# I. The Revolutionary

When the Reformation ended the vision of the Christian Commonwealth, the query into the nature of authority became the basic problem of politics. For to the degree that temporal authority succeeded in reducing the claim of the Church to surveil or at least to limit it, it also lost the legitimacy of being declared sacrosanct. What could make authority legitimate in the absence of a standard transcending it? And, more importantly, what could limit the exercise of power in the absence of institutions which asserted that some things were not of Caesar?

Not for two centuries did the outline of the answer become apparent amidst a civil strife all the more confusing because it sought to clothe the new forms in traditional garb. For the notion of secular authority was not easy to come by. It was simple enough to invoke the traditional medieval canons and to assert that since political rule, as all other creations, came *from* God it had also to be *for* God. Nothing seemed more obvious to the sectarians of various descriptions demanding tolerance for themselves so that they might perpetuate their orthodoxy.*

* But the British Civil War and the Thirty-Year War on the continent shattered any hopes by restraining the old union of church and state and unfronted the return of the ____ still the fundamental problem of a secular policy.

still the fundamental problem of a secular polity.
union of church and state and introduced the return of the
the continent shattered and hopes dy restraining the on
* But the British Civil War and the Thirty-Year War on
oxa.*

for themselves so that they might beratebate their opponents
the sectarians of various descriptions demanding tolerance
had also to be for God. Nothing seemed more obvious to
political rule, as all other creations, came from God if
the traditional medieval canons and to assert that since
was not easy to come by. It was ample enough to invoke
traditional canons. For the notion of secular authority
continuing because it sought to clothe the new tome in
answer become inherent smug at a civil erode all the more
not for two centuries did the outline of the
cases?

institutions which asserted that some things were not of
what could limit the exercise of power in the sphere of
science or a standard transcending it? And, more importantly,
asset. What could make authority legitimate in the ap-
ith, it also lost the legitimacy of being declared aero-
the claim of the Church toRawell or at least to limit
the degree that temporal authority succeeded in requiring
authority became the base problem of politics. For to
Christian Commonwealth, the duality into the nature of
When the Reformation ended the vision of the

I. The Revolutionary

- 2 -

This in one of its aspects had been the cause of
the British Civil War and of the Thirty-Year War. But if
the exercise of authority was not for God, if a people did
not become a state of being at the same time a Church, what
was the basis of authority? The historical continuity of
shared experience was the answer evolved by Britain from
the exhaustion of domestic conflict and the increasing
consciousness of insular safety. The grant of power by
God without the intermediary of the organized Church, the
divine right of Kings, was the answer of France which re-
solved the problem by evading it. But while the British
solution became increasingly meaningful as growing power
and safety assured and uninterrupted and distinctive do-
mestic development, that of France was beset by the root
problem of Western history which had produced the Reforma-
tion in the first place, that the mere existence of author-
ity has never sufficed to legitimize it, that the West has
always demanded further justification for the exercise of
power than the fact of being in possession of it. And for
this reason the answer of France, for all its splendor,
remained a transient phenomena in Western history while the
solution of Britain so much depended on a distinctive his-
torical development that the attempt to imitate it on the
Continent almost inevitably had disastrous consequences.

But at the very moment of the greatest glory of
Versailles, perhaps the most "modern" formulation of the