RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Consistory
Of the subsequent history of the consistories (of. Mejer, Grundlagen, pp. 144-145) only special phases need be considered here. For Prussia the subject is well treated by H. F. Jacobson, in Evangelisches Kirchenrecht des preussischen Staates (Halle, 1864, pp. 141 sqq.); and for Saxony by Miiller, in Beitrdge zur sdchsischen Kirchengeschichte, ix. and x. (Leipsic, 1894). After the Saxon pattern, composed on collegiate lines of clerical and nonclerical members, and with superintendents as subordinate officials, the consistories became diffused through all the Lutheran 4. The churches of Germany. They took Later Ger- the place of the original district visiman Con- tation committees. They were not
sistories. mere imitations of the Saxon precedent, but spontaneous products of the operation of the theory of state church polity, which not only required officers for the protection of church property and of the outward ecclesiastical dispensation, but also theological experts for the maintenance of pure doctrine and rightful administration of the sacraments. Accordingly, with but insignificant variations, the constitution of the consistories remains always the same. Sometimes consistories were created to restrict doctrinal disputations and encroachments of clergymen upon the domain of ecclesiastical discipline; on this ground the consistory at Weimar, for instance, was called into existence in 1561 (cf. Sehling, Kirchenordnungen, i. 65). Where the consistories have a distinctly independent status they are said to be " formiert " ; where they are adjuncts to temporal courts or administrative authorities they are said to be " nicht formiert." In smaller territories these latter were of frequent occurrence ; and until the middle of the last century there was even a forestry board that was at the same time a consistorium. Consistories appointed by the sovereign are called immediate; those filled by authorities subordinated to civil officials are called mediate. In the Reformation period conditions of this kind arose where feudatory towns or great landed proprietors exercised certain rights of territorial supremacy, and consequently rights of church government as well; in modern times the mediate consistories were done away with by the mediatizations of 1806 and 1815.
From the very outset consistorial powers have not been everywhere the same. In not a few states they entirely took the place of episcopal jurisdiction; in others, as in case of the Wittenberg consistory of 1539, their functions were more circumsenbed; so that sometimes consistories are merely church courts — the one of Mecklenburg at Rostock, for instance, was scarcely more than that; and elsewhere they have also carried with them by transfer the administrative affairs of church polity, which are ascribed to them 5- Powers by Sarcerius. In the former case ad-
of Con- ministrative affairs devolve upon the
sistories. state chancery or privy council, and the practical knowledge of spiritual affairs is furnished by affiliated court preachers or superintendents. The church-governing privileges vested in the consistories are usually called jura vmria ; those reserved to the personal decision of
the sovereign are called jura reservata. The consistories are always boards of the sovereign and government; that there should also inhere in them some independent representation of the Church is a thought that first sprang up in the sixteenth century. This thought had its practical sequel in certain provisions of the Peace of Westphalia by virtue of which, even under a sovereign of different faith, consistories on a basis of confessional integrity were guaranteed. The point was overlooked, however, that in the same Westphalian peace negotiations church government was expressly characterized as an attribute of state supremacy, and that nothing more was contemplated than that the state sovereign must exercise such rights through officers of the respective confession.
According to the principle of the State's custodia prioris tabula, which obtained in government praxis far into the eighteenth century, the subjects of the State stood without exception under the church-governing surveillance of the territorial sovereignty. They were also subject as a body to the sovereign authorities with respect to the administration of this jurisdiction. Thus, not only Protestants who did not belong to the state church, but likewise Roman Catholics and even Jews were under the consistories. The consistory as mod-
ernly developed had up to that time 6. Modern enjoyed not only church-governing Modifica- functions, but also — because no distinctions, tion was made — functions of church
sovereignty; and the pioneer exponents of the tolerance principle, who likewise had not yet learned sufficiently to distinguish between the two spheres of activity, now came to attribute to church polity, in its general scope, only what were essentially church sovereignty problems; hence, too, as reacting against false theories of office, they could seriously debate the question whether the importation of theologians into the consistories were not superfluous. Nor was it the less in accord herewith that Reformed or Catholic officers were occasionally appointed to Lutheran consistories. It was a more wholesome development from the time of the absolute police regime that after the middle of the eighteenth century the civil and criminal jurisdiction over ecclesiastical persons and affairs was withdrawn more and more from the consistories, as likewise from the Roman Catholic prelatical authorities, and transferred to the ordinary courts. Even the jurisdiction in matrimonial concerns was at last taken from them, so that apart from their administrative business, they retain simply a corrective jurisdiction over official transgressions, and on occasion a denunciatory prerogative that goes with their exercise of ecclesiastical supervision. (For the law as now in force cf. E. Friedberg, Verfassungs-Recht der evangelischen Landeskirchen, Leipsic, 1888.) From the consistorial organization is to be distinguished the synodal, in virtue of which the Church governs itself by means of committees — synods, presbyteries, etc. (see Presbyter; and Presbyterians); and the so-called mixed form of church organization prevalent in Germany to-day, which combines both these theories of organization. E. Sehling.
Constance Constantine