Church archives in the United States have been a long time in receiving any serious consideration. The reason for the delay in giving attention to this subject is due largely to the fact that until recent years church archival materials were considered of slight importance on the part of the recognized historian. There have been, from the beginning of our history as a separate people, an abundance of materials bearing upon the development of organized religion. But any systematic attempt to gather church archival materials as such for the purpose of making them available for the historian and research worker was practically unheard of until more or less recent years. Among the influences which have been responsible for creating a live interest in church archives has been the fact that within the last twenty-five years the universities throughout the country have been turning out an ever increasing number of master's and doctor's theses on American church history subjects.

Professional Schools in the United States, whether of medicine, law, engineering, or theology, are of relatively recent orgin. It is a matter of interest that the ministry was the first profession in America for which a technical and standardized training was provided. While the first law school in America was founded in the same year as the oldest theological seminary (1784), the courses were loosely organized and there was no definitely prescribed amount of work required of graduation and no academic requirement for the practice of law. In all the institutions where there were law departments or law schools, even as late as the middle of the last century, the law students were considered as distinctly inferior to the regular college students.