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JULY    

 

12, 1170—England. Henry II does public penance at the grave of Archbishop Thomas a Becket for whose murder he feels responsible.

12, 1536 --Switzerland. At Basel, Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus dies. He has regarded his Latin translation of the Scriptures his chief service to the cause of a sound Christianity. He has been charged with having “laid the egg that Luther hatched,” but has said he expected a bird of another kind. Erasmus has never taken a decided view in favor of the Reformation; in fact, when Basel became decidedly reformed in 1529, he moved his residence to Freiburg.
     His habit is to lay down both sides of an argument and show that each has the element of truth. He has gone so far as to assert that a man may properly have two opinions on religious matters: one for himself and his close friends, and another for the public.
     His best seller was The Praise of Folly. In it Erasmus ridiculed sacred practices and beliefs, which caused Luther to shudder when he read it. Erasmus felt amused at things which caused Luther to grieve.
     When Sir Thomas More, the noted Roman Catholic theologian who during the Reformation argued in favor of the doctrine of Transubstantiation, invited Erasmus to England, Erasmus contended it was absurd to believe that when the priest utters “Hoe est corpus meum” the host became the actual body of Christ. Sir Thomas instructed him, “Believe you have it and indeed you have.”
     When Erasmus left England bound for the continent, he took Sir Thomas’ horse with him. The owner immediately sent a letter to the German theologian accusing him of stealing his horse. Erasmus responded in a letter, “Believe you have it and indeed you have.”

12, 1705 --England. Titus Oates dies at London. The son of a Baptist pastor, Mr. Oates uncovered a plot by the Jesuits to kill the king and to extirpate Protestantism. It is known as the “Popish Plot,” and has aroused the people of London. Chains have been drawn across the streets and patrols have guarded them. Parliament passed a bill in 1678 excluding Roman Catholics from both houses and will be left unrepealed for one hundred and fifty years.
     Another has sworn to it that the Romanists have planned for a landing of an army to massacre the Protestants. The plot subsides and Mr. Oates is arrested and condemned to pay a fine of one hundred thousand pounds. Sentenced to prison, he was tried and convicted of perjury and sentenced to be put into the pillory annually and to be whipped from Oldgate to Newgate, from there to Tyburn and sentenced to life imprisonment. William and Mary will declare his conviction illegal in 1689, and he will be pardoned and given a pension of five pounds a week. Queen Mary will suspend the pension in 1693, but it will be restored and increased in 1698 to three hundred pounds.

12, 1739 --Massachusetts. David Brainerd comes to a saving faith in Christ. What glory fills his soul!

12, 1790 --France. The “Civil Constitution of the Clergy” dissolves the ecclesiastical organism as a political entity.

13, 1711 --England. Matthew Henry writes, “ ...Many have left us, and few been added.”

13, 1787 --Northwest Territory. The Northwest Ordinance is adopted and reads, “ ...As soon as a legislature shall be formed in the district, the council and house ...they shall have authority for extending the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty, which forms the basis whereon these republics, their laws and constitutions are erected . . ..”

13, 1803 --England. The London Sunday School Union is formed in the Surrey Chapel. It will be conducted by members of different Evangelical denominations, Rowland Hill, pastor of Surrey Chapel, has formed a Sunday school using voluntary teachers. Together with the encouragement of John Howard, the philanthropist, Mr. William William Brodie Gurney has proposed the conference today.

13, 1813 --Burma. Adoniram Judson and his wife Ann Haseltine arrive by ship at Rangoon. He is the first Protestant missionary here. He will be arrested as a spy and will be thrown into the death prison at Ava. After months of torture in his putrid dungeon he will be asked by his jailer, “How are the prospect of your mission now, o foreign animal?” Mr. Judson will answer, ‘As bright as the promises of God, my friend.” He will survive twenty-one months in the prison. When he dies, Christians will number seven thousand and there will be one hundred and sixty-three missionaries. At his funeral, an old man will weep, “He was our beloved father.”

13, 1813 --India. The Commons grants religious liberty to missionaries wishing to enter India. They are at liberty to propagate the Christian faith.

13, 1837 --Germany. Prussia grants permission to receive the Zillerthal Evangelicals who have been sent into exile by the Austrian government. They are Lutherans.

13, 1944 --Poland. On June 15, 1940, the Russian army invaded Lithuania, but in 1941, the German army drove them out. Today, the Russian army returns and wreaks her vengeance upon the church. Church officials are either deported or murdered. Church property is confiscated and many churches entirely closed. Religious instruction in public schools is strictly forbidden, as is the publication of all religious literature.
 

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