Separate Lutherans
Separate Lutherans [1]
When, in 1817, the union between the Lutheran and the Reformed churches was established in Prussia, the protest of J.G. Scheibel, professor of theology at Breslau, found much sympathy among the Lutherans. For several years, however, the movement was confined within the boundaries of simple literary polemics, especially between Scheibel and David Schultz, also professor at Breslau. But when the breaking of the bread was introduced in the administration of the Lord's Supper by a cabinet order of 1830, Scheibel refused to obey, and asked permission to continue administering the Lord's Supper after the old Wittenberg agenda. The permission was not granted, and Scheibel was suspended. Soon he saw himself at the head of about two or three hundred families, who left the State Church and organized themselves into a new Church. They petitioned the minister of public worship to be acknowledged as a Church organization, but this he refused to do. The many vexations which Scheibel had to undergo induced him to leave the country. In the meantime the party had progressed very rapidly under the leadership of professor Huschke. A synod was convened at Breslau in the year 1834, and it was declared that nothing but complete separation from the State Church, and the formation of an independent organization could satisfy the Lutheran conscience. Persecutions then began. Several ministers were kept in prison for many years. A number of well-to-do laymen were reduced to poverty by money fines.
Not a few emigrated to America, among others, Grabau (q.v.) and Von Rohr, who formed the so-called Buffalo Synod. With the succession of Friedrich Wilhelm IV, in 1840, a change took place, and July 23,1845, the concession for the foundation of a free Church was given, and in 1850 the Church numbered fifty pastors and about fifty thousand members. Similar movements took place also outside of Prussia, in Saxony, Hesse, and Baden. Perhaps no separation from the State Church made a deeper impression than that of Theodor Harms (q.v.) at Hermansburg, Hanover. The reason for his separation was neither dogmatical nor constitutional, but a few changes which were introduced by the government in the marriage formularies. Harms refused to accept these changes, and was suspended, January 22, 1878. He immediately formed an independent society, which soon absorbed the majority of the old congregation. Meanwhile the relation between the Separate Lutherans and the. State Church Lutherans was often very unpleasant, and bitter controversies arose. Finally, dissensions broke out among the Separate Lutherans themselves, and a party headed by pastor Dietrich, of Jabel, organized the so-called Immanuel Synod in opposition to the party headed ba Huschke of Breslau. This was in 1862. A similar split was caused in Saxony by the Missouri Synod. This synod was organized by a certain Stefan, who had emigrated in 1840 to America. Stefan, who was deposed of his office on account of gross immorality, was succeeded by the still living professor Walther of St. Louis, Missouri. Some of the Missourians had returned to Saxony, and formed at Dresden a Lutheranerverein, which soon occupied a prominent position, under the leadership of pastor Ruhland. The latter soon made war against the Immanuel Synod as being un-Lutheran, and so likewise against the Separate Lutherans of Breslau. The Lutheran churches of the State he condemned altogether, and finally a split was caused among the Missourians themselves. The Separate Lutherans of Germany are now against each other. See Plitt-Herzog, Real- Encyklop. s.v. (B.P.)
