ABSTRACT
The Church, together with the remnants of the Roman civil state, sought to Christianize and civilize the raw Germanic barbarians, to transform them through artificial manners and laws into tractable, cultured, civil-tempered European Christians. Before examining how Burke's conception of the Church is related to the state and the community, it is necessary to investigate the nature and function of the state in Burke's political philosophy. The great function of the state in maintaining the maximum of individual and corporate civil liberty under the constitution was fulfilled not by any abstract rule, but by a public and enlarged prudence in applying the Natural Law to the diverse circumstances of men. Burke was impartial in his adherence and application of the principle of balanced powers. The object of this principle was to establish throughout Europe that "political equilibrium" necessary for a balanced civilization, so that "no power is able absolutely to predominate, or to prescribe laws to others".
