Robert the Bruce

King of Scots from 1306, Robert the Bruce (1274-1329)is best known for defeating the English under Edward II at Bannockburn in 1314. In 1328 the Treaty of Northampton recognized Scotland's independence and Robert the Bruce as king. In his later years Robert the Bruce longed to go to the Holy Land to fight against the Muslims, who were in possession of the Sepulcher of Christ. He was the more anxious to do this because he was troubled at the thought that when he was a young man he had slain a rival before the very altar of God. When he knew that he must die without fulfilling his desire, he asked Lord James Douglas to be responsible for taking his heart to the Holy Land to make up for his failure to go on crusade during his life and atone for his sins.
When Bruce died, Douglas put the king's heart in a silver casket and started with it for the Holy Land. In Spain he found the Christians hard pressed by the Muslims and went to their aid. In the heat of the battle he threw Bruce's heart into the midst of the infidel host, crying: "Go thou before as thou wert wont to do, and Douglas will follow!" The brave Douglas perished in the battle, but one of his knights recovered Bruce's heart. He carried it back to Scotland, where it was buried in Melrose Abbey.

Robert Browning

Robert Browning (1812-1889) was an English poet whose work was characterized by the accomplished use of dramatic monologue and an interest in obscure literary and historical figures. His works included the poems The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1842), and Home Thoughts from Abroad (1845). He was married to Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
When he was a teenager, Browning shocked his evangelical mother when he declared himself like his hero Shelley, an atheist. In later life he looked back on this as a passing phase and he became a knowledgeable Bible reader but always denied any Christian faith.

Elizabeth Browning

The English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning is probably best known for her collection of poetry, Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850), a collection of love lyrics, which was written during her courtship with her husband Robert Browning. Elizabeth was bought up by a family that attended services at the nearest dissenting chapel and her father was active for years in Bible missionary societies. Elizabeth herself went through an evangelical “phase” and it is not clear how much she retained her faith as she developed an interest in spiritualism. However, she wrote a number of pieces about social injustice including the slave trade in America and the labor of children in the mines and mills of England.

Phillips Brooks

On Christmas Eve 1865, a young minister stood on the hill overlooking Bethlehem where the shepherds had watched their flocks on the night Jesus was born. The impression of that starry night never left Phillips Brooks. Three years later he was asked to write a hymn for the children of his Philadelphia parish for their Christmas service. The words "O Little Town Of Bethlehem" were already in his mind. Brooks' church organist, Lewis Redner, set the words to music, declaring that the tune was "a gift from heaven." Brooks became an outstanding preacher and possibly the most highly esteemed American clergyman of his day. His deep earnestness, eloquence and poetic insight, made a strong impression on his listeners.
Twenty years later Brooks, who was by now an American Episcopal Bishop, was recovering from a life-threatening illness. He refused to receive any visitors until his freethinking humanist friend Colonel Bob Ingersoll arrived. Ingersoll, who was a renowned defender of agnosticism, was curious to know the reason Brooks wished to see him rather than his Christian friends. The explanation Brooks gave was that whilst he is assured of seeing his other friends in the next life he does not know if he will see the agnostic Ingersoll again.

Charlotte and Emily Brontë

In 1847 the talented Brontë sisters published their masterpieces, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. The daughters of an eccentric Low Church Irish clergyman, their different characters and approaches to Christianity were reflected in their works. The saintly, long-suffering Charlotte Brontë was an Anglican feminist and a passionate anti-Catholic who had been influenced by her Wesleyan family background with its belief that only complete adherence to God’s will brings salvation. These themes stand out in her Jane Eyre, where only after the brooding romantic Mr Rochester’s blindness, like St Paul, and his subsequent repentance to God can the book's heroine and Rochester be bought together.
Emily Brontë was a silent, reserved, emotionally bound up woman. In private she prefered to live in her imagined land of Gondal rather than the real world. The mystical Emily was obsessed by death. Her classic, poetical story, Wuthering Heights, about Heathcliffe’s doomed, obsessional love for Cathy shocked many critics with its immoral passion, unusual construction and violent nature.

The Brompton Oratory

The Brompton Oratory is a massive baroque Roman Catholic church, built 1878–84 to the design of Herbert Gribble (1847–94). It immediately played an important role in the re-establishment of Roman Catholicism, as London's largest and main place of worship until the opening of *Westminster Cathedral in 1903.

The Battle of Britain

In the summer of 1940, Germany’s Luftwaffe aircraft began destroying Britain's air force before launching a September sea force called Operation Sea Lion. The British Royal Air Force suffered greatly and it appeared it was about to be destroyed. In early September King George VI called the nation to prayer, many flocked to the churches and a week later on September 15th a critical battle was fought in the British skies was fought. Mysteriously when the RAF were down to their last legs with no reserves left, the Luftwaffe started to retreat and flew home. In retaliation for a RAF raid on Berlin, Hitler ordered a change of strategy of blitzing London and other British cities with night time raids. Even though there were many fatal British civilian casualties, this unexpectant change of tactics allowed the RAF to build up again their stock of planes and trained pilots. The prayers had been answered and Britain was saved from invasion.

Brazil

In 1500 the Portuguese explorer Pedro Cabral, on landing at the newly discovered thousands of miles across the ocean, built a wooden cross and together with his crew they knelt before it and kissed it. This was to demonstrate to the natives their veneration for the cross. Cabral named this new land, “Vera Cruz”, meaning “True Cross”, though others are calling it ‘Brazil’ after the brazilwood found on the coast.

The Reverend Dr Thomas Bray (1658 – 1730) was an English clergyman. Henry Compton, Bishop of London, appointed him in 1696 as his commissary to organize the Church of England in Maryland, and he was in that colony in 1699–1700. Whilst out there he organised a scheme with four laymen for establishing parish libraries in England and America, out of which grew the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Its object was to encourage Christian education and literature in both Britain and America.
Bray took a great interest in colonial missions, especially among the Native Americans and in 1702 he founded the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts to provide a ministry to English settlers in North America after becoming aware, whilst touring Maryland, of the weakness of the Church of England in the American colonies.

Boys Brigade

In Great Britain in 1883, a successful Christian businessman, William Smith, decided to work towards “the advancement of Christ’s Kingdom among boys”. The movement he formed later became known as the Boys’ Brigade, which founded its first branch in America four years later.

Robert Boyle

Robert Boyle (1627-1691) was an Anglo-Irish chemist and physicist who is best known for formulating Boyle's law in 1662, which says that the pressure of gases varies inversely with the volume. An eager Christian, Boyle was fluent in Hebrew, Greek, and Syriac and spent much of his private wealth on promoting the study of the Bible. As a director of the East India Company, he encouraged Christian missionary work in the Far East.

