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SEPTEMBER

5, 1569 --England. Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London, dies in the Marshalsea Prison at Southwark. He has been imprisoned for the past ten years for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy following the accession of Elizabeth to the throne. During the persecuting reign of Mary, which began in 1553, he is said to have condemned more than two hundred people to be burned at the stake in a period of three years.

5, 1585 --France. Armand-Jean Duplessis, later known as Cardinal Richelieu, is born at Paris. Physically he is half an invalid and as a young man he will require eleven hours of sleep. In 1622, he will be made a cardinal and in 1624, he will be elevated to the position of Secretary of State, of War and of Foreign Affairs.
     He will become Prime Minister of France in 1629, and will confess late in life, "When your Majesty resolved to give me, at the same time, both entrance into your council, and a great part of your confidence in the government of affairs, I can truthfully say, that the Huguenots divided France with you; that the nobles conducted themselves as if they were not subjects, and the powerful provincial governors as though they were sovereigns in their offices .... I promised your Majesty to employ all my industry and all authority that might be given me to ruin the Huguenot party, to abase the pride of the nobles, and reduce all subjects to duty, and to raise your name among foreign nations to the point where it ought to be."

6, 394 --Italy. Eugenius is killed in a fierce battle along the Frigidus, near Aquileia. The result will be the suppression of superstitution. The ancient religion will vanish from public life and will hence be called "paganism" as it will be found only among the inhabitants in the most rural areas and who are themselves called the "pagani."
     Upholding the cause of the state, Emperor Theodosius I will oppose mixed marriages between Jews and Christians and will forbid the Jews to hold Christian slaves. He insists, however, on the observance of a law insuring religious freedom to the Jews, and he threatens with severe punishment any who do violence to their synagogues.

6, 1620 --England. At Plymouth, the Pilgrim's set sail. As Mr. Bradford writes, "These troubles being blown over, and now all being compact together in one ship, they put to sea again with a prosperous wind, which continued diverse days together, which was some encouragement unto them; yet according to the usual manner many were afflicted with seasickness. And I may not omit here a special work of God's providence.
     "There was a proud and very profane young man, one of the seamen, of a lusty, able body, which made him the more haughty; he would allway be condemning the poor people in their sickness, and cursing them daily with grievous execrations, and did not let to tell them, that he hoped to help to cast half of them over board before they came to their journeys end, and to make merry with what they had; and if he were by any gently reproved, he would curse and swear most bitterly.
     "But it pleased God before they came half seas over, to smite this young man with a grievous disease, of which he died in a desperate manner, and so was himself the first that was thrown overboard. Thus his curses light on his own head; and it was an astonishment to all his fellows, for they noted it to be the just hand of God upon him."

6, 1634 --Sweden. At Nardlingen, the Protestant army suffers a severe defeat at the hands of the Imperial army. As a result, the electors of Brandenberg and Saxony will desert the Protestant cause, and will make peace with the Emperor.

6, 1802 --Virginia. Frances Asbury writes, " ...The season is dry; the streams are consequently --but there is great plenty. O! Good Providence! O! ungrateful people."

6, 1812 --Burma. Adoniram Judson is baptized by immersion, and consequently leaves the Congregational church to become a Baptist.

6, 1863 --Virginia. General J. B. Gordon writes from a camp near Orange Court House, Virginia, to Dr. A. A. Dickinson, the Superintendent of Army colportage:

     "Why is it that our good people at home, of the various denominations, are not sending more missionaries to the Army? But suppose I tell these good Christians who think preaching to a body of soldiers is 'casting pearls before swine,' that these men, exposed as they are to temptations on every side, are more eager to listen to the Gospel than the people at home; that the few missionaries they have been kind and generous to lend us are preaching not in magnificent temples, it is true, nor from gorgeous pulpits on Sabbath days to empty benches, but daily, in the great temple of nature, and at night by Heaven's chandeliers, to audiences of from one to two thousand men anxious to hear the way of life."
    
 

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