Christianity

The unfamiliar American soil presented problems to the Pilgrims, but an Indian named Samoset greeted them and taught them how to fertilize best fertilize the soil. The results (months later) were spectacular, and the Pilgrims had much to be thankful for in the new land. About 100 Indians were invited to share in a thanksgiving feast of those first bumper crops of beans, squash, corn, barley, ...

The Pilgrims fled from England to Holland in 1607. When Spain threatened to invade Holland, the Pilgrims decided to flee again. They considered sailing to Guyana in South America, as they heard of its tropical climate. Pilgrim Governor William Bradford wrote in Of Plymouth Plantation: “Some … had thoughts and were earnest for Guiana. … Those for Guiana alleged that the country was rich, fruitful, and ...

The Mayflower Compact, signed by 41 English colonists on the ship Mayflower,  was the first written framework of government established in what is now the United States. The compact was drafted to prevent dissent amongst Puritans and non-separatist Pilgrims who had landed at Plymouth a few days earlier. Before being allowed to debark, the leaders of the Pilgrim colony required all male members to enter into ...

In 1588, the most powerful man in the world was the King of Spain, Phillip II. Flush with gold and silver from the New World, he had no rivals, save one: Queen Elizabeth of England. England was a Protestant nation and Spain was Catholic, as was most of Europe. In addition to considering her a heretic, Phillip hated her for two additional reasons: first, she was ...

On this day in history–October 15, 1582–Pope Gregory XIII implemented the Gregorian calendar. In several Catholic countries, the calendar for 1582 skipped directly from October 4 to October 15. To make up for the inaccuracies of its predecessor, the Julian calendar, a number of days had to be skipped. The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western or Christian calendar, is the most widely used calendar in the ...

(Image) One Morning at the Gates of the Louvre, The day after St. Bartholomew’s Eve On this day commenced this diabolical act of sanguinary brutality. It was intended to destroy at one stroke the root of the Protestant tree, which had only before partially suffered in its branches. The king of France had artfully proposed a marriage, between his sister and the prince of Navarre, the ...

Commemorating the French Huguenots and their attempt at seeking religious freedom in America, Rep. Charles E. Bennett sponsored a bill on Sept. 21, 1950, to establish the Fort Caroline National Memorial. In 1989, he recited the history: “The 425th anniversary of the beginning settlements by Europeans … renamed from Fort Caroline to San Mateo, to San Nicolas, to Cowford and finally to Jacksonville in 1822. … ...

In Oxford's St Giles there is a huge Victorian memorial to the Oxford Martyrs, close to the spot where they were burned at the stake. Today marks 460 years since the deaths of two of them, Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer, in 1555. The third, Thomas Cranmer, was burnt five months later on March 21, 1556. But who were these men, and why did they die? ...

John Rogers burned to death at a stake at Smithfield, England on this Monday morning, February 4,1555. Among the onlookers who encouraged him were his own children. What monstrous crime had earned him this cruel death? Born about 1500, Rogers was educated at Cambridge. He became a Catholic priest and accepted a position in the church at the time that the Protestant Reformation was in full ...

William Tyndale, 12 years after he left England, was led from prison to the stake where he was strangled, then his body burned. He had time to utter one last cry: “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” Tyndale had suffered for the cause “poverty, … exile out of my natural country and bitter absence from my friends, … my hunger, my thirst, my cold, the ...