March 18

386 Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem after about 350, died (b. ca. 315).

1123 The First Lateran Council opened in Rome.

1229 Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (1194–1250) declared himself King of Jerusalem during the Sixth Crusade.

1314 Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master (leader) of the Knights Templar (the first Roman Catholic military religious order, founded in 1118 during the Crusades), was burned at the stake in Paris (b. ca. 1244–1250).

1558 The Frankfurt Recess, proposed by Philipp Melanchthon to settle disputes between the Gnesio-Lutherans and the Philippists, was signed.

1594 Christoff Koerner, a contributor to the Formula of Concord, died (b. 1518).

1612 Bartholomew Legate (b. ca. 1575), an English merchant, died. His theology was questioned in several key Protestant circles: Mennonite, Quietist and Anglican. Arrested the year before for heresy, Legate was condemned and publicly executed for his unorthodox theology.

1673 Lord Berkeley (1602–1678) of England sold his half of the American colony of New Jersey to the Quakers.

1734 The Salzburger Lutheran immigrants founded the town of Ebenezer, Georgia, and established the first Protestant orphanage in the American colonies.

1775 John Cawood, hymnist, was born at Matlock, Derbyshire, England (d. 7 November 1852).

1789 Charlotte Elliott, English devotional writer, was born in Clapham, England (d. 22 September 1871).

1805 George Washington Bethune, hymn translator, was born in New York City (d. 27 April 1862).

1817 John Diederich Lankenau, American Lutheran businessman and philanthropist, was born in Bremen, Germany (d. 30 August 1901).

1823 Joseph August Seiss, a hymn translator who also helped found the General Council, was born at Graceham, Maryland (d. 20 June 1904).

1846 Carl Manthey Zorn, missionary and pastor, was born in Sterup, Schleswig, Germany (d. 12 July 1928).

1850 Lars Esbjörn (1808–1870) organized a congregation at Andover, Illinois, the first congregation of the future Augustana Synod that was organized and served by an ordained pastor.

1856 John L. Zimmerman, prominent Lutheran layman in the General Synod, was born in Mahoning County, Ohio (d. 17 September 1941).

1861 The Metropolitan Tabernacle was opened in London. This was the sanctuary of the famous English Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

1885 The “Cambridge Seven,” young aristocrats who decided to become missionaries to China and thus became celebrities back home, arrived in Shanghai.

1889 Eliza Sibbald Alderson, hymnist, died (b. 16 August 1818, Kingston upon Hull, Humberside, England).

1948 The Lutheran Council of Great Britain was formed in London.

1985 Merrill C. Tenney (b. 1904), American evangelical Bible scholar and educator, died. He served as dean of the Wheaton College (Illinois) Graduate School (1947–1971). His most popular publication was The New Testament: A Survey (1953), which has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, German, Chinese and Bengali. He also served on the New Testament committee of the New International Version of the Bible.

2000 Eberhard Bethge, theologian and biographer of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, died (b. 29 August 1909).