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Christian History

Today in Christian History

September 13

September 13, 1541: John Calvin returns to Geneva, where he will spend the rest of his life trying to establish a theocratic society at the request of city authorities who banished him three years earlier (see issue 12: John Calvin).

September 13, 1635: The Massachusetts General Court banishes Roger Williams, 32, for, among other things, his outspoken advocacy of a separation of church and state. Williams went on to found Rhode Island and the first Baptist church in the American colonies (see issue 41: The American Puritans).

September 13, 1931: Pentecostal preacher Aimee Semple McPherson marries unknown vaudeville performer David Hutton. McPherson's third marriage, it ended in divorce in 1934 (see issue 58: Pentecostalism).

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April 25, 1214: Louis IX, king of France and saint, is born. Leader of the Seventh and Eighth Crusades (he died on the latter), he was known for his humility: he wore hair shirts and visited hospitals—where he emptied the bedpans (see issue 40: The Crusades).

April 25, 1599: Oliver Cromwell, the Puritan lord protector of England, is born near Cambridge. As lord protector, he sought to allow more freedom of religion for Puritans but also introduced intrusive and unpopular authoritarian measures. ...

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