and
report their judgment on the proposed alteration or abolition of our
Licensure System has been responded to by fifteen synods. Out of this
number all the synods, excepting three, have decided against a change.
Your committee have to report the judgment of the Church to be decidedly
against any change of our long-established regulations on this subject,
and therefore deem it unnecessary to enter on the discussion of the
merits of the subject, in this report, and propose the adoption of the
following resolution: Resolved, That the great majority of our Synods
having expressed their judgment against any change in our Licensure
System, your committee be released from the further consideration of the
subject." (20.) The great dearth of ministers accounted for this action.
Even before 1727 there were in Pennsylvania more than 50,000 Germans. In
1751 Benjamin Franklin expressed his apprehension that "the Palatine
boors" would Germanize Pennsylvania. In 1749 more than 12,000 German
emigrants arrived. In 1750 the Germans in Pennsylvania numbered about
80,000, almost one-half of the inhabitants of the State. And more than
one-half of these were considered Lutherans. In 1811, however, when this
number had greatly increased, the Pennsylvania Synod reported only 64
ministers, of whom 34 were ordained, 26 were licensed to preach, and 4
were catechists. The number of ministers sent from Germany had been
augmented by such as had been tutored by pastors in America. Chr. Streit
and Peter Muhlenberg, for example, were instructed by Provost Wrangel
and Muhlenberg, Sr. Another pupil of Muhlenberg was Jacob van Buskirk.
H. Moeller, D. Lehman, and others had studied under J. C. Kunze. Jacob
Goering, J. Bachman, C. F. L. Endress, J. G. Schmucker, Miller, and
Baetis were pupils of J. H. Ch. Helmuth. H. A. Muhlenberg, who
subsequently became prominent in politics, and B. Keller were educated
in Franklin College. Later on some attended Princeton and other Reformed
schools to prepare themselves for the Lutheran ministry! To make matters
worse, the ministers who, toward the close of the eighteenth century,
came from Germany were no longer adapted for their surroundings, which
were rapidly becoming English. Besides, Halle and the other German
universities had grown rationalistic. According to the Report of the
General Synod in 1823 the Lutheran Church in America numbered 900
churches with only 175 ministers. (9.) The same report states: "The
anc