July 6
1415 Martyrdom of Jan Hus, Czech reformer, who raised his voice for church reforms and for the political and religious rights for the common people.
1535 Martyrdom of Thomas More, English Catholic theologian, who was beheaded for refusing to recognize Henry VIII as the supreme head of the Church of England, after its separation from the Roman Catholic Church.
1553 Passing away of the Protestant king Edward VI of England; Queen Lady Jane Grey became his successor but was replaced by the Catholic queen Mary Tudor after a few days.
1757 Birth of William McKendree, colonial American church leader, who became the first American-born bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
1768 Demise of Conrad Beissel, a Pietist religious leader, who had migrated from Germany to America, and had founded Ephrata Community in Pennsylvania, which encouraged celibacy and practiced vegetarianism. As it also gave much importance to music, Beissel developed a musical system which he claimed to have received from angels.
1813 Repose of Granville Sharp, a Bible scholar who established an important rule for translating a particular Greek construction. He also fought against slavery and succeeded in getting an important ruling that no person could remain a slave on English soil.
1861 James Stewart sails from Southampton in England to South Africa where he founded an important training center for African Christians.
1944 Passing away of Kidana-Wald Kefle, an Orthodox Ethiopian scholar who had devoted his life to learning, wrote a commentary on Ezekiel and compiled a Ge’ez-Amharic dictionary, a Hebrew-Ge’ez dictionary.
Edited by: T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy: www.studylight.org