MONARCHY AND ARISTOCRACY 313 



invested with very arbitrary prerogatives. So 

 long as the ruling classes of Greece and Rome 

 retained some drops of northern blood, the in- 

 fluence of the general was limited by the subdi- 

 vision of his functions, and the senate could 

 maintain itself as the directing authority of the 

 State in every province of activity except upon 

 the battlefield. But with the passing of time the 

 dictator overshadowed the senate, and Rome and 

 Constantinople alike submitted to an oriental 

 despotism. In northern Europe, on the other 

 hand, kings have always been pressed to defend 

 their authority against encroachment. They have 

 been powerfully assisted by the influence of 

 religious feelings. A king who was deified was in 

 theory irresistible ; and no arguments for limiting 

 his authority could withstand a belief that he held 

 his office by Divine right. Indeed, it was very 

 probably the influence of religion that exalted 

 the successful general into a hereditary king. 

 Divinity which was instinct in the father would 

 naturally descend to his son. 



But religion has not always contented itself 

 with the upholding of monarchy. The visioned 

 ideas to which it appeals may affect men as 

 strongly as the most serious or attractive of life's 

 practical contingencies, and may be as awe- 

 inspiring as the most absolute tyranny. When, at 

 the fall of the Roman empire, men lost confidence 

 in monarchy, the Church of Rome stepped into the 

 breach, and during many centuries attracted 

 more veneration than was accorded to the most 

 august of sovereigns. Its influence was least 

 impressive amongst the Scandinavian and Teu- 

 tonic peoples : the ideas of their preference were 

 practical, and it was first among them that 

 religion, unable to maintain its autocratic pre- 

 tensions, fell back to become a guard for the 



