JANUARY 21
Thirteen-Year-Old Agnes Died in Rome for Her Faith (304)
“Oh, the crime, the blasphemy, the day of sorrow and disgrace Oh, that it had never dawned upon us What a disgrace it will be if we do not extirpate th...”
Quoted in Wylie, James Aitken. History of Protestantism.
Torrents of grace await us
Be strong and let your heart take courage, All you who hope in the LORD. Psalm 31:24 NASB. When you find that weariness...
Events
885
Pope Adrian III rules in favor of Rothad who had deposed a priest for unchastity and called a church council. Bishop Hincmar had argued that Rothad, as a suffragan (assistant) bishop, did not have authority to do either.
Authority for the date: Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church.1118
Death of Pope Paschal II. During his troubled pontificate, he had been faced with four anti-popes and suffered captivity at the hands of Holy Roman Emperor, Henry V, who extorted concessions from him.
Authority for the date: Brusher, Joseph. Popes Through the Ages. Neff-Kane, 1980.1217
Matthew Paris is clothed as a novice at the Abbey of St. Albans in England. He will be remembered as a monk who chronicled English history.
Authority for the date: Knowles, David. Saints and Scholars. Cambridge University Press, 1966.1525
Anabaptists come into being in Zurich when Conrad Grebel baptizes George Blaurock.
Authority for the date: Bender, Harold S. Conrad Grebel. Scottsdale, PA: 1971.1525
Hans Denck, a schoolmaster who argues that Lutheran reform is empty unless accompanied by the inward light of the Spirit, is banished from the city of Nuremberg.
Authority for the date: Jones, Rufus M. Spiritual Reformers in the 16th & 17th Centuries. London: MacMillan and Co., 1914.1549
The English parliament passes “An Act for Uniformity of Service and Administration of the Sacraments throughout the Realm” which establishes the first Book of Common Prayer in Edward’s reign.
Authority for the date: Benton, J.H. The Book of Common Prayer, Its Origin and Growth. Boston, 1910.1575
William Byrd and Thomas Tallis are awarded letters patent giving them the exclusive right to print music in England, and to print ruled music paper. Effective for twenty-one years, this is the first patent of its kind. The first work printed under the patent will be their own Cantiones (1575), containing 34 motets, half by Tallis and half by Byrd.
Authority for the date: John Denison Champlin and William Foster Apthorp.1609
Death in Leyden, Netherlands, of Joseph Justus Scaliger, famed for putting ancient chronology onto a scientific footing.
Authority for the date: Britannica1672
A Bedford, England, congregation calls John Bunyan as its pastor. He is in prison at the time for preaching.
Authority for the date: Christian History 11 (1986).1750
Newly-ordained missionary Christian Friedrich Schwartz embarks from London for Tranquebar, the seat of the Danish Mission in India. Four months after arriving, he will preach his first sermon in Tamil and afterwards will conduct a successful work.
Authority for the date: Creegan, Charles C. Pioneer Missionaries of the Church. New York: American Tract Society, 1903.1781
Robert Aitken petitions the U.S. Congress to officially sanction his publication of the first English-language Bible printed in America.
Authority for the date: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel04.html1811
Baptist missionaries John Chamberlain and H. Peacock, with their families and Vrundavun, a baptized Hindu, set out from Serampore to establish a mission work among Hindus in Agra, 800 miles away. Their work will include a successful school.
Authority for the date: John O. Choules and Thomas Smith, The Origin1901
At the Academy of Music in Kansas City, Charles Parham preaches his first sermon dedicated soley to the experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues.
Authority for the date: Cauchi, Tony. “Charles Fox Parham.” www.revival-library.org1913
Death in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, of Fanny Coppin, an ex-slave who became an educator to her people, principal of the Institute for Colored Youth, an inspiration to the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and a missionary to South Africa.
Authority for the date: http://www.biography.com/people/fanny-coppin-92571561914
The American Lutheran Publicity Bureau is organized in New York City to inform the general public about The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.
Authority for the date: www.lutheranhistory.org.1921
Presbyterian minister Samuel McCrea Cavert, a notable ecumenist, becomes the General Secretary of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America. A chief player in forming the World Council of Churches, he will die in 1976. “The temptation of Protestantism has always been to magnify freedom at the expense of unity. The temptation of Roman Catholicism, on the other hand, has been to magnify unity at the expense of freedom.”
Authority for the date: http://www.findagrave.com1931
Soviets execute the Orthodox priest Peter Alexeyevich Bulgakov for “agitation against Soviet power.” He had long resisted their efforts to get him to abandon his faith and three months before his death had refused to hand over church keys to them.
Authority for the date: Moss, Vladimir. Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of the Urals, Siberia and Central Asia.1956
Elders of the Little Flock and twenty-eight other Christian leaders in Shanghai are arrested. They have carried on the work begun by Watchman Nee, who is in prison.
Authority for the date: Lyall, Leslie T. Three of China’s Mighty Men. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1980.1959
The Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY) is constituted as a National Church.
Authority for the date: Megersa Guta “Serving the Whole Person.”1999
Pope John Paul II begins a visit to Cuba, emphasizing the need for fundamental human freedoms.
Authority for the date: www.americancatholic.org/Features/Cuba/