[Sidenote: Supremacy Of The State.] Calvin knew that a hand mightier than his must establish religious and moral order in Geneva. ‘If God do not work by his spirit,’ said he, ‘all the doctrine that may be set forth will be like a trifle thrown to the winds.’ There was at this time a sort of public manifestation of this thought. In the month of December, 1542, the Council ordered that the monogram of the name of Jesus should be engraved on the gates of the town (_Jésus gravés en pierre_).[157] The chronicles of Roset say that the Council ‘ordered to be engraved on the gates of the new walls which were being built, _the name of Jesus above the armorial bearings_.’[158] It is very commonly stated that this resolution was adopted at the request of Calvin; but neither the registers of the Council, nor those of the consistory, nor Roset, mention it. This does not indeed imply that he had nothing to do with it; and this inscription was at all events placed by order of the Council, which was friendly to Calvin. But it was nothing new. Roset states that ‘this name was engraved on the old gates of the city, _time out of mind_.’ It had been placed there on the demand of the syndics, in 1471, and the custom appears to be still more ancient. Opinions differ as to the nature of the government of the church of Geneva in the sixteenth century. Some have called it a _theocracy_, and have seen in it the predominance of the church over the state. This view is the most widely spread, and is current among both friends and opponents of the reformer. In our days the contrary view has been maintained. It has been asserted that at the time of the reformation of Geneva, the authority of the state was completely substituted for that of the ecclesiastical power; that the Council from that time intruded on ground which was altogether within the province of the church. In fact, it went to such a length as to regulate the hour and the number of sermons; and a minister could neither publish a book, nor absent himself for a few days, without the permission of the Council.[159] [Sidenote: State Control Of The Church.]