Preface

The three learned professions, medicine, law, and theology, overlap; and a man who does not know something of the other two can not be prominent in his own. Laws relating to Church matters are scattered through such a vast array of law books that it would be a burden for a clergyman to purchase them, and without special training he would not know where to look for the law. Therefore a law compendium covering those subjects relating to Church matters must be of great value to a clergyman.

There is another view of this subject. When she was mistress of the world the laws of the Roman Empire were for the Roman citizens, particularly the patricians; the canon law was the law of the Christian people of conquered countries and the Christian plebeians of Rome. In the United States we have the same common law for the President and the hod-carrier, for the multimillionaire [pg vi] and the penniless orphan, for the clergy and the laity. Consequently, in this practical age a knowledge of the law of the country with which the clergy come constantly in contact is expedient, if not necessary.

The poet says: