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JUNE

  15, 1215 --England. King John is forced to grant the Magna Carta to the English barons. The King had formerly signed England away to the Roman Pontiff.

15, 1300 --Italy. Dante Alighieri, who will be known for his literary works known under the general title as the Divine Comedy and involving Il Inferno, Il Purgatorio, and Il Paradisio will today be chosen chief magistrate, or first of the priors of Florence. He will continue in this capacity until August 15th.
      As a member of the Cerchi party, which stands for democracy, he has stood against the Donati, which represent the Pope and his policy. Therefore, on January 27, 1302, while away at Rome, his enemies having been successful in their bid to return to power, Dante is fined eight thousand lires and condemned to two years banishment for his political stand. The Guelf party in Florence will split into two factions: the Bianchi or “whites”, and the Neri or "blacks." In November 1301 through the treachery of Pope Boniface and Charles of Valois, the Neri triumphed. Dante had served two months among the chief magistrates of the Republic, the “Bianchi”. Therefore he is one of their first victims.
      In March 1302, he will be sentenced that if any should capture him, Dante should be burned along with fifteen other Florentine citizens.

15, 1415 --Germany. Today in its 13th session, the Council of Constance declares it law that the laity should partake of but one element in the Lord’s Supper.

15, 1520 --Italy. In a Bull “Exsurge Domine” or “Arise, O Lord”, Pope Leo X gives Luther sixty days to retract his beliefs. Otherwise, he will be formally declared a heretic. The Bull reads, “Arise, 0 Lord! Arise and be Judge in Thy own cause. Remember the insults daily offered to Thee by infatuated men. Arise, O Peter, remember Thy Holy Roman Church, the Mother of all churches, and Mistress of holy Popes our predecessors! Arise, in fine, assemble all the saints, Holy Church of God, and intercede with the Almighty!” Roland Bainton declares of Pope Leo X that he “would have made an excellent Pope if he had only been a little religious.”
      The Sacred College resolves on the condemnation of Martin Luther and approves the Pope’s Bull. On November 4th, Luther will answer by publishing his treatise Against the Bull of Antichrist.

15, 1655 --France. Four bodies of troops advance up the mountain heights against Angrogna to enclose a small army of three hundred Waldensians. Javenal, the leader of the small band first throws himself upon the head column and drives it down the hill. Next, finding himself facing two columns, he retires before them to throw himself and his small army upon the advancing fourth column; thus, successfully cutting the opposing force in two. Passing through it, he rushes up the summit of the hill where he keeps at bay the enemy, which numbers some three thousand soldiers. The hill though precipitous on three sides is of easy ascent on the other side.
      For five hours, Javenal and his three hundred men keep the three thousand Royalist troops at bay; then seeing signs of impatience and hesitation in the ranks of the enemy, he calls out to his men, “Forward, my friends!” and they rush down the hill like an avalanche. The three thousand soldiers recoil, then break, and flee before the three hundred Waldensians.

15, 1560 --France. Antoine Court dies at the age of sixty-four. He has organized the Huguenot church in France, established a school to train ministers of the Gospel, and has written a history of the Reformed Church in France and of the Camisard Wars entitled History of the Troubles of Cevennes. Paul Rabaut is his successor as leader and director of the Huguenot church.

15, 1900 --China. Rescue parties consisting of Americans and Russians, Germans and British are sent through the city of Peking in an attempt to rescue Chinese Christians from the fury of the Boxers.
      As one patrol passes a Taoist Temple known to be a popular Boxer meeting place, screams and groans can be heard within. The patrol must gain entrance by use of force. The sight is demonic: amidst burning incense, Boxers are seen muttering their incantations, and sacrificing Christians to the demons they worship.
      As part of their initiation, Boxers, who call themselves “The Righteous Ones,” are required to repeat a sacred formula until they fail foaming at the mouth. They are then required to participate in a black magic ritual that often calls for human sacrifices to their idols. Possessed with bitter hatred for the Gospel of Christ, and believing themselves to be servants to “heavenly deities” that renders them incapable of being wounded—so they believe; they have accused Christians of being responsible for the drought that exists, as well as for stealing Chinese spirits and gouging out the eyes of Chinese children for use in their medicines. Therefore, the Empress has passed a royal edict to kill all foreigners and to extirpate Christianity within the country of China.
      When the royal decree was given to messengers who were to deliver them to provincial governors, the couriers for the south of China chose to change one Chinese character that the decree might read, to “protect” in place of to “Kill” foreigners. They were therefore cut in half for their offence.
      Fanatical bands of men have risen up. Bare-chested and brandishing long, curved swords they have rampaged through cities in northern China seeking to decapitate or pull the hearts from women, both elderly and young children being treated with the same cruelty as others.
 

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