# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Mai 1859_S139
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The Distress of the Evangelical Church in the Grand Duchy of Hesse. 139

petition to be addressed to the Grand Duke. This took place in December of last year, when a memorial signed by 80 clergy of the land was submitted, which closes as follows:

And so we venture, then, in due reverence and in trust in the high sense of justice of Your Royal Highness, to express here our most humble petition:

"May Your Royal Highness, as the sovereign entrusted with episcopal authority
"over the evangelical territorial church, be pleased, on the basis of
"Article 73 of the constitutional charter, to bring about such a reorganization
"of the evangelical territorial church, that both the first paragraph
"of the Organization Edict of June 6, 1832, which recognizes the
"Lutheran, Reformed, and United confessions as rightfully existing
"within the evangelical territorial church of the Grand Duchy, and
"Article 21 of the constitutional charter, which assures to the recognized
"Christian confessions the free and public exercise of their worship, may
"be brought to their substantive fulfillment; that is, may Your Highness
"most graciously deign to command that there be provided the church
"representation, and the corresponding organism, appropriate to the
"nature and confession of each of the three named evangelical
"confessions."

But may God the Lord incline the heart of Your Royal Highness to His honor and the welfare of the Church! This we entreat, while in deepest reverence we remain, dying away,

Your Royal Highness's most humble
H. Anthes, pastor at Brensbach,
A. Huth, pastor at Gundernhausen,
Chr. Müller, pastor at Beerfelden,
G. Schlosser, court chaplain at Schönberg,
C. Hunzinger, pastor at Rothenberg,
Dr. F. Lucius, gymnasium teacher at Darmstadt,
Dr. E. Lucius, teacher at the 1st municipal boys' school at Darmstadt,
C. Kissner, vicar at Arheilgen,
F. Bender, court preacher at Darmstadt,
Sartorius, garrison chaplain at Darmstadt,
Dr. G. Krätzinger, of Darmstadt.

(There follow another 70 names of clergy of the land.)

Although the printed manuscript, sent to 140 clergy of the land, had recommended to their discretion, and requested, that no public use be made of it for the time being, word of it nevertheless penetrated not only promptly into the Cabinet — and indeed from the opposing side — but also into various daily papers, among them the Frankfurter Journal, which, on every ecclesiastical question, has for years now been in the habit of offering trivial liberal reasonings, joined with insinuations and distortions of the facts,