1215: The Fourth Lateran Council was convened by Pope Innocent III. The council first defined transubstantiation, the Roman Catholic belief that the bread and wine of the Eucharist change invisibly into the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
1992: The Church of England voted to allow women to be ordained as priests. Women were already allowed to become priests in 11 branches of the Anglican church, including Canada and the U.S.
1818: English church organist and composer Henry Hemy was born. Of his several original compositions, the best known is the tune “St. Catherine,” to which is commonly sung the hymn “Faith of Our Fathers.”
354: African theologian Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, was born in Numidia, now Algeria. Through writings such as City of God and Confessions, Augustine has left an impact on Christianity and Western thought in general into the modern era. Among those influenced by his work were Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, Martin Luther, René Descartes, Søren Kierkegaard, Jean-Paul Sartre and Benedict XVI.
1936: King Edward VIII, whose titles included “defender of the faith” of the Church of England, told Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin he intended to marry twice-divorced Wallis Simpson.
1962: The canon of the mass was changed for the first time since the beginning of seventh century when Pope John decreed that St. Joseph’s name be inserted immediately after that of the Virgin Mary.
1991: Paul-Emile Cardinal Leger died in a Montreal hospital at 87. Leger was named Archbishop of Montreal in 1950 and was elevated to cardinal three years later. Lerger was well-known beyond his archdiocese, especially for his support of the disadvantaged.
2003:Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who had refused to remove his granite Ten Commandments monument from the state courthouse, was thrown off the bench by a judicial ethics panel for having “placed himself above the law.”
2002: Pope John Paul II made a historic speech to Italy’s parliament, urging Italians to work for world peace, uphold their Christian values and have more babies. It was the first time that a pope had appeared before the Italian parliament.
2002: Irv Rubin, the Canadian-born leader of the Jewish Defense League, died in California after he slit his throat while being held in a detention centre. He had been facing a trial on charges of planting bombs at a mosque in Los Angeles.
1280: German theologian and music theorist Albertus Magnus died. Magnus taught famed philosopher Thomas Aquinas.
1765: The first Presbyterian church in Canada was established at Quebec by Rev. George Henry.
1984: The Church of England’s general synod meeting in London voted to allow the ordination of women into the Anglican priesthood.
2009: Patriarch Pavle, who led Serbia’s Christian Orthodox Church through its post-communist revival and the turbulent 1990s marked by ethnic conflicts in the Balkans, died age 95.
1838: A cross was erected in Oxford, England to commemorate the memory of three major figures in the English Reformation. Bishop Nicholas Ridley, Bishop Hugh Latimer and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer were all executed for their faith during the reign of Catholic Queen Mary.
1994: U.S. Roman Catholic bishops voted overwhelmingly to make way for women to move up to the top ranks of church theologians, administrators and canon lawyers.
1558: Queen Mary I, known as Bloody Mary, who tried to return Protestant Britain to Catholicism, died. She was succeeded by her half-sister, Elizabeth I, who ended the religious persecutions of the English Counter-Reformation.
- With files from National Post