Page:The Rise of American Civilization (Volume 1).djvu/40

 assumed their share of the hardships and their full burden of responsibilities.

The dissolution of the feudal order which was marked by the rise of the middle and laboring classes produced collaterally profound religious and political changes that stimulated colonial expansion. As the rigidity of medieval economic life was associated with dogmatism and authority in religion and politics, so the break-up of that order was attended by controversy in theology and revolution in government.

On one side the Protestant revolt against the Catholic system was strongly economic in character—a struggle of princes and middle classes to free themselves from the tithes, fees, laws, and jurisdiction of the clergy and at the same time to get possession of the immense estates of the church. Henry VIII's quarrel with the Pope and separation from Rome merely accelerated the inevitable. As far as Henry was concerned, the uprising was to be attended by no vital modifications in religious dogma. During his reign, the church in England was simply made subservient to the Crown; bishops and archbishops became royal appointees and a large part of the confiscated ecclesiastical property was turned over to the king and his favorites—the remainder being dedicated to religious uses under state control.

But having once breached the dike, Henry could not stop the flood of "perverse opinion"; and violent oscillations soon occurred in religious affairs. Under his son, Edward VI, Protestant dogma, tinged with leveling evangelicalism, was made the law of the land; under Mary the country was swung back to Catholicism; under Elizabeth a well-ordered Protestant Church with creed and prayer book was established by act of Parliament.

Each of these changes in the legal religion of the land helped to unsettle the opinions of the people in spite of