? ! T%.$$PO I H € r ROT E STA N T C H U It.CH IN GeftMANY Rcvi G&wqci H.Schodcfe.PiilX PRINCETON, N. J. **y Purchased by the jyj. ra .1. _„ A i v k'^nnfidv Church History Fund. BX 8020 .S5 1901 Schodde, George Henry, 1854 J 1917. The Protestant church in Hprmanv THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. A GENERAL SURVEY. Professor GEORGE H. SCHODDE, Ph. D. (Leipzig). PHILADELPHIA, PA.: LUTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY. Copyright, 1901 The Lutheran Publication Society. INTRODUCTORY NOTE. This little book aims at giving only a bird' s-eye view of the Protestant Church of Germany, but it is hoped that the account is reasonably correct and reliable. The greatest difficulty was found in ' ' the embarrassment of riches ' ' offered by the subject under consideration, and many matters have been merely mentioned or passed over en- tirely that would have merited notice and con- sideration. Some features of the Church life in the land of Luther are made prominent which do not ordinarily come under the observation of the English reader ; bat just these constitute one of the strongest sides of the Christianity of Germany. The Author. ttbe Protestant Cbuccb in (ScrmatiB. CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER I. Historical Preview 5 CHAPTER II. Organization and Government 23 CHAPTER III. The Confessional Status 35 CHAPTER IV. The Theology of German Protestantism 47 CHAPTER V. The Protestant versus the Roman Catholic Church in Germany 59 CHAPTER VI. The German Protestant Church and Foreign Missions 68 CHAPTER VII. Inner Mission Work 78 CHAPTER VIII. National Church Organizations 104 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. CHAPTER I: AN HISTORICAL PREVIEW. The Protestant Church in Germany can be understood only in the light of its history. What it is nOW it has beCOme through Protestantism and its the historical development of the History. past centuries. Xot only do its confessions, prin- ciples, and spirit strike their root deep into Ref- ormation soil, but also the various Protestant State Churches in the land of Luther, in their organization and government, can, as a rule, trace their origin to that period. In name indeed the Pr< itestant, or, as it is more correctly called, the Evangelical Church of Germany, dates from the sixteenth century ; but in its innermost nature and ideal character it was a revival of the Church of the Apostolic age. Nothing was further from the purposes of Luther and his helpers than the establishment of a new Church. The work of the Reformation was substantially a break with the corrupted Christianity as developed and fostered by the Roman Catholic Church and its hierarchy and a return to the pure teachings and (6) 6 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. tenets of the New Testament. It was a restora- tion and re-establishment of the faith once de- livered to the saints. It did not purpose to preach any new dogma or doctrine, but merely to recall the Christian Church to its original creed and re- construct it upon the foundations laid by Christ and the Apostles. The Protestant Church was not intended to be something new, but only the return to something old. But the realization of this high purpose neces- sitated also a radical change in the external or- organization of ganization of the Church. The Protestant churches. Church of Rome had long ceased to be a purely spiritual body ; the errors of its teachings were not confined to theological tenets, but in its hierarchy with the Pope at its head it had established what was practically a great polit- ical machinery that ruled with autocratic power the destinies of the people and the churches. A restoration of the original teachings of Christianity was impossible without a thorough reorganization of the Church also. There were some among the leaders of the Reformation, and, among them, Melanchthon, who at times were inclined, for the sake of peace, to acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope ' ' by human right, ' ' but not by divine right, providing that he would permit the free preaching of the Gospel ; but this view never gained any firm foothold in the Protestant Church. The hierarchical system was so intimately inter- woven with the corrupt teachings of Rome that it was entirely impossible to break with the latter and not at the same time do the same thing with the former. This necessary reorganization of the Church, without which the Gospel could never have been restored to pulpit and pew, through historical AN HISTORICAL PREVIEW. 7 causes, was effected chiefly through the political states and their heads. Humanly speaking, it would have been impossible to Establishment of reform the Church purely as a state churches. spiritual organization and without the strong arm of the state authorities and the princes. It was providential in the extreme that at the period when the recognized head and heads of the Church, from the Pope and the cardinals down to the parish priest, were really the most dangerous foes of true Christianity, that under these direful cir- cumstances such men as the Elector of Saxony, the Landgrave of Hesse, and other noble pro- tectors and defenders of the evangelical cause arose and staked their lives and their exalted posi- tions in order that the truth could have full sway. or, at any rate, equal rights with the old errors to be heard. "Without these heroes to back Luther and his cause it would seem that the Reformation would have been crushed. Quite naturally, then, the Reformation found entrance into the various German states at different times, and the reorgani- zation of the churches took place in accordance with and along the lines of the political divisions of the country. Germany at that time, as also at the present, was a confederation or union of sev- eral dozens of states and free cities, which alto- gether constituted the empire. State Churches were accordingly established just as the princes permitted the preaching of the Gospel. For this reason there never has been in Germany one united Protestant Church for the whole country, and there is no such organization even now in the re- established empire. There always have been and there still are as many Protestant State Churches, and even more, than there are separate states in the empire. This is the condition of affairs that 8 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. was introduced by the needs and necessities of the times during the period of the Reformation, and this has remained so ever since. There is no doubt that this protection of powerful and pious princes was a great blessing to the Protestant Churches of that period ; but such a protectorate of state authorities over the Church could not but prove harmful when these princes themselves no longer yielded themselves to Gospel influences en- tirely, but used or abused the churches for politi- cal ends. The principle of " Co jus regio ejus re- ligio" which held universal sway during that age, and which practically means that the ruler of a country has a right to decide what the religion of his subjects shall be, quite naturally worked sad havoc, when for the satisfaction of political ambitions a prince would change his ecclesiastical affiliation and compel his subjects to do the same. In the later years of the Reformation period there are some sad examples of losses of important ter- ritory to the Lutheran Church through these causes. In this regard, at any rate, there has been a marked improvement in modern times, and no political ruler would dare to apply this principle now. Saxony, the mother country of the Reformation, has for two hundred years been ruled by Catholic princes and kings, but the Roman Catholic Church has for that reason never been able to regain the foothold here that was lost by her in the sixteenth century. In the Reforma- tion age the advocacy of a separation of state and church would have been an historical anomaly. The times were not ripe for such a principle or practice, and historical conditions would have made the application impossible, or at any rate more than harmful and possibly suicidal to the Church. The church of the Reformation could AN HISTORICAL PREVIEW 9 not do otherwise than take the form of State Churches, and this form has been retained to the present day. The Reformation of the sixteenth century in Germany was essentially the work of the Witten- berg monk. It Was a Lutheran The Reformation Reformation. Luther is, at least Essentially Lutheran. as far as Germany is concerned, not one of the Re- formers, but he is the Reformer. Not only was the kind of work he did, and the character of the religious movement he inaugurated, superior to that which is connected with the names of Zwingli and of Calvin, because it was based upon a more evangelical appreciation of the central truths of the Scriptures and accompanied by a keener ap- preciation of the lessons of church history, but the Reformation that was originally established in the various German lands was distinctly Lutheran in character. It is true that later on the Reformed Church gained considerable strength in a number of German states, but in all of these this was done only by crowding out the Lutheran preach- ing and teaching that had originally wrested this territory from the hands of Rome. It must be frankly acknowledged that the Lutheran Reforma- tion in Germany lias not only victories to report but also losses to deplore. These losses are not all to be charged to the Church of Rome, but also to that Protestant Church which came from Zurich and from Geneva. The counter-Reformation, or the Reaction, which, after Luther's death, set in under the auspices of the Roman Catholic leaders, and especially of those relentless foes of the truth, the Jesuits, by might and main, and by the power of the sword in most cases, compelled the return of tens of thousands to the Catholic Church. What is evidently good authority claims that 10 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. when the Wittenberg Reformer breathed his last fully nine-tenths of Germany was Protestant, The fact that now only two-thirds are Protestant shows how successful this reactionary movement of the Roman hosts was. In some of the Ger- man provinces of Austria the Protestant Churches were practically wiped out. Only in our day has a new reformation been inaugurated in these dis- tricts, with the battle-cry, ' ' Away from Rome, ' ' and thousands have returned to the evangelical faith, which their ancestors were compelled to forswear two hundred and more years ago, and the memory of which brutal compulsion has been one of the inspiring factors and forces in the spread of this promising Protestant propaganda in Austria. But whatever territory the Reformed Church occupies in Germany it holds not as an original possession, but only as Lutheran ground, which, through the power of princes, it has ac- quired for itself. The Reformed Church, as such, made no conquests from the Roman Catholic Church in Germany. The original work of re- forming the Church of this country was performed by Luther and his coadjutors. Whatever activity was displayed by the followers of a Zwingli and a Calvin in this work was rather in opposition to Luther's methods and manners than helpful to his cause. There always had been a greater or less disharmony between Wittenberg and the Swiss Reformatory movement ; and when Luther, at Marburg, refused the hand of Zwingli and any co-operation with his propaganda, with the words : ' ' Ye have a different spirit than we ! ' ' he uttered a great truth, the correctness of which has been confirmed by history. None of the efforts at a union between the Lutheran and the Reformed Churches were really successful at that period or AX HISTORICAL PREVIEW. 11 in any later age, simply because of this disparity of spirit, which caused the Reformed Church, later on, to seize for itself territory and countries that had been won for the Gospel by the Lutheran propaganda. This fact that Luther is the Reformer of Ger- many has been of deep significance in determin- ing the principles and Spirit Of T he Two Principles the Protestant Churches of that of the Reformation, country. In its theology and in ite church life it is Wittenberg and not Geneva that has indelibly left its impress. Historically the Protestant Church of Germany was confessedly Lutheran, however much this characteristic feature may have been modified at various times and places by later causes. This already appears in the two great cardinal principles of the Reformation, which are most expressive of its genius and inner- most spirit, These are the material and the formal principle with which the Lutheran and the Protestant Church must stand and fall. The material principle is justification by faith alone, without any merit or worthiness on the part of man. Genuine Protest- T he Material antism gives all the glory to God Principle, in the work of redemption and salvation. It finds no basis for hope or deliverance save in the love of God and the merits of Christ Jesus. Over against the errors of Rome, which credits man with a part of salvation, and demands good works as a necessary prerequisite, the evangelical position of the Protestant and Lutheran Church also demands good works, not as a condition of salvation, indeed, but as the natural expression of gratitude for the redemption that has been secured without money and without price. With Paul, the Church believes that man is justified 12 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. by faith alone — and this was the 1 tattle-cry of Protestantism from the beginning — but, with James, it believes, too, that faith without works is dead. But faith itself, as also that which faith gives, is purely the work of God's grace and mercy. In this fundamental proposition, the de- velopment of which was not the result of learned study of the Scriptures, but largely the outcome of the spiritual experience and contests of Luther himself, the Church of the Reformation took a decided stand against the Church of Rome, and in this matter still lies an essential and irreconcilable difference between the two communions. The formal principle of the Reformation teaches that the Bible is the sole source of Christian The Formal doctrine, of what the believer Principle. must accept and do. This posi- tion was chiefly taken against that of tradition- alism as taught by the Church of Rome, which practically put the traditions of the past not only on an equality with the Scriptures but above them, and thus made the word of man the arbiter over the Word of God. Luther and his friends raised up the standard of the Word again, made that the only and last court of appeal in all mat- ters pertaining to Christian creed and deed, and thus re-established the confession and the faith of the Church upon the only safe and unshaken foundation, the revealed Word of the ever-living God. In conformity with this principle the Church of the Reformation rejected the Apocrypha of the Old Testament, a collection of books written between the close of the Old and the beginning of the New Testament eras, but never accepted by the Jews, or the New Testament, as of divine origin. Many of these books are excellent writings, and for this reason Luther retained them in his trans- AN HISTORICAL PREVIEW. 13 lation, but especially states that they are not to be considered as equal to the canonical books. It \v;is. again, this principle of the sole authority of the Bible that led Luther, in the very beginning of his great work, to undertake the translation of the Scriptures into the German, and probably no single agent accomplished so much for the cause of the Gospel truth in those heroic days as did this magnificent version, which to this day is one of the great classics of literature. But the Church of the Reformation found more in the Scriptures than only the sources of divine truth. The Lutheran is the The Means of Church of the means of grace, Grace, and the only one among the many that has learned to appreciate the great truth, that God, as a God of order, has chosen certain means and mediums through which He sends His Spirit and performs His work in the hearts of men. The Word of God is the truth, but also the life, and the Ref- ormation developed and unfolded the great fact that it is through the Word and the Sacraments that God has seen fit to have His Spirit enter into the souls of men, and that when these means are present then, too, the Spirit, who alone can ac- complish the ends of divine mercy in the heart of man, is present also, and accomplishes His end. The Church believes and teaches that the Spirit is present in the Word and the Sacraments, and therefore it depends upon these divinely or- dained means to do God's Avork among men. This doctrine of the means of grace has been a great blessing to the Church, as are all truths of God, as it has kept the Church steady and firm in the use of the divinely ordered methods of work, and has kept the Church safely anchored when the storms of sensationalism or new meas- 14 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. urisms of all kinds threatened to loosen it from its moorings. In this principle the Lutheran Church of the Reformation also takes a stand against the Re- The Lutheran formed Church, which does not versus the accept the doctrine of the means Reformed Church. o 1 • , • ,, , ., oi grace, but maintains that the Spirit in His operations is not bound by certain mediums or instruments, but may and does operate in any way whatsoever. A Lutheran is always sure, when the Word of God is preached, or read, or studied, or when the Sacraments are rightly ad- ministered, that the Spirit of God is also present and ready to do His mission ; the Reformed Chris- tian can never have this certainty, as he does not know in what way or manner the Spirit may manifest Himself. This is but one of the differences which the Lutheran and the Reformed Churches of the Ref- Lord's supper and ormation period developed. predestination. Best known are the great differ- ences with reference to the doctrine of the Lord's Supper and to predestination ; but here, too, fundamentally and at heart, the difference per- tained to the authority of the Scriptures. When Luther, at the great debate in Marburg on the Lord's Supper, wrote upon the table the words : ' ' This is my body ! " he was doing nothing but emphasizing the formal principle of the Reforma- tion movement, of which he was the acknowl- edged leader. To the Scriptures he submitted absolutely, and throughout kept reason captive under faith ; and this has been the characteristic feature of the Lutheran Church at all times. In the many controversies that so sadly and evilly divided the Protestantism of the Reforma- tion age the issue at stake was really the Word AX HISTORICAL PREVIEW. 