# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1853 11 09_S47
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

47

made for building the church. It would already be standing finished if we had been willing to build of wood again; but since we have been so abundantly given to, so now on our part also what lies in our power shall be done, and we have therefore resolved to build a church of stone; not in the opinion that we could thereby hinder any possible destruction, but in order that our church may stand as a lasting memorial of brotherly love to the honor of God. Besides our most heartfelt thanks, which we herewith express to our dear brethren in the faith, we cannot refrain from commending ourselves anew to their believing intercession. We ask not only that they pray for us that the Lord, against all the raging and storming of Satan and the world, will guard and preserve our church to be newly built by the protection of His holy angels, but especially that the small measure of tribulation may be wholesome and beneficial to us for growth in grace and knowledge of Christ, that we may become like the crucified Savior, persevere in faith and fight the good fight, that we may at last be crowned with the crown of righteousness and receive the end of our faith, namely the salvation of our souls. We also ask that they remember our adversaries in their prayers, that God may grant them grace unto repentance, and that they may become sober out of the snare of the devil and with us in concord of faith and love walk the one way to heaven.

Neumelle, St. Charles Co., Mo.

A. Claus, Pastor.

A History of the Confiscation of "Spiritual" Goods.

At the time of the Reformation there was at Hayn in Upper Hesse, not far from Waldeck, a Cistercian monastery, in which the monks carried on such shameful, unchaste doings that it became notorious in town and country. Landgrave Philip of Hesse therefore had the monastery abolished and turned into a hospital, in which now every year 500 poor were maintained and cared for. The monks, crying out about church robbery, turned to Pope Clement V., and he brought it so far with the Emperor that the latter sent commissioners to Hayn, who were to reinstate there the abbot with his people in the monastery from which they had been driven out. When the proceedings were to begin, the administrator, Herr Heinze von Lüdder, rose and delivered an address to the commissioners full of power and life, related in it the course of events, depicted the stinking sloth and the bestial licentiousness to which the present fat monks had until then given themselves, finally gave a sign to one standing near and was silent. The door is opened, and a great crowd of cripples, blind, deaf, dumb and insane enters. Thereupon the administrator asks whether it was wished, forsooth, that these wretched ones should be driven out again and those filthy fellows brought in again? All were silent. The case was decided. Despite all the rage of wrath which came into the red faces of the monks with their abbot, the imperial commissioners nevertheless withdrew again, shrugging their shoulders and with their business unaccomplished, and did not dare to maintain that in this way a church robbery had been committed and goods taken from the "clergy" and given to the "laity."

Bloodthirstiness of the Papists

of Our Day According to Their Own Confession.

The reader will hardly trust his eyes when he reads what follows below. And yet it is truth: so writes the "Shepherd of the Valley" (der Hirte des Thals), an organ of the present Archbishop of St. Louis in the State of Missouri:

"We admit that the Roman Catholic Church is intolerant, that is, that she brings to bear everything that is in her power to root out error and sin. This her intolerance follows necessarily from her infallibility. She alone has the right to be intolerant, because she alone is and has the truth. Heresy is, according to her law, a sin which deserves death. The Church tolerates heretics when and where she is compelled to do so, but she hates them mortally and applies all her powers to bring about their destruction. When the Catholics shall one day have an immense majority, which will surely be the case, though only after a longer time, then the religious liberty of this Republic will have an end. That is what our enemies say, and we believe it. Our enemies know that we are no better than our Church, and as for the latter, her history lies open before them. They know how the Roman Church in the Middle Ages dealt with heretics and what she still does today everywhere where she has the power to do so. We also by no means have any intention of denying these historical facts, or of blaming the saints of God [!] and princes of the Church for having done and approved such things. Heresy is a mortal sin, which kills the soul and plunges the whole man with body and soul down into hell. It is moreover a most contagious disease, propagating itself into infinity, which endangers the temporal and eternal welfare of countless generations yet to come. Therefore truly Christian princes will root out heresy in their lands stump and stem, and Christian states will, whenever they only can, drive it out of their territory. And if we now refrain from persecuting heretics here, it happens only for this reason, that we are too weak for it, and believe that thereby we should do more harm than good to the Church which we serve."—

Herr Anstädt's Judgment

on the Controversy of Our Synod with the Synod of Buffalo.

Herr Anstädt, a former pupil of the Gettysburg Seminary, at present editor of the so-called "Lutherischer Kirchenbote," among other things passes the following judgment on the above-mentioned controversy in the last number of his paper: "These two so-called old-Lutheran synods have, as is well known, been at one another's throats fearfully for years and abuse each other in their respective papers, the 'Lutheraner' and 'Informatorium,' in the most shameful manner. For the honor [sic?] of the Lutheran Church and of the Christian name it were to be wished that they would soon put an end to this unchristian business."

In this judgment there shows itself a sense of justice and a valuation of the pure evangelical doctrine worthy of a Gettysburg pupil. This judgment shows that false teachers, who do not spare the name of God, are still much less just toward men, and that they can fall into zeal only when their dear belly is attacked. Earnest contending for pure doctrine is an abomination to them. Their highest aim, when they publish a paper, is many subscribers, because every subscriber is worth a dollar. We gladly admit that much must be allowed Herr Anstädt when he judges falsely about a controversy such as ours, since he has certainly not yet grasped what it is about, and is hardly able to grasp it even with the best will, unless he first makes some studies in Christian doctrine. But that the poor wretch, despite his limitations, of which he must still be conscious, presumes to talk as a man who has understanding of the matter, and indeed in the manner stated above, that betrays a good measure of malice, which deserves chastisement.

In the year 1539, on the 29th of January, D. M. bewailed and lamented the sects which were still to come from false brethren. There will be so much writing, he said, that the least grammarian and philosopher will want to write something special, and we shall fall again into the former old errors, for the devil is a master of a thousand arts, and can deck out and adorn an error in manifold ways.

Luther.

No heretic lets himself be persuaded to depart from his conceived delusion and mind, and to give the truth of God's Word the honor: No, they see and hear nothing, like Michel Stiefel, when in the year 33 he preached that in the same year the last day should come; he neither saw nor heard me. In all my life no adversary has given me so wicked a word as he.

Luther.

The doing and designs of heretics and factious spirits, Jews and enthusiasts is always