transferred by statute to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the medieval canons were still held to govern the procedure of the ecclesiastical courts, so far as they did not contravene prerogative, custom, or statute. The whole consequences of the breaking-up of Christendom were only gradually perceived. The evangelical principles, which the reformers professed, expressed themselves in legislation and practice slowly, and haltingly.
Three changes, however, were made at the Reformation which had a beneficent effect on the theory and practice of Christian marriage. There were: I. The definite repudiation of ascetic views of human life; II. The abrogation throughout the Protestant world of the ascetic rule of clerical celibacy; III. The exaltation and widely-extended circulation of the New Testament. To these changes there may perhaps be added, though with somewhat less confidence, the creation of the modern State.
I. The opening paragraph of Lord Acton's
