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1603 JACOBUS ARMINIUS ENUNCIATES ARMINIANISM
After a fifteen-year pastorate in the Dutch Reformed church, in 1603 Jacobus Arminius (1559-1609) became a professor of theology at the University of Leiden, where his lectures refined and disseminated the seeds of a theology later called Arminianism. The Reformed doctrine of predestination held that God predetermined whom he would save. Arminius believed that the Bible taught conditional election, with each person's free will determining his salvation. The controversy led to deep divisions in the church. The year after Arminius' death his followers wrote "The Remonstrance," which systematized Arminian theology. Arminianism holds that 1) God extends his offer of salvation to all who will believe, 2) Jesus Christ died for all people, 3) the Holy Spirit enables people to achieve a right relationship with God, 4) people can resist God's saving grace, and 5) Christians may lose their salvation.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1605 THE GUNPOWDER PLOT FAILS
Alarmed at increasing religious persecution under England's Protestant King James I (1566-1625), thirteen Catholics devised a plot to blow up the Parliament building in 1605. The conspirators filled a cellar beneath the House of Lords with thirty-six barrels of gunpowder, intending to kill King James, his eldest son, and many Lords on the first day of Parliament. They hoped the plan would restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. However, the plot was exposed when a member of the House of Lords received an anonymous letter urging him not to attend Parliament. All thirteen conspirators died, either resisting arrest or by execution. Contrary to its intent, the scheme provoked increased hostility toward the Catholic faith in England. The failure of the Gunpowder Plot still is celebrated on Guy Fawkes Day, November 5, when the key conspirator of the plot is burned in effigy.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1606-1609 JOHANN ARNDT PUBLISHES FOUR BOOKS CONCERNING TRUE CHRISTIANITY
German Lutheran pastor Johann Arndt (1555-1621) was dismissed from his first pastorate for de-emphasizing the role religious pictures and ceremonies played in the German Lutheran church. At the heart of Arndt's dissent was his belief that orthodox traditions were meaningless without personal spiritual conversion. From 1606 to 1609, Arndt published his Four Books Concerning True Christianity. In them, Arndt advanced the mystical aspects of Martin Luther's (1483-1546) teaching, insisting that personal holiness could be obtained only through constant communication with and dependence upon God. The Thirty Years' War was only three years old when Arndt died in 1621. His books fueled the religious revival that swept Europe in the war's wake, influencing Pietism, Russian Orthodoxy, and even the Enlightenment.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1606 ROBERT DE NOBILI ARRIVES IN INDIA
The son of a wealthy Italian family, Robert de Nobili (1577-1656) joined the Jesuits despite his family's opposition. When de Nobili sailed to India as a missionary in 1605, the country was a Portuguese colony, and missionaries expected Indian converts to assume European cultural customs. Hoping to win
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
THEY WENT WITHOUT GOD
December 19, 1606
Everything that could possibly go wrong did.
Englishmen publicly claimed that the primary purpose in establishing the American colonies was to spread the gospel among the Indians. In truth, their motivation was greed. In 1606, the London Company was formed for colonial expansion and trade, obtaining a royal charter to found a colony in Virginia. Without taking time to prepare plans for the new colony, three ships carrying 105 colonists set out for Virginia on December 19, 1606.
The voyage took much longer than expected, forcing them to consume much of the rations en route that were to have sustained them through their first year. The leaders constantly fought with each other, and because they had no authority structure, conflicts went unresolved. In May the ships finally entered the Chesapeake Bay. The colonists named their colony Jamestown after their king, James I.
These men were unfit to build a colony. With few laborers or carpenters among them, the group consisted primarily of "Gentlemen," who came without realizing the hard work that would be necessary for the colony to succeed. The quarreling that began during their voyage continued on land. The Gentlemen refused to participate in any labor, instead setting off in search of gold and pearls. Only one minister had been sent with them—an indication of how interested England really was in evangelizing the Indians. Reverend Robert Hunt was a man of God whose passion to evangelize the Indians was not shared by anyone else.
They arrived too late to plant crops and were quickly running out of food. They lived in fear of Indian attacks and were sick from exposure, mosquitoes, and poor nutrition. The rift between the Gentlemen and the others continued to widen, and no one showed any interest in Reverend Hunt's continued pleas for reliance on God. By September 1607, half of the little colony had died.
Hunt's life was a vivid contrast. In addition to being a godly man of prayer, he labored energetically, taking charge of building the first mill for grinding corn and becoming the primary caregiver for the sick.
The colony at Jamestown became entirely dependent on the generosity of the Indians. Yet only Hunt thanked God for their assistance.
The sweltering heat in the summer of 1608 scorched the crops they planted. Starvation and disease claimed even more lives the second year than the first. Nine out of every ten people who embarked for Jamestown died, including Rev. Hunt. This pattern continued for years. In March 1621, there were only 843 settlers in Virginia. During the next year, 1, 580 more people arrived but 1, 183 died!
Even with this staggering death rate, the colonists refused to trust in God. Ship after ship arrived, with the investors always "forgetting" to send more ministers. In 1622, there were more than twelve hundred settlers on ten plantations scattered throughout Virginia, but just three ministers. So much for spreading the gospel among the Indians! to Christ the Hindu priestly caste known as the Brahmins, and against the counsel of his superiors, de Nobili lived among them and adopted their cultural practices. De Nobili also urged the development of separate evangelistic missions for each caste or class of Indian people. De Nobili was one of the first missionaries to attempt to separate Christianity from its Western cultural bias. An estimated hundred thousand people became Roman Catholics through de Nobili's ministry and influence.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1608 JESUITS REJECT APPLICANTS WITH JEWISH BLOOD
The Jesuits, or the Society of Jesus, was a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church that first addressed the idea of blood purity at their Fifth General Congregation (1593-1594). This gathering ruled that no one with a Jewish parent would be admitted to the Jesuit order. In 1608, the Sixth General Congregation of the Society of Jesus ruled that no one could be admitted to the order with a Jewish ancestor in their lineage going back five generations. These rulings remained until 1946.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1609 JOHN SMYTH FOUNDS FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH IN AMSTERDAM
Minister John Smyth (1560-1612) was dismissed from the Church of England for his belief that those who called themselves Christians only for political reasons were not true members of the Christian church. Smyth and his followers fled to Holland where they found more religious tolerance. There Smyth was influenced by the Mennonite practice of baptizing believers. The common practice in the Protestant church at that time was infant baptism by sprinkling. In 1609, Smyth baptized himself and his followers upon their confession of faith, forming the first Baptist church in Amsterdam. Members of Smyth's congregation later migrated to America among the Pilgrims. Others founded the General Baptist movement in Great Britain.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1611 KING JAMES BIBLE IS FIRST PUBLISHED
In 1604, James I (1566-1625), newly crowned king and head of the Church of England, championed a new translation of the Bible. At that time, the Bishop's Bible was used in churches. Those who had Bibles at home read the Geneva Bible, which had Reformed notes in the margins, sparking theological controversy. Fifty-four scholars worked on the new translation, drawing on original texts as well as translations in several languages, and omitting marginal notes. The King James translation received wide acceptance, in part because its prose was well suited to being read aloud, significant in an era when many could not read. As a result, the new translation helped shape the development of spoken English. The King James Version remained the Bible of English-speaking Protestants for three hundred years.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1612 THOMAS HELWYS ESTABLISHES THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH IN ENGLAND
Thomas Helwys (1550-1616) and John Smyth (1560-1612) started a Baptist church in Amsterdam with Smyth as pastor. Helwys became pastor after Smyth's death. The church issued a Declaration of Faith, defining baptism as "the outward manifestation of dying with Christ and walking in newness of life; and therefore in nowise appertaineth to infants." In 1612, Helwys returned to England and established a church on Newgate Street that practiced believer's baptism with Mennonite-style pouring rather than immersion. It was the first known Baptist church in England.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1617 THE BOOK OF SPORTS CAUSES ESTRANGEMENT
By 1617, King James I of England (1566-1625) had made it clear that he intended to make no significant alterations to English church polity, which had been chiefly set up by Elizabeth I (1533-1603). Unsatisfied, the Puritans continued to oppose the English court. Therefore, James issued a decree authorizing the activities of the old English Sunday, including dancing, archery, and vaulting. This declaration, titled the Book of Sports, attacked the Puritan idea of the Sabbath by suggesting that the Puritans had a penchant for melancholy that repelled Roman Catholics, and that their Sabbatarian practices encouraged laziness and drunkenness. With pressure from Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud (1573-1645) and with greater force, Charles I (1600-1649) reissued this decree in 1633, causing further estrangement between Puritan revolutionaries and the king. The result was the English Civil War and the execution of Charles I in 1649.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1617 JANSENISM BEGINS
Cornelius Otto Jansen (1585-1638) led a revival of Augustinian theology within the Catholic Church. From 1612 to 1617, he immersed himself in the writings of Augustine (354-430) and then in 1617 became director of a college in Louvain, France, where he found others open to his convictions. Jansen and his successors challenged the sacramentalism and hierarchical structure of the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Church's response to the Reformation, and were devoted to reforming the church according to Augustinian standards. The Jansenists taught that grace is irresistible and that Christ died only for the elect. After Jansen's death in 1638, Antoine Arnauld (1612-1694) assumed leadership of the group, which included the French philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623— 1662). Pope Innocent X (1574-1655) condemned Jansenism in 1653.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1618 THE SYNOD OF DORT BEGINS
After Jacobus Arminius' death in 1609, bitter controversy about the doctrine of unconditional predestination raged within the Dutch Reformed Church. Arminius' followers, by then called Remonstrants, wanted to modify the church's theology to recognize the role they believed human free will played in salvation. The Synod of Dort convened in 1618, with fifty-six delegates from the Netherlands, as well as advisors from Reformed churches in England, Scotland, and Germany. By this time political issues concerning state supervision of the church were also part of the controversy. The Remonstrant representatives refused to participate, denouncing the synod. The synod ruled the Remonstrants' Arminian teachings were not orthodox, and responded by producing the Cannons of Dort. This document reaffirmed the Reformed doctrines of grace as the standard for the Dutch Reformed Church. Remonstrant leaders were removed from their pulpits and exiled from the Netherlands.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1618 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR BEGINS
By the early 1600s, the Peace of Augsburg (1555) was beginning to buckle under the ever-shifting weight of rulers choosing their country's religion. In 1608, Protestant princes formed the Evangelical Union, which the Catholic rulers soon countered with the Catholic League. Theological differences, however, were only part of the growing problem. Personal and national rivalries, economic difficulties, and ambition to expand empires complicated religious tensions. In May 1618, Protestant nobles threw two Catholic Hapsburg rulers out of a high window in Prague, starting what would become known as the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). Eventually involving all of central Europe, the war was characterized by religious-political allies temporarily winning ascendancy in their quest to gain territory and wipe out their enemy's religion, only to be driven back by the opposite faction.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
November 11, 1620
For the first time in recorded history, free men covenanted together to form a new civil government.
The date was November 11, 1620, and the place was the Mayflower, anchored off the coast of Cape Cod. One hundred two passengers including thirty-four children had crossed the ocean from England. Of the passengers, sixteen men, eleven women, and fourteen children were Pilgrims, having been associated with the Separatist church in Scrooby, England. Refusing to conform to the Church of England, they had first sought religious asylum in Leyden, Holland. After twelve years, they became concerned that their children no longer would identify themselves as English. Learning of the possibility of settling in America, they made arrangements with the Virginia Company to settle within the northernmost boundary of the Virginia Charter. However, fierce winds blew them off course to Cape Cod.
They decided to settle there but then realized that since they would not be under the Virginia Company, they would be on their own, for they had no agreement with the New England Company. On board the ship some of the non-Pilgrim bonded and contract servants greeted the new plan as an opportunity for rebellion. The Pilgrims saw that they must act quickly to prevent a mutiny.
The Pilgrim men then wrote up a compact, now known as the Mayflower Compact, and presented it to the rest. Forty-one of the sixty-five men signed it. Thirteen who didn't sign were sons of signers, covered by their fathers' commitments. The remaining men probably were too sick to sign. The compact read:
Having undertaken, for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian Faith and honor of our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid, and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony. Unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign King James of England ... Anno Domini 1620.
Before leaving the Netherlands, the Pilgrims had knelt on the dock to ask God's blessing on their voyage, and now William Bradford recorded, "Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven."
During their first winter, forty-seven people died. These humble Christian men and women were to be the seeds of what would become the United States of America.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
SQUANTO
March 22, 1621
In the year 1619, when many people were considering whether to go to the New World, one person had a unique reason—he was trying to go home.
An American Indian by the name of Squanto had come to England via the slave trade. In 1605, Squanto was captured by Captain George Weymouth and taken to England, where he learned English. He spent nine years there before returning home to his people, the Patuxets on Cape Cod in 1614, on a vessel captained by John Smith. He was not at home long before Captain Thomas Hunt, part of Smith's expedition, lured Squanto and twenty-six other unsuspecting Indians aboard his vessel, clamped them in irons, and took them to Spain, where he sold them into slavery. Squanto was delivered into the hands of local friars, who introduced him to the Christian faith.
Squanto did not remain long with the Spanish monks. Making his way to England, he managed to get passage on an American-bound ship in 1619. When Squanto arrived back on Cape Cod, to his great shock he learned that everyone in his tribe had died from smallpox.
A year after Squanto's return, in November 1620, the Pilgrims reached the shores of Cape Cod. The Pilgrims were members of the Separatist congregation of Scrooby, England, that had fled to Holland. Twelve years later, they set sail for America and settled in Plymouth.
The settlers discovered that Indians had cleared the land at Plymouth for planting, but it had not been farmed for some time. After a devastating winter, one day the following March, an English-speaking Indian walked into Plymouth. His name was Samoset. He had learned the language from English fishermen he had met along the Maine coast. The Pilgrims discovered from Samoset that they had settled on the homeland of the Patuxets, the tribe wiped out by disease four years earlier. God had led the Pilgrims to perhaps the one plot of uninhabited land on the East Coast, the very land where Squanto had grown up.
Samoset introduced the Pilgrims to Squanto on March 22, 1621. Squanto brought news that Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoag and leader of most of the surrounding tribes, was coming to visit the settlers that very day. When Massasoit arrived, Squanto helped the Pilgrims agree to a peace treaty with Massasoit that would last for decades.
When Squanto arrived in Plymouth, the Pilgrims were in desperate straits. Nearly half had died during the previous winter, lacking the skills for survival in their new land. Squanto showed the Pilgrims how to fertilize and protect the corn they planted, how to catch fish from the streams, and how to harvest the food the land provided. If God had not sent Squanto, the Pilgrims likely would not have survived. One of the Pilgrim leaders called him "a special instrument sent of God for our good, beyond our expectation."
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1619 FIRST SLAVES ARRIVE IN VIRGINIA
When the first twenty African men arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, the colony had no laws governing slavery. The men were put to work in the tobacco, rice, and cotton fields alongside Englishmen who had committed themselves to be servants in exchange for passage to the New World. Conditions were hard for both white and black men, most of whom survived their term of service and earned their freedom. Unlike the Englishmen, however, the Africans had not left their homes voluntarily. Therefore, they are recognized as having been slaves—the first of 399,000 Africans who were forced to migrate to the colonies that became the United States.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1620 MAYFLOWER COMPACT ESTABLISHES NEW GOVERNMENT On November 11, 1620, forty-one men aboard the Mayflower signed the Mayflower Compact off the coast of Cape Cod. The authors, who were sixteen of the signers, were Pilgrims associated with the Separatist church in Scrooby, England. They had fled first to the Netherlands and then sought religious freedom in America. Because the ship had been blown off course and did not land in Virginia as intended, they no longer were under the jurisdiction of the Virginia Company, the sponsor of their voyage. This was the first time in recorded history that free men covenanted together to form a civil government with the authority to enact laws that the people promised to obey.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1621 SQUANTO SAVES THE PILGRIMS
When the Pilgrims arrived in Cape Cod in November 1620, they possessed very few survival skills for living in the New World. More than half of the group died from starvation and sickness the first winter. On March 22, 1621, an English-speaking Indian named Samoset introduced the Pilgrims to Squanto, another Indian. Squanto had been captured twice by slave traders, and he had learned to speak English while in Britain. Upon returning to America, Squanto discovered that smallpox had wiped out his tribe. The Pilgrims had settled on the land that had belonged to his eradicated tribe. That very day he assisted the newcomers in establishing a peace treaty with Massasoit, chief of the surrounding tribes. Squanto also taught the Pilgrims how to catch fish, fertilize corn, and harvest food in America. If God had not sent him, the Pilgrims might never have survived.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1622 POPE GREGORY XV CREATES THE SACRED CONGREGATION
Pope Gregory XV (1554-1623) created the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of Catholic Faith on June 22, 1622. Originally lead by thirteen cardinals, this administrative department was commissioned to evangelize the Protestants in areas lost in the wake of the Reformation and to counter Protestant expansion in newly established colonies. The Sacred Congregation sponsored missionaries and established seminaries in foreign lands, published catechisms and other religious works in foreign languages, and poised the Catholic Church for expansion around the world.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1627 THE CODEX ALEXANDRAS ARRIVES IN ENGLAND
The Codex Alexandrinus, a manuscript thought to have been written in the fifth century, is believed to have come from Alexandria, Egypt. It contains most of the text of the Bible in Greek uncial script (all capital letters). Although missing thirty-four New Testament chapters, it represents one of the most complete early copies of the Bible known at the time. The Eastern Orthodox bishop of Alexandria, Cyril Lucar (1572-1638), sent the Codex to King James I (1566-1625) of England, who had authorized the King James Bible. However, the Codex did not arrive in England until 1627, two years after James' death. In 1627, King Charles I (1600-1649) accepted the bishop's gift in place of his predecessor. The Codex Alexandrinus became a definitive text for subsequent scholarship as copies of it were disseminated from England.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
AN INQUIRING MIND
June 19, 1623
Some children seem to be born with an "I'll do it myself" attitude.
