On this day in history, 31st March 1532, King Henry VIII was “much displeased” with the Easter Sunday sermon preached by Princess Mary’s confessor, Friar William Peto, in the King’s presence at Greenwich’s Franciscan chapel.
Rather than preaching on the Easter story and focusing on Christ’s victory and resurrection, Friar Peto chose to preach on 1 Kings 22, the story of the prophet Micaiah sharing his prophecies with King Ahab. Ahab ignored Micaiah’s prophesies, which told him he would die if he chose to go into battle against Ramoth Gilead, and imprisoned the prophet. Ahab then died from wounds he suffered during the battle.
Click here to read more and to find out why this sermon was so displeasing to the king.
Picture: Micaiah’s prophecy, woodcut by Johann Christoph Weigel, 1695, from Wikimedia Commons.
