The Foundation of the Jesuit Order (August 15th)

Saint Ignatius of  Loyola was a soldier for the kingdom of Castile in what is now Spain. For many years, he fought Moors, helping to remove their presence from the Iberian Peninsula. In 1521, Ignatius had a leg broken and the other injured by a cannonball. While recovering, Ignatius read De Vita Christi by Ludolph of Saxony. This commentary on the Gospel gave Ignatius a better understanding of Christianity.

While recovering, Ignatius continued to read religious texts. After he was healed, Ignatius set his armor and weapons in front of the altar at a monastery. For a year, Ignatius lived in a cave, practicing self-denial and sacrifice. In 1523, Ignatius continued these practices while he visited the Holy Land.

Ignatius began to gain companions in his practice of sacrifice. Soon, he had six companions with him: Francis Xavier, Alfonso Salmeron, Diego Laynez, Nicholas Bobadilla, Peter Faber, and Simao Rodrigues. On August 15th, 1534, these seven men took apostolic vows and formed the Society of Jesus, which became better known as the Jesuit Order.

The Jesuit Order is engaged in evangelical and apostolic ministry. The path of sacrifice that Ignatius of Loyala used became a central part of the Jesuit Order. The Jesuits would sacrifice all they had to spread across the globe and educate people on the Gospel.

Ignatius of Loyala went on to become the Father General and leader of the Jesuits. St. Francis Xavier became famous in his own right for being one of the first people to visit Japan and evangelize to the people there. The Jesuit Order has continued to grow since its foundation and has spread out into 112  nations on six continents.

The Edict of Nantes (August 13th)

In the late 1500s, France was caught in the middle of its own Wars of Religion. The Protestant Reformation was sweeping across Europe, and France had been in the middle of the entire movement. Though the French crown remained Catholic, many French citizens were converting to Protestantism. This caused many riots, rebellions, violence, and wars within France.

During this period of time, Henry IV was the king of France. Henry IV was raised Protestant and only converted to Catholicism when he inherited the crown. Throughout his life, though, he remained sympathetic to the Protestant cause.

On August 13th, 1598, Henri IV signed the Edict of Nantes, which was meant to stop internal violence from religious differences. The Edict granted  certain privileges and protections to Protestants, but reaffirmed Catholicism as the established religion of France. The Edict ensured rights for Protestants within France and protected them from forces outside of France, including the Spanish Inquisition.

The Edict remained in effect until Louis XIV renounced it in 1685, declaring Protestantism illegal. This led to a mass exodus of almost 400,000 Protestants from France to England, Prussia, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and South Africa. This took away many skilled workers from France, putting back France's economy. The rights given to Protestants in the Edict of Nantes were not reestablished until the Edict of Tolerance in 1787.

Defenestrating Prague: The Best of Traditions

Defenestration, defined by Dictionary.com, is "the act of throwing a thing or especially a person out of a window". When you look up 'Defenestration of' on Google, the results will almost fully be about Prague, apart from a short story by Arthur C. Clarke and the defenestration of cats. Prague is famous for its defenestration, but there was not just one defenestration, but multiple. Prague had two major defenestrations.

The first defenestration occurred shortly after the death of John Hus. John Hus (1370-1415) was a religious reformer and philosopher from Bohemia who accused the Catholic Church of being the cause of a deep social crisis. Hus wanted the Church to return to the original mission of the Church and to spread God's word and live according to the Biblical commandments. Hus also attacked the Pope's lifestyle and saw Jesus Christ as the head of the Church. Hus was executed for refusing to recant his criticisms of the Church. When the news of Hus's death in 1415 arrived at the Council of Constance, the populace was furious and attacked the clergy, especially the archbishop and the monks. Followers of the teachings of Hus became known as Hussites. On July 30, 1419, a Hussite priest named Jan Zelivsky led a procession to Prague's New Town Hall to protest the imprisonment of Hussite prisoners by the councilors of Prague. When an anti-Hussite threw a rock at the protesters, the Hussites stormed the New Town Hall and threw the seven councilors out of the window. The defenestration started the Hussite Wars, which lasted until 1436.

The second Defenestration of Prague occured in 1618. In 1617, Roman Catholic officials ordered the halt of the construction of Protestant chapels in a land the Catholic clergy claimed. The people claimed that the land belonged to the king and that they were free to use it. The people saw this act as a violation of freedom of religous expression and feared that it was the first step towards annulment of Protestant rights. The Czechs had already had enough with Catholicism. The Hapsburg Dynasty fought a long war to subdue the Czechs andprtests against Hapsburg rule and Catholicism were frequent. Leaders of the Czech estates, including Jindrich Matays Thurn and Vaclav Budovec met to forcefully remove governors Vilem Slavata and Jaroslav Borita. The men led an angry mob into the Bohemian Chancellery, found theimperial governors guilty, and threw the governors out of a 16 meter high window. Nobody, including their scribe, was spared. The two governors landed in a pile of manure and everyone survived unharmed. The scrive, Filip Fabricus, fled to Vienna and informed the emperor. The emperor had appointed the Catholic Emperor Fredinand II ad the King of Bohemia in 1617. The Czech aristocracy revolted against this, and in 1920, at the Battle of the White Mountain, the Protestant estate was defeated. The Czech noblemen were refused a pardon and over 200 of them were sentenced to death. This defenestration would lead to the absolutist monarchy of the Czech estate and would eventually lead to the Thirty Years' War.

There were other defenestration, but these other ones were not important to cause wars. These other ones occurred on September 24, 1483 and March 10, 1948. All these defenestrations add to Prague's rich history, and to end this post I give you 1 warning: Do not make the people of Prague angry.