event that the Reformation in England is judged. In itself it was a most momentous event—in itself, for it need not have taken the form which it did. Though the English Church parted company with the papal jurisdiction, it was not the fault of the English Church that the relations which have subsequently existed between it and the Papacy have become what they are. A partnership may have had to be broken up; the question is, whose fault was it if the two partners quarrelled and tried to cut one another's throats?
I wish to speak about the form which the Anglican Church assumed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The whole process of what is called the Reformation would have gone on different lines had it not been for the two reactions which marked the reigns of Edward VI. and Mary. The abolition of the Roman jurisdiction in Henry VIII.'s reign was a purely political movement, affecting only the external relations of England. But side by side with it there was going on the intellectual movement of the New Learning, with all its disintegrating effects on the ideas of the time. England was the last country affected by this movement, and with the bluff common-sense that characterises them, the English proceeded immediately to apply practically the results of the criticisms made by the New Learning. "Now that we have found out," they said, "that so many of the things which we have been doing and thinking are simple nonsense, we are not going to retain them." Consequently, they simply put on one side all the outlying parts of the existing system which were no longer credible, though they were not without a certain value as belonging to the dominion
