er
the English Church in so much that he was receiving from England
greater revenues than the king. When the tremendous revolt against the
papacy came about in Europe in the sixteenth century the English
people simply ejected the pope's emissaries and with them, Italian
influence and corruption from England and the English Church, the
church remained essentially the same she had been for centuries.

The word "Reformation" signifies the footing of something into a new
shape. It is therefore not the destruction of the old and the
substituting of the new, but rather the reshaping, cleansing and
revivifying of the old. The melting down of the family silver and the
reshaping it on new models is not to acquire new silver. Perhaps it
was so distorted by abuse that it required new shaping. This was very
much the case with the Church of England.

The reformation in England was effected on very different lines from
that on the continent of Europe. Luther, Calvin, Melancthon, and
others were individuals attracting to themselves multitudes of other
individuals and together they establish societies of Christians. The
Apostolical churches on the continent did not, as such, participate in
the reformation movement. In England the reformation, i. e., the
reshaping, restoring and cleansing, was more wisely conducted. The
church there had existed since the days of the Apostles. For six
hundred years it remained independent of the Roman world power, and it
was only after the Norman Conquest that the papal authority became
well established in England. When a reformation seemed necessary, it
was conducted, not by individuals leaving the national church, but by
the whole Church of England. In A. D. 1532 the quarrel of Henry the
Eighth with the pope led to the overthrow of the Roman power in
England. Henry is not to be credited as a reformer, much less as the
founder of any church. He never made any attempt to found a church.
When he was born, in 1491, he found the church existing in England,
and when he died, in 1547, he left the same church, but cleansed and
independent. The ancient church was not changed, and the old religion
did not give place to the new. The papacy was opposed to the
independence of the national churches for which the Church of England
had always contended.

Accordingly, when the power of the pope was broken and thrust out of
England, the church was at liberty to restore Apostolic purity and
freedom to the nation and