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72 LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW XII Lutheran Danish Chaplain in India accused them of being false prophets. This led Ziegenbalg to be imprisoned for four months. The second group of missionaries also experienced difficulties. The king ordered the Danish East Indian Company to transport the missionaries and their belongings to India. But with the king absent in October 1708, the Company placed all kinds of difficulties in the way of the missionaries. The final blow for the mission came when the Danish Court Chaplain, who had been given responsibility by the king to guide the day-to-day activities of the mission, lost the king’s support for his work with the mission. 55 This was the situation when Boehm decided to enlist the English to support of the missionaries in India. Whether or not he was fully aware of all these problems, Boehm was concerned because he sensed that “Copenhagen had forgotten” about the Tranquebar mission. 56 Recognizing that financial support for the mission had been realized in Germany through the publication of missionary letters, 57 Boehm decided to do the same in England. Boehm’s first appeal was to the SPG. Thus, he dedicated his first volume of translated letters in 1709 to the SPG and its president, Thomas Tenison, Archbishop of Canterbury. 58 While Tenison personally supported the mission in response to this gesture and the SPG ordered 500 copies to be distributed among the missionaries in England and North America, the Society did not feel the support of the Tranquebar mission was part of its mandate. Boehm then turned to the SPCK, arguing that the support of the mission fit into the purposes of the SPCK since the missionaries were building “charity schools”. The members of the SPCK agreed and on 7 September 1710 admitted Plutschau and Ziegenbalg as corresponding members and opened a “subscription” for the mission. 59 The SPCK also appointed a Special Committee for the Mission to direct its involvement. Boehm was named to this committee and became an influential member of it. The Society also obtained concessions from the English East India Company to provide free shipping for books, a printer, a printing press and paper, and other cargo for the mission. It also tried to send an English missionary to the 55 Anders Norgaard, Mission und Obrigkeit (Guetersloh: Guetersloher Verlagshaus Gerd Mohn, 1988) 55-56. 56 W. Germann, Johann Philipp Fabricius (Erlangen: Verlag von Andreas Deichert, 1865) 79. 57 Merkwürdige Nachrichten aus Ost-Indien (Leipzig/Frankfurt, 1708). 58 When Boehm entitled the published missionary letters, “Propagation of the Gospel in the East”, he was obviously trying to tie them in with the full name of the SPG, “Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts” [emphases added]. 59 Brunner 104.
THREINEN: FRIEDRICH MICHAEL ZIEGENHAGEN 73 territories in East India under English control, but couldn’t find any Anglican clergy with the qualifications of the German Lutheran missionaries. 60 While this support from England and Germany helped to strengthen the mission, the governance of the mission from Denmark continued to be problematic. It was not until 1714, when a Mission College was named to give direction to the mission, that the situation in Denmark improved. Under the auspices of the Mission College, which was responsible directly to the king, the mission received the status of a Royal Mission and money from the royal purse became available to help pay the missionaries. 61 The efforts of Boehm helped establish, strengthen, and maintain the partnership which the SPCK and Halle had with Copenhagen. To this ongoing role, Ziegenhagen immediately fell heir as he followed Boehm as German Court Chaplain in London. Aside from the co-operative activities which the Court Chaplain undertook, the Chapel functioned much like the other Lutheran congregations in London. It appears to have had a regular membership roll, which included the king and the German members of the royal household. The king, on his accession to the British throne in 1714, had become the head of the Church of England and theoretically an Anglican, but he never learned English. Besides this, he spent a great deal of his time in Germany where he continued to hold the title of Elector of Hanover and theoretically remained a Lutheran. Among King George’s household were his two mistresses, which he had brought with him from Germany. One of them, the Duchess of Kendal had already been attracted to Boehm’s preaching, and, at her request, Ziegenhagen arranged for a visit to her from the missionaries who were on their way to India in January 1725. The other mistress, the Duchess of Darlington, was a different matter. In April 1725, Ziegenhagen shared with Francke that the Duchess was very ill and subsequently that she had died. Ziegenhagen had often offered to visit her, but she had refused. Instead, she had “found comfort in plays” and had “surrounded herself with unbelievers”. She claimed to belong to the Anglican Church but did not call an Anglican preacher to attend to her. Ziegenhagen wrote that she was a bad example and influenced others in the Court. When George I died in 1727, he was succeeded by his son who became George II. The son lived until 1760 when he was succeeded by his grandson who became George III. With each accession to the throne, Ziegenhagen received a new call to be Court Chaplain. Although he had a large frame, according to his first biographer, he constantly referred to his weak constitution. On that account, he did not accept the responsibility in 1724 of serving St Mary’s in the Savoy during a pastoral vacancy; preaching twice a 60 Brunner 104-7. 61 Norgaard 70.
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