# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1859_S351
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church and Contemporary Affairs. 351

Dr. Th. Kniewel, until about three years ago Lutheran pastor in Danzig, died on the 26th of July of this year in Stuttgart, at the home of his nephew, the merchant Kniewel, of a stroke.

From Denmark, 20 Aug. At the beginning of this week, on the feast of the Assumption of Mary, a Catholic bishop appeared in official function in Copenhagen for the first time since the Reformation. He administered confirmation, which until now only Catholic priests in Copenhagen had been permitted to perform, and only in extraordinary cases.

Brussels, 28 July. The Chrétien belge relates the following Curiosum catholicum in its latest number:

"On the occasion of a mission recently held in a Belgian village, the local priest urged a member of his congregation to take part in it, since the man had not presented himself for confession and communion the previous Easter. The parishioner excused himself on the latter score by saying that he had received a written dispensation issued by the now-deceased priest. When his priest invited him to produce this document, the recalcitrant man handed over the following certificate, which we communicate here, translated word for word from the French:

"'I, the undersigned D***, curate at the church of ***, hereby declare that I acted as mediator in an agreement made in the year 1843 between Mr. N., priest of the said congregation, and Mr. H. of the same place, according to which the latter made the above-named church a gift of a pole of fir-wood, on condition that the giver, for as long as this pole should last, be absolved from the Easter communion. I likewise certify that this pole is still in existence and still serves the purpose for which it was originally intended.'"

D***, 28 Dec. 1858. (Signed) D***, curate.

Stockholm, 29 July. The "Scandinavian Catholic Jesuit Mission" in Norway has opened a new field for its activity. In one of the smallest bookshops in Trondheim, which deals chiefly in the sale of popular books, a collection of religious writings was noticed bearing quite attractive and enticing titles, such as: "Christianity, Protestantism, and Peace," "Luther's True Monument," "The True Evangelical Doctrine," "The Triumphs of the Church in the Nineteenth Century." At first glance, however, one saw that behind these titles were concealed the bitterest, most scornful, and most spiteful attacks on the Swedish state church and on evangelical-Lutheran doctrine in general. The books are published by the Scandinavian-Catholic mission and come from Alten, the capital of the mission in Norway. (Nat. Z.)

Turkey. (Progress of Religious Freedom.) Until the year 1854 the death penalty was carried out against every Muhammadan who changed his religion, and in that same year two persons were executed for a change of religion. Now it is different. Throughout the whole Turkish empire, any native-born Turk who has become a Christian can openly confess his faith in full freedom, reliably assured of the protection of his government. In Constantinople one can cite more than ten cases in which converted adults publicly confess their new faith, without so much as the slightest difficulty being placed in their way. One of them is at this moment a preacher of the Gospel. Every Sunday he proclaims the truth that is in Christ Jesus, and during the week he does not hesitate a single minute to tell his former fellow believers how he was led to become a Christian. It even seems that he has related the story of his conversion in the Pasha's own chambers.

It is also told how a converted Turk, who a year ago had fled with his wife and children from Malta, was called back again under the explicit assurance of the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs that he would suffer absolutely nothing on account of his change of religion.

Some Armenians from Yozgat had recently mistreated several Protestants in a bookshop, and a complaint was lodged with the Pasha. When the latter saw that the Ar-