Genealogical Record of the Schwenkfelders xxiii

page xxiii



promptly set up the worship of Almighty God in their new home. They were without a pastor, but fortunately not without a man qualified by many gifts and graces to fill the sacred office. That man was George Weis. He had been selected on the eve of departure from Lusatia to "give instruction to the children, and render such other spiritual services as might be required," and had conducted the thanksgiving services on arrival in this country and perhaps other services, and having proved acceptable, was, in December, 1734, elected by the "house fathers" to the pastoral office. He served with great acceptance till his death, in 1740, when he was succeeded by Rev. Balthasar Hoffman.

It was natural to expect that the remaining Schwenkfelders would follow their emigrant brethren as rapidly as circumstances would admit. Such, however, was not the case. The very violence of the missionaries worked its own temporary cure, and for a time the necessity for flight was removed. Says Kadelbach:(*) "The respective local rulers, lords of the soil, saw with indignation the expatriation of their most active and peaceful subjects, and the decline of the prosperity of their communities." Thus was an influential public opinion awakened against the missionaries, not so much, indeed, by the outrageous cruelty of their methods, as by its effects on the public prosperity; but it was none the less potent, and its pressure was felt in a quarter where it was least expected to be respected. The same author says: "Even the Catholic clergy of the surrounding country declared themselves by no means in accord with the behavior of the missionaries, and were greatly dissatisfied with this sort of conversion." Of course this meant a change of tactics, and the Schwenkfelders had comparative rest for a few years.

(*)Ausfurliche Geschichte Caspar Schwenkfelds und der Schwenkfelder in Schlesien, der Ober Lausitz und Amerika, Lauban, 1860.


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