The Golden-Wedding Ring; A Souvenir of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Marriage of John and Catharine Croll to Be Celebrated October 29, 1887 ... (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887 Excerpt: ...and necessary step may be Questionable with some; to him it was not. He longed for a less rigid type of Lutheranism and for that greater freedom of action which the name, of Luther guarantees. He apparently anticipated no difficulty in securing a letter of honorable dismission from the President of the Ministerium; but in this he was of course disappointed. After frankly stating his proposed course in a letter to the president, that official decided to refer his request to the Ministerium at its next meeting. However honorable Mr. Croll was in all his doings, looking at the matter from the stand point of the Ministerium we are not surprised that it was unwilling to lose an important charge without making strenuous efforts to retain it. Mr. Croll's plan was to state the whole matter to his churches. He was to resign and then to allow the congregations the privilege of deciding their synodical and pastoral relations by vote. In pursuance of this plan he resigned in the latter part of March, 1868. But the proposed voting never took place, having been frustrated by the opposition of his enemies and a committee of the Ministerium. Whether under other circumstances Mr. Croll would have received a letter of honorable dismission, to which he was undoubtedly entitled, the writer knows not. But the President ofthe Ministerium, with some show of reason, refused Mr. Croll's request because he charged the Ministerium with holding the Romish doctrine of the efficacy of the sacraments as an opus operatum. The. President protested, denying that the Lutheran Church cherished such views. Mr. Croll was technically, at least, in error. He probably meant to say that such teachings were practically promulgated by many of the individual pastors of the Ministerium with whom he cam...