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 from the mouth of their modern exponents; we must consider the conditions which gave them birth.

The ecclesiastical revolution of the sixteenth century was profound. The old system of the Church was overgrown by so many abuses that, when it adopted an attitude of stubborn conservatism before the cry for reform, it could not maintain itself at the bar of an awakened and, in some ways an intelligent, public opinion. But the leaders of the revolt found it easier to point out the weaknesses of the old system than to erect a new one in its place; and the need of satisfying temporary conditions, rather than any clear grasp of principle, dictated the constructive efforts of Luther in Germany. Calvin's strength lay in the fact that he built up a system as strong and as authoritative as had been that which it claimed to replace. But England had no need of Calvin's system. It dealt with its own difficulties in its own characteristic way. It discarded the papal jurisdiction, it removed the accretions of mediæval theology, it abolished ceremonies which did not tend to edification, but it retained the system and the organisation of the old Church. The practical question to be settled was whether or no such a simple solution of the question was possible. It has always been a tendency of the English mind to dislike speculation, to be shy of new ideas, and to imagine that England can settle its own affairs independently of the great currents of thought which agitate the rest of Europe. The success of the Reformation undertaken by Henry VIII. and Cranmer depended on its consistent maintenance during the time when men's minds were fermenting. This was prevented by the alternate