CALVINISTS ON CONNECTION OF CHURCH AND STATE. 497

idolatry, sacrileges against the name of God, blasphemies against his truth, and other offenses against religion, may not openly appear and be disseminated among the people." "Civil government is designed, as long as we live in this world, to cherish and support the external worship of God, to preserve the pure doctrine of religion, to defend the constitution of the Church," as well as to promote the temporal interests of men. This idea of the relation of government to religion prevailed among Calvinists; it is distinctly asserted in the Confession of the Westminster Assembly. Nor was it peculiar to them; it is stated by Melancthon in language similar to that employed by Calvin. It is substantially the view which had been held in the Catholic Church. It has been said of Calvin with truth, that "he labored to produce in men a deeper reverence for religious acts and persons, to make them conscious of the mystic union that subsists among all true believers, and especially to invest the doctrine of the visible Church with new significance, on the ground that it is instituted, not as any mere conventional establishment, but for the training and maturing of human souls in faith and holiness." He fought a battle in defense of the prerogative of the Church to excommunicate offending members, and to Eucharist to the unworthy; and he vindicated this right against the interference of the civil authority. He first established the eldership in full vigor, committing the regulation of doctrine and discipline to a body of clerical and lay pastors, there being twice as many laymen as ministers on the board. Geneva being so small a territory, the synodal constitution could not be developed as it was in other Calvinistic churches. The powers that were attributed to the Church by Calvin's theory tended to give the entire system of government at Geneva the character of a theocracy; but this tendency was modified in its effect by the agency given to the Councils in

deny the

the selection of church officers, and by other features in which there was a departure from the strict principle of independence and self-government on the part of the Church.

The Presbyterian constitution was adopted, with special varieties of form, in the Protestant churches of Scotland, France, and the Netherlands. In Scotland, there was at first an approximation, on one point, at least, to the Lutheran system; since in 1531, superintendents were appointed, their jurisdiction being coextensive with the ancient diocesan divisions. But this was a transient arrangement. Nowhere did the hatred of prelacy, and of everything that looked like it, become more fervent than in Scotland. The Presbyterian system was fully established, and affirmed to exist by divine right. There were two classes of elders constituted - ruling, or lay elders, and preaching elders who together formed the Kirksession and exercised government in the Church. Vacancies in the lay part of the session were filled by the body itself, on the nomination of the pastor. The highest tribunal for the exercise of Church authority was the General Assembly or National Synod, in which the ministerial representatives were on a footing of perfect equality. In France, the churches being separately organized, were at first autonomic in their polity, the preacher with the lay elders and deacons forming the consistory or senate, the governing body. While in Geneva, the elders were chosen for life, in France they were elected only for a term of years. Vacancies were filled on the nomination of the consistory itself. In France the elders confined themselves to the exercise of government and discipline, and did not, as at Geneva, visit the houses or coöperate officially with the pastors in the cure of souls. This auxiliary service was devolved on the deacons. In 1559, the synodal constitution was introduced, by which the authority that had resided in the consistories was limited,

CHURCH AND STATE IN ENGLAND.

499

supreme jurisdiction being placed in the National Synod, which formed the highest court, and exercised a general superintendence in matters of doctrine and discipline.1 The Presbyterians have always manifested a jealousy of state-control and a disposition to keep the government of the Church in its own hands. But in England, at the epoch of the Long Parliament and the Westminster Assembly, concessions had to be made, in consequence of the want of unanimity in the adoption of Presbyterian principles and the refusal of Parliament to surrender the supreme power in ecclesiastical affairs.2

The relation of the established Church to the State in England, where the principal control in ecclesiastical affairs was assumed by the civil authority, has been variously defined. For a while, the Byzantine theory, which conceives of the King as possessed of a sort of priestly

1 A serious dispute broke out in the French Church in 1571 between the advocates of a type of Congregationalism, of whom the celebrated Ramus was one, and the defenders of the established system, which lodged the powers of government in the Consistory. The Massacre of St. Bartholomew caused the subject to be forgotten. For notices of this interesting controversy, see Martin, Hist. de France, ix. 277, n. 2; Weber, Dirstellung d. Calvinismus, p. 59 n.; Von Polenz, Geschichte d. französisch. Calv., 1. 422, 709; Schlosser, Leben Beza, p.

219.