Boxing Day

Boxing Day is traditionally celebrated on 26 December. A British tradition, going back many centuries It was only made an official holiday in 1871. Also known as St. Stephen's Day, it was customarily a time for giving to the poor. The name comes partly from the metal boxes kept in churches to collect money for the needy. On the day after Christmas Day these boxes were opened and the money shared among the poor people of the parish.
In the United Kingdom it became a custom of the nineteenth century Victorians for tradesmen to collect their "Christmas boxes" or gifts in return for good and reliable service throughout the year on the day after Christmas.

The Boxer Rebellion

The Boxer Rebellion took place in north China in 1900, the largest ever massacre of Protestant Christians. 188 Protestant missionaries plus their children and thousands of Chinese Christian converts were massacred and burnt alive by a fanatical occult sect. The cries of the Boxers- “Sha kuei-tzu” (“kill the devils”) could be heard along with the shrieks of the victims and the groans of the dying.

Antoinette Bourignon

Antoinette Bourignon (1616 –1680) was a Flemish mystic. Antoinette was born at Lille to a rich Catholic family with a facial deformity. Believing herself called to restore the pure spirit of the Gospel, she fled her French home and entered a convent. Antoinette gathered followers in Amsterdam and printed enthusiastic works. Her religious enthusiasm, peculiarity of views and disregard of all sects raised both zealous persecutors and warm adherents. Bourignonism proved to be especially popular in Scotland, sufficiently to call forth several denunciations of her doctrines in various early 18th century Presbyterian general assemblies.

Bourbon

In 1789 the Reverend Elijah Craig was the first person to distil bourbon, a whiskey distilled from a mixture of grains, around 50% being maize. The drink is named after Bourbon County in Kentucky, where the clergyman had his parish.

Rodrigo Borgia

Rodrigo Borgia (1431-1503), who was of Spanish origin, bribed his way to the papacy in 1492. A wily, morally corrupt politician, whose love of woman was legendary, many doubted his suitability to be the new head of the church. This head of the Catholic Church fathered several illegitimate children by his mistress Vannozza Cattani, including a daughter called Lucrezia. He arranged two marriages for her when she was 12 and 13 purely to further his own ambitions, then when he’d got what he wanted out of them he arranged the divorces. Borgia had a picture of her made to look like the Virgin Mary painted over the door of his bedroom.
When Savonarola preached against his corrupt practices Alexander had him executed. He is said to have died of a poison he had prepared for his cardinals. Such was the late Pope’s unpopularity that only four prelates attend his the Requiem Mass.

William Booth (1829-1912) was born in Nottingham and had a conversion at the age of 15. He experienced religious conversion at the age of 15. By 1855 Booth had become a travelling evangelist for the Methodist church. Trekking up and down the country by train, the recently married Booth and his wife, Catherine, were surviving on £2 a week. Having originally been inspired by an American hellfire preacher, he devoted his evenings ten years to religious work in the local slums. It is here that became acquainted with conditions of life among the very poor.
In 1865 Booth and his wife start their mission aimed at the unprivileged classes that live in unspeakable poverty in the East End of London. Thirteen years later, the annual Christmas appeal for William Booth’s Mission was being drawn up. The circular was in dialogue form and to one of the questions “What is the Christian mission?” the answer was “a volunteer army”. Suddenly Booth seized a pen, crossed out “volunteer” and wrote instead “salvation”, thus coining the title “Salvation Army” for his movement.
His book In Darkest England, and the Way Out (1890) contained proposals for the physical and spiritual redemption of the many down-and-outs Booth ministered to. It was not only a best-seller after its 1890 release, but also set the foundation for the Army's modern social welfare schemes. He wrote, "A starving man cannot hear you preaching. Give him a bowl of soup and he will listen to every word."
As a preacher Booth was a populist crowd puller. For example he was known to demonstrate the easy road to Hell by sliding down the stair-rail of his pulpit. A champion of the poor he railed against those who “reduce sweating to a fine art, who systematically and deliberately defraud the workman of his pay, who grind the faces of the poor and rob the widow and the orphan.”
In 1912 Booth, who had been in poor health for several years died. When asked what had been the secret of his success all the way through, the General replied “I will tell you the secret, God has had all there was of me!” The end of his last speech went as follows: “While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight. While little children go hungry, I’ll fight. While there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, where there remains one dark soul without the light of God- I’ll fight! I’ll fight to the very end!”

Bookkeeping

In medieval western Europe businessmen commonly opened on their books an account for “Messer le Bon Dieu” or “God Esquire”. When a contract was signed, God was called in as a witness and received a penny.

Book of Common Prayer

In 1552 in England the second English Book of Common Prayer was published by King Edward VI’s advisor Thomas Cranmer. It was intended to be the basis for worship throughout the Anglican Church. Around the same time, the Act of Uniformity enforced the use of the Book of Common Prayer and outlawed the Mass.

Books

In 1966 the Catholic Church abolished it’s list of Forbidden Books, which had existed since the sixteenth century. By 1948 over 4,000 titles had been censored including works by Erasmus, Defoe, Descartes and Immanuel Kant.

Pope Boniface VIII

Pope Boniface VIII (c. 1235 – 1303), born Benedetto Caetani, was Pope from 1294 to 1303. Today, Boniface VIII is probably best remembered for his feuds with Dante, who placed him in a circle of Hell in his Divine Comedy, and with the English and French kings. He was also the first pope to wear the zucchetto, a small skullcap that covers the tonsure.
In 1296 Pope Boniface VIII issued Clericis Laicos, which threatened excommunication for any lay ruler who taxed the clergy and any clergyman who paid the taxes. Despite being pious himself, the King of England, Edward 1st, retorted by decreeing if the clergy did not pay, they would be stripped of all legal protection and the King’s sheriff would seize their properties. The Pope backed down.
His bull of 1302 Unam sanctam, asserting papal authority over all temporal rulers was just as controversial and King Philip IV of France responded with a counter attack and was behind the kidnapping of the pope by some Italian noblemen. The Pope was soon released but so roughly was he treated that Boniface died shortly afterwards.

Saint Boniface

In 729AD Boniface (680-754), a bishop originally from Devon in South West England was commissioned by Pope Gregory II to evangelize Germany. The English missionary, spent twenty five years aggressively defying the pagan Saxon’s gods, demolishing their shrines and cutting down their trees, before being murdered near Dokkum in Frisia. It is thought the motive was robbery.
An inspirational and successful missionary, Boniface bought Germany into Christian Europe. The “Apostle to the Germans” had a well-developed mission strategy in which he kept in touch with the Christians back home in England who prayed for him and sent him money, supplies and workers. On his mission field Boniface built churches on holy sites and founded monasteries with the facilities for teaching people academic and agricultural disciplines. He was also one of the pioneers in recruiting women into mission by bringing over nuns from Britain to teach education and domestic science.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

In 1939 Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), a German Lutheran theologian made the dramatic decision to return from America to Nazi Germany to be with his people in the tragic times that he saw ahead. He was opposed to the “German Christian Movement,” which advocated the removal of all Jewish elements from the Christian faith and he challenged Christians to reject a complacent, immature and compliant faith. Instead Bonhoeffer believed that the Christian walk requires a costly involvement in the modern secular society.
On April 6, 1943, Bonhoeffer was arrested for involvement in the political resistance against Hitler. On April 9, 1945, just three weeks before the Soviet capture of Berlin and a month before the capitulation of Nazi Germany, Bonhoeffer was hanged.
The camp doctor who witnessed the execution wrote: “I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer ... kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God. I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.”

Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn (1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) Having no male heir by his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII wanted to get a Papal annulment so he could marry the flirtatious Anne Boleyn. Unable to do so the English king was forced to break from Rome and the pope ( thus creating the Church of England) in order to divorce Catherine and wed the now pregnant Anne. The new English queen was sympathetic towards the new Bible based Protestantism and Martin Luther viewed her rise to the throne as a positive sign.
Anne gave birth to the future Queen Elizabeth I in 1533, but was unable to produce a male heir to the throne, and three years later was accused of adultery and incest with her half-brother (a charge invented by Thomas Cromwell), and sent to the Tower of London. She was declared guilty, and was beheaded on 19 May 1536 at Tower Green, her last words being “Christ have mercy on my soul.”

Boethius

In 523 Boethius (480-524), who was the head of the civil service and chief of the palace officials for Theodoric The Great in Rome, was arrested on suspicion of secret dealings with Theodoric’s enemies in Constantinople. During his time in prison awaiting execution, he wrote The Consolation of Philosophy, which encouraged man to find consolation through meditation and prayer. During the Middle Ages this was a much-revered work and both Chaucer and Queen Elizabeth 1st translated it into English.
Boethius also wrote five theological treatises, which systematically applied the logic of Aristotle to Christian theology. They earned him the label of the first of the scholastic philosophers- one who attempts to use philosophy to explain Christian faith.
Boethius famously claimed that it is wrong to say what God is. Instead we should say what God is not, since the moment we say what he is we reduce him, thus diminishing him to the level of our inadequate thoughts and even more inadequate language.

William Blake

The visionary English artist and poet William Blake was known as “barmy” Blake, as he believed he had long conversations with biblical heroes and other famous historic figures. Even as a child he had visions of angels in a tree and the prophet, Ezekiel in a field. If his wife Catherine decided that her eccentric husband was spending too much time with his visions and angels and not enough earning his daily bread, at mealtime she placed an empty plate at his end of the table.
The Non-conformist mystic wanted to escape from puritanical repressive Christianity and had contempt for organized religion. He believed that England had a special relationship with God, having accepted the myth that Christianity had been established at Glastonbury almost in Christ’s own lifetime, by his follower Joseph of Arimethea, and that as the Jews have failed him, God replaced them with the English as his “chosen people.” In 1804 Blake wrote in his preface to his long poem Milton, Jerusalem, a poem of spiritual power and sexual liberty. The line “and did these feet in ancient time” referred, according to Blake, to Joseph of Arimethea. Sir Hubert Parry put the poem to music in 1916 to beef up British morale during the bleakest days of the First World War. Despite the unorthodox theology of the words it is now one of the most popular hymns in the English language and many of the English population would like this to replace "God Save The Queen" as their national anthem.

Tony Blair

In 1997 the voters of the United Kingdom dispatched the Conservative Party into opposition after 18 years in power and replaced it with the Labour Party and a new Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Twelve years later Blair won his third general election. making him the Labour Party's longest-serving Prime Minister and the only person to have led the party to three consecutive general election victories.
Blair had his political views motivated by his Christian beliefs and was arguably the most devout British Prime Minister since William Gladstone. A High Church Anglican, he frequently attended Catholic services with his equally devout Roman Catholic wife, Cherie. On 22 December 2007, it was disclosed that Blair had converted to the Catholic faith, and that it was "a private matter."

Antoinette Blackwell

Antoinette Blackwell (1825-1921) was inspired by evangelical revivals to enrol at the Presbyterian Oberlin College and study theology, but as a woman she was refused a degree and ordination. After lecturing on women's rights and occasionally preaching at progressive churches, she was appointed in 1853 pastor by the First Congregational Church in South Butler, New York, thus becoming the first woman minister in an established Protestant denomination. However due to theological disagreements she resigned after less than a year and later joined the Unitarian church.
One of Antoinette Blackwell’s sister in laws was Elizabeth Blackwell, the first British woman doctor and the first woman to gain a medical degree anywhere.

The Black Death

In the mid-14th century a great epidemic of plague, mainly the bubonic variant known as The Black Death swept through Europe killing millions. Many people feared it was God’s judgement on a wicked world. Dice-makers turned their dice into beads for prayer and the Archbishop of York ordered solemn processions to ask for God’s mercy. One particular group who subscribed to this judgement theory were the Flagellants, groups of hooded men who marched with their white robes emblazoned on both sides with a red cross. They marched in parties of around 100 in a funeral procession from town to town with a combination of hymnal singing and sobbing. Throughout Europe they preached against church corruption and persecution of the Jews. Twice a day they performed a ceremony in public where they whipped themselves or beat themselves with iron spikes. The general public had tremendous regard for the Flagellants, as they see their acts as symbolizing man’s remorse for his wicked ways in a period when God’s judgement and wrath were manifestly evident.
By the 1350s there was a religious revival in Europe aimed at atoning for whatever sins may have caused the plague. This revival lead to an increase in charitable works and the founding of many new hospitals across Europe.
Also many people paid money to their priests to dedicate Masses to them and their families, believing that this would ensure divine protection on Earth. The result of this was a large income for the church that was spent on intricate decoration and liturgical music. As a result most churches had at least one resident musician whose task was to produce music on a weekly basis for both the Mass and the choir.

The Black Church in America

Richard Allen (1760-1831) was born a slave and converted to Methodism as a young man. After he converted his owner, he was given his freedom. In 1874 he was accepted as a Methodist preacher and returned to Philadelphia to preach . After an incident in which white parishioners forced the African-Americans present to segregate themselves, he led his black parishioners to form a Free African Society in 1787 , and in 1794 Allen established a separate Methodist church for African-Americans. Many African-Americans flocked to the new denomination as it allowed them to worship God in a culture that they could relate to. Allen, who campaigned for many years against the slave trade, worked to make the church an organization that was able to unite the African-Americans together.
In 1816 a number of independent black Methodist churches around the North East came together to form the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and on 11th April 1816 he was ordained its first bishop leading it until his death.

Otto Bismarck

As prime minister of Prussia, Otto Von Bismarck (1815-1898) pursued an aggressively expansionist policy, waging wars against Denmark (1863–64), Austria (1866), and France (1870–71), which brought about the unification of Germany and the founding of the German empire. Having received a humanistic education in his younger days, Bismarck was a freethinker, however his devout Lutheran wife, Joanna helped him to discover the Christian faith.
Bismarck believed that the Roman Catholic Church held too much political power and in 1871 he began an anti-Catholic campaign known as the Kulturkampf (cultural struggle). It was an attempt to subordinate the Roman Catholic Church in Germany to the state and the laws arising from this prohibited all Catholic religious assemblies. Many members of Catholic religious orders were expelled, including the Jesuits, a thousand priests were imprisoned or exiled and a million Catholics were left without their sacraments.

