This week in persecuted church history (October 25-31)

Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
Hebrews 13:7b (ESV)

October 25

• 1518: John Stilincen is condemned as a heretic by the bishop of London and chained to a stake in Smithfield and is burned to death, sealing his testimony to the truth with his blood.
• 1529: Thomas More becomes Lord Chancellor of England. Though he defended religious freedom in his book Utopia, he strongly opposed the Reformation and wrote against Luther, Tyndale, and others. Because he also opposed Henry VIII's claim to be the supreme head of the English church, as well as the king's divorce, he was executed.
• 1639: Henry Gutwol dies in the infamous Othenbach prison in Zurich, Switzerland for his faith after suffering tremendously.
• 2007: Five sisters of the Franciscan Clarist Congregation (FCC)--Jincy (40), Sayujia (27), Pavitra (26), Sweta (26) and Anna Maria (27)—are beaten by twenty Hindu militants in the city of Indore, Madhya Pradesh.

October 26

• 2006: Eritrean authorities conclude the arrest and detention of 150 Christians begun the day before. Those arrested included members of Eritrea's five outlawed Protestant churches -- The Church of the Living God, Kile Hiwot, Full Gospel and Rema churches -- as well as active members of the town's Orthodox revival group.

October 27

• 1553: Michael Servetus is burned at the stake with the approval of John Calvin and other reformers in Geneva for his heretical beliefs regarding the Trinity. 

October 28

• 312: 32-year-old Roman emperor Constantine defeats Maxentius at Milvian Bridge. Before the battle, Constantine had seen the symbol of Jesus, chi-rho, in a vision, accompanied with the words "By this sign conquer." He is considered Rome's first Christian emperor.
• 1949: Jim Elliot, missionary to Ecuador's Auca Indians, writes in his journal the most famous of his sayings: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. 
• 2001: Sixteen Christians are shot and killed as Muslim militants stormed the church service they were attending in Bahawalpur, Pakistan.
• 2008: Father Bernard Digal (48), died after succumbing to injuries he suffered in an attack by Hindu militants in Kandhamal, Orissa in late August.

October 29

• 2003: Zhang Hong-mei is beaten to death while in police custody. on was arrested by local police in Dong Miao Dong village in Jiu Dian Town near Ping Du City in Shandong Province, China. That afternoon, her family was called and told to pay a bribe of 3,000 RMB (about $475 CDN). When they were unable to raise the money, her husband, Xu Feng-hai, and her brother went to the Public Security Bureau station to request her release. There they witnessed her chained, visibly beaten, and unable to speak to them. The following afternoon, the family was called and told that she had died. An autopsy showed wounds to her face, hands and leg, and serious internal bleeding.
• 2005: Three Christian teenaged girls are brutally beheaded by anti-Christian Islamists. Theresia Morangkir, Alfita Poliwo, Yarni Sambue and Noviana Malewa were walking to school through a cocoa plantation in Poso Kota when they were attacked by men dressed in black and wielding machetes. Therisia, Alfita and Yarni were beheaded. Noviana managed to fend off her attackers and run away, but suffered severe gashes to her face. The severed heads of the dead girls were found several miles away from the bodies. One was placed in front of a church and the other two near a police station.

October 30

• 298: Marcellus, a Christian centurion in the Trajan legion of Trajan is beheaded for refusing to participate in the pagan celebrations surrounding the birthday of the emperor. He was arrested and imprisoned until the festival was over. Marcellus was then brought before a judge, and, having declared his faith, was sent under guard to Aurelian Agricolaus, vicar to the prefect of the prætorium, who passed sentence of death upon him.
• 1536: Lutheranism becomes the official religion of Denmark.

October 31

• 287: Quintin, a native of Rome and missionary to Gaul, dies of the tortures suffered at the hands of Romans authorities in Amiens, Picardy.  Upon being captured by the authorities, he was stretched with pullies until his joints were dislocated. His body was then torn with wire scourges, and boiling oil and pitch poured on his naked flesh. Lighted torches were applied to his sides and armpits. After he had been thus tortured, he was sent back to prison where died of the barbarities he had suffered. His body was then thrown into the Somme River.
• 1517: Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses in Wittenberg
• 1992: Pope John Paul II formally admits the Roman Catholic Church's error in condemning Galileo Galilei in 1633 for believing the sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe.

Prayer: “Grant that we, who now remember these before thee, may likewise so bear witness unto thee in this world, that we may receive with them the crown of glory that fadeth not away; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” – taken from The Book of Common Prayer, Canada (1962)