LUTHER QUADRICENTENNIAL. 



LUTHERANS. 



503 



and added that any formal clmrch service in 

 which the Lutheran movement should be pub- 

 licly commemorated " would gender strife, 

 encourage discord, and hinder individual spir- 

 itual life." If such an encomium were to be 

 pronounced by the archbishop in the minster, 

 he himself would be absent from the service. 

 The archbishop purposed to deliver the ser- 

 mon, not in the cathedral, but in another 

 church in the city. He, however, took prompt 

 occasion to affirm his right to deliver it in the 

 minster, and at the same time to set forth his 

 own position in the matter >, To the " Times " 

 he wrote : " Every time we use the church 

 service, and particularly the holy communion 

 service in our churches, we affirm the Refor- 

 mation. Every candidate who is ordained, and 

 every clergyman who receives a benefice does, 

 by signing the Thirty -nine Articles afresh, 

 which attest the Reformation. Every year, 

 when the convocation meets within the pre- 

 cincts of the minster, we return thanks, in 

 the convocation prayer, for the blessings of the 

 Reformation, and for our deliverance from 

 the papal tyranny which once here prevailed. 

 While it is true that the English Reformation 

 was accomplished in a different manner from 

 the Reformation in Germany and other coun- 

 tries, yet it is nevertheless true that the possi- 

 bility of a religious reformation in any part of 

 Europe sprang in a large part from the intense 

 personal conviction and contagious faith of one 

 man Martin Luther." 



This York discourse, delivered on Saturday, 

 was repeated on Sunday, Nov. llth, in West- 

 minster Abbey. It embodied a eulogistic state- 

 ment of the great facts in Luther's career, 

 closing with a summation of the reasons why 

 he should be held in special reverence by the 

 Church of England. u The Anglican Church," 

 said the archbishop, " bears a much nearer re- 

 semblance to the German Reformed than^ to 

 the Protestant system which prevailed in Switz- 

 erland. Our Church joined with Luther in 

 protesting against the Zwinglian doctrine of 

 the eucharist ; and, out of the Thirty-nine Ar- 

 ticles, not less than fourteen were derived from 

 the Confessions of Augsburg and Wurtemberg. 

 It has, moreover, been conclusively shown that 

 in countries where the Reformed religion pre- 

 vailed, there was more order, more liberty, 

 greater prosperity, greater industry and enter- 

 prise, than existed in countries which professed 

 the Roman Catholic religion. This was not 

 the result of race, but was equally evident 

 when comparison was made between popula- 

 tions of the same race professing the two dif- 

 ferent religions. How great, therefore, is the 

 debt we owe to the great reformer whose teach- 

 ings had brought about such results! This 

 was certainly a memory which Englishmen 

 would never let die." 



What may be styled the popular movement 

 in England was headed by the Earl of Shaftes- 

 bury, the chairman of the Lutheran Commem- 

 oration Committee. Among the immense meet- 



ings held was one at Exeter Hall, where clerical 

 and lay orators spoke in the same strain with 

 those from whom citations have been made. 



In America. In the United States the com- 

 memoration was widely observed, though with- 

 out any ostentatious public display. On Sunday, 

 Nov. llth, the day following the anniversary 

 of Luther's birth, there were few prominent 

 Protestant pulpits in which the work of the 

 great German was not made the theme of com- 

 ment and eulogy. Large meetings were held 

 in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Brooklyn, 

 Baltimore, Chicago, Pittsburg, Princeton, and 

 other places. In Cincinnati, Monsignor Capel 

 delivered two discourses in the cathedral, in 

 which he treated of Luther from the Catholic 

 stand -point. 



LUTHERANS. Considerable discrepances exist 

 between the computations of the statistics of the 

 several Lutheran bodies in the United States as 

 given in the different year-books. 



The "Church Almanac" (General Council) 

 gives summaries as follows: 



Brobst's "Lutherische Kalender," also rep- 

 resenting the General Council, gives: 



The German Synod of Iowa and the Norwe- 

 gian Augustana Synod, classed in the " Church 

 Almarvac" among the independent synods, are 

 regarded in the Brobst " Kalender " as affili- 

 ated in sympathy with the General Council, 

 though not officially connected with it. If 

 their members were added to those of the Gen- 

 eral Council, the strength of that body would 

 be, according to Brobst, 879 ministers, 1,675 

 congregations, and 240,009 members. The sum 

 of the members shows, according to Brobst, an 

 increase during the year in the entire Lutheran 

 Church of 153 pastors, 292 congregations, and. 

 36,181 communicants. 



Of educational institutions connected with 

 the several bodies and particular synods, the 

 u Church Almanac " enumerates 1 9 theological 

 seminaries, 18 colleges and universities, 29 

 academies, and 16 seminaries for young wom- 

 en. The charitable and benevolent institn- 



