Historical Writings

Wynfrith, from Devon, England, is consecrated in Rome as Bishop Boniface. He will carry the gospel across Germany and Prussia.

Death of the abbess, Heloise, whose love affair with, and secret marriage to, the philosopher-theologian Abelard is known to history.

Death at Madrid of Isidore the Farmer, a Spanish farmworker considered by some a patron saint of rural and agricultural workers.

A crusade against the Turks and for the capture of Constantinople was proclaimed by Pope Calixtus III.

Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremias II and his associates issue the Epicrisis on the Confession of Augsburg, an answer to the Lutheran confession, showing points of agreement and disagreement. They declare there are two sources of true faith: the Holy Bible and Sacred Tradition.

Rev. Robert Ratcliffe arrived in Boston from England, with orders from King Charles II to establish the Anglican Church in Massachusetts.

Death at St-Omer, France, of Alban Butler, author of a well-known five-volume Lives of the Saints.

Birth of Sylvanus Dryden Phelps, U.S. Baptist clergyman and poet. His several writings included the hymn, "Savior, Thy Dying Love."

Death at Angaston of George Fife Angas, Baptist businessman and colonizer of Southern Australia.

At the close of a two-day denominational conference in Cleveland, Ohio, the Epworth League of the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized. It became the foundation of the current United Methodist Youth (UMY) fellowship programs.

Pope Leo XIII issues the influential encyclical Rerum novarum, which grapples with social issues, saying the earth is given for the common good, that there needs to be more equality between capital and labor, and that the state has a central role in regulating justice in these matters.

Death in Woking, England, of hymnwriter Ada Rundall Greenaway. Her best-known hymns are “For the Dear Ones Parted from Us,” “O Father, We Would Thank Thee,” “O Perfect God, Thy Love,” “O Word of Pity, for Our Pardon Pleading,” “Rise at the Cry of Battle,” and “Rise in the Strength of God.”

German Lutheran theologian and Nazi martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter from prison: 'I read the Psalms every day, as I have done for years; I know them and love them more than any other book.'

Obadiah Kariuki and Festo Olang' are consecrated as the first African assistant bishops in the Anglican diocese of Mombasa, covering East Africa. Kariuki will be a bishop and spiritual leader in the Kenyan church after the nation's independence, his diocese growing so rapidly that it will have to be divided in two. Twenty-two years to the day after his consecration, thousands will attend a thanksgiving service in his honor when he retires.

Death in Rochester, Minnesota, of Francis Schaeffer, a Christian apologist. With his wife, Edith, he had operated L’Abri, a ministry to intellectuals. His most important book may have been his smallest, Escape from Reason, which caused many evangelicals to look at the development of literature and art. He had often argued that moral relativity is responsible for social ills.