THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 76
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failure of their appeals for reform and a larger measure of liberty. Notwithstanding conflicting intolerances and denominational divisions, the in-
stinct of church unity has always been
1. Efforts hidden in the heart of the Protestant
for Re- churches. In the latter part of the
union with seventeenth century an _ influential
Roman though quiet attempt was made to Catholicism. reconcile the Protestant churches of
Germany with the Roman Catholic Church, when a Roman Catholic bishop of moderate spirit, Cristoval Rojas de Spinola (q.v.) was commissioned by the Emperor Leopold to make all practical efforts for the peace of the Church in the empire, and this was sanctioned by Pope Innocent XI. This endeavor was carried on through his ceaseless efforts and through a protracted correspondence between the philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz (q.v.) and some Protestant theologians and Jacques Bénigne Bossuet (q.v.), the famous French orator, and others, until, after some thirty years, it came to nothing. The political conditions of Europe, as well as theological differences, foredoomed it to failure, and since then no real effort to reconcile Roman Catholicism and Protestantism has been possible, even though the ideal of the one Church includes both.
In the sixteenth century the separation between the English Church and the Reformed churches on the continent was not so pronounced as it has since become, presbyters from the Reformed churches passing over to England being in several instances received without reordination and occasional intercommunion among the churches being also recognized. ‘Two early archbishops licensed certain
Scotch presbyters to officiate as priests, 2. Attempts without raising the question of the at Anglican regularity of their previous ordinaand Protes- tion. But in the seventeenth century tant Union. the line of division was sharply drawn
in an age of civil and religious strife. Two counter-claims were set up, the presbyterial and the episcopal, each at that time claiming that its polity had explicit authority and existed by a certain divine right; and other separations have multiplied since. But in that age there were not wanting also men of more moderate views, such as John Hales (q.v.) of Eton, Lord Falkland, and a succession of scholars known as the Cambridge Platonists (q.v.), who believed in toleration and comprehension of diversities within the Church; and who supported the episcopal order not because they regarded it as possessed of superior authority by divine right, but because of its antiquity and approved utility. Richard Baxter (q.v.), likewise, and other Presbyterian divines at the time of the Restoration pleaded for reforms and liberty within the Church, and only when their petition had been set aside were they compelled in good conscience by the Act of Conformity (1662) to become Nonconformists. Many individual instances also might be adduced of ideas and projects for church unity, such as Archbishop James Ussher’s (q.v.) plan for synodical episcopacy, or the incessant labors of John Durie (q.v.) and his fertile schemes for the reunion of all the churches of the continent and England.
These all have failed, for the times were not ready for them, but they have not been in vain, and they remain for this twentieth century to bring to fruition. The times are favorable now as never before, and this field, where so many have gone forth to sow, is already ripe for the harvest. The idea of
church unity has taken strong hold of 3. Present all the churches, and it is to be the Protestant future business of the Church to realize Situation. it. The Christian civilization of the world demands it; political alliances of Church and State no longer perpetuate strife, at least in the United States. Modern historical and Biblical criticism has set aside the claims of any church polity to exclusive divine authority, and has left the historic episcopate to justify itself not only by its undoubtedly natural and early development in the primitive Church, but also by its fitness for administrative use and efficiency in possible adaptations to other church polities. A movement has already been started of far-reaching scope and much promise for some real church unity. The General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, which was held in Cincinnati in Oct., 1910, appointed a commission to arrange for a world convention of all other Christian communions of evangelical faith upon questions of faith and order, to consider their differences as well as their agreements as a first step toward unity (see above, A, 2, § 5). At the same time the National Council of the Congregational Churches, in session in Boston, appointed a committee to consider any overtures of this kind from the Protestant Episcopal Church. This movement is receiving assent and support from other denominations, and after several years of preparation and conferences, which must necessarily intervene, the proposed world conference will be held. It will assume no powers of legislation, but the work aims at ultimate results of unity. The ideal of unity has been briefly but nobly set forth in this utterance of the Anglican Convention: ‘‘ We must fix our eyes on the Church of the future, which is to be adorned with all the precious things, both theirs and ours. We must constantly desire not compromise, but comprehension, not uniformity, but unity.” This ideal involves something more than external union or federation in some good work—a union outside the churches rather than unity of the churches. It aims at a comprehensive unity, in which denominational and temperamental diversities may be recognized; an administrative unity, by which wasteful competitions may be avoided; and a dynamic unity, through which the force of the whole Christian Church may be brought to bear wherever its light and power are needed in the world. Such unity will be organic in the sense of the Lord’s words when he compared the relation of the disciples to himself and to one another to that of the branches and the vine; and according to the conception of the great missionary apostle when he described the Church as one body having many members. Newman Smyru.
IV. Roman Catholic Position: Church unity as understood by Roman Catholics postulates not merely an internal or spiritual union of Christian believers, but also an external or visible unity under