Historical Writings

Today in Christian History

Wednesday, February 19

842
The Medieval Iconoclastic Controversy ended, when a Council in Constantinople formally reinstated the veneration of images (icons) in the churches. (This debate over icons is often considered the last event which led to the Great Schism between the Eastern and Western Churches.)
842
The Medieval Iconoclastic Controversy ended, when a Council in Constantinople formally reinstated the veneration of images (icons) in the churches. (This debate over icons is often considered the last event which led to the Great Schism between the Eastern and Western Churches.)
1414
Death in Canterbury, Kent, England, of Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury and chancellor of England. He had been a violent persecutor of the Lollards, Wycliffe’s reform followers. Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.
1568
Death of Miles Coverdale, 80, translator and publisher of the first complete Bible to be printed in English (1535). Coverdale was also editor of the Great Bible of 1539.
1672
(or 1671) Death in Boston, Massachusetts, of Charles Chauncy, eighteen years the president of Harvard College. A Congregational clergyman, his insistance on full immersion for baptism had been controversial in New England. Authority for the date: Wikipedia.
1716
Death in Bergen, Norway, of Dorothe Engelbretsdotter, once highly regarded for her Christian verses, which included an evening and a morning hymn. Authority for the date: Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary Handbook.
1735
Death in Germantown, Pennsylvania, of Alexander Mack, leader of America’s German Baptists. Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.
1812
Congregational missionaries Adoniram Judson, 23, and his wife Ann, 22, first sailed from New England to Calcutta, India. (Judson eventually concentrated his labors in Burma.)
1869
Death of Elizabeth Clephane, 39, an orphaned Scottish poet who left the Church with two hauntingly beautiful hymns: "Beneath the Cross of Jesus" and "The Ninety and Nine." (All of Clephane's poetry was published posthumously.)
1882
Death in Toronto, Canada, of Methodist minister Egerton Ryerson who had been a notabale educator in Canada. Although most of his reforms and innovations had high merit, his policies for the education of native Americans will be censured by future generations. Authority for the date: Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals.
1896
Death of Xi Shengmo. After years of bondage to opium, he had become a Christian and the Holy Spirit freed him after an agonizing battle. He then adopted his last name which meant "conqueror of demons." He went on to establish fifty opium refuges in four provinces where prayer was a major factor in treatment of the addicts. Many became Christians and applied his methods to other addicts. Authority for the date: Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity.
1942
Presidential Executive Order 9066 began placing 100,000 persons of Japanese ancestry (of which over 2/3 were American-born citizens) into ten "relocation centers" for the duration of WWII. During confinement within the armed, barbed-wire surroundings, however, prayer meetings, Bible studies and worship services were held.
1948
Father Butrus Sowmy conveys the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls to American John Trever, whom he had contacted the day before. Trever requests permission to photograph them and sends the photographs to famed archaeologist William Albright, who will confirm the value of the manuscripts. Authority for the date: The Dead Sea Scrolls (six videos) I: "Secrets of the Caves."
1954
Death of evangelist Lionel Bale Fletcher in Sydney, Australia. Authority for the date: Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals.
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