Historical Writings

Pope Boniface IV dedicates the Pantheon as a Catholic church and introduces the Festival of All Saints. The bones of martyrs from various Roman cemeteries are brought in a solemn procession of twenty-eight carriages to the new church.

Sentence is pronounced against the Talmud in Paris. Following this decision, fourteen cartloads of books will be burned, followed by another six. The Inquisition had taken note of blasphemies of Christ in Jewish writings, prompting the pope in 1239 to order the rulers of several European nations to seize Jewish books.

King Philip the Fair of France addresses a letter to the seneschal of Carcassonne in which he denounces the inquisitors for cruelly torturing innocent men, whereby the living and the dead are fraudulently convicted. Among abuses he particularly mentions are “tortures newly invented.”

Jamestown settlers attend their first prayer service in Virginia after their Anglican minister builds a makeshift church by "nailing a piece of timber between two trees," and stretching "a square of sailcloth over it."

Execution in the Hague of John Barneveld, Dutch statesman, at seventy one years of age. He had advocated free states and taken the Arminian side against the Calvinists.

An ordinance calling for the Westminster Assembly is introduced into the English House of Commons and will pass a month later.

A statute was enacted in Rhode Island, offering freemanship with no specifically Christian requirements, thus effectively enfranchising Jews.

Cotton Mather, who will be an influential pastor in New England, is ordained in Boston's North Church.

Death in Paris of Louis Bourdaloue, one of the most famous French preachers of his day, “king of preachers and preacher of kings” (he was called to preach frequently at court).

Evangelist David Marks asks his audience what they want him to preach on. Someone shouts "nothing" and so Marks preaches on "nothing" to an Ancaster, Ontario, crowd, showing them that they would be nothing and have nothing without Christ.

A meeting in London for the proposed union of Congregational churches adjourns. It had authorized the creation of a plan for union to be amended by the affected British churches and submitted for adoption the following year.

Death in London of Zachary Macaulay, who had been one of the evangelical social-action group known as the Clapham Sect, a slavery abolitionist, and governor of Sierra Leone (1794–1799).

Birth of William P. Mackey, a Scottish physician who later in life became a Presbyterian pastor. Mackey wrote several hymns during his life, including "Revive Us Again."

Pope Pius IX issues an encyclical "On the Greek-Ruthenian rite," forbidding that any changes be made to Eastern Catholic liturgies, and in particular to the Ruthenian Rite.

Near Fatima, Portugal, three shepherd children reported that Mary, the mother of Jesus, had appeared to them. Since 1930, this appearance has come to be known as Our Lady of Fatima.

In Tallahassee, Florida, the State legislature passed a bill requiring daily Bible readings in all public schools.

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands arrives in England, fleeing the German invasion of the Netherlands. A Christian, she will rally her people through weekly radio broadcasts. Three years after the war, she will abdicate in favor of her daughter, taking the name Princess Wilhelmina of the Netherlands.

In St. Peter's Square, Rome, Turkish terrorist Mehmet Ali Agca, 23, shot and seriously wounded Pope John Paul II in an assassination attempt. Following a long convalescence, however, John Paul resumed his world travels.

Death in Hamden, Connecticut, of Jaroslav Pelikan, a Christian scholar and church historian who had written nearly forty books and over a dozen reference works on numerous aspects of Christian history. Late in life he had joined the Eastern Orthodox Church.