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OF THE REFORMATION.the Reformation displayed themselves in a very differentmanner. The most remote of these, by its situation, its religion, and, more than all, by the barbarous condition inwhich it was, lay beyond the influence of the storm. Of theother three, one owed its existence and its greatness although transient to the Reformation ; another, its prosperity and its constitution the; third, dates its downfal fromthe same source. And thus we see that, in the moral as inthe physical world, what is deadly poison to one often provesthe means of savinglife in another !At precisely this epoch, while the Reformation wasspreading in Germany with a rapidity which nothing couldcheck, the north of Europe had arrived at the political crisiswhich determined its future fate- The Union of Calmar,the parent of so much discord and warfare, was dissolved ;the throne of Sweden toand Gustavus Vasa restored (1521)its former independence. But notwithstanding his courageand the progress which he made, and in spite of the favourable positionin which he was placed by the insurrection inDenmark and the expulsion of his rival, king Christian II.,_he yet found himself in a situation which secured to himrather the name than the power of a king. It cannot bedenied, however, that Gustavus Vasa ranks among thegreatest princes of all ages.He was not simply acquaintedwith the common turns of policy by which mere intriguersattain their end ;but rising,as great ^men are wont to do,beyond the age in which he lived, he seems to have embraced ideas of public economy which may well excite ouradmiration, since, as they were then unknown to the rest ofthe world, they must have been the product of his ownacuteness and ability.Even Gustavus Vasa, however,would scarce have found the resources with which his geniusfurnished him sufficient, had not the Reformation broughtothers to his assistance, upon which the foundations of hisgreatness may, in fact, be said to have rested. What, intruth, could the most talented prince have effected oa athrone, the income of which did not supply a third part ofits necessary expenditure, and in a country where a powerfillnobility stood side by side with a still more pawerfbibody of clergy, whose possessions had swallowed! 'tip tlielands of the crowe^ and which was likelyto find that a