15 of God. In fact, -the maintenance of the ma- terial principle was also an application of the doctrine of the absolute authority T he Lutheran a Bible of the Scriptures. Over against church, both the Church of Rome and the Reformed Church the Lutheran at all times, as did Luther himself, has endeavored to maintain the Scrip- tures, and these alone as a basis for the Avhole ecclesiastical superstructure. In one word, the Lutheran Reformation purposed to re-establish the Church on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles, of which Jesus Christ is the corner-stone. It was also on account of its adherence to the Scriptural principle that the Church of the Ref- ormation issued a number of The Confessions of confessional writings in which the Church - its faith officially found expression. Like all the historic confessions of Christianity, from the Apostles' Creed down, the Lutheran Confessions, too, were prepared, not with the purpose of adding to the Scriptures, nor to put a burden upon the consciences of men, nor to arouse theological con- troversy, but to declare publicly against the mis- interpretations and false accusations of others, the faith which the Church had drawn from the Scrip- tures. And like all truly Scriptural creeds, the Lutheran Confessions have been a great blessing to the Church in confirming and establishing the truth. These Confessions in the order in which they are usually found in the Book of Concord — though this is not the historical succes- Book of sion in their preparation — are Concord, the following : The Augsburg Confession, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Schmal- kald Articles, the Small Catechism, the Large 1() THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. Catechism, the Formula of Concord. In addition to these six particular Confessions, the Book of Concord also contains the three (Ecumenical Creeds, viz. : The Apostles' , the Nicene, and the Athanasian, the Church incorporating these ven- erable documents among her symbols in order thereby to evidence its entire agreement with the faith confessed by the old Church. The most important of the special Lutheran symbolical writings is the Augsburg Confession of The Augsburg 1530, written by Melanchthon C Fund S a S rn°e n ntai e on t ne Das i s °f earlier documents confession. by Luther, and publicly read before the emperor and the representatives of the empire in diet assembled. It is the only one, with the possible exception of the Small Catechism of Luther, among the Confessions that has been officially accepted as symbolical by each and every branch of the Lutheran Church in all countries and at all times. Its acceptance has even gone beyond the boundary lines of the Lutheran Church, and there is certainly no special Protest- ant Confession that has the vast hosts of adherents of which the Augsburg Confession can boast, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that if the va- rious families and denominations of Protestantism ever get ready to unite in one body, the Augsburg Confession, both by virtue of its historical dignity and the Biblical character of its contents, would constitute the proper basis for such a union. The other Confessions of the Church are further developments of the evangelical teachings of the The other Foundation Confession of the confessions. Church. They unfold the prin- ciples found in this symbol, and their claim foi acceptance rests upon what is already involved in the adoption of the Augsburg Confession. It is AX HISTORICAL PREVIEW. 17 for this reason that countries like the Scandinavian lands, which have never formally adopted the Formula of Concord, cannot be denied the name of Lutheran. The full and unequivocal adoption of the Augsburg Confession, with all that this ac- ceptance implies, is all that is necessary to the claims of Lutheranism. The other symbols were added in later years, because the exigencies of the times demanded special utterances on subjects Their in public prominence, as, when Purpose, in view of a promised free Church Council, the Schmalkald Articles were officially prepared to state the Church's convictions in reference to the claims of the Pope ; or when, after various con- troversies on doctrinal matters had arisen within and without the Church, as occurred soon after Luther's death, it was found necessary to develop the Lutheran doctrines on these points more closelv, as was done in the Formula of Concord, published in 1580. The Apology, a thorough theological document, not so well known or appreciated as it should be, was written in reply to the objections which the Papists had urged against the Augsburg Confession. The two Cate- chisms, both of which are probably older than the Augsburg Confession, the Large antedating the Small, were originally private writings of Luther, but on account of their exceptional value were adopted by the Church. Of the many Confessions that were issued by the different branches of the Reformed Church, Germany produced that one The Reformed Which is doubtless the best of Confessions. all and obtained the greatest popularity, namely, the Heidelberg Catechism. But ueither this nor any other Reformed Confession became the factor 2 18 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. in German religious thought and life that can be claimed for the Lutheran symbolical books. The Church of the Reformation, having been established and organized with such ideals and Historical principles, has gone through ?hrp roSsTan t f man y vicissitudes in the centu- church. nes that have passed since Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the cathedral door in Wittenberg. The Protestant Church in Germany has developed internally and externally, has won victories and has encountered defeats, has progressed and again has gone backward, but in all of these changes its origins and fundamental principles have been potent factors and forces. As Luther had prophetically foreseen, a period of external persecution came shortly after his death. The leading political powers were antagonistic to the cause of the Gospel and war was made upon the Protestant states. A counter-reformation was in- augurated by the Church of Rome, and these machinations and brute force inflicted serious damage to the Protestant cause. A combination of these hostile forces brought on the terrible Thirty Years' War, which was in- The Thirty Years' tended to crush the Protestants War - of Germany and exterminate them, as the Huguenots were in the bloody St. Bartholomew night in France, in 1572 ; but the peace of Westphalia was not unfavorable to the Protestant cause in so far as it established the rule of religious liberty for the empire. In these dire distresses during this period the noble services of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden were, humanly speaking, the salvation of German Protestantism. Side by side with these dangers from without came disintegrating elements from within in the shape of theological schools and tendencies that to AX HISTORICAL PREVIEW. 19 a greater or less extent endangered the purity of the Reformation faith. Not a few of these dangers came from an easily understood Theological weakness, namely, the tend- controversies.. ency in many circles to compromise, especially with Calvinism, in the hope thereby of effecting an external union against the aggressive foes of the truth. Many of these dangers were averted 1 » y the preparation and adoption of the Formula of Concord, which became a most potent factor for peace and harmony in the Church and did not belie its name. It is a remarkable phenomenon and character- istic of the vital power of Evangelical Lutheran- ism that just during this period vitality of the of danger and sufferings the Church - _ Church gave ample evidence of the strength of its faith. During these years many of the finest specimens of the magnificent hymnology of the Church were produced. It was during the period of the Thirty Years' War that Paul Gerhardt, that prince of pious singers, lived and labored, as also did many others whose spiritual songs are a lasting treasure to the Christians of all succeeding generations. The Lutheran Church, too, is par- ticularly rich in its abundance of liturgical form- ulas for public worship, and it was during this same period that many of these were written and introduced. One of the results of the dangers that threat- ened the Church from within and without was the construction of the system of doctrinal teachings of the Church on a grand scale. In the magnificent and elaborate works of a Chemnitz, Hollaz, Gerhardt, and others, the Lu- theran Church has a literature of systematic the- ology that does not have its equal in any other 20 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. Church communion. These giants of theologi- cal thought and research have given systematic presentations of the one truth of the Scriptures The Great that have not been surpassed Dogmaticians. j )V an y i ater scno lars, and which, indeed, on the whole, are more Biblical than are the most lauded productions of modern theology. In certain phases of theological research, such as the appreciation of the human side of the Scrip- tures and of the historical principle, the scholar- ship of our day has no doubt brought to light certain features of the Bible and of Biblical truth that escaped the attention of the Lutheran fathers ; but the latter had a sharper eye for that which always must remain the centre and the heart of the Word, namely, the revelation it gives of the great truths of the redemption, of the mysteries of the Trinity, of the person and nature of Christ, of the work of atonement, and, in short, all those holy truths that only revelation can give and did give. The attitude of the old Lutheran theolo- gians over against the Scriptures was in strict conformity with the fundamental principles of the Church, that of the absolute authority of the Scriptures. These were the last and final court of appeal ; and for the great theologians of the sixteenth century the ' c Thus saith the Lord ' ' was absolutely decisive. The theology of the Lutheran Church, just as that Church, was in- tensely Biblical. It is only natural that a reaction against such a dogmatical tendency should make itself felt in some The Reaction of circles. Just to what extent the pietism. charge raised by Pietism against the religious life of the period, namely, that it was characterized by a ,k dead orthodoxy," is true or not, has been differently answered. It would AN HISTORICAL PREVIEW. 21 only be in harmony with the history of human thought in general and of religious teachings in particular, if there had been some actual ground for complaint : but this reaction and its demand for a more vital piety itself degenerated into a more or less pronounced neglect of the positive teachings of the Scriptures. In the latter half of the seventeenth century the fair and fruitful fields of German Protestant- ism were sadly devastated by a The Rationalistic crude kind of vulgar rational- Period - ism, which reflected, in the theology of the Church, largely the spirit of the philosophy taught 1 »y the great Konigsberg Kant. The fundamental theory of this school made men the measure of all things, denied the formal principle of the Church in so far as the divine contents of the Scriptures are concerned. Reason became the arbiter of the Scriptures, and whatever the human mind and its natural powers could not comprehend was either rejected and discarded, or misinterpreted into something that reason could understand. Large portions, perhaps the larger portions, of the Ger- man Church, for the time being, came under the baneful influence of this spiritual blight. The impetus to a revival of evangelical thought and life was, at least outwardly, given by the sad experience of the Germans dur- The Revival of ing the Napoleonic wars. While Positive Principles. in its most widely spread operations, especially as championed by the Berlin theologian Schleier- macher, it has not been a revival of the prin- ciples of Protestantism in every particular and in historical fidelity, but rather an attempt at a re- construction of positive Protestantism along more or less new lines, there has also been a revival of Lutheranism, but this, too, not without being in- 22 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. fiuenced to a certain extent by modern philo- sophical and critical thought. The only attempt to revive, in every particular and without any regard to the development and lessons of the ups and downs of the past, has been made from with- out, chiefly by the establishment of a Church independent entirely of the state, to a certain extent, under the auspices of the Missouri Synod of America. The Breslau and the Immanuel Synods of Independent Lutherans, which have also sprung into existence since the beginning of the nineteenth century, come nearest to a com- plete revival of historic Lutheranism in every particular, of all the movements that have grown in German soil itself. But all of these move- ments have been within limited spheres and none can lay claim to national expansion. CHAPTER II. ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT. In Germany state and Church are united, as is the case everywhere in Europe where the Prot- estant Church is officially recog- state and nized. This is true not only of Church United - the predominantly Protestant countries, such as the German Empire, England, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, but also where the Protestants con- stitute the ' minority, as in Austria, France, and Russia, In none of these lands is the Protestant Church independent of state control. Only there where Protestantism is only a mission church, as in Italy with the historic Waldensians, and in Spain, is there no connection between the Church as such and the state, and in these cases the state exercises only those rights over the Church which it does over its subjects in general, while of course at the same time not contributing to its support. It is a singular phenomenon that in the Protestant lands of Europe the Catholic Church really has greater liberty of action than the Protestants. The Catholic " Church is ruled by the hierarchy, with the Pope at its head ; but through its Arch- bishops and Bishops it governs the National Churches, subject only to such limitations of an in- ferior importance which have been agreed upon in special Concordats between the Vatican and the political authorities. Even in Protestant lands the Protestant Church is much more dependent on (23) 24 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. the state, and is much more controlled by the state than is the Catholic Church, and this is one of the fruits of the activity of that organization, the Roman hierarchy, which a prominent German historian has declared to be the most perfect and effective which the world has ever seen. An absolute separation between Church and state is found only in America and Australia. This condition of affairs is the result of historic causes. This union was originally established in Historical the days of the Reformation, causes. when it seemed to be absolutely necessary for the planting and development of the Protestant cause, and this relation has continued ever since. Indeed, there has not been in the nearly four hundred years that have elapsed since the days when Protestantism was born a single pronounced movement in Germany aiming at a dissolution of this historic connection. The ab- sence of any agitation for this purpose, the realiza- tion of which to an American Christian seems to be a consummation devoutly to be wished, is not to be ascribed to a lack of study on the subject, The fact of the matter is that in Germany the Chris- tians do not desire such a separation. They believe in the union of Church and state, and maintain that this is a natural and certainly beneficial rela- tion. While not denying that the Church in cer- tain respects suffers in consequence thereof, Ger- man theologians as a rule believe that the dangers and results of an entirely independent Church or- ganization are still greater, pointing especially to the twelve dozen of sects and sectlets in the Amer- ican Protestant world as a natural and necessary conclusion