Apr. 4 in Christian History

Apr 04, 2013 04:08 AM EDT

1507 Future German reformer Martin Luther, at age 21, was ordained a priest in the Roman Catholic church.

1541 Spanish ecclesiastic reformer and mystic Ignatius Loyola, 50, was elected the first General of the Jesuit Order, which he had helped establish the previous year.

1687 James II issued a Declaration of Indulgence allowing full liberty of worship in England. The document allowed peaceable meetings of nonconformists and forgave all penalties for ecclesiastical offenses.

1944 German Holocaust victim Anne Frank, 14, wrote in her diary: 'I want to go on living even after my death! And therefore I am grateful to God for giving me this gift...of expressing all that is in me.'

1965 German theologian Jurgen Moltmann revealed in a letter to Karl Barth: 'Polemics always makes one a little one-sided.'

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