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OCTOBER
 

10, 1609 --Holland. At Leyden, Jacob Arminius dies. He has taught conditional predestination. His followers, called "Remonstrants," have refused to be called "Arminians." Men such as Jeremy Taylor, John Tillotson, and John Wesley will advocate his teachings. Jonathan Edwards will write Freedom of the Will to combat the spread of the heresy in America.

10, 1635 --Holland. The Dutch translation of the New Testament and the revision of the Septuagint into Dutch are completed. Philips Van Marnix and Johannes Drusius have accomplished the work. It will be first published with notes as well as without, and will first appear in July 1657.

10, 1665 --Scotland. It is Wednesday afternoon and William Guthrie dies. He is one of Scotland's ejected ministers when the Act of Uniformity was passed, in 1661. He has been tutored and befriended by Samuel Rutherford whose teaching at St. Andrew's led him to devote himself to the service of Christ.
     His Christian's Great Interest first appeared in 1658 and will become highly esteemed by John Owen who will say of it, "That author I take to have been one of the greatest divines that ever wrote; it is my vade-mecum, and I carry it and the Sedan New Testament still about with me. I have written several folios, but there is more divinity in it than in them all."
     It will be one of several such works that will arouse in a shepherd boy, John Brown (of Haddington) a deep concern for his soul's salvation. He will become minister of the Gospel and for twenty years professor of Divinity.
     Dr. Thomas Chalmers will write nearly one hundred and fifty years later, " ...I am on the eve of finishing Guthrie, which I think is the best book I ever read .... I still think it the best composition I ever read relating to a subject in which we are all deeply interested, and about which it is my earnest prayer, that we may be found on the right side of the question."

10, 1677 --Massachusetts. All persons are required to take an oath declaring their fidelity. Quakers cannot swear such an oath for conscience sake, and thus this act is clearly aimed at them.

10, 1679 --France. King Louis XIV forbids Huguenots to hold synods without his permission and without the presence of a royal commissioner.

10, 1743 --Germany. The general rescript issued today permits all private devotional meetings that do not involve a breach of the public peace.

10, 1793 --Massachusetts. Harriet Atwood (Newell) is born at Haverhill. In 1812, she will be married to Samuel Newell and will sail with him for Calcutta the same year. They will set sail first for Mauritius and a daughter will be born on the voyage, but the hardships of the journey will prove too great, and the child will die by the way and be buried at sea. Rapid consumption will set in and Mrs. Newell herself will die at the age of nineteen years.

11, 1414 --Czechoslovakia. John Huss begins the journey that will take him to the Council of Constance. He has been summoned by the Emperor Sigismund to appear in order to answer charges he has been infected with the heresy of John Wycliffe. Though the Emperor has granted him a safe conduct, he has made his will almost as if he knows the Emperor will not honor his word.
 

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