# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1862_S351
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church and Contemporary History. 351

On account of the "Banner of Rescue," matters against Baumgarten have not
yet progressed to a first verdict. The condemning judgment relates rather — a
fact not to be gathered from the public notice issued by the Rector and the
Concilium — to two earlier writings of Baumgarten's, entitled "The Ecclesiastical
Emergency" and "Shall the Mecklenburg Territorial Church Perish?" On account
of these writings Baumgarten had, under date of December 10 of last year,
been sentenced by the academic court at Rostock to eight weeks' imprisonment
and a fine of 100 imperial thalers, a sentence which, by the now legally binding
judgment of the second instance handed down by the Justice Chancery at
Güstrow, has been reduced to six weeks' imprisonment and a fine of 50
imperial thalers.

Hanover. The storm conjured up against the introduction of the new
catechism among the people, by Jews and unbelievers, has moved the King to
publish the following decree, dated August 19: "When on April 14 of this year
We offered Our Evangelical Lutheran subjects 'Doctor Martin Luther's Small
Catechism, with Explanation,' as a valuable good, We proceeded on the firm
assumption that the gift would be received with grateful acknowledgment. We
could not doubt this, since We, faithful to the principles of the Reformation,
are still now of the conviction that the new territorial catechism contains the
evangelical truth pure and unadulterated, in accordance with the Lutheran
confession. We now learn, to Our sorrow, that a great number of Our
Evangelical Lutheran subjects, out of attachment to the catechism handed down
to them from their fathers, hesitate to welcome the gift offered, and that some
even, taking offense at particular statements in the new territorial catechism,
consider the evangelical faith to be endangered and consciences to be
distressed by it. It lies close to Our heart, however, to spare consciences, to
preserve peace in the church, and not to stunt, through compulsion, the
blessing that depends upon a free and joyful acceptance. Accordingly the
requirement of the general introduction of the new territorial catechism is
rescinded, and its use shall take place only where it is received with
willingness."

The Mormons in Germany. So reports the Pilger from Saxony: "In Turbach,
so I have read, a Mormon congregation has formed. One wonders whether civil
equality (such as befell the Jews) and the free practice of polygamy will perhaps
also be permitted them? It would be no wonder."

Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. In this principality, as in Hanover, the introduction
of a new, believing catechism has become occasion for battles "behind the
tankard and in the noble newspapers," as Freimund puts it.

Bad Periodicals. In Pesth-Ofen, according to the Pilger a. S., all the Catholic
parish priests there have recently taken action regarding their stance toward
the press, and on this occasion made the solemn promise to keep or read no
more bad periodicals. To establish such a temperance or abstinence society
would certainly be a wholesome undertaking here too; only, admission to it
would have to stand open not only to preachers, but also to the laity — and to
these in particular.

"Hours of Devotion." We read the following in the Freimund of August 28:
"In London, the Hours of Devotion are again coming into honor. Since this was
the favorite book of the late Prince Albert, his consort, Queen Victoria, has
since his death not only occupied herself with it a great deal, but has also
made a selection from it, which she is having printed and distributed under the
title 'Reflections on Death and Eternal Life.' — What will the orthodox in
England say to this religious taste at court?"

Hanover. In a correspondence from Hanover, dated August 17, in the
Allgemeine Kirchenzeitung, it says: "Soon scarcely a village will be left in the
land that has not raised its objection (against the new believing catechism)."
A new sign that the last hour of the state churches will soon strike.

Withdrawal from the Baptists. The Allgemeine Kirchenzeitung contains the
following: From the Ruhr valley, August 18. Yesterday the well-known Baptist
preacher Ringedorf, who was born in Moers and later served as pastor of the
evangelical congregation in Saarn and Volmarstein, delivered his farewell
sermon to the Baptist congregation. He is returning to the territorial church.
This is, according to the "E. Z.," since the year 1848 the second evangelical
clergyman from Berg and Mark who went over to the Baptists and later
returned to the territorial church. Both are gifted, if also extreme, characters.

Politics in the Pulpit. That this abuse is the order of the day in our unhappy
land, especially in this present agitated time, is unfortunately known to
everyone. But to what a dreadful degree such base desecration of the holy
place