"OF WHOM THE WORLD WAS NOT WORTHY"
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APRIL
18, 1906 --New York. Algemon Sidney Cropsey, an
Episcopal rector in the Protestant Episcopal Church in Batavia, New
York, is to go on trial today for heresy. He denies certain statements
in the Apostles Creed, particularly, the Virgin Birth. He has challenged
the Church to become "scientific, democratic and socialistic," but as he
professes to have always been a humanist, he will be found guilty of
heresy and unfrocked.
19, 1560 --Germany. Philip Melancthon dies at Wittemberg. As a father, a
French scholar was once amazed to find him rocking the cradle with one
hand, and holding a book in the other. As a husband, he has set no great
value on money and possessions.
A few days ago, he committed to writing his reasons for
not fearing death. On the left were the words, "Thou shalt be delivered
from sins, and be freed from the acrimony and fury of theologians;" on
the right, "Thou shalt go to the light, see God, look upon His Son,
learn those wonderful mysteries which thou hast not been able to
understand in this life."
When Caspar Peucer, his son-in-law asked him if he
wanted anything, he replied, "Nothing but Heaven."
His death is occasioned by a severe cold he contracted
while on a journey to Leipzig. The fever that has followed has consumed
his strength. His body will be laid beside that of Martin Luther.
19, 1619 --Virginia. Sir George Yeardley arrives as Governor of
Jamestown. Of the emigrants sent over at great expense, scarcely one in
twenty remains alive. He therefore takes a strong position and appoints
"penalties for Idleness, gaming with dice or cards, and drunkenness,"
thus making laws for their government more than a year before the
Mayflower leaves Southampton with the Pi1grims. “All persons suspected
to affect the superstitions of the Church of Rome" will be excluded from
the colony.
20, 1314 --France. Pope Clement V dies. In the spring of 1309, he
removed the Papal court from Rome to Avignon, thus beginning what is
known as "the Babylonian Captivity" of the Papacy.
20, 1718 -- Connecticut. David Brainerd is born. He will sympathize with
the “New Lights" such as George Whitefield, Gilbert Tennent and others,
and when as a student at Yale College he is forbidden to attend their
meetings, he will nonetheless do so. When he declares of one of his
professors that he has “no more grace than a chair", he will be
dismissed from the College. In after years, he will apologize for his
"youthful ardor."
Expelled from school, he will turn his attention toward
the Indians. Through his arduous labors among them, his flame will dim
early, and he will die with Tuberculosis.
20, 1777 -- New York. The last of the thirteen colonies to establish its
own constitution is New York. This daughter of the Netherlands "in the
name of good people, ordain, determine, and declare the free exercise of
religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference,
to all mankind." The people of this new commonwealth feel themselves
"required, by the benevolent principles of national liberty not only to
expel civil tyranny, but also to guard against that spiritual oppression
and intolerance wherewith the bigotry and ambition of weak and wicked
princes have scourged mankind,” so wrote George Bancroft, and he
continued --
"The establishment of freedom of conscience which
brings with it freedom of inquiry, of speech, and of the press is not in
any of the states the fruit of philosophy, but of Protestantism."
In New York justice is extended to Roman Catholics as
well as liberty to worship, and stands nearly alone requiring no
religious test for public office. No man suffers political
disfranchisement on account of his creed or color. At the moment of her
assertion of liberty, she places no constitutional disqualification on
free black people. The only restriction is the renunciation of
allegiance to foreign powers, both Church and State.
20, 1884 --Italy. Pope Leo XIII issues his Encyclical "Humanun genus" in
which he condemns the Masonic order. Ten years from now, at the request
of American archbishops, the Holy See will clarify its position with
regard to other secret societies as well, forbidding membership in them
to the faithful under pain of mortal sin.