Blaise Pascal, one of the greatest intellects of the Western world, had an unquenchable thirst to learn. He was born into an upper-class family in central France on June 19, 1623. His father, Etienne, was an attorney, magistrate, and tax collector who loved languages and mathematics and was intensely interested in his children's education. Pascal's mother died when he was only three, and four years later, Etienne moved his family to Paris. There he homeschooled his three children, starting with the study of languages. He was of the opinion that it was best to withhold the study of geometry until they were proficient in languages, so they wouldn't be preoccupied with the fascination of mathematics.
However, when young Blaise was only twelve, his father discovered that his precocious son had taught himself geometry. At age sixteen, Pascal attracted the attention of mathematician and philosopher Rene Descartes by writing a book on the geometry of cones. Concerned by the long hours his father would spend adding up figures at night, Pascal put his problem-solving ability to work and invented the first mechanical calculating machine when he was nineteen. Its principles have remained in use into modern times. Pascal also originated the theory of probability. In the field of physics he discovered a principle known as Pascal's Law, which is the foundation of modern hydraulics.
Pascal's remarkable mind was interested in things of the Spirit as well. Encouraged by his father to learn by observation and discovery, Pascal's inquiring mind devoured the Scriptures as well as scientific data. Just as he learned geometry on his own, so his spiritual journey to belief was a private one. On the night he put his faith in Christ he wrote:
God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and scholars ...
He is to be found only by the ways taught in the Gospel....
"Righteous Father, the world has not known Thee, but I have known Thee."...
Let me hot be separated from Him eternally.
"This is the eternal life, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and the one whom Thou has sent, Jesus Christ." ...
Let me never be separated from Him.
We keep hold of Him only by the ways taught in the Gospel.
A few days after Pascal died, a servant of the house happened to notice a bulge in the lining of Pascal's coat. Carefully pulling the stitches, he discovered two small pieces of parchment in Pascal's handwritings—one a copy of the other. Dated November 23, 1654, the document was a record of his intensely personal revelation on that night. It was apparently so important to Pascal that he made two copies and carefully sewed and unsewed the parchments into the coats he wore until his death eight years later.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1627 LA ROCHELLE IS BESIEGED
The religious policies of French Cardinal Armand de Richelieu (1585-1642), the most trusted advisor of France's young King Louis XIII (1601-1643), were based on advancing the power of France and himself, rather than on theological considerations. Richelieu wanted the Huguenots—the French Protestants— destroyed, not because they were Protestants but because the previous king, Henry IV (1553-1610), had given them several fortified cities and independent power within France in order to guarantee their security. Richelieu's efforts to eradicate the Huguenots led to armed conflict in the 1627 siege of La Rochelle, the main Huguenot stronghold. The Protestants successfully resisted the French army for one year, but eventually were forced to surrender. Only fifteen hundred of the city's twenty-five thousand inhabitants survived. Because Richelieu's concern was the Huguenots' political power rather than their religious beliefs, he ordered religious and civil tolerance of Protestants after their cities had been conquered.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1630 COMMUNION REVIVAL OCCURS AT SHOTTS
On June 21, 1630, several hundred Protestants crowded into Shotts, Scotland, to celebrate Communion. A relatively unknown preacher named John Livingstone (1603-1672) was scheduled to address the crowd. That morning, overwhelmed by a sense of his own unworthiness, Livingstone had fled from Shotts, only to be turned back by the conviction that his appointment to preach was of God. Soon after Livingstone began to speak, rain began to fall on the crowd that had been unable to squeeze inside the church. As the congregation scattered, he admonished them with the challenge that they should "flee only to Christ the City of Refuge." Before Livingstone could finish his sermon, the power of God fell in revival on the crowd. By nightfall, more than five hundred new believers came to faith in Scotland's best-known revival.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1630 PURITANS SETTLE IN MASSACHUSETTS
By 1629, the turmoil over whether the king or Parliament was the final authority in the land reached its peak in England. King Charles I (1600-1649) disbanded Parliament and ruled alone for the next eleven years. A group of Puritan businessmen, faced with increasing hostility toward their religious views and dim financial prospects in England, broadened the charter of their Massachusetts Bay trading company to include colonization. The Great Migration from Britain to New England began in 1630. That year, almost one thousand settlers arrived in Salem and (present-day) Boston, Massachusetts. Only Puritans could hold public office in the new colony. This policy effectively created a theocracy in which religious principles guided civil government. For the first time, the authority for a colony's government resided in a colony, not in England.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
A CITY UPON A HILL
June 12, 1630
Founding America was at times a depressing ordeal.
John Winthrop was a dedicated Puritan lawyer in England. Winthrop had been elected governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company prior to departing from England on the Arabella with some seven hundred colonists. Two years earlier sixty-six English settlers led by John Endicott had settled at Salem, Massachusetts, and the next year two hundred more had followed.
On June 12, 1630, John Winthrop stood at the rail of the Arabella as it entered Salem Harbor. He had been at sea for seventy-two days, and now he finally had arrived in New England. As the ship approached shore, the sight that greeted Winthrop perplexed him. Where was Salem? All that was visible was a collection of huts and canvas shel-ters. Stepping on shore, he realized to his great disappointment that this pathetic settlement was indeed Salem.
John Endicott, the acting governor, informed him that of the first two groups of settlers now only eighty-five remained. More than eighty had died, and the rest had returned to England. Many of those remaining planned to do the same.
As Winthrop surveyed the disheartening sight, he thought of the words he had written the day before to spell out his goals for the new colony, which he titled "A Model of Christian Charity":
Thus stands the cause between God and us: we are entered into covenant with Him for this work..
Now the only way... to provide for posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God ... for this end, we must be knit together in this work as one man......We must hold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience, and liberality. We must delight in each other, make one another's condition our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our Commission and Community in his work, as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace......
We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when he shall make us a praise and glory, that men of succeeding plantations shall say, "The Lord make it like that of New England." For we must consider that we shall be as a City upon a hill.......
Rekindled in his vision, John Winthrop went on to serve as governor of Massachusetts almost continually until his death in 1649. He was instrumental in shaping Massachusetts into a Christian commonwealth that went on to have a profound effect on the rest of the developing new nation.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
DOES THE SUN CIRCLE THE EARTH?
June 21, 1632
Five hundred years ago, being ahead of the curve in science could put you on a collision course with the church,
Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy, the day Michelangelo died (February 18, 1564) and the same year Shakespeare was born. He became the leading astronomer of his day and was given lifetime tenure as a professor at the University of Padua. In 1610, using his newly invented telescope that could magnify one thousand times, Galileo discovered four moons revolving around Jupiter. By analogy he reasoned that the planets revolved around the sun, agreeing with the view set forth by Copernicus a century earlier. The other professors at Padua refused to even look through his telescope. Galileo took this as his signal that he should leave Padua, going to Florence instead.
Galileo's conclusions brought to public attention the question of whether the earth circled the sun or the sun circled the earth. Soon Galileo was accused of contradicting the Bible. In 1615, a formal protest was lodged against Galileo before the Inquisition, a special tribunal set up in the medieval church to combat heresy. To answer his critics, Galileo went to Rome, hoping to convert the church leaders to his point of view. Galileo promoted his ideas so extensively in Rome that soon everyone in the city was discussing astronomy. However, the Inquisition directed Galileo to abandon his opinions and not discuss them further. In February 1616, the Inquisition published its edict: "The view that the sun stands motionless at the center of the universe is foolish, philosophically false, and utterly heretical." To avoid the threatened imprisonment, Galileo declared his submission to the decree.
Galileo was able to keep out of the public eye until 1632, when he published his major book on astronomy, which explained his understanding of the relationship between the earth and the sun. The book earned wide acclaim throughout the academic world, but the Inquisition immediately demanded that Galileo appear before it once again, accusing him of breaking his promise to obey the edict of 1616. Threatened with torture on June 21, 1632, Galileo agreed with the position of the church and declared the earth to be motionless with the sun moving around it. The next day, in spite of this denial of his convictions, the Inquisition found Galileo guilty of heresy and sentenced him to prison for an indefinite length of time. As penance, he was to recite seven penitential psalms daily for three years.
Fortunately for Galileo, after just three days in prison, the pope allowed him to be kept as prisoner in his own villa. There he was free to pursue his studies while his daughter, a nun, recited the penitential psalms for him.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1632 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS DIES SAVING GERMANY
During the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), Protestants fought Catholics in Germany. By 1630, the Imperial Catholic forces had crushed all of the Protestant princes, and it seemed that the complete destruction of German Lutherans was imminent. At that point, King Gustavus Adolphus (1594-1632) of Sweden came to the rescue. With the assistance of troops provided by the marquis of Brandenburg and the duke of Saxony, Gustavus' skilled soldiers were victorious over the Catholic army. On November 16, 1632, Gustavus faced one final battle in southern Germany. After leading his troops in song and prayer, he charged with them into the Battle of Lutzen. Although Gustavus was killed, his army was victorious, and German Protestantism was saved.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1632 COMENIUS WRITES THE GREAT DIDACTIC
Jan Amos Comenius (1592-1670) was born in Moravia, now the eastern Czech Republic. He studied theology and was ordained in the Brethren church. The advance of the Thirty Years' War compelled Comenius to move to Lissa, Poland, where he wrote The Great Didactic, his best-known work. In it, Comenius outlined a system of education that began with home-schooling then lead through public elementary and Latin middle schools to universities. He advocated equal education of girls and boys and rejected physical punishment in schools, both revolutionary ideas at the time. Central to Comenius' philosophy was his conviction that although traditional learning was important, the true goal of education should be ever-closer conformity to the image of Christ. Ultimately, Comenius believed moral transformation via education would result in peace for a war-torn world.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1633 GALILEO IS FORCED TO RECANT
Italian physicist and mathematician Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) invented the telescope in 1610, making him the foremost astronomer of his day. One of the more significant things Galileo observed was that Jupiter's moons revolved around the planet. From this, Galileo reasoned that the sun, not Earth, was the center of the solar system, a theory Copernicus first proposed ninety years earlier. Although the idea gained widespread acceptance in Europe, in 1616, the Inquisition declared it heretical. Galileo received permission from the Roman Catholic Church to write an impartial book discussing the earth- and sun-centered models of the solar system and published Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Systems of the World in 1632. In 1633, the Inquisition brought him to trial. Threatened with death if he did not renounce the Copernican theory, Galileo recanted and lived under house arrest until his death in 1642.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1633 VINCENT DE PAUL FOUNDS THE DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY Born in southwestern France to peasant parents, Vincent de Paul (1581— 1660) was ordained a priest in the Roman Catholic Church. While pursuing further theological studies in France, Vincent was captured by pirates and enslaved in Tunisia. Two years later, he escaped and made his way back to France. While there, he felt a strong calling to ministry among the poor. In 1625, Vincent founded the Congregation of Missions, also known as the Lazarists. Under that banner in 1633, he founded the Daughters of Charity, the first cloistered order of women dedicated to serving the sick and the poor. Through this and other efforts, he helped organize the ministries of the Catholic Church among the poor into the systems that continue to operate today.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1633 WILLIAM LAUD BECOMES ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY William Laud (1573-1645) was educated at Oxford University in England where he became convinced that the prevailing Calvinist thought had undermined the traditional order of worship in the Church of England and its episcopal organization. As chancellor of Oxford, Laud worked to restore pre-Reformation liturgy. Noting Laud's efforts, King Charles I (1600-1649), also interested in restoring the purity of the Anglican Church, appointed Laud in 1633 to the church's highest position, archbishop of Canterbury. As archbishop, Laud enforced uniformity in Anglicanism without regard to objections of conscience. He systematically undermined the influences of both the Puritan and Roman Catholic churches in England. When England's political winds shifted back toward Puritanism, Parliament impeached and jailed Laud in 1641 for his zeal. Laud was executed for treason on January 10, 1645.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1636 HARVARD COLLEGE IS FOUNDED
In 1636, only six years after the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, its Great and General Court voted to establish Harvard College. The first institution of higher learning in the United States, it was named after its benefactor, Puritan minister John Harvard of Charlestown. John Harvard died in 1638, leaving his library and half of his estate to the new school. Harvard began with one professor and nine students. Its classical academic offerings were based on the model of the university system in England. Harvard's early years reflected the Puritan philosophy of its founders, and many early graduates became ministers in the Puritan churches of New England.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1636 ROGER WILLIAMS FOUNDS PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND English Puritan Roger Williams (1603-1683) immigrated to Boston with his family in 1631. A Separatist, Williams believed that England had irreparably contaminated religious life by bringing the church under the government's control. In colonial New England, Williams spoke out against the Puritan church for not explicitly separating from the Church of England. Banished for his criticism, Williams and his followers fled to present-day Rhode Island in 1636, where Williams took the then-unusual step of purchasing from Native Americans the land on which he founded the city of Providence. In 1639, he founded America's first Baptist church in Providence. Returning to England in 1642, he secured a colonial charter for Rhode Island, which became a stronghold for religious liberty in New England. Williams died in 1683 without knowing that his ideals about the separation of church and state would become a cornerstone of American life.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1637 ANNE HUTCHINSON IS TRIED FOR HERESY
Born in Lincolnshire, England, Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) spent her formative years under the teaching of Puritan vicar John Cotton. In 1634, Anne and her husband, William, followed Cotton to Boston, Massachusetts, where Anne's nursing skills earned her great respect. She became known for her thorough Bible knowledge through midweek meetings she convened to discuss Cotton's sermons. Hutchinson emphasized the covenant of grace whereby God revealed himself to believers through the Holy Spirit. Initially, Cotton and others supported her position. But as Anne's following grew, some saw her as undermining the law-based foundation of male-dominated Puritan society. In 1637, Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop (1588-1649) tried Hutchinson for heresy, and the following year Hutchinson and her followers were banished from the state. They settled first in Rhode Island, then in present-day New York City where she and most of her family were killed by Native Americans in 1643.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1637 ANTI-CHRISTIAN EDICTS LEAD TO REBELLION IN JAPAN Christianity was introduced into Japan by Catholic Jesuit Francis Xavier (1506-1552) in 1549. Although Japan was traditionally Buddhist, hundreds of thousands of Japanese joined the Catholic Church in the next half-century. In 1614, the emperor outlawed Christianity, attempting to consolidate his political power under Buddhism. Christians became the objects of persecution ranging from discrimination to crucifixion. However, missionaries continued to enter the country until 1637. That year in the wake of anti-Christian edicts, Christians joined a revolt against the emperor, who reacted by virtually closing off the nation to foreigners and forbidding Japanese nationals to leave. Christianity ceased to exist in any public sense. But thousands of Roman Catholics, posing nominally as Buddhists, took their faith underground, where it passed from generation to generation for more than two hundred years.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1638 COVENANTERS SIGN THE NATIONAL COVENANT
In 1638, a group of Scottish Presbyterians met and drafted what they called the National covenant, which was directed against King Charles I of England (1600-1649). Charles I had attempted to force the sacramental Book of Common Prayer on the Church of Scotland. The signers of the covenant, called Covenanters, committed themselves to maintain the freedom and autonomy of the Church of Scotland and to defend its Presbyterian government. Approximately three hundred thousand Scots signed the covenant.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
AMERICA'S FIRST COLLEGE PRESIDENT
August 27, 1640
He was a man of conviction, and it cost him his job.
"The Lord gave me an attentive ear and heart to understand preaching......... The Lord
showed me my sins and reconciliation by Christ.... .and this word was more sweet to me than anything else in the world." So reads the testimony of Henry Dunster, born in 1609 in Bury, England. After receiving bachelor and master degrees at Cambridge University, he was ordained as a minister in the Church of England. As he served in his church, Dunster became increasingly disheartened by the corruption in the church and by its persecution of Christians who didn't conform to its doctrine. As a result, he fled to America in 1640.
Dunster's scholarly reputation preceded him to America. On August 27, 1640, shortly after arriving in Boston, Dunster was unanimously elected as the first president of America's first college, Harvard, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The college had been struggling without a president for four years since its founding, but it flourished during the years of Dunster's administration. He strengthened the curriculum, erected buildings, attracted students, and taught full-time. He was a tireless fundraiser for Harvard, and although he himself was poor, he gave one hundred acres of his own land to the college.
The Baptist movement was making slow progress throughout New England at the time, and those who were leading the movement endured persecution in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The more Dunster studied the more convinced he became of the Baptists' position. By 1653, he was so strongly opposed to infant baptism that he refused to have his fourth child baptized. This caused quite a stir within the Harvard community. Because of the controversy, he offered his resignation, but it was refused.
Dunster was such a beloved figure that had he been willing to keep silent regarding his view of baptism, he would have been able to keep his position at Harvard indefinitely. But he became so thoroughly convinced of the truth of believer's baptism that he preached a series of sermons against infant baptism. On one occasion he even disrupted a baptismal service in the church at Cambridge. For this latter incident he was indicted by the grand jury, found guilty of disturbing public worship, and sentenced to receive a public admonition.
Under these circumstances Harvard was too embarrassed to have Dunster remain as president, and so on October 24, 1654, the board accepted the resignation they previously had rejected. He had served Harvard as president for fourteen years.
Dunster spent the last five years of his life as pastor of the church at Scituate in the Plymouth Colony. The church's previous pastor, Charles Chauncy, succeeded him as president of Harvard.
