Historical Writings

Pope Gregory XII issues a bull of indulgences which John Hus of Bohemia denounces.

Death of Saint Joseph, Abbot of Volokalamsk, a strong defender of the ownership of extensive lands by monasteries and of the expensive decoration of churches. He was also a strong proponent of the Tsars - so long as they used their power to care for the church.

Melanchthon presents his theses for Baccalaureate of Theology at Wittenberg. They stress the authority of Scripture and of anyone's inability to meet God's righteous requirements on their own.

The Colloquy of Poissy convened near Paris. Comprised of both French Catholic prelates and reformed Protestant theologians led by Theodore Beza, the council led to a 1562 edict offering a greater measure of freedom to French Protestants.

A celebration was held for the newly completed Catholic church at San Juan de los Caballeros -- the first church erected in (what is today the state of) New Mexico. The town, founded this year by Juan de Onate, was a former Indian pueblo in the Chama River Valley.

The first tracts of the Oxford Movement (which sought to purify the English Church) were released. The series was forced to close in 1841, however, when Tract 90 was published, because it interpreted Anglicanism's "Thirty-Nine Articles" in too strong of a Roman Catholic direction.

Death of Ko Tha Byu from a lung condition. He had been the first Baptist convert from among the Karen people of Burma (Myanmar). Virtually illiterate, he had become a zealous and successful evangelist among his people, winning thousands to Christ.

English clergyman John Henry Newman is received into the Roman Catholic Church. Newman had been a leading member of the Oxford Movement, which aimed to reform the Church of England, but he became convinced that the Anglicans had lost their episcopal moorings and had wrongly severed themselves from apostolic succession.

Dwight Moody's future song evangelist, Ira D. Sankey, 23, married Fanny Edwards, daughter of a Pennsylvania State Senator. Their marriage of 45 years bore two sons, one of whom -- Ira H. Sankey -- became a songwriter like his father.

Death of Roman Catholic missionary Jacques-Désiré Laval, observed as a Mauritian National Holiday.

Nigerian visionary Abiodun Christiana calls on the Seraphim in prayer. An Anglican influenced by Catholicism, she will found a cultic Christian organization known as the Cherubim and Seraphim Society with doctrines of revelation and divine healing, and rites involving the Holy Ark of Covenant in its worship services. Branches will spring up throughout Africa and in the United States and Europe.

The religious program 'This is the Life' premiered on Dumont (later ABC) television. This long-running series was produced under the auspices of the Missouri Synod Lutheran Church.