§ 105. THE VENERABLE COMPANY AND CONSISTORY. 481
being excluded. It was represented and governed by the Venerable Company and the Consistory.
1. The Venerable Company was a purely clerical body, consisting of all the pastors of the city and district of Geneva. It had no political power. It was intrusted with the general supervision of all strict!}" ecclesiastical affairs, especially the education, qualification, ordination, and installation of the ministers of the gospel. But the consent of the civil government and the congregation was necessary for the final induction to the ministry. Thus the pastors and the people were to co-operate.
2. The CoNSLSTORY or Presbytery was a mixed body of clergymen and laymen, and larger and more influential than the Venerable Company. It represented the union of Church and State. It embraced, at the time of Calvin, five city Pastors and twelve Seniors or Lay-Elders, two of whom were selected from the Council of Sixty and ten from the Council of Two Hundred. The laymen, therefore, had the majority ; but the clerical element was comparatively fixed, while the Elders were elected annually under the influence of the clergy. A Syndic was the constitutional head.^ Calvin never presided in form, but ruled the proceedings in fact by his superior intelligence and. weighty judgment.^
The Consistory went into operation immediately after the adoption of the Ordinances, and met every Thursday. The
1 The revised Ecrles. Ordinances of 1561 provide {Opera, X. P. I. 121) that " one of the four Syndics preside over the Consistory with the marshal's staff {avec son baton) which signifies civil jurisdiction rather than spiritual regime,. ajiii dc viieax garder la distinction qui nous est monstre'e en V Escriture saincte entre Ic i]laive et authorite' du Magistrat, et la superintendence qui doit estre en Eglise." This regulation of Calvin refutes the assertion of Dyer (p. 142), that "Calvin usurped the perpetual presidency of the Consistory," and that " he wished Beza to succeed him in this presidenc}'."
2 " While he was not president of this body, it may be trul}' said that he was its soul." Merle d'Aubigne' (VII. 120). So also Cramer, Roget, andi others.
482 THE REFOEMATION IN EilENCH SWITZERLAND.
reports begin from the tenth meeting, which was hekl on Thursday, Feb. 16, 1542.1
The duty of the Consistory was the maintenance and exercise of discipline. Every house was to be visited annually by a Minister and Elder. To facilitate the working of this system the city was divided into three parishes — St. Peter's, the Magdalen, and St. Gervais. Calvin officiated in St. Peter's.
The Consistorial Court was the controlling power in the Church of Geneva. It has often been misrepresented as a sort of tribunal of Inquisition or Star Chamber. But it could onl}- use the spiritual sword, and had nothing to do with civil and temporal punishments, which belonged exclusively to the Council. The names of Gruet, Bolsec, and Servetus do not even appear in its records.^ Calvin wrote to the ministers of Ziirich, Nov. 26, 1553 : "' The Consistory has no civil jurisdiction, but only the right to reprove according to the Word of God, and its severest punishment is excommunication." ^ He wisely provided for the preponderance of the lay-element.
At first the Council, following the example of Basel and Bern, denied to the Consistory the right of excommunication.* The persons excluded from the Lord's Table usually
1 AnnaL, XXI. 291, sub Fevrier 16, 1542 : " Di.rieme seance dit Consistoire, premiere dont il existe un proces verbal, lequel mentionne entre autres la pre'sence de
Calvin et de Viret. Les autres ministres membres du C, sont Bernard, Henri, et Champeraux. Viret est mentionne pour la derniere fois le 18 juillet. Calvin assiste re'yulierement aux se'ances pendant tout I'exercice 1542-43, excepte' cinq fois."
2 A. Roget, I.e., p. 31: " Le Consistoire ne pouvait injliger aucune peine, et, chose remarquable, il n'avait aucune attribution doctrinale. L'ancien syndic Cramer, dans Vexcelleute preface qu'il a place'e en tete des extraits des Registres du Consistoire, a fait observer que Gruet, Bolsec et Servet ne sont pas meme nomm€s dans les documents qu'il a analyses ; toutes les fois qu'un proces de doctrine est instruit, c'est le Conseil qui prononce, sur le pre'avis des pasteurs."
3 Opera, XIV. (575: " jVuIln in Consistorio civitis jurisdictio, sed tantum reprehensiones ex Verba Domini: ultima vera poena, excommunicatio."
* On March 19, 1543, the Council of the Sixty resolved "que le Consistoire n'ait ni jurisdiction ni puissance de defendre la cine, sinon seulement d'admonester