# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1858_S227
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

On the Transfer of Preachers. 227

...move to other congregations." Further: "If a bishop should be persecuted in his congregation, he shall flee to another congregation and be received into it. But if he should be transferred for the sake of benefit, he shall not do this on his own alone; rather, when the brethren summon him, he shall do it with the approval of this holy see. Yet it should happen not for the sake of solicitation, but on account of benefit or necessity. This holds not only for bishops, but for all servants of the church, namely so that no one creeps into another's place while the latter is still living.*)

5. Well known is the example of Origen, who taught at Antioch, then at Caesarea, and then at Antioch again; of Polycarp, who was bishop of Smyrna and then of Antioch; of Gregory of Nazianzus, who was bishop of Sasima, then of Nazianzus, and finally of Constantinople. Important, too, is the letter of Alexander, written concerning this matter to Dracontius, which cites a great many examples: "I am at a loss," he begins, "what I should write — whether I should accuse you as one who refuses, or as one who hides himself out of servility to men and fear of the Jews. But whatever the cause, from this source or another, what you are doing, O Dracontius, is not without blame." To these may be added the examples of the previous (sixteenth) century — Justus Jonas, Mörlin, Selnecker, Heshusius, and others.

6. In gathering these together, we are not unaware that there are some canons which appear to stand against us. We wish to cite them with complete fidelity and to come to terms with them. For those of a different opinion cite the thirteenth apostolic canon: "A bishop who has left his parish shall not be permitted to intrude into another, even though he be summoned to it by many, unless there be some reasonable ground compelling this to be done — namely, if some gain and benefit could be brought, through the word of godliness, to those who dwell there. Yet even this not by his own will, but through the judgment and urgent exhortation of many bishops." Likewise the fifteenth canon of the Council of Nicaea: "No bishop, nor any clergyman of the other ranks, may move away from one congregation to another: no bishop, no presbyter, no deacon shall transfer. But if anyone, contrary to the ruling of the holy and great Council, undertakes to do such a thing and involves himself in such a matter, this act shall be held utterly void, and he shall be given back to the congregation whose ordained bishop, presbyter, or deacon he had been."

7. Canons of this kind are also found in the Council of Sardica, canons 1 and 2; of Chalcedon, canon 5; in the third Council of Carthage, canon 38, etc. Especially well known, however, is the third canon of the Council of Antioch,