RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Councils and Synods
The Reformation broke with all the medieval ideas on the subject. Luther very early repudiated the belief in the infallibility of councils, and, where Roman Catholic theology had tended to put their decisions on a par with the Writ-
8. The ten Word, was inclined rather to con- Synods of sider the two opposed , withdrawing the Protestant- whole domain of faith, morals, and ism. Re- worship from their legislative jurisdic-
formed tion and leaving them only the duty Churches, of guarding against departures from Scriptural faith and practise. Thus he considered them practically as judicial tribunals, in which character they were to be composed not only of bishops but also of godly secular persons. From these principles, as from the emphasis laid on the assertion that the Church needed to care only for preaching and the administration of the sacraments, there was no reason to expect that any use would be made of a Reformed synodal system in the organization of the Lutheran territorial churches; and in their later development, with a few sporadic exceptions, no such system was considered. In England the synodal system of the Middle Ages was carried over into the Established Church. But the convocations, after the Reformation as before, were exclusively clerical assemblies; and in accordance with the doctrine of royal supremacy they were not permitted to meet without the sovereign's license, nor were their decisions vaUd without his assent.
The home of the new synodal system was the Reformed Church, in which questions of organization were regarded as of more importance than among the Lutherans. The presbyterial organization established- by Calvin at Geneva became the model for all the Reformed churches. That of France was the first to develop the synodal system for a national Church. At the first national synod (1559) it was resolved that no local church should have any precedence over any other; that general synods should meet from time to time as occasion arose, composed of the ministers and one or more elders or deacons from each church, under a president elected at the meeting; that in each province twice a year the ministers and at least one elder or deacon from each congregation should meet in synod. In 1565 the composition of the national synods was changed to either one or two elected ministers and elders from each provincial synod. These synods, of mixed clerical and lay character, were charged with the government of the Church. On the same lines proceeded the organization of the Reformed churches of Scotland, the Netherlands, and northwestern Germany. The polity was m each case built up on a national basis; the idea of completing it by an international organization seems to have been unknown, and the Synod of Dort was a mere isolated exception.
The imperfection of the older Lutheran system became more and more obvious after the seventeenth century, but the first attempts at improvement dealt with the local churches. It was not until political changes gave occasion for reorganization in many of the German states that the idea of introducing the synodal element was taken up.
In 1807 Schleiermacher made a proposal for a new constitution of the Protestant Church in Prussia, which included the adoption of the 9. Adoption synodal system, and this principle has in the Ger- since been dominant. Since the relaman Lu- tion of the Church to the temporal theran sovereigns made it impossible simply Churches, to adopt the Reformed plan, an attempt was made to combine the synodal and the consistorial systems. In 1817 presbyteries were formed in Prussia, and the first synods were constituted of ministers alone. Not much came of these attempts there, although they were followed by Bavaria in 1818 and Baden in 1821. Before half a century had passed, however, all but a few of the Lutheran churches of Germany adopted synodal constitutions, Wiirttemberg 1854, Hanover 1864, Saxony 1868, Prussia 187.3-76, etc. These German synods are not, like the old Reformed ones, charged with the government of the Church, but are rather the representatives of the Church with the government. They consist of both ministers and laymen, and are chosen for the district synods by the congregations, for the provincial and national synods by the bodies below. Owing to various causes — their restricted competence, their infrequent meetings (every four, five, or six years), their unwieldy numbers, and cumbrous parliamentary forms — they have not produced the results that were hoped from them, and can scarcely do so unless the gift of greater freedom of action makes them really organs of a self-governing Church.
The Protestant emigrants from England to America were at first mostly Independents, and it was not till after the middle of the seventeenth century that the number of Presbyterians gradually increased.* The first union of several congregations into a presbytery occurred in 1705 or 1706, and the first synod met in Philadelphia in 1717 (see Presbyterians, section on America). The system took firm root in America, and was adopted
* [The first settlers in Virginia (1607) and most of those that followed for a century or more were members of the Established English Church. Although Puritanical tendencies early appeared, episcopalian institutions long prevailed. The founders of the Plymouth colony (1620) were semi- Separatists, and soon reached a position that resembled " Independency." The founders of Salem (1622 onward) were Puritans, strongly committed from the first to non-conformist principles, and early won to essentially Congregational principles through the influence of the men of Plymouth. The Massachusetts Company (1628) were Puritans, who in leaving England professed the warmest attachment to the Church of England and so were not avowed non-conformists. They early developed a strong theocratic and presbyterial system. In August, 1637, a synod was held at Cambridge, consisting of about twenty-five ministers, " others sent by the churches,'' and the Massachusetts magistrates, for the suppression of the antinomian heresy. In 1648 " the elders and naessengers of the churches assembled at Cambridge " agreed upon ■' A Platform of Church Discipline," which was afterward adopted by the churches and the Genera! Court, in which it is declared that " Synods orderly assembled, and rightly proceeding according to the pattern, Act. 15, we acknowledge as the ordinance of Christ . . necessary to the well-being of churches. . Magistrates have power to call a synoa.
It belongeth unto synods and councils to debate ana determine controversies of faith and cases of cojiscience etc. For the councils of the Congregational Church see C0NGREGATIONALIST8, IV., §§ 2-3. A. 11. iN.J
Councils and Synods Court