Harvard's strong reaction to the case could be linked to exposure other staff, faculty or students might have had to the material on Thiemann's computer.

But Bishop Robert L. Isaksen of the New England Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America said their investigation into the matter is "just beginning."

Isaksen said that, because Thiemann is a minister in his region, he personally has the responsibility to decide what course the church will take in Thiemann's case.

"My first responsibility will be to meet with Dr. Thiemann and to discuss the whole matter with him to try to ascertain some of the details," Isaksen said. "I expect to be having that meeting very soon. It's not yet scheduled."

Isaksen said church action could range from admonition to censure to, in very serious cases, dismissal from the roster of pastors.

"We have no history on this sort of matter," he said.

Back at Harvard, Frankfurter Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz said that, though he did not know the details of the case, what Thiemann chooses to do privately is his own business and only becomes the University's concern if it is illegal.

"As long as it's done in private and doesn't hurt anyone is not the school's business," he said. "I don't think it matters that he is the Divinity School dean."