"All the pastors are its natural members; but each church shall further elect from its body a man full of the Spirit and of faith, to whom it shall intrust powers for all that is in the jurisdiction of the synod.[83] [83] Universi episcopi......Quælibet ecclesia congregetur et eligat ex se ipsa unum plenum fide et Spiritu Dei.--(Ibid.) "Three visiters shall be elected yearly, with commission to go through all the churches, to examine those who have been elected bishops, to confirm those who have been approved of, and to provide for the execution of the decrees of the synod." It will no doubt be found that this first evangelical constitution went in some points to the extreme of ecclesiastical democracy; but certain institutions had crept in that were capable of increase and of changing its nature. Six superintendents for life were afterwards substituted for these annual visiters (who, according to the primitive institution, might be simple members of the church); and, as has been remarked,[84] the encroachments, whether of these superintendents or of the state, gradually paralyzed the activity and independence of the churches of Hesse. This constitution fared as did that of the Abbé Sièyes, in the year 8, which, being destined to be republican, served through the influence of Napoleon Bonaparte to establish the despotism of the Empire. [84] Rettig, Die Freie Kirche. It was not the less a remarkable work. Romish doctors have reproached the Reformation for making the Church a too interior institution.[85] In effect, the Reformation and Popery recognise two elements in the Church,--the one exterior, the other interior; but while Popery gives precedence to the former, the Reformation assigns it to the latter. If however it be a reproach against the Reformation for having an inward Church only, and for not creating an external one, the remarkable constitution of which we have just exhibited a few features, will save us the trouble of reply. The exterior ecclesiastical order, which then sprung from the very heart of the Reformation, is far more perfect than that of Popery. [85] This is the opinion set forth in the _Symbolik_ of Dr. Möhler, the most celebrated defender of the Romish doctrine among our contemporaries. [Sidenote: LUTHER ON THE MINISTRY.] One great question presented itself: Will these principles be adopted by all the Churches of the Reformation?