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TODAY IN CHURCH HISTORY

November 6 in Church History

Lincoln’s Election and the Crisis over Slavery

November 6 in church history: Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860, the death of Heinrich Schütz and an apology to D. L. Moody at Cambridge.

When Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860, both sides understood the moment in apocalyptic and providential terms. For Northerners it was a moral turning point, while Southerners saw it as a religious crisis demanding secession to protect a God-given social order. The conflict over slavery was not merely a constitutional or economic struggle, but a spiritual holy war in which both sides read the same Bible and prayed to the same God.

On this day

  1. 1672Heinrich Schütz, greatest German Lutheran composer before Bach, dies
  2. 1860Abraham Lincoln is elected president, opening the crisis over slavery
  3. 1882Cambridge student Gerald Lander apologizes to D. L. Moody

Feast days

Illtud, Leonard, Vietnam Martyrs

Also kept today: Melaine, Mennas, Winnoc

November calendar

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Sources. David Hugh Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints; standard reference works; Rusten and Rusten, The One Year Christian History.

Last updated November 2, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.