# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1858_S29
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Ecclesiastical-Contemporary Chronicle. 29

Hannover. A correspondent of the Freimund accordingly writes as follows: A decree of our church government recently issued, which the same, in a gratifying manner, proclaimed in conjunction with the highest secular authority of the land, the royal Ministry of the Interior, relates to a matter of general concern that is exceedingly important for the prosperous continuance of the Church and its order: protection against sects and sectarian intrigues. Although the church government first declares that indeed, in such occurrences, at the proper time — that is, at the incipient formation of a sect, before its formal separation from the Church — the means of spiritual discipline and care are to be diligently applied against those in error, and that, where the maintenance of order and the Church's self-preservation do not require energetic action, feasible forbearance and mildness, under continued instruction and patient waiting, should rather prevail, it nevertheless further expressly gives to understand that for dissidents only freedom of faith and conscience, together with domestic devotion at home — and this only for residents of the land — is constitutionally protected, whereas every sectarian exercise of religion may be restricted and suppressed by the government, and is thus no longer, as had hitherto occurred, to be regarded as permitted under the clause of the Landesverfassungsgesetz (the land's constitutional law) of 1848, which treats of the free right of assembly and association. Accordingly, all authorities are instructed by both royal Ministries, of Worship and of the Interior, to keep a watchful eye on this point and to report at once to the superior authority any incipient formation of sectarian congregations, their confession, social organization, and membership. Particular attention is to be paid where natives make a trade of it, leaving their place of residence in order to spread and direct sectarian religious practice in other places within the kingdom — in which case their banishment to their home district is ordered — or where, for this purpose, foreigners make their appearance in these lands — who are to be expelled across the border — or where sectarian religious practice, in a manner injurious or at least conspicuous to the recognized churches, comes to public notice in some way — for example, through the public rebaptism of adults, the ringing of bells, and the like — in which case the dissolution of the assemblies, and the threat (and, if need be, the execution) of fines and imprisonment, is to follow. The measures held necessary from a churchly standpoint against sectarian religious practice, by the authorities called upon for that purpose, are likewise to be carried into execution by the (secular) magistrates, and, should any scruples arise for them in doing so, execution is not to be omitted on their own judgment, but only after obtaining a decision from the royal Ministry itself.

We can only rejoice in this ordinance, especially now, since, as a consequence of the Evangelical Alliance meeting in Berlin, one must be prepared for the appearance of all manner of fanatical spirits. It has already had both a direct and an indirect effect. Some Anabaptists who had broken into the country from outside (Hamburg, Bremen, and the neighboring land of Brunswick supply this seed) have already been expelled and threatened with the same should they be found here again. But this measure has already caused a stir further afield as well. Some time ago the Anabaptists had already raised bitter complaints about Hannover, and the report published by an English deputation of theirs in Gelzer's monthly journal portrayed Hannover, Mecklenburg, and Schaumburg-Lippe as the most intolerant lands of Germany. This outcry has now been repeated. In July of last year an assembly of these sectarians took place at Nottingham, to be followed in September by a similar one in Hamburg. At the former, Mr. Oncken of Hamburg also appeared, in order to put the Hannoverian government in a state of indictment, and it was resolved there that the English deputation going to the Hamburg conference, consisting of two clergymen and two laymen, should also proceed to Hannover in order to obtain from His Majesty the King the withdrawal of the ministerial decrees and freedom of agitation for the Anabaptists. We hope this will go well for them; fortunately we are not so accustomed here to such experimenting as elsewhere, and one does not let oneself be swayed here at once by fine phrases.