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MARCH

13, 1568 --France. The Second War of Religion in France began last year after the failure of a third attempt at the capture of the king and queen mother. This time Mr. Gaspard Coligny engineered it.
         The Prince of Conde has once again taken the lead in negotiations and has led the Huguenot armies into the Battle of Saint-Denis. Though indecisive it has resulted in the mortal wounding of the Catholic leader, Constable Montmorency. The Peace of Longjumeau is signed today, but as it is unsatisfactory to both sides it will never be observed.

13, 1569 --France. Rumors of a Papist plot to kidnap the Prince of Conde and Gaspard Coligny, the Huguenot leaders, has led them to flee to La Rochelle. Here they have organized a new army and sent diplomatic missions to England, Germany, and the Netherlands. After further futile negotiations with the French court, the country is again plunged into civil war. This is the Third Religious War. It has been climaxed today by the defeat of the Huguenot forces in the Battle of Jarnac. The Catholics again capture Louis De Bourbon, Prince of Conde, and while being led off the battlefield, he is treacherously shot.

13, 1639 --Massachusetts. The General Court of Boston passes an act against “John Smith for disturbing the public peace by combining with others to hinder the orderly gathering of a church at Weymouth, and to set up another there, contrary to the orders here established, and the constant practice of all our churches, ... is fined twenty pounds and committed during the pleasure of the court or the council.
                  “…The fourth of the second month was thought fit for a day of humiliation, to seek the face of God, and reconciliation with Him by our Lord Jesus Christ in all the churches. Novelties, oppression, atheism, excess, superfluity, idleness, contempt for authority, and troubles in other parts, to be remembered . . ..”

14, 1644 --England. Roger Williams has sailed to England in hopes of obtaining a charter for the colony of Rhode Islanders. Today he is granted such a charter by authority of parliamentary ordinance for “Providence Plantations.” “Through the good offices of Sir Henry Vane, a thoroughly democratic charter was readily obtained.” It guarantees freedom of religion, and separation of Church and State for the colony and ultimately for the entire United States, and was written by Mr. John Clarke.
               With the Restoration of the monarchy under Charles II, the people of Rhode Island will leave Mr. Clarke in England as their representative. “Plead our case,” they will say, “in such sort as we may not be compelled to exercise any civil power over men’s consciences; we do judge it no less than a point of absolute cruelty.”
           The charter will be delayed until July 8, 1663 when it will be perfected. “No person within the said colony, at any time hereafter, shall be any wise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question, for any difference in opinion in matters of religion; every person may at all times freely and fully enjoy his own judgment and conscience in matters of religious concernments.” In May 1665, the legislature will assert that “liberty to all persons as to the worship of God, had been a principle maintained in the colony from the very beginning thereof; and it was much in their hearts to preserve the same liberty forever.” The commissioners from England will report of its people: “They allow liberty of conscience to all who live civilly; they admit of all religions.” And, in 1680, the government will reiterate, “We leave every man to walk as God persuades his heart ...” Thus freedom of conscience “to every man, whether Jew, or Turk, or Papist, or whomsoever that steers no other wise than his conscience dares,” is the trophy of New England.

14, 1859 --Northern Ireland. Having been recommended as an evangelist by such ministers as Robert Candlish, George Smeaton, and John Bonar (the cousin of Andrew and Horatio), by the Free Church of Scotland General Assembly, Brownlow North preaches at Ahoghill. This Monday evening, “Many fell down on their knees in the muddy streets and amid chilling rain, and poured forth earnest cries and prayers.”

15, 533 --Turkey. At Constantinople, Justinian, the Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, issues an edict declaring the Council of Chalcedon, along with the three earlier church councils, to be the standard of orthodoxy.

15, 1672 --England. Hoping to bring about a feeling of toleration for the Roman Catholics, Charles II passes the Declaration of Indulgence for Tender Consciences which suspends “all manner of penal laws in matters ecclesiastical against whatever sort of Non-conformists or recusants.” Once again, licenses are granted to hitherto persecuted ministers, but only the King in person and in response to an express desire notified to the court by the applicant. Congregations are again allowed to gather, and prisons are opened allowing men like John Bunyan to return to their families. This same law also gives Catholics immunity from penal laws, and grants them the exercise of their own religion in their private houses. Many Non-conformists are uneasy about sharing their liberty on equal terms with Roman Catholics.
            Parliament has opposed the Declaration, but as war has broken out with Holland, and the Clarendon Code has only produced strife at home, he desires peace with the Dissenters so long as the war continues, but his primary reason is to free his Roman Catholic subjects.

15, 1685 --Scotland. Scottish seceding preacher, Ralph Erskine, is born in Monilaws, Northumberland. He will conduct correspondence with George Whitefield that will result in Whitefield’s visit here in 1741. The brother of Ebenezer, he is the sixth son of Henry Erskine, under whose preaching Thomas Boston was converted.
 

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