January 9
1349 The Jewish population of
Basel, Switzerland, believed by the residents to be the cause of the
ongoing bubonic
plague, was rounded up and incinerated.
1420 1,500 followers of Jan Hus
(ca. 1369–1415)
were killed in Kuttenberg, Bohemia.
1431 Judges’
investigations for the
trial of Joan of Arc
begin in Rouen, France, the seat of the English occupation government.
1554 Pope
Gregory XV was born (d. 8 July 1623).
1569
Saint Philip of Moscow (b. 1507), primate of the Russian
Orthodox Church who was murdered by Czar Ivan IV (“Ivan
the Terrible”),
is commemorated.
1575
Conrad Dietrich, subdiaconus at Marburg and author of an
exposition of Martin Luther’s
Small Catechism that was used in the Missouri Synod for many years, was
born in Gemuende, Hessen-Cassel (d. 1639).
1667 Paul
Gerhardt (1607–1676),
hymnist, was reinstated as pastor in Berlin.
1696
Sebastian Schmidt (Schmid), professor of theology, died (b.
1617, Lampertheim, Alsace).
1709
Peter Nicholas (Nicolaus) Sommer, Lutheran pastor in New
York, was born at Hamburg, Germany (d. 27 October 1795).
1829
Peder Andreas Rasmussen, who helped found the United
Norwegian Lutheran Church in America, was born in Stavanger, Norway (d.
15 August 1898).
1836
Peter Reinhold Grundemann, founder of the Brandenburg
Missionary Conference, was born at Bärwalde, near Berlin (d.
1924).
1836 The first Roman Catholic
college to be founded in the deep South,
Spring Hill College, was established in Spring Hill, Arkansas.
1849
Markus Olaus Böckman,
professor of theology at Saint Olaf College (Northfield, Minnesota) and
Augsburg Seminary (Minneapolis), was born in Langesund, Norway (d. 21
July 1942).
1850 The first day of class was
held at
Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) after its move from Perry
County, Missouri.
1858
Joseph A. Robinson, hymnist, was born at Keynsham, Somerset,
England (d. 7 May 1933, Upton Noble, Somerset, England).
1912 Elias Zoghby,
retired
Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop of Baalbek and a leading
advocate of Catholic-Orthodox ecumenism, was born.
1913
Karl Georg Stöckhardt,
Bible exegete, author and theologian, died (b. 17 February 1842).
1924 British Armenian scholar
Frederick C. Conybeare died (b. 1856).
1970 The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (The Mormons),
after 140 years of unofficial discrimination against blacks within the
church, issued an official letter stating their position on race
relations within the church:
“Joseph Smith and all succeeding presidents of
the church have taught that Negroes, while spirit children of a common
father and the progeny of our earthly parents Adam and Eve, were not
yet to receive the priesthood, for reasons which we believe are known
to God but which He has not made fully known to man.”