The King James Bible

In the early 17th century, the Geneva Bible was by far the most popular English Bible. It was the Geneva translation, not the King James, that was used by William Shakespeare and the early American Puritans. In 1604 Puritan John Rainolds suggested " . . . that there might bee a newe translation of the Bible, as consonant as can be to the original Hebrew and Greek." England's King James I granted his approval the following day and three years later, 47 leading scholars of the Church of England gathered in the Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster Abbey to plan the production of the Bible authorized by King James.
In 1611 The King James Bible was completed and published, using much of the original Hebrew and Greek. Despite making no mention of William Tyndale it preserved 90 per cent of his translation. Amongst the well-known lines taken from Tyndale’s translation work are “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3) and “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1).
For the next three hundred years it was the translation generally used by English-speaking people.

The Bible

Due to all the false Gospels being produced the Christian leaders decided to collect together in one book all the known writings of the original apostles, who had the truth first hand. The division of the Hebrew Scriptures and the classical Christian documents came to be known as the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The word “covenant” translated in Latin is “testamentim”. Hence the Old and New Testament.
By 100 AD the different parts of the New Testament had been written, but not yet collected and defined as ‘Scripture’. Early Christian writers such as Polycarp and Ignatius quoted from the Gospels and Paul’s letters, as well as from other Christian writings and oral sources. Paul’s letters were collected late in the first century. Matthew, Mark and Luke were brought together by AD150.
The New Testament canon originated when due to many false gospels being produced. The church leaders of about AD200 decided to get together in one book all the known writings of the original apostles. This was also done as a true statement of faith to refute the criticisms of those who misunderstood Christianity. Around this time Tertullian was writing of the ‘New Testament’ which he placed on a level with the Old as regards divine inspiration.
The first evidence for a canonical list which completely matches that widely accepted for the New Testament today is the 39th Easter letter of Athanasius written in 367, which designated 27 books of the New Testament alongside the canon of the Old Testament.
In 397 At the Council of Carthage the western church agreed on the same New Testament canon as the Eastern church.

Bible Timeline

285BC The Old Testament is translated into Greek. This version is called the Septuagint meaning “70” as 70 noted Jewish scholars worked on it.

100 AD All the different parts of the New Testament had been written, but not yet collected and defined as ‘Scripture’

200AD The church leaders decided to get together in one book all the known writings of the original apostles. This is also done as a true statement of faith to refute the criticisms of those who misunderstood Christianity.

200AD Tertullian is writing of the ‘New Testament’ which he placed on a level with the Old as regards divine inspiration.

367AD The first evidence for a canonical list which completely matches that widely accepted for the New Testament today is the 39th Easter letter of Athanasius written in 367, which designates 27 books of the New Testament alongside the canon of the Old Testament.

375 AD The Goths in Germany were introduced to Christianity by Roman prisoners, whom they had taken captive during raids into the Empire. Now Ulfilas, a missionary bishop to the Goths, has translated the Bible into their everyday speech, a monumental task as in order to achieve this task, he had to first of all devise a Gothic alphabet. He has omitted the books of Kings as he is concerned the accounts of the military campaigns of the Hebrews in those books will urge the warlike Gothic tribes to acts of war. This is the first barbarian translation of the Bible and the first done specifically for missionary purposes.

397 At the Council of Carthage the Western church agrees on the same New Testament canon as the Eastern church.

C720 Rather than copying from any one source, The Venerable Bede researched from several sources to create single volume bibles, a practice which was highly unusual for the time: previously, the bible had circulated as separate books.

1205 Stephen Langton, a professor in Paris, inserts chapter divisions into a Vulgate edition of the Bible. He is the first person to divide the Bible into defined chapters. Langton later became the Archbishop of Canterbury.

1408 In England the Council of Oxford forbids translations of the Scriptures from Latin into English unless authorized by the Church.

1466 First German bible is printed in Strasbourg by Johannes Mentelin.

1514: The first section of the Complutensian Polyglot (the world's first multi-language Bible) was printed at Alcala, Spain. (The complete translation was published in 6 volumes in 1517.)

1521 Martin Luther translates the New Testament into German. His German New Testament had a profound effect on the development of the German language and contributed largely to restructuring German literature.

1523 The New Testament is first translated into French.

1525 William Tyndale begins the printing of his English New Testament, the first complete translation from the original Hebrew and Greek text. After being forced to flee, he completes it clandestinely in Worms.

1526 William Tyndale's New Testament is completed. When it is read in church it’s popular reception is the 16th century equivalent of the popular soaps of today. The common people flock to hear the humour, violence and suspense of the Biblical stories. Despite its popularity the Bishop of London orders all copies to be seized and burned but these are soon replaced and copies continue to circulate.

1535. Miles Coverdale’s English Bible is printed. It is the first complete translation of the Bible and the Apocrypha to be printed in English. When Henry VIII, at Archbishop Cranmer’s request, authorises that it can be bought and read by all his subjects there is a tremendous widespread excitement. So much the English King is forced to draw back and issue new regulations restricting the reading of the Bible to wealthy merchants and aristocrats.

1539 Having banned Tyndale’s translation of the Bible, Henry VIII has a change of heart and orders a new version with an image of himself on the title page. The Great Bible is the first complete translation of the Bible and the Apocrypha to be printed in English. When Henry VIII, at Archbishop Cranmer’s request, authorizes that it can be bought and read by all his subjects there is a tremendous widespread excitement.

1540 The Bishop of London, Edmund Bonner, places six copies of the Great Bible in St Paul's Cathedral. So enthusiastic are the people to hear the humor, violence and suspense of the Biblical stories that the overwhelming crowds are constantly disrupting his services. Consequently Bonner has to threaten to remove the Bibles unless the common people calm down.

1545 A law is passed by Parliament restricting the reading of the Bible in the new English translations to churchmen, aristocrats and wealthy merchants. It is now illegal for artisans, labourers or servants or women (except noblewomen) to read the Bible for fear the effect it will have on them

1557 Whilst Jewish Masoretes divided the Old Testament Hebrew text into verses, the New Testament was not divided into verse numbers until Robert Stephens’ Greek and Latin versions in 1557.

1560 The Geneva Testament under the leadership of William Whittingham is produced in Geneva. It is the first English Bible to be divided into chapter and verses. The Geneva Bible is the Bible taken to America by the Pilgrim Fathers.

1611 The King James Bible is completed and published, using much of the original Hebrew and Greek.

1646 The Massachusetts Bay Colony passes a law making it a capital offence to deny that the Bible is the Word of God. Any person convicted of the offence is liable to the death penalty.

1653 The ‘Unrighteous’ Cambridge Bible is published in England. It includes the following two mistakes: 1 Corinthians 6 v 9 “know yet not that the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God”. And Romans 6 v 13 “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of righteousness unto sin.”

