nts was not decidedly in favour of the change.[251] But Bucer,
his biographer tells us, was, in spite of his inclination to mediate,
not friendly to this temporising system; partly because he had an
organising intellect, which relied greatly on practical discipline to
preserve what had been conquered, and on restriction of liberty to be
the most certain security for its preservation; partly because he had a
deep insight into the nature of various religious tendencies, and was
justly alarmed at their consequences for Church and State.[252] This
point in the character of Bucer provoked a powerful resistance to his
system of ecclesiastical discipline, for it was feared that he would
give to the clergy a tyrannical power.[253] It is true that the
demoralisation which ensued on the destruction of the old ecclesiastical
authority rendered a strict attention on the part of the State to the
affairs of religion highly necessary.[254] The private and confidential
communications of the German reformers give a more hideous picture of
the moral condition of the generation which followed the Reformation
than they draw in their published writings of that which preceded it. It
is on this account that Bucer so strongly insisted on the necessity of
the interference of the civil power in support of the discipline of the
Church.

The Swiss reformers, between whom and the Saxons Bucer forms a
connecting link, differ from them in one respect, which greatly
influenced their notions of government. Luther lived under a monarchy
which was almost absolute, and in which the common people, who were of
Slavonic origin, were in the position of the most abject servitude; but
the divines of Zuerich and Bern were republicans. They did not therefore
entertain his exalted views as to the irresistible might of the State;
and instead of requiring as absolute a theory of the indefectibility of
the civil power as he did, they were satisfied with obtaining a
preponderating influence for themselves. Where the power was in hands
less favourable to their cause, they had less inducement to exaggerate
its rights.

Zwingli abolishes both the distinction between Church and State and the
notion of ecclesiastical authority. In his system the civil rulers
possess the spiritual functions; and, as their foremost duty is the
preservation and promotion of the true religion, it is their business to
preach. As magistrates are too much occupied with other things, they
must d