Continuing the series on Sisters That Changed History, we explore Tud or Era England on the HHHistory Blog.    Mary and Anne Boleyn were born during treacherous and changing times. Although these two sisters weren’t as close as the others we’ve been covering, their influence on history is just as strong. Mary seems to have been the elder of the two, both children of Thomas Boleyn, the first Earl of Wiltshire and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard. Probably only two or three years older, Mary was brought up with Anne and their brother George in Kent, England. Their French governess prepared them for their later occupations as maids to a French queen. Their education consisted of basic principles of math, history, etc. but also included family genealogy, hunting, singing, and skills in running a house. Read the full post HERE.

A friend of mine posted a great quote from an evangelist on Facebook this morning, and it got me thinking. "The trouble of it is today, the people don’t have time to get before God and get still. They got so many things to do. They belong to this; they got to do this; they got to have this; they got to go there. You—you don’t have time. The devil’s just took up all your time. You don’t have time to get still before God, get quiet."        56-0213 - "Hidden Life With Christ"        Rev. William Marrion Branham This reminded me of something I'd read a while back from Martin Luther. He said, "I have so much to do today that I'm going to need to spend three hours in prayer in order to be able to get it all done." Wow. That's quite a contrast to the typical attitude of "I don't have time" or "I'm too busy to pray." Martin Luther was one busy fellow. He wrote many catechisms, thesis, started a reformation, wrote ...

This Day in Christian History: July 18 July 18, 1504: Birth of Heinrich Bullinger Heinrich Bullinger was born to Heinrich Bullinger senior, a Dean of the capitular church, in Switzerland. At that time, clerical concubinage had been sanctioned by the Bishop of Constance, and Heinrich was the fifth born son from Heinrich senior and his concubine, Anna Wiederkehr. Heinrich intended to follow his father into the clergy, but it was during his college years that he came in contact with Luther's teaching. Heinrich came to the conclusion that Luther's teaching was faithful to the Bible, whereas the Catholic church order. He ceased receiving the Eucharist, which banned him from clerical posts. Bullinger began aiding later succeeding Zwingli, carrying on his work until he died in 1575.

This Day in Christian History: June 13 June 13, 1525: Martin Luther marries Katharina von Bora Wedding of Martin Luther and Katharina von Bora Sometime around 1523, Martin Luther helped to rescue a group of nuns from a monastery. He endeavored to free the nuns from the Catholic order and find suitable homes for each. Among this group of nuns was Katharina von Bora. Though she had many suitors, none were to her liking, and Martin had a difficult time finding suitable arrangements for her. But in 1525, he finally found a home for her. His own. Thus on June 13, 1525, an ex-monk married an ex-nun. Martin was 42, and Katharina was 26. Their happy marriage of 21 years brought them six children. Katharina stood by Martin's side through many difficult times. Despite her being much younger than he, she died only six years after him. Here's another great post on the marriage of Martin Luther.

This Day in Christian History May 25, 1521: Martin Luther Proclaimed a Heretic Luther's Room at Wartburg Castle After Martin Luther's bold stand at the Diet of Worms in the previous month, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V pronounced Martin Luther an outlaw and heretic for refusing to recant his teachings and his rebellion against the Catholic church. The emperor decreed, "We want him to be apprehended and punished as a notorious heretic." This decree made it legal for anyone to kill Luther without consequence, and also made it dangerous for anyone to give him food or shelter. It was after this decree that Luther went into hiding at Wartburg Castle.

This Day in Christian History: April 3 April 3, 1528: German reformer Adolf Clarenbach arrested Statue of Adolf Clarenbach (right) Adolf Clarenbach was born around 1497 on a farm in Germany. Adolf became a teacher, and sought to spread the principles of the Reformation, which he strongly believed. Because of his open acceptance and teachings of Martin Luther's ideas, Adolf was arrested and imprisoned on April 3, 1528. He was confined for eighteen months. At the age of 28, Adolf became one of the first Protestant martyrs of the reformation. He was burned at the stake with another follower of Luther on September 28, 1529.

This Day in Christian History: April 2 April 2, 1524: Zwingli Marries Anna Meyer Zwingli Reads the Translated Bible to Anna Huldrych Zwingli was a leader of the reformation in Switzerland. Like Martin Luther, he saw many corruptions in the Catholic church, and pushed for reform. Eventually, Zwingli broke away from the Catholic church and joined Luther's reformation. He and Luther met in person once, but they disagreed of the Holy Eucharist. At age 40, Zwingli married Anna Meyer, a widow who lived near his home. Their marriage was short lived, however. Seven years later, Anna became a widowed for the second time when Zwingli was killed in battle while defending Zurich.

This Day in Christian History: February 10 February 10, 1546: "Pray, and let God worry." Martin Luther was one of the greatest reformers of all time. He was born in Eisleben Germany in 1483. He was baptized the next day into the Catholic church, but didn't stay there. He recognized the errors of the Roman church and spoke out against it. But today, I'm not going to talk a lot about the life of Luther, but rather about a letter that he wrote to his wife on this day in 1546. He wrote, "Pray, and let God worry." This quote really stood out to me because worry is a common enemy for me. This year, I have been focusing on two things, first, prayer, or more specifically the word "pray." And second, not worrying. So it was kinda funny when I ran across this quote. Sounds like a piece of advice we all should follow.  I liked it so much, I just had to share it with you. Do you struggle with worry? What is something that has helped you not t...

This Day in Christian History: January 5 January 5, 1527: Felix Manz becomes the first Protestant to be martyred at the hands of Protestants. Grossmunster, Zurich by Robert Scarth Felix Manz was born in Zurich Switzerland sometime around 1498. It was there that he was educated and learned Hebrew, Greek and Latin. In 1519 when Zwingli came to Zurich, Felix became one of his followers. About this time, Felix also became friends with Conrad Grebel. He and Conrad eventually split from Zwingli's movement, feeling that he had been corrupted by the City Council. One of the main subjects of dispute was the baptism of infant children. Felix and Conrad believed a person should be baptized after they had reached the age of accountability and accepted Christ, however Zwingli and his movement still practiced infant baptism. Felix used his learning to translate texts into the language of the people, and was also an evangelist. He was arrested several times between 1525 and 1527 ...

This Day in Christian History: December 20 December 20, 1552: Death of Martin Luther's wife, Katharina von Bora German reformer Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora, a former nun on June 13 1525. Katharina was sent to the cloister in 1504 by her father, and became a nun sometime around 1509. Around 1523, Katharina and some of the other nuns in her monastery gained an interest in the reformation movement and wrote a letter to Martin Luther begging for his assistance to escape the monastery. She and the other nuns escaped by hiding in a covered wagon among fish barrels. After their escape, Luther successfully arranged homes or marriages for all of the nuns, except Katharina. Though she had many suitors, Katharina told Luther's friend Nikolaus von Amsdorf that the only suitors she would accept was Martin Luther, or Nikolaus himself. Martin must have won that one, because Katharina married him in 1525, two years after her escape from the monastery.