Principles of western civilisation

266 WESTERN CIVILISATION CHAP.

side alike; namely, the conception—now clearly applied in theory to politics on a universal scalethat what is described as the spiritual welfare of the world is of more importance than any interest which is comprised merely within the limits of political consciousness. The conclusion which men saw apparently involved in, and proceeding inevitably from the acceptance of this concept was, that the State should be directed towards the realisation of the spiritual welfare of the world. The point at which the controversy begins to arise is, therefore, in the formulation of an answer to the question: Who is ultimately the supreme authority in directing the State towards this end??

As the dispute opens between Gregory VII. and the Emperor Henry IV., we see, as soon as we understand the existing conditions of the world, and the nature of the concept common to both sides, how predestined are the lines along which it must proceed, and how impossible from the outset was the position taken up by the representative of the civil power as against the claims of the representative of the spiritual authority.

That ideal of the State which Henry IV. and his successors represented, which at the time underlay the claims of the temporal power throughout the whole of Western Europe, and which still

1 The world saw only two answers to this question. Either Emperor or Pope—either the civil or religious ruler. But the mind of the evolutionist continues to be concentrated on the problem which stands behind either answer—the supreme problem of our developing civilisation. For with either answer the development of the human mind appears to have become involved in the closed circle already referred to. With development along either line the world must to all appearance be carried back again to the condition of that earlier stage described by Maine—a rule of religion must again become identical with a rule of law, the breach of a religious ordinance will again be punished by civil penalties.