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OCTOBER
 

3, 382 --Italy. The Goths today are brought under the pale of Rome.

4, 1535 --Belgium. Miles Coverdale completes his translation of the Scriptures out of Dutch and Latin and the work of William Tyndale. This is to be the first Bible in the English language to be completely printed. He has placed the non-canonical books of the Old Testament in an appendix, which he calls the "Hagiographa."

4-13, 1571 --Netherlands. The first General Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church is held at Emden.

4, 1945 --Japan. The Supreme Commander of the Allied powers directs the government of Japan to remove all restrictions on religious freedom.

5, 365 --Turkey. The Emperor Valens has reversed the Edict of Julian, the previous Emperor, and who recalled the exiled bishops to return to their churches. Today, the prefect Flavianus breaks into the church of St. Dionysius and thus compelling Athanasius to flee at once. It is his fifth forced exile because of his orthodox stand against the Arian heresy.

5, 1568 --England. Archbishop Parker with eleven bishops and four minor prelates completes a revision of the 1539 Bible known as the “Great Bible." This Bible will become known as the "Bishops' Bible," and will not be very popular. The churches will chiefly use the “Great Bible” while the “Geneva Bible" will be popular in homes.

5, 1573 --France. Pierre Toussain dies at Montbeliard. He became a canon of Metz in 1515 where he first heard of Protestant doctrines; and, being suspected of adherence to them was forced to flee to Basel, Switzerland.
     After a sojourn at Paris, he attempted to introduce the new doctrines into Metz, only to be imprisoned at Pont a Mousson. Although he was deprived of his benefice and expelled from the city of Metz, he returned to Paris and became the almoner of Margaret of Navarre. But in 1531, he was again obliged to flee France. After visiting Zwingli and William Farel, he journeyed to Wittemberg.
     In 1568, all pastors who refused to adopt the Wurttemberg Agenda were deposed. When the Wurttemberg government sent Jakob Andrea to Montbeliard in 1571, the clergy were strictly examined and David Toussain, his son, was banished. He was pensioned and replaced by a Lutheran. All clergy who professed Zwinglianism or Calvinism were gradually removed.

5, 1600 --England. Thomas Goodwin is born. This county is the most famous for its Puritan resistance to the religious oppression of Queen Elizabeth and later of King James.

5, 1607 --Italy. Pope Paul Y has tried in vain to gain supremacy over the city of Venice. Even the mighty medieval weapon known as the Interdict has been unsuccessful, chiefly because of Paolo Sarpi, a sworn enemy of the Jesuits. As a result, the Jesuits have been expelled from the Republic.
     Today, an attempt is made to assassinate Mr. Sarpi, for Rome knows full well whom to blame for her defeat.

5, 1703 --Connecticut. At Windsor, a son is born to Rev. and Mrs. Timothy Edwards. He is the fifth of eleven children, all the rest of whom will be daughters. He will be named Jonathan.
     "It pleased God," he will write "to seize me with pleurisy in which He brought me nigh to the grave, and shook me over the pit of Hell . . .. I was brought to seek salvation in a manner that I never was before; I felt a spirit to part with all things in the world for an interest in Christ . . .. I made seeking my salvation the main business of my life."

5, 1713 --France. At Langris in Champagne, Denis Diderot is born. His attacks on the political system of France will be among the foremost causes of the bloody French Revolution. He will become the most prominent of the "Encyclopedists." Of the work we quote Mr. Samuel Smiles:

      "A great work was in the course of publication, under the editorship of D'Alembert and Diderot to which Voltaire, Rousseau and others contributed, entitled ‘The Encyclopedia.’ It was a description of the entire circle of human knowledge; but the dominant idea which pervaded it was the utter subversion of religion." The time was one of fermentation --it was those early days before the French Revolution burst forth in all its fury.

5, 1793 --France. In their all out effort to abolish religion, the Revolutionary forces have designed a new calendar with each of the twelve months divided into three "decades" of days. The first of each decade is to take the place of the "Lord's Day." The names of the days are taken from products of the soil, and the like.
     Some of the school children, being so prompted, have asked they be not made to pray in the name of a so-called God, but that they should be given instruction in the fundamentals of equality, the rights of mankind, and the constitution.

5, 1879 --Massachusetts. The Salvation Army begins its work in the United States.

5, 1886 --Germany. Professor W. Beyschlag of Halle has called a meeting at Erfurt. The result will be the formation of the "Evangelische Bund," an alliance of German Protestants. They affirm belief in "Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, as the only Mediator of Salvation," and adherence to the principles of the Reformation. Seventy men are present today but their first annual meeting held next year will number ten thousand.


 

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