When Henry VIII appointed Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury on March 30, 1533, Cranmer wasn’t crazy about the idea. He eventually gave in and used his influence to do two things: grant Henry his long-desired divorce from Catherine of Aragon and to make the Church of England more and more Protestant. None of that set well with Catherine’s daughter the …
Norwegian Hans Hauge early on in his life felt a need to know more about God and began to preach. Preaching was illegal in Norway if you were not licensed or approved by the Lutheran church but that didn’t stop him as he went from house to house and town to town in the early 1800’s. When he died on …
When the First Vatican Council met from 1869-1870 one of the subjects that became a dogmatic teaching was the infallibility of the Pope. That means the Pope can not make a mistake and he is perfect. One German priest didn’t buy into that named Ignatius von Döllinger who said, “As a Christian, as a theologian, as a historian, as a …
Will the real Pope please stand? There was a time in the 1300’s and 1400’s where up to three men claimed to be the Pope at the same time. Some of them were headquartered in Avignon, France and not in Rome as you might think so it was battle of the popes-and-the-antipopes. Pope Gregory XI was the last universally-accepted of …
The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1794. It’s founder, and first bishop, was Richard Allen who died on March 26, 1831. Born a slave on a Delaware plantation, Allen taught himself to read and write and instituted Sabbath Schools as a part of his first churches to help make black parishioners more literate.
Pope Leo III, who was the first to crown a monarch when he crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor, said the church no longer needs to use icons of former saints and priests and “outlaws” them. The Eastern Church didn’t buy into that and Theodore the Studite, in an act of defiance, marched on March 25, 815 with his fellow monks …
For almost 75 years during the 1500s England would flip back and forth between the official church being Roman Catholic or the Church of England. When Queen Elizabeth I died on March 24, 1603 there was a question if England would stay Protestant but her cousin and successor King James I sealed the deal and it’s been the Church of …
Anabaptist is the derogatory name given to Protestants in the 16th century who didn’t believe in infant baptism. Anabaptists believed an infant can’t decide for herself/himself to accept Christ so they were “re-baptized” and labeled heretics. To ensure discipline and a bit of irony, instead of being burned at the stake by their fellow Protestant brothers for refusing to recant, …
Did you ever hear “be careful what you ask for”? After the Roman Emperor Diocletian issued his “Edict Against the Christians” in 303 AD, when Constantine became emperor all that went away and Christianity would not only be allowed but eventually official. Before he died on March 22, 337, Constantine put the Roman Emperor as the titular head of the …
This monument honors one of the greatest hymn writers of all time. When you write “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing,” “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” “Jesus, Lover of My Soul,” and “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today” you deserve a statue. Charles Wesley died on March 21, 1778.
