are to proceed in their admonitions, the Council adds, ‘We have ordered that the said ministers are not to assume to themselves any jurisdiction; but that they are merely to hear the parties, and make the above-mentioned representations; and upon their statement of the case we shall be able to consult, and to deliver judgment, according to the exigencies of the case.’ Finally, the following additional article, proposed by the commission, was inserted in the official text, at the end of the Ordinances. ‘And let all this be done in such a manner that the ministers may have no civil jurisdiction, and make use only of the spiritual sword of the Word of God, as St. Paul enjoins upon them. And that this consistory shall in no respect trench upon either the authority of the seignory or ordinary courts of justice; but that the civil power may continue in its integrity. And if there should be need of inflicting any penalty and of attaching the parties, that the ministers with the consistory, after hearing the parties and making such representations as shall be proper, are to report the whole to the Council, which, on their statement, will consider of their decree, and give judgment according to the facts.’[162] The Council displayed its zeal even in mere trifles. Not once only, but every time the word _elder_ occurs, it added to it or substituted for it the words _appointed or deputed by the seignory_. And whenever the report, to designate the Council, employs the word _Messieurs_, the official copy does not fail to insert in its place _the seignory_. If Calvin had a large share in the Ordinances, assuredly the Council had its share too. The corrections which Calvin’s work received at their hands are all the more remarkable because at no other time did they hold him in greater esteem. The members of the seignory were friends of his, and the reformer having yielded to their entreaties so frequently repeated, it would have been natural that they should exhibit some deference to him; but, on the contrary, their manner of proceeding had a little stiffness in it. Calvin having, it seems, some fears about the alterations which the Council might have introduced into his scheme, requested, in concert with his colleagues, to see them; but the Council decided _that it was not for the preachers to revise them_,[163] and that the whole should be delivered the same day to the Council of the Two Hundred. [Sidenote: Limits Of Calvin’s Responsibility.]