Excerpt from The Reformation: Being an Outline of the History of the Church From A. D. 1503 to A. D. 1648

West formed a real Christian commonwealth, expressed in the Church and in the Holy Roman Empire. As these nations developed a more vigorous life of their own, the importance of the Empire grew less, and there were even signs, in legislation, in literature, and in diversified tendencies, that it might be hard to combine the vigour of the separate lives with the common unity of the Church. But the Middle Ages, never surprised at contradictions'between ideals and facts, had scarcely felt this difficulty to press. The great Medieval Popes had been, as a rule, the assertors of moral force, the guardians of ecclesiastical unity. If sometimes they laid more stress on the organisation of the moral force than on the principles underlying it; if they did not always discriminate between ecclesiastical unity and their own control (which was the readiest means of enforcing it), these tendencies were natural to the time. For the Middle Ages turned naturally to organ ising and forming institutions, and the genius of Rome was at its best in practical order and detail. The medieval mind, always quick to seize an idea, had grasped with fervent faith the idea of ecclesiastical unity; it was not given to criticising the forms in which ideas were expressed unless some practical difficulty arose. Broadly speaking, the unity of the Western Church at the close of the Middle Ages meant to most minds the power of the Papacy. The separation of the Eastern Church was indeed a diffi culty, but it stood remote from Western life, and at the Council of Florence had reached a temporary union with its brethren. But other issues had brought a greater difficulty closer; the contests of Popes and Emperors.

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