of a rupture between the state and the Church. The German Christians are advocates of a union with the state, and the voices that have ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT. 25 been heard in favor of a separation have been few and far between. Movements of this kind have resulted in the establishment of several religious bodies, of which the Breslau and the Immanuel Lutheran Synods are the largest, while the Saxon and the Hanoverian Synods are diminutive or- ganizations. Unfortunately the experiences of the German Churches in this regard have not been such as to encourage the propaganda of a independent ''free Church in a free state." Movements. Those Lutherans who have withdrawn from the State Churches and organized independent bodies have not been able to agree among themselves, have not been able to unite, but antagonize each other as much as they do the State Churches. The fact that in the historic village of Hermanns! >urg, the famous headquarters of the Hermannsburg Mission Society, there are three different types of independent Lutheran Churches represented, with no fellowship or mutual recognition, has not been a palatable object lesson for the German Churches in general to desire a separation of Church and state. If ever such a step is taken, factors and forces must become operative in the Protestant Churches of Germany, the presence of which can- not as yet be detected. The historic relations be- tween the two are evidently destined to remain in- definitely. But in one important respect the organization of the Protestant Church in the land of Luther is different from that in other Number of German Protestant countries. In these state churches, latter there is but one State Church, as in Eng- land the Episcopal, and in the Scandinavian coun- tries the Lutheran, but in Germany there are nearly four dozen State Churches. The German 26 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. Empire, as at present constituted and reor- ganized as a result of the great war of 1870-71, is a confederation of twenty-six states, but in these there are no less than forty-six different State Churches. Each state has not only its own Prot- estant State Church, but some states have several. This singular condition of affairs can be understood only in the light of history. Germany's political unification has been more rapid than its ecclesias- tical consolidation. In fact, as far as the latter is ooncerned, practically not even a beginning has been made. As a result, when political states have been united, this has not been followed by a union of the Church organizations. Thus in the nine old provinces of Prussia the United Evangelical Church, as organized in 1817, on the three hun- dredth anniversary of the inauguration of the Ref- ormation, by King Frederick William III. , when he organically united the Lutheran and the Re- formed Churches of his kingdom, is the official State Church. But in 1866, as a consequence of the war with Austria and the South German states, Prussia incorporated the former kingdom of Han- over and the provinces Schleswig-Holstein, as also Hessen, in all of which the Lutheran and not the United was the established Church. This con- tinues so to the present day, and as a consequence Prussia, while being only one political body, has no fewer than four State Churches to report. Ger- many is united only in political and in military matters, but not in the educational or in ecclesi- astical departments. Each state controls its own schools and its own Churches. There is no such an organization as a Protestant Church of Ger- many ; there are only Protestant State Churches. The Empire, as such, has no jurisdiction whatever ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT. Li over the universities, or the schools, or the churches. Efforts to effect the organization of one power- ful Protestant Church for the whole Empire have been repeatedly made, both p ropose d since the present Empire was confederation of established, especially under the leadership of the so-called Middle or Media- ting German Church party, headed by the lately deceased Professor Beyschlag, of the University of Halle, who published a special journal in advo- cacy of this plan ; but also under the former con- federation, "The Holy Roman Empire of the Ger- man Nation," which existed down to 1805, when it was crushed under the heels of Napoleon. But all of these efforts have failed, and probably will continue to fail as long as the Protestantism of Germany is not internally more closely united. Even if the centrifugal forces, so natural and so potent especially among the Germans, and partic- ularly so in the world of religious thought, should be overcome, it would seemingly be impossible to ever remove the obstacles caused by the divergent interests of the various schools and tendencies of thought that prevail in the German Churches. At most a confederation of the churches could be es- tablished while the individual State Churches re- tained their individuality. Such, too, was the scheme of the Beyschlag propaganda, which sought the establishment of an Imperial Synod, with representatives from all the State Churches, as the Parliament represents all the states. And yet, while there is no organic union between the State Churches of Germany, and their connec- tion officially with each other is no more intimate than that which exists between the great Prot- 28 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH" IN GERMANY. estant denominations in American Christendom, there is nevertheless a union of forces and a co- semi-officiai operation that have made the co-operation of Protestant Church in that land a power. While the Protestant Church of Germany as such is no organization, it certainly has a real existence. Even the State Churches recognize each other unofficially, while each does its work independently, and not infre- quently one will do what another refuses to do. In the Eisenach Conference the representatives of the various State Churches, in their biennial con- ventions, consult for the general welfare of the Church, and, while their actions and measures have no legal or judicial force, their moral in- fluence is even greater than if the conference were a legal body. It was the Eisenach Conference that inaugurated and successfully carried out the revision of the Luther version of the Bible, com- pleted in 1883, and it is doubtful if the authorities of any of the State Churches, even those of Prus- sia, could alone have accomplished this great work. This same conference has in recent years supplied the Churches of Germany with a new set of pericopes or Scripture texts for the entire Church year, one set from the Gospels, another from the Epistles, and the third from the Old Tes- tament ; and these lessons have secured a recog- nition throughout the Churches that has not been accorded to those selected by the Church theo- logians of Wiirtemberg or Saxony, or by such prominent scholars as Thomasius and Nitzsch. Recently again the Eisenach Conference has se- cured the co-operation of the German Churches and scholars in the establishment of an arch- aeological school in Jerusalem, after the model of the classical schools of France, Germany, and ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT. 29 America, in Athens, the purpose of which is to en- gage in scientific researches in Bible lands. But the rank and the file of the German Chris- tians have even to a greater extent ignored the boundaries Of States and Of State United Efforts of Churches in the Work which Churches at Large. they do for the Gospel and for Christianity. The state supplies the Church only with what it needs for its own congregational purposes. It builds the Churches, the parsonages and school-houses. pays the pastor and the teacher, and in general sees that the work is carried on in the various con- gregations. But beyond this the state does noth- ing for the Church. All that is done by the Chris- tians of Germany in the departments of missions. both foreign and inner, as in the many spheres of charitable and evangelistic work, is voluntary on the part of the Church, which must supply money and men for this purpose. In organizing for these purposes the German Christians have discarded political and tribal boundaries. There, as else- where in Protestant Church, unity of theological beliefs and harmony of doctrinal standpoints have been the magnet that has attracted the workers to a common centre. The mission societies, for in- stance, arc all organized along these lines and en- tirely disregard the State Church boundaries. The Leipzig Mission Society, as also that of Hermanns- burg, are of distinctly Lutheran origin, but their supporters are found not only in Saxony and Hanover, hut wherever the conservative and con- fessional type of Lutheranism finds its advocates. On the other hand, the Basel Society, which is based on the unionistic principle and ignores the differences between the Lutheran and Reformed Churches, finds the enthusiastic support of all the elements that incline to this position, especially 30 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. in South Germany, where the compromising ten- dencies are an inheritance from the clays of the Reformation. Probably the most national of all Church organizations is the Gustavus Adolphus Society, which purposes to support the Protestant cause in Roman Catholic communities, and which has found its friends in large numbers in all of the State Churches of Germany and in many sec- tions of the Protestant world outside of the Fatherland. In these ways, and in many others, German Christians have united to work for the cause of the Gospel, notwithstanding the territorial separation and the legal status of the State Churches. In countless ways and manners the divided Churches of Germany demonstrate that they are one body, and the consciousness of this solidarity is a powerful factor not only in the work of the Church, but also in its theology and its literature. While not an organized body, the Protestant Church of Germany is nevertheless an actual fact. The government of the Church is conditional by their organization. It constitutes one of the depart- Government of ments of the administration of state churches. the state, being conducted by a minister and subordinates, as are the departments of railroads, military and naval affairs, agriculture, and the like. The ruler of the state is officially the head of the Church by virtue of his political office. The King of Prussia is the ' ' Summits Epis- copus" or the Highest Bishop of the Protestant Church of Prussia, and actually the last court of appeal in the management of Church affairs, as he has the final control of the administration in all the departments of government. This circum- stance brings with it such strange anomalies, as the legal status prevailing in Saxony, where a ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT. 31 Catholic king is the official head of Protestant Church government, as is the case also in Ba- varia, and probably will be the case in Wiirtem- berg when the present king dies. This fact of the personal headship of the Church by the political head of the state has not that importance for the Protestant Church which it had during those times when the autocratic system of government pre- vailed, and the rulers actually ruled. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, however, the parliamentary system has been established through- out Germany, and as a consequence many meas- ures that would formerly have fallen to the prov- ince of the prince are now determined by the Par- liament. In not a few cases this has been any- thing but an improvement, as we now find that the members of the Parliament, be they Prot- estants or Catholics, Jews or Social Democrats, pass upon measures that seriously affect the weal and the woe of the Church, such as the appropria- tion of moneys, and the like. In the execution of his prerogative as the official head of the Protestant State Church, the ruler sel- dom jDersonallv interferes or State control of makes his influence felt. The Church Affairs - management of Church affairs is assigned to the Ministerof Cultus, who has in charge also the schools of the country, high and low. The union of the ec- clesiastical and the educational departments under one head is in harmony with the current convic- tions in German circles, where it is regarded as self-evident that religious instruction dare not be lacking in the schools, and that Church and school naturally go together. The advocates of a purely secular education, entirely divorced of religious in- fluences, are few and farbetweenin Germany, and such education is contrary to the traditions and 39 THE TKOTESTAXT CHURCH IN GERMANY. the principles of the Church and the state. Ac- cordingly in all public schools provisions are made for the religious training of the children in the Bible, the Catechism, and Biblical history, and in the gymnasium, or college course, instructions in religious branches are regarded as of equal im- portance with the study of the Greek and the Latin. But quite naturally the Cultus Minister him- self cannot personally take charge of the executive r™,»™™^ work in the management of Government , o through Church anairs. At his side and Consistories, etc. regpongible to him are the con _ sislories and other bodies, composed of pastors and laymen, who control the Church affairs of the various provinces and districts in accordance with the directions of their superiors and the laws of the country, while subordinate officials, such as superintendents and others, have the official over- sight and direction of smaller territories. These officials are all appointed by the ruler of the coun- try or his Cultus Minister, and are generally selected with a view to the wishes of the people. For this reason the Catholic King of Saxony selects pronounced Lutherans for the members of the Saxon Superior Church Council, sitting in the cap- ital city, Dresden, and the Prussian King selects men for the various sections of the Church adapted to the status and spirit of the Churches there. It is but rarely that the political head of a state acts counter to the direct wishes of the Churches affected. The most noted case of this kind in recent years was the appointment by William II. of the brilliant but somewhat radical Professor Harnack to a professorship in the University of Berlin against the outspoken wishes even of the Higher Consistory of Prussia. In fact, it is per- ORGANIZATION AND GOVERNMENT. 33 haps just in this field where the Church feels the hand of the state as the heaviest. The university professors arc appointed by the state, and are re- garded as state officials, although they arc to train the future pastors and preachers of the Church. The Church itself has no voice or vote in the ap- pointment of these men, in whose character and work they must naturally be T . r . .. T „ • . The Church s Loss most keenly interested. It has by this frequently happened that on ac- Arrangement, count of the scholastic attainments of a man, the government has kept him in a theological chair, although he was entirely obnoxious to the constit- uency for whom he was to prepare ministers of the Gospel. The Church officials and conventions may protest against such a man and his teaching-. but it is a matter for the government alone to de- cide if this protest is to be heeded. The moral influence of the Church has frequently proved ef- fective in such cases, but the legal right belongs to the state alone. There are indeed national, district and pro- vincial, and also local synods held at regular in- tervals, and SOme Of these COn- Synods, etc., -and ventions, such as the great their Rights- National Synod for the Kingdom of Prussia, have great influence in government circles; yet the rights of these ecclesiastical assemblies are more imaginary than real, and all their conclusions and decisions are subject to revision or rejection by the state authorities, their real spheres of influence being tin' actual Church and Gospel work within the limits prescribed by the organization of the Church and its relation to the state. Congrega- tional independence practically does not exist. Even in those cases where the selection of a pastor from among a number of candidates is left to a 8 o4 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY, vote of the members, this action is again subject to the government acceptance or rejection. Bureau- cratic methods prevail in Church affairs as in all others. CHAPTER III. THE CONFESSIONAL STATUS. The confessional position of the various State Churches is legally established, as the outcome of the historical development of official confessional the different countries. 