though, politically and in practice, theocracy was a hierarchy, a rule of the priesthood. So long as men held fast to a belief in divine revelation, to priestly doctrine, to theology, they were convinced that the Deity governed men and society. Vico, the first great sociologist, called the olden times the “era of gods and heroes,” to which the human era presently succeeded; and Comte likewise called the earliest period of human development “theological” which gave place, after an intermediate metaphysical stage, to the scientific, “positivist” modern era. To-day Vico’s distinction between the era of gods and heroes and the era of man is expressed in the terms “aristocracy” and “democracy.” The foundations of all aristocracy were religious or, at any rate, priestly. Politically and in administration it was an oligarchy, with monarchism as one of its forms.
Medieval theocracy was the exemplar and culmination of social aristocracy and monarchism, the priesthood being an aristocratic institution, inasmuch as priests were fundamentally differentiated from laymen. The Pope was the Vicegerent of God, the absolute infallible leader of the priestly hierarchy and, through it, of lay society. But the Reformation broke priestly rule and undermined, at the same time, religious and political absolutism, even though at first it strengthened the State in the struggle against the Church.
Modern men see more clearly the true nature of religion. They understand the difference between religion and morality. They do not reject religion but they distinguish between its ethical and religious elements, and organize their social life on an ethical basis, since morality, love, and human sympathy are less exposed to sceptical incredulity than the transcendental theological ideas upon which theocracy was established. The evolution of the Church and Churches, of theology and philosophy, shows how their weightiest ideas have been transformed, how they have lost power; whereas the bases of morality, the positive feelings of human beings for human beings, have been proof against sceptical intellectual processes. Hence the notable fact that, in the modern era, ethics have been studied and fostered by philosophers and laymen alike, by Hume and Kant, until they have become, even in politics, the groundwork of men’s outlook on life.
This does not mean that religion is unwarranted, undesirable or unnecessary. It means that modern men desire a free and individual religion in harmony with their reason. Religion is a powerful bond of union between men, yet a bond to be freely
