Historical Writings

In his encyclical 'Scimus fili,' Pope Boniface VIII claimed that Scotland owed allegiance to the Catholic Church.

Sultan Murad IV has Patriarch Cyril (Lucaris) of Constantinople strangled and his body thrown into the Bosporus. Cyril was the foremost Orthodox leader of the seventeenth century, although he caused controversy by adopting Calvinist ideas, later repudiated by an Orthodox synod. He had also served as Patriarch of Alexandria.

English revivalist George Whitefield wrote in a letter: 'Christ's servants have always been the world's fools.'

English founder of Methodism John Wesley wrote in a letter: 'Every one, though born of God in an instant, yet undoubtedly grows by slow degrees.'

Twenty-six-year-old James Upton is ordained as pastor of the Baptist Church in Greenwalk, London, which has only twelve members. Fourteen years later it will have grown to 290. Upton will also write hymns.

Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormons, and his brother Hyrum were lynched by a mob in Carthage, Illinois, resulting in part from the community's moral outrage at Smith's recent authorization of polygamous Mormon marriages.

Death of Cyrus Kingsbury a Presbyterian missionary to the Choctaw Indians. He had also raised money to free African-American slaves.

Ordination of Onangwatgo [Cornelius Hill] as an Episcopal deacon. In 1903 this Oneida chief will be the first member of the Oneida nation ordained as a priest.

Launch of the Strathcona, mission boat of Wilfred Grenfell for his Labrador work. The ship is named for a key donor and christened by Lady Curzon-Howe.

Death of James Mountain, an English evangelist and writer of hymn tunes. His most famous pieces had been the tunes to which we sing "Jesus, I Am Resting, Resting" and "Like a River Glorious."

Death of James Moffatt, who had made a new translation of the New Testament and taught church history.

In England, Arthur Michael Ramsey was enthroned as the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury, the principal see of the Established Church of England.

The "Moscow Seven," Siberian believers, take refuge at the United States' embassy in Moscow.