LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Concordia Lutheran Seminary

THREINEN: FRIEDRICH MICHAEL ZIEGENHAGEN 69
III
The German Lutheran Court Chapel to which Ziegenhagen received a call in
December 1722 occupied a unique place in of the German Lutheran scene in
London in the first half of the eighteenth century. For the Court Chaplain
was positioned to advance the cause of the Halle Pietists in India and North
America as none of the other German Lutheran pastors in London were able
to do.
German Lutheranism in England dated back to the time of Edward VI in
the sixteenth century. During his brief reign, Edward had granted a patent to
a building where Germans could worship. In 1559, after Elizabeth I had
ascended the English throne, the patent was renewed but the German
Lutheran congregation which met in the building had to be satisfied to
function under the supervision of the Bishop of London; the Queen’s
theological advisors argued that, under the conditions of an established
church, there could not be another bishop in the diocese, especially a
foreigner. When the so-called Hamburg Church split in 1692 and a second
German Lutheran Church was formed in London’s Savoy District (St
Mary’s), the same relationship with the Bishop of London prevailed.
The German Lutheran Court Chapel was effectively the third German
Lutheran Church in London. It was founded in 1700 by Prince George of
Denmark (1653-1708), the husband of Princess Anne (1665-1714), who
became Queen of Great Britain in 1702. When George and Anne married in
1683, George brought with him from Copenhagen his own Lutheran court
chaplain, J. W. Mecken. While he initially served as the chief contact for
Francke and other Halle Pietists, Mecken himself was not a Pietist. He was
especially not enamoured with Boehm who arrived in London in 1701.
Mecken was offended at the Pietist gatherings which Boehm held on Sunday
afternoons, and, dissatisfied with the content of a sermon which he heard
Boehm preach at St Mary’s in the Savoy, Mecken was determined to force
Boehm to leave London. 50 At it turned out, Mecken was the one who had to
leave. He fell out of favour with Prince George for presuming to censure his
prince for taking Communion on two official occasions with his wife, who
was now the queen. Obviously these worship services were under the
auspices of the Church of England. In the meantime, Boehm’s pietistic
sermons had left a favourable impression on the prince, so Boehm was asked
to assume Mecken’s position as Court Chaplain in 1705. 51 Although never
50 According to a letter of Boehm to Francke, 19 April 1704, Mecken accused Boehm of
trying to erect another German Church in London and withdrew the small stipend which
helped sustain Boehm in his early days in London.
51 Brunner 51.