January 27
417
Pelagius
(ca. 354–ca. 420/440), a British monk, was excommunicated
for heresy. He denied original sin and claimed that people
could become righteous by the exercise of free will.
537 Byzantine Emperor
Justinian
(482–565) dedicated the Church of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom)
in Constantinople.
1302 On a charge of hostility to the church and
corrupt practices,
Dante
Alighieri
(1265–1321) was fined heavily and perpetually excluded from
political office (he was a chief magistrate).
1343
Pope Clement VI (1291–1352)
issues the Bull
Unigenitus to justify the power of the pope and
the use of
indulgences.
1377 The Papal See was moved back to Rome by
Pope
Gregory XI
(ca. 1336–1378) after having been
located in Avignon, France, for seventy-two years.
1593 The Vatican opened a seven-year trial against
Giordano Bruno (1548–1600), an
Italian philosopher, priest, cosmologist and occultist and
an early proponent of the idea of an infinite and
homogeneous universe. He was burnt at the stake as a heretic
by the
Roman Inquisition.
1629
Hieronymus Praetorius, German organist and composer,
died (b. 10 August 1560, Hamburg).
1715
Kasper Neumann, hymnist, died in Breslau (b. 14
September 1648, Breslau).
1756
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, extraordinary Austrian
composer, was born at Salzburg (d. 5 December 1791).
1836
Frederick David Schaeffer, Pennsylvania Ministerium
pastor, died (b. 15 November 1760, Frankfurt am Main).
1839
John Julian, English hymnist and musicologist, was born
in Cornwall, England (d. 22 January 1913).
1839
Lutheran immigrants under
August
Ludwig Christian Kavel
(1798–1860) arrived in Port Adelaide, Australia.
1845
August Crull, hymn translator, was born in Rostock,
Germany (d. 17 February 1923, Milwaukee, Wisconsin).
1847
Henry Scott Holland, hymnist, was born in Ledbury,
Hereford, England (d. 17 March 1918).
1882
Hans Palladan Smith Schreuder, Norwegian missionary to
Africa, died in Untunjambili, Natal, South Africa (b. 1817,
Sogndal, Norway).
1948
John Caspar Mattes, Lutheran theologian, writer and hymn
translator, died (b. 8 November 1876, Easton, Pennsylvania).
1972 The white and black United Methodist
conferences in South Carolina, separated since the Civil
War, voted in their respective meetings in Columbia to adopt
a plan of union.
1972
Mahalia Jackson (b. 26 October 1912), African American
religious vocalist, died.
1984 Leslie F. Weber, former executive secretary
of the Missouri Synod Board for Social Ministry Services,
died (b. 25 February 1912, Boston). Weber graduated from
Concordia Collegiate Institute (Bronxville, New York) in
1931. In 1935 he graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint
Louis) and was ordained in 1938. He was awarded an honorary
doctorate in 1969 from the Saint Louis seminary. From 1935
to 1938 Weber was assistant chaplain for Lutheran Service
Society of Buffalo, New York. Then he was pastor of the
Lutheran Church of Our Savior, Buffalo, from 1938 to 1941.
From 1941 to 1964, he was executive chaplain for the
Lutheran Mission Society of Maryland, Baltimore. For the
next three years he was secretary for chaplaincy services
for the synod’s Board of Social
Welfare. Beginning in 1967 and until his retirement in 1982
he was executive secretary of that board and its successor
boards. While in Baltimore he was executive secretary of the
Lutheran Home and Hospital Association (1947–1964)
and chairman of the Board of Social Welfare of the
Southeastern District (1956–1964).
He served as a member of the Lutheran World Relief board in
the 1970s and at various times served as a member of the
Division of Welfare Services of the Lutheran Council in the
USA (LCUSA), consultant to the LCUSA Division of Mission and
Ministry and a member of Lutheran Immigration Service of the
former National Lutheran Council. Weber edited The
Welfare Review from 1967 until 1974 and The Good News,
a monthly publication.
