[Image]  [Hi-Res Image]

Page 332

opinion the best preparation for a, clerical career was pedagogy, and, as a matter of fact, the early Lutheran pastors had invariably been teachers, a profession to which many of them returned when better salaries were offered, while many more were employed in both professions simultaneously. In Hesse pedagogy was a necessary step to the ministry, but such a system became impractical with the increasing demands on the clergy and the development of public school teachers. Nevertheless, the close connection between the two professions still continues, and the pedagogic activity of young theologians from early times is now represented by their employment as private tutors or instructors in private schools.

The earliest recognition of the fact that the interval between the completion .of study and installation should be devoted to practical work was con-

tained in the Saxon church order of 8. Practical 1580, which required of all pastors a and preliminary deaconate under regular

A like purpose was the object of the " preachers' societies " or " preachers' colleges" after the beginning of the seventeenth century. It was not, however, until the commencement of the eighteenth century that institutions were seriously organized in behalf of theological candidates. In 1735 the consistory of Hanover directed that " seminaries " be established for theological candidates who had passed their first examination, their duties there being essentially those of the deaconate. In like manner the Dresden consistory, in 1788, placed the candidates for the ministry under the supervision of the superintendent. This led to the present Saxon system whereby the candidates are formed into a society over which the superintendent presides, meetings being held at which assigned subjects are discussed. Another method of theological training is the vicariate, a system peculiar to Wurttemberg. Immediately after passing their first examination, candidates are employed in practical church work, being first ordained. They are now called vicars and are made assistants to some pastor, who is required to supervise their theoretical and practical progress. They then receive parishes of their own, under the supervision of an older pastor, or are appointed assistant pastors in larger churches with a relative degree of independence, though required, until they receive definite charges, to report regularly on their progress to the ecclesiastical authorities. This system has been imitated in other branches of the Lutheran Church, as in Baden, Hesse, Schwarzburg-Sondershausen; Prussia, and Hanover. The vicariate lasts a year, and usually ceases with the second examination. In addition to these two systems, a number of national churches have established special preachers' seminaries for the further training of candidates for the ministry. The first traces of these institutions date from the time of Pietism. As early as 1677 a number of theological candidates were received at the hospice of Loccum, where they were to assist in the cloister school and occasionally in preaching. This aided in the establishment of the oldest true

Evangelical seminary, that of Riddagshausen near Brunswick, whose constitution is dated Sept. 27, 1690. Though its statutes contain nothing specifically Pietistic, the close relations of the contem, porary duke of Brunswick, Rudolf August, with Spener, as well as passages in the writings of Veit Ludwig von Seckendorf (q.v.) and Spener, imply that Riddagshausen was essentially a foundation of Pietism. The seminary contained twelve candidates of superior ability, who were to remain at least a year, and, if proved suitable, two or three years. The canonical hours were observed regularly, time was given daily to Biblical exegesis, and each Tuesday evening was devoted to disputations, while sermons alternated with catechizings. The seminary lived on, with many vicissitudes, until 1809, when it was destroyed by the French invasion. Another seminary was founded at Dresden in 1718 by Valentin Ernst Loacher (q.v.), but it succumbed in the troublous period of the Seven Years' War. In 1735 yet another pietistic seminary was established at Frankfort under the supervision of the senior of the clergy.

Rationalism, with its love for the practical, accepted the seminary; and its influence is apparent in the rescript of Charles Frederick of

logical made not only for thorough study of Seminaries. the Bible with the help of antiquities and church history and for preaching and catechizing, but also for classics, the history of Baden, mathematics, physics, agriculture, and botany. The transformation of Loccum into a seminary for preachers and the foundation of the seminary in Hanover also date from the rationalistic period. In 1800 the courses in the former institution were revised by Abbot Salfeld, who placed a " director of studies " at the head of the seminary and organized the criticism of the exercises partly by the director and partly by the students themselves. This reorganization was taken as the basis of the courses drawn up in 1820, when the modern development of the institution began. After long negotiations the seminary at Hanover was established in 1816, its model being Loccum, though it contained at most only five members and had a director for only a brief time: It was reorganized in 1854, and in 1891 was transferred to Erichsburg near Markoldendorf. While opposition to seminaries was not lacking, doubtless due in part to the rationalistic interest in such institutions, many of the conservatives favored them. Thus Frederick William III., in a special cabinet order of May 27, 1816, insisted on the need of such seminaries and urged the establishment of additional ones. The sole result of his appeal, however, was the foundation of the seminary at Wittenberg, in part compensation for the city's loss of its university, in 1817. It was not until 1854 that the matter of seminaries was again taken up in Prussia, when the royal Domkandidatenstift was founded at Berlin. This was followed by the establishment of the Kandidatenkonvikt at Magdeburg in 1857 for the training of teachers of religion in secondary schools, and by the seminaries of Soest (1892), Naumburg-on-theQueis (1898), and Dembowalonka (1899; now called