Page:Thirty-five years of Luther research.djvu/149

Rh Wittenberg, 1535 — Bugenhagen plainly speaks of an ordination that is not only an installation79 However, in Wittenberg the old custom was clung to until 1535.

Thanks to the investigations of G. Rietschel we know that Luther conducted such an ordination October 20, 1535. Buchwald quotes the address that Luther held on this occasion. Afterwards Drews calls attention to the fact that candidates were already ordained in Wittenberg before the 14th of August; he even calls our attention to a writing of the Elector of the 12th of May, in which attention is called to an edict of the Elector that those about to be ordained should be sent to Wittenberg, for the "learned men of Holy Scriptures" should ordain them. Drews also proves that in connection with this the candidates were no longer to be examined by the superintendents as heretofore, but by the theologians in Wittenberg. The faculty turned over the ordination to Bugenhagen. The doubts of Bugenhagen concerning the edict of the Elector79a did not concern the ordination itself, but had their cause in his conviction, already expressed in his church constitution for Pommerania that the candidates for the ministerium should be examined by their home superintendents, solemnly bound to do their whole ministerial work in accordance with the Word of God by their home bishops (or superintendents) and then be installed by laying on of hands and prayer in the midst of the congregation by which they had been called.79a Although it was Bugenhagen who was to officiate at the ordinations, yet Luther often took his place. When, in July, 1537, Bugenhagen went to Denmark for a period of two years, Luther officiated regularly and began "the catalogus ordinatorum," which Buchwald has published.

The ordination generally took place on Sunday, after