CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY THE frequent demands, in Parliament and elsewhere, for Church Reform, seem to show that something is wrong in the present relation between Church and State in England. Of course there can be nothing wrong with the divine energy of which the living Church is full, which will always preserve her true life and essential doctrine and spiritual activity from corruption. But, like the Sacraments she administers, she has an inward and spiritual being which finds its expression in the material world through outward and temporal means. It is in the point of contact between the world and the Church that the difficulties occur which lead to continual demands for reform. It would seem, if we took note only of what is said in the Press, that quite a new need is now pressing upon us; that we are passing through a A crisis such as the Church has never passed through before; and that it is a crisis of life and death, like that a person may pass through when undergoing a serious surgical operation. It will help to calm our troubled spirits, and to allay fear and distrust, if we take a wide survey of what has happened to the Church in past times. A careful historical review will show us that in every century since the Church ceased to be a hidden and persecuted body, and became a recognised, State-protected body, there has been a cry for Church reform; that is, not a reform of the 'Faith once delivered,' but a reform or readjustment of the relations between Church and State. We find Constantine, Justinian, and Charlemagne engaged in schemes of reform; and scarcely a generation passed without a reforming Council being called. In England, within a short period of the establishment of the Church, Theodore was obliged to reconstitute its arrangements; Alfred, and again Dunstan, were engaged in the same task. 1 The sad story of degeneration in Wulfstan's address to the English shows how necessary were the reforms of Lanfranc and Anselm. And the work of Anselm was scarcely established when the 1 See page 24, note I, infra, and Appendix B. Council of Clarendon became necessary, to be followed by the legislation of Edward 1. and Edward III. And again, after the turmoil of the Wars of the Roses, demands for reform arose from good Catholics like More and Fisher. Once more, after the stormy periods of the Reformation and the Great Rebellion, readjustment took place in 1660, followed by further modifications under William III. and Anne. Then followed a period of slumber, succeeded by the Evangelical and Catholic revivals. And now once more there is demand for readjustment—not a demand for a new thing, but only a recognition of the necessity inherent in all human organisations-the necessity of maintaining harmony between the organisation and its environment. The maintenance of this harmony involves constant readjustment; without it there will be a checking of energy and a stunting of vital organs. Thus so far from this demand for reform being an unprecedented experience, it is only the latest of a long series of such demands. The Church is a Divine institution carried on by human agency. And men are fallible, their methods are but tentative, for no human methods can possess the quality of finality. |