Death in New Jersey from smallpox of Jonathan Edwards, Christian pastor, theologian, scientist, and educator - March 22

Hugo Grotius, a Dutch Arminian imprisoned by Calvinists, escapes prison.

1556 - Cardinal Reginald Pole is consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury, restoring Catholicism to England briefly between the Protestant reigns of Edward VI and Elizabeth I.

1593 - Arrest of John Penry, an independent Welsh pastor, who will be hanged for sedition. He had criticized Church of England leaders for their neglect of Wales and among his papers was found the draft of a strongly worded letter to Queen Elizabeth. He is Wales' most famous Protestant Separatist martyr.

1621 - Hugo Grotius, a Dutch Arminian imprisoned by Calvinists, after spending an hour on his knees praying, steps into a hidden chest of books by which he will escape prison.

1720 - John Gill is solemnly ordained as a Baptist pastor in Horsleydown in a lengthy public ceremony that involves much prayer and soul searching. Gill will remain at Horsleydown for 51 years and gain recognition as a great controversialist, sharply critical of Wesley’s theology because it placed the decision to follow Christ in a person’s own hands.

1758 - Death in New Jersey from smallpox of Jonathan Edwards, Christian pastor, theologian, scientist, and educator. Edwards preached his most famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, in Enfield, Connecticut, in 1741.

1918 - Death in Berlin of Alexander Merensky, who had served as a missionary to the Transvaal, South Africa, and written many books about missions.

1920 - Death in Guayaquil, Ecuador, of George S. Fisher, founder of the Gospel Missionary Union. He had contracted typhoid fever while visiting the work in Ecuador. 

– Source: Christian History Institute