AND TUTOR TO FRED E KICK THE NOBLE. 



217 



which profoimdly affected in 1 846 the Church in the Canton 

 de Yaud. 



The Church of Neuchatel, such as it issued from the Eeforma- 

 tion, as has been pointed out above, was not an ordinary State 

 Church. It was quite independent of the political power, and 

 was ruled by the venerable Company, not of Apostles, but of its 

 ministers. The Eepublic struck a deadly blow at that constitu- 

 tion, but the Company, while sacrificing its authority, insisted on 

 not transmitting it to the State, but on vesting it in the 

 membership of the Church. 



One sees that the inner purport of this was to preserve the 

 ancient autonomy though the Company abandoned tlie headship 

 of the Church. Nobody resigned. The body of the Church was 

 preserved whole. 



The new government demanded no more than they got by the 

 voluntary abdication which the Company of Pastors made of its 

 episcopal powers into the hands of the Synod elected by the 

 members of each parish, with a large representation of the 

 laity, the direct election of parish ministers by the people, 

 and the passing of the School of Divinity into the hands of the 

 Synod. 



Those principles were laid down by Godet and led to the 

 adoption of the ecclesiasticnl law under the working of which the 

 Church at Neuchatel escaped disruption till 1873. All citizens 

 accepting the forms of the Protestant Clnirch were declared 

 Church electors. 



Thus the government of the Church did not pass into the 

 hands of the State as in the Canton de Yaud. The need for a 

 secession was averted. The new Church bore the stamp of self- 

 government. This excellent result was obtained principally 

 through the insight Godet showed in separating the essentials 

 of Christianity from temporary and political admixtures. 



It is a remarkable thiiio- that at the moment when the House 



o 



of Prussia might so easily have issued a pronouncement to its 

 Neuchatel subjects in a sense hostile to the new order, it 

 refrained from any step tliat would have embarrassed them. It 

 even formally empowered them to follow any course that might 

 seem to them favourable to the happiness of their country and 

 in accordance with the new situation. 



In 1850, the Synod of the reconstituted Church appointed 

 Godet teacher of Biblical exegesis. AV'ith this appointment 

 began his long and arduous labours as a commentator upon Holy 

 Writ. He became a prolific wTiter as well as an inspiring 

 teacher in that domain of theology. 



