Читать книгу The Choctaw Freedmen and the Story of Oak Hill Industrial Academy - Robert Elliott Flickinger - Страница 74

The first rays of light, that serve to dispel the darkness of prevailing night, may be briefly summarized in the following leading events.

In 901 Alfred the Great, king of England, founds a seminary at Oxford to promote the study of sacred literature. Later it becomes a university, the first one in Europe, and it is still distinguished as one of the greatest institutions in the world for publishing the Scriptures in a form suited for the use of preachers and christian teachers. Two centuries later the second university is founded at Cambridge, England.

About 1170 Peter Waldo of Lyons, France, committing to memory such portions of the Scriptures as he could obtain, and taking for his favorite saying, the command of our Lord to the rich youth, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me," commences to preach the gospel, as the Apostles had done, in the homes of the people and in their market places. As he attracts followers, who also commit portions of the Scriptures, he sends them out like the seventy, two and two, to preach the Word of God. They are called Waldenses, after the name of their leader, and oppose corrupt doctrines and practices with the plain truths of the Word of God. They oppose the crusades, as fanatical expeditions on the part of those who were not Jews, and therefore were unjust and unlawful. They insist the church consists not merely of the clergy or priests, but includes the whole family of believers.

The advocacy of these principles and by laymen, causes them to be excommunicated, then anathematized and finally to be condemned by a council at Rome in 1179. Peter Waldo, their leader, flees from land to land, preaching as he goes and dies in Bohemia in 1197.

In 1215, King John of England, yielding to the insistent demand of the barons, issued the Magna Charta, (Great Charter) the first grant of English constitutional liberty, pledging the right of trial by jury and protection of life, liberty and property from unlawful deprivation. It is immediately denounced by the pope, Innocent III, who absolves the king from all obligation to keep the pledges therein expressed and solemnized by the royal oath.

In 1366 John Wiclif, a graduate of Oxford and member of the English Parliament, presents to that body indisputable reasons, why, without the approval of the Parliament, not even the king of England could make their lands subject to a tax claimed by a foreign sovereign, representing the papacy. As a religious leader, he instructs his followers, called "poor priests," to pass from village to village and city to city, and to preach, admonish and instruct the people in "God's Law." He accomplishes the translation of the Latin Vulgate into the English of his day, that his countrymen might have the Scriptures in their own language.

Charles V, king of France, has the scriptures translated into the French language, for the enlightenment of his people.

During this 14th century seventeen universities are founded and they include the one at Geneva in Switzerland, Heidelberg in Germany and Prague in Bohemia.

BIDDLE UNIVERSITY, CHARLOTTE, N. C.

BETHESDA MISSION, WYNNEWOOD, OKLA.