January 8
482
Severinus
of Noricum, an early missionary who preached Christianity in
what is now Austria, died (b. ca. 410).
1198 Italian cardinal Lotario di Segni was elected pope, taking
the name of
Innocent III
(ca. 1161–1216).
1438
The
Council of Florence
began at Ferrara, Italy, with the Orthodox and Roman
Catholic churches in attendance.
1557 Margrave
Albrecht of
Brandenburg-Kulmbach, a hymnist, died at Pforzheim (b.
28 March 1522).
1560
Jan
Łaski (Johannes a Lascow; John Laski, or Lasco), a Polish reformer and
associate of Erasmus, died (b. 1499 probably at Lask, near
Lodz, Poland).
1583
Simon Episcopius, an Arminian
proponent who drew up the formula of faith held by
Arminians, was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 4 April
1643).
1642
Mathematician, physicist, astronomer and devout Roman
Catholic
Galileo Galilei (b.
15 February 1564, Pisa, Italy), died in Arcetri, Italy,
under house arrest by the Inquisition.
1736
Jean le Clerc (Clericus), learned
theologian and Arminian, died (b. 19 March 1657).
1788
Jacob Leist,
president of the Ohio Synod, was born in Snyder County,
Pennsylvania (d. 7 November 1870).
1792
Lowell Mason, American
sacred music composer, was born in Medfield, Massachusetts
(d. 11 August 1872).
1825
C. H. Rudolph Lange, Lutheran educator and theologian, was
born in Polish Wartenberg, Prussia (d. 2 October 1892).
1849 During the
Italian Revolution
of 1848–1849, a popular uprising in the Papal States
deprived Pope Pius IX of his temporal powers and forced him
to flee to Gaeta on the Italian Coast.
1854
Wm. Bengo
Collyer, hymnist, died in Peckham, England (b. 14 April 1782, Blackheath,
England).
1860 George Weller was born in New Orleans,
Louisiana (d. 17 December 1924). He graduated from Concordia Seminary
(Saint Louis) in 1882 and served as a pastor in Marysville,
Nebraska. He later became director (president) and professor
at Concordia Teachers College (Seward, Nebraska), where he
served from 1894 to 1924.
1873
Ludwig Adolf Petri,
anti-rationalist Lutheran theologian in Hanover, died (b.
16 November 1803, Lüthorst, Hannover, Germany).
1903 Clarence H. Peters was
born in Linn, Kansas (d. 18 May 1984, Saint Louis). He
graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1927 and
served congregations in Venus and Scottsbluff, Nebraska, and
Saint Louis. From 1944 to 1947 he was the secretary of the
Missouri Synod Board
for Foreign Missions, and from 1946 to 1962 he was the
chairman of the Board for Young People’s Work.
1920
J. A. O. (Jacob Aall Ottesen) Preus II,
eighth president of the Missouri Synod, was born in Saint
Paul, Minnesota (d. 13 August 1994).
1931
George Washington Sandt, Lutheran
theologian and director of the Philadelphia seminary from
1904 to 1931, died (b. 22 February 1854, Belfast,
Pennsylvania).
1956
Jim Elliot
(b. 8 October 1927) and four other
American Plymouth Brethren missionaries were martyred along
the Curaray River by the Auca Indians in Ecuador.
1958 The
India Evangelical Lutheran Church
was organized.
1975
Louis Lochner,
foreign correspondent for the Associated Press in Germany, died (b.
22 February 1887).
1979 The John of
Beverley Chair for deaf ministries was established at
Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis).
1996 Lewis W. Spitz
Sr. (b. 31 July 1895, Minden, Nebraska), died in Saint
Louis, Missouri. He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint
Louis) in 1918. He served as pastor in Lovell, Wyoming, and
Bertrand and Blue Hill, Nebraska. He was later a professor
at Saint Paul's College (Concordia, Missouri) and Concordia
Seminary (Saint Louis). His service to the Missouri Synod
included membership on the Press Committee, the Board for
Higher Education, the Board of Appeals and the Board for
Young People's Work. He was also an associate editor of The
Lutheran Witness, Der Lutheraner and the Concordia
Theological Monthly. In 1930 he received his M.A. from
Washington University (Saint Louis), and in 1943 he received
his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He retired in
1971.
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the Gospel: LCMS Military Chaplaincy,”
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Today in History - Events from the history of the church for January 8