§ 106. CALVIN'S THEORY OF DISCIPLINE. 487
The object of discipline is threefold: to protect the body of the Church against contamination and profanation; to guard the individual members against the corrupting influence of constant association with the wicked; and to bring the offender to repentance that he may be saved and restored to the fellowship of the faithful. Excommunication and subsequent restoration were exercised by Paul in the case of the Corinthian offender, and by the Church in her purer days. Even the Emperor Theodosius was excluded from communion by Bishop Ambrose of Milan on account of the massacre perpetrated in Thessalonica at his order.^
Excommunication should be exercised only against flagitious crimes which disgrace the Christian profession ; such as adultery, fornication, theft, robbery, sedition, perjury, contempt of God and his authority. Nor should it be exercised by the bishop or pastor alone, but by the body of elders, and, as is pointed out by Paul, " with the knowledge and approbation of the congregation ; in such a manner, however, that the multitude of the people may not direct the proceeding, but may watch over it as witnesses and guardians, that nothing be done by a few persons from any improper motive." Moreover, "the severity of the Church must be tempered by a spirit of gentleness. For there is constant need of the greatest caution, according to the injunction of Paul concerning a person who may have been censured, ' lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his overmuch sorrow ' (2 Cor. 2:7); for thus a remedy would become a poison."
When the sinner gives reasonable evidence of repentance
1 Calvin quotes also Chrysostom's famous warning against the profanation of the sacrament by the connivance of unfaithful priests : " Blood shall be required at your hands. Let us not be afraid of sceptres or diadems or imperial robes ; we have here a greater power. As for myself, I will rather give up my body to death and suffer my blood to be shed, than I will be a partaker of this pollution." There is a strong resemblance between Calvin and'Chrysostom, both as commentators and as fearless disciplinarians.
488 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH S\YITZERLAND.
he is to be restored. Calvin objects to " the excessive austerity of the ancients," who refused to readmit the lapsed. He approves of the course of Cyprian, who says : " Our patience and kindness and tenderness is ready for all who come ; I wish all to return into the Church ; I wish all our fellow-soldiers to be assembled in the camp of Christ, and all our brethren to be received into the house of God our Father. I forgive everything ; I conceal much. With ready and sincere affection I embrace those who return with penitence." Calvin adds : " Such as are expelled from the Church, it is not for us to expunge from the number of the elect, or to despair of them as already lost. It is proper to consider them as strangers to the Church, and consequently to Christ, but this only as long as they remain in a state of exclusion. And even then let us hope better things of them for the future, and not cease to pray to God on their behalf. Let us not condemn to eternal death the offender, nor prescribe laws to the mercy of God who can change the worst of men into the best." He makes a distinction between excommunication and anathema ; the former censures and punishes with a view to reformation and restoration ; the latter precludes all pardon, and devotes a person to eternal perdition. Anathema ought never to be resorted to, or at least very rarely. Church members ought to exert all means in their power to promote the reformation of an excommunicated person, and admonish him not as an enemy, but as a brother (2 Cor. 2:8). "Unless this tenderness be observed by the individual members as well as by the Church collectively, our discipline will be in danger of speedily degenerating into cruelty."
2. As regards the discipline of the clerg3% Calvin objects to the exemption of ministers from civil jurisdiction, and wants them to be subject to the same punishments as laymen. They are more guilty, as they ought to set a good example. He quotes with approval the ancient canons, so shamefully