# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1875_S19
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

— 19 —

who stop halfway on the way to the truth, many millions of souls are lost.

We too have serious reason to take heed to ourselves, so that we do not let ourselves be found in such unconscientiousness or fall back into it. It is well known that in this respect things have not all stood rightly in various synods connected with the Synodical Conference [*Synodalconferenz*]. In such bodies especially, deliberations should be held on this subject, in order to put an end to such abuses. Where such conditions have prevailed earlier, resolutions and regulations for improvement of them would certainly be necessary, in order to bear witness to the change that has occurred. In this too our fathers have given an example of how to use caution in suspicious cases. In the year 1586 French exiles came to Germany. These Huguenots had been diabolically persecuted in France. Lutheran theologians too declared the persecuted Huguenots to be martyrs, because they had suffered at the hands of the papists not for their errors but for their confession of the truth. When they came to Württemberg, the duke at once consulted with his theologians how one should behave toward them. The decision was this: each one of them must, before admission to the Holy Supper, first be thoroughly examined, and if he does not confess the pure doctrine, be turned away from the Holy Supper.

As an indispensable means of exercising the necessary Supper discipline, personal announcement for confession [Beichtanmeldung] was named. It was said to be impossible for a Lutheran pastor to administer his office rightly without it. This, it was said, is also confessed as the practice of the Lutheran church in the Augsburg Confession, where Article 25 says: "This custom is kept among us, not to give the sacrament to any who have not first been examined (*exploratis*) and absolved." Especially at the beginning of a ministry, a preacher must insist that everyone register personally for the Supper. And if later, with closer acquaintance, he does not require personal registration every time, he will still have to insist on it with the confirmed youth, if he wants to administer his shepherd's and watchman's office over them conscientiously. If a preacher is really to stand there as a pastor of souls, and his congregation as his flock, he cannot do without the Beichtanmeldung, for he must have opportunity to get to know his congregation members, especially at admission to the sacrament. Whoever wants the end must also want the means. To the question what is to be done if the pastor meets resistance in the congregation against the Beichtanmeldung, the answer was: He must above all instruct his congregation about the Beichtanmeldung. If the people then do not come to him, he goes to them. If they will not listen to reason even then, they must, if they are individuals, be taken into church discipline. But if the whole congregation is so (which is hardly conceivable), the pastor can the holy