November 1 in Church History
All Saints and the Two Natures of Christ
November 1 in church history: All Saints’ Day, the close of the Council of Chalcedon in 451, Nicolas Cop’s address at Paris and the Lisbon earthquake.
Today is All Saints’ Day for Western Christians, as it has been since the 8th century. During the early years of the Church, martyrs had their individual days, but as the numbers swelled due to Roman persecution, it became necessary to have a single day of remembrance for all the martyrs.
On this day, in 451, The Council of Chalcedon concluded. It had been called to settle how Jesus could be both God and man. This had become necessary due to two opposing views, Nestorianism and Monophysitism, which divided Christ into two persons or merged his humanity into his divinity. At the end of the Council Jesus was considered consubstantial (homoousios) with the Father and confessed as one person in two natures, “without confusion, without change, without division, without separation.” That formula has been used ever since for most churches other than the Coptic, Armenian and Syrian churches, leading to a division that has lasted for more than fifteen centuries.
Later All Saints’ Days carried their own weight. In 1533 Nicolas Cop, the new rector of the University of Paris, used his inaugural address to argue that forgiveness is a free gift of God, in one of the first academic presentations of Protestantism in France. He fled for his life, and his friend John Calvin soon left Paris too.
On the morning of November 1, 1755, an earthquake struck Lisbon while churches were full. It is still one of the most disastrous recorded earthquakes in history. Tens of thousands died, leading Voltaire and others to ask how a good God could have allowed it. The disaster became a turning point in European thinking about providence.
On this day
- 451Council of Chalcedon closes, defining Christ as one person in two natures
- 1478Sixtus IV authorizes the Spanish Inquisition
- 1512Michelangelo’s Sistine ceiling is shown to the public
- 1533Nicolas Cop’s rector’s address at Paris brings Reformation ideas into the university
- 1755Earthquake destroys Lisbon on All Saints’ morning
- 1770Alexander Cruden, compiler of the Bible concordance, dies
- 1950Pius XII defines the Assumption of Mary in Munificentissimus Deus
- 1993Maastricht Treaty takes effect, creating the European Union
Feast days
All Saints
Also kept today: Benignus, Cadfan, Dingad, Gwythian, Vigor
November calendar
Sources. David Hugh Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints; Robert J. Morgan, On This Day; standard reference works; Curtis and Graves, This Day in Christian History; Curtis, Lang and Petersen, The 100 Most Important Events in Christian History; Rusten and Rusten, The One Year Christian History.
Last updated November 2, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.