Possibly an expression, if an unintentional one, of the opinions
of the Bishop of Ely on this subject may be dis- covered in his admirable presidential address to the Congress. In tracing the influence of the Congress during the last fifty years he asked what the effect of a Church Congress would have been in Tudor times, and said
But in the centuries to which I have referred a Church Congress is an obvious anachronism. It was then impossible, for the simple reason that the average opinion of average men counted for little ; it had no coherent significance; it had no steady, persistent influence in determining the policy or in moulding the
thought of the Church Who can estimate the value of the contribution which public opinion in the English Church may make to the Christian citizenship of the country ? The largest promise of liberty and progress and peace is secured when public opinion sincerely and gladly recognises the sacredness and the sovereignty of law."
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