§ 105. THE VENERABLE COMPANY AND CONSISTUKV. 483
appealed to the Council, which often interceded in their behalf or directed them to make an ajjology to the Consistory. There was also a difference of opinion as regards the consequences of excommunication. The Consistory demanded that persons cut off from the Church for grievous offenses and scandalous lives should be banished from the State for a year, or until they repent ; but the Council did not agree. Calvin could not always carry out his views, and acted on the principle to tolerate what he could not abolish.^ It was only after his final victory over the Libertines in 1555 that the Council conceded to the Consistory the undisputed power of excommunication.^
From these facts we may judge with what right Calvin has so often been called "the Pope of Geneva," mostly by way of reproach.^ As far as the designation is true, it is an involuntary tribute to his genius and character. For he had no material support, and he never used his influence for
et puis fair e relation en Conseil, ajin que la Sei(/neurie arise de juger sur les delinqitants suivant leiir de'me'rites." Reg., quoted by Roget, p. 37. A month before, the government of Bern had categorically refused the right of excommunication to the ministers of Lausanne. Ruchat, V. 211.
1 " Tolero quod tollere nan licet," as he says in one of his letters.
2 Roget (p. 67) : " Le point de vtie soutenu par Calvin dans la question de la cene avait enfin triomphe' irrevocablement et, des 1555, nous trouvons le Consistoire en possession, d'une maniere incontest^e, du droit d'accorder ou de refuser la participation aux sacrements. Toute/ois, le Conseil et les ministres ne sont pas compl^tement d'accord sur les consequences que doit entrainer V excommunication."
3 Roget (p. 83 sq.) has collected such exaggerated judgments from several French writers and contradicts them. Florimond de Rsemond says : " Calvin se rendit le maistre, Vevesque, le seigneur, disposant de la religion, de I'estat, de la ville, du gouvernement, de la police, comme bon luy semhloit." Duruy : " Calvin eut des 1541 et exer^a jusqu'a sa mort un pouvoir absolu. II organisa le gouvernement de Geneve au profit presque e.rclusif des ministres du culte reforme" Capefigue : " Calvin r€unissait tous les Jils du pouvoir supreme en sa personne." Paul Janet : " Calvin a e'te le magistrat supreme d'une de'mocratie." Rosseuw St. Hilaire : " Tout exces appelle une reaction en sens contraire, Calvin subordonne I'Etat a I'Eglise." Saisset : " L'Etat devenait une the'ocratie et les citoyens de Geneve n'e'taient plus que les sujets d'un petit nombre de ministres, sujets eux-memes de Calvin, lequel dominait les trois Conseils du sein du Consistoire et paraissait a la /bis le ROi et le pontife souveraln de la cite'."
484 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
gain or personal ends. The Genevese knew him well and obeyed him freely.
§ 106. Calvin s Theory of Discipline.
Discipline is so important an element in Calvin's Church polity, that it must be more fully considered. Discipline was the cause of his expulsion from Geneva, the basis of his flourishing French congregation at Strassburg, the chief reason for his recall, the condition of his acceptance, the struggle and triumph of his life, and the secret of his moral influence to this day. His rigorous discipline, based on his rigorous creed, educated the heroic French, Dutch, English, Scotch, and American Puritans (using this word in a wider sense for strict Calvinists). It fortified them for their trials and persecutions, and made them promoters of civil and religious liberty.
The severity of the system has passed away, even in Geneva, Scotland, and New England, but the result remains in the power of self-government, the capacity for organization, the order and practical efficiency which characterizes the Reformed Churches in Europe and America.
Calvin's great aim was to realize the purity and holiness of the Church as far as human weakness will permit. He kept constantly in view the ideal of " a Church without spot or wrinkle or blemish," which Paul describes in the Epistle to the Ephesians (5 : 27). He wanted every Christian to be consistent with his profession, to show his faith by good works, and to strive to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. He was the only one among the Reformers who attempted and who measurably carried out this sublime idea in a whole community.
Luther thought the preaching of the gospel would bring about all the necessary changes, but he had to complain bitterlv, at the end of his life, of the dissolute manners of the