# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 11 17_S32
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

in one kind only, auricular confession, and the marriage of priests were to be retained. The envoys departed with good hope, but "then it became evident," Myconius relates, "that this Harry was concerned only with the spiritual revenues: he broke open the golden and silver shrines, the richest jewel of the world, the tomb of St. Thomas Cantuariensis, likewise Maria de Bara Thalassa; he took to himself all the spiritual revenues of the land, set a receiver over them, and drew in several hundred thousand guilders yearly. That was Harry's Gospel, which he sought." Indeed, later the king raged against the confessors and teachers of the Gospel, burned and beheaded many faithful teachers and bishops. "In sum," says Myconius again, "neither was Herod so tyrannical against Christ, nor Nero against the Apostles, as this one has been, and this kingdom has indeed been well tinged and manured with the blood of Christians."

All the more joyful was the other undertaking, in the following year, 1539. Duke George of Saxony died in that year, and the Reformation of the Meissen lands now began under his successor, Henry. Then our Myconius, who had just returned with the Elector from the Frankfurt convention, had the great joy of being able to come forward publicly with the preaching of the Gospel at Annaberg — the very place where, as a poor schoolboy, he had had that encounter with Tetzel, where in his soul's distress he had entered the monastery, where there were so many souls longing for salvation whom he had earlier been able to comfort only in writing — and indeed to be the first to establish it in that place. It was on the Sunday Cantate, that is, on May 4, that Duke Henry's court preacher, Lindemann, preached in the morning, and Myconius in the afternoon, before an incredible multitude of hearers at Annaberg.

At Pentecost Myconius traveled with the Elector and several other theologians to Leipzig, and remained there with the Wittenberg professor Dr. Creuziger when the others departed again. Here he again helped most faithfully to establish the Word of God and to set up good Christian order, so that Dr. Justus Jonas bore him this testimony: "Myconius is the true apostle of the people of Leipzig, indeed the bishop of the Meissen region, who will accomplish more benefit than all his predecessors in this province." The greatest resistance was offered by the university, until here too Myconius and Creuziger, with God's Word, carried off a brilliant victory. On Friday, June 21, they disputed, morning and afternoon, for a good eight or eight and a half hours, against the adherents of the papal doctrine, who were supported by a certain Dr. Matthäus of Halle, in the presence of the whole university and a great crowd of people, and God gave grace "that the devil, with all his following, lies, and blasphemies, stood forth in all shame, but Christ, with his Word and Sacrament, drawn through the fire like gold, stood forth in all glory and kept the victory." "Then," says Myconius in his blunt way of speaking, "the wares of the pope and of the devil who rides him fell

32

right into the mud. The sophist Dr. Melchior Klinge slunk away; the preaching-monk, Licentiate Balthasar, withdrew toward Würzburg; Dr. Ochsenfurt died soon after. In sum, the roof-flowers withered before the heat and brilliance of the sun of God's Word."

The Leipzig magistrate requested of the Elector that Myconius might remain there another year or so, since he was greatly loved and honored by the citizens, and great benefit for the city was to be hoped for from his staying; and the Elector granted this. It is true the people of Gotha complained of this and pressed the Elector to let their preacher return; but the pious lord answered them, "that he would indeed be inclined to send their pastor and shepherd of souls back to them and let him remain at Gotha; but since he was needed for the work of spreading the holy Word of God — which serves for its praise and honor, and, through God's grace, for the salvation of many — they should bear with patience yet a while longer, so that the pure doctrine of the Gospel and Christian ceremonies might also be planted and established among the neighboring lands. In the meantime, however, they should nevertheless take care and give good heed that no neglect occur, either in the preaching and administering of the holy, venerable sacraments or otherwise." And so Myconius remained a full eighteen months in Leipzig, except that in the month of June 1540 he traveled along to the convention at Hagenau. Toward the end of the year 1540 he finally returned home to Gotha.

(Conclusion to follow.)

(Submitted.)
Vindication.

Mr. Editor!

We, the undersigned, find ourselves obligated to vindicate Pastor Wyneken, the present preacher of our congregation, against the shameful accusations which, originating from some of our own members, have been most zealously spread abroad by Christian and other periodicals — in particular by Weyl's Hirtenstimme — to the effect that he departs from the doctrine of the Lutheran Church and seeks to lead the congregation over to the Roman Church. We ask you, therefore, to this end, to admit the following our resolutions into the "Lutheraner" for publication:

1.) Resolved: We recognize and declare Pastor Wyneken to be a faithful preacher of the Lutheran Church, and his preaching to be wholly in conformity with the doctrine laid down in the confessional writings of our church.

2.) Resolved: We recognize and declare accusations to the contrary to be malicious, shameless slander.

3.) Resolved: We wish that Pastor Wyneken continue to teach among us and to administer his office as he has taught heretofore.

4.) Resolved, that those who brought forward the aforesaid accusations against Pastor Wyneken, since upon summons they did not appear before the church council to substantiate them, shall be excluded from the congregation as of today, and shall remain so, unless they recant within fourteen days. After the lapse of this time, the names of those who have recanted, as well as of those who remain excluded, shall be published from the pulpit.

5.) Resolved, that the above resolutions be published in several Lutheran periodicals.

The unanimous Church Council.
The unanimous congregation of the Second Lutheran Church here.
Baltimore, October 7, 1846.

(Submitted.)
The (Pseudo) Lutherische Hirtenstimme

contains in No. 18, under the heading "Thoughts from Books and from Experience," a fragment of an address to confirmands. There it reads, most edifyingly:

"Just as Baptism already signifies a bath of regeneration, so the day of the confirmation of baptism is to become a day of regeneration. The old man, with his sluggishness, with his frivolity, with all his infirmities and follies, is, upon his departure out of the land of childhood, to be as it were buried and to disappear entirely. A new life shall now begin in you. As new men, the young Christians shall return home from the altar at which they have renewed their baptismal covenant, etc."

Behold there, dear German Lutherans, how boldly he here, in a few words, first, degrades the Sacrament of Holy Baptism to an at bottom meaningless ceremony; second, thrusts the act of confirmation — which is, after all, nowhere commanded in Holy Scripture, and was in general only introduced here and there by the Lutheran Church in the second half of the sixteenth century — just as brazenly into its place; and how, third, he teaches that the old Adam — that is, original sin, or the corrupted human nature — is, through the latter act, to "disappear entirely." For if, according to this speech, Holy Baptism merely signifies a bath of regeneration, while confirmation is supposed to bring this about, then the former would really signify nothing, since in that case it would neither give nor profit anything. How subtly the speaker here does away with God's command and promise, and teaches in its place "mere false cunning, what self-conceit has invented." He has excellently imitated here his forerunners, the Pharisees and scribes, whose example is held up to us as a warning at Mark 7:13.

And such blasphemies, such soul-destroying weeds, does a pastor calling himself Lutheran take up into his periodical, that they may indeed be spread yet further! You readers