# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1857_S348
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

348   The Ecclesiastical Movements in Bavaria.

mands. Now, according to a directive of the Upper Consistory issued to the parish offices already in the previous year, church discipline was to be deliberated upon with the church boards before the holding of this year's diocesan synods. After the clamor of the newspapers one would have supposed that this deliberation would give occasion to the liveliest, if not the most violent discussions. But in Nuremberg at least this was not in the least the case. After the rescript on church discipline had been made fully known to the church boards, who until then had heard of it only from the newspapers, they saw clearly that there was nothing to object to in it and that its content was in no way to be got at. Accordingly no motion whatever directed against its content was made, nor any resolution passed. And since in the meantime the Upper Consistory itself had declared, in a resolution of January 17 of this year, "that it lies within the province of the church boards and diocesan synods to consider whether they will enter more closely upon this deliberation already now, or whether, on the ground of special circumstances present, they will declare for postponement" — this way out was seized by both sides, and the wish for a postponement was mostly resolved unanimously. The reporter believes that even the most decided friends of church discipline could not well have acted otherwise. Even if it had been possible for them, which is scarcely to be assumed, to carry through positive provisions on church discipline with the church boards, how could the least blessing be expected from the execution of measures so resolved, given the mood that had grown active in the city congregations against the clergy, and given the mistrust with which every deviation from the hitherto existing usage would be received? The reintroduction of a church discipline in the cities, if it is not to be a purely external, police discipline, but one borne by the earnest moral sense prevailing in the congregation, the reporter holds to be under all circumstances a most difficult, and at present an almost downright impossible task. Guided probably chiefly by regard for the mood aroused against the clergy, the Upper Consistory has declared in the aforementioned resolution of January 17 of this year: "Since with regard to the decree of July 2 of last year, concerning the safeguarding of the spiritual office etc., misgivings and apprehensions have been expressed which can relate not so much to the matter itself as to its execution, the Royal Upper Consistory intends, in order to give these anxieties every feasible consideration, to order in due time further inquiries for the purpose of a renewed revision of the decree in question. Until then the clergy are to confine themselves to what already exists in this respect and is found in recognized usage, etc."

Accordingly, the practical procedure in this field is indeed given up for the immediate future. One may lament this, especially for the sake of the cause that made it necessary. But that the Upper Consistory has become unfaithful to its principles, that it has ever, even in a single case, abandoned a principle expressed by it in