# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1858_S346
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

346 Lutheran-Theological Pastor's Library.

treated by most of our theologians in such a way that it appears to be more of an auxiliary discipline for practical pastoral theology. Even if the Jesuits, through their treatment of that discipline, have brought it into disrepute, still, as it has been worked out by several of our theologians, not all the reproaches made against it apply to it. And the richer precisely the American preaching office is in the most remarkable and intricate cases of conscience — of whose very possibility many a pastor in Germany, given conditions there, can scarcely have any notion — the greater becomes the importance of casuistry for an American pastor. Those works which supply the most casuistic material for our circumstances here are, in our experience, harder to obtain than writings of other kinds; we shall therefore at once name several here, since, should the one not be obtainable, the opportunity may perhaps present itself to obtain another.

The most detailed casuistic work is the following: "Thesaurus consiliorum et decisionum, that is, the counsel, deliberation, answer, instruction, judgment, decision, and verdict of distinguished universities, most worthy colleges, consistories, as well as other highly learned theologians and jurists, in and concerning all manner of difficult cases, published in print by M. Georg Dedekennum. Hamburg, 1623." The compiler of this Thesaurus was born at Lübeck in the year 1564, was first a preacher at Schönberg in the Ratzeburg district, then at Neustadt in Holstein, and finally at Hamburg, where he died in the year 1628. The work is divided into three volumes and an appendix, in folio. The first volume contains deliberations concerning church matters in the narrower sense and falls into three parts. The first treats of the Lutheran, papist, and Calvinist church and religion; the second, of the Word of God, holy baptism, and the holy Lord's Supper; the third, of the holy preaching office and all matters pertaining to it, namely, of calling, office, honor, the installing and removing and transferring of preachers, and their conduct with respect to religious controversies, ceremonies, and other lesser matters, baptism, the Lord's Supper, marriage, burial, and so forth. The second volume contains deliberations on secular and civil matters and treats of the office and dues of the magistracy, particularly in ecclesiastical affairs, of the duties of subjects, of the fellowship of the orthodox with the heterodox, of the Jews, of travel, of shipping, of commerce, of usury, of alliances, particularly religious alliances, of war, particularly religious war, of dueling, of oaths, of begging, of sorcery, and the like. The third volume contains deliberations on matrimonial matters and falls into four parts. The first treats of the forum before which matrimonial matters belong, of celibacy, concubinage, and polygamy; the second, of betrothals; the third, of the forbidden degrees; the fourth, of the consummation of marriage or the marriage act and divorce. The appendix contains