IREN1C MOVEMENTS 143 



in effect a belief in these doctrines. But 

 it was a question whether this union has 

 been a great benefit to the German Church. 

 Brought about by the will of the king, 

 not meeting any deep need or response in 

 the hearts of the people, it naturally alien- 

 ated those earnest souls who held firmly to 

 the Confessions, to whom doctrinal loyalty 

 and strictness of faith and denominational 

 love were the life of their life. A church 

 cannot afford to part with these. The 

 men in whom the Lutheran tradition was 

 a living reality remained out of the union, 

 and the harsh measures of the king alien- 

 ated multitudes. Steffens was deprived 

 of his professorship and died in exile. 

 Guericke, of Halle, ministered to a small 

 company of Lutherans in his own house, 

 and was for that deprived of his professor- 

 ship. Many clergymen were imprisoned. 

 After 1840 these harsh measures were in- 

 termitted, and the king consented to the 

 formation of a Lutheran Church, which 

 was constituted in 1841. Then there were 

 three churches instead of two. And yet 

 there was something noble in the thought 

 of the Prussian king in consolidating the 

 churches of his dominions, thus facing a 



