The Church of England in the Thirty-Nine Articles recommended excommunication, but left its execution to civil authorities because the Church was a state institution. The West minster Confession (XXX) prescribes three forms of punishment—admonition, temporary suspension from participation in' the Lord's Supper and expulsion. The Kirk Session, com posed of the minister and elders, met once a week and judged and admonished the cases brought before it.
In American colonial times Church discipline was very strict in most of the colonies. It was due to this fact that the Blue Laws were en acted. For a time the Congregational Church was the state Church of some of the New Eng land colonies. With the organization of the United States government and adoption of the Constitution the execution of ecclesiastical dis cipline was placed entirely in the hands of the churches unless the offense was a criminal act contrary to the civil law. In such a case both civil and ecclesiastical authorities gave judg ment.
The Presbyterian Church is governed by the local session with the possibility of an appeal to the presbytery or the synod and a final appeal to the General Assembly (q.v.). Most of the
Reformed and other Presbyterian churches have similar church machinery.
The Congregational Church is governed by its local body. Even the ministry is subject to it.
The Methodist Episcopal Church and most of the Methodist bodies have the general con ference (q.v.) which is the sole lawmaking body of the Church. The judicial conference is the court of appeals. The annual conference is a local executive body, covering a consider able area. The governing body of the local Church is the quarterly conference. Discipline is twofold: admonition, and trial followed by expulsion if proved guilty. The defendant may appeal to a judicial conference and from that to the general conference which renders judg ment through the adoption or rejection of the action of its committee on the judiciary.
There is a general tendency among many of the Protestant Churches to leave the matter of discipline alone and to make it a burden of the conscience as enlightened by the public ministry of the Church.