communion with the church, accompanied by other consequences practically
inconvenient, to be continued until the offender had made reparation, or
had openly repented, or had given confirmed proof of amendment. The
administration of such a discipline fell, as a matter of course, to the
clergy. The clergy were the guardians of morality; their characters were a
claim to confidence, their duties gave them opportunities of observation
which no other men could possess; while their priestly office gave solemn
weight to their sentences. Thus arose throughout Europe a system of
spiritual surveillance over the habits and conduct of every man, extending
from the cottage to the castle, taking note of all wrong dealing, of all
oppression of man by man, of all licentiousness and profligacy, and
representing upon earth, in the principles by which it was guided, the laws
of the great tribunal of Almighty God.

Such was the origin of the church courts, perhaps the greatest institutions
ever yet devised by man. But to aim at these high ideals is as perilous as
it is noble; and weapons which may be safely trusted in the hands of saints
become fatal implements of mischief when saints have ceased to wield them.
For a time, we need not doubt, the practice corresponded to the intention.
Had it not been so, the conception would have taken no root, and would have
been extinguished at its birth. But a system which has once established
itself in the respect of mankind will be tolerated long after it has
forfeited its claim to endurance, as the name of a great man remains
honoured though borne by worthless descendants; and the Consistory courts
had continued into the sixteenth century with unrestricted jurisdiction,
although they had been for generations merely perennially flowing
fountains, feeding the ecclesiastical exchequer. The moral conduct of every
English man and woman remained subject to them. Each private person was
liable to be called in question for every action of his life; and an
elaborate network of canon law perpetually growing, enveloped the whole
surface of society. But between the original design and the degenerate
counterfeit there was this vital difference,--that the censures were no
longer spiritual. They were commuted in various gradations for pecuniary
fines, and each offence against morality was rated at its specific money
value in the episcopal tables. Suspension and excommunication remained as
ultimate penalties; but the