headship was now necessary. The governments of Europe
at that time were for the most part absolute monarchies, about the
only limits to the sovereign power of these kings being the control
which the pope exercised over the ecclesiastical affairs of the
nations. From this control the Reformation liberated them. Therefore
they eagerly took upon themselves the oversight of the national
churches, and thus came into existence the church-and-state system of
Protestant Europe. To a great extent the power that the imperial head
of the church lost was acquired by the national heads.

All this seemed perfectly consistent to the reformers. They felt the
necessity of lodging somewhere that power of human control which had
been formerly exercised by the pope. As one writer has said, "They
could not understand that Christianity could prosper without a
strongly organized and governed church or without the presence of a
strong and vigorous hand ready at all times to repress dissent
and enforce uniformity of faith and worship." The time of absolute
religious freedom was not yet.

[Sidenote: Ecclesiasticism perpetuated]

As might be expected, numerous modifications of the principles and
usages of the papal church occurred in the change from imperial
control to the state-church system. This diversity took place in the
different countries in accordance either with prevailing conditions
and sentiments or with the whims and caprices of the reigning
sovereigns. While some retained the episcopate, others greatly
modified it or rejected it altogether. In forms of worship, ritual,
and other things numerous changes were also made. But notwithstanding
the diversity in forms of worship and in church polity, in two
respects there was perfect agreement among all the Reformed
churches--two things brought over from the papacy--namely, first,
the idea of a self-perpetuating clerical caste possessing in their
corporate capacity legislative and judicial authority over the
church; and second, the centralization under a human headship of
administrative functions, instead of that local autonomy which
prevailed in the congregations of apostolic times. The doctrine of the
"power of the keys," a power wielded by a clerical corporation with
authority to prescribe the very manner and form of worshiping God and
to require men to comply therewith or else exclude them from gospel
privileges. That doctrine was accepted without question. It was the
same power in