"OF WHOM THE WORLD WAS NOT WORTHY"
-146-
JUNE
16, 1361 --Germany. In Strasbourg, John Tauler dies. He has been a
leader in the movement of mysticism.
16, 1426 --Czechoslovakia. This Sunday morning, the Hussites of Bohemia
are entrenched behind five hundred wagons. The Pope has issued a Bull
ordaining a new crusade against them, the result being that an army of
not less than seventy thousand picked men, which some historians say
number as many as one hundred thousand, have advanced in three columns
against the land of Bohemia. Procopius, the Hussite leader, sends a
proposal to the invaders that quarter should be given on both sides. The
Germans, not expecting to need quarter for themselves, refuse the
promise of it to the Hussites saying they are under the curse of the
Pope and to spare them would be to violate their duty to the Church.
“Let it be so then,” replies Procopius, “and let no quarter be given on
either side.”
The Germans attack with an impetuous fervor,
storing the first line of defense, hewing in pieces with their
battle-axes, the iron fastenings of the wagons, and breaking through
them. They press forward and throw down the second weaker line
consisting of wooden shields stuck in the ground. Arriving in the inner
area weary with fatigue, they find the Bohemians resting on their arms,
and occasionally discharging a shot from their swivel. Now that they are
face to face with their enemy, the Hussites raise their war cry and
swing their flails and ply them with their hooks pulling the Germans
from their horses. The Hussites enact a fearful slaughter upon them as
they lay on the ground.
Rank after rank press forward only to be blended in the
terrible carnage. The battle continues until late in the afternoon. The
Germans are resolute and courageous on a soil slippery with blood and
cumbered with the bodies of comrades.
The Hussites are almost untouched, while the Germans
are totally routed and flee in confusion seeking refuge in the mountains
and woods. When overtaken, they implore quarter, but they themselves
have decided it and no quarter is given.
Twenty-four counts, and barons stick their swords in
the ground, and kneel before their captors, praying their lives might be
spared but in vain. In one place, three hundred knights are said to have
been found lying in a single heap. The loss of Germans killed will be
fifteen thousand; the wounded and missing will swell to nearly fifty
thousand. The Hussites will lose thirty men. From this day, the arms of
Bohemia are looked upon as invincible.
16, 1567 --Scotland. The army of Mary, Queen of Scots, has been defeated
at Carberry Hill, and the Queen herself is made a prisoner. As she was
led through Edinburgh, her clothes torn, her hair disheveled, she was
exposed to the jeers and taunts of a multitude who hurled insults at
her.
Today she is confined in Loch Leven Castle where she
will sign her abdication of the throne in favor of her son, James VI.
Her intrigues, however, do not end, for on May 2nd next year, she will
escape from the castle and muster another army.
16, 1701 --England. A charter is secured to incorporate a society to
propagate the Gospel “in Foreign Parts.” An Episcopal society it will
send its missionaries to the American colonies and in but twelve years
will attempt to secure an order from the king to present a bill to
Parliament to establish Episcopacy in America.
16, 1752 --England. At Bath, Joseph Butler, Bishop of Durham dies. He
was the youngest of eight children. His father was Thomas Butler. Joseph
never having married, all his strength is given for the combating of
Deism and Rationalism. In his most famous work The Analogy of
Religion Natural and Revealed To the Constitution and Course of Nature
he attacks Deism by treating the subject of religion as fact with
proofs. It will be a college text for one hundred and seventy-five
years.
16, 1865 --Pennsylvania. At Gettysburg, Methodist Episcopal chaplain
Charles Cardwell McCabe is captured on the field of battle. A staunch
Union man, he is sent as prisoner of war to Libby Prison in Richmond,
Virginia by Major General J. A. Early. On September 25th he will be
stricken with typhoid fever and in October will be exchanged and allowed
to leave prison. He will be commissioned as a delegate of the United
States Christian Commission on March 29, 1864.
16, 1940 --Russia. The Russian army today invades Latvia and will forbid
the religious instruction of children and will confine religious
exercises to church buildings. Atheistic propaganda will be substituted.
With the muzzling of the pulpits and the nationalizing of church
property, confessors and martyrs will suddenly appear.
In July 1941, the Germans will drive out
the Russians. But, there will be little improvement for the church, and
in 1944, the Russians will return.
16, 1954 --Italy. A Concordat is signed with the Dominican Republic
stating Roman Catholicism is the religion of the Dominican nation.