307
Theodosia of Tyre, having commended Christians who are in chains for their faith in the market place, is seized and tortured. When she refuses to recant, she is thrown into the sea.
1139
Pope Innocent II opens the Second Lateran Council. It will deal with abuses in the church and condemn Peter of Bruys and Arnold of Brescia.
1234
Edmund of Abingdon is consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury. His years will be spent wrestling with corrupt King Henry III, who refuses to allow him to fill church vacancies, pocketing the money from them instead.
1524
At age 40, Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli (a former Catholic priest) publicly married the widow Anna (ne Reinhard) Meyer. Their marriage lasted until his death at the Battle of Kappel in 1531.
1548
Martin Bucer declares he will sign the Augsburg Interim if certain changes are made; but Emperor Charles V insists on his signature as the document stands. When Bucer refuses, he will be placed under house arrest and then in close confinement until on April 20, he will capitulate.
1582
John Payne, a Catholic, is hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, England, allegedly for treason to Queen Elizabeth. A sympathetic crowd ensures he is completely dead before they allow the drawing and quartering to proceed.
1739
At Kingswood, England, Wesley first preaches in the open air to miners, a decisive step that frees him from dependence upon the favor of Church of England clergy for access to pulpits, but which requires him to swallow his pride.
1767
A sealed letter from Charles III of Spain is opened by authorities throughout Spain and the next morning every Jesuit in the realm is arrested, placed aboard ship, and expelled from the country.
1787
Death in Bologna of Francisco Saverio Clavigero, a Jesuit who had written a sentimental but inaccurate account of the American Indians wiped out by the conquistadors.
1844
Death of Radhanath Das, a well-educated Hindu convert to Christianity, who became an educator in Christian schools, a catechist in homes, a peacemaker among Christians and Hindus, a tract writer, and an evangelist. His death is the result of tending boys with smallpox.
1866
Forced into exile from his station in the Orange Free State by Boers, pioneer missionary François Coillard goes to Natal.
1877
Birth of American evangelist Mordecai Ham. It was under Ham’s preaching in the late 1930s that Billy Graham was led into a living faith.
1894
Death of English philanthropist William D. Longstaff, 72. A friend of Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey, Longstaff left several writings, but is best remembered today for authoring the hymn, “Take Time to Be Holy.”
1914
Three hundred Pentecostals meet at the Grand Opera House in Hot Springs, Arkansas, for a ten-day conference. The conference will birth the Assemblies of God.
1952
Death in New York of Samuel Zwemer, who had been a notable missionary to Muslims.
1955
British apologist C. S. Lewis wrote in “Letters to an American Lady”: ‘Fear is horrid, but there’s no reason to be ashamed of it. Our Lord was afraid (dreadfully so) in Gethsemane. I always cling to that as a very comforting fact.’
1978
Episcopal Canon Mary Simpson of New York spoke from the pulpit of Westminster Abbey in London. She was the first ordained woman to preach there in the 913 years since 1065, when the Abbey was first consecrated.
