# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Januar 1861_S21
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Reply of a Servant of Christ, etc. 21

have dealt with poor Lutheran congregations, but at the same time also
as a testimony how a just and fair-minded Reformed prince himself
vigorously took the Lutherans under his protection against the
injustice of his own fellow believers.)

Reply of a Servant of Christ to the Dismissal from His Office
Announced to Him on Account of His Allegedly Imprudent Zeal.

In the year 1673, on December 28, Dr. Aegidius Strauch, rector and
professor of theology, as well as pastor at Danzig, was unexpectedly
summoned by the council there and informed of his dismissal from
office, namely because he had zealously but imprudently inveighed
against the Papists in his sermons and had thereby not only disturbed
but also endangered the church, which in Danzig was an ecclesia
pressa [a persecuted church], and because he had also otherwise made
himself guilty of various things.

To this Strauch replied, among other things, as follows:

"As for the motives alleged for the unjust resolution of the council,
I make a distinction between the points that concern my sacred
office, and those for which I am supposed to be answerable on the
basis of private conduct."

"As for the first, and above all as it concerns my sermons and the
administration of my church office, I testify, as before the face of
God, that in this I have, to my knowledge and conscience, never acted
otherwise than is required of such a watchman who well knows that he
must give account for every soul neglected; and thus I have knowingly
overstepped neither the bounds of the truth revealed by God nor those
of Christian prudence, nor have I been convicted of it in a single
point. And since, nevertheless, the office of the servants of Christ
has, in my person, been wounded and insulted in a wholly
irresponsible manner, and since in this world there is no higher
judge between me and you, I therefore hereby appeal to Him whose
servant I am, and I cite all who made and approve the aforementioned
council resolution before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ, who will
come to judge the living and the dead; there you shall give account
of all that you now do to me. The Lord Jesus will be the Judge, I and
you will be the parties, my conscience and yours will be the
witnesses, heaven and hell will be the spoils and the reward. Before
this judgment seat you shall and must appear, and there you will see
how I shall stand with great joyfulness against those who have
distressed me and rejected my labor. Prepare yourselves for this."

"As for other matters, however, which do not exactly concern my
sacred office, I by no means desire to exclude myself from the order
of poor sinners, but I too am one of those who must say: If