§ 103. CHURCH AND STATE. 473
ever with the State except to obey its legitimate demands. Christ's rule is expressed in that wisest word ever uttered on this subject : " Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's ; and unto God the things that are God's " (Matt. 22: 21).
2. Calvin recognized only the invisible headship of Christ, and rejected the papal claim to world-dominion as an antichristian usurpation.
3. He had a much higher view of the State than the popes. He considered it equally divine in origin and authority as the Church, and fully independent in all temporal matters ; Avhile the papal hierarchy in the INIiddle Ages often overruled the State by ecclesiastical authority. Hildebrand compared the Church to the sun, the State to the moon which borrows her light from the sun, and claimed and exercised the right of deposing kings and absolving subjects from their oaths of allegiance. Boniface VIH. formulated this claim in the well-known theory of the two swords.
4. Calvin's theocracy was based upon the sovereignty of the Christian people and the general priesthood of believers ; the papal theocracy was an exclusive rule of the priesthood.
In practice, the two powers were not as clearly distinct at Geneva as in theory. They often intermeddled with each other. The ministers criticised the acts of the magistrates from the pulpit ; and the magistrates called the ministers to account for their sermons. Discipline was a common territory for both, and the Consistory was a mixed body of clergymen and laymen. The government fixed and paid the salaries of the pastors, and approved their nomination and transfer from one parish to another. None could even absent himself for a length of time without leave by the Council. The Large Council voted on the Confession of Faith and Discipline, and gave them the power of law.
The Reformed Church of Geneva, in one word, was an established Church or State Church, and continues so to this day, though no more in an exclusive sense, but with
474 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
liberty to Dissenters, whether Catholic or Protestant, who have of late been increasing by immigration.
The union of Church and State is tacitly assumed or directly asserted in nearly all the Protestant Confessions of Faith, which make it the duty of the civil government to support religion, to protect orthodoxy, and to punish heresy .^
In modern times the character of the State and its attitude towards the Church has undergone a material change in Switzerland as well as in other countries. The State is no longer identified with a particular Church, and has become either indifferent, or hostile, or tolerant. It is composed of members of all creeds, and should, in the name of justice, support all, or none ; in either case allowing to all full liberty as far as is consistent with the public peace.
Under these circumstances the Church has to choose between liberty with self-support, and dependence with government support. If Calvin lived at this day, he would undoubtedly prefer the former. Calvinists and Presbyterians have taken the lead in the struggle for Church independence against the Erastian and rationalistic encroachments of the civil power. Free Churches have been organized in French Switzerland (Geneva, Vaud, Neuchatel), in France, Holland, and especially in Presbyterian Scotland. The heroic sacrifices of the Free Church of Scotland in seceding from the Established Church, and making full provision for all her wants by voluntary contributions, form one of the brightest chapters in the history of Protestantism. The Dissenters in England have always maintained and exercised the voluntary principle since their legal recognition by the Toleration Act of 1689. In the British Provinces and in North America,
1 Conf. Helvetica II. ch. XXX.; Conf. Gallicann, cli. XXXIX. ("God has put the sword into the liands of magistrates to suppress crimes ag.iinst the first as well os the second table of his Coniraandments ") ; Conf. Belglca, ch. XXXVI.; Conf. Scotica, Art. XXIV.; Thirty-nine Articles, Art. XXXVII. (changed in tlie American recension) ; Westminster Conf. ch. XXIII. (changed in tlie American recension).