ESTABLISHED CHURCH, a church established and maintained by a state for the teach ing of Christianity in a particular form within its boundaries. Subsequent to the refor mation, many of the opinions which had given sanctity to the church of Rome still kept possession of men's minds; amongst these was the notion, that the civil government of each state was bound to maintain a particular form of Christianity. The same fallacious reasoning which in more recent times has led to the search for one absolutely best form of civil government was at work then with reference to the church. The Roman Catholic church was not the best form—of that the Protestant states had become convinced—but all forms were not therefore indifferent; and if one was better than another, and another better than that, there must be an absolutely best, which the state was bound to dis cover, .and when discovered, to substitute for that which had been abolished. The idea that the good or bad qualities of forms of government, whether civil or ecclesiastical, so long as they did not violate the fundamental doctrines of Christianity or morality, were relative, and not absolute, and that whilst one might be the best for men in one stage of development or of one particular temperament, another might be the best for those who differed from them in these respects, did not belong to that age. Each Protestant state consequently established a church, conformity to the tenets of which it enforced, not only upon those who as ministers were henceforth to enjoy the property which in Roman Catholic times had been devoted to the spiritual interests of the community, but very often on its own civil servants and advisers. The benefit of the arrangement was, that, to a greater or less extent, the means which the community had set apart for its own spiritual improvement were protected from the spoliation of private individuals; and this benefit was secured more effectually the more completely the new church took the place of the old—in England, for example, better than in Scotland; but as each of the Prot estant states had substituted one form of church-government for another, and as the same form had not been adopted by them all, the idea of there being one form which was absolutely preferable to the others, though not abolished, was rudely shaken. In Eng land, queen Elizabeth had stated in her celebrated declaration, that she, as head of the church, "would not endure any varying or departing in the least degree" from the doc trines of the Episcopal church of England as set forth in the thirty-nine articles; and yet Presbyterianism was established in England in 1649. In Scotland, where Presbyte rianism had at first taken root, Episcopalianism had more than once become the law of the land. The effect of such occurrences was to counteract the belief in any one form as the form for all Christendom, and to facilitate dissent and the formation of sects. The pastors of these sects were not at first recognized by the law as entitled to any of the privileges of Christian ministers. Whatever they might be to their own flock; to-the
state they were laymen, and their churches were mere secular lecture-rooms, or, at most, places of meeting for private devotion. See NONCONFORMISTS, DISSENTERS, Cnuncii, etc. Gradually this view become modified, and the civil consequences attaching to sacred rites, when performed by a clergyman of the establishment, were extended to them when performed by dissenters. See MARRIAGE. But though many of the privi leges, and all the liberties belonging to the established church, have now been extended to dissenting bodies, including Roman Catholics (see ROMAN CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION) and Jews (see Jaw), the established churches of England and Scotland are supported by the state, and guarded from spoliation by the coronation oath (q.v.). The„grant to the Roman Catholic college of 3laynooth, and the Regium Donum (q.v.) to the Presbyterian ministers in Ireland, were capitalized by the act (1869) which disestablished the Irish church. There is no endowment to other religious denominations as in France; and the emoluments of the established church in England, though. modified in their distribution by the labors of the ecclesiastical commissioners (q.v.), have not yet been appropriated to any other than religious uses in connection with that church.
The cause of established churches is very generally maintained on the ground of the alleged duty of the state to provide for the religious instruction of the whole body of the people, as most essential to their moral welfare, and so to the general prosperity of the com munity. It is further argued, in support of the same cause, that civil rulers, or the people as associated in a free state, are under a moral obligation of the highest kind, to acknowledge God, his law, and his ordinances. Concerning which, and other argu ments, for and against as far as it belongs to the scheme of this work to notice them, the reader is referred to the article VOLUNTARYISM. It may here, however, bI observed, that the arguments just mentioned do not necessarily infer, even when admitted to the utmost that the state is bound to support in any exclusive way a particular sect or denomination, unless on the further assumption that religious truth and worth belong to that denomination alone. Nor does the endowment of a church by the state necessarily follow from the fullest adoption of the principles thus contended for. And, on the other hand, it is a point which may very reasonably be disputed, how far the common arguments against state endowments are applicable to those endow ments Which were not originally beStowed by t1M state, but which the state has from a very early period, recognized as belonging to the church; a description which will be found to comprehend great part of the existing endowments of established churches. The exclusive possession of them by a particular denomination, and their rightful appro priation to religious uses, are, however, distinct questions.