# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1863_S251
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church and Contemporary History. 251

Abolitionist Exegesis. In the Mennonite "christl. Volksblatt" of July 8 we read: "The curse of Noah is a merely human and sinful curse, which he pronounced and committed in provocation to wrath, brought on by his drunkenness and its consequences." Indeed, a radical means of removing the doctrine of God's judgments from the Bible!

Wisconsin Synod. The same has, as we learn from the Luth. Observer of July 17, resolved to found a German seminary and college in Watertown, and has sent Pastor Bading to Germany to collect funds there for the intended undertaking. At the same time the Observer writes: "There is talk of the project of establishing a great western German General Synod, in order to unite the synods of Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota in the undertaking."

II. Abroad.

The Wearing of Beards by the Clergy. The following we read in the Kath. Kirchenzeitung: The "Münch. Volksb." of May 19 writes: From the Apostolic Nuncio at this court, Msgr. Gonecka, the following letter was addressed under the 4th inst. to our right reverend Archbishop: "It has come to the ears of the Holy Father that in some dioceses of Bavaria clergy are to be found who, led by a spirit of innovation, or rather of frivolity, are reintroducing the long-outdated practice of wearing beards, and are seeking by their example to induce others to imitate them. Whatever may be said of earlier centuries, this much is certain: that the newly-flourishing church discipline stands entirely opposed to this practice, and that a new introduction, to be lawful, requires the necessary, or at least tacit, approval of the supreme shepherd of the Church. Here, however, he declares that he must disapprove of every such innovation, the more so as in these sad times the spirit of innovation deceives not a few, and one innovation could easily lead to another. Wherefore His Holiness has been pleased to charge me with informing all the superiors of the diocese of Bavaria, in his name, that they are to see to it in every possible way that this practice is not only vigorously suppressed, but also that the unity of the rule and the complete conformity with the Roman Church in all things — and therefore also in dress and the trimming of the hair — be preserved, or, if necessary, restored, and that every new practice not known to, and approved by, the supreme Head of the Church be forbidden." (Naturally only the beards of secular priests are meant here, and specifically, for the present, in Bavaria.)

Bishop Colenso, the impugner of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, is reported to have already received $30,000 from the publishers of his work on the Pentateuch as his share. A "splendid sum!" Judas at least received only 30 pieces of silver. Zech. 11:12-13.

Judgment on the Breslau Synodal Resolutions. On these Prof. Dr. Harnack of Erlangen has produced a thorough written opinion comprising 42 closely written folio pages, with which not only Prof. of Law Dr. Scheuerl, in a separate declaration, has fully agreed, but also the other members of the theological faculty there have, in all main points, privately declared themselves in agreement. The conclusion, containing the final result of the examination, reads: "Having arrived at the end of my assessment, I can, despite the particulars I have found objectionable — in which I see indeed practical missteps, but not a falling-away from the Confession — answer the main question posed above only in the affirmative" (namely, whether the principle formally safeguarded in its right is also carried through materially in the synodal resolutions, that is, whether the body of the synodal resolutions, in its content as well, stands in essential agreement with the Confession of our Church) — "and must characterize as unfounded and unproven the opponents' assertion that the synodal resolutions, built on the foundation of unlutheran principles and, as a whole, 'reprehensible for the sake of the unevangelical spirit ruling in them' (as Diedrich