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AUGUST

    
14, 1431 --Bohemia. Pope Eugenius IV has proclaimed a fifth crusade against the Hussites. At Nuremberg, a host of one hundred and thirty thousand men have assembled. Today the Bohemians advance to meet their invaders. Procopius who leads them has sowed reports the Hussites have quarreled among themselves and are retreating. This he hopes will lure the enemy farther into the country that they might fall upon them on all sides.
      The enemy is encamped near the town of Reisenberg when they hear the approach of the Hussites chanting their war-hymn. Cardinal Cesarini and a friend mount a hill to watch the impending battle. They gaze only a few moments when they are startled by a sudden movement in their company that appears to break up and scatter. The enemy has been seized by a sudden panic. The soldiers cast away their armor and flee. Wagoners empty their wagons and set off across the plain at full gallop. The Duke of Bavaria and the Elector of Brandenburg are among the first to flee. The cardinal succeeds in rallying some of the fugitives for a brief moment, but they stand only until the Hussites are within a short distance, and then panic strikes again.
     The Cardinal leaves behind his victory, his hat, his cross, his bell, and the Pope's Bull proclaiming the crusade. The Bohemians are enriched with wagonloads of coin, arms, clothes, articles, and utensils of all kinds.

14, 1457 --John Gutenberg completes the printing of his Latin Psalter.

14, 1670 --England. On going to the Quaker meeting at Grace Church Street, London, William Penn finds the house guarded by soldiers. Not permitted to enter, the Quakers gather about the door in silence and conduct their meeting in the street. Mr. Penn will preach, but he and Mr. William Mead will soon be arrested by constables. His bold assertion of the liberties of Englishmen and his jury will be constant in acquitting him of all the threats of the court. Within three months, he will be imprisoned again for preaching.
     His ability to speak in Dutch, German, French and Italian coupled with his high breeding, Mr. Penn is able to move within the highest orders of society and will enjoy the personal friendship of five sovereigns of Great Britain.

14, 1785 --England. At Madeley, John William Fletcher dies. He was an associate of John Wesley who said of him that he was the holiest man he had ever met, or ever expected to meet "this side of eternity." It has been his custom to rise at five o'clock each Sunday morning and walk through his neighborhood ringing a bell that no one could say he “over-slept" and was unable to attend church. He has visited scenes of revelry where he boldly preached against sin. Though a staunch Arminian, his defense of Mr. Wesley's views against Augustus Toplady and Rowland Hill was characterized by fairness and courtesy. He has stood against the right of the American colonists to revolt saying, "the right of taxing subjects with or without their consent is an inseparable appendage of supreme government."

14, 1838 --Germany. King Ludwig I is desirous of the return of the old glory of the Roman Church. Today an order of the war department requires all soldiers to kneel in the Mass or if on guard when the Host is carried by in the Corpus Christi Procession. In December 1848, the king himself will intervene and annul the objectionable requirement.

14, 1862 --Confederate States of America. General "Stonewall" Jackson writes, "In order to render thanks to Almighty God for the victory at Cedar Run, and other victories, and to implore His continued favors in the future, Divine services were held in the Army on the fourteenth of August."

15, 1185 --Greece. The Normans of Sicily capture the city of Thessalonica taking it from the Turks.

15, 1606 --Netherlands. Rembrandt Harmens Van Rijn is born. As a painter he will become famous for his Biblical themes, but will suffer under the rigid control of Calvinism, which maintains it to be idolatry to depict Bible themes.


 

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