Dunster held no animosities from this experience. At his death he bequeathed legacies to several of the people at Harvard who had called for his resignation.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1639-1640 BISHOP WARS ARE UNSUCCESSFUL Charles I (1600-1649) of England was determined to impose Episcopal government upon the Church of Scotland. This led to the signing of the National covenant in Scotland in 1638, declaring Scotland to be Presbyterian. The growing hostilities between the king and the Scottish churches led to The Bishop Wars, two unsuccessful military campaigns by Charles I against the Scottish Presbyterians. This was a step leading to the English Civil War in 1642 and the eventual execution of Charles I in 1649.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1640 BAY PSALM BOOK IS PUBLISHED
As the Puritans settled Massachusetts beginning in 1628, they began to develop their own style of worship and church order. One of the earliest examples of this is the Bay Psalm Book, which was published in 1640. John Eliot (1604-1690), Richard Mather (1596-1669), and Thomas Welde (1595-1663) assembled the book, which was originally titled The Whole Book of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre. The book was the official hymnal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony until the 1750s. First printed by Stephen Daye in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it was the first English book known to have been printed in North America.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1640 CORNELIUS JANSEN'S AUGUSTINUS PUBLISHED
Although written eleven years before his death, Cornelius Jansen's most famous work, Augustinus, was not published until 1640. Jansen (1585-1638) was born in the Netherlands and studied Catholic theology in Belgium, France, and Spain. In Madrid, heavily influenced by the writings of Augustine (354-430), and alarmed at the expanding influence of Jesuit philosophy in the Catholic Church, Jansen wrote Augustinus. In it, he argued compellingly for irresistible grace and against man's ability to perfect himself. Three years after its publication, Augustinus was banned by the Catholic Church. But under the leadership of Jean Du Vergier (1581-1643), Jansenism, as the philosophy came to be known, birthed a significant reform movement in the Roman Catholic Church.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
CIVIL WAR
July 2, 1644
When should Christians rebel?
In 1642, the Puritans of England thought the time had come. Charles I had been king of England since 1625. Charles, as head of the Church of England, supported the High Church Party within the church, with its tendencies toward Roman Catholicism, and sought to crush his Puritan opposition.
Earlier, in 1637, Charles set up his own downfall by ineptly handling the Scottish Church. Having declared himself the head of the Church of Scotland, Charles imposed a book of prayer on the Scottish Church that was more Roman Catholic than the one used by the Church of England. The Scots responded by signing the National covenant in 1638, which made the Scottish Church officially Presbyterian. The following year they revolted against Charles. Needing funds in 1640, Charles was forced to convene Parliament for the first time in eleven years to raise money to fight Scotland. Unfortunately for Charles, most of the members of the House of Commons were Puritans.
Charles' fatal blunder came in 1642, when he attempted to arrest five leaders of Parliament for treason. The result was civil war. Charles I had the support of the Anglican clergy and the nobility, while Parliament had the support of the Puritans and the merchant class.
The crucial battle of the civil war came in 1644. Oliver Cromwell, a godly Puritan, became the leading general of the Parliamentary army. In early summer he began a siege of the Royalist city of York. From his headquarters in Oxford, Charles I ordered his son Prince Rupert, with his army of twenty thousand, to go to York's relief. When Rupert arrived, the Parliamentary army retreated a few miles southwest to Marston Moor. On July 2, 1644, Prince Rupert, not content simply to relieve York, attacked the Parliamentary army as they were about to move south. Initially, the Royalists routed the right wing of the Parliamentary army. But on the left, Cromwell's cavalry defeated Rupert's cavalry and followed them in hot pursuit. When the rout was complete, they turned back to aid the Parliamentarian infantry. The result was a total victory for Cromwell with the Royal army in flight. The Battle of Marston Moor spelled doom for the Royalists. The king lost his army, and the queen escaped to France.
The Puritans' attitude in the civil war can be sensed in a letter that Cromwell wrote three days after the battle:
Truly England and the Church of God hath had a great favor from the Lord, in this great victory given unto us, such as the like never was since this War began. It had all the evidences of an absolute victory obtained by the Lord's blessing upon the Godly Party principally. We never charged but we routed the enemy.... The particulars I cannot relate now; but I believe, of twenty thousand the Prince hath not four thousand left. Give glory, all glory, to God.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1642 ENGLISH CIVIL WAR BEGINS
The English Civil War (1642-1648) pitted the monarchy under King Charles I (1600-1649) against Parliament in a struggle that culminated in the execution of the king in 1649 and the temporary establishment of a republican commonwealth in England. King Charles I, a staunch Anglican, believed that he had a divine right to sovereign rule. Parliament, composed largely of Puritans from society's gentry, merchant, and artisan classes, sought political, financial, and religious freedom from undue control by the Crown. In late 1641, some members of Parliament issued a Grand Remonstrance decrying Charles' reign. But this radical action drove many to the royalist side. In the months that followed, two opposing armies were raised in England. Puritans from the House of Commons gathered in southern England to challenge Charles and his group of lords in the north. On August 22, 1642, King Charles declared war on Parliament. Parliament was ultimately victorious, and Charles I was executed.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1643 SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT IS SIGNED
The English Civil War was well underway by 1643. That year the largely Puritan army of Parliament, in its conflict with the forces of King Charles I (1600-1649), sought help from the powerful army of Scotland. Signing the Solemn League and covenant was the price Parliament agreed to pay for Scotland's aid. Scotland was a stronghold of Presbyterianism, not of the Anglican Church. The Solemn League guaranteed the rights of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland and provided for the eventual reformation of English and Irish churches as well. In exchange, Scotland promised allegiance to both England's Parliament and to the Crown. King Charles II (1630-1685) signed the League and covenant in 1650 to enlist the support of the Scots to regain his throne.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1646 WESTMINSTER CONFESSION IS COMPLETED
In 1643, England was in its second year of civil war. The Puritans' desire to bring the Church of England into conformity with the Reformed churches abroad was a key issue. Scotland's staunch Calvinists, also under Anglican rule, wanted a voice in the reform as well. Parliament called an assembly to meet at Westminster to formulate a creed acceptable to English and Scottish churches. One hundred and twenty-one Puritan and Calvinist delegates met for three years. Doctrinal questions were resolved fairly quickly, following the tenets of orthodox Calvinism. Church and state issues took longer. The resulting Westminster Confession of Faith was finished in 1646. It prevailed in England for the next decade during the Commonwealth period and became the standard for the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The Westminster Assembly was the greatest gathering of theologians of all time, and the Westminster Confession is still the most influential document of the Reformed faith.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1647 GEORGE FOX BEGINS TO PREACH
George Fox (1624-1691) had no formal education when he began preaching in England in 1647. A three-year quest for spiritual enlightenment resulted in Fox shunning church attendance, the sacraments, and ordained clergy. Instead, Fox believed that true spirituality came from God speaking directly to the human soul through the Holy Spirit. He stressed the priesthood of all believers (including women preachers), pacifism, and a simple lifestyle. Calling his followers "Friends of the Truth," Fox traveled extensively in Holland, Ireland, the West Indies, and North America, establishing local Friends congregations. Fox's teachings were often at odds with the Church of England, and he spent nearly six years in prison. On trial in 1650, Fox urged the judge to "tremble at the word of the Lord." The judge retorted by labeling Fox's Friends "Quakers," the name by which the sect has been known ever since.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
THE AGE OF REASON AND REVIVAL
1648—1789
Novel schools of thought filled the seventeenth century. None was more powerful than Reason itself. It asked, "Who needs God? Man can make it on his own." Christians screamed their objections, but the idea spread until secularism filled the public life of Western societies. God remained, but only as a matter of personal choice.
Christians no longer could appeal to the arm of power to suppress such heresies. So, many of them turned instead to the way of the apostles: prayer and preaching. The result was a series of evangelical revivals, chiefly Pietism, Methodism, and the Great Awakening. Through preaching and personal conversions, evangelicals tried to restore God to public life.
BRUCE L. SHELLEY
1659—England becomes a Commonwealth
1665—Isaac Newton develops theory of gravity
1675—Speed of light calculated
1712—Steam engine invented in England
1757—British rule begins in India
1770's—Industrial Revolution begins in England
1776-81—American Revolution
1789—French Revolution begins
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1648 CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM HELPS LAY THE FOUNDATION FOR DEMOCRACY
In 1646, six years after the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Colony's General Court authorized a synod of Puritan leaders to meet in Cambridge. The synod's goal was to develop statements on doctrine and polity that would distinguish Puritan life from that of other Protestant groups in New England. An epidemic delayed completion of the resulting document, known as the Cambridge Platform, until 1648. Most of its Reformed doctrinal statements were not unique to Puritanism, but the Platform's provisions for church governance through pastors, ruling elders, and deacons in autonomous congregations were a first for New England and laid the foundations for American democracy.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1648 CHMIELNICKI MASSACRES TARGET JEWS
In 1648, the Cossacks of the eastern Ukraine, along with Ukrainian peasants and Tatars from Crimea, were led by Bogdan Chmielnicki (1595-1657) in a revolt against their Polish rulers. Polish nobles, Catholic priests, and Jews were murdered in large numbers during the Chmielnicki Massacres. The Ukrainians, who were Orthodox Christians opposing the Catholic Church, targeted the Catholic priests; the peasants targeted the Jews, because the Jews collected taxes and often controlled the nobles' property where the peasants were enslaved. Some Jews made a public conversion to Christianity to save their lives, but others committed suicide. Thousands of Jews died in the massacres, which lasted until 1655.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1653 CROMWELL IS NAMED LORD PROTECTOR
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) began his political career in the House of Commons in 1628, at a time of great conflict in England. Cromwell distinguished himself as a military commander of the parliamentary army in the English Civil War opposing King Charles I (1600-1649), and later, Charles II (1630-1685). After forcing Charles II into exile, Cromwell, then commander in chief of the army, was named lord protector or titular head of state of England in 1653, in lieu of a king. After decades of conflict, England enjoyed relative peace under Cromwell's democratic parliamentary form of government, also known as the Commonwealth. Under Cromwell, England began diplomatic relations with other countries and rose to world-power status due to its supreme naval force. Cromwell, a Puritan, extended religious toleration to Quakers and Jews, and to a lesser extent, to Roman Catholics and Anglicans. He ruled as lord protector until his death in 1658.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1654 PASCAL IS CONVERTED
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was a French mathematician and physicist. He invented the first mechanical calculating machine, discovered the theory of probability, and articulated the principles of physics known as Pascal's Law, which is the foundation of modern hydraulics. Home-schooled by his father, Pascal learned languages, geometry, and physics at an early age. Because of his father's encouragement to learn as much as he could by observation and discovery, Pascal not only discovered truths in science and mathematics, but began to study the truth in Scripture as well. When he died, documents dated November 23, 1654, were found stitched inside his jacket. The handwriting was Pascal's, and it revealed his personal testimony of his conversion to Christ. After his death, Pensees—Pascal's defense of Christian faith—was published.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1654 FIRST PERMANENT JEWISH SETTLER ARRIVES IN WHAT IS NOW THE UNITED STATES
Jacob Barsimson was the first permanent Jewish settler in what became the United States. He came from Holland as part of a group sent by the Dutch West India Company to settle New Amsterdam, now New York City. He arrived on August 22, 1654, a month ahead of a group of Jews who emigrated from Brazil to America. Upon his arrival he was allotted a hut in the forest outside the settlement. Barsimson arrived a poor man, but over the years he prospered. He was the first Jewish citizen, a member of America's first Jewish congregation, and was laid to rest in America's first Jewish cemetery. By the time of the American Revolution (1775-1783) about two thousand Jews lived in the United States.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1654 FIRST GROUP OF JEWS ARRIVES IN NEW YORK
After the Dutch lost their settlement in Brazil to Portuguese forces, twenty-three Jews who had left Dutch Brazil in search of a safe haven arrived in New Amsterdam (present-day New York City) in 1654. As a result, when the later great migration of Jews from Eastern Europe to the United States occurred, a Jewish settlement awaited them. By 2000, there were more than 5.5 million Jews living in the United States.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1655 MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL GOES TO LONDON
Nearly four hundred years after their expulsion from England in 1290, Jews were allowed to return. The change was due in large measure to the efforts of Menasseh ben Israel (1604-1657), a rabbi in Amsterdam. After submitting a formal request to the English Parliament, he traveled to England in 1655 to argue in person the case for allowing Jews to return to England and to be able to maintain their religious practices. His presentation inspired Cromwell (1599-1658), the lord protector of England, to endorse unofficially the presence of Jews in England. As a result, a small Jewish community was established in London. Believing that England would benefit from the presence of Jews, King Charles II (1630-1685) officially approved of allowing Jews to live in Britain. By the close of the seventeenth century, Jews were accepted into English society.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1656 SPINOZA IS EXCOMMUNICATED
Born to Jewish parents in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Benedict de Spinoza (1632-1677), an optical lens grinder by trade, became one of the foremost Rationalist philosophers of his day. Rationalists replaced faith in divine revelation with the belief that the reasoning power of the human mind was the only true source of knowledge and enlightenment. Spinoza reinterpreted God's creativity as purely natural activity. For example, Spinoza interpreted the Bible as being the product of its human authors' minds. Unorthodox views like this one won Spinoza censure from Protestants, Catholics, and his own synagogue, which excommunicated him in 1656. Spinoza's written work was significant in the popularization of Rationalism.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1658 CONGREGATIONALISTS WRITE THE SAVOY DECLARATION
In 1658, about two hundred representatives from English Congregational and Independent churches met at the Savoy Palace in London to draw up the first English Congregational statement of doctrine and practice. In a relatively short time, the representatives came to a unanimous decision as to the contents. Very similar to the Westminster Confession except for the sections on church government, the declaration became the primary doctrinal statement for the Congregationalists of New England. The church polity section granted congregations complete autonomy under the headship of Jesus.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1660 JOHN OWEN IS EJECTED FROM CHRIST CHURCH
John Owen (1616-1683) studied classics and theology at Queen's College, Oxford. Although a Presbyterian, Owen was influenced by the writings of John Cotton and became convinced that the Congregational form of church government was more biblical. Serving from 1651 to 1660 as dean of Christ Church, Oxford, Owen significantly influenced the religious, political, and academic developments in England. Owen became the chief architect of the Cromwellian State Church, although he eventually opposed Cromwell (1599-1658) as lord protector. When the monarchy was reestablished in 1660, Owen was ejected from his post at Christ Church. For the next twenty-three years he was influential as a leader of Protestant nonconformity. He spent his time preaching and writing in England, declining offers to minister in Boston and to serve as the president of Harvard College.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1661 CLARENDON CODE ENFORCES THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND'S DOCTRINES
The Clarendon Code was a series of onerous statutes passed by the English Parliament beginning in 1661 to remove everyone not completely committed to the Church of England's doctrines from government or the ministry of the church. The Act of Uniformity (1662) required all ministers to receive Episcopal ordination if they had not been so ordained. The Five Mile Act (1665) forbade nonconforming ministers from coming within five miles of any town or borough. As a result of the Clarendon Code, two thousand pastors lost their churches.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1662 ACT OF UNIFORMITY SPAWNS DISSENTING ACADEMIES
The Dissenting Academies of England arose in response to the Act of Uniformity of 1662. They were established by English Nonconformist pastors to provide an alternative to the universities for young men who wished to be trained for the ministry. The first of these academies was probably established by Jarvis Bryan of Coventry sometime after 1663. The training that these academies offered in the new sciences often was superior to that of the traditional universities. The need for these academies ended in the nineteenth century as Nonconformists were allowed once again to attend the universities.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1662 HALF-WAY COVENANT EXPANDS CHURCH MEMBERSHIP IN MASSACHUSETTS Because so many Puritan children in Massachusetts were reaching adulthood unconverted and therefore ineligible for church membership, the Massachusetts Synod of 1662 adopted the Half-way covenant. It allowed for baptized adults who professed faith and lived uprightly, but who had had no conversion experience, to be accepted as church members. Their children were recognized as "half-way" members and could not take Communion or participate in church elections. In practice, the Half-way covenant opened the doors of church membership to the whole community and was the catalyst for the spiritual decline of New England Congregationalism.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1665 SHABBETAI ZEVI PROCLAIMS HIMSELF MESSIAH In 1665, Shabbetai Zevi (1626-1676), a Polish Jew who practiced a form of Jewish mysticism known as kabbalah, claimed to be the deliverer of the Jews. He became convinced he was the Chosen One after rumor had spread among Eastern European Jews that their Messiah would appear in 1648. Though denounced as a heretic for speaking God's name aloud (in Jewish tradition God's true name is considered unutterable), Zevi received homage from many Jews throughout Europe and the Middle East, including serious attention from rabbis and educated Jews. In a surprising turn, Zevi was imprisoned while attempting to overthrow a Turkish ruler, and when faced with execution or conversion, he became a Muslim. The shock hit Jewish communities with force, and many refused to believe he had rejected Judaism. To this day, the Turkish group Donmeh secretly remains Jewish awaiting the return of Zevi, while publicly practicing Islam.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1667 MILTON WRITES PARADISE LOST John Milton (1608-1674) felt a call to serve God from the time he entered school in England at age seven. He spent the next fifteen years acquiring a remarkable education in England and Italy. By the time he graduated, Milton could speak or read seven languages. He sided with the Parliamentarians in England's Civil War, earning him a post in Cromwell's Commonwealth government. By 1655, Milton was totally blind. Three years later, Cromwell (1599— 1658) died. When Charles II (1630-1685) returned in 1660 to reestablish the monarchy, Milton went into hiding for fear of his life. Working from memory and aided by people who read and took dictation for him, Milton devoted his final years to writing poetry. Paradise Lost, an epic poem on the creation and fall of man, was published in 1667 and became Milton's defining work.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1669 REMBRANDT COMPLETES THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) produced more than twenty-three hundred known works of art. Born into a prosperous family in Leyden, the Netherlands, Rembrandt began studying art at age fourteen and first attained success as a portrait painter. Rembrandt's personal life was tumultuous, with bankruptcy, the death of his only son, and marriages resulting in censure from the strongly Cal-vinistic society in Amsterdam. The vast majority of his religious paintings, intimate in detail and size, were intended for private contemplation rather than for public display. By contrast, Rembrandt's last painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son, was almost nine by seven feet. In it, a repentant son kneels at the feet of his father, who leans over him with outstretched arms. It was finished in 1669, and many scholars consider it Rembrandt's last testimony. He died the same year.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1675 SPENER'S PIA DESIDERIA CHALLENGES BELIEVERS
Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705) was born in Germany at the height of the Thirty Years' War. He grew up in the Lutheran Church, which by this time had become dry and formal. As a student in Geneva, Switzerland, Spener was exposed to Reformed theology. The Reformed doctrines of repentance and regeneration revitalized Lutheranism for Spener, who emerged as a leader of the Pietist movement in Germany. His best-known work, Pia Desideria, or "Pious Desires," was published in 1675. In it Spener challenged believers to seek an active faith rooted in personal study of the Bible and manifested in acts of love. As a result, Spener became a controversial figure in the church. But it was his emphasis on practical spirituality that eventually revitalized the German Lutheran Church.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1678 JOHN BUNYAN PUBLISHES THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS
With the restoration of England's King Charles II (r. 1660-1685) to the throne in 1660, a decade of religious toleration in England came to an end. Puritans who conscientiously objected to the rites of the Church of England faced persecution and imprisonment. Among them was a Bedford tinker turned preacher named John Bunyan (1628-1688). Bunyan was born into a modest country home and received little formal education. Following his conversion, Bunyan continued to support his family by mending pots and pans while preaching occasionally in his home church in Bedford, England. He was arrested in 1660 for preaching and spent most of the next twelve years in jail. During his imprisonment, Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim's Progress. First published in 1678, Bunyan's allegory of the Christian life has remained in print for more than three centuries and has been translated into more than two hundred languages.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1680 JOACHIM NEANDER DIES
A student of literature and music, Joachim Neander (1650-1680) was born in Bremen, Germany, and led a wild and careless life. After a miraculous escape from death, Neander became a Christian and joined the Lutheran Church. At age twenty-four he became the headmaster of a Reformed grammar school in Dusseldorf. A few years later, Neander was suspended. Rather than protest the circumstances, he returned to Bremen. That summer, Neander lived in a cave overlooking the Rhine River, where he began writing poetry and hymns. He died, probably of the plague, three years later at the age of thirty. Sixty of Neander's hymns were published in 1680, the year of his death. Among them was "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation." Neander is considered the first great poet of the German Reformation.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
A TINKER'S PILGRIMAGE
February 18, 1678
For a century after it was first published, one book's popularity was exceeded only by that of the Bible. Yet its author was a tinker—a mender of pots and pans.
