INTEGRATION OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH 217 



cause become associated with the National Church that, up to 

 the present day, it is necessary for the Sovereign to denounce 

 expressly, in his coronation oath, certain dogmas of the Catholic 

 Church ; up to the present day every new generation has been 

 taught, and in the future will continue to be taught, that the 

 greatness of England must be ascribed to the fact that she 

 threw ofi the yoke of a foreign power who sought to enslave 

 her — ^the foreign power being, of course, the Papal See. 



We have compared the case of England with that of Spain 

 in order to show that religious dogmas per se do not play any 

 role in the determining of social integration ; but that, if it is 

 to be efiective, a religious dogma must be intimately connected 

 with the circumstances in which the historical evolution of a 

 nation has proceeded. Cathohcism, which, by reason of the 

 peculiar conditions in which the Spanish nation developed 

 itself, was synonymous in that country with the national great- 

 ness ; is synonymous, in England, with aU that which is most 

 menacing to national greatness. And yet the integration of 

 Enghsh society is very great in comparison with that of some 

 Continental nations. The Anghcan Church is a strongly inte- 

 grated body, exercising on the nation at large an incontestable 

 influence. We must not, however, overlook the fact that interest 

 in the Anglican Church has been immensely stimidated, since the 

 middle of the nineteenth century, by the CathoUc revival which 

 originated in the Oxford movement, and which has done much 

 to infuse renewed strength and conviction into the EstabUsh- 

 ment.^ The position of the Church of England is essentially 

 difEerent from that of the Protestant Churches in Prussia, precisely 



contributed to conviace British opinion of Britain's providential mission " 

 (J. Bardoux, Essai d'une Psychdogie de V Angleterre coniemporaine, p. 78, 

 Paris, 1906). 



1 This fact will be clearly appreciated after a study of the admirable 

 work of Thureau-Dangin, La Rennaissance cathdique en Angleterre au 

 Dix-NevLvieme Slide (Paris, 1903-06), the only complete history of the 

 Oxford movement and all its consequences. 



