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ELCA family history - 1600s

American Lutheran Developments in their Historical Context -- Some Major Landmarks

 

Social & Scientific Developments

Year

Lutheran Events

Royal absolutism in England and on the Continent. England & Holland set out to overtake Spain & France in colonial expansion; England has just taken over Puerto Rico.

Baroque period starts in Italy, spreads through Europe during the century.

1600  
Virginia Colony is established. 1607  
Philipp Nicolai, German hymn writer, dies. 1608  
King James Bible is printed. 1611  
Shakespeare dies. 1616  
30 Years' War between Roman Catholics and Protestants begins. It devastated Germany, legalized Calvinism and ended in a stalemate. 1618  
  1619 What happened to the first Lutheran pastor in the New World?
Plymouth Colony is established by the passengers of the Mayflower 1620  
Settlement is begun in New Amsterdam/New York after Peter Minuit "buys" Manhattan Island from the Algonquins for 60 guilders (less than $40). 1623  
The Dutch burn San Juan. 1625  
Francis Bacon dies. 1626  
Juraj Tranovsky, "Luther of the Slavs and the father of Slovak hymnody, dies. 1637  
Ming Dynasty ends in China, Ching Dynasty begins. 1638 New Sweden in Delaware River Valley brings both Swedish and Finnish Lutherans to America for the first time. Congregations (such as current "Old Swedes", Gloria Dei, Philadelphia and Trinity, Wilmington) were formed by these colonists, but all later became Episcopalian.
  1643 Who is known as the "saintly apostle of the Indians"?
Puritan regime reigns in England. 1649 First Lutheran Church, Albany, New York, is founded and is today the ELCA's oldest congregation.
Microscope is invented. 1654  
Black plague devastates London. 1655  
  1656 Magister Lauritz Anderson Rhodius of Denmark, the second Lutheran pastor in the New World, ministers to the tobacco-producing islands of the West Indies.
Stuart monarchy is restored in England. 1660  
Rembrandt paints The Return of the Prodigal Son. 1665 Kjeld Jensen Slagelse of Denmark becomes the pastor at St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, where a strong Lutheran tradition has been maintained.
  1666 Frederick Lutheran Church, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, (Danish West Indies) is founded by the Church of Denmark. Check out the museum's Virgin Islands display case.
John George II of Saxony, institutes annual celebration of the Reformation on October 31. 1668  
  1669 An African named Emmanuel is baptized as a Lutheran in New York.

Jacob Fabritius, from the Netherlands, came to work in New York and included mission with American Indians as part of that work.

Paul Gerhardt, German hymn writer, dies. 1676  
John Bunyan publishes The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come. 1678  
Pennsylvania Territory is deeded to William Penn. 1681  
"Bloodless revolution" takes place, and Toleration Edict is issued in England.

Isaac Newton publishes Principle of the Uniformity of Nature.

1688  
  1696 What outstanding Lutheran layman was instrumental in ending the French and Indian war?
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