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 of the imagination, and adopted a straightforward system of ecclesiastical organisation and worship. This form was intended to be tentative; it was impossible for it to have been otherwise. When a resolute effort is first made to recover forgotten truths, such an effort cannot be final. The ecclesiastical system was retained, no changes were made in the system of the Church. The services were only simplified, but everything necessary was kept. Men were free to discuss outlying matters, whether this or that form of ritual was more in accordance with the popular wish and sentiment, for they wished nothing to be kept in the way of ritual that had no meaning for the people.

This was what men hoped to do in the reign of Henry VIII., and in this hope England was practically united. There was practically no opposition to the ecclesiastical changes that were made in the reign of Henry VIII. But at the beginning of every new movement people expect more from it than actually comes to pass. It was so specially in the sixteenth century. Men were convinced that so great was the power of intelligence and common-sense that, when once institutions had been explained and put on a common basis, they would be immediately accepted. The mistake of all reformers is that they do not sufficiently allow for the weight of traditional sentiment which lies behind old institutions. In consequence this movement did not get on as quickly as was desired. The purely intellectual and spiritual movement did not advance; it was traversed by the political movement and also by the social movement. There were great difficulties in disentangling it from the