The rebuilt Dresden Frauenkirche (above), the Lutheran Church of Our Lady which was destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden, Germany, in February 1945, during the Second World War, was reconsecrated today in 2005. Originally built in the 18th century, the Frauenkirche’s famous high dome survived Prussian cannonballs during the Seven Years War, but collapsed when Britain’s aerial onslaught against the city produced temperatures in excess of 1000 degrees inside the church. The new building was produced using the original plans, and details, such as the church doors, were recreated from old wedding photographs sent in by Dresdener families.
It is the birthday of Christopher Wren, the famed architect of St Paul’s Cathedral, built after the Fire of London, along with numerous City of London churches. He was born in East Knoyle, a village in Wiltshire, today in 1632.
George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, interrupted a sermon in Derby today in 1650, and was imprisoned for a year for the new crime of blasphemy, which had been introduced two years earlier. The sermon was being delivered by a Colonel in Cromwell’s army, and when Fox was arrested and put before the local magistrates, he told them that they should ‘tremble at the word of the Lord’. Justice Bennet replied that with all his trembling, Fox was a quaker, and the name stuck. Fox was against the whole apparatus of the established Church, with its sacraments, tithes, buildings, and even bell-ringing, saying it was all pointless, as God is everywhere.
‘They asked me whether I was sanctified. I answered, “Yes, for I am in the paradise of God.” Then they asked me if I had no sin. I answered, “Christ my Saviour has taken away my sin, and in Him there is no sin.” They asked how we knew that Christ did abide in us. I said, “By His Spirit, that He hath given us.” They temptingly asked if any of us were Christ. I answered, “Nay, we are nothing, Christ is all.”’ George Fox’s Journal, October 1650
Johann Fust, who belonged to the first generation of printers in 15th century Germany, and who was a financial backer of Johann Gutenberg, the inventor of printing, died today in 1466. A not very well documented story says that when Fust sold the first printed Bibles in Paris, he was accused of witchcraft, as everyone knew it was impossible for scribes to hand-write large numbers of identical Bibles without the aid of magic. He was initially imprisoned, but released when printing became better understood.
Today is the feast of Serapion, the Patriarch of Antioch at the end of the 2nd century. He wrote against the charismatic prophecies of the Montanists, and against the Docetics (the ‘Illusionists’), who said that Jesus was truly God but not truly human, and that his suffering and death on the cross was an illusion.
Image: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas under CC-BY-SA-3.0