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259 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

now brought down a brief account of the history of the relations of Church and State during the earlier half of the Reformation period, to the end of the sixteenth century, and the almost simultaneous end of that wonderful dynasty which ruled England during the whole of that century and presided over the birth and youth of the Reformation. It has been my endeavour throughout to make no statement of fact which was not either admitted by a general consent of the best authorities, or at least supported by good contemporary evidence. Of the deductions which I have drawn or shall draw from these facts, my readers must judge for themselves how far they are or are not legitimate. I shall now attempt, in a concluding chapter, to sum up the results to which all these facts and deductions appear to lead us with as much impartiality as I can command, and without regard to any of those remote and ultimate consequences which so constantly tend to transform historical essays into mere party pamphlets.

The preliminary sketch which formed the necessary introduction to the proper subject of the book may serve to place in their fair light a few matters which are often forgotten or misrepresented in their bearing upon subsequent events.

It may serve to remind us how the Church was planted in England by the Roman missionary Augustine,