 The Church of England, an institution whose origins date back to the sixth century A.D., has far more modern views about the rights of women than Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, experts said today. In recognizing that women are the equals of men, the Church of England has embraced a position that is centuries ahead of Scalias, Davis Logsdon, a professor of religion at the University of Minnesota, said. This is a remarkable achievement, given that Scalia was born in 1936 and the Church began in the late five hundreds. But Dr. Carol Foyler, a history professor at the University of Sussex, took issue with that assessment. I date the beginning of the Church of England to 1534, when it was officially established under Henry VIII, she said. But regardless of whether the Church is fourteen centuries old or five centuries old, its unquestionably more modern than Scalia. As for Justice Scalia, he seemed to dismiss the controversy, issuing a terse official statement Monday afternoon. I do not keep up with the goings on of every newfangled institution, he said. 