# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1855 07 17_S187
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

187

noon, instead of the catechization, a well-comprehensible picture of its preeminence and proper purpose be given to the common people, who have no sound conception of the exceeding worth of the precious Religious Peace."

In the Electorate of Saxony the jubilee was celebrated on Monday the 29th of Sept.; whence, because the Feast of St. Michael fell on the following day, it took on the appearance of a three-day high festival.

In the Hanoverian territory it was ordered that "in the country and in the places where there is only one preacher, catechization be held in the afternoon and the doctrine of the Christian Church be treated therein." Where confession was not to be held on the day before, at least a preparatory vespers should be held. At the close of the festival, after the pronouncing of the blessing, the hymn: Now thank we all our God, etc., was to be "sung, where it is customary, with trumpets and kettledrums or trombones, and thereafter rung three more times with all the bells and music made from the towers."

In Augsburg there was distributed among the school youth a lovely picture with the title: "Jubilee and Peace Painting, taken from Matth. 8, 23., Mark 4, 37. ff., Luke 8, 23. ff." The painting represented the Church under the image of a ship on a tempestuous sea, in which JESUS sleeps and is awakened by his frightened disciples. On the right side stands: Religion in the form of a veiled matron, her head crowned with thorns and radiating flames of devotion, on her left arm a leaning cross, in her hand a book, on whose edge "Evangelium" is to be read and from which two seals hang down, by which the Sacraments are indicated, which are likewise signified by a baptismal basin with ewer and a chalice with host on the book as the seals of the Gospel. Above the book one beholds, on a rock on which "Christus" is written, a church built, above which a palm tree weighted with a stone rises up. On her right arm hang two keys, to indicate the office of the keys. Below, the dragon spits fire against the Church. On the left side stands Hope in the form of a maiden, who with a cheerful countenance points to the ship, on her head a dove with an olive leaf, setting her anchor upon the name of God wreathed with a glory, with the inscription Ps. 125, 1. and Ps. 121, 2. Above the ship flies an angel with a fluttering streamer, on which one reads the words: "Rage on as you will, O raging sea, it remains yet unharmed." Below is the city coat of arms, surrounded by a palm and olive branch, with the inscription: "Imperial Recess dated Augsburg the 25th of Sept. 1555 and Hagg. 2, 10. Under the whole tableau stands the explanatory description of the picture in verses. Incidentally, since the close of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 a similar Peace picture has been distributed annually among the school children in Augsburg. In like manner the Religious Peace is pictorially represented on the title page of the Erfurt "Denkmal der Jubelfeier." Within a border of palm and olive branches, in whose lower middle lies a horn of plenty, one sees the ark of Noah as it has settled down on Ararat, toward which the dove with the olive branch flies and over which the sun breaks through the clouds.

In Einbeck in the Hanoverian territory the festival was rung in as early as 4 o'clock in the morning, and the first festival service was begun already at 5 o'clock in the morning, the church being "pleasingly adorned with flowers, foliage and many kinds of gilding" and "brightly illuminated with lights." After the close of the afternoon service the school choir sang from the tower of the church of St. Jacobi: "Glory be to God on high," with instrumental accompaniment; after the end of each verse the cannon were fired from the ramparts of the city and a volley was given by the young citizens from small arms, and "in such manner this festival was concluded for this time with the liveliest expressions of joy to the praise of the Most High." Almost the same was the whole jubilee celebration in Freiberg in Saxony.

In Erfurt the school children of both sexes not only went in procession into and out of the church, but after the afternoon service the preachers in the various schools also gave the children short addresses, whereupon each child was handed a copy of the "Erfurtisches Denkmal" (a children's writing) and a Gotha jubilee groschen (a memorial coin struck for the festival).

In Halle on the Saale, on the occasion of the festival celebration, a collection was taken for the poor by basins set out at the church doors. Of Halle in Swabia it is reported among other things: "After the noon sermon the entire school youth of the five classes of the Gymnasium, likewise of the catechetical school and of the six other German schools, was led to the churchyard of the principal church, raised 50 steps high, and by them were sung the hymns: Allein Gott in der Höh, etc. Nun laßt uns Gott, den Herren, etc. Ach, bleib mit deiner Gnade, etc., to the sound of cornets and trombones. With hearty emotion and mingled tears of joy one thought, at so many hundreds of tender treble voices, of the words of Holy Scripture: Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise, O God. In the country the school youth were likewise led to the churchyards and by them those hymns were likewise sung under the open sky. Finally, in the evening church after the sermon the song of praise: Lord God, we praise Thee, etc., was sung by the alumni kneeling before the altar and by the congregation standing, under the firing of the heavy artillery, and with all the bells the high festival was rung out in city and country." Here, in the city of the old Brenz, there was also performed on the festival day, on the tower of the principal church, morning, noon and evening, "a solemn music with trumpets and kettledrums."

In Meiningen the German and Latin school with their teachers went in procession into the church, followed in solemn procession by the city council with the ward masters and the whole citizenry. "The little girls and boys of the lower classes, placed in the middle of the choir, offered the festival prayer kneeling."

In Nuremberg, among other things, a great oratorical act was held in the German language by the pupils of the Gymnasium, in which a whole company of pupils appeared together and set forth the circumstances and significance of the Religious Peace in the form of a dialogue, after the then school rector Jungendres had delivered an introductory address on the theme: Whether it is detrimental to a land to tolerate more than one religion therein; which the speaker answered in the negative, giving his reasons.

In Erlangen even the Reformed took part in the jubilee celebration. The then Margravial court preacher Ganzenbach preached on Is. 26, 1—3. (which text the renowned Reformed exegete Vitringa also interprets of the Religious Peace) and presented "the precious jewel of the Religious Peace, or the blessedness of liberty of religion and conscience." In the sermon it says among other things: "We have, my dear friends, enjoyed this precious jewel of liberty of religion and conscience also in our small congregation until this hour most gratifyingly, and by virtue of the privileges founded upon this Religious Peace an unrestricted free exercise of our Reformed Evangelical religion in this land, and every one, if only he had wished, under his vine and fig tree could lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Therefore it behooves us also to take part in this evangelical jubilee festival and to sing along: A mighty fortress," etc. Another Reformed preacher, by the name of Hollard, who served a congregation in Erlangen consisting of French emigrants or rather refugees, writes in his jubilee sermon: "The Lord has procured for us a safe refuge here, where for 70 years we have been able to serve God undisturbed. This demands of us that we praise His grace and faithfulness and take upon ourselves the marks of the liberated true Church."

In Essen arches of joy and honor were erected throughout the whole city, and in the evening a general illumination was held, in which a house called the "Lutheran Wieme" was especially remembered. This house was indeed nothing but an old dilapidated hut. But in it there had lived a weaver who, having come to the knowledge of the pure evangelical doctrine, began in the year 1561 to teach the little children Luther's hymns in this house, whereby he gave the first occasion for the Reformation in Essen. In remembrance of this event, so important for the whole city, they therefore adorned the house with a transparency (a translucent painting lighted from behind by lights), which represented the old schoolmaster with the children learning Luther's hymns, and beneath which the following rhymes appeared in letters of light: