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July 8, 1115: French monk Peter the Hermit dies. Several argue that Peter the Hermit launched the crusades. Supposedly, he visited Jerusalem on a pilgrimage in 1093 and returned to Pope Urban II with a plea to do something to stop the Muslims from harassing Christian pilgrims. Two years later Urban II pronounced the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont and Peter the Hermit became one of the crusade's dominant preachers. After leading a failed "pre-crusade" in which Muslims slaughtered his entire army of 20,000 peasants, Peter joined the main army of the First Crusade (see issue 40: The Crusades).
July 8, 1896: At the Democratic National Convention, fundamentalist William Jennings Bryan gives his famous speech supporting "the little man" of American life. "You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold," he shouted (see issue 55: The Monkey Trial and The Rise of Fundamentalism).
July 8, 1741: Colonial Congregational minister Jonathan Edwards preaches his classic sermon at Enfield, Connecticut: "You are thus in the hands of an angry God; 'tis nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction" (see issue 8: Jonathan Edwards and issue 77: Jonathan Edwards).
July 9, 381: Nestorius, the first patriarch of Constantinople, is born in what is now Maras, Turkey. Nestorius attained fame for his teaching that Christ had two natures and two persons (rather than two natures in one person), which the Council of Ephesus in 431 condemned as heresy (see issue 51: Heresy in the Early Church).
July 9, 1228: Stephen Langton, greatest of the medieval archbishops of Canterbury, dies. He had formulated the original division of the Bible into chapters in the late 1100s, and his name appears on the Magna Carta as counselor to the king (though he supported the English barons in their pursuit for more freedoms).
July 9, 1925: The Scopes "Monkey Trial" begins in Dayton, Tennessee, as John Scopes is tried for teaching evolution to his students. Though William Jennings Bryan, acting as prosecuting attorney, won the courtroom battle, the creationists lost where public opinion was concerned. Chagrined, fundamentalist Christians largely withdrew from American culture (see issue 55: The Monkey Trial and The Rise of Fundamentalism).
July 10, 1509: French Protestant reformer John Calvin is born in Nyon, France. (see issue 12: John Calvin).
July 10, 1863: Clement C. Moore dies. In 1819 he established the General Theological Seminary, where he taught Greek and Hebrew Literature for 28 years. He also authored "A Visit from St. Nicholas" ('Twas the Night Before Christmas . . . ) in 1823.
July 11, 1533: Pope Clement VII excommunicates England's King Henry VIII for remarrying after his divorce (see issue 48: Thomas Cranmer).
July 11, 1656: Barbados expatriates Ann Austin and Mary Fisher become the first Quakers to arrive in America. Officials promptly arrested them and deported them back to England five weeks later.
July 11, 1681: Oliver Plunkett, Archbishop of Armagh, is executed, having been found guilty of treason. He was the last Catholic to die for his faith in England and the first Irish martyr to be beatified.
July 11, 1886: Protestant missionary Horace Underwood secretly baptizes Mr. Toh Sa No in Korea—the first recorded Protestant baptism in that country. However, an underground church was probably already active in Korea, begun by Korean workmen who had heard the gospel in China.
July 11, 1955: Congress puts "In God We Trust" on all U.S. currency.
July 12, 1536: Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch scholar and the first editor of the Greek New Testament, dies in Basel. One of the leading scholars of the Protestant Reformation, he also wrote the influential In Praise of Folly. "Most holy was his living," said one observer, "most holy his dying" (see issue 34: Luther's Early Years).
July 13, 1886: Father Edward Flanagan, the Roman Catholic parish priest who founded Boys Town (orginally named the Home for Homeless Boys) near Omaha, Nebraska, is born in Roscommon, Ireland. July 13, 1917
July 13, 1917: Three children in Fatima, Portugal, report seeing visions of the Virgin Mary.
July 14, 1833: Anglican clergyman John Keble preaches his famous sermon on national apostasy, marking the beginning of the Oxford Movement in England. Keble was joined by John Henry Newman and E.B. Pusey, who led this effort to purify and revitalize the Anglican Church by reviving the ideals and practices of the pre-Reformation English church.
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