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MARCH

 3, 1521 --Germany. This morning, Martin Luther rises determined to leave the sanctuary of Wartburg castle. He leaves its old towers and dark forests where the excommunication of the Pope, Leo X, and the sword of the Emperor, Charles V, have been unable to reach him; and he descends the mountain.

3, 1677 --New Jersey. The Quaker proprietaries in England have written the few who have emigrated, “We lay a foundation for after ages to understand their liberty as Christians and as men, that they may not be brought into bondage but by their own consent; for we put the power in the people.”
       Today, the Fundamental Laws of West New Jersey are published: 1.) No man, no number of men has power over conscience. No person shall at any time, in any ways, or on any pretense be called in question, or in the least punished or hurt for opinions in religion. 2.) The General Assembly shall be chosen not by the confused way of cries and voices, but by the balloting box. Every man is capable to choose or be chosen . . .. Each member of the Assembly is allowed one shilling a day to be paid by his constituents “that he may be known as the servant of the people.” 3.) In the twelve-man jury only is judgment to reside . . .. “All and every person in the province shall by the help of the Lord and these Fundamentals be free from oppression and slavery.” Courts are to be managed without the need of an attorney or counselor. Even the native is protected against encroachments.

3, 1749 --England. Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, Earl of Halifax is acting head of the board of trade. Today by act of Parliament, under pretext of suppressing the evils of colonial paper money, Horatio Walpole reports a bill to overrule charters in her American colonies, and to make all orders by the king, or under his authority, the highest law of America. Thus Halifax surrenders the liberties of his own countrymen.

3, 1865 --Washington, D. C. By law, the motto, “In God We Trust”, is extended to include coins other than the two-cent piece. Such is the sentiment of the people of the United States.

3, 1866 --Massachusetts. The first Young Men’s Christian Association in the United States is organized in Boston.

4, 1559 --Spain. The Inquisition threatens Augustino Cazalla with torture. When he accompanied Emperor Charles V to Germany he attempted to confute the Lutherans, but he himself became convinced of their doctrines as being Scripturally sound.
      Last year, he was imprisoned along with his brothers and sisters, and about seventy-five others. Today he acknowledges he has accepted Luther’s doctrinal position but denies having preached them to any but to those already espousing them.
       On May 21, he and eleven others will be strangled, then burned at the stake. Two of his brothers, Francisco and Antonio, will be burned alive, while a sister and another brother will be condemned to life imprisonment. The burnings are the first of a series to be carried on by the Inquisition.

4, 1583 --England. Bernard Gilpin dies. When he came to adopt the doctrines of the Reformation, he coupled his theology with a fearless denunciation of clerical vices. As a result his enemies accused him before Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London. He would have been tried for heresy and likely have been beheaded but while on his way to London, he broke his leg, and before he was able to continue his journey, Queen Mary died.

4, 1675 --England. John Bunyan is again arrested for preaching the Word of God. He is to spend six more years in jail for this horrid crime, since he is opposed to Episcopacy in the Church of England. During this imprisonment he will write his most famous book, The Pilgrim’s Progress.

5, 1522 --Germany. The religious Edict of Bavaria is passed today against all Lutheranism.

5, 1820 --Virginia. Robert Dabney is born. His father is a Colonel in the militia. Mr. Dabney will become Chief-of-Staff to General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson serving as Chaplain during the Valley Campaign. He will write the first biography of General Jackson’s life.
            Archibald Alexander of Princeton will say of him, “Dr. Dabney is the best teacher of theology in the United States and perhaps in the world.” He will become a Presbyterian.
            At the instigation of Joseph Allison Alexander, also of Princeton, Charles Hodge will write Dr. Dabney to ask him to come to Princeton to teach church history. (Mr. Joseph Alexander is reputed to be the most learned man in America at this time. Next to James H. Thornwell, he is called the most powerful preacher to ministers in the country.)
         Mr. Dabney will refuse the offer explaining he would have to leave his family; and this would include his servants for whom he shows much affection.
        He believes the only sure way to rout the Abolitionist and align northern and southern Christians will be to stand solely on the Word of God and not on any philosophical argument: “Here is one policy then, to push the Bible argument continually to drive the abolitionism to the wall, to compel it to assume an anti-Christian position.”
        James Henley Thornwell will state, the Church’s “only argument is, ‘Thus it is written ...’ The Scriptures not only fail to condemn slavery, they as distinctly sanction it as any other social condition of man. The church was formally organized in the home of a slaveholder; the relation was Divinely regulated among the chosen people of God . . ..” “Opposition to slavery has never been the offspring of the Bible.”

6, 1475 --Italy. Michelangelo Buonarroti is born to a government agent in Caprese. Lorenzo de Medici will invite him as a young man to Florence to lodge in his house. At the age of twenty-three years, he will carve his “Pieta”—the dead Christ on the knees of the mournful Mary. He will paint nine thousand square feet of frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. These will include nine scenes: three of God creating the world, three of Adam and Eve, and three of Noah and the Flood. These will be surrounded by twelve Old Testament prophets. This work will take him four years to complete.
 

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