THE LONDON CONNECTION from 1540 Onwards Over 50000

CHAPTER FOUR THE LONDON CONNECTION From 1540 onwards over 50,000 Protestants, Lutherans and Calvin ists, had sought asylum in England, mainly in London and the south east. In 1550 these refugees received a charter from King Edward VI granting them permission to use a former Augustinian church for conducting religious services in their mother tongue and in accord ance with their own preferred liturgies. Not until 1669 did Lutherans receive a royal charter, however, granting them the right to build their own church. Four years lateritwas consecrated in Trinity Lane. It later became known as the Harnburg Lutheran Church. St Mary's Lutheran Church (1694) was the second German congregation in London; their building was initially a former Jesuit chapel in the Savoy Palace. The tenth pastor in charge of St. Mary's was Karl Friedrich Adolph Steinkopf 1 Steinkopf played the key role in net working evangelica1s across Europe, by supporting groups keen on receiving back from London the evangelical truths that had been banishcd in the sixteenth century. In this respect, at least, he was the most active of the German clergymen based in the English capital. He was also at the heart of evangelistic and charitable work being clone there, his home always a watering-place for German evangelicals who crossed the so-called English Channel in order to attend annual gatherings of tract, missionary and Bible socicties. At the same time, Steinkopf and the Prussian ambassador in London provided letters of introduction to British travellers who sought out their brethren and sisters on the continent. That there was much practical fruit from that clash of differing evangelical cultures has not a little to do with Steinkopfs vision for the Christian Church. Karl Steinkopf studied in the Tübingen seminary from 1790 to l 794 and then proceeded to Basle, to work simultaneously as a tutor and secretary of the Deutsche Christentums-Gesellschqft, the Christian fel lowship established in 1780 which encompassed Catholics and Prot estants. Prior to taking up residence in London, Steinkopf had been chosen as a pastor of a Protestant Church in Eferding ncar Linz, but 1 Suzanne Steinmetz, Deutsche ~vangelisch-Lutherische St. Marien-Kirche London 1694- 1994, London 1994. CHAPTER FOUR the Austrian government had overturned the decision on the basis that Steinkopf was a 'revolutionary' and a 'pietist fanatic' (Frömmler und Fanatiker). Whatever a strictly Catholic regime in Austria might have feared, and though his piety was no doubt more radical than that of many of his fellow students at the Stift, Steinkopf remained a royalist and anti-revolutionary all his life. Indeed, his missionary en deavours, and the pietism of many aristocrats and members of Ger man royal families, can only be understood within the framework of the fear of the French Revolution and what Bunsen called its awful 'levelling principles'. 2 Steinkopf was recommended for the London post by the professors at Tübingen and on 22 November 1801 he was elected pastor by 139 votes to eight against. He succeeded Dr Johann Gottlieb Burkhardt, one of the directors of the London Missionary Society who had worked as intermediary and translator in its dealings with Basle. Im mediately on his arrival Steinkopf, who remained pastor in London until his death in 1859, and Peter Latrobe ofthe Moravian Church in London began work as correspondents for the Church Missionary Society (CMS). Steinkopf acted as interpreter in November 1802 when two students were sent by the Berlin Missionary Seminary to London for further training. Melchior Renner from Württemberg and Peter Hartwig, a Prussian, were the first two missionaries to be sent overseas by the CMS. The valedictory dismissal took place on 31 january 1804 at the New Iondon Tavem in Cheapside. Steinkopf later becamc an Honorary Governor of the CMS. Given his own devotion to mission it is not surprising that St. Mary's, the Lutheran church in the Savoy, became the headquarters of most of the evangelistic efforts conducted in Germany in the firsthalf of the nineteenth century.3 Steinkopfmade a name for himselfas a pioneer ofthe Basle Train ing Institute, the Basle Missionary Society (established 1815), the Basle Bible Society ( 1804) and the W ürttemberg Bible Institution-all international operations. While based in London he worked tagether with Johann Gottlob Krafft, Consistory Councillor in Cologne, and Theodor Fliedner to set up the Cologne Bible and Tract Societies. A London edition of the German New Testament was distributed by their agents, when agents could be found, for Fliedner never stopped complaining that the German churches seemed stubbornly unwilling 2 Neue Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, 6 August 1859; Karl Friedrich Adolf Steinkopf, Reisebriife, 133; Baroness Bunsen, A Memoir qf Baron Bunsen, Volume 1, 338; Article on 'Steinkopf in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Band 35. 3 Eugene Stock, 1he Church Missionary Society, Volume 1, 82-4. Peter Hartwig married Sarah Windsor, governess in Rev John Venn's fami1y at Clapham. .

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