01 the standing of forty-six State Churches, twenty- State Churches - four are Lutheran, eleven Reformed, seven United, and four Confederated. Although the Lutheran lias the greatest number of State Churches to re- port, it does not numerically embrace the largest percentage of German Protestants. It is a tradi- tional mistake made by many to claim for the Lutheran Church all or the great bulk of the Prot- estants of the Fatherland. Of the fifty-six million inhabitants within the boundaries of the German Empire, about two-thirds are Protestants, and, of these, over twenty million are in Prussia. In Prussia, however, the United Church, in which the Lutheran and the Reformed Churches have been absorbed, prevails in the nine old provinces, while in the three new ones acquired in 1866 the Luth- eran is the State Church. The Lutherans could accordingly not lay claim to the bulk of the Prot- estants in Prussia, nor to the house of Hohenzol- lern, which before the establishment of the United Church had become Reformed. In the last census of Prussia only about three million of the inhabi- tants claimed to belong to the Lutheran Church and less than three hundred thousand to the Re- (35) ob THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. formed, leaving over seventeen million for the United Church. Of the other United Churches that of Baden is the most important, with a Prot- estant contingent of seven hundred thousand. The leading Lutheran State Churches are found chiefly in North Germany, and in addition to the Prussian provinces of Hanover and Schles wig-Hoist ein, in- cludes the two Mecklenburgs, Oldenburg, Saxony, and Wiirtemberg, while in Catholic Bavaria the Lutheran is also the established Protestant Church. Looking at the matter only from the standpoint of official reports, it is probably fair to claim for „,. T .. confessional Lutheranism about The Lutheran Element in the one-third ot the Protestants 01 State Churches. Germany And yet thege ( | ata do not do justice to the Churches, for it is a fact rec- ognized on all hands that a very large percentage of the Protestants who are enrolled in the United Church are really Lutheran, as is evidenced by their public services, their hymn books, their ser- mons, the use of Luther's Cathechism, etc. In fact, in the State Church of Prussia there is a large sec- tion known as the adherents of "the Positive Union," embracing tens of thousands who claim Lutheranism as their confessional status, but maintain that their position can be retained even though they are in official connection with the United Church. This view is held even by many prominent theological leaders, as was seen by the acceptance of a call to the University of Berlin by the Lutheran Professor Seeberg, of Erlangen. Then it is a matter of note that the dominant power in the development of the theology and the Church life of Germany comes from the Lutheran, and not from the Reformed Church. In fact, the latter as a separate factor and force has almost been elimi- nated from German Christianity, although the THE CONFESSIONAL STATUS. 6t spirit of this Church is still supreme in a few lim- ited localities, and recently some special efforts have been made to reorganize its forces and make its influence felt. If the standing of a Church is to be estimated, not by its numerical strength or its official membership, then the Lutheran Church can be said to be almost as wide as the whole Protestant Churcri of the Fatherland. Not from Geneva or Zurich, but from Wittenberg have ema- nated the factors that have controlled, and still control, on the whole, the character, development, and destiny of the German Protestant Church. These figures, however, represent not the active Protestant Church membership, but the Protestant population. In Germany every- body is bom into some Church, p op u°atfon n and and the number of those who ^mbeVs^p. claim to be adherents of neither the Protestant, nor the Catholic, nor the Jewish faith, constitute a mere handful. Even on the estranged masses of the great cities the rites and customs of the Christian Church still have a re- markable hold. Although, for many years, there has been no legal compulsion to have children bap- tized or confirmed, or marriage performed by the Church, or the funeral conducted by the clergy, the great mass of the German Protestants, whether active in their Church relations or not, still cling- to the good old custom in this regard. In sonic of the provinces of the country nearly ninety-eight per cent, of all the children horn to Protestant par- ents are baptized, and from that number the per- centage decreases to about seventy-live. In the nine old Prussian provinces, from which the most reliable statistics are available, only 4.10 per cent, of these children were not baptized, and in other parts of the Empire the number of unbaptized 38 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. children is, as a rule, even less. In fact, the per- centage of such children in the Protestant Church of America, taking into consideration only those denominations who practice infant baptism, is much larger than is the case in Germany. In regard to burials conducted by representatives of the Christian Church, the figures are not quite as high. They range from seventy-two per cent, in some of the Prussian provinces to nearly ninety per cent, in the Lutheran Church of Hanover. Satisfactory comparative statistics as to confirma- tion can scarcely be given, and it is a matter of dis- pute among the Germans themselves whether the relative number of the confirmed has been decreas- ing or not. If it has, the decrease is confined to the larger cities, which have grown in Germany in the last twenty-five years at even a more rapid fate than the American cities, and which increase the Church authorities have not been able to handle as they have desired. Just what percentage of the nominal Protestants are actual church goers and active church e members can doubtless be best Percentage of . - Active church ascertained by examining the Members. reports of attendance at com- munion. In this regard statistics are very com- plete and instructive. In the year 1896 the num- ber who communed in the Protestant Churches of Prussia were 8,334,341 ; in 1897 it was 8,407,330 ; during these two years the reports for Bavaria were 1,071,812 and 1,0G4,3G3 ; for Saxony, 1,599,701 and 1,625,929; for Wiirtemberg, 718,589 and 734,874. In every case, except in Bavaria, there was an increase, and that, too, above the normal increase of the population, showing that the Church is not only gaining relatively, but also absolutely. The lessons of these figures, however, can be learned THE CONFESSIONAL STATUS. 39 only when it is seen what part of these com- municant members constitute in the whole Church membership. In 1897, in the State Church of Prussia, the communicants constituted 89.60 per cent, of the whole Protestant contingent, while in the preceding year it had been 39.26 per cent. It varies somewhat in the different provinces, being the highest in the Lutheran and conservative dis- tricts, and the smallest in those provinces where the great cities are found. In nearly all of the twelve provinces, however, there is a slow, but seemingly steady, increase each y«ar in the number to take com- Number of munion. In the other German communicants, states the percentage of actual communicant mem- bers is even greater, and, in some cases, much greater than in Prussia. In Bavaria proper it is 67. 14 per cent. ; in the Palatinate 57.07; in Sax- ony. 45.02; in Wurtemberg, 52.01; in Baden, 54.02; in Hessen, 55.84; in Mecklenburg-Schwerm, 34.40; in Sachsen-Weimar, 40.34; in Mecklen- burg-Strelitz, 22.62; in Oldenburg, 22.16; in Braunschweig, 27.25, etc. The lowest figures are furnished by the free cities of Bremen and Ham- burg, the former with 13.11 per cent, and the latter with 9.06. Another interesting feature in this connection is the fact that of these communi- cants the men in the majority of eases constitute nearly the half. The poorest reports in this respect come from Prussia, where the 6,174,796, who, in 1897, communed in the United Church of the nine old provinces, 2,740,233 were men and 3,434,563 were women. In other districts the ratio is even more favorable for men. The highest per cent, of men communicants is found in Hanover, where it was 46.79. These figures are proof conclusive that Christianity has not lost its hold on the men of ( rer- 40 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. many. Danger* >us < lata of this kind come only from the great cities of Berlin, Hamburg, and Frank- fort. Indeed, figures like these demonstrate the power of Protestant Christianity in the land of Luther, and explain, too, why oven the spread of Social Democracy has not been able to damage the Church seriously. An effort to induce the sepa- ration en masse of the adherents of this political and social party from the Churches, which were planned and begun some years ago, signally failed. These statistics point a moral and tell a tale. According to the report of a recognized statistician, Lessons of these published in the beginning of statistics. the year 1901, there were in the United States in 1800 one communicant member to every 14.50 inhabitants ; but the Church has gained materially during the century, and in 1900 it was one communicant to every 4. 28 inhabitants ; only the Protestant population being taken into consideration. If these statistics are reliable, and from surface indications this seems to be the case, and seem even to be rather partial to the Church ; then, as far as facts and figures can demonstrate, there is a greater percentage of the inhabitants <>t' Germany in active connection with the Church and regular communicants than is the case in American Christianity. Just what justification then there is for some of the American Churches to send " missionaries " to Germany, as they do to India, China, and other "heathen " lands, is diffi- cult to see. It would seem rather that Germany would be justified in establishing such a proselyt- ing propaganda among the American Churches. Just "to what extent positive evangelical and Lutheran principles prevail in the creed and the life of German Christianity can be judged only by the external evidences furnished by the work THE CONFESSIONAL STATUS. 41 and the confession of the members. In general it can be fairly claimed that German Protestantism is in this regard much better than ~, b«w German theology as such has become a power in the scholarship and thought of the whole Protest- ant world. The Germans were among the first to reap the benefit of the cosmopolitanism thai char- acterizes the learned investigations of the times. There never have been such an exchange and interchange of technical research as is the case at present. Science and learning have become inter- national, and the republic of letters is more of a fact now than ever before in the history of learning. Under these circumstances the Germans have been accorded the leadership in the scientific theo- logical field on account chiefly of the principles and methods that prevail here. This primacy is ac- knowledged almost on all hands, as is best seen from (47) 48 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. the fact that the brightest minds of the world flock by the thousands to the German universities, the headquarters of scientific thought, in order there to The German learn the secrets of success at the universities. f ee ^ C) f acknowledged savants and scholars. The universities of Germany are a power not equaled by the higher institutions of learning in other countries. Of the 33,503 students which were inscribed at the twenty-one German univer- sities in 1899, no fewer than 2284 were from non- German countries. Among these foreigners literally all the cultured nations of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America are represented, and a list of univer- sity students in a cosmopolitan institution like that in Berlin reads like the roll-call of the nations of the earth. These 2284 foreigners were distributed as follows : 584 from Russia, 447 from Austria and Hungary, 269 from Switzerland, 149 from Eng- land, 69 from Bulgaria, 50 from Holland, 41 from France, 39 from Servia, 37 from Italy, 33 from Turkey, 32 from Roumania, 31 from Sweden and Norway, 24 from Luxemburg, 23 from Greece, 19 from Belgium, 3 from Denmark, 3 from Monte- negro, and 3 from Spain. Of the non-European Sontingent fully 300 were from the United States and Canada, 101 were from Asia, chiefly Japan and China ; 21 from Africa, and 5 from Australia. Berlin alone had 655 of these foreigners ; Leip- zig, 322 ; Heidelberg, 205 ; Munich, 196 ; Halle. 138 ; Freiburg, 96, this number decreasing to the lowest figure, namely 2, at the Catholic institution at Minister. The total teaching force of these schools was 2493, namely 1066 full professors, 84 honorary . professors, 582 assistant professors, and 761 private tutors. It is at these schools that the ministry of the German Protestant Churches is educated, and no THE THEOLOGY OF GERMAN PROTESTANTISM. 49 applicant can expect an appointment unless he lias taken a full university curriculum, followed by two examinations by the officials of Attendance at the State Churches; and in universities, many eases this theoretical training is supple- mented by special practical courses in seminaries established especially for this purpose. During the year 1899 the attendance of theological stu- dents at these universities were : Berlin, -'524 ; Bonn, 101 ; Breslau, 86 ; Erlangen, 200 ; Giessen, 67; Gottingen, 143; Greifswalde, 215; Heidel- berg, 60 : Halle, 365 ; Jena, 39 ; Kiel, 45 : Kon- igsberg, 76; Leipzig, 301; Marburg, 124; Rostock, 39; Strassburg, 66 ; Tubingen, 343. Attheother universities there are no Protestant theological faculties, but only Catholic, while this Church is not represented in the list given here except at Breslau, Bonn, and Tubingen, where both Churches have their faculties. There are thus seventeen Prot- estant theological faculties in the country, but only six Catholic, the latter Church, as a rule, preferring to educate the young priests at the diocesan semi- naries, conducted under the management of the archbishops and the bishops, and uot at the uni- versities, where the professors are appointed by the state, and where the Catholic students come into touch and contact with the Protestant. In many Catholic circles there is a pronounced antagonism to the whole idea of theological education in con- nection with state universities, and the programme is favored which has been carried out in Italy, namely, to separate entirely the theological fatali- ties from the universities. It is at these universities that the theology of Germany, in so far as it has become an interna- tional factor in the religious thought of the world, has its headquarters, although university theology 4 50 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. is not the only theology which Germany has pro- duced and does produce, nor is it intrinsically The Theology at always the best. This learned universities. theology is controlled by the rules of scholarship that prevail in all other de- partments of German research, and reflect both the strong and the weak sides of the woik done in this line. The strong side doubtless consists in the high ideal entertained on the question as to what constitutes a scholar. Not a compilation or a reproduction of old data or position, but only a positive addition to human knowledge or thought, entitles a man to the claim of scholarship in that country that loves to call itself ' ' The land of au- thors and thinkers." A scholar is expected to deal only with primary sources of knowledge, and not with secondary. He is to be master of the best authorities in his branch and to make a posi- tive addition to human knowledge and evince an independent spirit of research that is not bound by the ' ' isms ' ' of schools or cliques. This ideal is high, and, in itself, correct and com- mendable. But, as is so often the case, here too the greatest weakness lies side by side with the greatest strength. A German theologian is ex- pected to produce new results, and the temptation to do this at all hazards leads to a sensationalism and radicalism that sacrifice soundness and con- servatism of judgment to the desire for novelty and newness of theory or hypothesis. It is largely for this reason that Germany is the hot-bed of radical and even rationalistic thought, and the country that has seen the greatest number of ' ' schools ' ' in the theological world and witnessed the greatest variety of ups and downs in learned theology. It is partly, too, on this account that this country is so prolific in theological literature. In general, Germany is THE THEOLOGY OF GEBMAN PEOTESTANTISM. 