THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
sel concerning the spiritual life and religious activities of the churches; (4) to advocate the New Testament doctrine of the Church, Objects and to defend the rights of the asand sociated churches; and (5) to promote Work. the application of the law of Christ in every relation of human life. But the chief work of the Council from the beginning has been directed to the proclamation of the Gospel outside all churches. The Council has employed a body of missioners, of which the chief members are Gipsy Smith, W R. Lane, and Tolfree Parr, to visit the large centers of population and to organize the churches for mission work: and more recently the Rev. F B. Meyer has been set apart for the ministry at large of the churches in England and Wales. Conventions for quickening and nourishing the spiritual life have been held, and a system of parochial visitation has been carried out. Social purity has been promoted, social institutes created, and Girls' Gilds, Auxiliary Societies for Young Free Churchmen have been formed. The Council has also been compelled to devote its energies to the solution of the problem of state education on exclusively civic lines. It has resisted the encroachments of Roman Catholicism through legislation upon the rights of the people; and though it has not formally adopted "passive resistance," yet many of the leaders of the National Council have given that movement their personal support. It has also led crusades against gambling and intemperance. It supports a publication department, from which it has issued The Free Church Year Book (1896 sqq.); The Free Church Catechism (1899); a series of thirteen volumes on Eras of Nonconformity (1904 sqq.); Little Books on the Devout Life, ed. F. B. Meyer (1904 sqq.); The Free Church Council Hymnal (1906); The Work of the Free Church Council ; a Manual for Secretaries and others (1906); various biographies, including those of Dr. Clifford and Gipsy Smith, with miscellaneous literature bearing on the work; and The Free Church Chronicle, -the official organ of the movement. John Clifford.
FREE CONGREGATIONS IN GERMANY.
The Friends of Light, or Protestant Friends (§1). The Formation of Free Congregations (§ 2). The Free Congregations Since 1858 (§ 3).
The name " Free Congregations " (Germ. Frcie Gemeinden) is given in Germany to certain religious bodies which have separated from the State Churches, yet are distinct from the so-called Free Churches of Germany (for which see Lutherans, II). In the fifth decade of the nineteenth century a movement arose in Prussian Saxony, the adherents of which were popularly named " Friends of Light " (Lichtfreunde) , though they i. The first styled themselves " Protestant Friends of Friends." The external provocation Light, or for this movement was the disciplining Protestant of Pastor W F Sinteris at Madgeburg, Friends, because he had characterized prayer to Christ as superstition. Certain circles, offended by this procedure on the part of the Magdeburg Consistory, found a leader
and organizer in Pastor Leberecht Uhlich in 1841. The movement underwent greater extension at the hands of Pastor Gustav Adolf Wislicenus in Halle, who on occasion of the seventh convention of those who favored it, at Kothen, May 29, 1844 discussed the question whether Holy Scripture or the living spirit indwelling within us, is to be' regarded as norm of the Protestant type of relHous consciousness. From ecclesiastical circles there ensued sharp and deprecatory expressions of opinion, and the Friends of Light soon came into conflict with the church authorities. The Breslau theological professor, David Schulz (q.v.), forfeited his position as consistorial councilor. But greater interest by far was aroused by the deposition of Pastor Wislicenus, on Apr. 23, 1846, " on account of gross injury to the liturgical and doctrinal ordinances in force in the Evangelical State Church." The publication of his book Die Bibel im Lichte der Bildung unserer Zcit (Magdeburg, 1853), subjected him to the penalty of a two years' imprisonment, adjudged by the court at Halle, though he escaped the same by flight to America. He returned to Europe in 1866. His later works, Die Bibel, fiir denkende Leser betrachtet (Leipsic, 1863; 2d ed., 1866), and Entweder — oder. Glaube oder Wissenschaft. Schrift oder Geist (1868), show that he consistently adhered to his earlier radical views. He died Oct. 14, 1875. Even before Wislicenus was compelled to leave the State Church, the schismatic pastor, Julius Rupp, in Konigsberg, had been deposed on Sept. 17, 1845, " on account of repeated violation of his official obligations by reason of gross negligence." Uhlich, after prolonged proceedings, voluntarily withdrew from the State Church. He died Mar. 23, 1872. Deacon W. E. Baltzer of Delitzsch resigned his ecclesiastical office on account of his non-confirmation as pastor at Nordhausen in 1847, and Pastor Adolf Timotheus Wislicenus, the " physical and intellectual brother " of the one mentioned above, accepted the consequences of his doctrinal standpoint and withdrew from the State Church.
These collisions with church authorities acquired a greater significance, in that they furnished the first incentive and became the means toward establishing congregations outside the State Church. At Konigsberg such a congregation had come into existence as early as Dec. 16, 1845, and had organized itself, on Jan. 19, 1846, as a " Free Evangelical Congregation." Other free congregations arose at Neumarkt in Silesia; at Halle, Nordhausen, Halberstadt, Magdeburg, Hamburg, 2. The and Marburg. The attitude of the
Formation various governments in relation to of Free Con- both the German Catholic (see Ger-
gregations. man Catholicism), and the Free Protestant movement, down to the year 1848, was not quite uniform, though evincing the same general character. In so far as the movement was regarded as a product of the revolutionary spirit, the government looked upon it with great distrust, and sought to obviate its further encroachments by the application of statutory means. Finally, the outbreak of the Revolution in Mar., 1848, afforded the " Free " religious move-