John Bunyan seems an unlikely candidate to have written any book. Born in Bedford, England, in about 1628, he received little formal education. But he was skilled with his hands and served as an apprentice to his father, a tinker. Bunyan owned no books until he was married, but his wife's dowry consisted of two Puritan classics. She was a Christian, but Bunyan still was an unbeliever.
While working as a tinker, Bunyan often overheard a group of women discussing the
Bible. He later wrote, "I thought they spoke as if joy did make them speak......... They were
to me as if they had found a new world." Irresistibly drawn by their conversations, one day he marveled "at a very great softness and tenderness of heart, which caused me to fall under the conviction of what by Scripture they asserted." Shortly thereafter he experienced their joy when he put his trust in the Lord Jesus as his Savior.
Bunyan's path after his conversion, however, was neither smooth nor straight. He struggled with his daughter's blindness, poverty, his wife's death, and his desire to preach the gospel when it was forbidden by law. In 1660, remarried and the father of six, John Bunyan was imprisoned for preaching without a license. He was denied a license because he had little education and disagreed with the Church of England.
Intermittently in and out of prison for twelve years, he made shoelaces in his cell to support his family and spent many hours writing. His manuscript began, "As I was walking in the wilderness of this world....I dreamed, and behold I saw a man clothed with rags, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back. I looked, and saw him open the book and read therein, and as he read, he wept and trembled ... and broke out with a lamentable cry saying, 'What shall I do to be saved?'" The manuscript, titled The Pilgrim's Progress, told the story of Pilgrim's quest to answer that question.
First licensed for print on February 18, 1678, The Pilgrim's Progress is the best known of Bunyan's fifty-eight books. It remains in print three hundred years later and has been translated into more than two hundred languages.
Bunyan died ten years later. In the words of The Pilgrim's Progress, "Now at the end of this valley was another, called the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and Christian must needs go through it, because the way to the Celestial City lay in the midst of it."
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1680 RICHARD CAMERON DELIVERS THE SANQUHAR DECLARATION
King Charles II (1630-1685) of England's oath in 1650 to establish Presbyterianism throughout his realm won him the Scottish crown. But he later revealed his insincerity when he reestablished the Anglican Church in Scotland in 1662. Opposition quietly simmered beneath the surface until 1680, when covenanter Richard Cameron (1648-1680) rode into the Scottish city of Sanquhar and delivered what became known as the Sanquhar Declaration. The declaration rejected Charles II as king and declared war on him as a tyrant and as the chief persecutor of the covenanters. It also rejected his brother, the Duke of York, as heir apparent because he was Roman Catholic. Although initially regarded as a futile protest by a small minority, within nine years the declaration became Britain's position.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1682 PENN FOUNDS PENNSYLVANIA
William Penn (1644-1718) was born in London and was the son of an admiral in the Royal Navy who had captured Jamaica for England. After a godless youth, Penn became a member of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, in 1666. Two years later, Penn was imprisoned for speaking out against the Church of England. After his release he grew increasingly discouraged with England's persecution of those who dissented from the views of the state church. King Charles II (1630-1685) owed Penn's father a debt, and in 1681, Penn persuaded the king to cancel it in exchange for a huge land grant west of the colonies in New England. In 1682, Penn laid out the city of Philadelphia on his newly gained land and published the "Frame of Government" for Pennsylvania, which allowed unprecedented religious freedom for anyone who believed in God. Pennsylvania was the first seat of true religious toleration in America.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1685 EDICT OF NANTES IS REVOKED
After nearly forty years of war in France between the Catholics and Protestants (called Huguenots), King Henry IV (1553-1610) of France brought peace by issuing the Edict of Nantes in 1598. Legally recognizing Protestants' rights, the edict granted the Huguenots relative religious freedom. However, the Catholic majority continued to fight the Huguenots in many French towns. In 1685, eighty-seven years later, King Louis XIV (1638-1715) revoked the edict under pressure from the Catholic Church. Renewed persecution forced many Huguenots to flee to Germany, England, and the Netherlands.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
THE EXTINGUISHING OF PROTESTANTISM IN FRANCE
October 18, 1685
Why is France today considered a mission field?
The Wars of Religion began in France in 1562, between the Roman Catholics and the French Protestants called Huguenots. The Huguenots were led by the family of Henry of Navarre, a minor kingdom including a small portion of southern France and the present Spanish province of Navarre. Henry inherited the throne of Navarre from his staunchly Calvinistic mother. When his cousin King Henry III of France died in 1589, he became heir to France's throne. His Calvinism made him an unacceptable candidate in Catholic France until he embraced Catholicism in 1593. He was then crowned King Henry IV.
Once king, however, he did not forget his Huguenot roots, and in 1598, he issued the Edict of Nantes. This agreement gave the Huguenots freedom of religion in certain areas of the country. It provided the Huguenots with a state subsidy for their troops and pastors and allowed them to retain control of approximately two hundred towns. The Edict of Nantes was historically unique in that it was the first time freedom was granted to two religions to exist in a nation side by side.
By the late 1600s, Henry IV's grandson Louis XIV was king of France. But Louis XIV shared none of his grandfather's empathy for the Huguenots, and on October 18, 1685, he revoked the Edict of Nantes. All Huguenot worship and education were forbidden, and all Huguenot churches were either destroyed or turned into Catholic churches. Huguenot clergy were given fourteen days to leave France, but the remaining Huguenots were forbidden to emigrate. All children within France were to be baptized by a Catholic priest and raised as Catholics, and Huguenots were allowed to remain in only a few specified towns.
Mounted soldiers were housed in the homes of Huguenots. The troops were given license to do anything they pleased short of murder. Obstinate Huguenot men were imprisoned. The women sometimes fared better as they were sent to convents where they often received unexpectedly sympathetic treatment from the nuns.
Of the 1.5 million Huguenots living in France in 1660, over the next decades four hundred thousand risked their lives by escaping across the guarded borders. Geneva, a city of sixteen thousand, welcomed four thousand Huguenots. An entire quarter of London was soon populated with French workers. The elector of Brandenburg gave such a friendly reception to Huguenots that over a fifth of Berlin was French by 1697. Holland welcomed thousands and gave them citizenship. Many Huguenots fled to South Carolina and to the other colonies as well.
At the height of the Reformation nearly half of France's population was Huguenot. But as a result of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and the intense persecution that followed, today less than one percent of the French share the faith of the Huguenots, making France a mission field for the gospel.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
EVEN THE WIND AND WAVES OBEY HIM
November 5, 1688
The God who controls the winds controls the nations.
The 1660s through the 1680s were tough times for God's people in England and Scotland. After the ascendancy of the Puritans to political power during the English civil wars of the 1640s and the execution of King Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, a Puritan Independent, set up a commonwealth with himself as its head. Following his death in 1658, his son Richard succeeded him for one year and then resigned. During the Cromwells' rule, the Puritans experienced their peak of political power and enjoyed religious freedom.
The Presbyterians controlling Parliament were no fans of the Cromwells. Therefore, in 1660, Parliament invited Charles II, the second son of Charles I, to the throne. They were influenced by the fact that ten years earlier Charles II had become a Presbyterian in order to gain Scottish support for his recovery of the throne. But Charles II turned out to be no friend of God's people. Under the Act of Uniformity of 1662, all ministers were given a deadline by which they were required to receive Episcopal ordination. This resulted in the "Great Ejection," in which about two thousand Presbyterian, Independent, and Baptist pastors were forced from their churches. The Five Mile Act of 1665 forbade them from coming within five miles of any British town.
On his deathbed in 1685, Charles II publicly acknowledged his conversion to Roman Catholicism, which he had kept secret for years. This explained his animosity toward the Presbyterians who had brought him to the throne.
Charles II was succeeded by James II, another Roman Catholic. James II intensified the persecution of the Scottish covenanters who resisted the Episcopal government being forced upon the Church of Scotland. Many lost their lives. Since James II had pushed for a Catholic succession, the birth of his son brought the issue to a crisis. His daughter Mary had married William of Orange, who was raised as a follower of John Calvin and had become head of state of the Netherlands. William also had strong claims to the throne of England. The thought of James's Catholic son as heir to the throne was too much for the Protestant nobles of England and they invited William and Mary to take the throne.
On November 1, 1688, William set out with his navy across the English Channel to invade England. The wind was so strong that it kept many of the English ships imprisoned in the Thames River, unable to attack William. The sight of William's fleet sailing along the English coast was a stirring spectacle to the beleaguered Protestants of England. On November 5, 1688, William's fleet landed and William of Orange and his troops began what became known as the Glorious Revolution.
James II fled to France. The next month, as the Protestants of England celebrated their first Christmas in years worshiping as they wished, James was attending Mass in France.
God used the wind to keep England a Protestant nation.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1687 NEWTON PUBLISHES PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was educated at Trinity College in Cambridge, England, and became a professor of mathematics and physics at Cambridge University. Newton, an Anglican, was an ardent Bible student and was active in Bible distribution, but he hid the fact that he did not believe in the deity of Christ. In 1687, Newton published his discoveries about the mechanics of earth and space in his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, or "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy." The Principia is considered a landmark in the history of science. In it, Newton postulated the theory of universal gravitation, demonstrating how it explained both the behavior of falling bodies on the earth, and the motions of planets and other bodies in space.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1688 ENGLAND'S GLORIOUS REVOLUTION BEGINS James II (1633-1701), a Roman Catholic, reigned as king of England from 1685 to 1688. In June 1688, when his wife gave birth to a son who would be heir to the throne, the nobles of England, Ireland, and Scotland determined that they could not tolerate another Catholic king. Instead they pledged their support to William of Orange (1650-1702). William, a Protestant who followed the teachings of John Calvin (1509-1564), left his kingdom in the Netherlands on November 1, 1688. Crossing the English Channel with his navy, William was assisted by strong winds that kept the English army from setting sail to attack his fleet. Arriving in England on November 5, 1688, William of Orange and his army were victorious in what we now know as the Glorious Revolution. James II fled to France.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1689 THE BILL OF RIGHTS AND THE TOLERATION ACT ARE CODIFIED IN ENGLAND
In 1689, as one of his first acts as king of England, William of Orange (1650-1702) codified in twin acts many of the triumphs won by Puritans and other Protestants in the previous decades of revolution: the Bill of Rights and the Toleration Act. Nonconformists, as those who disagreed with the Church of England were known, were granted relative religious freedom in England. They were allowed to have their own places of worship and to choose their own pastors and teachers.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1692 WITCH EXECUTIONS END IN SALEM
In 1692, Samuel Parris (1653-1720), the pastor in Salem, Massachusetts, warned his congregation that witches could be anywhere, even in their church. Parris' concern stemmed from the recent experiences of his daughter and several of her teenage friends, who had experienced convulsions, trances, and hallucinations. The witch hunt began at a meeting at the Parris home, and eventually about one hundred and fifty people were accused of witchcraft and arrested. Nineteen were convicted as witches and hanged. The final executions in Salem took place on September 22, 1692, when one man and seven women were hanged on Witches Hill. The following year Parris repented of the part he played in the witch hunts and publicly denounced his behavior in a sermon.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1692 CHINA LIFTS THE BAN ON CHRISTIANITY
In 1692, Manchu Emperor K'ang Hsi (1654-1722) issued an edict granting toleration to Christians. The edict's effect was to open most of China to Jesuit missionaries, who were soon joined by Dominicans and Franciscans. The first Protestant missionary, Robert Morrison (1782-1834), did not arrive in China until 1807.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1698 FRANCKE OPENS THE FIRST ORPHANAGE IN HALLE
While teaching Hebrew at the University of Leipzig, Germany, August Hermann Francke (1663-1727) heard Pietist Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705) preach. In 1687, Francke was converted and began holding Bible studies for students at the university. These lead to a revival at the school, but Francke was forced to leave because of his evangelical views. In 1692, Francke accepted a professorship at the University of Halle as well as a pastorate at a nearby church. There, led by his deeply held belief that genuine spirituality expresses itself in acts of love, Francke initiated a ministry to the poor. In 1698, he opened the first modern orphanage in Halle. But rather than segregate these children from society, Francke established associated schools and job-training programs of such caliber that middle-class and aristocratic children were educated side by side with the poor. As a result, Halle became a center for Pietism in Germany.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
THE SHAME OF SALEM
September 22, 1692
It became a literal witch hunt.
It all began in 1692, when the young daughter of Samuel Parris, pastor of the church in Salem, Massachusetts, exhibited strange, psychotic symptoms, including violent convulsions and trancelike states. The hysteria soon spread to several other teenage girls within her social sphere.
Parris was at first ashamed and then alarmed by these manifestations in his daughter and her friends. When pressed, the girls blamed witches for their torment. In a sermon, Parris told his parishioners that witches were everywhere, including in their church.
The ensuing witch hunt was organized in a meeting held at the Parris home. Eventually, approximately 150 suspected witches were imprisoned and nineteen were hanged. Most of the victims were either social outcasts or members of families who had opposed the ministry of Samuel Parris. Many were middle-aged women with no male relatives to defend them.
The final executions occurred on the morning of September 22, 1692, on Witches Hill in Salem. Eight New Englanders, including seven women and one man, were hanged.
Gathered at the foot of the scaffold were people representing every age group. Eighty-nine-year-old Simon Bradstreet, recent governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, as well as the other original Puritans still alive, had left England over a half century earlier to create a Christian commonwealth in the New World. They viewed their own children as unfaithful to their Puritan upbringing and felt their utopia was being judged because of their wayward progeny.
Also present at the gallows was sixty-one-year-old William Stoughton, the judge at the witch trials. His generation watched the execution with resignation. The witches as well as the magistrates who condemned them were all of their age.
Representative of the younger generation was twenty-nine-year-old Cotton Mather, a brilliant young clergyman. Mather himself had been one of those who had examined the witches. He was to become a leading theologian of his day.
Present also at the gallows were the young girls who had been the accusers of the witches. Their shrieking and twitching reminded everyone what the witches had done.
From the last of the original Puritans who had helped create Massachusetts as God's "City on a Hill" to the youngest children who would someday be citizens of the future United States of America, this crowd at the final witch hanging represented a unique moment in American history.
After the executions, the neighboring ministers took action to end the witch trials. A year later Samuel Parris, by then realizing his own responsibility for these shameful events, described his remorse for the executions in a sermon. He acknowledged that the wounds of their victims "accuseth us as the vile actors."
