Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

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3. He had a much higher view of the State than the popes. He considered it
equally divine in origin and authority as the Church, and fully independent
in all temporal matters; while the papal hierarchy in the Middle Ages often
overruled the State by ecclesiastical authority. Hildebrand compared the
Church to the sun, the State to the moon which borrows her light from the
sun, and claimed and exercised the right of deposing kings and absolving
subjects from their oaths of allegiance. Boniface VIII. formulated this claim
in the well-known theory of the two swords.
4. Calvin’s theocracy was based upon the sovereignty of the Christian
people and the general priesthood of believers; the papal theocracy was an
exclusive rule of the priesthood.
In practice, the two powers were not as clearly distinct at Geneva as in
theory. They often intermeddled with each other. The ministers criticised
the acts of the magistrates from the pulpit; and the magistrates called the
ministers to account for their sermons. Discipline was a common territory
for both, and the Consistory was a mixed body of clergymen and laymen.
The government fixed and paid the salaries of the pastors, and approved
their nomination and transfer from one parish to another. None could even
absent himself for a length of time without leave by the Council. The Large
Council voted on the Confession of Faith and Discipline, and gave them the
power of law.
The Reformed Church of Geneva, in one word, was an established Church
or State Church, and continues so to this day, though no more in an
exclusive sense, but with liberty to Dissenters, whether Catholic or
Protestant, who have of late been increasing by immigration.
The union of Church and State is tacitly assumed or directly asserted in
nearly all the Protestant Confessions of Faith, which make it the duty of the
civil government to support religion, to protect orthodoxy, and to punish
heresy. f684
In modern times the character of the State and its attitude towards the
Church has undergone a material change in Switzerland as well as in other
countries. The State is no longer identified with a particular Church, and
has become either indifferent, or hostile, or tolerant. It is composed of
members of all creeds, and should, in the name of justice, support all, or
none; in either case allowing to all full liberty as far as is consistent with the
public peace.