It is impossible not to connect the Anglican development of that period with the faith, the polity, and the worship of the Nicene age, and the Puritan doctrines of the same period, with the theology and spiritual life of Augustine. Nor can there be any doubt that the so-called Latitudinarianism (I use the word in its historical sense) of the Cambridge school comes in lineal succession to that of Alexandria. And if Mysticism, as existing amongst Quakers, be not capable of showing distinct historical links of connection with previous thinking, it is plain that its elements had existed long before: a fact, indeed, insisted upon by its more erudite exponents.[374] Anglicans, Puritans, Latitudinarians, and Mystics were all of ancient lineage, although some were unacquainted with, and might even be prejudiced against, their ancestry. Besides, as already indicated, there were other and more immediate influences at work. The ecclesiastical revolutions and conflicts under Elizabeth and the Stuarts, the traditions of domestic life, parental and school education, the atmosphere pervading social circles, and especially the constitution of individual minds--these served to shape systems which stood in direct and determined conflict with one another. Nor let it be forgotten that, though divers factors of religious thought may be enumerated, others exist which lie too deep for discovery and analysis, even by the most subtle inquirers. If it be true generally that we have no complete science of history, it is eminently true of the history of theological opinion. There is mystery in all growth, for there is mystery in all life; and it is idle to suppose that, at least in this world, we shall ever arrive at a perfect philosophy of the progress or activity of mind, in reference to that which is at once, of all subjects, the most practical and the most mysterious. [Sidenote: THEOLOGY.]