# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_M rz 1858_S87
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

On Lay Elders or Congregation Presidents. 87

nevertheless, as Rudelbach (journal of 1840, p. 114) rightly observes,
"the basic determination of the consistories was to represent the lay
presbytery with oversight over doctrine and the limiting of discipline" —
still we find not only, in some Lutheran churches, lay presbyteries and
synods to the exclusion of consistories. The former case occurred in the
Belgian-Lutheran churches, the latter in the Hamburg church. This is
reported, among others, by Pfaff in his famous work on church law,*)
where we read the following: "It came about that, with the tacit consent
of the Christian people and indeed without opposition from the new
teachers of the purified church, the collegial rights were handed over to
the princes and the secular authority, and afterward received the seal of
the state through the religious peace settlements, so that, thus secured,
they could no longer be taken back by the congregation. And this
happened almost everywhere in the churches that separated from the
Roman church, especially in the German ones — except that the collegial
rights and the direction of the churches were here and there handed over
to lay presbyters, though without the complete exclusion of the teachers
of the church. This is found in Belgium, both in the Reformed and
Presbyterian churches, as well as even in our own, namely the Belgian,
and in the Hamburg church, where the lay presbyters exercise the
collegial rights together with the clergy." A kind of lay presbytery was
also, among others, already set up in the year 1523 at Leipzig in the
Electorate of Saxony, whose duties and powers are described in the
"Order of a Common Chest for the Congregation at Leisnig," which Luther
himself published, furnished with a preface, and urgently recommended
for imitation

touches the duty owed to fellow Christians and the duty of conscience on
the part of church members, does not depend on the prince as prince, but
on Christ and his congregation ... There is indeed a great difference
between the presbyteries and the consistories, for here the rulers,
after the church has been taken into their bosom, have to be sure
attached a civil-authority weight to the church government, and the
presbyteries are now to that extent bound up with secular jurisdiction,
whereas before the church government was conducted solely through the
inner power of the Holy Spirit and through the arrangements proper to
all societies." (Same work, vol. 1724, pp. 486, 487.)

*) See Christoph Matthäus Pfaff's work: De originibus juris ecclesiastici.
Tübingen, 1719, quarto. There it says, on pages 183 and 188: "It came
about that the rights of the collegium were handed over, by the tacit
consent of the church people, with no dissent, to the new teachers,
princes, and the political magistracy of the purified church, and
afterward received the civil seal through subsequent religious
pacifications, so that, once secured, they could no longer be withdrawn
by the assembly. And this happened almost everywhere in the churches
that seceded from Rome, especially the German ones, except that the
rights of the collegium and the direction of the churches were, in some
places, handed over to lay presbyters, without however entirely
excluding the teachers of the church. This is to be seen in Belgium and
in the Reformed and Presbyterian churches, indeed also in our own, the
Belgian ones, and in the Hamburg church, where the lay presbyters
exercise the collegial rights together with the clergy.