[_Calvin's Lat. Corresp._, Opera, tom. ix. p. 26.]
[328] The right of censure and excommunication belonging to the
Consistory. It was not without much difficulty that the right of
ecclesiastical censure was granted to the Consistorial Court,--a
body which included at once the ministers and some members of the
magistracy, chosen from the various municipal councils. This right
of the Consistory was often contested, and was only definitely
recognized after long resistance, of which traces are to be found in
the Registers of Council, from 1542 to 1553.