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DECEMBER

5, 1484 – Italy. Pope Innocent VIII issues the bull “Summis Desiderantes” that gives the sanction of the church to the prevalent witchcraft trials.

5, 1520 –Germany. At Cologne, Frederick, the Elector of Germany asks Erasmus, “What think you of Luther? Erasmus answers, “Luther has committed two great faults: he has attacked the Pope’s crown and the monk’s belly. The source of all this dispute is the hatred of the monks against letters and the fear they have of seeing an end put to their tyranny. What have they put in operation against Luther? Clamor, cabal, hatred, libels. The more virtuous and the more attached to the doctrines of the Gospel a man is, the less he is opposed to Luther. The harshness of the Bull has excited the indignation of all good men, and nobody has been able to discover in it the meekness of a vicar of Jesus Christ. Out of so many universities two only have attacked Luther, and even these have only condemned, not convicted him. … The world is thirsting for evangelical truth. Let us beware of culpably resisting it . . ..”
      “Who knows,” Luther has said “if God has not chosen me, and called me, and if they ought not to fear that in despising me they may be despising God Himself? . . .Moses was alone in coming out of Egypt – Elijah alone in the time of King Ahab – Isaiah alone in Jerusalem—Ezekiel alone in Babylon. … God never chose for a prophet either a high priest or any other great personage. He usually chose persons who were low and despised – On one occasion He even chose a shepherd (Amos). At all times the saints have had to rebuke the great – kings, princes, priests, the learned – at the risk of their lives. … Ambrose in his day was alone. … After him, Jerome was alone; later still Augustine was alone. – I do not say that I am a prophet, but I say they ought to fear just because I am alone and they are many.”

5, 1531 – Holland. At Amsterdam, Jan Volkerts is beheaded with nine others for founding the first Dutch Anabaptist (Mennonite) community.

5, 1702 – France. The Camisard retreat having been discovered, a strong force of soldiers and militia is directed upon them. They take with them a herdsman for their guide not knowing he is confederate with the Huguenots. The Royalists are hoping to surprise the Christians in their sleep, and are not aware the Huguenots are already concealed in the forest. Suddenly, singing the sixty-eighth Psalm, the Camisards furiously charge the enemy. The commander turns and flees with such of his soldiers and militia as can follow him. Not many succeed in making good their escape.
     After complete victory, Cavalier, the leader of the Camisard Huguenots, returns with his men to the field of battle and gives thanks to Almighty God for His extraordinary assistance.

5, 1757 – Germany. George Bancroft relates that for years it has been whispered that the house of Austria should unite itself firmly with the House of Bourbon; and now the Empress Maria Theresa, herself a hereditary queen, a wife and mother, religious even to bigotry, courted by a gift the Marchioness de Pompadour, once the French King’s mistress, now his procuress, who, under the guidance of Jesuits, gladly took up the office of mediating the alliance. Kaunitz, the minister who concealed political sagacity and an inflexible will under the semblance of luxurious ease, won favor as Austria’s ambassador at the court of Versailles by his affectations and his prodigal expense. And in May 1756 in the two hundred and eightieth year of the jealous strife between the houses of Hapsburg and of Capet, France and Austria put aside their ancient rivalry and, as exclusive Catholics, joined to support the Europe of the middle age, with its legitimate despotisms, its aristocracies, and its church, to the ruin of the kingdom of Prussia, and the dismemberment of Germany.
     Among the rulers of the European continent, Frederic, with but four millions of subjects stood forth alone, "the unshaken bulwark of Protestantism and freedom of thought." His kingdom itself was the offspring of the Reformation, in its origin revolutionary and Protestant.
     His father though harsh as a parent, severe as a master, despotic as a sovereign --received with painfully scrupulous piety every article of the Reformed creed. His son, who inherited an accumulated treasure and the best army in Europe, publicly declared his opinion that, "politically considered, Protestantism was the most desirable religion;" that "his royal electoral house, without one example of apostasy, had professed it for centuries." As the contest advanced, Clement XIII commemorated an Austrian victory over Prussia by the present of a consecrated cup and sword; while, in the weekly concerts for prayer in New England, petitions went up for the Prussian hero "who had drawn his sword in the cause of religious liberty, of the Protestant interest, and the liberties of Europe." "His victories," said Mayhew, of Boston, "are our own."
   
 

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