JULY 21
New Powers for the Italian Inquisition (1542)
“I remember a conversation that I had in America thirteen years ago with a young French pastor. We were asking ourselves quite simply what we wanted to...”
Metaxas, Eric. Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010.
Guard against unchastity (1843)
Now, the crime of unchastity, in any of its aspects, is a blow levelled at this blessed family constitution, of which Go...
Events
438
Death in Constantinople of the Novatianist bishop Paul, who was so highly regarded that all sects and parties, including the Orthodox archbishop, will unite in singing psalms at his funeral.
Authority for the date: Wace, Henry. A Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature...1482
Andrew, archbishop of Carniola, nails a formal arraignment of Pope Sixtus IV to the cathedral doors in Basel, and demands a council. The pope excommunicates him and he is soon found dead in prison.
Authority for the date: Schaff, Philip. New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1954.1495
Girolamo Savonarola is summoned to Rome to answer charges, but he refuses to leave Florence, where he is undertaking reforms.
Authority for the date: New Catholic Encyclopedia.1648
The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland passes an act that says no minister, even if licensed, may be admitted to a congregation without the consent of the General Assembly.
Authority for the date: The Acts of the General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland.1773
By the brief Dominus ac Redemptor, Pope Clement XIV dissolves the Jesuit Order, fearing its growing power. The order will be restored forty-one years later by Pope Pius VIII.
Authority for the date: Wilhelm, Joseph. “Pope Clement XIV.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company1773
Death of Welsh evangelist Howell Harris.
Authority for the date: Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals.1827
Moravians celebrate the fiftieth year of the church at Paramaribo, Suriname. In those fifty years 2,477 individuals had been baptized into that church.
Authority for the date: John O. Choules and Thomas Smith, The Origin1833
Death from malaria of Melville Cox, missionary to Liberia, who had said, “Let a thousand fall before Africa be given up!” He had been the first missionary sent by the Methodists of America.
Authority for the date: Smith, Larry D. “Before Africa Be Given Up!”1889
Death at Rostock, Germany, of Michael Baumgarten, a theologian and active promoter of free church life.
Authority for the date: Schaff, Philip. New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1954.1891
Narayan Sheshadri, a Brahman convert to Christianity, is buried at sea in the Atlantic, having died aboard the Circassia after preaching in Canada and Scotland. He had led over 2,000 of his countrymen to Christ.
Authority for the date: Satthianadhan and Murdoch, Sketches of India1900
Albert Schweitzer, who will become a famed theologian and missionary, is licensed in theology.
Authority for the date: Schweitzer, Albert. Out of My Life and Thought.1953
Methodist bishop Garfield Bromley Oxnam voluntarily appears before the House Committee on Un-American Activities and expressed outrage that he was suspected of communism, declaring he had spoken against it all his life. He had probably fallen under suspicion because his social activism brought him into contact with other suspected individuals.
Authority for the date: http://skepticism.org/timeline/july-history/7539-methodist-bishop-oxnam-appears-before-house-committee-un-american-activitie1967
Chief Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli is struck by a train and dies. A Congregationalist, he had been at the forefront of resistance to Apartheid in South Africa, an effort he tied to his Christian beliefs: “The road to freedom is via the cross.” He had been the Nobel Peace Prize winner six years earlier.
Authority for the date: http://africanhistory.about.com/library/biographies/blbio-lutuli.htm2003
Israeli authorities arrest Oded Golan, an antiquities dealer, whom they accuse of forging the inscription on the James ossuary. The charges will later be dropped and many archaeologists will remain convinced the object is authentic because of the old patina (a surface film caused by oxidation) in its letters.
Authority for the date: “Dealer Arrested In Jesus Relic Forgery.” Baptist Press.