Lutheranism and the Ministerium of Pennsylvania: Its Beginnings to the Late 1700s

When I started this position at the Lutheran Archives, I really did not have a lot of background knowledge in Lutheranism as a religion, or the history of it nor the Ministerium of Pennsylvania as an institution. All I knew was a very minimal outline of the formation of Lutheranism in America due to my interactions with Historic Trappe and the Muhlenberg family. I figured a lot of you might be the same, though probably with different connections to Lutheranism, or might just have a general interest in American history and therefore would be interested in learning more.

Beginnings of Lutheranism as a Religion

Martin Luther, 1483-1546
Painted by Frans Gustaf Axelsson Morén Held by LACP

As someone who was not raised within the Lutheran tradition, I really had no understanding of Lutheranism. And as for my knowledge on Martin Luther, I really only knew what was basically taught in history class at school: that he rebelled against the Roman Catholic institution. Upon my research, I learned that Luther rebelled because he believed that the Pope in Rome as well as other Roman Catholic figures were overly concerned with the politics, wealth, and power that was closely tied to the religion, rather than to the religious teachings and morals themselves. At the core of this new-founded religion was justification, or the belief that humans can be absolved by their sins only by God, and not by any performative acts, an obvious counter to the message that Luther and others believed was the basis of the Roman Catholic church. This foundational aspect of Lutheranism, as well as other points concerning the practice of the new religion, were mainly found in Luther’s various writings. However, they were interpreted in a multitude of ways, which led to many issues after his death. In fact, even though Lutheranism spread quite widely throughout Europe, each area had different practices and organizational methods. While it didn’t cause too many problems across Europe, because different areas did have their own church(es) that taught the specific regional approaches towards Lutheranism, this became a challenge once Lutheranism was taken to the New World.

Start of Lutheranism in Colonial America

Lutheranism had a hard time taking hold in America and in the western hemisphere in general. Early attempts to form Lutheran settlements were made in Venezuela (1528 by the Welser family; it collapsed and no presence of Lutheranism remained), in Canada (1619 by Jens Munk and chaplain Remus Jensen; most of the settlers died), and in British Guiana, or present-day Guyana (1743; this was the most successful of the three, but had issues in securing pastors). Finally, a permanent Lutheran settlement was established in the West Indies in the late 1600s.

In the 1600s, Swedish and Dutch settlements, which most likely contained some Lutherans, were formed around the Hudson, but the colony, and Lutheranism, had a rocky start. Lutherans in the area faced hardships as it was not viewed as a highly esteemed religion in the colonies; similar to Jews, Baptists, and Quakers, Lutherans weren’t allowed to publicly and freely practice their religion. Eventually, though, freedom of religion became more tolerated, allowing for the Lutheran population to not only practice their beliefs, but also to send for a Lutheran pastor; this provided further hardship, as it took a number of years before one was secured. After this and into the eighteenth century, more and more Lutherans emigrated to the New World from Europe, each creating their own small Lutheran communities. Because these immigrants had come from various countries (the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and even Poland), they each already had their own approaches to practicing Lutheranism. Adding on top of that vastly different small communities throughout America that then honed in on their own preferences for practice, Lutheranism lacked a unified identity in its structure. This continued on for a number of years, where the presence of Lutheranism, the creation of more and more churches, and the need for more pastors grew immensely.

A Map of the Lutheran Church
in the Time of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg
Printed by MOP for the 1942 Bicentennial Anniversary of HMM in America

At the beginning of colonization of the New World, a lot of Lutheran immigrants were Swedes and Finns. However, during the late seventeenth and, especially, eighteenth centuries Lutheran immigrants were mostly coming from Germany, settling first in areas like New York and North Carolina, but then also eventually to Pennsylvania. Unlike previous Lutheran colonists who received aid and direction from their native countries, these German Lutherans did not have any governmental or church support in their journey to and settlement of America. In fact, because conditions in Germany were quite poor due to war, famine, sickness, etc., a lot of the German Lutheran immigrants travelled to America as indentured servants, where they would be required to work off the cost of their journey for a set number of years before they could live ‘free’.

By the mid-1700s, a lot of these formerly indentured German Lutheran servants were able to buy land, and most of them decided to do so throughout central and eastern Pennsylvania. This led to vastly spread out Lutheran congregations that required their own churches, ecclesiastical literature, and pastors, all of which were very much lacking during this time. Especially acquiring officially ordained pastors was difficult because they could only come directly from Europe, a process which was very slow moving if any pastors were sent at all. This led to congregations being led either by clergymen from other Reformed sects, or else by ‘fake’ (i.e. not officially ordained) Lutheran pastors. Eventually, the few congregations that were led by true Lutheran pastors grew frustrated with the situation and attempted to unite to fix the problems. However, it wasn’t until the arrival of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg that any progress was made.

