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DECEMBER
 

ON THE LATE MASSACRE
Avenge, 0 Lord, Thy slaughter'd Saints, whose bones
Lie scatter'd on the Alpine mountains cold,
Ev'n them who kept Thy truth so pure of old
When all our Fathers worship't Stocks and Stones,
Forget not: in Thy Book record their groanes
Who were Thy Sheep and in their antient Fold
Slayn by the bloody Piedmontese that roll'd
Mother with Infant down the Rocks. Their moans
The Vales redoubl'd to the Hills, and they
To Heav'n. Their martyr'd blood and ashes sow
O're all th' Italian fields where still doth sway
The triple Tyrant: that from these may grow
A hunder'd-fold, who having learnt Thy way
Early may fly the Babylonian wo.

-John Milton-


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1, 656 --Spain. The Tenth National Synod of Toledo forbids the clergy to sell Christian slaves to Jews.

1, 1455 --Italy. Lorenzo Ghiberti dies. He is the renowned sculpture of the bronze doors for the baptistry in the Cathedral of Florence. They are reputed to be so beautiful, they are said to be worthy of the "Gates of Paradise."

1, 1557 --Belgium. Adriaan (Cornelis) Van Haemstede writes a letter to king Henry II of France exhorting him to halt the persecution of French Calvinists.

1, 1640 --Massachusetts. At a Quarter Court at Boston, "The jury found Hugh Buet to be guilty of heresy, and that his person and errors are dangerous for the infection of others. It is ordered that the said Hugh Buet should be gone out of our jurisdiction by the 24th present upon pain of death, and not to return upon pain of being hanged."

1, 1741 -- Connecticut. At Norwich, Samuel Kirkland is born. As a graduate of Princeton, he will become a Congregational missionary to the Six Nations. He will persuade the Oneidas and Tuscaroras to remain neutral in the Revolutionary War.

1, 1763 --Virginia. Patrick Henry enters the courtroom for the first time and declares "A king who annuls or disallows laws of so salutary a nature, from being the father of his people degenerates into a tyrant, and forfeits all right to obedience."

The opposing council cries aloud, "The gentleman has spoken treason." A muffled cry of “Treason, Treason, Treason" is heard among the Royalists present.

Mr. Henry proceeds to define the use of the Church and of the clergy in society, then adds, "When they fail to answer those ends, the community have no further need of their ministry and may justly strip them of their appointments . . .." Turning to the jury he adds, "Except you are disposed yourselves to rivet the chains of bondage on your own necks, do not let slip the opportunity now offered of making such an example of the reverend plaintiff as shall hereafter be a warning to himself and his brothers not to have the temerity to dispute the validity of laws authenticated by the only sanction which can give force to laws for the government of this colony, the authority of its own legal representatives, with its council and governor."

1, 1798 --New York. At Rome, Albert Barnes is born. A Presbyterian, he will be renowned for his Bible Notes which he will prepare for his Philadelphia Congregation.

1, 1814 --England. A Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Meeting is held for the first time and gathers in the City Road Chapel, London. Adam Clarke is President of this year's Conference.

1, 1862 --North Carolina. At Chapel Hill, a lady, "one of those noble specimens of humanity that hovered like angels of mercy around the sick and wounded soldiers in the hospitals or toiled for them in the silent and forsaken homes of the South," (W. W. Bennet), appealed to her sisters concerning a day of fasting that has been set aside. "On that day at 12:00 let every woman’s heart be lifted in prayer for her country, Let the sick woman on her bed remember the day and hour; let the busy forego her business; and ...the gay suspend her gaiety; ...let the young, beautiful and hopeful equally with those who can lay no claim to such titles, think of the dead and the dying; and the married think of the broken-hearted; the destitute, the homeless, think of the widows, the fatherless, the children of this awful war; and let every true-hearted woman be stirred to pray as with one vow on that day to God for help and for peace --an honorable peace."

 

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