# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juni 1859_S192
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

192 Church and Contemporary History.

stand under lay direction and are free from the oversight of the diocesan bishop.
Their publishers acknowledge no head other than the pope, or the Jesuits, the papal
emissaries. Not merely without their bishop's approval do they speak, teach, and let
their pronouncements ring out, even against his objections. One need only recall the former
Archbishop of Paris, Sibour, who more than once censured the proceedings and the bitter
manner of contention of the Univers, and issued formal official orders against its
interference in political matters. But Rome supported the Univers, which had lodged
an appeal against the censures of the spiritual head of the diocese, and the layman was
victorious. From then on the archbishop hid his attacks under the name and hand
of a priest. That is a fact which had not before occurred in the history of Romanism.
"Extra-episcopal influences" thus hold the upper hand in the direction of the dioceses."

The Prussian Lutheran Church. — Hengstenberg had, in his preface for this year,
complained of the rise of a false concept of the church within this church.
As a result, a member belonging to this church, Mr. von Thadden of Trieglaff, addresses
a letter to the former, dated February 14 of this year. In it we find the gratifying
declaration that Hengstenberg overshoots the mark when he attributes the errors
of one or many among the Prussian Lutherans to the whole church, and sets up
the mistaken concept of the church as their publica doctrina [public doctrine]. It could hardly be
unknown to Hengstenberg how Ehlers stands and writes on this in the Kirchenblatt. By no
means could it be granted that that false concept of the church, which knows of no
Christendom outside the Lutheran Church, is already public church doctrine among them. This,
Thadden reports, is also the declaration made to him by one of the most prominent preachers of
the Prussian Lutheran Church; he continues that Ehlers's Kirchenblatt earnestly fights and
contends against the dangerous errors complained of, and with ever more
victorious success of late. "I believe," it finally says, "that my judgment is entirely unbiased
when I maintain that we do not deserve such disparagement from our nearest brethren
in the faith, even if the hard-pressed often take refuge in unconsecrated weapons very
often, as is unfortunately done, in a most reprehensible manner, by the Lutheran village
church newspaper."

Hungary. — The Lutheran Church in Hungary numbers 552 congregations with 820,000
souls. Of the congregations, 241 are Slavic, 104 German, 103 Magyar-Slavic,
23 German-Slavic, and 16 German-Magyar-Slavic. Of the church members,
435,268 are Slavs, 201,598 Germans, and 183,028 Magyars. Belonging to the Lutheran
church are 14 gymnasia and 3 theological seminaries, and in all these schools
instruction is given, with the exception of two, by means of the Magyar language.

The Reformed Church, whose adherents, with the exception of eight congregations, belong
entirely to the Magyar nationality, has eighteen gymnasia and five theological
seminaries.

The Prussian United Church. — The declarations of the Prince Regent have, among
other things, had the result, in the Thuringian city of Mühlhausen, that signatures were
collected among the citizens for a petition that he [a certain clergyman] be removed as an opponent
of the Union and transferred from the congregation. Scarcely had the declaration been published on December 1
when there appeared at the local theater a local farce, "The Last Mucker in the Year 1862,"
in which the beginning of the absolute rule of the democrats was held out in prospect. In the
middle of the act, however, the police commissioner forbade its continuation.

France. Here the Lutheran congregations, with their headquarters in Alsace, have
281 preachers, 403 houses of worship, and 609 schools. The Reformed National Church, on the other hand,
numbers 617 preachers, to which are added another 120 of the Free Reformed Church, the Methodists,
and Baptists.

The Pilger aus Sachsen writes under date of April 9 of this year: "If our
American friends exclude from the church all who teach of a thousand-year
kingdom, then not only P. Löhe, but a good many others, who are considered
pillars of the orthodox church" (alas!) "and who are of the present and recent
time" (quite right! — not of the age of Lutheran orthodoxy!) "will have to fall
under this ban." Sad that even the Pilger, too, is indifferent toward certain errors just because
they have become fashionable! Oh, how evil indeed is this our age!
Little, yes, much leaven is no longer to leaven the whole lump!

Prussia. To the notorious preacher of the free congregation in Königsberg, Dr.
Rupp, the instruction of the children of his congregation in religion, forbidden under
the previous ministry, has been permitted by the Ministers of the Interior and of Ecclesiastical
Affairs, and the police prohibition hitherto standing against it has been lifted.