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
After a fifteen-year pastorate in the Dutch Reformed church, in 1603 Jacobus Arminius (1559-1609) became a professor of theology at the University of Leiden, where his lectures refined and disseminated the seeds of a theology later called Arminianism. The Reformed doctrine of predestination held that God predetermined whom he would save. Arminius believed that the Bible taught conditional election, with each person's free will determining his salvation. The controversy led to deep divisions in the church. The year after Arminius' death his followers wrote "The Remonstrance," which systematized Arminian theology. Arminianism holds that 1) God extends his offer of salvation to all who will believe, 2) Jesus Christ died for all people, 3) the Holy Spirit enables people to achieve a right relationship with God, 4) people can resist God's saving grace, and 5) Christians may lose their salvation.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1605 THE GUNPOWDER PLOT FAILS
Alarmed at increasing religious persecution under England's Protestant King James I (1566-1625), thirteen Catholics devised a plot to blow up the Parliament building in 1605. The conspirators filled a cellar beneath the House of Lords with thirty-six barrels of gunpowder, intending to kill King James, his eldest son, and many Lords on the first day of Parliament. They hoped the plan would restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. However, the plot was exposed when a member of the House of Lords received an anonymous letter urging him not to attend Parliament. All thirteen conspirators died, either resisting arrest or by execution. Contrary to its intent, the scheme provoked increased hostility toward the Catholic faith in England. The failure of the Gunpowder Plot still is celebrated on Guy Fawkes Day, November 5, when the key conspirator of the plot is burned in effigy.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1606-1609 JOHANN ARNDT PUBLISHES FOUR BOOKS CONCERNING TRUE CHRISTIANITY
German Lutheran pastor Johann Arndt (1555-1621) was dismissed from his first pastorate for de-emphasizing the role religious pictures and ceremonies played in the German Lutheran church. At the heart of Arndt's dissent was his belief that orthodox traditions were meaningless without personal spiritual conversion. From 1606 to 1609, Arndt published his Four Books Concerning True Christianity. In them, Arndt advanced the mystical aspects of Martin Luther's (1483-1546) teaching, insisting that personal holiness could be obtained only through constant communication with and dependence upon God. The Thirty Years' War was only three years old when Arndt died in 1621. His books fueled the religious revival that swept Europe in the war's wake, influencing Pietism, Russian Orthodoxy, and even the Enlightenment.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1606 ROBERT DE NOBILI ARRIVES IN INDIA
The son of a wealthy Italian family, Robert de Nobili (1577-1656) joined the Jesuits despite his family's opposition. When de Nobili sailed to India as a missionary in 1605, the country was a Portuguese colony, and missionaries expected Indian converts to assume European cultural customs. Hoping to win
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
THEY WENT WITHOUT GOD
December 19, 1606
Everything that could possibly go wrong did.
Englishmen publicly claimed that the primary purpose in establishing the American colonies was to spread the gospel among the Indians. In truth, their motivation was greed. In 1606, the London Company was formed for colonial expansion and trade, obtaining a royal charter to found a colony in Virginia. Without taking time to prepare plans for the new colony, three ships carrying 105 colonists set out for Virginia on December 19, 1606.
The voyage took much longer than expected, forcing them to consume much of the rations en route that were to have sustained them through their first year. The leaders constantly fought with each other, and because they had no authority structure, conflicts went unresolved. In May the ships finally entered the Chesapeake Bay. The colonists named their colony Jamestown after their king, James I.
These men were unfit to build a colony. With few laborers or carpenters among them, the group consisted primarily of "Gentlemen," who came without realizing the hard work that would be necessary for the colony to succeed. The quarreling that began during their voyage continued on land. The Gentlemen refused to participate in any labor, instead setting off in search of gold and pearls. Only one minister had been sent with them—an indication of how interested England really was in evangelizing the Indians. Reverend Robert Hunt was a man of God whose passion to evangelize the Indians was not shared by anyone else.
They arrived too late to plant crops and were quickly running out of food. They lived in fear of Indian attacks and were sick from exposure, mosquitoes, and poor nutrition. The rift between the Gentlemen and the others continued to widen, and no one showed any interest in Reverend Hunt's continued pleas for reliance on God. By September 1607, half of the little colony had died.
Hunt's life was a vivid contrast. In addition to being a godly man of prayer, he labored energetically, taking charge of building the first mill for grinding corn and becoming the primary caregiver for the sick.
The colony at Jamestown became entirely dependent on the generosity of the Indians. Yet only Hunt thanked God for their assistance.
The sweltering heat in the summer of 1608 scorched the crops they planted. Starvation and disease claimed even more lives the second year than the first. Nine out of every ten people who embarked for Jamestown died, including Rev. Hunt. This pattern continued for years. In March 1621, there were only 843 settlers in Virginia. During the next year, 1, 580 more people arrived but 1, 183 died!
Even with this staggering death rate, the colonists refused to trust in God. Ship after ship arrived, with the investors always "forgetting" to send more ministers. In 1622, there were more than twelve hundred settlers on ten plantations scattered throughout Virginia, but just three ministers. So much for spreading the gospel among the Indians! to Christ the Hindu priestly caste known as the Brahmins, and against the counsel of his superiors, de Nobili lived among them and adopted their cultural practices. De Nobili also urged the development of separate evangelistic missions for each caste or class of Indian people. De Nobili was one of the first missionaries to attempt to separate Christianity from its Western cultural bias. An estimated hundred thousand people became Roman Catholics through de Nobili's ministry and influence.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1608 JESUITS REJECT APPLICANTS WITH JEWISH BLOOD
The Jesuits, or the Society of Jesus, was a religious order of the Roman Catholic Church that first addressed the idea of blood purity at their Fifth General Congregation (1593-1594). This gathering ruled that no one with a Jewish parent would be admitted to the Jesuit order. In 1608, the Sixth General Congregation of the Society of Jesus ruled that no one could be admitted to the order with a Jewish ancestor in their lineage going back five generations. These rulings remained until 1946.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1609 JOHN SMYTH FOUNDS FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH IN AMSTERDAM
Minister John Smyth (1560-1612) was dismissed from the Church of England for his belief that those who called themselves Christians only for political reasons were not true members of the Christian church. Smyth and his followers fled to Holland where they found more religious tolerance. There Smyth was influenced by the Mennonite practice of baptizing believers. The common practice in the Protestant church at that time was infant baptism by sprinkling. In 1609, Smyth baptized himself and his followers upon their confession of faith, forming the first Baptist church in Amsterdam. Members of Smyth's congregation later migrated to America among the Pilgrims. Others founded the General Baptist movement in Great Britain.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1611 KING JAMES BIBLE IS FIRST PUBLISHED
In 1604, James I (1566-1625), newly crowned king and head of the Church of England, championed a new translation of the Bible. At that time, the Bishop's Bible was used in churches. Those who had Bibles at home read the Geneva Bible, which had Reformed notes in the margins, sparking theological controversy. Fifty-four scholars worked on the new translation, drawing on original texts as well as translations in several languages, and omitting marginal notes. The King James translation received wide acceptance, in part because its prose was well suited to being read aloud, significant in an era when many could not read. As a result, the new translation helped shape the development of spoken English. The King James Version remained the Bible of English-speaking Protestants for three hundred years.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1612 THOMAS HELWYS ESTABLISHES THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH IN ENGLAND
Thomas Helwys (1550-1616) and John Smyth (1560-1612) started a Baptist church in Amsterdam with Smyth as pastor. Helwys became pastor after Smyth's death. The church issued a Declaration of Faith, defining baptism as "the outward manifestation of dying with Christ and walking in newness of life; and therefore in nowise appertaineth to infants." In 1612, Helwys returned to England and established a church on Newgate Street that practiced believer's baptism with Mennonite-style pouring rather than immersion. It was the first known Baptist church in England.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1617 THE BOOK OF SPORTS CAUSES ESTRANGEMENT
By 1617, King James I of England (1566-1625) had made it clear that he intended to make no significant alterations to English church polity, which had been chiefly set up by Elizabeth I (1533-1603). Unsatisfied, the Puritans continued to oppose the English court. Therefore, James issued a decree authorizing the activities of the old English Sunday, including dancing, archery, and vaulting. This declaration, titled the Book of Sports, attacked the Puritan idea of the Sabbath by suggesting that the Puritans had a penchant for melancholy that repelled Roman Catholics, and that their Sabbatarian practices encouraged laziness and drunkenness. With pressure from Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud (1573-1645) and with greater force, Charles I (1600-1649) reissued this decree in 1633, causing further estrangement between Puritan revolutionaries and the king. The result was the English Civil War and the execution of Charles I in 1649.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1617 JANSENISM BEGINS
Cornelius Otto Jansen (1585-1638) led a revival of Augustinian theology within the Catholic Church. From 1612 to 1617, he immersed himself in the writings of Augustine (354-430) and then in 1617 became director of a college in Louvain, France, where he found others open to his convictions. Jansen and his successors challenged the sacramentalism and hierarchical structure of the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Church's response to the Reformation, and were devoted to reforming the church according to Augustinian standards. The Jansenists taught that grace is irresistible and that Christ died only for the elect. After Jansen's death in 1638, Antoine Arnauld (1612-1694) assumed leadership of the group, which included the French philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623— 1662). Pope Innocent X (1574-1655) condemned Jansenism in 1653.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1618 THE SYNOD OF DORT BEGINS
After Jacobus Arminius' death in 1609, bitter controversy about the doctrine of unconditional predestination raged within the Dutch Reformed Church. Arminius' followers, by then called Remonstrants, wanted to modify the church's theology to recognize the role they believed human free will played in salvation. The Synod of Dort convened in 1618, with fifty-six delegates from the Netherlands, as well as advisors from Reformed churches in England, Scotland, and Germany. By this time political issues concerning state supervision of the church were also part of the controversy. The Remonstrant representatives refused to participate, denouncing the synod. The synod ruled the Remonstrants' Arminian teachings were not orthodox, and responded by producing the Cannons of Dort. This document reaffirmed the Reformed doctrines of grace as the standard for the Dutch Reformed Church. Remonstrant leaders were removed from their pulpits and exiled from the Netherlands.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1618 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR BEGINS
By the early 1600s, the Peace of Augsburg (1555) was beginning to buckle under the ever-shifting weight of rulers choosing their country's religion. In 1608, Protestant princes formed the Evangelical Union, which the Catholic rulers soon countered with the Catholic League. Theological differences, however, were only part of the growing problem. Personal and national rivalries, economic difficulties, and ambition to expand empires complicated religious tensions. In May 1618, Protestant nobles threw two Catholic Hapsburg rulers out of a high window in Prague, starting what would become known as the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). Eventually involving all of central Europe, the war was characterized by religious-political allies temporarily winning ascendancy in their quest to gain territory and wipe out their enemy's religion, only to be driven back by the opposite faction.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
November 11, 1620
For the first time in recorded history, free men covenanted together to form a new civil government.
The date was November 11, 1620, and the place was the Mayflower, anchored off the coast of Cape Cod. One hundred two passengers including thirty-four children had crossed the ocean from England. Of the passengers, sixteen men, eleven women, and fourteen children were Pilgrims, having been associated with the Separatist church in Scrooby, England. Refusing to conform to the Church of England, they had first sought religious asylum in Leyden, Holland. After twelve years, they became concerned that their children no longer would identify themselves as English. Learning of the possibility of settling in America, they made arrangements with the Virginia Company to settle within the northernmost boundary of the Virginia Charter. However, fierce winds blew them off course to Cape Cod.
They decided to settle there but then realized that since they would not be under the Virginia Company, they would be on their own, for they had no agreement with the New England Company. On board the ship some of the non-Pilgrim bonded and contract servants greeted the new plan as an opportunity for rebellion. The Pilgrims saw that they must act quickly to prevent a mutiny.
The Pilgrim men then wrote up a compact, now known as the Mayflower Compact, and presented it to the rest. Forty-one of the sixty-five men signed it. Thirteen who didn't sign were sons of signers, covered by their fathers' commitments. The remaining men probably were too sick to sign. The compact read:
Having undertaken, for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian Faith and honor of our King and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid, and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony. Unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign King James of England ... Anno Domini 1620.
Before leaving the Netherlands, the Pilgrims had knelt on the dock to ask God's blessing on their voyage, and now William Bradford recorded, "Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven."
During their first winter, forty-seven people died. These humble Christian men and women were to be the seeds of what would become the United States of America.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
SQUANTO
March 22, 1621
In the year 1619, when many people were considering whether to go to the New World, one person had a unique reason—he was trying to go home.
An American Indian by the name of Squanto had come to England via the slave trade. In 1605, Squanto was captured by Captain George Weymouth and taken to England, where he learned English. He spent nine years there before returning home to his people, the Patuxets on Cape Cod in 1614, on a vessel captained by John Smith. He was not at home long before Captain Thomas Hunt, part of Smith's expedition, lured Squanto and twenty-six other unsuspecting Indians aboard his vessel, clamped them in irons, and took them to Spain, where he sold them into slavery. Squanto was delivered into the hands of local friars, who introduced him to the Christian faith.
Squanto did not remain long with the Spanish monks. Making his way to England, he managed to get passage on an American-bound ship in 1619. When Squanto arrived back on Cape Cod, to his great shock he learned that everyone in his tribe had died from smallpox.
A year after Squanto's return, in November 1620, the Pilgrims reached the shores of Cape Cod. The Pilgrims were members of the Separatist congregation of Scrooby, England, that had fled to Holland. Twelve years later, they set sail for America and settled in Plymouth.
The settlers discovered that Indians had cleared the land at Plymouth for planting, but it had not been farmed for some time. After a devastating winter, one day the following March, an English-speaking Indian walked into Plymouth. His name was Samoset. He had learned the language from English fishermen he had met along the Maine coast. The Pilgrims discovered from Samoset that they had settled on the homeland of the Patuxets, the tribe wiped out by disease four years earlier. God had led the Pilgrims to perhaps the one plot of uninhabited land on the East Coast, the very land where Squanto had grown up.
Samoset introduced the Pilgrims to Squanto on March 22, 1621. Squanto brought news that Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoag and leader of most of the surrounding tribes, was coming to visit the settlers that very day. When Massasoit arrived, Squanto helped the Pilgrims agree to a peace treaty with Massasoit that would last for decades.
When Squanto arrived in Plymouth, the Pilgrims were in desperate straits. Nearly half had died during the previous winter, lacking the skills for survival in their new land. Squanto showed the Pilgrims how to fertilize and protect the corn they planted, how to catch fish from the streams, and how to harvest the food the land provided. If God had not sent Squanto, the Pilgrims likely would not have survived. One of the Pilgrim leaders called him "a special instrument sent of God for our good, beyond our expectation."
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1619 FIRST SLAVES ARRIVE IN VIRGINIA
When the first twenty African men arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, the colony had no laws governing slavery. The men were put to work in the tobacco, rice, and cotton fields alongside Englishmen who had committed themselves to be servants in exchange for passage to the New World. Conditions were hard for both white and black men, most of whom survived their term of service and earned their freedom. Unlike the Englishmen, however, the Africans had not left their homes voluntarily. Therefore, they are recognized as having been slaves—the first of 399,000 Africans who were forced to migrate to the colonies that became the United States.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1620 MAYFLOWER COMPACT ESTABLISHES NEW GOVERNMENT On November 11, 1620, forty-one men aboard the Mayflower signed the Mayflower Compact off the coast of Cape Cod. The authors, who were sixteen of the signers, were Pilgrims associated with the Separatist church in Scrooby, England. They had fled first to the Netherlands and then sought religious freedom in America. Because the ship had been blown off course and did not land in Virginia as intended, they no longer were under the jurisdiction of the Virginia Company, the sponsor of their voyage. This was the first time in recorded history that free men covenanted together to form a civil government with the authority to enact laws that the people promised to obey.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1621 SQUANTO SAVES THE PILGRIMS
When the Pilgrims arrived in Cape Cod in November 1620, they possessed very few survival skills for living in the New World. More than half of the group died from starvation and sickness the first winter. On March 22, 1621, an English-speaking Indian named Samoset introduced the Pilgrims to Squanto, another Indian. Squanto had been captured twice by slave traders, and he had learned to speak English while in Britain. Upon returning to America, Squanto discovered that smallpox had wiped out his tribe. The Pilgrims had settled on the land that had belonged to his eradicated tribe. That very day he assisted the newcomers in establishing a peace treaty with Massasoit, chief of the surrounding tribes. Squanto also taught the Pilgrims how to catch fish, fertilize corn, and harvest food in America. If God had not sent him, the Pilgrims might never have survived.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1622 POPE GREGORY XV CREATES THE SACRED CONGREGATION
Pope Gregory XV (1554-1623) created the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of Catholic Faith on June 22, 1622. Originally lead by thirteen cardinals, this administrative department was commissioned to evangelize the Protestants in areas lost in the wake of the Reformation and to counter Protestant expansion in newly established colonies. The Sacred Congregation sponsored missionaries and established seminaries in foreign lands, published catechisms and other religious works in foreign languages, and poised the Catholic Church for expansion around the world.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1627 THE CODEX ALEXANDRAS ARRIVES IN ENGLAND
The Codex Alexandrinus, a manuscript thought to have been written in the fifth century, is believed to have come from Alexandria, Egypt. It contains most of the text of the Bible in Greek uncial script (all capital letters). Although missing thirty-four New Testament chapters, it represents one of the most complete early copies of the Bible known at the time. The Eastern Orthodox bishop of Alexandria, Cyril Lucar (1572-1638), sent the Codex to King James I (1566-1625) of England, who had authorized the King James Bible. However, the Codex did not arrive in England until 1627, two years after James' death. In 1627, King Charles I (1600-1649) accepted the bishop's gift in place of his predecessor. The Codex Alexandrinus became a definitive text for subsequent scholarship as copies of it were disseminated from England.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
AN INQUIRING MIND
June 19, 1623
Some children seem to be born with an "I'll do it myself" attitude.
