Pio Nono (Pius IX) became Pope today in 1846, and went on to become the longest serving Pope ever, clocking up 31 years on the throne. In his time he lost all the papal states, was temporarily overthrown by a republican revolution, considered seeking asylum in Britain, condemned ‘progress, liberalism and modern civilization’ in his controversial Syllabus of Errors, and was declared infallible at the First Vatican Council. He was the first Pope to be photographed, and is seen above with his court in 1868.
The British pop star Cliff Richard came out for God at a Billy Graham rally in Earls Court, London, today in 1966. Speaking to a crowd of 25,000 people who were there to hear Billy Graham preach, Cliff told them, ‘I am proud to tell everyone that I am a Christian.’ He then sang the gospel song, made famous by Elvis Presley, ‘It Is No Secret’. He faced some pressure to abandon his musical career, because of the fundamentalist belief that rock’n’roll was the Devil’s music, but his album the following year was called Don’t Stop Me Now!
Johannes Tauler, the German mystic and preacher, died today in 1361. He is thought to be the author of the Advent chorale, Es kommt ein Schiff, geladen (‘A ship is coming, laden’), the oldest known religious song from Germany.
A ship is coming, laden,
With no room left onboard,
Bearing God’s Son, full of grace,
The Father’s eternal Word.
She sails on in silence,
Her cargo’s value vast,
Love is her bellying sail
And the Holy Ghost her mast.
Johannes Fauler
John Reith, the pioneering first Director General of the BBC, died today in 1971. A man of Presbyterian principle (and a son of the manse), he set an austere, high-minded tone for broadcasting in Britain at a time when it was the BBC or nothing. His philosophy of public service broadcasting, emphasising education, morality, uplifting entertainment, and not much sport, prevailed until commercial broadcasting arrived in the mid 1950s, which he compared to the introduction of ‘smallpox, bubonic plague and the Black Death’.
Joseph Butler, the 18th century bishop, philosopher and apologist died in Bath, England, today in 1752. His apologetics book, The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed (1736), was highly influential as a defence of Christian belief for a century after his death. But his argument was risky. Against the Deists who said that the Bible is full of contradictions and cruelties, and that nature is a better guide to the Creator, Butler argued that nature is also a mess of contradiction and cruelty. On that basis, he drew a series of analogies from nature to argue that Christianity was true… probably.
Image: Wellcome Collection