dislocation of the ecclesiastical system, and the weakening in men's minds of those sacramental and sacerdotal notions, which had ruled the thought of Christendom for a thousand years.
"Marriage is nothing but a civil contract," said Selden. "'Tis true 'tis an ordinance of God; so is every other contract. God commands me to keep it when I have made it." It is to be remembered that the Reformation, in adding greatly to the power of the State, did also rescue the notion of the State from the unworthy conceptions of the medieval canonists, and asserted on its behalf a supremacy, based on divine appointment, which secured for its action a religious sanction, and commended that action to the conscientious acceptance of Christian folk. The State, however, clearly acted with far more liberty than the Church, and was compelled to take account of many considerations which the Church could leave out of reckoning. The State was not bound by precedents as was the Church; and the