Blaise Pascal, one of the greatest intellects of the Western world, had an unquenchable thirst to learn. He was born into an upper-class family in central France on June 19, 1623. His father, Etienne, was an attorney, magistrate, and tax collector who loved languages and mathematics and was intensely interested in his children's education. Pascal's mother died when he was only three, and four years later, Etienne moved his family to Paris. There he homeschooled his three children, starting with the study of languages. He was of the opinion that it was best to withhold the study of geometry until they were proficient in languages, so they wouldn't be preoccupied with the fascination of mathematics.
However, when young Blaise was only twelve, his father discovered that his precocious son had taught himself geometry. At age sixteen, Pascal attracted the attention of mathematician and philosopher Rene Descartes by writing a book on the geometry of cones. Concerned by the long hours his father would spend adding up figures at night, Pascal put his problem-solving ability to work and invented the first mechanical calculating machine when he was nineteen. Its principles have remained in use into modern times. Pascal also originated the theory of probability. In the field of physics he discovered a principle known as Pascal's Law, which is the foundation of modern hydraulics.
Pascal's remarkable mind was interested in things of the Spirit as well. Encouraged by his father to learn by observation and discovery, Pascal's inquiring mind devoured the Scriptures as well as scientific data. Just as he learned geometry on his own, so his spiritual journey to belief was a private one. On the night he put his faith in Christ he wrote:
God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and scholars ...
He is to be found only by the ways taught in the Gospel....
"Righteous Father, the world has not known Thee, but I have known Thee."...
Let me hot be separated from Him eternally.
"This is the eternal life, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and the one whom Thou has sent, Jesus Christ." ...
Let me never be separated from Him.
We keep hold of Him only by the ways taught in the Gospel.
A few days after Pascal died, a servant of the house happened to notice a bulge in the lining of Pascal's coat. Carefully pulling the stitches, he discovered two small pieces of parchment in Pascal's handwritings—one a copy of the other. Dated November 23, 1654, the document was a record of his intensely personal revelation on that night. It was apparently so important to Pascal that he made two copies and carefully sewed and unsewed the parchments into the coats he wore until his death eight years later.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1627 LA ROCHELLE IS BESIEGED
The religious policies of French Cardinal Armand de Richelieu (1585-1642), the most trusted advisor of France's young King Louis XIII (1601-1643), were based on advancing the power of France and himself, rather than on theological considerations. Richelieu wanted the Huguenots—the French Protestants— destroyed, not because they were Protestants but because the previous king, Henry IV (1553-1610), had given them several fortified cities and independent power within France in order to guarantee their security. Richelieu's efforts to eradicate the Huguenots led to armed conflict in the 1627 siege of La Rochelle, the main Huguenot stronghold. The Protestants successfully resisted the French army for one year, but eventually were forced to surrender. Only fifteen hundred of the city's twenty-five thousand inhabitants survived. Because Richelieu's concern was the Huguenots' political power rather than their religious beliefs, he ordered religious and civil tolerance of Protestants after their cities had been conquered.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1630 COMMUNION REVIVAL OCCURS AT SHOTTS
On June 21, 1630, several hundred Protestants crowded into Shotts, Scotland, to celebrate Communion. A relatively unknown preacher named John Livingstone (1603-1672) was scheduled to address the crowd. That morning, overwhelmed by a sense of his own unworthiness, Livingstone had fled from Shotts, only to be turned back by the conviction that his appointment to preach was of God. Soon after Livingstone began to speak, rain began to fall on the crowd that had been unable to squeeze inside the church. As the congregation scattered, he admonished them with the challenge that they should "flee only to Christ the City of Refuge." Before Livingstone could finish his sermon, the power of God fell in revival on the crowd. By nightfall, more than five hundred new believers came to faith in Scotland's best-known revival.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1630 PURITANS SETTLE IN MASSACHUSETTS
By 1629, the turmoil over whether the king or Parliament was the final authority in the land reached its peak in England. King Charles I (1600-1649) disbanded Parliament and ruled alone for the next eleven years. A group of Puritan businessmen, faced with increasing hostility toward their religious views and dim financial prospects in England, broadened the charter of their Massachusetts Bay trading company to include colonization. The Great Migration from Britain to New England began in 1630. That year, almost one thousand settlers arrived in Salem and (present-day) Boston, Massachusetts. Only Puritans could hold public office in the new colony. This policy effectively created a theocracy in which religious principles guided civil government. For the first time, the authority for a colony's government resided in a colony, not in England.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
A CITY UPON A HILL
June 12, 1630
Founding America was at times a depressing ordeal.
John Winthrop was a dedicated Puritan lawyer in England. Winthrop had been elected governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company prior to departing from England on the Arabella with some seven hundred colonists. Two years earlier sixty-six English settlers led by John Endicott had settled at Salem, Massachusetts, and the next year two hundred more had followed.
On June 12, 1630, John Winthrop stood at the rail of the Arabella as it entered Salem Harbor. He had been at sea for seventy-two days, and now he finally had arrived in New England. As the ship approached shore, the sight that greeted Winthrop perplexed him. Where was Salem? All that was visible was a collection of huts and canvas shel-ters. Stepping on shore, he realized to his great disappointment that this pathetic settlement was indeed Salem.
John Endicott, the acting governor, informed him that of the first two groups of settlers now only eighty-five remained. More than eighty had died, and the rest had returned to England. Many of those remaining planned to do the same.
As Winthrop surveyed the disheartening sight, he thought of the words he had written the day before to spell out his goals for the new colony, which he titled "A Model of Christian Charity":
Thus stands the cause between God and us: we are entered into covenant with Him for this work..
Now the only way... to provide for posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God ... for this end, we must be knit together in this work as one man......We must hold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience, and liberality. We must delight in each other, make one another's condition our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our Commission and Community in his work, as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace......
We shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when he shall make us a praise and glory, that men of succeeding plantations shall say, "The Lord make it like that of New England." For we must consider that we shall be as a City upon a hill.......
Rekindled in his vision, John Winthrop went on to serve as governor of Massachusetts almost continually until his death in 1649. He was instrumental in shaping Massachusetts into a Christian commonwealth that went on to have a profound effect on the rest of the developing new nation.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
DOES THE SUN CIRCLE THE EARTH?
June 21, 1632
Five hundred years ago, being ahead of the curve in science could put you on a collision course with the church,
Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, Italy, the day Michelangelo died (February 18, 1564) and the same year Shakespeare was born. He became the leading astronomer of his day and was given lifetime tenure as a professor at the University of Padua. In 1610, using his newly invented telescope that could magnify one thousand times, Galileo discovered four moons revolving around Jupiter. By analogy he reasoned that the planets revolved around the sun, agreeing with the view set forth by Copernicus a century earlier. The other professors at Padua refused to even look through his telescope. Galileo took this as his signal that he should leave Padua, going to Florence instead.
Galileo's conclusions brought to public attention the question of whether the earth circled the sun or the sun circled the earth. Soon Galileo was accused of contradicting the Bible. In 1615, a formal protest was lodged against Galileo before the Inquisition, a special tribunal set up in the medieval church to combat heresy. To answer his critics, Galileo went to Rome, hoping to convert the church leaders to his point of view. Galileo promoted his ideas so extensively in Rome that soon everyone in the city was discussing astronomy. However, the Inquisition directed Galileo to abandon his opinions and not discuss them further. In February 1616, the Inquisition published its edict: "The view that the sun stands motionless at the center of the universe is foolish, philosophically false, and utterly heretical." To avoid the threatened imprisonment, Galileo declared his submission to the decree.
Galileo was able to keep out of the public eye until 1632, when he published his major book on astronomy, which explained his understanding of the relationship between the earth and the sun. The book earned wide acclaim throughout the academic world, but the Inquisition immediately demanded that Galileo appear before it once again, accusing him of breaking his promise to obey the edict of 1616. Threatened with torture on June 21, 1632, Galileo agreed with the position of the church and declared the earth to be motionless with the sun moving around it. The next day, in spite of this denial of his convictions, the Inquisition found Galileo guilty of heresy and sentenced him to prison for an indefinite length of time. As penance, he was to recite seven penitential psalms daily for three years.
Fortunately for Galileo, after just three days in prison, the pope allowed him to be kept as prisoner in his own villa. There he was free to pursue his studies while his daughter, a nun, recited the penitential psalms for him.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1632 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS DIES SAVING GERMANY
During the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), Protestants fought Catholics in Germany. By 1630, the Imperial Catholic forces had crushed all of the Protestant princes, and it seemed that the complete destruction of German Lutherans was imminent. At that point, King Gustavus Adolphus (1594-1632) of Sweden came to the rescue. With the assistance of troops provided by the marquis of Brandenburg and the duke of Saxony, Gustavus' skilled soldiers were victorious over the Catholic army. On November 16, 1632, Gustavus faced one final battle in southern Germany. After leading his troops in song and prayer, he charged with them into the Battle of Lutzen. Although Gustavus was killed, his army was victorious, and German Protestantism was saved.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1632 COMENIUS WRITES THE GREAT DIDACTIC
Jan Amos Comenius (1592-1670) was born in Moravia, now the eastern Czech Republic. He studied theology and was ordained in the Brethren church. The advance of the Thirty Years' War compelled Comenius to move to Lissa, Poland, where he wrote The Great Didactic, his best-known work. In it, Comenius outlined a system of education that began with home-schooling then lead through public elementary and Latin middle schools to universities. He advocated equal education of girls and boys and rejected physical punishment in schools, both revolutionary ideas at the time. Central to Comenius' philosophy was his conviction that although traditional learning was important, the true goal of education should be ever-closer conformity to the image of Christ. Ultimately, Comenius believed moral transformation via education would result in peace for a war-torn world.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1633 GALILEO IS FORCED TO RECANT
Italian physicist and mathematician Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) invented the telescope in 1610, making him the foremost astronomer of his day. One of the more significant things Galileo observed was that Jupiter's moons revolved around the planet. From this, Galileo reasoned that the sun, not Earth, was the center of the solar system, a theory Copernicus first proposed ninety years earlier. Although the idea gained widespread acceptance in Europe, in 1616, the Inquisition declared it heretical. Galileo received permission from the Roman Catholic Church to write an impartial book discussing the earth- and sun-centered models of the solar system and published Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Systems of the World in 1632. In 1633, the Inquisition brought him to trial. Threatened with death if he did not renounce the Copernican theory, Galileo recanted and lived under house arrest until his death in 1642.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1633 VINCENT DE PAUL FOUNDS THE DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY Born in southwestern France to peasant parents, Vincent de Paul (1581— 1660) was ordained a priest in the Roman Catholic Church. While pursuing further theological studies in France, Vincent was captured by pirates and enslaved in Tunisia. Two years later, he escaped and made his way back to France. While there, he felt a strong calling to ministry among the poor. In 1625, Vincent founded the Congregation of Missions, also known as the Lazarists. Under that banner in 1633, he founded the Daughters of Charity, the first cloistered order of women dedicated to serving the sick and the poor. Through this and other efforts, he helped organize the ministries of the Catholic Church among the poor into the systems that continue to operate today.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1633 WILLIAM LAUD BECOMES ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY William Laud (1573-1645) was educated at Oxford University in England where he became convinced that the prevailing Calvinist thought had undermined the traditional order of worship in the Church of England and its episcopal organization. As chancellor of Oxford, Laud worked to restore pre-Reformation liturgy. Noting Laud's efforts, King Charles I (1600-1649), also interested in restoring the purity of the Anglican Church, appointed Laud in 1633 to the church's highest position, archbishop of Canterbury. As archbishop, Laud enforced uniformity in Anglicanism without regard to objections of conscience. He systematically undermined the influences of both the Puritan and Roman Catholic churches in England. When England's political winds shifted back toward Puritanism, Parliament impeached and jailed Laud in 1641 for his zeal. Laud was executed for treason on January 10, 1645.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1636 HARVARD COLLEGE IS FOUNDED
In 1636, only six years after the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, its Great and General Court voted to establish Harvard College. The first institution of higher learning in the United States, it was named after its benefactor, Puritan minister John Harvard of Charlestown. John Harvard died in 1638, leaving his library and half of his estate to the new school. Harvard began with one professor and nine students. Its classical academic offerings were based on the model of the university system in England. Harvard's early years reflected the Puritan philosophy of its founders, and many early graduates became ministers in the Puritan churches of New England.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1636 ROGER WILLIAMS FOUNDS PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND English Puritan Roger Williams (1603-1683) immigrated to Boston with his family in 1631. A Separatist, Williams believed that England had irreparably contaminated religious life by bringing the church under the government's control. In colonial New England, Williams spoke out against the Puritan church for not explicitly separating from the Church of England. Banished for his criticism, Williams and his followers fled to present-day Rhode Island in 1636, where Williams took the then-unusual step of purchasing from Native Americans the land on which he founded the city of Providence. In 1639, he founded America's first Baptist church in Providence. Returning to England in 1642, he secured a colonial charter for Rhode Island, which became a stronghold for religious liberty in New England. Williams died in 1683 without knowing that his ideals about the separation of church and state would become a cornerstone of American life.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1637 ANNE HUTCHINSON IS TRIED FOR HERESY
Born in Lincolnshire, England, Anne Hutchinson (1591-1643) spent her formative years under the teaching of Puritan vicar John Cotton. In 1634, Anne and her husband, William, followed Cotton to Boston, Massachusetts, where Anne's nursing skills earned her great respect. She became known for her thorough Bible knowledge through midweek meetings she convened to discuss Cotton's sermons. Hutchinson emphasized the covenant of grace whereby God revealed himself to believers through the Holy Spirit. Initially, Cotton and others supported her position. But as Anne's following grew, some saw her as undermining the law-based foundation of male-dominated Puritan society. In 1637, Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop (1588-1649) tried Hutchinson for heresy, and the following year Hutchinson and her followers were banished from the state. They settled first in Rhode Island, then in present-day New York City where she and most of her family were killed by Native Americans in 1643.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1637 ANTI-CHRISTIAN EDICTS LEAD TO REBELLION IN JAPAN Christianity was introduced into Japan by Catholic Jesuit Francis Xavier (1506-1552) in 1549. Although Japan was traditionally Buddhist, hundreds of thousands of Japanese joined the Catholic Church in the next half-century. In 1614, the emperor outlawed Christianity, attempting to consolidate his political power under Buddhism. Christians became the objects of persecution ranging from discrimination to crucifixion. However, missionaries continued to enter the country until 1637. That year in the wake of anti-Christian edicts, Christians joined a revolt against the emperor, who reacted by virtually closing off the nation to foreigners and forbidding Japanese nationals to leave. Christianity ceased to exist in any public sense. But thousands of Roman Catholics, posing nominally as Buddhists, took their faith underground, where it passed from generation to generation for more than two hundred years.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1638 COVENANTERS SIGN THE NATIONAL COVENANT
In 1638, a group of Scottish Presbyterians met and drafted what they called the National covenant, which was directed against King Charles I of England (1600-1649). Charles I had attempted to force the sacramental Book of Common Prayer on the Church of Scotland. The signers of the covenant, called Covenanters, committed themselves to maintain the freedom and autonomy of the Church of Scotland and to defend its Presbyterian government. Approximately three hundred thousand Scots signed the covenant.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
AMERICA'S FIRST COLLEGE PRESIDENT
August 27, 1640
He was a man of conviction, and it cost him his job.
"The Lord gave me an attentive ear and heart to understand preaching......... The Lord
showed me my sins and reconciliation by Christ.... .and this word was more sweet to me than anything else in the world." So reads the testimony of Henry Dunster, born in 1609 in Bury, England. After receiving bachelor and master degrees at Cambridge University, he was ordained as a minister in the Church of England. As he served in his church, Dunster became increasingly disheartened by the corruption in the church and by its persecution of Christians who didn't conform to its doctrine. As a result, he fled to America in 1640.
Dunster's scholarly reputation preceded him to America. On August 27, 1640, shortly after arriving in Boston, Dunster was unanimously elected as the first president of America's first college, Harvard, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The college had been struggling without a president for four years since its founding, but it flourished during the years of Dunster's administration. He strengthened the curriculum, erected buildings, attracted students, and taught full-time. He was a tireless fundraiser for Harvard, and although he himself was poor, he gave one hundred acres of his own land to the college.
The Baptist movement was making slow progress throughout New England at the time, and those who were leading the movement endured persecution in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The more Dunster studied the more convinced he became of the Baptists' position. By 1653, he was so strongly opposed to infant baptism that he refused to have his fourth child baptized. This caused quite a stir within the Harvard community. Because of the controversy, he offered his resignation, but it was refused.
Dunster was such a beloved figure that had he been willing to keep silent regarding his view of baptism, he would have been able to keep his position at Harvard indefinitely. But he became so thoroughly convinced of the truth of believer's baptism that he preached a series of sermons against infant baptism. On one occasion he even disrupted a baptismal service in the church at Cambridge. For this latter incident he was indicted by the grand jury, found guilty of disturbing public worship, and sentenced to receive a public admonition.
Under these circumstances Harvard was too embarrassed to have Dunster remain as president, and so on October 24, 1654, the board accepted the resignation they previously had rejected. He had served Harvard as president for fourteen years.
Dunster spent the last five years of his life as pastor of the church at Scituate in the Plymouth Colony. The church's previous pastor, Charles Chauncy, succeeded him as president of Harvard.
