After the teachers come the elders, of whom there were to be twelve, that is to say, nearly two elders to each minister. They were to be ‘people of good life and honesty, without reproach and beyond suspicion, above all fearing God and having much spiritual discretion.’ Lastly come the deacons, whose functions we have already pointed out.[[146]]
The Consistory.
The assembly of the ministers and the elders formed the consistory. The twelve elders were elected, not by the church, but by the Council of State or Little Council. They were not taken indiscriminately from among the members of the church. Two were to belong to the Little Council, four to the Council of Sixty, and six to the Council of the Two Hundred. Before proceeding, however, to the election, the Council summoned the ministers to state their views on the subject; and when election had been made, it was presented to the Council of the Two Hundred, for its approval.[[147]] These elders appointed or delegated by the Councils were substantially magistrates; but the fact that the ministers were consulted, the influence which the pastors must have over their lay colleagues, and the very nature of their functions made them rather beings of two species, belonging partly to the church and partly to the state. This fact indeed gives peculiar importance to this body. It has frequently been called a tribunal; but it was not such in reality. Exhortation and conciliation played the principal part in its proceedings. It has also been said that matters of doctrine belonged to the ministers, and matters of morality to the elders. This is not the exact truth. The two classes of men who formed the consistory had to do with errors of both kinds. Lastly, this body had been likened to the Inquisition. We cast aside with indignation this assimilation of Genevese presbyterianism to the terrible, secret, and cruel institution which depopulated provinces, which cost Spain alone the loss of five millions of her subjects, which filled her with superstitions and ignorance and lowered her in the scale of nations, while Geneva, under the influence of her pastors, and her elders, increased in intelligence, in morality, in prosperity, in population, in influence, and in greatness.
The pastors took charge of the public worship. The preaching of the Word was to be the essential feature of it. ‘The duty of the pastors,’ say the Ordinances, ‘who are sometimes also named in the Scriptures overseers (episcopos), elders, and ministers, is to announce the Word of God for instruction, admonition, exhortation, and reproof.’[[148]] The Reformation deprived the priest of his magic, his power to transform by a word a bit of bread and make of it the body and blood of Christ—Jesus Christ in his entire being as God and man. This glory, with which the head of the priest had till this time been encompassed, was now taken from him; the minister was servant of the Word, and this was his glory. The service of the Word became the centre of all the functions of a minister. ‘Every time the Gospel is preached,’ said Calvin, ‘it is as if God himself came in person solemnly to summon us, to the end that we may no longer be like people groping in darkness, and not knowing whither to go.’[[149]] The times for preaching were multiplied by Calvin. On Sunday there were sermons at daybreak, again at nine o’clock, and at three o’clock; and six in the course of the week.[[150]]
Frequent Communion.
While, however, Calvin most energetically rejected the superstition of the mass, he knew that Christ would have in his church not only the teaching of the truth by the word, but besides this, union with him. To know him was insufficient; it was needful to have him. He insisted on the fact that Christ verily imparted to his disciples not only his doctrine, but in addition to that his life. This is recalled to mind by the sacrament of the Supper, which becomes in truth a means of communion with the Saviour, by quickening faith in his body which is broken for us, in his blood which is shed for remission of sins. We find him also again and again expressing his desire for a frequent communion. He did not obtain this, and doubtless understood that as he had to do with a multitude often caring little about this union, it would not do to have the Supper too frequently repeated. But it remained ever true that the Lord, having promised his presence to every assembly gathered in his name,[[151]] could not be absent from the feast to which he invited his people, and there gave heavenly food to those who had faith to receive it.
Lastly, Calvin assigned an important place to the public prayers. Those which he composed himself, which appear in his liturgy, are rich not only in doctrine but in spiritual power. He wished also that all the people should take an active part in the worship by the singing of psalms. The whole service was simple but serious, full of dignity and calling the people to worship in spirit and in truth.[[152]]
The elders had the function of overseers, which is expressed by the Greek word ἐπίσκοπος. One of these was elected in each quarter of the town, in order to have an eye everywhere.[[153]] ‘They used to be accompanied,’ says Bonivard in his Police Ecclésiastique, ‘by the tithing-men (dizeniers) from house to house, asking of all the members of the household a reason for their faith. After that, if they think that there is any evil in the house, general or particular, they admonish to repentance.’ The consistory ‘met once a week, on Thursday morning, to see if there were any disorder in the church and to discuss remedies, when needful.’ Those who taught contrary to the received doctrine and those who showed themselves to be despisers of ecclesiastical order were to be called before it, for the purpose of conference and to be admonished. If they became obedient they were to be dismissed with kindliness; but if they persisted in going from bad to worse, after being thrice admonished, they were to be separated from the church.[[154]]
Private vices were to be privately rebuked; and no one was to bring his neighbor before the church for any offence which was not notorious or scandalous, except after being proved rebellious. With respect to notorious and open vices, the duty of the elders would be to call before them those who are tainted with them, for the purpose of addressing friendly representations to them and, if amendment should appear, to trouble them no further. If they persisted in doing wrong, they were to be admonished a second time. If, after all, this should have no effect, they were to be denounced as despisers of God, and to be kept away from the Lord’s Supper until a change of life was seen in them.[[155]]
We cannot deny, however, that the Ordinances were severe, and that men and women were summoned before the consistory on grounds which now appear very trivial. Consequently, this discipline has been spoken against in the modern world. But minds more enlightened do justice to Calvin. ‘Without the transformation of morals,’ says a magistrate of our own times, distinguished for his moderation and the fairness of his views, ‘the reformation at Geneva would have been nothing more than a change in the forms of worship. The new foundation which was needed for a perpetual struggle would have been wanting. Nothing less than the genius of Calvin, admitted even by his opponents, would have sufficed to inspire with enthusiasm and to transform a people, and to breathe into it a new life. In order to effect a religious revolution, as he understood it, the submission of all the outward actions of life to a severe discipline was necessary; but the burden of this discipline in the sixteenth century must not be estimated by the conceptions of the nineteenth.[[156]] In that age it would everywhere meet with the principle of obedience in full force; and it was lightened for all by the knowledge that no social position was exempted from its operation.’