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Church Organization in Brandenburg–Prussia from the Reformation to 1740

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2011

Reinhold A. Dorwart
Affiliation:
Connecticut State College

Extract

For obvious reasons, a study of the organization of the Church in Brandenburg-Prussia must begin with the formal acceptance of the Reformation in those territories. The Reformation was not accepted officially in Brandenburg until after the death of Joachim I in 1535. His son and heir, Margrave and Elector Joachim II joined the Protestant ranks in 1539. Prior to this time the Church in Brandenburg had been an integral part of the Catholic Church of Rome; and local church organization and the supervision thereof had been in the hands of the episcopal consistory. This latter body attended to all the business of reviewing and supervising the administration of its diocese, of issuing the reports of the bishop or administrator, of appointment of apostolic visitors, and of the government, temporal administration, and discipline of seminaries.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1938

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References

1 Corpus Constitutionum Marchicarum, ed. by Chr. Otto Mylius, 8 vols. in folio. (Berlin and Halle, 1736–1741.) Hereinafter referred to as Mylius. Mylius, 1,1, No. 2.

2 Mylius, I, 1, No. 6, Col. 274.

3 The Hufen-Geld was a land tax based upon a hide of land. This income, as the ordinance reveals, was allocated to the upkeep of the Consistory.

4 Mylius, I, 1, No. 7, Col. 320.

5 Mylius, I, 1, No. 7, Col. 275 ff., and Altmann, W., Ausgewählte Urkunden zur Brandenburgisch-Preussischen Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsgeschichte, Vol. I, pp. 47–50 (Berlin, 1914).

6 Instruction of Feb. 9, 1600. Mylius, I, 1, No. 11.

7 The Kammergericht was the supreme civil court for the Mark Brandenburg.

8 Perhaps it should be pointed out that a “college” as used here was a Seventeenth Century administrative institution which was the equivalent of a ministry of state. It differed from more modern ministries in that it consisted not of one man as minister, but of a board acting collectively as a minister. Decisions were reached by majority vote, the group was collectively responsible for its decisions.

9 The close similarity between the sphere of jurisdiction of the former Catholic episcopal consistory court and the Consistarium should be noted.

10 In a letter sent to the President of the Consistory. Mylius, I, 1, No. 13, Col. 355.

11 Mylius, I, 1, No. 17, Col. 361.

Any desire to draw an analogy between the efforts of the Consistory to encroach upon the jurisdiction of the civil courts, and the medieval conflicts between lay and spiritual courts (e.g., Thomas Becket and Henry II) should be suppressed. There is no conflict between State and Church, but only a jurisdictional rivalry between two separate services of the State administration.

12 Mylius, I, 1, No. 63, Col. 417–18.

13 Mylius, I, 1, No. 68, Col. 423.

14 L'Etat et les églises en Prusse 1713–40 (Paris, 1897), pp. 135–36.

15 The General Auditoriat was the Supreme Military Tribunal of the army which was exempt from all civil, criminal and spiritual courts.

16 Mylius, III, 1, No. 96, Col. 278–75.

17 Mylius, III, 1, No. 96, Col. 265–78.

18 Pariset, op. cit., p. 136.

19 The union of the two churches had to wait until 1817.

20 Mylius (Corpus Constitutionum Marehicarum), I, 1, No. 83, Col. 447. The Reformed Church Ordinance of October 24,1713, informs us of the date of establishment. For its contents one must turn to von Mühler, Geschichte der evangelischen Kirchenverfassung in der Mark Brandenburg (Weimar, 1846), pp. 219–22.

21 Mylius, I, 1, No. 88, Col. 447–64.

22 Mühler, op. cit., p. 226.

23 Mühler, op. cit., p. 221.

24 Mylius, I, 1, No. 131, Col. 563.

25 O. Hintze, “Die Epochen des evangelischen Kirchenregiments in Preussen,” Historische Zeitschrift, Vol. 97, p. 96.

26 Pariset, op. cit., passim and Hintze, Acta Borussica, Die Behördenorganisation und die allgemeine Staatsverwaltung Preussens im 18. Jahrhundert, Vol. VI, Part I, pp. 134–39.