Church discipline originated in the "power of the keys" and in the control of the sacraments. In the early Church it was a "purely spiritual jurisdiction."[366:1] After Constantine, however, it touched the civil and social status of the delinquents. During the entire Middle Ages it was a tremendous power because it was believed that the Church, ruled by the divinely appointed Pope and his army of ecclesiastics, was the "dispenser of eternal salvation" and that exclusion from her communion without repentance incurred eternal damnation. Discipline was administered either directly by the Pope or by the bishops and their representatives, the archdeacons, or in each congregation by the priest. Civil authorities aided the Church in enforcing discipline. Charles the Great ordered the bishops to hold annual public synodical courts to try cases of incest, murder, adultery, robbery, theft, and other vices contrary to God's laws.[366:2] The clergy and laity alike were investigated. Seven irreproachable synodal judges from each congregation reported to the synod on the state of morals and religion.[366:3] Similar synods were held in Spain and England and soon came to be common throughout Europe. The ordinary penalties inflicted were fines, fasting, pilgrimages, scourging, imprisonment, and deeds of charity. Obstinate cases incurred excommunication. The penalties inflicted on the clergy were more severe than those on the laity.[367:1] About the same time developed the practice by which the priest heard the confessions[367:2] of his flock and doled out the punishment for their private offences. But by the ninth century confession to a priest had not yet become compulsory.