# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_M rz 1862_S86
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

86    The United Bavarian General Synod.

negotiations with the state; but what should legislation do about these questions in the opposite case, if the territorial church were not even agreed among itself in principle on the matter? — That it was in fact agreed was shown by the vote, which gave an almost unanimous adoption of Krausshold's motion in its general form. — The catechism question was, after lively debates over two sittings, finally settled with 4 motions, as follows: 1. The catechism draft submitted by the supreme consistory is to be adopted on condition of a thorough revision. 2. A request is to be addressed to the supreme consistory that it have the necessary revision carried out according to the wishes and motions of the report, with the cooperation of a commission of 3 members. 3. After the revision has been finally completed and approved, the supreme consistory shall bring the catechism into use as soon as possible, without resubmitting it to the General Synod. 4. The choice of the members of the commission is to be left entirely to the supreme consistory. — The followers of Löhe had also again brought forward a motion concerning altar fellowship between Lutherans and members of other confessions. They intended thereby a formal binding, by a churchly-governmental command, of the very conscience they themselves proclaim to be absolutely free — namely, that every pastor be forbidden ever to administer the sacrament to a Reformed or Uniate Christian. Harleß remarked aptly on this, in passing: "The petitioners demand of the supreme church authority that it forbid every Protestant clergyman something once and for all, in a matter where they themselves wish to retain a free hand under certain circumstances. Others are to be categorically forbidden — only not the petitioners themselves; that is a state of affairs such as never yet existed. To conclude on the rest, I believe that what needed to be testified concerning the principle has already been testified. I should like to point to phenomena of the newer age, and to ask you: what can come of it if, in this weighty spiritual question, we always operate merely with the concept of the church as a legal institution, with the concept of legal competence, instead of letting the question of actual spiritual belonging step to the fore above all else? By the legal template one is done at once; one can dispute at length about belonging by means of a protocol entry. But the question is not of such a nature that one can settle it cleanly by this form of legal determination. That seems to me, at least, to be the fundamental error [πρῶτον ψεῦδος] of the gentlemen petitioners." It was resolved, almost unanimously, to proceed to the order of the day without further discussion. — It was, the reporter notes, a hard blow for the party of Löhe to find so little ground for their extravagant demands in the General Synod, and, what is more, to see themselves so repudiated by Harleß himself. — Finally we cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of adding a little more from the two excellent farewell addresses, of the royal commissioner and of the honored presiding officer. The former says, among other things: "May you, gentlemen, carry the principles of piety and