# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1850 11 12_S48
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

48

tung in Baltimore, above all others, who opposes to all clear refutations only scorn and mockery and the most wretched antics and commonest buffoon-witticisms. It is indeed true that he for a time thundered mightily in his paper against those subjects who in recent years had risen up against the oppressions and violations of right by Catholic princes; but how little he and his fellow-believers cared about the honor of God, who says in His holy Word: "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers; whosoever resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God," this papal lackey has given in one of the latest numbers of his paper a proof only too plain. In the number of the 17th of Oct. of this year he does not hesitate, among other things, to communicate the following to his readers:

"In the present struggle which the Church has to sustain in Sardinia, the legal state of the case is very simple and clear. The so-called Siccardian laws abolished certain rights, namely the privilegium fori (the privileged jurisdiction) of the clergy (the Roman priesthood), which had been formally assured to the Church by legally valid treaties between the Pope and the King of Sardinia, expressly guaranteed in the Sardinian charter of constitution, unilaterally. Archbishop Fransoni of Turin and the remaining bishops of the kingdom therefore did what their duty commanded them; they protested against these laws and issued circulars to the clergy, in which they instruct them that by those unilateral and therefore non-binding enactments of the State nothing has been changed in the right hitherto existing, and that therefore the clergy in particular, when they should be summoned before secular courts, would also in future have to obtain the authorization of their bishop in order to be permitted to appear before them. The ministry, seeing in this a rebellion against the laws of the State, had the bishop arrested and brought before the court -- and since he, declaring the court incompetent, refused to appear, it condemned him to a month's imprisonment and a fine. Moreover the holy Father in autograph letters to the Archbishop and the Sardinian bishops expressed his full approval of their proceeding and his recognition of their steadfastness. The government, however, persisted in the path it had entered upon, and the Prime Minister Azeglio maintained by repeated notes to the apostolic See that the government was in the right, and that a State could also without the consent of the Roman Court 'change its political institutions.' The tragic end of this fine priestly affair we find in the Cincinnati so-called 'Wahrheitsfreund'; in the number of the 31st of October it says namely there: 'We have the important but sad news to communicate that Archbishop Fransoni has been condemned by the secular authority, allegedly (?) on account of abuse in ecclesiastical matters -- by 13 votes against 1 to immediate and perpetual banishment and to the loss of all his goods. Immediately after this sentence passed at Turin three policemen were sent to Fennestrelle to carry out this decree, which outrages every Catholic heart, and to transport the most reverend prelate over the frontier. The consequences of this step are not to be reckoned. -- A like fate is said to have befallen also the Archbishop of Cagliari.'"

Here we have once more a proof by fact what principles the Roman clergy, with their most unholy father at the head, entertain concerning the authority of the secular government, and what a State has to expect where these gentlemen nestle in. So long as privileges, liberties and rights are granted them, they know how to protest in the most touching manner their warmest attachment to government and fatherland, but woe to the government which (recognizing the threatening danger which a priestly state within the State brings, and the abuse of the privileges granted) wishes to curtail the priests' liberties again and to take them again under its control: the thanks for the long-enjoyed prerogative is then -- sedition and rebellion under the title of defense of ancient good rights.

Whoever knows history cannot wonder at this. It has always been to the Roman priests an intolerable yoke to stand, like other common folk, under "secular" authority. Nothing therefore has ever lain more upon their heart than to have their own courts, in order to settle prettily among themselves whatever shameful thing occurs among them, and to be able to keep it secret from the rabble, who might otherwise soon lose respect for their spiritual fathers. Men have gone so far as to try to persuade the people that a Roman priest, together with the Pope, is free from all secular jurisdiction, not by the indulgence of certain governments, but by divine right. Thus writes, among others, the Jesuit Azorius (died 1607 at Rome) in his book on morals and cases of conscience: "It is of divine right that a clergyman, if he becomes a parricide, robber, betrayer of his country or rebel, and if he has contracted debts, cannot be brought before the secular judge." (Institut. moral. Tom. I. lib. V. col. m. 405.) Thus writes further the renowned Jesuit and Cardinal Robert Bellarmin: "Although at times secular princes have thought that the power is with them to judge also the clergy, as their subjects, at least as concerns temporal affairs; nevertheless all Catholic teachers declare and confess that the Pope is the absolute prince and acknowledges no one on earth above him, not only in spiritual but also in temporal things, and that in like manner the remaining clergy, as the members of this head, acknowledge no secular prince as their lawful superior." (So Bellarmin writes against Paul Sarpi, after the latter had taken part for the Republic of Venice, which Pope Paul V. on account of certain ordinances had laid under the interdict *). Respons. contra P. Servitam p. m. 112.)

