The Kramph Will Case stated out as a minor dispute between different New Church factions, but it ended in a full-blown war of doctorin and morals.

It all started in 1854. Fredrick Kramph was a merchant/tailor from Lancaster and a warm personal friend of Benade. He was a member of the central convention and dedicated advocate of New Church education. In his will he left his estate to "A New Church University." As there was no such institution at that point in time, Kramph appointed seven trustees, all sympathetic to the Academy movement.

Kramph died in 1858 and was survived by his widow, who was quite a bit younger. She out lived him by 40 years. After her husband was dead, Mrs. Kramph gradually shifted her sympathies over to the Convention Church. It was only after she died that the will was acted upon. The Academy, which was the embodiment of the New Church University that Kramph had dreamt of, was perfectly secure in its right to the money.

However, to in 1907, after the property had been sold, a man by the name of McGeorge decided to contest that right. He claimed that the money rightfully belonged to the Convention Church. There were three main reasons he gave. The first was that his widow belonged to the Convention Church. The second concerned the trustees. Although the original 7 all had academy sympathies, they had died. The new trustees, with the exception of John Pitcairn, were all of the Convention. The third rationale at first seemed to be a purely theoretical issue, but this is what this case will be remembered for.

The Academy believed in the diviness of the New Relation, while the Convention only believed them to be a source for instruction. McGeorge brought up an old debate that concerned the second half of the work Conjugal Love. This resulted in the Academies being forced to defend all manner of evils which were permitted by divine permission. Some of the material was considered inappropriate. Other parts simply immoral.

The case was dragged into the courts of Pennsylvania. The New Church received much unwelcome publicity. Newspapers and other media referred to it as to a free love religion, and loose morals were being taught to girls at New Church schools. (Believe me, as one who has attended said school, the morals that are taught are many things, but 'loose' is not one of them. One look at the rule book will convince anyone of this. )

In the end the courts granted the legacy (which later was discovered to be 40,000 dollars) to The Academy. Ironically, the major harm done by the court case was to the Convention Church. The Academy did not have much hope of external evangelization, so they were not too hurt by the vicious scandal. The Convention, on the other side, which had high hopes for evangelization, sustained grave injury.

This legal battle was one of the main causes of the dislike between the General Church and the Convention Church. It took many years for some of the wounds to heal. Today there's no one alive who witnessed this first-hand, so much of the deep resentment has faded. However, to this day, there still remains some hostility between the respective churches, some of which might just trace its roots back to this incident.

Some of the headlines of the newspapers during this time.