45930 Divine Call CTCR final - The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

they were never without some role. At the very least, they had the right of
refusal or veto power over a candidate. A few examples may suffice.
In the heartland of Luther’s Reformation, the domains of the Ernestine
branch of the Wettin family, the grandsons of Elector John the Magnanimous,
the confessor of Augsburg, issued instructions for ecclesiastical visitors
in 1554. These instructions laid down a procedure for replacing a pastor
who had died. The elders (Kirchenveter) of the congregation were to
inform the ecclesiastical superintendent of the area within a day of the pastor’s
death. He then was to provide pastoral care through a neighboring
pastor for a month. During that month the superintendent, together with
the members of the congregation (Pfarrkinder) and its noble patron, was to
designate a candidate for the pastorate. This candidate was to preach two
or three times in the congregation. If the entire congregation, or a good
majority of them (along with the noble patron), found him acceptable they
were to inform the superintendent in writing. This report was to include
an evaluation of the candidate’s teaching and life, his nature and conduct.
The superintendent would then obtain princely confirmation of the call,
after which he could proceed with ordination, if necessary, and installation.
Such a candidate was also to submit to a theological examination
before the court preachers of the dukes and his chaplains, with a trial sermon
(often called a Probepredigt as one part of their review). 30
In Albertine Saxony, to which the electoral title and the lands around
Wittenberg passed in 1547, procedures were similar, although with variations.
Town councils and congregations were to choose their pastors and
then send them to the superintendent. The superintendent would conduct
the examination of the candidate’s teaching and life before sending him on
to Wittenberg with his and the town council’s recommendation. There the
new candidate would be confirmed by the elector, further examined by the
theological faculty, and then ordained. 31 After the publication of the Formula
of Concord in 1580 Jacob Andreae and his colleagues composed a
new ecclesiastical constitution for Elector August. It provided rather extensive
details regarding candidates for the pastoral office. Andreae and his
colleagues were concerned that no congregation have a pastor imposed on
them against their will. Local governmental officers were to make certain
that no nomination come from the local congregation through its superintendent
unless the congregation had first heard “several public sermons”
from the candidate. The superintendent also had to ask the people of the
30
Die evangelischen Kirchenordnungen des XVI. Jahrhunderts, ed. Emil Sehling et al., I
(Leipzig: Reisland, 1902), 226.
31
Sehling, 313, 321.
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