The rigid authority of the symbolical
books was but loosely held by Lutherans and Calvinists. Frederic William
III., seeing that the separation was more imaginary than real, wrote a
letter on the second of May, 1817, to Bishop Sack and Provost Hanstein,
in which he said: "I expect proposals from you concerning the union of
the two confessions, which are in fact so similar; and as to the easiest
method of effecting the same." On the twenty-seventh day of the same
month he addressed a circular to all ecclesiastical functionaries
within his dominions, calling upon them to exert their influence for the
union of the two churches, and to give notice that the approaching
jubilee would be the signal for it to take place. The thirty-first of
October was the anniversary, and the plan was so far successful that in
many places the people and ministry of both confessions met on that day
for divine worship and partook of the Lord's Supper together. The fruit
of the movement was highly satisfactory to the Prussian King. Very soon
after the anniversary of the Reformation, the terms _Lutheran_ and
_Reformed_ were stricken from official documents, and the united State
Church was henceforth known as the Evangelical Church.
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