On the Constitution of Church and State: According to Idea Each.

Coleridge's forgotten work, On the Constitution of the Church and State, acquaints the reader immediately with the basic principles of government and the important facts of history relative to the English Constitution.The work was occasioned in 1829 by the Act admitting Roman Catholics to sit in both houses of Parliament. The concern of Coleridge in his later years centered on the National Church of England as the best means of remedying existing social ills and preventing future ones, for which "neither tract societies nor conventicles, nor Lancasterian schools, nor mechanics' institutions, nor lecture bazars under the absurd name of universities, nor all these collectively, can be a substitute."The established Church, being, according to the idea, the best security of the nation's permanence and progression, is an essential part of a good constitution.Importantly, Coleridge contrasts the National Church as an institution with the Christian Church on the one hand, the spiritual body of Christ, and the Church of the Antichrist on the other, "neither national nor universal."Coleridge has been one of the most insightful commentators of our times and his little work on the Constitution of the Church and State will give the reader the perspective and suggestion he needs to understand our own system and needs for reform.