February 4
362 Roman Emperor
Julian (331–363) promulgated
an edict that recognized equal rights to all the religions
in the Roman Empire.
856
Rabanus Maurus, Frankish theologian, scholar, teacher
and hymnist, died at Winkel on the Rhine (b. ca. 780).
1442 The bull Cantate Domino
expressing agreement between the Roman Catholic Church and
the Coptic Church at the
Council of Florence was issued by
Pope
Eugene IV
(1383–1447).
1555
John Rogers
(b. ca. 1505), the first Protestant martyr under
Queen Mary I of England (1516–1558),
was burned at the stake for heresy.
1576
Henry of Navarre (1553–1610)
converted to Roman Catholicism in order to ensure his right
to the throne of France.
1790
John
Bachman, Lutheran pastor at Charleston, South Carolina,
and collaborator with John James Audubon, was born at
Rhinebeck, New York (d. 24 February 1874).
1794
Benjamin Henkel, early American Lutheran pastor, died
(b. ca. 1765). He was the son of Jacob Henkel and the
brother of Paul Henkel.
1810 The
Cumberland Presbyterian Church, which had been in
existence since 10 January 1810, formed an independent
presbytery headed by three pastors.
1826
Gottlob Frederick Krotel, president of the General
Council, was born in Ilsfeld, Wuerttemberg (d. 17 May 1907).
1856
Robert Dick Wilson, American Presbyterian philologist,
was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania (d. 11 October 1930).
1859 The biblical manuscript known as
the
Codex Sinaiticus was discovered by Konstantin von
Tischendorf in Saint Catherine’s
Monastery on Mount Sinai.
1867
John Alfred Morehead, professor and head of the Lutheran
Theological Southern Seminary and president of Roanoke
College, was born in Pulaski County, Virginia (d. 1 June
1936).
1873
George Bennard, American-Methodist evangelist, was born
in Youngstown, Ohio (d. 10 October 1958 in Michigan).
1874 English poet and devotional writer
Frances Ridley Havergal
(1836–1879), penned the lines to
the hymn
“Take My Life, and Let It Be.”
1883
George K. A. Bell, Anglican clergyman and first chairman
of the Central Committee when the World Council of Churches
was formed in 1948 in Amsterdam, was born at Hayling Island,
England (d. 1958).
1888
Paul Althaus, Lutheran biblical scholar, was born at
Obershagen, Germany (d. 18 May 1966, Erlangen).
1891
Tuve Nilsson Hasselquist, president and leader of the
Augustana Synod, died (b. 2 March 1816, Osby [Ousby, or
Hasslarod], Sweden).
1901
Edward John Hopkins, composer, died (b. 30 June 1818,
Westminster, London, England).
1906
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German Lutheran theologian who led
the opposition to Nazification of the German Protestant
Church, was born in Breslau, Germany (d. 9 April 1945).
1917 Alfred Theodore Kramer (1892–1964)
became the first Missouri Synod pastor in Buenos Aires,
Argentina.
1933
Archibald H. Sayce, English Assyriologist, died (b. 25
September 1845, Shirehampton, near Bristol, Gloucestershire,
England).
1940 The first foreign Lutheran Hour
broadcast took place.
1944
Cleland B. McAfee (b. 25 September 1866), American
Presbyterian clergyman and theologian, died.
1990 Frederick A. Schole, former
president of The Lutheran Church—Canada (LCC), died in
Lamonte, Alberta. Schole headed the LCC from 1961 to 1967,
when the now autonomous church body was a federation of LCMS
districts. A 1932 graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary
(Springfield, Illinois), Schole also held various offices in
the Alberta-British Columbia District.
