Disestablishment

in modern politics, the separation of church and state, or, to be particular, the withdrawal of state support from a church that has long enjoyed an income from public taxation. It is not inaccurate to say that an established church is characteristic of states having a dominant religious body. In Mohammedan countries mosques are maintained at public expense. In Russia the Greek Orthodox church is supported by the state. Catholic countries, usually, but not always, maintain a state church. France, Brazil, and Mexico may be named as notable exceptions. The Lutheran states of North Europe support the Lutheran religion. Scotland maintains the United Presbyterians, largely at public expense, and leaves other denominations to provide for their own support. England takes care of an established church, the Protestant Episcopal, or Church of England, in similar fashion. The established church of England is also the established church of Wales, although the majority of the people belong to other churches. There are no established churches in North America, save in some of the small states south of Mexico. There are no established churches in New Zealand or in the Commonwealth of Australia. The Catholic church was disestablished in Brazil in 1889, in France in 1905.

A fight for the disestablishment of the Protestant Episcopal church in Ireland is one of the longest parliamentary contests on record. Although the population of Ireland was overwhelmingly Catholic, the English authorities divided the island into parishes, and forced the populace to pay of their poverty for the support of a Church of England clergy. After centuries of occupation the Church of England, or the Established Church of Ireland, as it was known officially, included but thirteen per cent of the population in its fold. This Irish Church, which was never Irish, was disestablished by act of Parliament in 1869, when William Gladstone was prime minister.