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May 26, 1521: The Edict of Worms formally condemns Martin
Luther's teachings , and he is put under the ban of the Holy Roman
Emperor. Those who fear for his life then kidnap Luther and hide him in
Fredericks Wartbury castle (see issue 34: Luther's Early Years).
May 26, 1232: Pope Gregory IX sends the first Inquisition team to Aragon, Spain.
May 26, 1664: Increase Mather becomes minister of Boston's
Second Church, a position he held until his death 59 years later. He
became one of the leading clergymen in the colonies (see issue 41: The
American Puritans).
May 26, 1926: Church of the Foursquare Gospel founder Sister
Aimee Semple McPherson disappears from a California beach. Her mother
announced that Aimee must have drowned, telling the Angelus Temple
congregation, "Sister is gone." However, three days after an elaborate
memorial service on June 20, Sister reappeared in Arizona, saying she
had been kidnapped. (Rumors circulated that she had eloped for a
romantic tryst.) Her support base remained strong, but media coverage
turned negative, and her image never fully recovered (see issue 58: The Rise of Pentecostalism).
May 27, 1564: John Calvin, French Protestant Reformer, dies. He
kept writing and ministering to the Christians in Geneva nearly up to
his death, telling his worried friends, "What! Would you have the Lord
find me idle when he comes?" (see issue 12: John Calvin).
May 28, 1954: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill adding the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance.
May 29, 1660: England's King Charles II triumphantly enters
London, marking the full restoration of the monarchy. Though he
promised religious liberty, he cracked down on Dissenters (including
John Bunyan) following a 1661 attempt by religious fanatics to overthrow
him (see issue 11: John Bunyan).
May 29, 1874: English essayist, poet, and writer G.K. Chesterton
is born in London. The 400-pound man was occasionally absent-minded,
but brilliant. He loved paradoxes, which he called "supreme assertions
of truth," and used them often in his writing. Poet T.S. Eliot credited
him with doing "more than any man in his time . . . to maintain the
existence of the [Christian] minority in the modern world." Chesterton
converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism in 1922 (see issue 75:
G.K. Chesterton).
May 30, 339: Eusebius dies at age 74. Author of the 10-volume Ecclesiastical History,
he is called the father of church history. In his day, though, he was
as much a maker of history as a recorder. At the Council of Nicea, he
argued for peace between the heretical Arians and Orthodox leaders like
Athanasius. When Arianism became hugely popular after the Council,
Eusebius was one of the people to depose Athanasius. Though he wasn't
an Arian himself, he strongly opposed anti-Arianism (see issue 72: How We Got Our History).
May 30, 1934: The first synod of the Confessing Church at Barmen
ends. Influenced by Karl Barth, the synod resisted the teachings of the
Nazi German Christians (see issue 32: Dietrich Bonhoeffer).
May 31, 1578: Italian archaeologist Antonio Bosio discovers the
Christian catacombs in Rome. Some have mistaken them for places of
refuge or worship, but Christians used them mainly as burial chambers.
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Rick Warren Goes Global
