RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Lutherans
foot of the Catskill Mountains. In 1712 hundreds of them wandered northward to the Schoharie, where they were kindly received by the Indians. Eleven years afterward a considerable number of these colonists turned southward along the Susquehanna river to found new homes in Pennsylvania. Kocherthal's successors in the service of the German congregations in the State of New York were Justus Falckner, Wilhelm Christoph Berkenmeyer, and Michael Knoll, who at the same time ministered to the Dutch Lutherans. Isolated groups of German Lutherans with modest beginnings of congregational organization are found in the eighteenth century along the whole Atlantic coast as far as Georgia, in New Jersey, Virginia, North and South Carolina. Most prominent among them was the colony of Lutheran Salzburgers in Georgia, near Savannah. A number of the Salzburg Lutherans who were expelled by Archbishop Firmian, in 1731, had been recommended to the English court and were offered most favorable terms by the British government. They embarked at Rotterdam in the fall of 1733, with two pastors, John Martin Boltzius and Israel Christian Gronau. Governor Oglethorpe gave them a hearty welcome and they established the colony of Ebenezer, about twenty-five miles inland from Savannah. Wesley and Whitefield took a kindly interest in those immigrants and gave them material support. In eastern Pennsylvania up to the middle of the eighteenth century some 30,000 German Lutherans had settled, for whose spiritual wants there was, at first, no adequate provision. Much disorder and offense was caused by unworthy subjects who assumed the office of the ministry without proper call and qualification. In order to secure faithful ministers three congregations, New Hanover, New Providence (Trappe), and Philadelphia united in an application to Friedrich Michael Ziegenhagen, court preacher at St. James' Chapel, London, and Gotthilf August Francke in Halle. Negotiations were carried on in an extended correspondence, from 1734 to 1739. In the year 1741 Count Ludwig Zinzendorf arrived and, under the name of Herr von Thuernstein, offered his services to the Lutherans in Pennsylvania as " Evangelical-Lutheran inspector and pastor." He secured a call from a number of German Lutherans in Philadelphia, to whom he preached his famous " Pennsylvania discourses." John Christopher Pyrlaeus, whom he had appointed as a substitute in his place, was violently expelled by the Lutherans in 1742. In the fall of the same year there appeared Valentin Kraft, formerly pastorn in Zweibruecken, Palatinate, a man of questionable character, whose activity among the German Lutherans helped to increase the general confusion. 2. Organization tinder Muhlenberg: Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (q.v.) was encouraged by Dr. Francke in Halle to accept the call to Pennsylvania, Sept. 6, 1741. In April, 1742, he arrived in London where the formal vocation from the three Pennsylvania congregations was handed to him by Frederick Michael Ziegenhagen. Leaving London on June 11 he arrived in Charleston, S. C, Sept. 23, 1742, as he had been commissioned to visit the Salzburg colonies in Georgia. He reached Philadelphia Nov. 25, and at once proceeded to New Hanover
and New Providence. In Philadelphia he preached
his first sermon Dec. 5, and three weeks afterward
was formally recognized as the right-
1. Pre- fid pastor of the Lutheran congrega-
liminary tion. He at once curbed the preten- Labors. sions of Valentin Kraft and also succeeded in maintaining in a dignified manner his position against Count Zinzendorf, who attempted to call him to account in the presence of the officers of the Lutheran Church of Philadelphia. The magistrate of the city ordered Zinzendorf to give up the records and communion vessels of the Lutherans, and the count left the city and the country Jan. 1, 1743. Now Muhlenberg's work of church-organization began under many difficulties. The three congregations from whom he had a direct call were thirty-five miles apart, and to serve them regularly with the means of grace involved many hardships and dangers. As soon as the influence of his work of organization became known, his services in removing difficulties and restoring order were asked by other congregations, such as Tulpehocken, Germantown, Lancaster, and York. In the spring of 1743 the cornerstone of St. Michael's Church in Philadelphia, and that of the Augustus Church (Trappe) were laid. The latter church is still standing and close to its walls Muhlenberg is buried. Until the time of the revolutionary war the directors of the Francke institutions at Halle, together with Dr. Ziegenhagen in London, had full control of the congregations organized by Muhlenberg and his colaborers who were sent after him from Halle. Regular reports were sent over to Halle and were published under the title " Halle Reports of the United German Evangelical Lutheran Congregations in North America, particularly Pennsylvania " (1744-87, new ed., with valuable historical annotations and additions, ed. Drs. W J. Mann, B. M. Schmucker, and W Germann, Allentown, Pa., 1886). The most important step taken by Muhlenberg for the permanent organization of the Lutheran Church on this continent was the founding of the Synod of Pennsylvania, Aug. 26, 1748. There were present on this occasion the Swedish Provost Sandin and Pastors Hartwig of New York, Muhlenberg, Brunnholtz, Handschuh, and Kurz, who was ordained at this first meeting.
The character of this first synodical organization was, however, in the beginning rather loose and informal. No regular constitution was adopted, not even a formal election of a presiding officer. As a matter of course the position of leader- 2. Charao- ship was accorded to Muhlenberg.
ter of the The Collegium pastorum received the Organiza- reports and requests of the lay delegates tion. and acted on them. The latter had no vote, which was accorded to them only in the year 1792. The relation between the ministers and the lay element was one of patriarchal or apostolic simplicity. The unselfish devotion and faithfulness, the pastoral wisdom and experience of the leading men, above all, of Muhlenberg himself, secured the full confidence of the congregations, without any fear of hierarchical presumptions or aggressions on the part of the ministers. The
Lutherans