1583 – Faustus Socinus debated former Jesuit Christian Francken on the honor due Christ. Socinus debated in so scholarly and thorough a manner that Francken conceded defeat and withdrew.
The post March 14 first appeared on Harvard Square Library.
Read more at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism.
1733 – Joseph Priestley was born in Fieldhead, Yorkshire, England. He wrote the influential History of the Corruptions of Christianity, which Thomas Jefferson credited with his conversion to Unitarianism. However, Priestley is best known for chemistry, in which he made a number of discoveries, including oxygen. Priestley made his inventions available to the public and received no money for any of them. Read more about Joseph Priestley at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism.
The post March 13 first appeared on Harvard Square Library.
Church in Rakow on site of former Socinian Church
1572 – Valentine Smalcius was born in Gotha, Thuringia (now Germany). A Unitarian leader, he was active in the Socinian church through his friendship with Faustus Socinus and became pastor of the Socinian Church in Rakow, Poland. Smalcius fought for tolerance of other Protestant groups such as the Lutherans and Mennonites in Poland. Read more about the church in Poland here at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism.
The post March 12 first appeared on Harvard Square Library.
1965 – James Reeb, a Unitarian minister, died in Selma, Alabama. Two days earlier, he was attacked by segregationists during a civil rights march. He was one of more than 125 Unitarian Universalist ministers who answered Martin Luther King’s call to march in support of voting rights for black Americans. Read more about James Reeb at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism.
The post March 11 first appeared on Harvard Square Library.
1854 – American Unitarian Association president Samuel Kirkland Lothrop addressed a gathering at AUA headquarters about the advantages of planned book publishing, thereby setting in motion the precursor of Beacon Press. Read about the history of Beacon Press in a biography of publisher Melvin Arnold.
The post March 9 first appeared on Harvard Square Library.
Read more at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism.
1841 – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was born in Boston. He was an ardent abolitionist in the Civil War, in which he served and was wounded three times. Holmes became Weld Professor of Law at Harvard but soon after resigned to take an appointment to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, where he became chief justice. Then, as associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, he was named The Great Dissenter. He was an active layman in the First Parish of Cambridge, Massachusetts (Unitarian). Read more about Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism
The post March 8 first appeared on Harvard Square Library.
William Lovelace/Express/Getty Images
1965 – 600 civil rights marchers who set out from Selma, Alabama, on their way to Montgomery to urge passage of the Voting Rights Act, were attacked at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. “Bloody Sunday” led Martin Luther King to call on clergy of all faiths to join him; more than 125 Unitarian Universalist ministers answered the call. Three people were killed: James Reeb, a Unitarian Universalist minister; Jimmie Lee Jackson, an African-American church deacon, and Viola Liuzzo, a Unitarian Universalist layperson from Detroit.
The post March 7 first appeared on Harvard Square Library.
Read more at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism.
1582 The debate between Simon Budny and the Catholics began at the Synod of Iwie in Poland. His view was that Jesus was born naturally and was not an appropriate object of worship. Budny translated the entire Bible from Hebrew, Greek, and Latin into Polish (1572). He gained a large following despite being denounced and excommunicated.
The post March 6 first appeared on Harvard Square Library.
Read more at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism.
1853 – Arthur Foote was born. Arthur studied music at Harvard University and served as organist at Church of the Disciples and organist and choirmaster at First Church in Boston. He composed chamber music, art songs, and choral music, as well as anthems, cantatas, and organ pieces for church use. Read more about Arthur Foote. at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism
The post March 5 first appeared on Harvard Square Library.
1864 – Thomas Starr King, a Unitarian minister and missionary on the West Coast, died at age 39 of diphtheria. Born the son of a Universalist minister in New York City, King settled as minister of the First Church in San Francisco and made evangelizing tours up and down the West Coast. A strong abolitionist, King also used these trips to lead the fight to keep California in the Union during the Civil War. Read more about Thomas Starr King at: www.HarvardSquareLibrary.org – the digital library of Unitarian Universalism.
The post March 4 first appeared on Harvard Square Library.
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