-19-
      
 
JANUARY

14, 1893 --Louisiana. The New Orleans police chief is fined for not enforcing Sunday laws.

14, 1907 --Korea. Seven hundred Christians gather for Bible study in Pyeng Yang, and the Spirit of God moves thus beginning the notable Korean revival. In a matter of years, it will be the boast of the Korean army that fifty percent of its soldiers are professing Christians.

 

15, 1571 --France. Nicolas Durand de Villegagnon dies at Beauvais loathed by Protestants and suspected by Romanists. He founded the first Protestant missionary enterprise by planting a Calvinistic colony in the New World.
     After winning the approval of Admiral Coligny to found a French colony in South America as a refuge for Protestants, he gained cooperation of the king by pointing out the extension of the power and glory of France if she were to colonize those lands along side the Spanish and Portuguese.
     He received two ships and ten thousand livres, and promising religious worship would be conducted according to the policy of Geneva. He gathered many followers among the Reformed, and sailed from Havre reaching the Bay of Rio de Janeiro in November 1555 where he constructed a fort on an island in the bay.
     Mr. Villegagnon then sent letters to Mr. Gaspard de Coligny as well as to Mr. John Calvin requesting more pious Calvinists. Accordingly, Mr. Pierre Richer and Mr. Guillaume Chattier were commissioned the first Protestant missionaries in America. They, along with eleven others found a company of colonists in Paris under the command of Philippe de Corguilleray, Sieur du Pont.
     At Honfleur, under the command of Mr. Villegagnon’s nephew, Bois le Conte, three ships set sail bearing three hundred colonists and arrived in March 1557.
     Almost immediately disputes arose over the Lord’s Supper. Mr. Villegagnon and one from the Sorbonne made requirements contrary to the Genevan usage and branded Geneva as evil. They finally withdrew from participation in religious services.
     At last a delegation headed by Mr. Chartier left for Geneva in June of that year to obtain the final decision of Calvin. Meanwhile the Lord’s Supper was discontinued. In the absence of Mr. Chattier, Mr. Villegagnon attempted to impose the doctrine of transubstantiation and finally forbade all religious services. Thus the Protestants began conducting secret meetings.
     On January 14, 1558, a neutral ship having arrived and numerous colonists having made known their intentions of leaving the colony, Mr. Villegagnon drove them from the island, and confiscated their goods. But the ship proved unseaworthy and five of the colonists reached a French village on the coast in a small boat. But Mr. Villegagnon happened to be there. He received them on condition they would hold no conversation on religion, but soon ordered them to appear before him. When they persisted in their religious beliefs, he had them executed as heretics on February 10, 1558.
     On May 26, 1558, the ship carrying the other colonists, after suffering many disasters, made the Breton harbor of Blavet. Here many survivors died, and others made seriously ill when they were fed too generously after near starvation. The survivors pushed on a few more days and scattered upon reaching the city of Nantes.
     Soon afterward, the Brazilian colony broke up entirely, and Mr. Villegagnon returned to France. The Portuguese destroyed the fort and put to death as heretics all who remained. The French guns were carried to Lisbon.

 

Previous   Next