# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 07 05_S196
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

to Brunswick, in the spring of 1528. From Ascension Day onward he preached three times a week with untiring zeal and with such a crowd that the great Franciscan church could scarcely hold the throng, while at the same time he was drafting, in his lodgings, the Brunswick Church Order, which was printed that same year in Wittenberg. Nor did he relent until the whole congregation had adopted the new evangelical order, and until the foundation had been laid for other beneficial institutions. Wittenberg had scarcely seen Bugenhagen again for a few weeks when he had to go to Hamburg. Arriving there on the 9th of October, 1528, he preached not only on Sundays but also on weekdays, and, despite the obstacles that arose, he succeeded in awakening a great love for the Gospel. The school at St. John's, soon to become a glory and an ornament of the North, was established; the church order was drawn up, published, and already adopted by the congregation in the spring of 1529; the beneficial institution of catechism sermons came into being, and, together with these, catechism examinations for young and old went hand in hand, in order to lay a firm foundation of evangelical doctrine. It was on this missionary journey that Bugenhagen attended the colloquy at Flensburg — the 8th of April, 1529 — with the Anabaptist Melchior Hoffmann and his associates, Johann von Campen and Jakob Hegge, though he himself took an active part only insofar as he opened the whole discussion with an introductory address and, at the close, recapitulated the arguments in a victorious address, through which Hoffmann's Zwinglian error concerning the Lord's Supper was clearly brought to light. From that time dates Bugenhagen's acquaintance with Christian III, who at once recognized in Bugenhagen his man, and who later remained in correspondence with him. Once again, on his return journey from Hamburg in June 1529, he had to contend with the Zwinglianism that two preachers in Brunswick were openly teaching, and he strengthened his evangelical work there. A third Hanseatic city that awaited him was Lübeck. Here the struggle had already broken out in 1524; amid manifold entanglements of civic and religious freedom, the council had, until shortly before, taken an anti-reformation stance, and even now, after the scale had tipped toward the Reformation, there was much outward agitation involved. Bugenhagen surely sensed this when he arrived there at the end of October 1530; but Lübeck needed just such an adamant man as he. Together with the recalled evangelical preachers Andr. Wilhelmi and Joh. Wallsaff, who had earlier been driven out, he began the work, which God visibly blessed there as well. Ecclesiastical affairs were put in order; besides the main school, several German schools and girls' schools were established, and a marriage court was instituted. The Lübeck Church Order forms, together with the Hamburg and Brunswick Orders, an apostolic chain. The labors so abundantly allotted to him here did not deter him; he willingly came a second time to Lübeck in the summer of 1531, remained a whole year, took a particularly active part in catechism instruction, preached, comforted, and admonished with all the patience of the doctrine, in lovely harmony with almost twenty evangelical preachers of whom Lübeck could already boast at that time; indeed, he went there once more in 1536, lamenting that Christ was here being preached out of strife and hatred. In Pomerania, where his writings had brought about a living stirring, everything had meanwhile taken a different course. The Dukes Barnim and Philip called him in 1534; the Elector gave his consent, and ecclesiastical affairs were put in order through a general church visitation in 1535. A Pomeranian Church Order, likewise from Bugenhagen's hand, which first appeared in Wittenberg in 1535, crowned the work.

But the greatest work of this kind still lay ahead of Bugenhagen. In Denmark the work of the Reformation had taken shape powerfully and pleasingly. Already on the 30th of October 1536, at the diet in Copenhagen, the evangelical doctrine had been declared the religion of the land. The King wished that Bugenhagen's proven faithfulness and insight should be joined with that of the native councilors and teachers. The Elector at last gave his consent to Bugenhagen's journey. His first task was the anointing of the king and queen. The ordination of the seven Danish bishops on the 2nd of September, 1537, was his second day of honor there. Especially fruitful, too, was his work for the university of Copenhagen, which had greatly declined. In all, he stayed in Denmark five years, and departed reluctantly. The great visitation of the Brunswick lands, as well as the expanded Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel Church Order of 1543, also belong to the series of his labors. In the same year he preached at Hildesheim and left the principality a church order. At the great Meissen church visitation of 1528 he was one of the spiritual delegates; the seventeen Torgau Articles, the foundation of the Augsburg Confession, he drafted together with Luther and Melanchthon in March 1530; at the Wittenberg Concord of 1536 he gave his brotherly voice and opinion; the Smalcald Articles of 1537 he signed; he was present at the convention at Schmalkalden in 1540; the drafting of the important Reformation formula of 1545 was entrusted to him by the Elector, together with Luther, Cruciger, Major, and Melanchthon. Outward honors sought him out more than he sought them. In 1533, at the Elector's request, he accepted the degree of Doctor of Theology; in 1536 he was appointed General Superintendent of the Electorate of Saxony; three bishoprics were offered to him, all of which he declined, for he did not wish to leave his nest in Wittenberg. To fully appreciate the man, we need only mention that he, though so highly esteemed by kings and princes, always carried Luther's Small Catechism with him even in church, and thus openly and publicly confessed himself, by this very act, a lifelong student of the Catechism.

