# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1858_S226
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

226 On the Transfer of Preachers.

...a small city to Alexandria. -Felix was transferred from the city where he had been ordained, by the choice of the people, on account of his uprightness in doctrine and life, in accordance with the common counsel of the bishops and the rest of the clergy and congregations, to Ephesus. For no one moves from one congregation to another who does not do so out of his own desire or through solicitation, but rather he is transferred, on account of some benefit or need, through the admonition of others and the counsel of worthier men. And no one is transferred from a smaller congregation to a larger one (in an unlawful manner) who has not done this out of ambition and self-will, but rather because he was either driven out of his office by force, or compelled by necessity, or — for the sake of the importance of the place or the congregation, not proudly but in humility — was transferred and installed by others. For man looks on the face, but God looks on the heart. No one, then, changes his post who does not change his mind. And no one changes his congregation who is changed not according to his own will, but according to the counsel and choice of others."

3. Both of these points are made by the letter of Pelagius II, from about the year 580, which is likewise contained in the Corpus juris canonici: "Know, dearest brother, that it is one thing when the ground is necessity and benefit, and another when it is presumption and self-will. For he does not change his post who does not change his mind — that is, who does not move from one congregation to another out of greed, love of power, self-will, or personal comfort, but for the sake of necessity and benefit. For the benefit of the many is to be held more important than the will or benefit of a single individual. And it is one thing to change, and another to be changed."

4. And what else does the 27th canon of the third — or rather the fourth — Council of Carthago, held toward the beginning of the fifth century, intend, as it is cited in canon law: "A bishop shall not, by solicitation, pass from a lesser place to a more considerable one, nor any clergyman of lower rank either. If the benefit of the church truly requires it, then the resolution of the clergy and laity concerning him shall be presented to the bishops, and he shall be transferred in the presence of the synod, after another has nonetheless been allowed to be chosen in his place. Clergy of lower rank and other church servants may, with the permission of their bishops, be transferred to—

*) To be sure, the germs of hierarchy are already to be found in the cited passages of canon law, whereas according to the Lutheran principle — conformed to God's Word alone — it is, in the last instance, only the conscience enlightened by God's Word that has to decide whether a call is divine or not. The Lutheran Hartmann therefore intends, by his citations from canon law, only to prove that in the view of the church of those times, whenever the necessity or benefit of the church required it — something that ought to be evident not merely to the individual's own conscience, but also to that of his more experienced brethren — the otherwise indissoluble bond of a pastor with his congregation might be dissolved, and a bond with a new one entered into by way of transfer.
                                                                          The Translator.