united and became one Church, they united by submitting to the Roman primacy, thus becoming an organic portion of the one great Western Church. The papal character of the pre-Reformation Church has been grudgingly admitted by Church historians, by some it has been called in question, but the evidence by which it is substantiated is irresistible.

The

Augustine, the first Primate of Canterbury, was a missionary sent from Rome by Pope Gregory the Great. Wilfrid, the leader of the Scoto-Irish converts in the north, obtained his episcopal authority from Rome. same is true of Theodore, the next Primate of Canterbury, who may be regarded as the organiser of the parish system, the first to unify the sees that were already created, and group them round the common centre of Canterbury.

Notwithstanding assertions often made to the contrary, it is easily demonstrable that England was not less papal, but more papal, than any other part of Europe. According to Milman, it was a common saying in the reign of Henry III. that "England was the Pope's farm." And according to Bishop Stubbs, "liberal tribute" began to be paid to Rome from the end of the eighth century; and Peter's pence, of which this was probably the origin, continued to be paid to Rome to the time of Henry VIII.1

1

The Church of England, as distinguished from the Church of Rome, did not come into existence until the reign of Henry VIII. It originated in the quarrel of Henry with the Pope, who refused to sanction his divorce 1 Stubbs' Constitutional History of England, vol. i. pp. 250, 251.

from Katherine of Arragon. This led to the final rupture with Rome, and the casting off of the Pope's authority. There seems no reason to doubt that if, instead of thwarting the King in his design, he had been favourable and accessory to it, there would have been no breach with Rome, or such breach would have been postponed till fresh provocation had made her yoke no longer able to be endured.

Theory of continuity.-Church historians are greatly enamoured of the theory of a national Church, which has existed in unbroken continuity from the time that Augustine, with his monks, landed upon the isle of Thanet. The theory has been broached again and again. As stated by a popular clergyman—the Rev. W. Page Roberts in a volume of sermons, entitled, Reasonable Service, p. 151, it has at least the merit of clearness. Historically," he says, "the Church of England is the very first Church which was set up in this country. . . There have been changes in it, corruptions in it, reformations in it, but still it is the Church which was founded by Christian Missionaries twelve hundred years ago."

This fallacy of unbroken continuity is so demonstrably transparent, that the wonder is it should impose upon any student of history; yet it is continually cropping up, not only in histories written from an Episcopalian point of view, but in statements where one might reasonably suppose it would be jealously extruded. It crops up even in the sober annals of Presbyterianism. It would seem as if no "common denominator" could be discovered

between the "Romanist priesthood" and the "Protestant ministry" as construed by the spirit of Presbyterianism.

The anxiety of the latter to free itself from "the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities," would seem to be an effectual restraint on any disposition to identify them even in the initial period of their history. Yet in his excellent sketch of the Church of Scotland Dr. M'Adam Muir says: "Despite the convulsions with which it was accompanied, the continuity of the Church was not broken by the Reformation." The Reformers did not dream of setting up a new Church." The "purification of the Temple" was their sole object.1

It would be difficult to imagine a more perfect reductio ad absurdum of the theory of continuity. It reminds us of the fabled ship of antiquity which, in the course of its voyage, was so often repaired, that at length no part of the original material remained. On this theory the boy who refused to part with his knife because it had been handed down to him by his great-grandfather, though the haft and the blades had been all of them renewed, had good reason for clinging to it. By this method of reasoning the Parsee, the Hindoo, and the Mohammedan, who has embraced Christianity, might try and persude himself that he had not broken with the faith of his fathersthat, in fact, he has only taken the step that he has taken

1 "The new Church which he (Henry VIII.) had created could as little pretend to be the continuation of, and identical with, the old English Church, as might a statue of Socrates, whereon a head of Alcibiades had been set, do duty as the statue of the philosopher."

Addresses on Historical and Literary Subjects, by J. Ignatius von Döllinger, D.D., p. 65.

in order to become a better Parsee, a better Hindoo, a better Mohammedan.

"The Reformers did not dream of setting up a new Church"-whatever they dreamed, or aimed at doing, they certainly succeeded in setting up a Church as different from, and as diametrically opposed to, the Church which it supplanted, as Christianity is opposed to Hindooism. They vehemently denounced the old Church as representing the very spirit of Antichrist. The purification of

the temple was attained in no other way than by setting up a new temple; and had not the glory of the latter eclipsed that of the former, the condition of both Scotland and England had been indeed dark and deplorable!1

The right of separation or schism.-No true Protestant can pretend to doubt that in whatever way the breach with Rome was effected and the independence of the Church achieved, the gain which the Reformation brought to the Church and nation, as well as to the cause of truth and liberty, was beyond all computation. Darkness covered the earth and gross darkness the people, and to Luther chiefly-though others are associated with him in this proud distinction—it was given to speak the word-"Let there be light: and there was light." Luther's "doctrine of Christian liberty and of the common universal priesthood," as Dr. Döllinger

1 1 Dr. Muir is apparently content to follow his authorities without exercising his independent judgment. He quotes Dr. Story: "The Baptism and Ordination of the unreformed Church were alike held as valid. The old order changeth, yielding place to new, but there is no absolute disruption between the two—Out of the Romanist priesthood emerges the Protestant ministry.”

calls it, was bound, wherever it was embraced, to break the yoke which Rome had forged for the enslavement of the mind and conscience of men. It was this doctrine which created the strength and justification of the Protestant revolt against the Papacy. But Protestantism was only able to embody it partially in its own system and formularies. It found sovereign expression in the Puritan contention, and to its insistence upon this doctrine, and its unshrinking application of it, must be traced the beginning of the cleft between Puritanism and the Church.

The Reformation carried with it implications and conclusions which, however objectionable they might seem to the ruling powers, were logically and morally necessitated--so the Puritans believed by the breach which had been made with Rome, and on grounds by which this schism could alone be justified. The Reformation settlement was at best a compromise, the result of statecraft and political expediency, and could not be expected to satisfy the aspirations of men who had dreamed a dream of the fair City of God, and of the Church as the pure and spotless Bride of His Son.

NOTE ON SCHISM

The word schisın has acquired a somewhat sinister meaning. The "sin of schism" is a very favourite expression among a certain class of ecclesiastics, and the opprobrium which is supposed to attach to schism in any form or shape is very terrible. The sin of schism is specially visited by Anglican writers upon those who separate from the Established Church of the nation; and their ingenuity has been strained not a little in order to show that there exists no parallel between the position of the Protestant Church of England in separat