"OF WHOM THE WORLD WAS NOT WORTHY"
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FEBRUARY
18, 1229 --Italy. A treaty is made with the Sultan Kamil
of Egypt and Jerusalem is again turned over to the crusaders, including
the right to fortify the city. More is achieved today than has been
achieved by other previous crusades.
18, 1516 --England. At Greenwich, Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon
have a daughter. They name her, "Mary." As "Mary Tudor" she will be
responsible for making two hundred ninety martyrs within a four-year
period, This bloody persecution will earn her the name of "Bloody Mary."
Among those sentenced to die wil1 be Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer, and
Nicholas Ridley.
The terrible act known as
"De Haeretico Comburendo" which calls for the burning of heretics will
be revived by her. The act calls for the secular power to execute the
sentence after one has been condemned by the ecclesiastical power. It
was originally issued in the reign of Henry IV in 1401, and was expanded
under Henry V in 1415; but it had been first repealed by Henry VIII in
1534 in the twenty-fifth year of his reign, It was again repealed in the
first year of Edward VI in 1547; but in the first year of Mary's reign
as Queen, in 1553, she will reinstate it. Queen Elizabeth will repeal it
in her first year as Queen, in 1559. And in 1678, Charles II will pass
its final repeal in his twenty-ninth year as king.
It had been originally directed
against the Lollards, the followers of John Wycliffe, but was later used
against Protestants in general. It prohibited them from preaching or
otherwise circulating their "new doctrines and wicked, heretical, and
erroneous opinions." It further ordered them to surrender books, which
advocated such ideas, threatening them with prison should they fail to
comply; and if they remained obstinate, they would be condemned by the
ecclesiastical authorities and delivered over to the secular authorities
for burning.
18, 1546 --Germany. Martin Luther dies. He was a stalwart preacher of
righteousness and a hymn-writer --a man of God. He can be heard to pray,
"Oh, my Heavenly Father, my Eternal and Everlasting God! Thou hast
revealed to me Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ! I have preached Him! I
have confessed Him! I love and worship Him as my dearest Saviour and
Redeemer! Into Thy hands I commit my spirit."
Dr. Jonas can be
seen bowing over him, "Reverend father," he addresses him, "will you
stand steadfast by Christ and the doctrine you have preached?"
"Yes," comes the distinct answer from
his dying lips. This is his last word as he sinks into the arms of
Christ.
His
will reads that he leaves behind “no ready money, no treasure of coin or
any description.”
18, 1708 --Pennsylvania. William Rittenhouse dies. He is the first
chosen minister of the Mennonites in Germantown. Mr. Rittenhouse has
come from Holland and around 1690 has established the first paper mill
in America. He is grand-father of David Rittenhouse, the renowned
scientist who will become the first director of the United States mint.
18, 1762 --France. Francis Rochette, a young Huguenot pastor of
twenty-six years, is ill. Recovering sufficiently to move, he proceeds
to the waters of St. Antonin for his full recovery. Suddenly he is
seized together with his two guides. Three brothers endeavor to
intercede for them, but they are forthwith sent to jail.
Today, they are
tried by the judges of Toulouse. The young pastor is condemned to be
hanged in his shirt, his head and feet uncovered, and a paper pinned to
his shirt both before and behind which reads, "Minister of the Pretended
Reformed Religion."
The three Christian brethren,
who had dared to interfere in behalf of the young pastor, are ordered to
have their heads taken off for resisting the secular power. The two
guides, who had carried the sick preacher, are sent to the galleys for
life.
These are the last
executions of Huguenots in France because of their faith
18, 1781 --England. In Truro, Cornwall, Henry Martyn is born. His
father, John Martyn, a former miner, is now a cashier in a mercantile
office. Henry will not be much interested in sports, but will be
petulant and subject to fits of rage. A backward pupil as a young man,
he will be perverse and impatient; provoked and bullied by school boys.
However, through reading the lives of William Carey and David Brainard,
he will become renown for his missionary zeal in India and Persia.
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"But this I confess unto thee: that after the way which they call
'heresy' so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which
are written in the law and in the prophets." -- Acts 24:14