There was much in the Church of England to appeal to her
sons; if there was a lack of unity in her faith and policy, yet that was
largely out of sight, and her bearing was gallant and impressive. She had
great wealth, great power and great dignity. The ancient buildings and
revenues were hers; the civil power was at her disposal, and the Queen
was eager to further her influence, and to protect her bishops from the
encroaching power of Parliament, claiming only for the crown the right to
be the point of union for both the secular and ecclesiastical sections of
the nation, and to stamp by her royal approval or annul by her veto the
acts of Parliament and Convocation alike. It seemed then to Anthony's
eyes that the Church of England had a tremendous destiny before her, as
the religious voice of the nation that was beginning to make itself so
dominant in the council of the world, and that there was no limit to the
influence she might exercise by disciplining the exuberant strength of
England, and counteracting by her soberness and self-restraint the
passionate fanaticism of the Latin nations. So little by little in place
of the shadowy individualism that was all that he knew of religion, there
rose before him the vision of a living church, who came forth terrible as
an army with banners, surrounded by all the loyalty that nationalism
could give her, with the Queen herself as her guardian, and great princes
and prelates as her supporters, while at the wheels of her splendid car
walked her hot-blooded chivalrous sons, who served her and spread her
glories by land and sea, not perhaps chiefly for the sake of her
spiritual claims, but because she was bone of their bone; and was no less
zealous than themselves for the name and character of England.
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