November 8 in Church History

John Duns Scotus was born in Scotland, studied at Oxford and taught at Paris before moving to Cologne, where he died on November 8, 1308. A Franciscan with a brilliant mind, he criticized Aquinas and Anselm freely, and his students called him the Subtle Doctor. Later humanists made fun of his followers, and that is why the word “dunce” comes from his name. His most lasting contribution was to the argument that Mary was conceived without sin. Pius IX made it dogma in 1854.

The Battle of White Mountain, near Prague, took place on this date in 1620. Imperial forces defeated the Bohemian rebels in the first major battle of the Thirty Years’ War. Bohemia was declared Catholic and Protestants were forced out.

Edward Griffin, who died in 1837, stands for the American revival tradition. As president of Williams College he saw nearly the whole student body profess faith, with only eighteen exceptions at one point. He spent his last days urging his grandchildren not to delay giving their hearts to Christ.

John Milton died on or about this day in 1674, blind and out of favor after the Restoration. Paradise Lost remains the best-known English poem on a Christian theme, though its theology was less orthodox than readers once supposed.