CHURCH
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CHURCH
generated. Protestant reformers have commenced
their work by separation, and by this act have severed
themselves from the very principle of life. No one of
course would wish to deny that within the Protestant
bodies there have been many men of great virtues.
Yet it is not too much to assert that in every case
their virtue has been nourished on what yet remained
to them of Catholic belief and practice, and not on
anything which they have received from Protestants
ism as such.
The Continuity Theory. — The doctrine of the Church's indefectibility just considered will place us in a position to estimate, at its true value, the claim of the Anglican Church and of the Episcopalian bodies in other English-speaking countries to be con- tinuous with the ancient pre-Reformation Church of England, in the sense of being part of one and the same society. The point to be determined here is what constitutes a breach of continuity as regards a society. It may safely be said that the continuity of a society is broken when a radical change in the principles it embodies is introduced. In the case of a Church, such a change in its hierarchical constitution and in its professed faith suffices to make it a different Church from what it was before. For the societies we term Churches exist as the embodiment of certain supernatural dogmas and of a Divinely-authorized principle of government. When, therefore, the truths previously held to be of faith are rejected, and the principle of government regarded as sacred is repu- diated, there is a breach of continuity, and a new Church is formed. In this the continuity of a Church differs from the continuity of a nation. National continuity is independent of forms of government and of beliefs. A nation is an aggregate of families, and so long as these families constitute a self-sufficing social organism, it remains the same nation, whatever the form of government may be. The continuity of a church depends essentially on its government and it- beliefs.
The changes introduced into the English Church at the time of the Reformation were precisely of the character just described. At that period fundamen- tal alterations were made in its hierarchical constitu- tion and in its dogmatic standards. It is not to be determined here which was in the right, the Church of ( !atholic days or the Reformed Church. It is suffi- cient if we show that changes were made vitally affecting the nature of the society. It is notorious that from the days of Augustine to those of Warham, every archbishop of Canterbury recognized tin pope as the supreme source of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The archbishops themselves could not exercise juris- diction within their province until they had received papal confirmation. Further, the popes were accus- tomed to send to England legates a latere, who, in virtue of their legatine authority, whatever their personal status in the hierarchy, possessed a juris- diction superior to that of the local bishops. Appeals ran from every ecclesiastical court in England to the pope, and his decision was recognized by all as final. Tin- pope, too, exercised the right of excommunication in regard to the members of the English Church. This supreme authority was, moreover, regarded by all as belonging to the pope by Divine right, and not in vir- tue of merely human institution. Whin, therefore, this power of jurisdiction was transferred to the king, the alteration touched the constitutive principles of the body and was fundamental in its character. Similarly, in regard to matters of faith, the changes were revolutionary. It will he sufficient to note that a new rule of faith was introduced. Scripture alone being substituted for Scripture and Tradition; that several books were expunged from the Canon of Scripture; that five out of the seven sacraments were repudiated; and that the sacrifices of Masses were declared to he "blasphemous fables and dangerous
deceits". It is indeed sometimes said that the offi-
cial formularies of Anglicanism are capable of a
Catholic sense, if given a "non-natural" interpreta-
tion. This argument can. however, carry no weight.
In estimating the character of a society, we must
judge, not by the strained sense which some individ-
uals may attach to its formularies, but by the sense
they were intended to bear. Judged by this cri-
terion, none can dispute that these innovations were
such as to constitute a fundamental change in the
dogmatic standpoint of the ( Ihurch of England.
XI. Universality of the Church. — The Church of Christ has from the first claimed to transcend all those national differences which divide men. In it, the Apostle asserts, "there is neither Gen- tile nor Jew . . . Barbarian nor Scythian "(Col., iii, 11). Men of every race are one in it; they form a single brotherhood in the Kingdom of God. In the pagan world, religion and nationality had been coterminous. The boundaries of the State were the boundaries of the faith which the State professed. Even the Jewish Dispensation was lim- ited to a special race. Previous to the Christian revelation the idea of a religion adapted to all peoples was foreign to the conceptions of men. It is one of the essential features of the Church that she should be a single, world-wide society embracing all races. In it, and in it alone, is the brotherhood of man realized. All national barriers, no less than all differ- ences of class, disappear in the City of God. It is not to be understood that the Church disregards the ties which bind men to their country, or undervalues the virtue of patriotism. The division of men into dif- ferent nations enters into the scheme of Providence. To each nation has been assigned a special task to accomplish in the working out of God's purposes. A man owes a duty to his nation no less than to his family. One who omits this duty has failed in a primary moral obligation. Moreover, each nation has its own character, and its own special gifts. It will usually be found that a man attains to high virtue, not by neglecting these gifts, but by embody- ing the best and noblest ideals of his own people.
For these reasons the Church consecrates the spirit of nationality. Yet it transcends it, for it binds together the various nationalities in a single brotherhood. More than this, it purifies, develops, and perfects national character, just as it purines and perfects the character of each individual. Often indeed it has been accused of exercising an anti- patriotic influence. But it will invariably be found that it has incurred this reproach by opposing and rebuking what was base in the national aspirations, not by thwarting what was heroic or just. As the Church perfects the nation, so reciprocally does each nation add something of its own to the glory of the Church. It brings its own type of sanctity, its national virtues, and thus contributes to "the full- ness of Christ" something which no other race- could give. Such are the relations of the Church to what is termed nationality. The external unity of the one society is the visible embodiment of the doctrine of the brotherhood of man. The sin of schism, the Fathers tell us, lies in this, that by it the law of love to our neighbour is implicitly rejected. "Nee hsere- tici pertinent ad Ecclesiam Catholicam, qua 1 diligit Dcum; nee schismatic] quoniam diligit proximum" (Neither do heretics belong to the Catholic Church, for she loves God; nor do schismatics, for she loves her neighbour — Augustine, De Fide el Symbolo, eh. x, in P. L., XL, 193). It is of importance to insist on this point. For it is sometimes urged thai the or- ganized unity of Catholicism may be adapted to the Latin races but is ill-suited to the Teutonic spirit. To say this is to say that an essential characteristic of this Christian revelation is ill-suited to one of the great races of the world.
