1607: Philip III, King of Spain, issues a Royal Ordinance, prohibiting the enslaving of Indians who are converted and become Christians, and at the same time excempting them from taxation for a period of ten years. Jesuits made use of this to protect and train Indians, especially in Paraguay.
1630: John Brebeuf makes the final vows as a Jesuit. Later he left for Canada as a missionary, where he was tortured to death by the Iroquois.
1669: (probable date) Death of Paul of Aleppo, an Archdeacon in the Syrian Melkite Church. He had written a chronicle named `The Travels of Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch,` which serves as an important source of information for events of his time. Another contribution from him was the History of the Patriarchs of Antioch.
1750: Rev. Jonathan Mayhew of Boston delivers a sermon entitled, “Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission,” in which he attacks both the divine right of kings and ecclesiastical absolutism.
1814: John Williams gets converted while listening to a sermon by Timothy East and later becomes a famous missionary to the New Hebrides islands.
1839: Robert Murray McCheyne, a Scottish clergyman, states in a letter: ‘God feeds the wild flowers on the lonely mountain side without the help of man…. So God can feed his own planted ones without the help of man, by the sweetly falling dew of his Spirit.’
1891: Death of Methodist evangelist James Caughey, who converted large numbers to Christianity in Canada, preaching revival and holiness.
1956: More than twenty-two thousand members of the “Little Flock” in Shanghai are forced by Chinese authorities to attend a mass denunciation because of their faith.
1977: Festo Kivengere, an Anglican Bishop in Uganda, criticises Idi Amin’s mass killings in a sermon titled “The Preciousness of Life.” As a result, he and his family had to flee for their lives to Kenya.
Edited by:Â T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy: www.studylight.org