Union lapel
The Union Reverse was an affidavit of the Protestant clergy in Prussia since 1822, which they had to present orally at the ordination and to sign in writing. They committed themselves to general obedience to the king and specifically to the union of the Lutheran and Reformed denominations carried out by him in 1817 .
Historical background
The Hohenzollernhaus was reformed due to the change of denomination of Elector Johann Sigismund in 1613 for political reasons . The country remained Lutheran. The ruling house tried again and again to level the boundaries between Lutheran and Reformed teaching. Since the Congress of Vienna , Prussia has also included large traditionally reformed areas, especially on the Lower Rhine.
In 1817, Friedrich Wilhelm III. the Union, knowing full well that it was incompatible with Article VII of the Westphalian Peace of 1648. In 1821/22 he began to introduce an agenda that he had drawn up himself . The union between the two churches was completed in 1830 with the binding enactment of a common church constitution.
The pastors who rejected such a union for reasons of conscience were dismissed or even imprisoned. Congregation members who wanted to stay with the Lutheran Church were punished with heavy penalties, up to and including seizure.
Friedrich Wilhelm IV put an end to these measures when he took office in 1840. The captured pastors were allowed to leave the prisons. The harassment of the parishioners also decreased.
On July 23, 1845, the king issued the general concession. It allowed "the Lutherans who are separated from the community of the Protestant regional church" to gather in their own parishes under their own church regime, the later Evangelical Lutheran Church in Prussia with the upper church college in Wroclaw .
text
I NN, who I am now called and accepted to the holy preaching office, pledge and swear by God and his Gospel that I neither secretly cherish myself nor preach and spread a different doctrine in front of my listeners than that which is founded in God Loud and clear words, the prophetic and apostolic writings of the Old and New Testaments and recorded in the three main symbols, the Apostolic, the Nicene and Athanasian, as in the unchanged Augsburg Confession of 1530 and the liber concordiae, such as the Evangelical Church in the Lands of His Majesty, King of Prussia, my King and Lord, has unanimously accepted as the norm of faith, and in whose spirit the prescribed and introduced church agenda of the year 1822 is formulated.
I also want to pursue the doctrine of the catechism among Christian youth with all diligence and fidelity, to educate them into worthy members of the united evangelical church, to welcome them as such, to instruct my listeners from God's word, to distribute the holy sacraments according to the institution and ordinance of Jesus Christ and all deviating arbitrary doctrines flee as poison of the soul.
Likewise, I want and will be faithful to my rightful King, His Majesty the King of Prussia, my most powerful sovereign and supreme bishop, so that I seek and promote the king's benefit and best in every way. With life and blood, with teaching and example, with word and deed, I want to defend royal power and dignity, as it is stated in our wholesome monarchical form of government. Likewise, I want to expose it at the right time, if I should learn that something is available to change or abolish this excellent basic constitution in which the welfare of the state existed and continues; and which I will and will obey and comply with in all points. Likewise, as far as I am concerned, I will create obedience to his royal majesty, my most gracious king, and to those who have to command and command on his account; also urge all my parishioners and parishioners to think and speak right at all times about the worldly government which is ordained by God. I also want to strive to maintain the right and proper ecclesiastical order in the community entrusted to me, in accordance with the laws published by His Royal Majesty, I want to exhort it to the practice of godliness, the peace of the country, a pious life and intercourse and mutual love and unity, I want to pray to God for the high authorities, and all my members of the congregation remind them of their submissive loyalty and exhort them to obedience and obedience.
I also want and will show due honor and obedience to my spiritual superiors and faithfully fulfill all that is imposed on me in my office. I do not want to seek my promotion through schemes and illegal means. Every year and every day I want to try to advance in the knowledge of the word of God and the articles of faith and in the other sciences that I need. With God's grace I want to distribute the word of truth rightly and do my office honestly; I also strive for a pure, pious, sober, decent and, to a righteous teacher, decent life, so that I can set a good example before others.
I do not want to get mixed up in worldly matters and things that do not fit my office and that do not suit a clergyman and teacher.
If I miss one or the other piece, and my superiors hold it against me and warn me, I would like to improve myself with God's help.
Such promises and everything else that the church ordinance prescribes, I will and will faithfully comply with all my strength and grace that God bestows, as befits a sincere and righteous Christian clergyman and is responsible before God and people, without everyone Invention and wicked cunning, so help me God in body and soul. Amen.
Termination of the oath
The general synod in 1846 pleaded for the abolition of the so-called Union Reverse in the United Evangelical Church in Prussia . Thereupon the Prussian Minister of Spiritual, Educational and Medical Matters ordered the abolition of this oath on March 27, 1847.
See also
Source: Erich Foerster "The Origin of the Prussian Regional Church". Vol. 2 (Tübingen 1907)