Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

the circumstances of their times would allow, or as
they themselves were able to trace it, the model
exhibited in the primitive Church.
Besides the Clerical Senior each district had a
Civil Senior, who was elected exclusively by the
nobles and landowners. His duties about the
Church were mainly of an external nature. All
things appertaining to faith and doctrine were left
entirely in the hands of the ministers; but the Civil
Senior took cognisance of the morals of ministers,
and in certain cases could forbid them the exercise
of their functions till he had reported the case to the
Synod, as the supreme authority of the Church. The
support and general welfare of churches and
schools were entrusted to the Civil Senior, Who,
moreover, acted as advocate for the Church before
the authorities of the country.
The supreme authority in the Polish Protestant
Church was neither the Superintendent nor the
Civil Senior, but the Synod. Four times every year
a Local Synod, composed not of ministers only, but
of all the members of the congregations, was
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