Today in Church History

June 17, 1963 - School Prayers Banned from USA Classrooms

2006-06-16T15:33:00.000-07:00

On June 17th, 1963 a Supreme Court Decision ( by a vote of 8-1) declared as unconstitutional the public reading of the Bible and prayer in public schools.

The background to this decision lay in a campaign led by Madalyn O'Hair (pictured) following her discovery that her son William Murray Jr (later a Baptist minister) was forced to be involved in these actions. In the highly publicised lead up to the Supreme Court decision O'Hair became synonymous in the public's mind with atheism and this gave her an opportunity for self-publicity in her own uniquely forthright style. To citeone example from Life interview published in April 1963:

We find the Bible to be nauseating, historically inaccurate, replete with the ravings of madmen. We find God to be sadistic, brutal, and a representation of hatred, vengeance. We find the Lord's Prayer to be that uttered by worms groveling for meager existence in a traumatic, paranoid world.

After the successful case O'Hair went on to found the American Atheists.

Source:
Alister McGrath, The Twilight of Atheism: The Rise and Fall of Disbelief in the Modern World, Random House, (2004), 242-246.

Madalyn Murray O'Hair, Wikipedia.

Related Tags: Madalyn O'Hair, Atheism

June 5, 1837. Presbyterian Church in USA splits

2006-06-05T13:00:00.000-07:00

The following is from the website of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church:

On June 5, 1837, the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. separated into Old School and New School divisions.

The split involved a series of issues related to theology, polity, and social reform (especially debate on the Presbyterian response to slavery). The Old School consisted of doctrinal conservatives mainly in the Mid-Atlantic states and the South; the New Schoolers were progressives concentrated in New York, New England, and the western frontier. The 1837 General Assembly, meeting with an Old School majority, abrogated its 1801 Plan of Union with the Congregationalists, it pronounced that action retroactive, and it thereby declared that four New School Presbyterian synods brought in by that plan “to be out of the ecclesiastical connection of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America.”

This Assembly action launched a 32-year division between Old School and New School Presbyterians. In 1869, the two parties were united in the North, soon after the end of the Civil War. In the words of Princeton historian Lefferts Loetscher, the reunion of 1869 resulted in a “broadening church,” where organizational efficiency eclipsed theological precision. By the close of the nineteenth century, northern Presbyterians would experience both significant growth and advancing secularization.

- John Muether

Other Resources:

There is also an article length survey of the schism written in the Journal of Presbyterian History available here (PDF).

Related Tags: Presbyterianism

May 24, 1844 - Codex Sinaiticus discovered

2006-05-24T23:21:00.000-07:00

Lobegott Friedrich Constantine von Tischendorf (1815-1874) was a German New Testament scholar whose career aim was through textual criticism to attain the original form of the New Testament. On a journey to Egypt he found a copy of the very important Codex Sinaiticus, a fourth century edition of scripture which has been important for New Testament textual Criticism. Tischendorf describes his descovery as follows:

"It was on the foot of Mount Sinai, in the Convent of St Catherine, that I discovered the pearl of all my researches. In visiting the monastry in the month of May 1844, I perceived in the middle of the great hall a large and wide basket full of old parchments; and the librarian who was a man of information told me that two heaps of papers like these, mouldered by time, had been already committed to the flames. What was mt suprise to find amid this heap of papers a considerable number of sheets of a copy of the Old Testament in Greek, which seemed to me to be one of the most ancient that I had ever seen. The authorities of the monastry allowed me to possess myself of a third of the parchments, or about forty three sheets, all the more readily as they were designated for the fire. But I could not get them to yield up possession of the remainder. The too lively satisfaction which I had displayed aroused their suspicions as to the value of the manuscript. I transcribed a page of the text of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and enjoined on the monks to take religious care of all such remains that might fall their way."

It took 15 years before Tischendorf was again able to locate the manuscript after his departure empty-handed. In 1859, under the patronage Czar Alexander II eventually found the manuscript and this time left with it.

Source: Bart Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind who Changed the Bible and Why, Harper, (2005), 118-120.

May 20 1527 - The Execution of Michael Sattler.

2006-05-20T10:20:00.000-07:00

Michael Sattler Martyred

Brief Biography

Michael Sattler was a former leader in the Benedictine monastery of Saint Peter's in the Black Forest. Sattler left the monastry in 1527. In November 1525 Sattler attended a disputation on on Baptism in Zurich where he displayed some sympathy for (Swiss) Anabaptist beliefs whic led to his expulsion from the city. By June 1526 he was a convinced Anabaptist and at the end of the year whilst based in Strasbourg Sattler pleaded with the city's reformers (Bucer and Capito) for mercy on the city's imprisoned Anabaptists.

When Sattler left Strassbourg he wrote a letter of farewell that was to become the basis of the Schleitheim Confession. Unsurprisingly when the Schleitheim was agreed Sattler was a leading figure in the confession. It was here that Sattler was persuaded by Willhelm Reublin to take charge of the Anabaptist congregation at Horb. However, within days of arriving there Sattler, his wife Margaretha, and other individuals were arrested and imprisoned in Rottenberg.

Trial and Execution

On 17 and 18 May Sattler was tried on 9 counts (quoted from Yoder):

That he and his associates have acted against imperial mandate
He has taught, held, and believed, that the body and blood of Christ are not in the sacrament.
He taught and believes that infant baptism is not requisite toward salvation
They have rejected the sacrament of unction
Despised and scorned the mother of God and the saints
They have said that one should not swear to the government
Initiated a new and unheard-of usage in the Lord's Supper, with wine and bread crumbled in a basin, and eating the same
He has forsaken the order and has married a wife
He has said: "If the Turk were to come into the land, one should not resist him, and, if it were right to wage war, he would rather go to war against the Christians than against the Turks" which is after all a great offense, to take the side of the greatest enemy of our holy faith against us.

