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OCTOBER
 

31, 1517 --Germany. According to the Chronicles of the times, Frederick the Elector of Saxony is at his castle at Schweinitz, six leagues from Wittemberg. This morning he is in the company of his brother Duke John, who is Co-regent. "Brother," he says, "I must tell you a dream which I had last night, and the meaning of which I should like to know. It is so deeply impressed on my mind, that I will not forget it were I to live a thousand years. For I dreamed it thrice, and each time with new circum-stances . . ..
     "Having gone to bed last night, fatigued and out of spirits, I fell asleep shortly after my prayer and slept quietly for about two hours and a half; I then awake, and continued awake till midnight, all sorts of thoughts passing through my mind. Among other things I thought how I was to observe the Feast of All Saints. I prayed for the poor souls in purgatory, and supplicated God to guide me, my counsels and my people according to truth. I again fell asleep, and then dreamed that Almighty God sent me a monk, who was a true son of the Apostle Paul. All the saints accompanied him by order of God, in order to bear testimony before me, and to declare that he did not come to contrive any plot, but that all that he did was according to the will of God. They asked me to have the goodness graciously to permit him to write something on the door of the church of the castle in Wittemberg. This I granted through my Chancellor. Thereupon the monk went to the church, and began to write in such large characters, that I could read the writing at Schweinitz. This pen which he used was so large that its end reached as far as Rome where it pierced the ears of a lion that was couching there (Pope Leo X); and caused the triple crown upon the head of the Pope to shake. All the Cardinals and princes running hastily up, tried to prevent it from falling. You and I, brother, wished also to assist and I stretched out my arm ...but at this moment I awoke, with my arm in the air, quite amazed, and very much enraged at the monk for not managing his pen better. I recollect myself a little ...It was only a dream.
     "I was still half asleep, and once more closed my eyes. The dream returned. The lion, still annoyed by the pen, began to roar with all his might, so much so that the whole city of Rome and all the states of the Holy Empire ran to see what the matter was. The Pope requested them to oppose the monk, and applied particularly to me, on account of his being in my country. I again awoke, repeated the Lord's Prayer, entreated God to preserve His Holiness and once more fell asleep,
     "Then I dreamed that all the princes of the empire, and we among them hastened to Rome, and strove one after another to break the pen; but the more we tried, the stiffer it became, sounding as if it had been made of iron. We at length desisted. Then I asked the monk (for I was sometimes at Rome and sometimes at Wittemberg) where he got this pen and why it was so strong. 'The pen,' he replied, 'belonged to an old goose of Bohemia a hundred years ago.' (The name 'Huss' means 'goose.'). 'I got it from one of my old schoolmasters. As to its strength, it is owing to the impossibility of depriving it of its pith or marrow, and I am quite astonished at it myself.' Suddenly I heard a loud noise; a large number of other pens had sprung out of the long pen of the monk . . .. So I awoke a third time; it was daylight . . .."

     This evening, Martin Luther will nail his ninety-five theses to the church door at Wittemberg calling into question the Pope's abuse of the people's faith.

31, 1562 --France. In December 1560, Charles IX ascended the throne. A petition written by Augustin Marlorat du Pasquier is addressed to parliament and the king requesting permission for Protestants of Rouen the use of a church. The petition was refused but the ten thousand Protestants defy the law and begin conducting services in the ancient tower. Mr. Marlorat has also addressed a petition to Catherine de Medici maintaining the loyalty of the Protestants.
     With the Massacre of Vassy on March 1st this year, the Protestants of Rouen fearing the same fate seized their city on April 15th. Mr. Marlorat was made one of the three officials in the new government. On October 26th the city fell to Charles IX. Today, Mr. Marlorat is executed before the church where he has presently preached.

31, 1687 --Connecticut. The oppressive Governor Edmund Andros, attended by an armed guard, has set out to assume the government of Connecticut. Today he finds the assembly in session and demands its charter. Governor Treat earnestly pleads for the cherished document. Prolonged discussion follows. The document lies on the table as the shades of night fall. Suddenly the lights are extinguished which when they are restored reveal the charter has disappeared. Captain Joseph Wadsworth of Hartford has secured the document and will safely keep it for nearly twenty-eight years, a part of which time it will lay concealed in the hollow of an oak. Governor Andros will assume the government and will demand the records of Connecticut. The colonists will submit though afterwards will confess they have been "troubled at their hasty surrender."

31, 1731 --Germany. Evangelicals again appeal to the Emperor on account of their expulsion by the Archbishop of Salzburg. The Emperor declares he has warned the Archbishop to obey the laws of the empire. Today, the Archbishop issues an order requiring all non-householders over twelve years of age to emigrate within eight days for remaining disobedient and in league to destroy the Roman Catholic faith. The plan is to financially ruin the wealthy and to force conversions upon their dependents, but with few exceptions, the plan will fail. These twenty thousand exiles will re-settle in the plains of Lithuania, which have been recently devastated by a pestilence. Protestant countries assist them with financial aid at the instigation of the King of England.

31, 1754 --New York. The instruction of eight students meeting in the vestry of Trinity
Church has led to the grant of a charter by George If. The school known as "King's College" will later become "Columbia University."

31, 1879 --Maine. At Farmington, Jacob Abbott dies. A Congregational minister, he leaves behind books for the instruction of the young. Among these is his Young Christian, a series of four volumes.

 

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