tion
the pastors were pledged to obey the Ministerium. In Weygand's call the
clause was embodied, "that he would submit to the investigation and
judgment of the United Pastors and the Venerable Fathers" in Halle.
(452.) The manner in which Kurtz was bound appears from the following
points of the "Revers" which he had to sign before his ordination in
1748: "2. To consider my congregation nothing but a part of the United
Congregations. ... 4. To introduce no ceremonies into the public worship
or into the administration of the Sacraments other than those which have
been introduced by the College of Pastors of the United Congregations,
also to use no other book of forms than the one which will be assigned
to me by them. 5. To undertake nothing of importance alone nor with the
assistance of the church-council, except it have been previously
communicated to the Reverend College of Pastors, and their opinion have
been obtained, as well as to abide by their good counsel and advice. 6.
To render a verbal or written account of my pastorate at the demand of
the Reverend College of Pastors. 7. To keep a diary and daybook and to
record therein official acts and remarkable occurrences. 8. Should they
call me hence, to accept the call, and not to resist." (305.) Before his
ordination Pastor J. H. Schaum had to sign a "Revers" and, with a
handclasp, seal the promise to the United Pastors that he as their
adjunct "would be faithful and obedient to them." To the congregations
the Ministerium did not only prescribe the liturgy, but appointed and
removed their pastors as they saw fit. Pastor Schaum's call to New York
was signed by the four pastors, Muhlenberg, Brunnholtz, Handschuh, and
Kurtz as their own vocation, in their own name, not in the name of the
congregation. (327.) The congregation at Lancaster desired Kurtz as
their pastor instead of Handschuh, whom the Ministerium was planning to
send to them. Muhlenberg, however, reports: "We bade them consider this
and demanded a short answer, giving them to understand that, if a single
one of them would be restive and dissatisfied with our advice and
arrangement, we would consent to give them neither the one nor the
other, but would turn to the other congregations still vacant and leave
the dust to them. They must consider it a special favor that we had come
to them first." Graebner comments on this as follows: "One can safely
say that there could be found to-day in all America not a single