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OF THE REFORMATION. 287foundation-stone of the system of the balance of power ;while the policy of Henry VIII., whose vanity was busiedwith the idea that he should be able to decide the strife between the rivals, and the much more permanently importantalliance made by Francis L, as early as 1530, with the Porte,gave it an extent which embraced Europe from one end toThus the emulation of the two chief powers of"the other.the continent lent the first impulse to general politics, andhas continued to influence them, althoughwith occasionalinterruptions of its force.Down to the middle of the sixteenth century, the Reformation cannot be said to have interfered materially in determining the relative position of these great powers, or inadvancing the political system :of which we speak. The ineffectual efforts of Francis I. to draw the members of theleague of Smalcald over to his interest, hardly deserve to benoticed. But still, as even during that period the Reformation, in a certain degree, founded two new powers Swedenand Prussia which were destined afterwards to rank amongthe most important members of the European body of states,it thus prepared the way for a future development of thesystem. The new life which it breathed into the Germanempire was of much more immediate importance: for as theProtestant princes were obligedto unite in opposition to theemperor and his supporters, a politicalbalance was established, which, as we have before said, remained for a longtime the principle of lifeupon which that body depended,while it exercised a most decisive influence upon the political system of Europe in general. Statesmen of enlightenedviews soon came to the conclusion, that the disturbance ofthe balance of power in Germany, by the suppression of theProtestant party, would afford the house of Austria an opportunity of acquiring the supremacy in that country, andthus entail the disturbance of the political balance of Europeitself; this is amply proved by the share taken by Swedenand France in the thirty years' war, and, at a still earlierperiod, by the alliance between HenryII. and Maurice ofSaxony.The reason why the Reformation did not, and could not,acquire any immediate influence over the politics of Europewas evidently this, that neither of the great powers before