with the decision of the highest ecclesiastical court that had acted
upon the case. The Supreme Court, in rendering its decision, laid down
the broad principle that, when a local church is but a part of a larger
and more general organization or denomination, it will accept the
decision of the highest ecclesiastical tribunal to which the case has
been carried within that general church organization, as final, and will
not inquire into the justice or injustice of its decree as between the
parties before it. The officers, the ministers, the members, or the
church body which the highest judiciary of the denomination recognizes,
the court will recognize. Whom that body expels or cuts off, the court
will hold to be no longer members of that church.

Trial of Members of Societies. Every deliberative assembly, having the
right to purify its own body, must therefore have the right to
investigate the character of its members.

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It can require any of them to testify in the case, under pain of
expulsion if they refuse. In § 36 is shown the method of procedure when
a member is charged with violating the rules of decorum in debate. If
the disorderly words are of a personal nature, before the assembly
proceeds to deliberate upon the case, both parties to the personality
should retire. It is not necessary for the member objecting to the
words to retire, unless he is personally involved in the case.

When the charge is against the member's character, it is usually
referred to a committee of investigation or discipline, or to some
standing committee to report upon. Some societies have standing
committees, whose duty it is to report cases for discipline whenever any