RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Church Discipline
the Evangelical Lutheran conception, exclusion from the sacraments forms the core and center of church discipline. The employment of this discipline (the power of the keys) is a part of the practical duties of the pastor. The pastor who administers the sacrament dare not knowingly admit an unworthy person, since to do so is to participate in the sin. But on the basis of Matt, xviii. and I Cor. V. the congregation has a right to
1. Methods cooperate in church discipline since it and may not tolerate offense in its midst.
Results. The ban, even if uttered by the pastor, always proceeds in the name of the congregation; but participation by the congregation in church discipline is Uttle developed in Lutheran state churches in consequence of the pecuUar organization of the congregations. Instead of the congregations, the consistories received authority to assist the pastor in this exercise. The early practise was that a member of the congregation, charged with public sins, was at first admonished by the pastor as his confessor, and if he did not change his conduct, he was excluded from the Lord's Supper; this was called the small ban. If the sinner remained stubborn, he was excluded from churchJy commimion altogether, was put under the so-called great ban. If he were in any way compromised before the congregation, the permission of the consistory had to be obtained, and the socalled great ban could be pronounced by the consistory or the state only after investigation. The whole procedure was looked upon not as a real punishment, but as a means of discipline. The ban could be nullified when the sinner showed repentance. He was readmitted on condition of publicly asking the forgiveness of the congregation. This procedure was called church penance, which is consequently not an act of punishment, but of reconciliation. If the sinner died without church penance, he was buried in a separate place without the services of the minister and the congregation. Church discipUne so conducted was doomed to failure because it was not rooted in the consciousness of the congregation. During the seventeenth century, from an act of reconciliation church penance degenerated into an act of punishment which at first was imposed by the consistories and then by secular courts. Attempts were made by men like Johann Valentin Andrea and Spener to restore the old church discipline, but without success. tKtism produced no changes in this exercise, and rationalism completed its destruction. In most states church discipline was expressly abolished, and to-day there are only sporadic instances of it.
With the reawakening of churchly life a desire for the reintroduction of church discipline made itself felt. Schleiermacher's draft of a church constitution contained propositions to this effect; during 1840-60 the question was earnestly dis-
2. :iodern ^'^^^^'^ because of the reproach which Require- \B,ck of discipline caused the
ments. churches and sects, also because of the social element which crept into the old church constitutions. Since the introduction of civil marriage and the abolition of compulsory baptism there has been felt anew the need
1. The
Zwing'lian System.
of measures against such as despise ecclesiastical marriage and baptism. The state does not oppose the imposition of church discipline as long as it is of a purely religious nature and is not public.
(G. UHLHOEN.t)
IV. In the Reformed Churches: The Reformed Church has always emphasized that faith without moral submission to the law of God is inconceivable, but it was only Calvinism that laid the responsibility for the regulation and discipline of the moral life of the members upon the church. According to the common Evangelical view, the power of the keys was exercised by the preaching of the Word, but Calvinism found it expressed chiefly in Christian penitential discipline as divinely ordered.
The German-Swiss Reformation brought about not only religious knowledge, but an immediate ethical renovation of popular life. There existed, however, as yet no churchly discipline, Zwingli tried to preserve it from the medieval Church in so far as it did not conflict with the new doctrines, but the secular authorities were much more successful in influencing the moral education of the people. An authoritative position in regard to matrimonial matters only was assumed apart from the civil authority in 1525. A tribunal was created consisting of two secular priests, two members of the larger council, and two members of the smaller council; but this institution was still far removed from an organization of the ecclesiastical congregation, it simply reported its findings to the secular authority. Although there existed a desire for an independent church discipline also in the sphere of the German-Swiss Reformation, Zwingli was satisfied with the discipline carried through by the Christian secular authorities, as he deemed the discipline itself of more importance than the method by which it was attained. The sermon, he thought, gave the idea, while the civil authority was the executing organ in the union of State and Church.
In strong contrast with this surrender of ecclesiastical independence, there reappeared in Geneva under the guidance of Calvin the original type of strict moral discipline, based entirely upon the church. Calvin laid down his dogmatic views concerning ecclesiastical organization and discipline in his Institutio, especially after 1543, in great detail, and they form the basis of his practical efforts. The normal form of the church must be shaped according to Scripture. The body of Christ (" Institutes," IV iii. 2) must be governed according to that political order and form which Scripture prescribes (IV vi. 9; cf. x. 1, i. 15, iv. 1; " Gal- Ucan Confession," 29). Thus discipline or government becomes the third constituting function of the right church {Opera, xiii. 283; " Belgic Confession," 29). But apart from depend- 2. Calvin's gjjce upon Biblical forms, Calvin had Basal ^Yie conviction that the church could ^^j^' not exercise her educational function ° ^ without a corresponding organization.
Discipline aims primarily to prevent desecration of Christ's congregation and his holy sacrament, the betterment of the individual is considered second-
Church Discipline Church Extension Society