According to all these data, the responsibility of Calvin in the ecclesiastical government of Geneva does not seem so great as is supposed; and the circumstance that the deputies or nominees of the Council formed the majority in the consistory is certainly significant. Many of the alterations or additions were just. This was especially the case with the article which assigned to the ministers the spiritual sword alone. Calvin must have acceded to it with joy. But others were real encroachments of the civil power. It is probable that the reformer was pained to see them, for he wished the church to have for its supreme law the word of its divine head. He would never have made a compromise on doctrine; but considering the great work which had to be done in Geneva, he believed—as otherwise he must have renounced the hope of accomplishing it—that he ought to make concessions on some points of government. He always condemned ‘the hypocrites who, while omitting judgment, mercy, and faith, and even reviling the law, are all the more rigorous in matters which are not of great importance.’ _He did not strain at a gnat while he swallowed a camel._ The dangers involved in the intrusion of the state into the affairs of the church were not recognized in his time; and the sacrifices which he made were more important than he imagined. Footnote 117: Calvin to Bucer, October 15, 1541. _Opp._ xi. p. 299. Footnote 118: Calvin to Bucer, Oct. 15, 1541.—_Opp._ xi. p. 299. Footnote 119: In a letter to some anonymous correspondent Calvin speaks of about twenty days. ‘Intra viginti dies formulam composuimus.’ This passage cannot invalidate the other account, and is not far from agreeing with it. Footnote 120: Registers of September 28. Footnote 121: Calvin to Bucer, October 15, 1541. Registers of September 29. Footnote 122: Registers, October 25 and 27; November 9 and 20, 1541; and January 2, 1542. Roset, Chron. MS. book iv. ch. 50. Beza, _Vita Calvini_, p. 8. Gautier, book vi. p. 485. Calv. _Opp._ x. p. 15; xi. p. 379. Footnote 123: Calv. _Opp._ x. 15-30. Scheme of ecclesiastical ordinances. This introduction (p. 16) is found at the head of the ordinances in the Registers of the Venerable Company of Pastors, to which they were officially communicated. Footnote 124: Memoir sent to the Council of Constance. See also _Pici Mirandulæ ad Leonem P. M. de Reformandis Moribus_. Footnote 125: _Institution de la Religion Chrétienne_, book iii. ch. 6. Footnote 126: Calvin on John xv. 4, 5. Footnote 127: _Ordonnances ecclésiastiques._—Calv. _Opp._ x. p. 17. Footnote 128: _Ibid._ Footnote 129: _Ibid._ Footnote 130: Pascal. Footnote 131: _Ordonnances._—Calv. _Opp._ x. pp. 19, 20. Footnote 132: Proverbs, xxii. 6. Footnote 133: _Ordonnances._—Calv. _Opp._ x. p. 28. Footnote 134: _Ibid._ p. 28. Footnote 135: Racine.—_Athalie._ Footnote 136: _Ordonnances._—Calv. _Opp._ x. p. 23.