Jemima Wilkinson, who became the gender-free prophet known as the Publick Universal Friend (above), was born in Rhode Island today in 1752. Wilkinson grew up in a Quaker family, but in her early 20s joined a New Light Baptist meeting as part of New England’s Great Awakening under George Whitefield. Two months later, she became mortally ill, but after several days suddenly sat up in bed with a startling message for her family. She had died and her soul gone to heaven, she said, where the Spirit of God had possessed her, sending her back to life as a heavenly prophet. From then on, they were the Publick Universal Friend, preaching a mixture of Quaker, Baptist and Puritan beliefs, and founding a religious movement, the Universal Friends, which continued until the American Civil War.
‘Keep yourselves in the love of God, and when you come into Meetings or Evening Sittings, make as little stir as possible, that you may not disturb the solemn meditations of others, but consider you are drawing near to approach the holy, pure, eternal SPIRIT, that cannot look on sin with any allowance. Endeavour to meet all at one time, and keep your seats until meeting is over, except upon some extraordinray occasion.’ The Universal Friend’s Advice to Those of the Same Religious Society, 1784
It is St Andrew’s Eve. St Andrew is the patron saint of (among other things) young, single women, who are advised to pray fervently tonight so he can send them dreams about their future husbands. Failing that, they can listen out for barking dogs, as according to incredibly accurate folklore, their husbands will come to them from that direction.
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, formerly top adviser to King Henry VIII, died in Leicester today in 1530. The year before, he had been stripped of office and thrown out of Hampton Court Palace (which he had built), but now he was arrested and put in the custody of William Kingston, Constable of the Tower of London, on a charge of high treason. His crime was failing to persuade the Pope to annul Henry’s marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, so he could marry his next wife, Anne Boleyn. Wolsey’s sudden illness and death on his journey to the Tower was a timely exit.
‘Master Kingston, I see the matter against me now it is framed. Had I but served God as diligently as I have served the King, he would not have given me over in my gray hairs.’ Cardinal Wolsey, speaking to William Kingston after his arrest
CS Lewis, the academic, writer and children’s author, was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, today in 1898. Books and stories were important to him from the beginning. He devoured Beatrix Potter’s new book Squirrel Nutkin when he was five, and created his own animal tales, with creatures who talked, dressed up, and ruled over imaginary worlds. In his teens, Jack (as he called himself) discovered the Norse and Greek myths. These different early fascinations contributed to the writer he later became, especially as the creator of Narnia, Perelandra, and Screwtape.
‘I soon staked out a claim to one of the attics and made it “my study”. Pictures, of my own making or cut from brightly coloured Christmas numbers of magazines, were nailed on the walls… Here were my first stories written, and illustrated, with enormous satisfaction. They were an attempt to combine my two chief literary pleasures – “dressed animals” and “knights-in-armour”. As a result, I wrote about chivalrous mice and rabbits who rode out in complete mail to kill not giants but cats.’ CS Lewis, Surpised by Joy
The papal conclave which almost elected Cardinal Reginald Pole of England as Pope opened today in 1549. Pole was in exile from England, as he had opposed Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn, and almost all his family had been executed by Henry in bloody revenge. A week into the conclave, Pole was two votes short of becoming Pope. Then the French Cardinals arrived, and it was all over for Pole’s chances.
Image: New York Public Library