and vegetarianism practiced along with much hymn singing. Beissel had developed a musical system that he claimed he received from angels.
1813
Death of Granville Sharp. He had contested slavery and won an important ruling that no person could remain a slave upon English soil. Sharp was also a Bible scholar who established an important rule for translating a particular Greek construction.
1846
Birth of John H. Sammis, American Presbyterian clergyman and author of the hymn, 'Trust and Obey.'
1861
James Stewart sails from Southhampton, England, to South Africa on the Celt. In South Africa he will found an important training center for African Christians.
1941
English Bible expositor Arthur W. Pink observed in a letter: 'It is those who walk the closest with God who are most conscious of their sins.'
1944
Death of Kidana-Wald Kefle, an Orthodox Ethiopian scholar who devoted his life to learning, including writing a commentary on Ezekiel and compiling a Ge'ez-Amharic dictionary, a Hebrew-Ge'ez dictionary, and other works.
1993
Kenneth Pike is awarded the Doctor of Philosophy, honoris causa, from Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, Germany, giving a lecture on "Language and Living."
Copyright Statement
© 1987-2020, William D. Blake. Portions used by permission of the author, from "Almanac of the Christian Church"
© 1987-2020, William D. Blake. Portions used by permission of the author, from "Almanac of the Christian Church"
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