In  the  year  1533  a  provincial  synod  was  established  in  Strasburg,  which
included  various  secular  elements,  together  with  the  spiritual ;  a  com-
mission of  the  council  (which,  indeed,  had  precedence),  the  wardens  of  the
city  churches,  the  doctors  and  teachers  of  the  liberal  arts.  In  the  articles
which  it  adopted,  the  office  of  preventing  blasphemy  and  open  scandal
was  specially  committed  to  the  civil  authorities,3  whereas  the  council
never  would  consent  to  the  introduction  of  church  discipline,  properly
so  called.  In  affairs  of  faith,  they  said,  nothing  was  to  be  effected  by
commands  ;  as  they  could  not  possibly  be  enforced,  the  publication  of
them  could  only  be  attended  with  loss  of  consideration.  The  blameless
life  and  conversation  of  the  clergy  (each  of  whom  was  to  be  seriously
admonished  in  private),  the  good  example  of  the  higher  classes,  and  ex-
hortations to  the  lower  by  the  masters  of  the  guilds,  appeared  to  them
the  only  practicable  means  to  the  attainment  of  the  object.4

The  church  was  regarded  as  an  institution  for  the  propagation  of
religion — not  so  much  outward  as  inward.  Everything  approaching  to
papacy  was  avoided.  To  free  themselves  from  the  coercive  power  of  the
spiritual  body — the  exercise  of  which  was  most  oppressive,  while  its
relaxation  was  destructive  to  morality — was  the  chief  aim  of  the  whole
movement.  And  if  the  people  would  no  longer  endure  the  influence
and  the  spiritual  tyranny  of  the  prelates,  neither  were  they  disposed  to
confer  analogous  powers  on  the  inferior  clergy  who  had  abandoned  the

1  Considerations  of  the  Clergy  of  the  Margravate  concerning  Church  Discipline.
