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NOVEMBER

19, 1530 --Germany. The Edict of Worms is today renewed. As a result, Protestant cities and princes are compelled to take measures insuring their own defense.
     Therefore, early in 1531, they form the Schmalkaldic League.

19, 1600 --Scotland. Charles I is born at Holyrood, the royal palace in Scotland. He is the son of King James VI and Anne of Denmark. He and his most intimate friend, the Duke of Buckingham, will travel incognito to Spain in 1623. King Philip III will insist that Charles make England thoroughly Catholic. When Charles and Buckingham return to England after an extended absence, they will be greeted by huge bonfires and the pealing of bells, and will not have fallen under the power of the Roman Catholic potentates.
     But Charles will soon marry Henrietta Maria, daughter of King Henry IV of France. It will be France and not Spain that will threaten the security of England. The king's wife will add to her husband's difficulties by rearing both her sons, Charles II and James II, as ardent despisers of Protestantism and particularly of those doctrines that declare the right of individuals to challenge the authority both of Church and State. She will carry on clandestine intrigues both with French and Dutch agents which will cause her husband great harm and loss of prestige.

19, 1862 --Iowa. In a log cabin near Ames, Billy Sunday is born. It will be his preaching and that of others like him that will convince Congress to declare the prohibition of liquor.

20, 1595 --England. The vagueness of the doctrine of Predestination as stated in the seventh article of the Thirty-nine Articles of 1571 has occasioned the drawing up of nine articles by William Whitaker of Cambridge. Today a conference is held at Lambeth Palace, and hence these articles will be known as the “Lambeth Articles." Churchmen seek their acceptance to deal a blow to Puritanism, but the Queen, displeased at the holding of such a conference without her consent expresses her disapproval of them. They will therefore soon be withdrawn, but will be incorporated into the Irish Articles of 1615.
     Briefly, they state God from eternity has destined some men to eternal life and others to eternal death, and that the cause of "predestination to life" is not because of anything found in the individual, neither "the foresight of faith, or of perseverance, or of good works, or of anything that is in the person predestinated;" the cause being "solely the good will and pleasure of God."

20, 1839 --New Hebrides. In 1821 John Williams purchased a schooner and has used it as a missionary ship. He discovered the Island of Rarotonga in 1823 and later translated portions of the Bible into the native language.
     Today, Mr. Williams lands on the Island of Erromanga. A young man, Mr. Harris, accompanies him. With him aboard the "Camden" are twelve native teachers as pioneers. Suddenly the quiet is torn by the islanders who turn upon them, and before either man can make the shore, they are felled by clubs, then speared to death, and finally they are dragged into the bush where they are eaten in a cannibal feast.

21, 1495 --England. John Bale is born. As Bishop of Ossory in Ireland he will espouse the doctrines of the Reformation and will be forced to flee to the continent of Europe upon the accession of Mary to the throne.
     He will affirm, "They only possess the kingdom of God which are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, that were predestinate thereunto in Christ before the world's constitution." And concerning the death of Christ, he will declare, "He died for all them which were created to be saved."

 

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