July 30
381: Emperor Theodosius, who had made Christianity the official state religion (with the Edict of Thessalonica in 380), issues a decree from Heraclea, prohibiting the burial of corpses in urns or sarcophagi above ground – an order intended at regulating burial practices in accordance with the Christian beliefs. Theodosius wanted to establish a unified and religiously orthodox Christian Roman Empire. This decree also contained the names of bishops who are to be regarded as orthodox in their respective districts.
1233: Conrad of Marburg, a cruel inquisitor, is murdered in Germany.
1419: The Hussite priest Jan Želivský and his followers, some armed with weapons, march to the church of the Virgin Mary of the Snows in Prague from which they had been barred by the Catholic authorities. Breaking in, they held Communion service with both bread and wine. The group proceeded to the town hall where several newly appointed Catholic councilmen were gathered, and demanded the release of imprisoned reformers, which they rejected. The protesters threw the councilmen out a window. Those who survived were dispatched by the mob.
1540: Robert Barnes, a reformer, is burned at Smithfield for heresy without a public hearing.
1547: John Knox, the chaplain of the killers of Cardinal Beaton of St. Andrews, is captured by the French while the French capture the castle where they hid. He escaped the galleys and became a leader of the Scottish Reformation.
1629: The Puritans of Salem, Massachusetts, appoint Francis Higginson as their teacher and Samuel Skelton as their pastor. The two composed a church covenant, which admitted to the Holy Communion only those who could prove a sound doctrinal knowledge and an experience of grace in their lives.
1680: Execution of David Hackston of Rathillet in Edinburgh, for his involvement in the murder of Archbishop James Sharp of St. Andrews.
1718: Repose of William Penn, an English Quaker and the founder of the American colony of Pennsylvania. He permitted all forms of public worship compatible with monotheism and religious liberty in his colony.
1750: Lutheran missionary Christian Friedrich Schwartz arrives in Tranquebar in Tamilnadu, India. He was one of the most successful missionaries of his century to India.
1784: The death of Fray Junipero Serra, the founder of the the Franciscan Missions in the Sierra Gorda, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is recorded on his baptismal register by Fray Francesco Palou, a former schoolmate of Serra, who also became his confrere and his successor.
1820: Johann Gossner, a German evangelical pastor, preaches his first Russian sermon to a huge gathering in a church in St. Petersburg. He could convert many Russians through his influence.
1822: James Varick, a Pioneer founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, is consecrated as its first bishop.
1956: US President Eisenhower signs an act of the Congress, making the faith confession ‘In God We Trust’ the official U.S. motto.
1964: Wu Weizun, a staunch Christian of Tianjin, China, is arrested and sent to a detention centre, because he refused to say anything during his interrogation, acting on three principles he has established for himself based on God’s word (non-resistance, not disputing, and not begging). Even his wife was compelled to divorce him. However, he was determined to follow Christ at any cost.
1976: Demise of Rudolf Bultmann, a German Bible scholar and one of the three major pioneers of modern form ‘criticism’ (i.e., ‘analysis’) of the Gospels.
Edited by: T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy:Â www.studylight.org