March 5: Today in Christian History

March 5, 310

Christian witness Adrianus is thrown to a lion in Palestine and afterwards slain with the sword.

March 5, 493

Archbishop John sallies forth from Ravenna with crosses, the Gospels, and a retinue of monks, falling at the feet of Theodoric and suing for peace—which the invader grants.

March 5, 1518

Erasmus sends a copy of Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses to Sir Thomas More, a vigorous opponent of the Protestant Reformation.

March 5, 1526

Zurich authorities commence a trial which eventuates in sentences of life imprisonment for the Anabaptists Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, and George Blaurock. Two weeks later the three manage to escape.

March 5, 1687

Hungarian officials behead and quarter Sigmund Zimmermann, Caspar Rauscher, Andreas Keczer, and Franz Baranyay in Eperjes [Prešov, Slovakia]. In a complex political situation, animosity to oppressive Hapsburg policies had led to a revolt after which Catholic leaders of the Holy Roman Empire cracked down on all opposition, cruelly oppressing Protestants and their pastors and inspiring another revolt. These four are the first to die as martyrs when the second revolt was quelled in Eperjes.

March 5, 1708

Death in London of Bishop William Beveridge. He had preached profoundly and lived peaceably amid the controversies of his day. He will be remembered for his book Private Thoughts upon Religion and a Christian Life (1713), published after his death. It sets forth resolutions such as, “I am resolved, by the grace of God, to be always exercising my thoughts upon good objects, that the devil may not exercise them upon bad.”

March 5, 1797

Henry Nott and a large missionary party, which includes artisans, arrive at Tahiti’s Matavai Bay. Sponsored by the London Missionary Society, they are to settle on the islands of Tahiti, Tonga, and the Marquesas to teach the gospel and useful arts. While the others die, go mad, or desert, Nott remains steady. It will be twenty-two years before he sees his first convert.

March 5, 1858

Death in Wiltshire, England, of Maria Grace Saffary, who had been a Baptist hymnwriter and wrote “God of the sunlight hours!” as well as hymns about baptism, including one that begins “’tis the great Father we adore in this baptismal sign.”

March 5, 1899

Evangelist Sam Jones opens a crusade in Toledo, Ohio, where the mayor is also named Sam Jones. The mayor welcomes the publicity until Jones says, “If the Devil were mayor of Toledo, he wouldn’t change a thing.” Nonetheless, Mayor Jones will be reelected by a wide margin.

March 5, 1977

Death in Abeokuta, Nigeria, of James Tanimola Ayorinde, who had been a Baptist pastor, chairman of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, and a respected and beloved leader of the Baptist World Aliance.