51 the greatest book-producing country on the globe, publishing each year as many works as England, United States, and France combined. The latesl annual report credited Germany with an output of 23,908 volumes (while that of the United States was only 5315), and of these a large propor- tion were new editions. And the department of theology is well represented in this multitude of volumes, namely 2091, which is more than one-third of the whole literary production of America. In view of these ideals and these literary canons, it is not surprising that Germany is the favored SOil for the growth Of a more German Radical or less pronounced radical the- Theology. ology. Other factors contribute to make this radicalism even more dangerous. The univer- sity men are not appointed by the Church but by the state, and they are, consequently, not answerable to the Church for their teachings. They breathe the free air of the university world and see their highest aim, not in the service of the Church, but in the service of science. They are above everything else scholars, with the tastes and the ambitions of scholars. As a result, it n< >t unfre- quently occurs that they call into question in their researches even the fundamentals of faith, and the very foundations of the Church of Jesus. Their contentions are, as a rule, not on this or that par- ticular phase of Christian doctrine, but the debat- able ground between the various schools of thought are often such vital problems as the certainty and limitations of our knowledge of divine things, the inspiration of the Scriptures, the character of the original Gospel of Jesus Christ, and similar prob- lems that had been considered as practically set- tled 1)V the Church for centuries. The higher 52 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. criticism of the day, which finds its most pro- nounced protagonists at the German universities, really involves the problem of the character of the Scriptures, whether they are of divine or of human origin, and the character of the religious develop- ment that the Old and also the New Testaments in- volve and teach, whether this is a purely natural process and development carried on by factors that are operative in human history in general, or whether they are divine and the Bible is a unique production, as are also its contents. This critical school really aims at the introduction of a" religion of the era of Darwin," and the application of the natural development to the theology and the Bib- lical interpretation of the age. It is this feature of German theological research that has made such rapid progress in the Prot- ~, TT . „ estant lands in recent years, and The Ups and Downs Vi • of has found so many adherents m Radical Theology. ^^ an( J America alsa If this critical or destructive theology were the only kind that Germany produced, that country would with justice deserve the reputation of being the hot-bed of radical theology, and there would be reasons to renew the warnings of Howard Crosb} 7 against the dangers of '• Teutolatry." But fortu- nately German theology has something better to offer than what is now declared to be " scientific ' ' theology, but is only one phase of the ever- changing and kaleidoscopic production of liberal- izing theological schools. The history of German religious and theological thought shows what esti- mate is to be placed on this present form of criti- cism. It seems to be the destiny of Germany to produce about once in every generation a new school of destructive thought. The past century 1 >e- THE THEOLOGY OF GERMAN PROTESTANTISM. gan with the vulgar rationalism, based oh the phil- osophy of Kant, and this was followed by the reign of the Hegelian philosophy, which brought forth the Tubingen school of New Testament critics with Baur at its head; while the last third of the cen- tury has been under the supremacy of the Darwin- istic evolutionary philosophy, and lias found its expression in the Wellhausen school of Old Testa- ment higher critics. The first two radical schools have long since passed away, having no adherents in modern Germany, and the heydey of the third school is manifestly also nearly over and the days of its disintegration at hand. Judged by the lesson- of history this phase, too, of destruc- tive German critical thought has seen its best days. In all of these cases, however, the positive and Biblical theology of German Protestantism has profited by these periods of The Benefits to dOUbt and* Criticism. If Ger- Positive Theology. man theological thought is responsible for most of the radical tendencies and schools, it can also claim to have furnished the ablest defense of the fundamentals and essentials of Christianity. The finest scholarship in the world has been called into requisition by the Germans for the purpose of strengthening the position of Christianity, and to a large extent the employment of this scholar- ship for purposes of defense has hen the result of the attacks that had been made upon the Scrip- tures and Scriptural teachings. It is now about half a century ago since Strauss published his famous, or rather infamous. Life of Christ, in which he reduced the Gospel records of Jesus to myths and unfounded stories. As a result Ger- man scholarship went to work and examined anew and with the greatest of acumen the foundations 54 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. upon which the account furnished of Christ by the Evangelists rests, and the result has been that the truth of the Gospels is now scientifically and historically entrenched as never before, and this condition of affairs is largely attributed to the revolutionary attacks made by Strauss and others. Again, the Tubingen school of New Testament critics had ventured the theory that the Christian- ity of the post-apostolic period was the result of a compromise between antagonistic tendencies that prevailed among the Apostles themselves, and that of the Pauline Epistles only four, namely, Romans, two Corinthians, and Galatians, were really the product of the Apostle's pen. This claim set the German conservative critics to work again to re-examine the original source of what conservative our knowledge of the New Tes- Theoiogy Has Done, tament period and that which followed, with the result that in such works as Zahn's Introduction to the New Testament, a massive work of superlative erudition, the old views which the Church had entertained concerning the New Testament writings have been shown to be correct. Even such a leader of critics as Professor Harnack has come to the conclusion that only one single New Testament book is not genuine, namely, Second Peter, although he does not accept the fourth Gospel and the Pastoral Epistles in the com- mon way. In other words, if German destructive criticism has attacked the Scriptures and their teachings, German constructive criticism and con- servative theological thought have also furnished the best scientific and historical demonstration, that on the whole the confidence which the Church has all along had in the written Word has not been misplaced, and that the best and most care- ful scholarship of the world is not a hurt but a THE THEOLOGY OF GERMAN PROTESTANTISM. 00 help to the cause of the Church. The vicissitudes of German theological thought in this field have been remarkable. There have been Bincethedays of the Reformation many schools of negative theology, in which the fundamental teachings of Evangelical Protestantism have been attacked, but German scholarship has always in the end supplied the antidote in the shape of a renewed demonstration of the truth of the Church's teach- ings. It is true that that element or grain of truth which is inherent in nearly all of these negative schools, and the exaggeration and misapplication of which constitutes their stock in trade, has been duly appreciated and appropriated also by the conservative theologians, and as a result even this school of thought never merely reproduces what other generations have taught. Hence, too, the Lutheranism of Germany in the present day is not the exact reproduction of the Lutheranism of the Refor- German Modem Illation era and Still leSS Of that Lutheran Theology. prevailing during the period of the great dogma- ticians. It, too, has shared in the development that the theological world has passed through during the intervening centuries, although it is a disputed question as to the extent to which this modified type of Lutheranism really differs from that of the heroic age, whether in essentials or only in incidentals and accidentals, whether in si distance or only in form, and then, too, in how far modern development of Lutheranism is better or worse than that of the sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries. But all this deals only with one part and portion of the theological literature and thought of Ger- many, namely, with the Bible in the widest sense of the term. It is only this that has been hrought 56 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. to the attention of non-German readers But German theological literature is vastly richer and wealth of greater than the knowledge of German Theology. ft w hich is Current among OUI- siders would lead one to helieve. In every de- partment of theological science, and in every branch and discipline, it has a phenomenally rich abundance of excellent works. The theology of no other Protestant country is so rich in really scholarly productions in every line as is that of Germany, and the bulk of it is devoted and dedi- cated to the interests of a positive and evangeli- cal type of Christianity. Negative or neological works are not popular among German Christians, least of all among the laity, and only to a certain extent among the clergy. These truths are illus- trated by the homiletical literature of modern Germany. No other country publishes such an abundance of excellent sermon books as is done by the land of Luther, and in most cases these collections are marked by positive faith. Although there are so-called "advanced" circles in the Protestant Church of that country, yet a collection of rationalistic sermons is a rare pro- duct of the book market of the most prolific literary country on the globe. Of all the depart- ments of literature, probably that of theology is in Germany the most free of objectionable ele- ments, although these excellent qualities are seen not in the defense of historic Lutheranism in all of its phases and forms, but rather in the interests of the general principles of a positive Protestant faith. Modern theological thought and literature in Germany is to a great extent evangelical and positive, but it is not distinctively Lutheran. It is perhaps impossible to classify the different schools of theological thought that prevail in the theology of German protestantism. •>< modern Germany, as the lines of demarcation between them are not always clearly drawn and they overlap cadi other. The schools of historical type of Lutheranism, Theology, which defends the letter of the Confession in every point and particular, finds but little expression in books, the defense of these principles being con- fined almost entirely to the periodical press. Even in the theological faculties that are usually cred- ited with being Lutheran, especially Rostock and Erlangen, but also Leipzig, the Lutheranism taught is that of a modified form. These theo- logical schools well recognize the fact that there is an impassable chasm between Biblical theological thought and the current philosophy of the hour which has so materially influenced other classes of theologians. The most aggressive school in recent years has been the radical tendency headed by the late Professor Ritschl, of the University of Gottingen, which is really not a dogmatical school at all. l»ut teaches rather a form of ethics, inde- pendent of and divorced from the positive doctri- nal hasis of Christianity. It is generally, and no doubt correctly, charged with being rationalistic in its tendencies, although it claims to he aiming at a revival of the genuine Lutheranism of the great Reformer. This and other schools of a more liberal type arc all, to a greater or less degree, controlled by philosophical systems, and not weakness of by ail earnest deVOtion to the Advanced Theology. Word. The Ritschl school is really only an ap- plication of Kant's philosophy to theology, which same system is by Church history charged with being tin' parent of the old "vulgar rationalism" that flourished in the beginning of the nineteenth century. Indeed this is the general characteristic 58 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. of these S} T stems, that they do not appeal to the written Word as a last court of appeal, and that their teachings and tenets are not settled by the statement, "It is written ; " but it is a philoso- phy which has been allowed to determine what the Scriptures are to teach and what not. In that way the New Higher Criticism of the Old Testa- ment is at bottom only an application of the Dar- winian theory of natural development of the contents of the Scriptures ; and for this reason this system, as also all other negative schools with philosophical basis, can really lay no claim to be a scientific product. Its weakness is its subjective character, and this subjectiveness is the rot that has infested German theology outside of those writers that accept the Scriptures as they are and for what they say. Liberal or destructive theol- ogy is not proved to be permanently dangerous because it is subjective and unscientific. Only Scriptural theology in the end has permanence, and demonstrates that it is the product of really scientific methods and rules, CHAPTER V. THE PROTESTANT VERSUS THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN GERMANY. The historical and actual relations that exist between the Protestant and the Roman Catholic Churches in the land of Luther _ mo «,.», ,.„ •„ Germany the Historic cannot be paralleled anywhere Battlefield Against else on the globe. Germany was the centre and source of the revolt against the spiritual and political subjection to Rome, and Germany has continued to be the chief battlefield between the hosts of the contending communions ever since. This country looks back not only upon a thirty years' war of the sword and fire between Protestants and Catholics, but also upon a battle of spirits, of intellect, of learning, of polities, covering a period of nearly four hundred years. This, too, Catholic writers and leaders clearly understood, and Cardinal "Wiseman, of England, has prophesied that "the great apoca- lyptic contest " between truth and error is to be fought out to the finish "on the sands of Brand- enburg." In no other country of the globe can a fairer test be made of the relative merits and demerits, of the comparative activities and labors of the two great Churches, than is done in ( Ger- many. In the Latin countries of southern Europe and in South America the overwhelming prepon- derance of the Roman Catholic elements exclude the possibility of a test and trial between them, and the power of Protestantism in the Scandi- (59) 60 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. navian lands causes practically the same results. In Germany Roman Catholicism is at its best, in scholarship, in fruits, in learning, and in public esteem, and here it can contend with Protestantism on practically equal terms and on the same con- ditions for the mastery of those factors and forces that guide the destinies of nations and individuals, for supremacy in the spiritual and intellectual life, in literature, science and art, in school and educa- tion, in economics, and in the social organizations. The test has been made, and this contest is going on, with the clear result that intrinsically and in Protestant victories principle Protestantism is the over Romanism. superior of Roman Catholicism. It is true that in the days of the Reformation and the counter-Reformation, chiefly through the machinations of the Jesuits, the Roman Catholic Church regained much territory, especially in Bavaria, along the Rhine, and in the German provinces of Austria, which the Reformation has wrested from the dominion of the hierarchy ; but these successes were achieved through carnal means and by physical force, and not by moral suasion or inherent spiritual superiority. Ever since the era of brute force in the religious de- velopment of Germany has. passed, Protestantism has not only held its own against Rome, but has gained steadily and slowly, not only or chiefly numerically, but still more in power and intrinsic superiority. The history of the past few centuries and of the past decades especially has shown that Rome is strong in its organization and in the momentum which the wonderful compactness of the hierarchy, declared by a Protestant writer to be ' ' the most wonderful and successful organiza- tion the world has ever seen," has given to its un- dertakings. But Protestantism is superior in PROTESTANT VS. CATHOLIC CHURCH. 61 spiritual and in intellectual strength, and the re- sult for the " apocalyptic battle" is not doubtful for the believer in the principles of positive Protestantism. Whatever may have been the victories of the Catholic Church of the Fatherland in the political and other spheres, some of in the world of which have been noteworthy, scholarship. especially in the Kulturkampf and in the virtual surrender of Bismarck, in the world of scholar- ship and research, that Church lias no results to exhibit that in any way would be a justification of its numerical and political strength in the empire. There can be no doubt that in Biblical research in particular, and also in many other departments of abstract investigation, theGermans lend the world. The presence of 2500 foreign students at the uni- versities of that country during the past semester is a public and international recognition of this pre-eminence. As the Catholic contingent is about one-third and more of the population of the land of Luther, that Church would be expected to furnish at least 35 per cent, of the teaching force at these institutions, which in Germany are the headquarters and fountains of the trends and tendencies controlling scholarship to a degree unknown in France. England, or America. And yet recent statistics show that of the 2178 professors and teachers who constitute the non- theological faculties of the 21 universities, only 277. or little more than 13 per cent., are adherents of the Roman Catholic Church. Of the 32,331 students who were enrolled, less than 20 per cent. belonged to this Church, while the Protestant con- tingent was considerably above the percentage which its relative position in the total of the popu- lation entitled it to have. The ratio, however, in 62 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. the ranks of the teaching force is highly signifi- cant. In Germany the universities are state insti- tutions, in no way or manner officially influenced by church interests, except in reference to the theological departments. Admittance to member- ship in a university faculty is secured solely and alone through scientific competence and scholarly attainments. The most precious possession of the university, cherished as its greatest historic right, is the perfect ' ' Lehrfreiheit ' ' of its teachers. Only recently the faculty in Berlin protested against the removal of the Jewish privat-clocent Ahrons by the state, on the ground that he taught a political economy dangerous to society, the uni- versity claiming that his doctrines were the results of his special researches. With such factors controlling university oppor- tunities, it is apparent that the remarkably small proportion of Catholic teachers in the non-theo- logical faculties is an evidence, together with many others, of the relative inferiority of the scholar- ship of that Church. It is remarkable that not even in Freiburg or Wiirzburg, which have only Catholic but no Protestant theological facul- ties, are the Catholic professors in the majority. Munich is the only institution that can in this sense be called a Catholic university, the Catholic teachers numbering 86 and the Protestant 78. In Berlin, out of 345 men, only 19 are Catholics ; in Catholic Bonn, only 19 out of 117 ; Gottingen, only 8 out of 104 ; Heidelberg, 7 out of 121 ; Strassburg, 4 out of 119 ; Tubingen, 7 out of 68. In other spheres the same leadership of Protest- ant scholarship appears. In the Old Testament department even the Jews have not produced a single real leader, and in neither Old nor New Tes- tament lines have the Catholic scholars made more PROTESTANT VS. CATHOLIC CHURCH. 