*) Interdict means the shameful, blasphemous so-called great ban, with which the Pope, when he still had the power for it, at times laid whole cities and countries under, when they had resisted him, in consequence of which all churches had to be closed and no divine service, no administration of the sacraments, no Christian funeral, etc., might any more be held. Thus Pope Innocent III. laid England under the interdict in 1208, because King John would not allow that Peter's pence should be collected in England and that the Pope should have power to bestow all ecclesiastical offices.

Indeed the Lutheran Church also in several countries has enjoyed the privilege of having a court of its own for its preachers, but it has never claimed it as a right, but has enjoyed it with thanks as a favor so long as it was granted her.

Received for the Synodical Mission Treasury.

From Mr. Heinr. Bardonner in Cicierotown, Ia. $2. 00.
Collection at a wedding in Sct. Louis 3. 50.
ditto in Centreville, Ills. 2. 00.
From H. M. in Altenburg 25.
" P. A. S. 1. 00.
" Mr. Karl Knab 3. 00.
" Mr. A. Wagner 1. 00.
" Frosch 1. 00.
" Mich. Schm. 1. 00.
F. W. Barthel, Treasurer.

Paid

for the 6th volume, the gentlemen Anton [illegible], P. A. H. Lüken, Wilh. Pieper, Poppitz (50 Cents), Heinr. Sievers, Jacob Weber.
" for the 7th volume, the gentlemen Heinr. Bardonner, Jacob [illegible], Georg Eckerdt, P. R. Grätz, P. Nath. Jäger, P. A. L. Lüken, P. Tim. Moser, Poppitz, Georg Retterer, Peter Schmelz, Chr. Senne, P. Sievers (4 Ex.), Heinr. Steltzriede, A. Wagner.

Receipt and Thanks.

I the undersigned acknowledge herewith with thanks that for my journey to Fort Wayne to the seminary I have received duly from the hands of the pastors named
from the Evang. Luth. congregation of Pastor Hoffmann at Schaumburg, Cook Co., Ills. $9. 25.
" the Luth. congregation of Pastor Volkert 50.
and from the Luth. congregation of Pastor Brauer at Addison 1. 50.

The faithful and rich God, who has thereby come to the help of my poverty, be pleased to repay these gifts of love temporally and eternally.

Fort Wayne, the 14th Nov. 1850.
J. H. Werfelmann.

Books and Pamphlets
to be had at the office of the Lutheraner at the prices annexed.

Dr. Martin Luthers kl. Catechismus, unaltered reprint 10.
The dozen $1. Hundred copies $7.
Die Verfassung der deutschen evang. luth. Synode von Missouri, Ohio u. a. St. with an introduction and explanatory remarks 5
The dozen 50; 25 copies $1.
Erster Synodalbericht der deutschen evang. luth. Synode von Missouri, Ohio u. a. St. of the year 1847 10.
Zweiter Synodalbericht of the same Synod, of the year 1848 10.
Dritter Synodalbericht of the same Synod, of the year 1849 10.
Third volume of the Lutheraner, of 1846-47. No. 8-26. 50.
(The 1st and 2nd volumes are out of print.)
Fourth and fifth volume of the Lutheraner $1.
Christliches Concordienbuch, that is, Symbolical Books of the Evang. Luth. Church, New-York edition bound in embossed leather $1. 25.
Gespräche zwischen zwei Lutheranern über den Methodismus, (in pamphlet form) 1 copy 5.
Dr. Martin Luthers Tractat von der wahren Kirche, 2 copies 5.
Dr. Luthers Hauspostille, or sermons on the Gospels for the Sundays and festival days of the whole year, New-York edition, bound in calfskin $2.
Kirchen-Gesangbuch for Evang. Luth. congregations, to which the Sunday and festival pericopes are appended, published by the local Evang. Luth. congregation U. A. C., in embossed leather binding, the copy 75.
The dozen $8 / 100 copies $62. 50 for cash payment.
A B C-Buch, New-York edition, the copy 10.
(The dozen $1.)
Johann Hübners Biblische Historien from the Old and New Testaments. Unaltered reprint, New-York edition, singly 25.
by the dozen $2. 60.
Dr. Martin Luthers Auslegung des 90. Psalms, stitched and trimmed 15.
by the dozen $1. 50.
Spruchbuch zum kl. Catechismus Lutheri. Compiled by commission of the Synod of Missouri etc. by Pastor Fr. Wynecken, the copy 15.
by the dozen $1. 50.
Der Hirtenbrief des Herrn P. Graubau zu Buffalo v. J. 1840 together with the writings exchanged between him and several Lutheran pastors of Missouri 15.

Printed by Moritz Niedner,
North corner of Third and Chestnut Street.