are the least visible. xxi 



Roman Empire ; and though the period from the 

 subsidence of the Reformation movement to the out- 

 break of the French Revolution was by no means 

 one of peace, yet the wars of that time were not 

 actuated by religious zeal, but by the ordinary 

 motives of rivalry and ambition ; and to that period 

 belongs the greatest of all the changes that have 

 transformed medieval into modern Europe ; namely, 

 the separation of political from religious interests ; a 

 change which came without any revolutionary move- 

 ment, and almost unconsciously. 



To what purpose are these remarks, in the intro- 

 duction to a volume of theological and philosophical 

 essays 1 



They are to this purpose : We are constantly 

 told that we are living in a time of religious unrest 

 and change. This is obviously true ; and the con- 

 sciousness of the unrest, both among those who 

 welcome it and those who dread it, must tend to 

 increase the unrest; but extravagant hopes and 

 extravagant fears will alike be discouraged, if we 

 see that social and religious change and unrest are 

 not new; what is new is only the widely -spread 

 consciousness of them. It is well to know that the 

 trials which befall us are only such as are common 

 to man, and such as man is able to bear. 1 A Church 

 and a Faith which have fought for life, and have 

 prevailed, against both Imperial and Papal Rome, 

 1 See 1 Cor. x. 13, Authorised and Revised Versions. 



