ESTABLISHMENTS, ECCLESIASTICAL. Those religious bodies which, in various countries, oc cupy a privileged position as representing the official religion of the State or of its head. The origin of such a connection usually dates back to a period when the inhabitants of the country were practically unanimous in their religious views. 1Vhen a sovereign was moved to take defi nite steps in support of religion, it could natu rally be only of that type of religion which was to him and his subjects the normal and recog nized type. In some eases, notably that of Eng land, the idea grew up with the country, and antedates any possibility of formal legislation.
(See ENGLAND, CHURCH OF.) When, at the Reformation, the bulk of the population of any country transferred its allegiance from one relig ion to another, the privileges of an establishment wore usually transferred in the same manner. The ease of Ireland was peculiar; the connection of the Protestant Church of that country with the Church of England allowed it to maintain its position as a privileged body, though in a hope less minority, until the Disestablishment Act of 1870 was passed by Mr. Gladstone. The con nection between Church and State may operate in various ways—by the sovereign assuming to nominate the chief ministers of the religious body (see GALLICAN CHURCH; CONCORDAT) ; by taxation on the part of the State, or indirectly with its sanction, for the support of the clergy and of public worship; by a regulation of the uses of property devoted to religious purposes and of the procedure and ritual of the Church; by the maintenance of ecclesiastical courts for the enforcement of canonical laws; by the pro vision of a system of education under ecclesi astical supervision: and in some eases by the prohibition of dissenting worship. (See TOLERA
TION; NONCONFORMISTS.) In Protestant coun tries the sovereign is usually considered the head of the established Church; Queen Victoria used punctiliously to mark her sense of the require ments of this position by always attending the services of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland and of the Anglican in England. Thus, also, in Russia, the Czar practically occupies a similar position. The restrictions upon ecclesiastical freedom inseparable from such a position have caused many devoted churchmen to feel that the advantages were more than outweighed by the drawbacks; and thus in England such men have been found, in the last fifty years, in the ranks of the advocates of disestablishment. The move ment there has. ho'wever, been chiefly supported by Nonconformists of a political type, who main tain the view that the modern free State has no right to discriminate in lawful things between various classes of its subjects. The agitation reached its height about 1870-80, but seems less likely now to be successful. The principle of establishment, though not now often maintained in the crude form commonly accepted in the six teenth century, Cujus regio, cjus religio, still manifests itself to some extent in most civilized countries, the United States being the most ab solutely free from any trace of discrimination. (See CIVIL Cuunca LAW, AMERICAN.) For the details of the subject applying to various coun tries, see the articles on those countries.