Henry Melchior Muhlenberg
by C.W. Paech, copied by J. Eichholtz
image held at LACP

Henry Melchior Muhlenberg attended Halle University in Germany, where he hoped to subsequently lead foreign Lutheran missions. He was sent to America to do just that in 1742. Up until his arrival, even though Lutheranism was spread across the colonies, it still was not structured or really interconnected. Despite only formally being the lead pastor of three congregations in Pennsylvania, unofficially Muhlenberg was the architect behind the structuring of American Lutheranism. This is because, whenever a relatively nearby Lutheran congregation had an issue, Muhlenberg was summoned to solve the problem. He also was responsible for acquiring more ordained pastors from Germany to preach in America, ousting a lot of the ‘fake’ pastors that had taken hold and recovering Lutherans from other Reformed churches. Despite all of Muhlenberg’s mighty efforts, he was only one official Lutheran pastor who had the help from only a handful of others in caring for Lutheran congregations that spread from Delaware to New York. The solution would be to get more ordained pastors, but again, action from Germany, in the form of sending ordained pastors to America, was slow-going if it happened at all, and, initially, Muhlenberg did not feel he had the authority on his own to ordain Americans. But now with his group of ordained ministers, he felt that ordination was possible. In fact, this was one of the topics of discussion behind the first meeting of the Pennsylvania Ministerium in 1748 by Muhlenberg and the other ordained pastors.

Ministerium of Pennsylvania

Signatures of the President and Secretary of the MOP
during the formal recording of the MOP's constitution. From A5 1781-1821.

This Pennsylvania Ministerium, which would later become known as the Ministerium of Pennsylvania and Adjacent States(or MOP), not only came together in order to discuss ordination in America, but also to attempt to form a more formal structure of Lutheranism within the country. Namely, this meant setting up annual meetings as well as approving a common liturgy; this did not, however, include the creation of formal rules or a constitution.

For thirty years Lutheranism in America continued in this way. But with Lutheranism continuing to grow, and with the conclusion of the Revolutionary War as well as the creation of the United States constitution, the Pennsylvania Ministerium felt that Lutheranism could not successfully go on like this, and took inspiration from the newly-formed United States government in creating a more formal constitution. So, in 1778 the Ministerium of Pennsylvania and Adjacent States came together to do so, and the constitution was officially transcribed into the MOP’s records in 1781.

With this formal constitution now formed, American Lutheranism now had a foundation for how it would exist and, especially, how the MOP would be structured. For example, the second chapter/section formalized the duties of the president, which were basically taken from the informal actions that Henry Melchior Muhlenberg had taken on previously basically the superintendent of American Lutheranism. Even though Henry Muhlenberg was no longer actively part of the MOP at this time due to his health, he definitely had thoughts on the formalization of the MOP, which can be found within his journals (which are held within our MOP collection!), and he still had some connections with it as his son and Lutheran minister, Henry Muhlenberg Jr., was the MOP’s Secretary (the President at that time was Emmanuel Schultze).

Image of Emmanuel Schultze's tombstone
which can be found at Christ Lutheran Cemetery
in Stouchsburg, Berks County, Pennsylvania

Henry Muhlenberg Jr.
by C.W. Paech, copied by J. Eichholtz
image held at LACP

Once the MOP was formally established with a constitution, a lot of rapid developments occurred within American Lutheranism due to geographical expansion, the rise in using English within sermons and other religious matters, as well as the prevalence of different approaches towards religion (i.e. Deism and revivalism). That being said, Lutheranism finally achieved a foothold within American religion.

Interested in learning more about Lutheranism, the history of Lutheranism in America, and the Ministerium of Pennsylvania? Check out these resources!:

• Lutherans in America: A New History by Mark Granquist (available at The John E. Peterson Reference Library→ call number BX8041.G67 2015)

• The Lutherans in North America edited by E. Clifford Nelson (available at The John E. Peterson Reference Library → call numberBX8041. L87)

• Wiki articles: Lutheranism, Martin Luther, Ministerium of Pennsylvania, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, and Henry Muhlenberg Jr.

• For more information on Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, Henry Jr., and the rest of the Muhlenberg family, visit Historic Trappe!

Do you have any other requests for blog posts? Whether it be about the history of Lutheranism, more information about the Lutheran Archives, or other more specific topics, let us know, and you might see a post about it in the future!