Dunster held no animosities from this experience. At his death he bequeathed legacies to several of the people at Harvard who had called for his resignation.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1639-1640 BISHOP WARS ARE UNSUCCESSFUL Charles I (1600-1649) of England was determined to impose Episcopal government upon the Church of Scotland. This led to the signing of the National covenant in Scotland in 1638, declaring Scotland to be Presbyterian. The growing hostilities between the king and the Scottish churches led to The Bishop Wars, two unsuccessful military campaigns by Charles I against the Scottish Presbyterians. This was a step leading to the English Civil War in 1642 and the eventual execution of Charles I in 1649.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1640 BAY PSALM BOOK IS PUBLISHED
As the Puritans settled Massachusetts beginning in 1628, they began to develop their own style of worship and church order. One of the earliest examples of this is the Bay Psalm Book, which was published in 1640. John Eliot (1604-1690), Richard Mather (1596-1669), and Thomas Welde (1595-1663) assembled the book, which was originally titled The Whole Book of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre. The book was the official hymnal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony until the 1750s. First printed by Stephen Daye in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it was the first English book known to have been printed in North America.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1640 CORNELIUS JANSEN'S AUGUSTINUS PUBLISHED
Although written eleven years before his death, Cornelius Jansen's most famous work, Augustinus, was not published until 1640. Jansen (1585-1638) was born in the Netherlands and studied Catholic theology in Belgium, France, and Spain. In Madrid, heavily influenced by the writings of Augustine (354-430), and alarmed at the expanding influence of Jesuit philosophy in the Catholic Church, Jansen wrote Augustinus. In it, he argued compellingly for irresistible grace and against man's ability to perfect himself. Three years after its publication, Augustinus was banned by the Catholic Church. But under the leadership of Jean Du Vergier (1581-1643), Jansenism, as the philosophy came to be known, birthed a significant reform movement in the Roman Catholic Church.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
CIVIL WAR
July 2, 1644
When should Christians rebel?
In 1642, the Puritans of England thought the time had come. Charles I had been king of England since 1625. Charles, as head of the Church of England, supported the High Church Party within the church, with its tendencies toward Roman Catholicism, and sought to crush his Puritan opposition.
Earlier, in 1637, Charles set up his own downfall by ineptly handling the Scottish Church. Having declared himself the head of the Church of Scotland, Charles imposed a book of prayer on the Scottish Church that was more Roman Catholic than the one used by the Church of England. The Scots responded by signing the National covenant in 1638, which made the Scottish Church officially Presbyterian. The following year they revolted against Charles. Needing funds in 1640, Charles was forced to convene Parliament for the first time in eleven years to raise money to fight Scotland. Unfortunately for Charles, most of the members of the House of Commons were Puritans.
Charles' fatal blunder came in 1642, when he attempted to arrest five leaders of Parliament for treason. The result was civil war. Charles I had the support of the Anglican clergy and the nobility, while Parliament had the support of the Puritans and the merchant class.
The crucial battle of the civil war came in 1644. Oliver Cromwell, a godly Puritan, became the leading general of the Parliamentary army. In early summer he began a siege of the Royalist city of York. From his headquarters in Oxford, Charles I ordered his son Prince Rupert, with his army of twenty thousand, to go to York's relief. When Rupert arrived, the Parliamentary army retreated a few miles southwest to Marston Moor. On July 2, 1644, Prince Rupert, not content simply to relieve York, attacked the Parliamentary army as they were about to move south. Initially, the Royalists routed the right wing of the Parliamentary army. But on the left, Cromwell's cavalry defeated Rupert's cavalry and followed them in hot pursuit. When the rout was complete, they turned back to aid the Parliamentarian infantry. The result was a total victory for Cromwell with the Royal army in flight. The Battle of Marston Moor spelled doom for the Royalists. The king lost his army, and the queen escaped to France.
The Puritans' attitude in the civil war can be sensed in a letter that Cromwell wrote three days after the battle:
Truly England and the Church of God hath had a great favor from the Lord, in this great victory given unto us, such as the like never was since this War began. It had all the evidences of an absolute victory obtained by the Lord's blessing upon the Godly Party principally. We never charged but we routed the enemy.... The particulars I cannot relate now; but I believe, of twenty thousand the Prince hath not four thousand left. Give glory, all glory, to God.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1642 ENGLISH CIVIL WAR BEGINS
The English Civil War (1642-1648) pitted the monarchy under King Charles I (1600-1649) against Parliament in a struggle that culminated in the execution of the king in 1649 and the temporary establishment of a republican commonwealth in England. King Charles I, a staunch Anglican, believed that he had a divine right to sovereign rule. Parliament, composed largely of Puritans from society's gentry, merchant, and artisan classes, sought political, financial, and religious freedom from undue control by the Crown. In late 1641, some members of Parliament issued a Grand Remonstrance decrying Charles' reign. But this radical action drove many to the royalist side. In the months that followed, two opposing armies were raised in England. Puritans from the House of Commons gathered in southern England to challenge Charles and his group of lords in the north. On August 22, 1642, King Charles declared war on Parliament. Parliament was ultimately victorious, and Charles I was executed.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1643 SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT IS SIGNED
The English Civil War was well underway by 1643. That year the largely Puritan army of Parliament, in its conflict with the forces of King Charles I (1600-1649), sought help from the powerful army of Scotland. Signing the Solemn League and covenant was the price Parliament agreed to pay for Scotland's aid. Scotland was a stronghold of Presbyterianism, not of the Anglican Church. The Solemn League guaranteed the rights of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland and provided for the eventual reformation of English and Irish churches as well. In exchange, Scotland promised allegiance to both England's Parliament and to the Crown. King Charles II (1630-1685) signed the League and covenant in 1650 to enlist the support of the Scots to regain his throne.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1646 WESTMINSTER CONFESSION IS COMPLETED
In 1643, England was in its second year of civil war. The Puritans' desire to bring the Church of England into conformity with the Reformed churches abroad was a key issue. Scotland's staunch Calvinists, also under Anglican rule, wanted a voice in the reform as well. Parliament called an assembly to meet at Westminster to formulate a creed acceptable to English and Scottish churches. One hundred and twenty-one Puritan and Calvinist delegates met for three years. Doctrinal questions were resolved fairly quickly, following the tenets of orthodox Calvinism. Church and state issues took longer. The resulting Westminster Confession of Faith was finished in 1646. It prevailed in England for the next decade during the Commonwealth period and became the standard for the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The Westminster Assembly was the greatest gathering of theologians of all time, and the Westminster Confession is still the most influential document of the Reformed faith.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1647 GEORGE FOX BEGINS TO PREACH
George Fox (1624-1691) had no formal education when he began preaching in England in 1647. A three-year quest for spiritual enlightenment resulted in Fox shunning church attendance, the sacraments, and ordained clergy. Instead, Fox believed that true spirituality came from God speaking directly to the human soul through the Holy Spirit. He stressed the priesthood of all believers (including women preachers), pacifism, and a simple lifestyle. Calling his followers "Friends of the Truth," Fox traveled extensively in Holland, Ireland, the West Indies, and North America, establishing local Friends congregations. Fox's teachings were often at odds with the Church of England, and he spent nearly six years in prison. On trial in 1650, Fox urged the judge to "tremble at the word of the Lord." The judge retorted by labeling Fox's Friends "Quakers," the name by which the sect has been known ever since.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
THE AGE OF REASON AND REVIVAL
1648—1789
Novel schools of thought filled the seventeenth century. None was more powerful than Reason itself. It asked, "Who needs God? Man can make it on his own." Christians screamed their objections, but the idea spread until secularism filled the public life of Western societies. God remained, but only as a matter of personal choice.
Christians no longer could appeal to the arm of power to suppress such heresies. So, many of them turned instead to the way of the apostles: prayer and preaching. The result was a series of evangelical revivals, chiefly Pietism, Methodism, and the Great Awakening. Through preaching and personal conversions, evangelicals tried to restore God to public life.
BRUCE L. SHELLEY
1659—England becomes a Commonwealth
1665—Isaac Newton develops theory of gravity
1675—Speed of light calculated
1712—Steam engine invented in England
1757—British rule begins in India
1770's—Industrial Revolution begins in England
1776-81—American Revolution
1789—French Revolution begins
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1648 CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM HELPS LAY THE FOUNDATION FOR DEMOCRACY
In 1646, six years after the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Colony's General Court authorized a synod of Puritan leaders to meet in Cambridge. The synod's goal was to develop statements on doctrine and polity that would distinguish Puritan life from that of other Protestant groups in New England. An epidemic delayed completion of the resulting document, known as the Cambridge Platform, until 1648. Most of its Reformed doctrinal statements were not unique to Puritanism, but the Platform's provisions for church governance through pastors, ruling elders, and deacons in autonomous congregations were a first for New England and laid the foundations for American democracy.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1648 CHMIELNICKI MASSACRES TARGET JEWS
In 1648, the Cossacks of the eastern Ukraine, along with Ukrainian peasants and Tatars from Crimea, were led by Bogdan Chmielnicki (1595-1657) in a revolt against their Polish rulers. Polish nobles, Catholic priests, and Jews were murdered in large numbers during the Chmielnicki Massacres. The Ukrainians, who were Orthodox Christians opposing the Catholic Church, targeted the Catholic priests; the peasants targeted the Jews, because the Jews collected taxes and often controlled the nobles' property where the peasants were enslaved. Some Jews made a public conversion to Christianity to save their lives, but others committed suicide. Thousands of Jews died in the massacres, which lasted until 1655.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1653 CROMWELL IS NAMED LORD PROTECTOR
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) began his political career in the House of Commons in 1628, at a time of great conflict in England. Cromwell distinguished himself as a military commander of the parliamentary army in the English Civil War opposing King Charles I (1600-1649), and later, Charles II (1630-1685). After forcing Charles II into exile, Cromwell, then commander in chief of the army, was named lord protector or titular head of state of England in 1653, in lieu of a king. After decades of conflict, England enjoyed relative peace under Cromwell's democratic parliamentary form of government, also known as the Commonwealth. Under Cromwell, England began diplomatic relations with other countries and rose to world-power status due to its supreme naval force. Cromwell, a Puritan, extended religious toleration to Quakers and Jews, and to a lesser extent, to Roman Catholics and Anglicans. He ruled as lord protector until his death in 1658.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1654 PASCAL IS CONVERTED
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was a French mathematician and physicist. He invented the first mechanical calculating machine, discovered the theory of probability, and articulated the principles of physics known as Pascal's Law, which is the foundation of modern hydraulics. Home-schooled by his father, Pascal learned languages, geometry, and physics at an early age. Because of his father's encouragement to learn as much as he could by observation and discovery, Pascal not only discovered truths in science and mathematics, but began to study the truth in Scripture as well. When he died, documents dated November 23, 1654, were found stitched inside his jacket. The handwriting was Pascal's, and it revealed his personal testimony of his conversion to Christ. After his death, Pensees—Pascal's defense of Christian faith—was published.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1654 FIRST PERMANENT JEWISH SETTLER ARRIVES IN WHAT IS NOW THE UNITED STATES
Jacob Barsimson was the first permanent Jewish settler in what became the United States. He came from Holland as part of a group sent by the Dutch West India Company to settle New Amsterdam, now New York City. He arrived on August 22, 1654, a month ahead of a group of Jews who emigrated from Brazil to America. Upon his arrival he was allotted a hut in the forest outside the settlement. Barsimson arrived a poor man, but over the years he prospered. He was the first Jewish citizen, a member of America's first Jewish congregation, and was laid to rest in America's first Jewish cemetery. By the time of the American Revolution (1775-1783) about two thousand Jews lived in the United States.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1654 FIRST GROUP OF JEWS ARRIVES IN NEW YORK
After the Dutch lost their settlement in Brazil to Portuguese forces, twenty-three Jews who had left Dutch Brazil in search of a safe haven arrived in New Amsterdam (present-day New York City) in 1654. As a result, when the later great migration of Jews from Eastern Europe to the United States occurred, a Jewish settlement awaited them. By 2000, there were more than 5.5 million Jews living in the United States.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1655 MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL GOES TO LONDON
Nearly four hundred years after their expulsion from England in 1290, Jews were allowed to return. The change was due in large measure to the efforts of Menasseh ben Israel (1604-1657), a rabbi in Amsterdam. After submitting a formal request to the English Parliament, he traveled to England in 1655 to argue in person the case for allowing Jews to return to England and to be able to maintain their religious practices. His presentation inspired Cromwell (1599-1658), the lord protector of England, to endorse unofficially the presence of Jews in England. As a result, a small Jewish community was established in London. Believing that England would benefit from the presence of Jews, King Charles II (1630-1685) officially approved of allowing Jews to live in Britain. By the close of the seventeenth century, Jews were accepted into English society.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1656 SPINOZA IS EXCOMMUNICATED
Born to Jewish parents in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Benedict de Spinoza (1632-1677), an optical lens grinder by trade, became one of the foremost Rationalist philosophers of his day. Rationalists replaced faith in divine revelation with the belief that the reasoning power of the human mind was the only true source of knowledge and enlightenment. Spinoza reinterpreted God's creativity as purely natural activity. For example, Spinoza interpreted the Bible as being the product of its human authors' minds. Unorthodox views like this one won Spinoza censure from Protestants, Catholics, and his own synagogue, which excommunicated him in 1656. Spinoza's written work was significant in the popularization of Rationalism.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1658 CONGREGATIONALISTS WRITE THE SAVOY DECLARATION
In 1658, about two hundred representatives from English Congregational and Independent churches met at the Savoy Palace in London to draw up the first English Congregational statement of doctrine and practice. In a relatively short time, the representatives came to a unanimous decision as to the contents. Very similar to the Westminster Confession except for the sections on church government, the declaration became the primary doctrinal statement for the Congregationalists of New England. The church polity section granted congregations complete autonomy under the headship of Jesus.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1660 JOHN OWEN IS EJECTED FROM CHRIST CHURCH
John Owen (1616-1683) studied classics and theology at Queen's College, Oxford. Although a Presbyterian, Owen was influenced by the writings of John Cotton and became convinced that the Congregational form of church government was more biblical. Serving from 1651 to 1660 as dean of Christ Church, Oxford, Owen significantly influenced the religious, political, and academic developments in England. Owen became the chief architect of the Cromwellian State Church, although he eventually opposed Cromwell (1599-1658) as lord protector. When the monarchy was reestablished in 1660, Owen was ejected from his post at Christ Church. For the next twenty-three years he was influential as a leader of Protestant nonconformity. He spent his time preaching and writing in England, declining offers to minister in Boston and to serve as the president of Harvard College.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1661 CLARENDON CODE ENFORCES THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND'S DOCTRINES
The Clarendon Code was a series of onerous statutes passed by the English Parliament beginning in 1661 to remove everyone not completely committed to the Church of England's doctrines from government or the ministry of the church. The Act of Uniformity (1662) required all ministers to receive Episcopal ordination if they had not been so ordained. The Five Mile Act (1665) forbade nonconforming ministers from coming within five miles of any town or borough. As a result of the Clarendon Code, two thousand pastors lost their churches.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1662 ACT OF UNIFORMITY SPAWNS DISSENTING ACADEMIES
The Dissenting Academies of England arose in response to the Act of Uniformity of 1662. They were established by English Nonconformist pastors to provide an alternative to the universities for young men who wished to be trained for the ministry. The first of these academies was probably established by Jarvis Bryan of Coventry sometime after 1663. The training that these academies offered in the new sciences often was superior to that of the traditional universities. The need for these academies ended in the nineteenth century as Nonconformists were allowed once again to attend the universities.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1662 HALF-WAY COVENANT EXPANDS CHURCH MEMBERSHIP IN MASSACHUSETTS Because so many Puritan children in Massachusetts were reaching adulthood unconverted and therefore ineligible for church membership, the Massachusetts Synod of 1662 adopted the Half-way covenant. It allowed for baptized adults who professed faith and lived uprightly, but who had had no conversion experience, to be accepted as church members. Their children were recognized as "half-way" members and could not take Communion or participate in church elections. In practice, the Half-way covenant opened the doors of church membership to the whole community and was the catalyst for the spiritual decline of New England Congregationalism.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1665 SHABBETAI ZEVI PROCLAIMS HIMSELF MESSIAH In 1665, Shabbetai Zevi (1626-1676), a Polish Jew who practiced a form of Jewish mysticism known as kabbalah, claimed to be the deliverer of the Jews. He became convinced he was the Chosen One after rumor had spread among Eastern European Jews that their Messiah would appear in 1648. Though denounced as a heretic for speaking God's name aloud (in Jewish tradition God's true name is considered unutterable), Zevi received homage from many Jews throughout Europe and the Middle East, including serious attention from rabbis and educated Jews. In a surprising turn, Zevi was imprisoned while attempting to overthrow a Turkish ruler, and when faced with execution or conversion, he became a Muslim. The shock hit Jewish communities with force, and many refused to believe he had rejected Judaism. To this day, the Turkish group Donmeh secretly remains Jewish awaiting the return of Zevi, while publicly practicing Islam.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1667 MILTON WRITES PARADISE LOST John Milton (1608-1674) felt a call to serve God from the time he entered school in England at age seven. He spent the next fifteen years acquiring a remarkable education in England and Italy. By the time he graduated, Milton could speak or read seven languages. He sided with the Parliamentarians in England's Civil War, earning him a post in Cromwell's Commonwealth government. By 1655, Milton was totally blind. Three years later, Cromwell (1599— 1658) died. When Charles II (1630-1685) returned in 1660 to reestablish the monarchy, Milton went into hiding for fear of his life. Working from memory and aided by people who read and took dictation for him, Milton devoted his final years to writing poetry. Paradise Lost, an epic poem on the creation and fall of man, was published in 1667 and became Milton's defining work.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1669 REMBRANDT COMPLETES THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) produced more than twenty-three hundred known works of art. Born into a prosperous family in Leyden, the Netherlands, Rembrandt began studying art at age fourteen and first attained success as a portrait painter. Rembrandt's personal life was tumultuous, with bankruptcy, the death of his only son, and marriages resulting in censure from the strongly Cal-vinistic society in Amsterdam. The vast majority of his religious paintings, intimate in detail and size, were intended for private contemplation rather than for public display. By contrast, Rembrandt's last painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son, was almost nine by seven feet. In it, a repentant son kneels at the feet of his father, who leans over him with outstretched arms. It was finished in 1669, and many scholars consider it Rembrandt's last testimony. He died the same year.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1675 SPENER'S PIA DESIDERIA CHALLENGES BELIEVERS
Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705) was born in Germany at the height of the Thirty Years' War. He grew up in the Lutheran Church, which by this time had become dry and formal. As a student in Geneva, Switzerland, Spener was exposed to Reformed theology. The Reformed doctrines of repentance and regeneration revitalized Lutheranism for Spener, who emerged as a leader of the Pietist movement in Germany. His best-known work, Pia Desideria, or "Pious Desires," was published in 1675. In it Spener challenged believers to seek an active faith rooted in personal study of the Bible and manifested in acts of love. As a result, Spener became a controversial figure in the church. But it was his emphasis on practical spirituality that eventually revitalized the German Lutheran Church.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1678 JOHN BUNYAN PUBLISHES THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS
With the restoration of England's King Charles II (r. 1660-1685) to the throne in 1660, a decade of religious toleration in England came to an end. Puritans who conscientiously objected to the rites of the Church of England faced persecution and imprisonment. Among them was a Bedford tinker turned preacher named John Bunyan (1628-1688). Bunyan was born into a modest country home and received little formal education. Following his conversion, Bunyan continued to support his family by mending pots and pans while preaching occasionally in his home church in Bedford, England. He was arrested in 1660 for preaching and spent most of the next twelve years in jail. During his imprisonment, Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim's Progress. First published in 1678, Bunyan's allegory of the Christian life has remained in print for more than three centuries and has been translated into more than two hundred languages.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1680 JOACHIM NEANDER DIES
A student of literature and music, Joachim Neander (1650-1680) was born in Bremen, Germany, and led a wild and careless life. After a miraculous escape from death, Neander became a Christian and joined the Lutheran Church. At age twenty-four he became the headmaster of a Reformed grammar school in Dusseldorf. A few years later, Neander was suspended. Rather than protest the circumstances, he returned to Bremen. That summer, Neander lived in a cave overlooking the Rhine River, where he began writing poetry and hymns. He died, probably of the plague, three years later at the age of thirty. Sixty of Neander's hymns were published in 1680, the year of his death. Among them was "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation." Neander is considered the first great poet of the German Reformation.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
A TINKER'S PILGRIMAGE
February 18, 1678
For a century after it was first published, one book's popularity was exceeded only by that of the Bible. Yet its author was a tinker—a mender of pots and pans.
