RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Lutherans
lished in 1870 tried to unite all congregations without regard to confession. Seven protesting Lutheran ministers were deposed from office (June 25, 1875). Consequently they separated from the State Church and formed five congregations. In 1877 they formed a synod. In 1878 their number was augmented by confederation with a part of the dissenters in Lower Hesse, the so-called "Homberg Konvent." In 1880 both church bodies united with the Lutheran Free Church in Hanover, and by a complete union of the congregations of Hesse- Darmstadt with those of the Homberg Konvent into one church body there came into being the Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Hessian lands which comprises now about 1,800 members with ten parishes and ten ministers. An ordinance for the organization of a common consistory for the Lutheran, Reformed, and Union Churches in the district of Cassel on June 13, 1868, called forth the protest of many clergymen. When it was actually established in 1873, forty-two Reformed preachers of Lower Hesse under the leadership of Vilmar and Hoffmann as well as one Lutheran preacher in Upper Hesse refused to be subject to the new consistory, and adhered to the old Hessian church order. The consistory applied the severest measures, fines, suspension, and deposition, against the dissenting pastors. A few only being supported by their congregations, they were forced to emigrate. Those remaining in Hesse were forbidden to officiate until a decree of the higher tribunal in 1876 declared the deposed preachers laymen as regards the State, and thus protected their official acts against the decrees of punishment of the penal code. The Nonconformist Church of Lower Hesse comprises now about 2,400 members.
The Evangelical Lutheran Free Church in Hanover had its origin in the ecclesiastical struggles due to the annexation of the kingdom of Hanover and the danger of the Prussian Union. 2. Churches In spite of the promise of King Willin Hanover iam to maintain the existing order, the and Baden. Union made great progress. Open hostilities broke out on the occasion of the change in the wording of the marriage contract in connection with the introduction of the civil status law in 1876. A number of clergymen under the leadership of Harms in Hermannsburg refused to use the new wording, seeing in it a denial of what he conceived to be the Christian nature of marriage. In 1878 they separated from the State Church and founded the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church in Hanover. It is governed on the basis of the Liineburg church order by a board composed of clergy and laity. There are at present eight parishes with about 3,050 members and ten ministers. The Hermannsburg Free Church originated from a split in the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church in Hanover. It numbers about 2,800 members and two ministers. In the grand duchy of Baden the confessional union of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches was executed in 1821 without opposition. Only the awakening faith in Germany and the Lutheran movement instigated by Lohe in Bavaria Created in Baden also a desire for a clear and un-
ambiguous confession of the Lutheran Church. Karl Eichhorn, a preacher in Nussloch, started a Lutheran movement which led to the formation of small Lutheran congregations which soon petitioned for recognition, but were flatly refused. Eichhorn was repeatedly thrown into prison and finally banished into a remote place, but the Lutheran movement increased from year to year, and at last, in 1856, toleration was granted to its adherents. The congregations in Baden number about 1,330 members.
The Evangelical Lutheran Free Church in Saxony and other states has an entirely different character from that of the other Lutheran free churches in Germany. While the others were called forth more or less by the opposition against 3. Churches the Union, this Free Church was in Saxony, formed in the midst of Lutheran territories, partly even of such as had separated already from the State Church on account of the Union. It stands in connection with the Missouri Synod in America (see below, II., 5, § 1), and declares all other Lutheran state and free churches unfaithful to the confession. The occasion for the formation of the Free Church in Saxony was the change into a mere vow of the oath of religion binding upon Lutherans. Many protested against this change, seeing in it a concession to infidelity. On the recommendation of Walther, the leading spirit of the Missouri Synod, an association of strict Lutherans called Ruland from America to Saxony, who in the most violent manner criticized the defects of the Saxon State Church and made separation from it as well as from all other State Churches a duty of conscience. On Nov. 6, 1876, all dissenting congregations in Saxony united to form the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church in Saxony and other states. The addition " and other states " shows that this Free Church intends to gather around its banner the strict Lutherans from all Lutheran churches in Germany. At the end of 1901 it numbered about 2,230 members and seven pastors in Saxony, and 1,350 members with eight pastors outside of Saxony. Besides these free churches in Germany there are also congregations that arose frequently only from local conflicts with the State Church. The common aim of all free churches to found the church on Holy Scripture and the Lutheran confession alone can easily be justified; for this was the aim of the Reformation and is in harmony with the early Christian Church. The form of royal supremacy over the Protestant Church seems to be irreconcilable with the modern State, but it is also feared that the Lutheran Church, unless it were a State Church, might lose its hold upon the people, but the development of the Lutheran Church in North America shows that this is not necessarily the case. (G. Froboss.)
III. Lutherans in America: — 1. Early Settlements ; According to the testimony of the Jesuit Isaac Jogues in the year 1643 Lutherans were living in Manhattan (New Amsterdam — New York) along with Calvinists, Puritans and Anabaptists. The recognized religion of the colony of New Netherlands was the strict Calvinism of the Synod of Dort, and the Lutherans were treated
Lutherans