Editing Felix Mendelssohn (section)

=== Religion ===
On 21 March 1816, at the age of seven years, Mendelssohn was baptised with his brother and sisters in a private domestic ceremony by Johann Jakob Stegemann, Minister of the [[Prussian Union of Churches#Royal attempts to merge Lutherans and Calvinists|Evangelical]] congregation of Berlin's [[Jerusalem Church (Berlin)|Jerusalem Church]] and [[New Church (Berlin)|New Church]].{{sfn|Todd|2003|p=33}} Although Mendelssohn was a conforming Christian as a member of the Reformed Church,{{refn|His friend the cleric Julius Schubring noted that although Mendelssohn "entertained a feeling of affectionate reverence" for his spiritual adviser, the pastor Friedrich Philipp Wilmsen (1770–1831) at the [[Parochialkirche|Reformed Parochial Church]], "it is true that he did not go very often to hear him perform Divine Service".{{sfn|Todd|1991|p=227}}|group=n}} he was both conscious and proud of his Jewish ancestry and notably of his connection with his grandfather, Moses Mendelssohn. He was the prime mover in proposing to the publisher Heinrich Brockhaus a complete edition of Moses' works, which continued with the support of his uncle, [[Joseph Mendelssohn]].{{sfn|Brown|2003|p=84}} Felix was notably reluctant, either in his letters or conversation, to comment on his innermost beliefs; his friend Devrient wrote that "[his] deep convictions were never uttered in intercourse with the world; only in rare and intimate moments did they ever appear, and then only in the slightest and most humorous allusions".{{sfn|Devrient|1869|pp=9–10}} Thus for example in a letter to his sister Rebecka, Mendelssohn rebukes her complaint about an unpleasant relative: "What do you mean by saying you are not hostile to Jews? I hope this was a joke&nbsp;[...] It is really sweet of you that you do not despise your family, isn't it?"{{sfn|Werner|1963|pp=42–43}} Some modern scholars have devoted considerable energy to demonstrate either that Mendelssohn was deeply sympathetic to his ancestors' Jewish beliefs, or that he was hostile to this and sincere in his Christian beliefs.{{refn|The debate became heated when it was discovered that the Mendelssohn scholar Eric Werner had been over-enthusiastic in his interpretation of some documentation in an attempt to establish Felix's Jewish sympathies. See ''[[The Musical Quarterly]]'', vols. 82–83 (1998), with articles by J. Sposato, [[Leon Botstein]] and others, for expressions of both points of view; and see Conway (2012){{sfn|Conway|2012|pp=173–184}} for a ''[[tertium quid]]''.|group=n}}