THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
civil courts. It was received into the General Synod by a vote of ninety-seven to forty. The Pennsylvania delegation protested and withdrew. A number of delegates from other synods joined in the protest of the Pennsylvanians. To avoid the threatening rupture the doctrinal basis of the General Synod was amended so as to recognize the Augsburg Confession as a correct exhibition of the fundamental doctrines of the divine Word, and of the faith of the Church founded upon that Word. But the important question, which doctrines were to be considered as fundamental, remained open, most of the American Lutherans considering the distinctive doctrines that separated Lutherans and Reformed as non-fundamental. The action at York was answered by the Pennsylvania Ministerium in the establishment of her own theological seminary at Philadelphia, in July, 1864 (first faculty: Drs. C. F. Schaeffer, W J. Mann, C. P. Krauth, C. W. Schaeffer, G. F. Krotel; present faculty: A. Spaeth, H. E. Jacobs, J. Fry, G. F. Spieker). The Pennsylvania Ministerium, still considering itself a member of the General Synod, appointed delegates to represent it at the next convention of the General Synod in Fort Wayne, 1886. Here the final crisis occurred through the action of the presiding officer, S. S. Sprecher, who refused to accept the credentials of the Pennsylvania delegates when the roll of the synods was called, declaring that synod to be " out of practical union with the General Synod." Nothing was left to the delegation but to withdraw again and to report to their ministerium, which now formally severed its connection with the General Synod and issued a fraternal letter, inviting all Evangelical Lutheran Synods in the United States and Canada to unite in the formation of a new general body, " first and supremely for the maintenance of unity in the true faith of the Gospel, and in the uncorrupted Sacraments, as the Word of God teaches and our Church confesses them; and furthermore for the preservation of her genuine spirit and worship, and for the development of her practical life in all its forms." In response to this fraternal address the " Reading Convention " was held, in Dec, 1866, at which Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Pittsburg, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Canada, the Norwegian Synod, and the Swedes were represented. The " Fundamental Articles of Faith and Church Polity," drawn up by Charles Porterfield Krauth, were discussed and unanimously adopted. The organization of " The General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America " was resolved.
At present the following synods belong to the General Synod: Maryland, West Pennsylvania, Hartwick, East Ohio, Franckean (N. Y.), Allegheny (Pa.), East Pennsylvania, Miami (Ohio), Wittenberg (Ohio), Olive Branch (Ind., Ky., Tenn.), Northern Illinois, Central Pennsylvania, Iowa, Northern Indiana, Pittsburg (W. Pa.), Susquehanna (N. E. Pa.), Kansas, Nebraska, New York and New Jersey, Wartburg (German, West and South), California, Rocky Mountains (Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming), Nebraska (German), Central Illinois, Southern Illinois, numbering a total of 1,322 ministers, 1,734 congregations, 265,459 communicants. The General Synod has 6 theological seminaries with 22 professors and 103 students. It has foreign mission stations in the Telugu land, East India, and in Liberia, East Africa, with 30 missionaries, 550 native helpers,
34,053 native Christians, 10,500 pupils in mission schools, and 3,900 candidates for baptism.
5. Confessional Lutherans in the West: About a quarter of a century before the revival of confessional Lutheranism in the General Synod led to disruption and to the organization of the General Council, Lutheran immigrants from Saxony, Prussia, and Bavaria, who had left the fatherland on account of their faith, undertook the foundation of strictly Lutheran bodies, which, though frequently engaged in sharp controversies, were remarkably successful in gathering the large Lutheran population of the West into strong ecclesiastical organizations.
In the month of Nov., 1838, hundreds of earnest Lutherans, under the leadership of Martin Stephan, pastor of the Bohemian Church at Dresden, resolved to emigrate to America. The hopeless condition of their home church, the opposition to the Lutheran confession, and the preva- 1. The lence of rationalism, drove those peo-
Synod of pie out of their native land where they Missouri, despaired of seeing their ideal of the Church realized. Stephan was distinguished by his remarkable eloquence in the pulpit, his knowledge of men, and his pastoral ability in dealing with souls in a state of despondency under severe spiritual trials. Though he had had difficulties with the ecclesiastical authorities in Saxony, no charges had affected his character. His adherents had absolute confidence in him and trusted him not only with their spiritual guidance but even with the administration of their worldly possessions. They numbered altogether about 700 persons, among them several faithful pastors of the Lutheran Church in Saxony, like O. H. Walther, C. F. W Walther, E. G. W Keyl, and G. H. Loeber. One of the vessels on which the immigrants embarked was lost at sea with all on board. The others landed in Jan., 1839, at New Orleans and settled in St. Louis and in Perry Co., Mo. Soon after their arrival Stephan was found to be unworthy, guilty of defalcation and gross immorality. They cast him off, and Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther (q.v.) became their principal leader. When the catastrophe of Stephan's exposure overwhelmed the Saxon immigrants, and they themselves were in doubt, whether they still were a Christian Church and their pastors real officers of the church by divine right, it was Walther who brought light and encouragement to the downcast little band. He founded the semimonthly Der Lutheraner and later on the theological monthly Lehre und Wehre. By means of these publications he gathered a number of like-minded men, and prepared the way for the organization of the synod of Missouri, which met for the first time in Chicago, 111., Apr. 26, 1847. In the same year the educational institution founded by W. Loehe in Fort Wayne, Ind., was transferred to the synod of Missouri, and the theological seminary of the Saxon immigrants in Perry Co. was moved to St. Louis, where Walther 'became the head of the faculty. From the very beginning the synod of Missouri placed itself on the foundation of the Lutheran confessions as contained in the Book of Concord of 1580, rejecting all kinds