A Better Way of Administering Discipline
In referring to heresy trials and the evils accompanying them, the Interior (Presbyterian) says: “Our ecclesiastical law was taken over bodily from the Roman Church: . . . We preserve in our forms of discipline precisely the attitude of the inquisitors who brought men to the stake, which assumes that those who differ with us in some theological matter are criminals. ‘Are you guilty or not guilty?’ If the accused is found to hold the views charged, the verdict is ‘guilty.’ This ‘link ties us fast to a post which is too horrible to contemplate.’ This is all too true, as is clearly demonstrated in the career of John Calvin, who brought over bodily from Rome this system of ecclesiastical law. Then the Interior very properly declares, “Some better way of administering discipline must be found.” Why not take the “better way” shown in the words of Christ? This way is as much better than that as Christ is better than Rome.