Pio Nono (Pope Pius IX, seen above), who had pressurised the Catholic Church to declare all Popes infallible, died today in 1878. As his funeral procession approached the River Tiber in Rome, a gang of anti-Catholics attempted to chuck his coffin into the river and only failed when soldiers showed up to protect the former pontiff.
St Thomas More was born today in 1478, the only English saint to have a pet monkey. In 1935, he was declared a saint, and in 2000, Pope John Paul II declared him the patron saint of politicians.
Today in 452, Emperor Marcian forbade any further discussion of theology in the Roman Empire. The year before, the church’s Council of Chalcedon had decided exactly who Jesus was and wasn’t, and that was good enough for Marcian. He decided that the subject was therefore closed. As he said:
‘He is a truly impious and sacrilegious person who, after the sentence of so many bishops, reserves anything to be decided by his own person. It is the mark of utter madness to search, in the full light of noonday, for counterfeit illumination.’ Emperor Marcian
Photo: Wellcome Images under CC BY 4.0