Historical Writings

Death of St. Remigius, apostle of France and the first bishop of Reims. In one of the most famous incidents of his life, he had baptized King Clovis of France on Christmas day, 496.

The world's first hymnbook printed in the vernacular was published in Prague. It contained 89 hymns in the Czech language. (The name of the hymnal is no longer known, since the only surviving copy lacks the title page.)

The Council of Trent debates the doctrine of justification and anathematizes the fundamental doctrines of the Lutheran Reformation.

Death in London, England, of Sir Edmund Spenser, English poet who authored The Faerie Queene.

Birth of Philip Jacob Spener, founder of German pietism. The name for the Bible studies (called "collegia pietatis") held in his home came to be associated with his followers, who were afterward called Pietists.

Don Carlos Sigüenza y Góngora, a lay priest and rector of a hospital in Mexico, issues a pamphlet showing that there is no cause to fear a bright comet which has appeared in the northern hemisphere. A Creole, he will be stung when subsequently called a "dull wit" by an influential Spanish missionary, who says that comets are obviously bad omens.

Death of George Fox, 67, English founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers). Fox left the Anglican church at 23 and founded the Quaker movement in 1660 at age 36.

Robert Moffat reaches Cape Town. The London Missionary Society had been reluctant to send him because of his limited education but he will translate the New Testament into Bechwanas within the decade, and demonstrate that Christian missionaries can succeed in Africa by persistence and patience. Many know him as the mentor and father-in-law of David Livingstone.

Pius IX mounts a pulpit and preaches a sermon, allegedly the first pope to do so in three hundred years.

Death in Wynberg, South Africa, of John Scudder, Dutch Reformed missionary to Ceylon and India. He was the father of the famed medical missionary, Ida Scudder.

Death at Mortlake, Surrey, England, of Anglican clergyman and missionary statesman Henry Venn.

Charles Spurgeon is censured by the Baptist Union because of his stand in the Down-Grade Controversy and his refusal to provide names and supporting evidence against other Baptist ministers.

The first three Lutheran deaconesses in America are consecrated at the Philadelphia motherhouse.

Pope Leo XIII pronounces genuine the Bible verse 1 John 5:7, "There are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit," although the verse is not found in any early manuscripts of the New Testament.

Daniel Opperman claims baptism in the Holy Spirit in Belton, Texas. Already a Pentecostal leader, he will become more prominent, establish schools, and edit The Blessed Truth.

Death in Nigeria of missionary Mary Slessor, known as the "White Queen to the Cannibals."

Death in Miami, Florida, of hymnwriter Margaret Jenkins Harris who had written the popular hymns "He Took My Sins Away," "I Will Praise Him," and "I've Pitched My Tent in Beulah."

Soviets arrest Orthodox priest Artemius Grigoryevich Zuyev in Taldy-Kurgan province and sentence him to death for anti-Soviet and counter-revolutionary propaganda and agitation.

Baptist clergyman B.B. McKinney, 50, wrote the words and tune to the gospel song, "Wherever He Leads, I'll Go," a few days before the opening of a Sunday School convention in Alabama.

Pope Paul VI nominates Karol Wojtyla to be Archbishop of Cracow. In 1978 Wojtyla will become Pope John Paul II.

A Gallup poll on religious worship showed that fewer Protestants and Roman Catholics were attending weekly services than ten years earlier, but that attendance at Jewish worship services had increased over the same period.

Security forces in Sri Lanka shoot Nallathamby Gnanaseelan in the stomach as he motorcycles to a meeting for prayer and fasting. They complete his murder by shooting him again where he lies in the road. A pastor of the Tamil Mission Church in Jaffna, he was not politically active. The police will concoct various cover stories in an effort to frame him and legitimize their act of persecution.