Doctrinal The English Church has never accepted the position that the Bible and the Bible only is the authority for its belief. Its definite statement is that whatever is not contained therein or may be proved thereby is not necessary to salvation. But it has al ways recognized that in interpreting the Bible the traditions of the Church may be used. As regards the canon of Scripture it occupies a middle position between the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches. It accepts the Apocrypha, though not as a standard of belief, or as authority for faith. (2) The acceptance of the two Creeds: The Nicene and the Apostles. This defintely means that its stand ard of belief is the traditional, orthodox teach ing of the Church. It is, howover, slow to ex press a decision, or impose its belief. (3) The acceptance of the two sacraments, of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, as generally necessary to salvation. As regards sacramental teaching it has always been very wide in its limits. It makes its standard the acceptance of the au thorized service and it has frankly admitted that while Zwinglianism and the doctrine of transubstantiation are incompatible with its formularies, within these limits any form of eucharistic doctrine is allowed. As regards other rites and ceremonies it has always made a very definite distinction between the two sacraments and others, although its formulas have occasionally used the term sacrament in a wider signification. But it lays great stress on confirmation, orders and matrimony, and allows private absolution and confession, al though it does not make them compulsory. (4) The acceptance of the threefold ministry of bishops, priests and deacons. Here again its de mands point to a system rather than to a doc trine. All its clergy must be episcopally or dained, but it does not demand any definite theory of ordination apart from what is im plied in acceptance of the ordinal. A section of the Church would make the acceptance of the doctrine of apostolic succession necessary, but it has never been the teaching of the Church officially and as a whole.
Negatively the Church condemns emphati cal the system and authority of the Roman olic Church and the infallibility and supremacy of the Pope. It definitely condemns also certain doctrines of purgatory, the invoca tion of saints, the sacrifice of the mass, relics, the merits of the saints, and works of superero gation. In relation to the Eastern Church, while differing fundamentally in tone and temper, it is very nearly in doctrinal harmony, the chief points of distinction being of course the invo cation of saints, the doctrine of the double pro cession, the use of the term transubstantiation, while there is some general hesitation about the acceptance of all the seven councils or the neces sary acceptance of the seven sacraments. As against the Protestant churches as a whole, it would always avoid accepting the extreme forms of predestination or justification by. faith; it would lay stress on the need of interpreting the Scriptures in accordance with the traditions of the Church; its would almost universally lay greater stress on the reality of the sacramental system, and it would maintain episcopacy as an institution against every other form of Church government whilst condemning the tendency to disunion which characterizes so many of the Protestant bodies. To some its mediating atti tude appears to be a mere political compromise between two incompatible ideals, to its own members it would seem to be the one Church which most clearly holds the balance between the various conflicting aspects of Christianity.
The Church and the The rela tion of the Church of England to the English nation has been modified very considerably in the early part of the last century by a series of enactments. Almost all its exclusive privileges have been gradually taken away. It has no longer a paramount position in the universities, and membership of the Church of England is no longer necessary for any civil position in the state. Side by side with this there has been an enormous increase in the population, which has made the existing ecclesiastical arrange ments quite unfit to cope with the immense mass of new work. Many of the dioceses are ex cessively large and the process of sub-division has not been rapid enough to keep up with the demands. In many districts the clergy and the Church have been quite inadequate to meet the spiritual demands of the people. This fact, combined with the increase in just those sec tions of the populace which were least touched by the influence of the Church of England, has led to a very great increase in Nonconformity. But this loss of privilege and greater need of work have not been detrimental on the whole to the Church. The various spiritual movements that we have narrated and the demands of the day have stirred up an immense amount of vol untary work on the part of the Church. The old rigid high and dry schools have had to make way for younger men with very varied forms of activity. Methods of religious propa ganda have been borrowed, alike from Non conformist and Roman Catholic sources. The Church has taken a vigorous interest in edu cational and social topics. Missionary enter prises, always strongly supported by the Low Church party, have been exceedingly vigorous. The exigencies of a Colonial Empire, the spread of commercial activity, have created new de mands and the last hundred years have marked an immense increase in the religious activity and the enterprise of the Church. Including the Anglican Church in America the number of bishops now connected with the Church exceeds 300, and every 10 years the Conference at Lam beth marks the extent and growth of the Angli can Church.
As regards its hold upon the people there are no trustworthy statistics, but on the upper and upper-middle classes its hold is very strong. Amongst the working classes the greater ma jority are nominally adherents of the Church of England, but a great deal of the religious life is Nonconformist. As against Nonconformity the Church of England is little organized for political activity, and its hold upon the people and its influence are very intangible and inde terminable quantities. Probably, except perhaps in some of the great centres of the populace, its influence is very much greater than is often imagined.
Statistics.—Accordng to the census of 1911 there were 14,614 ecclesiastical parishes, pre sided over by an incumbent or minister. In 1915 there were about 14,000 incumbents; 15,958 churches with sitting accommodation for 7,316,605; 2,500,000 communicants, and over 3,000,000 children attending Sunday schools. The voluntary offerings to the Church in 1913-14 amounted to over $41,000,000.