MARCH 31
REMARKABLE VAN DER KEMP DENOUNCED SLAVERY AND PROMOTED CHRIST (1799)
“Very High and Potent Lords Everyone here is quite well and receiving shelter and charity from the monasteries. The Provincial and the Prior of this co...”
MacNutt, Francis Augustus. Bartholomew de Las Casas; his life, apostolate, and writings. Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1909.
Only God’s Judgment Is Trustworthy (1865)
David, not wholly satisfied with his own single testimony, calls out to God, “Search me, O God I and know my heart; see...
Events
1376
Gregory XI issues an interdict against the city of Florence, which had joined a league to abolish the pope’s secular power. This interdict gives anyone the right to plunder the city and to make slaves of its people wherever they might be found.
Authority for the date: Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church.1492
Queen Isabella, having compelled Muslims to convert to Christianity or leave Spain, now signs a similar decree relating to her Jewish subjects, ordering them to convert to Christianity or face expulsion. It will not actually be issued for another month and will allow three months for compliance.
Authority for the date: http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/1492-jews-spain1.asp1515
Needing money to rebuild St. Peter’s basilica, Pope Leo X announces a sale of indulgences to run for eight years beginning this day. Albert of Brandenberg, deeply in debt after purchasing his position as archbishop, is allowed to keep half the proceeds, but will not profit as greatly as he hopes because the indulgence will anger the friar Martin Luther, who will post his Ninety-Five Theses in response. The Reformation will result.
Authority for the date: W. H. T. Dau. Luther Examined and Reexamined. St. Louis, MO: Concordia, 1917.1631
Death of metaphysical poet John Donne, Dean of St. Paul’s. Among his most famous poems, one began with the words “Death be not proud.”
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1748
Isaac Backus is called to be pastor to Bridgewater, Massachusetts. He will become a notable Baptist evangelist and an advocate of religious freedom.
Authority for the date: McLoughlin, William Gerald. Isaac Backus and the American Pietistic Tradition. Little, Brown, 1967.1783
On Easter Sunday, Fra Junipero Serra founds San Buenaventura, the ninth Spanish mission in California.
Authority for the date: Hudson, William Henry. The Famous Missions of California.1799
Missionary and physician Johannes Van Der Kemp reaches South Africa. He will study the Xhosa and Khoikhoi languages and outrage European opinion by marrying a young African woman.
Authority for the date: Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals.1816
Death near Fredericksburg of Francis Asbury, one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. He had preached his last sermon in Richmond, Virginia, just a week earlier.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1836
Death in Hastings, Sussex, England, of Anglican bishop Henry Ryder, the first of the 19th-century evangelicals to become a bishop of the Church of England.
Authority for the date: Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals.1879
Death in Moscow of Russian Orthodox archbishop John Veniaminov (St. Innocent of Alaska), a missionary evangelist to Alaska and archbishop of the far western territories of Russia. He had also served as Metropolitan of Moscow.
Authority for the date: orthodoxwiki.org/Innocent_of_Alaska1901
Death in Verona, Italy, of John Stainer, composer of much church music, including the cantata The Crucifixion.
Authority for the date: Brown, Theron and Hezekiah Butterworth. The Story of the Hymns and Tunes.1945
Mother Maria” Skobtsova is executed at the gas chamber in Ravensbrück. An unconventional nun of the Orthodox Church, she had been famous for helping “down and out” people, including Jews persecuted by Nazi conquerors in France. She will be declared a saint in 2004.
Authority for the date: Metaxas. Seven Women and the Secret of Their2011
Death of Tanzanian evangelist Yohana Zebedayo who worked with the Africa Inland Church, preaching Christ-centered sermons.
Authority for the date: Dictionary of African Christian Biography.