of apologies in various degrees, and final excommunicar tion. The Church service is conducted according to the agenda which have been in use ; the preaching on free texts requires the permission of the Board of the High Consistory ; the Lord's Supper is an essential part of the chief service. The Lutherans are not obliged to send their children to the United schools. Thus the Luther- an Church in Prussia obtained a definite independent foundation. In 1847 the High Consistory had in its care twenty-one congregations recognised by the state, and numbering about nineteen thousand souls. Of these the largest proportion was in Silesia — ten congre- gations, with 8400 members. The smallest proportion was in Westphalia and in the Rhine Provinces. In addition to these Separate Lutherans there was an im- mense number of Lutherans who, in consequence of con- cessions guaranteed by the government, remained in the State Church. Outside of Prussia, a Lutheran move- ment was felt in Nassau in 1846, in which Brunn of Steeten, near Runkel, was leader. The government and the deputies declined to authorize the formation of a separate Lutheran commission. The connection be- tween the Lutherans was strengthened by the press and by conventions. Their literary organs were the Zeit- schrift fur Liitherische Theohgie, edited by Rudelbach and Guericke; the Zeitschrift fiir Protestantismus und Kirche, edited by Harless and others; and various pop- ular periodicals, such as the Pilfjer arts Sachsen, the Sonniagshlatt, and others. Conventions were held at Berlin, Triglaff, and Gnadau. The Lutheran Confer- ence in Leipsic held its first session in 1843. With the great political movement of 1848 the interests of the Positive Lutherans entered on a new rera. Of the urgent demands made at that time for the separation of Church and State, they took advantage especially in their struggle against the LTnion established by the State Church. Meanwhile the difference of conviction between the Lutherans within the Union and those sep- arated from it was not completely removed. The Sep- arate Lutherans urged the impossibility of a Lutheran clergyman's remaining with good conscience in the Union. The Lutherans Avho did not withdraw from the government Church nevertheless began to come into closer association under the leadership of Giischel, Stahl, Heubner, and Schmieden Their views and claims were supported by Hengstenberg's Kirchenzeiiung, and by provincial associations in Saxonj', Pomerania, Sile- sia, and Posen. They agreed, at a meeting in AVitten- berg, in September, 1849, on the following principles: " We stand upon the Confession of the Evangelical Lu- theran Church; our congregations have never justly ceased to be Lutheran congregations; we demand the recognition and adherence to the Lutheran Confession in worship, the order of the congregation, and Church government ; first of all is to be insisted on the freeing of the altar service from everything that is dubious, and the giving of the stamp of the Confession to the entire service; furthermore, there should be in the govern- ment of the Church a management which would give security to confessional independence ; finally, there should be a guarantee of Lutheran principles in the con- stitution of the congregations." These aims they did not, however, propose to secure by separation, but by contending within the State Church for the rights of the Lutheran Church in the districts belonging to it. This decision rendered more bitter the feeling of alien- ation between the Lutherans who remained in the State Church and those who separated from it. In ad- dition to these internal controversies, there arose also differences with the civil government of the Church, especially on the part of Lutherans within the State Church. These differences were caused jiartly by the establishment of the High Consistorj- in 1«50, and partly by the proposed I'>vangelical Order of Congregations, which was opposed on the ground that the Confession was not sufficiently secured. The High Consistory at- tempted to meet the opposition, and to harmonize feel-
LUTHERANS IN AMERICA 579 LUTHERANS IN AMERICA
ings by various concessions ; but, with a growing con- sciousness of need and of right, the Lutlierans constant- ly rose in their demands. They asked for the abolition of the mixed boards, the institution of exclusively Lu- theran faculties, the return of the Cliurch property, and for other changes looking in the same general direction. The result finally was the issue of a cabinet order of July 12, 1853, which showed that the king, Frederick William IV, was determined to make no further conces- sions. The stricter Lutherans had shown themselves unwilling to co-operate in various movements o( the time. Thus had they tleclined to co-operate in the plan of the Inner Missions (1849). and opposed the confeder- ation of churches proposed at the Church Diet at Wit- tenberg in 1849. In other lands the struggles of the Lutheran Church for truth and right continued. The University of Erlangen was the centre of the struggle in Bavaria, and Harless, the president of the High Con- sistory, one of its great supports. But at the General Synod at Anspach, in consequence of opposition on the part of the congregations, tlie stricter Lutheran views could not be carried out in regard to creed. Church gov- ernment, changes in the liturgy, confession, and Church discipline. Here also arose the stricter party, with the pastors Lcihe and Wacheren, which took ground against fellowship at the Lord's Supper with the re- formed, and favored separation from the State Church. Tliis party was resisted by the High Consistory. In Nassau, tlie two Hesses, Hanover, and the Saxon duch- ies, the stricter Lutheranism had adherents. As a rule, the mission festivals were their centres of union. In Baden, under pastor Eichhorn as leader, the conflict with the government resulted in a legal separation from the State Church in I80G. In Saxony, especially about Schiinburg, the stricter Lutheran clergy were numerous. The emigration of Stephan injured the cause very much in the general estimation. During these public move- ments various questions of profound interest in scientific theology were discussed by the great divines in the Lu- theran Church. Among the most important of these discussions was, 1, that between Hoffmann in Erlangen and Philippi in Rostock on the doctrine of the atone- ment ; 2, the controversy in ^Mecklenburg, which result- ed in the deposition of professor Baumgarten in 1858. A convention of clergymen and laymen at Rothenmoor in 1858 represented the strictest Lutheranism, of which Kliefoth had been the especial promoter. See F. J. Stahl, JHe Lutherische Kirche it. die Union (Berl. 1859). (C. P. K.)