Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/264

 250 //. FROM THE llOO'S TO THE 1800'S ^ that, whilst they overlap one another, their proper areas nowhere coincide, necessitates some sort of definition and limitation of the scope and system of each, which definition and limitation must be supplied either by a concordat between them or by the subordination of one to the other. And once i' more: within the region of religious activity itself there are ' provinces which demand varying degrees of distinctness in definition and graduation of discipline; there are matters of doctrine, of discipline proper, of property and of judica- / ture; there are legislation, jurisdiction, administration; / there are functions for the theologian, the casuist, the can- ; onist, and the civilian ; questions of doctrine for the theo- y logian, of morals for the casuist, of discipline for the canon-?^ ^— ist, of procedure for the civil lawyer. Well, philosophical or not, these considerations seem to I give us a clue to the method of our investigation, and suggest a division into two heads : first, the tracing of the growth of. the ecclesiastical law, including both the material and the scientific study ; and secondly, the history of its working in competition with and in general relations to the other sys-| tems of law. In such a cursory attempt to examine these heads as is possible in such a lecture as this, it is necessary to limit the field of survey as much as possible. I shall there- fore restrict myself chiefly to the history of ecclesiastical jurisprudence in England, taking liberty, where it is neces- sary, to go beyond, but not attempting any general treat- ment. I have, you will observe, coupled together four topics under two heads ; I propose to take the two heads sepa- rately, but to discuss the two topics that fall under each • con j ointly. The first head is the growth of ecclesiastical law, and its two branches are the materials and the study. The mate- rials arrange themselves thus : the New Testament contains not only all doctrine necessary to salvation, but all necessary moral teaching, and as much social teaching as was needed for the age in which it was propounded, and for the society which in the first instance was embodied under apostolic government. But in the very nature of things, and you . must here recollect that I am trying to look at the subject