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98 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Eiohetsett Eisenach Conference persweil, but yielding to his desire for a hermit's life, is said to have gone to the summit of Mount Etzel, and thence to the still more impenetrable wilderness of the mountain forests. There he is said to have tamed two ravens, which, when be was murdered by robbers in 861, followed the criminals to Zurich and convicted them of the crime. It was not until the tenth century, however, that a monastery was erected in this region, when Benno and Eberhard are said to have made the first at tempts to gather monks about the deserted cell of Meinrad. Authentic history begins with 947, when Otto I. granted immunity to the cell and to Eber hard, and allowed the free choice of an abbot. Otto L, Otto IL, and Henry II. gave rich gifts to the cloister, and until the thirteenth century the control was in the hands of the counts of Rappersweil. After the time of Rudolf, on the other hand, it was controlled by the house of Austria, and was accord ingly involved in the struggles between the Swiss Confederacy and the Hapsburgs. The Sempach war broke all bonds which held Einsiedeln to Aus tria, and after the end of the fourteenth century the monastery belonged to the Canton of Schwyz, although it was decaying rapidly when Zwingli was its parish priest. The Zurich Reformation depopulated Einsiedeln, but under the administration of the first civil abbot, Joachim Eichhorn (1544-69), it revived, and in the seventeenth century, during the rule of Placidua Reymann, the Documenia archivii Einsidleresis were printed, while the librarian of the monastery, Christof Hartmann, wrote its history in his Annales Heremi (Freiburg, 1612). The monastery was burned repeatedly, but underwent no essential change until 1798, when it was entirely destroyed by the invasion of the French and the establish ment of the Helvetian Republic. In 1801 its restoration was begun and its importance steadily increased, until at its millennial celebration in 1861, it contained nearly 100 monks, and a daughter house was founded in the United Staten by Abbot Heinrich at St. Meinrad, Ind., in 1854. Einsiedeln is ~ especially famous as a center of pilgrimage from Switzerland, the neighboring dis tricts of Germany, and from France and Austria. These pilgrimages began in the tenth century, and in 1895 reached the number of 210,000. The chief day is Sept. 14, regarded as the date of the divine dedication of the church in 948. The center of devotion is a statue of the Virgin, originally fiesh colored, but blackened by the smoke of the lights and lamps which burn continually. It stands in a small chapel in the church of the cloister, which, like all the buildings, was erected in the eighteenth century. (G. MEYER VON KNONAIT.) BIBLIOGRAPHY: O. Ringhola, Wallfahrtapeachichte unaerer lichen Frau von Einaiedeln, Freiburg, 1896; idem, Ge achichte den fiiratlichen Benediktinerstiftea . : . von Ein aiedeln, Einaiedeln, 1902 eqq (in progress); A. Huhn, Der jetzipe Sliflabau Maria-Einaiedeln, ib. 1885. Earlier materials will be found in T. von Mohr's Repeaten der Archive in der Schweizeriachen EidgenoaaenarAaft, vol. i., Bern, 1848; Liber Heremi, ed. G. Morel, in Gesehirhta- freund, vol. i.. Einaiedeln. 1843; G, von Wyss Ue6erdie Antiquitakmoraalerii . . Enidlenaia and ,den Liber Hersmi, in Jahrbuch far aehmeiseriade Geechichta, vol. a., lass. EISENACH CONFERENCE (KONFERENZ, EVAftGELISCH-B.IRCHLICHE); A gathering of German Protestants which has met at Eisenach, usually every other year shortly after Whitsuntide, since 1852, forming at present the
Origin only official bond between the Evanand gelical State Churches of Germany.
Purpose. The corporate name of the conference is Evangelisch-Kirchliche Konferenz. As early as 1846 at the instance of the king of W iirttemberg a conference of delegates from the German State Churches met in Berlin to find ways and means for establishing a more intimate con nection. Owing to the disturbances of 1848, the cause made little progress, but it was revived in 1850 and 1851. The church authorities agreed upon an order of business for a periodically recur ring conference of delegates " to discuss freely, upon the basis of the Confession, the more important questions of church life and to form a bond of union, without interfering with the independence of each individual State Church, and to promote the uni form development of their conditions." The con ference met for the first time at Eisenach June 3, 1852, under the presidency of Court Preacher Carl (von Griineisen q.v.) of Stuttgart to whose efforts chiefly it owed its existence. Twenty-four church governments were presented. In later meetings the authorities of all German State Churches have taken part, including Austria. The conference lasts about eight days and is usually opened on Thursday in Trinity week by a service in the chapel of the Wartburg. The archives used to be in the Luther room of the Wartburg, but are now in the grand-ducal castle in Eisenach. The expenses are met by contributions from the different states which take part.Although originally the purpose of the conference was to aim at harmony in principles of church administration by purely advisory measures, in the course of time it has undertaken executive functions with the tacit approval of
Topics the church authorities. A revision of of Dis- the liturgies was advocated as early
cussion. as 1852, but was found impracticable on a large scale owing to the difference of confession. Questions which touch the church service were discussed, however, as the introduc tion of passion-services in Lent (1855) and the restitution and revival of catechization (1865). Attention was also given to the education of clergy men and the administration of their office, as in the discussions concerning the order of promotion in 1857 and 1859, pastors' colloquies in 1863, and other similar questions. Consultations were also held on the inspection of the administration and life of clergymen (1852 and 1853), the secret of the confessional (1857 and 1859), and the cooperation of congregations in filling clerical positions (1855). Other subjects of discussion have been: the advi sability of supplementing the episcopal form of government with presbyteries and synods ,(1852, 1874, 1878, 1880); the question of marriages be tween Evangelicals and Roman Catholics (1853); marriage and divorce (1855, 1857, 1868); the atti tude of the church authorities to the protectorate