1690 John Eliot (1604-1690), an American who was called the "Apostle to the Indians," was the first translator of the Bible into an Indian tongue — the first Bible to be printed in America.

1759 For the first time, the Pope gives his permission for the Bible to be translated into all languages of the Catholic states.

1782 A Philadelphian Printer, Robert Aitken, publishes the Robert Aitken Bible. This first ever published English language Bible in America has been printed due the lack of new Bibles available in the United States. The supply of English language Bibles has been cut off as a result of the Revolutionary War.

1901 The American Standard Version, a revision of the Revised Version is published. This is the first ever major Bible to be written in American English.

1952 The Revised Standard Version of the Bible is published. It is a revision of the 1901 American Standard Version made by a committee of thirty-two Bible scholars and its aim is to provide an accessible, accurate modern translation of the Bible.

1971 The New American Standard Bible is published, updating and modernising the
American Standard Version. It is incorporating the Hebrew and Greek textual
discoveries that have been found, since the ASV was published.

1976 The Good News Translation is published. Its objective is to provide a clear, simple and accurate contemporary English translation. A New Testament version was published ten years previously, which has proved very popular having sold over 40 million copies. The line drawings and the easy-to-understand English have made it particularly popular with children.

Bible Trivia

The word Bible comes from the Greek word for "papyrus plant" (biblos), since the leaves of that plant were used for paper.

The oldest surviving copy of the four Gospels date back to 350. Cynics would need to move forward 500 years to approximately 850 to find the date of the oldest surviving copy of the supposedly more historically sound Caesar’s account of the Gallic War.

During the Middle Ages the medieval church walls were covered in paintings of Biblical scenes, which, in a period of almost universal illiteracy were thought to be the poor man’s Bible. Though reformers such as John Wycliffe and John Hus advocated the importance of the Bible, throughout the Middle Ages the clergy were afraid to let the common people have any knowledge of the Scriptures and in most of Europe it was dangerous to possess or even to be found reading the Bible. In England, for instance, in 1399 the death penalty became the punishment for heresy and many Lollards were burnt alive with their Bibles around their necks.

William Tyndale's translation of the New Testament introduced some of the most familiar phrases to the English language, such as ‘filthy lucre’, and ‘God forbid.’

Many common expressions were taken from the King James Bible. These include:

Casting pearls before swine (Matthew 7.v6)

Pride goes before a fall (Proverbs 16 v 18)

Go from strength to strngth (Psalm 84 v 7)

In the twinkling of an eye (1 Corinthians 15 v51-52)

The eleventh hour (Matthew 20 v 6)

Paul McCartney’s song “Uncle Albert” was about a real uncle of his, who when drunk would quote and read from the Bible, but when sober would not be seen near one.

In the Authorised version of the Bible there are 66 books, 1189 chapters, 31173 verses, 774746 words and 3566480 letters.

The middle verse in the Old Testament is 2 Chronicles 10 v17 & 18 and in the New Testament is Acts 17 v17.

The shortest verse in the Old Testament is 1 Chronicles 1 Chronicles 1 v25 (Eber, Peleg, Reu) and in the New Testament is John 11 v35 (Jesus Wept).

Ezra 7 v 21 “And I, even I Artaxerxes the king, do make a decree to all the treasurers which are beyond the river, that whatsoever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, shall require of you, it be done speedily.” (King James), contains all the letters of the Bible except J.

The word ‘And’ occurs 35,543 times in the Old Testament and 10,684 times in the New Testament.

There are 8,674 different Hebrew words in the Bible and 5,624 different Greek words translated into 12,143 different English words in the King James version.

Esther is the only book in the Bible that doesn’t mention the name of God.

An American linguist spent six months translating the New Testament into Klingon, the language created for Star Trek movies.

The Bible was translated at the beginning of the 21st century into Hawaiian pidgin English. Da Jesus book features characters such as “da bad guy” (Satan) and renders verses such as “Our Father who art in Heaven” as “God you our Fadda You stay inside da sky.”

Among the plethora of market-serving "versions" of the Bible made to please sub-groups and consumerist niche markets are the following: . A magazine-style Bible for teenage girls, Revolve, which has tips on cosmetics and boys and it counterpoint, the Refuel edition for boys, the African-American Woman's Study Bible, the Promise Keeper's Bible for Men, the Twelve-Step Bible. and the Green Bible with its green-inked verses having to do with the environment

Bernard of Clairvaux

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090 – 1153) was a Frankish abbot and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian monastic order. After the death of his mother in 1112, Bernard sought admission into the Cistercian order along with 27 of his friends and relations including four of his brothers. The young Frenchman had decided to withdraw from riches in order to live a life of poverty and a diet of cooked beech and herbs. He was soon recognised as a saint of such purity that he made others feel their impurity and many of his fellow monks were afraid even to come into his presence. It only required a few minutes in his company to learn how far they have fallen short.
Three years after entering the order Bernard was sent by the abbot of St Citeaux to start a monastery at Clairvaux. Within a few years the monastery had become under Bernard of Clairvaux’s rule the most prominent of the Cistercian order. His eloquent preaching and the miracles witnessed there attracted numerous pilgrims. By 1146 around 70 monasteries had been founded under the auspices of the one at Clairvaux and Bernard had established himself as one of the most influential men in Christendom. He advocated a more personal faith in which the Virgin Mary is the bridge between humanity and our saviour Jesus Christ. He also gained a reputation for denouncing liberal monks who undermine the mysteries of God by trying to understand the Christian faith through philosophy and intellectual means.
Around this time News came from the Holy Land that alarmed Christendom. Christians had been defeated at the Siege of Edessa and most of the county had fallen into the hands of the Seljuk Turks. At the command of the pope, Bernard preached a sermon at Vézelay, promoting a second Crusade that aroused enthusiasm throughout Western Europe. Louis VII, the King of France was persuaded to join the Crusade and recruits from northern France, Flanders and Germany also signed up. It did not succeed in any of its aims and the last years of Bernard's life were saddened by the failure of the Second Crusade he had preached, the entire responsibility for which was thrown upon him.

