Page:The Church of England, its catholicity and continuity.djvu/20

 history of religion, or too much absorbed in their business occupations to care much to inquire into the history of their Church. And yet in these days, when Dissent is so active and—I am sorry to say—so bitter against the Church of England, it is necessary that every faithful Churchman should be able to defend his Church from an historical point of view. Many statements are popularly made about the history and the constitution of the English Church, which are historically most untrue.

Dissenters read the history of the Church as penned by Dissenting historians; and very often Churchmen are unable, through want of knowledge, to meet the assertions which are falsely made.

It is maintained by scores of people that Christianity was introduced into England and founded there by the Roman Catholics; that before the Reformation the Papal Church had the supreme sway in our island; that at the Reformation an absolutely new Church was made in England; that the present Church of England came into existence at the time of the Reformation. Every one of these assertions is absolutely and entirely false. And I hope that you who follow these Lectures to their close, and who will investigate the facts to be brought forward for yourselves—if you do not care to trust my statements—I hope that you will be of this opinion.

It will be my object, then, in these Lectures, to show how the Church of England has grown from the earliest days of Christianity to what it is now—an organization exerting a powerful influence for good on our national life. I shall dwell upon some of the Church's struggles, I shall speak of