Saint Mary Magdalene

1431 The Council of Basel (Florence) opened. The last of the councils of the conciliar movement, it was convoked by Pope Martin V and presided over by Cardinal G. Cesarini, whom Eugenius IV confirmed in this office when he continued the council. The objectives of the council as stated in the first session: (1) Extirpation of heresy; (2) Reunion of all Christians; (3) Make provision for instruction in Catholicism; (4) Settle disputes between Christian princes; (5) Reformation in head and members; (6) Reestablishment of discipline.

1517 Hans Schott of Oberlind was knighted before the Holy Sepulcher while on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In 1521 he offered lodging to Martin Luther on the latter’s arrival at Worms for his hearing.

1604 Royal approval of King James was given to proceed with the work on the Bible translation that came to be known as the King James Version, published in 1611.

1620 A small congregation of English Separatists who had previously taken refuge in the Netherlands with their minister John Robinson left Leiden, Holland, bound for England. From there they emigrated to the New World. These persecuted religious emigrants are generally known as the Pilgrims.

1653 The Corpus Evangelicorum was organized to preserve evangelical interests in Catholic areas of Germany.

1680 French mystic Madame (Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte) Guyon (1648–1717) achieved a “unitive state with the divine.”

1787 David Frederick Schaeffer, Lutheran editor and president of the General Synod, was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania (d. 5 May 1837).

1830 Sir Herbert Stanley Oakeley, composer, was born in Ealing, Middlesex, England (d. 26 October 1903, Eastbourne, England).

1834
John Dietrich Severinghaus, president of the Wartburg Synod, was born near Severinghausen, Hannover, Germany (d. 14 October 1905).

1836 Emily Elizabeth Steele Elliott, Anglican missions supporter, was born in Brighton, England (d. 3 August 1897, Islington, London, England).

1855 Louis Fitzgerald Benson, hymnist, was born in Philadelphia (d. 10 October 1930).

1860 Moritz Braeuninger, missionary to Native Americans, was last seen while engaged in mission work in eastern Oregon (b. 2 December 1836, Crimmitschau, Saxony).

1865 Peter P. Bilhorn, music composer and evangelist, was born in Mendota, Illinois (d. 13 December 1936, Los Angeles, California).

1893 T. W. (Thomas Walter) Manson, British Presbyterian New Testament scholar, was born at Tynemouth, Northumberland (d. 1958).

1894 Theodore William Hausmann was born at New Britain, Connecticut (d. 26 January 1960, Bronxville, New York). He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1917 and received an M.A. from Columbia University (New York) in 1923. He served as an assistant professor at Concordia College (Milwaukee) from 1917 to 1919 and as a professor at Concordia Collegiate Institute (Bronxville, New York) from 1919 until his death.

1896 Louis J. Schwartzkopf was born in Marysville, Ohio (d. 19 December 1966, Chicago). He graduated from Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis) in 1918 and served as a missionary in China from 1918 to 1924. He also served as a pastor in Homewood (1924–1934) and Hyde Park (Chicago, 1943–1966). From 1934 to 1943 he was head of the Northern Illinois Lutheran service center and office. He was the author of  The Lutheran Trail, a history of Synodical Conference churches in Northern Illinois.

1897 The German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Manitoba was organized in Winnipeg.

1937 John Augustus William Haas, General Council leader, died (b. 31 August 1862, Philadelphia).

1948 Henry B. Hemmeter, president of Concordia College (Conover, North Carolina) and Concordia Theological Seminary (Springfield, Illinois), died (b. 24 December 1869). He served the congregations in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Saint Louis and Rochester, New York.