Reforming French Protestantism by Sunshine Glenn S

Author:Sunshine, Glenn S. [Sunshine, Glenn S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History/Religion/Non-Fiction
ISBN: 9781935503651
Publisher: TrumanStateUP
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

THE CONSISTORY IN FRANCE

French Protestantism prior to the Discipline ecclésiastique

In France, consistories had been established in at least some French Protestant churches prior to the 1559 Discipline, though these bodies took a different form from their counterpart in Geneva. In terms of composition, French churches tended to include deacons in the consistories, as shown not only by the subsequent history of the institution but also by the Articles polytiques of Poitiers: “The consistory is to meet each week for remonstrance, correction and purgation of the vice and scandal of the flock, and the aforementioned deacons and elders are to attend this consistory.…”14 This should come as no surprise in view of the role the Articles give to deacons in the church. What is something of a surprise, however, is that the pastors apparently were not included in the consistory; not only are they not listed in the quotation above, but they are nowhere mentioned in connection with the work of the consistory. This approach was obviously not based on Geneva; although similar in some respects to Strasbourg, the tensions there between the pastors and the civil magistrate make it an unlikely model for disciplinary institutions elsewhere. The Pays de Vaud provides a more promising model,15 though anticlericalism may have been a factor as well. Although many Protestant regions mistrusted pastors, regarding their efforts at discipline as a return to “papal tyranny,” anticlericalism was particularly prominent in France even within the Catholic Church. Technically, pastors were not clerics in the same sense as Catholic priests; nonetheless, they would be the logical target of continuing distrust of clergy within the Protestant community.16

In addition to detailing the composition of the consistory, the quotation above also outlines its basic function in the French churches: it was primarily charged with the enforcement of morals. But along with this role, the Poitiers church assigned additional duties to the consistory: “The consistory is to meet on another day during the week if needed to consult, deliberate and decide upon the affairs of the church, at which time all the deacons, elders and deputies are to attend to set in order all the affairs as the occasion may require, and if one of them fails to attend, he is to be severely reproved unless he has a legitimate excuse.”17

One question raised by this quotation is to whom the term “deputies” refers. Earlier in the Articles, a form of the word is used to describe those sent from a local church to a synod;18 presumably the word has the same meaning here, since otherwise it is left completely undefined. The implication is that the consistory could “depute” individuals who were not elders or deacons to the synods. If it did so, these individuals would quite naturally be included in the meetings dealing with church affairs, since, after all, they represented the church at synods which themselves dealt with administrative matters.

Thus together with their duties with regard to church discipline, the consistory was to take on the administration of the

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