October 17
1483: Pope Sixtus IV launches the Spanish Inquisition, placing it under joint direction of the Church and state and appointing Tomas de Torquemada the Grand Inquisitor.
1532: Pope Clement VII orders that Jews shall be treated with kindness.
1552: Demise of Andrew Osiander in Konigsberg, Prussia, (nowKaliningrad, Russia), a Lutheran theologian who had helped introducethe Reformation to Nürnberg.
1582: Birth of German scholar Johann Gerhard, the most influential of the Lutheran theologians in the 17th century. His writings attained the widest European circulation, after the Bible and “Imitation of Christ” by Thomas a Kempis.
1651: Blaise Pascal, the famous French scientist, wrote in a letter, “Jesus Christ suffered and died to sanctify death and suffering; he has been all that was great, and all that was abject, in order to sanctify in himself all things except sin, and to be the model of every condition.”
1792: Birth of John Bowring, English statesman, linguist, merchant, theologian and most known as the author of the hymn, “In the Cross of Christ I Glory.”
1812: The first of the seven eventual conferences convened in Washington Co., PA, which led ultimately to the founding of the Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio and Other States in 1836.
1937: Martyrdom of Alexander Ivanovich Shchukin, Archbishop of Semipalatinsk, who was shot at by the Soviets for preaching against destroyers of churches.
1979: Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the mother of the destitutes, is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
2005: Demise of Yokana Mukasa Balikudembe, an Anglican bishop of Mityana in Uganda, who made the Mityana diocese with mere eight poor parishes but to an established diocese with thirty rich parishes through his zealous efforts.
Edited by: T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy: https://studylight.org