63 than timid attempts to reconcile their traditional view- with some of the sure results of recent in- vestigations. Even such a literary venture as the publication of the magnificent edition of the Greek Fathers of the first four centuries, under- taken on so grand a scale by the Berlin Academy of Sciences, is not, as one would naturally expect, the product of Catholic, but chiefly of Protestant scholarship, the prime mover and worker in this project being the brilliant and indefatigable Har- nack, of Berlin. The only prominent literary society of Germany which is purely Catholic is the Gorres-Gesellsc'haft. yet it and its work is in the hands of a select few, who receive as little general recognition by the Church authorities as did Dr. Schell, of Wurzburg, whose work, in which he aimed to demonstrate that Catholic teachings are in conformity with the best of modern research, was placed upon the Index. Still more noteworthy in this regard is the fact that in the political and educational offices of the state the percentage of Roman i n Public Catholics is much smaller than Lifs - the proportion of that element in the population would give them a right to claim ; yet it has been demonstrated again and again that in the appoint- ment to these offices the Roman Catholics have been favored, but that so few of this class can be appointed because there is so small a number of Roman Catholics by education and training really fitted to occupy such places of trust. These facts have been made so plain and evident that even the protagonists of the cause of that Church have no complaints to make against the civil authori- ties, and many of them, even high church digni- taries, acknowledge the correctness of the reasons assigned for non-appointment of Roman Catholics, 64 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IX GERMANY. and at various national congresses of Catholics held in recent years men prominent in the coun- cils of the Church have urged their people to foster higher education, and educate their young men according to modern ideals. This superiority of Protestantism, however, si lows itself in actual Church work as well as in T?„™i C h , m : t . rtM „ f its intellectual life and in learned Romish Imitation ot . Protestant church scholarship. In many cases the Roman Catholics have paid tribute to Protestant methods of doing Church work by the flattery of imitation. This is notably the case in reference to the care of their co- religionists who live in territory in which the ad- herents of the rival communion predominate, and there is that magnificent activity of the charity of the German Protestant Church known as ' l Inner Missions. ' ' The Gustavus Adolphus Verein, of the Protestants, has found its Catholic counter- part and copy in the Bonefacius Verein, which aims to provide for the churchly wants of Catholics in Protestant neighborhoods, and the Inner Mis- sion work of the Protestants has been copied by the Charitas movement in the Roman Catholic Church. In none of the great moral or intel- lectual movements does the Roman Catholic Church really lead, not even in the handling of the social problem, for which her leaders claim so much credit. The real leader in the world of religious thought and work in Germany is the Protestant Church ; and, except in the political field, where the organization of that Church has given it such great power through the centrum or Catholic section in the Parliament, the Protest- antism of German) T is on the aggressive and Roman Catholicism is on the defensive. This condition of affairs has brought with it PROTESTANT VS. CATHOLIC CHURCH. gome natural and necessary consequences. Chief among these is the noteworthy fact thai the Prot- estant Church 18 gaining from Protestants Gain the Unman Catholic Church a in Converts. great many more converts than the latter is gain- ing from Protestantism. Accurate statistics in this respect are collected especially by Prussia, and they are very instructive. According to these it appears that in the nine provinces of Prussia, between the years 1890 and is'.iy. no fewer than !<».. 577 Roman Catholics came over to the Protest- ant Church, while during the same interval only 444'2 Protestants joined the Catholic Church. This same condition prevails in all of the German states, with the exception of Bavaria, in which in some years the Roman Catholic Church puns on the Protestant, hut only slightly. Prominent Protestant writers, like Pieper, in his Kirschliche Statistik of the German Church, show in detail on the hasis of these figures how Protestantism is slowly gaining numerically also on the Catholic Church. It is remarkable how this tendency and superior power of attraction on the part of the Protestant Church shows itself in every particular. Pastor de la Roi, the leading living authority on the history of Jewish missions, has compiled a table of average annual conversions from the Jewish to the Christian religion. According to this table the annual conversions average 5250 pei-sons. divided as follows as t<> their Church preferences : 1. The Protestant Church receives 1450. 2. The Roman Catholic Chinch receives L250. 3. The Greek Catholic Church receives 1100. 4. Mixed Jewish and Christian marriages add 1450. The bulk of the additions through marriages between Jews and Christians accrue to the Prot- 66 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. estant Church, so that this communion receives about 80 per cent, more Jewish converts than its relative membership would entitle it to ; while the Catholic Church receives 15 per cent, less than its share, and the Greek Catholics 22 per cent, less than its contingent. Practically the same story is told and empha- sized by the statistics of ' ' mixed marriages, " i. e. , Gain by between Protestants and Roman "Mixed Marriages." Catholics, and these data make it plain why it is that the Roman Catholic author- ities so vigorously oppose these unions. It is ap- parent at a glance from these reports that, not- withstanding the fact that the Catholic prelates insist upon an antenuptial promise that the issue of such marriages is to be reared in the fold of the Catholic Church, this Church steadily and in large proportion is the loser by these contracts. The last complete statistics of Prussia showed that, in 1895, of the children born of the mixed marriages in the thirteen provinces of Prussia, 332,947 were being reared in the Protestant Church, and only 264,648 in the Roman Catholic. Rather strangely the preponderance of Protestant influence is shown in both the marriages of a Protestant father and a Catholic mother, as also of a Catholic father with a Protestant mother. Of the children resulting from the first kind of marriage, 122,058 were being reared as Catholics, but 155,350 as Protest- ants ; of the latter kind, 142,590 were being reared as Catholics, but 177,597 as Protestants. Pieper shows that the Protestant Church has been making special gains in this regard in this gene-, ration as never before. In 1864 the Roman Cath- olic Church had a plus of 5314 children over and above the half of the children born from mixed marriages, but since that time there has been a PROTESTANT VS. CATHOLIC CHURCH. 6*3 phenomenal change and the Protestant cause has gained 68,300 adherents over its share from this source. This makes an aggregate loss to the Roman Catholic Church in the present generation of about 03,000. Complete data from the other German states on this subject arc not available, but as far as they are obtainable they only repeat the story told by the Prussian statistics. CHAPTER VI. THE GERMAN PROTESTANT CHURCH AND FOREIGN MISSIONS. The Protestant Church of Germany has not been a leader in the remarkable movement that _. „ „. . has made the nineteenth the The Germans Not Leaders in Foreign greatest missionary century since Mission Work. ^ ^ Qf ^ Apogtleg> * Ev(l]1 now the Germans contribute only one-fifteenth of the sums spent for missions. Yet they have done some excellent work in this propaganda, and in some respects, as in the department of theoretical mission literature, have rendered pioneer and un- equaled services to the great cause ; but the lead- ership in this great crusade beyond a doubt be- longs to the English-speaking Protestant world, to England and to America, which in their lib- erality and zeal has demonstrated that Christianity is a power in these lands. The reasons why the Protestant Church of Germany has not done path- finding duties in this sphere of Christian activity are many, and are chiefly furnished by the his- tory and' the development of the Church itself. The modern crusade of mission enterprises was really inaugurated by the Roman Catholics already in the Reformation century, largely for the pur- pose of making good the losses sustained by the rapid spread of Protestantism. Even if the neces- sity of the internal development of the Churches had not absorbed the whole time and attention of the Protestant leaders of that time, who certainly (68) GERMAN PROTESTANT CHURCH. 69 had all they could do in this line, it would have been impossible for either the Protestants of Ger- many or of any other country at thai time to enter into competition with the Roman Catholic Church in tins work of gaining the heathen world for Christianity. The commerce and the trade of the world at that time were entirely in the hands of Catholic nations, and the princes and other rulers who were the masters of the means of access to the heathen nations, as also of the means and avenues for reaching these people, who naturally have refused to furnish the means for the estab- lishment of the churches of Protestantism, which they po much hated in their own countries. His- torical circumstances made it impossible to estab- lish Pn.testant missions before the time when Protestant nations had gained the control of the seaways and had established colonies among the heathen people. This change came when Holland and England assumed the rulership of the ocean, which the Portuguese and other Catholic Historic nations could ) i< i longer hold. It Causes, was at that time that England laid the foundation of that colonial empire which now spans the world, and which that government has at all times been so ready to use for the interests of the ( rospel can-.'. England has indeed permitted Roman Catholic- to engage in mission work under its Hag. exactly on the same footing as the Protestant Churches, and in this way has granted the former the rights and privileges which Catholic states and rulers would not grant to the represent- atives of Protestantism. But Protestantism has prospered most under this liberal policy, and has, by virtue of its superior principles, more than re- gained what it lost because the Catholic Church 70 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. . was two centuries earlier in the field. Both numerically and in influence Protestant missions have outstripped their Roman Catholic rival. It would probably be a mistake to ascribe only to the isolation of Germany, to its lack of politi- What Germany Cal pOWer,»tO its divisions, pO- Has Done. litically and ecclesiastically, the fact that the Church of this country did not from the beginning become a missionary Church as did that of England and America. The strength of the Christianity of Germany did not lie so much in its practical life as in the department of thought and scholarship, and the absence of opportunity, which was offered in such abundance to the Christian world of England and America, only strengthened in Germany the natural disinclina- tion to engage in the practical work of the Church. In addition to this, it must be remembered that Germany, in the first decades of this century, was just passing through a period of rationalism, and this type of thought and religion is always barren of good fruits. To this must yet be added the poverty of this country, which, only since its change from an agricultural to a manufacturing nation (1870), has begun to accumulate wealth, as also the fact that, state and Church being united, the people of the German Churches were not accustomed to concern themselves individually about Church affairs, expecting those in authority to take the initiative in all matters of this sort. In this way the historical causes, the condition of the Churches and of the country, as also the training of the people, at least can explain, even if it does not excuse, the fact that Germany has not been a leader in this great crusade to conquer the Gentile world for Christ. And yet Germany is not without honor even in GERMAN PROTESTANT CHUR< H. 71 the annals of this great Gospel movement. The only Church in Christendom that has a greater constituency in its mission fields than it has in its home congregation is the Moravian Brethren, or the Unitas Fratrum^ and this is a German church, with headquarters at Hermhut, in Saxony, whose missionary beginnings go back to the year 1733. If there is any Protestant denomination that is entitled to the claim of being the mis- sionary Church it is this communion. Then, too, the missionary spirit was not dead during this period in Germany, but it could find no way of practically demonstrating its strength and good- will. Especially was the Pietistic movement in the Halle University, at the head August Her- mann Francke, wide-awake to the needs of the hour, and it was through these circles that not only such pioneer missionaries, as Ziegenbalg and Sell wart/, was sent to India by the Danish Mis- sion Society, but also Muhlenberg came to Amer- ica to look after the neglected German Lutherans. But all of these enterprises were more or less spasmodic, the movement was local and not gen- eral, and the interests of the Church at large was not aroused in this great cause. Not to be forgotten, however, is the fact that the German Christians deserve credit for much work that is usually ascribed to Helping others in the British] Society. * While there this Work - were no, or few, German societies, with meagre means, to send out men to the foreign field, there were scores and scores of nun who enlisted in this service under the auspices of English mission so- cieties. Indeed, some of the very best material that the English societies utilized in its fields, especially for literary work, such as the translating of the Scriptures into the language of the natives, PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. was secured from the Germans. The Basel So- ciety, in particular, gave the London Society many excellent workers. An illustration in point is the work done by this Society in Abyssinia. Nearly all the names of the men who, in the middle of the present century, undertook the hard task of regaining for a vital Christianity this old Christian people of Africa, with its petrified creed and its mongrel faith, were Germans. Among them are Gobat, who afterward became the second Anglo- Prussian Bishop of Jerusalem ; also Kugler, Isen- berg, who prepared an Amharic or modern Abys- sinian grammar and dictionary ; Dr. Krapf, as also Flad, Bender, Mayer, Kienzler, M tiller, Stein, and others. This state of affairs prevailed also in other mission fields, especially in parts of India, so that while England furnished the man- agement and the means, the Germans furnished at least a goodly number of the men, and especially of scholarly men. That Germany has changed in this regard in recent decades, and, instead of rendering merely progress by handmaid services to others, has Germans. become an independent factor and force in the mission world, is purely the out- come of the Evangelical spirit of the Protestant Church, although there can be no doubt that the example of the activity of the English and American Churches had something to do with this change. Yet foreign mission work in Germany, as indeed all Christian work outside of that which pertains exclusively to the immediate wants of the congregations, must be and is entirely voluntary on the