Why did Edmund Burke support an established church and a landed aristocracy?

Edmund Burke supported an established church and a landed aristocracy because he viewed them as essential, time-tested institutions that provided necessary stability and guidance to society.1

Burke believed that human beings are innately flawed and unable to rely solely on their own limited reason to govern themselves. Instead, he advocated for the "latent wisdom" of prejudice—socially necessary traditions and inherited values that accumulate slowly over generations. Within this framework, he regarded the aristocracy as the "great oaks" and "proper chieftains" of society, provided they exercised their influence with a spirit of timely reform and remained within the established constitutional order.1

Furthermore, Burke argued that modern states are too complex to be reformed by abstract, speculative schemes, which he feared would lead to despotism. By upholding hierarchy, status, and religious consecration of secular authority, he sought to preserve the continuity of society, viewing it as a partnership not only among the living but also between the dead and those yet to be born.12