-47-
      

FEBRUARY
 

 19, 1377 --England. John Wycliffe is summoned to appear before William Courtenay, bishop of London in order, as one has said, "to explain the wonderful things which had streamed forth from his mouth."

19, 1414 --England. Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury dies. He has heartily entered into the persecution of the Lollards, the most noteworthy being Lord Cobham.
         In an attempt to halt the Lollard “heresy" he has advanced propositions which have been adopted by the bishops and clergy in his province at the council that convened at Oxford in 1408. Known as the "Constitutions of Arundel", their purpose was first, to prohibit unlicensed preaching; second, to forbid preaching the doctrines espoused by John Wycliffe; and, third, to require every warden, master, or principal of any college or hall to in-quire into the opinions and principles of the students each month.
            The Sixth proposition stated, "We enjoin and require that no books or tract written by John Wycliffe, or any other person either in Wycliffe's time or since or who for the future shall write any other book upon a subject in divinity, shall be suffered to be read either in schools, halls, or any other places within our province of Canterbury, unless such books be first examined by the University of Oxford, or Cambridge, etc."
            The Seventh article began, "Tis a dangerous undertaking as St. Jerome assures us to translate the Holy Scripture. We therefore decree and ordain that from henceforward, no unauthorized person shall translate any part of Holy Scripture into English or any other language under any form of book or treatise. Neither shall any such book, treatise, or version made either in Wycliffe's time or since, be read, either in whole or in part, publicly or privately, under the penalty of the greater excommunication, till the said translation shall be approved either by the bishop of the diocese in a provincial council, as occasion shall require." No such authorization was ever given!
        Archbishop Arundel borrowed the recent custom of burning men for heresy from the Roman Church on the Continent and has introduced it into England. Until now, it was unknown to English law.

19, 1568 --England. In London, Miles Coverdale dies. His Bible first published in 1535 was the first complete English Bible ever printed. Three years later in 1538, he superintended the printing of the "Great Bible" and in the same year published an English New Testament.
          In 1540 he edited what was called "Cranmer's Bible."

19, 1672 --Massachusetts. At Cambridge, Charles Chauncy, the second president of Harvard College dies. Due to his firm Puritanism, he was imprisoned in 1634, but after several months, he yielded. He afterwards regretted his action, and upon deciding to go to America, he published   The Retraction of Charles Chauncy Formerly Minister of Ware in Hertfordshire. He declared as his purpose " ...the satisfaction of all such who either are, or justly might be offended with his scandalous submission made before the High Commission Court, February 11, 1635.
            At Harvard, he succeeded Henry Dunster.
            All of his six sons have become ministers. His oldest, Isaac, will pastor an independent congregation in London which has formerly been pastored by John Owen, and will be succeeded by Isaac Watts.

19, 1685 --Massachusetts. Samuel Jennings is born in Sandwich, in Barnstable County. He will live here until he is eighteen years of age at which time he will go to sea. When pressed into the service of the English king aboard a man-of-war, he will experience five months of such harsh treatment, that on the evening of March 26, 1704, his ship will be lying at anchor at Barbados, when he will attempt to escape by swimming to freedom.
              "I had not swum far," he will relate, "before I saw a shark just as he took hold of my left hand. He pulled me under water in a moment . . .. I thought of a knife I used to carry in my pocket, but remembered I left it on board. Then I kicked him several times with my right foot; but that proving ineffectual I set my foot against his mouth, intending to haul my hand away or to haul it off. Then he opened his mouth a little and took part of my foot into his mouth with my hand and held them both. Then I cried to God mentally that He would have mercy on my soul, which I thought would soon be separated from my body, but still did not cease striving, but punched him with my right hand, though to little purpose. At last being almost drowned, for I was all the while under water, I had almost left off striving, and, expecting nothing but present death, all at once my hand and foot came loose, and I got up to the top of the water, and having cleared my stomach of water, I called out for help, and swam towards the nearest ship."
        He will return home, will marry, and after serving two years in the Massachusetts Legislature, he will write of his conversion. "Having made a verbal profession, before the church and congregation, I was baptized (that is, dipped in the water) by Mr. Elisha Callender, minister of the Gospel, on the ninth day of June 1718, in the 34th year of my age. And truly I may say, as is said of the Ethiopian eunuch, that I came away rejoicing. In a short time after, I arrived to a considerable degree of bodily health which I had lacked for eight years before.”

 

Previous   Next