Saint Bernadette

One cold February day in 1858 a poor 13-year-old peasant girl from Lourdes, France, called Bernadette was collecting twigs for firewood together with her sister, Marie and friend, Jeanne Abadie when she saw a vision of a lady near a small cave on the bank of a river. This lady looked like, according to Bernadette, a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. To make sure the vision was not a manifestation of the devil, Bernadette threw holy water at her. The lady inclined her head gracefully until the bottle was empty. Despite the temptation to run away the young peasant girl fell to her knees transfixed. Despite no one else seeing the vision, soon crowds gathered at the place of her “acquero” as Bernadette referred to it. The peasant girl started seeing more visions. During the ninth vision the gathered crowd witnessed Bernadette dig into the earth and uncover a trickle of water that proved to be a spring. An old stone mason with a blind eye bathed it in the spring’s water and his eyesight was restored. A large crowd of people gathered at Lourdes on the day of Bernadette’s eighteenth vision but still she was the only one to see the lady. This time she asked the young woman who she is; the answer in Provencal was “Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou”, (“I am the Immaculate Conception”.) The young peasant girl did not understand this but reported it to her parish priest. Despite the church authorities scepticism regarding Bernadette’s claims of a miracle sick people from all over France began making their way to Lourdes.
The sisters of Nevers had a house at Lourdes where they cared for the sick and instructed children. They received Bernadette, who disliked the attention she was attracting and wanted to get away from the trying publicity and the over enthusiastic attentions of insensitive pilgrims. The sisters taught her to read and write and kept her busy with light work. She then joined a convent, moving into their mother house at Nevers at the age of 22. Bernadette spent the rest of her brief life there, and in her later years contracted tuberculosis of the bone in the right knee. On 16 April 1879 the terminally ill Bernadette was heard to mumble “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for me, poor sinner, poor sinner.” A few seconds later Bernadette died. She had spent the last 12 years of her life working as an assistant in the infirmary and later as a sacristan, creating beautiful embroidery for altar cloths and vestments. Bernadette had followed the development of Lourdes as a pilgrimage shrine while she still lived at Lourdes, but was not present for the consecration of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception there in 1876.

Berlin Wall

During several visits to his homeland, Poland, Pope John II proved to be a rallying point for opponents of the communist regime there and democratic elections were eventually promised. Meanwhile other Eastern European countries, encouraged by this and Gorbachev’s reforming policies also proceededto overthrow their Communist regimes. The culmination of this was the symbolic breaking up of the Berlin Wall on November 9th, 1989.

Benedictine Liquor

Dom Bernardo Vincelli, a member of the Benedictine order in the early 16th century was an enthusiastic botanist who collected the plants and herbs that abundantly grew around his local area at Fécamp on the Normandy coast. Some of the specimens he used for medications, which he prepared for the hospital attached to his monastery. One of these concoctions contained a mixture of various herbs, fruit peels, twenty-eight different aromatic plants, and a fine brandy. When Dom Bernardo first tasted it with his fellow brothers, he immediately remarked on its "refreshing and recuperative" qualities. The exact formula however was highly classified. Closely guarded, its secret was confined to a maximum of three of his brethren.
Three hundred and fifty years later in 1862 a French merchant, Alexandre Le Grand discovered in some family archives the Benedictine, Dom Bernardo Vincelli’s, old secret recipe for a liqueur. He perfected the formula and began selling the liqueur, which he named Benedictine as a homage. The bottles of his liqueur contain the inscription Deo, optimo, maximio (or DOM), which translated means “To God, most good, most great”.

Benedictines

In 529 The Benedictine Order was founded by St Benedict (480-543) at Mount Cassino and 51 years later the Mount Cassino monastery was sacked by the Lombards thus fulfilling a prophecy of Benedict. The monks took refuge in Rome and started to spread knowledge of Benedictine rule. The Benedictine movement within the next few centuries became a key source for the conversion of Germany and England to Roman Christianity.
The Benedictine order arrived in England in 597 when a monastery was built in
Canterbury by the Benedictine prior St Augustine. Other Benedictine missionaries
completed the conversion of England to Roman Christianity. A century later the
English Benedictines, Saints Willibrord and Boniface successfully evangelized Germany and from there it spread northwards to Scandinavia and southwards to Spain. In 816 the Benedictine monastic order was imposed on the Holy Roman Empire. By this time the Benedictine had become the only form of monastic life throughout the whole of Western Europe, excepting Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, where the Celtic form of
Christianity remained prevalent.
A typical Benedictine day in England in the ninth century was : 12.00 Laud and Mass. Back to bed. 7.00 Service (prime) and mass. Breakfast. Discuss day’s business. 12.00 Work. 5.00 Vespers then relaxation. 6.30 Supper. 7.00 Compline then bed.
A typical Benedictine day in England in the ninth century was : 12.00 Laud and Mass. Back to bed. 7.00 Service (prime) and mass. Breakfast. Discuss day’s business. 12.00 Work. 5.00 Vespers then relaxation. 6.30 Supper. 7.00 Compline then bed.
In 910 The Benedictine Abbey of Cluny was founded in France by the Abbot Berno as a
reaction to the corruption and lack of zeal in the Benedictine Order. It became the
headquarters of the Cluniac order, who were noted for their strict adherence to the rule of St Benedict. From here monastic reforms were spread and Cluny became the leader of western monasticism from the later 10th century.
The Benedictine rule is a monument of wisdom that has survived the centuries. At its peak forty thousand monasteries were following it in the west.

Pope Benedict IX

Pope Benedict IX (c. 1012 – c.1085), born Theophylactus of Tusculum, was Pope on three occasions between 1032 and 1048. One of the youngest popes, he was the only man to have been Pope on more than one occasion and the only man ever to have sold the papacy.
Benedict IX’s immoral character aroused much indignation. In 1044 a Roman faction drove him from office as unfit to rule due to his dissolute lifestyle but a year later he reinstated himself. The pope proceeded to marry his cousin and sell the papacy to his godfather, Gregory VI. In 1047 Benedict regained the papal throne again before finally being driven out from Rome a year later. After 16 years under Benedict the papacy had reached an all-time low in immorality and debauchery.

Saint Benedict

Born at Nurcia in Umbria, Benedict (c480-543) was a pious and virtuous child. He was sent to study at Rome and at the age of 15, disgusted at the vices of the city, fled to a cave on the face of a cliff in the mountains of Subiaco. Benedict survived on bread lowered to him in a basket attached to a rope by Romanus, a monk living at one of the numerous monasteries nearby.He had forsworn the consumption of meat in order to suppress his own carnal desires. After three years in the cave, the fame of Benedict's virtues reached some monks whose abbot had just died and they insisted that he become his successor. Though Benedict remained in the cave, more and more disciples placed themselves under his guidance. Eventually he established an abbey at Vicovano to house the growing number of his followers. It was the first of twelve monasteries he built for them, each of twelve monks.
About 529 Benedict founded the Monte Cassino abbey on the site of an ancient temple dedicated to the God, Apollo. He established there his Rule of St Benedict, which he composed 15 years earlier. The rule encouraged monks to participate in manual labour and studying, a novel idea at the time, but a monument of wisdom that has survived the centuries. Benedict declared “Idleness is hostile to the soul, and the brethren should be occupied at fixed times in manual labour and at definite hours in religious reading.”
A few weeks after the death of his sister Scholastica, Benedict had her tomb opened as he wished to be laid to rest beside her. He was then without warning taken with a violent fever. The dying Benedict was carried into the chapel at Monte Cassino by his fellow Benedictines where he received communion before he drew his last breath standing erect supported by his disciples.

Ben Hur

Lew Wallace (1827-1905), the Governor of the New Mexico Territory decided to write a book that would explode once and for all the supposedly absurd claims of Jesus Christ. After researching his material he began writing only to find he couldn’t go any further as it contradicted his original thesis denying Christ is the Son of God. So he converted his book into a novel, whose primary purpose was to support the claims of Jesus. The novel’s title was Ben Hur, and it became the best selling American novel of the nineteenth century, surpassing Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and it had the honor of being the first work of fiction to be blessed by a Pope.