2 The order of worship which was adopted in the different Reformed Churches was in accord with their respective ideas of doctrine and polity. Luther retained many of the ancient forms; but he gave to the sermon a place of central importance, and was careful to insist that the arrangements of the Wittenberg Service Book should not be imposed on others. We must be masters of ceremonies not let them be masters of us—was his motto. The singing of hymns assumed a prominent place in Lutheran worship. The changes of Zwingle were much more radical. In Zurich, church singing was given up until 1598. At Basel and some other Swiss towns, however, the German Psalms were sung. The Church of Geneva followed substantially the Zurich service, but used the French versions of the Psalms, by Marot and Beza. The Genevan Service Book served as a model for various other Reformed Churches. On this whole subject, see Gieseler, iv. i. 2, § 47, where the literature is given. The Liturgy of the Anglican Church was largely drawn from the old service-books. See F. Procter, A History of the Book of Common Prayer (7th ed., New York, 1868). A. J. Stephens, The Book of Common Prayer, with notes, legal and historical (1849). W. Maskell, The Ancient Liturgy of the Church of England (2d ed., 1846). C. W. Shields, The Book of Common Prayer, as amended by the West. Divines; with a Hist. and Liturgical Treatise (1867).

function, as being an ecclesiastical as well as a civil person, seems to have been tacitly held. His headship over the Church and control in ecclesiastical government were justified on this hypothesis. The Erastian doctrine, according to which the Church, as such, has none of the prerogatives of government, which inhere wholly in the State, had its adherents in England, and left its influence upon the English polity. It was the theory of 'Hooker that the Church of any particular country, and the State there existing, are one and the same society. They are not two distinct societies which unite or coalesce in a degree; but they are one and the same social body, which, as related to temporal concerns, and all things except true religion, is the commonwealth; as related to religion, is the Church.1 The supremacy of the King, if the government is monarchical, over the Church, is the corollary of this proposition. Among the modern advocates of this hypothesis, one of the ablest is the late Dr. Arnold. In idea, the Church and State, he thinks, are identical. Their end, their ergon, is the same. He rejects, with all his heart, the modern theory that the design of the State is limited to the protection of body and goods. The State, in its very idea, is religious, and is bound to aim at the promotion of religion. Rejecting, also, the doctrine of apostolic succession and of a priestly order, Arnold finds in the King's supremacy an emblem and a realization of the truth that the laity have a right to govern in the Church. The more the State is pervaded by the spirit of Christianity, the more is the Church, as a separate body,

1 Ecclesiast. Polity, b. viii. "We say that the care of religion being common to all societies politic, such societies as do embrace the true religion have the name of Church given unto every one of them for distinction from the rest." "When we oppose, therefore, the Church and Commonwealth in Christian society, we mean by the Commonwealth that society with relation to all the public affairs thereof, only the matter of true religion excepted: by the Church, the same society with only reference unto the matter of true religion, without any affairs besides."

THEORIES OF WARBURTON AND COLERIDGE.

501

superseded. The ideal towards which we are to strive is the identification of the two.1

The theory of Warburton proceeds upon a denial of the identity of Church and State. They are in their own nature and originally, distinct and separate societies. But this mutual independence does not of necessity continue. They may enter into an alliance with one another upon certain terms, the result of which is a connection and mutual dependence of the two. The Church enters into a relation of subordination to the State, the State making stipulations which bind it to support the Church. There is a contract with conditions to be fulfilled on either side. If the State should fail to fulfill these engagements, the Church may withdraw from the connection, and then falls back upon its original condition of independence.

Coleridge has suggested a theory somewhat diverse from that of Warburton. The hypothesis of Coleridge, as far as it is peculiar, is founded on a distinction between the visible Church of Christ, as it may be found in any particular country, and the national or established Church of that country. The visible Church is a kingdom not of this world; it manages its own affairs, appoints and supports its own ministers. The State is competent neither to appoint nor to displace these ministers, nor is it responsible for their maintenance. The national Church, on the contrary, is a public and visible community, having ministers whom the nation, through the agency of a constitution, has created trustees of a reserved national fund, upon fixed terms, and with defined duties, and whom in the case of breach of those terms, or dereliction of those du

1 See Arnold's Life and Correspondence (by Stanley), passim; and Arnold's Miscellaneous Writings. The eminent German theologian, Rothe, has advocated a similar theory, in his Christliche Ethik, and in his posthumous Dogmatik, iii. 32 seq.

2 This and other theories are sketched in the Preface to Coleridge's Church and State, by H. N. Coleridge. Coleridge's Works (ed. Shedd), vol. vi. 3 Works, vol. vi.