Historical Writings

(probable date) Lucius becomes bishop of Rome.

Death of Irish missionary Moluag (also known as Lugaidh and by other names). A contemporary of Columba, he had introduced Christianity to the Island of Lismore and parts of northeastern Scotland.

St. Bernard founded a monastery in Clairvaux, France. It afterward became a strategic center for the Cistercians, a religious order that flourished up until the Reformation.

Death of William of Vercelli, the founder of the Hermits of Monte Vergine, also known as Williamites.

The Council of Basel proclaims that it has cast down Pope Eugenius, calling him a disturber of the peace, a simoniac, perjurer, incorrigible, schismatic, heretical, and errant in faith.

The leaders of the Reformation present the Augsburg Confession to Emperor Charles V - an explanation of the position and beliefs of Lutherans.

The German 'Book of Concord' was published, containing all the official confessions of the Lutheran Church. (English translations of the entire work were not available before 1851.)

Death of David Chytraeus who had played an important role in the writing of the Lutheran Church's Formula of Concord.

Death in Warwick Lane, London, of Robert Leighton, archbishop of Glasgow. One epitaph says, “Here rest the remains of Robert Leighton, Bishop of Dunblane, afterwards Archbishop of Glasgow. In an age of religious strife he adorned the doctrine of God his saviour by a holy life and by the meek and loving spirit which breathes through his writing.” He had said that rather than preach to the age, he preferred to preach Jesus Christ and eternity.

The first Methodist conference convened, in London. This new society within Anglicanism imposed strict disciplines upon its members, formally separating from the Established Church in 1795.

The Byzantine chapel named Bogdan Serai, used by Christian envoys to the Turkish Porte, is destroyed in a fire.

Ludwig Nommensen lands on the island of Sumatra to begin the mission work for which he will be famous.

English pioneer missionary J. Hudson Taylor founded the China Inland Mission. Its headquarters moved to the US in 1901, and in 1965 its name became Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF) International.

Myrtle Wilson and a group of women who want to be missionaries in Africa pray for funds. Within a month they receive enough money to sail for their destination.

Pope Pius XI orders American anti-racist priest John LaFarge to draft an encyclical against racism because of the growing Aryanism of Germany. LaFarge will do so, but Vatican politics will prevent its promulgation before the pope’s death the following February.

During a convention in Cleveland, Ohio, the United Church of Christ (UCC) was formed by a merger of the Congregational Christian Church and the Evangelical and Reformed Church.

In the ruling Engel v. Vitale, the United States Supreme court bans official prayers in public schools on a case brought from New York, saying that such prayers are unconstitutional as a violation of the separation of church and state.