5 - Considerations on the Spiritual Power

Summary

All the different social systems established in antiquity had as their common characteristic the confusion of the spiritual power and the temporal power; whether one of these two powers was completely subordinated to the other, or whether, as happened more frequently, they directly rested in the same hands. From this point of view, these systems must be distinguished into two great classes, according to which of the two powers was dominant. Among peoples in whom, through the nature of the climate and of the locality, theological politics was able to form rapidly, whereas the development of military activity was restricted, as in Egypt and in almost the whole of the Orient, the temporal power was only a derivation and an appendix of the spiritual power, which was the supreme and continuous regulator of the whole social organization, even as far as the smallest details. By contrast, in countries where, by the opposite influence of physical circumstances, human activity was at an early stage essentially turned towards war, the temporal power was not slow in dominating the spiritual power, and in employing it regularly as an instrument and as an auxiliary. This was, more or less equally, the character of the social systems of Greece and Rome, in spite of their very big differences.

This is not the place to explain why these two sorts of organization were necessary in the countries and the ages in which they were established, nor how they contributed – each in its own way – to the general progress of the human race.