Politics again, twelve hundred years later, settled the
bounds of the Reformation, not only for the moment, but for subsequent
centuries. Where the prince's sword was thrown into the scale, it
determined the balance. England, for instance, was non-papal Catholic
under Henry VIII., Protestant under Edward VI., papal-Catholic under
Mary, and Protestant again under Elizabeth; although every one of these
changes, according to the clergy, was dictated by the Holy Ghost.

Priests and the privileged classes _must_ settle their differences
in some way, otherwise the people would become too knowing, and too
independent. The co-operation of impostor and robber is necessary to the
bamboozlement and exploitation of the masses. This co-operation, indeed,
is the great secret of the permanence of religion; and its policy is
twofold--education and the power of money.

The value of _education_ may be inferred from the frantic efforts of the
clergy to build and maintain schools of their own, and to force their
doctrines into the schools built and maintained by the State. In this
respect there is nothing to choose between Church and Dissent.
The reading of the Bible in Board schools is a compromise between
themselves, lest a worse thing should befall them both. If one section
were strong enough to upset the compromise it would do so; in fact,
the Church party is now attempting this stroke of policy on the London
School Board, with the avowed object of giving a Church color to-the
religious teaching of the children. The very same principle was at
work in former days, when none but Churchmen were admitted to the
universities or public positions. It was a splendid means of maintaining
the form of religion which was bound up with the monarchy and the
aristocracy. Learning and influence were, as far as possible, kept on
the side of the established faith, which thus became the master of
the masters of the people. This is perfectly obvious to the student of
history, and Freethinkers should lay its lesson to heart. It is only by
driving religion entirely out of education, from the humblest school to
the proudest college, that we shall ever succeed in breaking the power
of priestcraft and freeing the people from the bondage of superstition.

We could write a volume on this theme--the power of education in
maintaining religion; but we must be satisfied with the foregoing at
present, and turn our attention to the power of _money_. It is a wise
ad