The Reformation that brought not peace but a sword to so much of Europe in this case united instead of divided the nations.
It is sometimes said that national character reveals itself in the national religion.

This is true to some extent, but it is still more important to say that a nation's history reveals itself in its forms of faith.

From religious statistics of the present day one could {353} deduce with considerable accuracy much of the history of any people.
The contrast between the churches of England and Scotland is the more remarkable when it is considered that the North of England was the stronghold of Catholicism, and that the Lowland Scot, next door to the counties of the Northern Earls who rose against Elizabeth, flew to the opposite extreme and embraced Protestantism in its most pronounced form.

To say that Calvinism, uncompromising and bare of adornment, appealed particularly to the dour, dry, rationalistic Scot, is at best but a half truth and at worst a begging of the question.

The reasons why England became Anglican and Scotland Presbyterian are found immediately not in the diversity of national character but in the circumstances of their respective polities and history.