part of the Protestant clergy and laity. No State Church and no State Church authorities, as such, have done anything to inaugurate or en- courage such a movement. It does not fall to the GERMAN PROTESTANT CHURCH. t3 province of State Church government. There is, therefore, no mission or any other extra-congrega- tional Church work carried on by the govern- ment or by the State Churches. In America Synods and Conferences, and in England the Established Church or the various organizations of the Non-conformists, are, as a rule, the real found- ers and maintainers of the various mission enter- prises, although privately organized societies are also active in the work. In Germany this entire work is done by privately organized associations, which have been called into existence solely by the zeal and the energy of those whose hearts prompt them to labor for the extension of Christ's kingdom. Foreign mission work by the German Protestants is accordingly purely a work of faith, and it is this fact that has controlled the organi- zation of the various societies. These have not been formed along national or State Church lines. but, disregarding these limits, they are composed of men from all the parts of the Empire who have agreed to conduct mission work on a certain doctrinal basis and in accordance with certain mission principles. The difference accordingly between the various associations are those of doctrine and dogma Chiefly. Forexample, the Her- German Mission mannsburg Society is distinc- societies. tively Lutheran, a- is also that of Leipzig and Neudetteslau, and the Free Church of Hanover, although not all are equally pronounced in their denominational bias. Again, thevarious societies that find their chief constituency in Prussia, with their headquarters in Berlin, represent various schools, differing more or less from each other within the Union Church of Prussia. Again, the Basel Society, which, while its institutions are 74 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. situated in Switzerland, is really a German asso- ciation, ignores the differences between the Lu- theran and Reformed Churches, and basis its work on a broad Evangelical foundation. Again, cer- tain societies are the organizations that have been collected around some prominent mission worker, as is the case with the Gossner Society, while some other associations aim at a particular kind of work in the foreign field, as the Women's Society for the Christian Education of Women in the East, or purposely confine their activity to special fields of labor, as the Jerusalem Society of Berlin. In this way local and other causes have con- tributed to the division of the foreign mission work in Germany into many countries, not a few of which are small and their work very limited. This same spirit of division and subdivision along the line of theoretical differences, which has been so potent a factor in the historical and ecclesiasti- cal development of Germany in general, has also been in evidence in the foreign mission work of the Churches. Then, too, the Germans have not yet appreciated the old truth that in unity there is strength. While it is not in the practical field that the Germans have shown any superiority or leader- German Mission ship in the department of foreign Literature. missions, they certainly have done so in the field of mission literature. Indeed they have created a science of mission, in so far as such a discipline exists at all. The leading living authority in this line is Professor G. War- neck, of the University of Halle, who occupies - the only chair in Christendom that is devoted ex- clusively and alone to the study of missions. His three- volume work on Missions Lehre is the only scientific exposition of missions in existence, while GERMAN PROTESTANT CHURCH. (Q the Alegemeim Misswns-ZeUschrift, edited for more than twenty-five years by the same specialist, is the chief organ in the world for the discussions of the theoretical problems of missions. The range of these discussions is chiefly Biblical, the purpose being to determine what the Apostolic precept and example teach with reference to the proper man- ner and methods, ideals and aims of missioD un- dertakings. As a consequence, German mission methods are Evangelical and Biblical, and not under the influence of a well-meant but unwar- ranted enthusiasm. No German worker in mis- sions would ever be moved by the cry of " Evan- gelization of the world in the present generation," he being content to seek out what the Lord's ways are in the matter and then to do it in the Lord's way as best he knows, leaving all the results and the success or failure to God. German mission work is conservative, but pronouncedly Biblical in ideals and methods. In accordance with this position the German school is systematically at work in trying to awaken the interest and the Bird , s . eye View of co-operation of the Church mem- German i • , i • n i Mission Work. bers m the cause, especially by regular Missionsstundm. These ••mission hours" are lectures or sermons in which especially the Biblical ideas and teachings concerning the out- spread of the kingdom of God among men are discussed, while in many cases these discourses are devoted to reports and accounts from the mis- sion field, given not as mere matters of fact, but as illustrations and examples of Scriptural mis- sion ideals. A classical collection of such mi.— ion studies, which have proved to be great educational helps to the German Churches, has been pub- lished by Warneck and Grundemann. 76 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IX GERMANY. An excellent idea of the present status of the twenty-three mission societies formed in connec- tion with the German Protestant Church can be gained from the following report, giving the data at the close of the nineteenth century. It ap- peared originally in Warneck's Zeitschrift for Jan- uary, 1901, from the pen of Pastor Dohler. The leading particulars are the following : OTJ t CO e3 Name of Society and Mission a; a; « 1 •BJ-.8 a a eS O £ w as Fields. £ 5 0> o 3-2 aptize Meml 8 *S have their children baptized. Among the most discouraging work th -y had to do was to i leal with those who were given to a life of prostitution ; yet it was reported that twenty-five per cent, of these had been regained for morality and a Christian life. Children as young as eleven years were found to have sinned in this respect. A branch society is the association called "Dienst an Arbeits- l&ren," which seeks especially to help those who are out of work. They provide meals for the needy, and seek to gain employment for them. Their meetings on thirty-two Sundays during 1 899 were attended by 23,333 visitors, and not a few in danger of being lost were restored to their friends. The city mission work is not by any means con- fined to Berlin. In fact, it was not even first begun in the capital city, the first having been established by Wichern, the father of Inner Mis- sions, in Hamburg, in 1848. At present no fewer than 71 German cities are thoroughly organized in this respect, and in this service 22o missionaries are employed, of whom 41 are regularly ordained pastors ; and in addition 57 women workers and 158 volunteers. Naturally in Berlin the work has assumed the largest proportions. Its annual income is 180.000 marks, and its workers average 80.000 house visits a year. Its work has been an 90 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. inestimable benefit to the Protestant Church of Germany. 3. Working men's Colonies. — There was recently assembled in the city of Berlin a congress consist- ing of representatives of the thirty-two working- men's colonies, which have been established throughout the Empire and which have been doing an inestimable good in the solution of the social problem in general and of the tramp perplexity in particular. These colonies consist of farms and factories, in which the unemployed can find opportunity for work, a temporary home under Christian influences, and the chance to retrieve a lost manhood and respectable standing in society. They are a kind of Keely institute for tramps, voluntary and involuntary, who are anxious to reform. The whole movement, inaugurated on a somewhat small scale by Pastor von Bodel- schwingh, at Bielefeld, is essentially a specimen of the charity activity of the Church of Germany, although in recent years the political authorities have also aided in the worthy project. The soul and leader of the whole movement is still the indefatigable Pastor von Bodelschwingh, and at Bielefeld he has a combination of institutions that operate on a grand scale, and the Williamsdorf colony, at that place, has an income of more than a million marks, and is the largest establishment of its kind in the country. From the reports of this institution and of the Berlin Convention we repro- duce the following data, indicative of the spirit and tendency of these unique establishments of practical Christian charity : The Williamsdorf institution, before it had been established a year, had more than two hun- dred colonists, and now the number often goes above a thousand. The colonists are composed of INNER MISSION WORK. 91 all classes and conditions of unfortunates. Tt is a mistake to think that they are recruited only < a re- markable degree, and Church influences and societies, and public assemblies of various kinds, are discussing the matter, and that not only in Church circles, hut also in society in general, in the lecture rooms of the universities, etc. Only recently the leading professorsof the University of Bonn issued a joint appeal to university circles to aid in counteracting the evil, which is so harmful to the students. A prominent German Church writer recently said : " It is becomea part of good 7 98 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. society manners, in some places, to be a total ab- stainer." A noteworthy indication of the inroads which the propaganda is making in the alcohol business is the singular appeal which the Berlin dealers made in this matter to the Berlin General Synod, in which they asked for the influence of that body against the temperance crusade, on the ground that they represented a business that sup- plied young men, who had no family ties, with a home, and in that way kept them from becoming- moral wrecks, and that they accordingly cultivated "an inner Christian religious spirit." Pastor Schneider, in his Theologisches Jahrbuch, says : 1 ' Temperance reform is no longer a timid and rid- iculed movement in Germany. It is advancing with flying banners, although it has not yet se- cured its triumph. But the new generation will and must surpass the present in this great field." 6. Fight against Public Immorality. — The com- bat with prostitution and public immorality in general has also assumed notable proportions in Germany under the direction of the Inner Mission organizations. The social evil had spread terribly, and in Berlin alone no less than 50,000 women were plying their trade, and had infected 150,000 men. The work is carried on under the direction of the " General Conference of German Morality Societies," which has been in existence a dozen years, and is represented in local societies all over the country. Its chief aim is to protect women from falling into this great social sin, and, in case they have already fallen, to reform them by the aid of Gospel methods. It is distinctly a Chris- tian and Protestant enterprise, as is all of Inner Mission work. In order to redeem those that are lost in this respect, Magdalen a homes have been established all over the country, and in these INNEB MISSION WORK 99 those women who are anxious to reform have a home and receive Christian treatment, until they are considered strong enough to be allowed to go and work lias been secured for them, if possible in Christian families. Of such institu- tions there are eighteen in Germany, with room for 1100 women, the latest reports giving 822 in- mates. The oldest and largest of these is in Bonn, established in 1873. One peculiar phase of this branch is the Depot Mission work, which sends to all leading stations and trains its repre- sentatives to take in charge and furnish with a temporary home the scores and hundreds of girls who corneas strangers to Berlin and other centres in order to find employment, and thus protect these strangers from the snares of city sharks. Such arrangements have been made in 1211 German towns. A part of the work done by this section of Inner Missions is in the shape of warnings ad- dressed to the young women throughout the Em- pire against dangerous advertisements for help, especially for foreign countries. A special branch of this work is the Society of the White Cross, which has only lately been introduced into Ger- many from Scotland, but already numbers 200 Societies, with a membership of 20,000. It aims t«» labor chiefly among the young men, at univer- sities, colleges, seminaries, and elsewhere in favor of social purity. In addition Versorgungshduser for homeless and friendless women and girls have been established, which together reported 4910 who were helped during the year 1898. _ Work- ing-women colonies have also been established to counteract the evil of female tramps and give such the chance tor reform. Special impetus has been given to this morality crusade by certain revela- tions of the deplorable condition that prevails in 100 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. this regard in many German cities, as the facts in connection with the Lex Hclnze and the Sternberg trial in Berlin became public property. The gov- ernment has been called upon to pass more strin- gent laws with reference to the prostitution evil, and German society as well as German Chris- tianity seems thoroughly aroused in this matter. 7. Rettungahauser. — Under this head are to be included a vast variety of institutions of many kinds, the object of each and every one of which is to provide for the wants of the poor, and neg- lected, and needy. The model for the majority of them is the great orphan home in Halle, origi- nally established by August Hermann Francke, but it includes other establishments than or- phan homes, such as houses of refuge, homes for the blind, the deaf, and the dumb, and unfor- tunate outcasts of various kinds and character. Nowhere else is there a larger collection or a greater variety of such homes than is found in Bielefeld, near the Rhine, where there is a regular Inner Mission colony, consisting of perhaps twenty-five different houses, all managed by the or- ganizing and administrative genius of Pastor von Bodelschwingh, formerly a high Prussian official, but now a most successful servant for a higher Master and King. The income of these institu- tions, which is derived almost entirely from char- ity is more than a million marks per annum. The Bielefeld collection of homes, in which not only the various needs of modern charity arc taken into consideration, but even the various sta- tions and ranks of the applicants and inmates, is one of the sights of Germany, and an object les- son for the Christians of the world. Fully 4000 unfortunates of various kinds are here taken care of. The German Emperor has repeatedly recog- INNER MISSION WORK. 101 nized the vast good thai hasgoneout from Biele- feld, and only recently again he and the Empress made a visit to tins colony. In all there are 343 Rettungshauser in Germany. Wichern's Rauhe Hans in Hamburg was originally an institution of this kind, a school for poor hoys and girls, in which both were thoroughly equipped for life by learning a trade and domestic work. v . The Young Men 1 s Societies of Germany are in many particulars closely akin to the Y. M. ( I. A., and many of the former belong to the interna- tional association of the latter. Probably the leading characteristic of the German societies con- sists in the close connection between them and the congregate >ns, as would be natural in a country where all arc nominally at least in connection with the Church. The object is stated to be "the training of Christian personalities for Church and congregation.' ' They have in recent year- been particularly active in city mis-ion work, especially in Berlin, where among the Mores of colporteurs, who each Sunday go to the restaurants, hack- stands, and wherever men are to be found wh< cannot attend public service, offer a print sermon, there are many members of the Young Men's Christian Societies. Indeed, it is claimed that fully 17<>() men of this kind are engaged in some form of mission work for the Church in the various centres of population in the Empire. For this reason the congregations have in recent years hern taking a warmer interest in the affairs of the Young Men's Societies. The total number of societies is L700, with a membership of 85,000. 9. Young Women's Societies. — The woman ques- tion is very much in the forefront in Germany at present, and the Young Women's Societies aim to make use of this movement for the needs and ed 102 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. requirements of Christian charity. There is a na- tional organization of this character, consisting of 2730 societies, and with several papers devoted to their own needs. In general, the object of the societies is to co-operate in works of love and charity wherever the help of women is required. 