NONCONFORMITY. 807 



movement which, besides tacitly denying all sacerdotal au 

 thority, denies the power of a government, even though 

 elected by a majority of votes, to prescribe religious belief or 

 practice, is the logical outcome of the Protestant theory. 

 Liberty of thought, long asserted and more and more dis 

 played, is about to be carried to the extent that no man 

 shall be constrained to support another man s creed. 



Evidently the arrival at this state completes that social 

 differentiation which began when the primitive chief first 

 deputed his priestly function. 



645. As implied in the last sentence, the changes above 

 sketched out are concomitants of the changes sketched out 

 in the last chapter. The prolonged conflict between Church 

 and State accompanying their differentiation, and ending in 

 the subordination of the Church, has been accompanied by 

 these collateral minor conflicts between the Church and recal 

 citrant portions of its members, ending in separation of them. 



There is a further implication. In common with the 

 subjection of the Church to the State, the spread of Non 

 conformity is an indirect result of growing industrialism. 

 The moral nature proper to a social organization based on 

 contract instead of status the moral nature fostered by a 

 social life carried on under voluntary co-operation instead of 

 compulsory co-operation, is one which works out religious 

 independence as it works out political freedom. And this 

 conclusion, manifest a priori, is verified a posteriori in sundry 

 ways. We see that Nonconformity, increasing as industrial 

 ism has developed, now characterizes in the greatest degree 

 these nations which are most characterized by development 

 of the industrial type America and England. And we also 

 see that in England itself, the contrast between urban and 

 rural populations, as well as the contrast between popula 

 tions in different parts of the kingdom, show that where the 

 industrial type of life and organization predominates, Non 

 conformity is the most pronounced. 



