nearly the whole of the period with which I have dealt.
In closing this work with what may fairly be considered to be the end of the first half of the Reformation period, I leave a state of things vastly different from that which existed at its beginning, and different also from that which it was to reach at its end. Nevertheless, the accession of a new dynasty brought many new things with it, and though the actual great changes which were to follow belong to the reign of Charles I. rather than to his father's, yet the reign of James was in many respects transitional: the causes which led to the great Rebellion became first plainly visible in that reign, and the characteristics of the Stuart dynasty stand in such marked contrast with those of the Tudors, that the time at which the monarchy passed from the one house to the other seems to afford a natural resting-place. If life and opportunity be given me, I shall hope one day to be able to trace the history of the relations of Church and State in England to the end of the period of great changes in their relations, towards the close of the seventeenth century.
