32 CHURCH UNITY 



the two Sacraments, with General Confes- 

 sion and Absolution, and a simple Pro- 

 testant liturgy. But being precluded by 

 their political circumstances from reform- 

 ing the historic episcopate, they continued 

 the historic presbyterate, enriching it with 

 those principles of lay representation and 

 church freedom which have since passed 

 into the Scottish and American churches. 

 Then comes into view the Church of 

 England, the most numerous and powerful 

 of the English-speaking communions, 

 though hitherto least potent in moulding 

 our Christian institutions. The English 

 Church in its reformation retained the 

 canonical Scriptures as containing all 

 things necessary to salvation; the two 

 creeds, with the Athanasian Creed and the 

 Thirty-nine Articles ; the two sacraments, 

 with a mixture of Catholic and Protestant 

 formularies in its liturgy, with portions of 

 the Roman Breviary in its daily service, 

 and with the ceremonies of confirmation, 

 matrimony, and burial in its ritual. But 

 its historic episcopate being in the hands 

 of baronial bishops, it naturally continued 

 them as a prelatic order in the ministry, to 

 which has since been easily attached the 



