The Reformed Church

In his final years in Göttingen, Haller devoted much time and energy to the complicated task of establishing a Reformed church in the Lutheran town. When he left in March 1753, the new church’s building was still under construction, and various less tangible matters remained unresolved. As royal commissioner for the new church, Haller had given Colom authority to act in his stead. Immediately after Haller’s departure, Colom began to keep a detailed journal of myriad matters pertaining to the church. In two of his letters he copied out his long entries for Haller’s benefit.

The letters of Colom provide a nuanced story of the small congregation’s various challenges and celebrations in its first year. He maintained a careful record of expenses and income; the latter came mainly from collections that the church’s pastor, Gerhard von Hemessen, undertook in Reformed regions abroad. Colom kept Haller abreast of the ongoing construction of the church and described for him its interior furnishings and decorations, many of them donated by individuals. He explained how he managed to buy for the church, at little cost, a piece of land for the future parish house. He had many questions for Haller: What did he think about hiring a cantor with a salary of 100 thaler? What inscription should go over the portal? Would he ask the Hanoverian government to confirm that the new church would enjoy the same privileges as the Reformed churches in Hanover and Hameln? Not least, would Haller continue his monetary contribution (he had contributed ten thaler for each of three half years)? Some members of the congregation, Colom observed, were not fulfilling their pledges of support for the pastor’s expenses.

Colom referred to meetings of the consistory, where a special concern was the establishment of the new church’s privileges. An early test arose when the Lutheran superintendent and a local Lutheran pastor interfered with the attempt by the Reformed pastor Hemessen to baptize a newborn child in his congregation, the son of Haller’s last gardener. Colom enumerates all the influential persons whom he and Hemessen visited over several days in Hanover in order to press their claims. Colom could relate how the travel costs he and Hemessen incurred were offset by their collections in Brunswick. They eventually secured permission for the Reformed church to baptize and marry Reformed individuals, as long as it paid the standard surplice fee to the local Lutheran church. There remained in place, however, a prohibition that kept the church from ringing its bell. Not even Haller’s intervention with Gerlach Adolph von Münchhausen, the Hanoverian minister and curator of the university, sufficed to get this surprising ban lifted. It stayed in effect for half a century.

Once construction was complete, in November 1753, Colom gave accounts of the church services: he specified the biblical texts on which the sermons were based, the hymns that were sung, and the sums of money that were collected. The well-attended formal dedication on 11 November, which also marked the birthday of King George II, is described in great detail. Colom even included excerpts from newspaper reports in Bremen and Brunswick on the happy event. The diary entries continue until New Year’s Day 1754. They present, in addition to the usual information, the duties of a newly hired churchwarden and the confirmation of two girls, whose mastery of the catechism was closely examined. Colom noted that despite inclement weather in December many Lutherans also attended services in the church. By contrast he wondered about a man who stopped attending after he was deemed unsuited to serve as an elder.

In 1763, in his only surviving letter to Haller after early 1754, Colom summarized the physical and fiscal damage that the Seven Years’ War inflicted on the church and the congregation; he added that divine services were nonetheless held, with only a few interruptions. He also recalled his quarrel with the church’s second pastor, Lüder Kulenkamp; it led to the establishment in 1760 of an outside commission that investigated the affairs of the church. The investigation vindicated Colom and brought about his reconciliation with Kulenkamp. He expressed the hope that the church would be strengthened by Haller’s return, reports of which were then circulating in Göttingen.

Adam Heilmann’s history of the foundation and early years of the Reformed church in Göttingen does not take into account this rich epistolary source for the ten months after Haller left Göttingen.