(490.) At synod the pastors ruled supreme. The lay delegates, consisting of the elders of the congregations, merely reported to Synod, when asked, concerning the work, fidelity, and efficiency of their pastors, the parochial schools, etc., and presented requests to Synod. But they had no voice in her decisions. In the common assembly of the pastors and laymen no vote was taken. The _Lutheran Cyclopedia_ says: "The deliberations were exclusively those of the pastors, while the lay delegates were present only to furnish the needed information concerning local conditions and the fidelity of pastors." (493.) Furthermore, the ministerium, the college of pastors, conferred the office and made pastors through ordination, a rite considered essential to the ministry, and without which no one was regarded a lawful and full-fledged pastor. Thus, for instance, in the case of J. A. Weygand it was held that he was given the right to perform all the functions pertaining to his office, not by the call of the congregation which he had accepted, but by his subsequent ordination. (432.) 50. Obedience to Ministerium and Fathers in Halle.--In the ordination the pastors were pledged to obey the Ministerium. In Weygand's call the clause was embodied, "that he would submit to the investigation and judgment of the United Pastors and the Venerable Fathers" in Halle. (452.) The manner in which Kurtz was bound appears from the following points of the "Revers" which he had to sign before his ordination in 1748: "2. To consider my congregation nothing but a part of the United Congregations. ... 4. To introduce no ceremonies into the public worship or into the administration of the Sacraments other than those which have been introduced by the College of Pastors of the United Congregations, also to use no other book of forms than the one which will be assigned to me by them. 5. To undertake nothing of importance alone nor with the assistance of the church-council, except it have been previously communicated to the Reverend College of Pastors, and their opinion have been obtained, as well as to abide by their good counsel and advice. 6. To render a verbal or written account of my pastorate at the demand of the Reverend College of Pastors. 7. To keep a diary and daybook and to record therein official acts and remarkable occurrences. 8. Should they call me hence, to accept the call, and not to resist." (305.) Before his ordination Pastor J. H. Schaum had to sign a "Revers" and, with a handclasp, seal the promise to the United Pastors that he as their adjunct "would be faithful and obedient to them." To the congregations the Ministerium did not only prescribe the liturgy, but appointed and removed their pastors as they saw fit. Pastor Schaum's call to New York was signed by the four pastors, Muhlenberg, Brunnholtz, Handschuh, and Kurtz as their own vocation, in their own name, not in the name of the congregation. (327.) The congregation at Lancaster desired Kurtz as