This week in religion history

by The Canadian Press
This week in religion history

July 15

In 1099, the Muslim citizens of Jerusalem surrendered their city to the armies of the First Crusade. The Crusaders then massacred thousands of unarmed men, women and children.

In 1779, Clement Moore, American Episcopal educator, was born. His fame endures today, not as a theologian, but as the author of a completely mythical poem: 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.

In 1882, Thomas Moore founded a corps of the Salvation Army in Toronto, the first in Canada.

July 16

In 622, Prophet Mohammad fled from Mecca, where he was despised and persecuted, to the northern city of Medina, marking the day of beginning of Hegira, the Islamic calender. The word “hegira” is Arabic for flight.

In 1054, the Great Schism between the Western and Eastern Christian churches began over rival claims of universal pre-eminence. In 1965, 911 years later, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I met to declare an end to the schism.

In 1821, Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Christian Science movement, was born in Bow, near Concord, N.H.

July 17

In 1505, future church reformer Martin Luther entered the Augustinian monastic order at Erfurt in present day eastern Germany. He was 21.

In 1998, on the 80th anniversary of the execution of the Russian royal family, the bones of Czar Nicholas II, his wife, daughters and servants were laid to rest at St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia. The sombre ceremony was attended by President Boris Yeltsin, the czar's relatives, diplomats and Prince Michael of Kent.

July 18

In 1870, the Vatican I Ecumenical Council issued the proclamation Pastor Aeternus, declaring the pope's primacy and infallibility in deciding faith and moral matters. Few Protestants agree with this doctrine.

In 1990, Alphonsus Penney, Newfoundland's Catholic archbishop, offered his resignation after a church-sponsored report accused church officials of ignoring and covering up sexual abuse by priests in the province.

July 19

In 1692, five Massachusetts women were hanged for witchcraft. Fifteen young girls in the Salem community accused as many as 150 citizens in the area of witchcraft during the greater part of this year.

In 1904, construction began on the Liverpool Cathedral in England. The cathedral was completed 20 years later and consecrated on this same date in 1924.

July 20

In 1962, Pope John XXIII sent invitations to all `separated Christian churches and communities,' asking each to send delegate-observers to the forthcoming Vatican II Ecumenical Council in Rome.

In 2005, Bill C-38 was given royal assent, making Canada the fourth country in the world to legally allow same-sex couples to wed.

July 21

In 1886, the cardinal's hat was conferred upon Elzear Alexandre Taschereau, 66, archbishop of Quebec. He was the first Canadian to be made a cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church.

In 2005, in an unprecedented move, 122 Canadian imams and other Islamic religious leaders denounced terrorism and vowed to confront religious extremism in a signed declaration in Toronto.