"OF WHOM THE WORLD WAS NOT WORTHY"
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OCTOBER
17, 1621 --France. Louis XIII has besieged the city of
Montauban. David Chamier, the Reformed pastor and professor here has
sent his students to the walls to help defend the city. He himself has
shared the dangers and misfortunes of its citizens. Today, he is
mortally wounded. He is responsible for drawing up the Edict of Nantes
for Henry IV. Daniel his eldest son will immigrate to Maryland in 1753.
17, 1650 --England. John Flavel is ordained to the Gospel Ministry.
17, 1683 --New York. Seventy years after the occupation of Manhattan and
nearly thirty years after the demand by the Dutch, the people of New
York meet in assembly and by their first act claim the rights of
Englishmen. "Supreme legislative power shall forever be and reside in
the Governor, Council, and people met in general assembly. Every
freeholder and freeman shall vote for representation without restraint,
No freeman shall suffer but by judgment of his peers; and all trials
shall be by a jury of twelve men. No tax shall be assessed, on any
pretence whatever but by the consent of the assembly. No seaman or
soldier shall be quartered on the inhabitants against their will. No
martial law shall exist. No person professing faith in God by Jesus
Christ shall at any time be any ways disquieted or questioned for any
difference of opinion."
17, 1685 --France. King Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes. He has
made use of dragonnades --the brutality of soldiery, to practice every
outrage, insult and cruelty, short of taking life upon those Huguenots
on whom they were billeted. The wretched victims frequently were made
"willing" to yield up their faith to escape their tormentors. It will be
from the ranks of these forcibly converted that the rationalistic
movement represented by Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot will come, and
which will precipitate the French Revolution.
17, 1707 --Germany. Johann Sebastian Bach marries his cousin, Maria
Barbara Bach. His family fled religious intolerance in Hungary during
the Thirty Years War. He will distinguish himself as a composer of
sacred music. Of his more than one thousand works, seventy-five percent
will be written for public worship, but though re-formed in theology,
for he is a Lutheran, he will suffer from the austerities of Calvinists
who believe there is no place for instrumental music in worship.
Upon the death of his wife, he will marry Anna
Magdelena. She will greatly assist him in his work copying several of
his manuscripts.
17, 1737 --Austria. Six wagons of Evangelical emigrants have set out
from the valley of the Ziller from where they have been exiled. Today
these Lutherans arrive in Silesia.
18, 1512 --Germany. Martin Luther is admitted a licentiate in theology
and takes the following oath: "I swear to defend evangelical truth by
every means in my power."
18, 1655 --England. An Association of Presbyterian ministers is formed
in Exeter. Rules drawn up agree none are to be admitted as members who
"will administer the Lord's Supper promiscuously to all sorts, good and
bad," ...and that "none shall willfully contradict the confession of
faith set forth by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster in his
preaching." The following year, Independents will also be admitted. The
Exeter Assembly will meet twice a year.
18, 1669 --New York. The Swedes and Finns along the Southern shore of
the Delaware are roused to resistance under the oppression of Lovelace,
who has stated, "The method for keeping the people in order is severity
and laying such taxes as may give them liberty for no thought but how to
discharge them."
18, 1677 --England. In London, Thomas Manton dies. He was one of the
three "scribes" at the Westminster Assembly. Though chaplain to Oliver
Cromwell, Mr. Manton has favored the Restoration. In 1662, he left St.
Paul's to hold meetings first in his house, then elsewhere as the
attendance increased. These meetings were at first ignored; then in
1670, Mr. Manton was imprisoned for six months. He leaves behind
commentaries on James, Jude and on the Lord's Prayer.