After hearing the charges Sattler requested a moment to consult with his co-accused; after doing so he returned and responded to each charge as follows:

We do not admit that we have acted counter to the imperial mandate; for it says that one should not adhere to the Lutheran doctrine and seduction, but only to the gospel and the Word of God; this we have held to. Counter to the gospel and the Word of God I do not know that I have done anything; in witness thereto I appeal to the words of Christ.
That the real body of Christ the Lord is not in the sacrament, we admit: for nscripture says: Christ has ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of His heavenly Father, whence he will come to judge the living and the dead. It follows therefrom, since He is in heaven and not in the bread, that he cannot be eaten bodily.
Regarding baptism we say: infant baptism is not useful toward salvation, for it stands written, that we live only by faith. Further: "He who believes and is baptized, will be saved." Peter says in 1 Peter 3: "which also now saves you in baptism, which thereby signifies not the laying off of filth of the flesh but the covenant of a good conscience with God through the resurrection of Christ"
We have not rejected oil, for it is a creature of God. What God had made is good and not to be rejected. But what pope, bishop, monks, and priests have wanted to do to improve on it, this we think nothing of. For the pope has never made anything good. What the epistle of James speaks of is not the pope's oil.
We have not dishonoured the mother of God and the saints; rather the mother of Christ is to be praised above all women because to her was given the grace that she could give birth to the savious of the whole world. That she, however, is a mediatrix and advocate, the scripture knows nothing of; for she must like us await judgement. Paul says to Timothy that Christ is our mediator and advocate before God. Concerning the saints, we say that we who live and believe are the saints. I testify to this with the epistle of Paul to the Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, and elsewhere: he always writes: "To the beloved saints." Therefore we, who believe, are the saints. Those who have died in the faith we call "blessed."
We hold that one should not swear allegiance to government for the Lord says in Matthew 5: "You should swear no oath, but your speech shall be yea, yea, nay, nay"
When God called me to testify to His word, and I read Paul, I considered the unchristian and dangerous estate in which I had been , in view of the pomp, pride, usury, and great fornification of the monks and priests. I therefore obeyed and took a wife according to the command of God. Paul was prophesying well on the subject to Timothy: "In the last days it shall come to pass that they will forbid marriage and food, which God has created that they might be enjoyed with thanksgiving."
If the Turk comes, he should not beresisted, for it stands written: thou shalt not kill. We should not defend ourselves against the Turks or our other persecutors, but with fervent prayer should implore God that He might be our defense and our resistance. As to me saying that if waging was were proper I would rather take the field against the so-called Christians who persecute, take captive, and kill true Christians, than against the Turks, this was for the following reason: the Turk is a genuine Turk and knows nothing of the Christian faith. He is a Turk according to the flesh. But you claim to be Christians, boast of Christ, and still persecute the faithful witnesses of Christ. Thus you are Turks according to the Spirit.

Those trying the case were not persuaded by Sattler's defence. The sentencing remarks were as follows:

In the matter of the prosecutorof the imperial majesty versus Michael Sattler, it has been found that Michael Sattler should be given into the hands of the hangman, who shall lead him to the wagon, there tear his body twice with red hot tongs, and again when he is brought before the gate, five more times. When this is done to be burned to powder as a heretic.

On the 20th May, 1527 this sentence was carried out in accordance with the sentencing remarks. Before Sattler had prayed "Almighty eternal God, Thou who art the way and the truth, since I have not been taught otherwise by anyone, so by Thy help I will testify this day to the truth and seal it with my blood". As he was thrown to the fire he made the sign of two raised fingers with both hands - this being the pre-arranged message to his co-believers of his faithfulness to the end -. In this manner Anabaptist became one the earliest and certainly most highly regarded of early Anabaptist martyrs.

Pictured: The Neckar River where Sattler was executed (from Yoder, p69).

Resources:
J Denny Weaver, Becoming Anabaptist: The Origins and Significance of Sixteenth-Century Anabaptism, Herald, (2005).

John H Yoder, The Legacy of Michael Sattler, Herald, (1973). - This is an edited collection of primary sources from Sattler's life.

The Trial of sturdy Michael Sattler.

Related Tags: Anabaptism, Martyrdom, Michael Sattler

28 April 1109 - Hugh of Cluny Dies

2006-04-28T04:06:00.000-07:00

Hugh of Cluny Dies (aka St Hugh of Cluny / Hugh the Great)

At the age of twenty-five (1049) Hugh was appointed to be the Abbot of his monastery. Hugh was instrumental in assisting Gregory VII in applying his reforms. Hugh was also a key figure in mediating disputes between kings and emperors and the papacy. The following from the catholic Encyclopaedia is an account of Hugh of Cluny's death on the evening of 28 April 1109:

In the spring of 1109, Hugh, worn out with years and labours, and feeling his end approaching, asked for the Last Sacraments, summoned around him his spiritual children, and, having given each the kiss of peace, dismissed them with the greeting: Benedicite. Then, asking to be conveyed to the Chapel of our Blessed Lady, he laid himself in sackcloth and ashes before her altar, and thus breathed forth his soul to his Creator on the evening of Easter Monday (28 April).

On the 6^th January 1120 Calistus II declared Hugh a saint and his feast day is set at 29^th April.

Source: “St Hugh the Great”, Catholic Encyclopaedia (Online)