# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_April 1859_S128
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

128 Ecclesiastical-Contemporary Chronicle.

Between the separated Lutherans of Prussia and the Leipzig Lutheran Mission Society a serious breach threatens to arise. Three students from Prussia left the institution because they had been given the alternative of receiving the Holy Supper from a minister who belonged to the Union mission society and was thus himself of Unionist persuasion, or of leaving the institution. Various pronouncements have been made on the matter, but they have thus far led to no agreement. After the Prussian Lutherans had vainly attempted to come to an understanding with the Mission College, they brought a complaint, through their deputies, Consistorial Councillor Nagel and Dr. Besser, before the general assembly, and demanded as a minimum that those mission students who made it a matter of conscience should not be compelled to take part, against their conscience, in a Supper from which the Unionists are not excluded on principle, or else to leave the institution. The general assembly placed the decision on that motion in the hands of the Mission College. This decision left the Prussian Lutherans unsatisfied. Further negotiations have been entered into. The director of the Mission House has declared that he intends to lay down his office as soon as he has found another position.

Statistics of the German universities in the summer semester of 1858: Berlin had 2,057, Munich 1,303, Leipzig 839, Bonn 836, Breslau 833, Heidelberg 721, Halle 715, Tübingen 706, Göttingen 681, Würzburg 650, Erlangen 585, Jena 493, Münster 455, Königsberg 393, Giessen 383, Freiburg 317, Greifswald 274, Marburg 272, Kiel 132, Rostock 124 students.

Duel. The "Neue Zeitblatt" of Münkel reports, in its number of December 18 of last year, of great agitation which arose in consequence of the Rothenmoor conference. Among other things it says the following: "How great the agitation has become is shown us by an incident in the Mecklenburg Landtag. A commoner landowner brought forward the motion: '"The Diet is to address to the most exalted rulers of the land the petition that they, as chief bishops of the land, would admonish the preachers and teachers of the Christian religion to make it truly their concern to teach and spread brotherly love, and to refrain from any participation in intolerant endeavors."' The very language of this pitiful motion betrays its authors. It was rejected by 71 votes against 31, and one could then have let it be quietly laid to rest in the earth from which it was taken. But something happened that gave life to the corpse. Another commoner landowner spoke up for the motion and gave people to understand what he was actually driving at, by expressing himself insultingly about the conference at Rothenmoor. The tolerant gentlemen wanted to bring it about, by means of the secular arm, that preachers should in future attend only rationalist conferences. This so provoked the son of Herr von Maltzan that he had the landowner challenged to a duel in insulting terms. Nothing came of the duel, to be sure, partly because the landowner declined it and became liable to prosecution for breach of the Landtag's peace, partly because Herr von Maltzan the father was too level-headed to lend himself to such a vindication of honor on behalf of his conference. Nonetheless the incident has again poured oil on the fire and given just offense. Whoever undertakes to defend the cause of God should also heed the commandment of God, Matthew 5:22, lest his own zeal consume him. To be sure, the duel is still held by many, even by those who profess the Word of God, to be honorable and chivalrous, notwithstanding that the Apostle says: '"The weapons of our warfare are not carnal."' But the more harm accrues to the Church from this, when her defenders bring her into disrepute with such weapons, the more often the Church will have to repeat the word of Jesus which he spoke to the two sons of thunder: Know ye not what manner of spirit ye are of? The Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.

On the Union. So writes the Neue Zeitblatt of December 25 of last year: The "spirit of moderation and mildness" which the Union is supposed to signify is at once making itself heard again; publications are being confiscated, their authors sentenced to imprisonment, Lutheran-teaching and Lutheran-officiating clergy are being pressed out of the Church, and from above a tone has been struck up that no one can mistake. All this is entirely in order — namely, in the order of the Union.

The Papacy. The imperial court of justice at Angers decided in the affirmative, on January 26, the question: whether a Catholic wife civilly married to a Catholic can not only demand that he also have himself married to her in church, but also, in the case of the husband's continued refusal to comply with this demand of the wife, whether the latter can petition for a separation (séparation du corps). The Papists thus regard every marriage which their priests have not confirmed as fornication! The "Wahrheitsfreund" declares that this was done "in favor of Christian morality." He means the Jesuitical kind.