Beggars

Lambert le Bègue, (d c1187) a Flemish priest, was deeply perturbed by the pitiful sight of the many destitute wives and children of crusaders who had been killed. He made it his special mission to assist such homeless widows and orphans. To house them, he established refuges all over the area. It did not take long for them to be called after the priest who had done so much for them, to be referred to as a Bèghard. That is how the word “beggar” came into the world.

Ludwig van Beethoven

In 1820 the composer Beethoven wrote his Mass in D Minor (Missa Solemnis). Despite writing such spiritually uplifting music, Beethoven was not a conventional Christian himself. However he considered his compositions to be inspired by God.

Henry Ward Beecher

Henry Ward Beecher (1813 – 1887) was a 19th century prominent, Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, abolitionist and speaker. Born to US Congregational and Presbyterian minister Lyman Beecher, Henry was the seventh of 13 siblings, some of whom were famous in their own right, including Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin.
In 1847 Henry was appointed the first pastor of Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn, New York. For the next thirty years he crusaded from the pulpit for temperance and against slavery and became one of the most influential public figures in America. One of the great preachers of the age, amongst the many thought-provoking quotes in his Life Thoughts was, “There are many people who think that Sunday is a sponge to wipe out all the sins of the week.”
In the highly publicized scandal known as the Beecher-Tilton Affair he was tried on charges that he had committed adultery with a friend's wife, Elizabeth Tilton. After a sensational trial, in 1875 he was acquitted, however the whole affair scandalized America as Beecher was an immensely popular and respected Christian public figure.

Saint Bede

At the age of seven Bede (672-735) was confided to the care of the Abbot Benedict by his family at the newly founded monastery in Wearmouth. The monastery was founded by Benedict Biscop, formerly the Abbot of St Peter’s in Canterbury. He bought builders and glass-workers from continental Europe to help erect the building, thus introducing stone edifices and glass windows to England.
Bede later transferred to Jarrow monastery, where he became a priest in about 703. He devoted his life there to study, writing and prayer. He cheerfully often spent a whole night in prayer and thanksgiving to God. He once wrote “I have devoted my energies to the study of the scriptures, observing monastic discipline and singing the daily services in church; study, teaching and writing have always been my delight.”
Much of our knowledge of England in the Dark Ages prior to the 8th century depends on Bede's historical works and his painstaking efforts to research and validate original sources. Rather than copying from any one source, he researched from several sources to create single volume bibles, a practice which was highly unusual for the time: previously, the bible had circulated as separate books. He also worked on translations of parts of the Bible into old English, unfortunately these have not survived.
His Ecclesiastical History of the English People is a primary source for early English history. It tells of the early Anglo Saxon kingdoms and their conversion to Christianity.
The 62-year old Bede spent the last day of his life at Jarrow Monastery teaching and distributing the few goods he owned to fellow priests. He then knelt on the floor to pray before dying surrounded by his brethren.

Thomas Becket

In 1156 Thomas Becket, a gifted administrator and a close friend of King Henry II, was installed as Archbishop of Canterbury. The king hoped this appointment would give him more power over the church. Until this assignation Becket had been a worldly patron of plays and anything that involved singing and dancing. However, once he was installed as Archbishop, Becket in an attempt to atone for his hedonistic past life and make a new beginning started following a life of austerity and asceticism. This involved him preserving his chastity, drinking sparingly, praying often at night, attending Masses at dawn and employing clerks to flog him as penance for his wrongdoings.
Soon after Becket was appointed Archbishop he realized that King Henry II was looking for a puppet, answerable to him whilst his loyalty was primarily to God and his church. The Archbishop and Henry had several disputes over ecclesiastical and royal matters and Becket constantly protested about the king interfering in church affairs. Henry got fed up with an Archbishop unwilling to be manipulated and feeling betrayed by a friend, cited him to appear before the king's court. Becket failed to respond so was found guilty of contempt of royal court. He was summoned to the Council of Northampton and seeing the king coaxing the bishops and barons for a guilty verdict, stormed out. In 1164 Becket fled to France disguised and the dispute remained unsettled.
In 1170 the final rift between Henry II and Becket occurs when the king's eldest son, who was also called Henry, was crowned as his heir by the Archbishop of York and six bishops, a violation of the Archbishop of Canterbury's traditional right. The angry exiled Becket proceeded to excommunicate the bishops and triumphantly returned to Canterbury, where the common people flocked to show their adulation. Meanwhile the king was spending Christmas near Bayeux in Normandy when a deputation of bishops came to tell him of Archbishop Becket's continuing refusal to release control of the church to the king. He was also informed that Becket still refused to absolve the Archbishop of York and his associates from excommunication for participating in the coronation and indeed had excommunicated some more. Exasperated by his archbishop's refusal to tow the line, Henry shouted in fury " Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?" Four knights, members of his household, took their king at his word, crossed the Channel, rode post-haste to Canterbury and attacked him at the altar of Canterbury Cathedral whilst he was taking Evensong in front of a shocked congregation, in the north transept of the Cathedral. Becket struggled on in front of the Evensong congregation, before burying his head in prayer and dying. There was a great storm within an hour of the death of the Archbishop and when his clothes were removed from his dead body, it was discovered that, unbeknown to anyone, he was wearing a hairshirt riddled with lice and maggots, the skin on his chest ripped to shreds. Becket was immediately recognized as a saint and a martyr, and people flocked to the Cathedral to mourn him. The king was suitably shocked by the scandalous action his temper had provoked, as was Western Christendom who looked upon Henry as a blasphemous murderer.
In the the years following his death many miraculous cures were recorded at Becket's shrine. indeed 700 miracles were recorded in the decade after his assassination at his crypt. His tomb was a major attraction for English and European pilgrims bought offerings and returned with flasks of holy water and small glasses containing the martyr's diluted blood were distributed throughout western Europe.

The Beatles

In 1957 16-year-old John Lennon met 15-year-old Paul McCartney at a St Peter’s Parish Church party in Woolton, Liverpool. Lennon’s band, The Quarrymen were performing at the do whilst Paul, who was baptized a Roman Catholic but was raised inter-denominationally was attending the function. Impressed by Paul's ability to tune a guitar and by his knowledge of song lyrics, John asked him to join his band as lead guitarist. They renamed themselves The Beatles and with guitarist George Harrison and drummer Ringo Starr , the Fab Four went on to dominate rock music and pop culture in the 1960s.
In 1966 John Lennon commented in an interview with a London newspaper, “I don't know what will go first, rock 'n' roll or Christianity. We're more popular than Jesus now. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me." His comments created some upset in Britain but when a magazine got hold of the article in the United states a few months later there were mass protests from Christians in the Bible Belt area, Beatles records were burnt publicly and some concerts were cancelled. The Vatican also made a public denunciation of Lennon's comments, but in 2008 a Vatican newspaper belatedly forgave the Beatles explaining that he had simply been “showing off.”
In 1970, the same year that the Beatles split up, George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord reached number one in the US and UK pop charts. The song was an attempt to get radio listeners to chant “Hare Krishna” which he believed is a method of becoming one with God. During the late 1960s the four Beatles had shown an interest in Eastern religion and for a period were students of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Transcendental Meditation movement. Their attraction towards this belief helped make adoption of an Eastern religion a trendy thing among the young.

Voyage of the Beagle

Charles Darwin's five-year voyage on HMS Beagle to South America and the Galapagos Islands were a major influence on his formulation of the Theory of Evolution. Darwin shared a cabin with Robert FitzRoy, the commander of the Beagle during the voyage. Six years after Darwin postulated his theory of evolution in On the Origin of Species, FitzRoy, who wasone of Darwin's fiercest critics on scriptural grounds committed suicide for the part he believed he played in undermining the Bible.

The Bay Psalm Book

In 1640 the Pilgrim settlers in Cambridge, Massachusetts published the first book in America, the Bay Psalm Book. The psalms in it were metrical translations of the Psalms into English, thirty learned and devout ministers having translated them from the original Hebrew.

The Battle Hymn of the Republic

During a visit to a military camp camp the American Unitarian and slavery reformer Julia Ward Howe wrote The Battle Hymn of the Republic. She scribbled the words at night, in the darkness of her tent, to the melody of "John Brown's Body". It became the marching song for the union forces in the Civil War. The tune includes the line “As he (Christ) died to make men holy, let us die to make men free”, which is an explicit reference to the fight to end slavery.

Bathing

Fear of impurity prevented nuns removing their clothes to wash, until a hygienic vision revealed to Saint Brigid (c. 451–525) that the Lord would have no serious objection to a proper bath once a fortnight.

Karl Barth

In 1919 Karl Barth (1886-1968), a young Swiss Theologian, began working through the problems posed by the First World War and the failure of liberal theology to account for such a dark episode in human history. The outcome of this was his commentary The Epistle To The Romans, which opened the way for a revival of orthodox Protestantism based on the Bible.
Barth continued to argue that liberal theology was bankrupt and to teach that God's word stands over against man and judges him. By 1932, when he published the first volume of his Church Dogmatics, which made the resurrection of Jesus the focal point of Christianity, Barth was recognized as the most influential current theologian. After 1945 the influence of Barth's theology began to wane but still today it has its champions.

Thomas Barnado

In 1862 Thomas Barnado (1845 – 1905) an Irish clerk of Jewish origin converted to evangelical Christianity. After a period spent preaching in the Dublin slums, he arrived in London to study medicine with the aim of becoming a medical missionary. Moved by the child poverty and homelessness around him, he begun to care for destitute waifs and strays.
In 1870 he opened the first of the "Dr Barnardo’s Homes" at 18 Stepney Causeway, London whilst still a student. One evening an 11-year old boy, John ‘Carrots’ Somers was turned away because the shelter was full. He was found dead two days later from malnutrition and exposure and from then on the home bore the sign ‘No Destitute Child Ever Refused Admission’.
The work steadily increased until, at the time of Barnado's death, in 1905, there were established 112 district "Homes," besides mission branches, throughout the United Kingdom

Barebone's Parliament

Barebone's Parliament came into being on 4 July 1653, and was the last attempt of the English Commonwealth to find a stable political form before the installation of Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector. It was an assembly entirely nominated by Oliver Cromwell and the Army's Council of Officers. It was made up of Non-conformist churchmen and army officers and was named “Barebones” after one of the members “Praise God Barebones”, a Fleet Street Leather-seller and preacher. After conflict and infighting, on 12 December 1653 the members of the assembly voted to dissolve it. It was succeeded by the First Protectorate Parliament.

Saint Barbara

Saint Barbara (d235) of Nicomedia, Turkey, spent her youth on her own in a tower, especially built for her by her father to protect her from the world. She converted to Christianity, against the will of her father and rejected an offer of marriage that she received through him. After attempts to un-convert her failed, Barbara’s father struck off the head of his saintly daughter. Immediately he was struck by lightning and his body was consumed. As a result Barbara was made the patron saint of artillery.

Baptists-the Early Days

A new sect called “Baptists” arose in England at the beginning of the 17th century led by a preacher from Gainsborough called John Smyth. These “Baptists” were Christians who had rejected the teachings of the Church of England and Catholic Church but couldn't accept orthodox Calvinism. They advocated adult baptism, as they couldn't understand how a baby can appreciate the importance of infant baptism. Due to persecution in England they were forced to emigrate to Amsterdam where there was freedom of religion and in 1609 John Smyth and fellow English Non-Conformist, Thomas Helwys, founded the first official Baptist church there. Three years later the first English Baptist church was built at Spitalsfield, London by Thomas Helwys and a small group of fellow Christians in Newgate.
In 1639 the first American Baptist church was established at Providence, Rhode Island, when Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, was baptized before proceeding to baptize eleven others. Rhode Island was a safe haven for those such as Baptists whose are persecuted for their beliefs.

Baptism

Baptism (from Greek baptizo: "immersing", "performing ablutions", i.e., "washing") is the ritual act, with the use of water, by which one is admitted to membership of the Christian Church. Although total immersion was practised in the early church as time went on it took the form of sprinkling and was generally administered to children. It was only during the Reformation that the total immersion of adults began to be practised again by the Anabaptists.

The First Adult Baptism Of The Reformation
In 1523 the Zurich reformed Christians Conrad Grebel (d1526) and theologian Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) divided over the issue of whether Mass should be abolished or not. Two years later Zwingli, who had began to reform Zurich by working with the city council, officially severed ties with Grebel and his fellow radicals over the issue of infant baptism. When the council, ordered that any unbaptized infants must be submitted for baptism within eight days, Grebel stood his ground, refusing for his recently born child, Isabella, to be baptized.
Seven days later, at a meeting of those who sided with Grebel, George Blaurock, a married former priest, stepped over to Conrad Grebel and asked him for baptism in the same way as the early church-fully immersed upon confession of personal faith in Jesus Christ. Blaurock was baptized on the spot, the first adult baptism of the Reformation. Afterwards on this historic snowy January evening the former priest proceeded to baptize the others present. Grebel, who died of the plague the following year is often called the ‘Father of Anabaptists’.

Baptism Trivia

The priest at young Boris Yeltsen’s christening was so drunk that he dropped baby Boris into the font then forgot he was there.

St Augustine laid the foundations for infant baptism. He taught that people are born with an affinity for sin and as descendants of Adam and Eve share in the guilt of original sin. Therefore infant baptism was important.

The early Anabaptists were often drained by their persecutors as the authorities reckoned if they wanted to be fully immersed- let them!

A Swedish pastor was electrocuted as he stood in a pool of water for a baptism ceremony when one of his assistants handed him a live microphone.