10. Workingmen } s Associations. — These are so- cieties organized among the workingmen for the special purpose of counteracting the baneful in- fluence of social democracy, and of keeping the workingmen in the churches. The Protestant so- cieties of this kind number 90,000 adherents, while the Catholic societies have a membership of 154,000. The head of the national Protestant association is the active agitator, Pastor Weber, of Gladbach, near Munich, who is also a leader in the Christian social movement, which has in gen- eral a similar purpose, namely, of keeping the masses out of the clutches of the godless social democratic party. The means of agitation are meetings, literature, and the like. 11. Herbergen zur Heimat. — Throughout Ger- many, in all the larger cities and towns, homes have been established for the entertainment of the traveling public, especially workingmen, who need not go to the public hotels, but can go to these Herbergen, where morning and evening worship is held, grace is said at table, services are held on Sunday, prayer-meetings regularly conducted, and the traveler is sure to find congenial Christian companions. Many of these homes are particu- larly adapted to the needs of workingmen, who thus are kept out of the public houses and drink- ing places. There are 455 such homes, which, in 1897, lodged 1,613,000 guests, and secured work for 113,000 of these visitors. In connection with about half of these homes there are hospital INNEE MISSION WORK. 103 rooms. ( !harges are made just high enough to pay expenses. Indeed, it is almost impossible to report in full the many good things thai the [nner Mission workers in Germany have been doing and are still doing. Probably the best commentary on this usefulness is the fact that the Catholic Church lias been compelled to follow the example of the Prot- estants. In this regard it has. three years ago, or- ganized its " Charitas ' ' movement, which is prac- tically the same as the Inner Missions of the Prot- estants. Germany, which is unfavorably known in many circles on account of its negative criti- cism, though this is really only the work of some savants and not of the Church in general, deserves to be better known on account of the vast Christian enterprises of its Inner Mission work, in which virtually all Germany participates, and which is the best expression of the real faith and conser- vative Christianity of the Church in the land of Luther. While, on account of peculiar circum- stances and conditions, the mission work of Ger- many could not he in all of its features reproduced and repeated in other Christian lands, the intense enthusiasm of its workers deserves commendation, and many of its features, e. .7.. the work of the deaconesses, in congregational activity could very readily be adopted anywhere, especially in larger cities. Inner Mission work, as an expression of extensive Christian activity and as a blessed fulfill- ment of the law of love, deserves close study. CHAPTER VIII. NATIONAL CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS. The immense aggregation of Christian and Prot- estant forces which have been organized into an army of workers for the cause of the Church under the auspices of the Inner Mission propaganda by no means completes the story of what German Christianity has done and is doing to solve the practical problems of the times. In many other ways have the zeal and the faith of the German Christians effected a union of heart and hand for the purpose of doing what the needs of the hour demand in order to fulfill the requirements which Christianity places upon its adherents. It is pos- sible here to mention in outline only a few leading- organizations of this sort which can really be called national. 1. The Gustavus Adolphus Verein. — The largest and doubtless the most influential of these na- tional Church organizations is the Gustavus Adolphus Society, founded in 1832. Its purpose is to provide for those Protestants who live in Roman Catholic neighborhoods, and who cannot themselves make provision to supply their spirit- ual wants, and hence are in danger of losing their Protestant consciousness and faith. It has accord- ingly been named after the great Swedish king, whose work in the Thirty Years' War reallv saved (104) NATIONAL CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS. L05 the Protestant cause from being crushed by the hosts of Rome. The society is organized entirely along general Protestant lines, intends to serve the whole Protestant Church in all of its branches, and hence ignores the denominational differences and distinctions. Its work consists chiefly in building churches, school-houses, and parsonages for poor congregations, supplying them with pastors and teachers, and in general helping them until they ,-an become self-supporting. The society really consists of a union of local associations scattered all over Germany, of which there are at present 1891, to which" are to be added 563 special women societies. The income lias for many years passed the million-mark line, and. according to the last annual report, had been 1,384,956 marks. In addition to this, the 45 chief societies into which the local societies are combined have endowments valued at nearly six million marks. The legacies during the past twelve months amounted to 446,828 marks. During this same year the society has tinished 35 church build- ings, 13 parsonages, 8 school-houses, and had be- gun the erection of 29 new churches, 8 parsonages, and 2 school-houses: 58 congregations had be- come self-supporting during the year, while only 8 new congregations were added to the list. The hulk of the congregations supported by the society are found in Catholic Silesia, viz.. 133; while East Prussia has 22 ; West Prussia, 81; Posen, 110; the Rhine districts, 84; Bavaria, 112 ; the Palatinate, 54 ; Baden, 108 ; Alsace Lorraine. 39. The work is by no means confined to Germany. Especially have the Austrian prov- inces adjoining Germany profited by the generos- itv of the Verein. It 'has aided materially the 106 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. lk Los von Rom" movement in Austria, especially by distributing Bibles, prayer books, and pam- phlets, erecting churches, etc. In Bohemia the society has 113 stations ; in Moravia, 56 ; in Aus- tria Silesia, 32 ; in Upper Austria, 15 ; in Lower Austria, 13 ; in Steiermark, 21 ; in Tyrol, 8 ; in Galesia and Bukowena, 124 ; in Transylvania, 81 ; in Hungary, 95. In the Orient the society has done much to help the Armenians, especially by establishing orphans' homes and supporting orphan children, and has given the Emperor the sum of 36,000 marks, to be expended by him for these purposes. In addition to these plaees, the society carries on its work in France, in Belgium, in Italy, in South America and elsewhere. 2. Diaspora Conference. — In no organic connec- tion with the Gustavus Adolphus Society, yet pur- suing similar purposes, is the Diaspora Conference work, which aims to offer the word of life to the Germans who are scattered in every clime and country, and who would otherwise be neglected if the conference did not send them its representa- tives. This organization works not only among the Germans who are settled permanently in for- eign lands, and are not provided for spiritually, but also for such places as summer resorts, winter resorts, etc., where a larger or smaller number congregate for the time being. The Diaspora work is the most cosmopolitan in the German Church, and its field is literal^ the world. 3. The Lutheran Gotteskasten. — This organization has exactly the same general purposes as the Gustavus Adolphus Society, but with the exception that its labors are confined to the Lutheran Church, and that its propaganda is entirely for the ben- efit of confessional Lutheranism. Its founder was NATIONAL CHUR< tGANIZATIONS. 107 the famous Leipzig Church historian. Dr. Kahnis, in 1854. Its membership is entirely recruited from tlie Lutheran State Churches, mostly fr North Germany, Saxony and Hanover being the chief contributors. According to its last report its yearly income was 75,303 mark.-, which was ex- pended as follows : For the diaspora of the Luth- eran State Churches, 30,997 ; for Independent Lutheran Churches in Germany, 13,202 ; for Aus- tria-Hungary, 17,543; for other European coun- tries, 2694 : for extra European countries, 7958 ; for the education of preacher- and teachers. 4635 : for miscellaneous purposes, 7732 marks. \n re- cent years this God's treasury has found a good held in Brazil. 4. The Evangelical Bund. — One of the most ag- gressive and active associations in the Church of Germany is the Evangelical Bund, a national or- ganization, the purpose of which is "to fight Rome with tongue and pen." It is one of the fruits of the KuUurkampf. When Bismarck finally brought this great contest with Lome to a close by a compromise, in which, according to the opinion of friend and foe. the Roman Catholic Church was not the loser, the Bund was organized at once, in order to protect Protestant interests and sharpen Protestant consciousness and convictions. Its principles were wide and aimed to he broadly Evangelical, the bond of union being rather the negative principle of opposition to Lome than the positive profession of Protestantism. It enlisted the sympathies especially of the educated classes, and among its nearly one hundred thousand mem- bers there i^ an exceptionally large representation of pastors, professors, teachers, and others in the iniiue.ntia.1 ranks of life. Its chief means of 108 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. propaganda is literature, agitation, and education. Among its leaders are such men as the late Pro- fessor Beyschlag, of Halle, and Professor Nippold, of Jena. On account of danger from the Roman Catholic Church many have joined this organiza- tion who are not in favor of the liberal theology which is represented in its leadership and its pro- ceedings. Although the Bavarian Protestant State Church is very confessional in its Lutheranism, yet of the 900 Protestant pastors in the kingdom it is claimed that 400 are in hearty union with the Bund. Its chief object of attack is the Ultra- montanism of the modern Roman Catholic Church, and to this society chiefly is to be attributed the fact that, notwithstanding the great political power of that Church in the German states, they have not yet been able to accomplish their great ambi- tion, namely, the recall of the Jesuit and kindred orders. Its most notable acquisition in recent years has been the convert, Count von Hoens- broech, formerly himself a Jesuit, but now a most scholarly antagonist of that order. How- ever much the more or less undefined theological position of the Bund may subject it to the criti- cism of those who want clearly defined principles, the fact remains that the society has done much to arouse Protestant self-consciousness in the Ger- man nation. 5. The Bible Societies. — While the German Bible Societies do not command the means at the dis- posal of English and the American Societies, yet the former have been exceptionally fortunate and successful in spreading the Scripture in all the ranks and stations of life. The following will give a bird's-eye view of these nine societies, the statis- tics being those for 1898 alone : NATIONAL eJHRell ORGANIZATIONS. 109 V — 3. Berg Society of Elberfeld. 1. Prussian Society 104,381 2. Wurtemberg Society 54,635 30,615 31,342 4,463 1,532 2,598 34,459 Saxon bociety Nurnberg Society , Alsace Society Schleswig-Holstein Society . . , Can stein Society of Halle. . . 9. bamburg Society 16,000 Total of German Societies 280,025 During this same year Germany used from the British Societv 55,105 Scotch Society *. 29,904 American Societv 2,1105 61,035 94,705 65,336 7,468 4,673 2,757 1,054 1,967 11,000 268 10,532 5,280 272 395 210 250,013 151,634 41,143 7,321 [65,684 159,872 101,231 39,100 5,931 4, -t'.i'.l 3,652 36,426 27.000 16,597 546,995 ,174 ,985 300 238,913 73,032 10,529 Grand total 367,939 450,111 51,416 869,466 This makes an average of 16^ new Bibles or parts of Bibles to every 1000 inhabitants for this one year, which is an excellent showing, and is an improvement on the preceding twelve months, when it was 1-1 yV for each 1000. Some of the features of the Bible distribution methods which have been adopted by these socie- ties are unique. One of the noteworthy facts is that the number of revised Luther Bibles used is rapidly increasing. Special efforts are made to publish cheap editions, one of the New Testament at 10 pfennigs, or 2 cents, and a whole Bible, with the Apocrypha, at 1 mark, or 24 cents. The Wurtemberg Society also publishes an excellent and critical edition of the Greek New Testament for 25 cents. The most of these societies have the rule of presenting each newly married couple with a copy of the Scriptures, and for the year covered by the report they disposed of 27,263 110 THE PKOTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. copies for this purpose. The Wurtemberg Bible Society also practically makes a present to each newly confirmed boy and girl of a copy of the Bible, and last year used 20, 900 copies for this purpose. It also publishes an edition for the blind, of which kind they have disposed of 13,288 copies of the whole or parts of the Scriptures. The work of these societies is well organized, the Prussian alone having 186 branch societies organ- ized throughout the Empire. Of the 10 pfennig New Testament over 150,000 copies have been sold. Special arrangements have been made with the political authorities, so that all members of the army and navy have copies of the Word. Saxony alone, during the year 1898, secured from the Saxon Bible Society 2143 Bibles and 1442 New Testaments for its army corps. It will suffice to mention the names and describe briefly a number of other Church organizations, the membership of which are found throughout the Empire, and which are accordingly national in character. Among these are the Pastors' Associations, called ' ' Pfarrervereins, ' ' which aim to discuss the interests of the pastoral calling and the pastors as such, and to emphasize the wishes which they can reasonably make of the state and of society. Among others, it arranges to secure for candidates suitable places and provides for the needy daughters of deceased pastors. It has in recent times especi- ally been engaged with the problem of the rights of the pastors as inspectors and visitors of the public schools, particularly as far as the religious instruction is concerned. Then, too, it has been making its influence felt in the direction of a con- solidation of the various German State Churches NATIONAL CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS. Ill into one organized body. Over 4000 pastors be- long to these societies. The Evangelical Church Hilfsverein, organized in 1888, enjoys the special favor of both the Em- peror and the Empress, audits purpose is to labor particularly in the large congregations, in which, on account of the large number of members, each soul cannot receive the care at the hands of the regular pastor that it should have. It purposes to supply this deficiency, and its whole work is to implant the principles of the Gospel in the hearts of the neglected masses of the large city charges. It is thus a special branch of city mis- sion work, and has done excellent work. It ex- pends about 400,000 marks per annum for its work. The Verein for the History of the Reformation aims at the publication of new data and material from the period that gave birth to the Protestant Church, and its membership is accordingly re- cruited chiefly from among the professors of the universities and the educated ranks in general, both pastors and laymen. Its headquarters is in Halle, and it expends per annum about 30,000 marks and more for its purposes. The German Kirchengesang Verein is also a society of specialists, its aim being indicated by its name. It consists of 21 provincial organizations, and has done much to make the German Christians appre- ciate more keenly their great riches of hymns and spiritual songs which it has inherited from its ancestors. The Verein for Religious Art dates back to 1853, and its purpose is to foster an interest in and love for the beautiful in connection with Church archi- tecture and the public services. Its objects are 112 THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY. also liturgical, and its work is done chiefly through its publications, for which it expends each year some 35,000 marks. The Evangelical Africa Verein has the Gospel interests of the newly acquired colonies in Africa at heart, although its work is somewhat different from that of the mission societies, the purpose being also to educate and civilize in the Christian sense the blacks under German dominion. Only in comparatively recent times have the Reformed made an effort to awaken a new interest in that Church and to unite for work also the adherents of this communion. This resulted in the organization of the Reformed Bund in 1884, with headquarters in Berlin. Its purposes are chiefly practical Church work, but it also issues a new Reformed Church paper and other publi- cations in the interests of the Church. These and other associations and societies of German Protestant Christians are at work, and as all of them are doing this voluntarily, with little or no assistance from the state, the fact and the success of these undertakings is evidently sufficient that the Protestants of the land of Luther are not idle onlookers in the vineyard of the Lord. THE END. Date Due 1 FE 9 '5 3 FE 23-53 (E BW6005 .S36 The Protestant church in Germany. A Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 1 1012 00018 1547