by Peter James | Nov 8, 2024 | Edmund Calamy
I came upon Sermons of the Great Ejection recently, nine sermons from well-known Puritan preachers delivered on the Sunday before the Act of Uniformity of 1662 became law. The Church of England had become the official state religion, and anyone who couldn’t...
by Peter James | Nov 7, 2024 | Gertrude of Helfte
Gertrude entered a German monastery at five years old. It’s a shockingly early age to take up residence in a convent, perhaps bordering on child abuse to our modern sensibilities. But if you wanted your daughter to receive an education in the Middle Ages, the...
by Peter James | Nov 6, 2024 | Count Zinzendorf
Just for the record: Christians disagree with each other. Sometimes, we disagree in the strongest possible terms. John Wesley and Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760) had much in common. John led a movement called Methodism to revitalize the Church of...
by Peter James | Nov 5, 2024 | Paul Gerhardt
The Reformed tradition (think Calvinism) and the Lutherans weren’t getting along in seventeenth century Germany. The feud was long-standing, and their theological differences were hotly debated. Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676) came to Berlin to pastor a Lutheran church,...
by Peter James | Nov 4, 2024 | William of Orange
On paper, William of Orange (1650-1702) and Mary Stuart were the odd couple. He was twenty-six; she was barely fifteen. William was five inches shorter with a crooked nose and a hunchback, described by one eyewitness as “the plainest man in England.” Mary...
