# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1860_S287
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church and Contemporary Affairs. 287

that this injustice would at last be broken. It will, however, yet come to pass, for the Lord and the Head of this Church sits in the government. Further provisions of this new church law are these: "The churches order and administer their internal affairs freely and independently; the administration of their property stands under the joint direction of the church and the state." — The same is subject to the laws of the state, particularly with regard to taxation. — Intercourse with the ecclesiastical superiors is unhindered. — Church offices are conferred by the churches themselves (without prejudice to existing patronage rights, etc.), with the restriction that the person invested be in possession of Baden civil citizenship and not objectionable to the government in a political or civil respect. The introduction of religious orders is conditioned upon the approval of the state government, which is revocable in case of abuse. The churches oversee and provide for religious instruction without prejudice to the unified direction of educational and instructional institutions. The churches are empowered to establish training institutions for their clergy. In their civil and public-civic relations the churches, their institutions, and their servants remain subject to the laws of the state. No church may derive from its constitution or its ordinances powers that conflict with the sovereignty of the state or its laws. No ordinance of the churches which infringes upon civil or public-civic relations may claim legal validity before it has received state approval. Directives and rulings of church authority against the freedom or property of a person can be executed against that person's will only by the power of the state, and only when they have been recognized as ready for execution by the competent state authority. All church ordinances must be communicated to the state government at the same time as their publication. — The formation of religious societies is permitted, and their public worship is placed under the protection of the state. — Now follow the provisions concerning marriage: "Difference of religion is no civil impediment to marriage. — For every marriage admissible under the laws of the state, a lawful form of contracting it must be granted by law. — In case of refusal or delay on the part of the clergyman, the banns are ordered by the district office through the burgomaster, and the marriage is performed by the district office, which must then also issue the marriage certificate. At the request of the betrothed couple, the district office may also authorize another clergyman to perform the marriage. The marriage certificate is to be presented to the responsible pastor and entered by him in the marriage register. — The government is also empowered, as need requires, to appoint civil registrars in individual localities. — The religion of children is determined by those to whom the right of upbringing legally belongs. Clergy who, in public official addresses or by means of issuing and circulating official writings, attack in a censorious manner the laws and institutions of the state, the state government, particular state authorities, the representation of the people, particular classes, estates, or corporations, are punished with imprisonment of not less than four weeks; those who make themselves guilty of the presumptuous exercise of official functions belonging under the laws of the state to a secular authority incur a prison penalty of not less than eight weeks or a workhouse penalty of up to two years. — Other penal provisions relate to the threatening, the pronouncing, the promulgation, and the execution of ecclesiastical penalties. Laypersons who facilitate or promote such punishable acts of clergy are punished as accomplices. Instead of part of these penalties, fines of 50 to 500 florins may also be imposed."

This is the newest ecclesiastical legislation in Baden. We offer, provisionally, the following remarks and communications concerning it: 1) The state has preserved its position and its rights, and these newest provisions do not differ essentially from the earlier legal provisions. It is true that intercourse with the ecclesiastical superiors has been made free, and it is true that freer movement has been granted to the calling of church servants and church officials; but the superintendence of the state nevertheless extends to everything, in the whole as in the particular. Of everything that the churches ordain, notice must be given to the state. The churches thus by no means lose the position of state or territorial chur-