RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Lutherans
father of German hymnody/(see Hymnology, VI. , § 1 ; Luther, § 28) . Congregational singing continues to form one of the principal features in the public services. The great festivals of the Church, such as Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, the Days of the Twelve Apostles, are observed with religious services, and the Reformation is commemorated on Oct. 31. Pictures are admitted into the churches.
The doctrinal development of the Lutheran Church was matured much earlier than its organization and polity. Luther was not an organizer. The necessity of organization, however, was deeply felt; and in 1529 a visitation of the churches of Saxony was prosecuted, and superin- 5. Govern- tendents were appointed for the overment. sight of the congregations and schools. (The Order of Discipline of the Church in Saxony became the model for other books of discipline. The priesthood of all believers is a fundamental doctrine, and the parity of the clergy is recognized. In Sweden, when the whole country passed over to the Lutheran communion, the Roman Catholic bishops and archbishops retained their titles./ The validity of the Swedish orders, from the '"standpoint of the Church of England, is a matter of dispute. rThe Danish Church likewise retains the title " bishop," but no claim is made to apostolic succession. The first bishops under the new Danish regime were called superintendents (1536), and were consecrated by Bugenhagen. In Germany, church government is executed by consistories (composed of ministers and laymen) and superintendents. These officers are appointed by the government, examine candidates for the ministry, appoint and remove pastors, fix salaries, and perform other duties. In Germany, as in Denmark and Sweden, the Lutheran Church is under the governmental patronage of the various states; the support of the congregations and the construction of church edifices are provided for out of the national revenues) The supreme consistory of Prussia since 1852 has been composed in part of Lutheran and in part of Reformed members. Philip SchaffI".
[For further information regarding the Lutheran Church in Germany the reader is referred to the biographies of the German Reformers, to the articles on the separate states of the German Empire (Anhalt, Baden, Bavaria, Brunswick, Alsace- Lorraine, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Oldenburg, Prussia, Saxe-Altenburg, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Weimar- Eisenach, Saxony, and Wiirttemberg); see also Denmark; Germany; Norway; and Sweden. Such articles as Agenda; Augsburg Confession and its Apology; Church Government; Formula of Concord; Philippists; Protestantism; and Union, Ecclesiastical will be found abounding in information in regard to origins, development, doctrine, polity, and the like.]
II. Separate Lutherans. — 1. In Prussia: The IiUtheran free churches in Germany do not recognize the position of the secular ruler as supreme head of the Church, and have organized independent congregations without the aid of the State. Originating primarily in hostility to the introduc- VII.-6
tion of the Union (q.v.) between the Lutheran and Reformed Churches, they do not, however, reject the State Church altogether.
The oldest and largest free church in Germany is the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Prussia, also known as Old Lutherans. It origina- 1. Scheibel ted from the opposition to the Union, at Breslau. which was introduced into Prussia in 1817 and gradually carried through by 1830 (see I., § 1, above). Johann Gottfried Scheibel, assistant preacher at St. Elisabeth's in Breslau, was the leader of the opposition. He attacked the Union in his writings, from the pulpit, and at synods, and pleaded in vain to be permitted to explain to the king his scruples of conscience in a personal interview. Refusing to sign a statement of the Breslau clergy which recommended the amalgamation of the Lutherans and Reformed into one church, Scheibel was suspended from office for fourteen days. Several hundred members of Scheibel's congregation appeared before Scheibel, declaring that they would remain faithful to the Church of their fathers. The new congregation regarded itself as the continuation of the Lutheran Church hitherto legally acknowledged in Prussia, and asked the king to grant them a constitution. The authorities, however, saw in the new congregation only revolutionaries and dissenters, and their petitions long remained unanswered. Since Scheibel was strictly forbidden to officiate, the members of his congregation received the sacraments from Berger in Hermannsdorf, two miles from Breslau, who still used the old Lutheran agenda. When this too was forbidden, the heads of the families themselves baptized their children, and the Lord's Supper was distributed by lay elders, because of a total lack of Lutheran clergymen. In a ministerial order, dated June 13, 1831, Scheibel was required to use the new agenda, and the formation of a special Lutheran church was refused.
Meanwhile Baron von Kottwitz had pleaded for the Lutherans before the king in Berlin. The king tried to remove their scruples against the agenda by the concession of the Lutheran formula of distribution, but he refused the formation of a dissenting church on the ground that with it the purity of the Lutheran Church within the Union war openly denied. In 1832, after being deposed from his offices in the church and the university, Scheibel left Breslau and settled in Dresden that he might advance the cause of the Lutheran Church by writing, unhindered by Prussian censorship. The former members of his congregation held meetings conducted by laymen, or turned to the few pastors in Silesia who had not yet adopted the new agenda.
In the neighborhood of Ziillichau, Juliusburg, and Strehlen the Separate Lutheran movement began, without special interference by the 2. Move- clergy, in lay circles holding services ment Else- and prayer-meetings. On Apr. 4, 1834, where be- three pastors, four theological candifore 1840. dates, and thirty-nine laymen united in a synod at Breslau and solemnly protested against the violation of the rights granted to the Lutheran Church in Piussia. A petition sent
Lutherans