er ministerial duties, and regulate his walk and
conversation, according to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ as
contained in Holy Scriptures, and that he will observe this constitution
while he remains a member of this Ministerium." (655.) Within the New
York Ministerium, therefore, ministers could no longer be required by
their congregations to pledge themselves on the Lutheran Confessions.
According to the constitution doctrinal discussions were permitted on
the floor of Synod, but only with the express proviso "that the
fundamental principle of Protestantism, the right of free research, be
not infringed upon, and that no endeavor be made to elevate the
Ministerium to an inquisitorial tribunal." (679.) Thus the entire
heritage of the Reformation, together with its Scriptural principle and
cardinal doctrine of justification by faith, had gone by the board, the
unionism and indifferentism of the Halle pastors having served as the
first entering wedge--just as in Halle Pietism and subjectivism, an
essentially Reformed growth, foreign to sound objective Lutheranism, had
given birth to the ugly child, afterwards, when grown up, named
_Rationalismus Vulgaris_.

JOHN CHRISTOPHER HARTWICK.

31. The Eccentric Wandering Bachelor.--Hartwick (Hartwig, Hartwich,
Hardwick) was born 1714 in Thuringia, Saxony. Coming to New York in
1746, Berkenmeyer had him subscribe to the Loonenburg Church
constitution. His parish included the congregations at Rheinbeck, Camp,
Staatsburg, Ancrum, and Tar Bush. The capriciousness with which
Hartwick, who remained an eccentric bachelor all his life, performed his
pastoral duties soon gave rise to dissatisfaction. Complaints were
lodged against him with Berkenmeyer, who finally wrote against him
publicly. In 1750 Muhlenberg conducted a visitation in Hartwick's
congregations, and reports as follows: "He went to Pennsylvania too
often, and that without the permission of his congregations, etc. He
did not sufficiently prepare the young for confirmation, by simple
instruction in the Catechism; is too austere in his dealings with the
people; does not always permit them to see him; does not maintain order
at public worship; begins services an hour or two after the time fixed;
has long hymns sung and preaches long, so that those who come from a
distance must drive till late into the night and are compelled to
neglect their cattle. He is headstrong (koppich), that is, self-willed,
and will not allow an