With Luther's death, his best friend on earth went to the grave. Few have mourned Luther with truer or more bitter tears than Bugenhagen, so much so that he had to break off, from sheer weeping, the funeral oration he delivered for him on the 22nd of February, 1546. After Luther's death, hard times came upon the church and the land of Saxony, as all God-fearing people had foreboded when this angel of the congregation was called away. The unfortunate battle at Mühlberg on the 24th of April, 1547, and the captivity of the Elector John Frederick brought about the siege of Wittenberg. Melanchthon fled to Zerbst; many teachers fled for fear of the vengeance of the imperial forces. It was already being said that Bugenhagen would be dragged off and hacked to pieces. No, devil, Bugenhagen cried out, you will not get me away by that means. He remained with Cruciger and a few others. It was then his greatest comfort, as he himself says, that he could preach to the people in the church, pray with them, and receive the Lord's Supper, and when he came home he still had to pray far into the night. Charles V marched into the city; no one laid a hand on Bugenhagen; he preached throughout the whole week of Pentecost, and indeed precisely on the distinguishing doctrines of the evangelical and Roman churches; many from the imperial court were among his hearers.

It might well seem inexplicable how such a heroic soul, who here was ready to give up his life, should shortly afterward have shown himself soft and yielding. This, namely, is what those claim who wish to make Bugenhagen one of the authors of the Leipzig Interim. Although he neither composed the Interim nor actually accepted it, it can hardly be denied that he did not forcefully place himself on the position which holds that there is danger in any concession, even in matters of indifference, where the opponents see in it an accommodation to other principles. Here one must allow the man a mild judgment. He was disgusted by the strife, as he had already said earlier, hinting at his approaching old age: One should indeed spare the aged bishop and servant of Christ, who will soon grow weary and worn out, and who longs for eternal rest. Neither Flacius nor Amsdorf were right to attack him, whose whole life and deeds lay open, as a secret traitor. Bugenhagen was content to testify solemnly and loudly that neither he nor his church had ever accepted the Interim.

His last years of life were burdened with great bodily weakness and ever-increasing debility. Still, as long as he was able to move about, he went to church every day and prayed for the congregation of God, so that this fine testimony could be given of him by one well acquainted with him: For 36 years he has helped our church with tears and supplication. Indeed, the spirit of prayer was powerful in him right up to his blessed end, so that it is said to have often happened to him in earlier years that, in prayer to God before the sermon, he forgot the very hour of the sermon, on which occasion he is said once to have stepped out into the pulpit and said: Do not wonder, dear friends; I have been detained by God, with whom I fell into a long conversation about the church, the university, the city, and the whole of Christendom. Even in his final struggle with death he praised God for the glorious benefits bestowed on us and on all Christians through his beloved Son; his inward joy poured forth so much in words of thanks and surrender that one could clearly perceive how the first bright morning light of eternal joy had been kindled in that frail vessel. In doing so he often repeated the words from the high-priestly prayer: This is eternal life, that they know you, who alone are the true God, and him whom you have sent, Jesus Christ. He passed away in the arms of his dear fellow ministers through a quiet and gentle death on the 20th of April, 1555.

Br.

The German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Indianapolis will hold its next session on the first Thursday of September of this year in St. John's Church, Caesar Creek Township, Dearborn Co., Ind. Punctual attendance is expected.

J. G. Kunz, Secretary.

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