John Bunyan seems an unlikely candidate to have written any book. Born in Bedford, England, in about 1628, he received little formal education. But he was skilled with his hands and served as an apprentice to his father, a tinker. Bunyan owned no books until he was married, but his wife's dowry consisted of two Puritan classics. She was a Christian, but Bunyan still was an unbeliever.
While working as a tinker, Bunyan often overheard a group of women discussing the
Bible. He later wrote, "I thought they spoke as if joy did make them speak......... They were
to me as if they had found a new world." Irresistibly drawn by their conversations, one day he marveled "at a very great softness and tenderness of heart, which caused me to fall under the conviction of what by Scripture they asserted." Shortly thereafter he experienced their joy when he put his trust in the Lord Jesus as his Savior.
Bunyan's path after his conversion, however, was neither smooth nor straight. He struggled with his daughter's blindness, poverty, his wife's death, and his desire to preach the gospel when it was forbidden by law. In 1660, remarried and the father of six, John Bunyan was imprisoned for preaching without a license. He was denied a license because he had little education and disagreed with the Church of England.
Intermittently in and out of prison for twelve years, he made shoelaces in his cell to support his family and spent many hours writing. His manuscript began, "As I was walking in the wilderness of this world....I dreamed, and behold I saw a man clothed with rags, a book in his hand, and a great burden upon his back. I looked, and saw him open the book and read therein, and as he read, he wept and trembled ... and broke out with a lamentable cry saying, 'What shall I do to be saved?'" The manuscript, titled The Pilgrim's Progress, told the story of Pilgrim's quest to answer that question.
First licensed for print on February 18, 1678, The Pilgrim's Progress is the best known of Bunyan's fifty-eight books. It remains in print three hundred years later and has been translated into more than two hundred languages.
Bunyan died ten years later. In the words of The Pilgrim's Progress, "Now at the end of this valley was another, called the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and Christian must needs go through it, because the way to the Celestial City lay in the midst of it."
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1680 RICHARD CAMERON DELIVERS THE SANQUHAR DECLARATION
King Charles II (1630-1685) of England's oath in 1650 to establish Presbyterianism throughout his realm won him the Scottish crown. But he later revealed his insincerity when he reestablished the Anglican Church in Scotland in 1662. Opposition quietly simmered beneath the surface until 1680, when covenanter Richard Cameron (1648-1680) rode into the Scottish city of Sanquhar and delivered what became known as the Sanquhar Declaration. The declaration rejected Charles II as king and declared war on him as a tyrant and as the chief persecutor of the covenanters. It also rejected his brother, the Duke of York, as heir apparent because he was Roman Catholic. Although initially regarded as a futile protest by a small minority, within nine years the declaration became Britain's position.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1682 PENN FOUNDS PENNSYLVANIA
William Penn (1644-1718) was born in London and was the son of an admiral in the Royal Navy who had captured Jamaica for England. After a godless youth, Penn became a member of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, in 1666. Two years later, Penn was imprisoned for speaking out against the Church of England. After his release he grew increasingly discouraged with England's persecution of those who dissented from the views of the state church. King Charles II (1630-1685) owed Penn's father a debt, and in 1681, Penn persuaded the king to cancel it in exchange for a huge land grant west of the colonies in New England. In 1682, Penn laid out the city of Philadelphia on his newly gained land and published the "Frame of Government" for Pennsylvania, which allowed unprecedented religious freedom for anyone who believed in God. Pennsylvania was the first seat of true religious toleration in America.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1685 EDICT OF NANTES IS REVOKED
After nearly forty years of war in France between the Catholics and Protestants (called Huguenots), King Henry IV (1553-1610) of France brought peace by issuing the Edict of Nantes in 1598. Legally recognizing Protestants' rights, the edict granted the Huguenots relative religious freedom. However, the Catholic majority continued to fight the Huguenots in many French towns. In 1685, eighty-seven years later, King Louis XIV (1638-1715) revoked the edict under pressure from the Catholic Church. Renewed persecution forced many Huguenots to flee to Germany, England, and the Netherlands.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
THE EXTINGUISHING OF PROTESTANTISM IN FRANCE
October 18, 1685
Why is France today considered a mission field?
The Wars of Religion began in France in 1562, between the Roman Catholics and the French Protestants called Huguenots. The Huguenots were led by the family of Henry of Navarre, a minor kingdom including a small portion of southern France and the present Spanish province of Navarre. Henry inherited the throne of Navarre from his staunchly Calvinistic mother. When his cousin King Henry III of France died in 1589, he became heir to France's throne. His Calvinism made him an unacceptable candidate in Catholic France until he embraced Catholicism in 1593. He was then crowned King Henry IV.
Once king, however, he did not forget his Huguenot roots, and in 1598, he issued the Edict of Nantes. This agreement gave the Huguenots freedom of religion in certain areas of the country. It provided the Huguenots with a state subsidy for their troops and pastors and allowed them to retain control of approximately two hundred towns. The Edict of Nantes was historically unique in that it was the first time freedom was granted to two religions to exist in a nation side by side.
By the late 1600s, Henry IV's grandson Louis XIV was king of France. But Louis XIV shared none of his grandfather's empathy for the Huguenots, and on October 18, 1685, he revoked the Edict of Nantes. All Huguenot worship and education were forbidden, and all Huguenot churches were either destroyed or turned into Catholic churches. Huguenot clergy were given fourteen days to leave France, but the remaining Huguenots were forbidden to emigrate. All children within France were to be baptized by a Catholic priest and raised as Catholics, and Huguenots were allowed to remain in only a few specified towns.
Mounted soldiers were housed in the homes of Huguenots. The troops were given license to do anything they pleased short of murder. Obstinate Huguenot men were imprisoned. The women sometimes fared better as they were sent to convents where they often received unexpectedly sympathetic treatment from the nuns.
Of the 1.5 million Huguenots living in France in 1660, over the next decades four hundred thousand risked their lives by escaping across the guarded borders. Geneva, a city of sixteen thousand, welcomed four thousand Huguenots. An entire quarter of London was soon populated with French workers. The elector of Brandenburg gave such a friendly reception to Huguenots that over a fifth of Berlin was French by 1697. Holland welcomed thousands and gave them citizenship. Many Huguenots fled to South Carolina and to the other colonies as well.
At the height of the Reformation nearly half of France's population was Huguenot. But as a result of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes and the intense persecution that followed, today less than one percent of the French share the faith of the Huguenots, making France a mission field for the gospel.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
EVEN THE WIND AND WAVES OBEY HIM
November 5, 1688
The God who controls the winds controls the nations.
The 1660s through the 1680s were tough times for God's people in England and Scotland. After the ascendancy of the Puritans to political power during the English civil wars of the 1640s and the execution of King Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, a Puritan Independent, set up a commonwealth with himself as its head. Following his death in 1658, his son Richard succeeded him for one year and then resigned. During the Cromwells' rule, the Puritans experienced their peak of political power and enjoyed religious freedom.
The Presbyterians controlling Parliament were no fans of the Cromwells. Therefore, in 1660, Parliament invited Charles II, the second son of Charles I, to the throne. They were influenced by the fact that ten years earlier Charles II had become a Presbyterian in order to gain Scottish support for his recovery of the throne. But Charles II turned out to be no friend of God's people. Under the Act of Uniformity of 1662, all ministers were given a deadline by which they were required to receive Episcopal ordination. This resulted in the "Great Ejection," in which about two thousand Presbyterian, Independent, and Baptist pastors were forced from their churches. The Five Mile Act of 1665 forbade them from coming within five miles of any British town.
On his deathbed in 1685, Charles II publicly acknowledged his conversion to Roman Catholicism, which he had kept secret for years. This explained his animosity toward the Presbyterians who had brought him to the throne.
Charles II was succeeded by James II, another Roman Catholic. James II intensified the persecution of the Scottish covenanters who resisted the Episcopal government being forced upon the Church of Scotland. Many lost their lives. Since James II had pushed for a Catholic succession, the birth of his son brought the issue to a crisis. His daughter Mary had married William of Orange, who was raised as a follower of John Calvin and had become head of state of the Netherlands. William also had strong claims to the throne of England. The thought of James's Catholic son as heir to the throne was too much for the Protestant nobles of England and they invited William and Mary to take the throne.
On November 1, 1688, William set out with his navy across the English Channel to invade England. The wind was so strong that it kept many of the English ships imprisoned in the Thames River, unable to attack William. The sight of William's fleet sailing along the English coast was a stirring spectacle to the beleaguered Protestants of England. On November 5, 1688, William's fleet landed and William of Orange and his troops began what became known as the Glorious Revolution.
James II fled to France. The next month, as the Protestants of England celebrated their first Christmas in years worshiping as they wished, James was attending Mass in France.
God used the wind to keep England a Protestant nation.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1687 NEWTON PUBLISHES PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was educated at Trinity College in Cambridge, England, and became a professor of mathematics and physics at Cambridge University. Newton, an Anglican, was an ardent Bible student and was active in Bible distribution, but he hid the fact that he did not believe in the deity of Christ. In 1687, Newton published his discoveries about the mechanics of earth and space in his Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, or "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy." The Principia is considered a landmark in the history of science. In it, Newton postulated the theory of universal gravitation, demonstrating how it explained both the behavior of falling bodies on the earth, and the motions of planets and other bodies in space.
—Complete Book of When and Where, The
1688 ENGLAND'S GLORIOUS REVOLUTION BEGINS James II (1633-1701), a Roman Catholic, reigned as king of England from 1685 to 1688. In June 1688, when his wife gave birth to a son who would be heir to the throne, the nobles of England, Ireland, and Scotland determined that they could not tolerate another Catholic king. Instead they pledged their support to William of Orange (1650-1702). William, a Protestant who followed the teachings of John Calvin (1509-1564), left his kingdom in the Netherlands on November 1, 1688. Crossing the English Channel with his navy, William was assisted by strong winds that kept the English army from setting sail to attack his fleet. Arriving in England on November 5, 1688, William of Orange and his army were victorious in what we now know as the Glorious Revolution. James II fled to France.
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1689 THE BILL OF RIGHTS AND THE TOLERATION ACT ARE CODIFIED IN ENGLAND
In 1689, as one of his first acts as king of England, William of Orange (1650-1702) codified in twin acts many of the triumphs won by Puritans and other Protestants in the previous decades of revolution: the Bill of Rights and the Toleration Act. Nonconformists, as those who disagreed with the Church of England were known, were granted relative religious freedom in England. They were allowed to have their own places of worship and to choose their own pastors and teachers.
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1692 WITCH EXECUTIONS END IN SALEM
In 1692, Samuel Parris (1653-1720), the pastor in Salem, Massachusetts, warned his congregation that witches could be anywhere, even in their church. Parris' concern stemmed from the recent experiences of his daughter and several of her teenage friends, who had experienced convulsions, trances, and hallucinations. The witch hunt began at a meeting at the Parris home, and eventually about one hundred and fifty people were accused of witchcraft and arrested. Nineteen were convicted as witches and hanged. The final executions in Salem took place on September 22, 1692, when one man and seven women were hanged on Witches Hill. The following year Parris repented of the part he played in the witch hunts and publicly denounced his behavior in a sermon.
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1692 CHINA LIFTS THE BAN ON CHRISTIANITY
In 1692, Manchu Emperor K'ang Hsi (1654-1722) issued an edict granting toleration to Christians. The edict's effect was to open most of China to Jesuit missionaries, who were soon joined by Dominicans and Franciscans. The first Protestant missionary, Robert Morrison (1782-1834), did not arrive in China until 1807.
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1698 FRANCKE OPENS THE FIRST ORPHANAGE IN HALLE
While teaching Hebrew at the University of Leipzig, Germany, August Hermann Francke (1663-1727) heard Pietist Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705) preach. In 1687, Francke was converted and began holding Bible studies for students at the university. These lead to a revival at the school, but Francke was forced to leave because of his evangelical views. In 1692, Francke accepted a professorship at the University of Halle as well as a pastorate at a nearby church. There, led by his deeply held belief that genuine spirituality expresses itself in acts of love, Francke initiated a ministry to the poor. In 1698, he opened the first modern orphanage in Halle. But rather than segregate these children from society, Francke established associated schools and job-training programs of such caliber that middle-class and aristocratic children were educated side by side with the poor. As a result, Halle became a center for Pietism in Germany.
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THE SHAME OF SALEM
September 22, 1692
It became a literal witch hunt.
It all began in 1692, when the young daughter of Samuel Parris, pastor of the church in Salem, Massachusetts, exhibited strange, psychotic symptoms, including violent convulsions and trancelike states. The hysteria soon spread to several other teenage girls within her social sphere.
Parris was at first ashamed and then alarmed by these manifestations in his daughter and her friends. When pressed, the girls blamed witches for their torment. In a sermon, Parris told his parishioners that witches were everywhere, including in their church.
The ensuing witch hunt was organized in a meeting held at the Parris home. Eventually, approximately 150 suspected witches were imprisoned and nineteen were hanged. Most of the victims were either social outcasts or members of families who had opposed the ministry of Samuel Parris. Many were middle-aged women with no male relatives to defend them.
The final executions occurred on the morning of September 22, 1692, on Witches Hill in Salem. Eight New Englanders, including seven women and one man, were hanged.
Gathered at the foot of the scaffold were people representing every age group. Eighty-nine-year-old Simon Bradstreet, recent governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, as well as the other original Puritans still alive, had left England over a half century earlier to create a Christian commonwealth in the New World. They viewed their own children as unfaithful to their Puritan upbringing and felt their utopia was being judged because of their wayward progeny.
Also present at the gallows was sixty-one-year-old William Stoughton, the judge at the witch trials. His generation watched the execution with resignation. The witches as well as the magistrates who condemned them were all of their age.
Representative of the younger generation was twenty-nine-year-old Cotton Mather, a brilliant young clergyman. Mather himself had been one of those who had examined the witches. He was to become a leading theologian of his day.
Present also at the gallows were the young girls who had been the accusers of the witches. Their shrieking and twitching reminded everyone what the witches had done.
From the last of the original Puritans who had helped create Massachusetts as God's "City on a Hill" to the youngest children who would someday be citizens of the future United States of America, this crowd at the final witch hanging represented a unique moment in American history.
After the executions, the neighboring ministers took action to end the witch trials. A year later Samuel Parris, by then realizing his own responsibility for these shameful events, described his remorse for the executions in a sermon. He acknowledged that the wounds of their victims "accuseth us as the vile actors."
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