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POLITICAL CONSEQUENCESnative sovereign would not prove the bestinstrument forsecuring and extending its usurpations? Under such circumstances, a mind of even moderate capacity would haveperceived that the Reformation afforded the best means ofsecuring the stability of the government ;but the difficultyin this, as in all other cases, layin the execution; and hereit was that the superior genius of Gustavus displayed itself.Too weak in himself, he succeeded in gaining over the nobility by the prospect of large acquisitions from the forfeitedestates of the clergy;and with this support he was enabledto meet the decisive crisis which was brought on at thediet of Westeras, (1527,) and which terminated in the submission of the clergy and the resignation of their estatesinto the hands of the king,to be disposed of as he thoughtfit.Conspiracies and tumults, set afoot in distant parts ofthe kingdom, remained the only, and impotent means, bywhich they sought to avenge themselves.Thus the Reformation also established a iiew order ofthings in Sweden, though without taking from the clergytheir rightsas an estate of the realm ;and exercised a decisive influence upon the fate of this kingdom, and throughitupon that of the North, and even for a considerable timeupon Europe in general. There now wanted only the hereditary succession of the crown, which Gustavus Vasa likewise introduced, to put means at the disposal of the kingsof Sweden, by which they migbt attain to a supremacy ojthe North, which would in turn affect the rest of Europe.The Reformation, while it made them masters in the North,opened the way to them, as its champions, of acquiring thesupremacy of Europe. Supported by their own genius,they played this exaggerated part for a longer time than thestate of their resources would have led us to expect. The consequences*which resulted from this, will be more fully developed in the part of our work which treats of the influenceof the Reformation upon the political balance of Europe.DEISTMAEK.THE internal condition of Denmark bore, at this period,,great resemblance to that of Sweden. The nobles an