DECEMBER 10
THE BISHOP OF PARIS CONDEMNED ERRORS DERIVED FROM ARISTOTLE (1270)
“Robert, the son of Michael and Mary Robinson. Born in the county of Norfolk, on Saturday, Sept. 27, 1735. Reborn on the Sabbath day, May 24, 1752, thr...”
Sutherland, Allan. Famous Hymns of the World: Their origin and their romance. New York: Frederick A. Stokes, Company, publishers.
Lack of faith is sin (1855)
For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin—Romans 14:23 (ESV).Pause over the expression: “whatever does not proceed...
Events
1270
The Bishop of Paris condemns Averroism through the efforts of Thomas Aquinas and other theologians. Averroism taught the eternality of the world, denied providence and free will, and set philosophy above faith and Scripture.
Authority for the date: Grabmann, Martin. Thomas Aquinas: His Personality and Thought. New York: Longmans, 1928.1520
German reformer Martin Luther publicly burns Pope Leo X’s bull Exsurge Domine, which demands that Luther recant his “heresies,” including justification by faith alone.
Authority for the date: Stevenson, William. Story of the Reformation. Richmond: John Knox Press, 1959.1524
Henry van Zutphen, an Augustinian monk who had become a Lutheran minister, is burned to death in Holstein by a drunken mob incited by religious and secular authorities.
Authority for the date: http://www.godrules.net/library/luther/NEW1luther_d13.htm1561
Death of Polish-German reformer Kaspar Schwenkfeld, who rejected infant baptism, said that conversion must produce a regenerated character to be real, and taught that Christ had two natures but became progressively more divine. He also held that true believers eat the spiritual body of Christ in Communion.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1569
Death in Wittenberg of Lutheran hymnwriter Paul Eber. Some of his hymns were written for his own children.
Authority for the date: Handbook to the Lutheran Hymnal.1593
Italian archaeologist Antonio Bosio makes his first descent into Christian burial chambers located under the streets of Rome and is almost unable to find his way back out, having forgotten the turns he had taken and used up his candles. Bosio will be dubbed the “Columbus of the Catacombs,” and his books will long remain the standard works on the underground tombs of the early Roman Church.
Authority for the date: http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/antonio-bosio_(Dizionario-Biografico)1679
Two hundred and fifty seven defeated Scottish Covenanters are shipwrecked in the Crown of London off the coast of Scotland, their captors having earlier battened the hatches to prevent their escape. After the ship breaks up, only a few survivors reach shore.
Authority for the date: http://www.orkneyjar.com/ history/covenant.htm1854
Hector Berlioz’ L’Enfance du Christ receives its first public performance at the Salle Herz, Paris, with Berlioz conducting and soloists from the Opéra-Comique. Berlioz himself had written the words. It will remain a popular Christmas piece into the twenty-first century.
Authority for the date: Wikipedia1860
Peru promulgates a constitution that makes Roman Catholicism the national religion and obligates the State to protect it, while denying the public exercise of any other religion.
Authority for the date: Moreno-Lacalle, Julian. “Peru.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911.1960
Marriage of Ruth Magongo to Enoch Litswele. The two will serve as Nazarene missionaries and educators in various African countries, learning several languages in order to communicate with the tribes among whom they work and translating hymns into local tongues.
Authority for the date: Dictionary of African Christian Biography.1968
Death of the influential Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, best known for his commentary on Paul’s epistle to the Romans and for his stand with the Confessing Church against the Nazis.
Authority for the date: Britannica.1968
Death of Thomas Merton in Bangkok, Thailand. The Trappist monk was famed for writings such as The Seven Storey Mountain and had been an outspoken critic of American involvement in the Vietnam War.
Authority for the date: Episcopal Church. Holy Women, Holy Men.