in baptism was held in the primitive Church, as well by the Greeks as the Latins, with one consent and great applause.”  And replying to the argument from abuse the canon goes on:  “But the abuse of a thing doth not take away the lawful use of it.  Nay, so far was it from the purpose of the Church of England to forsake and reject the Churches of Italy, France, Spain, Germany, or any such like Churches, in all things that they held and practised, that, as the Apology of the Church of England confesseth, it doth with reverence retain those ceremonies, which do neither endanger the Church of God, nor offend the minds of sober men.” (XXX)

It appears clear from a study of the passages quoted and of many others of kindred nature that the Anglican Church did not start out upon its separate career with any intention of becoming a sect; it did not complain of the corruption of the existing religion and declare its purpose to show to the world what true and pure religion is.  It did not put forward as the basis of its action the existing corruption of doctrine, but the corruption of administration.  Its claim was a claim to manage its own local affairs, and was put into execution when the Convocation of Canterbury voted in the negative on the question submitted to it, viz., “Whether the Roman pontiff has any greater jurisdiction bestowed on him by God in Holy Scripture in this realm of England, than any other foreign bishop?”

The attitude indicated is one that has been characteristic of the Anglican Church ever since.  It has always been restless in the presence of a divided Christendom; the sin of the broken unity has always haunted it.  It never has taken the smug attitude of sectarianism, a placid self-satisfaction with its own perfection.  It has felt the constant pull of the Catholic ideal and has been inspired by it to make effort after effort for the union of Christendom.  It has never lost the sense that it was in itself not complete but a part of a greater whole.  It has never seen in the existing shattered state of the Christian Church anything but the evidences of sin.  Its appeal has constantly been, not to its own sufficiency for the determination of all questions, but to the Scriptures as interpreted by the undivided Church.  If it has at times been prone to overstress the authority of some ideal and undefined primitive Church, it was because it thought that there and there only could the Catholic Church be found speaking in its ideal unity.

This the attitude of the Anglican Church of the past is its attitude to-day.  The Lambeth Conference of 1920 gave voice to it: 

“The Conference urges on every branch of the Anglican Communion that it should prepare its members for taking their part in the universal fellowship of the re-united Church, by setting before them the loyalty which they owe to the universal Church, and the charity and understanding which are required of the members of so inclusive a society.”

Commenting upon this utterance of the Lambeth Conference the three bishops who are the joint authors of “Lambeth and Reunion” say: