guidance for a definite purpose. The study of war-like glories in the past was always popular, for it was an encouragement of national aspiration in the present and the ground of hope for the future. The outburst of strong national feeling which marked the sixteenth century made men forgetful of an older England which counted itself as a member of the great Commonwealth of Christendom, of which intimate union the unity of ecclesiastical organisation was the symbol and the warrant. The records of the activity of the Mediæval Church were left to the same fate as the ruins of the mediaeval monasteries. The memory alone remained of the abuses which had led to violent reform. The centuries of beneficent usefulness were forgotten. The whole life of the past was misunderstood, because the action of the chief power which moved it was neglected or misrepresented. Only in recent times has the importance of the ecclesiastical side of mediæval history been recognised.
Perhaps the study of ecclesiastical history is still looked upon with some suspicion. It is considered as likely to be adverse to secular history, as having a tendency to exalt the Church, to revive obsolete principles, and awaken controversies which had better be allowed to rest. One point cannot be too clearly stated, though it is almost superfluous to state it; that science knows no difference of methods, and that ecclesiastical history must be pursued in exactly the same way, and with exactly the same spirit as any other branch of history. The aim of the investigator is simply the discovery of truth. Ecclesiastical history
