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 On this day in religious history:

-Czech priest Jan Hus was burned to death for heresy in 1415.  He opposed Catholic Church practices such as selling indulgences and church offices, and differed about the role of the Church in salvation and the importance of the Eucharist.

-In 1435, Sir Thomas More was beheaded.  He had been a friend of King Henry VIII until his opposition to the establishment of the Anglican Church.  More was also an author of the first Science Fiction book "Utopia", a lawyer, judge and had served Henry as Lord High Chancellor.

-The current (and 14th) Dalai Lama was born in 1935.  Fearing for his life, he fled Tibet for China in 1959 where he formed a government in exile.  He has stated that the incarnation of the next Dalai Lama will be born in India and any interference by the Chine government should be ignored.

- In 1942, Anne Frank and her family were forced into hiding due to German suppression of the Jews in Holland.  They will remain there for two years until betrayed and sent to concentration camps.

-Shoko Asahara was executed by hanging in 2018.  A practitioner of Western esotericism, yaga, meditation, esoteric Buddhism and esoteric Christianity, he led a doomsday cult known as Alum Shinrikyo, which executed a deadly sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system where 13 people died.











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