Walther: Ed. Preuss, "Apostasy" to Rome — silence broken (Part 1)

      Walther, during his lifetime, worked with several men who would fall: Martin Stephan, Eduard Preuss, H. M. Baumstark, and later, F. A. Schmidt.  This article is about the fall of Preuss, who had perhaps the deepest fall of all these, for he fell not only to the Roman Catholic Church as Baumstark did, but he became a spokesman and polemicist for them.

     The story of Dr. Eduard Preuss († 1904; Find-A-Grave), a German Lutheran teacher who fled from Germany to America and was accepted to teach at Concordia Seminary under Walther, is an extraordinary story, for it leaves a Christian trembling in fear for the loss of their Christian faith. As previously blogged in 2012, Prof. Roland Ziegler wrote an extensive essay in 2011 on his life, and his fall from the Lutheran Church to Roman Catholicism. I will not repeat what has been covered before because it is extensive, and inciteful.  But Ziegler stated on p. 291, fn #12, that 

“There might exist material in the archives of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, or in the unpublished correspondence of C.F.W. Walther that would shed more light on the whole affair.”

However, since Walther wrote publicly in Der Lutheraner a more extensive account of the whole affair and an even more inciteful analysis, we have the full story "as it actually was". Any further material in the archives of Concordia Historical Institute and/or at the Seminary would only confirm Walther's public account. Walther was firmly planted in Scriptural theology, so he is the one to rely on for true Church history in this matter. What follows should be read before reading Prof. Ziegler's helpful essay. Walther's essay has a note of vehemence that is not in Ziegler's essay — the forcefulness of Martin Luther. — 

    That the case of Dr. Eduard Preuss is in the realm of extreme can be seen by the comment in 1944 by Professor Ludwig Fuerbringer, a successor of Walther as President of the Seminary (Eighty Eventful Years, p. 234):

“But why did Preuss leave the Lutheran Church and join the Roman Catholics? This is a dark chapter, and I have not been able to get a clear picture of the situation. For details of his resignation, I refer the reader to Dr. Walther's account of the matter in the Lutheraner.”

      In the following, all emphasis of underlining and bolding is Walther's except in quotes from Preuss's writings. Highlighting, and red text in square brackets [ ] are mine. Footnotes have been repositioned to be closer to their associated text. — From Der Lutheraner, vol. 28 (Feb. 15, 1872), pp. 73-75.

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An Apostasy.

[by C.F.W. Walther]

We have just read the following in the Catholic Herald of Faith of Feb. 4, which appears here:

“On the feast of St. Polycarp, January 25, Dr. Ed. Preuss was admitted to the Catholic Church in St. Mary's Church [St. Mary of Victories]. The same was formerly 10 years private Docent [lecturer] of Lutheran Theology at the University of Berlin, and had also written there various works, among others, against the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, as well as against the Catholic doctrine of justification. Afterwards he worked a little over two years as a professor at the local Lutheran preacher’s seminary [Concordia]. — Led by the unmistakable guidance of the Most Blessed Virgin and urged by the grace of God, whom (!) he could no longer resist, in December 1st (?) year he approached the Reverend Archbishop for the solution of some doubts, as well as for instruction in the Catholic religion, who assigned this task to the Reverend General-Vicar Mühlsiepen. After the convert had formally revoked everything he had ever taught and written against the doctrine of the Catholic Church, he received the Holy Baptism on the day mentioned in the Church of St. Mary of the Reverend General-Vicar. He had chosen for himself the baptismal name: Maria Polycarpus.”

We would have gladly spared our readers from telling them how the apostasy of Dr. Preuss had gone; but since the above has been published here [in St. Louis], of course with the approval of the named, we cannot remain silent either. 

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Just as Walther hated to bring the story of the weaknesses of Philip Melanchthon, so too he hated to report this total apostasy of his former associate Prof. Dr. Eduard Preuss.

 - - - - - - - - - -  Table of Contents  - - - - - - - - - 
Part 1: This Introduction

Part 2: Preuss “aroused…  most embarrassing doubt”

Part 3: Against the Antichrist, the Pope

Part 4: Preuss writes against Purgatory, then resigns
Part 5: "we trusted, in love"; he "did not resign voluntarily"

Part 6:  a house of cards—dismantled secret plan (Walther answers LC-MS Catholics)

Part 7:  Truth is easy to prove, error requires art, great art

Part 8:  great shame for Missourians… or honor? Ziegler overlooks facts

Part 9a: Postscript: Preuss's reply refuted; lambs and wolves, the Jesuits
Part 9b: Untrue, sneering outbursts of "Lutherans"—Walther's lesson on love vs. doctrine