Church discipline and excommunication

What is it about?

This article examines the diversity of approaches to the question of church discipline and the practice of excommunication among the Reformed in the sixteenth century, with Peter Martyr Vermigli as a representative figure.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

This article shows that, far from the commonly received view, there was in fact a great diversity of opinion among the Reformed about the role of church discipline, particularly with respect to the practice of excommunication. There are a variety of opinions and ways in which these views are understood to cohere with the relationship between civil and ecclesiastical authorities.