work in a new land by going first to the ruler for permission to teach.

So S. Patrick goes to King Laoghaire; S. Columba to King Brude of Dalriada; S. Aidan to King Oswald: S. Augustine to King Ethelbert. Thus from the first, amongst Goths, Franks, AngloSaxons, and Celts, the Christian Church had a recognised relationship to the State. This fact is a testimony to the power by which Christianity has not only regenerated the individual but re-moulded all the Western world, and has been the mother of Western civilisation.

Christianity began as a despised and hated sect of people who were supposed to be enemies of all social order, and made its way to recognition by its inherent life and power, until it came to deal with nations as before it dealt with individuals, and imprinted its character on the whole world.

The Church came to be a Kingdom embracing all other kingdoms, and its Founder came to be recognised as 'King of Kings and Lord of Lords': so was fulfilled the ancient prophecy, 'Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers,' and the kingdoms of this world became at length the 'kingdoms of our God and of His Christ.'

The modern idea of Disestablishment implies that the Catholic Church is to give up this splendid position, attained after centuries of devotion, which has enabled her to mould the art, the manners, and the laws of the greatest nations of the world, and to return to the position of the first three centuries, when the State was at best indifferent.

And events in France seem to show that when the State becomes indifferent it tends to become hostile.

The fact that the State is declared Christian, that its laws are based on Christian teaching, that the Church is recognised as co-ordinate with the State, and that State functions are performed with the solemnities of religious worship, must be beneficial to the State, redeeming its laws and its public action from the coldness of materialism, and infusing into State action the warmth of Christian sympathy.

The loss by disestablishment would not be to the Church but to the State, by ignoring the experience of sixteen centuries, and by separating two great forces which, though often quarrelling, as twins do, yet by their joint action have on the whole created that civilisation which each alone would have been powerless to create. We may be

driven to disestablishment by the apparent determination of some political parties to subordinate to the State the Church which should be co-ordinate with it, but it would be the sundering of a long and unbroken historical chain.

Would it not be better to try the old method of readjustment once more? But the readjustment of deranged machinery needs the work of skilled mechanics who understand its construction. He only can skilfully put the machine together who can take it to pieces skilfully. An ignorant man may pull the machine to pieces carelessly, but cannot reconstruct it, whilst the skilled mechanic can do both. So it is with the Church; too often have unskilled bunglers interfered with its organisation and worship, as may be seen in the work of the iconoclasts of the reign of Edward vi., the destructive work of the Puritans, and the legislation of the long period during which Convocation was closed; but the effects were disastrous, because there was no constructive power.

We propose to consider the relationship as it has existed at various periods, and to show the various stages by which the present position has been reached, and we find the most convenient divisions of historical periods to be: (a) The period before the Conquest (chapter ii.); (b) from the Con

quest to the assertion of Royal Supremacy under Henry VIII. (chapters iii.-vii.); (c) from the assertion of Royal Supremacy to the Act of Toleration (chapters viii.-xiii.); (d) from the Act of Toleration to the present time (chapters xiv.-xvi.).

CHAPTER II

THE BLENDING OF CHURCH AND STATE IN THE PERIOD PRECEDING THE CONQUEST

A PERIOD of four and a half centuries covers the great work which J. R. Green calls the 'Making of England.' In it both Church and Nation were germinating, and the Church was the living force which brought the various kingdoms into one nation. It may be subdivided into three periods, viz. the time of formation, from the coming of S. Augustine up to the primacy of Theodore; the time of consolidation, from the primacy of Theodore to the reign of Alfred; the time of growing confusion, in consequence of the unsettlement produced by Danish invasion.

During the first period the connection between Church and State was but slight, and the nature of the connection was only gradually coming to be understood.

Augustine received a scheme of organisation