RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Presbyter
identified the two orders (according to Acts xx. 28; Titus i. 5, 7); though he availed himself of this identification only to assail the superior jurisdiction of the bishops. For the corresponding development of the Zwinglians, see Church Discipline,
IV., § 1.
The real presbyterial idea was worked out by John Calvin (q.v.). His earliest utterances show that he ascribed comprehensive powers to the Church as such, the Word of God standing in the center; not only to be preached but also to be made fruitful in the community by 2. Calvin- corresponding organization. More than istic. this, he demanded special organs for excommunication, besides the preacher; and, without any doctrinaire principles, he could accordingly bring the Church more or less into union with the State. These ideas were carried through somewhat in Calvin's sense after 1541 (for fuller presentation, see Church Discipline, IV., §§ 2-3). At the same time, the Church had a spiritual power of its own, and therefore needed " a certain peculiar spiritual polity, yet one quite distinct from the civil government, neither hindering nor diminishing it in any respect, but rather aiding and promoting it much" (Institutes, IV., xi. 1; cf. viii. 1, xx. 1). This ecclesiastical organization was not based by Calvin on the theory of general priesthood or on a right of the congregation to self-government, but simply on the need of discipline to prepare the way for the Word of God which, unlike civil justice, should influence the individual from within. For the execution of its penalties Christ had given his Church the proper officials through whom he himself reigned (IV., iii. 1, 4, 8). The apostles, prophets, and evangelists of Eph. iv. 11 being excluded as possessing extraordinary gifts, pastors and teachers remained as essential to the Church. Excepting offices, in like manner, peculiar to Apostolic times from Rom. xii. 7 and I Cor. xii. 28, two other functions remain; government and care of the poor. Calvin thus derived four offices, of which the teachers (chiefly professors of theology) are mentioned only in specifically Calvinistic ordinances. The pastors and elders are comprised in one category of presbyters, of whom there were two divisions, one for teaching and the other for discipline (IV., xi. 6). The system thus constituted did not perform its functions by virtue of legal installation as in Roman Catholicism, but by virtue of the presence of the living Christ in the Spirit (IV., ix. 1). The principles of Calvinistic Presbyterianism could logically be carried out only in churches in which the protection of the State could not become an alien predomination. On such a soil the need of independent organization was more urgently felt, and the rules of the Scriptures were more strongly emphasized. The lack of sympathy with democratic representation on the part of the Huguenot communities was shown by the unfavorable replies of several national synods to the proposition that the united community should have the right to vote. On the other hand, independency was sharply opposed, and it was insisted that no regulation of an individual congregation could conflict with the general articles of the Church, and that the installation
and discipline of pastors and elders should be done by provincial synods.
The Calvinistic system was maintained most consistently in Scotland and the Puritan Presbyterianism which proceeded from that country. Even in questions of organization the Scriptures alone were taken as the basis, and the sole lord and king of the
Church was Christ, in whose name all 3. In Great ecclesiastical authority should be ex- Britain and ercised through the three offices of the United ministers, ruling elders, and deacons, States. whose functions were judicial rather
than legislative. As among the French Reformed, the system of government comprised the session, presbytery, provincial synod, and general synod. The members of the presbytery were delegated by the sessions, and the members of the two higher bodies by the presbyteries, the pastors and laity generally being represented equally. The presiding officer of all these bodies is usually termed the " moderator," the desire being to avoid any title indicating permanent control, in view of the equality of all pastors and congregations. The moderator of the session is the pastor, and the presiding officer of the higher bodies may also be a ruling elder. The office of elders is held for life, and the old law of cooptation is found only sporadically, its place being taken by the election of representatives by the congregations. Early Presbyterian principles have been retained in the British and American churches more closely than anywhere else, and since 1875 their adherents have formed the Alliance of Reformed Churches holding the Presbyterian System (q.v.), whose general councils are held quadrennially. The entire group of Presbyterian churches maintains its position carefully against both episcopacy and independency, and holds that its system is divinely lawful, though not necessary to salvation.
The penetration of Calvinism into Holland from the south after 1555 gave the congregations unity and strength. The organization was influenced both by the French system and by Johannes a Lasco (q.v.), and the basal principles, which vary in different provinces, were established by the Wesel Conference (1568), the Synod of Bedburg (1570), the Synod of Emden (1571), and the national Synods
of Dort (1578, 1618-19), Middelburg
4. The Re- (1581), and The Hague (1586). The
formed governing bodies are the session (ker-
Churches. kenraad), classis, and provincial and
national synods; and the officers are " ministers of the Word of God," elders, and deacons (theologians generally being added). New elders are usually chosen by the session and the board of deacons, but with the peculiar feature that in Holland they are elected for terms of two years each, so that half their number are chosen annually. Along the Lower Rhine, on the other hand, the presbyteries are self-perpetuating bodies without reference to the deacons. In the German Reformed regions the ecclesiastical presbyterian elements blended with the civil consistorial factors. In the Palatinate the church council of the elector had long been the established form when presbyteries were introduced, which, however, failed to obtain a
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