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264 POLITICAL CONSEQUENCESas they were, and continued" to be, suppressed there ; andthese two nations the antipodes of each other in so manyrespects were destined to a still wider difference The by disimportant consequences whichagreeing on this point.resulted to the two countries, in their relation to each other,and to Europe in general, from this circumstance, belong tothe second division of our subject j we have here only toconsider the effects thereby produced upon England itself,The progressof the Reformation was of a peculiar kind inthis country., as we might expect from its insular character.Henry VIII. viewed it only as a means of gratifying hispassions and serving his personal interest, and as such, infact, he used it ;but a tyrant, who was guided by the whimof the moment, and incapable of forming any permanentscheme, could not employ it with the ability of Charles V.while by his supremacy he exercised a more violent despotism over the conscience and opinions of his subjects thanthe pope would ever have dared to attempt. During theshort reign of his son and successor, Edward VL, (15471553,) the Reformation was really introduced ;but as thebigoted intolerance of his sister Mary (1553 1558) againoverturned the feeble and scarce completed edifice, it wasreserved for the long and well-conducted reign of Elizabeth(1558 1603) to lay its foundation anew, and upon moresecure ground.The Articles of belief in England were changed ;thesupremacy of the Roman see was shaken off ; fcut in otherrespects the framework of the hierarchy was left untouched.By the act of supremacy, renewed under Elizabeth as it hadlieea passed under Henry, the king stepped into the placeof the pope ;and this supremacy was probably the chief^vantagewhich accrued to the crown from the Reformation. Ill times when religion was so inseparably connectedwith politics, such unlimited spiritual dominion necessarilytended, in substance if not in form, to render the temporalpower unlimited also ;and the " High Commission " of Elizabeth gives a sufficient example of the uses to which ilmight be applied. Again, as the Head of the Church required Instruments by which Itmight act as such, theexistent hierarchy was left almost unaltered in its ancienform. The Episcopal Church was thus established ; whicireceived its definite rule of faith for the first time unde