LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Concordia Lutheran Seminary

THREINEN: FRIEDRICH MICHAEL ZIEGENHAGEN 77
As Francke was seeking a replacement for Gruendler in India, matters in
the mission were going from bad to worse. Before he died, Gruendler had
ordained Benjamin Schultze, one of the three new missionaries who had
arrived in India on 16 September 1719. Consequently, on Gruendler’s death,
Schultze took over leadership of the mission. When Heinrich Kistenmacher,
one of the other new missionaries, questioned the validity of Schultze’s
ordination and opposed his autocratic leadership style, Schultze took steps to
remove him. 68 When Kistenmacher died late in 1722, Nicolaus Dal, the third
missionary who arrived in 1719, picked up the fight with Schultze over how
the situation with Kistenmacher had been handled. Francke wrote to the
missionaries but nothing he could advise seemed to help. Fifteen years later,
Gotthilf August Francke wrote, “In 1723, the mission seemed to be at the
point of death from the sad disputes engendered by Mr. Schultze.” 69
Schultze, shifting the blame for the sad state of the mission away from
himself, wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury (probably Francke and the
Mission College, as well) asking for more co-workers. If they are not
forthcoming, “the mission is dead”, wrote Schultze. 70 The Archbishop wrote
Francke, who already knew about the sad state of the mission and the need
for more missionaries. But to find the right people was not a simple matter.
The first two whom Francke identified declined to go. Finally on
25 September 1724, Francke wrote Ziegenhagen, who by then had moved to
London, that he had found three men who were willing: 71 Christoph
Theodosius Walther, Christian Friedrich Pressier, and Martin Bosse.
The three new missionaries travelled to Copenhagen where they
underwent a theological examination and were ordained. 72 All three of them
also preached before Frederick IV, King of Denmark. From Copenhagen,
they travelled to Halle to meet with Francke and then went to England. 73 It
was early December before they finally left Halle. Meanwhile, with
for the mission field in India, it is interesting that Germann, a nineteenth century Pietist
historian of the Tranquebar mission, provides another version. “It was only by a thread that
Ziegenhagen did not make the long trip to Tranquebar”, writes Germann. “Francke had in
mind to make him the Probst [of the mission] but Copenhagen rejected him for flimsy
reasons.” Germann 79.
68 The nineteenth century biographer of Schultze didn’t even mention the conflict but
simply says that “Kistenmacher was not much help because he was seldom well enough to
function.” Johann Hartwig Brauer, Die Heidenboten Friedrich IV von Dänemark, III,
Benjamin Schultze (Hamburg: Im Commission bei Perthes-Besser u. Mauke, 1841) 10-17.
69 Quoted by Norgaard 136.
70 Letter of Ziegenhagen to A. H. Francke, London, 21 July 1724.
71 Letter of Ziegenhagen to A. H. Francke, London, 25 September 1724.
72 Dal, Kistermacher, and Schultze seemed to have missed this step in the rush to get more
workers to India in 1719; hence, they had gone to India without ordination and thereby
brought to the situation the seeds of discontent which erupted into conflict.
73 Letter of A. H. Francke to Ziegenhagen, Halle, 22 October 1724.