We have said that before Calvin’s arrival at Geneva, rules of discipline were in existence and in force. There is here however something new, as is evident from the language of the pastors. It is _excommunication_. This is a point of great importance, for it was on this subject that violent conflicts soon after began in Geneva. It does not however appear, from the official records, that the articles met with any opposition in the council. Surely a Christian life and a Christian faith ought to characterize a Christian society. If profligates and drunkards ought not to be admitted to what the world calls good society, much more, they thought, ought they to be excluded from a religious society. Moreover, they were _laymen_ of good report who were to watch over moral order, and even those laymen were appointed by other laymen, members themselves of the council. This fact made a great difference between the Romish discipline and that which the reformers desired. In this case there was no suggestion of a reign of clericalism; and this doubtless contributed to the adoption of the rules. Calvin was convinced that morality ought to distinguish the reformed Church from the deformed (_l’église réformée de l’église déformée_). Was it not dissolute living, both on the part of the laity, and still more on the part of the monks and the priests, which had called forth in the Church the sharpest rebukes? It was not possible to purify the faith without purifying the life. That would have been a flagrant contradiction. If the Reformation made light of morality, it would destroy itself as Rome had done. With regard to doctrine, no one supposed that the reformed Church could hold in its bosom either Roman Catholics or pantheists who believed neither in God nor in the immortality of the soul. Why then should it tolerate impure persons or robbers? All this is true: but nevertheless there is something in the system that does not work smoothly. Calvin was right, and he was wrong too. We shall have to say wherein lay his truth and wherein his error.