It often seems to us who view the Church from within that the primitive simplicity of her organisation and life has developed into something quite unnecessarily complex. The mind almost reels before the numerical vastness of the different religious orders, congregations, societies, institutes, companies, etc., especially when considered in conjunction with the yet vaster number of lay associations, sodalities, societies, guilds, confraternities, etc. Yet this is not all, for hardly a week passes that one does not read of some new movement being proposed by someone or other. Very bewildering sometimes even to those of the faith, and certainly incomprehensible to those outside the Church. The explanation, however, is quite simple and natural.