"OF WHOM THE WORLD WAS NOT WORTHY"
-64-
MARCH
20, 1413 --England. Henry IV has planned to set out on a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem, and it has been prophesied he will die in “Jerusalem.” Today
he dies in the large hall in the deanery of Westminster, known as the
“Jerusalem Chamber.” William Shakespeare refers to the incident in his
play entitled Henry IV, in Part II, Act IV, and Scene four.
20, 1531 --Holland. At Leeuwarden, Siche Freerks Snyder is beheaded as
an Anabaptist Mennonite.
20, 1684 --England. Jeremiah Harsden dies in the Newgate Jail. He is an
English Non-conformist preacher who has had to adopt the name “Ralphson”,
his father’s Christian name, in order to avoid detection.
20, 1736 --Germany. Count Nicolas Zinzendorf has refused to subscribe to
the Formula of Concord, Today, he is issued a rescript requiring him to
leave Saxony, and a commission is appointed to investigate conditions at
Herrnhut. The commission will proceed impartially and will find little
to criticize.
21, 1146 --France. Bernard of Clairveaux preaches the need for a second
crusade, and the king and queen take the cross.
21, 1556 --England. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer is bound to a wooden stake
and burned alive. He has faithfully preached the Word of God, but has
now lain for months as a prisoner in the Tower until the statute known
as “De Haeretico Comburendo”, which warrants the burning of heretics, is
passed. Of the seven recantations he has signed, the first three were
but submissions to authority. His fifth was signed under false
assurances of hope. It was a thorough recantation, and a sixth was even
more humiliating!
Ashamed
of his retractions, he publicly renounces them as false and contrary to
his convictions. He holds out his right hand, and before the already
kindled fire reaches his body, it becomes a charred cinder. He can be
heard to repeat, “Unworthy right hand.” Here on Broad Street, Oxford, on
the same spot where Nicolas Ridley and Hugh Latimer have already
suffered, Mr. Cranmer will die one of History’s most heroic deaths.
21, 1656 --England. At Reigate, Surrey, James Usshur, Archbishop of
Armaugh dies. In 1615, he drafted the one hundred and four articles of
the Irish church, which are both Calvinistic and Anti-Romanist. In 1626,
along with eleven other bishops, he protested the toleration of Popery;
and in 1627 he called for the removal of grievances expressed by the
Non-conformists. He preached against the legality of the Westminster
Assembly; but he is chiefly remembered for his chronology, which is
still printed in most English Bibles. He is the author of the well-known
creed; “The Chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him
forever.”
21, 1692 --Massachusetts. Rev. Samuel Parris has been minister of Salem
since 1689. His Daughter, Elizabeth, aged nine years, his niece Abigail
Williams, eleven years of age, and a slave by the name of Tituba live in
his family. It has been the custom for a circle of others to meet in the
winter afternoons of 1691 and 1692 with the three afore-mentioned girls.
The circle is composed of Ann Putnam, aged twelve years; Mary Walcott,
Mary Lewis, and Elizabeth Hubbard, aged seventeen years; Elizabeth Booth
and Susannah Sheldon, eighteen years of age; Mary Warren, and Sarah
Churchill, twenty years old, All are unmarried. Mrs. Putnam, Mrs. Pope,
and a woman named Wenham were married and were all of middle age. They
have met to practice psalmistry, fortune telling, magic and
spiritualism. And before winter ceased they all began to publicly
display peculiar behavior such as crawling under chairs, assuming
strange postures, making strange out-cries, falling into fits, and
writhing as though in great agony.
By questioning the girls,
they have found out that the witches are Sarah Good, Sarah Osburn and
Tituba. Tituba has confessed while the others have maintained their
innocence, however the girls have appeared to suffer whenever the
accused people have looked at them.
New culprits have
produced Martha Corey who has been arrested today because she denies the
reality of witchcraft. Though she will deny her guilt, she will be
convicted and taken to prison.
21, 1843 --(New England). William Miller, a lay Baptist minister
declares the Lord shall return today. When our Lord does not so appear.
Mr. Miller will declare He might come any time during the year. But this
date in 1844 comes and goes, thus forcing Mr. Miller to alter his
calculations to read October 22, 1844. Among his followers are some
Seventh-Day Baptists who will form the
Seventh- Day
Adventist Church. Those who continue to follow Mr. Miller will form the
Advent Christian Church.