literature was by a remarkable work in defense of the State Church
entitled, "The State in its Relations with the Church." The treatise is
thus dedicated: "Inscribed to the University of Oxford, tried and not
found wanting through the vicissitudes of a thousand years; in the
belief that she is providentially designed to be a fountain of
blessings, spiritual, social and intellectual, to this and other
countries, to present and future times; and in the hope that the temper
of these pages may be found not alien from her own."

This first published book of Mr. Gladstone's was due to the perception
that the _status_ of the Church, in its connection with the secular
power, was about to undergo the severe assaults of the opponents of the
Union. There was growing opposition to the recognition of the Episcopal
Church as the Church of the State and to taxation of people of other
religious beliefs for its support; and this objection was to the
recognition and support of any Church by the State. What is called the
"American idea"--the entire separation of the Church and State--or as
enunciated first by Roger Williams in 1636, in Rhode Island, that the
magistrate should have authority in civil affairs only, was becoming
more and more the doctrine of dissenters. Preparations were already
being made for attacking the national establishment of religion, and
with all the fervor springing from conviction and a deep-seated
enthusiasm, he came forward to take part in the controversy on Church
and State, and as a defender of the Established or Episcopal Church
of England.

Some of the positions assumed in this work have since been renounced as
untenable, but its ability as a whole, its breadth and its learning
could not be denied. It then created a great sensation, and has since
been widely discussed. After an examination and a defense of the theory