# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1855 08 14_S201
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's doctrine shall pass away now and nevermore." Rev. John, Chap. 14, v. 6. 7.

Published by the German Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States.
Edited by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 11.  St. Louis, Mo., August 14, 1855.  No. 26.

Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks at the yearly subscription price of One Dollar for subscribers living out of town, who pay in advance and bear the postage. — In St. Louis each single number is sold for 5 Cents. Only the letters which contain communications for the paper are to be sent hither to the editor; all others, however, which contain business matters, orders, cancellations, money, etc., are to be sent under the address: Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

(Contributed by Pastor Brauer.)

The Distress of the Lutheran Church since the Death of Luther, and Her Deliverance from It through the Religious Peace Concluded at Augsburg on the 25th of Sept. 1555.

A historical contribution to this year's celebration of the Jubilee of the Peace on the coming 25th of September.

Continuation.

Introduction of the Interim in Saxony.

Saxony, and Wittenberg especially with its university, had until then been the true fortress of the Lutheran spirit; from there the kingdom of the Roman Antichrist had first been attacked, then beaten and broken. Thither the eyes of all faithful confessors now turned with great expectation. How often, too, had the most cunning designs of the wicked enemy come to shame against Luther's faith and confession. How often had Luther's word from Wittenberg given the combatants light and certainty, courage and resolution. And what position would this Wittenberg now take toward the enemy pressing in so dangerously? It had to be an event of significance not for Saxony alone, but for the whole evangelical world.

Luther was dead, the old Elector John Frederick a prisoner. In the hands of the new Elector Maurice and of Luther's old friend Melanchthon, who next to Luther had contributed most to the Reformation, lay first of all the preservation and safeguarding of the dearly bought purity and freedom of the Church of God. — The imperial decree of union, the Interim, came very inconveniently to Maurice, and it placed him in embarrassment; for when he took possession of his land he had given the Estates the solemn assurance not to change the constitution of religion, a promise which the Emperor also, for the sake of the dangers of the war at that time, had confirmed. Now that the danger was past, the Emperor regarded his given assurance as nothing, and together with King Ferdinand at Augsburg pressed him several times earnestly, indeed violently, to accept the Interim and introduce it in his land. Maurice felt himself obligated to the Emperor by the transfer of the electoral dignity, was also at the same time, because of secret plans against the Emperor, anxious to arouse his suspicion by decided opposition, and the opinion of his counsellors, especially of the double-dealing Carlowitz, his favorite, likewise tended toward showing himself accommodating to the Emperor. So Maurice gave an answer politically shrewd, but perilous to his own soul because it denied Christ: As for his own person he had nothing against the Interim, but without the consent of his Estates and theologians he could decide nothing in matters of religion, though he would do his utmost and best to move them to accept it. The Estates, assembled at Meissen concerning the acceptance of the Interim, were however very difficult and gave a decidedly negative answer. The Emperor then gave Maurice the advice to hold to the same procedure in Saxony which he had applied with success to the Estates of the Empire in the upper country, namely tyrannical compulsion to the imperial union. Above all he should also no longer tolerate Melanchthon, who at first had issued an opinion against the Interim, but remove him from his office and drive him out of the land. In these tangled circumstances Maurice now hit upon the unhappy, most dangerous thought of bringing about a still finer mixture of truth and falsehood, a new middle way, a new union, and indeed between the Lutheran Church and the Augsburg Interim. By the incomplete introduction of the Interim the Estates were to be satisfied, by the closest possible approach to it the Emperor. And to this grievous, foul work the Saxon theologians were to lend a helping hand.

Now everything depended on whether Melanchthon and his colleagues could be brought to so refined a union, to indifference toward the leaven, to lukewarmness, to halting between two opinions.

Melanchthon (see Ranke V, 75—89) had been recalled to Wittenberg after the university, scattered by the war, was set up again, and had accepted the call all the more gladly because his dearest friends and like-minded colleagues lived there, and it was his ambition, as he said, to save the wreckage from the great shipwreck and to restore the university's reputation. The new government under Maurice sought to show itself agreeable to him in every respect, he was consulted in affairs, regard was taken of his recommendations, he was occasionally defended before the Emperor,