My main historical and political contention is that democracy grew out of theocracy, and that it is the antithesis of the aristocratic system which theocracy most effectively organized.
Primitive men, savage and barbarian, naturally violent and selfishly ruthless, were socially organized by aristocrats, as a rule by absolute rulers and priests, whose cooperation was represented in higher stages of development by State and Church. (In Slavonic languages the words for “priest” and “prince” are closely related—“Kněz” and “Kniže.”) Religion held the upper hand. It governed the whole existence, the thoughts and deeds of men, directing politics and the life of the State. Originally, it was mainly made up of belief in supernatural beings who were supposed to intervene in human affairs with friendly or hostile intent. Man was not self-sufficing. In fear he created not only his gods but all kinds of demigods, Kings, Emperors, hierarchs and princes of the Church. Later on, priestly organizations became more unified, and the development of the Church kept pace with the transformation of polytheism into hierarchical theological unity. In much the same way the greater States were evolved. Various forms of theocracy took shape among the Egyptians and the Jews, the Greeks and the Romans. In Rome, religion was preponderantly a State institution; and out of the Roman and Greek theocracies grew the medieval Roman and Byzantine theocracies which attained their climax, their unity of doctrine and organization, in Catholicism.
The Reformation split up this great theocracy and strengthened the State. Whereas, in Protestant countries, the Reformation was fostered by the State while, in Catholic countries, the State carried through the Counter-Reformation, the effect was in both cases to strengthen the State and to substitute its absolutism for the absolutism of the Church. Against the absolutism of the State, revolutions broke out, some of which have lasted down to our own time; and the State became constitutional by the transition to democracy and republicanism. Thus, in history and in substance, democracy stands in antagonism to theocracy; and hence the age-long process of de-cclesiasticization that has steadily taken place in all domains of social life and, finally, even in the religious domain itself.
To avoid misunderstanding, some definition of terms is necessary. The word “theocracy” means “Divine Rule”;
