Historical Writings

An ecumenical (general) council opens in Constantinople. It will condemn monethelitism, the teaching that Christ's human will is superceded by his divine will.

Controversial colonial religious leader Anne Hutchinson, 46, was convicted of spreading heresy and banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Mrs. Hutchinson afterward relocated in Rhode Island with her family and friends.

In Seville, the Spanish Inquisition burns its last victim, a woman who refuses to confess that she has entered into a covenant with the Devil.

During the French Revolution, "Christianity" was abolished on this date. Reason was deified, and as many as 2,000 churches were afterward destroyed throughout France.

Saying, "Heaven, heaven, my true home," Chinese convert Peter Wu Guosheng is executed. He had led 128 family and friends to Christ.

Birth of American biblical lexicographer Joseph Henry Thayer. A Congregationalist pastor, Thayer's main interest was New Testament language and in 1886 he published his definitive "Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament."

American Presbyterian abolitionist and newspaper editor Elijah P. Lovejoy, 35, was murdered. Forced earlier to move his business from St. Louis to Alton, Illinois, Lovejoy was shot during the night by an anti-abolitionist mob while defending his presses.

Marie Rafaravavy, a staunch Christian who had been severely persecuted and forced to flee Madagascar because of her faith, leaves England in the hope of returning to her homeland. Because persecution is ongoing, she will have to settle in Mauritania, where she will preach until her death seven years later.

Birth of Will L. Thompson, American songwriter. With a major interest in sacred music, Thompson's pen has left the Church two enduring hymns: "Jesus is All the World to Me" and "Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling."

Death in Bewdley, Worcestershire, England, of hymnwriter John Cawood. Of his seventeen hymns, the best-known are "Hark! What Mean Those Holy Voices?" and "Almighty God, Thy Word is Cast."

Baptism of twenty-year-old Edgar Young Mullins. At birth his parents had dedicated him to God, praying that he might become a minister; however he had not become a Christian until shortly before his baptism. He will go on to become a Baptist minister and president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, which he will greatly expand.

The Northern Christian Advocate (Syracuse, New York) publishes a note from an anonymous correspondent in Jerusalem alleging that an inscription found at St. Étienne's monastery, north of Damascus Gate, places Christ's tomb near that site, not at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Allegedly the inscription says, "I, Eusebius, have desired to be buried in this spot, which I believe to be close to the place where the body of my Lord lay." However, the report differs greatly from the actual inscription, which makes no reference to Christ's place of entombment.

Muslim militants murder Coptic Christian Aziz Abdel Masih. His body lies in the street for nine hours before the police recover it. Investigators mock his wife of two months when she appears to claim her husband's body.